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KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#75976: Dec 26th 2022 at 11:05:54 PM

I do like that idea, have Korra play a more prominent role (if still a supporting one).

Going to just throw out a few random ideas I had:

  • Villain ideas: a Fire Sage with similar ideas to Unalaq and/or Zaheer, a woman fused with some sort of bird spirit (I’m thinking an appearance similar to Eda), a giant snake spirit like Yamata no Orochi.
  • Utilizimf spirits again seems like a good idea, but for the human side of things…well, war is always reliable. If it was indeed set in the modern era, maybe something like an arms race?

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Dec 26th 2022 at 2:34:14 PM

Oh God! Natural light!
32ndfreeze Since: Mar, 2012
#75977: Dec 26th 2022 at 11:07:57 PM

I mentioned it ages ago, but I think they could have a way to establish a link to past Avatars, but have it be a bit of a process maybe involving finding them in the Spirit World or something that isn't reliable and needs to be done one at a time.

Or maybe they need items from past Avatar's to do so.

Basically a difficult or lengthy enough process an Avatar would need to dedicate their life to making significant progress in reestablishing anything close to the previous Avatar connection. But would allow for a plotline about a new Avatar forging a connection to a past Avatar if they needed specific advice or knowledge about something.


Or alternatively have something like a place in the Sprit World or an spiritual artifact/location that allows for communing with a past Avatar like Aang did a few times.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Dec 27th 2022 at 6:09:09 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#75978: Dec 27th 2022 at 5:18:12 AM

Korra can't be a supporting role, because as long as Korra is alive, there won't be a new Avatar, and there just is not going to be an Avatar show where the Avatar is a supporting character. It's never going to happen.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Bexlerfu Khatun of the Azim Steppe from Mol Iloh Since: Nov, 2020
Khatun of the Azim Steppe
#75979: Dec 27th 2022 at 5:30:38 AM

I can't really picture an old, wise Korra. I figure that for a sequel to happen she is likely to die relatively young, probably in a blaze of glory.

I don't wish for that to happen but that is IMO the most likely event. Also because considering TLOK has tech roughly on par with the early 20th century, if she were to live up to 100 then we'd basically end up with a modern setting.

Alternatively, she could live for a couple centuries, and the next series would be anticipation sci-fi.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#75980: Dec 27th 2022 at 5:48:37 AM

Korra is pretty much guaranteed to be in a supporting role. As the new Avatar's one and only available past life, the burden of being what Roku was to Aang and Aang was to Korra falls to her now.

The fact that she seems ill-suited to such a task is something I hope the writers have a lot of fun with, and don't gloss over. We've never really seen a Past Life character have to undergo their own arc.

Then again, they solved the Air Nomad genocide by having a magic wave of spirit power wash over the planet and abruptly repopulate the Air Nation. That is not indicative of creators who are interested in reckoning with the consequences of the story decisions made in previous shows. So it's entirely possible that the new Earth Avatar will trip over his own two feet, bonk his head really hard, and then BOOM - All Past Lives are suddenly restored.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 27th 2022 at 5:52:36 AM

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Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#75981: Dec 27th 2022 at 6:18:17 AM

I think, if it were me, I would have just had it that there were Air-Nomad survivors hidden somewhere (having had to radically alter their culture and lifestyle to stay hidden from the Fire Nation) rather than have Air Benders just be magically created.

Edited by Robbery on Dec 27th 2022 at 6:19:12 AM

diddyknux (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#75982: Dec 27th 2022 at 6:25:48 AM

By the end of Legend of Korra, Korra's fully become a mature, wise Avatar. She'll absolutely be a capable spirit mentor of whoever the next Avatar is.

It also seems like Avatars can choose how their Spirit Form appears? Kyoshi was well over 100 when she died, but her Spirit certainly doesn't look it. I wouldn't expect Korra to look the same as she does at the end of LOK of course. But she also wouldn't have to look like a little old lady.

RacattackForce (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#75983: Dec 27th 2022 at 9:33:32 AM

Then again, they solved the Air Nomad genocide by having a magic wave of spirit power wash over the planet and abruptly repopulate the Air Nation.
This pushed the "there are Air Nomad survivors hidden around and Ty Lee is one of them" theory to the ground, kicked it in the teeth, and shot it in the head for good measure. But I have to begrudgingly forgive it, because Book 3 is the best season of Korra.

Anyway, yeah, Korra ends the show as a pretty mature individual. Not entirely removed from the reckless hothead we started the series with, but she grew over the course of the series and learned to rein herself in. I'd imagine that she'd serve as a good spirit mentor assuming she lives a full life.

Edited by RacattackForce on Dec 27th 2022 at 12:33:44 PM

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#75984: Dec 27th 2022 at 10:37:54 AM

I think, if it were me, I would have just had it that there were Air-Nomad survivors hidden somewhere (having had to radically alter their culture and lifestyle to stay hidden from the Fire Nation) rather than have Air Benders just be magically created.

The finale of ATLA established that the Avatar can use "spiritbending" to take Elements away from people.

The first season finale of LOK established that the Avatar can also use spiritbending to restore Elements that were taken away from people.

The Wan two-parter of season 2 established that the Lion Turtles would use this same spiritbending ability to give Elements to non-benders, and in fact the giving and taking of Elements was once routine. There only became such a thing as benders because, when the Lion Turtles left, they gave Elements to people and then let those people keep them permanently.

It's also been a plot point throughout the ATLA comics and LOK that the recovering Air nation is primarily populated by non-bender acolytes who study the philosophies of the Air Nomads extensively, even if they can't ever become Airbenders themselves.

I would have just built on this. By this point, it's been established that the Avatar can spiritbend to freely give or take Elements from people, and that benders can only have one Element but there's no ethnic requirement for what Element a nonbender can receive. If you take the Fire away from a Fire Nation person, you can give them Water. They just can't have Fire and Water at the same time.

So if the goal is to start repopulating the Air Nation, that's your ticket right there. Let Korra take these nuggets of lore and build them into a conclusion: She can make Airbenders. This could become a thing for the Air Acolytes. They study the philosophy of the Air Nation and live the ways of the Air Nomads. At a certain level of spiritual and philosophical development, they receive the Element and officially graduate into being Air Nomads.

(That the Avatar can give Elements to people who want them could have also been used to provide an actual resolution to the Equalists too, rather than having them just fuck off and leave the story between seasons. It's kind of surprising how much the show seems to build up to the idea of the Avatar bestowing Elements on people and then just... never fires it off)

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 27th 2022 at 10:42:05 AM

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Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#75985: Dec 27th 2022 at 11:37:39 AM

It’s an interesting idea, although the energybending in the first season finale of LOK was more turning a switch to on that Amon had turned off. Korra wasn’t really “giving” bending, and if she were to give out airbending she’d probably need to acquire it from somewhere first. But it’s not clear when the Lion Turtles get it from. Would she need to find one of them?

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#75986: Dec 27th 2022 at 12:27:32 PM

I would have loved Ty Lee as an untapped air bender. The previous show already practically set her up to switch sides to the good guys from her introduction.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Dracoblade Since: May, 2009
#75987: Dec 28th 2022 at 12:33:24 AM

[up][up][up] All I'm getting from that is, "throw out the best season of Korra because I don't like how Airbending came back."

I'm reminded of why I don't like fix fics — all too often, they're not "fixing" anything, they're just rewriting the whole series in a way the author would prefer.

Also, and I've said this before — Airbending coming back did not "erase" the genocide of the Air Nomads. All it did was bring back the superpower associated with them. Their traditions, most of their teachings, and a million other things that make an actual culture is largely gone forever, thanks to the two-hundred-year gap and the only survivor being a little kid who didn't actually know much of their traditions.

Edit: Also, and I've said this before, but it raises the big question of "Well, why didn't Aang try that?"

Edited by Dracoblade on Dec 28th 2022 at 12:46:55 PM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#75988: Dec 28th 2022 at 3:18:19 AM

Uhh, that's exactly what a fixfic is. It is fixing a perceived failing of the original.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#75989: Dec 28th 2022 at 6:30:34 AM

All I'm getting from that is, "throw out the best season of Korra because I don't like how Airbending came back."

Seems a bit excessive but if that's what you want, you do you.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#75990: Dec 28th 2022 at 7:13:12 AM

I also don't think anyone was saying to throw out the entire season. People just feel that solution was just a little too easy and convenient.

I think people wanted "Tenzin and his family work hard to rebuild the Air Nomads, and come to terms with the very real problem that there's currently only a tine group of air benders", not "magic conveniently solves the hard realities of post-genocide".

And I think a hidden colony of air nomads on some remote island or something would have been a much more elegant solution. Perhaps even have a hidden colony in the spirit world, which would certainly fit with them being very spiritual to begin with. It would also be narratively pleasing, as it would confirm Aang's hope of such a place existing, even if he himself never found it.

Edited by Redmess on Dec 28th 2022 at 4:16:46 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#75991: Dec 28th 2022 at 7:37:39 AM

"magic conveniently solves the hard realities of post-genocide"

That's still not the case. The whole point of the season is that the culture is still mostly gone, and they have to build a new culture. The season chose to bring back the power, but not the culture associated with it, which is a harsher question to address than "oh, we found some stragglers and now the Air Nomads are back exactly the way they were before". That idea really is "oh, the genocide effects were easily reversed".

And even now, there are still only, like, 20-30 Air Nomads. It's still a very small group.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 28th 2022 at 8:39:03 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#75992: Dec 28th 2022 at 7:46:21 AM

That's true, they did address that bit.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#75993: Dec 28th 2022 at 10:36:07 AM

Tenzin being completely hapless trying to get people to join the new Air Nation will always be one of the funniest parts of the series to me. Though I have to believe at least one person was sold on the idea of getting a sick tattoo.

It's also interesting that there's probably a number of airbenders who never joined Tenzin, just stayed in their homes and kept on living life as usual. There could be a gaggle of airbenders spotted all over the other five nations.

Agreed. Korra as the Tenzin of the show would be a great role for her.

I'm just imagining the Earth Avatar learning how to connect with their past lives, well just Korra, I guess, and being all like, "Woah, I can Zoom with the dead."

Dracoblade Since: May, 2009
#75994: Dec 28th 2022 at 10:47:06 AM

[up][up][up][up]Yeah, sorry, I was a bit argumentative there, wasn't I?

I should clarify; while it doesn't sound like a bad idea, it's not necessarily a better one then what we've got, just a different one. There's plenty of good ideas on paper that fail on execution. And it feels like a lot of time, rewrites will present their ideas as inherently superior to the cannon, when really they just took it off on a completely different tangent.

Or maybe I'm just too sensitive to big changes to the cannon like that.

Edited by Dracoblade on Dec 28th 2022 at 10:47:27 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#75995: Dec 28th 2022 at 11:20:38 AM

I think it would have gone over better if it wasn't basically a side effect of something else that had not even been hinted at being possible. Perhaps make it a quest into the spirit world to look for answers to this conundrum. Maybe involve the Lion Turtles. The way they did it came off a little too much like an afterthought.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#75996: Dec 28th 2022 at 2:35:12 PM

To be more specific, the whole point of that plot-line is that none of the people given Airbending truly understood and appreciated the old Airbending culture, except for Zaheer, who was the single best person in the world to be empowered from a cultural perspective, but the single worst person from every other perspective.

The fact that Zaheer knows more about the old Airbending culture than even Tenzin does is a big source of drama and conflict in the story. It's part of what makes him so dangerous, and at the end they have to stop him to save Korra, even if it means saying goodbye to their culture that died with Monk Gyatso. He can't be reasoned with, and he shouldn't be approached for advice. They have to make a new culture without Zaheer, the man who would be most suited to teaching the old culture.

srebak Since: Feb, 2011
#75997: Dec 28th 2022 at 9:29:45 PM

I didn’t really start to think about it again until recently, but I just something that strikes me as kind of freaky:

Long before “Legend of Korra” reached my attention, and I’m pretty sure that I found out about it around the same time as a bunch of other people, I actually had a few fanon ideas about the Avatar series, when I was much younger.

1. An evil Airbender who was Aang’s old enemy

2. The Air Nomads actually returning due to a certain pocket of them surviving the original Fire Nation attacks

3. A certain character that I originally wanted to be something of a “beta Avatar” with their title being “Betar” (which sounds almost like “Bataar”)

Now with the obvious fan fantasy aspects aside, do you see these ideas wound up becoming part of the real canon through “Lo K” in one way or another?

RacattackForce (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#75998: Dec 28th 2022 at 9:44:37 PM

I guess we got an evil Avatar by way of Unalaq in Book 2, but he isn't an old enemy of Aang's. As we've discussed throughout this page, the whole "hidden enclave of Air Nomads" theory so many had didn't happen in favor of that society more-or-less needing to be rebuilt from scratch in Book 3. And I guess Wan can sorta count as a "beta" Avatar. He was the first one, after all.

Edited by RacattackForce on Dec 28th 2022 at 12:45:02 PM

srebak Since: Feb, 2011
#75999: Dec 28th 2022 at 10:04:51 PM

[up]Not an evil Avatar, an evil airbender

Edited by srebak on Dec 28th 2022 at 10:06:17 AM

Dracoblade Since: May, 2009
#76000: Dec 28th 2022 at 10:13:43 PM

Gotta give Bryke credit on that one — they made it clear that Aang was the last Airbender, and they stuck with that. No secret enclaves, no Airbenders living in seclusion, no nothing; they're dead. Period.

Other franchises have low-balled that to bring in other survivors, sometimes to a ridiculous level; The old Star Wars novels were constantly introducing new Jedi survivors until it looked like half the Order got away scott free and the Empire was just too incompetent to realize it.

[up] We did get an evil Airbender, and a very sweet Airbender vs. Airbender fight because of it. I'm curious, though — Aang was just a kid, so what would this "old enemy" have even looked like?

Edited by Dracoblade on Dec 28th 2022 at 10:22:21 AM


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