Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra

[Neet Tokusatsu]

Maybe is for the best.
Korra destroyed all their ancestor's legacy and probably she's considered the real Devil.

The mere idea of an Avatar fucking up so bad to the point the Avatar figure is now feared/hated rather than revered COULD work, but lets be honest, this whole series is just gonna be "Yes, Korra destroyed the world, and this is why it's a good thing!!!".

I still have some morbid curiosity about this new series tough, Avatar as a franchise has been running on fumes for like a decade now, let's see if they fuck up so badly to the point the new show turns into the final nail in the coffin.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

The mere idea of an Avatar fucking up so bad to the point the Avatar figure is now feared/hated rather than revered COULD work, but lets be honest, this whole series is just gonna be "Yes, Korra destroyed the world, and this is why it's a good thing!!!".

It will probably have some other force ruining the world and using FAKE NEWS to blame Korra in it.

 

[Incecticyder]

It will probably have some other force ruining the world and using FAKE NEWS to blame Korra in it.

Makes sense. Korra was a very western feeling character. The writing team never gave her villains that play off her strengths even a little bit to show her cool side. Everyone of her enemies could be dealt better by someone like Aang. Her proactiveness is never shown as a good thing. They always have her be portrayed as reckless. They should have made her a more intelligent, proactive kind of character to juxtapose her next to the wise but patient Aang. I understand that they wanted to create a POV character who was isolated but a smart country bumpkin that felt somewhat isolated due to changing environment all the time and finally going to a big city is better than a completely isolated character that is going to be impressed by everything and knows literally nothing.

I like Korra as a character but Bryke did not know how to deal with such a character. She was given too many flaws with her good intentions (and the things that stem from those) being her only truly good point.

 

[Zeru14]

The infamous MattCMG has made a video defending Bryke's retcons in the Avatarverse.

 

[Tetra]

I watched E;R's million videos on Korra and the big takeaway I had was that the Avatar writers decided they wanted to be Miyazaki and fucked up Avatar by putting weird weeb shit in it (with the spirits) that was totally at odds with the grounded low fantasy feel of it.

Well spirits have always been part of Avatar. Even the original. You could say they went overboard but if they wanted to rip off Miyazaki, they did that from the very start and just elaborated on it more in Korra.

According to this, episode 7 of the original, was a not so subtle reference to princess Mononoke.

Miyazaki seems to have inspired the writers from the very start and they just fucked up when going further with his concepts, not really an uncommon problem for certain writers.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Well spirits have always been part of Avatar. Even the original. You could say they went overboard but if they wanted to rip off Miyazaki, they did that from the very start and just elaborated on it more in Korra.

According to this, episode 7 of the original, was a not so subtle reference to princess Mononoke.

Miyazaki seems to have inspired the writers from the very start and they just fucked up when going further with his concepts, not really an uncommon problem for certain writers.

The original at least had the consistent good and evil spirits that's pretty much shared for every human folklore.

Korra just made spirits into mexicans that are just like humans and want to coexist. That Face Stealer dindu nuffing, it's you humans fault for being negative.

 

[Mai]

After rewatching ATLA for the first time since I was a kid and absolutely loving it, reading this thread has made me decide to not interact with anything after it. But honestly I am still craving more Avatar content, maybe because the pacing of season three felt very quick; any ideas without resorting to fucking fanfiction?

 

[cactus]

After rewatching ATLA for the first time since I was a kid and absolutely loving it, reading this thread has made me decide to not interact with anything after it. But honestly I am still craving more Avatar content, maybe because the pacing of season three felt very quick; any ideas without resorting to fucking fanfiction?

A wise decision, they made Kyoshi a lesbian in her book (which wow, way to ruin the Kyoshi Warriors by implying they were just a harem). Just rewatch the series.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

The only good thing about Korra is how her design was pure sexo

I watched E;R's million videos on Korra and the big takeaway I had was that the Avatar writers decided they wanted to be Miyazaki and fucked up Avatar by putting weird weeb shit in it (with the spirits) that was totally at odds with the grounded low fantasy feel of it.

The problem with avatar is the same for star wars: the fantastical elements stopped being there in service of the story and instead because the story itself

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

The problem with avatar is the same for star wars: the fantastical elements stopped being there in service of the story and instead because the story itself

Korra Book 1 Villain: "Bending is the source of all conflict in the world, and it must be destroyed."

Korra Book 2 Villain: "I'm gonna become the fucking Antichrist!"

 

[Kharash]

The only good thing about Korra is how her design was pure sexo

This is LoK's legacy and I find it very amusing.

 

[Incecticyder]

Korra Book 2 Villain: "I'm gonna become the fucking Antichrist!"

You know, the Dark Avatar as a concept could work. Have them be someone young with darkness inside them, spend seasons with them learning to bend the elements, have them start bringing the world into chaos in the background and then have Team Avatar and Team Dark Avatar face each other in the series finale. It could have worked.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

You know, the Dark Avatar as a concept could work. Have them be someone young with darkness inside them, spend seasons with them learning to bend the elements, have them start bringing the world into chaos in the background and then have Team Avatar and Team Dark Avatar face each other in the series finale. It could have worked.

It's a bit strange, but you probably right.
Final Fantasy 3 is all about bringing light into the chaos (team was called Warriors of the Light). But there's an earlier team who bringed darkness to balance the world.
Let me explain:
The game has a world, that world was always between two main rulers: light and dark.
When the world loses their balance, a team of warriors is called. If light wants to overcome darkness, it invokes a judgment beam and destroys everything. Dark warriors are called to bring balance.
Well, in the game was the earlier team. You play as the light warriors, to bring balance against darkness in the world.
That in simple words. For a NES game is pretty interesting seeing it. Same as Darksiders and either Heaven or Hell are pragmatic military orders: one for justice, the other for chaos.
I think that could work in Avatar, but we know could be a waste.
Korra had nice ideas but very bad executed.

 

[Incecticyder]

I think that could work in Avatar, but we know could be a waste.

Any idea could be a waste. They should have put more thought into them.

Korra had nice ideas but very bad executed.

As I said before, Korra is a very western character in a very western setting. The writers forgot to take that into account. She should have been smart and capable of improvising and thinking on her feet to separate her from the wise and patient Aang. Instead, they made her impulsive, naive and reckless. She did not know how to buy stuff, she was manipulated by everyone, made things worse with nearly every decision and her character arc was becoming more like Aang rather than a better Korra. Have her meditate, have be more in touch with the spiritual but give her strengths too. She was made into a lesser Aang.

 

[Mary Lee Harvey osWalsh]

You know, the Dark Avatar as a concept could work. Have them be someone young with darkness inside them, spend seasons with them learning to bend the elements, have them start bringing the world into chaos in the background and then have Team Avatar and Team Dark Avatar face each other in the series finale. It could have worked.

I always wondered - what would happen if the Avatar was evil? With all those reincarnations, at least one of them had to be terrible. Yes, originally the Avatar was the spirit of the planet taking on human form (before they added that dumb as fuck Rava and Vaatu or whatever his name was). But what if the incarnation of the Avatar was raised poorly? What if he had been born in the fire nation while they had been jingoistic, raised by Ozai (or whomever) to be destructive? Or what if he just had the wrong combination of genes to make him an absolute nightmare?

Again I don't trust the writers to handle any of this well. But I still wonder.

Final Fantasy 3 is all about bringing light into the chaos (team was called Warriors of the Light). But there's an earlier team who bringed darkness to balance the world.

FF3 is one of my favs in the series so I appreciate this. Never did like what Dissidia did though.

 

[Incecticyder]

I always wondered - what would happen if the Avatar was evil? With all those reincarnations, at least one of them had to be terrible. Yes, originally the Avatar was the spirit of the planet taking on human form (before they added that dumb as fuck Rava and Vaatu or whatever his name was). But what if the incarnation of the Avatar was raised poorly? What if he had been born in the fire nation while they had been jingoistic, raised by Ozai (or whomever) to be destructive? Or what if he just had the wrong combination of genes to make him an absolute nightmare?

Again I don't trust the writers to handle any of this well. But I still wonder.

The very idea that EVERY Avatar was a kind person is weird to me.

In any case, I noticed that Korra's backstory mirrors how she was handled in real life. Her caretakers isolated her from the world and her resulting naivety and impulsiveness caused a lot of problems while the writers made mistakes that caused her to be a divisive character. In both cases, they thought they were doing what was best but they were wrong.

You can see this in Seven Havens. Korra gives her life to avert a calamity that would destroy everything and the only thing she gets is mud on her name. I understand that there are people that would be sour towards her but still. If the entire planet went the way of the dinosaurs, would that be a better thing? Blame the bad guy for causing the calamity in the first place. The Avatar had spent 10.000+ years of good service more or less and they complain about not averting Armageddon well enough? It was not something that would be solved with the press of a button. Reminds me of that one scene in One Punch Man: "You destroyed the meteor that would have destroyed all life on Earth BUUUUUT some buildings got damaged by the debris and that is good enough reason to kill you". Makes the Avatar world feel ungrateful and unsympathetic.

Bryke seem to have stopped trying to make Korra into the legend she was meant to be and have joined the hatewagon. "Come here and watch the freak we failed to write! Tomatoes are at half price and for a little extra we can provide razorblades!!" So sad.

 

[Chilson]

As I said before, Korra is a very western character in a very western setting. The writers forgot to take that into account. She should have been smart and capable of improvising and thinking on her feet to separate her from the wise and patient Aang. Instead, they made her impulsive, naive and reckless. She did not know how to buy stuff, she was manipulated by everyone, made things worse with nearly every decision and her character arc was becoming more like Aang rather than a better Korra. Have her meditate, have be more in touch with the spiritual but give her strengths too. She was made into a lesser Aang.

I always felt they should have just inversed mirrored Aangs character arc. Rather than having a playful kid learn to be a serious adult, you have a serious adult learn to be a playful kid. Have Korra as an overly serious sheltered adult who never got a childhood because she spent all her youth cooped up training to be the avatar due to the world leaders/white lotus being terrified of losing the Avatar for another century/generation and all the chaos that could bring like with Aang. Irony abounds because they just created an avatar that has no idea how the world works and is pretty bad at saving it (initially) as a result.

Have her learn to be less serious, more playful and learning to interact with real people/the real world. Pointless because we will never get that now, but I always felt it was what SHOULD have been her character arc.

 

[Incecticyder]

I always felt they should have just inversed mirrored Aangs character arc. Rather than having a playful kid learn to be a serious adult, you have a serious adult learn to be a playful kid. Have Korra as an overly serious sheltered adult who never got a childhood because she spent all her youth cooped up training to be the avatar due to the world leaders/white lotus being terrified of losing the Avatar for another century/generation and all the chaos that could bring like with Aang. Irony abounds because they just created an avatar that has no idea how the world works and is pretty bad at saving it (initially) as a result.

Have her learn to be less serious, more playful and learning to interact with real people/the real world. Pointless because we will never get that now, but I always felt it was what SHOULD have been her character arc.

The problem with that is that Korra was still a kid (a teenager but still). Aang might have been playful and immature at times but he balanced it out with wisdom and patience. It is as I said before: They removed Aang's strengths but did not add anything. Merely reversing Aang's arc would just make Korra another Aang as they would have the same endpoint. They should have given her opposing strengths: Aang is wise and patient so Korra is to be quick-thinking and proactive.

And then there are the villains: She danced on the palm of everyone she came across. Even Aang had his clear victories. Say what you want about jobbers but they are necessary to show how strong and cool the good guys are. Everything Korra did was just as planned for all of them apart from the final fights. No bad guy goes "She delayed our plans drastically!" or something. She was a naive dumbass who was opposed by charismatic masterminds. That is why it was important to give her intelligence as a strength. It would balance things.

 

[robobobo]

The problem with Korra being a meathead was that she got Worfed at every turn. The fucking avatar should have ample power to smack down a bitch, but each and every villain in the series kicks the shit out of her pretty much immediately. Aang was working at a disadvantage because an entire nation was set against him and he was just a kid with little to no training in the non-air elements, and seeing him work through that with just his wits and his ragtag gang was extremely satisfying. Korra despite theoretically being much more trained and competent than Aang during his series gets her ass beat by random homeless people on multiple occasions, her gang was not remotely as useful or fun as Aang's, and most seasons depended on a deus ex machina to show up and bail her out at the last minute.

 

[Incecticyder]

The problem with Korra being a meathead was that she got Worfed at every turn. The fucking avatar should have ample power to smack down a bitch, but each and every villain in the series kicks the shit out of her pretty much immediately. Aang was working at a disadvantage because an entire nation was set against him and he was just a kid with little to no training in the non-air elements, and seeing him work through that with just his wits and his ragtag gang was extremely satisfying. Korra despite theoretically being much more trained and competent than Aang during his series gets her ass beat by random homeless people on multiple occasions, her gang was not remotely as useful or fun as Aang's, and most seasons depended on a deus ex machina to show up and bail her out at the last minute.

Here is how I would fix Korra's gang: I would add Jinora into it as a permanent member. The team was missing a spiritual center. Bolin was the heart, Mako was the street smart guy, Asami was the book smart gal and Korra was the muscle/leader. Jinora would act as the wise guide that is in touch with the spiritual side and mediate between the other team members. She was one of the more mature members of the cast and could have completed the dynamic. Plus, she is fun.