The Legend of Korra

I've never liked the idea of an evil Avatar, for the same reason I've never liked the idea of an evil Link or an evil Doctor, or an evil, I don't know, Hawkman. The idea of this one person constantly coming back when the world needs him the most appeals to me on a basic level, and I hate the idea of flying in the face of that.

Plus, a lot of the examples of an evil Avatar I have heard don't seem to amount to much more than "hey, what if this guy who is stated by lore to always come back and be a hero instead because a crazy psycho?" Well what if? What does it add, besides shitting all over what came before for what amounts to little more than shock value?

The Avatar as the antagonist, on the other hand, I can get behind. They don't even need to be a villain — it could be a sports anime-ish thing where a guy wants to defeat the Avatar in fair fight and become the world's strongest fighter, like Baki.

Mmm, I can live without the idea of one Great Man of History who perpetuates indefinitely to regularly shape the course of the world. Like, it's not a terrible trope, but it's not something I'd consider so sacred as to make a subversion inherently bad.

There is merit to subverting the Recurring Chosen One trope, if only to establish that this character is not the sole arbiter of what is Good and Just in the universe. That they are as mortal and fallible as everyone else around them and, indeed, that it is by choice that they typically stay a moral course and not just because they're an inhuman beacon of pure holy righteousness.

Establishing that the hero is capable of falling makes it more of a triumph that they have risen so many times instead. There is no accomplishment in being a moral paragon if you are physically incapable of ever being anything but.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 19th 2018 at 8:49:06 AM

The thing about the Great Man Theory is that it's easier to write about. It's hard to show "there were dozens if not hundreds of people involved in this historical event, and if any one of them had died or left honestly nothing important would have changed."

You occasionally see it in In Spite of a Nail time travel stories, but then it's hard to get the audience emotionally invested. I have seen good examples, where part of the emotion is about how this character who everyone thought was important turns out to be ultimately replaceable, but they're rare.

That is true, but it's also why things like a hypothetical Evil Avatar storyline are beneficial to the narrative. Because it allows you to show that even if your Great Man hero wasn't there, someone else would carry the fight instead. It combats the notion that the Main Hero is the one and only person in all of time and space who is fighting evil.

Hero of Another Story characters also help with that.

On a completely separate note, I've heard some people say that Asami (or maybe her actress) has a lisp in certain scenes. No one has ever clarfied which scenes these are, though. Anyone ever notice Asami having a lisp?

Wow, it's already been 4 years since this show ended. I really do miss it sometimes.

It doesn't even feel like it's been 2. Soon enough it'll be the 10th anniversary. I'm already starting to feel nostalgic for the series, or more specifically the prerelease and season 1 days. I hated Book 1 so much but the fandom was always so amusing.

I've already rewatched the whole series a few years ago, and even THAT is a while ago now.

Yeah, it is very cool. :)

I think it's odd that the Korra fandom actually seems to agree on the order of "Best Season", which is a lot unlike other fandoms I've seen. 3 > 1 > 4 > 2 seems to be the accepted order.

Dark Avatar did a lot to make season 2 unarguably the worst one.

Really? I thought the Dark Avatar stuff was fine, it was how the arc dragged in the middle that was what made it the worst. I don't even dislike any of it, it's just not as good as the other seasons. Also, I'd put Season 4 above Season 1.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 20th 2018 at 10:41:36 AM

There's something I was wondering about Harmonic Convergence. Did it grant any other kind of bending abilities to people who didn't have them before or just airbending?

Well, there is one thing Season 2 gave us that I'm glad for. Besides Not-Aladdin, that is.

Vaatu's laser.

Edited by Rytex on Dec 20th 2018 at 12:28:03 PM

Among other sounds.

I agree with PMC that the middle was the worst part of Book 2 (minus “Beginnings”, mind you). Book 4 or Book 1 is a more difficult question for me, though I actually think the former might have less problems?

Yeah, minus Beginnings. Beginnings was great. It was mostly just the civil war and cop stuff that dragged. Nuktuk was amazing, but a lot of the stuff around that felt slow.

I honestly don’t feel like I ever got the appeal of Nuttuk, to be honest.

Don't forget Varrick. That dude is pretty much the best part of a lot of the show. Also, I think ATLA has an agreed-upon quality thing too: 2 -> 3 -> 1.

For Korra, I'd go 3 > 4 > 1 > 2.

I've had a few chances to buy the box-set but I can never get myself to. I don't think I'd actually like rewatching the series. The first time around was difficult enough. But maybe it's best when you watch it without gaps?

I watched the first season as it came out, but then fell behind when season two started. When season four was ending, I just binged watched the entire thing and, yeah, it actually does work a lot better if you can just start the next episode as soon as the current episode ends.

x4

Yeah, it's easy to see why. One season you have full of intrigue, questionable moral choices, and that kind of stuff, but come the next season, even though a lot of questions were finally answered, there wasn't as much guessing and moments that kept you on the edge of your seat (like S2 Zuko in general). And of course, Season 1 had "The Great Divide".

I dont see why a dark avatar would have change something, is becoming harder and harde for the avatart to change stuff considering the struggle Korra suffer, as the world become more diplomatic is clear things are going to change.

I'd only accept an Evil Avatar story if that was what the whole 3rd series would focus on. And it had better go full Irredeemable as well with said Evil Avatar.