About the Show

Found in Key Terminology*

The Legend of Korra (LOK) is an American animated television series created for Nickelodeon by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. The then-highly anticipated series aired in America from 2012 to 2014 as a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA), which had originally aired from 2005 to 2008. Set in the late 1800s (ATLA) to the early 1900s (LOK), the plot line for both of these shows operates in a reality where people are able to manipulate one of the four elements (water, earth, fire, or air), known as bending*, with the exception the “avatar” who is able to bend all four elements, inherently endowed with tremendous spiritual power, and tasked with bringing balance to the world––a lofty goal for sure.

In ATLA, our avatar is Aang, a kind, calm, sweet-tempered air nomad* whose people were exterminated in a Fire Nation-led genocide in an attempt to find and kill the avatar––hence “the last airbender”. In this series, the plot is centered around Aang, who was able to escape and seal himself in an iceberg only to reawaken 100 years later, and his friends Katara, Sokka, and Toph who aid him in his quest to defeat the Fire Lord* and restore balance to the world. After bringing an end to the Fire Nation’s hundred-year reign over the entire world, Aang and his comrades established Republic City, which strongly resembles New York City, in the newly founded United Republic with the intention to facilitate peace and harmony in the world. However, every avatar’s era must one day come to an end. Upon an avatar’s death, they are reincarnated into the next element in the avatar cycle*.

In LOK, we’re introduced to Aang’s successor, Korra. A Water Tribe* native who is bold, determined, and hot-headed, Korra is virtually Aang’s exact opposite. So much so that one character (Lin Beifong) says of Korra to another (Tenzin, one of Aang’s children), “I can’t believe your sweet-tempered father was reincarnated into that girl, she’s tough as nails” (S1 E6). Where Aang is passive and tries to resolve conflict cleverly and peacefully, Korra is ready to charge into battle at a moment’s notice and tackle her problems head-on.

Korra’s story is set mainly in Republic City. Here, benders of all nationalities* can live together freely––or so it would seem. Korra’s challenge, she would discover, is to uphold Aang’s legacy and maintain the balance he and his friends had restored, and this is no easy task. In addition to the very real physical danger she encounters at every turn, we’re witness to Korra’s personal, internal struggles. Throughout the roughly four-years-long plot, we see Korra grow immensely as she becomes more self-aware and finds her purpose in life. She, along with her friends Mako, Bolin, and Asami, set out to maintain peace and balance and create a better world.

• Avatar Cycle: the cycle of reincarnation that determine's the next avatar's element; cycles in the order or water, earth, fire, air

• Nations and Nationalities:

  • Fire Nation: led by Fire Lord

  • Earth Nation (Earth Kingdom, Earth Empire): led by the Earth Queen, then by Kuvira (S4)

  • Water Nation (Water Tribe): Northern Water Tribe (north pole), led by a tribal chief (Unalaq, succeeded by Eska and Desna); Southern Water Tribe (south pole), led by a tribal chief (Unalaq, succeeded by Tarloq)

  • Air Nation (Air Nomads): there are four air temples across the globe, all without inhabitants due to the Fire Nation genocide, and "Air Temple Island" in Republic City; with the rebirth of the Air Nation in season 3, Tenzin is looked to as the nation's leader

• Bending (bender/benders): the ability to manipulate one of the four elements

  • Waterbender (subskill: bloodbending, a rare ability made illegal because of its extreme dangerous applications which allows a bender to control the body of another person by manipulating their blood)

  • Earthbender (subskill: metalbending; a more common ability [about 1 in 100 earthbenders are capable of learning to metalbend] where benders can manipulate metal in all its forms (excluding platinum due to its purity; lavabending, a rare ability where benders can create and manipulate lava)

  • Firebender (subskill: lightning; an ability where benders can create and project lightning)

  • Airbender

Relevance and Popularity

In addition to its rich story line and ample character development, LOK's popularity and reputation make it a desirable candidate for this project. The series’ pilot episode ranked as basic cable’s number-one kids’ show and top animated program for the week with 4.5 million total viewers. LOK as a whole scored highest (i.e. received the most views) with kid and tween demographics, with the series ranking as the Nickelodeon’s most-watched animated series premiere in three years at the time. Additionally, as mentioned above, both LOK and ATLA received recent attention with their appearance on Netflix in Summer 2020. Consequently, both series experienced tremendous increases of interest, with ATLA and LOK ranking in the 97.33th and 96.72th percentile respectively within the Action genre during that time. This means that LOK was in higher demand than 96.72% of all Action titles worldwide, a wildly impressive statistic.

(Kondolojy, 2012) (Katz, 2020)

Reputation and Representation

Another great strength of LOK is its various instances of representation throughout the series. For starters, Korra’s role as a female protagonist is uncommon, to say the least. When Nickelodeon first learned of Korra’s role as a female protagonist they suspended production, saying that girls will watch a show about boys but not the other way around. However, when Korra performed well. Young boys said that they didn’t care that she’s a girl, just that “she was awesome”.

In the series finale the show fairly explicitly hints at Korra’s bisexuality and her relationship with Asami in the show’s final scene. This was ground-breaking for Nickelodeon and children’s television in general, causing fans to revere LOK as an invaluable representation of queerness. Additionally, LOK portrayed Korra's experience with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder very well after a nearly-fatal encounter with an adversary. Even the main character herself is going against the grain of typical television.

Understandably, this all served the show’s legacy and reputation very well. LOK’s immense popularity paired with its unique growth-story and original characters makes it an ideal candidate for this project.

(Ulaby, 2012)