The Legend of Korra
The Legend of Korra was an animated television series that ran on Nickelodeon from 2012-2014. It served as the sequel to the acclaimed series Avatar: The Last Airbender, starring the Avatar after Aang, Korra. Like its predecessor, Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Konietzko created the show, but unlike Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aaron Ehasz was not the head writer.
Setting
The show is set 70 years after the original series ended, by which point Aang and Sokka are dead and Korra, a girl from the Southern Water Tribe, is the new Avatar. After 17 years of training at home under the White Lotus, she leaves for Republic City to train with Tenzin and master Airbending. Aang and his friends built Republic City as a home where people from all nations could live in harmony.
Though the original series was set in a feudal Asian world, many things in this series mirror the 1920s, from the invention of cars, phones, and radios. Republic City's architecture also looks more like New York City than anything in Asia, either in the feudal age or the 1920s.
Main Characters
Avatar Korra (voiced by Janet Varney): Korra is the series' protagonist and the Avatar after Aang. Unlike her predecessor, Korra is hot-headed and arrogant, and can bend earth, fire, and water by age four. Korra was born in the Southern Water Tribe and spent most of her life there before the series started.
Mako (voiced by David Faustino): Mako is a Firebender and serves as Korra’s love interest for most of the series, though he also dated Asami. Mako’s work ranges from pro-bending matches to working at a power plant that uses his lightning bending to work for the police. He’s named after Makoto “Mako” Iwamatsu, who voiced Uncle Iroh in the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Bolin (voiced by P.J. Byrne): Bolin is an Earthbender and Mako’s younger brother. He served as a slight love interest to Korra and Asami. Bolin is the comic-relief character, and doesn’t have much going for him.
Asami Sato (voiced by Seychelle Gabriel): Asami is a Nonbender and served as a love interest for all the characters, but ended up with Korra. She’s a wealthy woman, the daughter of a businessman who made goods for nations after the 100 Year War. Asami took over the company after the first season because her father was thrown in prison.
Tenzin (voiced by J.K. Simmons): Tenzin is Aang and Katara's third and youngest child, their second son, and the only Airbender among their children. Tenzin spent most of his childhood training and traveling with his father, much to the disappointment of his siblings, Bumi and Kya, whom Aang neglected throughout most of their lives. After Aang’s death, Tenzin became the new leader of the Air Nomads, and had four children with his wife Pema, being Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan, with all but Rohan being confirmed Airbenders. Tenzin also served as Korra’s Airbending master and mentor throughout the series.
Lin Beifong (voiced by Mindy Sterling): Lin is Toph's daughter and, like her mother, an Earthbender and Republic City's Chief of Police. Lin’s father was named Kanto, though she never met him because he and Toph didn’t work out. Lin is shown to be a rule-follower, like her mother was in adulthood, which led to a 30-year rift between her and her half-sister, Suyin. Though not as much as her ex-boyfriend, Tenzin, she mentored Korra and showed her how Republic City works.
Minor Characters
Suyin Beifong (voiced by Anne Heche): Suyin is Lin's younger half-sister and the founder of Zaofu, a city in the Earth Kingdom that relies heavily on Metalbending. As a youth, Suyin was a troublemaker, much to Toph's and Lin's disappointment. After accidentally scarring Lin during her arrest, Toph spared her from prison, but she was exiled from Republic City, which also led her to avoid speaking with Lin for 30 years. Unlike Lin, Suyin is married to Baatar Sr., and they have five children, whom Suyin calls a blessing. Bataar Jr., Huan, Opal, Wei, and Wing. All of them except Opal are male; Opal is the family's only Airbender after Harmonic Convergence; and the latter two are twins. Suyin also adopted Kuvira before she turned evil.
President Raiko (voiced by Spencer Garrett): Raiko is the first elected President of Republic City, and though not evil, he is an antagonist of Korra's due to frequent clashes the two have over what has happened or what should be done, which eventually led to Korra getting banished from Republic City in the third season due to her decision to leave the Spirit Portals open, which led to the spirits destroying much of the city.
Villains
Amon (voiced by Steve Blum): Amon is the main villain of the first season of the series and the leader of the Equalists, a group of Nonbenders who resent Republic City benders for holding all the power, both physically and politically. Amon claimed he could remove someone’s Bending because the spirits blessed him, and he temporarily took away Korra’s Bending. However, he was exposed as a fraud who used Bloodbending to block one’s Bending, and his story of being facially burned by a Firebender was false as well.
Unalaq (voiced by Adrian LaTourelle): Unalaq is the main villain of the second season and Korra’s uncle. Unalaq is more in tune with the spirits than Amon and wants to open the spirit portals to merge with Vaatu, the embodiment of chaos and darkness, plunging the world into Vaatu's image. He is also more manipulative, convincing Korra to open the portals that had been closed for 10,000 years, despite both her father, Tonraq, and her mentor, Tenzin, telling her not to listen to Unalaq.
Zaheer (voiced by Henry Rollins): Zaheer is the main villain of the third season and the leader of the Red Lotus, a faction that tried to hunt Korra when she was little, believing it was the White Lotus’ true purpose. Zaheer is an anarchist who believes that all governments are in the way of true freedom. Zaheer is also a major follower of Air Nomad culture, which informs much of his philosophy. After the second season’s events, he gained Airbending through Harmonic Convergence, allowing him to break out of prison and free his fellow Red Lotus members. He manages to poison Korra but is defeated at the end of the season.
Kuvira (voiced by Zelda Williams): Kuvira is the main villain of the fourth and final season and the new leader of the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer kills Earth Queen Hou-Ting; she later forms the Earth Empire. Her goal is to harvest the Spirit Vines, which destroyed parts of Republic City after Korra left the Spirit Portals open, and make weapons to take over the world.
Controversy
When it was released, the show drew backlash from fans of the original series for several reasons.
Treatment of the original characters
One source of backlash was how the show handled Aang as an adult. He was much less joyful because he hated Toph calling him “Twinkle Toes,” the nickname she gave him in the old series. Aang was also criticized for his parenting, as he completely neglected Bumi and Kya for not being Airbenders but treated Tenzin very well, much to the other children's frustration. However, his wife, Katara, let him do all those things without protest, which many thought went against her motherly nature in the original series. As well as her own experiences of not having parents around for a good portion of her life, as her mother died when she was young, and her father left to go to war shortly afterward. Toph was also criticized for sleeping around with other men, since her daughters, Lin and Suyin, have different fathers, neither of whom has met their father, and Suyin’s father remains unknown to this day. Toph was also criticized for valuing others' opinions, which went against her original characterization, as, despite Suyin being involved with criminals and having scarred her sister, Toph tore up the criminal report and told her to leave Republic City to live with her grandparents. Sokka was dead before the show started and only got one scene, which left his character the same, though it’s not confirmed whether he got with Suki, his girlfriend, by the end of the old series. Zuko is much calmer and wiser than in the old series, and he even gave Korra advice on what Aang would do in her situation. However, Izumi’s mother is unknown, though many fans think it’s Mai, Zuko’s girlfriend throughout the old series.
Unlikable protagonist
Unlike Aang, Korra takes major pride in being the Avatar, opening the series with “I’m the Avatar, you gotta deal with it!” Even at 17, she is shown to be selfish and to care little for other customs, as when she struggles with training under Tenzin and destroys an old training relic, blaming Tenzin for being a poor teacher. Even as late as Season 3, Korra struggles to take much blame; when President Raiko blamed her for Republic City’s infrastructure being destroyed because she left the Spirit Portals open, she told him he’d have to deal with it; she saw what the world was like when they were last open: humans living on the backs of Lion-Turtles to avoid being killed or mutated by the spirits. Korra later goes through a PTSD arc in the final season, but then demolishes most of Republic City to stop Kuvira’s machines, opens another Spirit Portal in the city, walks in there with Asami, and leaves the city Aang built in ruins.
She was also viewed as a Mary Sue character, able to bend earth, fire, and water by age four, while every Avatar before her had to train just to try to bend the other elements.
In 2026, Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko slandered half their fanbase, labeling them "misogynistic" and "homophobic" for not liking Korra. In reality, there were only a few people who disliked Korra because of her being a bisexual woman, though most disliked her for the awful decisions she made throughout the series. They also decried people not holding Aang accountable for his role in the 100 Year War, implying that they blamed him for causing the war by running away. In reality, they did it to put Aang down and make Korra look better by comparison.
LGBT propaganda
For most of the series, Korra’s love interest was Mako, but she had some moments with his brother Bolin. However, in the final episode, she and Asami hold hands as they enter the Spirit World, mirroring Aang and Katara’s kiss in the old series, which was the last shot, but due to the controversy, the show never animated a kiss between Korra and Asami. The pairing shocked many, since Korra and Asami didn’t talk much beyond advancing the plot, and by the time it happened, it felt like it was made just for shock value. The graphic novel trilogy "Turf Wars" revolves around Korra and Asami's relationship, which leads Korra to disown her parents after they warn her to be careful around more traditional people.
Simplifying Chinese Philosophy
In the second season, the origin of the Avatar is explained: Raava and Vaatu, who represent the forces of goodness and evil respectively, fought since the dawn of time until Wan separated them 10,000 years ago, which later resulted in Wan merging with Raava to defeat Vaatu, sealing him in a tree in the spirit world until he was freed by Unalaq. The controversy is that Vaatu and Raava represent Yin and Yan, but the story presents them as a generic good-versus-evil conflict, even though Yin and Yang represent different forces in balance; Yin represents negative energy, but not necessarily evil, and It also represents things like femininity and the moon. It’s also worth noting that Raava, the Yang, is female, while Vaatu, the Yin, is male, which reverses the gender associations of Yin and Yang.