History Awesome / TheLegendOfKorraBookOne

** Doubles as possible [[Foreshadowing Foreshadowing]] for [[BlowYouAway how Amon is finally defeated.]]

* Republic City. Not only because some actual good came of those Fire Nation colonies that started the war in the first place, but the fact that it's a thematically appropriate [[Expy Expy]] of New York City. Not just that, but that technology has advanced. In The Last Airbender, the most technologically advanced vehicles were submarines and essentially armed hot air balloons. Come Legend of Korra, and there are cars, electric lights, and even small airplanes are introduced towards the end of season 1. Just goes to show how much the world has changed since the first show.

* An antagonist example. After he and his little brother got verbally abused and forced to bloodbend animals and each other by their father, Noatak finally has enough of it and bloodbends Yakone into submission while giving an epic ReasonYouSuckSpeech to him.

* [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Lin Beifong shows why she's the chief of the Metalbending Police: by kicking ass against the Equalist attack.]] Even when surprise-attacked, she shows how competent she is.
** And before that, stopping the council from shutting down the match. Even if it didn't end well, her reasoning was sound, and seeing that metal cable come out of nowhere to break the gavel even as Tarrlok was banging it was just awesome.

** [[BadassBureaucrat Tarrlok]] [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking deserves some credit]]: He gave ''Korra'' the fight of her life with his [[MakingASplash master waterbending]], including using the waterfall in his office to hold up a persistent circular watershield around himself while simultaneously launching a literal [[FlechetteStorm hail of]] [[AnIcePerson sharp icicles]], which besides being arguably the most [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome awesome-looking move in the entire Avatar franchise]], connected several times and drew blood. Oh, and he can also ''[[BeyondTheImpossible bloodbend without the full moon]].'' The man showed his true colors in less than ten minutes, and basically brought himself up to Amon's level in villainy.

* General Iroh hijacks a plane. ''In midair.'' Propelling himself just like Azula and Ozai did in The Last Airbender, but with greater maneuverability than even Ozai showed.

* Mako hitting Amon point-blank with lightning, while being bloodbent. Amon later admitted that Mako was the first person EVER to get the best of him.

* Credit where it's due. The Protestor manages to trick Korra into [[WhatAnIdiot convincing his spectators that benders do abuse their powers to oppress people]].

* Korra and Lin Beifong don't see eye to eye, which made their team up against Amon and the Equalists all the more awesome. Even more awesome how they were almost in-tune and aiding each other.
** Some percentage of that awesome is thanks to Tenzin, who spent the pro-bending match getting Lin to lighten up toward Korra.

[[folder:And The Winner Is]]

** The level of nuance in the CurbStompBattle just makes it poetry in motion. In-story InstantReplay shows that Korra's water blast hit Tahno just as he leaned forward to unleash his counter that, lacking strength due to being interrupted too early, Korra turned aside without even lifting a finger. In other words, Korra had not only fooled him to move in the way of her uppercut, she timed it so that the force would hit him in the chin just the moment he started gathering forward momentum but before he could translate it into an attack. A pro wins by being the strongest, the smartest and the fastest. A master wins by seeing every move their opponent is going to make and breaking them apart before they happen.

* Pabu rescuing Korra, Mako, and Bolin when they're tied up during the Equalist raid on the Pro-Bending arena. BadassAdorable? I think so.
** Hell, Bolin ''speaking ferret'' belongs here too.
* Korra's fearless attempt to give chase to Amon is made extremely awesome when you consider the utter terror she has for him and the near [[MindRape mental breakdown]] he caused her two episodes beforehand.
** In the same scene, as Amon and his henchmen re-board their airship, Korra launches a fire blast into its cargo bay that knocks all of the chi-blockers inside off of their feet. [[ImplacableMan Except for Amon, who simply turns around and watches, standing perfectly still.]]

** Amon delivering a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the entire audience about applauding for cheaters before [[DePower de-powering]] the Wolfbats in front of everyone.

* Bolin manages to shoot a clay disk so precisely it ''bounces off the side rope and hits the rival''. This guy's more talented than we thought.
* Retroactive one for Pema. Remember how she said in episode 5 that there was some other woman Tenzin was interested in before her heartfelt confession managed to finally get Tenzin's attention? Come episode 6, and we find out that Lin Beifong used to have a romantic relationship with Tenzin, and she was the other woman Pema was talking about. So non-bending Pema actually risked the ire of a jealous and very skilled bender who, according to Tenzin, tried to get her arrested.