Today, we're going to be discussing season one of The Legend of Korra.
This has been a long time coming.
I've been watching this
while also rewatching
Avatar: The Last Airbender with Korey.
This is his first watch through, my second watch through,
as well as watching through a critical role.
It's taken me a while to get through Legend of Korra.
It's not because I hated it,
it's just because I medium did
and everything else I was watching was pulling me more.
Also, I injured my neck,
so if my movements are stiff, that's why, but I'm fine.
Okay, Legend of Korra,
the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender.
It seems that the fandom is pretty split on this.
People either absolutely hate it and say,
"Don't watch it. It'll ruin the original for you,"
which is a touch dramatic,
or, "This is great.
It's just as good or even better than Avatar: The Last Airbender,"
which I don't agree with that either.
ike I said at the beginning, I medium this.
I didn't hate watching it,
but other things were always pulling my attention more than this.
There are things that I think the show did well
and things that I think that it didn't do well,
and I'm going to talk about that here.
I think I'm going to start this review off
just talking about overall hits and misses for me
and then we might go into some more specific episode details.
Overall, the things that I thought were done well.
I really enjoyed the setting.
The more technologically advanced setting
was interesting to me,
especially in relation to bending.
I like seeing the bending in relation to a different world.
I also just think that this sort of steampunky vibe
was entertaining and fun to be a part of,
regardless of what show I'm watching.
Just like in the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series,
the fight scenes were fantastic.
I really, really enjoyed
watching these benders go up against each other.
I really enjoyed it in the original Avatar.
I think that it was even brought up a notch in Korra.
These fight scenes were really well done
and very engaging to watch.
Plus, because we have more of a headstrong bullheaded
run into action, fight first, think later,
kind of main character,
we got a lot more action in this
than what we got in the original series,
especially in season one, which was cool.
Also, just like the original, the score was fantastic.
I would say I like the score in Avatar: The Last Airbender
more than I did in Korra,
but I still--
Every time music was playing
either in the background or at the end of each episode,
I always paid a little bit extra attention
and it always made me happy,
just the scores are great in the series.
Pro-fighting was really cool and it was written really well.
We didn't have a take the viewer aside
and explain to them the rules of pro-bending.
They were just in the arena and we're watching it happen.
We're experiencing it with them and learning the rules along the way,
which was cool.
The whole concept of it was neat.
Things that I didn't think this season did as well.
Admittedly, this is a longer list.
While it's great that Korra isn't just another Aang,
she is just another bullheaded rush into action
chip on her shoulder kind of main character.
I really didn't get very attached to Korra.
I didn't mind her.
I didn't dislike her,
but I also didn't think
that she brought anything new to the table
for the character that she was being.
Actually, characters in general, this is how I feel.
I don't feel like very many of these characters
at all got very many layers.
Korra was the tough rush into action, no one can tell me what to do,
I'll have a predictable moral lesson that I'll learn here and there,
but it'll have basically no consequences
on how I interact with the world the next time something comes up.
Bolin was the lovable dopey comedic relief.
Mako was the pretty boy.
He was a good brother to Bolin, but other than that,
I didn't really get much out of Mako.
Tenzin was the solemn mentor.
His kids were the annoying kids. I didn't like them.
Asami, who was actually pretty cool,
she also just fell into the love interest
that is being jilted
and has having a lot of turmoil over it.
Someone asked me recently, "Who's your favorite character in Korra?"
So far, my answer is Bolin
because he's the only character that I feel like,
"Oh, yes. I'm attached to you. I like you. I'd be sad if you die."
Everybody else I kind of just feel pretty medium about.
I haven't really attached to anybody, honestly.
I was also really, really, really disappointed
with how little this season expanded on the world and bending.
I was excited to learn more about bending.
I was excited to learn more about the world.
I feel like we just got another setting
but a dulled version of the bending.
The fight scenes were cool.
The action scenes, in general, were great,
but as far as the lore of the world,
I didn't get any more of that and I really wanted it.
When we first started
and I saw that Korra was older than Aang
and already had experience
and had already mastered three of the elements
and the only element that she's struggling with
is air,
I was really excited about that
because air is the one element in Avatar: The Last Airbender
that we didn't get to watch Aang learn.
We didn't get to learn as much about in a teaching setting.
I was so excited
that this was going to be that for us.
This was where we were going to learn
about how to learn airbending and what it takes.
We got some of it.
We did get some of it in Avatar: The Last Airbender,
but I was excited to get a lot more
because airbending is the one that,
I felt I really wanted to watch and learn.
I was excited to watch Korra and learn it,
but instead, we get a couple of small training scenes
that didn't show us much
other than evasion and agility is good.
For the most part, we barely watched Korra train at all in airbending.
Then when she finally does learn it,
it's this, "Oh, no. What are we going to do now?
We're probably going to die here.
Oh, wait,
Korra suddenly knows airbending, blasts of wind.
We win."
Not only is that unsatisfyingly convenient
but also I'm so frustrated that I didn't get to watch her learn.
I feel I've gained nothing in the lore
through this first season,
which was frustrating
because that was one of the things I was the most excited about.
Another thing that did not go so well,
love triangles.
Wow. If you don't like them,
this is not going to make you happy
because we had three.
We had Korra in the middle of two brothers,
Bolin and Mako,
then we had Mako in the middle of Korra and Asami.
Then because why not,
we had an old love triangle that was rehashed
between Tenzin, what was her name? Toph's daughter and Tenzin's wife.
This is an old love triangle that's gone and done with,
but let's rehash it
because maybe we don't have enough love triangles in this series,
in this in the season?
We do. We have enough.
There were some really cool elements in this season.
I loved that chi blocking was back.
That was great
because I love Ty Lee in the original series
and having Ty Lee back in this small way
and seeing how it's such a big part of the world now
was fantastic.
Also, we know that in the original,
Aang is able to take away someone's bending,
but we didn't know how and we didn't know why.
Now, we have those answers which was awesome to get.
I guess I have to renege a little bit.
We did get a little bit more lore
and a little bit of expansion on bending
through bloodbending and taking away bending.
I loved that it played such a huge role in this series
and that it all circled back.
I found that really, really satisfying.
I liked the element of taking away people's bending
but when it circled back
to something that we learned about in the original,
I found that so satisfying.
There were some really predictable elements in the show
like when Korra challenged Amon and then it was a setup.
Shocker,
Asami's father was a bad guy the whole time.
Shocker, a lot of the betrayals,
a lot of the moments of, "Oh, no. This was a trap,"
these were all obvious.
One thing that I will say is Asami,
I expected her to turn bad in season one
and I hope she doesn't turn bad
because it would be a really predictable direction.
I was surprised she didn't do it in season one already,
but you can see that she has a lot of turmoil,
a lot of frustration and grief over the triangle that she's in.
You can see that it's really grating on her
which, by the way, Mako handled that terribly,
but love triangles have to be handled terribly,
otherwise, we're talking about
healthy relationships and not a triangle.
Anyway, you can see how much it really bothers Asami
that her boyfriend cheated on her
and he is also still in love
with the girl that he cheated on her with,
but he won't admit it
and he's just trying to get with Korra
while also dating Asami.
It doesn't matter. I expected her to turn dark.
I expected her to be so upset over her current triangle
that she just gets mad.
You know the arc.
I've been jilted now, I'm evil. I expected that to happen to Asami.
I still think it could happen in the next season.
I really hope it doesn't because it's a pretty shallow arc.
I was happy that I was wrong about that one.
We got to see Toph's daughter,
which is a little bit weird to think about.
I like seeing so many people make an appearance in Korra.
Katara's at the very beginning.
We know that Aang has already passed away,
but we do actually get to see a little bit of him as an adult
which was great.
Mostly just made me sad
that this sequel series isn't following Aang as an adult
and all of our favorites as adults.
We got to see a brief glimpse of Sokka on a council,
but we still don't really know what happened with him,
which I'm fine with
because I'm currently reading the graphic novels.
I will say this,
the graphic novels are set between the original avatar and Korra
and I feel like I'm getting a lot more out of Korra
having read the little bit that I have of the graphic novels
than I would have if I didn't read them at all.
I'm excited to keep reading them
and keep feeling like I'm getting more substance out of Korra
because so many things have been answered
I really recommend the graphic novels.
Anyway, we also see Toph's daughter, Aang's son--
Actually, both of his sons
because we see Bumi
who seems to be exactly like Bumi
because he's his namesake.
We see Zuko's,
I think great grandson who's named General Iroh
and voiced by the voice actor
who voiced Zuko in the original series
which was great.
I instantly was attached to that character
just because of the voice actor.
I don't even know if that character was well done.
I can't tell because I'm too blinded
by the joy that I have that that voice is back.
I really love that Lin
is still speaking in the same language
that Toph has spoken with earthbending
when Lin would feel the earth
to see if there were tunnels underneath them
or if there were people hidden in cells somewhere.
She would say, "I can't see it."
Even though she's not blind like her mom was,
she's still using that language.
That was a great throwback.
Again, I want to take a second
to mention how cool it is,
that bloodbending is what takes away people's powers.
I think it fits. I think it works really well
and again, it's a great homage to Avatar the original.
I did think that the story that we got
of how bloodbending ended up being a factor in this world
and how Amon knew how to take away people's powers,
I thought that that whole story was convoluted.
Even though that whole story was quite the journey to get through
to see how this person is actually this person
and that person is related to that guy.
Then this is also a different person than we think that--
It was a maze to get through,
but whatever.
We learned that bloodbending is the thing which I think is great.
Now, I will say that the final two episodes of this season
overall I did enjoy.
I felt like we tied up some loose ends.
There was a lot of interesting action.
Overall, it was a nice last two episodes,
but did leave a sour taste in my mouth
because after all the consequences
that we've experienced in this season,
we renege them and we do them
in a pretty unsatisfying way, in my opinion.
Korra has lost her bending
for the three elements that she mastered before air.
Now, Korra is an airbender, end of story.
This is sad these are consequences.
I knew that Korra was going to be able to regain her other bending
because she's the Avatar and there's three seasons left.
I knew it was coming.
I was hopeful
that what we were going to get out of the next seasons
is her relearning the elements.
I know we watched it happen in the original,
but there's still so much to learn about the lore of this world
and about the mythos of the bending.
Plus, that would be a really humbling act for Korra
and having to relearn all these elements
would really take her down a notch, make her less cocky,
hopefully, make her a little bit less headstrong
and potentially make her a little bit more relatable.
Instead, suddenly she's connected with her spiritual self
because she's in her darkest moment.
We don't even get to hang out with any of the previous Avatars.
We just see them for a second
and then Korra goes into Avatar State and suddenly she can bend again.
We got what?
10 seconds of her being only an airbender
before she's back and better than ever.
It was just like boom,
just kidding, she's fine, everything's fine.
Then along with that
now suddenly she can return people's bending.
She can give them back their bending that has been taken away from them,
which is a cool element to the world.
I like this edition, except it's once again
just like because we want it, because it'll further the plot,
because reasons.
We got the reasoning
for why Aang was able to take away bending
and why Amon was able to take away bending
in this whole first season.
It was bloodbending.
Why can Korra give it back? Is this also bloodbending?
That would be the assumption, but we don't know.
It's just there. It just exists.
We don't get any kind of explanation for it,
we don't get to see her learn it,
she just suddenly knows because the plot wants her to.
That was really frustrating.
I actually feel like the pacing of Korra season one
is much better than the pacing of Avatar season one.
Avatar season one is at a breakneck pace.
I had hopes, "Oh, now we can learn the other bending,
have better pacing in Korra than we did in the last airbender."
We can learn more about the lore of this world,
but instead
this is even more rushed than season one
Avatar finale.
Instead, all the consequences of the entirety of season one
are abruptly and suddenly undone.
Korra didn't lose any of her bending.
She's totally fine and super duper powerful
and connected to the spiritual realm
and can airbend and everything just happened.
Also, now she can heal that people lost their bending
so all of their consequences are gone too.
The world is fine, all of season one is nothing.
I think that the things that happened in theory were cool,
but they were so abrupt and rushed
that they ended up just really disappointing me.
My feelings about Korra season one,
I don't think I'm on the extreme side.
I don't think that Korra ruined Avatar for me.
I don't think that Korra
is the worst thing that's ever been done.
I don't think that season one is anywhere near as good
as The Last Airbender.
To be fair,
when I finished Avatar: The Last Airbender season one
for the first time, I felt good about it,
but I also felt like I don't need to start season two right away.
I did start it right away
because you guys were so excited to hear my thoughts.
Then season tow won me over
and made it the best show I've ever watched.
I didn't even need season three to declare it as my new favorite show.
Korra, my opinions are a little bit reserved
because I know that I have three more seasons to watch
and it could only keep stepping up just like Avatar did.
I didn't hate it.
I actually think it did some things really, really well
and there were parts that I really enjoyed.
I didn't love it.
Going off of the five star rating,
I would put it at a 2.5 stars for season one,
which isn't a horrible rating.
Three stars is middle-of-the-road fine.
I felt like Korra was a step below that.
It was a bit of a disappointment
mostly because it's the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I think that if Korra were standing on its own,
if it were completely separate series,
it would be closer to a 3.5,
but specifically because it's the sequel to Avatar,
it feels like it's lost all of the Avatar magic,
all of the Avatar feeling.
It makes it more of a disappointment and less of average,
but pretty good not too bad.
That's how I would rate it.
I know that people are pretty all over the place
with how they rate this.
I would love to keep chatting with you guys about it
in the comments.
What are some scenes and some elements
that I didn't talk about in this review
that you want to keep chatting about? What are your thoughts on Korra?
I post videos every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
I'll see you guys again soon.
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