Editorial: Goodbye Avatar Korra

If there's a show out there that has a reputation for having strong woman (both good and evil) without them being... defined by their gender let's say. It's the Avatar franchise (not the movies, the TV shows, there's a big difference)

In Avatar The Last Airbender you have Katara, Suki, Kyoshi, Toph, Azula, Mai, Ty Lee just to name the main ones. That's not to say that sexism didn't exist in this universe. Sokka started out a tad sexist, and Katara had to fight the sexist waterbending Master Paku to try and get herself taken seriously.

I believe in equal opportunities, but that's not necessarily the case with Network Executives. There was some debate about putting a girl as the lead in the new Avatar series, because they believed it might put boys off. Fortunately in a focus test the boys proved that there is still sense in the world, and didn't give a sh*t, and thus was born: The Legend of Korra.

As a character Korra is very different from Aang, very very different. Born in the Water Tribe but with an attitude that closely relates to both Earth and Fire philosophies, it's no wonder she was able to bend 3 elements at a very young age.

Book 1 of the show was originally intended as a 12-episode miniseries, penned entirely by the show's creators Mike Koniezko and Michael Dante Dimartino, The show followed Korra's struggle to learn airbending as she faced an anti-bending revolution in a location known as Republic City. Outside of Republic City, the United Republic (whose origins are explored in the excellent sequel comics to The Last Airbender) is never really explored, but Republic City is something very different visually to the usual Avatar cities.

Korra's team Avatar is soon introduced. Mako, this guy's relationship problems and brooding attitude were his main character traits. Bolin, the guy who couldn't out comic-relief Sokka, but could probably pound him with Earthbending instead. These 3 we see fight together, but it's actually quite rare we see the whole of team Avatar fighting together (with the only scene I can think of featuring all 4 of them fighting, is the scene with Asami chasing an equalist prison break)

Mako meets Asami, and her father Hiroshi (who ages quite significantly in the next 4 years, I'll get to that later) who agree to help the rest of team Korra in their pro-bending dreams. But things go awry as Amon evolves from a campaigner for equality to a terrorist forcing it upon everyone, not making things better is council member Tarlok, trying to gather power from within the city council.

We also meet some descendants of the original team Avatar, Lin Beifong, the badass, hardnosed chief of Police who is willing to go outside the law to get the job done, Tenzin, the only airbending master Korra can learn from, who happens to be a tad ill-tempered himself at times, and his 3 children. The smart Jinora, the chatty Ikki and the disgusting Meelo. 

Amon comes dangerously close to taking over the city with the help of Hiroshi, but thanks to team Korra and general Iroh of the United Forces (voiced by a returning Dante Basco) they defeat the armies

By pointing out to everyone that Amon is a big fat hypocrite, Korra stops the anti-bending revolution in its tracks, but not without some major changes. President Reiko gets elected as the new president and the council is disbanded. And thus we enter book 2 (yeah, there's a bit about Korra losing an regaining her bending in a huge copout, but a fitting end to a miniseries)  

After Book 1 was a success, the original order of 12 was expanded to a 52 episode order, with the remaining episodes divided in 3 books, each with their own main story (yeah, these were conditions of the new episodes) they wanted to get book 2 out quickly, and given that studio Mir, the animation studio that did book 1, was already overworked doing book 1, a decision was made to have studio pierot animate some of the early book 2 episodes, The animation was... less than the exceptional animation that Mir offered.

We meet Varrick, a guy who whilst kind-hearted and good spirited, has some morally ambiguous sides to him, and his assistant Jhu Li, who he mistreats somewhat. We also have a proper introduction to Korra's parents and Tenzin's brother and sister Kya (yeah, Katara originally was named Kya, but since they found another show had used that name, they renamed her Katara, and Kya was both her mother and daughter) and Bumi (named after the crazy Omashu leader, and you wonder why he turned out the way he did)

We also meet Korra's Uncle Unalaq and her cousins Eska and Desna... OK this is getting annoying, I'm not doing synopses of the entire story of Korra, if you want to see that, watch the show, even at it's low points (and if you've read my review, you'll know book 2 has plenty), it's still a great show, why are you still reading this, go watch it. Books 1 and 2 are on DVD, Book 3 coming soon, go watch!

I'll just be brief. Bolin's an idiot, Mako has relationship drama, Asami nearly loses her company, Tenzin and co have some family baggage, Jinora is spiritual, the first Avatar is awesome, Unalaq is evil, and there's a giant spirit of darkness named Vaatu in the mix somewhere.

The world was changed forever as the spirit portals remained open in the wake, the integration of humans and spirits had begun. And it started in Republic City with a massive vine infestation. So, Book 3 glossing time again. People start airbending (including Bumi), Tenzin struggles to teach, Lin meets her sister and kids, and relives some old family drama, Bolin wants to learn metalbending and meets a romantic interest named Opal, Korra p*sses of the Earth Queen, a group called the Red Lotus starts hunting her, kills the Earth Queen and threatens to kill the Air Nation, Korra surrenders and is poisoned, but her Avatar state still allows to fight. Bolin masters lava-bending, and Korra and Asami spend a lot of time together.

New characters, we're introduced to Kai, a thieving street urchin, that under guidance in airbending becomes one of my favourite new characters (I know there are people who disagree with me, but I like him) we also meet the extended Beifong family. Suyin, Bataar Sr and Bataar Jr (all be it briefly), Huan, a depressive artist? Wing and Wei, competitive siblings who created their own sport, and Opal, an airbender who's also Bolin's love interest.

We also have 4 villains, Zaheer, a guy who learns airbending and is skilled at it in 5 seconds (apparently it's like a master martial artist using a tool) and eventually learns to fly. P'li, a combustion bender who loves Zaheer but gets her head blown off. Ghazan, a lavabender (we have never seen anyone other than the Avatar bend lava before, leading to a lot of people believing that only someone who can bend both Earth and Fire) and Ming Hua, an armless waterbender (I'm still not sure how that works) that can somehow beat Katara's daughter.

In the end Korra remains in a wheelchair, still suffering from after effects of the poison. The Earth Kingdom is in chaos after the Earth Queen's death, and the Red Lotus may still be about (but don't worry, this thread hasn't been picked up upon yet) Tenzin promises the air nation would do what they can to help while Korra was away.

There was some screwing around with Book 3, after episodes 3-5 were released early in a foreign language, Nick decided to rush through the first few episodes, giving just a week to properly promote it, and airing the first 3 episodes at once. After originally deciding to air it so you can't legally view it online, someone made the decision that because of dwindling ratings (the show had a fanbase, that was clear, Nick once issued a challenge on for an early release of the final book 2 episodes, and it was completed within hours) to move it to an online-only show (great work Nick) also, they started slowing down the releases, so that only 1 episode would air a week (episodes 8-11 were released on separate weeks, with 2-part finale being released on its own)

This is something that would continue in book 4, which also got a fairly rushed release. It had finished being touched up on only weeks before it aired.

With book 3 finishing on a big action epic, book 4 took a far more personal approach, we had Kuvira (Suyin's former protoge) trying to unite the Earth Kingdom under her her rule after Suyin refused (owing to her general disinterest in being a nation leader) but using questionable methods to do it.

A 3 year time jump was implemented, this allowed Korra to recover from the poison without it feeling like a cop-out. A whole episode was dedicated to this, and it's still a high point of the series.

So, summarising. Kuvira's gone nuts, Korra meets Toph in the swamp, removes some poison and is found by Tenzin's kids. Mako is stuck with King-to-be Prince Wu, Bolin and Varrick are working for Kuvira whilst Asami had transformed the rail structure of republic city. Korra is still haunted by Zaheer and loses a fight for Zaofu to Kuvira. Suyin and her family (minus Opal) are taken hostage. Bolin and Varrick escape Kuvira, hoping to warn Republic that she plans to use spirit vines to power a weapon.

Bolin and Opal have some relationship drama and go out with Lin to rescue Suyin, meeting Toph and some more family drama ensues. Korra faces Zaheer and allows her to accept what had happened to her, allowing her to regain her strength. Team Beifong rescue Suyin and co, but Kuvira plans to attack Republic City. Mako and Wu begin evacuating the city, but progress is slow until the attack is confirmed. Kuvira arrives a week early with the vine attached to a giant mecha-suit, and the city has to surrender. Korra isn't giving up, and with the help of her many allies, including Hiroshi Sato, who Lin broke out of prison, who ends up sacrificing his life to the cause, they bring the suit down, Korra tears open a new spirit portal, and Varrick and Jhu Li get married. Also, Wu decides to remove the monarchy and allow the Earth Kingdom to run as separate states (so it's the Earth States now)

Networking decision had an impact on book 4, but it happened a lot earlier, The show had an episode's budget cut, and there are several effects that had. Of course, there's episode 8, which was a clip show with limited animation, there are also a fair few still images in episode 11 that could have well have been because of it. Also, a lot of characters don't get much of a voice. Kai speaks only in episode 1, Bumi has 1 line, Kya doesn't appear, Wing and Wei get 2 lines between them, Iroh gets 2 lines, Izumi has 2 lines (and she's the same voiced actor as Raava, who gets 3 lines) Zuko has no lines, Huan's speaking role is minimal, Ikki barely speaks outside of 1 episode, Jinora doesn't speak in the finale, you get the idea... (Although, this might just be down to the sheer number of characters there are this series)

So the ending, the actual ending. Korra and Asami enter the spirit world, holding hands and looking lovingly into each other's eyes. The internet is full of debate and arguments as to whether this is a good idea, I'm personally neutral on the subject. And I really don't want to draw too much attention because for it to be accepted by people, it shouldn't the centre of attention. But I do give Kudos to the Korra creators for doing something like this, and actually confirming that it's the case as well.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is, and will remain for many years to come, my favourite animated show, Korra may have different goals (whilst Aang's villans were all about building up the pressure for him to become the Avatar the world needs him to be, Korra's villains tended to challenge the need for the Avatar, a good balance to Korra's desire to be the Avatar) it is a great show, and I will miss it

With Nickelodeon screwing this series around so much, I don't think we'll see a new Avatar series any time soon, but I will say this. It has a been a pleasure watching this series grow and become on of the animated greats.

Goodbye Avatar Korra, I hope you return in comic format in the near future.

Some might consider this the end of my TV Retrospective, but it's not over yet, it's time to take another look at the things I want in book 4 list, and comment and what has and what hasn't been included.

1) Korra to be still in a wheel chair until the end of episode 1

The 3 year time skip combined the greatness of Korra alone (and the fact that Korra barely appears in episode 1) I'll give this a pass, despite the fact this isn't really the case. I liked how they showed her recovery as being a slow process.

2) The Fire Nation

Yeah... This didn't happen (we saw Fire Lord Izimi, but that's really it) but you can understand the focus is still very much on the Earth Kingdom (given what happened)

3) The Western Air Temple

Nothing to see here, moving on

4) A character arc for Mako

I'm not sure, sure him being stuck with Wu for most of the season, and opening up about how he needed to be someone without a woman in his life are nice, but he doesn't really grow as a character in book 4, so... no

5) Korra and Bolin team ups

They share a couple of hugs, and really that's about all the screen time they have together, moving on. Still Bolin and Varrick were a great team, and Bolin has grown in this season.

6) General Iroh of the United Forces

A cameo in episode 11, and 2 lines to boot, *sighs*

7) Multi-coloured firebending

Nope, we didn't get this, moving on

8) More spirits

Now this is something we did get, the spirits were a pretty solid part of book 4 as Kuvira planned to use the spirit vines. The spirits ended up being Korra's guide to her recovery by bringing her to the swamp to meet Toph, and her lack of ability to enter the spirit world is what convinced Korra to finally confront Zaheer. The spirits do not have an action role, choosing to not get involved, but yes, this one is definitely ticked off the list.

9) The Firelord

She gets a cameo with a couple of lines, whilst I hoped she'd be more involved than that, that's fine

10) Ikki and Meelo character arcs

I think the calling qualifies here, both get some great moments there, Meelo also gets a couple of others including the paint idea against the mecha-suit.

11) The Fire Nation warlord who tried to convert P'li

This didn't happen, but really Kuvira was a big enough antagonist for the show, perhaps another thing for the comics?

12) More of Zuko

This just didn't happen

13) Toph

Well, we got her, and she was awesome in her role.

14) Azula

No, but there's a tie-in comic coming out next year that promises her return

15) Katara kicking ass

No, but Toph gave a good reason as why she won't be. Still, Katara got her best major appearance in the show

16) Bolin and Asami team up

Nope, this didn't happen either, moving on

17) A new dark avatar

May have to wait 10,000 years for that one

18) What's left of the original team Avatar together

Sadly, this moment didn't come

I think I've said all I wanted to say, this was an improvised piece, I didn't write any of it in advance, goodbye Avatar Korra. You changed your world, and will remain one of the best animated shows from America at least out there for many years to come.

I suppose I should also say thank you and well done to all the writers, voice actors, animators and directors. And especially to Mike and Bryan

But every family has its Black Sheep, for Aang's time it's the rage-inducing Last Airbender movie (look up my review, I'm very thorough) for Korra there's the Legend of Korra video game. Join me some-when in 2015 where I will review this stinker of a game, and giving it the solid thrashing it deserves

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.