Reviews WesternAnimation / The Legend Of Korra

I think your comment on the lack of filler episodes and highlighting the characters is spot-on. While I do think Korra is a good show, it really could have been better. Slowing down the pace could have worked. Wasting an entire episode on shipping is not the type of slowing down the pace I would have wanted.

Along with the characters, there are worldbuilding elements that are mentioned but not used as much as they should have. For example, near the end of season 1, the heroes encounter an underground society where benders and nonbenders live peacefully. But this is not expanded upon, despite the fact that it would have shown us a lot about the world and it would have been interesting to see just how two groups that supposedly hate each other can get along. Instead, it's just mentioned, then glossed over a few seconds later. Slowing down the story would have done wonders.

Now that the series has actually ended, I still stand by most of what I've written. Book 3 is by far my favorite, and not just because it has the return of Zuko. I suppose that out of all the series, this season feels most like the original series. But still, the stories appear to be rushed and overstuffed to me. In the end, the series also appears to lack an overarching sense of unity. ATLA told one big story, with clear personal journeys for each character. LOK, by contrast, feels more like four consecutive miniseries, four things that just happened to the avatar before we, the viewers, leave her behind.

Not to mention, the introduction of the colossus was a bridge too far for me. This is really the point where it stopped feeling like Avatar or even like a fantasy story. The clipshow shortly before that also made me realize just how little I care about characters like Mako or Asami. I'll give the writers props though for coming up with Varrick - he just has so much more personality than any of the actual main characters.

Honestly, it takes a lot more elements before characters like Asami are 'boring', imo. Her character arc is simply much more about dealing with her company, and helping out her friends - growth in a different area than norm, but doesn't make her uninteresting.

And actually, those are just what they started as; they grew considerably more nuanced as the show went on, especially Korra after Season 3 + 4. Mako, as shown by Rememberances, is stoic and had issues with awkward anything - by the end of season 4, he's aware of it, and is making sure he's not involved in any more relationships until he's sure he doesn't make the same mistakes. Bolin quite simply wants to make a difference in the world, and his jokes are just part of his personality (first it was to help out his brother + himself, including the Mover aspect, then the airbender movement, then 'misguidedly' helping with the Earth Empire), which there's nothing wrong with.

Also, while filler would have been great, I find the fast pace works for the show (especially since it's intentionally not like A:TLA in many areas). In spots, it has pressure of course, but overall yes it works I think

The original Avatar was a classic example of refining a story vs. innovating. It was a standard story of a chosen one fighting an evil empire, but it did everything very, very well, with the characters, the world building, and the action. Korra, while definitely more ambitious, lacks the characters to make the series work. It's a shame to, because they got a lot of good actors, a lot of time, but the supporting characters are badly written and the lead is insufferable.

Good review, and I agree completely.

Why on Earth has my review been flagged?

Eh, don't worry about it. It doesn't seem to actually affect anything.

Personally, I also love the characters more than anything else in any work of fiction. But, in my opinion, the characters in Korra aren't any worse than those from the original series. You just can't get much better than Iroh and Toph, if you can get any better than them at all. Toph even continues to rock through her appearances in LOK. "Imagine, if I were in my prime - I would DESTROY you! Mwahahahaha!!!", indeed. Other people are pretty good - but maybe it's some kind of a psychological problem, when a viewer dislikes a particular mindset which is common among most of the charaters.

There are common aspects, like "You always stay true to yourself", and "you are unique, and not like your parents, etc" in more ways than one - Bolin's attempts at being cool aren't any more successful than Zuko's attempts to be evil (or social). Also, it's nice to see that Toph stayed the way she is till the very end - Lin's flashbacks showed her being a hardcore police chief, whose success Lin tried to repeat... While Toph's original motivation was along the lines of "I get to punch criminals, I get to punch... I mean, teach people metalbending, and I'm getting payed for it!". Tenzin being a serious son for trickster Aang, Toph's daughter getting all the freedom they wanted, and then Suyin's (iirc) chidren being pretty much home-educated again. This obvious "Children try not to make the same mistakes their parents made, and making completely different ones. Then repeat." cycle.

Also, I associate Varrick with Johnny Depp's cpt.Jack Sparrow playing the role of Tonto from Lone Ranger. They don't usually shove many characters this crazy into one work.

I find the characters very hard to care about. Compared to the original series\' characters, they seem so bland and one-dimensional. Korra is hotheaded, Mako is stoic, Bolin cracks jokes and Asami is just... boring.

Agreed.

That's mostly subjective, though the sentence that follows is factually incorrect.

Which is only true during most of Book 1. By the end of the season she had begun to learn patience, and during the final two seasons, Korra's preferred method of dealing with threats was to try reasoning with them. Such as when she said she wanted to talk to Kuvira, rather than fight her, which she said was what the "old her" would've done.

Aside from that, Korra is the girl-next-door/tomboy type, as both trope descriptions aptly sums up her character. She's actually pretty chill most of the time, but she's not one to mince words, or bite her tongue either. If something (or someone) upsets her, she's gonna let them know it.

A stoic person would someone like Byakuya Kuchika, from Bleach - virtually devoid of any emotion whatsoever. Almost nothing anyone says (or does) affects him, even when the man thought he was dying.

By contrast, we've seen Mako become frustrated with his brother, he near instantly became smitten with Asami when he first saw her, and (unlike Byakuya) when faced with the possibility of his own death (against Ming Hua and while shutting down the Colossus) he was visibly concerned that he might not survive. That's why he breathed that sigh of relief after he fried Ming Hua and saw she was dead.

This is only part I agree with, because I found her to be bland and forgettable as a character.