Clobby Clobsters

5/10

Spoilers

**I really enjoyed it upon my first viewing. But once I started thinking about the plot, the characters and the world, I felt worse. And before you read any further, let me just say, don't watch this show. Because you might either like it (which hurts me) or you might hate it (which hurts you). I like it but acknowledge its flaws. If it wasn't the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it would've held up a lot better.** # Introduction Unlike most of my friends, I watched the Legend of Korra after Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Avatar comics. The comics allowed me to settle into Korra's world helped me jump into this new world. I had really low expectations coming into this show, after being warned not to watch it by a good friend. But I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it. The illustrations and background art had improved. Its aspect ratio wasn't square. And I enjoyed myself (most of the time) throughout. Amon was compelling and looked badass. Unalaq was cool (before he turned evil). Zaheer is the best villain in the entire series. Kuvira seemed really contrived. # The Seasons Season 1 took a while to get anywhere, and I'd give it a **4/10**. It was up until the end, where Korra pulls off a deus ex machina and Amon is made less compelling, which left a bad taste in my mouth. [spoiler] If Amon was kept as a non-bender [/spoiler], he would've been my favourite villain hands-down. But he's a [spoiler] blood blender [/spoiler] who breaks the rules (and he's not the only one) and the non-bender revolution is made less compelling. [spoiler] I did feel sorry and sad when he and Tarrlok died though. [/spoiler] That was really emotional. Season 2 started off okay. The first half was really compelling: two water-tribes put against each other, on the verge of civil war. Korra wants to learn more about the spiritual side of bending and Unalaq seems like the guy to teach it to her. But then we are introduced to Avatar Wan, who I thought was pretty cool at first until I started thinking into it more and realising how much it changes in the Avatar lore. If this show was by itself and didn't have ATLA behind it, even if it was better, this sequence would've been awesome. But it's not. It retcons everything known about bending. The spirit world is shown _way_ too much and suddenly loses its intrigue and mystery. [spoiler] We're shown the origins of the Avatar, but all of a sudden, the Avatar doesn't seem like some all-time all-powerful being who has always been there for humanity and the spirits. We just see some punk kid who protects things because he thinks it's right (and who lets off chaos and darkness into the world). Finally, Raava and Vaatu. They look like carpets and are supposed to represent Yin and Yang (yet we had the Moon and Ocean spirit for that) and one represents "light and peace" while the other embodies "darkness and chaos". All of a sudden, spirits (and people) are either good or evil. And by letting Vaatu loose into the world, Raava starts to shrink. Why doesn't Vaatu shrink? How come he can turn spirits "dark" but Raava can't turn the "light"? Then Korra pulls off another deus ex machina: she becomes a giant spirit person and shoots a laser at Unavaatu. Also, Unalaq is evil and wants to become the first "Dark Avatar". [/spoiler] **4/10** It had potential. Season 3 was cool. There's one scene where I actually found that Korra was a likable character. Tenzin tries his best to bring back the air nomads and we get to journey to the Earth Kingdom. But, the reason the airbenders have returned is that Korra left these "spirit portals" open. Which created "change" in the world, which also included bringing back the airbenders. Forget about the trauma and time it takes to heal the scars of war! Just open that spirit portal! Aang should've just opened those portals and he could've gotten started earlier! But here's the thing, Zaheer is the best villain in this series. He wants to bring about anarchy (which is a terrible idea, btw) and wants to remove the Avatar (for some reason he tried to kill Korra when she was young, which is pretty messed up). But here's the twist, he's one of those new airbenders! But instead of just making him some dude who discovers airbending, it turns out he's been studying air nomad philosophy for a long time. That's pretty cool. Compared to the other airbenders (except for Tenzin), Zaheer acts the most like an air nomad. And in the end, he has a plan to kill Korra while removing the Avatar cycle forever. Damn. **6/10** This season kills the least amount of brain cells. Season 4 started off well but got progressively worse. [spoiler] Kuvira has been tasked with reuniting the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer killed the Earth Queen. We first meet her, giving an Earth Kingdom town food and supplies, but she threatens the mayor because he almost refused to sign the paper. Then, important people (I can't remember, Raiko, Tenzin and Sue?) said Kuvira was doing all of these cliche dictator things, but we're never shown it. We only see her help that town. She doesn't seem very evil. Then we see her threaten a group of Earthbenders who attack her, and it's framed to make her look bad, but really, they attacked her and she's been helping plenty of people. So...? In the end, Kuvira cuts off some "spirit vine" from the swamp (from ATLA) and gets Varrick to make a laser out of it by harnessing its energy? Then, when Kuvira declares she's bad and marches towards Republic City, it's with a giant (Voltron) mech, equipped with the spirit-vine-laser-cannon! Korra wins, democracy wins, the end. **4/10** Season 1 was better. # Characters The only characters I care about is Tenzin, Varrick, and Zhu Li. Bolin was funny sometimes, but it's only because he's stupid. Unlike Sokka (ATLA), who actually has depth, is a character and goes through a compelling character arc. Korra has so many flaws/weaknesses that render her unlikable. She's hot-headed, stubborn, disrespectful and highly sensitive. She never takes responsibility for her actions, she gets a lot handed to her and her problems solve themselves. This show isn't more mature than ATLA but it does try to be edgier. The genocide of Aang's people and the dystopia of Ba Sing Se was pretty dark for a kid's show and wasn't there just to be dark and edgy. Why did I need to see the Earth Queen suffocate to death? Asami is a plot-device. Mako becomes boring after the stupid love-triangle in Season 1, and only really stays to look cool, follow Bolin and more love-triangle crap. # Animation The animation in this show is appalling. It has nice illustrations, not animation. If you go frame by frame, you'll see this studio's laziness. You might also remember some creepy/disturbing shots (when Ikki discloses Korra's crush on Mako to Asami, or when she's being held captive in Season 3). I like the character designs and illustrations. The linework is phenomenal. But the animation itself is lacking. And the fact they added too much detail to their characters so they couldn't animate make each style of bending distinct, was sad. It kind of makes sense in-universe since they've been relying more on technology and less on bending. But come on! # TL:DR TL;DR: Korra has no redeemable qualities. She might be flawed, but all her problems get solved for her. Does she have any strengths? Most of the villains are stupid. The _illustrations_ are nice, not the animation. Tenzin, Varrick and Zhu Li are cool. This show isn't darker but it tries to be edgier. This show takes different elements of ATLA and make them less compelling. Watch ATLA, it's the original and it's better. TLOK got rid of Aaron Ehasz and didn't even bother to find a replacement. This show still beats M. Night's The Last Airbender. **4.75/10**

archm

6/10

It's been years since I finished the series, but as I remember it, the writing for the villains was this series' strongest feature. Most had believable motives and weren't just power hungry or evil for evil's sake. I found myself for rooting for characters like Amon and Zaheer far more than I did for Korra. The show faced many hurdles with its uncertain future, possible cancellation and online-only release, so this may have played a role in some of its shortcomings. It seems clear to me that the creators wanted to push the envelope and flip all the previous tropes upside down, but at times it came at the cost of believability. I found Korra to be an unlikable character in general, even with the personal growth that came out of her traumatic experiences. Many of the other characters feel like soulless copies of archetypes that were successful from A:TLA, with nowhere near the same level of complexity or development as they had. Aside from the characters, season 2 in particular seemed to make a real mess of things. The Avatar origin story was interesting and reasonably well done, but the Power Rangers style spirit battle at the end was just kind of stupid. If you liked _Avatar: The Last Airbender_, then you're more likely to enjoy _The Dragon Prince_, which I find to be the true spiritual successor. It still tackles some sociopolitical issues and doesn't play it safe with subject matter, but it does it in a much more enjoyable and believable way.

percy_wren

0/10

**SPOILERS AHEAD** **Season 1:** Season 1 overall I think is a decent start, unlike the predecessor, Korra did seasonal villains. Which honestly did not work, in this case Amon is fine and I did actually like the plot line. I was hoping we would go deeper into the aftermath when Amon fell, but that sadly never came. However, during the season he was a big threat and I felt like he had good reasons to start the cult. In some scenes I felt a bit sympathetic towards him but, this show really loves it’s twist. He ended up being a bender and I feel like his character got weaker once we learned that he was just after power. I liked him better when he was doing something to benefit the people, as he felt more human but had his flaws. Now he is just a super villain. Moving onto our main cast, I will get straight to the point the love triangle was horrible. It isn’t as bad as the next season, but man it was hard to watch at points. Korra as a character is interesting, she is honestly like every teenager ever. We have all been angry and frustrated, I did relate to her in that capacity. It was frustrating to watch because lets be honest who liked their teenager self, but she is slowly starting to change her ways. The rest of the avatar gang are all kind of surface level characters. We don’t get as much depth as I would have hoped, don’t get me wrong we got a good introduction to them but there isn’t much development to their character. Tenzin was interesting even though I mainly saw him as a side character, I feel he had some slight changes towards the end of season. Such as, learning that there newer and maybe better methods to teach bending. Overall I wished we actually got more time with pro-bending as I really wanted to see just how different from the traditional method it is. Now for the elephant in the room, that ending was just not it. Giving Korra her bending back was such a big mistake, considering what season 2 is about, this would have tied in perfectly into the plot. Honestly that whole scene of giving people their bending back, was just a bit underwhelming because at the end Amon wasn’t even a real threat in the end. Some minor notes on the world building, we mostly discover Republic City and some parts of it it was okay, I did enjoy the vibe it had. I am big fan of steampunk so I was very on board with the design. The background were beautiful and the animation was really good, soundtrack really lifted up some scenes. I still did enjoy the journey and it is starting season which means it will be slower, so I will give it a 6.5/10. **Season 2:** Season 2 is something. This season’s villains is Unaloq, and he was good at the start and if they had just focused in on the whole Civil War I think this season would be better off. However, this plot line basically gets side lined, because he actually wants to release the evil spirit, Vaatu. I will get into the whole spirit stuff in a minute but to focus on Unaloq. He was just a bit too much for my liking, and how does he know and nobody else what the spirit portals do. Like I have a very hard time believing that nobody else knew and I feel like that Korra’s past avatars could have maybe warned her. I know it is a stretch but this is world ending stuff, so expecting some help is not a far-fetched idea. Compared Amon, which ended up being a super villains towards the end, he was one from the beginning. I will mention the ending now too, couldn’t we just get a bender fighter and not the giants. It felt so off, like I wasn’t watching Korra, I can’t fully put into words but there was something wrong there. This was probably my least favorite scene in the whole show. Onto to the characters now and, Korra got so much worse. I understood her in the first season, but she is due for some change. I feel like she got angrier, but she is the avatar and at some point she will have to learn that she can’t be like this. Especially when it clouds her judgement to this extent. I know avatars are supposed to make mistakes and suffer, then learn and grow for them but this was painful to watch at times. Boulin and Mako got their arcs in this season, I did not enjoy it actually. Not even mentioning the whole love triangle, which got so much worse, it was just felt pointless I guess. Boulin just too focused on this movie career, and the fame and money took over. In the end he mostly stayed the same character, so it feel like we didn’t go anywhere with it, I want to like it but I just feel like we could have been doing something better. Mako was also just ignored in every way, like Lin would listen to him and take him more seriously considering his work with the Avatar. I can’t see her ignoring him to this extent, it feels really extreme. He was honestly the punching bag of this season, Asami was mostly in CEO mode. Now onto the Tenzin/Jinora plot line, I felt the potential here but it was executed so badly. I almost wish we fully focused on Tenzin struggling to accept he is more than just Aang’ son. To then allow him to be able to go into the spirit realm, this would have been very emotional and would have at least made some sense than just Jinora being able just because I guess. The writers had good ideas but the execution was just so bad, and even the animation was bad it was so clunky at times. Not to mention the dialogue was at it’s worse this season, just nothing went well this season. I will also mention the other elephant in the room, Korra losing access to the previous avatars was not a big deal to me. I just never saw it as such an important piece. Especially now that Korra has Aang’s son, some of his friends and so on. She has many people to guide her, which would make her less reliant on the previous avatars. Finally the spirit realm, I am kind of indifferent to it. I don’t have enough information to really form an opinion. I can see that the more cute spirits, are like of a lower tier spirit and the once that have crossed over are much more powerful spirits. That’s all I am gonna say really. There some comments that Vatuu/Raava broke some lore, I don’t think that is the case, since they learned the proper technique from the first benders while the actual powers came from the loin turtles. I am not the biggest fan of it, but I don’t hate it. Overall this season is the worst of Korra, at most I am giving it a 4/10. **Season 3** Season 3 was a blessing, I really enjoy the villains of this season. I felt like they had a good cause which was ruined by the extremes they were willing to go to. Considering how they were all skilled in fairly unknown sub types of bending, made them pretty terrifying. They felt really human at points, which I really appreciated after 2 seasons of just pure super villains. I do wish we got some more time with them, to learn about their dynamic, as I feel like this would have solidified their stance as Korra’s best villains. One thing I also liked is that failed at their first attempt to capture the avatar. Yes they were powerful, but they were unbeatable which made the final fight that much better. We knew they had weakness and so does Korra, I do wish Korra got an actual chance to show her skills off. She was instead poisoned which greatly reduced her strength, which is a shame, as she really needed a win. Throughout the whole she always got beaten down and never got a proper solo win and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Onto some story elements, we got some consequences from the previous season, which I really liked. I am glad we even spent an episode just trying to deal with the problems that came from the spirit world, unlike the Equalists you can’t just remove them. The citizens and avatar will have to learn how to deal with them. I assume because of the Harmonic Convergence, we also got more airbenders, and this this was my favorite part of the season. This was something I was looking forward to, and the show delivered. There were a lot of people who were hesitant to join, some didn’t want to and that is realistic. Very few people would want to do that, and I did like Kai being the first recruit. Showing no matter what kind of background you had, you can change and do better when somebody believes in you. Tenzin struggling to teach the new air nomads about the culture is also fairly realistic, I really liked the journey Tenzin had to take to finally get everyone interested into it. While also realizing some might want to go home, and that not everyone is cut out to be like previous air nomads. I did have my gripes about Jinora and why they made her the chosen one, but that was justified in this season. She had her moments both from a useful team member but also just a nice side character. I was very curious about what happened in this family, that is the Beifong family. Lin and Suying are Toph’s daughters, and I really enjoyed seeing what happened and how this conflict would be resolved. However, what I thought was going to be a moment where the sisters come together, Suyin instead lies to Lin to help team avatar escape from the city. This felt so wrong, because they were just starting to recover as a family and the first time your sisters needs some help, you lie. I mean that just seemed so off. Boulin got a nice arc with Opal and him learning to lava bend, while not major happened I really liked the small things that happened to him. Finally some character depth from him. From what I remember Mako and Asami were just there this season, I really don’t remember much from them. Finally Korra got a bit more grounded and less angry, while she still has problems with it on occasion it is leaps better than season 2. The final episode of the show hit really hard though, you can tell she is broken and then having Jinora getting her tattoos. That was the complete opposite of how Korra felt, Jinora was at her highest here and Korra at her lowest. Honestly probably the best scene in the show. I did enjoy seeing the Metal Clan, and the other parts of the world, this is the most world building we got through out the whole show. Ba Sing Se was very interesting visit but I can see that happening, they were once a city of progress and now have greatly fallen behind as their leader became obsessed with riches and power. The animation also greatly improved, which I am very glad so I will give this season a 8/10. **Season 4:** Season 4 is for me the season of the characters. We got a deeper look into Korra’s struggles and I viewed her having the poison in her body more as a metaphor, that she mentally has not recovered. Her journey of struggle was a painful watch, and in that moment I really felt like Korra had become a proper avatar. The greatness doesn’t make the avatar, rather the struggle they go through to become the proper peace keeper. We see this change happen gradually over the season. Her first answer isn’t to fight it is to talk, and even after she learns this she is still afraid. This isn’t a quick fix, this is trauma that will haunt Korra for life but she is learning to deal with it. This was a beautiful part of her story that I am glad finally got told. Zaheer helping her honestly makes a lot of sense, he had evil plans, but that was because he had good intentions. This isn’t what he wanted so of course he will help Korra, as ultimately he had made all of this happen. Unlike Zaheer, Kuvira to me felt like a poor recreation of him. Kuvira was a master manipulator and she knew how to get here way but a bit too well. We don’t really see her fail ever until the final battle. Some might view the fact the the Beifong family escaping was a lose for her but I felt like it wasn’t enough. She was still a huge threat and to top it of, let’s give her a giant mech suit. They took the worst part of season 2 and made it worse. Like how do you hide a 200 meter tall mech suit, and that Zhu Li never saw it, just seems a bit far-fetched. I know they like making over powered villains in Korra but this was way too much. Watching the the last few episodes was like watching ants get stepped on, it was hard to watch because it really was not fair. I will at least say the final fight between Kuvira and Korra was pretty cool but the ending just did not sit right with me. I feel Kuvira should have broken down because she lost, she gave up everything and anyone to make this happen. I understand she was surprised she lived, but her reaction to everything seemed off. While I liked some aspects of her, sometimes I just really felt like they wrote her a bit too much like a perfect villain. One character I did not expect to get such a good arc was Boulin. We already saw he was gullible so the fact he followed Kuvira is not surprising. I also liked the fact he did not figure it out right away. He really did believe in the cause and once he saw what was actually happening, it was too late. His relationship with Opal suffered greatly, and it was an easy fix which I appreciated. They really made him earn her trust back, we all knew he wasn’t a bad guy and so did Opal, she just needed time to see him change. They did something similar with Asami and her dad, I did also like this it was a nice touch to her character. They didn’t rush it and Asami made small steps to trust her dad again, very beautiful. Mako was just side lined, instead we got a deeper look into Zhu Li and Varrick. Which I liked actually, when it comes to characters being purely there to be funny I tend to not like them. In Korra’s case I feel like they were well done in all season, and this touch of depth they gave them in this season was very fitting. They weren’t dumb either for purely comedic characters and they did benefit story, when it comes to side characters this as good as it gets. To finish of the Beifong family issues Toph joins the party, and it felt fitting to bury the hatchet, and to start anew. The whole escape sequence was a lot more than helping them leave prison, it was the family becoming whole again. Overall I did enjoy this season, it wasn’t as good as season 3 but it was still good. There was that one episode that just was there, they recapped the story. Not sure if they were going for the ember island play but that was not it. I feel like giving this season a 7/10 is fair. **Overall:** Combining all of the reviews from the season it totals up to a 6.4, which does feel fitting. Korra had a lot of potential, and the writers really didn't utilize the chance they got. I still do recommend this show to anybody who wants some more Avatar related media.

puncher

0/10

Art style, fight scenes, music, the show's production is great. But the series' story wasn't, starting from its characters - Korra's unwillingness to learn, Mako reduced to a side character, Bolin the tryhard funnyman, and Asami the Mary Sue- all throughout. Plots were resolved dramatically with asspulls and the villains were bland. The Legend of Korra wasted its potential to be the successful series after ATLA.