Legend of Korra, promised something a little different, offering us an older protagonist and a more mature, slightly hard-boiled departure from ATLA. Picking up some 70 years after the original, TLoK takes centre stage in the industrial metropolis of Republic City. Korra, the newest incarnation of the Avatar, is a bending prodigy, already mastering the elements of Fire, Earth & Water. Having failed to master Air, she moves to the big city to live with Tenzin – Airbender and son of Aang, Korra's predecessor. However, the sense of humour and charm that engendered ATLA tails off by the time of TLoK. There wasn't something quite right about the show, which is why I tuned out for awhile after the five episodes. While it be might slightly unfair to judge TLoK by ATLA's standards, it still fails to make its own mark and I'll explain why.
Firstly, there's some serious red flags in the character department. Let's start with the eponymous Korra, and I’m just going to come right out and say it: Korra is a Mary Sue. She’s a plucky, innately gifted, strong-willed heroine who despite some incidental character flaws is never once forced to suffer the consequences of them. People love her, people idolize her, she drives a wedge between brethren and she steals boyfriends from their girlfriends, simply by virtue of being her irresistible self. Quite a contrast, then, to her predecessor. Aang was a goofy kid, sometimes overly sensitive and immature, at other times possessing wisdom beyond his years. We felt for him as he faced the challenges of the outside world and struggled to trust in his own abilities. I never felt remotely connected to Korra or the rest of the cast for that matter.
We have Bolin, who at first seems like he might have something about him, but like many aspects of the plot got shoved aside to allow the obnoxious love-triangle to come to the fore. He's quickly sidelined as a poor man's Sokka, occasionally pulled in when the scene requires some awkward humour to kill the tension, and little else. And that's one of the biggest problems with TLoK: the love triangle. There's far too much focus on this lacklustre “romance”. I get it, TLoK's predominantly a story between teenagers, and naturally teens are going to get wrapped in relationships despite the dire circumstances they find themselves in. However, it was badly handled and I might as well have been watching Dawson's Creek for my sins. Particularly egregious is the fact Korra & Mako have absolutely no chemistry together. In the end this romance comes down to Korra falling for a selfish dick who puts his own needs before everyone else. Hey... maybe this show is more realistic than I give it credit for!
At least they got the main villain right... right? WRONG. Despite its shortcomings, I was quietly confident that the handling of Amon would turn out to be one of TLoK's redeeming qualities. Here we have a radical extremist who puts the civil unrest between benders and non-benders into egalitarian use to bring down the walls of society. Kind of like V from
V for Vendetta meets William Stryker from
X-Men. His mere presence alone was enough to steal every scene he was in, managing to evoke fear and hostility in equal measure. He had the potential to be a truly epochal villain, if they had stuck with his original portrayal as the horribly disfigured victim of a Firebender who developed a deep and abiding hatred for all Benders. Instead they wasted his potential, because it transpires he was just some embittered Water Bender in disguise with daddy issues, which as a result confuses his motivation and completely undermines the thematic integrity of this entire conflict. Talk about a bait and switch.
Which brings us to the ending. In the midst of her fight with Amon, Korra has her bending stripped away, only for Amon not reckoning that she'd unlock her Air bending powers. After Amon has been defeated and peace restored, Korra is now faced with the fallout of losing her gifts. I assumed that considering the cyclical nature of the series, this would be the springboard for Korra's next journey as she's forced to travel the world and relearn the three elements, as Aang did before her. That was soon dashed when her predicament was solved courtesy of some Avatar ex Machina. Aang and the other Avatars appear before her and not only restore Korra's original powers but give her the ability to cure the other depowered benders as well. The Lion Turtle was a whole lot of plot convenience but this is something else entirely.
Given the prevailing opinion holds that the show goes downhill after season 1, I'm not in any rush to watch more.
On a more positive note, Lin Beifong quickly became my favourite character in the show once she ditched her stuck-up attitude. But then what else would you expect from the daughter of the great Toph?
Iroh + Zuko, that scene almost had me in tears, gawd. Zuko's journey in itself was just really intelligent and wonderful and I love his treason at the end of season 2. I really like how Katara threatened him too - she's there to protect Aang, not to be buddies. Toph had the best action scenes of everyone all throughout the show - her final one was completely win. Generally all of the characters were just really believable and well written. Also I love Appa and when he was gone I was all tensed up because it was like IF YOU HURT APPA -----------
