“But you’ve matured into a thoughtful young woman who puts the needs of others before herself.” Ultimately, Korra’s faults become the catalyst for her maturation into the kind of Avatar that the world in her lifetime needs her to be.Īnother obvious reason for Korra and Aang’s opposing dispositions, aside from them being totally different manifestations of the same immortal spiritual constant, could be chalked up to the fact that they came of age in wildly different times. “When you first came here, you were hot-headed and a bit selfish,” he says. In season 4, Korra chastises herself for her past mistakes, but Tenzin, Aang’s youngest son and Korra’s spiritual mentor, comforts her by acknowledging her growth throughout their time together.
In Avatar, as in any hero’s journey, where you begin doesn’t matter as much as where you choose to go.
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These traits eventually create consequences which endanger both her and the people whose advice she’s ignoring, whether through her inability to access the Avatar’s full powers while grappling with the mental and physical damage inflicted on her during her showdown with season 3 antagonist Zaheer, or her indiscretion in trusting both the Northern Water Tribe council member Tarrlok and the Northern Water Tribe chief Unalaq at face value, because they both represent power and authority.Īcknowledging Korra’s foibles isn’t throwing her under the bus. Where Aang initially resents the responsibility of bringing balance to the world, Korra revels so readily in her powers that her first on-screen line is literally, “I’m the Avatar, you gotta deal with it!”Īs the Avatar, one of Korra’s most persistent weaknesses is her over-reliance on the idea of strength and her latent belief that her status as the Avatar puts her above the advice of her loved ones and peers. Where Aang was a peaceful, playful, irreverently silly child with an indomitable sense of moral clarity, Korra is combative, fierce, and confident to the point of impetuousness toward her elders and mentors.
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But the series qualities that naysayers often deride are also the reasons Korra lives up to its predecessor’s legacy: While The Legend of Korra isn’t perfect, it presents Korra as a more consequential Avatar than Aang.įrom the first episode, The Legend of Korra firmly establishes Korra as both Aang’s immediate successor and his polar opposite. Fans fought about the show’s portrayal of an evolving hero when it debuted in 2012, they fought about the show in the years after its finale, and with the series arriving on Netflix on Aug.
While all Avatars share the same spirit and can access past Avatar memories, each one is different from the last, and many of the criticisms of The Legend of Korra boil down to criticisms of Korra, and how she’s different from Aang. The series, set approximately 70 years after the events of Airbender follows Korra as she embarks on her own journey to become the new Avatar, a spiritual mediator and protector, and the generation’s only martial artist who can command mastery over all four elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. Korra is the reincarnation of Aang, who was the reincarnation of his predecessor, Avatar Roku, and so forth. The Legend of Korra iterated on these traits from the perspective of a new protagonist: a female waterbender named Korra.
Its accessible exploration of colonialism, authoritarianism, and generational change resonates with viewers to this day. The three-season series is widely considered one of the best animated television series of its time, and maybe of all time, due to its dynamic characters, beautiful animation, and sophisticated themes. After a century-long slumber, Aang awakens to rescue the world from the ambitions of a tyrannical superpower. That’s ironic, given the series’ respective takes on the tumultuous nature of legacies and generational change, and how Korra permanently transformed the Avatar universe.Ĭo-created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender follows Aang, the lone survivor of an order of monks who use martial arts to “bend” air into a weapon or tool. In the months since the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender was added to Netflix’s streaming library, the merits of the show’s 2012 sequel series, The Legend of Korra, have been so fiercely debated among fans online that even Netflix’s own Twitter account entered the mix.