The Legend of Korra An Informal Review by Andrew Roberts About a month ago, I shared a very gushing review of one of my favourite cartoons, Avatar:

The Last Airbender, and in the process I mentioned the sequel series, Avatar: The Next

Generation, The Legend of Korra. For the sake of balance, I think the time has come for me

to do a more in-depth review.

Warning! This review will contain minor spoilers!

The Premise You dont to have watched Avatar to understand the backstory, but it does help. If youre in

that group, there are two underlying concepts. First is bending, a mystical art form in which

a bender manipulates the elements by going through the physical motions of martial arts.

The second concept is the Avatar, an international peacekeeper who can bend all the

elements.

The Legend of Korra takes place seventy years after the events of Avatar. The Fire Nations

overseas colonies in the Earth Kingdom have been transformed into a new multicultural

state, the United Republic of Nations, centred round the sprawling capital at Republic City.

The Air Nomad temples are now inhabited by Air Acolytes, non-benders who have adopted

the Air Nomads lifestyle. Meanwhile, Aang is long dead, so were following a new Avatar; a

boisterous teenager from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra.

Because of the time skip, you dont really need to have seen The Last Airbender. To be

honest, its probably better if you dont because then you wont be comparing all the time.

Nonetheless, its a new series, a fresh start, and a chance to get a new audience.

The Characters With this being a sequel series, they have a new cast of characters, although some of the

old cast do return. Korra is very different from Aang as an Avatar, being much more hot-

headed. At seventeen, she has already mastered water, earth, and fire, but struggles with

the more spiritual aspects of her role. In the first series, she travels to Republic City to learn

airbending from Aangs son Tenzin, whose family are the only airbenders in the world. While

Tenzin does his best to teach her, he struggles with his own children, combined with his

duties as a member of the United Republics ruling council.

While in Republic City, Korra befriends Mako and Bolin, two brothers who are pro-benders,

a popular spectator sport. Mako, named after Irohs original voice actor in Avatar, is a

firebender with a cold, brooding personality. In contrast, Bolin is a more jovial earthbender.

Theyre later joined by Asami Sato, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Asami isnt a

bender, but shes still a capable fighter, and an expert driver. Together, they comprise the

new version of Team Avatar.

Another supporting character is Lin Beifong, Republic Citys Chief of Police and the daughter

of original Team Avatar member Toph Beifong. Shes quite tough, and not too fond of Korra,

but shes still an accomplished metalbender and an exceptional peacekeeper.

Once again, Team Avatar is accompanied by two animal companions. The first is Naga,

Korras polar bear dog which serves as her mount, while Momos replacement is Bolins Fire

Ferret Pabu, the mascot and namesake for their pro-bending team.

The Story While Avatar told a single overarching story over the course of three seasons, The Legend

of Korra has four seasons with relatively self-contained arcs. Because of this, Im going to

be looking at all four seasons individually.

Book One: Air As mentioned above, Korra has mastered water, earth, and fire. Now she is travelling to

Republic City to convince Tenzin to become her airbending teacher. However, her arrival

attracts the attention of the Equalists, an anti-bending movement led by the masked Amon.

Other plot threads involve Korra playing in a pro-bending tournament with Mako and Bolin,

the ambitious councilman Tarrlok trying to acquire more power, and the romances between

the members of the new Team Avatar.

Let me say right now that I cant stand the romance plot thread. Its just a boring love triangle

with Bolin fancying Korra, Korra having a crush on Mako, and Mako dating Asami. Id say

thats the biggest downside of the season. Nonetheless, the rest of the season is great.

Amon is a menacing yet interesting villain with understandable motives but questionable

methods, Tarrlocks schemes evolve into political intrigue worthy of Game of Thrones, the

pro-bending looks impressive (so much so that the commentator gets to narrate the recaps

at the beginning of the episode), and Republic City has an impressive Roaring Twenties

design. The animation is still at its finest, and there is a good deal of creativity. While I do

like the urban fantasy, I sometimes miss the great settings of The Last Airbender. Finally,

the themes of terrorism and social unrest feel like theyve been addressed in a surprisingly

adult way.

Book Two: Spirits This one is not as great. Taking place six months later, Korra is struggling to master the

spiritual aspects of her role as Avatar. She promptly rejects Tenzin in favour of her uncle

Unalaq. This is where the problems lie; Korra seems a bit too hot-headed and rash, and

once Unalaq is revealed to be the villain, hes pretty one-dimensional compared to Amon.

However, the saving grace of the season is the introduction of Varrick. Hes an eccentric

billionaire industrialist from the Southern Water Tribe, and is one of the funniest characters

in the show. While Bolin feels is essentially Sokka, and Tenzins children seem to bring a

juvenile humour (neither of which are terrible), Varrick has another quick wit combined with

a comical sleaziness. This might just be me, but the sleaziness reminds of Saul Goodman.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. The main plot thread with Korra isnt very interesting, except

for one part where she delves into her deepest memories and explores the origin of the

Avatar. Theres another thread which involves Tenzins family on holiday, where he and his

siblings discuss another theme that isnt addressed very often on cartoons; parental

favouritism. But my favourite thread involves Bolin helping Varrick raise awareness of the

Water Tribes civil war by starring in a film serial, The Adventures of Nuktuk: Hero of the

South. I think the serials Ming the Merciless depiction of Unalaq is much more interesting

than the real version.

Book Three: Change OK, so the Nickelodeon bigwigs were starting become stupid at this point. Midway through

this season, they decided they should be online. Anyway, following some H.P. Lovecraft-

style cosmic events, people around the world are discovering they can airbend. Team Avatar

join Tenzin as he travels the world to seek out the new airbenders and resurrect the Air

Nomad race. Meanwhile, a notorious criminal named Zaheer escapes from prison with his

new airbending, and frees his quirky mini-boss squad in order to capture the Avatar.

This series is a significant improvement over the last one. The animation is still great, and

they have new settings to explore within the Earth Kingdom, including the mighty capital city

of Ba Sing Se. Zaheer is a villain similar to Amon, depicted as a well-meaning philosopher

consumed by extremism. Its just a pity his accomplices dont get much development.

However, there is an interesting plot thread relating to Lin. They travel to the Earth Kingdom

city of Zaofu, ruled by Suyin Beifong. Lin is very reluctant to deal with her half-sister due to

their pasts, so they have to try and make peace. Theres not much else I can really say, but

the story does get very intense near the end of the season. Oh yeah, and Varricks back.

Book Four: Balance Now were talking. Taking place three years after the previous one, the Earth Kingdom has

fragmented and dealing with political instability. Korra has not recovered from her ordeals,

and is wandering the world in search of solace. Its done really well, and lasts for almost half

the season. In her absence, the Air Nomads are trying to protect Earth Kingdom towns from

marauding bandits, while the Zaofu metalbender Kuvira is uniting the regions under her

banner, accompanied by Varrick and Bolin. Meanwhile, the heir to the Earth Kingdom

throne, Prince Wu, is staying in Republic City and Mako has been assigned as his

bodyguard. Unfortunately, Kuvira refuses to cede control to him and becomes the dictator

of her new Earth Emipre. But to be honest, can you really blame her? Prince Wu is an utter

pain, and one of the downsides of this series.

Once again, the show has a gripping story. The characters have picked sides, creating some

interesting rifts. Unfortunately, Nickelodeon managed to get their sticky fingers over it again.

There is one episode called Remembrances, which is just a clip show. It turned out that

Nickelodeon had slashed the shows budget, so the creators could either do a clip show or

lay everyone off. I think thats a shame, because the last recap they did was really smartly

done. That said, the episodes worth it for the final third when Varrick narrates the story.

The Ending and Final Notes (Spoiler Alert!) Im now going to bite the bullet and reveal an important event. Remember when I talked

about the romance sub-plots? Well, the final scene involves Korra and Asami heading into

the Spirit World hand-in-hand, with everything suggesting a romance between them. You

heard me right. I think Korra has just become the first bisexual protagonist in western

animation. So, why did I spoil this? Well, if you didnt know it going in, it might seem

spontaneous. However, I already knew about it beforehand, and I could interpret the scenes

between the pair as a very subtle build-up.

While the show wasnt as great as The Last Airbender, I think the themes and issues tackled

make The Legend of Korra one of the most mature childrens cartoons Ive ever seen.