Four Ways The Legend of Korra Respected Its Younger Viewers

[Haerthan]

I shipped Mako and Korra so hard that in the last 5 minutes i screamed a lot. Don't get me wrong here. I can actually see how it came to it, Korra only writing letters to Asami, only Asami helping Korra with her PTSD/depression and other stuff. And to all people saying Korra is lesbian now, no she is not she is bisexual, since she did date Mako in season 1 and 2. But yea. I shipped those two so hard I screamed real hard.

 

[Orekoya]

Four Ways The Legend of Korra Respected Its Younger Viewers

I really feel the first four but the fifth is a little undeserved.

I guess so, but what is the fifth one? Someone please explain.

 

[Goliath100]

Sympathetic Villain? Here's a Summary:
Amon; was the best one, as an intimidating force of nature. The only one that really accomplish anything despite how short it lasted.
Tarrlok; was the first self sabotaging villain. And that's all I have to say.
Unalaq; aka Tarrlok 2.0, now with more self sabotage.
Varrick; he's a corporate bad guy, that's it despite the fact that there was a much more interesting direction they could have used.
Zaheer; boring villain, we get told things about him, but we never gets to see them.
The 3 others: Same as Zaheer.
Kuvira; is a dictator, that's it. The only reason anyone had any sympathy for her was because the guy she tried to replace was stupid.

 

[Edguy]

Sooo.. I just watched TLA and LoK during christmas, finishing today.. Do we have official confirmation that there 100% won't be another Avatar series after this one?

..'cause, I would probably watch that.

 

[Nazrel]

Sooo.. I just watched TLA and LoK during christmas, finishing today.. Do we have official confirmation that there 100% won't be another Avatar series after this one?

..'cause, I would probably watch that.

There are no immediate plans for another Avatar series. The creators have said they intend to move on to other projects before they're even going to consider making another avatar TV series.

There is an ongoing follow up comic to the original series done by dark horse, and it's not unreasonable to hope for a Korra one as well.

 

[Winthrop]

Okay, so I haven't gotten around to Korra yet, but I just watched the original series a few months ago for the first time, and this article states that The Last Airbender didn't have a sympathetic villain and everyone seems to be agreeing with this notion and just debating whether or not Korra's are deeper than that, and they are right that Ozai wasn't sympathetic. But maybe people are forgetting that for a large part of the series Zuko and Iroh are villains and they are incredibly sympathetic and relatable. Sure I wouldn't call them evil, but they ARE working for an evil nation and trying to complete unfinished genocide and kill the world's only hope for personal gain. I could see where someone would argue that they aren't the main villain because Ozai is the one responsible for all the destruction and because they eventually become good, but in a sense those same comments could be made about Darth Vader. While they aren't the greatest evil in the world or Aang's greatest enemy, they get by far the most screen time and have the more direct and personal conflict with Aang.

Even if you want to bar those two on the ground that eventually they become good guys, Azulla is still a bit sympathetic once she goes nuts. Shes still behaving in an evil way, but the fact that the realization that even her own closest friends didn't love her clearly troubled her in a very human way. I think that saying the Last Airbender had unsympathetic villains without considering those characters and looking at Ozai is silly, because Ozai essentially has no personality and was just a force of nature in the background for most of the series.

 

[Shinkicker444]

I'm reminded of the folks who were bitching that black people existing in positions of power in Dragon Age broke canon. Because they totally know canon better than the people who have written it

Well to be fair they might have been subconsciously comparing DA to medieval Europe which probably was - and seems to be portrayed as - very white-centric, with other races being relegated to the bottom rung. [footnote]I've no idea how true that is, I've not studied European history. GoT probably doesn't help the image either I guess, since Westeros (the continent) is essentially a 'white dudes only' club[/footnote] Given the western styled feudal setting it's not an entirely unjust comparison (Orlais is portrayed as Imperial France isn't it in DA3? Not played that one yet).

 

[GabeZhul]

Okay, so I haven't gotten around to Korra yet, but I just watched the original series a few months ago for the first time, and this article states that The Last Airbender didn't have a sympathetic villain and everyone seems to be agreeing with this notion and just debating whether or not Korra's are deeper than that, and they are right that Ozai wasn't sympathetic. But maybe people are forgetting that for a large part of the series Zuko and Iroh are villains and they are incredibly sympathetic and relatable. Sure I wouldn't call them evil, but they ARE working for an evil nation and trying to complete unfinished genocide and kill the world's only hope for personal gain. I could see where someone would argue that they aren't the main villain because Ozai is the one responsible for all the destruction and because they eventually become good, but in a sense those same comments could be made about Darth Vader. While they aren't the greatest evil in the world or Aang's greatest enemy, they get by far the most screen time and have the more direct and personal conflict with Aang.

Even if you want to bar those two on the ground that eventually they become good guys, Azulla is still a bit sympathetic once she goes nuts. Shes still behaving in an evil way, but the fact that the realization that even her own closest friends didn't love her clearly troubled her in a very human way. I think that saying the Last Airbender had unsympathetic villains without considering those characters and looking at Ozai is silly, because Ozai essentially has no personality and was just a force of nature in the background for most of the series.

Zuko and Iroh are not villains, they are antagonists. A villain is someone the protagonists actively oppose and try to hinder/stop, an antagonist is someone who actively opposes the protagonists and tries to hinder/stop them. Most of the time the two are the same, but not necessarily.

For example, in the ATLA series, Zuko and Iroh are antagonists in Season One and even Two. They try to apprehend Aang (well, technically only Zuko wants to, but that's beside the point) but the protagonists don't try to stop them. Then they turn protagonists in Season Three.

Ozai on the other hand is a villain who tries to remake the world in his image and thus the Avatar and gang actively opposes him from Season One, by collecting information, training and collecting allies. However he is not an antagonist until the last few episodes, since he doesn't oppose the protagonists directly, only by proxy and influence.

Then there is Azula, who starts out as an antagonist that wants to take down the protagonists directly and then becomes a villain by the end of Season Three when Zuko and Katara personally have to oppose her and take her down.

I'm just telling you this because correct usage of this terminology is kind of important when we are talking about fiction.

[Edit]: Actually, villainy and protagonism-antagonism work on two separate scales, but I don't have the time to get into that in detail right now. Maybe once I'm home from work...

 

[Super Cyborg]

1. But the name of the article is "Four-Ways-The-Legend-of-Korra-Respected-Its-Younger-Viewers", and if only bad guys die than and none of the good guys die how does that teach anything, The Lion King shows a better way for children how to deal with death.

2. Considering it's a 4 season series, I can damn well ignore the 1st season as the exception, and really, Mojo Jojo is a deeper villain than every one from the 2nd season onwards.

3.The end of 3rd season had her in a wheelchair, she gets through therapy and in the 3rd episode is cured, and that's it, that's not an arc. Making me wonder why they even bothered, it's like they wanted to end the 3rd season with an impact just to retcon it away.

4. I really hate that people (expectingly) call this, we never see Korra or Asami have any interest in women, and they both seem straight and suddently in series finale they both gay/bisexual at the same time? That's 100% shit writing.

I'm not saying you can't enjoy this shit show, but this article is nearly completely made out of bullshit just to get to the final point, because apperantly Xena never happened and women power is a thing now.

And yes, I can complain about series canon, ME3 happened, and I'll never forget them for killing Aang for raising the stakes for a godzilla battle.

I agree with you overall on what you've said, but I think the main point is that these things are even presented at all, which you don't usually get in children's television. Death in shows are usually downplayed, but in this case it what shown fully the death of the people, including the suicide. I'm not 100% onboard with the villains being shown human. Most of the stuff felt hamfisted, and with season 3 and 4, the main villain tossed aside their one human aspect and lost any relatability, if they even had one. They did show them in a bit more of a positive light than villains would usually have, to a degree at least. The Depression part was done terribly, but at least they were willing to show that side. The Bisexual side as well, while not done well, is at least a start.

So yes, the stuff talked about overall could've been done much better, but I feel the article was trying to go more for the fact that it was even present. Hopefully from here we can have these things more present, and be done better. Mileage on the show seems to vary from person to person as I've seen on the forums here.

 

[LordFeast59]

I don't really care about Korra and Asami relationship, but the execution just feels weird, even with the writer's confirmation. Considering that both girls already having a relationship with Mako, which giving the feeling of bisexual relationship in the Avatar series feels hollow. If they done this early before, maybe I kinda get into it, just like Scott Pilgrim comic, but all I see is like an fan edited YouTube videos changing something in the last scene.

Mako's involvement in the whole series add up to that weird feeling on how the character doesn't do anything important rather than being Korra's boyfriend, with the addition of receiving a major role in season one. Even Bolin have more character development than Mako which is more weird. If Mako have a good role throughout the series like Sokka, maybe the relationship for Korra and Asami seems effective, because what all I really see is "Best Friend Forever" relationship in the end.

 

[Edguy]

All in all, I'd say Mako is a pretty useless character. By far the least interesting/most underwhelmingly used of the main casts (Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko and Korra, Asami, Bolin & him).

 

[Super Cyborg]

I don't really care about Korra and Asami relationship, but the execution just feels weird, even with the writer's confirmation. Considering that both girls already having a relationship with Mako, which giving the feeling of bisexual relationship in the Avatar series feels hollow. If they done this early before, maybe I kinda get into it, just like Scott Pilgrim comic, but all I see is like an fan edited YouTube videos changing something in the last scene.

Mako's involvement in the whole series add up to that weird feeling on how the character doesn't do anything important rather than being Korra's boyfriend, with the addition of receiving a major role in season one. Even Bolin have more character development than Mako which is more weird. If Mako have a good role throughout the series like Sokka, maybe the relationship for Korra and Asami seems effective, because what all I really see is "Best Friend Forever" relationship in the end.

The whole writers confirmation thing doesn't help their cause. If I recall correctly, the writer said they were one of the first Korrasami fans (or something along the lines of that). When a writer comes out and says it like that, then it reeks of unprofessionalism. If the person was like "From the beginning, I felt there was meant to be something more between Korra and Asami, and as time went on we felt it was what was meant to be" then that would've been fine. When they seem to be like "We were Korrasami before it was cool" then that just makes me cringe. That may have not been their intention, but that's how it came across to me.

Also, if you have to confirm it in actual words, then you failed as a writer. They may have been told they couldn't have done more stuff to make it completely obvious, but if there was a huge chunk of fanbase that didn't buy it, then you just did a terrible job. If most people were doing it because of shipping wars, and not because of legitimate arguments, then I retract that statement.

I do applaud them for putting it in their, but with the way it was said, it was an idea they didn't start thinking much of till season 3, which at that point made it hard to make the whole thing believable. That said, it is still much more believable than anything with Mako's relationships between the two of them.