Jester McGree. What's the Tomatometer? Follow Us. Hear Us Out. Critics Consensus: The Legend of Korra expands the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender with narrative substance and crisp animation -- and progresses the drama and action with a female lead.
Starring: Janet Varney , J. Simmons , Mindy Sterling , Steve Blum. Related News. More Related News. More Hear Us Out. All rights reserved. Korra didn't just appear after years to find a world desperate to get help from the Avatar.
Instead, she is arrested by the cops in Republic City after capturing some thugs, because she acted without authority. When she tries to defend herself, Korra is told she should have just stood aside and left the police do their job instead. You see, in its exploration of industrialization and modernization, The Legend of Korra presents a world that is growing increasingly apart from its spiritual roots, and apart from the Avatar.
The show has a bigger focus on police, politicians, and due process being used to resolve things that were previously left to the wisdom of the Avatar. Indeed, the world has become a less spiritually balanced place, bending has stopped being an art form deeply rooted in culture and tradition, and is now used for menial tasks and even professional sport. In a world that doesn't care about spiritual balance, what becomes of the Avatar's job?
Things get even more complicated when The Legend of Korra throws politics in the mix. Not only does Korra get animosity from the authorities in Republic City, a place founded by Avatar Aang, but she is constantly talked down by those in power.
When Season 2 does away with Republic City's leading council and elects its first president, he refuses to intervene in the Water Tribe Civil War despite Korra's urging, because he won't interfere in internal conflicts. Later that same season, he reasserts Republic City's neutrality by refusing to mobilize his troops against Unalaq — even after hearing of Unalaq's plans to free a giant evil spirit that can destroy the world. The introduction of world politics in The Legend of Korra brings with it a ton of roadblocks for Korra herself, and it explores the idea that maybe the Avatar is no longer needed when diplomacy can solve things peacefully.
Korra constantly finds herself unable to act because the Nations' leaders don't recognize her authority, and she's even banned from Republic City and Ba Sing Se because of this. The final nail in the coffin comes when Korra brings back the Air Nation, and Tenzin vows to use the new airbenders to follow in Korra's footsteps, travel the world, and offer aid to those in help — effectively taking over the Avatar's job.
Even though Korra eventually realizes that she is needed, and helps bring an end to a powerful dictatorship, the final season has Korra confront the idea that the world will never be fully in balance, and that perhaps her job is simply to guide others to bring it back to balance instead of doing so herself.
The Legend of Korra may not have the same epic hero's journey as its predecessor, and Korra herself may not fit a standard definition of a cartoon hero. But there is no denying that Korra made some incredible changes to the world, saved thousands of people, and more importantly, used her failures to learn to become a wise Avatar.
He specializes in writing about horror and animation, and yearns for the day a good animated horror project comes along so he can combine the two. Does Zaheer play differently now than he did then? Konietzko: The feedback I have consistently heard from fans is that Zaheer really messes with their heads because the things he does are so awful, yet they feel he makes some really good points.
I think a big part of our creative point of view is to explore the gray areas in everything, especially with our villains. We try to look at all of our characters as people first, then as heroes or villains second — or perhaps more accurately, protagonists and antagonists. It is far more dynamic and realistic if that character believes they are on the right side. Korra suffers a great deal of trauma across the series. What kind of conversations were you having on the writing and production side to be authentic about that?
I remember reading about PTSD and people who had experienced traumatic events and what that recovery was like. So much of the show is about not solving every problem with a punch, but you still get to have a giant robot attack in the Book 4 finale. Did you envision that finale set piece from the beginning and work backward to Kuvira or did something about Kuvira give you the clear to go that big?
In a lot of cases, once we figure out an antagonist then that character tells us where the story needs to go. About midway through production on the series we knew we wanted to have a military dictator as our final villain, so we started aiming towards that, laying the foundation for Kuvira in Book 3.
It helped show how much Korra had grown as an Avatar. But even if Aang and Korra chose a more peaceful path towards conflict resolution, they still had massive conflicts to resolve, which makes for exciting finales. The emotion behind a fight will always be the thing that resonates the most, so we try to focus on that. Was that the case, and if so, did anything from that early development become part of Korra?
Konietzko: There was never going to be a season 4, not from us and not from Nickelodeon. Mike and I planned ATLA to be a three-season arc as far back as our initial pitch in , and in we finished the story we set out to tell. DiMartino: We finished the show exactly as we had intended. And at that point we worked with writer Gene Luen Yang to expand the story beyond the animated series. Do you still have questions about the world and history of the Avatar world? Konietzko: Absolutely.
Even after 18 years, I still find the Avatarverse to be a wellspring of creativity and storytelling. Mike and I built this fantasy world out of things we love, and we simply set out to make shows that we would want to watch ourselves.
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