Reviews WesternAnimation / The Legend Of Korra

I mostly agree with everything here, although I think I'm more tolerant of certain character than you are - I think some of them could have been a little more fleshed out, but I wouldn't say they were superfluous or anything like that.

I'd definitely be all for a movie of some sort (though more of an OVA style than...well, I'm sure everyone knows what to avoid by now). I'm looking forward to the promised comics, but I would really like to see some more animated material. Hell, I'd even like to see the story of the Avatar after Korra, although that would mean having to part with most of the cast...

Still, coming up with ideas for such a story is fun, so I think that's a clear sign that the Legend of Korra has made a positive impact. Hopefully, we get more of her story in future.

you\'re out of your goddam mind. The romance in books 3 and 4 is the most atrocious writing and \"development\" that I have ever seen in any media. Twilight is award winning next to the unending garbage that was korrasami. Not a single character in the series had a satisfying character arc. A completely broken show with the worst ending of all time. I\'d rather throw sand in my eyes than ever watch an episode of this travesty again

Dare I ask what you hate about Korrasami?

Well I guess I didn\'t like that bit where there was an argument at the restaurant for no reason. And I didn\'t like the jabs at \"gee wasn\'t Mako a horrible boyfriend\" in the clip show episode. And I guess it would\'ve been nice if they didn\'t have to sort of only half-do it because Nickelodeon. But uh... I guess I can\'t really think of much else to say on that subject.

It was just sort of there. Nothing really special or atrocious about its execution.

I think saying that there was no reason for an argument there is somewhat inaccurate. I don\'t even think it was really that much of an argument.

And honestly, I don\'t really mind the Mako stuff, considering how badly they screwed the pooch there - I\'m glad that they owned up to it, and made it clear that they realized they screwed up.

Lo K introduced a brash, compelling, and unapologetic female action hero. Then they tortured her to make her more diminutive and \"acceptable.\" They spent all of book 4 having Korra apologize for all the traits that made her amazing. And then instead of an ending that celebrates her and her accomplishments, they make her a love interest reward for a glorified third-tier supporting character. Everything about Legend of Korra can fuck itself.

\"I don\'t really mind the Mako stuff, considering how badly they screwed the pooch there - I\'m glad that they owned up to it, and made it clear that they realized they screwed up.\"

Eh. I\'m not one of the dipshits who says that Korrasami was pandering to the shippers, but there\'s something kind of stark in comparison of that episode to Ember Island Players, an episode that decidedly thumbed its nose at the shipping community.

^ I don't know. Having read some interviews with Bryke, I think that part of the purpose of "The Ember Island Players" was to say "Sorry guys, it's not gonna be Zutara". In any case, it seems to acknowledge the fandom in a similar way that "Remembrances" does.

^^ I strongly dispute this. In particular, I think that claiming that Korra was Asami's "reward" is extremely degrading, certainly moreso than anything that happened during the series was.

Yeah, that whole paragraph doesn\'t make a lot of sense to me.

^Eh. Maybe I just don\'t like shippers.

I suppose that\'s fair. I don\'t really have a problem with them, as long as they aren\'t awful.

Lo K introduced a brash, compelling, and unapologetic female action hero. Then they tortured her to make her more diminutive and \"acceptable.\"

So your complaint is that the Jerk with a Heart of Gold gradually lost the \"jerk\" part of that trope? Isn\'t character development usually a good thing? Korra\'s changes over the course of the series absolutely did not turn a badass into a wimp; they turned a jerky badass into compassionate badass. Korra was still an outspoken, proactive, tough as nails character at the end of the series, but she\'d grown up and out of childish traits like punching first and asking questions never. She was not afraid to lay the smackdown when it needed to be done, but she learned to explore other options first and try to understand her opponents instead of resorting to brute force as the answer to every problem that presented itself; that was her modus operandi back in seasons 1 and 2, and the series was always very clear that it didn\'t work on anything but a superficial level.

If this were a different series, you might have a point. If Goku obtained the legendary level of Super Saiyan just to talk Freeza down, yeah, that would be a betrayal of the character, because that\'s not what the series is about; it\'s about martial arts godlings punching each other in increasingly over-dramatic fashion. But that\'s not what Avatar is about. Avatar is about bending; the fusion of action and philosophy. Korra tried to be an action hero and leave the philosophical stuff in the Air Temple early on, but that never worked for her on any but a superficial level; punching Equalists didn\'t solve the systemic inequalities between benders and non-benders, and she literally couldn\'t punch spirits into submission. Korra\'s character arc from episode 1 was learning that she had to engage with the philosophical sides of the conflicts she took on in order to fully realize her role as Avatar, and to complete the metaphor, to fully realize her adulthood.

The key difference between ATLA and LoK is that while ATLA was a story about mastering the martial arts to defeat the Evil Overlord, each of Korra\'s arc villains was right, at least to a certain extent. Amon was right about bending causing inequalities between those with the ability and those without; Unaloq was right about the material world needing to be reunited with the spirit world; Zaheer was right that the Earth Kingdom was an oppressive, aggressive tyrant state, and Kuvira saved who knows how many lives by reestablishing order after the kingdom\'s collapse. Where each of them went wrong was in taking it too far, and where Aang\'s struggle was to git gud enough to beat Ozai in a brawl, Korra\'s was always to wrestle with the philosophical challenges that her opponents provided (while also engaging in awesome magic kung-fu battles). Defeating Kuvira by reconciling their ideological differences instead of just winning a fight (although Korra did win their fight, Kuvira was the only villain to ever surrender, and only after Korra talked to her after their battle) was the culmination of the character arc she\'d been on since the very beginning. She was a master of the martial aspects of being the Avatar from the start, but now she had mastered the philosophical aspect.

The fantasy of the Avatar for a child is selfish. The Avatar is the most powerful, most important person in the world who can do whatever they want, and change the world however they want, and that\'s how Korra saw her role at the beginning of the series. But an adult accepts a responsibility to use their power wisely to serve others and make the world a better place not just according to their own views, but taking into account the views of others.

The Legend of Korra did not turn its hero into a Shrinking Violet to make her more palatable to patriarchal tastes; it taught that the \"masculine\" virtue of power is nothing but childish thrashing without the \"feminine\" virtues of empathy and understanding.

^ I\'ll give you this, that wall of reach was better written than legend of korra was