Things I Love About Legend of Korra script

Intro:

I’ve been quite… harsh to Legend of Korra. Again, I love the show, and it’s because of that I’m honest about how I feel towards its writing. And so today, I’m gonna be a bit kinder and talk about things I genuinely love about the show. I may have some grievances here and there, but we’re gonna be focusing on things I enjoy as-is.

Korra’s Arc:

Korra is often criticized for being a very rash, hotheaded character. Perceived as arrogant, and more focused on punching things before asking questions, to which I say… congratulations, you saw the point. I can understand not vibing with a character, but I feel Korra doesn’t get enough appreciation for just how much she grows over the course of the series, and even how she shows glimmers of kindness and compassion that go unnoticed or unremarked.

I’ve often seen Korra described as the epitome of the gifted-student-to-depressed-adult pipeline, and that is entirely correct. She excelled in the physical side of her Avatar training, and because of how sheltered she was from the world by the White Lotus, she really wasn’t prepared for the complex issues and general awfulness of the real world outside the compound. All she wants is to be a great Avatar, and through the course of the whole show she’s resented for being the Avatar and made painfully aware she can’t solve problems just by firebending them to death.

Unfortunately, there are issues with this in the first couple of seasons, but those are largely rooted in the show’s neoliberal tendencies of defending the status quo and villainizing any kind of radical change, and also lack of understanding of systemic issues. Like, no Korra, just because Amon is a bender doesn’t mean the whole Equalist movement is wrong about nonbenders being disadvantaged and discriminated against. It’s giving, “Your revolutionary leader was a bad person, so therefore your entire movements principles are invalid.” Which no.

That said, I do love Korra’s personal journey of becoming more thoughtful and compassionate. Especially by Book 3, she uses her hotheaded, go-getter energy to advance whatever goals she’s working towards, rather than just punch people because they annoyed her. And while I don’t think I’m fully qualified to judge how Korra’s trauma was handled, I still appreciate her journey of overcoming it in Book 4.

Tenzin (Aang being a bad dad):

Now as I mentioned in my video about why Korra’s Team Avatar is underwhelming, the show has a tendency to focus on the children of the old cast more than Korra and her friends, and that especially goes for Tenzin, son of Avatar Aang. And ya know what? I get it. It’s a very compelling concept for a character: the child of the previous protagonist who isn’t the main character, and is dealing with a lot of feelings of inferiority as they try to live up to their parent’s legacy. You can tell they put a lot of work into Tenzin’s character, cuz honestly, he and Korra were the best things to come outta this damn show.

Though he’s Korra’s airbending teacher and mentor, he’s still allowed to be a flawed, three-dimensional character. Tenzin is quite a stubborn, at times arrogant character, and through mentoring Korra through the series, he learns to meet people where they are in order to help them rather than condescend to them. It’s most present in Books 1 and 3, with Book 3 focused on Tenzin accepting the fact that even though there are new airbenders, the old Air Nation his father was part of is gone. This new Air Nation will be inspired by its legacy, but it will be something new entirely.

Also, I just have to appreciate the fact that even though western animated shows, especially back when Korra was first coming out, were automatically expected to be for kids and kids only, both it and Avatar were accessible to all audiences. Korra focused on letting itself be a bit more mature for the aged-up audience of the original series. And with that came important protagonists who were not only young adults, but actual middle-aged adults, and parents, and ones who had complex stories about more than just being parents.

And on top of that… I’m kinda glad Aang was a bad dad. Well, he wasn’t bad per say. The thing is, no parent is perfect, even the best ones. That just comes with the fact every person is a flawed, messy, imperfect person who will inevitably fuck up. And good lord, parenting is not for everyone. Just because you loved Aang as a character doesn’t mean he’d be a perfect parent. Actually, can we stop with this idea that all your favs will have kids to make a “next generation” or protagonists? And also, stop making them all have kids at the same exact time, cuz the amount of coordination that would require is frightening and a little culty.

So no, not everyone wants kids. And even if they do, they’re not gonna be perfect parents. Look at Aang for example. We never actually know whether he envisioned himself one day having kids of his own accord, and on top of that, parenting in the conventional sense wasn’t really a thing in Air Nomad culture, so he didn’t even really have a concept to go off of. Add that to the fact he really had no choice in whether he even wanted to have kids, given airbending and Air Nomad culture would die with him if he didn’t, and you get a recipe for a very anxious dad who has no clue what he’s doing, and likely views the whole process as a means to an end.

That’s not to say Aang’s a bad person, not at all. But think of it this way. You’re the last of your people, and if you don’t have kids, your culture and its legacy will die with you. So you don’t even really have a choice in whether you want kids. So you do, but your first isn’t an airbender. You’re a bit sad, but you tell yourself it’ll be okay. Your next kid will probably be an airbender… and then it’s a waterbender. At this point, you’re panicking. You’re spiraling. You’re thinking you only have so many chances at getting this right, because believe it or not, even the process of trying to have a kid is a struggle for many, many people.

But then finally… you have an airbender. Your youngest. You’re over the moon. You finally have someone who can carry on and preserve your culture, and keep it alive long after you’re gone… oh, and they don’t have a choice about whether they wanna be a parent either. Most of them won’t. Parenthood is an obligation to these people because the alternative is the death of their culture. In that sense, it’s kind of a miracle Aang didn’t have a mental breakdown.

It’s a lot more complicated than “Boo, they made Aang a bad dad.” And I really appreciate that they let it be as messy as they did. I wish they did more exploration of whether Aang wanted kids, or his whole view of the process, because admittedly, a lot of this is my own interpretation. Still, I’m glad they let Aang be a bad dad, so to say.

And that kinda goes back to Tenzin, too. He’s a very flawed, deeply interesting character who himself struggles with carrying on his father’s legacy, the culture of their people, mentoring the Avatar, and being there for his wife and kids. I like him. He’s great.

The Beifong Family (also Zaofu):

Much like Tenzin, the writers were very interested in Lin, and eventually the rest of the Beifong family. And thank God for that, because I am desperate, famished, and dreaming of a Keeping Up with the Beifongs spin-off.

We’ll start with Lin in the… well, first season, cuz she has fuck all to do in Book 2. I actually love the fact we have such a pivotal female character who’s not only middle-aged, but also focused on her career, and doesn’t have a husband or kids. Women specifically are pressured to get married and have kids young, and considered failures or even selfish if they decide they don’t want marriage, or worse, if they decide to be child free.

So to have Lin be portrayed as a badass whose main issue isn’t that she’s single or childless, but rather that she’s too focused on handling things herself and shunning other people who want to help her, is a breath of fresh air. She’s never belittled by other characters, nor does the narrative make her yearn for a horse and carriage. Family is important to her, but that comes in the form of her sister, nephews, and nieces. You can still care about family and kids without having a marriage or kids of your own.

And on the note of the Beifongs, I absolutely love the conflict between Lin and Suyin. Again, your favs will not be perfect parents, and to be quite frank, I don’t think Toph really wanted to be a mom. In my diseased headcanon, her kids were accidents from her flings. Which, you go Toph, you play the field and then live your best single mom life. I’m not shocked she wasn’t very emotionally present for her kids, not only because of her job, but because Toph has never been a very sentimental, touchy-feely person to begin with.

And the fact they tied it into the way the pendulum swings between generations? How because Toph’s parents were so strict with her, Toph gave her daughters too much freedom, and in turn that led to Suyin being too sheltering of her own kids? Chef’s kiss, absolutely love me some generational trauma and conflicting parenting styles. And seeing how Suyin genuinely has changed as a person since she hurt Lin, but how holding onto that anger for 30 years was taking a physical toll on Lin while also leading to her loneliness? Nuance! Moral grayness! Messiness! This is everything.

For real, the Beifongs need their own show. I’d watch the shit out of it. Suyin’s kids are also pretty neat. Wing and Wei are absolutely gay sports icons, Huan is a moody art gay and I love how edgy he is, Bataar Jr. can eat dirt and die, and OPAL IS MY BABY GIRL. She is so sweet, and so cute, and I love the fact that her soft, pacifistic, mediator personality subtly explains why she became an airbender without having to bash you over the head with it. I especially love how she got Bolin to realize being himself was probably a good way to get a girlfriend, and then grew a backbone and told him off in Book 4 when he… ya know, became a fascist. That requires unpacking for another time, but I love Opal. I love her. I want good things for her.

Oh, and back to Toph for a second, I also love the fact that Book 4 lets her clear the air with her kids, specifically Lin. Lin’s allowed to be upset with Toph’s parenting now that she’s settled her issues with Su, and Toph responds… about how you’d expect, just letting her kid hate her. But ultimately, they work it out, and they start working towards a better relationship where they’re at least civil with each other. Again, very much a fan of the messy family conflicts.

Even Zaofu as a setting I adore. I’ll probably go into its technical aspects a bit more later when I talk about bending advancements, but I love the fact that because Suyin herself had to realize she was ruining her life and turn things around, it means the city she’s built is all about rehabilitation. Anyone can come here and start over to become their best selves. I do hate that Varrick, a.k.a. The embodiment of the way we all thought billionaires were cool in the 2010s before realizing they’re fucking egotistical vampires, took advantage of that, but ya know what, he did betray Zaofu to help Kuvira in her conquest in Book 4. So… I guess they accidentally confirmed billionaires suck.

But my point is the Beifongs are great, I love them. And speaking of Toph…

Toph as Korra’s Mentor:

Toph is an icon, full stop. Generally, I actually like most of the cameos of the old Gaang in Legend of Korra. I love Katara as a mentor and emotional guide for Korra, even though she has far too little to say about Unalaq and the Northern occupation in Book 2. Loved Zuko being in Book 3, even though he had almost nothing really to do aside from give Korra a bit of advice, and also break his hips in fights he is far too old for. And oh my God, I LOVE Toph in Book 4.

I really appreciate the buildup to where Toph currently is starting in Book 3, with her having left to travel the world in search of enlightenment. Really makes you go, “Wait, where is she?” And that gets paid off when Korra meets her in the swamp. This setting makes perfect sense for her, as not only does it let her, as a reclusive elderly, stay far away from annoying people, but it also ties into her ability to see through the earth. Her using that “foot vision,” so to speak, and connecting it to the way the Banyan Grove Tree connects to the rest of the world, is excellent. It ties thematically into this idea that everything is connected. It’s probably the closest in this series that bending really gets to having philosophical implications like the original series.

Not to mention, she’s the perfect mentor for Korra. They’re so much alike: stubborn, hotheaded, ready to crack some skulls. But the key differences are the fact that Toph has always listened before striking, whereas Korra has had to learn not to jump in headfirst without a plan, as well as the fact that Korra tends to be hyperfocused on how others view her as the Avatar, whereas Toph couldn’t give less of a fuck about what people think of her.

She’s the perfect choice for Korra’s mentor, especially at this point of the story where Korra is a lot more hesitant, having lost that fire she possessed in the previous seasons. Toph cuts through the bullshit. She tells it how it is, her blunt, no-nonsense attitude forcing Korra to reevaluate how her experiences have affected her, and how no one can help her except herself. No external force is going to heal her emotional state.

And moreover, disconnecting herself from her loved ones is keeping her stuck in this rut. She can’t be afraid of letting people down because she doesn’t live up to their lofty ideas of how the Avatar should be strong or invincible. She has to show up as she is, because her loved ones just care about her as a person, and that’s enough to help inspire her to deal with her shit and become stronger.

That all said… I do wish Toph got to slaughter Kuvira. Yes, Toph dragging the metalbending Sozin was everything, but I crave the blood of fascists.

Korra’s Parents:

As mentioned earlier, it’s rare for parents in this kind of media to be fully fleshed out, sympathetic characters we root for. And on top of that, parents are usually written to be quite lame, embarrassing to their kids, and unable to embrace the new insights of the younger generation. That is still kinda true with Tonraq needing to let Korra embrace the spirits and their world more in Book 2, but he’s still an endearing character whose relationship to Korra is pivotal.

A lot of Book 2 is focused on Korra’s family drama, namely with Unalaq trying to manipulate her into freeing Vaatu and allowing him to occupy the Southern Water Tribe, and Tonraq being very wary of his intentions. Tonraq does admit his faults in places. For instance, the fact he destroyed a forest leading to a spirit attack on the Northern Water Tribe, thus leading to his banishment, all of which he’d hidden from Korra until Unalaq forced him to tell her. Though Unalaq orchestrated the event, Tonraq still made a genuine mistake that showed his disrespect for the natural world and spirits, and he owns that.

There’s also the tension with Tonraq assisting the Southern resistance to the Northern occupation. Korra wants the Water Tribes to be united, at the behest of her uncle’s guidance, not realizing there was probably a reason the Southerners left to begin with. Fun fact: the Northern Water Tribe is the original, with those who didn’t like their strict customs and conventions leaving to establish the Southern Water Tribe. Moving to the literal polar opposite side of your world to make a statement. The Southern Water Tribe is petty, and I’m here for it.

I do wish we got to see more of the differing customs between the tribes coming into conflict. For instance, the North refusing to let women learn waterbending for anything other than healing. Perhaps the North wants to enforce that during their occupation, and Korra is even viewed as a “Southern brute” because she’s a female waterbender who’s quite aggressive. There’s a lot of material to work with here that could’ve added to the conflict between Korra and her parents.

But that said, I love the fact Korra apologizes to her father for thinking he’d go as far as to kill his own brother, and I love that though Tonraq is against the North, he’s honest that he could never harm his own brother. Is it a bit too Belladonna method, ask nicely for your rights? Kinda, yeah, but I can understand why Tonraq would be a bit of a softy here when it’s so close to home. I just adore the relationship between Korra and Tonraq. It’s so cute, yet so messy, and I really love seeing how they learn from each other, and how much they love each other.

And also, the fight with Korra and Tonraq facing off against Zaheer? A father-daughter team up in a fight? When do you EVER see that in media? It’s one of the best fights, it’s exhilarating to see, and it makes me emotional as fuck seeing Tonraq so vicious while protecting his little girl, who herself is quite a badass even when she’s restrained. God bless this show.

Do wish he got more to do in Book 4, but… what can ya do? And Senna is… there? She doesn’t really get much to do, which I’m sad about. Apparently she’s a waterbender, even though she’s never shown bending onscreen, so… no. In my heart, she is a nonbender, and maybe she can teach Korra to respect nonbenders to inform some of her empathy towards the Equalists in Book 1. I don’t know. I do love her scene with Korra out on the balcony in Book 4, when Senna expresses her concern for Korra’s wellbeing and begs her to go see Katara. That breaks me every time.

Tarrlok:

Tarrlok is trash, but that’s what makes him a great villain. He’s a sleazy, crooked politician who manipulates people to get them on his good side to work for him, while also stoking fear in his fellow politicians, and the populace, in order to accrue power. Gurl, if that ain’t accurate to the political landscape of the 2020s, I don’t know what is.

He tries to warm up to Korra at first, flattering her and giving her gifts to try and get her to join his task force, ultimately deciding to lure her into a trap where he could use the press to pressure her into doing what he wants. The way Tarrlok is so excellent at pulling people’s strings to achieve his goals, it really shouldn’t be surprising he’s one of the most ruthless bloodbenders we’ve seen.

His reactionary, anti-Equalist, anti-nonbending politics aren’t really sincere, but that doesn’t matter. He’s still causing very real, tangible harm to the people of Republic City, and all in the name of his own ego and status. There’s even some readings of him as a fascist given how much he relies on the us versus them strategy, continually expanding who “the enemy” even is so as to go after anyone who opposes his totalitarian agenda.

As much as I’m still unsure how to feel about the Equalists as antagonists, I at least appreciate the fact they gave lip service to the fact they kinda had a point about nonbenders being unequal in Republic City. Specifically under Tarrlok, it’s chilling to see depictions of police violence against ordinary people who just want to be treated fairly, and to live their lives in peace. He’s a smarmy, terrible excuse for a human being, who is in fact a walking trash bag, but again, that’s why he’s such a great villain.

Yes, he has a tragic backstory, but it doesn’t excuse the monster he became. He’s not sympathetic at all. If anything, he’s quite pitiable in the fact that his father’s shadow warped him into such a conniving, weasley bastard in the end. And personally, I would like to thank Amon for taking Tarrlok’s bending. In this case, bending is absolutely a privilege, and Tarrlok is the last man who should ever have bloodbending.

The Red Lotus:

The Red Lotus have more chemistry than Korra’s Team Avatar, and that’s the tea. But really, there’s a reason why they’re the fan-favorite villains, and I think there’s multiple reasons for that. Firstly, they’re walking spectacles. They each embody elemental excellence, and yes, that assonance amplifies that.

Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P’Li are honestly lacking in characterization. We don’t know how they learned to be so proficient in their abilities, nor why they joined the Red Lotus, but their banter with each other is excellent, making them come across as lifelong friends who genuinely care about each other. They don’t even get very much to do after their prison breaks, and yet they still somehow manage to be the highlights of episodes.

And on top of that, they make for the best fights in the entire show. They’re really an Anti-Team Avatar, bringing all the elements together for their own purposes to make them a force to be reckoned with. We’ll talk a bit more about the specifics of their bending skills later, but I do love the fact they cover each other’s weaknesses. It’s only by dividing them that the protagonists even have a chance of defeating them.

Zaheer is probably most people’s favorite villain, aside from Amon, and it’s not hard to see why. Aesthetically, it’s cool having an airbending villain, but they use the philosophy component to explain why he’s an antagonist. Air as an element about freedom explains why he’s so gung-ho about tearing down any and all states, arguably to the point he shuns the communal aspect of Air Nomad culture entirely. Zaheer’s form of anarchism always gave me a very strong survival-of-the-fittest, libertarian attitude, rather than a more progressive, communally oriented anarchism.

And in that, I guess it’s kinda okay that the Red Lotus’ philosophy is so very basic. It’s very much, “Baby’s first anarchism,” or rather, what most people think of when they hear about anarchy. Not the abolition of unjust, overly authoritarian states, but more this very Mad-Max approach that echoes a western take on what would happen if all governments collapsed. Not the idea of people forming communities to protect each other because we’re social creatures, but that it’ll be every man and his immediate circle for himself.

At the very least, the Red Lotus genuinely believes in their cause, which is more than we can say for the other villains. Yes, Tarrlok gives a qualifier that Amon probably does view bending as the source of all evil, but again, the way they have him being secretly a bender invalidate the entire Equalist movement is just… not how any revolutionary or liberation movement works. Unalaq is a very boring, mustache-twirling caricature who’s working with Satan Kite, so it’s impossible to take any cause he prattles on about seriously. And Kuvira… well, she’s earthbending Hitler. Fascists don’t have a point, they don’t want a better world, and they don’t deserve sympathy,

There’s no lie about Zaheer’s motivation revealing some ulterior motive. There’s no “Liar revealed,” causing the Red Lotus to disavow anarchism. And they do genuinely believe that a world without nations, and a world without the Avatar to uphold those nations, would be a better, freer place for everyone. And thank God for that.

Oh, also we’ll talk about the music a bit more later, but the Red Lotus theme has lived rent-free in my head since I first heard it. It is the benchmark for villain themes, period.

The Advancements of Bending:

Now when we talk about advancement and modernity, we kinda have to interrogate the fact we take the very concept of modernity for granted. The idea of what makes a society advanced or modern itself, in our world, comes from a colonialist attitude of how European countries saw themselves as superior to the rest of the world. Similarly, Sozin viewed the Fire Nation as technologically superior and in a time of great prosperity, which in his mind, justified his conquest of the rest of the world. To eradicate “inferior cultures” and devastate the natural world in pursuit of their own grandiose view of their nation and its reach.

And so, that also means the concept of modernity in Legend of Korra has also been taken for granted, both in-universe as well as by the writers themselves. That’s not necessarily their fault. It’s just drilled into all of our heads, especially in the U.S., that history is linear, and we are at the pinnacle of advancement. That goes for the rise of industrialization in the Avatar world, the transformation of colonial imperialism into modern capitalism to preserve narrow power structures, why Asami is cool for being a girlboss C.E.O. and Varrick should be stanned because he’s Elon Musk before he showed his X-obsessed ass, and why we’re so focused on preserving the status quo with only gradual, not-too-radical change.

I mention all of this because it really ties into how bending has lost a lot of its cultural and philosophical components in Legend of Korra. Much like the spirits lost their amorality and otherworldliness, bending no longer serves as a connection between people, nor as a way for them to understand themselves. It’s pretty much just for spectacle, both in cool fights, and in specific, more technical parts of the worldbuilding.

Let’s look at some examples of how bending worked in the original series. Iroh often commented on the differing philosophies of each element, and how it informed the cultures of the nations built around them. And moreover, learning how to bend an element was more than the specific martial arts moves. It also had to do with the characters’ arcs. When Aang learned earthbending, he struggled with it because of his conflict avoidance, which was partially informed by his upbringing as an airbender with airbending values and tactics of nonviolence and evasion. He had to learn to face conflict head-on to even begin learning earthbending.

Then in Book 3, Zuko became unable to firebend once he joined Team Avatar, because he lost the anger and pain he’d held onto for so long that was serving as his drive. In fact, the Fire Nation as a whole had lost the art of true firebending, with post-Sozin firebending being more about fueling one’s ego and indulging in one’s destructive rage.

In fact, firebending is all about energy and life, which Iroh understood, channeling that energy through his breath. Aang and Zuko discover this when they meet the Sun Warriors, and the original firebending masters: the dragons Ran and Shaw. It’s about embracing that passion and energy, that drive to stop Ozai and restore balance to the world, that allows Aang and Zuko to truly understand fire as an element so they can wield it in all of its true beauty and strength.

Bending isn’t really used this same way in Legend of Korra. Characters don’t explore different aspects of themselves, or understand the elements themselves, in order to hone their bending skills. The closest you get, besides Toph’s aforementioned connection to the Banyan Grove Tree, is Korra becoming more attuned to airbending as the series goes on. At first, she struggles with it, then only uses it for “air punches” after defeating Amon. But by Book 3, her airbending has really improved; more so than I gave her credit for in my video about her Team Avatar. I still wish we saw more of that journey for her, but I enjoy it.

That all said, while I do miss those philosophical and character-driven aspects of the elements, and of bending, I do still enjoy what we do see of its advancements. Firstly, because the world is becoming more multicultural, and we have so many more adult characters, we get way more benders of all elements to get a little variety. And with that come some stellar fight scenes.

I do really appreciate how now that metalbending is more common, it’s influenced the way the world works now that it is industrializing with the tech the Fire Nation had developed. The police suck, yes, but I do like that they use the fact metalbending is still a rare ability to increase their threat factor, and how they implement it into their armor and their cables for getting around quickly.

And oh my god, Zaofu is one of my favorite locations in the franchise. I’m obsessed with this lotus-inspired architecture with the domes, and it’s genuinely so cool to see the way metalbending is used for day-to-day life here. It’s probably hell in summer when the sun is constantly beating down on it, but ya know, sometimes you have to let your foot melt into the ground for the sake of progress and aesthetic beauty.

I do kinda wish we got to see Ba Sing Se after Kuvira’s conquest. I’d love to see the way she “modernized” the capital, likely giving all the rigid class structures a fresh coat of paint, or rather, new shiny metal slabs. We all know she’d had no issue reinstating the Dai Li for her own means. Actually, I’d be terrified of a metalbending Dai Li. Give it to me now, you cowards.

Kya doesn’t get enough love, the sapphic hippy icon she is. I really appreciated her and Bumi’s inclusion in Book 2, and I wish she got more to do in Book 3. That said, I’ve seen comments of people noticing how her waterbending is influenced by Aang’s airbending. She uses a lot of spiral or whirlwind movements in combat, especially in her fights against Zaheer and Ming-Hua, and I love that. I wish that was explored more, seeing the way the world being so multicultural has caused the elements to pick up traits from each other. Reminds me of how lightningbending was influenced by waterbending.

And speaking of waterbending, given it’s my favorite element, I must say I love seeing so many new waterbenders in Legend of Korra, ESPECIALLY waterbending villains. Unalaq often gets compared to Azula in how ruthless and quick to the kill he is with his waterbending, and it’s probably the only aspect of him that I genuinely love. He doesn’t bother being flashy or having overly elaborate movements. He conserves his water, using it for quick, lethal strikes instead. This man is brutal in fights, and I only wish his character was as interesting as his fighting style.

And of course, we can’t talk about waterbending villains without mentioning the MVP: Ming-Hua, a.k.a. The Toph of waterbending. I love seeing more disability rep, and it’s so fascinating the way Ming-Hua uses her lack of arms to make her waterbending so fierce and deadly. She’s honestly more agile than most other benders. Any waterbender going up against her is screwed, since you’re basically giving her more ammunition to redirect back at you. It’s probably the reason why only a lightningbender can take her down, or even a firebending by whittling down her watery supply.

I’m not really a fan of the so-called “psychic bloodbending” introduced with Yakone and his kids, but I do like the horror aspects used when it’s in play. Like, oh my God, they do a great job making this the most terrifying bending style ever seen. My main point here is that I find it so cool that Amon found a way to use bloodbending to block people’s bending. I assume it has something to do with chi paths, and I think that could’ve been cool if victims of Amon had to unlock their chakras to rediscover their bending, the way Aang had to with the Avatar State with the Guru. Wish they did more with that, but it’s cool as fuck.

Also cool as fuck but I wish they did more with it: lavabending. I’ve really come to appreciate the versatility of earthbending over the years, so seeing Ghazan and later Bolin accelerate the earth to the point it becomes lava makes me lose my damn mind. It combines the ferocity of firebending, as well as the flow of waterbending, and applies both to earthbending, and I really wish we got some philosophies of how lavabending works.

Also reminds me, I’d love more insight into combustionbending and its cultural roots. I know they explore it a bit in some supplemental material, I think something to do with Yangchen? No clue, but I wanted more with P’Li and her backstory as a combustionbender.

And again, so cool having an airbending villain with Zaheer. Is he an edgelord? A bit, but I’m also here for it, especially because he and Tenzin’s fight is one of the best in the series, and I love the way Zaheer warps Air Nomad philosophy to suit his own agenda. Makes me wish we had more stuff like that.

The Music:

Oh my God, the fact only Book 1’s score got a proper release is a fucking crime. The music of Legend of Korra, much like Avatar, is excellent, and I’d like to thank Jeremy Zuckerman for doing the Lord’s work in pulling at my heartstrings.

Now, I’m not a musical expert, so I can’t really say exactly why it’s great, but… I love it and I wanted to yell about it. Absolutely love the main theme, and all iterations of the Avatar theme. The ending of Book 1 is dogshit, but that line from Aang about your lowest point opening you up to the greatest change, followed by the song “Greatest Change,” almost saves it for me… almost. I don’t know, I salute the effort.

Also love the Red Lotus theme, obviously. I really adore Kuvira’s theme too, honestly, with how militaristic it sounds with those war drums. It feels like her train is racing at top speed to slam into my face and it makes me excited to punch her. And honestly, I’m probably wrong about this, but it sounds strangely similar to the Avatar theme to me? Maybe like an inversion of the Avatar theme almost? I don’t know, but to me they’ve always been sister themes, which would track given how much they try to parallel Korra and Kuvira.

Conclusion & Outro:

So… yeah. There’s all the things I love about Legend of Korra. At least, the things I could think about as of writing this script. Let it be known that I criticize the show, and all things, because I love them. I wouldn’t be investing this much energy into something I don’t care about. I shouldn’t have to qualify my love for something, but rather, I hope this came across as me sharing things that I genuinely do enjoy about Korra as it is.

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I’m the Unicorn of War, and Aang’s parenting was a shit show.