The Legend Of Korra / Tropes S to Z

Tropes for The Legend of Korra
Tropes A to F | Tropes G to L | Tropes M to R | Tropes S to Z (Ship Tease, Shout-Out, Wham Episode)

S

• Same Content, Different Rating: Zigzagged. The show was originally given a TV-Y7-FV rating for its American broadcast on Nickelodeon. When the show started streaming on Netflix in 2020, the rating was bumped up to TV-PG, with its sole content descriptor being "suicide", no doubt thanks to the murder-suicide of Tarrlok and Amon/Noatak at the end of Book One, despite the content of the show being the same as when it was airing on TV. However, a couple of months after the show's addition to Netflix, the rating was bumped back down to a TV-Y7 rating (for fantasy violence).
• Scare Chord: Whenever Dark Spirits make an appearance, especially Vaatu, a violin starts shrieking.
• Scenery Porn:
  • Just take a good look at Republic City. There's so much scenery porn that there needs to be a parental advisory warning.
  • Season 3 introduces the city of Zaofu in the Earth Kingdom that was founded by Metalbenders. It consists entirely of clusters of palace-like buildings in the shape of flowers, all made out of stainless steel, and during nighttime the benders close their "petals" around them.
• Schizo Tech:
  • Despite the generally Early-Twentieth Century level of technology present in the show, the Equalists seem to have mastered high-energy, low-mass power generators or batteries, giving their mooks electrified Kali-sticks and Power Palms. This is especially surprising taking into account that the city uses lightningbenders for power generation.
  • As of season 4, the Avatar world holds the rare combination of a world with directed energy weapons but no conventional firearms.
  • Even worse, it has giant mecha suits, one of which is the size of a skyscraper, despite not having developed any kind of advanced circuitry, let alone computers, to control such monstrous machines. Justified as the whole thing is controlled by metal bending.
• Scooby Stack: In "The Guide", we get a rare two-sided one, as Kya, Bumi, Pema, Jinora, Meelo and Ikki all peep in around the edges of a doorway on Tenzin admitting that he has never been able to make it to the spirit world.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
  • The Wolf-Bats pay off the referee in the pro-bending Championship so they can cheat without being called on it; by their third round with the Fire Ferrets, it is so blatant that the announcer calls them on it. It's implied by Amon that this is hardly unusual for them.
  • This is also true of Varrick, who is using his money to nefarious purpose, but is still a respected figure.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Deconstructed. The Bending Triads and to an extent, the Wolf-Bats run on this trope. In fact, this is the main point that Amon has been trying to make about benders in general.
• Sealed Evil In A Tree: The ultimate fate of Vaatu, until Unalaq releases him ten thousand years later only to be purified by Korra later on.
• Second Episode Introduction: Mako and Bolin don't make their proper introduction in the series until "A Leaf In The Wind", the series' second chapter.
• Self-Deprecation: As with ''The Ember Island Players in the original series, the Stylistic Suck Show Within a Show "Nuktuk, Hero of the South" pokes gentle fun at the series proper, massively exaggerating the personalities of characters like Unalaq and Raiko, and providing a story with "romance, action, some... funny animal stuff for the kids".
• Senseless Sacrifice: In "Turning the Tides," Lin stays behind to hold off the Equalists and gets her bending removed. In "Endgame," we learn that the Equalists managed to capture Tenzin and his family anyway and are planning to remove their bending at a mass rally.
• Sex Sells: After essentially inventing silent films (or reinventing them into talkies), what is the first thing Varrick decides to do with it? Get the hot chick to pose for the camera.
• Shame If Something Happened: Varrick does this to Mako, stating it would be a shame if something happened to Asami or Bolin. When Mako refuses, he frames Mako for the robbery of Future Industries.
• She Is the King: Zuko's daughter Izumi rules as Fire Lord, established as a gender-neutral title.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Asami, who subverts all the romantic rival and Woman Scorned plots and every single stereotype associated with her position. Notably, she's a wealthy, beautiful heiress who turns out to be great at fighting, a savvy businessman and engineer, a skilled race-car driver, and also unfalteringly kind and sweet. When her father's revealed to be an Equalist, she not only refuses to join, calls him out for letting his grief justify a vendetta, and almost a year later cheerfully refers to him as "diabolical". She also gracefully accepts her loss in the Korra-Mako-Asami Love Triangle, but ends up with Korra in the finale.
  • Suyin Beifong. With her troubled past and her admitted harbouring of pirates, traitors, and conspirators within her city, you would expect her, as Lin does, to be hiding something, even to be linked to the Red Lotus. And you'd be absolutely wrong! Turns out her redemption story is as honest and true as can be.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: While she might not have fought in a war, Korra has this reaction after her battle with Zaheer. She has trouble fighting, and is constantly haunted by a vision of herself following her around the world.
• Shipper on Deck: Jinora and Ikki for Mako/Korra.
  • There's a subtle frame at the end of Book 4 that implies that Jinora is this for Korra/Asami. The follow-up comics confirm it.
• Ship Sinking: Borra ^note Bolin and Korra was the first victim of this half way through season 1. Season 2 ended saw both Makorra ^note Mako and Korra and Masami ^note Mako and Asami get sunk. In a post series blog, Bryan stated that even if they didn't follow through with making Korra and Asami an item, they never had any intentions of having Korra and Mako get back together.
• Ship Tease: Has its own page.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: Despite being the older company, Cabbage Corporation does this to Future Industries' product line. Asami exploits this poor quality in a latter Book 3 episode. There's a reason why "Satomobile" is a more ubiquitous term than "Cabbage Car".
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Averted with Naga. Bolin tries to protect Naga and Pabu by telling them to stay put away from the fight in the Book One finale, but they return to save Asami and Bolin when they get captured.
• Shoot the Hostage: In "Kuvira's Gambit", Kuvira uses her giant mecha to blow up the factory where Baatar Jr. is being held, having confirmed that Korra is there with him.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Shown Their Work: The poison that Zaheer uses is liquid yet metallic, and is absorbed through the skin (with some help from metalbenders). It is almost certainly mercury, though never named as such. The symptoms of acute mercury poisoning include nervousness/anxiety, irritability and mood disorders, muscle weakness, lack of motor skills and coordination, difficulty walking or standing, and difficulty breathing, all of which Korra displays.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: This exchange.
  The Lieutenant: You benders need to understand: there's no place for you anymore.
  Korra: [earthbends him into a wall] I wouldn't count us out just yet.
  • Jinora's response to Unalaq calling Tenzin a bad father is by saying that Tenzin's a better father than he.
  • When Zaheer starts ranting about how the Red Lotus isn't finished with their mission yet, Bolin interrupts his Villainous Breakdown by stuffing a sock in his mouth.
• Sibling Team:
  • Bolin and Mako are brothers.
  • The airbender kids, particularly upon saving Lin from Equalists in "Turning the Tides".
  • Eska and Desna are both creepy and powerful.
  • Lin and Suyin, despite their Big, Screwed-Up Family, end up working very well together, protecting each other and working together to kill P'li.
  • Wing and Wei, twin brothers and sons to Suyin, have incredible synchronization when they fight.
• Sibling Triangle: In the first half of Book One, Bolin and Mako are competing for Korra's affections. After Bolin sees Korra and Mako kiss and gets over his initial heartbreak, he accepts that she doesn't have feelings for him.
• Sibling Yin-Yang:
  • Mako and Bolin grew up on the streets, but while Mako is responsible and dedicated to keeping them together and safe, Bolin is a fun-loving charmer with a fondness for the ladies.
  • Tenzin's daughters Ikki and Jinora. Jinora is a Cute Bookworm Shrinking Violet and the Girly Girl to Ikki's Motor Mouth, Genki Girl Tomboy personality.
  • Tenzin has this relationship with his siblings Kya and Bumi. When they were children. Tenzin was very serious while his siblings were rather rambunctious. In the present we've seen that Tenzin is serious (usually), bald, and monk-like while Bumi is "a wild man" in the armed forces of the United Republic with a head full of anime hair; meanwhile Kya is unmarried and traveled all over the world to "find herself" (which Tenzin saw as abandoning her family) while Tenzin settled down and had a large family. Tenzin and Kya are benders with a spiritual/healing, while Bumi is a Bad Ass Normal military man/walking disaster area.
  • In their youth, Lin and Su were complete opposites. Lin became a cop to follow in her mother's footsteps, while Su actively hung out and worked with criminals to draw her mother's attention. This continued into adulthood, with Lin staying firmly rooted in Republic City while Su left to roam the world.
• Siblings Share the Throne: Brother and sister Desna and Eska become the Chiefs of the Northern Water Tribe after their father Unalaq's death at the end of Book 2.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Mako and Asami are too much for Korra to handle, although her own feelings for Mako probably contribute.
• Sigil Spam: Once you see it as the Season 4 trailer emblem, you can see the Metal Clan symbol everywhere in the Zaofu scenes in Season 3.
• Silver Spoon Troublemaker: Whereas Lin Beifong followed in her mother Toph's footsteps in joining the Republic City police force, her other daughter Suyin was a rebellious troublemaker who ended up joining the Triple Threat Triad, helping them as a getaway driver.
• Sinister Suffocation: Zaheer used his airbending to suffocate Earth Queen Hou-Ting and bring anarchy to Ba Sing Se. This is the one of few times airbending is used to kill due to the Air Nomad preaching pacifism.
• Sky Cell: While Zaheer's prison has walls, it's built on a remote mountaintop and still has guards. Every precaution was taken, but no one (including Zaheer) could have predicted that he'd gain airbending abilities that allowed him to quickly escape the mountain.
• Slapstick: The show is no stranger to physical comedy, and Korra's personality makes her as good a target as anyone for it. For example, an airbending test early in the series tasks her with weaving between series of quickly-spinning wooden planks, counter to the physical bending she's more adept at. The first couple scenes featuring the test boil down to Korra getting comically slapped around by the planks.
  • In Book 2, the royal children Desna and Eska are not usually played for laughs (except rather darkly, by dishing out abuse to others), but in the one scene where it does happen, Eska suffers it no less than her brother Desna.
• Slasher Smile: Unalaq pulls off some enormous ones.
• Sleep Cute: Korra and Mako when staking out the Equalist protestor in "The Revelation".
• Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Just like the first series, it seems to be at a Level 5 for the Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality, portraying male and female characters as equals.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: High:
  • The Equalists of Book 1 present a formidable threat to the Avatar and Republic City. Neither Korra nor the city's official police are able to halt Amon or his agenda until the Equalists are finally defeated in the season finale.
  • Same for the Dark Spirits of Book 2: they can shrug of all but the most powerful bending and it takes special bending altogether to purify and/or turn them. Their leader is even tougher and they come very close to winning forever.
  • The Red Lotus of Book 3 uphold up the trend by being exceptionally good at both combat and strategy; in fact, even though they're also defeated at the end of the season, one of their main victories remains completely unresolved; the plunging of the entire Earth Kingdom into anarchy. Their leader is also the only Big Bad to successfully kill someone onscreen.
  • Book 4: Kuvira's intelligence allows her to conquer more than the Fire Nation did in a century and her prowess with metalbending is such that even Korra can't take her in a one-on-one fight. She also has access to an entire army, which she puts to full advantage to force the Metal Clan and the United Republic to comply with her demands.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: The relationship between the more materially-focused Southern and the more spiritually-focused Northern Water Tribes seems to be like this. Turns out there's something more to it.
• Slouch of Villainy:
  • While the Red Lotus wait in the Earth Queen's antechamber, P'li lies draped on a divan, clutching a jeweled goblet.
  • Ming Hua's not one for sitting normally either - in the same scene, she has her feet on the seat of a chair while she perches on the backrest like a bird.
• Small, Secluded World:
  • Upon learning that Korra was the Avatar, the Order of the White Lotus set up a large compound in the Southern Water Tribe for her to live in, to fulfill the promise they made to Aang to protect his reincarnation. There, Korra underwent her Avatar training, under constant watch from the Order. She was allowed to leave, but only with supervision and as long as she did not go outside the South Pole. When Tenzin tried to delay her Airbending training, and thus ultimately her freedom from the compound, Korra ended up running away in order to follow him to Republic City.
    • The third season explains why the White Lotus secluded her. Zaheer's previous attempt to kidnap Korra when she was a child forced the Lotus to make Korra's security priority number one.
  • For Korra's airbending training, Tenzin attempted to set up something similar on Air Temple Island. This fell apart remarkably fast.
  • The first humans that lived in the lion-turtle cities knew nothing about the others and only ventured out into the world for food. This changes after the spirits leave for their own world and the humans are free to spread out.
• Small Steps Hero: Korra decides to risk unleashing 10,000 years of darkness on the world just to save the life of one girl.
• Snowballing Threat:
  • Vaatu does this over the course of "Beginnings" as he feeds on more and more chaos in the world, while simultaneously weakening Raava.
  • The Red Lotus early escape sequences play out like this, as each additional member makes them harder to stop.
  • Kuvira is a political variant of this. Every military state she acquires expands her resources and manpower further, which she then leverages to take her next target.
• Snowlems: Ikki suggests that Katara use waterbending to make snowmen chase the children for fun.
• Soft Water: Zig-Zagged.
  • The pro-bending ring is far enough above the water below that you'd expect injuries, at least from the non-Waterbenders, but this trope is in full effect.
  • Waterbenders in pro-bending are the only ones allowed to hit their opponents in the head due to this trope.
  • In a nod to the previous series, when Korra jumps into the ocean from a great height, she bends the water up to herself to soften her landing.
• So Last Season:
  • In Book 2, the Dark Spirits are immune to normal bending, even Korra's Avatar State-enhanced bending. Bending can disperse them, but they reform quickly. Only Unalaq's spiritual waterbending has proven consistently effective when performed properly, and it doesn't actually stop them, just calm them down and get them to leave. They're non-corporeal energy beings corrupted by darkness, instead of regular flesh and blood.
  • Book 3 applies this to the spirit-calming technique when it proves to be worse than useless against the vine infestation in Republic City.
  • Downplayed with Lavabending. In Book 3, it gave Ghazan by far the most destructive power of the Red Lotus. For example, he completely levels the Northern Air Temple with it. In Book 4, when used by Bolin, it is still quite useful, but it is no longer a Storybreaker Power.
• Somebody Else's Problem: Even though Book 4 confirms that Toph is alive, she generally does not get involved in the struggle against Kuvira. She justifies this by stating that due to her age, she simply cannot keep up with younger benders like Kuvira, and points out this is exactly why Katara didn't get involved in the Water Tribe civil war. However, she does support the heroes' cause, and even encourages them to continue.
  • This is President Raiko's view of the Water Tribe civil war that's actually understandable; Republic City has nothing to do it and it's between the tribes.
  • This is Mako's M.O. in Book 2 toward the rest of the team as if has nothing to do with his job, he doesn't care; he leaves Bolin feeling abandoned, Korra's problem with the Northern Water Tribe has nothing to do with him or his country and he only assists Asami because it aligns with his job. Fortunately he gets better in the following seasons.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Played with in a manner where the pattern spikes up, but slowly winds down:
  • The Equalists of Book One are group of non-bending revolutionaries led by the terrifying Amon. While they're quite dangerous (even having the backing of a major technology corporation), their influence only really extends to Republic City.
  • Chief Unalaq of the Northern Water Tribe in Book Two isn't personally quite as scary or as powerful as Amon, but he commands far greater resources (including a horde of bending-immune spirits) and his plans threaten the entire world. Additionally, he's serving a far greater evil: Vaatu, the spirit of chaos and darkness. Vaatu is every bit as tough as that implies, having wiped out societies, and is perfectly capable of causing The End of the World as We Know It.
  • The Red Lotus of Book Three are exceptionally powerful anarchist benders with unique abilities (though nothing quite as broken as Amon's psychic bloodbending) who seek to eliminate all world leaders, but they have only four main members. Nevertheless, Zuko considers them capable of taking on the entire world, and they prove him right by assassinating the Earth Queen and successfully plunging the entire Earth Kingdom into chaos. It's also later revealed that the Red Lotus has plenty of mooks hidden across the entire world, with Unalaq once being one of them. Even though Book Three ends with their leader imprisoned and the other three main members dead, they are far from defeated.
  • Kuvira becomes possibly the most powerful human foe in Book 4, though she's still not necessarily on Vaatu's power or danger level. That said, Kuvira has the means to take on the entire world, due to both her strategic skill and the sheer manpower and resources that comes from controlling an empire spanning almost the entirety of the world's largest continent. She also has the most technologically advanced military, and that's before the addition of a Humongous Mecha superweapon. Fortunately, her efforts are focused on the old Earth Kingdom territories. Unfortunately, she considers the long-independent United Republic of Nations to be among said territories.
• Sphere of Destruction: The finale features one at the height of the climax. Kuvira fires the cannon from her giant mech in the spirit wilds, creating a reaction that completely obliterated everything within a gigantic radius while sending a shockwave through the rest of the city, leaving nothing but a perfect semispherical crater at the site of a new spirit portal.
• Spinoff Sendoff: The first episode features an appearance by an elderly Katara as one of Korra's trainers. She encourages Korra in her plan to run off to Republic City, helping set the series in motion.
• Spin-Offspring:
  • Toph's daughter Lin Beifong is the captain of the police metalbenders in Republic City. In Season 3 we meet her other daughter (to another father) Suyin, who is just as stubborn and strong-willed as Toph and Lin. We also get to see Suyin's kids: Baatar Jr, Opal, Huan, Wei and Wing.
  • Aang and Katara's son Tenzin, who is teaching Korra to airbend just as Roku's descendant Zuko taught Aang to firebend. Tenzin also has two other siblings, Kya and Bumi, named for characters in the first series. Tenzin himself brings his wife Pema, and four children, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and his new born son Rohan .
  • Lau Gan-Lan, son of the ill-fated Cabbage Merchant, has set up a successful automotive company to rival Future Industries. Unfortunately, he seems to have the same bad luck as his father, not to mention that he's dirt cheap.
  • Zuko's grandson, General Iroh of the United Republic military forces, appears in the final arc to assist in the fight against Amon. Iroh, unlike other examples, actually has the exact same voice as his Grandfather.
    • We also briefly see Zuko's daughter, Izumi, who took up the title of Fire Lord when Zuko left the Fire Nation to act as an ambassador.
  • Earth King Kuei's daughter, Hou-Ting, appears in Book 3. Sadly, while her father was The Good King, she is a complete Jerkass evil tyrant and one of the villains.
    • Kuei's great-grandson, Wu, becomes a major character in Book, and he's nothing like his great-aunt.
• Spiritual Antithesis: Korra was designed to be everything Aang was not. To a degree, the rest of the show is also meant to be unlike the original series (staying in a City of Adventure as opposed to Walking the Earth, and so on).
• Spit Take: In "A Leaf in the Wind", a White Lotus guard does this right into the face of another when the pro-bending announcer on the radio reveals that Korra is playing in a match.
• Spit-Trail Kiss: Bolin and Eska share one in episode 13 of season 2.
• Staged Populist Uprising: Amon, who claims he was gifted by the spirits to cleanse the world of all benders, is himself a Waterbender.
• Standing Between the Enemies: Avatar Wan tried doing this between his old human friends who left the lion-turtle city and now were living in the wilds but not in harmony with nature, and his spirit friends who were furious at the humans for burning parts of the forest. Unfortunately, their minds were clouded by hate and when Vaatu arrived and empowered the spirits hatred, not even Wan bonding with Raava for a short time could quell their anger. He passed out and woke up, learning all humans were killed in the battle.
• Static Stun Gun: The Equalists, with their electrical technology, incapacitate their enemies with primitive tasers.
• Stealth Pun:
  • In "Turning the Tides", Asami gets her shock glove out of the team Satomobile, saying "This'll come in handy".
  • In Book One's finale, Mako looks out of a tunnel and says "the coast is clear." A moment later, you can see that they are at the coast, and it is, in fact, clear.
  • At first glance, Wan Shi Tong's "little men in boxes" line sounds like a silly thing you'd hear in The Roaring '20s or so. But remember who gave him that information: a bunch of foxes. So, literal Fox News.
  • Zaheer spends most of the third season quoting a airbending master about achieving weightlessness and flight. In the finale, he is defeated when Korra wraps a chain around his leg and slams him into the ground, or in other words is quite literally dragged down to earth.
• Steampunk: Though the series itself is not steampunk, utilizing electricity and the internal-combustion engine for its technology, the genre was an influence, particularly the aesthetic. The creators explained that they took inspiration from Jules Verne and call the show "steampunk-lite".
• Stereotype Reaction Gag: In "A Leaf in the Wind" Korra Downplays and Invokes this when she asks Bolin to teach her some pro-bending moves. He agrees but isn't sure how his earthbending will translate to her waterbending. She responds that she can earthbend, and Bolin freezes up before Digging Himself Deeper, stumbling through an apology about making assumptions based on her Water Tribe clothes. After letting him squirm a little, she allows that he was right, she is a waterbender, and a firebender, too. Bolin's brother, who curtly dismissed her as just a common fangirl up to that point, does the math:
  Mako: You're the Avatar, and I'm an idiot.
• Storybreaker Power: Ghazan's lavabending is capable of immense destruction, as he's able to melt the ground or any rock into lava. His lavabending doesn't actually hit anyone directly though since it'd be pretty gruesome to witness for a show like this. Instead, he has his regular earthbending and his lava shuriken (which is more used as a blunt projectile) to fall back on when it comes to up close fights. He mostly uses his lavabending to just destroy whatever area he's in and make it a more dangerous place for his opponents to fight in, and he's capable of melting entire mountains. It's pretty telling then, that he is ultimately defeated when Bolin unlocks lavabending too, and Bolin still needs Mako's help to actually gain the upper hand on Ghazan. Even then, Ghazan ultimately kills himself instead of losing the fight.
• Stumbling Upon the Lost Wizard:
  • In season 2, Korra is lost at sea after being attacked by a dark spirit and ends up washed ashore at the footsteps of the Fire Sages, an order of mystics loyal to the Avatar who happen to be able to trigger her memories of her original past life.
  • In season 4, Korra bumps into a spirit that she follows into a vast swamp, where she runs into the reclusive and legendary originator of metalbending, Toph Beifong. Toph is reluctant to help Korra and is very antagonistic towards her, but she does let her know about the true limits of metalbending and seismic sense.
• Stylistic Suck: The Nuktuk, Hero of the South film presented in Night of a Thousand Stars is this trope... for the first half, at least.
• Sudden Name Change: The "penguins" seen way back in the first episode of ATLA had their name changed to "penguin-otters".
• Suicide Mission:
  • Tonraq and the rebels' attempted assault on the harbor city became this when the Dark Spirits were found to be fighting alongside the Northern Water Tribe.
  • When President Raiko finds out that Unalaq will release Vaatu and their army of Dark Spirits will destroy the world, he refuses to mobilize his troops, because assaulting the South Pole would be suicide under these conditions.
• Super-Empowering: Lion turtles used to do this with humans via energybending, granting them the various bending powers.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Just as technology has advanced, so have the bending arts, with many hybridized styles shown even in just the first chapter in addition to the more classic bending styles. Mako and Bolin's styles show shades of modern boxing and kickboxing, despite wielding separate elements.

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Toph finally reveals identity of Lin's father, and he was just some guy named Kanto, a name that has absolutely no importance to anyone, including the audience. Missing parents are not automatically indicative of a special lineage, and just because the audience know the two characters doesn't mean they'll hook up together. Furthermore, there's no sitcom-level drama between them, he wasn't revealed to be evil or an abuser or anything like that. Toph flippantly speaks nicely of him, describing him as "a nice guy who just didn't work out" and leaves it at that — sometimes marriages just don't work out and people part their separate ways, rather than there being a huge battle or anything like that.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Unalaq to Tarrlok. Both are charismatic politicians who are also powerful waterbenders whom Korra allies herself with early on. They both also have a Secret Art that we've never seen in action before. They also both then seem to turn out to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is trying to use the Avatar to his own means.
  • Aang's children are a male Airbender who feels the weight of the world on him, a female Waterbender who tries to play peacemaker, and a male nonbender who has a lot to prove compared to the others. Where have we seen that dynamic before?
  • And then Tenzin's own children are also a stubborn boy, a mostly-sweet girl, and the one caught in the middle, so the pattern's shaping up to extend to a third generation, more or less.
• Swan Boats: For the legalization of gay marriage across the USA and a gallery, Bryan Konietzko drew Korra and Asami riding together in one in Republic City.

T

• Tailor-Made Prison:
  • In Book 3, Zaheer and his gang are individually held in prisons designed to nullify their abilities. Shame they didn't count on Zaheer getting airbending from Harmonic Convergence. After that, it was only a matter of time before the rest got free.
  • After being captured again, Zaheer is placed in a high security prison that has him chained to the floor to counter his new-found abilities.
• Take Our Word for It: No one ever explains just what Vaatu's "ten thousand years of darkness" actually entails. All that can be known is that humans will be annihilated, and Vaatu will reshape the world in his name, and you can bet that it's as bad as it sounds.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Benders believe that they are tall poppies that envious Equalists want to cut down.
• Tanks for Nothing: Aquatic variant. Battleships only ever show up so they can be spectacularly destroyed as part of a Worf Barrage, or trivially evaded by our blockade-running heroes.
• Tell Me How You Fight:
  • Jinora and Korra's varying execution of airbender footwork highlights their temperaments. The more showy Korra navigates airbending training gates with lots of energetic spinning. In comparison, Jinora's approach to the course is fairly clinical: she turns on a dime but keeps her upper body rigid.
    • The same goes for spirit healing: Unalaq's technique has a lot more rapid, circular motions to the point where it looks flamboyant, whereas Korra's is more controlled and firm, perhaps inspired by her airbending training.
  • In-universe, Tarrlok identifies Amon as his brother Noatak, despite Amon's appearance being concealed, by the distinctive feel of his bloodbending.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In "And the Winner Is...", the Wolfbats, having just cheated their way to victory, ask if anyone else wants to take them on. Amon answers the call.
  • In "When Extremes Meet", Korra taunts Tarrlok about having no water to bend after destroying his office (which had a wall fountain). Unfortunately, she forgot about another source of water nearby.
  • In "Harmonic Convergence," Asami, Bolin and Mako are flying an air attack against the South Pole, and Mako says, "There's no way they'll be expecting us!" Flipping off karma like that is a bad idea.
• The Missus and the Ex:
  • Mako has this reaction when with Korra and Asami at the same time due to his on/off relationship with both of them. There is a hilariously awkward moment in the first episode of the third season where he addresses both of them formally as if speaking to a superior officer because he just does not know how to relate to the two of them together. Does not help that the two women are good friends.
  • Tenzin as well, when Lin Beifong and his wife Pema are shown together.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Lin Beifong goes to receive an acupuncture therapy to help her deal with the stress of encountering her sister again. While our world would call it an alternative therapy, it's the height of psychiatric medicine in Avatar-world. It works, after a fashion. Additionally, she implies that 1. conventional therapy exists and 2. she hasn't opened up to one before and isn't going to start now.
• There Was a Door: Korra's Establishing Character Moment has her Earthbend the wall of her room to make an entrance. Her parents probably did not have that in mind when they wanted her to come meet the White Lotus members sent to verify her Avatar status.
• 13 Is Unlucky: The 13th episode in Book 2, Korra lose her connection to her past lives and the Dark Avatar is born. In Book 3's 13th episode, Korra is greatly crippled and goes into depression. Lucky for her, in Book 4 episode 13, she gets a happy ending.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: A notable aversion. Even heroic characters (especially Korra) sometimes threaten or aim to kill when they're extremely angry. Mako and Suyin have even done it, albeit in the heat of battle. Still, when Korra threatens a bound and helpless Bataar Jr. to get him talking, he immediately calls her bluff.
• Three Round Deathmatch: Pro-bending works on a best of three rounds format. The third round is always played, even if one team already has two wins, because knocking all three opponents out of the ring in a single round is an Instant-Win Condition even if down two rounds.
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: In Book 4, Kuvira has the entirely sympathetic motivation of uniting and restoring order to the Earth Kingdom, and has proven so good at it that she's won loyalty from a huge chunk of it. She really had no reason to open Reeducation camps and she inexplicably throws firebenders and waterbenders into them despite showing no obvious Fantastic Racism herself.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Cabbage Merchant, The Chew Toy and Recurring Extra of the original series, earned enough of a fortune during the peace times that he was able to found a technology company in Republic City. However, it's implied he or at least his successors are dirt cheap, because a lot of the company's product line is cheap knock-offs of Future Industries products.
• Throw It In!: In-Universe: Bolin (as Nuktuk) plants a kiss on Ginger, saying "it felt so right". Ginger is horrified, but Varrick likes it so much that he keeps the kiss in the film.
• Time Skip:
  • The series takes place 70 years after Avatar: The Last Airbender.
  • Book Two takes place six months after the first.
  • Book Three starts two weeks after the end of the previous season, and the denouement skips ahead a couple weeks, allowing the characters to recover (to an extent) from the injuries they sustained during the final battle.
  • Book Four is set three years ahead, with some flashbacks to fill in the gap.
• Title Drop: The first three chapter names are mentioned by a character.
  • "Welcome to Republic City" is Gommu's cheery dialogue on realizing Korra is a Naïve Newcomer.
  • Tenzin tells Korra the key of the airbending device is to be like "A Leaf in the Wind".
  • People are lured to Amon's rally to learn about "The Revelation".
• To Hell and Back: In a way. Tenzin enters the spirit world to find his daughter, and enters the Fog of Lost Souls, which inflicts insanity on anyone caught in it, overcomes its effects and takes is daughter and his siblings out.
• Token Romance: Appears to play this straight in Book 1. The Love Triangle subplot ends with Korra and Mako getting together, but not only does it contribute little to the main plot, it comes across as shallow, with the characters involved not getting a whole lot of friendly interactions together and only seeming interested in one another due to their looks. Book 2, however, deconstructs it. It turns out that Korra and Mako don't have any real chemistry together, they frequently break into arguments over the smallest of disagreements, and can never reconcile their differences. It culminates in them eventually breaking up permanently.
  • This is even more evident between Mako and Asami. They start off decently enough with her being a fan and Bonding over Missing Parents before he cheats on her, tries to deny it then basically forgets she exists until it's time for the final battle where they finally break up. However, desperation and loneliness makes them rebound mere days after Korra's gone, it ends when she returns where Mako once again lies to unceremoniously dump her a second time and then lie about lying years after the fact to his friend and family, who also call him out on it. Essentially, while Mako and Korra always argued, he at least doesn't repeatedly deny they dated.
• Toilet Humour:
  • In "The Voice in the Night" while at Tarrlok's gala, Tenzin has to chase after his son Meelo, who has apparently decided that something offscreen is a toilet.
  • In "When Extremes Meet," Team Avatar joins hands and vows to stand by one another through whatever comes...and Meelo floats down onto their joined hands by using a fart to air bend.
  • In "Turning The Tides", Meelo is given to Lin to look after, who promptly tells her he needs to poo... and starts grunting. Lin understandably holds him with her metal cables at arm's length. Meelo also likes to airbend his farts as part of his combat style against the Equalists.
  • Meelo is very good at this trope.
  • Varrick dropping money out of a stuffed Platypus Bear's anus twice in "Civil Wars Part 2". Bonus points for one random guy shouting "That platypus bear is pooping money!" and the farting sound effects to top off the joke.
• Tonight, Someone Kisses: In perfect Avatar tradition, it was used as a teaser for "Spirit of Competition." The clincher? This happened the day before April Fool's.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Bolin does this gradually throughout the entire series, notably saving the President in "Night of a Thousand Stars" and saving everyone in the Air Temple in "Venom of the Red Lotus."
  • The new airbenders in Original Airbenders overcome their initial ineptitude with the element out of a desire to protect Jinora and Kai from a group of poachers.
• Toon Physics: Somehow, people can see and dodge air, but this is only so all fights are fair (mostly).
• Tragic Keepsake: Mako's Scarf of Asskicking doubles as this.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Nickelodeon's Book One finale promo included a clip of Amon bloodbending.
  • The menu screen on the DVDs has clips that give away key plot points.
  • The trailer for Book 4 spoils Korra's meeting with Toph
• Traintop Battle: In Book 4, the Krew has a battle on a moving train.
• Trash the Set: Most of the series takes place in Republic city. During Book 3, spirits move in and this cause a lot friction with the citizens, not to mention wrecking a few areas. At the beginning of Book 4, the people and spirits have learn to coexist peacefully. But by the end of the chapter, it's completely devasted by war and a new portal to the spirit world.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Zaheer unlocks an advanced airbending technique when P'Li is killed, which severs his last earthly tether, enabling flight.
• The Triads and the Tongs: The Triple Threat Triad, a pan-elemental bender organization that collects protection money from shopkeepers, and its referenced competitors, the Red Monsoons and the Agni Kais.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: Double as Static Stun Guns for the Equalists. Asami manages to keep one of the gloves, and uses it throughout the rest of the series. In Book 4, she's using an improved, somewhat more streamlined version, presumably that she designed herself.
• Troll: Korra, as seen in "A Leaf in the Wind":
  Bolin: I'm just not sure how my earthbending would translate to your waterbending, but we'll figure it out.
  Korra: Won't be a problem. I'm actually an earthbender.
  Bolin: I'm sorry, no, no! I didn't mean to assume. 'Cause I, you know, I was just figuring...with your Water Tribe getup...that you are...a Water Tribe...gal.
  Korra: Nope, you're right. I'm a waterbender. And a firebender.
  Bolin: Mm. Mm-hmm...I'm very confused right now.
• Try Not to Die:
  Mako: [to Korra] Don't do anything too fancy or aggressive... in fact, don't do anything - just try not to get knocked off the ring.
  • In "The Last Stand," when Mako takes on what seems to be a Suicide Mission to destroy the core of Kuvira's Humongous Mecha, Bolin makes him promise to get out as soon as possible.
• '20s Bob Haircut: Featured on some female characters as part of the Roaring Twenties aesthetic. One of Tahno's Fangirls wears the style◊. Jinora combines it with an odango hair. Korra even sports one throughout Book 4 after an Important Haircut.
• Twitchy Eye:
  • The waterbender from the Triple Threat Triad after Korra taunts him.
  • Korra when Tenzin cuts off the radio seconds before the pro-bending match being played is finished.
  • Tenzin displays this on hearing that Korra is participating in a pro-bending match.
  • Tahno gets one after Korra beats him in the tiebreaker.
• Two-Part Trilogy: Books 2, 3 and 4 form one. While Book 1 is more of a self-contained miniseries that doesn't effect Book 2 in any significant way, Book 2, while having a standalone plot, has a stronger effect on Book 3, which is inter-linked with Book 4 in dealing with the conflict with the Red Lotus Society as the world undergoes great changes.

U

• Undercover as Lovers: In "The Revelation" Korra grabs Mako's arm and leans in to provide a more convincing cover when they approach the bouncer at an Equalist rally.
• Underdogs Never Lose: The Fire Ferrets were considered the underdogs going into the tournament. Subverted as the Wolf Bats win through illegal moves. Then gets double-subverted as the Wolf Bats did not get away with their victory, as Amon and his crew crash the tournament, de-bend them, and scold the crowd for cheering on their blatant cheating.
• Understatement:
  • In the Book 2 finale, Desna describes his father as a "deplorable man." He usurped the throne of the Northern Water Tribe by getting his brother exiled, invaded the South, created dark spirits, intentionally fused with an Eldritch Abomination, and tried to destroy the world, starting with Republic City. "Deplorable" might not be a strong enough word.
  • In "Day of the Colossus," Su describes Kuvira as a "complicated person." Based on the slight pause, it seems she was about use some stronger language for the dictator who kidnapped her family.
• Unflinching Faith in the Brakes: In the Book 1 finale, Bolin is being attacked by mecha-tanks, which Naga unexpectedly stops by grabbing their grappling hooks and tugging. The mechas tumble over and stop just shy of Bolin, who never moves. Then he says "Whoa!"
• Unflinching Walk: While pursuing Amon onto an Equalist zeppelin, Korra uses firebending to cause a large explosion. His mooks are knocked aside, but Amon casually boards.
• Ungrateful Townsfolk: Despite Korra saving the city from Amon, then the city and the entire world from Unalaq, Korra depressingly notes she has an 8% approval rating in Republic City. Then President Raiko kicks her out after she stopped a new Airbender from committing suicide without anyone stepping up to call him out on this.
• Uniqueness Decay: Once-unique elements of the previous series have now become common:
  • Firebending's advanced technique of lightningbending, once only demonstrated by Azula, Iroh, and Ozai, is, after seventy years and an industrial revolution, mundane enough that firebender menial laborers use it to run the power plants. It is also noted that firebenders who are strong enough to use this gift are not common, though.
  • Metalbending, once Toph's unique innovation, has become a standard ability in Republic City's police force, Zaofu's city guard, and the Earth Empire's Elite Mooks. In this case, Toph herself was the founder of both the first metalbending school and Republic City's police force, her younger daughter was the one who founded Zaofu, and the Earth Empire was founded by a former Zaofu guardswoman. Additionally, the skill is still noted as being relatively difficult to learn.
  • The Equalists fighters all use Ty Lee's Pressure Point-based chi-blocking.
  • Combustion Man's explosion-based combustion bending is still quite rare, allowing P'Li to remain a serious threat in Book 3, but the particulars of how it is performed are well-known, as are its weaknesses.
• Universal Driver's License:
  • Asami is able to pilot a Mini-Mecha because its controls are similar to a Future Industries forklift.
  • General Iroh can pilot a airplane, to an extent, despite only becoming aware that they exist the day before.
• The Unfavorite: Kya and Bumi according to their recollection that their father, Aang took Tenzin on vacation with him, leaving them behind.
• Ungrateful Bastard: President Raiko expels Korra from Republic City in "A Breath of Fresh Air" for publicity reasons, with no thanks for the service she did fighting Amon or the Dark Spirits. This is after she had enough of being scapegoated by him and told him the spirits and the vines would stay until she figured out how to remove them without making the spirits angry.
• Unknown Rival: Korra to Asami, over Mako's affections. Yeah, that's right. Asami is so beautiful that she has the freaking Avatar as an Unknown Rival. (At least, until Ikki runs her mouth in front of the two of them about it, severely embarrassing Korra.
• Unnecessary Roughness: Korra gets a penalty in one of her matches for needlessly bouncing an opponent up and down with her bending, and then gets a yellow fan for talking back to the ref.
• Unobtainium: Platinum fits the bill in this series. It's far more common in the Avatar-world than on Earth (enough that Humongous Mecha can be made out of it), incredibly hard, and most importantly for the plot, absolutely free of earthen impurities and thus impossible to metalbend. It's used to make the Powered Armor and Mini-Mecha used by the villains of two books, and in one memorable example, the twenty-five-story Colossus used in Kuvira's attack on Republic City.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Korra and Mako. And then Bolin's one sided crush on Korra.
• Unskilled, but Strong: The first benders had no actual skill; they were given an element by their lion-turtle when they left the city, and gave it back when they returned. They never had a chance to train. Wan was the first to learn how to truly use his element, becoming the first real firebender after training with a dragon.
  Hunter: The way Wan uses fire...I've never seen anything like it. It was like it was an extension of his own body.
• Unstable Equilibrium: The Pro Bending ring is designed intentionally with this in mind, as per Bryan's explanation of the mechanics of the game.
• Unusual User Interface: Kuvira operates the Colossus by metalbending a series of freely rotating metal balls mounted in sockets around a control platform, like a set of mousewheels.
• Upsetting the Balance: Balance and harmony play a central role, eventually culminating in the conflict between Raava and Vaatu, the spirits of order and chaos respectively. Every 10,000 years, Harmonic Convergence occurs, and these ancient spirits would have the opportunity to fight for the fate of both the Spirit World and the world of the humans. Had Korra failed to defeat Vaatu and Unalaq, they would have rewarded civilization with an era of darkness, effectively throwing "balance" as a concept out the window.
• Urban Fantasy: Of the rare alternate world variety, given that the setting is analogous to The Roaring '20s and takes place in a world shaped and developed in large part by bending.
• Urban Ruins: Over the course of the third season following the murder of the Earth Queen by Zaheer, Ba Sing Se collapses into this. The city suffers severe Monumental Damage, the government is torn down, looters immediately start prowling the streets, and fires begin to consume the lower class neighborhoods.
• Useless Without Powers: Amon's ability to take away a bender's powers leaves everyone he de-bends completely and totally helpless from the very moment they're depowered. This, despite that bending is based on real martial arts though de-bending has just as much a spiritual/psychological effect as physical, plus benders are used to being Long-Range Fighters.

V

• Variable-Length Chain: The police force can use their bending to unleash metal cables as long as they need for their purpose, stored in a set of spools on their back.
  • And under tension they react like real metal cables when cut or snapped, which is how Lin got her facial scars when Suyin cuts the line Lin attached to her wrist to arrest her.
• Vehicular Assault:
  • In "The Revelation," Korra and Mako do battle with Equalist chi-blockers who are riding motorcyles.
  • In "When Extremes Meet," Team Avatar uses Asami's satomobile to attack, and defeat, Equalist forces staging a jail break. At one point it becomes a car vs. motorcyle battle.
• Victory by Endurance: The Fire Ferrets win two matches by simply dodging or blocking their opponents' attacks until they've tired themselves out, at which point the Ferrets win with ease. Mako impressively manages this when it's three-on-one.
• Villain Has a Point: All four Big Bads each had good ideas behind their actions, which is actually discussed in Book 4. Their problem was that they were extreme in their beliefs and ended up doing just as much harm as good.
  • Amon was right about Republic City's benders; benders do lord their powers over others, many prominent crime families were made up of or led by benders, and throughout the franchise civilians are at the mercy of bending villains. The problem is he blamed all problems on benders and became just as oppressive as he claimed they were in his attempt to wipe bending from the world.
  • Unalaq pointed out that the Southern Water Tribe had lost their connection with the spirits, and the spirit festival, which was meant to honor the spirits, had degenerated into a gaudy carnival. However, a civil war was really not the way to help with that.
  • Zaheer championed freedom from oppressive and corrupt rulers like the Earth Queen, but also had no tolerance for benevolent or even-handed rulers, lumping them all together as authority figures to be exterminated. Furthermore, he does not distinguish between inherently unaccountable authority figures (the hereditary monarchies of the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe/s, and Fire Nation) and ones that do not suffer from the same potential for abuse (the President of Republic City, the Avatar).
  • Kuvira declared that a hereditary monarchy like the Earth Kingdom's was archaic and stupid, and Prince Wu had no right to the throne when he was unfit to lead and had done nothing to help unite the kingdom while it was torn apart by rebellions and bandits. However, declaring herself sole dictator of the new Earth Empire and extending its reach to Zaofu and the United Republic was taking her vision of "unity" too far, and it's unlikely she would have stopped there anyway.
• Villain Ball:
  • Unalaq's plans might have succeeded if only he hadn't been so heavy-handed and petty in his execution. He takes the time to ruin his brother's life, even though this gains him nothing and alienates Korra, who he still needs to complete his plan. He also completely takes over the south, which also didn't win him any points with Korra. He could have gotten Korra to open both portals and she would be none the wiser to his plan, right up until it was too late, if only he had shown a little restraint. Even if he absolutely had to secure the portal to make sure no one found Vaatu, he could have just secured the portal and nothing else, which probably would have worked if he made up a half-decent excuse. Additionally, according to Zaheer, Unalaq's been this self-serving since Korra was a child as he hid his involvement in the failed kidnapping, left them to rot and planned to make himself the Dark Avatar without them.
  • Considering Zaofu was both 1. never affected by the instability in the rest of the continent and 2. Suyin's fear of being seen as a dictator kept her out of it, Kuvira's desire to conquer it, even tactfully, was out of pure ego and had she left it alone, she could've kept the rest of the Empire as Bolin himself pointed out. Instead, her abandonment issues/Control Freak tendencies get the better of her and she both moves to take the city and antagonizes Bolin and Varrick into defecting that in turn, gives the opposition more allies, intel and motivation to confront her.

• Villainous Face Hold: Amon grabs a captured Korra's jaw and forces her to look up at him when he threatens to take away her bending.
• Villain Song:
  • Amon's theme.
  • Theme for the Red Lotus.
• Villainous Cheekbones: Almost every villain in this series has cheekbones that fit.
• Villainous Rescue: When Tarrlok is about to flee the city with Korra as his hostage, Amon shows up and de-bends him, but he came to kidnap Korra too.
• Villain Reveals the Secret: In the Book One finale, Tarrlok confesses to Mako and Korra that he's actually Amon's brother, and that Amon is a secret Boomerang Bigot. Played with in that by this point Tarrlok had been stripped of his bending abilities and desperately wanted to redeem himself.
• Villain World:
  • Before the first Avatar could stop him, this was what God of Evil Vaatu wanted: A world where spirits rule over humans. With Unalaqs support, Vaatu almost succeeds in the present day.
  • The main setting of Book 3 is this. The Earth Kingdom is ruled by a tyrannical Queen, who extorts her own citizens, has the Dai Li proscribe her own people, especially Airbending children, and sends poachers to hunt down endangered animals, including Sky Bison, which are considered sacred animals to the near-extinct Air Nomads. The Earth Queen is dead, but now the Earth Kingdom has fallen to anarchy and chaos, which is exactly what the Red Lotus wanted.
  • In Book 4, Kuvira ends up re-uniting the splintered kingdom into the Earth Empire, a militaristic state that rounds up citizens of non-Earth Kingdom lineage into re-education camp, constructs weapons of mass destruction through spirit vines, and is intent on conquering the United Republic and establishing itself as the world's dominant superpower.
• The Voiceless: Ginger, to begin with. It comes as a genuine shock when she actually talks for the first time.
• Vomit Discretion Shot:
  • When Bolin "loses his noodles" in a pro-bending match, which incites the announcer to advertise some noodles.
  • Meelo vomits into some bushes after consuming poisonous berries in the wild.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
  • When Rohan barfed on Kya.
  • Unlike Meelo, his lemur Poki vomits poisonous berries onto the ground on-screen, then proceeds to lick them back up.

W

• Walking the Earth:
  • By the start of the series, Zuko has abdicated the Fire Nation throne to his daughter Izumi and is spending his twilight years traveling the world as an unofficial Fire Nation Ambassador.
  • Korra at the start of Book 4 and it's later revealed that Toph is currently doing this.
• Wandering Walk of Madness: The Fog of Lost Souls in the Spirit World is a large fog that has settled over a crater. It drives people who wind up in the spirit world insane, indicated by how they walk around aimlessly muttering vaguely about their mortal lives.
• Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: Mako wears an old scarf at all times, even when dressing to the nines for a fancy date, because it's one of the few mementos he has of his parents. Something of an Informed Flaw; although some characters react to it as though it clashes horribly with his fine clothes, to the audience it looks perfectly normal, even stylish.
• The Warlord: In the fourth season, Kuvira starts out as a military commander tasked with establishing order over the territory of the Earth Kingdom, who then decides out that she'd just rather take all this military might at her disposal for herself from then on. There's a deviation from the implied standard in that she's a Visionary Villain rather than simply out for her own personal gain.
• Watching Troy Burn: Amon and the Equalists' destruction of the pro-bending arena.
• Weaponized Car: The Equalist motorcycles have smoke screens.
• Welcome to the Big City: The plot of the first chapter, as sheltered Country Mouse Korra realizes Republic City isn't the shining beacon of harmony and prosperity she thought it was.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: It's heavily implied that Bumi's accomplishments were driven by his desire to gain his Aang's approval, and establish self-worth as the only non-bender in his family
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: All four Big Bads each championed a cause that was a legitimate concern, but in each case they went overboard in trying to correct for it, ultimately ending up going to the opposite extreme. Lampshaded in Book 4 by Toph when she points out that Amon, Unalaq, and Zaheer were fighting for ultimately noble purposes (equality, bringing back the spirits, and freedom respectively), and that Korra could learn a thing or two from them. This becomes useful when Korra tries to understand Kuvira, who is also fighting for an ultimately noble purpose (unity and security).
• Wham Episode: Can be found here.
• Wham Line:
  • Towards the end of "Skeletons in the Closet"
  Tarrlok: I'm Amon's brother.
  • "The Sting" ends with Korra saying "Who's Avatar Korra?".
  • Combined with Wham Shot, from "A New Spiritual Age". Not so much the line, but who is saying it.
  Iroh: You two look lost. Maybe I can help.
  • And then we have this gem from "Darkness Falls".
  Zhao: I am Zhao the Conqueror. I am the Moonslayer! I will capture the Avatar!
  • "The Metal Clan".
  Korra: "Why didn't you tell me you had a sister?"
  Lin: (tersely) "Half-sister."
  • From the season fourth's trailer: "THREE YEARS LATER". Also:
  Korra: "I can't believe it...Toph?"
  • From "Korra Alone", when faced with a vision of herself in the Avatar State for the second time:
  (the dog starts growling, facing the apparition)
  Korra: "Wait... you can see it too?"
• Wham Shot:
  • Easily missed if you weren't paying attention or didn't know some of the mythology of the show from the first series. The first time Tarrlok bloodbends Korra and kidnaps her, the "camera" pans up to the night sky showing that there was a crescent moon, but not a full moon. Based on prior mythology, this is Beyond the Impossible.
  • The first episode of Book 3 starts with Bumi airbending for the first time.
  • In "Original Airbenders", Kai and Jinora are suddenly captured by what seems to be a normal group of thugs. However, their leader is wearing an Air-bison fur cape.
  • The final has Korra and Asami joining their hands and gazing lovingly into each others eyes.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Did Lau Gan-Lan, the Cabbage Corp. CEO ever get exonerated?
  • Unlike most of the characters from the original series, we never find out what exactly happened to Azula or Suki, or if either of them are even still alive (they would both be in their mid-80s by the time of the show's setting).
  • A deliberate example occurs in "Remembrances". Varick tells the plot to a mover he plans on making that serves as a very loose retelling of the first three seasons, but with Bolin as the protagonist instead of Korra. In it, Vaatu, Unalaq, Zaheer, and Amon all come together to try and defeat Bolin. However, while the former three are told how they're defeated, Varick's story never details what happened to Amon. Bolin points out how Amon suddenly disappeared from the story.
• When the Planets Align: Happens every ten thousand years, signifying a harmonic convergence event. The energies of the two spirit portals combine and allow either Raava (Order) or Vaatu (Chaos) to dominate the other. The loser is absorbed and slowly gains strength until the next convergence, and the cycle repeats.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: On the appearance of two squadrons of fighter planes Bolin wonders aloud where Hiroshi finds the time to keep inventing new modern vehicles and weapons.
• Where It All Began: The final battle with Amon happens at the Pro-Bending Arena, which is where most of the New Team Avatar first met and where Amon formally declared war on Republic City.
• White-and-Grey Morality: The overall moral scheme. Main antagonists have legitimate points and are overall genuinely well intentioned, if ruthless about their methods, as well as other human traits. One episode has Toph advising Korra to learn from her enemies; as they have good points, they just lack balance. The exceptions are Unalaq, Hou-Ting and Vaatu.
• Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Korra destroys the 2000 year old airbending training gates out of frustration.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Korra's disguise to infiltrate an Equalist rally is a hat, scarf, and long coat◊ in flapper style which covers her distinctive hair style and clothing.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: The variation where the protagonist is the newcomer. Korra plays the stranger to siblings Mako and Bolin.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: This was the reason why bloodbending was declared illegal and why Hama was evil in the first place—the continued use of bloodbending causes waterbenders to go insane and develop an insatiable hunger for power—which was the case with Yakone, Amon, and Tarrlok frequent use of bloodbending turned them into even bigger monsters than they started out.
• Woman Scorned:
  • Eska, after Bolin dumps her.
  • Lin Bei Fong apparently trashed Air Temple Island after Tenzin dumped her.
    • AND tried to throw Pema in jail, somehow.
• The Worf Barrage: Tarrlok failing to bloodbend Amon.
• The Worf Effect:
  • In "Rebel Spirit", said spirit easily takes out everyone that comes at it, including Avatar State Korra.
  • The White Lotus is no longer a secretive organization composed of the most powerful bending masters who only ever act together in very dire times. Since the end of the Hundred Year War, they've come out in the open as the protectors and allies of the Avatar... Though most of what we see of that is them failing to do so, as just about every villain and their crew gets a chance to wipe the floor with them at some point. Though this isjustified by the fact guarding Korra 24/7 would be a job that would require more manpower than just the order's grandmaster benders, even if they were available to do so - the order would have to recruit others for the job at some point.
  • Tonraq seems to have been hit with this. He is easily one of the most competent benders on the show, was one of the people who defeated the Red Lotus when they first tried to kidnap his daughter, and has been a general in the Water Tribe since his early twenties. But he's defeated by every serious villain he's encountered... though not from a lack of landing blows; his enemies are just as equally skilled in many cases.

• Working with the Ex: Lin and Tenzin cooperate "like old times" in chapter six of book one. Later, Mako also does this after breaking up with Asami, then again with Korra, making this mutual for three people.
• World-Healing Wave: In Book 3, it's revealed that the Harmonic Convergence also restored the presence of airbending in the world, granting it to many people who before could not bend.
• The World Is Always Doomed: It seems like the end of the Hundred Year War just doesn't cut it. Every season, the world is always under threat; Book 1 featured the Equalists who, while mostly confined in Republic City seek to expand their campaign to eliminate all bending across the world. Book 2's Big Bad Vaatu seeks to plunge the entire world in eternal darkness. Book 3's plot features Korra having to stop a cabal known as the Red Lotus, who seek to eliminate all the world's governments and bring it to complete anarchy. And by the consequences of the Red Lotus, new doom has arisen in Book 4.
  • Korra even starts questioning why the Avatar should even exist if the world was going to be out of balance no matter what she does. She then gets reminded that that is exactly why the Avatar has to exist: to learn from past imbalances and better deal with the new before they ruin the world completely.
• World of Action Girls: Nearly every woman in the setting knows some kind of martial arts, supernatural or not.
  • Korra obviously, through a combination of simply being the Avatar (where being a Badass is requisite for all of them) and being a naturally skilled fighter.
  • Asami's martial arts and driving and piloting abilities cement her as a Badass Normal more than capable of going toe-to-toe with bad guys.
  • Any woman in the Beifong family. Lin is the no-nonsense police chief of Republic City, Suyin is the leader of the Metal Clan, with all the incredibly badass metal/earthbending skill that entails, and Opal, Suyin's daughter, becomes an airbender and grows into this trope. And of course, the family matriarch, Toph.
  • Zhu Li is shown to be scary good with a mecha suit.
  • Jinora is not only shown to be able to knock out the Lieutenant with one swift air blast, but she later co-ordinates with the other Airbenders to help take down Zaheer through her idea of creating a tornado to mess with his flying abilities.
  • Kya is shown to be almost evenly matched against Zaheer with her impressive waterbending skills.
  • Ikki could also be considered this, seeing how she took down a few Equalist mooks with an enlarged version of her Grandfather's airscooter.
• World of Badass: It's the Avaverse, so it's more or less a given.
• World's Strongest Man: The Avatar, naturally, especially a fully-realized one.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: As a Running Gag, Korra is called "the worse Avatar ever" by herself, a random little girl and Toph.
• Wrench Wench: Asami repairs a damaged airship downed in the desert with minimal equipment and then builds a sand-sailer when the airship is destroyed by a giant sandshark.
• Wretched Hive: Tenzin acknowledges that Republic City has gotten a lot worse since his father's death, to the point that he considers his responsibilities as a councilman more important than teaching Korra.
• Wrong Context Magic:
  • Amon claims that his ability to remove a person's bending is a gift bestowed upon him by the spirits, who have determined that the Avatar failed in its duties of bringing balance to the world. Amon is actually simply utilizing another form of Wrong Context Magic; by combining bloodbending with chi-blocking he is able to strip away a person's bending ability.
  • Sokka discusses this trope in a flashback. While bloodbending without a full moon appears to break the laws of bending, Sokka quite reasonably points out that the fact that nobody has ever done it before does not mean it is impossible, given other examples of Wrong Context Magic that he encountered in the original series and especially when all evidence indicates that it actually happened.
  • The Red Lotus in Book 3 all have abilities that don't fit into the normal rules of bending.
• Wrong Guy First: Mako to both Asami and Korra. They end up with one another in the end, instead.
• Wuxia: As with its predecessor, a heavy genre influence.

X

• Xanatos Gambit: Amon makes a public demand over the radio that the city government shut down the Pro-bending Arena and cancel the championship match. If it works, he shows that he can make the government fold under pressure. If it doesn't, his original plan goes forward and he demonstrates his power regardless.
  • Varrick can come off as playing Xanatos Speed Chess all the time in his plans to get support for the South, take over Future Industries and make boat loads of money. Hell his introduction can be seen as this: either no one tells him he's not flying (and he knows that they're all yes-men in his pocket) or someone points out that he's not (and he gets his claws on someone who isn't afraid to be honest). If Asami didn't follow his advice to send tanks to the south (which he stole) it wouldn't have mattered because in a matter of weeks he'd be able to buy the company out right because it was in trouble, he just didn't want to risk competition for the bidding...

Y

• Yandere: When Eska decides to make Bolin hers ("You mean like... a boyfriend, orrr... like a slave?" "Yes."), she becomes icily psychotic about the slightest bit of attention he gives to any other woman.
• You Are Not Alone: In chapter eight, when Korra is crying about not being able to take the burden of saving the city alone, Mako, Bolin, and Asami come along and remind her she is not alone and they are there to help her save the city.
  • Much like Katara to Aang, Korra is this to Asami at the end of the series after Hiroshi's dead, leaving Asami the Sole Survivor of her family just as Asami was there for her while she was poisoned, which kicks off their eventual relationship.
• You Are What You Hate: Amon is not only a waterbender, but a bloodbender, which makes all his talk about how benders only use their powers to gain an unnatural advantage over others deliciously ironic.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Tarrlok admires Korra's, for lack of a better word, ruthlessness.
• You're Just Jealous: After Mako wrongly accuses Korra of using his brother for some Operation: Jealousy ploy, she sees through his facade and remarks that he is jealous. This seems to be a favorite tactic of Mako since he uses the same argument against Korra when she insists that Hiroshi is an Equalist and Mako believes she is only doing this because she's jealous of Mako's and Asami's relationship.
• Your Head Asplode: The somewhat graphic ending of P'Li at the hands of Suyin.
• Your Makeup Is Running: Eska, at the end of "Civil War, Part 2" when she angrily chases after Bolin. The next episode shows it still ruined.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Korra's emotions can turn good spirits evil and vice versa. Others like Unalaq can have a similar effect. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to affect Wan Shi Tong.
• You Shall Not Pass!:
  • The Order of the White Lotus guards remain behind to hold off the Equalists when Korra and Tenzin's family flee Air Temple Island.
  • During the Book Two finale, Mako and Bolin pull this against Unalaq and his kids. Later, they join Tenzin, his siblings, and a newly-reformed Desna and Eska in holding off an army of dark spirits.
• You Will Be Spared: Amon to Korra, of the "I'm saving you for last" variety.
• You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: Bumi delivers this line word for word after single handedly destroying an entire Water Tribe encampment with little more than a flute and pure guile.

Z

• Zeppelins from Another World: Republic City has its own zeppelins, used by Metalbending Police patrols.

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