Korra's Introduction and Why Many Couldn't Deal With It

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[@MarcusNcc17]

4 year old Korra: “I’m the avatar! You gotta deal with it!” The writers would then spend the next 31/2 seasons destroying Korra’s self confidence and self worth. Nickelodeon decided to help too.

[@rosegirl3220]

Everyone's self confidence dies after age 4, typically in the teen years, and then again when you become an adult

[@senLuno]

Good? You being that excited for a life you don't know about always ends up this way because you're too excited without knowing the consequences at age 4 and even once she gets older she's still not mature enough

[@slowazzd2165]

Shut up you salty bitch

[@georgeprchal3924]

Mako and Asami: Be straight with us Doc, is she ever gonna walk again? The Doctor: Oh yes she's physically fine, she just found that wheelchair and sat in it. ... Mako and Asami: Korra, you can walk, you're not paralyzed. Korra: How dare you two come in here all high and mighty on your two legs and say that to me! I hope you both have sons, beautiful articulate boys and they have their legs taken from them! I pray you know that pain and that hurt! Mako: DON'T YOU PUT THAT EVIL ON ME KORRA! DON'T YOU PUT THAT EVIL ON US! Asami: Korra don't you stick that knife in your leg!

[@shockdiesel3470]

​​​​​@@georgeprchal3924Korra: *Out of anger, jab's knife into leg, only to then immediately start whining literally 4 seconds later, while jumping out of the wheelchair* Asami: Korra, You can walk. Mako: We'll use this knife to pry it out. Asami: Now we got two knives in there. *The trio eventually gets the knife out of the Water Tribe born Avatar's thigh and her kicking power, which used to be so great, is never that powerful again.* I gotta say I love The Legend of Korra substitution version of the Ricky Bobby can walk scene from Talladega Knights.

[@FeyPhantom]

The part that I struggle with the most is that the bending in Atla was introduced as specific marshal arts movements. Toph starts teaching Aang with "move a rock", where he spends an entire episode learning stances and mentality to be stubborn enough to move a rock from a proficient earthbender. I have a hard time believing a 4 year old can figure out the correct stances without a single teacher. Even the first benders learned by watching masters at work (the moon, the sky bison, the dragons, and the badger moles). But Korra is supposed to have figured it all out without teachers or live demonstrations of masters at work. Someone can be a genius at the piano, but if they've never seen someone else play it or heard piano music played, they're very unlikely to be able to play a proper tune on the piano at age 4. Let alone be able to do the same for the violin and the trumpet at the same time.

[@reaper23113]

The term your looking for is savant there are people who are able to figure out how to do things they've never seen they may stumble with it for a short while but pick it up incredibly quickly

[@DavidMartinez-ce3lp]

​@@reaper23113but 3 things at the age of 4, though?

[@slayerofdarknssdmt9697]

​@@reaper231131 thing makes sense but even at the age of 4 learning it shouldn't exactly come THAT easy to them you have to understand they basically just got done learning how to stand and walk properly and are still struggling to learn basic speech and speech patterns not only that but your looking at something as complex as taking apart and putting together a toaster and still having it work properly then you take that skill and apply it to baking a cake or forging metal into a usable weapon Can you think of a a 4 year old who is even capable of 1 of those things let alone all 3? Each element and bending style is not only about learning the stances but honing your mind to a fine degree so you can grasp the understanding how to be stalwart or how to accept change what freedom is to you and what drives you to push forward granted you can do this to a soft idea or a basic movement but it'll be allot harder to lift a solid chunk of rock that's roughly the size of you or manifest fire from your soul like it's your second nature on top of that waterbending in a mindset that's the polar opposite to a waterbender

[@Birthday888]

This yeah. Korra's introduction turned Bending from a martial arts discipline into a superpower. Which greatly saddened me because the philosophy behind bending was what I loved most about the show's power/magic system.

[@troybaxter]

​@@Birthday888 to be fair LoK destroyed a lot of the world building AtLA had created and established. Honestly there are a lot of reasons why I refuse to acknowledge LoK's existence.

[@TheBerchie]

Seeing Korra at age four, bending three of the four elements, would be like seeing a four year old understanding the basics of three different martial arts.

[@adonaimelles2317]

we have literally seen meelo air bend as a kid so korra showing the ability to bend 3 elements isnt far fetched bending in the end is basically super powered martial arts so the avatar having the ability tobend the 3 elements by testing things out ( the basics) isnt a stretch when we see people bend by accident ( like bumi in b3

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

​@adonaimelles2317 I disagree with that: sure, it's possible for a bender to learn they have the ability to bend their element by accident, a lot of them probably do, for all we know. But it's pretty well established that each bending style needs not only a different mindset to use, but they also use different body gestures to harness and control the element they are trying to bend -- this takes a great deal of skill, and Aang in the original series was shown to have some difficulties with learning earth and fire bending, albeit for different reasons. Because of this, I have a difficult time believing that Korra could feasibly be able to bend 3 elements at the age of 4 with the kind of skill she demonstrated in that scene. In my opinion, it stretches the willing suspension of disbelief that she could be THAT inherently good at bending at the age of only 4 -- even if she hadn't yet come anywhere close to mastering those elements yet, that fact that she CAN bend 3 different elements that well just doesn't feel realistic for a kid as young as she was. It's frankly one of the reasons, in my mind, why people tend to call Korra something of a Mary Sue, as given that ATLA establishes that learning to bend elements isn't easy, let alone mastering them, it feels like they're setting her up to be a little bit TOO perfect from the get-go with this

[@adonaimelles2317]

@@matthewkuscienko4616 no what korra did isn’t any different from what aang did with Fire and Water not really it was never shown that bending required a particular moving style in atla b1 aang was able to fire bend while treating it like it was air he used fire an water the first time he tried it was only earth bending that he struggled with so korra showing she had the ability to bend by creating some fire or moving some rocks or moving water isn’t unbelievable (it was only earth bendi my which aang had trouble with like korra with air due to her mindset it was never stated that a 4 year old wouldn’t be able to use the elements or that you required a specific movement style (See aang using fire like it was air or someone airbending like it was fire bending bending styles are like martial arts to go with the element but like how you can kick or punch without it being a specific martial art style you can bend without knowing any of the bending styles see bumi airbending or aang fire bending like air bending rather then following any of the fire bending styles claiming korra is a Mary sue has always been invalid by that logic aang should be a Gary stu for learning alll 4 bending in one year while korra trained all her life to master them it was never established that the different body gestures were needed to harness and control the elements if it was we wouldn’t see people be inspired by other bending styles like bumi taking cues from aang for his earthbending. Moving like aang or probending where we see fighting styles changed not to mention fire breath

[@adonaimelles2317]

@@matthewkuscienko4616 it doesn’t stretch suspension of disbelief for korra to be able to bend 3 elements at 4 I could imagine azula being able to bend fire at 4 so why shouldn’t she be able to bend 3 the only difference is that korra is the avatar her going hey maybe I could be the avatar and trying things out leading to the discovery isn’t far fetched when we see aang use water bending and fire bending the first time he tried in b1 even if it’s not in the particular bending style nor does it make her out to be a genius better then aang what korra did isn’t any different from what anyone else could do it amounts to complaining if say korra created some fire in her hand or moved some rocks people just abuse the term Mary or Gary Stu or they are disingenuous and refuse to admit they are wrong like how people tried to claim mako was a creators pet due to their irrational hate for him mishandling a love triangle for daring to be flawed which the show always acknowledged

[@Matthias129]

@@adonaimelles2317 "what korra did isn’t any different from what aang did with Fire and Water" You're right, the only difference is that Aang already had a foundation of bending for years _and_ was 8 years more developed, both mentally and physically. " I could imagine azula being able to bend fire at 4 so why shouldn’t she be able to bend 3 the only difference is that korra is the avatar her going hey maybe I could be the avatar and trying things out leading to the discovery isn’t far fetched" Except a 4-year-old Azula would've had actual training, even if it was by osmosis through seeing palace guards training or some such. Korra would've had only water benders to learn from, so even if (at 4 years old) she decided "Oh yeah, I'm going to be the Avatar!" she would've had no one to learn the other bending styles from, even just watching them operate. What 4-year-olds do you know that have said "I'm gonna be a spaceman!" and just suddenly know calculus to start plotting interplanetary travel?

[@realmoftheouroboros8313]

The worst thing about it was how pointless it was. After that she went to training long enough to have just learned it then making her more human.

[@thebraveguy9808]

It served a purpose as a setup for a five second gag and to demonstrate how overbearing her personality was in that moment. Yeah, the part about having to understand the mindset that each element requires is definitely valid, but overall it was more of a "turn your brain off for the funny gag" bit.

[@GamerGrovyle]

It's not even like she is showing herself to be a master bender, I think people are over thinking the scene. She's not launching boulders or creating spouts of flame. It's small, canttrip level stuff that can be rationalized an Avatar could do without needing any formal training.

[@GameBreaker1055]

The prodigy status was what drove her hubris early on in the show. And deconstructing that hubris was the focus of really most of the first two books. Book 1 and 2 were essentially kicking that "I am the Avatar! Deal with it!"-spouting mouth in.

[@thebraveguy9808]

@@GameBreaker1055 It definitely made her a good character after a while. I remember in book 3 really appreciating Korra as a character vs the start, and book 4 Korra as amazing. But book 1 and 2 Korra were rough. And if I have to go through one more Korra "I'm giving up" season 2 speech, I'm gonna commit a war crime.

[@trequor]

​@@thebraveguy9808 They destroyed the canon for a terrible awkward joke.

[@milleniumtardis]

You make a good point that just because Korra is a water bender doesn’t mean she has to be initially good at it. It actually would have been really interesting to see her be good at every element except her natural one and see her struggle with that.

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

It would actually be kind of like Katara from the original ATLA series was: she was shown from the very first episode to be able to bend water, but she wasn't very good at it at first, only getting to master it after finding a teacher. Sure, she may not be the avatar, but it would still be a parallel regardless if they did go with that direction.

[@jamainegardner4193]

It's also a point Mr Enter made years ago.

[@milleniumtardis]

@@jamainegardner4193 Mr. Who?

[@jamainegardner4193]

@@milleniumtardis TheMysteriousMrEnter, one of the premier Animation Critic KZbinrs, creator of the Technocracy Documentary, and someone who has just 5000 more subscribers (gap closing every day) than Shady Doorags.

[@AzureRoxe]

@@jamainegardner4193 Oh, you mean the loser who used to go berserk against Spongebob writers and constantly wished they were fired or worse.

[@DjPrimeVideos]

Ive said this before, if we saw a teenage Korra bending 3 elements instead of..idk 4 year old Korra, id be fine with it.

[@gustavofring8709]

Aang learned to bend all 4 elements during a war...he had to learn them as quickly as possible. Even at 17 I would have had an issue with Korea being able to bend out of the gate. We see from Roku and other avatars it takes years if not decades to master and train

[@dontestevens4831]

For me it makes sense, she isn't a master at all, but she can still move a rock but she isn't a master

[@FengTheSlayer]

If Aang could be an air-bending master at the age of 12 when it usually takes years if not decades to become one, then Korra learning 3 out of the 4 elements at a young age is not far fetched considering that the avatar would eventually be able to learn and master all four elements regardless

[@littlekuribohimposte]

@@gustavofring8709Aang was my no means a master either. He gad enough tine to get an understanding and move on. And he was a pretty shoddy Earthbender because it is diametrically opposed to Air, his “main” style. Korra having two, sure. Maybe. But being born a waterbender means that fire should be far beyond her until adulthood

[@ColdNorth0628]

​@@FengTheSlayer You forget aang got his "Mastery" arrows because he invented the air scooter ball. His very free and open personality did let him be very prestigious at air bending. But it also had him struggle with earth bending and even his own lax nature made him hesitant to learn fire bending.

[@McForkCoverup2005]

Korra being much better at firebending when she is young due to her personality and her, by contrast, very lacking natural waterbending skills being a sore spot for her that she needs to overcome as she gets older sounds like a much more interesting character path than what they ended up giving us.

[@MikeJoe-jy5kp]

Agree

[@boomboomskidskid]

You mean like someone who is really good at earth bending, but airbending is super difficult, because of their personality?

[@McForkCoverup2005]

@@boomboomskidskid If that person is a born airbender, then yes

[@boomboomskidskid]

@@McForkCoverup2005 so the legend of korra....

[@Blue-fg8vt]

​@@boomboomskidskiddon't play dumb.

[@TranquilAshes]

Also the GAANG learned and mastered their elements during wartime. They were constantly challenged and thus created some of the most powerful Bending Masters of their Age. Also Aang was pretty spiritual. He constantly talked about what the Monks would do and tried to inact those beliefs. Which is why he has such a hard time with the "Kill fire Lord " problem.

[@ninkstheultimate3376]

It also helps when Aang was SHOWN EXACTLY WHAT TO DO by masters. He never "figured it out on his own". Even when it comes to waterbending, he had to at least be told what the general idea was by Katara, and since waterbending and airbending are very close in nature he was able to bend it on a very basic level, but only in that instance, and never bent it again until the North Pole when he was being taught by masters.

[@kaleknelson8429]

You know a water tribe avatar who can't waterbend because of the mentality is actually a much more interesting story than what we got.

[@lainiwakura1776]

It makes sense too, Sokka has the ability to waterbend but his mindset prevents it from happening. I forgot where I read that, but I think it either Bryan or Mike said it.

[@sanada-sama8303]

What mindset do you need to have to be a waterbender? ​@@lainiwakura1776

[@nykole1963]

Either that, or a bender who can't control the power they have. Could you imagine she's trying to demonstrate her power, fails because she's a little nervous, but then she hears the White Lotus guys talking to her parents outside and gets flustered and mad and accidently yells at them and stomps her foot at the same time, and fire comes out from her yelling and the ground shakes from her stomp? That would have been curiosity provoking. I still like the scene we got because it's silly in a fun way, but I think that would have been awesome.

[@Maskedmenace8267]

​@purpleemerald5299...i could have had sub-zero sokka

[@mcmlii.v]

​​​​@@lainiwakura1776That...makes no sense. Bending isn't something anyone can just, "get"-- It's genetic. In the Fortuneteller episode we witness a set of twins, one can bend, one cannot. Implying that bending is a recessive gene. Besides, if Sokka *were* a closeted-Waterbender, and he simply never developed the skills or mindframe/set to access it, then it would undermine the entire purpose of his character. He's a non-bender in a bender's world; despite the obvious disadvatages he posesses, he proves himself a capable warrior even though he lacks the Power of The Elements throughout the entire show-- and that's what makes him a badass.

[@pmeister1337]

I always thought that having Korra be a water bender who could only bend Fire would have been far more interesting.

[@rayv6671]

Imagine she went through something similar as zuko where (being as hotheaded as she is) she also draws her bending from anger and have zuko teach her what Iroh taught him in the original series. Would've been a nice callback and some development for the new character while showing she isn't so different from the ones we know.

[@V2011F]

I had the idea that she was a great combat water bender, but due to her emotions and lack of spirituality she could only heal a wound as small as a papercut

[@randomperson5289]

Makes sense, she would obviously have an affinity for fire but water requires calm and spirituality to master, earth requires patience and air requires peace.

[@Nobodyshere1105]

YEAH!

[@Stormy5533]

That sounds amazing. Being from the water tribe but displaying fire instead of water. Kids might outcast her, and she makes mistakes like melting igloos. Keeps her personality, everyone immediately knows she is the Avatar (keeping the twist of this series alive), and there would be plenty of personal development ahead, all while consistly being compared to the previous Avatar who saved the world.

[@Buffalen]

That airbending spirituality route starts to fall apart when you consider what made her airbend was hardly spiritual

[@danielbernhardt1327]

And when you think about it some more, the scene actually fits with a water bender mindset much more than an air bender. She has had her bending taken away and sees Mako in danger, someone she cares about. Adaptation to change though love.

[@artistaroundtheblock2047]

I’m gonna chalk it up to anyone learning bending at convenient times in this show. Wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last.

[@theberrby6836]

yeah...

[@artistaroundtheblock2047]

@@theberrby6836 Yeah to me?

[@alexrecrem9094]

I'd say having your worst fear realized and being in an immediately worse scenario is an experience many would begin having spiritual reflections in actually

[@ajax068]

Korra struggling with water bending would be so ironically funny. 😂

[@aileenw.9391]

it would make sense though!! like maybe she can but she struggles with making it efficient and working for her and instead she fights the water

[@Thozmp]

I see a lot of comments about Korra being a prodigy bender similar to Aang being an Airbending master (what his arrow tattoos indicate), but the thing is, as far as I can tell, Aang had teachers. Aang required actual instruction, he might have picked things up quickly, but he needed someone to actually teach him how in the first place, as opposed to Korra managing to innately bend three elements, at least two of which would be without any outside help in learning.

[@ALUCARDTWILLIGHT]

Aang is a prodigy and even then we still saw him struggle as far we know he became a fully realized avatar the fastest

[@msk-qp6fn]

If they showed four year old korra just playing with all the elements, it probably could have worked. Her already knowing the proper forms and fighting styles for the bendings, hell no.

[@o0ugi860]

​@ALUCARDTWILLIGHT yes but think of who his teachers were, paku, toph and literal dragons. Topped off with the pressure of needing to end century long war, it makes sense

[@generalpork]

gotta remember aang was 12, not 4, so korra being able to do this without any teachers is just??? water bending sure maybe because she lives there but not the other 2 at 4. Even with 3 experts in zuko, katara and Toph, Aang really had to mature to be able to bend them properly. just weird she's so prodigious now but then a minute later into the show she isn't keeping that pace, surely by like 10 she'd have mastered 3 of them or all 4 with such incredulous skills and savant nature.

[@mysticflow467]

@@msk-qp6fn yeaa

[@Hey-Its-Dingo]

As a Korra fan, I agree. That fan comic of Korra's parents watching Korra, and she starts fire bending instead of water bending, and her dad looks at her mom with suspicion is a way better showing of Korra in the series than her actual introduction.

[@lurklingX]

from everything i heard, the fan comic had it right.

[@raze2012_]

I still fundamentally disagree with points 1 and 2. 1 is simple: we know from firebending you can derive more than one "source" for bending. An entire nation can "brute force" an element diverging from the original masters, so maybe the discipline is more about refinement and mastery and not the ability to bend at all. I can belive Korra brute forcing water due to avatar access giving subconscious knowledge (we know this from Aang when viewing roku's, and being exposed to water the most at a young age. Point 2: every avatar is another person. A theme from the ones we've seen is that none before Korra necessarily was excited to be the avatar. Aang was terrified when it cost him his social life, Roku was surprised to see his best friend bow before him. Kiyoshi was already on hard times and it became harder when she was revealed. It's not really a title most people desire at that age. So not many try. (maybe by design. Raava is the bastion of "good" after all. She may choose a proper successor or influence the personality of who she inhabits) Point 3, ehh. Meta commentary, I didn't mind it. I understand others offended. It's always a risk breaking the 4th wall. 😅

[@kurtwagner350]

The fact that both in that comic and in the show the writers were willing to destroy the canon and ignore the lore for a joke is exactly the problem with modern media.

[@blackche1580]

​@@raze2012_blud made 0 real points

[@raze2012_]

@@blackche1580 sure, all opinions. Opinions aren't real.

[@Cklert]

Remember the first scene of ATLA when Katara was bending water around a fish and she was trying so hard to concentrate in order to not make it pop? Or how about just an episode later where she accidentally freezes Sokka? This was after years of Katara simply just practicing by herself. Because remember, the Fire Nation murdered Katara's mother under the suspcision that she was a Water-bender years prior. So everyone in her village knew Katara was a water-bender. Korra already showed that she was more in control of her water-bending at age 4, than episode 1 Katara.

[@adonaimelles2317]

you do realize aang used water bending more easily then katara did and in the end korra just showcased a bit of bending when she was 4 moving water around etc ( the avatar has the ability to bend the 4 elements there has never been areason to say that they need some time before they gain access to the elements outside of the ones they were born into

[@AeridisArt]

@@adonaimelles2317 Aang was already a master of airbending. It would make sense that he'd pick up on a similar bending style quickly since he has the fundamentals of one style already compared to Katara who doesn't even have the fundamentals of waterbending.

[@Cklert]

@@adonaimelles2317 Okay, we're talking about a 12 year old who was already a prodigy at airbending (He was the youngest to master it), vs a 4 year old. I don't think really needed to highlight the difference between these two ages yet here we are. Keep in mind that Katara was also a genius herself. All it took was about a month learning from a master before she became a master herself.

[@Novictus]

@PitBot-d7k Letting blood bending loose like that is pretty dangerous narratively but I do like the idea of bending mutants for lack of a better term. Sparky Boom Woman was a nice surprise.

[@LEO_M1]

@@adonaimelles2317 An Aang who had been bending (a different style, granted, but bending nonetheless) for 10+ years. The two situations aren’t even remotely comparable.

[@ohmygodbecky6829]

The entire korra series storytelling was “it looked cool so i included it” with any plot device. There’s no composed storytelling and it shows. A factory of everybody knowing how to electricity bend. All their enemies and allies know all the next level bending. Korra knowing how to bend as a toddler.

[@Graymanlegend]

I think one of the biggest things I don’t hear people talk about is that Korra has no history. Aang, Katara and Sokka have pretty fleshed out backgrounds by the 2nd episode. Korra doesn’t have that period, her life has nothing interesting about it until the show starts. Makes it extremely hard to even connect to her compared to side characters in ATLA

[@vetarlittorf1807]

That's the point. She has no identity beyond being the Avatar because that's all she's ever known. That's why the series is spent on Korra's self-discovery.

[@BlueDiamond850]

Well, that's the thing. Most of her life was spent living and training in that compound. She didn't have much of a background or any real-world experience which makes it easier for us to connect with her while she learns how Republic city works because we are learning right alongside her. Even though she does have an easily defined personality she is also a bit of a blank slate for us to go along with on the ride.

[@christopherauzenne5023]

@@BlueDiamond850 true but that begs the question, why did she need to be in the compound, she knew the 3 elements, shouldn't she have spent all that time at the air temple learning air bending instead of waiting all that time till her teens to learn the last element then mastering them.

[@robertharris6092]

Yeah. Aang and the white lotus in their attempts to protect the next avatar ensured that the next avatar would have no life outside or being the avatar and training to do just that. Literaly trying to find who the avatar us as young as possivle and locking them away in a fotress like complex. Thats kind of the point of the story.

[@robertharris6092]

​@@christopherauzenne5023 she bent a tiny puddle of water. Something any other 4 yo bender woukd be able to do. She still needs to MASTER the elements in the same order.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

The idea that the avatar would have access to trainers for all elements, would make sense. But not at fucking 4 years old.

[@theanimekid7839]

That's the thing, she didn't. She just intuitively learned/discovered that she could. If we saw how she discovered learned the different bending styles, then it would make a tad more sense.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

@theanimekid7839 there's literally no defense for it, besides some meta one regarding the writers

[@eldesconocidosenork5981]

@@theanimekid7839 She was learning how to clean her own ass and discovered she could bend fire? You really think she could INTUIT 3 different mentallities in time before the White Lotus could reach her? We KNOW she didn´t have contact with other bender BECAUSE SHE IS 4, she is bending at the level she basically will the rest of her life outside of the Avatar state before she could learn what 2x4 even means

[@danielmunoz1275]

I mean, by that logic. How did Katara learned she was a waterbender? Her mother didn't tell her, nor her father. She just heard stories of what happened to the waterbenders in her tribe, but not that she had the ability. She probably learned she could waterbend by accident. There were no masters or anyone to teach her, yet, by the time the show starts, she is able to pick up fishes in floating water bubbles, freeze people, and break down icebergs in outbursts of emotion. She is clumsy and has no clear sense of direction of course; however, Korra lives in different times (there are radios and newspapers and more methods of transportation). It is not outrageous to infer that Korra knew of stories of the Avatar, as a kid idolizing the figure, and when she started having control of the elements she dedicated to that. After all, the reason the White Lotus visited her house, was because they heard reports of a child bending the elements, most likely due to Korra excitedly experimenting and already eager to learn how to fight with them.

[@iliaselmaghrebi9114]

@danielmunoz1275 Katara already knew she was a waterbender before her mother died. Also, her being a waterbender is not the issue; her being a water, earth, and firebender is the issue.

[@happy911]

The problem I had is ATLA described bending as martial arts and hereditary. LoK made the bending like X-men mutant superpowers. This was even more apparent in book 3 where a bunch of people accidentally airbending with no training. Just kinda immersive breaking…

[@GameBreaker1055]

The martial arts part broke when Aang just kinda played around with fire to pull off stuff he was never taught (and then fucked it up). It is more of a "the form gives you control" rather then "allows you to do it". I mean, you cannot explain Iroh's fire breath with martial arts either. Hereditary really just decides the element IF you win the spiritual coin toss to be a bender

[@SmileyDraws]

the martail arts come second to the element you only mater the element when you master the martial arts part first it seems that way because all of korras avater training happened off screen because that what she did for most of her life until she ran away to learn air bending

[@Gdsryrox]

When the whole air benders coming back thing happened it should have been Air Acolytes that got the power since the whole thing about bending was its spiritual link.

[@kyze8284]

@@GameBreaker1055 Iroh did mention several times that firebending can be enhanced simply with breathing control. Reinforced during the meteor when him JUST BREATHING and focusing on it was raising a literal city block of fire before he turned it into a massive beam and went through the most fortified earth kingdom's outer city wall that took quite a while to breach with a massive drill. Honestly, I think if Iroh had helped teach Aang at any point like he had tried to with Zuko, Aang would have been able to take on Ozai with just 2 elements

[@travismcnasty51]

Lightning bending is the most difficult technique of fire bending. Until it needs to be a steampunk setting. The child prodigy thing sucks, but you can explain this by looking at the advancements in martial arts, gymnastics, and many other sports in the past century.

[@DeliriousDaydreamer]

Idea: Age 16+ Korra. The Sages come to her home because her parents claim she's the Avatar. She bends fire, but the sages are skeptical. After all, she's a waterbender that can't bend water but can bend fire quite naturally. She then whips out air, and the sages are speechless. She then says the "Deal with it!" line in a natural way, atagonizing the sages, but not the audience. It also sets her up as passionate and free-spirited with room to achieve the steadfast mindset of earth before the adaptable mindset of water.

[@sol-hunter2332]

I actually like that. Her not being able to water bend also makes more sense.

[@Doomzdeh]

Tbh, I think you could make it work with Korra being 12. Have the Sages hone her Firebending and maybe start teaching her Earthbending too. Korra then enters Republic City to learn Airbending. She helps teach Mako and Bolin some more official Firebending and Earthbending techniques. That’s how she connects with them. Maybe Season 2 is done differently because Korra is actually going there to learn Waterbending instead of to stop a problem? Unalaq is maybe her teacher.

[@TheLoneLoony]

"A good story can save bad art, but good art can't save a bad story." - Mr. Enter Edit: If Demon Slayer was really that bad, the manga wouldn't have outsold all of western comics, especially during the pandemic.

[@sarahcox1197]

Good thing Legend of Korra is a good story with good art 😂

[@HExtraordinaire]

​@@sarahcox1197define "good."

[@Iridium-77-g]

@@sarahcox1197 L take.

[@johnpinard3212]

Well said.

[@ianroscablu]

​@@sarahcox1197 Pulling that L straight out of LoK

[@Amy_Rice]

I’m a former assistant preschool teacher who specifically worked with 4 year olds; 4 year olds barely have the focus to eat their own lunches, let alone to “master” 3 different skills at the same time 😑

[@BrightWulph]

Yep, I worked at an Early Learning Centre for a few months. I was specifically in the 3-4 year olds room, and it was a struggle to get them to stay focused on eating their food long enough, before they could go out side to play. Trying to cycle the lunches if 10 kids was a nightmare, because they'd get too distracted by what the other kids were doing in the room or what the others were eating. So yeah, while I could believe that a 4 year old Kora could accidentally discover her ability to fire-bend via a temper tantrum, there is no way she'd be able to pull off water and earth on top of that.

[@Amy_Rice]

@@BrightWulph circle time was the worst!

[@dakotastein9499]

I think we're throwing around "master" a bit to easily....she demonstrated talent and basic ability but that didint mean she was by any sense elite In these forms

[@MrWill7980]

I've had six kids, the youngest just turned 5, and yeah a 4 yo has a hard enough time mastering putting their shoes on the right feet.

[@sheila19954]

@@dakotastein9499 okay then: she didn't master the elements. she bended the elements flawlessly you don't need to be a master to do something flawlessly. but that's what she did at 4 freaking years old. still bad.

[@drallelgaming]

Introduce a 4 year old korra barely being able to bend earth, she did this while stubbornly not wanting her veggies or something, nothing too big just shooting a rock at her father or something. White lotus takes her away and we cut back to korra as a teenager using earth and fire bending while struggling with water and not being able to bend air. Plot point is she is made fun of, being a water bender but bad at water bending renforces her fire and earth mentalities. Make her main element the one she struggled with the most to mirror ang the best

[@johnduquette7023]

This, her being able to bend multiple elements at 4 is less of an issue than how it was introduced + her level of competence. Also, the idea of an avatar being poor at bending their native element is actually a really good idea, especially if you make the reason she's bad at waterbending overlap with why she's bad at airbending. Her brute-forcing problems instead of flowing and adapting is a clear character flaw she'd have to overcome. Great place to start with a main character.

[@danielmunoz1275]

I mean, this could've been good; however you're overlooking 2 VERY IMPORTANT factors when writing a story (specially for a movie and/or show) 1-Character introduction: this is very important as it defines purpose, audience perception, and it sets the basis for future conflict in the story. For Korra, she's an eager and talented kid that is focused and excited to be the Avatar, she also has a strong and upfront personality. All of this is conveyed in that single scene. 2-Time constrains and pacing: When writing a book, pacing can be slower and the writer can describe things and situations in more detail. Your idea is very fitting for a novel or if the first season was green-lit for more episodes so that the pacing could've been slower for characters' introductions. Also, most of what you propose are things that we (the audience) can infer. If this was a novel, ok tell us in detail, but if this is a movie or show we need to move things along. As an example, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone novel describes how Harry and Hagrid are going from one store to another buying school materials, while also serving as a lore dump for the reader. Harry meets Draco Malfoy inside one of this stores as well. Meanwhile, in the movie adaptation, Harry just quickly reads what he needs to buy, and we jump to the important parts: Harry taking a look at the Nimbus 2000, entering to Olivander's Wand shop, and finishing with Hagrid showing that he got him an Owl. Harry doesn't meet Malfoy until he's in the castle waaaay later than he does in the novel. The movie told us the important events and rearranged others in benefit of pacing and meeting time constraints. This is the same with Korra. Showing how she slowly discovered she could bend each element is a nice idea, but it is not helpful to the pacing, the number of episodes, and it'd made for a weaker introduction to her character.

[@John-fk2ky]

@@danielmunoz1275 ironic that you bring this up. I write my own stuff, and that scene was HORRIBLE. It told me a lot about Korra, none of it good. I didn’t even bother following the show past the first episode in its original run. It breaks the lore (how the heck is Korra able to bend three elements at age four when it has been pretty glaringly established that the Avatar has to be TOLD that he or she is the Avatar, which means none of them could bend even a second element by age 16?) and tells me Korra is brash and in your face, traits that I rather dislike in a main protagonist. If you have a short running time, don’t write a story needing more time for it to be taken seriously.

[@danielmunoz1275]

@@John-fk2ky And that most of that sounds like a you problem rather than an objective one. You don't like Korra's initial personality, ok... so? That made you, not wanting to watch the show. Ok... so? The only thing I agree on here, is the fact that it's not good to try to make a story that clearly needs more time/episodes to be properly told, but that's the unfairness of the industry. Because if you think the people who directly worked on this wanted to make a bad show, the you're telling me you only want someone to point down as the enemy, rather tan actually making a fair assessment. I've watched reactions tha have liked Korra's cocky attitude, and others who are surprised by it. So no, objectively it is not a bad introduction to her character, you just simply, on a personal level don't like it. About the pre-established lore. As far as we know, none of the Avatar we knew before have bended other elements besides the native one before being told they're the Avatar; however, it has never been stated or set in stone that it is impossible. Also, we do not know all the Avatars' stories to know for sure either. So this logic of yours is speculation. If anything this situation is saying that yes, an Avatar could bend other elements other than their native one and realize they're the Avatar that way. Furthermore, what difference does it really make? 17-18 year old Korra couldn't prevent herself from getting captured by the Red Lotus, and she was fully trained there, while kid Korra could barely do the basics of 3 elements. Her depended only on Sokka, Tenzin, and the White Lotus to stop the Red Lotus from kidnaping her. So... You're only calling the scene bad on the basis that you don't like her character and it makes her look like a "Mary Sue", but outside of the end of S1 she doesn't have Mary Sue moments.

[@johnduquette7023]

​@@danielmunoz1275 >"I mean, this could've been good; however you're overlooking 2 VERY IMPORTANT factors when writing a story (specially for a movie and/or show) 1-Character introduction:" Literally no one could overlook that character introduction, and it is well-addressed. >"this is very important as it defines purpose, audience perception, and it sets the basis for future conflict in the story. For Korra, she's an eager and talented kid that is focused and excited to be the Avatar, she also has a strong and upfront personality. All of this is conveyed in that single scene." It explicitly antagonized the audience. Also, the spin on this is crazy. Just because all of that is "conveyed" in one scene does not mean it is done effectively. >"2-Time constrains and pacing: When writing a book, pacing can be slower and the writer can describe things and situations in more detail. Your idea is very fitting for a novel or if the first season was green-lit for more episodes so that the pacing could've been slower for characters' introductions. " How many episodes are necessary for competent characterization, and how many episodes did they have? AtLA didn't have any problems characterizing Aang very quickly and without antagonizing the audience. >"Also, most of what you propose are things that we (the audience) can infer." "Because something is communicated means it should never be communicated better." >"If this was a novel" You've brought up novels twice to prop up an argument where that narrative medium was never brought up before. It's desperate and everything after trying to insert it into this discussion can be ignored as nonsense.

[@rayebeard]

“This is a video about the Legend of Korra. Why on earth would expect consistency?” Made my day 😊

[@actoman3411]

They did Mako dirty. A majority of the Fandom thinks he's boring, but he had an interesting background they never expanded on. He's an orphan that had to join gang to survive an provide for Bolin. He just wanted a quiet and stable life. Also they never expanded on the various crimes syndicate of republic city, but then I think it would play out like low tier watchmen.

[@leobuana7430]

I think that's the problem,if it's up to Mako he'd stay out of trouble and do safe 9 to 5 jobs

[@foisopracurtir6389]

@@leobuana7430 Just have the problem affect him anyway

[@strategicperson95]

​@@leobuana7430 you never heard of the call dragging the reluctant hero in, no matter how much they want to stay out of it. Usually through the events effecting them personally either directly or indirectly via a family? member?

[@BrightWulph]

@@strategicperson95 Exactly, they could have had Mako try to stay having a normal 9-5 life, but Bolin being young and smitten with Kora keeps allowing himself to be dragged into trouble. Thus Mako, wanting to keep his brother safe decides to tag along. Like there, a simple fix to the reluctant hero that is Mako to have him be a part of Team Avatar.

[@HExtraordinaire]

Didn't they name him in honor of Iroh's og voice actor too? Then they completely ruin his character. Disrespectful

[@TheTundraTerror]

TLoK treats bending like it's Harry Potter-style magic.

[@ShadyDoorags]

I think superpowers is the more appropriate metaphor, but yeah, TLoK leaned away from the "discipline that acts as an extension of one's self" that bending was known for being in AtLA. They didn't completely abandon it, but the changes are certainly felt.

[@GamerGrovyle]

@@ShadyDoorags I want to object to your claim that it's implausible that Korra could use three elements at age four. Bending Elements is not the same as being a Bender. We see that in Avatar Wan's time, people weren't using the Fire bending powers the Lion Turtle gave them with any technique behind it, the guards who went out into the spirit forest were just throwing fire around, and as soon as Wan learned proper forms from imitating the Dragon Spirits he became able to actually control fire, bending it around him and sending it back to them. I would agree with your point if Korra at Age 4 showed any control or finesse with the elements but all she does is lift some water, ignite some air and make a bump in the floor. She's not using any form of control or technique, she is just using her innate ability to move elements. The forms and Chi flow are more so a way to better use those abilities but they aren't necessary. If you needed the forms to Bend how do you explain the armless woman from Red Lotus who seemingly does it with just her mind.

[@donutbevil9669]

@@GamerGrovyle Because a lot of the old lore was trashed for a more "modern" take. LMAO! You're a spammer, I see. Try baiting better.

[@Markcus003]

@@GamerGrovyle bro thats the new lore not the ATLA lore which one of the reason alot of people doesnt like legend of korra because they retcon alot of lore from ATLA to the point that you can argue that the Legend of korra and ATLA just share the same concept and not a series.

[@wasteland5000]

The "don't tell them until they're 16 rule" is when they tell them. They KNEW Aang was the avatar early in when he picked toys owned by previous avatars. But i agree with you about HOW they found out she was the avatar.

[@Extra-thoughts]

Also each nation has its own customs and rules for dealing with the avatar. We only see that the fire and air people's waited to 16. You can infer water and earth would follow this, but that doesn't make it Canon As for the how of Korra having access to more than one element, the original series gave us a sample size of two avatars we actually know the life story of. Everything else is just fan speculation, for all we know it's actually more common for an avatar to have access to multiple elements and the rituals for finding the Avatar were meant as a last resort which has only recently (500 years or so) become common. After all spirituality and bending are very closely tied together and we know that spirituality is on the decline within the Avatar world and has been for thousands of years

[@marieknep5567]

@@Extra-thoughts This is just silly logic… with this point of view, literally any established lore could be broken because “we’ve only seen a couple avatars”. That’s not how world building works. You don’t just get to say “oh well maybe it was different BEFORE this, so it’s fine” or else anything could be retconned, rendering everything the previous series did useless…

[@darriusbethea2373]

Yes and that why it big deal they broke the rule for Aang but it was understandable because Fire Nstion was getting more aggressive. At this point Fire Nation had already attacked & established Earth Kingdom colonies. As Roku said mastering of elements takes a life time it took him 12 years to master it. Aang took a year & you can argue he didn’t fully master last 2 as Yoph said his earth bending needed some work & he just learnt fire bending like 2 weeks before Comet. If we being honest the reason stuff like this happened in Korra was 2 reasons. ATLA wasn’t just Mike & Bryan it had a huge team of writers most of whom didn’t come back because they had smaller budget or moved on. 2. They speed blitz because LOK was supposed to be a mini series with one season and they wanted to cram an entire Avatar journey in one season. Korra is 17 at start and they need to justify her being a master of fire & earth. So they decided she just could already bend at 4 & just trained for next 13 years. They also realized we need her to have Avatar State mastered so we will just give it to her at the end

[@Extra-thoughts]

@@marieknep5567 no, it's more realistic actually you know if Earth was a fantasy it would have terrible, contradictory world building. If I had only seen deers without antlers in my life, it would be reasonable for me to assume that no deer grows antlers but that doesn't make it true

[@marieknep5567]

@@Extra-thoughts No? It’s not more realistic? That makes absolutely no sense. A comparison to “there’s no deer with antlers cause I’ve never seen them” doesn’t work when you have people TELLING you deer have antlers… and SHOWING you… you cannot tell me that you don’t mind when set rules in any story change on a whim because writers feel like changing them… that’s literally just shitty writing.

[@RedFloyd469]

A few notes here, just my two cents: I've been reading "the rise of kyoshi" for a week or so now, and that story handles the whole avatar thing a lot better, in my opinion, while also having an avatar that is female, strong-willed, and action-oriented, like Korra. It also handles the theme of one of the avatars being an UNKNOWN person, due to circumstance (a circumstance I find a bit problematic, but I can't say more without spoiling.) This more or less simulates the circumstances being an avatar at 4 years old and not knowing it through realistic ways. All in all, Kyoshi was a powerful earthbender from childhood on, but not one that was subtle, and all because she lacked the proper training to handle smaller objects, more precise movements, etc.... She could earthbend, but only the big, bulky rocks. She bended through will and through wanting devastation, but had no way of earthbending with detailed movements, as opposed to Toph who could do both. She also DIDN'T know she was the avatar until she was almost an adult, which the book states to be a unicum. The book makes it very, very clear, that finding out your inherent abilities as the avatar is HARD. It's not something that comes all that naturally, unless the person is very specifically gifted, perhaps physically or spiritually. Kyoshi was neither. She had the raw power, but not the skill, not the mindsets, nothing. I can believe that Korra is very gifted. A prodigy. What I CANNOT believe, is that she is capable of bending flawlessly, like you said. She is doing all the right moves, in the very "martial-artsy" manner of "Avatar"'s world. All of it at the age of four, when she was presumably living remotely from everybody else. She also has no reason to have had a change in mentality at such a young age. In comparison, my niece is four. She can barely say my name properly. My name is a single syllable long. 4 year olds are RIDICULOUSLY helpless. Korra has NO reason to be a martial arts prodigy. None. A second criticism is that the writers do NOTHING with this information. What does it mean for an avatar to be naturally gifted AND doing precise, flawless moves at the age of 4? Apparantly nothing. She grows up, becomes a late teenager, and still can't airbend, nor is she "in tune" with the spiritual side of things. So that begs the question: what on earth were the many bending sages teaching her that it took her 12 years or more (I'm not sure what her age is in the show) to master the elements she was already a GOD in at the age of 4? Why didn't they focus on her airbending first? Why are we seeing her tackle airbending for the first time, 12 years since she was discovered to be the avatar? Why did her airbending later on emerge after basically having learned nothing and just using airbending as if she was firebending? None of this gets an answer, because the writers wanted their cake and eat it too. They wanted a female, action-oriented prodigy, but didn't want to do the heavy-lifting, story-wise, to make that work within the framework of the universe. As for the REASON behind this introduction: I was an adult when TLOK was announced. I saw the memes, I saw the publicity. I saw the reactions. One thing I ABSOLUTELY remember was that the decision to make the avatar female, and having her be the main protagonist, had all sorts of reactions. It's 2024 now, and both "woke" and "anti-woke" are terms you are all familiar with. Let me just state it outright: this debacle isn't new. Its the same old grift. The same audiences of today used to be around back then too. Nothing has changed. Let's put it very simply: everybody loved ATLA's cast, everybody loved toph, some people hated katara for irrational reasons, imo, but most people didn't, I know I love her. Everybody loves Azula. Everybody loves Ty-lee, everybody, well, LIKES, Suki. Having female leads be talented, was never the issue for any audience. But when TLOK was announced, a lot of sites, journalists, nickelodeon themselves, started claiming people were giving TLOK backlash for having a female protagonist that wasn't white. Now MAYBE, all of this was true. MAYBE there were reactions from sexists, etc... But my guess is that none of that was the case, or at least not in any way shape or form that is remarkable or different from other times, including for ATLA. What I think, is that this was one of the first very public online examples of virtue signalling, from nickelodeon. So what does "I'm the avatar, you've gotta deal with it!" mean? It means that the writers were responding to what they perceived to be an audience of sexists. To an audience that didn't want a female (not to mention tanned) avatar. An audience that apparantly disliked "strong, independent, female" protagonists. In short, the same grift, the same nonsense, the same polarizing, tokenized, diversity-checklist bullshit, coming from both morons in the audience as well as nickelodeon itself. The end result is that they drained their own story of having a likeable protagonist as a result. Although Korra isn't a mary sue (people overuse that term), she IS poorly handled. Her introduction achieves a small cathartic reaction for the writers, or acts as a virtue signalling example of pre-2016 "woke" mentality, but it does absolutely nothing for our protagonist. It doesn't help Korra become a loveable character. It doesn't make us want to root for her. She already has everything going for her in terms of bending at the age of 4. Any struggle to overcome adversity, must come at the cost of believability now. Every worldbuilding aspect behind bending must be retconned now. Every logical outcome of being a martial arts prodigy at the age of four, must come into conflicts with good, conflict-ridden story-writing, or must contradict itself later on down the line. The virtue signalling came at a story-writing cost. Yes, Korra still had her own struggles and conflicts, but all of them felt forced, all of them felt unneccessary or "too little too late". Why didn't she go through her spiritual and air-bending related struggles, much, MUCH earlier? Why did it take her 12 years for her to even see republic city when she's the AVATAR, a central political figure in this world? She had so many sages and teachers and tutors, so why keep her in this remote part of the world? When good writing comes into conflict with your character introduction and the plot and worldbuilding you have already established before it, then you need to change something. You need to change the introduction. You need to change the setting or the plot. Aang wasn't interesting because he was male and had a white skintone. He was interesting because he had struggles to overcome that were above and BEYOND what the avatar would normally have to go through. He had physical AND mental growing to do. He became an adult, a strong-willed, talented fighter, and a LEADER OF MEN, over the course of the show. In order to achieve that, he had to have the worst situation imaginable: the avatar is a public enemy, nobody will teach him for fear of their lives, and HE is the one held responsible for 100 years of despair and war. He's also 12. Korra doesn't have those struggles, that world-changing responsibility to burden. And why would she? She's a prodigy at age 4 of three different bending styles. As an adult, her struggle seems fake. By now, she should have been taught the proper mentality, the proper moves, the proper decorum, of an avatar, having received as much guidance as she has. This makes either KORRA an idiot, self-centered and stubbornly thinking she knows best, or somebody who was SURROUNDED by idiots herself. None of that is adressed, and therefore, when the audience inevitably picks up on this, Korra gets the blame. We see her the way she is, pretty much as a young adult. She isn't just strong-willed, she is also bratty, entitled, self-centered, stubborn, downright idiotic at times and blatantly disrespectful at others. Audiences pick up on that. Audiences hate that. Why should an audience ROOT for her? What is LIKEABLE about her? I'll end my rant here. The point is simply that a lot of TLOK was essentially ruined because they forced Korra into having this cheesy, virtue-signalling introduction. All of this has a domino effect that a good writer would have seen coming from miles away. I won't cast any blame to SPECIFIC individuals, but my guess is that out of the three main writers, the one that wasn't involved with TLOK was the one with the best head on their shoulders when it came to this stuff. TLOK has all the shine and weight of worldbuilding of ATLA, but none of the charm or good-writing that ATLA became known for. And it shows.

[@lordfelidae4505]

Thank you for hosting that TED talk😉

[@humangirl2122]

Korra's introduction was not cheesy at all!

[@maviebaby]

It honestly sounds like you've never seen "The Legend of Korra." Either that or u don't remember it.

[@insectostrich4407]

The saddest thing about this show is that it had amazing potential. I loved seeing how this world had progressed after Ang saved it. It was cool to see the new locations, technology, conflicts and politics. Yet, it just all fell flat the more you compared it to the original or looked at it from a storytelling perspective. Seeing Shady’s video has only proven this more. Great video by the way, man.

[@thefanwithoutaface8105]

The Airbenders part could've actually be used to explore a possibility of the Avatar not being needed anymore with different organizations being formed to fight the battles the Avatar couldn't.

[@insectostrich4407]

@@thefanwithoutaface8105Yeah, that too. Maybe that could’ve tied into Kora struggling with her water bending because she felt threatened by things changing. Linking to what Shady said.

[@triforceofcourage100]

LoK lost whatever goodwill Amon and the equalists had built up with the advent of season two. Seeing Wan was a horrible idea as the first avatar was something that is better imagined than seen. The origin of the Avatar being a battle of good vs evil kites is probably one of the worst ideas those writers ever had. However a close third after those two is having Jinora be the savior, the avatar is the bridge between the human and spirit worlds unless you’re like a super good airbender then you can do the bridge thing a million times better than the actual bridge. Seriously what kind of cactus juice were these people drinking? LoK died for me after that I don’t care how good Zaheer is (don’t know anything at all about the metal kingdom arc other than it introduced mechs which is something else I hate it’s Avatar not friggin Gundam) Lok only had one season.

[@hubertcalculus34]

And of course Korra decided that, "I want to live in a world where if an alien spirit touches you, it'll mutate you horribly! So everyone has to live with that!"

[@thefanwithoutaface8105]

@@hubertcalculus34 Yup, the Spirit Portals and leaving them open was a terrible idea. Yeah sure some spirits are harmless but they are by in large, an invasive species. Hell the only reason they entered the human world in the first place is cause Vaatu opened a bunch of spirit portals to be a dick.

[@WickedFireBird69]

Aang was a source of balance that ran from a world in turmoil and had to learn to balance not only himself but the world around him. Korra was basically handed her abilities and an already stable world thanks to Aang. IMO it was her being THE NEXT avatar that made her unrelatable. Imagine if they had jumped forward a few hundred years instead of just a few decades and circumstances around the world had destabilize again. It would have shown that not only does the avatar cycle repeat, but the world does too.

[@morgant.dulaman8733]

I could see it being the one after Aang working, though probably done a bit differently than what they went with. The thing is, the one who comes in after one of the greats is always going to face unimaginable pressure to live up to their legacy. What's more, a lot of times people who opposed what said greats' stood for take their passing as a chance to try and fight against what they built now that they're not around to lead it. That's certainly something that could make for an interesting set up...but I don't think it works for the format they had of devoting an entire season to one problem or group, or getting bogged down in the politics of one location for so long. Personally, I think they should have taken a cue from Xiaolin Showdown and had a bunch of factions and potential bad guys, each with their own agenda and working at the same time, all competing against each other as well as the heroes. Imagine Amon (who's straightforward, not a closet waterbender) and the Red Lotus fighting Kuvira because even if they have different overall goals, they're both against her repeating the path of Jin the conqueror. Or have descendants of firebender holdouts ("Sozenist" perhaps) trying various strategies to either overthrow the royal family or lead a separatist movement in order to carry on Ozai's legacy. All these little problems, plot points, enemy relationships and rivalries developing apart from Korra's involvement could make for a great story to follow, one that forces her and her friends to hop around the world while coming to grips with how fast it's all changing.

[@kappadarwin9476]

I think they made the right call. The writers stated they did not want to do Aang's adventure again. It was time for a fresh start. Korra also wasn't handed her abilities. Korra had something Aang didn't and that was formal education and the time to learn and pratice her abilities. Korra had 18 years to learn from the best in the world. Aang only had a year to learn the elements and it wasn't all dedicated to learning the elements more like a few months of actual practice because he was constantly being chased all over the world.

[@artistaroundtheblock2047]

Stable world like how the Red Lotus plotted to kidnap Korra and turn her into a weapon, spiritual unrest in the South Pole, Equalists in Aang’s city? What are you talking about? And we did see the cycle repeat Lorra has civil wars, dictators, slaves etc. the world will always go between chaos and peace gods and evil I think you didn’t understand the show 😅

[@PizzaMadeMeFat]

@MaeRose26 In Kuruk's case the physical world was fine but the spirit world was not Yangchen neglected the spirit world leaving Kuruk to try and fix it leading to his early death

[@Blackzetan11]

Hell nah☠️ if the story repeats, it would of been boring. Korra's story beeing about the world after aang is actualy interesting, its the continuation of aang's action in the comics, its also interesting too see the world just after him, since he was one of the most unic avatar

[@bobberry1463]

Actually, there's a really simple solution to this. If her father were a firebender, it would address all the issues. She is naturally talented at waterbending but idolizes her father and has always wanted to be a firebender. By mimicking his moves, she accidentally discovers that she is also a firebender, although not very skilled at it. Knowing she is the Avatar, she tries earthbending and finds that she has a natural aptitude for it. Growing up in the South Pole with a firebender father taught her to stand her ground for her family, which is why she excels at earthbending. This dynamic would add much more depth to her character and explain her harsh and rough personality. She excels at waterbending but avoids using it because of her tribe's animosity toward her father. Her frustration with her poor firebending skills leads to random outbursts of powerful firebending, causing destruction and making her have a love-hate relationship with firebending. She sees the good it can do through her father but feels like she's proving her tribe right about firebenders being inherently bad. She primarily uses earthbending because she was forced to be strong growing up. Her inability to airbend stems from her emotional and earthly problems with all the other emotions blocking her abilities.

[@HExtraordinaire]

Bravo

[@hayleybartek8643]

I would have loved this.

[@KristopherPrime]

wow. not sure if this is good or bad, but already, you have written a better introduction than we got in the actual show. you at least UNDERSTAND the roots that would make for telling a good avatar story. same thing happened with aang. he was naturally flighty and free, so airbending and water bending (ebb and flow) came naturally to him. but earthbending and firebending were difficult because one required him to be rooted and solid while the other was naturally aggressive and destructive.

[@FrostyGerardo-kr7xs]

It should be a show or prequel. She .small meets Young Lotus ,old avatar team. She doesnt know who are them. But sees them as family. She trains or copies them. While they hunt the red Lotus. When Sokka is mentioned she would see everyone Mention the avatar. So she would naturally want to become the avatar to protect her family. Her father would tell her to stand up for her self. That way it would explain why fire and earth are easy for her. But waterbending more complicated. And as naturally surrounded by high pressure ,high function people she would lose patient easily

[@insectostrich4407]

Wow! That is actually amazing. Just age up to twelve or fourteen when she’s introduced and you’ve got yourself a well-rounded version of Korra.

[@KiaraLily5788]

I like the bad at waterbending idea. It makes sense and I think it might've helped the show. When you described it, I imagined a scene where Korra tries to waterbend at the white lotus people, gets annoyed that it's not working, and tosses the water aside before going back to earth or fire. That way, it conveys that she's bad at waterbending and also that she has a brash and impatient personality.

[@fulld-scription]

On a point to the writers, while Bryan Konetzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were the creators of ATLA, Aaron Ehasz was the head writer for a majority of the episodes, and I must say his abscence was felt throughout the series when I first watched it. The humor and interactions between characters feels like an imitation of ATLA. And while I hate making the comparisons, it seems like TLOK can't create a story based on its own merits and give us something new when the whole point of ATLA was to do just that. They followed the footprints and went in a circle.

[@lurklingX]

totally agree. a poor imitation, with really nice graphics.

[@MagillanicaLouM]

Yeah. Even when i first watched book 1 of korra I ead really excited at first. But... These characters just weren't it. That love triangle didn't help. It sucks because purely from a visual standpoint Korra herself is tailor made for me. But her and the rest of her main group, i just wasn't having fun following any of them even back then.

[@revolvingworld2676]

@@MagillanicaLouM I genuinely wanted to like this show. It had great things about it but the overall story fell flat.

[@chrimsonphantom]

Also a important part of Katara learning how to water bend was after they took a water bending scroll from a group of pirates that showed water bending techniques through movement. So I really do agree with you there.

[@michaelortiz1561]

We also see her practicing before the scroll constantly in the background of scenes

[@josephedwardsarena9487]

Yes but she grew up in a place with virtually no waterbenders as opposed to korra.

[@chrimsonphantom]

@@michaelortiz1561 well her bending greatly improved and after getting the scroll Aang also started learning how to water bend.

[@InfernosReaper]

The 3 points guy is pretty easy to tear down 1) She didn't to be freaking 4 for that 2) Her level of proficiency while not "masterful" is well beyond beginner *and she's 4* 3) For Aang's accomplishments, we see that happen on screen, while Korra becomes an elemental master without having any kind of journey or growth. Even Airbending is something she's just basically given without earning.

[@jobyray4868]

I agree with 1 and 2 but 3 I'm different on, she was mentally and spiritually beaten down especially after losing her ability to bend Earth, Water and Fire. Then seeing her (At the time) love interest in serious danger. I'm ok with her unlocking Air bending after going through so much, yes it could've been done better but id say what we got was decent enough.

[@bruhbruh-us6gl]

@@jobyray4868 "Going through so much" isn’t how you gain the ability to bend elements. You train both physically and mentally to bend an element, and the original show made it pretty clear that having the correct mindset wasn’t the only requirement. That being said, passion is literally the opposite of the airbender mindset, which is closer to detachment. TLoW seems to go out of its way to violate all the rules and themes the original show carefully and deliberately put in place.

[@robertharris6092]

What? Any decent 4 yo that can bend would of been able to do what korra did with their respective element.

[@InfernosReaper]

@@jobyray4868 She lost her bending then immediately got Air Bending. Rather than that having consequences or Aang sending her on a spiritual journey before unlocking the rest of her powers, he simply gives them back and thus she got Airbending through what can be described as "a moderate inconvenience"

[@InfernosReaper]

@@robertharris6092 That is demonstrably incorrect, but ok...

[@AmazonessKing01]

In short: ATLA made bending a form of art, you had to have the correct mind set and have the correct form in order to even lift a pebble or create a flame, while also be able to not harm yourself, not different from wielding a weapon correctly. While TLOK made it so bending is anything any sod can be and essentially is just shotting elements out of your hands, taking away any mastery you could require to effectively use it, let alone even perform it.

[@badgamemaster]

Korra: "I am the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!" Me: *turns off the TV* done.

[@abraham2172]

Congratulations, you missed out on a great show. Give yourself a good pat on the shoulder lmao

[@ADxtraIsHere]

@@abraham2172 Don't lie to yourself. It's not healthy.

[@marewere]

​@@abraham2172debatable

[@abraham2172]

@@ADxtraIsHere You know what is not exactly healthy either? Unbiddenly stuffing your nose into other peoples' business. Especially when you have no clue what youre talking about.

[@ADxtraIsHere]

@@abraham2172 Never been online, huh? It's almost like this is a public place to spread your own opinion. Oh wait....

[@RolyatSille]

I stand by that the intro to Korra is 100% solved by having Korra only firebend. The White Lotus guys come in and they're like "Alright, why are you so certain that she's the avatar?" And Korra comes in firebending and her parents are just like "We don't have any firebending in our lineage... She's fully Water Tribe." And the White Lotus are skeptical but bring her with them all the same to test the theory and they give her training in the other elements, but she just can't stick Airbending. It all meshes together because Korra does display aspects that are conducive to Earth and Water bending, but a young her being so hot headed that she bypasses her natural bending ability and goes right to firebending would make sense. Firebending, of all the bendings, IS a bending you can just kinda force out with high emotional states. It's not the proper way, but Zuko's fire bending for a long time was fueled by hatred. Korra's natural hot headed energy fueling her firebending more easily than the others jives. And it contributes to the state of the world that TLoK presents: In a world where nations are essentially gone and all sorts of benders are mixed together, a Water Tribe girl being a Firebender can raise eyebrows, but it's not necessarily a sign she's the Avatar. It's a good case to present, but not a guarantee. We could even have the White Lotus guys be like "Well, sure, we have an Earth Nation kid using waterbending the other day, this doesn't mean your daughter's the avatar... but it's worth a try to give her a closer look." And give her the like proper avatar tests. Immediately establishes that she's non-conventional and neither is the world anymore but none of it technically breaks the system.

[@lainiwakura1776]

They could also do the toy test, the Avatar is always drawn to the same toys and that's how it was figured out Aang was it.

[@ariesaxis1682]

This is a Great Idea! Maybe Bolin is another "test kid" an earthbender from firebenders (its a con so that at least Bolin can have food or the brothers genuinely don't know their lineage.) This is good because Bolin doesn't do anything in the first season aside from being a fakeout love interest and it gives Korra a non-romantic peer bond to work off of. We flash forward to when Korra is 8-12ish the moment it is determined that Korra is the avatar (she took the test or unlocked another element). Bolin is a good sport about it "too much responsibility anyway" and the white lotus let him stay because otherwise he goes back to poverty. Flash forward again (17 yr old) to where we are in the series +Bolin. Korra has mastered two of the elements, is proficient in one and is unable to bend one. Tenzin still provides an escape route but he is also bringing Bolin back to Central City so can earn his own living. Korra catches a ride. This means the meeting of Mako is different as well. Bolin is going to meet his brother for the first time in over decade and Korra is interesting in competitive bending. Good news Mako need subs because his other teammates left. I don't know what happens from here. Korra gets someone to have inside jokes with and you can throw in a fight between the two that isn't just for shipping (hindsight 20/20 introduce Opal earlier and give Bolin childhood crush and skip the first love triangle entirely). Mako and Bolin no longer have the same backstory. Mako could have been more involved with crime than anyone suspects so Korra and Mako have a bigger confrontation. I think this would make the group more tightly knit while keeping the events and motivations still mostly intact.

[@xavierthomas5835]

​@@lainiwakura1776While I definitely like the idea, I like it more that the White Lotus are effectively one of the only ways to find an Avatar. It meshes with the state of the world, a major theme of Avatar. "The world is nothing like it used to be." Habing the current generation of ATLA be witness to that, as well as bringing in a new generation that knows nothing of how it used to be, can be great breeding ground for storytelling. Again, though, where ATLA was great at establishing the world that these characters live in, LOK fails at characterization and world building over and over. They provide good INFORMATION, buy the delivery is often lack luster. Also, it makes sense people wouldn't use that tactic to find the Avatar anymore as they are significantly less spiritual than they once were.

[@zachanikwano]

Imagine the drama of Tonraq suspecting Senna of infidelity until it’s proven Korra’s the avatar. Or maybe he doesn’t suspect her at all but everyone else does until Korra’s identity is confirmed.

[@xavierthomas5835]

@@zachanikwano On the one hand, I like the idea. On the other hand, it sounds like a little TOO much drama.

[@ShadyRK9]

@0:03 "this is Terrible!" Each time they announce a reboot of a classic cartoon! 💀

[@GojiraSteve2019]

How I'd felt about the Amazon's "Rings Of PoWeR"

[@wlfshadow4255]

God I hate reboots that don’t stick close to the original

[@Phoenix90458]

Rottmnt should not have gotten so much hate

[@missingneck367]

this video was the perfect encapsulation of everything I've ever thought about this scene, thank you

[@jeepersitsmeepers]

That scene still doesn't stop the fact that, for me and for a lot of others, it was incredibly disrespectful towards the source material. I just watched a full series of a young man trying to learn how to master 3 *additional* martial arts forms with the accompanying philosophy behind each form and element. We had MULTIPLE EPISODES explaining that understanding the element and being in a proper headspace, moving energy and being in touch with what the elements represented is what caused "Bending" to happen, not just the physical movement of your bodies. Avatar Aang literally had an entire episode, "Bitter Work," that outlined that the juxtaposition of the Earthbending mindset of "stand your ground, there is no other way" for an airbender whose predominant mindset of problem solving was "be detached, find another way - find another angle" was incredibly difficult to grasp. We had Avatar Roku outline that Waterbending for him was "especially hard" because it has a different mindset of "Don't over control energy, redirect energy, feel the push and pull" versus the predominant Firebender philosophy derived from a core principle of, "Control [of the fire] is everything, breathe and create energy." It was an amazing system that touched people who watched the show and, like Iroh described, it helped young people growing up understand that their way of thinking, if you only drew on one source (your parents/caretakers, your friends, your school) could become rigid and stale, and understanding others and seeing other points of view made you a more well-rounded person. Bending wasn't about moving rocks, squirting your friends, or shooting fire -- it was about who you were as a person, expanding your mindset and world view, and mastering discipline in all forms. I don't think the irony is lost on anyone that, in Avatar canon, young Avatar's are told they are the Avatar and must make this life altering, world view expanding journey, when they turn sixteen-years-old, an age often associated in Western Media with "coming-of-age" where children put off childish things to prepare to become an adult in two years. The Legend of Korra walks in, takes just the biggest shit on *all* of that, only to make the point of, "Oh, look guys, this is my OC Korra! She is SOOOO much stronger than Aang, mastering all but one element at the age of FOUR!" Like... This person clearly has never met a four-year-old. Real children like this actively struggle to eat animal crackers without making a mess, let alone being capable of making deep philosophical connections to the world around them. So, little Korra (as cute as she is, can't deny that) just kinda gets this ass pull for bending without having to master any of the philosophy associated with it, literally telling the audience that we need to "deal with it" and just be okay they have just fundamentally disregarded everything that made bending unique and cool with "watch this water, fire, and rock fly around" which is why THIS scene is synonymous with the entire reason why people hate LoK...

[@lurklingX]

well, also other reasons people hate LoK, but yes. loved her character design but her whole personality was so fkkng unlikable and just BAD. lol the animal crackers. i think they were trying to do 'RAW POWER' be amaze. be wow. we've never seen this befooooore! to try and psych people up. but it just came off as a cheap one-upping of aang, and any of the other avatars. :/ and then they couldn't even write a decent story around it either, or do it in any sort of coherent way that could work. if she had all this power busting out of her, it would make more logical sense that she was more like a sieve and was powerful but also couldn't control stuff. i think they just progressed everything in a ton of stupid ways. and for her breakdown, later. i was like GOOD!!! i loved it every time she fukking suffered, because they made her character SO horrible. :( without her, a lot of the show went pretty okay. i kept thinking, how is this supposed to be avatar??? the thing they did so well was flesh out characters, make them more than one-dimensional, did a lot of character growth, and adhered to psychology stuff. most of that was absent here. agreed though, that intro you mention did absolutely shit on the system and lore and everything else.

[@Solluna2003]

Yeah ATLA is very therapeutic for me because it helps me understand myself more with their philosophy and mindset each element needs/have. Astrology's elemental signs match ATLA's bending philosophy and as an air sign, I see myself in Aang wanting to be free, avoid problems, or find other ways, which match their mindsets. I realized I wasn't finding a balance to my life until ATLA opened my eyes. With ATLA being one of my favorite shows of all times as a kid, I dislike how the producers shit on their prequel with Korra (a 4 year old) bending 3 elements without a proper mindset in the southern water tribe. (She's adorable tho) If she was only good at firebending and/or earthbending as a native waterbender because of her mindset, I could let it slide. As it would make it a better story than what we got. (Like she could be a prodigy, but she didn't have to be a prodigy of 3 elements)

[@raze2012_]

I can see that, but I see it as different. We know and understand the philosophies now, it wouldn't make sense to retread that. The fire nation conflict was ended 80 years ago and then spent more years afterwards stabilizing the aftermath. There's no need for a world pilgrimage. There's also no hard time limit. She found out 12 years earlier than scheduled, and 6 years earlier than Aang. So why not gather masters this time compared to finding the in a world generations divided from an Avatar. Some people may just want "ATLA but again". But I get why they went a different direction. Build upon the more black and white war issues and start diving into subtle issues, ones not solved by the avatar state of a 10 year old. There's aot of criticism on how they approached that, but i think the core idea was a great direction.

[@CharmCityGamer]

I mean I loved the original and I didn't have a problem with it.

[@CharmCityGamer]

@nunyabaznus7851 There were signs of attraction dude.

[@JasonLee-gs1bn]

I among many others could not "deal with it"

[@BrickDaniels-qu7bz]

I dealt with it, but yeah - it just wasn't as good. It had some good visuals though.

[@Corrderio]

Yeah, can't fault you. The first season was good but that was more because of Amon than Korra. And the second was a Tumblr-tier shipfic with the only redeeming quality was the story on the first Avatar before Korra was cool with severing the link to the previous.

[@KittSpiken]

Would not

[@kappadarwin9476]

I dealt with it . Aang's problems were interpersonal. He lost his people because he was the avatar; this made it hard for him to accept the role he was given. Aang also struggled with earth bending because it went against what he was taught as a nomad. When it came to water Aang was more than willing to pick it up and exceled at it to the point it made Katara someone who has been practicing waterbending for way longer jealous of his progress. Korra at four doesn't have her own established identity and was given the best teachers in a stress free environment. Of course she would pick up the basics if we look back to how easily Aang did.

[@LegendXD00]

@@CorrderioFacts and the defenders that call you so many words if you didn’t like those next seasons were annoying

[@MegaManDBZX]

What’s funny is, we would later get a story about an Avatar who was bad at their native element. In rise of Kyoshi, we see that our favorite have Air Nomad earth Avatar not be great at Earthbending at first due both to having too much raw power and adapting a subservient lifestyle to survive on the streets until being adopted by Kelsong.

[@jnl7196]

i heard someone say. ATLA is about a person learning to be the avatar. while TLOK is about the avatar learning to be a person

[@francescov.3610]

Thats precisely what makes both shows so incredible in my eyes. Aang's journey is about being more like Korra while Korra's journey is about becoming more like Aang, they balance each other out, almost like yin and yang.

[@Leonardo-ub8qb]

I have another, more personal gripe with Tlok. There are, since the first episodes, metal benders everywhere our protagonists go. Then, to compensate, almost every machine the villains use, including a giant mech, is made of pure Platinum, one of the rarest and most valuable metal on Earth. That always felt very weird to me.

[@ceinwenchandler4716]

If all the platinum on earth were gathered up and stashed in one place in pure form, it would be the size of a small bedroom. You're right; using it willy-nilly to make giant mechs makes NO sense.

[@Novictus]

I mean I guess you could argue that its not earth so the metal they use doesn't matter as much. But I also don't know metallurgy so I don't know what conditions make platinum form.

[@augustaseptemberova5664]

i find it strange, when ppl can suspend disbelief for a story that has element benders and a spirit world and whatnot, but lots of platinum or other deviations from earth conditions and physics are considered "weird". for all of tlok's flaws, i don't think platinum is one of them.

[@flydrop8822]

@@ceinwenchandler4716 thats BS, if you look up the numbers its in the thousands of tons of mined platinum alone, the amount in the earth's crust is a lot higher.

[@jonathanferguson7791]

@@augustaseptemberova5664 Nah the thing is, You can make S.O.D. more viable on more "fantastical" things. It's like in the show version of GOT. Ice zombies, magic, dragons? Ok. Gendry, who lived in a nearly tropical climate all his life, no magic, no special abilities except maybe being relatively fit (he was a blacksmith) running mach 10 in a blizzard climate miles and miles from the random point beyond the wall back to the wall in time enough to get a message without lungs bursting or worse dying is beyond belief. It makes sense when "magical" things might have different rules but it's like saying hey, this thing we all know and we all do everyday you're just gonna tell me this is different bc? I need a better reason than that. I'm not saying it's directly applicable but you get the point right? It's a lot easier to suspend disbelief when it's a concept you typically don't have a real world equivalent. ATLA works well bc the areas it doesn't force you to to suspend your disbelief is with it's characters and their reactions. But anh man I've never ridden a ball of pure air before.

[@z0mborg8]

You made a lot of good points that made me realize - ATLA felt like the lore, backstories and characters naturally combined to make a story that makes sense. TLOK felt like there was a story they wanted to make so they forced a bunch of lore, backstories and characters to explain why the story makes sense (or force the story to make sense). "We want to make this sequel that focuses on things other than the next avatar learning the elements, so we'll make her naturally skilled at all but one of the elements so we don't have to include that part". ...Which I'm sure is what happens a lot of the time with writing and storytelling, but the fact that it's so obvious really takes you out of the world and makes you realize you're watching a TV show. While ATLA's solid worldbuilding made its immersion so great.

[@k9commander]

TLoK was not 'the next avatar learning the four elements'. It was 'the avatar learning to be herself'. Other Avatars figure themselves out, develop a sense of self, before learning they are, and becoming the Avatar. Korra chose to be the Avatar, and made that her sense of self, as a child. The series is her learning who she is outside of being the Avatar. Sure she learns some Avatar stuff along the way, but she mainly learns who Korra is.

[@troybaxter]

​@@k9commander you can have that be the story without completely butchering the world building and established lore. And here's the thing, the overall story for Korra wasn't even remotely good. This is noticed when you realize that it was supposed to be 1 Season long.

[@CalculyticCuber]

For some reasons, I actually do like TLoK because it seems to just take on ATLA's world-building and make it more robust and more fleshed out. Sub-types of bending are much more common, like bloodbending, lavabending, metalbending, and etc. I think it's even interesting that certain events happen to give bending to certain people or benders adopt certain abilities to overcome shortcomings. It follows the rule of cool that someone without arms instead learns to waterbend without arms and uses arms made of water to get around, as well as someone learning how to fly after they've lost the one person that kept them attached to the world. To your point, it felt like these were all just additions that just kept people watching instead of useful story-telling devices. They're cool, but they come at the cost of telling an actually good story.

[@SplotchyInk]

Frankly, Korra kind of had the same problem the prequels had. They had all the 'concept' guys, but they didn't hire the 'no' guy. This sounds weird but hear me out. The one person who didn't join in with the Korra team was Aaron Ehasz, who ended up working on The Dragon Prince which had that "Avatar" feeling to it and I highly suggest watching. BUT continuing on, from the various interviews and so on, Aaron served as a 'grounding' personality, someone who'd pretty much pull the leash on the other 2 directors basically saying "no thats stupid, we cant do that" and so on. They wanted to really push the fan service, Aaron said no, they wanted to go over the top with a lot of stuff, Aaron also said no. And judging what was in Korra, there was probably a few times they wanted to insert their own personal nagging nitpicks of society or something, and Aaron said no. The prequel trilogy had the same problem, as George Lucas wasn't the only one who worked on the original StarWars trilogy, and had a similar 'no' guy that wasn't there for the Prequels, due to George directing 'one of the best sci-fis' they effectively said 'if we give em free reign, then he's make a banger. Then JarJar happened. While there will be complaints as 'it was only planned to be one season, you cant critique it for Nickelodeon messing with their schedule and expectations', there are not that many problems with the show that directly link up to Nickelodeon's flippant whims. A lot of the problems are connected more heavily to the creative concepts rooted to a lot of the show's initial creation, as opposed to the fact they expected only one season, then got four, had two removed, and so on.

[@Stop_Gooning]

Thomas Knoll - the founder of Adobe - wrote the entire screenplay for the Phantom Menace as a fan-fic. He pitched it to Lucas while working on the new digital effects being added to the Remastered OT. I went to the elementary school that his wife started for their kids. They rented out an entire theater so the whole school could watch it on opening day.

[@fulld-scription]

This, Aaron truly was the GOAT, I don't think ATLA would be considered as good as it today without him.

[@bad-people6510]

What do you mean we can't have a giant mech battle with lasers in a setting that is a generation removed from medieval agrarian society?

[@ntfoperative9432]

@@bad-people6510Abe that even currently has barely breached into the Industrial Revolution

[@willfanofmanyii3751]

@@Stop_Gooning Suuuuure.

[@VanguardJester]

I love rewatching this video, it's so concise, and explores beautifully what i honestly believe to be the grim foreshadowing of teh kinda show we were going to get a question i've reflected on recently being "Is it fair to compare a show to it's predecessor/judge it based on it's predecessor?" and I feel the answer can only be, or SHOULD only be, Yes. the quality of a sequel should always try and be higher quality than it's predecessor, OR, attempt to match the level of love put into it.

[@davidgusquiloor2665]

This scene alone informs how the rest of the series was going to be and it shows.

[@artydomi2466]

To me the writers for Korra S1 wanted everything to be the opposite for The Last Airbender. Aang knows wind and needs to learn 3 elements? Korra can already bend 3 elements and needs to learn wind. Aang travels to multiple nations and sees the whole world? Korra visits 1 city and does not leave. Aang's group briefly touches on romantic relationships? Korra's group has nothing but romantic relationships and drama

[@tophbeifong7602]

Making TLOK *GARBAGE* in every possible way

[@violetparr1604]

@@tophbeifong7602 it has its moments but not as good at TLA

[@danieltsiprun8080]

That one city is also supposed to be a combination of all the other 3 nations.

[@thefanwithoutaface8105]

THe problem with the romance is Aang and Katara's relationship was built up gradually from the first episode to the end, to where it felt satisfying and earned. Korra's interest in Mako and then Asami basically came out of no where and felt crowbarred in, more so Asami who she barely interacted with.

[@robertharris6092]

For the first point. Its moore that korras a very dirrect and physical person (her personel/best element is earth, not water. An avatars best element isnt always their birth element). And shes good at fighting and bending the elements. But she lacks any sort of spirituality. Which aang excelled at. Pretty good comparison of the era ATLA is based on and the 1920s america TLOK is based on.

[@emirozdemir-wallywest1426]

Aang being a air bender master at age of 12 was also odd but it was necessary to his story because he is the last airbender. Korra being able to bend all 3 elements as a toddler didn't contribute to story at all. It's just there to show audience "Look she is better than Aang".

[@vetarlittorf1807]

Actually it does contribute to the story. It shows that she's known she's the Avatar from a very young age, which contributes to her identifying herself only as the Avatar and therefore paves the way for her to develop an identity beyond that.

[@ShadyDoorags]

While I agree with most of what you said, I don't think the point was to show that she was better, but that she was different. The writers wanted to make it absurdly clear that Korra was the opposite of Aang.

[@FengTheSlayer]

It wasn’t written to show that “she’s better than Aang”. It was written to show the inverse of Korea’s character to where although she’s a bending prodigy lacks discipline which is her entire character arc, while Aang is the opposite of that. In other words Aang is a spiritual and humble person who needs to learn to embrace the role of the avatar put upon him while Korra is the avatar who needs to be spiritual and humble

[@WeebGuru6]

If it was like oh she didn’t respect bending and after Amon took it she gotta readjust I would’ve accepted it

[@Black_Frost212]

@@ShadyDoorags and I think they did a pretty good job. I mean I only watched the first season, as she was very hotheaded and stubborn. 😂 like girl was ready to throw hands at the drop of a hat

[@IAmTrash1995]

Writers didn’t want an avatar journey so they just handed her everything

[@marceloa392]

nope they time skiped for what i read in all the comments people only watched 4 year old korra clip and forgot she spend years learning 3 of the 4 THE SERIES STARTS WITH HER FINISHING HER FIRE ELEMENT TRAINING! i have no idea where people get she didnt train at all

[@IAmTrash1995]

@@marceloa392 didn’t seem like she needed it

[@patchwurk6652]

@@marceloa392 I think the annoyance was more that Korra just inherently "Had" the capacity from the start to use 3 of the 4 elements without a single lick of training at an age where "Basic coordination of movement" would still be difficult. Kinda cheapens the long slog Aang went through just to learn each one bit by bit when Korra apparently needed absolutely zero mental or spiritual development to just "do it all." Sure she got training Later, but that's just honing abilities she apparently already had, with Airbending as the only one she couldn't do on total instinct.

[@wherethetatosat]

On the surface, I actually love the line, "I'm the Avatar, you gotta deal with it!" It stands in stark contrast to Aang's "I never wanted to be." It's a good way to show that Korra is very much not Aang. I have said this on previous videos talking about the two but I think the writers went so far in the opposite direction to make sure Korra wasn't Aang, that they forgot to make Korra likable. Or worse, they unintentionally made her an a-hole but everyone in the story pretends that she somehow isn't or is justified. And then of course, the deeper problem with that line is that it breaks Avatar lore in that even beginning to bend takes a lot of practice. Katara was still struggling to do the basics by the time she was 14. That would make Korra a giga-savant to do that at 4 without formal training. Had Korra been born in say Republic City and been surrounded by other benders, I'd be more willing to buy that she learned how to do that by watching others. Whom did she learn that from in the South Pole?

[@DBArtsCreators]

Could have even had her using the elements more instinctively instead - not so much raw talent but raw power; could perhaps have been demonstrated with her being a problem child, especially if they replaced the water bending proficiency with air bending proficiency. Have her get into a fight with another kid (and age her up at least a few years); flames are spitting out of her mouth and fingers when her temper is flaring, the ground is cracking and bits of earth are flying in random directions when she stomps and smacks the ground, and she keeps flying about wildly on sudden bursts of air when she moves. All coming to demonstrate that while Aang was a prodigy who more or less just needed to refine techniques to access the elements, Korra is a monster who needs to learn self control before she accidentally blows up or sinks a continent.

[@Stop_Gooning]

@@DBArtsCreators It'd have been totally different if we saw her learning to control her overwhelming power instead of instantly being a master. There were absolutely buckets of potential that got wasted on this show IMO

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@Stop_Gooning agreed

[@mahoganydoughnut6082]

Even if she was a little proficient in the other elements why is she able to fire bend easily. Wasn't it established that avatars have extra trouble bending their opposite element.

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@mahoganydoughnut6082 Insofar as they are aligned to their innate element; and the only Avatar we know had trouble with his opposite was Aang (which was more due to his mindset and personality than anything else).

[@grandmufftwerkin9037]

It's almost like a certain element of the Avatar writing team that checked the worst impulses of DiMartino and Konietzko were missing from Korra.....🤔

[@9TrixieTurner6]

Honestly they everyone suffered for it, they lost him from writing in more avatar stuff and he went on to create one hell of a mid show.

[@9TrixieTurner6]

@purpleemerald5299the dragón prince.

[@9TrixieTurner6]

@purpleemerald5299lol that makes sense, everyone was expecting another atla then when it was just so meh people lost interest.

[@Spartan322]

Aaron was what we really needed, also the Dragon Prince was better then ToK still.

[@fulld-scription]

I assume you're talking about Aaron Ehazs?

[@MuscularChristian1]

The funny part about this scene is that in the next scenes we see the white lotus training her (which makes sense that they'd want to have a bigger role considering aang was lost for 100 years).. so the scene when she was 4 is literally not needed, start out with the her as a teenager being trained by the white lotus.. It would have been accepted that the white lotus trained her considering everything that happened before and during the first series, and as we see her bending more than one element it would have gotten the point of her being the Avatar across perfectly without saying it.

[@adonaimelles2317]

its a character moment to show how different korra is to aang there was nothing wrong with korras introduction or her using 3 elements at 4 years old we know that kids can use bending/realize they have it when they are young so they can use bending at its basic level rather then as a martial art ( bending styles are like the martial arts style while the power to bend is different which is why probending is possible) korra just showed she had the power to bend (its not equivalent to say a 4 year old knowing the basics of 3 martial arts styles

[@shayla106]

@@adonaimelles2317🧢🧢🧢🚨

[@thesquirtlesquad8446]

First video of yours, 4 mins in and I’m down to hear this out :D 4:30 I will say one big difference between the two as you mentioned is personality, but also CONFIDENCE which I feel could play a big role in learning something new as Aang was noted as an airbending genius, but before he was told he was the Avatar. His mood and confidence get bruised very early as he loses most of his friends before the war because he is the Avatar, and he doesn’t want to be so. This to me is very opposite as Korra at a you g age is demanding in that sense.

[@overlordjames6644]

I think it's kind of a big problem (especially nowadays) when creators try to capitalize on a shows popularity while also trying to change it into their own thing to the point where it loses most of what people liked about it to begin with. Most, if not all of the things Disney has made in the past 5+ years for instance.

[@theguybehindyou4762]

Or every 007 game after Goldeneye. 😒 (Nightfire is a decent exception)

[@antoinewarren8869]

I blame Feminism for the entire disappointment of Korra. It's embarrassing 😞

[@plantinapot9169]

Ehh not neccesarily, actually. I think the far more egrigious stuff is “adaptations” that don’t do shit and are literally just worse versions of the original. I think taking a popular thing and putting your own voice into it is the only way to try and make it satisfying and a worthy successor or adaptation, etc. I don’t blame Korra for trying to do something different with avatar, they just didn’t do it well enough to win over most.

[@overlordjames6644]

@@plantinapot9169 my point is not that they should not have tried to add to the original story. My point is that they shouldn't try to get so wrapped up in the idea of making their own thing separate from the original that they take away what made the series good. You can always add more to a previously established story, just as long as you do the universe and characters justice and give them the respect they deserve.

[@sovyenn]

@@antoinewarren8869 wtf has feminism to do with korra

[@amraretoshak6400]

On the note of the infamous scene, and ways to do it better, while jiving with established lore: Iroh invented Lighting Redirection by studying Water Bending. Lava Bending was developed(at one point as this gets redone a few times when the art is rediscovered) by Roku mixing a Fire-Bending and Earth-Bending style and mind set. Prodigies(and the Lion Turtles) have established that bending all stems from the same source. Imagine the entire scene plays out like it does to start; South Pole, White Lotus, Mom's cleaning a mess, parents are totally sure their daughter's the avatar... Then we here a frustrated grunt/scream, and we cut to Korra who is performing a basic Water-Bending form, but is INSTEAD Fire Bending. She then moves to a different form, but because she's 4 and hot-headed/stubborn, she manages to do minor Earth Bending, and is upset she can't do the Water-Bending like gran-gran Katara showed her. This establishes her dominant personality traits, the fact she IS a prodigy of bending, the unification of bending styles in the last century, and gives her a fault to grow on... all while NOT attacking the audience, or harshly breaking anything lore wise, AND firmly establishing that she is VERY CLEARLY the Avatar, even if no one's told her yet. It would also help if the South Pole actually had a couple fire and earth benders, to lead to a bit of family drama that could be explained in a flashback with Korra's first Fire or Earth bending, with it being hand waved away a bit tastefully when said parental conflict invokes the first occurence of the second element... all while, as Shady points out here, demonstrating why (in this scenario) Korra having a Water-block and aversion to change makes a LOT of sense.

[@the_last_ballad]

Lavabending is far more in line with how water bending moves and functions than firebending Yeah, earth + heat is lava, but pure ice waterbending is stylistically like earthbending. Hell, in the few earth v lava matchups we see the lavabender just takes the rocks thrown at him and turns them around on their thrower(bolin even exclames that he cant fight the guy, hes only giving him more ammo). And redirecting your opponents offense into your defense or own attack is something that is the focus of waterbending, and the thing Iroh takes from waterbending to create lightning redirection. Not to mention the whole fluid dynamics, which is not something firebending deals with in the slightest...

[@TheOwneroftheIC]

Szeto is shown lavabending in an earlier episode than Roku is.

[@peter.j.07]

My wife got me into AtLA by showing me the whole series on DVD. I learned about TLoK and she said, 'no, don't bother with Korra, it's not as good.' I listened to her, and I've never second-guessed that decision: life is too short to humor self-indulgent writers, and that goes for any medium.

[@animezilla4486]

So you never saw the legend of Korra ? As a fan of the franchise I can straight up tell you that is not that bad as people make it out to be

[@CaptainSunFlare]

So you never saw the legend of Korra ? As a fan of the franchise I can straight up tell you that it is that disappointing as people make it out to be

[@TheBlueLink3]

Eh, I’d rather just check out stuff I’m interested in, regardless of the writer’s personality. Life is too short to be constantly checking if I care about how the people behind a project act.

[@DragonGoddess18]

Same here The only difference is I quit Legend of Korra before it ended because of how Lin was treated when dealing with certain family issues It was... frustrating for abuse victims

[@bbhjvvbfhvv3357]

Maybe watch it make up your own mind

[@marcel3942]

Korra was bad for the same reason The Marvels, and last few Marvel movies were bad. No real character development. Just wake up already more powerful than everyone else

[@wheselton]

This is what i unfortunately deem as Moffat syndrome, where a writer gets too attached to their addition into something’s universe and insists on making it the best and most important in the same way Stephen Moffat made Sherlock and the doctor all power central übermensch that everyone loves and wants to kill, kora is the best because without any training at all she can do what took aang literal seasons to do, and is a child when doing it despite the fact aang didn’t even know he could until he was 12

[@maidenofiron]

Seen both series and I definitely agree.

[@battlesheep2552]

Is that why she gets put through the ringer throughout the entire series?

[@The-X-Territory]

One of the first rules in writing is “kill your darlings”, if it’s unnecessary, it shouldn’t be there.

[@BrightWulph]

And yet, the writers also have this weird fetish for brutalizing Kora at every opportunity they get too.

[@Extra-thoughts]

Korra isnt a Moffat woman but okay. Korra is far from perfect half the fandom constantly says she's not even worthy of being the Avatar because she sucks. She has consistent characterization, and doesn't gain any skills without some form of training Before you say "but she learned too fast" Katara goes from being barely able to water bend to somehow the best water bender in the world within literally a week Zuko goes from an average fire bender to a master over one episode Sokka masters sword fighting in a couple days I will fully admit that Korra has flaws but all of those flaws started in Atla

[@pirateking56128]

I imagine the writers thinking they only had one season to work with didn't help anyone write the first season better.

[@KairuHakubi]

EACH season had this problem. Nick screwed with them hard, and threw it onto Nicktoons Network (which is supposed to be for reruns that aren't profitable for ads anymore)

[@maskofthedragon]

We all know it's impossible to write a good story with only 264 minutes to work with

[@KairuHakubi]

@purpleemerald5299 it's not that, it's being told last-minute that they had another season. three times. Not-being-told-at-all would have been better, but being told late kind of jolted them.

[@xavierthomas5835]

As much as I sincerely appreciate and understand the problem, this isn't a situation where I can ignore egregious decisions because of limitations. It helps me frame it, certainly, but the decision remains the same. If you can't write what you want, write what you can. I never needed Korra to know three elements. I didn't need her to EVER learn air bending. I didn't need her to be with anyone. Just tell her story and tell it consistently and with care. They failed yo do that. And they summarily fail to do that with a lot of characters. They didn't gave to fo anything like they did with ATLA, but if you want to do something different and new with something old, you can't just throw darts on the opposite side of the wall and expect to get a coherent story.

[@pirateking56128]

@purpleemerald5299 I did? I didn't mean to, I'm sorry. I only meant to imply that, at least with the original series, they appeared to have had the whole 3 seasons planned out. Going from that to only 1(initially) must have been a transition for them that was probably something new. Besides, not all genres lend themselves to single season narratives. A:TLA had time to build up it's story and pace things out. A:LOK was told they only had one season to do it, 4 different times. I imagine if they were told they'd have all 4 from the beginning, the show would have turned out much better over all. Would this opening scene have still happened, who can say. I just get the idea that, with only one season to work with, they must have felt rushed and made relatively impulsive mistakes.

[@ivanbluecool]

I feel bad for whoever is the next avatar since his only moral coach is......korra

[@littlekuribohimposte]

And given she worked for nothing that matters she has no advice.

[@ivanbluecool]

@@littlekuribohimposte "punch it until it gives up" probably. Or talk about her "roommate" After that the world will be plugged into danger and the next avatar will definitely not be able to help

[@Hero_of_Comedy]

Are you referring to past Avatars in the spirit world? Because remember the next avatar won't appear until after Korra dies.

[@wherethetatosat]

Evil Avatar. Just sayin'.

[@ThisisKyle]

​@@Hero_of_ComedyYeah and Korra basically got all the spirits of the old avatars deleted so she's the only one left

[@naotohex]

I think what would have made the scene better is if Korra COULD use multiple elements at that age but only fire and earth. It would match her personality while showing she is the avatar early on. If she instead struggled with air and water it would be similar to how Aang had no problem water bending but a lot of problems earth bending.

[@RealCoachMustafa]

Even outside of this scene, the entire series of TLoK made bending less focused on mindset and movements, and more about just having a fancy power. In AtLA, they made a big deal about Kitara needing a scroll so she can learn moves. Toph also made a big deal about feet positioning to Aang. Overall, they had lots of examples of needing to do the right martial arts movement to perform the bending. In TLoK, most of the time they just did stuff, as if it was just a super power.

[@troybaxter]

I think what they did with Lightning Bending perfectly encapsulates this. Lightning Bending was very difficult to do in AtLA and required a level of control and knowledge only a select few had. The fact that they made lightning bending so noticeable made it feel cheap and an overall spit in the face of all the hardwork Iroh put in to master it.

[@rickychen3360]

@@troybaxter To be fair thats also what happened to metal bending, toph and Iroh did the hard part in discovering and mastering it then by the time of TLoK enough people had seen and known about it that it is commonly used as the setting of the TLoK was akin to the industrial revolution or at the very least a more evolved society relient on it. or you can say that bending in of itself became cheap as a lot of previously established lore became largely irrelevant by the time of the TLok such stated by the video

[@redacted1766]

My problem is that they brought the teachers for 3 elements to Korra. One of the major parts of the avatar journey is going around the world to learn bending but also to learn how the different cultures worked. Aang was partially an exception because of the war but other avatars would live with the benders of other elements. They would learn to understand others and how to solve problems both in the physical and spiritual world. By sheltering her the entire time they set her up for failure.

[@tophbeifong7602]

ATLA > TLOK *THAT"S THE TRUTH AND YOU BETTER DEAL WITH IT*

[@ComicsAvatar]

I like tlok more

[@ProxiProtogen]

No really disagrees with that. Avatar fans fighting wars and battles with fitments of their imagination

[@2ndtolastform]

​@@ComicsAvatar its ok to like bad things. I like the doom movie from 2005, and that thing is hot garbage that gets by on its action scenes

[@MrDj232]

​@@2ndtolastform I'm so glad I'm not alone.

[@Animestar21]

No one is arguing that. Even the people who like TLOK can’t deny that

[@trashaimgamer7822]

It was a joke and I dealt with it just fine. But that's because I've got this rare trait called "humor". It's been lost by most people these days as everything has to be overanalized and there is no room for a comedic break of the lore rules.

[@jeice13]

16:07 Having her bend fire while having only water tribe heritage would have been neat. On the other hand theres enough other problem with tlok that i still probably wouldnt watch it

[@Nickle_King]

With that abrasive scene, the writers removed the opportunity for Korra to introduce herself to the audience. We could have had a montage of the kid starting with rudimentary earth bending, then learning fire and water bending with effort. Then we pick up the intro of the story itself with her struggling with air. In fact, you could have had a great moment where the White Lotus are ashamed with themselves because they didn't bring Korra to the Air Nomads earlier. They had a plan in play for the next Avatar to be a water bender, but Korra was most proficient in earth. This made air, arguably the most important element the Avatar can wield to do their job, Korra's weakest trait. This could have enforced Korra's rebellious nature is her being forced to struggle with her hardest block after being amazing at everything else. Maybe passable in water, but amazing at earth and fire at least. Have her be rooted HARD in the physical and material world, but blind to the ethereal and spiritual aspects. You could even have it to the point that the previous Avatars have been trying to communicate to Korra, but have been failing either because of Korra's lacking in spirituality or due to Korra just ignoring their calls. Saying she "sometimes feels wrong," and immediately goes to find something to distract herself. The problem with the scene is it's a poorly done scene that missed the opportunity for basic and in depth character work. I don't know what the writers were thinking when they had her say it, whether they didn't want to write a journey and wanted to hand wave it or if they were of the opinion the more recent shows have been where the audience wouldn't have accepted her for some superficial trait, but it doesn't really matter. They failed. They failed the show. They failed the fans. The reason is irrelevant. At the end of the day, The Legend of Korra, not just this scene but the whole show, ended up not living up to critical examination of even the lightest variety.

[@animezilla4486]

Disagree with that entirely the writers have not felt the fans or the show at all I think are taking this line she said as a kid way too out of proportion besides if you watch the entire series she does have an amazing journey which is way different than aangs

[@robertharris6092]

Avatar has to start with their born element though.

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@animezilla4486 The Korra series is shit, not amazing.

[@animezilla4486]

@@DBArtsCreators I disagree

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@animezilla4486 And you are wrong.

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

it would've been funny if instead of what we got, we had a confused water tribe toddler that could only shoot small fire blast, and nothing else, it would've also made way more sense

[@lurklingX]

hahaa! that would have been fun! everyone in the comments is coming up with such better ideas than what we got. the show was a hackjob. so unfortunate. we could have bonded with a fireball shooting clumsy toddler.

[@Bolpat]

10:00 Aang famously had a Fire Nation friend named Kuzon. Now, IIRC, we’re not told in the original show that Kuzon was a firebender, but it was later confirmed he was; and even if not, Aang would have been exposed to firebenders from an early age due to his friendship, and he never bent fire despite being the avatar and, as shown in the episode with Jeong Jeong, he had no issues bending fire when he tried, very much like with water. For Bumi, he was a earth bending prodigy, but seeing how he struggled with Toph, it does make sense that Aang’s friendship with Bumi didn’t lead him discovering that he’s the avatar.

[@Barakon]

5:36 I think she shoulda been like 7 or even 10 when she discovered she was the avatar, & that she was a late bloomer when it came to water bending & was bullied for it. 1 day, she had enough of being picked on, & the white lotus came to actually help her with her water bending, trying to see if she’s a bender at all, but then they hear her yell, rush to help & we see her very amateurishly bend both fire & earth but not water while yelling the iconic line “I’m the Avatar & you gotta deal with it!” But now with the addition of “Now leave me alone!”

[@trypticon8619]

While many like this series, I’ve never liked Korra just because I can’t stand Korra’s character, and this scene doesn’t help

[@Stop_Gooning]

I stuck around till the end of the show, mostly because of the "do the thing!" guy. The "Avatar Juan" retcon fills me with unfathomable rage.

[@danielmunoz1275]

Gringo pendejo

[@colonelkenpachi5009]

Don't get me started with Juan. I dropped the show immediately after that bull.

[@aaronlindsey2219]

I’m absolutely amazed at how many people still follow and vehemently defend Korra after effectively betraying the entirety of the ATLA lore and demystifying the origins of the Avatar

[@the_last_ballad]

​@@aaronlindsey2219 what I find interesting is that I never assumed that watching the moon was what gave people the ability to manipulate the elements, but rather that was just an innate part of the world and the art of bending was learned from the first benders(you know, like we literally see Toph, Aang, and Zuko do with the Badger Moles and Dragons) yet other people insist that is the only way it could have been interpeted. I can understand the dislike around the origin of the Avatar, but the "stating at the moonlit ocean gave me aquakenisis" version of the lore is baffling. Like, how is the animals who taught the original cast how to use their bending as a way of life being the original teachers, but the lion turtles, the only beings we have seen mess with bending ability in the first series, being the origin for the elemental kenisis be a betrayal of the original lore?(not sure if that's what you are reffering to, but I have seen others complain it is) I mean Sokka had a waterbending sister and his first girlfriend turned into the moon, if staring at it could give him waterbending then why couldn't he learn? Why wasn't he given some liquidy nepotism? In fact, why is there a cultural distinction between benders and nonbenders at all, when apparently all it takes is a willingness to learn and it's just a martial art with some magic sprinkled on top?

[@artistaroundtheblock2047]

@@aaronlindsey2219 The original lore didn’t make sense anyway. I asked myself as a child if you can learn water bending from studying the moon then why can’t everybody learn whatever element they want?

[@sandramorryssa]

Thank you for explaining the deeper mindset behind the elements.. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The writers wanted to tell an earthbender's story but settled for Korra.

[@ivanbluecool]

Has teachers and training for years and still just average as a bender. Imagine aang with that time and not being rushed by a world ending war within a few months dude would make the avatar state his base powers.

[@danielmunoz1275]

Soooo, what's the issue then?

[@ivanbluecool]

@@danielmunoz1275 Mary and her best friend named sue. Yet she still sucks at everything because of her personality putting herself in the worst situations but gets away with it because Mary and her best friend sue. Season 1 especially the equalizers were about as smart as ants when a bender was tricking them. They should have radicalized even further after that but no Korra needs to be right constantly

[@danielmunoz1275]

@@ivanbluecool You're contradicting yourself. She's a Mary Sue, but doesn't win the battles. She's a Mary Sue, but her character flaws get her in trouble. You're literally making counterarguments to yourself. Now, for her being always right... seriously? She challenges Amon on a 1v1 and gets her butt kicked, she goes to confront Tarlok alone and she gets kidnapped, she chooses Unalaq over Tenzin and it turns out Unalaq is untrustworthy and I'll intentioned, she blames her father for being isolated all her life, and she almost looses him to Unalaq, she's impatient and gets both lost and separated from Jinora, which causes Jinora to be captured by Unalaq and have a leverage against Korra, she left the portals open and that causes Zahir to get airbending, kill the Earth Queen, almost kill her and putting her into a wheelchair, Korra has physical and mental blocks that she chooses not to confront and that causes Kuvira to have free way into rising to power. All this WITHOUT taking into account relationship drama. And you're telling me the show always portrays her as being "right". Para pendejo no se estudia gringo.

[@KairuHakubi]

@@ivanbluecool you make a weirdly good point about how the exposure of the fraud leader would, at least in the modern day, only have made the movement worse. Hell, they shot Malcolm X after he realized "maybe i went a bit too far" and said so too loudly. I imagine that, offscreen, the council pulled off some classic Aang-tier negotiation and speeches and helped calm things down again.

[@ivanbluecool]

@@KairuHakubi i mean I can probably bring up a few less than 5 year movements that go against what they say immediately. But I tube dislikes that. The equalizers could have been a good background foe that kept building or be season 1 and then return later still being oppressed especially with what happens in the story later.

[@erykrejner2528]

Oh boy... you hear that? Its the sound of a stampeed of Korra stands ready to defend the indefencible.

[@Inferno144]

THEY'RE COMING! WE CANNOT HOLD THE GATES FOR MUCH LONGER!

[@blackfox4138]

If there's one thing the past few years have taught me is to never underestimate how rabidly some people are willing to defend a 5/10 show

[@GangleTV]

Shippers, man. I can’t recall any other show that caved to an out of left field ship.

[@Stop_Gooning]

"You are soldiers of Gondor. No matter what comes through that gate, you will stand your ground!" ~Gandalf the White

[@blueray2174]

​@blackfox4138 My theory is that it's exactly because it's such 5/10 that people are so vehement to defend it. The show comes along it's the epitome of mid while also being a (unnecessary) sequel to something that while definitely not perfect (what is?) Was 100% not mid so people shit on it maybe with a little hyperbole for comic effect, that creates an underdog effect for people who hold on to that 5 for dear life and have committed the cardinal sin of any would be grass-toucher and made an I.P. their entire personality therefore they can no longer simply quietly discuss the thing they enjoy with a friend or two, no they gotta go on a whole ass internet crusade of "well actuallys" and "that's just like your opinion mans". Like Anansi and Ogun the keepers of all stories are gonna look upon their efforts and enshrine the average af tale in a cradle of stars like its the ending of fucking Hercules or something.

[@Shadgeta]

I think with a little rewriting this scene could be good. 1. Korra should only be able to bend 2 elements Earth and Fire being great at Fire and ok at Earth. Great at Fire as her personality matches it course it'll still be low tier cause she doesn't have the stance, similar to Aang yes but different enough it can be it's own idea. 2. Make her 8--10 even 12, I can believe she can learn to bend 2 elements at that age especially if they aren't great. The environment is harsh so a story can be she went out and a storm hit and she started a fire by accident and when home she kept pushing it till she accidently does earth as well. 3. Don't make her state she's the avatar. The lotus can be visiting the tribe (as they know an avatar will be born of that tribe, it's a matter of when) so they can tell her she's the avater, she gets full of herself but that's fine as that is her personality in the early seasons. I know the goal, make Korra the opposite of Aang even down to personality type but even then the exacusion is bad and the personality doesn't match as Shady stated she should struggle with water not so much Air.

[@animezilla4486]

I disagree we don't need to have her learn different bending add different age because that would be way too close to aang's story arc

[@Shadgeta]

@@animezilla4486 I agree to a degree. While it may be similar, with how different the characters are it'll still be different but it won't be like Aang that she needs to learn everything just advance moves. Or They can make it she learns while watching fighting in pro bending. My point is the concept is there for Korra to be good it just some fine turning here and there.

[@kappadarwin9476]

Animezilla has a point. If you want all that just watch Avatar The Last Airbender. There is no point in making Korra's story a carbon copy of Aang's. Imagine if we lived in an alternate timeline where your idea was accepted. People would be calling Korra an Aang knock off and forums would be questioning why they are wasting their time watching a rehash of a story they already know and love?

[@Shadgeta]

@@kappadarwin9476 It won't be a rehash, it depends on excision. Similar beginnings s sure but different ends different goals with the characters, the world itself, even how bending is seen. It's just a concept, an idea I had and at the end of the day, I'm a single guy not a team working and getting paid. No hate just wanted to defend my point.

[@TheJjcczz]

Huge point of clarification, NONE of the ATLA writers or the show runner Aaron Ehasz who wrote/co-wrote 12 of the 61 episodes, 2 less than the creators themselves, returned to work on Korra. Korra was an entirely different writing team except for the creators I highly recommend fans of Avatar going on Wikipedia’s episode list for ATLA and looking at the episodes written by Aaron. Winter Solstice Part 1, The Storm, The Siege of The North Part 2, *BITTER WORK* !!

[@filipvadas7602]

The thing is that having Korra learn 3 out of 4 elements so soon and spend most of her training just learning how to use them in a *fight* actually could have been a cool plotline. The Avatar's journey across the world they're supposed to defend and both finding & befriending their own teachers, instead of them being found FOR them, is a physical and spiritual journey that's pretty damn important. It being undercut is a MASSIVE detriment to Korra's developement and both Katara and Tenzin *point this out* They even follow it up with Korra seriously struggling to learn Airbending which makes TOTAL SENSE since its a very passive and spiritual bending style that does NOT jell well with Korra's agressive and, ironically, fiery personality. And they even pull a fast one on you when she loses everything BUT her newly acquired airbending. Effectively setting her progress back to 0. You'd THINK this would be a genius way to redo the Avatar journey, have Korra re-experience learning the elements she lost now that she has a much greater understanding of what they meant to her But NOPE, Aang just shows up and gives her all her bending back with no consequences.

[@TheTrueDiablix]

It would've made for a far more interesting a compelling scene if Korra's justification for being the Avatar was that she was water tribe but could only firebend or only earthbend, since either of those elements would've worked with her personality, and been a genuinely noteworthy thing to imply she's the avatar

[@FoxBroz]

one of my biggest thing i hated about korra was Suyin. she scars Lins face and made toph quit being the Chief of Police, and got no punishment. when Lin confronted her about it, she acted like (i was just a kid back then) and made Lin look like the bad guy for being angry. Then the writers made Lin act nicer and was like its your fault for not letting go of the anger, but she has a big scar on her face to remind her every day.

[@nsmccoy224]

I could explain how it's not possible in 4 sentences: The Avatar is not born with the ability to bend like Korra did at the beginning, they are born with the potential to LEARN all 4. Of the 4 Fire would be the most difficult for her to learn because in the original it was explicitly stated Aang had trouble with Earth due to it being the opposite of Air, but Korra had no trouble at all with Fire. Anyone who doesn't get it hasn't followed any of the lore, and are looking at it like "she's hot, I'd totally tap that", rather than looking at it from an objective stance cuz people simp over cartoon characters too.

[@James_Stan808]

15:21 temper tantrum. When she kicks her feet she kicks up small pillars, when she throws her hands she moves water, when she screams she breaths fire

[@KairuHakubi]

I wonder if they thought they were riffing on the Avatar State, suggesting like she's got a more minor version of it going. That feels like something these writers would come up with, they understood the setting so poorly.

[@SpadeDraco]

@@KairuHakubi LOK retained most of it's creative staff from ATLA. They 100% did understand the setting. Which kinda makes their choice to crap all over it even worse imo.

[@KairuHakubi]

@@SpadeDraco not the head guys though right.

[@SpadeDraco]

@@KairuHakubi Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were the creative leads on both series.

[@KairuHakubi]

@@SpadeDraco that's inconsistent with everything i've heard in discussions over the years, so..

[@blackfox4138]

One of my biggest issues with Korra is how they change bending from a martial art that requires knowledge and physical training to just being a mutant power. Why can Korra bend Air all of a sudden? Because she believes hard enough. Why can Bolin not bend metal? Because he's a lavabender, dummy! Why is lightning generation, the apex of firebending mastery something than just any joe schmoe can use as a low paying work salary? Because how cool is it to use lightning bending to power a city!!

[@dragonhero14]

I agree. They took away the core aspects of bending related to art and culture just to make it focused on fighting. Korra unlocks air bending like a light switch with no change to her character or understanding of the element. Finally, instead of earning energy bending, she is given access to it.

[@africanodyssey4805]

Exactly!!! TLOK retconed so much of the established rules of bending and I HATE it! I can't take this show as seriously bc the writers chose to not respect the source material

[@joshidk-zy9xj]

Eh tbf i never saw it as a change because we've known bending is pretty selective as a genetic trait, thats why earth nation cant bend fire, water tribe cant bend air, etc. Korra being able to bend air cuz she believes was wack i agree, explained by the fact the writers thought they only had one season. Bolin bending lava(i thought and still do) think its cuz of his mentality, when he was showing korra how to fight he mentioned being light on his toes until the moment of attack, unlike toph who told aang he had to stand his ground. It makes sense that a mentality focused on evasion would make him lean more towards a flowing style of bending like the liquid lava rather than the pinacle of earth's headstrong mentality ie metal bending. As for fire bending, i believe its because of Zuko finding the 'truth' of fire bending, up until the end of the 100 year war, it was believed fire bending required rage(what fueled zuko up to that point) until they learned from the dragons that fire came from breath and life. During Zuko's speech on lightning bending he explained it required peace(why zuko couldn't do it, he was conflicted a that point). When zuko became fire lord ots fair to say he taught everyone how to fire bend while calm, which made it easier to lightning bend, because they were no longer shackled by their rage

[@artistaroundtheblock2047]

1) Because she’s the Avatar and trained all season for it. Unlike Aang who learned earth and fire in one episode. 2) It’s something some people just can’t do. It’s also in ATLA comics so blame ATLA. 3) Because of the commodification of knowledge. That’s like saying why are so many people good at coding nowadays even kids. Because knowledges is easily available. There answered it for you

[@blackfox4138]

@@artistaroundtheblock2047 and I bet you feel real smart for that. Except: 1) Aang learned how to understand the elements before he actually started using them. Going into how bending in Korra is just super powers. 2) That isn't how sub bending works at all. As it's established that sub bending is developed through a complex understanding of the element in question. And while the comics are set in the ATLA story, it was written during the Korra era of the franchise. 3) Knowledge and skill are vastly different things. Having more lightning generators around is fine, but making it so common that it's considered mundane just straight up breaks the lore for the sake of giving us a cool visual.

[@---zh8qn]

Also i feel like the jump in technology was too fast. Like, way too fast... I think that was what alienated me the most... Same goes for the culture - it didn't feel like a few dozend years have passed but a few hundred

[@pr0xykill978]

I agree, I also feel like they didn't really think about how the actual world of Avatar would progress. Just copied the technological path of the real world

[@tempestus7854]

@PitBot-d7k Oh no. Something about the idea of a Korra movie just rubs me the wrong way. Could they not have chosen a different avatar?

[@Therandomowl4093]

To be fair, real life is like that as well. If you take a look at how much technology has changed from now to 70 years ago, the change is drastic. We've gone from HUGE computers and brick-sized phones to fitting it into our bags/pockets.

[@---zh8qn]

@@Therandomowl4093 if you compare the 1900s to now, sure, but major leaps were quite uncommon in the times before. Also i think the culture changed too fast too. It looked way too much like our society despite the world having a very different origin.

[@sarodanadian9948]

I don’t think so we see that the entire world hasn’t been industrialized yet like people in the South Pole still live in huts. I think in Alta the world was advanced but historically Asians were more reluctant to embrace new technology ( specifically Japan) so it seems like their less advanced

[@scarlettthorne229]

The suggestion that Korra could have been a water tribe avatar who struggles with water bending is really interesting! I kinda want to see what that would have looked like

[@99thJediWarrior]

Thing is many characters within the universe, including Toph, said the following about Korra: "You are the worst Avatar ever!"

[@CLDJ227]

While that's understandable, I do think the hatred for this character is a bit overblown 🤔.

[@Ratface0007]

@@CLDJ227 Most unnecessary sequel in existence

[@thegreatynot5049]

(SPOILERS S2) Korra managed to lose *her connection to all the past avatars, basically having to restart the cycle and losing generations of power buildup* Even Kuruk, the guy who got his face stolen and died very young, didn't screw up that badly.

[@spade565]

To be fair, toph only trained aang. So 50% successful? Eh.

[@animezilla4486]

​@@Ratface0007disagree with that entirely

[@agm5424]

I think that what the writers were trying to show was that unlike Aang, someone that didn't want to be the avatar but had to learn it in order to save the world, Korra was a prodigy that wanted to be the avatar but had to learn humility, to get off her high horse, and to learn to live in a world that didn't need the avatar as much as it once did. Or at the very least it needed an avatar that could deal with problems far more complex than just beating down the bad guys. But I do agree that the series needed more time to refine its storytelling and presentation, especially in the first two seasons.

[@Novictus]

That was clearly the idea. It just falls on its face when none of the surrounding elements add to it.

[@WeebGuru6]

Bruh an avatar who struggled with their native bending art so clever but no we can’t have nice things

[@robertharris6092]

Ill admit that would be clever. But a avatars ability to bend an element is based on their personality. Not what theyre born into.

[@WeebGuru6]

@@robertharris6092 true but u get what im saying

[@SgtKickass926]

Read the Kyoshi novels :)

[@WeebGuru6]

@@SgtKickass926 does that really count

[@SgtKickass926]

Personally, I don't see why it wouldn't

[@smartalex22]

This video clarified my biggest issue with The Legend of Korra. Thanks, Shady!

[@GangleTV]

I’m not sure how you could rewrite Korra’s overall story to make it better, but I know how you could make her intro better. Keep her at this young age, but make it so she can’t control the elements she puts out. Like she’s afraid to reach for something because she isn’t sure if a flame will lash out. Garner some sympathy the audience can connect with. She’s scared and her family is scared and aren’t sure what to do. Make one of the White Lotus elders who travels to her home Katara, that way you have an established character Korra can make a connection with right off the bat. Sorry for the long comment, but that thought has been in my head for a long time now.

[@arkdraellhelldrake4079]

Long? This is barely medium lenght, pal! And you made a good point!

[@animezilla4486]

That sounds a little too cheesy in my opinion

[@shotgunfrenzy1225]

I dunno that would make sense for a four year old testing what waterbending she could do and accidentally setting the couch on fire i would be scared shitless XD

[@KairuHakubi]

@@arkdraellhelldrake4079 indeed, though it was mostly the extra spacing that made it so long. I think the show was sunk the moment they were like "hey you know that fantasy show where, over the course of a year, the characters visit a wide variety of different locales and meet a bunch of different and interesting people? Let's do a sequel that focuses on boring dull as dishwater 1910s New York, which is having political problems. and also pro sports are a major part of it." That will always go down in history along with "Rugrats? the show where babies can talk and have adventures? let's add a baby character who can do neither" as one of the worst and most bafflingly terrible decisions.

[@NemoIncognito]

Honestly, this is one of the shorter comments I've seen.

[@brubearto]

That outro was fire bending with words.

[@Gottaculat]

Tauff was my favorite character in Avatar, as she had such an interesting background and her skills were well earned through perseverance. I also loved that despite her hard shell, underneath, she was still just a girl, with all the emotion and vulnerability that comes with it. She's optimistic, and while cocky, still has moments of humility and grace. A true Tomboy you can admire and cheer for. Then there's Korra. I've never seen that show, but after seeing that, "I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!" My immediate response is, "You're a Marry-Sue, and no, I don't gotta deal with it; I'm never gonna watch your show, and you can't make me watch it." If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a Marry-Sue. It immediately tells me the writers are hacks who don't understand good story telling principles and archetypes. I will never subject myself to a story I know is written by hacks. Life isn't long enough to humor such amateur crap. If they were good writers, they would have stumbled upon a girl with unusually good water bending, with a "go with the flow," optimistic attitude, but totally oblivious to what an avatar is. They could have done some tests, kinda like when trying to identify the Dalai Lama IRL, as the show is heavily inspired by Chinese (and China adjacent) real world stuff. Her unusual personality would make her farewell with her parents odd, as she adapts to the new plans rather than crying and not wanting to go. This personality trait would become an issue with her when learning fire bending and Earth bending, as her personality is opposite of stubbornness and assertiveness. She would excel at air bending, maybe taking to Aang's kite as the item on the rug for the Avatar test. perhaps she would find her passion for fire bending when she falls in love with a guy who is her everything, but he is then killed by accident during her training. In her immense anger at herself for the tragic death by her hands, she gets overcome with grief and rage, and as she curses herself, she nearly dies in self-immolation as the rage-fueled fire consumes her. During her recovery from her severe burns, she's introduced to an Earth bender master sent to get her back on track, and to keep her grounded (see what I did there?) in her emotions. As their sessions go on, they develop a rapport, and she begins to have a crush on him. Fearing she will just hurt him like her previous love, she experiences a mental block where she can no longer water bend, as now she's too grounded, unable to loosen up, and enjoy life. As she struggles with this, her Earth bender trainer realizes what's going on, and while he's flattered, he's old enough to be her father, and as delicately as he can, pushes her to discard those feelings, and focus on her training. As the crisis of the story-line escalates, the two end up in battle, and her master goes down, hard. As he's laying there, bleeding out under the full moon, he confesses to her that he does care for her deeply, but like the daughter he never had. He tells her we all die, but how we choose to face our death is up to us in that moment, and you just gotta let nature take it's course. "Even an old boulder like me can wear to the flow of water, Korra. Never forget who you are." As he falls into unconsciousness from blood loss, Korra understands what he meant, and for the first time in her life, she feels an inner balance never felt by her before. Her avatar state awakens, chakras unlocking, and as she sees the blood spilled across the ground, not just her master's, but the carnage across the entire battlefield, she has the urge to put it back in. Put all the blood back. Her eyes glow like a thousand suns, a mighty aura surrounds her, and she starts to blood bend like no other bender has ever done. She puts all the blood back into her master, healing the wounds, and forcing his heart to beat once more. She then arises, and the battling armies halt in sheer awe at the Blood Avatar, a crimson goddess levitating across the battlefield, restoring spilled blood to the fallen, mending all wounds, and restoring the lives lost. However, the price of activating the Blood Avatar state is so intense, it tears her apart as she performs the miracles. As the last fallen soldier rises, the aura disappears, and she sets foot back on the ground. She stands for but a moment, time seemingly frozen, and then she collapses. The two armies gather around her, and in a somber silence, they hoist her lifeless body, and carry her to a field tent as the sun rises. The next scene is a massive, ornate funeral, with banners of a weeping blood moon, the two armies on each side of the procession. As peace is declared, the world is called to remember the price paid for the lives saved. They proceed to place the casket in a great hall dedicated to the avatar. Later, the White Lotus members convene, and discuss the possibility that she died while in the Avatar state. The reports from the soldiers conflict, which is understandable, given the trauma of being brought back from death itself, or even just witnessing such a miracle. They are debating this, when they feel a tremor, coming from the direction of the Earth Kingdom. There is a silence, and exchange of looks and her Earth bender master, now among the White Lotus, lets out a,"Hmph," grins, and as he walks out the door, he stops, turns, and says, "It's a long journey from here. You guys commin', or you gonna keep guessin'?" Roll credits. There. I've never even taken any writing courses, and even I can pull a better story out of my ass than, "I'm the avatar! You gotta deal with it!"

[@lurklingX]

it felt like a mary-sue. and like the clips i saw of VELMA. ugh. easy to hate both of these characters. and some, for similar reasons.

[@lurklingX]

oh but you could watch the mini story in the series that is the origin of the 1st avatar. it was actually well done. they must have had it written in the first show but didn't find a place to work it in.

[@Flarztheburningsoul]

12:00 My guess has always been that the Avatar State triggered in Korra at an extremely young age, causing her to have "basic mastery" by 4.

[@TheOwneroftheIC]

The Avatar State wouldn't trigger on a young kid because they'd die too easily. Pre-Raava retcon, the past lives would probably just let the kid die and roll the dice with the next one.

[@sameaston9587]

My two bits. Originally, LoK was supposed to be one season (writing for the second season is horrible, because it was rushed together), so most likely there wasn't 'time' for Korra to learn all the bends in the show. But I do like you idea that Korra can do all the bends, except water, her own native element, because she struggles with adaption.

[@aaronlindsey2219]

This explains why everything after LoK season 1 is absolute trash

[@artistaroundtheblock2047]

@@aaronlindsey2219 Even S3 and 4? Why?

[@wojciechwerner8787]

I heard somewhere that LoK was greenlighted one season at a time. That's why creators couldn't create overarching story for multiple seasons like in AtLA.

[@ZeroKitsunei]

If Korra was in the city from the start. I could hand wave it a bit more, but she's just in the water tribe village. Where she learn how earth and fire bend? Aang still had to learn it, even if he was good at it out the gate.

[@troybaxter]

And here's the thing. While it took Aang 1 year to learn 3 other elements (effectively master 1), it was because Aang had 10 years to master the necessary work ethic to learn the others, and a NEED to learn due to war. Conversely, Korra learned 3 elements in the span of 2 years during peacetime with no teachers and no prior work ethic.

[@rmt3589]

Never understood why people hated this scene till now. Probably my favorite scene from the whole show. With all of Aang's story of overcoming cowardice, it was awesome to see the next jump off where he left off. Also, I think at least in this scene, waterbending makes sense. She's going through the changes of becoming the avatar, and leaving her family and childhood home to be the avatar, with great strides and no hesitation. There's a lack of freedom because she's following a predetermined path to a T, but that path has tons of changes she takes head-on and headstrong. The problem was when she ran into problems her image of the avatar couldn't solve. She'd throw her three elements at it, then feel trapped if it doesn't work, because in her mind, throwing elements at things is how the avatar does everything and it always works. She needed to break free of that mental model to be able to airbend, as that strict model is what weakened her. Yet, that strict model, and the willingness to follow it no matter the cost, no matter the change, matches earth and water benders to a T.

[@mysteryninja354]

Late to the party, but I think the biggest misstep with this moment not brought up in Shady's video, is that the smash-cut to her introduction and line read comes off as a joke. It's paced *very* similar to the humor ATLA is known for, and so while the literal words are "deal with it!", the fact they seem to be trying to make you laugh almost conveys the opposite - "hey, don't worry, this show is still funny too!" Except, THIS IS THE INTRODUCTION TO YOUR MAIN CHARACTER. If this were a flashback, or the introduction of a side-character to show that they're going to be capable of comic relief, that'd be fine. This scene is too important to sacrifice for a JOKE. I feel like having a 4-year-old Korra bend 3 elements *could* work if it just wasn't played for laughs. And yes, that sort of falls back into the criticism *of* the "deal with it" line, but finding a new way to frame that scene even with her attitude being brash and abrasive could've worked.