Korra Discussion and Q&A

I know several people who have issues with the writing. The biggest one among friends and I is how they wrote Katara and Aang's family. Tenzin the Airbender looks like Aang, Kya the Waterbender looks like Katara and Bumi who is the only non-bender of their kids when born looks more of a mix of the two but it doesn't seem like he was very involved in either culture. Kya wasn't much part of the Air Nation and Tenzin wasn't much part of the Water Tribe. While yes Tenzin and Bumi aren't waterbenders Katara, their mother, is and she is part of the Southern Water Tribe but it never felt like that. Just like Kya and Bumi didn't feel like part of the air nation and even though they're not airbenders. Aang was still their dad. It shouldn't feel like they have no place there. It almost felt like Bumi was their shared kid but part of neither culture while Tenzin was Aang's son and Kya was Katara's daughter. I know they're not and most people do but I have seen people ask before (who didn't watch ATLA) if they were basically a blended family. Aang is another piece for me and others. Yes, we know people have flaws, it's realistic he had flaws, for me and many others the flaw of not including all his kids did not seem believable. We see that he shared his culture with the Air Acolytes so why not his own children? That seems like the first thing he would have wanted to do when he had them, knowing Aang, because he loved his culture and his people and didn't want them erased by time. The fact nobody tried to include them feels like the writing was a bit off. I know Goodwin said it made sense and many people feel this way but I have spoken to several people who think it was very out of character and weak writing along with the first point. More animation than actual writing but Aang and Sokka are more white looking in Legend of Korra and that is shitty. Toph being a cop was a big writing flaw for many people. Then you have the severing of the past lives. This is a huge point of contention between many many people. To a lot of people it felt like a lazy way of trying to distance themselves from ATLA and Aang. I feel like they could have written it better and it wouldn't have caused so much trouble. Maybe not. But a lot of people don't hate the fact it happened just the how. A big one is how Korra was repeatedly torn down from the top. Over and over again we see her going through hell. It feels unnecessary. Was there literally no other way to show character development expect torturing the main character? She loses her bending in S1, loses the connection to her past lives in S2, was literally tortured in S3 and S4 we see her with PTSD from everything she had been through and at her worst. Any one of those things could have led to mental health trouble because they are all awful to deal with, especially when you're a person like Korra, with a role like the one she has. It would mess with anyone. People compare Korra's journey with Zuko's and I get it. But Zuko was not literally put through actual hell every season. He lived with his demons from the start and he had bad shit happen, we saw him hit rock bottom and it felt natural, it felt realistic. It felt like they threw everything they could at Korra in order to break her so she could go through character growth. @George Bondo you have to realise that people will feel differently. It's not about intelligence but sometimes personal preference, other perspectives and that's okay. It doesn't mean we're not intelligent enough to get it. But it can mean we view the writing differently. I get what they were trying to give us with this show. Some things I feel could have been better. And I won't keep writing because I have rambled long enough and don't know if I made total sense. But since you did ask lol.

Trisha

You're welcome! <3

Trisha

You get to spend a full week in the avatar universe what nations are you going to and what hotspots from the show are you seeing? You can have a bending style of your choosing as well

DrowsyCody

have you looked into the Tokka Suyin theories? any thoughts in that ship? Idk how you elect a captain to those, but I will captain that ship till I die.

Nick Deano

Who would you say is your second favorite villain is after Zaheer and why?

Beatboxer Jed

I can heavily disagree, and say that Korra is widely regarded to have better animation, art, and choreography.

Aaron Ong

agni kai and peace are the two best music pieces in all of ATLA and Korra, and I believe the music is better used and timed in ATLA than it is in Korra, some of the music in Korra is annoying or overused. Both shows have incredible music tho.

benj

If you had to try, and write a korra haiku, how would you do it?

Manuel Alves

Honestly, it's because LoK is a big-brain show that does a lot of things that challenge convention in the medium. It's very narratively complex and dense, built on the deconstruction of the hero archetype. Everything about it is almost diametrically opposed to ATLA and I feel like Bryke (more specifically Bryan) vastly overestimated the intelligence of their target audience. It takes a Goodwin to make people even realize some of the deeper cuts of the show, which I'm grateful for because my corner has been lonely for many years.

George Bondo

@Trisha, what issues tho? My problem is that given what the writers set out to accomplish, which can be academically deduced repeatedly (for example, Goodwin coming to many of the same conclusions I did several years ago), how can Anyone have problems with the writing? Like, if you can highlight incongruent narrative elements, then a discussion can be had, but as it stands LoK is a masterpiece that intentionally went against the grain and succeeded.

George Bondo

If you could remove the age restriction since it was written for a kids network, how would you change the story? Would you make it more violent, or have more serious consequences? Or do you feel it struck a good balance between appropriate for kids/teenagers and being a serious and often dark narrative?

Nekonats

Since TLOK has a way bigger cast than ATLA, which is your top 5 characters that you think deserved more development, because personality or design, but didn't get enough screen time.

Feral Riot

I mean Avatar the last airbender is called avatar the legend of aang in the uk and since because of cameron's movie, they couldn't use the avatar name for korra, so they named the show simply the legend of korra.

Thank you for your insight, Trisha.

Kingsley

Can't speak on this for sure but... I think a lot of people expected LOK to be more like ATLA. I think they wanted more similarities between the shows and were disappointed when it didn't happen. I also think some of the writing can be seen as flawed by some people (I know I have issues with some aspects) and I think that can drive tension, especially when it comes to your favourite character(s). There's also the nostalgia which can fuel a lot of emotion. There's the gatekeeping of a show like ATLA because it's so old and some of the people who grew up with it and didn't like it could be doing more of that, feeling like we were owed more of the same. And some people are dicks. I think these are parts of why things are so intense.

Trisha

I guess I agree it is "unneeded", but its still obvious why it exists. The level of animosity within the fanbase exists because A LOT of people in it genuinely just dislike LOK, so it makes sense they wouldn't want a reactor who just watched the best TV show of all time to then go and watch, in their eyes, a ripoff sequel series that sucks and only panders to fans of the first show.

benj

Pretty sure the majority of people would agree ATLA's music and animation is still better than Korra's. There's more to those things than just budget. There is no consensus on that at all, especially when saying that people think Korra is better. (I am not a Korra hater, but a lot of the fanbase is)

benj

I think you may have misinterpreted my question, friend. People can have diverging opinions on media. My question is more towards the unneeded animosity that exists within the fanbase, (think last video when Alex mentioned all of the comments telling him to straight up not even watch Korra).

Kingsley

Mako is one of the worst characters in all of ATLA and LOK, and I love both shows. He is just a grey nothing character put inside the skin of a Zuko 2.0 to appeal to female fans who validly wanted to get with Zuzu. Then the writers forcefully make him the hero and the badass throughout all the seasons even though he does nothing to deserve this treatment and we are never showed how he is such an amazing bender or any of his motivations in general. Dude is just a blank canvas made to bait people who loved the angsty firebender type. After S1 its very obvious the writers had absolutely no idea what they were doing with his character outside of him talking to the other characters who actually have arcs.

benj

Dude ☺

James Berry

Korra is amazing overall but it certainly has its highs and lows due to issues with Nick (S4) and questionable lore-writing decisions (S2), my question for you is what was something that you LOVED that remained consistent throughout the entire show, through all 4 seasons? Can be anything! (A character or set of characters, a location, the animation or the comedy, etc.)

benj

Just chiming in here!! I do think some of the issues people have with him come from his name too. The fact he was named to honor Iroh's original voice actor Mako meant people really wanted specific things from the character and the stuff in the first couple of seasons probably coloured people's perception of him too.

Trisha

Have you any thoughts on the (in my opinion, true) criticism that Aang and Sokka were whitewashed in Legend of Korra? If you were given the chance to change one thing about Legend of Korra, is there anything you would change? What would it be? Why? Is there anything from ATLA that you missed in LOK? What kind of relationship do you think Aang and Korra would have had if the past lives hadn't been severed and/or she had more interaction with him before that happened?

Trisha

If you were in charge of another sequel or prequel to Avatar, what would your idea be?

Digital Milan

1. What's your opinion on Korra and Mako's friendship and how it developed throughout the series? 2. What do you think of the similarities between Korra's and Zuko's journeys? 3. Even though you haven't read the comics, based on what you already know about Kuvira, what's your opinion on her? 4. What do you think of the new Korra novel trilogy that's coming soon? 5. What do you think of the theories that Varrick is actually Sokka's son and the theories that Suyin Beifong's father is actually Sokka?

Beidou Supremacy

Is ATLA your all time favorite show? If not then what are your favorite shows?

Kyle Chong

what is one thing about Legend of Korra that you actually preferred to ATLA?

Francesca White

From my perspective, people saw how irritating he was in season 2 with the love triangle and then held that same low standard against him for the entire show. Unfairly I should add, because he goes through a great deal of growth. Anyone who says otherwise is blinding themselves to what the writers were doing with his character Overall, Mako starts out okay, he gets not very good, and then for season 3 and 4 he’s pretty great. But people usually attach his bad qualities from season 2 to him in the rest of the show

Nick

This might be controversial but referencing claims that I have seen on the internet, would people have been more tolerant of Korra as a character if she was male? If not, where does all the hate actually come from?

Paul

1. What would you say to the people who told you not to watch Korra? How would you encourage people to watch it who haven't given it a chance or who tried but haven't finished it? 2. From your perspective, why is the series called the LEGEND of Korra? What did Korra do that was legendary in your eyes? Personally, I believe being the first Avatar in the new cycle (like Wan was to the old cycle) contributes the most to her being a legend, with of course opening the portals/bringing the spirits back, helping rebuild the Air nation, etc obviously contributing too.

Lily

Given the opportunity, would you drop everything and become Varrick's full-time assistant?

lockwould

This is probably going to be a common question, but now that you've seen both shows, which one do you like more? Which one do you think had better storytelling and character exploration/development?

Josiah Peterson

Putting aside the absolute outpouring of hatred for LOK as a whole, there were a lot of Mako haters even among actual fans of the show. What do you make of that? I think most of the Korra hate came from people who couldn't accept a new character and a new story for what it was because they were so hung up on the original. But the Mako haters were actual Korra fans and they were vicious about it. I don't think I saw that kind of revulsion for any other character in either series. What do you think caused that kind of split response from the audience? Again, I'm excluding the outpouring of hatred for Korra because I think a lot of those "blah blah let me post a 1 hour video about why LOK is garbage" people weren't giving the series a fair shot to begin with.

KJ Gaona

So now that you've read/watched all of the avatar universe material, which avatar (besides Aang or Korra), did you find the most interesting in terms of their character?

InvertedAce

Lmao I wrote a bunch but feel free to pick the one (if any) that interests you the most! I think I've mentioned this one before but I would really like to know how you would rank both the villains and their ideologies for both shows combined. Also, how did you like Korras character development in comparisn to Aangs? Favorite character and least favorite of TLOK? Did you enjoy the fact that we got to see the Krew as adults (early 20's) or did you prefer the Gaang where they ranged from 12-16? Did you like the fact that Korra had a larger recurring cast than ATLA, or do you think the writers bit off more than they could chew in doing so? Whats your opinion on people calling Korra a Mary Sue? Do you think the Avatar will eventually lose its importance and become a relic of the past? Do you think the Tenzin/Korra dynamic was trying to emulate the Iroh/Zuko one, and do you think it fell short or did you think it exceeded that relationship?

Dierane

Who is the better avatar or just character in terms of accomplishment? Korra or Aang? Accomplishment can be defined whichever way you see fit

Nick

1) Which character or storypoint would you have liked to know more of in the avatar universe? 2) Which character in both shows is more like you, which avatar is more like you? 3) Which city/place in the avatar universe would you live in? 4) Which is your favourite subbending? (metal, lightning, blood, flying, combustion, spiritual projection, lavabending, healing...)?

Which characters in Korra did you most relate to? What do you think made them so accessible and appealing to you?

Kingsley

Are there any characters that you wish were explored more in the show?

newairnation

As a person who enjoyed and found value in both series of Avatar, why do you think that there is so much division and tension from fans of the original series towards Korra?

Kingsley

What personal lessons/meaning did you derive from TLOK that differed from ATLA?

malikparah

Episodic Storytelling(alta) vs serial storytelling (lok)

Max Pickartz

I have a few questions but the one I want to know the answer to most is, do you prefer there be one main antagonist with a few smaller ones like in ATLA, or do you prefer each book has its own antagonist in TLOK? Personally I don't have a preference, but I think ATLA did it better because they knew from the start they would be able to tell a complete story rather than Korra which had a bunch of issues in terms of how much of the story the creators thought they would be able to tell.

R'Mani Leavell

Ranking of all villains(alta & lok) Zhao, Zuko, Azula,Long Feng, Ozai, Amon, Vaatu& Unaloq, Zaheer & red lotus, Kuvira

Max Pickartz

I'd like your opinion on the maturing of ideas from ATLA to Korra, because we all know the superiority of art style and music are.

T-mo