The Legend of Korra: What Went Wrong?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2024
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The Legend of Korra: Can anything live up to Avatar?
Fans of Avatar were hyped to get their element-bending fix with the spinoff show The Legend of Korra. But it didn't quite live up to expectations. Let's figure out why in this Wisecrack Edition on The Legend of Korra: What Went Wrong?
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=== Watch More Episodes! ===
Avatar the Last Airbender: The Real Cost of War ► wscrk.com/2SR1Ecr
The Last Airbender Movie: What Went Wrong? ► wscrk.com/2REZ8Cb
How The Mandalorian Breaks TV's Cardinal Rule ► wscrk.com/3ya01qs
00:00 - Intro
01:26 - Balance
02:57 - Amon
04:26 - Unalaq
06:37 - Kuvira
8:29 - Losing Balance
11:47 - Zaheer
15:32 - Conclusion
Written by Ross McIndoe
Hosted by Dr. Kristopher Alexander
Directed by Michael Luxemburg
Editing by Mark Potts
Video Title Card by Amanda Murphy
Produced by Evan Yee
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound
#legendofkorra #atla #wisecrack
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No cause it gave me similar vibes to Joker or The Last Jedi: cool ideas bro. Where's the follow-through??
@@TheLostAirbender you’re a dumb ass research the production issues it has before speaking out your ass
Yes, I loved it and never understood (still don't) the unfair criticism it gets.
Not really in my opinion i stopped watching after season 1
But im gonna check the rest for the sake of my curiosity
"What's seventeen more years? I can always start again. Make another avatar." - Tenzin's internal monologue probably.
Hahaha!! That's amazing
I need this meme
Love that refrence. J K Simmons is great
Dark, but probably true
Gold 😂😂😂😂😂
I saw this comment once:
Aang didn’t want to be avatar in a world that needed him most
Korra wanted to be avatar in a world that didn’t need or want her :/
That’s pretty good, whoever wrote that was more talented than Bryke.
@@li-limandragon9287 Lmao sure
I think a better way to put that quote is that Aang was a human that needed to accept that he was also the avatar while Korra was an avatar that needed to accept that she was also human.
Bullshit the world didn’t need Korra. Every season has a villain that only Korra had the best chance of beating. The people of republic city where practically begging her to stop Amon. Even the president at the end of season three has a line where he asks who’s gonna help us if the avatar can’t.
Accurate.
@@austinjohnsen4430 If we just ignore the role the Avatar as a concept, or as a person, played in those villains getting stronger.
The first season, Amon used the Avatar as propaganda. It made it tremendously more difficult to figure out he was just a blood bender. Unalaq just straight up used the Avatar. Korra wasn't particularly effective in stopping Zaheer, and she was kind of the reason he was even a threat. Then the spirit vines used by Kuvira were directly her fault.
Yeah, these were still issues that she helped stop, but why the world doesn't NEED her anymore are because much of these conflicts were political. Yeah, Kuvira would likely still try to become leader if there was as much instability in the Earth Kingdom (which wouldn't be a thing without the Avatar), but that's a political issue. That's not something Korra needs to be there to solve.
For me it's the main cast. The original avatar team was so iconic, organic, and lovable. Not to mention Zukko and Iroh dynamic.
Right. I was so excited when Zuko finally decided to join the team, and disapproval from Katara was make sense because of her past, then gradually accepted him as a team. Those dynamics are what make me love the old show.
The love triangle things and drama in LOK is what prevented me from liking them as much tbh
@@Aysisseya
Yeah the main cast in Korra is just a more bland/boring reskinned version of the old cast. Mako was boring asf, They tried so hard to make bolin the funny comic releif character and Asami was just... Asami
They wyd no chemistry they were just thrown together and were love interests
I loved the villain from the first season, Amon, and the concept of Benders vs Non Benders. It had a world reaching conflict that threatened boil over into a full blown war between technology and Bending...and they squandered it.
It's because team "Bryke" didn't know they were getting a second season.
@@TheMrPeteChannel wrong. Bryke said they were booked all the way to season 4 before season 1 even aired. They even said they had so much overlap they worked on multiple episodes simultaneously.
Indeed. A world that was over sensitive towards benders and playing the hypocritical enemy is indeed a very good story and they royally messed it up.
@@hodb3906 I was hooked until we found out who Amon was, then it just went downhill. It definitely got better the Zaheer arc.
The non-Benders saw Amon had paint on his face and decided that they deserved the abuse.
Im starting to think Korra's villains actually represent a wider trend in story telling the last decade. In an attempt to bring up more social issues and moral ambiguity to stories, villains are set up to be more sympathetic and almost anti-heros. But the trappings of old media still relegate the hero to be the one that ultimately maintains the status quo, and as was mentioned here, the villian's path ends conforming to a traditional good vs evil fight. Marvel Movie Villians are a great example.
Very true
Yep, the falcon & the winter soldier as well. The first 2 episodes the antagonists are just helping people and have an admirable goal then all of a sudden in episode 3 they just randomly bomb a building like wtf? Gotta make sure we know they're the bad guys.
@@itsxtray But the season finale has Sam explicitly come down on the side of the Flag Smashers, so it's actually a step into committing more to the issues. I actually really like how they explored the different sides of the conflict.
@@TheLithp Except that makes Sam complacent with terrorism. And their goals were reflective of a very simplistic view of the world, and having their way would very likely throw the world into chaos. The Flag Smashers do nothing but bring harm to innocent people and destroy resources, and yet the show tries to treat them like they might be sorta good the whole time.
@@TheLithp The problem with Sam agreeing with them is that it makes it makes Tony’s side back in CW look justified in bringing Sam to justice if he genuinely believes in that kind of BS.
The whole point of Sam’s beliefs i.e Cap’s beliefs in that movie is that laws and Government shouldn’t try and govern you from doing the right thing but if you’re gonna undercut that by saying the masked assholes who kill innocent people are also doing “the right thing” and have a point, then the pure righteous sentiment from Team Cap is spoiled and hypocritical.
I was so excited to see her try and deal with the bender vs non-bender dilemma. It just being brushed off before the end of the season ruined it for.
I would like to know when you watched it
I completely agree, not to mention it was a really lame straw man against communist. and I think the reason it fell flat is because the writers of the show didn't have a substantive rebuttal for this thing they were trying to undermine. They raised the problem of inequality in the world and then they were like well we don't have an answer, have fun.
@@peytonmagi9337 yh while this is true there really wasn't enough time to explain everything in about 13 episodes
Yeah, and the choice to have all Amon’s backstory (which undermines any interesting themes from the season) delivered all at once via flashback by a literally captive narrator. I was so disappointed. I didn’t watch the second season for 6 years after that
@@braladeiegberibin I don't think your arguments totally unreasonable but I think other shows have done it better. like Over the Garden Wall, and first season of infinity train as some examples. :)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Aaron ehaz was the writer who made atla what it is. A beautiful well written story that made us care for these characters and wrote out the story and balanced it out. He didn’t come back to korra and the creators were scrambling to recreate that magic without the key player.
ohh so that's why TLOK didn't have that magic feel that ATLA had. I searched up writer just now. Thanks! (found out we have the same bday too)
I heard someone say the same, and they recommend watching the Dragon Prince as it also has the same magic feeling ATLA has (because Ehasz writes the story), only not so good compared to it.
Amen! I mean Aaron Ehaz was the one who made Toph the blind girl we know and love today. Otherwise she would have been basically the Boulder...
Thank you for spreading this! Most fans don't realize that Aaron Ehaz was the key ingredient and Bryke (the creators) lowkey be taking the credit for the iconic proponents of Avatar when they weren't really responsible for it.
Nick fucked the production team over though. They wanted to build the KorraSami relationship from earlier and for that Nickelodeon cut their budget in half in the middle of production, reduced the deadlines and changed TLoK show hours three times
Omg if I hear “Harmonic Convergence” ONE MORE TIME I’m gonna tear my hair out
Make sure it looks harmonic.
Hearing “Harmonic" or "Convergence" now activates my fight or flight response.
What about Convergent Harmony?
Harmonic Convergence
What is HARMONIC CONVERGENCE?
Last Airbender had the whole series written from the beginning of production. Korra had to be written one season at a time
A strait up lie.
They got green lit for 3 seasons after the first.
@@sxb2andtheotherguys The first season was supposed to be standalone but Nick asked for three more after that. So the initial story was wrapped up and new ones had to he written on the fly.
@@benwasserman8223 every season of ATLA was only green lit after the last, they had the nightmare scenario you say Korra had and it was much better.
LOL, three different versions of what happened. Somebody needs to provide a source.
@@sxb2andtheotherguys no it did not, they renewed season 3 and 4 together
It feels like a lot of movies and tv shows share this problem-having a compelling, relatable villain that gets simplified/abandoned in the third or fourth act for the sake of spectacle in the climax
You hit the nail on the head with the word "spectacle." Due to the animation medium, and that Nickelodeon is a children's channel, I think the showrunners were sort of pressured to have the big battle at the end of each season. It doesn't solve the conflict in a satisfying way for people who like storytelling and analysis.
@@reikun86 I was actually writing a story and I realise I kinda do that with my villain... How would I go about making the final confrontation with villain not seem like a boss fight in a video game?
@@chrisbade2119 i think it's just something that happens, most people make the villain seem like an unstopble force that should be feared which makes there final battle against the hero the most epic it can be in order to fit that expectation
@@chrisbade2119 Without any context, it’s hard to give advice, because every villain should be treated differently for a final confrontation. I guess the one bit of advice that may help is *don’t put the hero and the villain directly against each other.* Keep in mind the reason they have to fight in the first place. Perhaps the hero obstructs the villain’s main goal, and/or the villain obstructs the hero’s goal, so keep their actions focused on that goal (if the villain has to take some time to make sure the hero is out of the way before continuing with their goal as soon as possible, make sure to show that). If you engineer the final conflict so that it’s more than just a 1 on 1 personal fight, so that there are other elements in play, it may help remind the audience that these characters have goals that extend past fighting each other, and will help prevent the villain from just being a big bad. Also having dialogue moments during a fight can help I would imagine.
Almost every recent MCU villain has become this, Black Panther is the worst one with this.
Koras hot headedness, emotional outbursts and constant love triangles completely undermined what it meant to have a series based on a water bending avatar, as water benders are said to have emotional mastery and strong emotional bonds. She literally broke up team avatar multiple times 🤦
I’m seriously hating her obnoxious “I know best” attitude. She disrespects Tenzin in episode 2 and doesn’t face any consequence. In fact, Tenzin apologises to her at the end. I hope she comes to respect wisdom and traditions and drops the attitude soon.
@@CrispyHulk1 Welcome to teenagehood.
@@zjean3417 screw that. I dropped the show
@@CrispyHulk1 Go cry a river
@@avish878 lose weight
"... it's a highly-intellectualized selfishness, dressed up a freedom..." is the best line, explains zaheer's philosophy perfectly.
Anyone of the 4 villains should have been a 4 book series. Every villian was set up well but the solution always ended up being violence.
They really needed all that time to flesh out the central conflict in a way that is the hero is just bad enough to be stopped at all costs without resolving the central issue.
Agreed!
The way Zaheer's actions allowed the rise of Kuvira was fantastic and a glimpse into what they could've done with the whole series if Nick actually let them plan!
Exactly atla had one real big bad and like one little one Korda had one every season and was hurt so bad she couldn’t even walk she barely even had time to let that pain and loss weight on here it was just “next season now she knows how to walk again”
I don’t know about Unalaq, the dude was lame from the very beginning.
@@raviathreya5357 Unalaq was good in theory, bad in execution. There are parallels between him and Ozai, but he just didn't have Ozai's energy, and the final fight was a shambles.
I dont know, each one of those TLoK villains, couldve been spread out to be future villains for the future Avatars, couldve worked 🤷🏻♂️
I think they missed the opportunity to really explore the personal consequences for Korras knowing from an early age she was the Avatar.
They were too busying animating that "I"M THE AVATAR DEAL WITH IT" and destroying the igloo.
I'd have liked to see genuine consequences of a kid growing up knowing they're completely unique and special. Korra came across as a backwoods idiot, but never violently spoiled or entitled. Imagine Violet Beauregard as the Avatar.
The entire series was partly that. She believed she was hot s--t and because bending was easy for her, until the show demonstrates to her again and again that there's more to being the avatar than moving elements around and beating people up. She was spoiled, sheltered, arrogant, impatient, and screws up and punished severely over the course of 4 seasons. Her personal journey is learning to be a better person to go with her formidable powers as an avatar, unlike aang who was already a good person who needs to train to be the avatar.
@@tonyp.8428 Partly. I can't lay the whole blame on Korra since she was deliberately sheltered and kept isolated for her own protection due to the threat of Zaheer and the Red Lotus (of which Unalaq was a part of secretly until he had his own machinations for the Avatar).
She grew up without any siblings or any real friends, and so it was no wonder she grew up kinda spoiled, arrogant, and socially stunted until she met her own Team Avatar and got some good teachers like Tenzin, and she calmed down and became much more experienced and wiser.
Aang's whole thing was not wanting to assume any responsibility and not wanting to grow up (since adulting is hard) so he kept running away from his ultimate responsibility to end the war by confronting Ozai, and just wanted to goof off and play instead.
@@arcturionblade1077 Yes, sorry there is a lot more to Aang than needing to train in the elements. I just wanted to simply say that Korra and Aang are practically opposites in what they needed to improve in themselves in order to reach their potential. Even in Aang's hesitation vs Korra's f-yeah, I'm the Avatar!
"I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!"
Oh, baby Korra, my sweet innocent summer child.
You have no idea.
Can we talk about how in season 1, Aang is basically a completely different character and gives her weird advice and just her energy bending then leaves.
In the first show, ATLAB, Avatar Roku was the main guide and master for Aang,
But in this show, the writers made it
That Korra doesn't need any avatars guidance, that was just terrible,
It's like, a man needs another man,
But she is the queen and doesn't need anyone... big mistake...
@@ShakirprimezAccurate
@@ShakirprimezThis is simply not true. She had Tenzin every single step of the way. Among other people. Even Toph. You're just clutching at straws and trying to play the "they made it too feminist " card
@kjccaleb9148 you're are right about her having Tenzen, but she did not even listen to him majority of time until after she messed things up. He kept telling her to learn how to get in touch with the spiritual part of being the avatar and she and would not listen. So there was some feminism thrown in there.
@@LadyIcee That's not feminism. That's part of her character development from a hot headed teenager who thinks she knows best to someone who takes advice and works with the people around her and thinks things through. Someone who's empathetic to others. Did you watch season 4. How they took down Kuvira. She took the lead on most of the strategies but took advice from her team. Her talk with Kuvira in the spirit world and her talk with Tenzin at Varrick's wedding. That's not the same Korra of season 1,2 and 3 who didn't listen to people around her
Really wish the show could have spent like two seasons on each of her villains they are all so compelling, till they just turn into capital B bad guys.
All of them except Unalaq lol. There was something there, but I don’t think he needed more time, I think he needed to be more tightly written in general.
3 out of 4 villians always were following their motivations and weren't some baby show villians like in atla
@@Necroskull388 bruh unaloq was the worst villain of the show, hated every moment of season 2 mostly because of him and his 'plan'
@@mynameisntjoe3024 Bady show Villains like in Avatar? Are we just going to ignore Zuko and Azula, one of if not some of the best villains in cinematic history? And you really think Avatar is a baby show? Seriously?
@@lonebattledroid4474 well I like to think of it like this: each villain got introduced and defeated in 12-14 episodes. They had to ramp up their characteristics and motives really quick, which imo did work. People like azula and zuko we had to learn more about them as we watched, and I didn’t find azula interesting until her mental breakdown. Their buildup was slow. But villains like Long Feng, Zhao, and even ozai aren’t given much character and because the villain buildup is so slow, but they don’t have much screen time, and the season just simply can’t allow them to ramp up to extreme power levels (apart from ozai)
“It had excellent characters”
*shows Varrick
Me: Nice
I LOVED HIM XD
Probably the only character that I actually care.
The legend of Korra has a lot of issues but one thing that could have made the series better is changing the order in which the villains are encountered to give the story more natural progression.
- Zaheer escaping prison and terrorizing the nations should have been the first story arc. He assassinates the Earth Queen causing the collapse of the Earth Kingdom. Korra gets poisoned. Kuvira vows to bring order. Series still starts off in Republic City with minor Equalist encounters and the forming of Team Avatar.
- Naturally, the arc involving Amon and the Equalist should occur next. Seeing the might of the members of the Red Lotus, the destruction they caused, and the near death of the avatar, the Equalist decide to make their move to gain support, which they gain overtime to the point where they plan to attack. Korra regains her strength after some time and defeats them. Kuvira begins to unite the Earth Empire. Unalaq and the Northern Water Tribe invades the South under the guise of protecting the South from invasion and/or terrorist attacks. Unalaq encourages Korra to open spirit portal but she does not.
- With the Equalist defeated, and the South Water Tribe being protected, Korra and Team Avatar turn their attention to Kuvira's aggression. Kuvira attacks Republic City, confirming the "fears" of Unalaq, gaining Korra's trust. Kuvira is defeated and Korra opens the first spirit portal.
-The arc involving Vaatu and Unalaq should be the climax of the series with bread crumbs sprinkled throughout the rest of the series leading up to this. Korra is forced to open the last portal, Unalaq and Vaatu merge. They fight the final showdown in Republic City.
Just doing this alone makes the series better. There are many other fixes needed such as Jinora not being used as a plot device and/or deus ex machina constantly.
Nah, that’s shit
the only thing that doesn't quite workout in this order is the fact that harmonic convergence is the cause to new air benders appearance, including Zaheer but other than that I really like this order
@@alex-coelho Yeah, it's not perfect because the show was written the way it was but that's the issue to begin with. All the story arcs seem disjointed from one another. While key events bind them together, honestly, the overall plot wouldn't be impacted much if you removed entire arcs, which just isn't good writing.
The Harmonic Convergence issue could be fixed by writing around it. Maybe Unalaq being a strong bend, very briefly piecers the veil between the material world and spirit world when he attempts opening the portal on his own allowing for a small amount of new benders to appear. 🤷♂️ This could be all off camera events that happen briefly before the series start, that way there are new airbenders without anyone understanding how and everything can still play out roughly the same. They can even figure out these events happened later on while when Korra actually opens the portals. Just an idea.
@@teggerzz If you can do better, be my guest.
My goal was to reconstruct the story allowing it to naturally flow better using the elements provided by the original writers, not construct my own story or versions of events.
Instead of coming to the table offering nothing, I'd like to see how you'd improve the story. I'm sure you won't have anything to reply with however.
Edit: Two years later and he still has not replied. I rest my case.
Interesting deviations.
My personal issues with Korra:
-Too many villains that didn’t connect.
-The main characters didn’t seem that likable, I tried really hard to like them but Bolin is the only one I was truly rooting for (and Tenzin and his family.)
-It was so full of action, car chases, fighting and politics. Way more than Aangs series. It needs action for sure but it was way too much and I got bored.
-Korras animal companion did not seem as important nor as loved as Appa.
-Lacked enough comedic relief for all the serious topics.
-traveling and finding incredible places, it happened like .. twice? I think?
-Needed more slice of life fun moments. That’s my biggest gripe. My favorite aspect of the last air bender, was the traveling, meeting new people and most of them became friends, cute scenes like swimming, momo and appa being cute, so many little happy funny things happened and Korra’s series barely had any (but I loved it when it did happen.)
It just didn’t have the same vibe. I still go back to Aangs series even though I’m an adult now. It’s so fun and such a breath of fresh air. Each episode feels …good. But Korra makes me sad. It’s a damn shame because I loved the concept of a new avatar and a new set of friends and the fact that she was being taught by Aangs son was so cool, also bringing the air nation back was a theme I adored. I also really really would’ve appreciated a better romance arc for Korra herself. She deserved the same treatment that Aang and katara got. Drawn out crush, they want to tell each other and there’s a build up through all the seasons and cute romantic moments between them throughout the series. I LOVED that about Aangs series.
Truth is, I love change. But I’m human and I have my preferences too. I guess I wanted the same recipe but a different set of characters and adventures. I wanted to love The legend of Korra but unfortunately I found it more of a chore to watch.
You can’t look at korra with the same mindset of ATLA korra is a way more mature show showing how it is during the so called era or peace
@@keelanbrown3582 I think the last air bender is plenty mature considering the themes that were explored. Such as: War, genocide, politics, vengeance, indoctrination, animal and human abduction, toxic relationships, domestic abuse, cabbage destruction (lol) and more.
@@Seal_pupYou get an upvote for the cabbage mention lol
@@keelanbrown3582 Of course not, but LOK directly makes itself a sequel of ATLA and repeatedly reminds you of it by going "Hey look remember these characters? or this place?" so it will naturally get compared to ATLA. You cannot have a sequel lean heavily on it's predecessor and not expect to be compared to said predecessor, especially when it's a direct sequel, taking place in the same place & time (70 years later, yes it's alot but Toph, Zuko & Katara are all still alive so it's direct enough)
Hey there, random stranger, i just wanna say, i love the way you think...
Kuvira actually had consistent theming as a villain. She saw the world as a chaotic place, and tried to use raw force to bring it to order.
She never said promised to end oppression, she simply wanted to build a country too strong and intimidating to be threatened.
I do like kuvira way more than korra. The carácter feels strong and with an objective un like korra whos always lost and in need of help
@@alejandrohernandezcarrillo2436 Korra’s arc was about figuring out how to be a good Avatar, so her seeming lost as actually intentional.
She sounds like the United States xD
@@willhiggins9563 Tbh I thought Korra losing so much was to teach her to be human. I mean all her life she’s been set up to be the Avatar which is this pillar of power but Korra isn’t just a pillar of power and its clear that before season 3 that’s how Korra saw herself. I think Season 3 humbled her and Season 4 had her find balance
This is why I believe Trump did nothing wrong.
Man if season 2 was just about the civil war of the water tribes
Would of been so much better than what we got. I loved the art and most of Wans story but it undid everything ATLA established. Bending is not a natural magic but gifted from lion turtles. The avatar isn't balance of all 4 elements its a byproduct of intervention of a human in spirit affairs. It ruined everything that made that world special.
Real it retcon a lot for no reason sigh
If it was just about the civil war, i've would accept that, if it was just about the spirits, i've would accept that, but the season became polluted with making both problems into one and honestly the season felt completely about the water tribes rather than just the spirits.
Would’ve been so much better then them trying to retcon most of the origins of the avatar
There was a scary kite involved too
I had fun with it right up until the last couple of minutes of Season 1. That deus ex machina where they give her all her bending back with no effort ruined a whole season of awesome. (Plus the next season or 2 could have been her learning searching for a cure / and getting her bending back.)
Yeah could've been fun to see her learn to be Avatar without her abilities.
acting like the same thing didn’t happen several times in ATLA. Makes sense for her past reincarnations to help her gain her bending back.
@@Euphoria6901 Aang had problems bending fire and earth. He had problems learning earth bending because he was an airbender from birth. He had to practice it, with his teacher. Also, he went with Zuko to actually learn fire bending from dragons. He did not just have all the bending at his command like Korra did. Aang learned from all of his teachers, so he still had to practice and we saw how he was learning, unlike Korra.
Anyone else hates how korra says "I'm the avatar" like a lot
No
I do!
huh dude she's a teenager with lack of self esteem and a lot of fake boosted confidence that she confronts from season 3 onwards. she'd say that to tell herself first, not others, that she's capable of living up to the expectations that lie within being something she never asked or wanted to: the one true savior of two fcking worlds.
She inherited that from Aang.
Aang says it a lot too.
I got 1 word for you, to explain the issues with the Legend of Korra:
*Commitment*
No matter what season you pick, any themes, issues or problems the season posed, and started, it doesn’t commit to them and just defaults to brute force conflicts and avoiding the issue.
This being the central aspect that most first halves of each season are building towards, and it being trashed every single time for a brute force conflict and resolution not only means that the problems are never actually faced and that we’ve wasted time, but it also means that all that wasted time means that we don’t actually develop the protagonists we’re supposed to care about before the problems arise so we are emotionally invested in seeing the resolution.
TLA had episodes solely about character development: Zuko Alone, Tales of Ba Sing Se, The Blind Bandit, Kioshi Island (I think thats the name S1Ep4), The one with Patik, The Painted Lady, the Headband, The Swamp, Avatar Day, and many more. They’re all deviations of the plot and of the main villains all about advancing the protagonists characters. This Development is the reason Leaves from the Vine makes anyone that watched the series be an emotional wreck every time the hear it. It’s the reason The Southern Raiders hurts soo much with Katara, and the reason her and Zuko finally connecting feel the way it does. It’s the reason Katara beating Azula is best, the reason Toph learning metal bending is soo cool, the reason Zuko taking the lightning bolt to the chest is soo meaningful.
i totally agree. this is where TLOK falls short, but i do still believe that it was a good show. you just need to not compare it to TLA.
I’m 50/50 on your comment. In the back half of Avatar season 3, it gave us some of the best character development arcs, but the ones from the earlier in the season and from previous seasons were a bit dull and felt like filler episodes. Episodes like The Great Divide and The Cave of Two Lovers, and The Painted Lady which I thought was just the worst episode of Avatar period. Those are just a prime example of episodes that did absolutely nothing at progressing the plot and just felt like episodes that were meant to take up air time. And then, there were so many chances they could’ve gave to developing Ozai, but they just ended turning him into a cliche villain who just wants to destroy the world because he has a god complex. I wanted to see more on his relationship with father Azulon. Props to the writers for developing Zuko (which was always their plan) but Ozai just fell flat. At least with Korra’s villains, you got a chance to understand their point of view.
@@anthonyshepherd265 The Great Divide is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It was a very standard kid's show episode who's moral naturally coincides with the themes of the show (generational violence). The rest of the show just sets a very high bar.
And Ozai was never meant to be a developed villain. He's an asshole through and through. The kind of asshole who would burn his 13 year old son in front of an audience just to hold on to some pathetic idea of respect. He's not the kind of dude with a deep backstory that made him that way, he's just a fascist that was raised by fascists. A symptom of everything that was wrong with the Fire Nation.
blame nick on that
@@chakradarrat8832 No. this isn’t a production problem, this is a story problem. This problem came straight out of the writing room.
it really annoyed me how they kept threatening to cancel the show each season so the writers had to keep quickly wrapping up. Aang and the team had seasons to fight the 'big bad'. there was no build-up of the villain. Through Zuko and other people who have to meet the Fire Lord, we learn a lot about him.
They had S2 S3 S4 greenlit before a single episode aired, no threat of cancellation what so ever.
@@MaxIronsThird oh I just assumed because of season 1 and how at the beginning of every season there was this great, cool philosophical idea, but they never really followed through at the end and just wanted to wrap up quickly as possible...
@@lenig3012 They did some weird things with the show's schedule. I remember Season 3 was online only for a while.
@@lenig3012 Maybe they just liked the idea of the mini-series feel that S1 had, with beginning middle and end.
@@reikun86 half of season 3 and all of season 4 iirc was online only
I feel like I could write an essay responding to this video, and while it definitely summarizes some of the reasons TLoK doesn't work, I think that we're neglecting that the characters themselves are not compelling. The villains, often, are more compelling even in their ambiguity and lack of resolution than Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami. I think a deep dive on why the writing doesn't work also needs to include the shortcoming of the main characters, the destruction of the original lore/legacy of ATLA, and the production issues at Nick alongside the storyline issues.
Yeah, Korra had a real cast problem.
Most of them had nothing really to do. You could easily write Mako out of the entire series and would only lose a boring love triangle. Asami did not have a reason to exist, beyond being a connection to a side villain in season 1. Bolin also does nothing of note in any overall seasons story, despite having some really fun side plots in most of them.
Once you boil it down, only Korra and the airbenders were ever really needed.
Which hinders the whole show.
I think you articulated my thoughts exactly, could never put my finder on it. I found myself more intrigued with the moral dilemma and storyline of the villans and side characters. Whenever Korra appeared on screen again, I'm like "okay cool but skip this, I want to go back to the other story"
Something that i thought is bad is that the main cast doesn’t even have their own unique personalities except for Korra. They are all just “nice and mature”. While in Avatar: The Last Airbender, all of the cast are nice in their own unique ways and also have deep and interesting personalities. Just wished the main cast got more characterization.
Here are somethings to consider: Why are Bolin and Mako's criminal past not elaborated on? Is that what keeps them in poverty, past felonies disqualifying them from stable work? How do the Courts work, Varrick, as far as they know, attempted to assassinate a world leader but gets off scot-free. Zaheer and the Red Lotus get life in prison for a kidnapping attempt.
hilgigas09 they half assed a lot of complicated sociological issues, them not going into Bolin and Mako’s criminal past, is nothing next to that.
Like in season 1, they never really bothered to show, how non-benders have it worse than benders.
The closest we get is 3 gang members extorting a small business. Which doesn’t work, because we know from Aang’s time, that non-benders can beat up benders in a fight, if they were to train. And because we have no reason to believe that the gang wouldn’t risk strong arming a benders business. Also for even more dramatic irony. The only people, who at some points were beggars living on the street in absolute poverty, were two benders. While the prominent non-benders were the wealthiest, most privileged people in town. That would be as tone death, as inviting Opra into a talk a local white hobo, about systemic black issues in the US. Maybe that’s a real problem, but the shown examples are the worst possible options.
"What went wrong"
They went from ancient asian civilization to early 1900s in a few decades...
What are you talking about? The fire nation had Industrial Age tech with iron ships, dirigibles, tanks, etc. The Earth Kingdom figured out had a full on public transportation system in line with the age of railroads. Even the Northern Water Tribe was closer to Renaissance Venice than anything else.
@@zaniq23 Iron ships were present during the golden age of piracy, hundreds of years ago.
Public transportation systems were never a "age of railroads" thing. It existed many millennia ago in the Indus Valley Civilisation and even freaking Babylon.
Renaissance Venice started half a millennia ago. In the 1500s.
Korra is clearly in the 1910-1920s period. A 400+ years cultural gap skipped in a few decades.
You're attempt to cover for korra was pretty weak tbh
@@Joseph-do9nz - cite sources because my internet searches are coming up dry. Iron clad warships such as portrayed in ATLA were a 19th C phenomena the same with dirigibles. I'm also sure that there were no giant steam powered drill machines in ancient times. The Venice comparison is in regards to the Northern Water tribe which is not at the same tech level as the Fire Nation in ATLA. But again not an ancient Asian civilization. As far as public transportation that is the equivalent to the track and car system in Ba Sing Se, a foreshadowing of rail, being present in the Indus Valley and Babylon is news to me. Now if you mean that these civilizations had special roadways dedicated to public travel - sure if you wish to be pedantic. When commercial exploitation of electricity and internal combustion happen in Korra the nascent ideas of how to use them were already present in Aang's age.
@@zaniq23 youre going to be shocked to learn the ancient egyptians could sail to the americas and ancient latin societies had plumming. Amazing "modern" things exists far before the 1800's. Its just that imperialists and colonizers wanted to pretend it wasnt until THEY could do it
@@minxywaters1767 - I'll be shocked if you can cite a reputable scholarship on the Egyptians. The Romans and plumbing I know.
Short Answer? Nickelodeon consistently screwing around with production.
When will companies realize to make a good IP you need to give creatives more control? Stop buying an IP and then telling the people who created what they can and can't do with it.
@Big Smoke you should shut up, john is completely right
@Big Smoke literally what he said is valid tf u mean shut up?
I agree that Nick had a part in it. But the writers had 12 episodes to make the show stick. Why couldn't they do it!?
If ATLA was on the same time of life support system we wouldn't be talking about it 10+ years after it aired.
@@johnsmith8981 what's IP stands for?
Another thing that really disappointed was how Korra was suddenly in contact with spirit world even though this was her largest problem, not by actually overcoming the trouble she had internally with making contact, but just by going through some hole.
Totally - I thought this was such a cop out
It’s like Mary Sue Rey from Star Wars. Supremely powerful characters who don’t learn from training, mistakes or hardship are unrelatable and forgettable.
@@CrispyHulk1 thats not what a mary sue is. a mary sue is a person who had no problems ever, the world will bend around her and she is a master at everything she does. people love her without her earning it and everything comes easy to her.
this is the complete opposite of korra's character if you watched the series. its more akin to aang (im not saying he is one but its closer)
aang was constantly loved by almost everyone he met. he learned all of the elements within the episode he started them. and in the finale LITERALLY the world creates a deus ex machina for him to escape the stress of having to kill ozai. and even worse when fightin ozai and almost dying he is slammed into a perfectly placed rock that allows him to connect to the avatar state.
don't get me wrong. I love aang to death and the finale of avatar but that is a huge problem I have with it
she really doesn't. aang told her that if they hit their lowest point they are open to the greatest change which makes sense. and also aang could do into the spirit world by accident without no former training.
and if you say its because aang was an air nomad, we never heard anyhing about air nomads getting into the spirit world before aang.
but I do get what you mean overall that korra was able to get into the spirit world with little problem after having that as her biggest weakness.
This was an unexpected review. I was expecting the messy story telling because the show was canceled and reactivated many times, but it seems the real problem is that it ask the important questions without giving meaningful answers.
Throughout the entire series, I found myself annoyed with Korra's personality.
She is an annoying character. A badly written one.
I like annoying characters when they learn humility or whatever they need to learn to become better people, but they never force her to become a better person. Her bad behavior never gets appropriate punishment.
@@Joseph-do9nz Whats even worse is that I saw someone who said korra is one of their favorite characters ever.
@@t.r.everstone7 I think that's why she leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. Whenever a character addresses her problematic behavior or reasoning, they just backpedal by the end of the episode and apologize for ever questioning the faultless Avatar. I often find myself agreeing with Tenzin when they butt heads, only for him to yield with his tail between his legs by the end. It's not that Korra isn't a good person, she's just not a very pleasant one.
how, she has a good character arc and a relatable characters
The most notable problem I had with Korra's character was that there was always a copout. Aang giving her back her bending, The tree of time (Holy shit get it off my screen). This is a problem with writing mostly. I wish they gave Korra more time to sit with the consequences of her sacrifices early on. They sort of did in s4 but it was more convoluted and shrouded in self-pity and fear I felt. She always seemed to revert back to the same person in the end. Solving the problem because she is stronger, not because she has an answer for herself.
Wow, that’s pretty much how I feel about Korra’s character arc myself. Her big low points in the first two seasons were relegated to the season finales, and were quickly resolved by a pep talk from Aang and Tenzin respectively, and a new power not long afterwards. The ptsd arc in season 4 was definitely an improvement. My only real issue with it is that it concludes with a quick meditation session with Zaheer. Watch it again on TH-cam. It lasts around 10 seconds.
@@austinjohnsen4430 it's like the joke
"Oh no......anyways"
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lp What’s sad is that Korra should have realized that there actually was something she could have attempted when she lost her bending. Connecting with Aang for help like she did when she was Tarlaq’s prisoner. That would have been the perfect way to how much she’s grown spiritually, and that she’s not nothing without her bending.
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lp I would have preferred that over her ass dialing Aang.
@@austinjohnsen4430 yeah, that sounds way better than what they did on the show.
The answer is simple, Aaron Ehasz was no longer a writer for the franchise. He was the one to revise and prevent a lot of Bryan and Mikes poor writing. It’s because of him that he saved us from the terrible reality of a Aang, Katara & Toph love triangle, yikes. Speaking of terrible love triangles….yeah.
Agreed. Aaron and his wife were responsible for some of the best episodes of Avatar. As stated in the video, the reason some of these villains don't work is that instead of engaging with their philosophies Bryke just decide to drop everything. And its not like some of the conflicts in the OG show weren't brought down to simplistic good vs evil either. But the main difference is that The Last Airbender had characters like Zuko.
The complex ideas of a nation spreading tyranny under the self delusion of its own superior prosperity was really well communicated through Zuko's arc. He was mainly a product of his greater environment but that environment also had a loving mother and he's eventually stripped of that environment and forced to take on a wider view of the world and the darker aspects of his country's belief system chooses to ignore.
People underappreciate his work when they say "it has the same writers", it's truly not the same without Aaron
Still, judging by The Dragon Prince, Aaron has his own flaws as a writer. Maybe Bryan, Mikes & Aaron work best when all three of them are working together.
@@JustAUsername13 No one ever said he was perfect but Aaron knows what to do with good ideas as he's professionally studied writing.
@@JustAUsername13 but dude hasn’t all three seasons of the dragon prince been really positively received?
The biggest issue I had with the show is the almost farcical lack of any character development for Korra. She was almost aggressively anti learn from her mistakes. Someone was always apologizing to and for her, ensuring that she’d blithely and blindly run off into another near world-ending catastrophe. They never let her bear the consequences of her mistakes, so she felt confident in committing them again. It’s a lot like new-age parenting, and although it “feels” good to the pathologically conflict avoidant, it’s not nearly as beneficial or healthy as folk keep telling themselves it is.
I couldn't agree with this more.
I agree. When my family and I watched the show I was constantly saying "she doesn’t seem to learn from her mistakes"
I've seen very similar comments, but I really think a lot of the villains just needed more time to develop. Instead of trying to tackle a new issue each season, spending that time building up an overall arch. ATLA spent much of their time with "Plot A" and "Plot B" between Aang and Zuko and tying it all together in the final season. Korra has like a zillion characters coming and going. Most of them I think could be super compelling, but never get the chance because there isn't enough time for them. I know it's brought up that funding caused problems with how the show was written, but if they were less sure of the funding at the beginning, they could have tightened up the cast and make a much more intuitive arch instead of trying to tackle all of these super complex issues. Like take a look at the Wan episodes. That was, what, two episodes? There was a cleaner narrative in those two episodes than the entire duration of Korra. And sure, those episodes were meant to help Korra along, but you've now lost two episodes to developing like... anyone else.
What I expected: Aaron Ehasz wasn't involved. Nickelodeon screwed them over.
What I got: An interesting, nuanced, and new take on the philosophical shortcomings of the writing.
Well done.
But also yeah, he wasn't involved.
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lp and yeah, the Nickelodeon screwed them over
My biggest gripe with the show, is that we never actually get to step by step training of Airbending like we did with the other elements.
So true... Korra just close her eyes and punch the air and said "I can airbend!" . Like what...?
Sure Aang also suddenly did earthbending when saving Sokka, but before he did it, Aang did the earthbend stance, facing up the opponent, just like Toph teach to him before. I didn't see something like that when Korra start her first airbending.
@@ShinjuAra I got into this a massive argument with someone who said the training didn’t matter and we didn’t need to in-depth Airbender training with Korra, which couldn’t be more wrong imo.
We got all the ins and outs of the other Elements but Airbending was granted for free to focus on the Equalist stuff that went nowhere. And the whole “Korra could use Airbending to save Mako’s life” reasoning just sickens me because Mako and her relationship with him sucked balls.
Sorry had to get that out of my system.
@@ShinjuAra Korra literally spent a season learning airbending form. There was that whole deal with the spinning gates. Aang spent like a day training with Toph?
@@andrewli6606 Except she doesn't use any of it when she does air bend. She simply punches and kicks and air bending. When did you ever see Aang or tenzin just punch and kick to air bend? Theres always more movement, swirl, something. Also, like earthbending, fire bending, and air bending their is a spirit to the bending. Aang spent and episode finding the spark that fueled the fire. With toph he learned to go against his nature and stand his ground. Air is the most spiritual of the elements and again she never seems to have a real spiritual moment or connection with airbending. That is the issue.
@@specail1 She didn't only just kick and punch. She has done movements that are closer to more traditional airbending. There's a video on TH-cam that shows every instance of Korra airbending. Even discounting moments where she's in the Avatar state (which I guess could possibly influence her to use more traditional airbending), she has done airbending with the more traditional circular motion. You also have to remember that if someone suddenly starts airbending, they're more likely than not are going to be shit at it. It's more likely in a stressful situation, you'd default to what you're more familiar with. In that case, fighting Amon. In subsequent scenes, you see her using more traditional airbending more often. Korra also utilizes a lot of boxing/MMA moves for all of her bending, not just airbending. In conclusion, I think it's pretty disingenuous to say she only uses punches and kicks to airbend.
Technically, with Aang, he could already bend fire relatively well with little training as seen in the episode with Jeong Jeong. It was only after he burned Katara, that he had apprehension using it. Even in the episode with the dragons, it wasn't that Aang couldn't use firebending, it was that he was scared of it. That's not really super relevant to Korra suddenly being able to airbend, but you mentioned it.
Yes, Aang learns to stand his ground in the episode and is able to utilize his lesson by the end of it to earthbend a rock. Korra spends a season learning the movements of airbending, so it can't be an asspull to say she had no physical basis. Korra also spends an episode trapped in a metal box and spends the time meditating and connecting to Aang, so I think that's a sufficient rebuttal to the idea that she had no real spiritual moment.
By the way, not trying to rag on you or anything, but those are my thoughts on the matter.
Zaheer is still one of my favourite villains ever, he deserved more time and development
Amon too
Amon was so good but they ruined it
@@olaegbeolasubomi2379wish Amon got more time
@@olaegbeolasubomi2379Kuvira was has to many good points so they made her the bad guy
@@diegoplaysroblox2332Kuvira is just firelord ozai 2.0
"Let go of your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind" was my mantra for years.
Each season and villain was too easily resolved, without any of the impending sense of suspense and doom that Ozai provided
that's because ozai was a "build up" villain who we were talking about since the winter soltice. all of the villains in korra had to be built up in one season and give a conclusion to that build up in the same season. they didn't handle it as well as they could've but they did well enough because I enjoy almost all of the villains
Honestly, Ozai might be the worst villain of both series. Even by the time Aang fought him, I was still wondering "Who is this guy outside of being the Firelord?"
@@uncensored008 In hindsight ATLA could've gone more in depth highlighting his manipulative and destructive tendencies, but the whole point of Ozai's character is that he represents the "means to an end" of our heroes' journey. He is the personification of Aang's fears and the corruption of the Fire Nation. His utter lack of empathy or regard for anyone but himself is what set both of his children on their own destructive paths, and tore the Fire Nation apart from the inside out. He cares for nothing but power and was willing to do anything to achieve it.
Ozai is not meant to be pitied, in fact his very character exists for the sake of conflict. Nobody wins when dealing with Ozai, which is why he is responsible for every negative beat in the story (fueling Zuko's ambition, kindling Azula's inner turmoil, splitting apart his own family, twisting the Fire Nation's ideals, etc.) That scene when Katara finds Ozai's baby photo was not an attempt to sympathize him to the audience, but rather towards _Aang_ who is forced to make the ultimate choice of taking a life.
The battle against Ozai was really a battle against Aang's ideals - his sense of morality. It was the clash of Aang's Air Nomad teachings versus Ozai's perverted stance of Fire Nation supremacy. This battle represented everything Ozai and Aang stood for, whereas the Agni-Kai between Zuko and Azula was the culmination of Ozai's scheming and arrogance and failure as a responsible father, on a far more personable level.
@@uncensored008 agreed ozai's a really overrated villain IMO
@@swaggasaurus4837 I love this.
Season 2's ending was basically "laser and bigger laser" xD
Season 4 ending:
Lazer go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Don't forget spirit-laser bending.
@@anyanyanyanyanyany3551 At least in season 4 they spent the whole season building up to it. In season 2, they were just like “I’m a kaiju with laser nipples now. That’s cool.”
I admit I didn’t like Season 2 at all. But hating on Korra 24/7 come on.
@@dragonninjaghostgirl7981 Yeah, some people are a bit too harsh. Seasons 3 and 4 improved on a ton of the show’s flaws
One of the worst things the show does is take down villains too soon, out of no where, and often when they have a good point. Imagine how awesome it would've been to see Amon as an actual energy bender and to take away tons of people's bending. And then later a Dark Avatar exists and his movement is further justified and spreads. He focuses on taking away bending from the Dark Avatar. Then, Korra who can now ONLY airbend has to deal with both of these threats. Then she could meet the airbending Zaheer and she would have to have enough of a spiritual breakthrough that she could become good enough at airbending to take him out. THEN maybe she could be given her bending back by a bloodbender and conclude everything by defeating Amon or helping him defeat the Dark Avatar, who knows.
Might be just me, but something I loved about ATLA was that we knew everytime who the villain was. I'm aware the show originally was supposed to be a one season thing, but changing the villain so much was painful.
Listening to Kris spit philosophy about my favorite animated shows is my new favorite pastime
His name is Chris... is it not..?
@@Hirshkowsky *whispers* Good save
Thanks yo. Different spelling, same sound.
@@VideoGamesProf there we go lol. Sorry about that
@@naheemquattlebaum2267 No worries at all.
Legend of Korra in a nutshell: good ideas, flawed execution.
Indeed.
Yeah that's basically it, that's why its so frustrating to watch
@@bearholdensharkslux4791 i feel the same. I really wanted to like korra too. I do cut the writers some slack though, legend of korra was only supposed to be one season long
Bold to say good ideals
I see you are A Man of Culture.
I fully believe Amon could have given people bending ability. I feel he was totally wasted as a genuine threat by just revealing he was a faker. It was such a cheap way to take out probably one of the coolest foes
What did Korra miss? Well it needed an Oazi. It needed a main antagonist that would be the grand finale fight. Also, cutting ties to last lives literally destroyed the biggest part of this show period. On top of that, opening the spirit world again took away the whole meaning of the avatar being the bridge between the 2 worlds. Also, how modern, and technology in the show was just too much.
I think tech wasn’t even the main problem. They just did the metal clan dirty and they derseve their own series so s4 makes more sense
Legend of Korra lacked what Last Airbender had. The feeling that the Avatar was invested in the world around them for a good reason. When the Earth Kingdom was falling between tyranny and anarchy in Season 4 I was expecting Korra to make an argument for why she cares so much. That because she knows her rebirth will be in the Earth Kingdom she is not an outsider interfering but an Earth Bender who has a stake in their future home. It would have been interesting to see Korra contemplate what her next life would be and have that motivate her into being protective of the Earth Kingdom.
That's such a good point! It would've been very interesting to have the story explore that by having Korra think of her successor like that, and how the Earth Kingdom will be her home. I wish they'd done that. This show had so many missed opportunities.
But then that would completely be unrealistic and would have glossed over what really matter which was Korra, especially what she been through in the previous seasons. I actually love how we saw Korra struggle with ptsd and where she stood as the avatar. I feel like Korra's personal journey is what helped to make her stand and has been consistent throughout the show, and if we took what you said I feel it would look out of place and detached.
@@neishawnjohnson7602 And where does Korra stand as the avatar? Beating up bad guys that take things way too far? That never really changes, even when it seems like it might. Every season has a new villain that only she can really hope to beat, and she always beats them not by proving their philosophies wrong, but through a typical bending slugging match. Don’t know why Korra spends so much time angsting about not being needed after beating so many big threats.
"Without an opportunity, their abilities would have been wasted, and without their abilities, the opportunity would have arisen in vain."
~Niccolò Machiavelli
@@neishawnjohnson7602 Have to agree, Korra is very much a series about the journey not the destination, her inner struggles with her identity and place in the world is what makes her relatable, I feel like everyone is kinda missing the symbolism of her battles, translated to philosophy, it's her building the courage to fight for what she believes in and the people she loves even if she's scared of disappointing them or feels rejected by the world
This video nails a single big problem with Korra and explores it throughly. Its an excellent examination of how 3 seasons abandon the questions it poses inthe first half. Instead of making conclusions it often reverts to a good vs bad beat em up.
It uses the underlying philosophies of each season as a setpiece, rather than a guiding theme.
The question is legit but the solution is bullshit.
Korra pretty much fumbles her way into defeating the villain which only creates a domino effect of new problems, but she continued to fumble her way into a solution and her friends are pretty much her “yes men” to make her feel better
@@knarfjen6896 yes they try to make the show more mature but never realize its a kids cartoon they give villian stupid reasons and try to make them sound complex when most bad guys have simple tasks most of them involve money and taking over the world
If you can put up with the rhetoric and language I'd suggest watching the 4 part series by e;r
Zaheer was the only villan that made sense with his idiology in the series, probably on of my favorite villan in the Avatar universe.
I actually saw Korra BEFORE ATLA. I saw it when I was a teen. I'd missed ATLA entirely - it was completely off my radar! So Korra really spoke to me at that time and I hadn't seen anything like it before. I loved the animation style, the music, the voice actors and the themes the show explored. When I finally caught up and saw ATLA as an adult, I found that show spoke to me more at that period of my life and Korra became less relatable, although still enjoyable. I think ATLA is an all-rounder and will always be timelessly relevant to all ages, but Korra got me at the right place and the right time and will always have a special place in my heart.
What went wrong? Nickelodeon + Aaron Ehasz not being the head writer anymore
Bingo.
yup furthermore Bryke really just needed more people to tell them no like when you really look into Avatar there's a lot of decisions that were vetoed in the original that were put into Korra
@@mikemorro140 I think some parts that were salvaged from the last air bender were good. Naga’s design for example is pretty good tho she is under utilized in the series
@@calebtherandom8017 and then what happened to that team after Ehasz (and his wife) were no longer part? The mess that was LoK. There's a reason why some people tend to be distinguished as the "heart" and/or "soul" of the teams they're in. Not everyone in a team has the same care, passion, ability, etc. to do what they do, to provide what they provide.
@UC-AY1IbNPTnn6gp3AQgwq7w
Do you generally like lame things? Leaders exist for a reason. A team without the leader that made it good, might not be good at all.
"Okay guys, so we've got this rich fantasy world based on asian cultures and mythologies, where do we go with it next?"
"Uhhhhhh.... 1920's New York?"
I actually love that style no one as done it better since
Avatar is a semi realistic setting to the real world. I don’t care what anyone says, it makes complete sense that after the 100 year war, Aang would try to make a place where all 4 nations could live in harmony.
Which, oh yeah, was the original idea for America in the early 1900’s.
Yeah the show got way too westernized, i cant believe the final fight was against a laser shooting platinum mecha robot. if you told me that a few years ago during ATLA i would have laughed but now its just a pathetic reality
The location is obviously manhattan based but the actual style is based off of 1920s Shanghai.
@@Gamelover254 It would have probably made more sense for it to be a city that was an interesting mosaic of the three nations, rather than just New York.
I really loved book 3 of LOK ... zahire and his crew were like an evil team avatar ... and the fight between tenzend and zahire was super cool too!
I feel like the reason ATLA all 3 books feel like one story, meanwhile in TLOK feels like 4 separate stories.
Me: The past avatars are so interesting i can't wait to learn more about them
*Legend of korra season 2 destroys all the past avatars
The main shows were never about the previous avatars. In fact in the original show they only show up a handful of times and give pretty meaningless advice.
With Avatar Studios it’s very possible we will get stories about previous avatars where they belong, in their own mini series or show.
Plus in Korra, we literally got two episodes dedicated to the first Avatar which is much more than the original Avatr did so I don’t get the complaint.
@@Gamelover254 they literally just erased Aang. The titular character of the first series. That’s just terrible
@@Gamelover254 I disagree, I don’t think the advice was meaningless at all. I’m pretty sure you’re referring to the second to last episode of air bender when he asked the previous avatars on whether or not he should kill Ozai. I thought their advice was perfect setup for the compromise Aang would later make. I would’ve loved to have seen more previous avatars in Korra, there was endless potential there
@@NFLDRAFT2018 I definitely think the previous avatars had interesting lines in that episode, and Roku was important because the 100 years war started with him. Yakone was related to Aang, and it made sense that he was involved, most of the other issues had nothing to do with ANY of the past avatars (aside from wan hence the 2 full episodes), and although korra asked for advice a lot towards the end, she never really seemed interested in it. Interestingly, the line from tla about "the avatar can never detach" by the other airbender avatar was EXTREMELY relevant in s3 and I'm surprised it didn't come up in this video. I personally agree with the author who recently watched the series (sorry can't remember her name) that the spirit portals remaining open SHOULD have gone both ways; yes the spirits moved into the physical world, but people should have been colonizing the spirit world also. I look forward to comics exploring that idea. I also think Aang showing up in the fog monster suggests he does have sentience outside Raava, and now that the past avatars arent linked to her anymore they SHOULD still exist in the spirit world. Also I imagine the tree of time could recall any of the past avatar stuff also, so there are a few ways to bring them back, i think the concept of the past avatars being destroyed is overused and underbaked.
She didn't destroy anything, she only lost the connection to past avatars, otherwise she couldn't find Raava again.
I love korra but this is spot on, it almost always felt like they pushed the big questions to the side
I personally think one of korras biggest flaws is that it doesnt have a continuous villain. Since the seasons were so short, only 14ish episodes of 30 minutes in length, it spent more of the season focusing on the villains acts and korras conflict versus them rather than deeper character development, world building, and a more engaging story. Each season just kind of started with something good and then devolved into "Oh hey a bad guy threatening the world go kill them". The ongoing story in atla really played to its streanghts, as we got to see deeper motivations, character developements, internal conflicts and they were really able to pull the watcher in more. I mean can you imagine if zuko's redemption arc had to be rushed in like 4-5 episodes? No WAY it would have been nearly as good as the slow, methodical, breakdown of zukos character to reform him into the good guy in a realistic and incredible way. Korra had no time for anything like that and the only character that really went through a deep change was korra, however they always had to halt the process on her internal conflicts to make her go fight the bad guy for a few episodes. Not to mention between introducing a new setting, new villains, a new arc every season, and trying to create korra internal conflict. the side character got absolutely ZERO respect. I mean the fire brothers were pretty much there in season 4 as a plot device rather than genuine side characters we care about. avatar had 3+ seasons with a plethora of muti-part episodes to build up to a compelling finale, Korra tried to create a similar show in 14 episodes every. single. season. Left it feeling like Korra (the character) spent more time kicking ass with the four elements than actually BEING the avatar.
PS:These are the thoughts of a person who just watched both shows for the first time back to back.
tl;dr
Korras biggest flaw was its seasonal design: With korra trying to rush the entire plot of atla in 12-14 episodes every season, it didnt have room for compelling characters and inner conflicts, leaving kind of an emotional hole in the show that the action didnt fill up.
Zaheer is a good example of "taking things too far". The rest of the villains though, not so much.
ATLA had this sort of mysticism to it. A unique world just waiting to be discovered and enthralled in. Korra just couldn't reproduce that same feeling for me.
That's cause in TLoK it explains the magic, pretty much ruining the mysticism of the show, it's similar to Star Wars when they explained the Force with midichlorians
It just didn't have the same punch. There wasn't a long of character devolpment. ATLA spoiled us with Zuko Alone, Tales of Ba Sing Se, The Storm, The Chase.
Just watch Demon Grocery Korra Abridged it funny and self aware. Vaatu just pulling shit out his ass. Vaatu and Raava are just a married couple. Vaatu feels like he is in rut and wants to do whatever.
Overexplaining is a common complication of sequelitis.
@@undeadblizzard didnt know there was an abridged of it thank god lol i love abridged series any chance you know of any good atla abridged series?
the second half of season two was one of the biggest deceptions that I've ever had. It not only ruined the build-up of this season, but it also screwed the mysticism of the world.
It's sad how close Korra was to being a great show but at least it wasn't a bad one
Despite TLOK’s shortcomings, season 3 with Zaheer is hands the most gangster avatar season of them all.
The most "dark" for sure.
This was a wonderful video! Thank you for sharing!
Keyboard bender sounds like something Jay from The Inbetweeners would call a computer science student.
Never thought I'd see an inbetweeners reference in a wisecrack comments section... you BUMDER
👍ooohh computer science friend👍
Keyboard Wankers.
"Highly intellectualized selfishness" is an AMAZING line, holy shit.
I think the mistake was not letting us see more of the adult versions of the older team avatar. Honestly they should’ve gotten at least another season as an epilogue
Toph not only became a friggin cop but practically made them.
"Just an excuse to abandon the duty we have to one another, selfishness dressed up as freedom" - haven't heard a statement better sum up our current state of affairs, in modern society...
I thought that was the most poignant takeaway of this analysis.
Kuvira actually didn't abandon her philosophy. She wanted to restore the glory of the Earth Kingdom right? She attacked Republic City because it used to be a Fire Nation Colony taken from the Earth Kingdom. All of the United Republic used to be Earth Kingdom. She's just trying to bring it back
By killing innocents (among them also decendants from the former earth kingdom)
@@Shamax0 which is what extremists call necessary sacrifices
She turned mental attacking her love for no reason with spirit beam . Plus she was way too challenging for korra even after Korra getting hold of Avatar state again. And she doesnt become the Avatar she should have been instead becoming a soldier of a greater team when she can literally destroy nations with the power of Avatar . Although her personal journey was breath taking dealing with all the ptsd. Kuviras redemption was way too rushed. Some people don't change and that's ok.
yeah, this guy didn't understand a lot of what he was criticizing
@@Shamax0 so she was basically mainland China🇨🇳 to the United Republic’s Taiwan🇹🇼 .
my take on korra has been the blue prints were really good and sound for the most part, it just the execution that fell apart at really important moments. It having to be compared to avatar just made the problems stand out so much more as well. Had really good parts like the action and some of the characters like tenzin is so amazing.
she also lost the connection to her past lives which is gonna make the next avatars' job a lot harder
Isnt she the last avatar now. Meaning no more avatars after her. Ending the line.
Next shows would then be prequels
@@wietzie9935 well no since she got raavas sprit back but not her past memories
I never even made it through the first season. Tried several times but I just couldn't then get invested. The roaring 20s world,pro bending sport stuff, cliche love triangle, and an avatar that apparently knew all bending at like age 5. Just never did it for me the way ATLA did
I think you missed the part where Korra trained to learn the elements until the age of 17 (basically her whole life) but okay.
This insinuation that she was a master at age 5 really ticks me off. All the intro showed was that she gained knowledge of who she was ahead of schedule and spent her whole life training to become the avatar.
Same I only watch Korra seasons 1 the other ones were trash didn’t really care for them hopefully the next avatar will be better and mad. Korra didn’t end up with that guys bother
Season 3 is worth the watch. Far and above better than all the other seasons.
@@nofxdude89 But the ending made the show mediocre/ bad once again. Season 3 was amazing though. Not nearly as good as the any season of ATLA, but that's a high bar.
@@Gamelover254 This is a very weird nitpick of his criticism my guy. Like, yeah, obviously the 5-year-old hadn't mastered the bending (which he actually never said mastered but go off), he was just pointing out that how the opening shot is literally a 5-year-old bending 3/4 elements (if I remember correctly, this show had her learn air bending properly). In the original show, the Avatar had to be *told* they were the new Avatar and go *learn* the bending from a master who would then often become a friend. Do they ever actually give reasoning as to why she can bend anything other than water before she was trained in it?
The legend of Korra feels like a show written by a centrist, who didn't research a lot about the ideologies, they tried to portray and didn't have the answer why they are bad so they made them do something to justify them being a villain.
have you watched these th-cam.com/video/ModX151Ipgs/w-d-xo.html ?
If not, it digs into that.
Yeah, the writing of the villains stinks if neoliberalism. Republic city is prety clearly the US, a settler colonial state founded upon stolen land. This is mentioned only by the villains dispute being a legitimate criticism of its existence. The anarchists are portrayed as selfish and moronic, what with their plan amounting to murdering some monarchs and the avatar. The equalists (whichany have argued are a standin for communists) turn put to be led by a liar in it for personal gain. Unalaq seems to be a sort of stand in for environmentalism, but turns out hes must an eco terrorist in it for personal gain again. The only villain that is remotely sympathetic is the literal fascist, big surprise from the followers of an ideology that propped up fascist regimes through the developing world during the cold war. Even the ultimate moral, that they all just went too far, is some of the most milquetoast neoliberal nonsense I've ever heard.
At least Korra's story arc of grief, self doubt and PTSD is quite good. I enjoyed the show purely because of that.
@@volodymyrboitchouk stolen land? republic city was not founded on stolen land, it was freely given to the Avatar who saved the earth kingdom from being destroyed by the fire nation, a hostile invasion force (arguably the fire nation from the first avatar had a bit more allegorical similarities to manifest destiny america).
the anarchists may be portrayed that way, but if you read about the history of "the propaganda of the deed", you'd learn that Zaheer's methods of killing the royals and the aristocrats and announcing it is historically accurate. arguably ww1 was started by a propaganda of the deed assassination, which then triggered the downfall of monarchies across europe. some were replaced by democracies and others were replaced by autocracies. this is real life stuff.
i wouldn't agree that kuvira was sympathetic. they had her try to kill her husband with a WMD, thus showing that fascism has no love even for your loved ones - that fascists are betrayers. which is true. was amon the sympathetic one in your eyes? seems like he became an unsympathetic character when he tried to take Bolin's bending away and demonstrated that he was a liar and a manipulator out for power over republic city. plus being the son of a powerful crime figure who turned him into a sadist at a young age.
If it was written by a centrist or neoliberal I wouldn't imagine such a build up to deal with complex issues - I think corporate influence and editors likely trimmed down the season conclusions for ideological reasons, causing the ends to be rushed and the set ups to be dragged out, leading to a two part reduction in quality of the series by neoliberal folks that didn't have to happen. I don't think centrists/neoliberals have the intellectual fortitude to design those set ups, but I think they do have the presence of mind to see brilliant stories and knock anything beautiful out of them and deliver us a nearly opposite message.
The Western shit had no place in Avatar, like it doesn't even make sense where it came from, all the other Cities were Eastern inspired, who came up with the Western shiz?
Thank you for this concise and brilliant break down of what drove me absolutely bonkers about the sequel but never could name
14 awards won, nominated for 16 more, total average of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, 8.4/10 on Imdb, got very close to breaking some of the Netflix records set by ATLA, still remains one of the most popular series on Netflix even 7 years after the final episode. What went wrong? Clearly not enough to call the show an unfit successor to ATLA.
Korra had its shortcomings, most of the ones I would have pointed out having been mentioned in the video. However, ATLA was never perfect either. My opinion: some of the fights in ATLA were straight up badly animated, others lacked any real impact and creativity. Other times the show was so campy that certain episodes could be unbearably slow and downright boring. Moreover, it could at times be really hard to relate to Aang and the rest of the Gaang given how unnaturally wise they were at their young age. The show still definitely deserves to be called a masterpiece. I at least call it that and mean it every time I do.
I enjoyed LOK the same way I enjoyed ATLA: with its flaws. Personally, I don't believe in perfection. I think it's a waste of time to try to strive for it in the first place, so flaws and shortcomings are something I tend to find charming since it really brings out the humanity in the effort invested in the creation. The team made the most of what Nickelodeon gave them to work with and the result is a series that still remains over 20 times more popular than the average show worldwide on streaming services. To me, LOK was just as amazing as ATLA and the Gaang and the Krew will forever hold special places in my heart. I loved both of their journeys and learned a lot of valuable lessons from each show.
Legend of korra was mediocre imo and couldve and shouldve been better than atla
I didn't remember that J.K. Simmons voiced Tenzin, and now that i just finished Invincible, all I can hear is Omni Man.
You should know that he wants pictures of Spiderman!
Spiderman is a menace!
JK Simmons is SUCH a good voice actor. Such a good actor in general really :D
@@Raul_Menendez And he'll also burn your house down with combustible lemons!
@@Raul_Menendez On the double!
@@alexschott2092 Hahahah. That was a great speech.
I love when people talk about the good parts of this show, while being honest about its failings. Many default straight to hate but aren't particularly good at articulating its failings
It could’ve been such goddamn amazing show with the setup they had. There’s definitely good characters and ideas. I just wish Aaron, his wife and rest team was still on the Korra writing team.
As someone who really enjoyed the show, I will also admit that it had some severe flaws. I mean really in hindsight, I almost wish that the majority of season 2 didnt happen and they found some other way to get to the end result.
The thing is, is that Korra was never meant to be more than one season. Only after it aired, nicks higher ups decided to have more seasons. That’s why the end of season one was so strange with Korra getting her bending back just because. If Korra started out being planned for two seasons, it would have been much better. Season 2 would be like season 4, as she tries to get the three elements back through training. Then by the time season 2 ends, she is basically a realized avatar. And then season 3 could be her improved self at work.
That doesn’t really excuse anything. By the time the first season’s finale aired they had already been green-lit for the other three seasons. So they had all the time in the world to start planning ahead, but they didn’t. Even if they *did* have the second season just dumped in their lap out of nowhere, it doesn’t excuse the nonsense ass-pull end of the first season they went with. They still *easily* could’ve made the second season about getting her bending back, or learning to be the Avatar without it. But they didn’t.
It’d be like if I paid you to paint a mural, and then as you were about to finish I asked you to make it twice as big. You wouldn’t just panic and smear shit all over the work you had already done, you would carefully plan how to expand what you already had.
@@alexanderfreeman3406 oh, well now i have a reason to be mad now if this is true.
Korra never struggled that hard to be strong at all in my eyes. It seem's too fast for her to be op. That thing made me dislike the whole LEGEND OF KORRA.
I think one of the big reasons that Korra felt so different was the introduction of a villain per season. For Aang, the firelord felt like such a far off threat that it made him more imposing, and gave a lot of build up before meeting him. In Korra I think it was an interesting move, but it ultimately does make the villains feel a bit more like throw away villains of the week.
I genuinely just think it's due to Nick not having faith in it. The show was originally just gonna be one season. After book 1, Nick treated it pretty badly.
I dont hate Nick for it but i really dont like Nick either
I never noticed (at least consciously) how much the antagonists tried to make you think, only to abandon it at the end. It always felt like the season ending was disappointing but no idea why. Great analysis.
He hit the nail on the head. And that's why I like ATLA more than LOK. But I respect what LOK tried to do.
you're supposed to keep thinking about it after the show ends. the antagonists are modeled after historical figures too, so if you enjoyed season three for instance, you can look up stuff about "the propaganda of the deed" which is the real life inspiration for zaheer.
@@sandrafrancisco if you’re supposed to keep thinking about it, about the deeper subject matter... why did LoK always drop it in favour of brute force conflicts. Cause what a series shows, and what it focuses it’s climax on is what it values, what matters in it. Since the series always trashed what if even slight deeper themes it had for brute force conflicts, why should I keep thinking about the deeper subject matter that it clearly didn’t.
And even then, the deeper subject matter, is not deeper and it’s always just a ploy to sound more mature than it is. Every single political philosophy it tries to run reads like a 5 minute Wikipedia research session is what caused it (except with Zaheer and Kuvira where you hear anarchy and dictator and most of the audience, and the writers, automatically conclude, obviously evil. And that’s as much thought as it was given). And why is it that pretty much every single time it’s always dropped for the villains own selfish ends.
Amon was just a spiteful man child seeking revenge on the avatar, nothing deep about it. And this isn’t me saying it, it was his brother tarrlok that one time in Amon’s prison with Kora, his father was making them into tools of revenge against the avatar and he realises thats what they ended up as.
Unaloq keeps claiming the BS about the spirituality when all he wanted was just more power for the sake of it, and to become a dark avatar with dark bending to engulf the world in darkness for the glory of the dark dark.
Zaheer and Kuvira I already mentioned but while Zaheer is just inherently stupid, I’ll spotlight Kuvira a bit more, cause we’re not really shown anything she does, or told anything she does. We are told she does bad things by the protagonists and the writers are entirely dependent on us hearing Autocrat and equating evil, but let’s not take that lazy shortcut. Cause what we see of Kuvira first and foremost are, her army giving away food and letting kids play in mech suits = making those desperate happy. And beating up dissenters, which could be seen as a bad thing *if we knew what they did* but we’re never told, but because the series said Autocrat, it expects us to believe she’s evil.
If you want to get pedantic you can look at the scene on the train where some of the unconquered territories were republic city, but that is something easy to miss and that only hits full force on a rewatch (probably your 4-6th). Half way through tho, she is revealed to be just that evil and to have a nuke, so, nothing smart to say, not even in dealing with the nuke as everyone keeps stating that she’s done nothing to provoke retaliation in spite of having the nuke being plenty provocation. Even when Fire Lord Izumi states that she will not march her forces against the earth kingdom, the bullshit excuse is the lack of provocation, when the real reason should be that bringing in the fire nation army to occupy the earth kingdom *again* is nothing but clear cut propaganda for kuvira on a silver platter.
All of the villains either dump their allegedly deep themes half way through: blood bending revealed, origins, Zaheer was stupid from minute 1, spirit Nuke. If we’re supposed to keep thinking about them, then maybe the series should have also done so.
It's weird that I came to this conclusion from a Korra video, but I have a more nuanced appreciation for Fire Lord Ozai.
He was always kind of basic to me when I used to watch Avatar. He represented the sheer malice of Imperialism, but went through very little development or progression. Now, having understood why people get so easily turned off by Kuvira and Unalaq in particular, I get what could have gone wrong if Ozai was given room to develop. Everyone else around him needed to find balance, their narrative arcs' conclusions came before his. Trying to reach a dramatic conclusion in the form of "They were actually crazy the whole time" cannot usurp the core theme each character represents, and having represented more nuanced conflicts than "Imperialism=Bad", Amon, Kuvira, and especially Unalaq (imo) could not simply change for the worse to forward the themes.
Inversely, Zaheer is a perfect follow-up to Amon. He represents sheer chaos under the pretenses of global-neutrality. He is the opposite side of the villain spectrum and it makes him more interesting if not a little less imposing.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talks, have a good day.
Zaheer: not an anarchist, just a chaos loving edgelord, but does try to appropriate the aesthetic of the superior politics, whose contradictions led to his own downfall
Kuvira: textbook fascist, palingenetic ultranationalist to the core
Amon: populist hypocrite. That's it.
Unalaaq: herpy derp
She lost the connection to the other avatars.....unforgivable‼️
...no she didn't. They were taken from her.
@@daekry what’s the difference
@@anatoldenevers237 ...the entire meaning of the comment
@@daekry She failed and let them get taken from her
Regardless, it was the writers of the show who ultimately made that creative choice to take away the past lives. And you’re exactly right. I still have not forgiven them. Just terrible.
Actually, when rewatching the series, Zaheer became more and more disappointing to me. What I remembered as a compelling villain with a good point became a guy who talks big, but becomes a destructive idiot with the excuse „Chaos, lol“. The red lotus destroyed the northern air temple, because... well, the Red Lotus was an overpowered group that just destroyed everything for shits and giggles, when the show ran out of action. And they haphazardly killed the Earth Queen (why did Ba Sing Se immediately start burning afterwards, btw?), which lead to a power vacuum, that a toddler could have predicted.
Not to mention Zaheer's ending, where he basically said „And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you pesky airbenders!“. I think Zaheer was just as disappointing a villain as every other villain in LoK.
Same! Everyone else I talk to thinks Zaheer was amazing but I just find him so boring and uninteresting.
Zaheer was a pathetic atempt at criticizing eastern religions like Buddhism and Confucianism from a far left progressive stance.
To be fair, they did it better than 99.99% of such interpretations out there, but it was still sub par, and not to mention, insulting to many of us.
The writers believe if a society doesnt have a leader theyll suddenly become savages and immediately begin to burn down the city.
@@minxywaters1767 I thought the lava dude just started commiting arson.
I never liked Zaheer from the get-go he had no real vision. I thought he was the most boring of all the villains and never understood why he was the fan favorite. Say what you want about Korra's uncle, but even his end goal was more tangible and interesting than Zaheer's. Yes, he was basically a run of the mill Power Rangers villain, but at least his plan was to become the dark avatar/ruler of the world. The man had a dream that was easy to grasp, and we got to see him almost accomplish it. LOL XD
Thank you for this video. I always felt bad for not continuing Korra past season 1, since the animation clearly made great improvements, but I just knew in my gut that narratively I wasn’t watching something as focused. I completely agree with everything you say about the first season and it seems they didn’t learn their faults with the following three. The Dragon Prince is a much more worthy successor to ATLA!
This was very eloquently put and proficient in its analysis from a philosophical approach that really brings alot of perspective while simultaneously probes more insightful thought & questions
That’s why whenever I talk about LOK, I always say “the show had amazing topics and tried to show the nuance of this new, ever changing world. All of that I’ve always been on board with. It was just all done just so clunky and rushed.”
Excellent video. How did I miss this for 2 years?😅
I'd highly recommend the videos on Korra by Kay & Skittles for those who are interested. They break down why Korra has shortcomings in its various seasons based on the political ideologies the villains represent (Communism, Anti-Colonialism, Anarchism & Fascism respectively), as well as the hypocrisies the series spouts in the name of defending neoliberal capitalism.
Thanks for the recommendation
I always thought the series should have ended with Season 3. Korra unable to perform her duties anymore as the avatar but her fight against Zaheer proved right. The world moves on as it would have done either way but the ideological battle is won and carried on by her friends and family. The world is left to repair itself using the lessons learned from their conflict but Zaheer has still accomplished his task in "freeing" the world from the avatar, a force of balance yes, but still an individual of inherited power capable of affecting great change whether that be the best decision or not. Zaheer was just so damn good as a villain too. When he fell off the cliff I thought he was killing himself AND Korra at the same time, but then to reveal he can fly at will?! Amazing.
I it's more fitting that it was zaheer who's actions created the next villain kurverea
if Zaheer didn't kill the earth queen and take out the avatar Kuvera never would of done what she did
to bring order to the world
Hot take man, imo Zaheer was a overrated bald nutcase who spouted anarchist bullshit that would be more at home on t-shirts in a hot topic than a cartoon show. I dunno why people hyped him up so much when his overall goals were just nonsensical as every other bad writing choice in the show, I clapped when Bolin stuffed a sock in his mouth and shut his BS up. Worst still the next season, has him be a spiritual mentor to Korra which is like Barbra Gordon having to Joker as her therapist.
If you like him, that’s totally fine but if he didn’t do any cool evil Airbending *would you care as much about him?*
The series should have ended at season 1 as it was originally intended.
@@li-limandragon9287 that's not a hot take, that's ice cold!
@@mahockey3 I just think Zaheer is overrated, he's the Raphael of these four villains.
“Amon…didn’t so much take [his] ideology too far as [he]…abandoned it altogether.” Regarding Amon, this is simply wrong. Amon never changed or forgot his goal. He escalated the means by which he sought to achieve it…turning finally to military power to try to unseat the Republic City bender-led and dominated political leadership…but the goal remained the same throughout. And if he was a “fraud” it’s pretty clear that wasn’t how he thought of himself. The story really only failed by having him lie about his powers in the first place - an unnecessary conceit that served almost as an deus ex machina. If his character had been written consistently, he wouldn’t have fabricated his backstory. That would have (as you do get very correct) forced Korra into a much more difficult position with no easy exit. But, in any case, Amon was a true believer, regardless of his motivations (egalitarianism, sublimated conflict with his father, or whatever else.) and didn’t abandon his ideals.
This analysis rules, great job man!
The writers just made overly complex problems that they weren't skilled enough to write out of. But it was still entertaining.
It could've been amazing if they had taken the time and maybe consulted some philosophers and sociologists about the ideas they were trying to explore.
@@KarlSnarks definitely
This is the definitive critique of Legend of Korra on TH-cam. And there are...a lot. In sixteen minutes, this video says in plain words what other video essays take hours to get across. It gives credit where credit is due, it doesn't get lost in fandom conflict - it's just a balanced, insightful perspective on the series.
No it's not, E;R's is, because he actually goes into extreme depth.
To be fair, it's only tackling the thematic inconsistencies and not the other complaints like character progression and consistency, plot, and overall dynamics, for example.
@Κωνσταντίνος ΉπΜκ these jokes never get old do they
No this critique is awful. He got Kuvira's goals all wrong. Kuvira never talked about restoring the EK glorious past. She wanted to build something entirely new. It's obvious they didn't watch the show.
Thank you for such a great video!
I didn’t know how deep these shows could get
I'd argue Season 1 and 3 were good, since Amon and the complex world of season 1. It's resolution where Amon is killed by his brother, felt reasonable. Though yes it did have a "where do you go from here?"
Really liked the bit with Amon and his bro. But I couldn’t get into Season 3, it had good moments sure especially that but with Korra on the bridge and Bolin lava bending but apart that I thought it was just alright.
Season 3 was considered "good" because it already had a low bar to surpass, namely the disastrous season 2. The only thing I liked about season 3 was Zaheer and the Red Lotus and the final battle between Korra and Zaheer. That airborne battle was just mind blowing to me. The introduction of Suyin and family was also a good surprise.
Where I think season 3 went wrong is when they introduced Zaofu as a Neo-futuristic city, which goes against the steampunk world that season 1 tried to portray. Then you have an old Earth Kingdom in which barely nothing changed at all since the end of ATLA.
To me, Season 1 is the definitive season of LoK. It sets up a nice background and had a coherent story line.
@@anyanyanyanyanyany3551 You're right that season 1 was good, but you're completely ignoring season 3. It didn't just clear a low bar, it's the best season in the avatarverse