I disagree, I think Legend of Korra goes into even less detail than Avatar the last airbender. I really don't mean to sound rude, but Korra apologists tend to use Everybody's Jesus In Purgatory when describing how the series "has more depth" than the previous one (even if we compared apples to apples and only look at the first books). It's very apparent that it was supposed to be a mini-series. I don't hate LOK mind you, I was just underwhelmed.
I'm excited for September as well, because I'm expecting more than what we got before.
Also Aang didn't spam the Avatar state per se. The second season was about having control over it, and the first season the Avatar state was a kin to Hulking out. The avatar state has always had high stakes in the usage.
I don't follow what other people have been saying on LOK, but from the term "Korra apologists", you make it sound as though people generally don't like the series.
I never said that Korra "has more depth", I said it goes deeper in specific areas, and those areas were precisely the ones that I wanted. Everything has grown since TLA in a way that feels completely natural and makes sense. The world of TLA was incredibly insular: the Earth Kingdom kept mostly to itself, as did the Fire Nation, the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads. TLA showed us that bending wasn't necessarily hereditary, but one did not find an Earth bender without any Earth kingdom heritage (with the Avatar being the exception, of course). The details are there, they're just not always put into peoples mouths. Hence, the story of Mako and Bolin -brothers who bend different elements, and thus have mixed heritage- is one that shows exactly how the world is changing, without ever having to say "For the first time in history, citizens from the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom are intermarrying."
Look at the way that the fighting styles have changed since Aang's time: the bending tournaments have become more mainstream, and caused the fighting styles of the different elements to adapt a more pugilistic, straight-line MMA style approach. Does anybody say "Hey, remember when benders used to do all those spinny moves?" No, because they don't have to; it's all there on the screen.
As for the Avatar state, I've never liked it. In a pure Darwinian sense, it is a rock-stupid defense mechanism. The avatar's best defense is reincarnation, and anything that interferes with that is a weakness. But I'm willing to handwave that one, since the avatar's ultimate purpose is to maintain balance between the four nations, not just to perpetuate its own existence. But it also suffers from being poorly explained: does the avatar gain the sum total of every avatar's power, making them as strong as however many hundreds of avatars there have been? Seems doubtful, since there would be literally no threat that the avatar could not overcome if that were the case. Someone once pointed out to me that he didn't think Aang ever used more than one element at a time except when he was in the avatar state, but it really needs more explanation. And I could never shake off the feeling that him learning to control it was a really bad idea, as was shown to the Earth Kingdom general when he tried to force Aang into the state. The risk of using it always seemed too high to make it logical, and the only way he should have learned to "control" it was to prevent himself from ever going into it. He should have devoted his time to learning enough about bending to beat the Fire Lord without it; especially since Aang would have a boost from Sozin's comet the same as Ozai.
And like it or not, the writers absolutely spammed it. The avatar state was obviously a cheap narrative trick to try to make Aang more powerful while seeming to raise the stakes. Yet the only thing at stake is something the writers would never do (unless George R.R. Martin guest wrote an episode): killing off the avatar for good.
Meanwhile, I really like the animatics I've seen of Korra's avatar state: there's one where she appears to use it to give her a boost in a sled race against Tenzin's daughters, and you just know that's going to end with a moral on how abusing the avatar state is a really bad idea.
I guess the "excessive" use of the Avatar state never bothered me in A:TLA because he's only ever been productive in that state three times.
-The second part of the first episode, it established his character as the Avatar. -The first season finale, saved the northern water tribe. -The third season finale, defeating Ozai.
Every other time it was more a kin to Hulking out. Not much was accomplished with it, ergo not really a game breaker. I agree that it's poorly explained.
You can like something while admitting it has flaws. A "korra apologist" justifies the flaws.
I think LOK could have gone into more depth about the bender vs nonbender conflict, but they wanted to establish Amon as the villain, at the expense of complexity. Bolin and Mako's mixed family isn't given much attention, but I don't think that it's necessary. Mixed relationships seem to not be a big deal until the tie in comic.
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Digging deeper
I really liked TLA. It was a great concept, the characters were fleshed out and the fights were some of the best I've seen in animation. The only problems I had with it were when I wanted to know more; when I wish the show dug deeper. Korra took every complaint I had and said "I know, right?" and made it the focus of the new series. Where TLA only focused on benders, and we never got to see what life was like for the people who didn't have superpowers, TLK focuses on the class struggles between the often-lower class non-benders and the high and mighty benders. Energybending was thrown in at literally the last minute of TLA, and I felt like there was so much more that could have been done with it; TLK does exactly that, by making it the primary power of the villain in the first season. Aang (or more accurately, the writers) spammed the crap out of the Avatar state, despite being something that really shouldn't be used almost ever, given the heavy risks associated with it. TLK spends almost the whole season with Korra being unable to use the Avatar state, and the next season seems geared up to explore the concept in a much deeper way.
It would have been really easy for the writers to retread familiar ground, sticking with Aang. It was a brave decision to go with a new lead character, and to use the first series as a springboard for the next one. Time has passed and the world has grown since TLA. Airbender had a couple Steampunk elements to it, but Korra makes it a core aspect of its story, as technology rises to a point where it can actually challenge the magic that has been the dominant power for thousands of years. People of all types are emigrating to huge cities, forcing benders of all elements, as well as non-benders, into the same cultural mixing pot.
All that, plus the strengths of Airbender are as strong as ever in Korra. The characters are just as fleshed out and lovable, with Korra herself setting the bar for baddasses everywhere. I wait with bated breath for September, to see what the next season brings us.