The Legend of Korra Returns

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Two weeks ago was the premiere of the long-awaited second season of the sequel to Nickelodeon’s epic animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Forgive the tardiness, but it kind of snuck up on me. Avatar was and is arguably the best thing that Nickelodeon has ever produced and stands out like a sore thumb on a network whose usual goal is making the stupidest cartoons possible for children and then sneaking inappropriate adult humor into them. But this one was uniformly well-written, gorgeously animated, and featured an unforgettable cast, exceptional philosophical themes, and a creativity and attention to detail that made it a perfect show for both younger and older audiences without pandering to either.

Fans were naturally excited when a sequel miniseries was announced. Instead of taking the easy way and coasting on previous success, the creative team made a bold move, setting the show two generations after the events of the original series. In the meantime, the classic feudal-era fantasy setting of The Last Airbender had evolved into a modern society resembling early 20th century culture with a steampunk twist. The episode intros were shown as old-timey moving picture news clips and even the show’s music incorporated early jazz and swing to supplement the classical Asian themes. To say I was impressed with this move would be an understatement.

As strong a concept as The Legend of Korra was, it had a lot to live up to, and a lot of fans don’t think it did. Even with the exceptional visual style, a more adult protagonist who was already a badass, and a socially relevant, sophisticated plot something was missing. So while watching the two-episode season premiere, I think I finally put my finger on why Korra isn’t quite sitting right in spite of doing everything right.

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It’s the characters, plain and simple. Korra has a pretty good cast overall. But The Last Airbender had an amazing one. There’s nobody on the villains’ side you kind of love like Iroh or Ty Lee, and there’s nobody as delightfully psychotic as Azula. The first season’s big bad, Amon, was a sympathetic villain in that he was a mission of equality for all people so you could respect him even though his methods went too far. But did you love him? Hell no; he was cold as ice.

The heroes have a similar problem. Mako as the firebending love interest is just plan dull, and his brother Bolin is a decent comic relief, but isn’t nearly as memorable as his predecessor Sokka in that capacity. Korra herself is…well….she’s kind of an unlikable brat. Great for a character arc and a coming of age story, but her headstrong naiveté is often abrasive which makes her unable to sell the show’s charms by herself. My favorite member of “Team Avatar” is Korra’s romantic rival Asami, who excels in spite of being a non-bender and coming from a pampered upbringing. And she got done dirty by the inescapably hackneyed cliché of the “hero” always getting the girl/boy. Weak.

The supporting cast certainly has its moments, but I can’t help but notice that my interest level rises during the show’s frequent trips down memory lane where they fill in pieces of backstory from past decades featuring the cast of The Last Airbender as adults. I don’t think I’m the only one, either.  A large portion of the adult cast in present day is filled with the children of the original cast as well, and even Katara is still kicking around as a Water Tribe village elder so Korra is making an almost constant effort to remind you of how cool The Last Airbender was.

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The Legend of Korra was originally meant as a mini-series, but was extended to four seasons by Nickelodeon in spite of the show’s creators’ desire to go back to the original series to make feature length films -which have since been released in comic form instead. This doesn’t really bode well for future seasons, but they are talented enough to pull it off. The first episodes of the new season have convinced me of that much.

The crux of the first season was a tale of grey morality. In Republic City, elemental benders run the show and non-benders are second hand citizens. Naturally, the non-benders aren’t down with this and are fixing to fight for their rights in revolt, led by the terrorist Amon. Everybody loves equality, but our heroes in this show happen to be benders, which is awesome because it shows that not all (or even most) of the perceived oppressors are actually oppressors and that the oppressed are just as capable of bigotry from their end. One of my favorite sayings is that if you can’t see both sides of an issue, you don’t understand the issue, and Korra embodied that there is good and bad on both sides of the fence very well. They also avoided repeating themselves by having Korra already a master of most elements at the seasons’ start so they could really focus on the philosophical evolution of the Avatar series as a whole.

Rather than repeat the cycle of the first season again, the premiere right off the bat showed that they were going in a whole different direction with a whole new worldview.  Instead of learning about elements, Korra is on the path to spirituality. In the first episode, that comes about with the arrival of corrupted spirits in the form of monsters. If you know anything at all about me, know that I love monsters more than almost anything else.

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Pretty much my reaction.

In addition to the creature aspect, there’s a new moral dilemma for the new Avatar to face as well as she has to choose between her old airbending teacher and an uncle from the Northern Water Tribe who appears to be able to control these spirits and desires to teach Korra about the ways of the spirit realm. It seems obvious to Korra what she needs to do, but there is a note of religious fanaticism in the newcomer’s mannerisms that put me ill at ease.

From the look of it, war is going to bare its ugly head for the first time in decades and Korra appears ill-prepared to do anything about it. Sure, she has mastered the Avatar state, but she is still immature enough to use it primarily to cheat while competing with children. Korra was always a beast when it came to bending…

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Like so.

…but it takes more than combat capabilities to bring peace. A lot more. But being able to blast fire out of your hands while riding a friggin’ tornado is a handy skill too, so let’s not scoff at Korra’s peacemaking abilities just yet. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of cause for that later. The fact that Korra’s own family is at the center of the conflict adds to the mounting tension as well so get ready for some drama.

One thing I’ve noticed in the first few episodes of the new season is that the writing has improved and the adult characters are really coming into their own; a really good sign. The new characters are meshing well with the existing cast, so it really feels like an already killer show is hitting its stride.

I think I may be looking forward to the rest of season 2 more than I did season 1 at this point, so let’s hope Legend of Korra continues to improve and evolve so that it can stand proudly beside its parent show at the pinnacle of American animated television.

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14 Comments

  1. I. Love. Avatar.

    I’m SO glad I’m not the only member of Team Asami. She was by far my favorite character from the first season. None of the other characters sacrificed as much as her in order to do the right thing…which she still did even AFTER getting screwed over by Mako and Korra. I’m a little disappointed Asami seems to have a smaller role this season.

    Mako is boring and useless and my absolute least favorite part of the show is his relationship with Korra. It adds nothing to the narrative.

  2. What throws me for a loop is how much better Aang seems to be at this than Korra. He was the kid, yet he always seemed to know what to do. Korra just gets manipulated around, first by Tarrlok then by Unalaq, they’re even going about it the same way.

    My frustration is coming from seeing so many Avatars from the past being straight up gods, fighting armies and deposing kings. It seems like they’ve underpowered here a lot, and you’re right, she just comes off being a naive brat.

    It’s a real shame, because there is so much potential in Korra as a character. Not only as being a female Avatar, but in being such a different personality than Aang.

  3. @pyco18- I am kind of annoyed that they don’t seem to know what to do with Asami now. You can almost hear the writers’ thoughts going “damn, we can’t just do away with Asami, and we’re not getting anything out of this Korra/Mako deal… we dun goofed.” Even Bolin is cooler than Mako right now. Screw that guy.

    @Nathan- Well, Korra’s extra flaws mean that much more room to grow, right? I really hope she makes some headway soon because I’m much more interested in the adult cast so far this season and that’s bad news when she’s the title character.

  4. I remember being shocked (shocked!) that The Last Airbender ended after the 3rd season. There are four elements right? Four elements = four seasons right? I was unprepared for the finale and felt a giant hole when it ended. “Wait, it’s over?!” I am going to go re-watch it.

  5. The original series was brilliant. It seamlessly blended action, love, religion, drama, and comedy together. I think the best aspect about it was that it took us all by surprise. I feel as though we, the audience, were expecting so much from Season 1 of Korra because we already had so many great memories from Aang and his crew. There wasn’t anything too worthwhile and new that could catch our attention in the first season of Korra because we were so caught up in reliving the beautiful past of Aang. On that note, I completely agree with Nathan. I am immensely more excited for Korra at this point of this season than I was for the first. I am very curious to see how the spirit theme evolves, and in retrospect, how that evolves Korra as a character and into a respected Avatar.

  6. Agreed on the characters problem. You’re doing something wrong when literally every single character other than your main protagonists is more interesting and/or appealing. Plus there was that terrible, terrible love triangle subplot.
    Asami is a badass, Lin Beifong is my hero, and I love Tenzin and all the Airbabies.
    I’m holding off final judgment on the current season until it ends; so far there’s much to love and even more to facepalm over.

  7. I think part of the problem is that it was never meant to be a long series, and now they have to expand on characters and add plot that they weren’t intending. That being said, I have high hopes and I enjoy what I’ve seen so far.

    As for Korra being a naive brat, she has been sheltered her entire life and there are bound to be some growing pains associated with her being let loose on the world.

    I was excited before the season to see Mako as a cop working under Lin (presumably)…..too bad they threw that plot line away.

    I am worried that they seem to be copying a from the past rather heavily this season. First Unalaq being basically the same character as Tarrlok from season 1, and now with them setting off to travel the world much like season 1 of the original series. The globe trotting could really help the show, but I would hope that they maintain a season long arc over individual stand alone episodes.

  8. @gbf- Aang had already mastered air, so that left only 3 elements form the start. Another season would have been nice. They wanted to make two feature length films, “The Promise” and “The Search”. Both stories have since been released in comic book form. The Promise is really excellent and I haven’t read The Search yet. I suspect they might scratch your itch for a fourth season a bit.

    @MetFanMac- Fuuuuu…. I’m not sure why I wrote “bare” in the first place and I remember I was planning on fixing it in an edit but I was kind of locked out of the site for a week after I submitted the draft but before I got a chance to edit the article due to some technical difficulties and I forgot all about it in that time. Embarrassing. Since you called me out on it, I’m just going to leave it there and pretend that baring one’s head is a hip new expression about shaving your head to reveal yourself or something like that. Yeah, you just aren’t cool enough to hang with my hip new lingo.

    Thanks for the feedback, all.

  9. I agree so much with this. Korra is downright annoying, and to all the people who defend her and say “well shes just a teen, and been pampered all her life” thats all well and good if this were real life explaining away someones actions, but i do not want to spend half an hour being frustrated by a bratty teen on what is supposed to be my entertainment. How they went from a complex emotionally-realistic character like Aang to a facsimile of cliched teenage angst is beyond me

    seriously at this point im most interested in the 1 minute of screen time that tenzins oldest daughter gets in her wanderings around the air temple

  10. Great article! Excellent points about the characters as well. I didn’t like Asami at first, but she really grew on me. In comparison, my interest in Mako has almost completely disappeared. Also, Varrick is an absolute delight every time he appears.

    My chief concern with the latter half of Season 1 (and what we’ve seen of Season 2 so far) is the pacing – the writers are struggling to include all the necessary plot points in 22 minutes, so we’re not getting much in the way of scene transitions, establishing shots, etc. We get the newest development and then it’s on to the next thing immediately. It’s a bit jarring to watch, especially when I’m trying so hard to follow the various characters and make sure I don’t miss any developments.

    I’m loving the show and the new steampunk-roaring 20s-esque Avatar universe, but I have yet to have an episode really hit me in the feels the way Zuko Alone or Crossroads of Destiny did. Then again those came in AtLA’s second season, so I guess I should be patient. : )

  11. Yeah, I’m hoping for better, but Korra actually seems to be getting dumber as the season progresses. I’m all for flawed characters and I get that Korra is supposed to be opposite of Aang in a lot of ways, but she really is annoying. Part of me hopes she’s actually being digested right now. Asami, slap some sense into her!

  12. The main thing that has struck me so far this season is that the characters don’t work because they are too old. Nothing wrong with more mature figures, but they aren’t more mature, just older. Aang could get away with being a kid because he was, Korra just seem annoying acting the same way.

    The worst offenders are Tenzin and his siblings. Katara and Sokka were funny quarreling while saving the world because it was believable that two teenagers would act like that. Three adults who have all passed 50, not so much.

  13. I don’t know about that. I’ve got an awful lot of 50+ year old people in my life that behave like children. On another note: did they just add amnesia to the plot? I FUCKING HATE amnesia plots! I suppose if she reboots to become a better character because of it, I’ll let it slide, but has there ever been a triter goddamn plot device than amnesia?

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