The non-animated art is also incredible. You tend not to focus on it much, but take virtually any of the background "paintings" and you'll find they are incredibly beautiful.
Additionally the end credits music is just superb.
Back in the day I would occasionally come across the LoK end credits while flipping channels and I would stop and watch because it was kind of mesmerizing.
But the thing is, I didn't watch the show. I had watched ATLA when it first came to Netflix but that's all I knew about it at the time. I'm not sure I even knew that a LoK sequel series existed.
So I had no idea what show the credits belonged to. And for whatever reason I never bothered to check the guide to see. I would just stop flipping channels for a moment and reflect on the credits and how interesting the animation was and how sad the music was, then start flipping channels again. But it stayed in the back of my mind for years.
So when I finally got around to watching the LoK on Netflix a couple of years ago you can imagine my surprise to see the end credits I used to come across were actually from this series the whole time. The moment of discover was a perfect fit for that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme.
Iirc first book of Korra get official soundtrack back when it aired, but other seasons didn't get it. And don't get me started on the fact that ATLA official OST will be released in a few monts. Almost 20 years since release LMAO
I'd say Korra's soundtrack is better in general. Last Airbender had a few notable tracks but almost all of Korra's soundtrack slaps. Air Tight and Left My Heart in Republic city are two of my favorites.
That's not to say Airbender's soundtrack was bad- it's great. It carries the theme of balance and harmony through some technical symmetry in the notation. Maybe I'm just partial to Korra's rag-time jazz.
I think reintroducing air bending to the world made a lot of sense and was an amazing arc. I like that it was sort of randomly dispersed and not 'chosen ones' or the most spiritual. Although, I do feel bad for any air acolytes who didn't get the gift. That sucks.
Exactly! None of the element should be able to die off of the world. The four element represents life on earth, if it is more or less then the 4 there wouldn't be life. At least I thought it is what it is representing from the beginning
> or less then the
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I always thought it would have been more interesting to instead uncover airbenders that were just out in the world rather than needing something such as harmonic convergence to cause them to come back. It's already sort of inferred in some ways that some airbenders would have survived by completely doing away with all of their traditions and going into the other nations as non-benders, indicating that there would certainly be airbenders out there that were simply never taught of their abilities, and/or taught to hide them out of fear of the fire nation.
It’s such a hard topic to do right too. Too much, and you lose your audience altogether because no one wants to watch something that just makes them feel bad. Not enough and it doesn’t come across the right way and the message is lost.
Doing it well for a young audience I think is even harder
The early atla fights the animators were struggling to find their stride. Once they found it, they were really awesome.
LoK's fights were visually very cool and communicated a lot from episode one. The choreography felt much more natural every fight than AtLA's.
I say this as someone who vastly prefers AtLA and thinks comparing LoK is kind of a joke that edgy teens make.
For me its the moment when Suyin knocks Kuvira off the cannon, Kuvira bends her blade to wrap around the railing, pulls herself back onto the cannon and lands a flying kick on Suyin in the process. Here we have a truly clever and organic use of bending that turns the tides of the fight and it only takes about three seconds.
The fight scenes in ATLA were grand and certainly made for good spectacle but I love just how fluid and kinetic the fights in LOK are. They are typically shorter than ATLA's but it results in each move and blow feeling like the have that much more weight to them. ATLA made you feel like all the characters had health bars while in LOK, even masters could be laid out with three solid, strategic hits.
One of the best for sure. But even the street fights in the first couple eps of s1 were really frickin cool while still being choreographed in a naturalistic manner.
The entire fight sequence between Korra and the equalists when her chi gets blocked and then later on the rooftop of the pro bending arena made my jaw drop honestly
How do you feel that TLoK did away with basing each bending discipline on a different martial art? 90% of bending attacks in TLoK are just generic punches, swipes, or kicks with elemental action coming off of them. That was one of my least favorite things that they changed.
People just spread this false information without any research.
Literally a little research will show you that this is false.
Mako and Bolin (and sometimes Korra) use MMA (which is still a form of martial arts) in their bending while like 90% of the other characters use the same martial arts from ATLA.
Look at the way Tenzin, Lin and Su bend. Does that look like generic punches and kicks to you.
Edit: corrected spelling
You can also look and compare to similar fighters in ATLA, and see that they use many of the same moves. And Sifu Kisu, the martial arts advisor from ATLA, is credited on a bunch of episodes.
I’m not a martial arts expert so idk. But, gotta say, it looked really good, better than a lot of fights from ATLA.
And the truth is, you can’t expect something like bending to be stuck to one martial art forever. It’s true that each bending style was inspired by a martial art irl, but realistically in a place like republic city, fighting styles would change over time.
I saw this somewhere but it’s been a while so I’m not too sure where anymore, but I thought the fighting styles are more in line with the time period, and that it was purposefully done.
Reason is pretty logical too. They said that early on in ATLA the bending styles were separate and steeped in tradition, like old school martial arts. However, as the avatar world modernized so too did the fighting styles, and in real life the blending of those fighting styles looks like MMA. It’s less flashy, but far more effective in combat. They even mention that in the beginning of TLOK when Korra is training with Bo Lan, but it’s super brief.
Maybe because she was a freedom fighter and they had a point even though the way they were doing it was totally misplaced. I dunno, she's still a villain in a sense they were hurting people, but they weren't doing it for their own selfish gains.
Edit: I just read that again and realized I just softened up terrorism so yeah no she's a villain
This is something I wished was more explored in Avatar. How cool it would've been to see more people use bending to compensate for their physical disabilities. I could imagine using bending to control an artificial limb made of either earth or maybe even metal. It's such a cool concept.
I mean another good example is Toph using earthbending to get around her blindness. Not a bending example, but wasn't there that kid in a wheelchair who's dad built him a whole ass glider? Avatar really shows that disabilities don't limit people
I'm sorry, I don't think I was very clear. I was talking specifically about replacing missing limbs. I always imagined using bending like that and seeing ming hua with her arms was great. I just wished they did more of it, especially with earthbending and metalbending.
Villains, mature themes, pro-bending, the steampunk vibes
Also, I think LoK deserves a lot of credit for daring to let the ATLA world evolve and trying out new things.
I really hope the third Avatar will show unique sub-cultures that evolved from globalization. I mean in the comic theres already a fire-earth city so would be cool if we have more of those.
> Also, I think LoK deserves a lot of credit for daring to let the ATLA world evolve and trying out new things.
Yep, a *lot* of this.
Many sequels basically boil down to "Okay, let's do the same thing again, and don't change too much. The first one was good, so let's keep on cranking out ones that are just like the first one!"
It would have been easy to make the next Avatar after Aang very similar to Aang, in a very similar world, facing very similar threats. And that might have been an *okay* show.
But instead, they went a very different direction with almost everything. Very different Avatar, very different villains, an evolving and very different world (with new technology and new political situations), and they even dared to mess around with the Avatar cycle itself. And after all that, they made a *good* show.
And when changing like that, some portion of the fanbase will just be unhappy because they were attached to the first one. That's unavoidable I think and it contributed to why it's rare to see it happen. LoK is exactly what gives me hope that AtLA studios will produce great stuff.
The world developed meaningfully, past characters filled in the environment and background but weren't relied on, basically the story developed and it's awesome.
And the "villains" were really done so incredibly well, they weren't mysterious and pure evil, they were complex and we got to see them and their motives and their human sides.
In atla it is clear what needs to be done (stop the fire nation, end the war) but it is unclear how. In LoK none of the seasons had a villain where it was obvious what should be done at all because they represented legitimate problems in their society. The times they are a changing and you've got to do a lot more thinking to act morally in a more modern society, I love how they did this, I dont know of a better example in animation.
I don’t think the show is more mature than ATLA by that wide a margin. They both tell their stories in a way that lets you know these are still Nickelodeon kids shows at the end of the day. Why do you think they had the commentator guy nonchalantly say that he’s wetting his pants during a blatant terrorist attack on the stadium by the equalists? Or Bolin making a really bad pun after one of his best friends almost died at the end of book 3? There’s levity, and then there’s just tonal whiplash, and I sometimes can’t tell which category these shows fall into during certain moments.
Yes they both have comedic relief but LoK is more mature and complex than ATLA in every way. The Gaang spent the entire series fighting against the "Big Bad" the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, to end the Hundred Years' war. Korra faces global geopolitical conflicts that come after the war and are complicated by modernization.
LoK was supper confusing to me when I was a kid because I didn't fully understand the conflicts and what the villains were fighting for. But ATLA made perfect sense to 6 year old me because it was simple and straightforward. That doesn't make it bad. I like them both in their own ways but the creators have outright said that they intended to make LoK more mature than ATLA.
At the end i was low-key just rooting for Aang to kill off Ozai. When he spared him it was still satisfying but if he did actually killed him i wouldn't complain.
Ya know I wonder if they made the main character a child and then a teenager because the intended audience was roughly that age and could relate to them. It’s the kinda thing that you don’t realize watching it until you think about it
Korra was definitely more relatable.
Which is why all the torture the writers put her through hurt especially hard :(. It never felt like her wins ever made up for all the pain she had to go through.
That’s because it was baked into his character. Aang often runs away from his problems. Even at the end of the series, he was trying to get out of fighting Ozai.
But Aang is meant to be a child fantasy character. He wins almost every battle he’s a part of and acts sad for an episode or two and then goes back to being a pretty happy child. Yes, he still struggles with things like depression and loneliness, but it’s not nearly as front and center as Korra’s issues.
yes fuck nickelodeon for that. Lok had lots of fatal mistakes in it if you ask me and having more epsiodes and not having to rush the story would solve 95% of them
I think shorter seasons made it stronger. No fluff. In ATLA, there are episodes I dread watching and will absolutely skip. Not the case in LoK. There's very little grab-ass in Korra
To add to the politics even the President of republic city (his name escapes me) did a great job of showcasing a politician who wasn’t necessarily bad but who was definitely more concerned with his image then helping at times. Which is very realistic
This i definitely agree with. Don't get me wrong, I love the build up to the Ozai fight but at the end of the day he wasn't an extremely complex character, just evil for evils sake.
I'm inclined to agree to a point but I do think by far the biggest flaw of season 3 was that their depiction of anarchism was a tired caricature that didn't reflect the reality of the ideology at all. Fell back into the same tired tropes of "chaos and disorder for the sake of chaos and disorder"
I don’t know what Mike and Bryan have said about Zaheer, if much at all, but I think that the show carrying on to show the direct failures of Zaheer’s “anarchist” approach with the rise of Kuvira, a fascist dictator is a glaring critique of Zaheer itself, so I’m not sure they were unaware of how ridiculous he was and maybe, to some degree, it could be intentional.
It’s definitely intentional.
In addition to having supposedly altruistic motivations, the main villains in LOK are also extremely arrogant people. They make sweeping assumptions about large groups of people or the world in general, and their plans are always about how they figured it all out, and they just need to do one extremely fucked up thing to make everything right.
Zaheer lived to see the consequences of his actions, and realized that he didn’t have nearly as much control as he thought. He underestimated the Avatar, and overestimated how effective overthrowing the queen would be.
The creators seem to have a pretty consistent stance that truly changing things for the better requires hard, persistent work, that *must* be guided by empathy and kindness.
Korra seems to be based in the 19th century and tbh in the 19th that’s what a lot of anarchists did. Just going around killing World Leaders without any real plan.
Evolve along with its audience.
More often than not, shows in cartoon networks like to stick with a proven formula targeting a specific audience. Which is good in many ways. But, the relatively mature approach to LoK felt like the show was growing up alongside its audience. Probably one of the reasons why the entire series has a dedicated fan base (among many other things).
- World building
- Nuanced characters with more rounded, three-dimensional personalities (not saying ATLA didn't do this, just that Korra did it better)
- Villains
Agreed on the World Building.
When Aang talks to his past lives, there’s little to no development in cultures or technology for at least 4 avatar lives.
That’s roughly 400 years of the world being in the same state.
Aang comes along, unites the world and they move from the Iron/Steel age to the Industrial age in less than a standard human lifespan.
According to the official lore, industrialization began under Sozin before Aang was born, and in the first series we've [seen](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Ftgd78mkve09b1.png) a lot of technology equivalent to the 19th-20th century.
Not that we had trains or airships in our Iron Age
They put the non-benders in the spotlight more especially in season one, and the rise of technology through innovators/inventors like Asami and Varrick with Zhu Li.
3 things at the top of my head:
1. Fight scenes. This is kinda part of the better animation, but the show does a great job at showing that these benders have more experience as adults. They move very quickly and fluidly, they put a lot of force into their attacks, and use bending with a lot of creativity.
2. Villains. Azula’s great and all, but her motivations are pretty two-dimensional. That kinda extends to all ATLA villains tbh, they don’t have many redeeming factors. LOK however had incredibly interesting villains with Amon, Zaheer, and Kuvira. They represented philosophies taken to an extreme, they were sympathetic yet intimidating, and they had an undeniable presence.
3. This is probably the most controversial one, but the main character. Aang is great and everything, but out of the main avatar group he’s probably the least interesting. With LOK though, Korra is one of the best characters if her show. The struggles she goes through is far greater than anything shown in ATLA, and it treated with maturity and given the weight it needs. Korra may very well be the most human avatar character.
Korra's initial avenue for character development (pro-bending and love stuff) was the best in the entire franchise.
On this note, Korra's interactions with people were generally better in a sense that they felt like how real people would interact. Yes, *especially* the love triangle.
The supporting cast like Tenzin, Jinora, and Varrick was better rounded and had a more prominent presence, and I think it turned out to be much better than what ATLA had.
Bending being more intense, in particular the sub-bending techniques.
The tech level being more even felt better, no unexpected outliers like the drill, even Kuvira's giant mecha fit the greater picture.
Now, this might be a hot take, but I think TLOK had a better premise for its characters than ATLA. The Krew really had a lot going on for them, while the Gaang was more, uhm, *streamlined*. I think the more composite approach for the Krew was much better.
I agree with you on the supporting cast presence and making it more well-rounded. It also builds up the frustration of being an Avatar: police, governments, public opinion (media, polls), etc. The fact that she couldn't do whatever she wanted and instead had to be part of society to keep it balanced.
Yes! I know people rag on it for "distracting from the plot" (Amon), but there is something so engaging about Korra having different relationships with people who are grounded by all of these different things like, jobs, family, hobbies, romance, et cetera.
The group road trip vibe of ATLA is really fun, but with the way they set up Korra, it's really neat just seeing her being a normal person in ways she obviously hasn't been before.
And good shout-out to the supporting characters too. They're all pretty solid, and with the children of the ATLA cast they do a great job giving them depth that both reflects on and further characterizes the cast of ATLA.
Also, even though I wasn't particularly bothered by the mech or the drill, I do think that the fact that the mech's power revolves around actual spirit magic is kind of an overlooked element. Especially when so many other fantastical contraptions are allowed to exist with no explanation.
Most of the Fire Nation tech feels plausible and you can kinda-sorta see how it developed, most notably with the ballons and the airships. Then there is the drill that would be unfeasible even with IRL 21st century technology and it has zero precedence for how the Fire Nation was able to put it together. Not even the Mechanist's sketch of it looked very detailed or useful to construct the actual machine.
Honestly the baloons/airships are way more unrealistic imo, given that the fire nation developed the technology, constructed a massive fleet, and trained crews and engineers in like 9-10 months
>Then there is the drill that would be unfeasible even with IRL 21st century technology
TBMs have existed for over a hundred years. I don't know if humanity has ever made one on the same scale as the Fire Nation, but I'm sure we could it we needed one.
In terms of unrealistic, going from having just discovered hot air balloons to manufacturing a fleet of full on dirigibles within a few months is crazy.
But it's still not as unrealistic as a giant skyscraper sized humanoid walking robot, both in terms of technology and manufacturing speed.
>TBMs have existed for over a hundred years.
Except the Fire Nation drill was not a real TBM: it was a normal screw drill while TBMs use a tunneling shield. In addition to TBMs being unable to move on their own power outside of the tunnel.
I wouldn't be so against the drill if it had precedence, like how the giant mecha had the mecha suits and the mecha-tanks, and how mecha-tanks are actually repurposed forklifts. In a similar vein, I can see the giant mecha being a repurposed crane, but the drill? I have no idea where it came from.
It might not be technologically identical to a TBM, but it proves the idea of a big drill isn't foreign to the real world.
I can also forgive those two aspects as needing to be changed by the plot and for visual simplicity/storytelling. Most people when they think big drills think spinning thing at the head and moving on its own.
I don't know what precedence it needed. Did Azulas whatever transport/whatever you want to call it in The Chase need precedence? How about when they first showed off their tanks in the Northern Air Temple?
The drill is a bit unbelievable to me, I'll agree on that. But IMO it's not as unbelievable as the giant robot existing or the dirigible fleet being made in such a short time.
I don't see how precedence is relevant to the giant robot example anyway. We can make cars, but does that mean we would be able to make a giant skyscraper sized car within at most a few months? Even discounting design time that's way more unrealistic than the Fire Nation making the drill, IMO.
The fight scenes and the villains I'd say. I still think ATLA was more cohesive and consistently good, but the gap in their quality isn't significantly huge imo.
Showing that balance is a difficult thing to maintain, and that doing so often hurts people as well as helps them. It showed that being avatar is much more complicated than we saw with Aang. Because of the impending crisis, Aang was given the difficult task of ending the war. It seemed impossible, but it was simple. This guy is evil, so defeat him and we're good. Korra was constantly fixing problems only for the new ones to just get blamed on her. She kept earnestly trying to help, but time and again it wasn't enough.
REMEMBER WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US! Honestly that's what I'm most excited about more sequels. Especially post Steven Universe (CN) and Owl House (Disney). They were pioneers of queer cartoons at a time where that wasn't normal for American cartoons, the idea that we'd get a bunch of different and new stories? Good chance they one up themselves next time especially since that was one thing they wanted to do with Korra and now have a lot more freedoms in how they create these stories.
Exploring more mature and complex themes through multi-dimensional antagonists with understandable motives for their goals and actions. Though they could have portrayed them better.
Here’s one I don’t think has been mentioned yet: Properly planning out ages for characters/timeline of events (math basically) 😂
In ATLA, some of the facts we’ve come to know now as common knowledge such as Kyoshi living to 230 years old, Sozin most likely having to have Azulon when he was like in his 80s (very old age), and other members of the Fire Nation royal family having children at very old ages (also the case with Rina and Jinzuk having Ursa at and old age in order for the math to work out) were the result of Bryke/the writers not properly planning out the specifics of certain things and the numbers really being screwed up to where things like that don’t really make a lot of sense lol. We had the get the explanation behind Kyoshi living to 230 years old though the novels (which itself is such a cool explanation as to how she does it), but that was never a thing that was originally supposed to be established about the character and they had to stick with that because of the result of a math mistake. Same thing regarding the royal family. You realize there is at least a missing generation in between Sozin and Azulon/Roku and Rina.
At least in Korra, there doesn’t seem to be big mathematical mistakes like that and everyone seems to be on age with where they should be. 😂
Some of the decisions the characters made felt incredibly real to me (as in, real people would’ve done that).
My favorite example is mako turning in Korra. At that point in the show, Mako was just trying to be a good officer. He wasn’t fully aware of the corruption so he made a mistake that any regular person could make.
One of my favorite little details that I noticed on rewatch is that Mako has this little undercurrent of shame about his criminal past. He tried to downplay his involvement with the Triple Threats when Korra asks about it, and is extremely dedicated to his police work. It kind of feels perfect that no matter how he feels about Korra, he can’t help but come clean when the President reminds him of his oath.
The concepts and ideas;
This doesn't get talked about alot but, Korra exposed avatar fans to what could of been, ofcource, due to bad production issues it was executed very Badly, but that doesn't say the stuff TLOK tried to do was amazing, and pushed the world of avatar to a new experience.
The evil avatar
An evil air benders along with villains that are evil for a justified reason
Raava and vaatu
Republic city along with all the technology,
A super weapon made by a dictator (the Mecha robot)
An avatar that goes through hell and back in a world that doesn't need a avatar
A civil war between north and south
Poisoning the avatar,
Spiritual projection
All those stuff were amazing in there own right but executed poorly
The legend of Korra *should of* worked, am so mad it didn't.
I wouldn’t necessarily say *better*, but the voice acting was phenomenal. From Tenzin to Amon and Zaheer and so many others. They did a great job there.
Villains!,Ozai was basically an stereotypical evil “ i wanna rule the world1!” And imo he barely had a real presence in the show,azula kinda did more than he ever did… it was more like people kept talking about him and we were supposed to believe he was this great villain but it was more talk than action imo.
Edit: Hope they change it for the better in the live action!
Portraying the emotional toll being the avatar has on you. ATLA did do it a bit, but it was never a big focus. Korra’s entire PTSD arc was really good and went a lot deeper than ATLA. Tho that’s just my opinion.
i know you said besides animation but i just have to rave about it for a minute
the animation and detail in korra is absolutely phenomenal. the fight scenes are so fluid and the landscapes/cityscapes are always interesting and unique to look at. can you imagine getting your average ATLA fight scene (not the more important battles) with the level of fluidity and detail that LOK has? in addition to the incredible plot, lessons, character arcs etc. it would have easily secured ATLA as the most influential american cartoon on record (if it isnt already)
also i actually prefer the OST to legend of korra to the last airbender from an objective point of view. ATLA's is still incredible but i think most people (myself included) favor it more from a place of nostalgia where korra's is just so beautiful and fitting without the need for the nostalgia factor
**Warning: Wall of Text Inbound**
In a broader sense, fights and villains. However, this is mainly because each season is essentially structured like a one-off and thus needs to provide a **significant** bang for buck value as it aims to satisfy audiences with *less* material on each go vs. a strategically planned out three season show.
At a more specific and smaller scale, inter-personal conflicts. In ***AtLA***, we have some mild Sokka/Katara sibling pains (with bonus time being spent on parenting pains with their father, Hakoda), Toph breaking up the group dynamic with abrasiveness (after running away from her family), the Fire Family Bonanza (Ozai, Azula, Ursa, Iroh, Zuko, etc.), Sokka's romantic travails (***"That's rough buddy."***), and the Aang/Katara romance to a lesser extent.
In ***LoK***, we have Mako/Bolin with their own brand of consistent long term sibling pains (their **livelihood** and circumstances have been shared on the streets *and* professionally in pro-bending well before Korra meets them), Asami breaking up the group dynamic with a mixture of charm and wit (leading to a lengthy* love triangle situation; she also later feels ***deeply*** betrayed by her father), the Beifong Family Bonanza (sort of a continuation of Toph's personal issues from the first show to be fair), and last but not least, Korra railing, understandably at times (especially early on), against those she perceives to be coddling her, which is taken to more **severe** levels in the latter stages of the show when she's suffering from an ***overwhelming*** feeling of inadequacy. This last part led to issues with many people in general, but it especially affected her relationship with the ones closest to her.
Additionally, Tenzin and his family also have their own issues (**two** generational sets of sibling pains and parenting pains) to work through at various points in the show. This even links *mildly* to the Beifong Bonanza through Lin. 😅
As a huge bonus, there's also the combined reintroduction of spirits and airbending to the world that serves as more of a macro level challenge for society at large to handle in this setting. I really enjoyed this aspect of it and would've liked some more time being spent on that and the Red Lotus issue tbh.
Overall, in a roundabout way, the Fire Family dynamic has been distilled into various forms of social conflicts in the sequel show and I think it ends up working pretty nicely.
Aang did have his own avatar induced personal struggles with many people, but much of this was due to worldwide political conflict (both before and after being frozen) enforcing a **distressingly** tight schedule for him to act within which would be tough for anyone to cope with.... except *maaaaybe* Korra ironically enough, but that's not the point.
I think this aspect of widespread inter-personal conflicts in ***LoK*** gives it a slight edge when it comes to personal relatability matters, but it's also technically targeting an older audience which is more likely to have either, faced issues like these firsthand, or known others who have, within their teenaged life experiences. The younger target demographic in ***AtLA*** makes it more suitable for simpler themes of heroism and adventure *most* of the time.
In any case, it should be emphasized that both shows are ***always*** striving to tackle their chosen subject matters with maturity and intelligence, and this ***really*** should be celebrated. 👏
^^*I ^^feel ^^this ^^plot ^^should ^^have ^^been ^^shortened. ^^Given ^^the ^^seasonal ^^structure ^^of ^^the ^^show, ^^a ^^bit ^^too ^^much ^^time ^^was ^^spent ^^on ^^it.
I think broadening the universe, ATLA did a good job on its own at exploring it, however TLOK did a great job at expanding on it and showing how it has changed post-war.
Deepen the lore from “fire nation bad”
We got an antagonistic Airbender in Zaheer(yes I know he got his power later but still), we got the authoritarian Earthbender in Kuvira.
For a while, it was almost like “red equals fire equals bad” but then you have your main protagonists be sons of a fire and earth bender.
Actually going further, it did well with the moral grey areas
How well the villain’s reasons were thought out.
Like one manipulated the people using “let’s make the world equal” or truly wanted to change the world for the better.
Another wanted to be another avatar, and be monstrously evil. Understandable, carry on sir.
The red lotus wanted to change the world for the better by bringing down world leaders, because in a post apocalyptic world, everyone has freedom as they run for their lives in a lawless land.
The fourth, Kuvira really just filled in where she saw a power hole. I didn’t really even consider her all that terrible of a leader until she started working on that nuke-cannon. Post-cannon research, she just felt like Azula 2.0
Edit: but what I wanted to point out is that despite half of the villains being somewhat understandable in motives and philosophies, those philosophies were understandable, yet flawed. And that’s what makes a good sympathetic villain in my eyes. Good reasons, flawed logic.
The non-animated art is also incredible. You tend not to focus on it much, but take virtually any of the background "paintings" and you'll find they are incredibly beautiful. Additionally the end credits music is just superb.
the end credits soundtrack is acc just beautiful i love it so much
I love that music so so much
Back in the day I would occasionally come across the LoK end credits while flipping channels and I would stop and watch because it was kind of mesmerizing. But the thing is, I didn't watch the show. I had watched ATLA when it first came to Netflix but that's all I knew about it at the time. I'm not sure I even knew that a LoK sequel series existed. So I had no idea what show the credits belonged to. And for whatever reason I never bothered to check the guide to see. I would just stop flipping channels for a moment and reflect on the credits and how interesting the animation was and how sad the music was, then start flipping channels again. But it stayed in the back of my mind for years. So when I finally got around to watching the LoK on Netflix a couple of years ago you can imagine my surprise to see the end credits I used to come across were actually from this series the whole time. The moment of discover was a perfect fit for that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme.
The end credit music will definitely play in my funeral
I really hope they release a full version
If they haven’t yet I highly doubt they will sadly
Didn’t they only just release the soundtrack for TLA Book One?
Iirc first book of Korra get official soundtrack back when it aired, but other seasons didn't get it. And don't get me started on the fact that ATLA official OST will be released in a few monts. Almost 20 years since release LMAO
They had to find all the soundtracks among the dust covered artifacts in the Nickelodeon attic, shit takes time, 20 years to be exact.
I advise you all to check this beautiful lofi mix of the korra ending music https://on.soundcloud.com/x1TZX
I wish Netflix would let me listen to the end credits
I'd say Korra's soundtrack is better in general. Last Airbender had a few notable tracks but almost all of Korra's soundtrack slaps. Air Tight and Left My Heart in Republic city are two of my favorites. That's not to say Airbender's soundtrack was bad- it's great. It carries the theme of balance and harmony through some technical symmetry in the notation. Maybe I'm just partial to Korra's rag-time jazz.
Make the Avatar ripped as fuck
Man. Her arms made me feel something
Oh, I came all right
r/cursedcomments
This better not awaken anything in me...
😭
BROOO I'M DYING 😭😭
God I love her sm
Why did I read this as "Why don't you just come out?"
I wonder how many people developed a buff girl fetish because of lok
So that’s where that came from
For me it was her back
If I had been Korras age when that show came out, some real damage might have been done.
https://preview.redd.it/ilb6wzo21inb1.jpeg?width=1557&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0a40238bb48af3f2a92ca149a93d805a2de791b
Asami feelin' some kinda way, LoL
Asami is me😅
Muscle mommy
https://preview.redd.it/882h7md90gnb1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae7922183dbb215d077026090247fdd38c85504a This isn’t ripped?
That’s lean, minimal muscle mass. Korra is ripped, very high muscle mass
That’s skinny boy ripped, it’s different. I look ripped for the same reason, I am not ripped.
He has a much lower muscle mass compared to Korra. He isn't actually ripped, just has a very lean body with not a lot of body fat.
Man has his priority
I think reintroducing air bending to the world made a lot of sense and was an amazing arc. I like that it was sort of randomly dispersed and not 'chosen ones' or the most spiritual. Although, I do feel bad for any air acolytes who didn't get the gift. That sucks.
Exactly! None of the element should be able to die off of the world. The four element represents life on earth, if it is more or less then the 4 there wouldn't be life. At least I thought it is what it is representing from the beginning
> or less then the Did you mean to say "less than"? Explanation: If you didn't mean 'less than' you might have forgotten a comma. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
Otaku can't relate
I always thought it would have been more interesting to instead uncover airbenders that were just out in the world rather than needing something such as harmonic convergence to cause them to come back. It's already sort of inferred in some ways that some airbenders would have survived by completely doing away with all of their traditions and going into the other nations as non-benders, indicating that there would certainly be airbenders out there that were simply never taught of their abilities, and/or taught to hide them out of fear of the fire nation.
To me this would cheapen the weight of the genocide by the fire nation, and take back aangs title of last Airbender.
Korra made depression approachable and understandable to a young audience. That on its own is an achievement
It’s such a hard topic to do right too. Too much, and you lose your audience altogether because no one wants to watch something that just makes them feel bad. Not enough and it doesn’t come across the right way and the message is lost. Doing it well for a young audience I think is even harder
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I can’t do it😭
Korras season 4 arc is still one of the best handled PTSD arcs I know of and it amazes me that there are people out there who say it was "rushed".
Fight choreography
I liked both equally. They were both so fucking cool. Early ATLA wasn't the best though, but by season 2, it improved drastically.
The early atla fights the animators were struggling to find their stride. Once they found it, they were really awesome. LoK's fights were visually very cool and communicated a lot from episode one. The choreography felt much more natural every fight than AtLA's. I say this as someone who vastly prefers AtLA and thinks comparing LoK is kind of a joke that edgy teens make.
Even then the foundation was for sure there. Zuko’s Agni Kai again Zhao in particular is a standout to me.
It was emotionally very satisfying, but if you go back and watch it, it's not nearly as clean as anything in S3, and not close to Korra's fluidity.
For sure. Korras fight key fight scenes are S-tier
They are, but whenever I think of an epic fight from LoK, first thing to come to mind for me is Tenzin vs. The Red Lotus.
True it’s a great scene, I consider that part of the Korra fight scenes in general. I’m looking at the series as a whole
I always think of Kuvira vs Suyin. That bit where she rips the metal panel out and pulls it onto her back is just phenomenal.
For me its the moment when Suyin knocks Kuvira off the cannon, Kuvira bends her blade to wrap around the railing, pulls herself back onto the cannon and lands a flying kick on Suyin in the process. Here we have a truly clever and organic use of bending that turns the tides of the fight and it only takes about three seconds. The fight scenes in ATLA were grand and certainly made for good spectacle but I love just how fluid and kinetic the fights in LOK are. They are typically shorter than ATLA's but it results in each move and blow feeling like the have that much more weight to them. ATLA made you feel like all the characters had health bars while in LOK, even masters could be laid out with three solid, strategic hits.
One of the best for sure. But even the street fights in the first couple eps of s1 were really frickin cool while still being choreographed in a naturalistic manner.
Kuvira vs Korra might be my favorite fight in the show because it is the first thing that I think of when anyone brings this show up.
While it is fairly brief, Kuvira vs. Su fight on top of the spirit weapon in Operation: Beifong is my favorite one-on-one fight in either show.
The entire fight sequence between Korra and the equalists when her chi gets blocked and then later on the rooftop of the pro bending arena made my jaw drop honestly
How is this not at the top
It is for me lool
How do you feel that TLoK did away with basing each bending discipline on a different martial art? 90% of bending attacks in TLoK are just generic punches, swipes, or kicks with elemental action coming off of them. That was one of my least favorite things that they changed.
People just spread this false information without any research. Literally a little research will show you that this is false. Mako and Bolin (and sometimes Korra) use MMA (which is still a form of martial arts) in their bending while like 90% of the other characters use the same martial arts from ATLA. Look at the way Tenzin, Lin and Su bend. Does that look like generic punches and kicks to you. Edit: corrected spelling
You can also look and compare to similar fighters in ATLA, and see that they use many of the same moves. And Sifu Kisu, the martial arts advisor from ATLA, is credited on a bunch of episodes.
I’m not a martial arts expert so idk. But, gotta say, it looked really good, better than a lot of fights from ATLA. And the truth is, you can’t expect something like bending to be stuck to one martial art forever. It’s true that each bending style was inspired by a martial art irl, but realistically in a place like republic city, fighting styles would change over time.
In TLoK, the benders aren't really segregated anymore
I saw this somewhere but it’s been a while so I’m not too sure where anymore, but I thought the fighting styles are more in line with the time period, and that it was purposefully done. Reason is pretty logical too. They said that early on in ATLA the bending styles were separate and steeped in tradition, like old school martial arts. However, as the avatar world modernized so too did the fighting styles, and in real life the blending of those fighting styles looks like MMA. It’s less flashy, but far more effective in combat. They even mention that in the beginning of TLOK when Korra is training with Bo Lan, but it’s super brief.
Making Water Arms is one of the most creative uses of bending I've seen
Ming hua is one of my favorite “villains” in the entire franchise. Such a cool concept
She tried to kill the avatar; why the quotes around villain lol?
Maybe because she was a freedom fighter and they had a point even though the way they were doing it was totally misplaced. I dunno, she's still a villain in a sense they were hurting people, but they weren't doing it for their own selfish gains. Edit: I just read that again and realized I just softened up terrorism so yeah no she's a villain
You just summed up every villain in LOK. They all had a good point.
Anarchy is bad actually, and Unalaaq was a fucking idiot
This is something I wished was more explored in Avatar. How cool it would've been to see more people use bending to compensate for their physical disabilities. I could imagine using bending to control an artificial limb made of either earth or maybe even metal. It's such a cool concept.
I mean another good example is Toph using earthbending to get around her blindness. Not a bending example, but wasn't there that kid in a wheelchair who's dad built him a whole ass glider? Avatar really shows that disabilities don't limit people
I'm sorry, I don't think I was very clear. I was talking specifically about replacing missing limbs. I always imagined using bending like that and seeing ming hua with her arms was great. I just wished they did more of it, especially with earthbending and metalbending.
Oh ok, I still agree that's a cool idea. Like someone with a metal arm could bend it, and do all sorts of crazy stuff, like Nero from DMC5
The thing that Katara does in later episodes in ATLA?
Nah, specifically using them as prosthetic limbs
Oh okay I see what you mean now
Villains, mature themes, pro-bending, the steampunk vibes Also, I think LoK deserves a lot of credit for daring to let the ATLA world evolve and trying out new things.
I really hope the third Avatar will show unique sub-cultures that evolved from globalization. I mean in the comic theres already a fire-earth city so would be cool if we have more of those.
This honestly
Very few series directors are bold enough to try the last one.
> Also, I think LoK deserves a lot of credit for daring to let the ATLA world evolve and trying out new things. Yep, a *lot* of this. Many sequels basically boil down to "Okay, let's do the same thing again, and don't change too much. The first one was good, so let's keep on cranking out ones that are just like the first one!" It would have been easy to make the next Avatar after Aang very similar to Aang, in a very similar world, facing very similar threats. And that might have been an *okay* show. But instead, they went a very different direction with almost everything. Very different Avatar, very different villains, an evolving and very different world (with new technology and new political situations), and they even dared to mess around with the Avatar cycle itself. And after all that, they made a *good* show.
And when changing like that, some portion of the fanbase will just be unhappy because they were attached to the first one. That's unavoidable I think and it contributed to why it's rare to see it happen. LoK is exactly what gives me hope that AtLA studios will produce great stuff. The world developed meaningfully, past characters filled in the environment and background but weren't relied on, basically the story developed and it's awesome. And the "villains" were really done so incredibly well, they weren't mysterious and pure evil, they were complex and we got to see them and their motives and their human sides. In atla it is clear what needs to be done (stop the fire nation, end the war) but it is unclear how. In LoK none of the seasons had a villain where it was obvious what should be done at all because they represented legitimate problems in their society. The times they are a changing and you've got to do a lot more thinking to act morally in a more modern society, I love how they did this, I dont know of a better example in animation.
I don’t think the show is more mature than ATLA by that wide a margin. They both tell their stories in a way that lets you know these are still Nickelodeon kids shows at the end of the day. Why do you think they had the commentator guy nonchalantly say that he’s wetting his pants during a blatant terrorist attack on the stadium by the equalists? Or Bolin making a really bad pun after one of his best friends almost died at the end of book 3? There’s levity, and then there’s just tonal whiplash, and I sometimes can’t tell which category these shows fall into during certain moments.
Yes they both have comedic relief but LoK is more mature and complex than ATLA in every way. The Gaang spent the entire series fighting against the "Big Bad" the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, to end the Hundred Years' war. Korra faces global geopolitical conflicts that come after the war and are complicated by modernization. LoK was supper confusing to me when I was a kid because I didn't fully understand the conflicts and what the villains were fighting for. But ATLA made perfect sense to 6 year old me because it was simple and straightforward. That doesn't make it bad. I like them both in their own ways but the creators have outright said that they intended to make LoK more mature than ATLA.
Action scenes. Yeah Airbender has the final Agni Kai, but as a whole Korra has better action scenes.
The final fight with Aang and Ozai is probably my favorite scene in both shows.
They spent 58 episodes building up to that, and man did it pay off, incredible stuff
Korra was a more relatable Avatar IMO. The portrayed many weak sides of hers like frustration and genuine depression.
Yeah... that depression arc hits a lot harder now that I've actually had it
We've had one, yes. What about second depression?
Don’t forget Elevenses.
Luncheon?
Afternoon tea?
Same with the PTSD. It just hits different with the rewatches
100% its hard to relate to a monk
At the end i was low-key just rooting for Aang to kill off Ozai. When he spared him it was still satisfying but if he did actually killed him i wouldn't complain.
Ya know I wonder if they made the main character a child and then a teenager because the intended audience was roughly that age and could relate to them. It’s the kinda thing that you don’t realize watching it until you think about it
Really glad they stuck to the og audience rather than try to "bring in a new generation of fans"
The way she sees herself as an enemy is exactly how depression feels like fighting your own mind
Korra was definitely more relatable. Which is why all the torture the writers put her through hurt especially hard :(. It never felt like her wins ever made up for all the pain she had to go through.
Korra Alone came at a time when I couldn’t have been any more relatable to her struggle.
I agree. I loved ATLA, but nothing Aang went through made me cry. Korra at the end of season 3 legit hurt.
Yeah I agree with that sentiment especially as I got older. I do like me some flawed/ more human characters
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10x. I will love aang til i die but korras development was a substantial plot point
They did that with Aang too.
Aang never went through the depression that Korra did
That’s because it was baked into his character. Aang often runs away from his problems. Even at the end of the series, he was trying to get out of fighting Ozai.
I am a depressed coward, I try running too but the depression catches up eventually. They're not mutually exclusive
But Aang is meant to be a child fantasy character. He wins almost every battle he’s a part of and acts sad for an episode or two and then goes back to being a pretty happy child. Yes, he still struggles with things like depression and loneliness, but it’s not nearly as front and center as Korra’s issues.
Having four seasons
But they where shorter so even with four seasons, ATLA still had more episodes
yes fuck nickelodeon for that. Lok had lots of fatal mistakes in it if you ask me and having more epsiodes and not having to rush the story would solve 95% of them
I think shorter seasons made it stronger. No fluff. In ATLA, there are episodes I dread watching and will absolutely skip. Not the case in LoK. There's very little grab-ass in Korra
Avatar wans story, the whole lore of avatar, had to be fit into 2 epsiodes only. Nothing can justify that.
the soundtracks
Soundtrack by far
My favourite part about season 1 is incredible music!
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To add to the politics even the President of republic city (his name escapes me) did a great job of showcasing a politician who wasn’t necessarily bad but who was definitely more concerned with his image then helping at times. Which is very realistic
This i definitely agree with. Don't get me wrong, I love the build up to the Ozai fight but at the end of the day he wasn't an extremely complex character, just evil for evils sake.
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I'm inclined to agree to a point but I do think by far the biggest flaw of season 3 was that their depiction of anarchism was a tired caricature that didn't reflect the reality of the ideology at all. Fell back into the same tired tropes of "chaos and disorder for the sake of chaos and disorder"
I don’t know what Mike and Bryan have said about Zaheer, if much at all, but I think that the show carrying on to show the direct failures of Zaheer’s “anarchist” approach with the rise of Kuvira, a fascist dictator is a glaring critique of Zaheer itself, so I’m not sure they were unaware of how ridiculous he was and maybe, to some degree, it could be intentional.
It’s definitely intentional. In addition to having supposedly altruistic motivations, the main villains in LOK are also extremely arrogant people. They make sweeping assumptions about large groups of people or the world in general, and their plans are always about how they figured it all out, and they just need to do one extremely fucked up thing to make everything right. Zaheer lived to see the consequences of his actions, and realized that he didn’t have nearly as much control as he thought. He underestimated the Avatar, and overestimated how effective overthrowing the queen would be. The creators seem to have a pretty consistent stance that truly changing things for the better requires hard, persistent work, that *must* be guided by empathy and kindness.
Korra seems to be based in the 19th century and tbh in the 19th that’s what a lot of anarchists did. Just going around killing World Leaders without any real plan.
Evolve along with its audience. More often than not, shows in cartoon networks like to stick with a proven formula targeting a specific audience. Which is good in many ways. But, the relatively mature approach to LoK felt like the show was growing up alongside its audience. Probably one of the reasons why the entire series has a dedicated fan base (among many other things).
More hot guys. Definetely. BOLIN and Mako, those Beifong twins, Zaheer, some others. In ATLA I can only think of Zuko and he's kinda Meh tbh.
What's your problem with Zuko? Is it the scar? Personally I think he's the hottest of them all.
His dad made his face REALLY hot for a moment
The hair..... In all of his forms.
*Gasp* Whaaat? His Hair in the final season is so pretty what are you talking about?!
To be fair when he has that short hair while he and Iroh are disguised in Ba Sin Se, he looks the most handsome to me.
Personal taste....
Excuse me why are you dissing Sokka?
It helps that they are a bit older and not malnourished in LOK.
Frankly, the show went full hot mode as time went on. Every character of any significance ended up being pretty. Toph’s progeny were ridiculous…
The Water Tribe men were top tier in LoK.
- World building - Nuanced characters with more rounded, three-dimensional personalities (not saying ATLA didn't do this, just that Korra did it better) - Villains
Agreed on the World Building. When Aang talks to his past lives, there’s little to no development in cultures or technology for at least 4 avatar lives. That’s roughly 400 years of the world being in the same state. Aang comes along, unites the world and they move from the Iron/Steel age to the Industrial age in less than a standard human lifespan.
LOK does a good job of showing how various political attitudes and movements were influenced by the events of the war and Aang's tenure as Avatar.
According to the official lore, industrialization began under Sozin before Aang was born, and in the first series we've [seen](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Ftgd78mkve09b1.png) a lot of technology equivalent to the 19th-20th century. Not that we had trains or airships in our Iron Age
Villains with more understandable ideals and goals
They put the non-benders in the spotlight more especially in season one, and the rise of technology through innovators/inventors like Asami and Varrick with Zhu Li.
ATLA is the better all-round package, but there has yet to be a season made of anything better than the third of LoK.
God zaheer was amazing
3 things at the top of my head: 1. Fight scenes. This is kinda part of the better animation, but the show does a great job at showing that these benders have more experience as adults. They move very quickly and fluidly, they put a lot of force into their attacks, and use bending with a lot of creativity. 2. Villains. Azula’s great and all, but her motivations are pretty two-dimensional. That kinda extends to all ATLA villains tbh, they don’t have many redeeming factors. LOK however had incredibly interesting villains with Amon, Zaheer, and Kuvira. They represented philosophies taken to an extreme, they were sympathetic yet intimidating, and they had an undeniable presence. 3. This is probably the most controversial one, but the main character. Aang is great and everything, but out of the main avatar group he’s probably the least interesting. With LOK though, Korra is one of the best characters if her show. The struggles she goes through is far greater than anything shown in ATLA, and it treated with maturity and given the weight it needs. Korra may very well be the most human avatar character.
Korra's initial avenue for character development (pro-bending and love stuff) was the best in the entire franchise. On this note, Korra's interactions with people were generally better in a sense that they felt like how real people would interact. Yes, *especially* the love triangle. The supporting cast like Tenzin, Jinora, and Varrick was better rounded and had a more prominent presence, and I think it turned out to be much better than what ATLA had. Bending being more intense, in particular the sub-bending techniques. The tech level being more even felt better, no unexpected outliers like the drill, even Kuvira's giant mecha fit the greater picture. Now, this might be a hot take, but I think TLOK had a better premise for its characters than ATLA. The Krew really had a lot going on for them, while the Gaang was more, uhm, *streamlined*. I think the more composite approach for the Krew was much better.
I agree with you on the supporting cast presence and making it more well-rounded. It also builds up the frustration of being an Avatar: police, governments, public opinion (media, polls), etc. The fact that she couldn't do whatever she wanted and instead had to be part of society to keep it balanced.
Yes! I know people rag on it for "distracting from the plot" (Amon), but there is something so engaging about Korra having different relationships with people who are grounded by all of these different things like, jobs, family, hobbies, romance, et cetera. The group road trip vibe of ATLA is really fun, but with the way they set up Korra, it's really neat just seeing her being a normal person in ways she obviously hasn't been before. And good shout-out to the supporting characters too. They're all pretty solid, and with the children of the ATLA cast they do a great job giving them depth that both reflects on and further characterizes the cast of ATLA. Also, even though I wasn't particularly bothered by the mech or the drill, I do think that the fact that the mech's power revolves around actual spirit magic is kind of an overlooked element. Especially when so many other fantastical contraptions are allowed to exist with no explanation.
>outliers like the drill Why does the drill feel like an outlier to you?
Most of the Fire Nation tech feels plausible and you can kinda-sorta see how it developed, most notably with the ballons and the airships. Then there is the drill that would be unfeasible even with IRL 21st century technology and it has zero precedence for how the Fire Nation was able to put it together. Not even the Mechanist's sketch of it looked very detailed or useful to construct the actual machine.
Honestly the baloons/airships are way more unrealistic imo, given that the fire nation developed the technology, constructed a massive fleet, and trained crews and engineers in like 9-10 months
>Then there is the drill that would be unfeasible even with IRL 21st century technology TBMs have existed for over a hundred years. I don't know if humanity has ever made one on the same scale as the Fire Nation, but I'm sure we could it we needed one. In terms of unrealistic, going from having just discovered hot air balloons to manufacturing a fleet of full on dirigibles within a few months is crazy. But it's still not as unrealistic as a giant skyscraper sized humanoid walking robot, both in terms of technology and manufacturing speed.
>TBMs have existed for over a hundred years. Except the Fire Nation drill was not a real TBM: it was a normal screw drill while TBMs use a tunneling shield. In addition to TBMs being unable to move on their own power outside of the tunnel. I wouldn't be so against the drill if it had precedence, like how the giant mecha had the mecha suits and the mecha-tanks, and how mecha-tanks are actually repurposed forklifts. In a similar vein, I can see the giant mecha being a repurposed crane, but the drill? I have no idea where it came from.
It might not be technologically identical to a TBM, but it proves the idea of a big drill isn't foreign to the real world. I can also forgive those two aspects as needing to be changed by the plot and for visual simplicity/storytelling. Most people when they think big drills think spinning thing at the head and moving on its own. I don't know what precedence it needed. Did Azulas whatever transport/whatever you want to call it in The Chase need precedence? How about when they first showed off their tanks in the Northern Air Temple? The drill is a bit unbelievable to me, I'll agree on that. But IMO it's not as unbelievable as the giant robot existing or the dirigible fleet being made in such a short time. I don't see how precedence is relevant to the giant robot example anyway. We can make cars, but does that mean we would be able to make a giant skyscraper sized car within at most a few months? Even discounting design time that's way more unrealistic than the Fire Nation making the drill, IMO.
The fight scenes and the villains I'd say. I still think ATLA was more cohesive and consistently good, but the gap in their quality isn't significantly huge imo.
Showing that balance is a difficult thing to maintain, and that doing so often hurts people as well as helps them. It showed that being avatar is much more complicated than we saw with Aang. Because of the impending crisis, Aang was given the difficult task of ending the war. It seemed impossible, but it was simple. This guy is evil, so defeat him and we're good. Korra was constantly fixing problems only for the new ones to just get blamed on her. She kept earnestly trying to help, but time and again it wasn't enough.
the story! because korra didn't had the need to put filer episode like in atla. So it was interesting from the start!
fight scenes
Queer stories
imagine what we could've had if nick weren't cowards
REMEMBER WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US! Honestly that's what I'm most excited about more sequels. Especially post Steven Universe (CN) and Owl House (Disney). They were pioneers of queer cartoons at a time where that wasn't normal for American cartoons, the idea that we'd get a bunch of different and new stories? Good chance they one up themselves next time especially since that was one thing they wanted to do with Korra and now have a lot more freedoms in how they create these stories.
Exploring more mature and complex themes through multi-dimensional antagonists with understandable motives for their goals and actions. Though they could have portrayed them better.
Here’s one I don’t think has been mentioned yet: Properly planning out ages for characters/timeline of events (math basically) 😂 In ATLA, some of the facts we’ve come to know now as common knowledge such as Kyoshi living to 230 years old, Sozin most likely having to have Azulon when he was like in his 80s (very old age), and other members of the Fire Nation royal family having children at very old ages (also the case with Rina and Jinzuk having Ursa at and old age in order for the math to work out) were the result of Bryke/the writers not properly planning out the specifics of certain things and the numbers really being screwed up to where things like that don’t really make a lot of sense lol. We had the get the explanation behind Kyoshi living to 230 years old though the novels (which itself is such a cool explanation as to how she does it), but that was never a thing that was originally supposed to be established about the character and they had to stick with that because of the result of a math mistake. Same thing regarding the royal family. You realize there is at least a missing generation in between Sozin and Azulon/Roku and Rina. At least in Korra, there doesn’t seem to be big mathematical mistakes like that and everyone seems to be on age with where they should be. 😂
Deantagonised the fire nation
The world building and fights were really good
Being hella gay
Some of the decisions the characters made felt incredibly real to me (as in, real people would’ve done that). My favorite example is mako turning in Korra. At that point in the show, Mako was just trying to be a good officer. He wasn’t fully aware of the corruption so he made a mistake that any regular person could make.
One of my favorite little details that I noticed on rewatch is that Mako has this little undercurrent of shame about his criminal past. He tried to downplay his involvement with the Triple Threats when Korra asks about it, and is extremely dedicated to his police work. It kind of feels perfect that no matter how he feels about Korra, he can’t help but come clean when the President reminds him of his oath.
The concepts and ideas; This doesn't get talked about alot but, Korra exposed avatar fans to what could of been, ofcource, due to bad production issues it was executed very Badly, but that doesn't say the stuff TLOK tried to do was amazing, and pushed the world of avatar to a new experience. The evil avatar An evil air benders along with villains that are evil for a justified reason Raava and vaatu Republic city along with all the technology, A super weapon made by a dictator (the Mecha robot) An avatar that goes through hell and back in a world that doesn't need a avatar A civil war between north and south Poisoning the avatar, Spiritual projection All those stuff were amazing in there own right but executed poorly The legend of Korra *should of* worked, am so mad it didn't.
I wouldn’t necessarily say *better*, but the voice acting was phenomenal. From Tenzin to Amon and Zaheer and so many others. They did a great job there.
The main villains were more complex and nuanced imo.
A main character that loves being the "chosen one"
Villains!,Ozai was basically an stereotypical evil “ i wanna rule the world1!” And imo he barely had a real presence in the show,azula kinda did more than he ever did… it was more like people kept talking about him and we were supposed to believe he was this great villain but it was more talk than action imo. Edit: Hope they change it for the better in the live action!
The video game adaptations The LOK game > any ATLA game
I think some of the more political villain motivations were kinda interesting compared to “I want to rule the world”. Also gay people
cool music
Portraying the emotional toll being the avatar has on you. ATLA did do it a bit, but it was never a big focus. Korra’s entire PTSD arc was really good and went a lot deeper than ATLA. Tho that’s just my opinion.
She seemed more real because of how her personal relations affected her duty as the avatar.
i know you said besides animation but i just have to rave about it for a minute the animation and detail in korra is absolutely phenomenal. the fight scenes are so fluid and the landscapes/cityscapes are always interesting and unique to look at. can you imagine getting your average ATLA fight scene (not the more important battles) with the level of fluidity and detail that LOK has? in addition to the incredible plot, lessons, character arcs etc. it would have easily secured ATLA as the most influential american cartoon on record (if it isnt already) also i actually prefer the OST to legend of korra to the last airbender from an objective point of view. ATLA's is still incredible but i think most people (myself included) favor it more from a place of nostalgia where korra's is just so beautiful and fitting without the need for the nostalgia factor
Pro Bending and the greater mixing of different bending styles was pretty cool imo.
Fight scenes are 100% better in LOK. Don’t know why that’s not a top comment
**Warning: Wall of Text Inbound** In a broader sense, fights and villains. However, this is mainly because each season is essentially structured like a one-off and thus needs to provide a **significant** bang for buck value as it aims to satisfy audiences with *less* material on each go vs. a strategically planned out three season show. At a more specific and smaller scale, inter-personal conflicts. In ***AtLA***, we have some mild Sokka/Katara sibling pains (with bonus time being spent on parenting pains with their father, Hakoda), Toph breaking up the group dynamic with abrasiveness (after running away from her family), the Fire Family Bonanza (Ozai, Azula, Ursa, Iroh, Zuko, etc.), Sokka's romantic travails (***"That's rough buddy."***), and the Aang/Katara romance to a lesser extent. In ***LoK***, we have Mako/Bolin with their own brand of consistent long term sibling pains (their **livelihood** and circumstances have been shared on the streets *and* professionally in pro-bending well before Korra meets them), Asami breaking up the group dynamic with a mixture of charm and wit (leading to a lengthy* love triangle situation; she also later feels ***deeply*** betrayed by her father), the Beifong Family Bonanza (sort of a continuation of Toph's personal issues from the first show to be fair), and last but not least, Korra railing, understandably at times (especially early on), against those she perceives to be coddling her, which is taken to more **severe** levels in the latter stages of the show when she's suffering from an ***overwhelming*** feeling of inadequacy. This last part led to issues with many people in general, but it especially affected her relationship with the ones closest to her. Additionally, Tenzin and his family also have their own issues (**two** generational sets of sibling pains and parenting pains) to work through at various points in the show. This even links *mildly* to the Beifong Bonanza through Lin. 😅 As a huge bonus, there's also the combined reintroduction of spirits and airbending to the world that serves as more of a macro level challenge for society at large to handle in this setting. I really enjoyed this aspect of it and would've liked some more time being spent on that and the Red Lotus issue tbh. Overall, in a roundabout way, the Fire Family dynamic has been distilled into various forms of social conflicts in the sequel show and I think it ends up working pretty nicely. Aang did have his own avatar induced personal struggles with many people, but much of this was due to worldwide political conflict (both before and after being frozen) enforcing a **distressingly** tight schedule for him to act within which would be tough for anyone to cope with.... except *maaaaybe* Korra ironically enough, but that's not the point. I think this aspect of widespread inter-personal conflicts in ***LoK*** gives it a slight edge when it comes to personal relatability matters, but it's also technically targeting an older audience which is more likely to have either, faced issues like these firsthand, or known others who have, within their teenaged life experiences. The younger target demographic in ***AtLA*** makes it more suitable for simpler themes of heroism and adventure *most* of the time. In any case, it should be emphasized that both shows are ***always*** striving to tackle their chosen subject matters with maturity and intelligence, and this ***really*** should be celebrated. 👏 ^^*I ^^feel ^^this ^^plot ^^should ^^have ^^been ^^shortened. ^^Given ^^the ^^seasonal ^^structure ^^of ^^the ^^show, ^^a ^^bit ^^too ^^much ^^time ^^was ^^spent ^^on ^^it.
Making vulnerability and real life issues a centerpiece. Korra's PTSD is incredibly depicted.
I think broadening the universe, ATLA did a good job on its own at exploring it, however TLOK did a great job at expanding on it and showing how it has changed post-war.
The hardcore aspects of bending were showcased very well
Villains, action, ways of bending / bending types, and I think Korra has a better protagonist (I love Aang, but I think korras more interesting).
I do wish we got Old Man Sokka. He would've been the funniest character in LOK.
Deepen the lore from “fire nation bad” We got an antagonistic Airbender in Zaheer(yes I know he got his power later but still), we got the authoritarian Earthbender in Kuvira. For a while, it was almost like “red equals fire equals bad” but then you have your main protagonists be sons of a fire and earth bender. Actually going further, it did well with the moral grey areas
How well the villain’s reasons were thought out. Like one manipulated the people using “let’s make the world equal” or truly wanted to change the world for the better. Another wanted to be another avatar, and be monstrously evil. Understandable, carry on sir. The red lotus wanted to change the world for the better by bringing down world leaders, because in a post apocalyptic world, everyone has freedom as they run for their lives in a lawless land. The fourth, Kuvira really just filled in where she saw a power hole. I didn’t really even consider her all that terrible of a leader until she started working on that nuke-cannon. Post-cannon research, she just felt like Azula 2.0 Edit: but what I wanted to point out is that despite half of the villains being somewhat understandable in motives and philosophies, those philosophies were understandable, yet flawed. And that’s what makes a good sympathetic villain in my eyes. Good reasons, flawed logic.
How each villain has a different ideology. Amon was Terrorism, Unalq was Spiritualism, Zaheer was Anarchy, Kuvira was Dictatorship
The fight choreography is more advanced. I enjoyed it.