Review: The Legend of Korra - season 1

[Brian G Turner]

Korra is the new Avatar, but already in her late teens, she is unable to airbend. Additionally, she is fiesty and impulsive, and out of tune with her spiritual side.

In order to help continue her training, she travels to Republic City - a place established by Avatar Ang - only to find herself plunged into developing civil war, driven by the Equalists, who want an end to all benders...

The Legend of Korra is set around 60 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's produced by the same people, so expectations were high.

The first shock is how technology has progressed so quickly, resulting in a clear 1920's vibe with a hint of steampunk.

The second shock is that the main characters are children of the original airbender characters - some of whom, not least Kitara, are still alive. Others are seen as adults in flashbacks that Korra experiences. Which is both strange yet exciting to see.

The Legend of Korra doesn't try to push the envelope so much as Avatar: The Last Airbender did, but there's still a focus on strong female characters, and an Asian-styled setting.

What is significantly different is this is more aimed at a Young Adult audience than for younger children, so romantic relationships between the characters are much more of a feature.

It's difficult to say much without giving out spoilers, suffice to say the characters, plot, and animation are all superb.

The shame is that it'll be looked-down upon by comparison to live-action programs - even though standards in The Legend of Korra are so high.

An animated show it may be, but it's still one of the best shows to have been on TV in the past few years. Definitely worth watching - but make sure you watch Avatar: The Last Airbender first to get the most out of it.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Season 2 was...okay.

A couple of niggles in Season 1 become real issues by Season 2.

The first of which is the repeat use of personalities from Avatar: The Last Air Bender. By that I mean the character range is simply repeated: Bolyn is a new version of Sokka, Gianora is a new Tai Lee, the Northern Tribe twins are a new version of Lei, Mako is just non-broody Zuko. And somehow Ang has become the father to Boomie, who shares the same name and character as Ang's childhood friend - begging the question as to whether this is just weak planning by the producers, or are they implying that Kitara had sex with the 110-year old earth kingdom king?

The second problem is that Korra becomes especially annoying in this season. She was headstrong in season 1, but now simply acts stupid - she only listens to people who are clearly trying to manipulate her. Other figures - such as Lin Beifong - stop being intelligent characters in their own right, and instead mindless slaves to a simple plot.

And that's another problem here - the plot is simple, and obvious, from the start. Mostly, anyway. It became painful to watch at times.

Everything has become simplified, and perhaps this is the biggest problem - and underlined by the new approach to spirits. While the story of Wan was genuinely interesting, there's a clear break of continuity from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In the former, spirits were powerful expressions of nature, neither good nor bad, simply there, powerful, and to be respected. This was the whole point to the first season of Avatar's finale with the Moon Spirit and Koh, not to mention the Dragon spirit. Yet in Korra, Season 2, spirits exist only in two forms: 1) ghostly Pokemon, or 2) demonic dark spirit beings.

All sense of nuance has gone, with with it, depth.

Korra stumbles from one situation to another, making bad decision after another, for no good apparent reason.

Don't get me wrong, it's still an interesting cartoon series - but that's all season 2 is, having lost the special quality and depth of the franchise to cliche, which is a great shame.

 

[kythe]

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show that I remember over the years. I cared about the characters. The world felt real. The plot was interesting and consistant all the way through. It remains one of my favorite TV shows.

I saw the first season of The Legend of Korra much more recently, but aside from the title character I don't even remember their names. The world had progressed so much in technology that it lost its magic. The only thing that stands out to me was the flashbacks to the original characters and their portrayal as adults. I never made it to season 2 because it didn't draw me in.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Season 3

An unexpected consequence of the human and spirit world coming together is that air benders begin to appear. The Air Nation has the opportunity to be rebuilt.

But a group of deadly criminals escape their long-term confinement, intent on killing the Avatar...

Zaheer was an interesting villain. But what made him and his associates so dangerous as to be locked up in isolation for decades? Because we've heard nothing of what happened to Ang, Sokka, or Toph, I was waiting to be told they had killed them - but it was never explained why these villains were so villainous.

Additionally, Zaheer suddenly develops air-bending powers - and becomes a master of it within weeks. He shows no other skills than air-bending, leading to the question of how he could have been so dangerous without that in the first place.

Korra, as usual, muddles from one situation to another, lacking direction and volition. The tangled relationship between Korra-Mako-Asami comes up again, but without any real consequence.

The confrontation toward the end was dramatic, but the writers passed over the opportunity to give at least Tenzin a heroic death (instead, just beaten up, but he'll never play much of a role in this franchise again, underlining the missed opportunity for pathos).

Overall, a tense ending, but the franchise continues to lose steam.


Season 4

The Earth Kingdom has fallen apart - and Kuvira intends to rebuild it.

Even though the preferred heir to the Earth Kingdom, Prince Wu, is a complete idiot, Korra will focus all her mystical powers on getting involved in a domestic dispute, by enforcing the rights of hereditary monarchy.

In order to justify this, we're told that Kuvira is enslaving the population (though in what way differently to how the Earth Kingdom was previously run was never made clear). And because that argument seems weak, she's also building a superweapon - but only because Varrick showed her how to build one.

Thus follows another season where Korra bumbles from one situation to another. There's no real awkwardness or sense of betrayal over the previous Korra-Mako-Asami love triangle. In fact, everyone seems to have suddenly lost their strong feelings of love for one another.

Toph appears for a bit, which is entertaining, then disappears and reappears again for a bit for no apparent reason.

The ending involves a rampaging super-mech that is inexplicably invulnerable to any kind of damage. The Beifongs and Korra completely forget they can metal bend platinum.

Varrick gets married, and Korra and Asami inexplicably show a romantic attachment.

Overall, a disappointing end to a franchise that began well-enough, but continued to lose steam through all four seasons until it ended on a flat note.

Korra's lack of character development and the lack of proper continuity became bigger and bigger problems the franchise failed to address.

A shame really, as there was lots that was entertaining, but ultimately it never came together properly.

Even the attempt to be subversive at the very end just seemed like a random act, done with no real thought, in a franchise that was otherwise routinely cliched and averse to risks.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I really wanted to enjoy The Legend of Korra - it started strong, but Korra never really took control of her own story and lacked any sense of judgement. The entire run could probably be summarised like this:

Korra: I'm really frustrated that I can't use all my powers.
Obvious villain: Then why don't you kick that puppy?
Korra: Will that help me reach my avatar state?
Obvious villain: It's only through pain that we learn to spiritually grow.
Korra: Okay, then ...
[Korra goes off to kick puppy, friends try to stop her]