The Legend of Korra

Earth. Fire. Air. Water. When I was a boy, my father, Avatar Aang, told me the story how he and his friends heroically ended the Hundred Year War. Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko transformed the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations, a society where benders and non-benders from all over the world could live and thrive together in peace and harmony. They named the capitol of this great land Republic City. Avatar Aang accomplished many remarkable things in his life, but sadly, his time in this world came to an end. And like the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of the Avatar began anew.

The Legend of Korra is the sequel series to the animesque Western animation production Avatar: The Last Airbender. It follows the next-generation Avatar, Korra of the southern water tribe, and her own quest to bring peace to the world.

Status

Incomplete. (Air, Spirits, Change, 10 episodes of Balance.)

Thoughts

I have never seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I have a vague idea of how its story goes, and characters such as Toph and Zuko managed to pique my interest. So when The Legend of Korra began airing, a couple of my friends convinced me to get into it, and I quickly fell in love with the protagonist, Korra.

And now, three episodes away from finishing the entire series, and I can't watch anymore.

Many individual issues can be pointed out, but I am of the opinion that the pacing and planning is the largest issue. Each "book" (season) is largely self-contained, and with only ~13 episodes/season, this prevents proper development of plot and characterization. The first few episodes usually start off with realistic pacing and a good sprinkle of moral ambiguity, and then rapidly accelerates into black-and-white morality and giving Korra whatever awesome power she requires, as if the writers repeatedly realized "crap, we need to make the villain very obviously in the wrong, so let's hurry and throw in random evil, as well as a sprinkle of deus ex machina for Korra".

As you may have guessed, nowhere is this more striking than in book 4, Balance, the one I can't bring myself to finish. And it's especially irritating due to the fact that the first episode of the season looked amazing, with perfect setup in almost every way imaginable. Then Kuvira's good intentions are rapidly thrown out the window, seemingly in the name of ensuring she won't retain audience sympathy, and characters such as Suyin and Wu still appear as unsympathetic alternatives to Kuvira. Not to mention that Varrick and Zhu Li get characterization out of nowhere, as if the writers were trying to say "see, these crazy characters oppose Kuvira too, so she must really be evil!".

Older characters usually aren't any better. Even as someone who hasn't seen the original series, the past characters serve no purpose except for quick fanservice (Katara, Zuko), and Toph, the only one who impacts the plot in any significant way on-screen, loses the characterization her past self seemed to have, instead just snarking pointlessly and borderline abusing Korra. At least Aang (mostly) stayed dead, as he was far and away the worst part of the original series.

So I end up not caring how the series will finish. There isn't a doubt in my mind that Korra will smash Kuvira's face into the ground and that everyone will live happily ever after, and how is essentially irrelevant at this point. So, while I thank Nickelodeon and the writers for giving us Korra, one of the best protagonists to ever grace animated series, I think that's about all I'll be keeping with me.