User reviews

Far cry from the last air bender. The characters are terrible and the plot had so many holes. The ending of season 4 was forced.

(Note) this review is based largely on the first series, the second is slightly more tolerable but still didn't hook me enough to watch more than the first six episodes.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra is not without its positives. The need to differentiate itself from its predecessor goes without saying and the steam punk setting is interesting, blending modern sensibilities with themes like industrial expansion and political revolution. The summaries of the episodes, told in a sepia old-movie style with a posh British commentator are genuinely exciting and the music is jazzy and upbeat. However, there is little else of merit in this deeply flawed re- imagination of the Avatar universe.

The opening credits of The Last Airbender were narrated enthusiastically by Katara, they created anticipation. J.K. Simmons, who can be interesting, is positively lack-luster by comparison. And Tenzin, whilst delivering the odd amusing line or gesture, is just boring. Korra too is unlikable. Of course she has to be different to Aang but she is constantly whining and very hard to sympathise with as a result. The inevitable romantic sub-plot is not believable, how does anyone fall for someone so mopey? Bolin is a failed attempt to recreate Sakka in that he isn't particularly funny and Mako is too serious. In its rush to create an extravagant plot, it forgets character development, which was what underpinned The Last Airbender - Zuko being the greatest example in his defection from the Fire Nation.

Throughout, the question is raised: how can stoic and bland Tenzin even be related to the playful and interesting Aang? It is answered in a flashback where Aang is depicted, astonishingly, as not only weak but as a dull character, telling Toph to stop calling him nicknames, something that the old Aang would never have done. Not even with the additional and strenuous pressure of uniting the land. Being the Avatar is no longer a privilege, it is just a title, a word even and though this may make it seem grittier, it has no more relevance than, for example, Useful Pro-Bending Player: The Legend of Korra.

The frequent use of blood-bending is very problematic, as it was symbolic of human depravity before, it was a moral issue, could a person ever stoop so low as to physically control another human? Could it ever be right? Now, it is used flippantly and its gravitas is diminished. Similarly with the ability bestowed upon the avatar to remove bending, another moral issue, born out of Aang's desperation not to end the Fire Lord's life and supposedly only possible for the pure of spirit. Again, tossed around trivially until it loses its meaning.

To see people comparing The Legend of Korra and The Last Airbender in the same breath is staggering. Korra's adventures seem to try their very best to trample over and defile the memories of Aang and it is a real, real shame. As a stand-alone series, it might be passable but it is impossible to ignore comparisons between the two. It could have been so much more but it just leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and is a dip back into the Avatar universe that ultimately should not have been taken.

This sequel was all over the place. And not a good place at that.

There is no overarching story. This series is split in arcs. With the first arc showing some promise. But falls completely short and mishandles its ideas immensly. With every other arc being completely void of any enjoyment. The Legend of Korra ruins several plotpoints from the last airbender. With the biggest crime being the characters from the prequel. Every single character from the original is made out to be a complete and utter a-hole. I could understand some nuance, as experiencing war with such a young age, does things to people. But just every single character was made out to be irredeemable trash. The whole spirit world plot from the last airbender got completely stained with how poor it was handled here. The origin of bending, as told in the last airbender, got completely retconned in this series. And a boom-boom man like character is introduced, and still no explaination or lore about the power. New airbenders just spawn in, with a very loose abstract reason. And the bending that was beyond rare and special in the last airbender are now common, with other more abstract bending taking the rare bending spot, such as spirit bending etc.

The animation is great, and the escape scenes of the criminals are some of the coolest animated bending the series has to offer. But other than that, theres not a lot of enjoyment to gain here, even staining the prequel masterpiece with its retcons and the portrayal of the old characters, besides some nostalgia bait.

The last airbender will forever be one of my favourite tv shows, but im not looking forward to the future of avatar, with the way they handled this series.

-Great but inconsistent artstyle. -Interesting and educational but very poorly handled themes, with false, sometimes even morally wrong resolutions/quintessences. -Major violation of various basic principles of fiction storywriting, and forced plots, resulting in a lot of bland exposition, poor conveying of important character motivation, and biased points of view. (The mystery is dispelled, as simple "magic" granted arbitrarily by gods.) -Unnecessary and subjectively very bad chosen explanations for the world and its laws, sometimes in conflict with the original series (incosnsistent rules to bending and spirit realm, very flawed origin story, technological bs). -dumbed down, two dimensional and stereotypical characters with little to no (or just the pretense of) developement. Especially the unintellectual, tantrum throwing bully protagonist with anger issues, who gets everything handed on a silver platter and never really has to deal with the consequences. (And if it happens, it isn't shown). And the beloved Characters and their legacy from the original series are handled despicably. -Comedy theatrics are obnoxious and often out of place. -The world of charming traditional asian cultures from the original series were discarded for a cold, western steampunk setting, which gives the series a totally different feel, and imo not for the better.

All in all, it's avatar, but with less of most what made the original series great, unnecessary additions, and a sour aftertaste.

An energetic and dynamic series about an Avatar who threw herself in the new world while being to aggressive to resolve problems peacefully.

This is the exact opposite of who Aang is which gives this series so much potential.

Unfortunate the writes made this series impossible to be close as good as the original by changing the story ever new season. The story went way to fast which didn't gave you time to relax and bond with the characters.

Korra was most disappointing, an Avatar who is always losing her battles with her foes while needing aid to even stand a change. Seems like she doesn't have the strength in personality that Aang did had.

If you saw the last airbander you will definitely miss the group feeling and character development with some characters just being a spinoff from the ATLA.

Korra needed to be connected with her spiritual side to learn airbending and for that she needed to calm down. She's a real hot head who often made an hurriedly decision. You would think that she would take herself on a journey to connect with her spiritual side as avatar being. It didn't quite work out like that. It just needed an tear drup.

Which sums up this series.. Beautifully animated with amazing sound tracks, destroyed by the writing.

I'm really disappointed. I guess I just had high expectations after watching the very first Avatar which I absolutely loved. This one fell short for me. I was so excited for this new avatar but I didn't like the whole overall story. I really tried to like it but I just, didn't. Now this is my personal opinion but I also did not like how they basically tried to make Korra a lesbian, I mean really? Isn't this a network for kids? I just didn't like the direction the creators were trying to go with her. I know what you're going to say I'm a bigot but whatever, it doesn't belong on a kids show.

Sadly, I'm just going to watch all the old re-runs of Aang and the gang (bought all the DVDs) but other than that, they lost a follower in me.

Has its great moments of brilliance in season 3, otherwise this is too much BS. Current events are not contingent on past events. Things are not consistent from episode to episode and even within episodes. Main heros can rival gods then are bested by your average thug, then defeat gods again etc. The all powerful avatar has her powers taken away from her then restored to her at regular intervals. She's also frequently kidnapped and imprisoned. Pretty much every bad guy captures her at least once. I think my two year old daughter would have a good shot at capturing Korra. Screenwriters should not have played "I bet you" and this would have been much better.

After watching 'Legend of Korra' it is blindingly apparent the writing genius of John O'bryan and Aaron Ehasz were the beating heart of the masterpiece that is its predecessor, 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. Where "Avatar" fired on all cylinders, creating a beautifully impressive balance of drama, action, romance and humor as well as perfect character development and pace of storytelling, "Korra" gravely strikes out on that winning formula.

The most apparent failures is at humor and character development. "Avatar" was so intelligently funny, I mean really truely funny lines and scenes throughout in the perfect amount. Its sequel complete and entirely lost that and replaced it with cheap humor (i.e. fart jokes). As far as characters go, it seems like in writing "Legend" that they didnt feel like they needed to put any effort into making sure viewers actually liked or cared about any of them. That or the new writers just dont know how. I had deep love and feelings for Aang and Sokka and Zuko, Iroh and Toph. Even side characters like the cabbage guy had more power of emotional attachment then anyone in "Korra".

'Legend of Korra' also loses the mystical and philosophical aspects that made its predecessor so great. Examples would be the lack of fun animal combinations like lion turtles. And in replace of a flying bison and flying lemur (both with huge personality) we get basically a big dog and non-fire ferret (no real personalities). I get the feeling the animators never really watched the original, or it and the artwork they used were lost on them. With all the crisp new animation bending looks entirely boring now (consistently experienced "Oh man! That looked so freaking cool!" But havnt felt that once in Korra) and the idea of "form" we were taught to be so important in "Avatar" is nonexistent.

I really tried to like Legend of Korra, on more then one occasion in my life. I went back and watched it again 6 years later. It just cant live up to the once in a lifetime masterpiece of Avatar. I just fantasize about what could have been if Aaron and John came along for the ride. If only...whyyyyyy???

The Legend of Korra fails to meet my expectations. The reason being, it deviates too much from Avatar: The Last Airbender, making it difficult for me to view them as connected.

ATLA captivated me with its imaginative and exotic world, while Korra's modern city setting was unappealing. Many key characters from ATLA were absent or had limited screen time, and the new characters failed to live up to the standards set by their predecessors.

Additionally, the show's constant push for social issues, such as homosexual rights and democracy, was overbearing and took away from my enjoyment. ATLA never had these distractions and allowed for a pure, unencumbered experience in its fantastical world.

In summary, I find Korra to be a departure from ATLA and unable to live up to its predecessor. The only enjoyable moments were in episodes featuring the first Avatar. The rest fell short.

Although the animation is pretty great, the writing is so horrible that anything positive about this show becomes random pieces of rough diamond in a big pile of mud and dirt. Every season has their own villains, and the main character never gets any stronger or in any way better than she was before as the show continues on. Abilities of characters that can bend air, fire, water and earth get ridiculed by 40 year old regular dudes that have no special powers other than electric rods on their hands and escape all fire and rocks thrown at them by jumping around. They evade attacks better than air benders and air benders are supposed to be the masters of evasion. The president refuses to help the avatar even after learning that she's 100% right on her case for a mind numbing reason that is "i need the soldiers to protect the city" despite everyone knowing full well the soldiers can in no way protect anyone against what they'll be up fighting if they don't help her. This list goes on and on, overall a very maddening experience for anyone who expects things to make at least a little bit of sense in a story. I've given one point for varrick and another for zaheer. Lol.

What a weak avatar!!

She beat vatu but can't win against zaheer who just mastered airbending and 3 other stupid friends??