Which is the Better Continuation of Avatar: The Last Airbender?

When the animated classic Avatar: The Last Airbender reached its conclusion in mid-2008, fans of the series frothed at the mouth at the idea of a continuation. With the series’ extensive lore, fantastic world-building, and cast of relatable characters, why wouldn’t Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the show’s creators, want to continue the series?

Seemingly, their response to these excited fans would come two years later as a live-action theatrical release directed by M. Night Shyamalan, that goes by the name of The Last Airbender (2010). If you’re a movie buff or know anything about the Avatar franchise, this movie is infamous. Incomprehensible plot lines, horrible acting, detached joyless direction, and a whitewashed cast are just a few of the many problems associated with this film. Overall, the film received poor critical reception.

Luckily, this wasn’t the last of the Avatar universe. During the Avatar: The Last Airbender San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2010, the creators of the original show introduced their fans to fresh faces and some returning ones in the show The Legend of Korra, which was released in spring 2012.

Of course, leaving fans to wait for two years for a brand-new show with no new Avatar related content to snack on is quite cruel. Therefore, on January 26, 2012, the first part of Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Promise released. Written by Gene Yang and illustrated by Studio Gurihiru, Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Promise is the first in a series of graphic novel trilogies serving as both a continuation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and a prequel to The Legend of Korra. As stated earlier, The Promise would serve as an introduction point to the events taking place after Book Three of the original series.

As time went on, both sequels would grow into big deals for the fanbase. I mean, when the first season of The Legend of Korra aired, it drew in 3.8 million viewers per episode, the highest for an animated series that year. For the graphic novel series, the release of each part saw the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list repeatedly!

As a major fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I try my best to keep up with every installment of the franchise, and The Legend of Korra and the graphic novels are no exception. However, I’ve always wondered how these series compare to one another. As in, does one serve as a better sequel than the other? Are the contents of the continuations just as good as I remember, or do they drag the reputation of the Avatar franchise through the dirt? The only way to find the answer to these questions was none other than to revisit both sequels, take some notes, and analyze the hell out of them.

Starting with the graphic novels, I decided to only reread the ones where the main plotline was present. I enjoy the little side stories, but reading every single one of them would take too much time. Therefore, this article will only cover The Promise, The Search, The Rift, and Smoke and Shadow. (I would talk about North and South and Imbalance, but I have little to say about them. Just know that I view them as average). I will also try my best to not go too deep into spoilers for both the graphic novels and The Legend of Korra, since both should definitely be experienced with as little spoilers as possible. Avoiding Avatar: The Last Airbender spoilers will be tricky, so caution ahead if you haven’t seen or completed the original series.

The Promise follows Team Avatar after Book Three. Worried that he would one day become like his father, Zuko forces Aang to make a promise to him soon after the War ends: if he follows the same path as his father, then Aang MUST kill him. Everything seems to go great after this; Aang and Zuko are working in collaboration with Earth King Kuei to remove the Fire Nation colonies from the Earth Kingdom and there are no qualms about the Harmony Restoration Movement. But, when Zuko attempts to go against the wishes of Aang and Kuei by allowing one unusually well-integrated Fire Nation colony to remain in the Earth Kingdom, which also leads Zuko to believe that all the colonies should stay, the promise Aang made is put to the test as he attempts to keep a balance between the four nations.

I would give this book four out of five stars. I think the book served its purpose as a good introductory piece into the post-Hundred Year War world of Avatar, but this also serves as part of its downfall. Because it’s basically introducing readers to the world of Avatar, there're points where the story doesn’t flow too well because things need to be explained, such as why Aang goes into the Avatar state and his relationship with Katara (This is just them shoehorning in their relationship wherever they can. I get that they’re together, but hearing them call each other “sweetie” every three panels is so off-putting). Another reason the book has some jagged parts is because of out of character moments. Most of the characters still have the same feel to them, but Aang accepting the promise to kill Zuko when he struggled to kill Fire Lord Ozai and Zuko deciding to ask Ozai, the main antagonist of the original series, for advice? I just don’t really understand these decisions.

Luckily, the positives of this book outweigh the negatives. I enjoyed how even though Aang ended the Hundred Year War, not everything was perfect. The world still needed to heal and recover, the people were still in conflict over where certain groups belonged, and Zuko still wasn’t completely stable.

Speaking of Zuko, his internal struggles are easily some of the best things about the graphic novels. In The Promise in particular, Zuko is at war with what he wants as the new fire lord. He wants the best for his people, but doesn’t want the world to fall into disorder once more when he pulls out of the Harmony Restoration Movement. Zuko doesn’t exactly know who he is, what his place is in the world, and what family means to him. It’s refreshing to see a character whose struggles still exist after everything is seemingly “okay”.

Regarding the side plot in The Promise where Toph opens up a school for metalbenders, I thought it was pretty cute! I wish both her and Sokka could’ve been in the forefront again, but that’s okay. These two served as the comedic relief in this book and they got a couple of chuckles out of me while reading through. Plus, Sokka and Toph will get more spotlight roles in the later installments.

Now onto the best graphic novel of the bunch, The Search is easily five stars in my book. It tells the story of Zuko’s adventure to find his mother Ursa, who left the Fire Nation in order to save Zuko’s life when he was a child. Saying any more will spoil the surprise, but my gosh is this story emotional. It really feels like something you would’ve seen in the original series! I adore how this story not only shows Zuko’s feelings on Ursa but also Azula’s. Throughout the book, we get glimpses at how Azula, like Zuko, isn’t completely okay. She experiences visions of her mother, has intrusive thoughts about Ursa, and convinces herself that Ursa is trying to sabotage her life. It’s sad to see Azula go from her composed, evil self to disheveled and overly emotional about her relationship with her mother.

The Search also delves into the entire story of Ursa — why she married Ozai, why she left, and what her life was like afterwards. Her story is heartbreaking and her actions and the phrases she spoke made me tear up more than once. I’m really glad that this unanswered question from the original series wasn’t just forgotten about or excused. It got the proper conclusion it deserved!

In terms of the novel’s other factors, the bonds between Team Avatar felt natural and carried the same charm their original counterparts did. Not to mention, the entire “family” theme going on through the course of the story is really interesting. We get to see the depth of Katara and Sokka’s sibling hood and how Zuko is desperate to have that same bond with Azula, even though she doesn’t reciprocate those feelings back.

Next story on our list is The Rift, which is arguably the least entertaining story in the series. To me, it sits at a three out of five and gives me mixed emotions. In this novel, Aang receives cryptic visits from the spirit of Avatar Yangchen while preparing for Yangchen’s Festival, an Air Nomad holiday no one has celebrated in over a century. When these visits lead Aang to a mine operating on the Air Nomads’ sacred land, team Avatar suspects the refinery pollutes a nearby river. The gang investigates the matter and quickly finds themselves in a dangerous encounter with a malevolent spirit bent on destroying the human world.

The Rift is… average. It was still good since almost all Avatar stories are, but by the end I was ready to put down the book and didn’t want the story to continue. The main plot line regarding Avatar Yangchen is pretty bland. It wasn’t anything special and wasn’t interesting. The storyline regarding Toph facing her trauma made the entire experience worth it. It made me happy to see Toph find her own worth and show her family what she’s capable of. Besides Toph, the characters this time around still hold the same charm! Sokka is as funny as ever, Aang continues to grow and learn about the world around him, and Katara helps in every way she can.

The villain for this novel was pretty underwhelming. From the get-go, I wasn’t interested in his story and by the end of it all, I still held the same feelings. Sure, his existence brought interesting moral conflict between Aang and Toph regarding how they deal with issues, but there really isn’t more to say than that. Luckily, this isn’t the worst villain I’ll be talking about, but I’ll get to that later.

Last, but certainly not least, is Smoke and Shadow, which I give four point five stars out of five. Continuing the storyline presented in The Search, Smoke and Shadow revolves around the state of the Fire Nation and its royal family. With the aid of Avatar Aang and Zuko’s estranged ex-girlfriend Mai, Zuko must deal with the threat of the New Ozai Society, a group that seeks to overthrow him and restore his deposed father, Fire Lord Ozai, to the throne of the Fire Nation.

Just like in The Search, this novel features a lot about Zuko and Ursa’s relationship. We get to see more of Zuko’s insecurities about being the fire lord and how hard he’s trying to put his past behind him. However, I think this bit is getting a little tiring and repetitive. I understand Zuko has a lot to learn and grow from, but Zuko shows more growth during the few months where the original story took place than here, a story taking place an entire year after the show’s conclusion and then some.

Aside from Zuko, we also get some splendid development coming from Mai, Ursa, and Azula! Mai shows her vulnerability, and it’s a change of pace from how we typically see her presented. For Ursa, it felt empowering to see her stand up to Ozai and basically leave him with no authority over her life. Although Azula stays evil, her motivations have changed. Without spoiling said new goals of Azula, I’m interested in seeing how she’ll go about trying to achieve them and where her character will go from here.

We also get to see Uncle Iroh for the first time in the graphic novels! His presence really makes you remember how much you miss his wisdom and humor. The story in this book is alright, but I think it’s the character development that really makes this book shine. Overall, the graphic novels are a fun read! They have a lot of hit-or-miss moments, but Gene Yang does a wonderful job at encapsulating the same feel of the original show while still adding on more interesting themes and plot points.

With that being said, we’re talking about The Legend of Korra! The show contains four seasons: Air, Spirits, Change, and Balance. The first season, Air, starts off really strong. We’re introduced to Korra, our protagonist, who serves as Aang’s polar opposite in terms of personality and beliefs. She’s been training to be the Avatar all her life and is ready to show her face to the world and make a difference. She stows away on a boat to Republic City, the capital of the “free world”. Here, she’s going to learn airbending from Tenzin, Aang’s son and along the way, make some new friends in Bowlin, Mako, and Asami, and form the new Team Avatar!

Together, they scuffle with the antagonist of the season, Amon, and his army of equalists. Amon possesses the unique ability to take one’s bending away, an ability previously only used by the Avatar. With this newfound power, Amon incites a revolution against benders everywhere.

The first season of The Legend of Korra starts out with good pacing, which helps Amon build up as a bigger and bigger threat as season goes on. It also helps that Amon is a very good villain with a well-thought out backstory.

In the first half of the season, Amon’s evilness balances out with the world of pro-bending, a modern sport involving the use of firebending, earthbending, and waterbending. I remember not liking this development that much when I was younger, but on my rewatch, I appreciated this aspect of the show. Hell, I even got super invested in these matches as if they were actual sports games!

Yet, problems begin with the characters. Korra and Tenzin are likable enough, but the rest of the main cast have flaws. Asami is fine this season but doesn’t really have much of a role besides being Mako’s girlfriend and working her way into the messy romance triangle between Korra, Mako, and Bolin. I like Bolin. In fact, he’s my favorite character, but there are times where he’s just not funny. Bolin feels like an attempt at writing a new Sokka into the series, but his humor is way different. Sometimes his humor even feels forced, where Sokka felt as if he was naturally snarky and sarcastic.

Then there’s Mako, who sucks. His design, voice, and line delivery are all BORING. He’s just a horribly written character in not just this season, but every season. He has no chemistry with any of the characters, besides his brother Bolin, but sometimes that “chemistry” fails. I mean seriously, you’re going to go bonkers over Korra getting kidnapped, but when Bolin does that same thing earlier on in the season you just… don’t care? I don’t understand.

Once more, things sort of come crashing down with the ending. No spoilers, but this ending is easily the weakest of all four seasons. It’s the most rushed, deus ex machina ending you could insert into this show. But, I have to give it just a tiny pass, considering that Nickelodeon intended for The Legend of Korra to be a mini-series with no plan in mind for more seasons. Luckily, future seasons aren’t afraid of ending in unhappy ways with legitimate consequences. Therefore, I have to give the first season three point five out of five stars.

I’m just going to come out and say it: Season two is SO bad, I’m not even overreacting.

Season two centers on Korra’s uncle Unalaq, the chief of the Northern Water Tribe, who seizes control of the Southern Water Tribe as part of a scheme to free Vaatu, an ancient dark spirit. Korra and her friends attempt to win support for the southern tribe in Republic City, and go on a quest to foil Unalaq’s plans and learn about spirits. In theory, this plot line sounds pretty alright. After all, I’ve always wanted to learn more about the spirit world since I thought there was so much potential for it. But the execution was just so poor. First, this season experiences atrocious pacing. Because of this, Unalaq, as a threat, is basically nonexistent by the first four episodes. In the next four, the story writes him out and causes the tension to drag.

Unfortunately, both Unalaq and Korra are written horribly as well. Unalaq is a repeat of the secondary villain from the first season, named Tarlock. Except, Tarlock was actually cool and had good motives behind his actions. Korra is arguably written even more poorly. Throughout the season, she is either100% on her father’s side or 100% on Unalaq’s side. There’s no in between. She’s also written to be extremely unlikable. Korra is overly aggressive and follows people blindly. When her parents get arrested, she just watches and doesn’t put up a fight, which is the exact OPPOSITE of what she typically does. She doesn’t even feel like the same character.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there’s only two things I actually enjoyed about this season. The first thing I like about this season is the story of the first Avatar, Wan. I’m a little upset that there was no buildup to this flashback, but the art style, world-building, and lore presented in it made it up. It’s easily the highlight of the season except for the mention of the second villain Vaatu, who just sucks all enjoyment out of me.

Iknik Blackstone Varrick is the only other good thing to come out of this season. In all honesty, he was basically the only thing to keep me going. Varrick is both a comic relief character and a key player all in one. He may incite rebellions between the Southern and Northern water tribes for profit, but you wouldn’t expect it because his goofy exterior makes him unpredictable! Varrick was just an amazing addition and I find it hard to believe the same team who wrote the others wrote him.

I hate the ending of this season so much that I’m struggling to even talk about it. In short, this season was extremely disappointing and made me cringe at the thought of spirits being mentioned in the Avatar franchise. I can only give this season a two star rating.

Season Three of The Legend of Korra is great! This season continues off where we left off last season; Korra gets ejected from Republic City by officials fed up with the problems created by Korra’s actions at the end of Book Two. With people starting to airbend seemingly at random, Korra must help Tenzin bring a new Air Nation into being while defeating the powerful new airbender Zaheer and his Red Lotus benders.

Just like the first season, Book Three shows off amazing pacing, albeit slow at certain points. Also, the first half of this season is a laid back journey across the modern world with likable characters. Yes, you read that correctly.

Korra is back to her normal self! And, get this, Mako is actually tolerable now. I think this may be because he’s constantly paired with Bolin and they play off of each other really well. Because Bolin and Mako are usually talking to each other, we get to see Korra and Asami form a deeper relationship with one another, which’ll play into the ending of season four.

As mentioned before, the great pacing in this season allows for the new villain to be built up and be a legitimate threat. Zaheer feels like a classic villain from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Zaheer, a former convict who now possesses airbending, has some really shocking motivations and philosophies behind his actions. In fact, he’s so devoted to these philosophies that he pushes the capabilities of airbending farther than we’ve ever seen before. Zaheer also has the Red Lotus, who use unique and powerful bending techniques that only make them seem more menacing as the season progresses.

For the first time, I can actually say that the best part of this season is the finale. Everything built up to this exact moment and it feels almost perfect. Even though the final battle has lower stakes than season two, they feel higher because of how personal the fight is. I believe the most special part about all of this is the lasting consequences of everything. Seeing the intensity of this season finally catch up to the protagonists is heartbreaking, but feels like the most logical conclusion.

Although I feel like the season doesn’t hit the absolute highs of season 2 and 3 of the original series, I think Book Three of The Legend of Korra deserves a 4 star rating.

The first half of Book Four is nothing short of phenomenal and is easily on par with peak Avatar: The Last Airbender. Book Four is set three years after the previous season. It deals with Korra’s journey of self-discovery following the physical and psychological trauma she endured in the fight with Zaheer and with unrest in the Earth Kingdom where Kuvira, formerly a security officer in Suyin Beifong’s service, seeks to seize power by military force.

During the first six episodes of Book Four, the tension is off the charts. Kuvira is our new antagonist, an earthbender from Xiaofu. She is an absolute monster with logical motivations who achieves them through sociopathic methods. Many fans compare her ideals to real life dictators and believe she’s a near perfect villain. Kuvira’s beliefs closely resemble those of Sozin’s before he started the Hundred Year War, showing viewers that history repeats itself.

Despite the looming threat Kuvira holds over the world, Korra can’t do anything about it; even after three years, she’s still suffering from the emotional and physical trauma she gained during the events of Book Three.

Luckily, Korra is able to cope and heal from her wounds because of none other than Toph herself. Old lady Toph plays a Yoda-like role by training Korra and helping her move on from her past encounters with Zaheer. Toph also hasn’t changed one bit! Some may think of this as a bad thing, but Toph works best as a cranky and stubborn character.

Between the beginning of Book Four and the end, we get some really enjoyable subplots, like the shenanigans Bolin and Varrick get themselves into as they try to escape the clutches of Kuvira now that they know she’s evil. Asami also has a subplot where she reconnects with her disgraced father. Her father didn’t really need to be brought back, but the two of them resolved things between them by the end. It’s impressive how the first half alone has not only some of the funniest and most dramatic in the entire franchise, but also a perfect balance between levity and drama.

As for the second half of the season, it doesn’t really live up to expectations. It’s still really great, but not amazing or perfect. The last battle between Kuvira plus her allies against Team Avatar is fragmented and doesn’t hold the same tension as the battle with Zaheer. This final battle is also stretched out and is really scattershot for my tastes.

Overall, the ending of the series was a little rushed. Even with its groundbreaking ending scene, The Legend of Korra ended on a bit of an odd note. Yet, the first season was enough to make up for almost all of it. I give Book Four of The Legend of Korra four out of five stars.

In the end, both the graphic novels and The Legend of Korra are amazing in their own ways. The graphic novels perfectly capture the same emotions Avatar: The Last Airbender excelled at presenting and has some fantastic artwork to illustrate exactly what’s going on. The characters continue to develop across every story and they’re all extremely charming. Then there’s The Legend of Korra, a show that’s more mature and has plenty of beautiful scenes, captivating characters, and outstanding action sequences. If I had to pick which sequel better continued the Avatar series, I’d have to pick The Legend of Korra. The graphic novels are still a fun read, but I feel as if The Legend of Korra builds onto everything Avatar: The Last Airbender offered, including the characters, world, and lore.

If you want to form an opinion of your own, look no further! The Legend of Korra is available to watch on Netflix and box DVD set and the Avatar graphic novels are available on Dark Horse Comics’ official website and your local comic or book store.