I would say I would do most of the things that you changed, I would keep Soto alive and still have Asami being equalist too but a misguided one. Mostly things would play out the same except there would be a small scene of Lin Bafong Repairing her office and for a brief moment Metalbends a metal pen Indicating that Amon's bloodbending may not be permanent giving some hope to the people who lost their bending. Season 2 would probably be somewhat of the same but Warren Veddick would also be an antagonist along with Unalog. Unalog still wanting to open the Spirit world but not working with Vaatu but being used by him, convincing Korra that with his spiritual knowledge he could help her regain her her blocked bending. Veddick being a non Bender tries to take advantage of Republic cities non bending supremacy and convincing Asami to partner up with him In order to fight Unalog and gain profit. This would force team avatar to work together again In order to stop a war between the North and the South. The team would for the most part be divided. Korra still living on air temple island not being allowed in Republic city, Mako still joining the police force Still wanting to find the guy that killed his mother and bring him to Justice, Asami using her company to help rebuild Republic city the nonbenders still looking to her as a leader which leads to her being kind of a politician than just a company head, and Bolin trying to figure out what to do with his life now that all 3 of his friends and him are not together. He would go with Korra to the Winter Solstice this festival and still meeting Eska and actually put some real development into that relationship, because I feel both Bolin's Romances were too rushed. That's all I got for now. What do you think?Also do you think you'll make a part 2?
Sooo much better than what we got. I love that there is actual lasting consequence and open-endedness. Beifong not getting her bending back hits the most for me as it makes her sacrificial scene actually mean something and not empty like the show did as they easily just gifted it back to her. This just adds layers of complexity for all the characters (like imagine Beifong trying to teach Korra metal bending in the future even though she can no longer bend) I like that Korra doesn't get her bending completely back leaving motivation to see a continued arch of a story. The series was a total mess and got worse each season even though there were extremely interesting ideas and concepts like a villain airbender. I'm super interested to see where you take the other seasons with this narrative
The entire rewrite is soo freakin’ awesome - it’s fixing almost all of the core issues and criticisms while elevating the story to the next level. However, I do think Asami is changed too much plus getting rid of her father entirely and the romance subplot as well even though they can be used to add in another element to the story that also elevates Bolin’s character too. Let me explain: I don’t want to sound too political but there is a deep lack of meaningful non-straight relationships and personally being gay and coming to terms with it has been a long journey for me. Just a few scenes of them cuddling together, living their moments of blissful joy would make the viewers feel that it is normal and Okay to do so. Also I have always felt like a few of the writers wanted that from the get go but Nick didn’t allow for it. By replacing the Mako, Bolin & Korra triangle romance subplot with Korra and Asami that confide in each other and Korra finds more about herself and love - which also makes the change about Asami cut even deeper. As a bonus Bolin hitting on Korra and finding out she’s gay is kinda hilarious (and sad) which further makes his moments with her in your rewrite feel even more emotional as even though he wanted to be involved romantically, he still maintains a badass friendship with Korra and wants that because he genuinely thinks Korra is an amazing person. I know this change might reflect him as the “friend zoned” friend archetype of character that settles even though that does not fit his character but I’m willing to make that change. Another change is to keep Asami’s father, and have her take Asami’s original role as a non-bender who supports the benders because most of his clientele are benders and it adds a layer to the reveal of Asami herself: that her father is the suspected Equalist supporter - which would fix the minor issue about how are the Equalists getting their cutting edge gear & tech without throwing suspicion on Asami herself. Also another minor change but a significant one, at least in my eyes, is having Asami’s rabbit tattoo not be a thing rather that in her fight against Korra on top of the pro-bending stadium have Korra cut her twice in the right arm, one alongside Asami’s muscular bicep and the other one on her forearm plus a minor burn on the forearm as well. Why? Well since I have already pitched my vote for the Korrasami relationship it would kinda make having a rabbit tattoo moot when they have a super intimate relationship (duh), not to mention it also adds to the fact that Korra is getting used to using her wits more often rather than relying on strength alone - in the reveal scene from the rewrite; Korra catches Asami when she notices that she has bandaged her arm after their short kiss and hug (or holding hands, the PG 13 version if you think kisses are too spicy for a younger audience) and notices that she also has another cut in the forearm, right where the right hand of Amon had, and the burn. She puts two and two together and forces Asami to reveal the truth. You know instead of just seeing a tattoo while unique, that can be a super rare coincidence that - well maybe is popular in the equalist circles. Besides that! Having Asami fight in the final confrontation alongside Amon, while he pins down Bolin & Korra while Asami handles the brooding guy, Mako, followed by the scene in the rewrite but instead of Korra surprising Amon with Airbending first - Asami wins her inner conflict and betrays Amon by shocking him, freeing Korra who then uses Airbending to surprise him even further, followed by the line in the rewrite and Korra/Asami double teaming against him. He still manages to subdue both of them - that’s when Korra gets through her inner struggle to resist Amon and win the fight against him. It makes her choice more significant in the moment and goes well with the love and friendship theme Avatar has. And that is not the last of it - one final change would be to have Korra instead be the one to choose not to stay in the council. She decides that she is not ready to accept that responsibility and Asami agrees with her, adding in that Asami herself would give the speech and steer the Equalists towards non-violence. This change would also give her father a smol arc of him seeing and accepting his daughter’s decision and to get a seat instead of Korra on the council to bridge the gap between the benders & non-benders. The final episode would end with Korra and Asami on a high place overlooking the city, where they both try to rekindle their relationship. There is a loss of trust that Korra is still super mad about but when Asami holds Korra’s hand in hers, it makes Korra open up a bit to become vulnerable again. To give a second chance, to come to terms with both their betrayals and how much they hurt each other while trying to do the right thing. It is in this moment when Korra also connects with the avatar state again - having the vision of Aang. Asami is worried about Korra after seeing that she spaced out with bright white eyes. Korra reassures her that everything is okay and that Aang came to her in a vision, and that she might be able to fulfil her duties as an Avatar and possibly get her powers back. So they both alongside Mako & Bolin, journey across all the nations as the previous Avatars and their friends had. I know this is kinda a copium edit but I really love both my gals so much and having Korra be the one to choose aligns with the Air bending philosophy of free will. She has been trained by others, told that she is the avatar and she has duties by other people - but now she chooses this for herself. It also fits in nicely with Tenzin realising the same thing while training her as mentioned in the rewrite. To be able to embrace that side of her and to grow, it makes Korra feel even more grounded. Pun intended. (Since you know, no powers n all.) Thank you Tim for showing so much love and care to LoK, a show despite being so flawed and glaringly so - is soo near and dear to my heart.
I really liked your rewrite. The characters feel like they have more of a character arc, there's no needless love triangle and the plot feels more tightly written. I think I especially love how you gave Bolin a bit more heart. He's good in the first season as you said, but him sharing more tenders scenes just makes me feel more than just the comedy relief character. Great job!
ONE love triangle can be tolerable, at the start with the two brothers and Korra. But then it happened again, and again, and again.... bruh the last minute shipping of Korra and Asami literally came out of nowhere as there was literally no romantic build up or the slightest hint that these people weren't 100% straight. All we see is them having a girl's day out and writing letters when Korra is sick and away without the slightest hint that it was beyond platonic.
Very well said. I have seen The Legend of Korra get a lot of hate more than it deserves, and some that is a little justified. Nonetheless I have seen a lot of people on UA-cam hate on Legend of Korra. While I am not the biggest fan of these type of videos involving rewrites on shows but this was pretty good and well handled without feeling too "fan-fiction-y".
Honestly, instead of the love triangle stuff, they should have first focused on them forming a closer bond as friends just like the original did, that way when the relationships came, we can get more invested. Like maybe it’s just me, but the romance was really distracting since I didn’t even get the vibes that they liked each other as people.
I 100% agree with you on this I feel like the love triangle would have been fine if they focused on the characters first and actually showed them becoming friends then they could've done stuff with relationships.
That and Korra betrays her relationship but without consequences it makes her less likeable. Ang would never have done something like that. Having the Hero be morally questionable only works if they have consequences, otherwise they are just an arsehole. Was my biggest turn off of Korra, the lack of consequences everywhere. No damage is permanent and growth is superficial unlike Last Airbender.
Not going into full on traditional romances made sense when they were yknow, 12. But they wanted to do an older more matured show, and given their increased age I would have also been okay if they gave like... hints of a potential triangle to make us go "oh no not that shit" but then just resolved it by having her not ignore how great of a date it was with Bolin and building it from there. They also did the setup beforehand with her personality type being earth, with her hardest element to master being air. I would have enjoyed a dynamic of him rescuing Ginger in the movers but getting into an arc where he's the damsel in distress out in the world. Would have been nice for a strong female protag having a supportive no nonsense drama stable relationship through the whole show. subplot arcs about healthily building it maybe.
My big problem is the dishonesty. The avatar doesn't need to be perfect but if they aren't honest and betray the people closest to them, at any age, it shows they aren't a good person, and if there is no consequence why am I backing the Hero, especially when the Villian is fighting for Equality? The Hero a dishonest betrayer and the Villain a champion of the people? You could make it work, but Korra just didnt.
"finding an alternative way" is literal airbending philosophy, as shown in ATLA (Aang struggles with Earthbending because there is no alternative, no clever angle, he just has to move the rock). So making the Season that is literally called air have Korra grow to be able to do exactly that should be *the* way to write this.
Damn. Good observation. Also a little ironic when I think that the reason Toph metalbends for the first time is because her situation requires her to find an alternative way - a way she is specifically suited to because her blindness forces her to think past surfaces, even though she’d rather not.
@@muddlewait8844 I respectfully disagree with you Toph was still trying to push through using brute force but her style of brute force isn't as straight forward as others that combined with her having no other option which was the small push she needed to do this.
@@muddlewait8844 She is also stubborn enough to not accept "metal cannot be bent", so then she tries and eventually succeeds, which is prime earthbender philosophy.
I’d add to Korra’s arc the understanding of being mindful. When she brawls in the city, she’s ruining stores and homes, let her try and fix the aftermath. After all, it is the avatars duty not only to protect, but also rebuild
@@starrysoupwell his webs disolve after some time. Im not sure what he can do with Rhino charging trough or with half the villains having some super power to destroy things.
Remember how Avatars were traditionally supposed to be told at the age of 16? Aang only found out at 11 because war was approaching, and even then Gyatso didn't want him to be told because he deserved to have a childhood. They didn't find out by asking them to bend other elements either, in Aang's case they used the toy test to search for past lives. Korra randomly bending multiple elements as a toddler is actually very interesting, but the show doesn't seem to care about it or even point out that it's unusual. Monk Gyatso is proven right as it derailed her life, got her targeted by Red Lotus members, and forced her to grow up too fast while out of touch and isolated. I would have liked some explanation for what caused Korra to awaken her abilities so early.
@@vetarlittorf1807 I mean no one questions it or even points out that her case is unusual, when its the first thing the monks discuss about Aang. They mention the consequences, but never discuss the cause. And the cause could be as simple as "yeah it's pretty rare but some Avatars just do this".
Tbh it never made any sense to me and I thought it was an unnecessary addition without a viable explanation. Her pride and attitude only made it worse and I found it hard to empathize with her till Amon almost took her bending on Avatar Aang Island
@@vetarlittorf1807 Yes they do, I'm not sure what point you think you're making. "Hey why was Aang told he was the Avatar at 11 when that's supposed to happen at 16?" "No reason, the point is that he was told, scaring him into running away" The point is that a massive invasion was threatening to wipe out his people and they wanted to use him as a living weapon. It's important, necessary context. Korra's equivalent is "she just started bending really early", which is fine, but no one even stops and goes "yeah kinda weird, typically we tell them way later". It's very underdeveloped. We're never SHOWN the Red Lotus attack, and basically have to extrapolate off Korra being a lonely bubble child with no South Pole friends or grasp of money.
One thing that never got explored in the series, despite the potential for it, is the ideological conflict between modern and traditional martial arts. MMA (on which pro-bending forms are based) is much more effective in terms of pure combat but lacks the philosophical and spiritual aspects of traditional schools. I would have loved to see this explored a bit more in the series. I think it would have also fit nicely into Korra's own arc to grow beyond her reliance on violence to solve problems. As she learns to solve problems in other ways, she begins to find value in the spirituality of traditional martial arts. We see her bending style evolve over the course of the season. And it is when she embraces the spiritual over the efficient that she finally learns to airbend.
@@TheLegendOfCirce Agreed. Although I myself enjoyed how different probending was to traditional, i still found it quite disjointed storywise, and this would blend the two worlds together perfectly while elevating Korra’s arc with it.
You can only do so much in a single season. But you could seed ideas of it in season one and then really delve into in an alternate version of season 2 which is already more spirit heavy.
How can people still make the pro bending = MMA comparison and then proceed in saying that the traditional elements of bending are completely missing? The first clip in his video where pro bending is shown, has several typically traditional movements in it where the movements even are used properly translated from their original Kung Fu inspirations to bending. Just because they show shorter and faster punches people tend to falsely only associate with modern combat sports, that does not make them less traditional. Hung Gar alone has a vast variety of different types of punches with varying distances, higher or lower stances, more or less energy put behind them etc. and meanwhile people have only a few in their mind when thinking of supposedly traditional earthbending in the shows.
@@Thareldis While the comparison isn't solid, it still stands in universe. The characters move and fight differently. Bending has changed. And that was true in ATLA too as we there's easy to miss moments in characters by their bending; Zuko does a move that resembles water bending. Katara does one the resembles earth bending. We see these characters that are constantly around other benders and learning about them develop movements we don't see in other benders. And since Republic city is a mixing pot, then it makes sense that bending continues to change in this way with people pulling from other bending philosophies or developing new ones entirely. So narratively, they could have explored that difference in modern progress vs tradition. That being said, I don't know if that would have made the show better. You try to stuff in too much stuff and then everything suffers from lack of screen time. It is an interesting idea, but would it have been more interesting than giving more time to Korra being a nonbender or showing the tension between benders and nonbenders or in fleshing out the main characters? Probably not.
I'm not sure pro-bending can be considered an analogy for MMA? Bending has always had a combat focus in this series, unlike traditional martial arts, hence why combat oriented martial arts outperform them at every turn. Bending has changed, but not to that degree. Pro-bending seems to me like urban bending, the forms and techniques you'd use in enclosed spaces, or where you can't have collateral damage. Choosing either traditional bending or pro-bending seems foolish, then. The two styles have their own strengths and weaknesses, and should be used in the proper environmental contexts.
Please, please, please! For the love of God, please do this for seasons 2 through 4. Your insight to the Avatar series is one of the best I've seen out there, and your understanding of story structure is excellent. I would absolutely love for you to do more on this and I for one would happily accept your version as canon.
Maybe not season three, as that was the closest to perfect, but definitely seasons 2 and 4. I enjoyed then but there's a lot more room for improvement that would make for an interesting video.
@@shippendales8543 Season 3's biggest flaw is that it has to make the villain, Zaheer, have a Joker moment at the end because otherwise he'd be too close to just being the protagonist, is the strongest argument I've heard as a criticism of S3. On one hand, I think that's valid, but on the other hand, I do think it might just break the story to have him just be "basically a good guy" and win in the end. Korra had so much potential as a series that's fundamentally about learning from political extremism, both the mistakes and the valid concerns underlying the overreach, and going harder on the idea that Korra should both beat the villain, but ultimately learn how to address their concerns from their failures would have made it great. So personally, I would have focused on the way Zaheer's form of anarchism seems to more or less end at destroying the status quo without a game plan for building up - he hyperfixates on the idea that all hierarchies are bad (and therefore the Avatar is bad, being the embodiment of a hierarchy of power), without really having anything concrete to replace the Avatar or the Earth King with. Something like the Airbenders fully committing to this sort of... anarchist mutual aid group role, as Korra tries to learn from Zaheer and truly become an Avatar who exists to serve both the spirit and mortal worlds rather than exert overwhelming power over the world's energy, would go a long way and also fit with the histories of the Air Nomads and the Avatar.
I really liked this re-write. One small thing that never made sense to me was why Korra initially disliked Asami. There was the jealousy aspect over Mako, but Korra says to her 'I always figured you were this prissy princess' or words to that affect, and I find that strange- Korra lived the same life, she is the daughter of the chief and has been waited on hand and foot for being the Avatar- both women have worked for things too, so they should have hit it off from the first. This rewrite gives us some better conflict and shows they yeah, initially they should've been friends
While Korra and Asami do have somewhat similar backgrounds as daughters of powerful men in high positions , the context is different. Korra was the daughter of the Water Tribe Chief but her environment was still the icy northern lands of the Water Tribe. As a Bender, Waterbender, and the Avatar, she would've been expected to use her abilities and skill to help with the Water Tribe's survival, maintenance, and protection from a young age. She was no princess chilling in an igloo while the other people in her Water Tribe worked outside in the cold. Meanwhile, Asami is the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and so she never had to do hard physical or Bending labor. All her needs and wants could be met by her servants and the city. Not to say that Asami doesn't do her own thing and all but she's not working in a factory or anything like that. I think it's that difference in context of their similar backgrounds and that perception that led to Korr initially disliking Asami and figuring her to be this prissy princess. Similar backgrounds but different contexts and environments.
To me, it made sense for her not to like Asami in the beginning. Korra has shown many times not to be a girly girl, not to care much about her looks and to have more masculine energy. Even though Asami has the same qualities as Korra, I believe all Korra saw, in the beginning, was a beautiful rich girl with flawless hair and makeup who knows how to win a guy's heart, so she just assumed Asami's personality based on her looks and background(and her jealousy of course). At least that's how I interpreted it, of course, it can be viewed in many different ways.
Her father was not chief, Unalaq was chief for both tribes, he only represented him, but was an exiled member of the northern tribe, there was no chief in the southern tribe...Korra was raised stuck inside that fortification, away from the world but she did not had the luxuxy Asami had growing up, she was also very naive and tomboyish, while Asami was feminine, polished, a little vain and grew up having everything a rich person has...
I hate the fact that the past lives were destroyed. The writers made an essintal part of avatar just gone in favor of a “new generation” what they failed to realize is that the past lives never had a influence on the new generation meaning the new generation can happen and it’s up to the current avatar to decide whether he wanted to use the past avatars or not. It’s like a weapon of books that the avatar can use and obtain knowledge from and it didn’t need to get destroyed for proving a point of moving on. The writers failed this part of avatar.
Does he need to begin a good video with low-key-cringey claims? No, Korra was not Good. Just like the Life-Action-Movie, hour-long Essays are made about it being laughably bad.
@@slevinchannel7589 there are hour long essays about anything being laughably bad, those essays itself are nearly always laughably bad themselves. I do not agree with what he said at the begining but to saying Korra is awful is bullshit, it's a 6/10
@@coca_0146 nah korras awful people are treating it like the star wars prequels by getting tunnel-visioned with clips and contrarian essays on the interesting ideas that dont get justice
@@slevinchannel7589 if you’re referring to “the legend of Korra is garbage and here’s why” and other essays like that, they do an insanely bad job at reviewing the show and there are plenty of counter video essays that show how invalid a lot of their criticism is. The show isn’t perfect but it has a lot of value, you should respect people’s opinion if they tell you they enjoyed the show even if you didn’t.
That was an interesting line, though I think Amon would've been better if he wasn't lying; if he really was a non-bender that learned energy bending from an ancient spirit.
This is an unpopular opinion but I liked that he was a bender. I feel like that made his opinion and drive for the revolution even greater. Despite being a powerful bender himself, he still works towards abolishing bending. Him manipulating waterbending shows how versatile bending really is if you just get creative with it, and how brilliant Amon is to be able to create an intricate process to block a person’s bending. His plan wasn’t well thought-out, which I blame the writing more than anything, but it was a way to achieve his means without any bloodshed. And his use of bending was only ever for the purpose of the revolution, nothing more and nothing less, so personally I didn’t hate him for using bending to get rid of bending. If his plan were to just get rid of all bending so he could be the only bender, that would be shallow and icky. But if it were to abolish bending, and then block his own after the use was finished, then I think that is far more noble of him and more aligned with his character from what we’ve seen. And this is a completely personal opinion, but I’m not a fan of the whole “learned energy bending from an ancient spirit” thing, because to me that works far better as an equalist propaganda piece and feels kinda cliche, and I just think it is cooler to use bloodbending and maneuver it in a way that also fits in with the whole chi blocking aspect (which is the equalists’ go-to method of fighting)
@@turkepic3637 I don’t think he is. Removing bending won’t make the child unable to inherit the trait. Amon of all people should know this as he is the child of a man who’d gotten his bending taken away. Like I said, faulty writing. Amon’s plan would’ve never worked as it was impossible (as far as we know) to stop giving birth to benders Edit: typo
I love how you actually did something with Bolin rather than making him the dumb comic relief. Edit: Also, like how you made him wise, or I guess an empath is a better way to describe him.
@@dagan2000 except sokka is also the brains of team avatar's entire operation, a tactical genius, boomerang bender extraordinaire, meat connoisseur, cactus juice enjoyer, and the most chad fucking southern water triber to walk the earth.
Korra losing her bending for a bit to discover (a) who she is and (b) what life is like for non-benders (hence making her a better Avatar) has always seem so obvious to me that I was in disbelief that it didn't happen like that
@@Emily12471 I think, that's when the problems with Nick only greenlighting one season kicked in. It sucks and it could've still been handled better, but they probably didn't want the potentially only season of Korra to end on such a downer.
Korra going on a journey to find her bending back again instead of it being handed back to her is so good because that is the exact point of how the Avatars are supposed to master the elements. Not by being handed teachers and learning in a controlled stilted environment, but by exploring the world and finding friends and masters yourself. A great ending to this rewrite.
It would've made sense for her to travel and run into the turtle god like aang did and to end up getting some sort of bending back as some sort of reward for inadvertantly doing something it hadn't told her to do explicitly. But at the same time they already introduced the turtle god thing in the backstory so maybe they would've been too on the nose? I feel like it would've been cool if they brought that in story-wise later, AFTER she ran into the turtle maybe. Idk?
@@pn2294not necessarily. There’s always more to learn about the elements and it seemed clear that, despite knowing how to bend 3 of them, she didn’t seem to truly understand or respect them. They were just tools for fighting to her. It especially would’ve been a different journey and experience due to how different Korra is from Aang, the setting, and the characters. I would’ve loved to see her gain new appreciation and perspective of the elements as well as her spiritual journey with more of a relationship and bond with Aang.
Reminds me of a quote really "It is not the the Masters that seek students, but it is those who seek the Masters" Not the actual quote mind you, but that's the gist of it
I thought maybe having Sokka come back in a minor way and comment on the equalist conflict might be interesting, due to him being the main non bending in the original series.
Agreed. In the post-ATLA comics, there’s some political turmoil with benders and non-benders turning against each other, and Sokka is like “hey, the non-benders aren’t wrong here.” Having him back to weigh in on this would’ve been perfect. But also, LOK doesn’t have him except in flashbacks, and I will die mad about that.
@@catdragon2584 there theory (I am not sure if it’s theory or confirmed) that he died while defending korra from red lotus and I think it could have been interesting if mistreatment of non bender that was existing prior to his death really became problem after he died, it could also be fun if he had the idea for democracy in universe to solve the problem of the United republic but it was one step to far for the high class of republic city and no matter how much he tried he couldn’t pass it
I feel like if they were to bring him back, it would have to be in a big role. Sokka's THE guy to turn to about non-bending/bending inequality since he had a major story in the comics relating to that; if he was alive in Korra in a minor role, I'd be asking the question of 'why isn't he taking charge of this'? Sokka helped save the world and built republic city, he would've been not only trusted but a role model to non-benders everywhere. So, Sokka being dead in this timeline is the best outcome since this is a new generation with new leads- too much involvement from the old characters would cheapen that- and his role would have to be big otherwise there would be a plot hole But yeah I would've enjoyed some more flashbacks with him involved, or more mention of him being a hero to non-benders
@@ReblazeGaming Uhhhh because logically, it makes complete sense? In older times, bending was still stronger but could be balanced out by how technology was largely based on non benders, likely because benders were more scattered and so it wouldn’t make sense to focus on them entirely. A skilled swordsperson can still take down a bender. However, as industry and technology advance, it advances in population centers and focuses on bending, like with the military. The divide widens, and there’s more resentment between the two groups. In addition, culturally bending is seen less and less as a beautiful, magical, martial art, and more as a power that people deserve if they’re born with it. Hence, pro bending. That makes things worse as well.
We are shown how that affected her. It deprived her of all sense of spirituality, frustrated her to no end which made her short-tempered and aggressive and made her overly attached to her status as the Avatar.
@@vetarlittorf1807 We did see the ‘after’ but not really the ‘how’ before it. Yes, she became violent due to this, but _how_ exactly? That’s probably what OP wants from the story. Edit: by this, I mean we can have more concrete examples instead of leaving it all for interpretation, because not everyone can catch on to the implications. And seeing as Korra is portrayed to already be quite the temperamental before even being trained by these people, people might just chalk it up to it being who she is rather than who she became after being isolated.
Boy this is so true I feel like a person who's grown isolated and brainwashed all of their life into believing that they are the chosen one and they deserve a full training academy all to them and a bodyguard corp worthy of presidents and an education and all their needs attended would cause a bit of a disconnect between the individual and reality. That would be interested an avatar who can't relate to basically anyone but the richest of rich people because of that over privileged upbringing. Not even Aang had that
@@thecod2345 that person is always around to argue against any korra criticism with no nuance tbh. they live to "no, actually" everything someone has to say about korra. even if the criticism is valid
“The immense power of the avatar state left to the whims and emotions of an unstable child.” -Amon Bravo! I love every bit of this rewrite. devoted “cabbage-head” here.
I was nodding with these changes from the very start. "I'm liking this, yeah, yeah." Then you made Asami an Equalist and you blew my mind. Master stroke.
Considering her visual as well as narrative design, the archetype of the well-intentioned-villain turned heroine really does feel like the part she was always meant to play. (Shameless advertisement for the incredible "Parts to Play" fanfiction over at AO3, which implements this character change in as canonic a way as possible.)
I remember a lot of people in the beginning wanted asami to be an equalist (or have something in her story be more related to them other than just her dad being one) I know that's been one of my headcanons for a long while too
Apparently, Asami being an equalist was the original plan for her character, but either Mike or Bryan (can't remember which one) ultimately decided against it.
I was always surprised they didn't do something with Tenzin struggling to see Korra as her own person and developing his attachment to her as a reincarnation of his father. I feel like it would've added a dimension to his protectiveness over her and expanded their dynamic to a point where, by Korra coming into her own, she's able to provide occasional moments of comfort and guidance to Tenzin as Aang once would have. Also, loved this rewrite, amazing job!
This makes me wonder if Aang and Katara raised their kids to be aware of the fact that their dad would die and reincarnate as someone else to avoid this exactly. Especially Tenzin, since he would be the only one in the world able to train the next Avatar in airbending
that is a cool aspect they could have taken into consideration, and it could also tie back into tenzins lack of spirituality somehow, maybe as he comes to terms with the fact that korra is her own person and not just his father reincarnated, it could help him connect with the spirit world, to help korra reconnect with the avatar cycle and aang, maybe. idk good idea lots of potential.
one thing I love about Korra is how her and Aang were perfect for each others world, Aang was a pacifist who was ill suited for the 100 years war, whereas Korra was built to fight yet her enemies needed diplomacy and reason to truly defeat.
Especially since Korra comes after Aang, and might equate Equalists to the old Fire Nation when in reality they are just normal people with genuine concerns.
I don't know what you mean by Aang not being perfect for his time period. He was a pacifist yes but have you seen the show? He wasn't afraid of hurting people or getting shit done he just didn't like killing, which is a big difference. The world honestly almost couldn't have had a better avatar than Aang. He was kind, resourceful, a bending prodigy, courageous, generous, and most importantly wouldn't bend his ideals for the situation. Sure without Deus ex Lion turtle he would've been in a pinch, but honestly not killing Ozai proved to be best solution. It avoids making Ozai a pariah, proves a good example for others who might try and throw the balance of the world, and shows the world that violence isn't always the answer. Which after a hundred years of war the world really needed
Amon was one of my favorite villains. One gripe I had with Korra was how there kept being an “Ozai” level villain every season and how she just seems to magically power through
probably because she is always up against final boss level villains every books. Complaining that she gets her beaten way too much is like complaining minecraft players getting wrekt in dark soul.
@@purplelionpoliticsandhisto5025I think what he meant was that she always seems to find strength to find these god level threats again and again when it would feel much more realistic if it had been more contained on one single villain and not a pantheon of them. It makes Kora feel inhuman to be able to power through all that. A single villain would make Kora feel more more tangible as a person to look up to.
This fills me with such an intense longing for the alternate universe where THIS is season 1 of legend of korra. Your ideas are so fascinating. It made me miss the show so much… I wanna rewatch it now! We deserved equalist asami SO MUCH. Asami as a character meant a lot to me as a child - but I can only imagine how much more influential she would have been if she was allowed to be more than just a supporting character. I agree with you wrt mako, I know he’s an unpopular character in the fandom these days but I think rather than him being a “bad” character he just didn’t have enough personality outside of that love square. Also, I really love bolin in this rewrite. The tension between the brothers being ideological rather than a love battle 👌👌👌
At first, when you said "Asami is an Equalist", I was taken aback. "How would that possibly work?" I thought. "How could you make this character carry that charm while making her an antagonist?" The main issue is that I thought you meant to have her simply take over Hiroshi's role. But no, what you did was much more brilliant. You consolidated the best parts of Hiroshi and the Lieutenant (both of which were minor characters, if you could call the Lieutenant one at all) and elevated them into a major and sympathetic character. That was the best change you could have made for Asami. Following that, you also gave us a true lowest point for Korra, which was very much missing in the proper story. That was good too. I'm glad you gave Amon a proper send-off - not one of complete failure, but one of where he was still giving the victory he wanted in a way that mattered. More importantly, I think that the way you handled Mako and Bolin was expertly done. You gave Bolin more emotional scenes (which he needed), and Mako was given something real to do. And the final confrontation being against Asami was amazing, as the Lieutenant in the actual show just never really did anything to challenge the characters (just their fighting prowess). The only thing that I feel didn't work in your rewrite is how seemingly quick Asami went from attacking them to hearing them out. I feel there could have been just a little bit more showing that Asami wasn't all in on the extreme tactics that Amon was employing, a scene similar to how you had Maki questioning his place on the task force. Like… maybe once she heard that Korra HAD decided to actively go against Tarrlok, she questioned if she should take Korra in but then had to act fast when Korra figures out that she's the Lieutenant (since that fight would have been needlessly difficult on Asami's part). The only crack we got to see in this rewrite was when Amon was threatening to take bending away from children who have done them no wrong. I think a couple more scenes prior to that would have been perfect.
With all of this in mind, do you have plans to rewrite the rest of the series? With the changes made to this season, I could imagine that keeping the major story beats in book two would be very difficult. Books three and four would be a bit easier, though depending on how you'd write book two, it could quickly become impossible. The major throughline in all four books in The Legend of Korra is of her grappling with her identity and becoming more spiritually minded. After the changes to book one, with her having already going through that initial period of self-discovery and accepting that she needs to build herself back up, I can't really imagine the scene of losing her past lives being as compelling now (especially since the book two finale was already not that compelling to begin with). Perhaps seeing Avatar Wan could be the ultimate place to learning how to regain her bending abilities rather than that amnesia plot. Hm. Questions for later.
Funny enough; the original plan was to have Asami turn out to be an equalist, but either Mike or Bryan (can't remember which one) liked the character too much to write it.
One under appreciated part of this video is that you chose to take Korra out of Republic City. I don't know why the show insisted on keeping her there so much we could've explored the much more interesting parts of Avatar's world
I think the reason the show stayed in Republic City as much as it did is mostly budget. the crew has talked about ATLA being the travel show it was was expensive and harder to plan because they were constantly making new locations and characters.
It would have been really nice if Korra had spent more time outside Republic City in the show to check on how the rest of the world had changed since the Hundred Years War. I always found it very annoying that we saw so little of the rest of the world. We don't even see anything from the Fire Nation or how they have changed. So I definitely like this rewrite where Korra has to leave and go on a journey to reawaken her abilities and understand a world that is learning to function without the Avatar.
I love this comment. I've been trying to figure out why I didn't like LOK as much as ATLA. I knew because of the budget, the story seemed rush. But I didn't realize till now that the lack of travel and exploration really impacted the way the show was portrayed as well. Hopefully the next Avatar series can meet these certain aspects that made ATLA top tier
This is so good. It was thrilling, pretty creepy at times, and super satisfying. I really like the part with Bolin whittling the stones with Korra. It’s such a little moment that gives depth to his character. The arcs for Bolin, Mako, and Asami were just what these characters needed and the nonbending stretch with Korra was perfect. I would definitely be interested to see how the other seasons would play out with your version of season one as the base.
this is actually a perfect rewrite in my opinion. i hated how the show dissolves the equalist movement without validating their concerns; it almost gave this weird message like.. "inequality is made up! stick to the status quo!" which never sat right with me.
@@theoutsiderjess1869 For me, one of the biggest problems was the twist that they decided to make Amon a bloodbender and decided that exposing him as a bloodbender would be enough to end the equalist movement. Amon should not have been a bloodbender; it undermines almost everything about his character. I would've kept him as a non-bender. If the show really needed him to be Tarrlok's brother, I would've written it that Tarrlok was the prodigy their father wanted, while Amon, being a non-bender, was seen by Yakone as useless and discarded. He was left to fend for himself until he was found by a family that was part of the non-bending underclass, they then gave him the name Amon, and he saw the plight of non-benders in their society. Eventually, while seeking to learn how the Avatar took away his birth-father's bending, he met an ancient spirit with a grudge against the Avatar, and this spirit taught him energybending. Learning that there was a time before the avatar and a time before people bent the elements was the last straw that pushed him to resolve to destroy bending society.
@@matthewmuir8884 this is an awesome idea! And it could easily be told via flashback the way his current backstory was. The scene would have to be a bit longer to convey the information, but it doesn't have to be super detailed. For example, it would only take one or two shots to establish his father's favouritism by showing an expression of resentment as his brother is taught bloodbending in the background. Edit: I just rewatched the scene and it's a lot longer than I remembered and is also narrated, so you wouldn't even have to extend it. Did put it in fast forward so I could come back and edit this lol.
@@jessicabrauman Thanks. Yeah; the one problem I can see would be that the flashback in the show is given by Tarrlok, so he would have to somehow know about the bits of Amon's backstory that take place after Amon left.
1:42 There are a lot of things I would personally change about legend of korra but If I had to boil it down to just one aspect that could've given S1's ending a more introspective ending it would be this: leave Korra with just airbending for an extended period of time after her fight with Amon. Not only is air the only element she isn't proficient with, but it's the only element with a philosophy that can teach Korra the things she need to further develop into an avatar figure: self-restraint, evasion, connections to her spiritual self, and the ideal of pacifism from the air bender culture. This causes several consequences and opens up new ideas to explore: 1- It expands on the damage Blood bending can do, as it could cripple the avatar. 2- It those wonders for Korra, as it gives her a new set of challenges she has to face and overcome as a normal 1 element bender. 3- Korra's fiery personality would clash with the Ari nomad's philosophy and air bending techniques. Air bending requires a more evasive and versatile mindset, a wisdom and innovative mind. It would give Korra a great character development in that direction, leading to her learning something akin to Iroh's lesson to zuko about the four elements. Both by applying her training in the other three elements to Air bending and vice versa once she recovers her powers back. 4- Air nomad culture is more spiritually connected than other bending styles (as show in ATLA), thus it would be interesting to see how Korra would develop her spirituality and her growth into the avatar as a spiritual figure when she is so severly limited.
Not to mention that her re-unlocking her elements may be instead used as a ‘reward’ of sorts for her because it can be implied that her mastery of airbending equates to her mastery of the spiritual self, allowing her to finally commune with her past selves. So yeah, not only does it ground her in many different ways, she also gets to work for her powers in order to gain them back. Much MUCH better payoff. Sadly the time restraints to pull this off the best it could be really does hamper this sorta story telling.
this was one of the many unfortunate consequences of planning the first season to be a stand alone mini series. A lot of lok's problems could have been addressed had they had an actual direction planned for the entire series
My biggest problem with Mako is that for the first two seasons, he's just reduced to being Asami or Korra's boyfriend and isn't allowed to be a real person. They try to fix this in later seasons but by that point it's too late.
I’ve always thought it would be significantly more effective if the original characters were discussed more, especially in book one. Like, perhaps Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko are all mentioned and treated like national heroes early on (not shown in person, maybe through statues or mentions), but Sokka and Suki go unmentioned completely, with their connection to the war lost from history and their absence stressed. As Korra unites nonbenders and benders, she could restore this conundrum with Sokka and Suki’s names brought back into public knowledge, showcasing that the ending of the war, and by extension the building of Republic City, would never have happened without their contributions. It would be a great allegory for how the victors write the history books, and, could compare to how minorities are often unmentioned in them
you people need to realise that TLOK is not a sequel to A:TLA. it's it's own freestanding story with it's own Avatar. You wanna see how the world was after A:TLA? read a comic
@@user-mf5kn8bn9hIt is a sequel to ATLA. Not a direct follow-up but it’s not some spin-off. It’s a shared world and Korra demonstrated very poor world building and interconnectivity between the shows, which is nonsensical given the impact TLA’s characters had on the world.
I think the problem with "how rarely minorities are mentioned in them" is that they're rarely those generals and leaders of note. Which is incredibly common in empires as well where one ethnic group leads the society. The hard truth is that they're rarely ever at the level of making such large changes. Frederick Douglas is such a relevant figure in the anti-slavery movement because he was one of those rare black leaders. Though you didn't see congress have a significant black population at all during that period. And that's a relatively high level of society who still don't often get mentioned since they're simply not that relevant to the conflict as an individual and only relevant as "congress" or "the radical Republicans" Not to mention how most states historically are largely ethnically singular, thus minorities not even being present.
I like the minimal use of atla characters early on. It needed to be made clear that korra is her own unique avatar and while yes she can rely on aang as a mentor as he did with Roku. And it’s not like the show just ignores how important aang and the people around him were as there are statues of them everywhere. Not just aang but we see statues of toph and zuko showing yeah these people at clearly being shown as the founders and legacy of republic city . So it’s already subtly implied that just like the founding fathers in America aang and the rest of team avatar have been mythologized over the years, but I like it never gets directly brought up and its only ever just hinted at.
I always found it weird how kept in the dark Asami was about Hiroshi being an equalist. You’d think with how hard they both took the loss of her mother/wife, Asami would feel at least have some bender resentment and Hiroshi possibly encouraging or straight up indoctrinating her into the equalist movement. Hell, they even state in the show that Asami was taught self defense to better “protect herself”, the writers could have easily slipped in something about her learning it so she can fight in the equalist movement. Also after reading through her wiki, the writers originally planned for Asami to be an equalist spy but ultimately decided she’d be an ally so at least they considered the antagonist route!
Her training could have made her a compelling surprise reveal when korra finds out she's been living a double life, secretly training with another pro-bending team. Imagine the reveal in the grand final when tge fire ferrets come up against the opposing team and korra realises her love interest had been a part of a rival pro-bending team
@@pandemisis3017 Exactly, and her joining Team Avatar would feel more validated by her slowly unlearning her equalist roots and learning to trust benders. and as an extension, the world. It would actually give her a more fulfilling arc instead of her being just another side character.
I wished they didn’t change this, and maybe give her a redemption arc to be on the team later like with Zuko. To be honest I find “canon” Asami to be boring.
I really like the change that you made to the end with her not miraculously getting her bending back but being given the hint that there are mysterious forces and spirits out in the world. It's a nice setup for her to regain her bending over future seasons and, in doing so, gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for each element and the cultures and histories surrounding the elements.
It's a great set up for season 2, actually, with harmonic convergence and the origin of the avatar and bending as we know it. makes it feel less cheap imo.
Love the fact that korra doesn’t get her bending back (At least in the first season). Shows real consequence and could open up possibilities of exploring the world like aang did. In legend of korra they don’t really go anywhere, korra only maintains peace in republic city. Opening up the possibility of traveling the world to potentially find other lion turtles to get her bending back would be so much more interesting. Could also open up ideas to harmonic convergence and her getting her bending back that way as well.
It would also add even more drama and tension if the show was based primarily around pro-bending, so korra would have to face the possibility that she might have to leave the fire ferrets.
This is exactly what I had thought. The harmonic convergence would have been the perfect opportunity to give her powers back, when she had restarted the avatar cycle.
Honestly that sounds cool, Korra loses her bending and is stuck with only one or two elements then the next season is Korra getting the flashback of the first avatar. So they go on a journey to find the lion turtles in hopes of getting her bending back
@@thalmoragent9344 They tried to add consequences in season 4 from 3, which was the PTSD, but it felt rushed and not finished. Not only she proved before that losing didnt bother her that much but she got beter faster and a bit out of no where.
I love how you changed bolin from just being mainly used for comedic relief to being a well rounded and insightful person. I never liked the dynamics before where it seemed like the story kinda just split Sokka's character between Asami and Bolin
I like how you made Bolin so important for Korra in this story, and like how you handled Korra and Asami in this one too, Mako felt like Katara to me with trying to find closure in finding the person that killed their parent
While it’s not within the limits of season 1, it always frustrated me that the non-bender equality seems to be forgotten about in the second and later seasons.
That's the major issue of season 2. We get spirit vines they got to learn to live with beginning of season 3, but then we leave republic city asap. And don't get me started how they uno reversed a genocide! No you do not get to do that! Not without exploring the reconstructed nature of the air nomad culture way more then they did! Season 2 feels like nothing happened of consequence, no connection to season 1 or 3, like Mike and Bryan just wanted to forget that season even existed beside more airbenders to play with. to be fair most of the fan base want to forget it too :\ Season 3 & 4 are the best seasons when taken together because they narratively feel like they have some flow and time to breath though its clear they didn't fully narratively planned and explored different ideas.
Agreed. It was this huge thing that seemed to stem from tensions way older than republic city, maybe even older than the war. And then it just, never came up again?? Even when rebuilding the city? It took a massive movement just losing its leader to almost completely fizzle out? The only thing that changed was the council, but there was no analysis of the ripple effects of the movement, no discussion of how it impacted daily life in small ways, not just bureaucracy. In later seasons it’s like it never happened. Which could be read as the suppression of dissent by the state, but that’s my interpretation and the show itself was reasonable pro-cop and pro-state. Like this was a REVOLUTION, one that threatened a lot of the underlying stability of republic city. Bending was used in industry so large groups of people losing their bending and police brutality and corrupt govmt are all massive things that impact the fabric of the society, not to mention the collective trauma of it. I feel like it’s reasonable to say that a huge conflict in one season shouldn’t be able to just be written out in regards to its influence on the rest of the show.
As the comment thread right above this one says, the whole reveal of Amon being a bender just is a disappointment. It really feels like the writers couldn't address the nuanced position of bender vs non-bender. it really should have exploded in S2. I get it, they only had one season initally but it makes that even more obvious with such disconnect between major plot points.
I know right? Like, if you were going to abandon the whole concept anyway, you should have just trashed the idea at the start and focus the show more about pro-bending
Don't get me wrong, I love LoK - great characters and fantastic world....... but PLEASE tell me the new Avatar Studios is beating down your door right now with wheelbarrows full of money
@@LuisSierra42 Shows how much avatar studios is worth when they aren't even hinting at anything in production and when they sell adaptations rights to Netflix they let the creators leave. They already sold avatar to a movie production that has to be wiped from history. I feel like avatar could be on par with Star Wars but the intent is nowhere close.
I've never liked the trope where someone loses their power, only to have it returned within a few scenes. It's like trying to condense a meal down to being "dinner flavored" when there is so much more to be explored in that identity.
I love this. Especially giving Korra having to deal with having her bending removed earlier, because I felt that sadly was not enough of a thing. She just seems to get over it for no real reason, and I like her getting air bending being a trump card is genius. You thinking of doing a follow up on how your changes to this would effect future seasons?
I just didn't like how she just kind "Got it" after she lost all her other options, I mean if it was after loosing her other bending and she was forced to train to become better with air-bending, forcing her learn the spiritual side of the art then I'd be okay with it but she doesn't she just gets it and never struggles with it again
Yeah that's a dumbass take right there. ALL of Korra's villains are WAY more sympathetic and complex than all of ATLA villains with the exception for Zuko.
Even better than a sympathetic villain, there could have been a rival on a powerful opposing team of pro-benders that the fire ferrets would have to overcome in order to win the pro-bending championship
this rewrite literally gave me CHILLS when you describe amon taking korra's bending away, i could just hear her scream, her torment, her horror, the literal chills. and then later she gets airbending bc she meditates?? controlling her body's temperature???? like zuko's breath of fire???? IM SCFREAAAMIIIIING DSKGDKG and then having her and asami fight but she's using the airbending tactic of dodging, exactly how aang did in episode one? i saw it so clearly. i fangirled so hard. AND THEN THE REVEAL OF ASAMI BASICALLY BANNING THE AVATAR FROM REPUBLIC CITY???? MY JAW DROPPED!!!!! BRO!!!!!! I WOULD GIVE MY KIDNEY TO SEE THIS REWRITE BE ACTUALLY ANIMATED OMG
Even though the rewrite is amazing, I still like the shows first season. There were a lot of flaws that this rewrite addressed, but I still liked it. I want to see him rewrite the TRULY shit season now. *Sadistic Grin*
Wow this gives so much more depth to all of the characters, especially Asami, I really like her even though it felt like in the show there wasn't much to her. And I love the addition of Noatak's scar coming from Yakone, that felt really interesting
I always though it was funny how they decided to give that arc for her during S4, since season 1 seems to fir so much more with herself at that point and what is going on.
@@adv78 Eyy I also thought the same thing! I have a feeling they wanted to bring this arc earlier rather than in season 4 but unable to do so due to production issue/beef with nick
Thank You! Out of all the problems that season 1 had, that final "Aang giving back her bending" always felt wrong. How you rewrote it offers a hopeful future without the complete happy ending.
Assuming we pick up from where he left off, it's primed for season 2. She'd naturally be back home and exploring the first avatar's origins as well as learning more about the spirits makes a lot of sense. She'll feel like an outsider in her own home both cuz avatar and only air bending surrounded by water benders. And katara pointing her towards the lion turtles for guidance and thus learning about the first avatar from them would be logical since she no doubt knows Aang learned about spirit bending from them.
I would love to see the "Dark Avatar" idea play into this. Season 2 was by far the worst, but it could be helped if Unalaq/Vaatu better reflected Korra. Giving him all four elements (albeit only Water mastery and need for the Avatar State to use the other three) would be dope when Korra no longer has any but Air.
I think "Dark avatar" better keep for another avatar, an avatar that just too determine with order and start to suppress another, avatar series and spirit should be grey instead of good vs bad like nowadays, like the original story, spirit and avatar isn't just bad or good
In my opinion, it would be interesting if the Dark Avatar was a member of the Red Lotus (I know that Unalaq was one, but he left it for his own ambitions). The theme of anarchism suits Dark Avatar very well, as Vaatu is the spirit of chaos.
This is amazing. The only thing I'd consider changing is still having Mako and Bolin grow up on the streets by losing their parents earlier. Having it be due to an equalist riot (or nonbender riot before the term equalist came about) is a great change. And Mako could still have those reality check moments of not understanding his inborn privilege, because like many in the city he was dealt a terrible hand growing up in poverty, but he was able to pull himself purely because he was a bender. Having him realise that it was probably more to do with being born with superpowers and less to do with his own willpower would humble him and accomplish a lot of what you were going for with that scene. Maybe it's unnecessary, but I've always found it compelling that Mako and Bolin went from street rats to bending celebrities.
What (as I understand it) was narratively intended (even if it wasn't narratively executed) was that all the young protagonists define themselves by a role that doesn't really fit or always work. Because he essentially raised Bolin while trying to shield him from the worst parts of their lives, Mako defines himself completely on protecting and providing for his brother who...doesn't really seem to need him anymore. Bolin couldn't really help much, but he could always make his big brother smile (or at least relax) by being happy. Only now that things are finally going well that doesn't seem to help anymore. Mako doesn't resent his little brother's independence, but now that it's arrived he's kinda lost.
I'm imagining a really powerful moment at the end of the season. "It feels like selfishness for me to be alive. The next avatar will have all four elements and I have... just one. If I go away then the world would be better off..." and then dealing with that depression. Only AFTER her resolve held true would Aang show up and tell her she spiritually mastered herself.
When I started Legend of Korra, I thought Amon was such a cool villain and the conflict was really intriguing. I also thought he was going to be the villain for the whole series like Fire Lord Ozai…. then she defeated him in the last episode of season one just when it was getting good. I was so bummed honestly 😭
It would have been better if Amon was some sort of corrupt official tampering with the pro-bending circuit, fixing matches and whatnot. Then Korra would have to find some way tp deal with him in order to have a fair shot at winning thw championship
thats just a consequence of the way it was planned/contracted, the first season was going to be the only season, and it kinda shows with the second season being much more inconsistent.
I personally would have liked to see Korra learn that she needs to trust the people around her better and that she's not the best, smartest, or most qualified for everything. She does kind of learn this but also seems to repeatedly disregard these lessons for no reason. I also would have liked to see more development for Mako and Bolin. Mako wasn't a very interesting character and I found myself forgetting his name after I finished the show. Bolin was a better character but he still mostly boiled down to comic relief.
i, agree. i would've like it more if the writers would write about the brothers' little flashback just like the original avatar; where some characters would have flashbacks and we get to understand with them.
The Benders vs Non-Benders plotline had so much potential, precisely because ATLA didn't do too much with it. An entire 3 season show could have been made about this one conflict.
And the Lieutenant had such a cool style without really having importance. This gives Asami more presence in the minds of viewers as a serious opponent while giving her a more memorable fighting style
Nah. If you make them 100% correct they cease to be villains. They all had a point. But it's VERY important for the sake of conflict that they were radicalized and they took things too far. Arcane is widely considered the best piece of animation of 2021. Are you gonna argue that the opposing characters are just 100% correct? Whether you consider the real villain to be Silco or the Piltover council, or both, they're still both radicalized people who fight for something they genuinely believe in. Same could be said for Amon, Tarlokk, Zaheer, Kuvira, to an extend even Unalaq.
yeah that's kinda some nonsense. Spirit Bending was established to be something only a few people could do, so giving Blood Bending a similar utility just ruins that idea. Why learn to Spirit Bend when all you gotta do is be a morally ambiguous Water Bender?
@@Stephetheon Yeah and blood bending was shown to be evil enough for its own sake, it doesn't need an extra even more evil ability behind it, it just loses some of the original threat as a result of the power creep
Or they could have had blood bending only block bending temporarily or until a chi blocker hits the right spots to unblock it. Having it be "spirit bending, but bad and no large character struggle" is odd
All Korra villains get crazy nonsensical power buffs that make it impossible for her to defeat them directly for no particularly good reason. The show asks you to embrace that; I have trouble doing so, and that affects the quality of the show for me. The whole show - especially the camera - just revels in watching Korra get beat up, suffer, then get saved and win by contrivance rather than by any decision she made or insight she had. I just do not get how people can watch this and find it inspiring. It’s a beautiful show, it sounds great, full of all kinds neat ideas and aesthetic appeal. But it just revels in pain, waves away the cause at the end of each season, and leaves Korra even more broken.
Okay I have a lot of thoughts after watching that. Overall it was so good. The idea of Korra losing her bending midseason is absolute genius. Also the line "you can go, you're one of us now." Chills Personally, I always wished Jinora was a bigger part of team avatar. Maybe age her up a little and give her a bit of a rebellious streak. Maybe she sees Korra as her chance to get off airbender island and see the city a bit. I just feel like airbending was a little underrepresented during the first season.
I was thinking something along the same lines! I've always been invested in Jinora. Like, when Tim mentions that both Jinora and Korra sneak out to the Pro Bending show, I loved that and wish it were expanded upon a little like this. I feel like they could have had an interesting earlier-show arc where she just wants to be a little more free, incidentally acting a little more like Aang, while Tenzin continues his strict ways with her and he could see a sort of parallel between his free-spirited daughter and teaching Korra. Katara could make a couple of comments on how much her granddaughter feels like Aang, yadda yadda
Very true. I really like Jinora too and considering the season was the book of air, it really lacked a bit more emphasis on the element as a whole. Considering how spiritual air bending culture is, there could’ve been a natural evolution into the next season’s spirit focus. Have her continue to learn her better at air bending, learn about the spirit world, connect with Aang and the other past avatars, meet Iroh too, and all on top of regaining her ability to bend the other elements with a new appreciation and understanding of them.
this was so riveting??? like, a GORGEOUS rewrite, i’m so upset this isn’t the show we actually got !! but i’m very glad this version of the story exists in some form. i’d love to see a season 2 fix if you haven’t done one already!
I love it. It always irked me how the equality movement just stopped after Amon got defeated and how the show never ....showed...us examples of systemic oppression towards non benders except as a result of Amons terrorist attacks. It's this thing that every form of media does, they have a villain with valid points that society should address but make him a murderer or say he didn't really believed in anything to dismiss the real problems
What's funny is that the show showed us the opposite. The richest guy in the city is a non bender all the criminals besides the equalists are benders, implying that most poor people are benders too.
Yeah if the antagonist has an actual valid point, making them all evil is cheap and lazy writing to justify beating them down and their progress to achieve their goal. It’s actually a very dangerous thing to portray since it’s assuming that it doesn’t matter how important a movement or it’s valid points are, if its leader(s) are baby eating cultists than we should just completely dismantle and shut down that movement
@@ImTitan16 yeah that really needs to be flipped if they really want to show us this is an issue. Korra needs a moment where she actually talks to an equalist. You show the power plant with the lightning benders. Show an equalist tell korra he was laid off from that job because a fire bender could do his same job more efficiently for the same amount of money. have him explain how amon gave him purpose when him n his family were down on their luck. this could be a scene where they capture an equalist or she ends up talking to people in disguise at one of her rallies.
That's because there was no systemic oppression of non-benders, that was just all a lie created by Amon, the re-write seems to not understand this. Amon had no valid point nor did his movement independent of him. The show openly shows us with the main characters, Mako, Bolin, and Asami that Amon's movement is a lie. They're not just exceptions either there are plenty of other examples. Bender could not take over the jobs of non-benders because benders are by far the minority, also the advancing technology has done nothing but make life better and easier for non-benders
@@The1Ryu yeah but the show never said that. No where in the show is it said that amon was lying. Plus if he was lying why did so many non benders agree with him? If there was no problem then there would be no equalist
I would change the end in this little way: Aang and the past Avatars say they can't restore her bending back, but that they can lend her theirs. Aang unlocks Korra's avatar state, where she can bends all elements. She is still left with airbending in her normal state. Korra goes in a new journey trying to find herself and master the avatar state.
I think that would have received too much fan backlash for it to feasibly be done. I think that having a season dedicated to Korra regaining the ability to bend all four elements would have been good though. Maybe even one where she learned to energy bend on such a level that she could undo whatever Amon did with his bloodbending, it could have even involved her seeking out the last lion turtle to be given instruction in energy bending.
Making Asami more interesting from the beginning is a great change, she's one of my favourite characters. Even though I really didn't care for both the love triangles early in the show, I liked how they never really pitted Korra and her against each other - they were friends, they wanted the same thing (for some unknown reason), but they never really took it out on each other. I hate when women are written that way. This rewrite, however, is done from the position of knowing they'll end up together, so it's probably a lot easier to develop their relationship in a meaningful way from the start.
Korrasami is non-canon. That shit was so forced. Shippers can’t read social cues. That’s where you guys got your ‘proof’ lol. Look at the LOK commits. That shit was so unloved. The fact you have to change it to ask it fit the inane ramblings of tumble shippers means it’s non-canon.
@@scottysbottom5769 Did you read the comics? The way it's done in the show is... *with room for improvement*, politely said, but they get more depth afterwards. But yeah, it's a shame. The Dragon Prince deals a lot better with its homoromantic relationships, but none of them are main characters. Maybe in the show they attempt after that? ;D
(Edit: To preface this, I genuinely love LoK and think the worldbuilding is mostly quite good.) Part of the issue I always saw with the whole classism focus during the first season is that the way they set up how bending manifests is pretty counter to how class inequality actually arises. Class is almost always *intergenerational,* typically arising due to inherited wealth/title/caste/etc. and with only occasional rise or fall in station. But it's been established in the Avatar world that while genetics play a *role* in someone being born a bender or non-bender, simple random chance also plays a large role. Aside from cases like the Fire Nation royal family putting so much effort into only marrying powerful firebenders or those with powerful firebender lineages, or the Air Nomads' hyperfocus on spiritualism resulting in their all-bender society, any regular family is going to have a mix of benders and non-benders. If every single bender has non-bender siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, in-laws, etc. then you wouldn't have the sort of social segregation and isolation which leads to those sorts of prejudices and societal divides unless there were extremely deeply ingrained religious or cultural enmity toward non-benders. There would certainly be some imbalance when it comes to opportunities for benders vs. nonbenders, but you'd be very unlikely to have whole slums of non-benders when many non-benders are inheriting the wealth and social standing of bender parents/family. Same goes for prejudice and stereotypes, it wouldn't make much sense for some metalbender cop to hassle a random non-bender and talk about how non-benders are inclined toward criminality when the metalbender cop standing next to him is likely to smack him upside the head and be like "Dude. My parents and one of my daughters are non-benders, jackass."
Good points! The more I look at this show the more shit-tier world building stands out. The writers wanted to talk about politics without first understanding any level of society, philosophy, history, or even questioning the status quo.
I mean, just because it doesn't translate good into reality doesn't mean such discrimination based on pure chance wouldn't be possible or even unrealistic. You even have a real life example of just that. Inherited wealth? Well historically, who was able, due to pure luck of genetics, to inherit wealth? Of course discrimination of non benders wouldn't translate 100% into sex based discrimination but the fictional world of Korra doesn't work like real life. But I have no trouble imagining it. And just like everyone having a mother doesn't stop sexism, benders having non bending relatives would probably not stop it.
@@messymessr Saying it's "shit-tier" is way further than I would go. I genuinely love the show and feel the worldbuilding and writing is quite good for the most part. I'm just saying that there could have been better ways to tell a story about classism than using bending for the allegory. If they did want to use bending as part of a discrimination allegory, a story about ableism could have been interesting and might have fit the worldbuilding a bit better.
Agree. I think both series does a great job showcasing non-benders in positions of power across all the nations. The there is no correlation between bending and social class as simply having the ability to bend doesn't necessarily make you good at it or provide any monetary benefit.
Not to mention how gangs and organized crime usually arise out of disenfranchisement or hardship. Having benders be the ones with systemic power, and then forming gangs rather than just abusing their relative power within society just...doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus the destitute levels of poverty of the brothers at the start of the series shows that in the society being a bender does not directly equate to getting out of poverty which also undermines the idea of treating bending directly as a class in this way. Idk, it all gets a lot messy if you look at it for more than a moment. I think the problem is that they decided rather late in the process to treat bending vs non-bending as a class issue within the world, rather than either extrapolating what a stratified society would look like in a bending world or thinking about the consistency and implications of posing bending as an empowered class. Either way could have worked, but they didn't really do either, so it comes a part at the seams
It does make Asami's character arc more interesting and it makes sense to have her as an antagonist in this season. However, there would be long term consequences for the rest of the series having her occupy the role as described here. I think she would, at least in Season 2, be reduced to a more minor role and wouldn't be Korra's companion or even necessarily an ally. Instead, it's more likely that she would be heavily involved in reforming Republic City's government and by Season 2 might even be president instead of Raiko. In other words, she wouldn't have time to travel around with the Avatar and wouldn't be forming a closer relationship with her at that time. Not that this is a bad thing, but her role in the series would be very different moving forward from Season 1. That's not to say that you couldn't have her on Team Avatar by Season 3. It would actually be a pretty good arc for Asami in Season 2 if she was president and Varrick successfully engineers a scandal that forces her to resign after she refuses to provide military aid to the rebels fighting Unalaq. Her Season 3 arc could then be about her getting over that humiliation and Korra could be help her with that, since she knows what it's like to have everyone lose faith in you and thus can emphasize with her.
Yeah, but do you remember what he said in the beginning of the video? They thought that this was only season that would exist, so he write it with this in mind. This being the only season, he is kinda purposefully making it not fit the future arcs you mentioned
I always loved the concept of season one, but I was really annoyed by how they brushed off the conflict between the benders and nonbenders. Those were real problems, and it made sense that the inequality would have taken place like that. That's why this rewrite makes so much sense to me. 28:00 made me tear up a little, and I wish that the show had taken this path. It provides so much more emotional depth for Korra that I didn't really get at first.
I love the fix you did for Mako and Asami's conflict and character development. 😳 and right on about not invalidating the Equalist's concerns by making one of their members a more nuanced character in the story. Also, aww man, how much better would LoK have been if there was less executive meddling. (Just for the record, I still love the show)
Was an immediate click for me… because Korra had so much potential but the constant shifts behind the scenes really made a mess in the writing (considering the lore takes a random unnecessary change between both shows and seasons) but the overall story is not the problem.
Also one personal fix would be to cut even the later “love triangle” (Mako, Korra, Asamj) by setting up the idea that Asami (keeping her as an equalist) has a thing for Korra as a person and struggles with her role as the avatar because of how benders act and the undeserved worship for the avatar as the master of bending. Then you could have Asami be someone who helps Korra see that she is more than just the avatar and her nonbender traits are what make her someone Asami thinks could actually help. This not only would set the ground work for their relationship later on (at the expense of the annoying Mako drama) but also would make there be a shift where Korra puts in more hard work in the mental and spiritual aspects of her role as the avatar than in her bending. This will mark the start of the more spiritual shift in later arcs (if we have to keep those overall arcs the same).
@@hannastewart1051 plus it opens up Mako for actual development as his own character rather than becoming the toxic boy they both like at first… you could focus on his progress as Bai Fong’s chosen heir for the police force, and likely create a bigger impact of season four’s main conflict. All while allowing them to build an actual relationship we get to see between Korra and Asami instead of just kinda dropping it in at the end after only lightly touching on them getting closer.
This is a great rewrite! I think my biggest gripe with the series as a whole is its dismissal of legitimate political concerns because the heads of the movements always took things "too far" and had their own personal deeply flawed ways of conducting their ideologies. There are very reasonable and valid origins for the antagonists' societal motivations but since they're depicted as unsalvageable villains it just kind of comes off like Korra and the gang are only maintaining the status quo or doing what they personally think is best without truly understanding those who are victims of the system. I love your integration of themes and concepts that come up later in the original show, and I'd be thrilled to see you tackle rewrites for the other three seasons if you choose to do so!
Does he need to begin a good video with low-key-cringey claims? No, Korra was not Good. Just like the Life-Action-Movie, hour-long Essays are made about it being laughably bad.
@@slevinchannel7589 There are only a handful of videos bashing Korra and they don't offer much insight. If Korra is so bad, then why is it so well acclaimed by fans, casual viewers and critics alike? Tim loves the show for a good reason, because it's an objectively well made and well written show. There are some hiccups, yes, but the good outweighs the bad. Then again, I guess that doesn't matter to whiners like you.
@@karimion2157 Buddy, you bring-up basically non-arguments, a lot of them, but can you prove it's not a dumbster-fire that is objectively much worse than most Shows, let alone the thing it meant to Copy?
The reason why the writers had to have Amon's ideology fail is because it wouldn't play out like this UA-camr thinks it would. Even in this rewrite many Equalists wanted benders to lose their powers and believing that 2 minute speech will change this is deluded. If the Equalists win they will depower or expel the benders, not just agree to live alongside them because a non-bender might get elected. Especially when they objected to benders because they were competing against people who could use literal magic, something that wasn't addressed in this rewrite. Also if the Equalists won but were happy to live with benders then they won't object to Amon. Especially they don't know he's a bender or he's still able to remove the bending of benders.
Me to however my main gripe was that i liked the villains more then the heros..... Thet just weren't that interesting also another problem i had with korra was with the lack of bending based technology and a kinda dislike the huge jump in technology not because i think that its unrealistic but because if another avatar series happens and there's another technology boom for the time jump were gonna end up with a avatar with a I-phone and a avatar series in the 2020's would lose that good ol aesthetic it had thats my opinion at least
@@nolanlong1979 i think that there was already a bending based industrial revolution during the 100 yrs war with ba sing se and of course the Fire Nation ... And a few years after the end of the war there was a more mechanical IR started in CraneFish town which result in what we see in LoK but still keeping some advantages with bending like getting electricity from lightning benders whom became more common after the war and at the end of LoK we see the premice of a new one when they start using spirit vines which will incredibly improve technology . And all that happening in a very short amount of time will indeed make the avatar world after Korra unnappealing for many
This really does deepen things a bit, with meaningful connections with not just characters, but also the world as things happen. Great job. I still love korra a lot, and I could definitely feel the pressure of trying to create a story vs not knowing if they'd even get another season, which is completely the higher ups fault.
right? it makes both of them deeper characters, and their relationship has a lot more depth (and spice, lots of spice if your girlfriend kicked you out of her city before you started dating)
True true! If the rest of the books are executed this well, they will end up in a much more developed and natural romantic relationship by the end of the series
Especially if at some point Korra had to find a way to balance her relationship with Asami, and her commitment to the fire ferrets and burning passion for pro bending
One thing I wished when I saw the first episode is that, when she was getting lectured about causing more damage than she was fixing, someone might have offered to take her up high (like above the bridge) to show her the complex traffic system, how it works so well, until someone steps out of line and then people get hurt. From seeing that, maybe she might then have appreciated more why there are so many rules and the dangers of breaking those rules. Sure, she might still choose to break a rule, but she'll do less damage if she understands what the rule is and why it exists. Also, she might understand that if she tries to stay within the rules, the nice authoritarian lady lecturing her (Lin Beifong) would actually be one of her greatest allies. Well, that's the only thing I might try to sneak into your rewrite.
"oh sorry I thought you were one of them" *takes a moment to brace myself for all the things this rewrite is gonna give me that the show couldn't* okay. Okay I'm good.
Ok wow, that conversation between Korra and Bolin at the end of Episode 9 is GOOD. I mean the whole video is amazing, of course, your quality is never anything but, but that one conversation literally just made me pause the video and take it all in. Such nuance and compassion and richness conveyed in a single conversation.
Korra only needed slight changes in writing decisions. That was always the disappointing thing about the show. You wonder how they will address an issue and then go "eehh" at the choice made.
Korra was so frustrating, solely because they would have these neat concepts and you were like, "okay, cool, hows this gonna be resolved and oh. well. thats one way to do it. i guess" It was so close, and yet so far.
My biggest gripe is that Korra doesn't feel like an achieved person. Her arc is a deconstruction of Aang's arc, his power and mastery is replaced by her clumsy confidence, and by the end she is not only not confident in herself, but she is not powerful. Which is fine in any other circumstances, but it never felt like she accomplished anything or got over her problems. In a series that explores the darkness of mental issues she should have come out of it stronger and more able to handle them, and she didn't. If I lived in her world, I wouldn't trust her, at all.
I also feel like she should have devolped sooner. She doesnt change much in the first 3 seasons, then in the forth she changes alot. It should have been more grudal
If this is your interpretation neither of you were paying attention. She is only confident now because she learned from and accepted her losses. She's also vastly more mature, level-headed and sympathetic in Book 3. Saying she only changed in Book 4 is a blatant lie.
I just see Korra as wasted potential with an avatar who isn’t nearly as exciting to watch as Aang. She’s the failed successor and because of that fact, the series suffers for a very large audience
I absolutely love this take on the story. There are so many good moments of philosophy between the characters and the emphasis on the non benders makes Amon's role in the story, as well as Korra's development, so much more interesting and connected
As a non-writer, just an avatar fan and consumer; I think this re-write is perfect and i would be thrilled to have this version aired, re-done as a fan project maybe? I would love to (and even pay to) watch this re-imagining of Avatar Korra. I am already hooked on how Korra gains her bending back in the second season and what her new role in the world is. One thought on the new Avatar that is coming in 2025: I think in modern age in the avatar universe, a good role for the avatar would be more focused on her spiritual side instead of the bending. The Avatar can rely on thousand of years of experience, with which he/she would become a really good counselor to different political institutions. Though I have no idea how this could be made into an interesting series :D
I always wanted them to explore Korra at her lowest more, having a character in a children's show basically contemplating suicide is a powerful moment and they could have done so much more with it.
I’m curious if you were to continue doing this style of videos how would tackle Korra recovering from the poisoning in S3 in this new timeline of yours? So much of a possible character arc and the drama of Korra losing her powers is covered pretty well in post Season 3, through out Season 4. I wonder how you would make the crisis of her losing her bending here in S1 unique and not make it feel like Korra is being forced to learn the same lesson over again.
i actually dont want him to create a whole new storyline without considering the existing seasons... like I would love to see how he would incorporate his new storyline into the plotlines of other seasons , like how he would makes things work when he has to mix korra's journey to get her bending back and s2 civil war, like would he include Wan's origin story as the avatar (and how he would modify it to fit his story) to korra's journey to fully becomes the avatar again?
Well considering that she didn't exactly learn anything in S1 bc she got her bending back due to magical plot reasons, her S3 arc shouldn't be a big deal. With HFM's changes, however, I think that he'd have to re-write a shit load of stuff to even begin to make the entire storyline work. S2 really screwed a lot of lore up and messed with even more character-level stuff, so he'd have to fix that first. It's like HFM walked up to the twin towers after 9/11 and started rebuilding them by himself. He's gonna have to do it from the ground up, and it'll take awhile.
Probably how i wished the show actually handled it. Korra doesn't need to recover physically from some left over poison that's the cause of her problems. It's the fact she's traumatised and unable to cope with it. She's physically fine, but mentally an absolute wreck. Maybe She has trouble waterbending because she cannot let her mind 'flow' without her trauma being triggered. Or the heat of fire reminds her of being fucking chained over lava!
I also love the connection between kiyoshi and toph made here. Kiyoshi created the dai Lee in order to establish order and create peace but they were soon corrupt and feared. Similarly we see Toph’s metal bending police created in hopes of establishing order and protecting those in need, soon becoming biased and targeting non benders (also a nice parallel to real world police brutality and injustice).
Before watching: I feel like korra's arc of not being able to airbend due to her personality and seeing her take those lessons and use them in pro bending and then, only when shes at her lowest point discover her air bending is a strong story. I think moving it an episode sooner and maybe next ep talking with tenzen and working spiritually to regain her lost bending. Either over a whole episode by gaining them one at a time on a spiritual journey and hint at the past which is expanded on in season 2 or in a partial episode thing where she has some sort of spiritual realization. It would be a personal experience of growth. After watching: I see your point of having Korra no longer have her powers at the end but you said one of the rules is the season has to be self contained. As in there is no expectation for a season 2. I'd argue that Leaving Korra entirely without her other elements does two negative things. It passes up a great moment where she can actually explore the spiritual side of being the avatar and present a really strong shot at personal growth to balance the fact the rest of the season is focused on the conflict around the main character. And while she's having this experience the city is going to hell in a handbasket around her and there's not much she can do yet because she *needs* to do this. It could be set up as making the avatar look negligent despite her claims to be trying to help because what she's doing doesn't initially look helpful to an outsider. I'm not sure how to fully articulate that thought but I think you know what I mean. Having Korra getting kicked out of the city and having her relationship with various characters permanently affected, Korra getting kicked out of the city founded by the avatar, etc is permanent punishment enough I think. All that is great to convey the consequences of everything that happened. It still makes the point needed. As for gaining the power back, it shouldn't be an easy deus ex machina, but a full episode dedicated to the spiritual growth required to achieve that after going through at least an episode without her powers. Hell, have Amon take her powers away in the first encounter and let her go through the spiritual awakening for the *entire* rest of the season. Maybe she's not back to full power either. Having them sealed has caused blockages in her energy that she has to overcome, but it comes full cycle in that now she has to work at the other elements to bring them up to her level of airbending... But this also puts her back into the position that she has again become a symbol of everything wrong in Republic City and acknowledge that. She has to go out into the world as a weakened but realized Avatar with the understanding that not everyone may want her and more empathy because of it. EDIT 1 YEAR LATER: I also want to point out that the trope of the main character permanently losing their powers at the end of a season is an EXTREMELY tired trope and rarely does it feel deserved. I've seen it time and again in books and shows and movies and it often pollutes the message because it's not done correctly. It has the potential to be done correctly here but it needs to be weighed against the avatar regaining their powers as a symbol of overcoming as a message. I think the only show that did it correctly was (and trying to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it) the one with the jerk with no eyes and the weird door and the the one grumpy character with the prosthetic arm. If you know, you know. The loss of power there DIRECTLY served the plot and was vital for the MC to get the one thing they wanted throughout the entire story and the sacrifice was made out of love and not out of obligation. Therefore it meant way more.
I don’t see how Korra discovering air bending the way she did is strong. She discovered it only though necessity but that isn’t how airbending works. It should’ve had something to do with letting go or going with the flow
@@umwhathat's one classical way to learn Airbending. I always liked that there were different forms of the same bending, but for obvious reasons we never really see more than traditional Airbending. Korra's Airbending for the rest of the series would always feel almost like firebending: fierce and precise, used in an aggressive form to push back, rather than as an evasive measure. I always thought it would have been interesting to delve more into that "style of Airbending" somehow. Maybe through old air temple scrolls?
@@raze2012_ I see what your trying to get at - but the show didnt even do that. Like yeah, what if there was a dissident Airbending style called 'Storm style' or 'Tempest style' that is an expression of chaos, that the Air Monks tried to suppress, and Korra rediscovers it. Maybe the storm style would actually allow Airbenders to brew lightning, and so it was deemed too dangerous. But no , theres no secret airbending style , Korra just tried really hard and deus ex airbending kicked in for the plot.
@@raze2012_ but we never see that brought up again ever in the series? the whole point of the entire season was that she couldn't airbend because the way airbenders are is so counter to her upbringing. humble, free, and always changing things up to find that trickity trick to win, vs korra, who was brought up full of herself, with no freedom at all, and solving every problem with a punch. the show even has a beautiful scene where she learns to move like the leaf in probending, showing that it's *not* that traditional airbending is wrong, it's korra, AND that korra can learn. and then that just gets dropped, and she learns to... airbend with a punch. there's no connection in that scene to how airbending works at all, the same way bolin lavabends. he's at his lowest point, and suddenly it just works for no reason. compare that with toph's metalbending, where we understand immediately exactly why metalbending exists, and why toph is able to do it. they did it with the be the leaf scene- they could've done it with korra actually unlocking airbending too.
The only part I'm confused about is why Asami was helping them as much as she was (prior to the betrayal & even prior to her talk with Mako). I get that she felt conflicted but still. Maybe it was explained & I missed it though.
I got the vibe that her "helping" was often setting them up for traps. Like her giving Mako the map was immediately followed up by Mako being attacked by equalists, so it seemed to me like Asami was setting him up.
Lol considering a noir spy genre, it would make sense of asami is helping to get close and to learn Korra's weakness. That is until she goes native and switches sides
Was this written to work with your “Fixing Legend of Korra Season 2” video and will you be writing up any changes to season 3 and 4 in the future? Loved the video!
even though Amon is my second favourite villain (Zaheer will always steal my heart as number 1) I was really disappointed to find out that Amon was just using an advanced form of bloodbending to take away peoples bending. when we left off in the original series, aang had learned a new sort of spiritual bending to take away the firelords abilities, and i was expecting some kind of extension or exploration of that method going into korra. something more elementally neutral, something that could maybe even be learned by anyone - unlike bending that was essentially inherited. it felt like such a strange change of what i had been anticipating.
I think what they went with works better. Amon was using illusion to warp the truth in his methodology and bending. It ties together well. If it was something that could be learned by anyone, then it would be more interesting for Amon to just be a non-bender. Also its just more interesting that in a world of magical abilities there are things that can just be made up in it too and believed with smoke and mirrors.
@@SLYKM In addition it could create future problems, more Amons, it would lose its punch. Maybe unlike the technic Aang uses, Amon's method has flaws, with enough spiritual connection or mediation to open chakras someone can regain their bending on their own. Cause I subscribe to the theory of Amon using bloodbending to block chakras.
@@baconator_x4098 Ooh, this could also explain how Korra was able to use air bending again. I have to rewatch this show to really remember smaller details, but she was able to bend again on her own without needing to be "healed." Right? Lol
@@SLYKM Here is an idea: Among is still tarrlok's brother and yakon's son, but he was born a non bender. Abused and scarred by his father, he eventually run away, heck, maybe even kills his father, and go on a journey, eventually learning, either by himself, or from a lion turtle, the art of spiritual bending, like aang learned it, and manage to take people's bending away. Maybe in this version he is the older, yet failed brother, while tarrlok is the prodigy, though unlike the original series pair of older failure and younger prodigy, perhaps in this version tarrlok always tried to be gentle with his older brother, who couldn't bend, and tried to help him, while Amon grew ever more distant and frustrated, taking his anger over the world, and on his little brother.
This sounds so amazing I would definitely watch this. I feel like you hit the nail and gave these characters proper personalities and goals. I love the twist and style of storytelling you went for. Bravo!
this is why I hate people thinking he has "the right idea but the wrong methods" like please, bending has been around for 10 thousand years and so have nonbenders, they have ALWAYS been treated like this and always had to sttrugle in a world built for benders. The fact that people only started paying attention when a BENDER was speaking in favor of nonbenders really says a lot. (Of course ppl didn't know Amon was a bender but it was his ability to take away bending that got everyone's attention) Everything Amon did had to be done for them to be heard, and also he is the only Lok villain whose plan didn't involve any killing.
How would *you* have rewritten Amon and what do you think they did really well? To be honest, I think Amon is probably the best villain in the series' history. ~ Tim
I don’t recall Spirits actually giving anyone abilities it was only the giant lion turtles who gave the ability to bend, it would have been interesting if spirits tried to possess benders and non benders because of 100 years of neglect despite Aang’s efforts
My rewrite (that I've actually been working on, mind you) primarily focuses on fixing the series' awful politics and themes. To that end, I made a focus out of Amon not being the main villain, instead making him a fakeout villain who seems like a scary bringer of chaos at first, but instead it turns out he's bringing an extremely necessary shake up to upend the failure of a society that he was created in. Instead of a gangster's son, I made him a doctor who learned blood bending as a tool of healing, then honed its offensive skills by hunting down and using it on the gangsters who'd harmed his patients. So he has that intimidation factor as he's essentially a serial killer with methods that are kept mysterious and a notably frightening appearance, and between the testimony of the victims he's depowered and the word of his followers proclaiming him the herald of equality, rumors circulate of him as this enormous threat that could potentially endanger any bender, portraying him as a self-righteous vigilante who appointed himself a judge and executioner at the same time. And in the wake of the fear generated by Amon's rise to prominence, enter Tarloq, an opportunist looking to further boost his own public support among the ruling class. And with his promises of protection against Amon, he's able to institute a covert fascist takeover at the expense of non-benders, making him the most loved man in the city among benders and pulling the wool over the eyes of Korra, since she believes all the rumors owing to her sheltered upbringing and the stories of Aang's exploits leading to her seeing Amon as just the same kind of threat. And when she's eventually captured by the equalists and bound to a chair, her body paralyzed by chi blocking, Amon doesn't threaten her. He takes off his mask, and speaks to her as an equal. I also really like the "You're our Avatar too" line, but in my version, it's Amon who says it, not just some random civilian. What he says shakes Korra to the bone, not because it frightens her, but because for the first time in her life, it makes her question everything she thought about herself, everything she thought she was. Amon, seeing her struggles in her expression, takes it a step further, and uses his bending to restore her faculties back to normal, and unties her. "I am not interested in threatening you, young Avatar," he says, "I'm asking you to decide for yourself what you really believe. I've made my case to you, and whether you believe me or not, I will not stop my mission to bring justice to this city, on behalf of those people whom it has spent decades oppressing." And Korra, unsure in the moment, gets up and leaves. Next couple episodes focus on her struggling to decide what's the right thing to do, getting exposed to the true barbarism of Tarloq and all the people who'd sooner throw their lot in with his iron boot than see their own positions threatened, and when she finally encounters Amon again amidst an attack like the one on the bending arena, his men take fighting stances, expecting her to attack them, while he merely cocks his head, waiting to see what she chooses. And she holds out her hand to him, as he takes it, she calls back to that line from Kyoshi: "Only justice will bring peace." From then on, the story centers on Korra fighting alongside the equalists, with Tarloq and maybe even Lin as their primary opposition (though Lin can probably be talked down with a similar approach). I think this approach fixes one of the biggest problems in Korra, which is just the awful approach it has to its themes. And it's where I introduce the he theme of the series: that the Avatar can't just be a protector of stability, that only prolongs the problem, and instead they may need to actively break the existing social order to do the right thing and pursue a more just world. Balance is not the absence of tension, and that was a mistake many avatars, Aang included, fell into just because it's the easy intuitive answer, when in reality it was wrong. The Avatar needs to be more than that, they need to be the voice of the people who can't speak for themselves, and Amon is the first to teach Korra that, a lesson she'll continue to learn even from her enemies as they apply it in new ways in later seasons.
I love the second paragraph, and even though it doesn't focus on ATLA or TLoK, Pop Culture Detective has a great video called 'The Hidden Politics of Marvel Movies: Defenders of The Status Quo' that focuses on the same issue. I feel that in most fantasy settings there's no line between stability and consant conservatism and your approach would go a long way to remedy that.
But how does it end? Does korra stage a coup against tarlok? What happens to amon afterwards? He did commit crimes, so does he get jailed? What about the blood bending issue? I really like your take on the plot, but the resolution needs working on. But tbf, the show s resolution with the dual unliving of the brothers was garbage.
One of my main issues with the season was Amon’s secret identity. I thought he was a really cool villain that was actually a step up from the villains of atla (except Azula), but I really didn’t like the twist that he was Yakone’s son and a powerful bloodbender. I think it would have been cooler if his story he gave was true, and that he was a non bender who learned how to remove bending. My personal favourite explanation for this is that he encountered a dangerous spirit that taught him how. While this rewrite doesn’t consider future seasons, I do think that could have led nicely into the conflict woth the spirits in the second season, with that theme already established in the first season. The flashbacks to Yakone could have just been a warning about Tarlok, who was set up by Yakone to keep his bloodline and benders in power forever. I think if they had kept Tarlok as a threat around for longer, it would have made for a cool duality in the show. One bending villain and one non bending villain, and how Korra has to try and strike a balance between the two. While the practicalities of how Amon actually got his powers may have some problems, they don’t cause any more issues than removing bending with bloodbending, or bloodbending without even doing the motions of waterbending. I feel like the backstory not only makes Amon less cool by having him be just another bender, but my main problem is that it means he doesn’t actually believe in the cause he’s fighting for. Given his backstory, his actions make absolutely no sense, and it feels like they did it so they could make him a more blatantly evil threat so there isn’t any conflict about destroying him and his cause. It would have made for a much stronger story in my opinion if he was what he said he was, and if the backstory twist was scrapped.
This comment isn't getting nearly enough love. I totally agree, I think it plays right into what he's talking about with not taking the bender vs non-bender conflict seriously. Amon turning out to be a bender that's just taking advantage of non-bender sentiment in the city is (in my opinion) what made the writers feel justified in ignoring a more nuanced story about non-benders. Because the whole movement is delegitimized in two seconds with the big reveal, they get to say "it was never about non-benders anyways, it was about Yakone... so why would we even make that a compelling conflict in the season".
Having the connection to Tarlok just went underexplored/underutilized. I do think there's a lot that could have been done with it, up to and including keeping them as brothers, but having Amon be a nonbender. Additionally tying in his ability to remove bending directly to something with the spirits as suggested makes perfect sense with him running out onto the ice of the poles and perhaps stumbling into the spirit realm. Hell, it could even be Vaatu and/or Unalaq who taught him how to do it, more cleanly tying the seasons together.
i don't like him getting it from a powerful evil spirit as spirits being straight evil and good was something I really disliked from S2 but i agree on him learning the power from somewhere else. Plus it just being bloodbending is really meh to me. When you make something even more powerful than it was. I think him learning to take powers through being a spiritual individual would have been cool though.
@@coleflournoy5314 agreed, it's like setting up an emotional scene in a show or film and then turning it into a slap stick comedy moment, you lose all build up
As soon as she gained Airbending in "Book 1: Air", I thought the other seasons would be about relearning each element. Since she was practically born with the other 3, she never really "learned" them in the first place. Kinda disappointed when it ended with her just regaining them all deus ex machina style.
Korra was supposed to be a mini series, until Nickelodeon saw the success and gave them permission for a second season. They couldn’t end it on a cliffhanger, because it was supposed to be the end
I personally much preffer the route they went with, as just calling them the same names as existing "books" would be too confusing and actually relearning every single element could get tiring. She could maybe relearn acrossa rewritten season 2 (which is, after all, all about spiritual stuff) but beyond that no.
@@sowpmactavish Korra is not remotely a Mary Sue, even in the bad internet definition of "Highly competent/prodigy woman exists." That definition gets bandied about with vague references to training for their power, but then Korra spent literally her whole life training, we see her at the end of like 15 years of training in 3 of the elements. If Korra is a mary sue, so are Batman, Superman, literally every shonen protagonist, and Aang, who was crowned an Airbender master at age 12! Funnily enough though, those GUYS never get called Sues. For the actual definition, i.e. a character that exists solely for the author to fawn over to the point of warping the story to the sole purpose of glorifying the character (see, for example, most 90s anti-heros, who are all terrible people doing terrible things for terrible reasons, but they are the writer's favorite, so they get to be the hero), you cannot seriously present any part of what Korra goes through as constant glorifying. She loses all the time, she is never portrayed as perfect, literally the only thing that is unusual is her doing what should be common sense: bending multiple elements as a kid. Outside the air nomads who were 100% benders, how would literally anyone know their kid was a bender, unless they bent stuff, because it is a natural talent they have, and it gets used at some point. She just gets to do all 4, because the avatar.
They should have stretched it. Use it to explore old and new bending styles, their pros and cons(got to add them too), traditional vs spiritual, light strikes vs heavy, etc. There is a lot to explore here.
I LOVE this rewrite! I can definitely see your changes making for more effective and impactful storytelling. Not that I personally disliked season 1, but many of the points that I disliked like the rushed feeling towards the end, you really address well. I hope you can do more videos like this! I kind of want to try this exercise myself!
I'd be behind a rewrite of the rest of the seasons, honestly XD After watching 'How to Divide a Fanbase' by Closer Look, it made me realize that this should be a more populated genre. Sure, you get fanfiction/fanart. But it's easier to make a rewrite with a video essay and basic (or more than basic) understanding of story development. And, although I like Korra (mainly cuz it has older characters and dark (really dark) themes), listening to you rewrite the first season and mention flaws of the others made me hungry for these 'fixes'. Hungry to better understand how these elements within a story can be moved around to improve the narrative (and the 1st season was definitely, hypothetically, improved XD)
![Korra's Worldbuilding: How did technology advance so quickly? [ Avatar: The Last Airbender ]](/img/n.gif)
Hooooow would you have rewritten Korra? (for some reason my other pinned comment has vanished???) Go check out Campfire
~ Tim
I would say I would do most of the things that you changed, I would keep Soto alive and still have Asami being equalist too but a misguided one. Mostly things would play out the same except there would be a small scene of Lin Bafong Repairing her office and for a brief moment Metalbends a metal pen Indicating that Amon's bloodbending may not be permanent giving some hope to the people who lost their bending.
Season 2 would probably be somewhat of the same but Warren Veddick would also be an antagonist along with Unalog. Unalog still wanting to open the Spirit world but not working with Vaatu but being used by him, convincing Korra that with his spiritual knowledge he could help her regain her her blocked bending. Veddick being a non Bender tries to take advantage of Republic cities non bending supremacy and convincing Asami to partner up with him In order to fight Unalog and gain profit. This would force team avatar to work together again In order to stop a war between the North and the South. The team would for the most part be divided. Korra still living on air temple island not being allowed in Republic city, Mako still joining the police force Still wanting to find the guy that killed his mother and bring him to Justice, Asami using her company to help rebuild Republic city the nonbenders still looking to her as a leader which leads to her being kind of a politician than just a company head, and Bolin trying to figure out what to do with his life now that all 3 of his friends and him are not together. He would go with Korra to the Winter Solstice this festival and still meeting Eska and actually put some real development into that relationship, because I feel both Bolin's Romances were too rushed. That's all I got for now. What do you think?Also do you think you'll make a part 2?
Sooo much better than what we got. I love that there is actual lasting consequence and open-endedness. Beifong not getting her bending back hits the most for me as it makes her sacrificial scene actually mean something and not empty like the show did as they easily just gifted it back to her. This just adds layers of complexity for all the characters (like imagine Beifong trying to teach Korra metal bending in the future even though she can no longer bend) I like that Korra doesn't get her bending completely back leaving motivation to see a continued arch of a story. The series was a total mess and got worse each season even though there were extremely interesting ideas and concepts like a villain airbender. I'm super interested to see where you take the other seasons with this narrative
Did you edit the original pinned comment? Editing a pinned comment removes the pin.
The entire rewrite is soo freakin’ awesome - it’s fixing almost all of the core issues and criticisms while elevating the story to the next level.
However, I do think Asami is changed too much plus getting rid of her father entirely and the romance subplot as well even though they can be used to add in another element to the story that also elevates Bolin’s character too. Let me explain:
I don’t want to sound too political but there is a deep lack of meaningful non-straight relationships and personally being gay and coming to terms with it has been a long journey for me. Just a few scenes of them cuddling together, living their moments of blissful joy would make the viewers feel that it is normal and Okay to do so. Also I have always felt like a few of the writers wanted that from the get go but Nick didn’t allow for it. By replacing the Mako, Bolin & Korra triangle romance subplot with Korra and Asami that confide in each other and Korra finds more about herself and love - which also makes the change about Asami cut even deeper. As a bonus Bolin hitting on Korra and finding out she’s gay is kinda hilarious (and sad) which further makes his moments with her in your rewrite feel even more emotional as even though he wanted to be involved romantically, he still maintains a badass friendship with Korra and wants that because he genuinely thinks Korra is an amazing person. I know this change might reflect him as the “friend zoned” friend archetype of character that settles even though that does not fit his character but I’m willing to make that change.
Another change is to keep Asami’s father, and have her take Asami’s original role as a non-bender who supports the benders because most of his clientele are benders and it adds a layer to the reveal of Asami herself: that her father is the suspected Equalist supporter - which would fix the minor issue about how are the Equalists getting their cutting edge gear & tech without throwing suspicion on Asami herself.
Also another minor change but a significant one, at least in my eyes, is having Asami’s rabbit tattoo not be a thing rather that in her fight against Korra on top of the pro-bending stadium have Korra cut her twice in the right arm, one alongside Asami’s muscular bicep and the other one on her forearm plus a minor burn on the forearm as well. Why? Well since I have already pitched my vote for the Korrasami relationship it would kinda make having a rabbit tattoo moot when they have a super intimate relationship (duh), not to mention it also adds to the fact that Korra is getting used to using her wits more often rather than relying on strength alone - in the reveal scene from the rewrite; Korra catches Asami when she notices that she has bandaged her arm after their short kiss and hug (or holding hands, the PG 13 version if you think kisses are too spicy for a younger audience) and notices that she also has another cut in the forearm, right where the right hand of Amon had, and the burn. She puts two and two together and forces Asami to reveal the truth. You know instead of just seeing a tattoo while unique, that can be a super rare coincidence that - well maybe is popular in the equalist circles.
Besides that! Having Asami fight in the final confrontation alongside Amon, while he pins down Bolin & Korra while Asami handles the brooding guy, Mako, followed by the scene in the rewrite but instead of Korra surprising Amon with Airbending first - Asami wins her inner conflict and betrays Amon by shocking him, freeing Korra who then uses Airbending to surprise him even further, followed by the line in the rewrite and Korra/Asami double teaming against him. He still manages to subdue both of them - that’s when Korra gets through her inner struggle to resist Amon and win the fight against him. It makes her choice more significant in the moment and goes well with the love and friendship theme Avatar has.
And that is not the last of it - one final change would be to have Korra instead be the one to choose not to stay in the council. She decides that she is not ready to accept that responsibility and Asami agrees with her, adding in that Asami herself would give the speech and steer the Equalists towards non-violence. This change would also give her father a smol arc of him seeing and accepting his daughter’s decision and to get a seat instead of Korra on the council to bridge the gap between the benders & non-benders.
The final episode would end with Korra and Asami on a high place overlooking the city, where they both try to rekindle their relationship. There is a loss of trust that Korra is still super mad about but when Asami holds Korra’s hand in hers, it makes Korra open up a bit to become vulnerable again. To give a second chance, to come to terms with both their betrayals and how much they hurt each other while trying to do the right thing. It is in this moment when Korra also connects with the avatar state again - having the vision of Aang. Asami is worried about Korra after seeing that she spaced out with bright white eyes. Korra reassures her that everything is okay and that Aang came to her in a vision, and that she might be able to fulfil her duties as an Avatar and possibly get her powers back. So they both alongside Mako & Bolin, journey across all the nations as the previous Avatars and their friends had.
I know this is kinda a copium edit but I really love both my gals so much and having Korra be the one to choose aligns with the Air bending philosophy of free will. She has been trained by others, told that she is the avatar and she has duties by other people - but now she chooses this for herself. It also fits in nicely with Tenzin realising the same thing while training her as mentioned in the rewrite. To be able to embrace that side of her and to grow, it makes Korra feel even more grounded. Pun intended. (Since you know, no powers n all.)
Thank you Tim for showing so much love and care to LoK, a show despite being so flawed and glaringly so - is soo near and dear to my heart.
A "will they, won't they?" element should remain. It's almost like a mystery, it draws viewers a lot easier.
I really liked your rewrite. The characters feel like they have more of a character arc, there's no needless love triangle and the plot feels more tightly written. I think I especially love how you gave Bolin a bit more heart. He's good in the first season as you said, but him sharing more tenders scenes just makes me feel more than just the comedy relief character. Great job!
Honestly with the Bolin stuff; in this rewrite; he almost feels like a surrogate older brother for Korra, there to help her along her journey...
@@tophatsurgeon7469 Oh good point, and I think you're right. I do like that aspect of it.
ONE love triangle can be tolerable, at the start with the two brothers and Korra. But then it happened again, and again, and again.... bruh the last minute shipping of Korra and Asami literally came out of nowhere as there was literally no romantic build up or the slightest hint that these people weren't 100% straight. All we see is them having a girl's day out and writing letters when Korra is sick and away without the slightest hint that it was beyond platonic.
@@thecod2345 nah, amon arc wouldnt have sense with your logic.
Very well said. I have seen The Legend of Korra get a lot of hate more than it deserves, and some that is a little justified. Nonetheless I have seen a lot of people on UA-cam hate on Legend of Korra. While I am not the biggest fan of these type of videos involving rewrites on shows but this was pretty good and well handled without feeling too "fan-fiction-y".
Honestly, instead of the love triangle stuff, they should have first focused on them forming a closer bond as friends just like the original did, that way when the relationships came, we can get more invested. Like maybe it’s just me, but the romance was really distracting since I didn’t even get the vibes that they liked each other as people.
I 100% agree with you on this I feel like the love triangle would have been fine if they focused on the characters first and actually showed them becoming friends then they could've done stuff with relationships.
That and Korra betrays her relationship but without consequences it makes her less likeable. Ang would never have done something like that.
Having the Hero be morally questionable only works if they have consequences, otherwise they are just an arsehole.
Was my biggest turn off of Korra, the lack of consequences everywhere. No damage is permanent and growth is superficial unlike Last Airbender.
Not going into full on traditional romances made sense when they were yknow, 12. But they wanted to do an older more matured show, and given their increased age I would have also been okay if they gave like... hints of a potential triangle to make us go "oh no not that shit" but then just resolved it by having her not ignore how great of a date it was with Bolin and building it from there. They also did the setup beforehand with her personality type being earth, with her hardest element to master being air. I would have enjoyed a dynamic of him rescuing Ginger in the movers but getting into an arc where he's the damsel in distress out in the world.
Would have been nice for a strong female protag having a supportive no nonsense drama stable relationship through the whole show. subplot arcs about healthily building it maybe.
My big problem is the dishonesty. The avatar doesn't need to be perfect but if they aren't honest and betray the people closest to them, at any age, it shows they aren't a good person, and if there is no consequence why am I backing the Hero, especially when the Villian is fighting for Equality? The Hero a dishonest betrayer and the Villain a champion of the people? You could make it work, but Korra just didnt.
Tbh I don’t like them as people either after the travesty that was Book 1.
"finding an alternative way" is literal airbending philosophy, as shown in ATLA (Aang struggles with Earthbending because there is no alternative, no clever angle, he just has to move the rock). So making the Season that is literally called air have Korra grow to be able to do exactly that should be *the* way to write this.
No trickity trick.
Damn. Good observation. Also a little ironic when I think that the reason Toph metalbends for the first time is because her situation requires her to find an alternative way - a way she is specifically suited to because her blindness forces her to think past surfaces, even though she’d rather not.
@@muddlewait8844 I respectfully disagree with you Toph was still trying to push through using brute force but her style of brute force isn't as straight forward as others that combined with her having no other option which was the small push she needed to do this.
@@muddlewait8844 She is also stubborn enough to not accept "metal cannot be bent", so then she tries and eventually succeeds, which is prime earthbender philosophy.
True.
I’d add to Korra’s arc the understanding of being mindful. When she brawls in the city, she’s ruining stores and homes, let her try and fix the aftermath. After all, it is the avatars duty not only to protect, but also rebuild
Spiderman rules babyyyy😂
@@starrysoupwell his webs disolve after some time.
Im not sure what he can do with Rhino charging trough or with half the villains having some super power to destroy things.
She wouldn't do that tho cuz she's a dumbass
@@starrysoup What does Spider-Man have to do with this?
Remember how Avatars were traditionally supposed to be told at the age of 16? Aang only found out at 11 because war was approaching, and even then Gyatso didn't want him to be told because he deserved to have a childhood. They didn't find out by asking them to bend other elements either, in Aang's case they used the toy test to search for past lives.
Korra randomly bending multiple elements as a toddler is actually very interesting, but the show doesn't seem to care about it or even point out that it's unusual. Monk Gyatso is proven right as it derailed her life, got her targeted by Red Lotus members, and forced her to grow up too fast while out of touch and isolated. I would have liked some explanation for what caused Korra to awaken her abilities so early.
What do you mean doesn't care? You literally just acknowledged how it affected her life.
@@vetarlittorf1807 I mean no one questions it or even points out that her case is unusual, when its the first thing the monks discuss about Aang.
They mention the consequences, but never discuss the cause. And the cause could be as simple as "yeah it's pretty rare but some Avatars just do this".
@@alessandro348 They don't need to. The point is that we're SHOWN the consequences.
Tbh it never made any sense to me and I thought it was an unnecessary addition without a viable explanation. Her pride and attitude only made it worse and I found it hard to empathize with her till Amon almost took her bending on Avatar Aang Island
@@vetarlittorf1807 Yes they do, I'm not sure what point you think you're making.
"Hey why was Aang told he was the Avatar at 11 when that's supposed to happen at 16?"
"No reason, the point is that he was told, scaring him into running away"
The point is that a massive invasion was threatening to wipe out his people and they wanted to use him as a living weapon. It's important, necessary context.
Korra's equivalent is "she just started bending really early", which is fine, but no one even stops and goes "yeah kinda weird, typically we tell them way later".
It's very underdeveloped. We're never SHOWN the Red Lotus attack, and basically have to extrapolate off Korra being a lonely bubble child with no South Pole friends or grasp of money.
One thing that never got explored in the series, despite the potential for it, is the ideological conflict between modern and traditional martial arts. MMA (on which pro-bending forms are based) is much more effective in terms of pure combat but lacks the philosophical and spiritual aspects of traditional schools. I would have loved to see this explored a bit more in the series. I think it would have also fit nicely into Korra's own arc to grow beyond her reliance on violence to solve problems. As she learns to solve problems in other ways, she begins to find value in the spirituality of traditional martial arts. We see her bending style evolve over the course of the season. And it is when she embraces the spiritual over the efficient that she finally learns to airbend.
@@TheLegendOfCirce Agreed. Although I myself enjoyed how different probending was to traditional, i still found it quite disjointed storywise, and this would blend the two worlds together perfectly while elevating Korra’s arc with it.
You can only do so much in a single season. But you could seed ideas of it in season one and then really delve into in an alternate version of season 2 which is already more spirit heavy.
How can people still make the pro bending = MMA comparison and then proceed in saying that the traditional elements of bending are completely missing? The first clip in his video where pro bending is shown, has several typically traditional movements in it where the movements even are used properly translated from their original Kung Fu inspirations to bending.
Just because they show shorter and faster punches people tend to falsely only associate with modern combat sports, that does not make them less traditional. Hung Gar alone has a vast variety of different types of punches with varying distances, higher or lower stances, more or less energy put behind them etc. and meanwhile people have only a few in their mind when thinking of supposedly traditional earthbending in the shows.
@@Thareldis While the comparison isn't solid, it still stands in universe. The characters move and fight differently. Bending has changed. And that was true in ATLA too as we there's easy to miss moments in characters by their bending; Zuko does a move that resembles water bending. Katara does one the resembles earth bending. We see these characters that are constantly around other benders and learning about them develop movements we don't see in other benders.
And since Republic city is a mixing pot, then it makes sense that bending continues to change in this way with people pulling from other bending philosophies or developing new ones entirely. So narratively, they could have explored that difference in modern progress vs tradition. That being said, I don't know if that would have made the show better. You try to stuff in too much stuff and then everything suffers from lack of screen time. It is an interesting idea, but would it have been more interesting than giving more time to Korra being a nonbender or showing the tension between benders and nonbenders or in fleshing out the main characters? Probably not.
I'm not sure pro-bending can be considered an analogy for MMA? Bending has always had a combat focus in this series, unlike traditional martial arts, hence why combat oriented martial arts outperform them at every turn. Bending has changed, but not to that degree. Pro-bending seems to me like urban bending, the forms and techniques you'd use in enclosed spaces, or where you can't have collateral damage. Choosing either traditional bending or pro-bending seems foolish, then. The two styles have their own strengths and weaknesses, and should be used in the proper environmental contexts.
Please, please, please! For the love of God, please do this for seasons 2 through 4. Your insight to the Avatar series is one of the best I've seen out there, and your understanding of story structure is excellent. I would absolutely love for you to do more on this and I for one would happily accept your version as canon.
Here, here
I also want this.
Seconded!
Maybe not season three, as that was the closest to perfect, but definitely seasons 2 and 4. I enjoyed then but there's a lot more room for improvement that would make for an interesting video.
@@shippendales8543 Season 3's biggest flaw is that it has to make the villain, Zaheer, have a Joker moment at the end because otherwise he'd be too close to just being the protagonist, is the strongest argument I've heard as a criticism of S3.
On one hand, I think that's valid, but on the other hand, I do think it might just break the story to have him just be "basically a good guy" and win in the end. Korra had so much potential as a series that's fundamentally about learning from political extremism, both the mistakes and the valid concerns underlying the overreach, and going harder on the idea that Korra should both beat the villain, but ultimately learn how to address their concerns from their failures would have made it great.
So personally, I would have focused on the way Zaheer's form of anarchism seems to more or less end at destroying the status quo without a game plan for building up - he hyperfixates on the idea that all hierarchies are bad (and therefore the Avatar is bad, being the embodiment of a hierarchy of power), without really having anything concrete to replace the Avatar or the Earth King with. Something like the Airbenders fully committing to this sort of... anarchist mutual aid group role, as Korra tries to learn from Zaheer and truly become an Avatar who exists to serve both the spirit and mortal worlds rather than exert overwhelming power over the world's energy, would go a long way and also fit with the histories of the Air Nomads and the Avatar.
I really liked this re-write. One small thing that never made sense to me was why Korra initially disliked Asami. There was the jealousy aspect over Mako, but Korra says to her 'I always figured you were this prissy princess' or words to that affect, and I find that strange- Korra lived the same life, she is the daughter of the chief and has been waited on hand and foot for being the Avatar- both women have worked for things too, so they should have hit it off from the first. This rewrite gives us some better conflict and shows they yeah, initially they should've been friends
What's funny is korra is more spoiled than asami
While Korra and Asami do have somewhat similar backgrounds as daughters of powerful men in high positions , the context is different. Korra was the daughter of the Water Tribe Chief but her environment was still the icy northern lands of the Water Tribe. As a Bender, Waterbender, and the Avatar, she would've been expected to use her abilities and skill to help with the Water Tribe's survival, maintenance, and protection from a young age. She was no princess chilling in an igloo while the other people in her Water Tribe worked outside in the cold.
Meanwhile, Asami is the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and so she never had to do hard physical or Bending labor. All her needs and wants could be met by her servants and the city. Not to say that Asami doesn't do her own thing and all but she's not working in a factory or anything like that. I think it's that difference in context of their similar backgrounds and that perception that led to Korr initially disliking Asami and figuring her to be this prissy princess.
Similar backgrounds but different contexts and environments.
To me, it made sense for her not to like Asami in the beginning. Korra has shown many times not to be a girly girl, not to care much about her looks and to have more masculine energy. Even though Asami has the same qualities as Korra, I believe all Korra saw, in the beginning, was a beautiful rich girl with flawless hair and makeup who knows how to win a guy's heart, so she just assumed Asami's personality based on her looks and background(and her jealousy of course).
At least that's how I interpreted it, of course, it can be viewed in many different ways.
Her father was not chief, Unalaq was chief for both tribes, he only represented him, but was an exiled member of the northern tribe, there was no chief in the southern tribe...Korra was raised stuck inside that fortification, away from the world but she did not had the luxuxy Asami had growing up, she was also very naive and tomboyish, while Asami was feminine, polished, a little vain and grew up having everything a rich person has...
I hate the fact that the past lives were destroyed. The writers made an essintal part of avatar just gone in favor of a “new generation” what they failed to realize is that the past lives never had a influence on the new generation meaning the new generation can happen and it’s up to the current avatar to decide whether he wanted to use the past avatars or not. It’s like a weapon of books that the avatar can use and obtain knowledge from and it didn’t need to get destroyed for proving a point of moving on. The writers failed this part of avatar.
The "Sorry I thought you were one of them" gave me chills. Such a simple yet meaningful sentence.
Agreed, nerve chilling
Does he need to begin a good video with low-key-cringey claims?
No, Korra was not Good. Just like the Life-Action-Movie,
hour-long Essays are made about it being laughably bad.
@@slevinchannel7589 there are hour long essays about anything being laughably bad, those essays itself are nearly always laughably bad themselves. I do not agree with what he said at the begining but to saying Korra is awful is bullshit, it's a 6/10
@@coca_0146 nah korras awful people are treating it like the star wars prequels by getting tunnel-visioned with clips and contrarian essays on the interesting ideas that dont get justice
@@slevinchannel7589 if you’re referring to “the legend of Korra is garbage and here’s why” and other essays like that, they do an insanely bad job at reviewing the show and there are plenty of counter video essays that show how invalid a lot of their criticism is. The show isn’t perfect but it has a lot of value, you should respect people’s opinion if they tell you they enjoyed the show even if you didn’t.
one thing I do like about Amon's storytelling, is how tarlock says "the revolution maybe based on a lie, but I think Amon believes it"
He did even though he was a hypocrite as well
That was an interesting line, though I think Amon would've been better if he wasn't lying; if he really was a non-bender that learned energy bending from an ancient spirit.
This is an unpopular opinion but I liked that he was a bender. I feel like that made his opinion and drive for the revolution even greater. Despite being a powerful bender himself, he still works towards abolishing bending. Him manipulating waterbending shows how versatile bending really is if you just get creative with it, and how brilliant Amon is to be able to create an intricate process to block a person’s bending. His plan wasn’t well thought-out, which I blame the writing more than anything, but it was a way to achieve his means without any bloodshed. And his use of bending was only ever for the purpose of the revolution, nothing more and nothing less, so personally I didn’t hate him for using bending to get rid of bending. If his plan were to just get rid of all bending so he could be the only bender, that would be shallow and icky. But if it were to abolish bending, and then block his own after the use was finished, then I think that is far more noble of him and more aligned with his character from what we’ve seen. And this is a completely personal opinion, but I’m not a fan of the whole “learned energy bending from an ancient spirit” thing, because to me that works far better as an equalist propaganda piece and feels kinda cliche, and I just think it is cooler to use bloodbending and maneuver it in a way that also fits in with the whole chi blocking aspect (which is the equalists’ go-to method of fighting)
@@vectorenigma7098 So... Amon's doing eugenics?
Just hastened.
@@turkepic3637 I don’t think he is. Removing bending won’t make the child unable to inherit the trait. Amon of all people should know this as he is the child of a man who’d gotten his bending taken away. Like I said, faulty writing. Amon’s plan would’ve never worked as it was impossible (as far as we know) to stop giving birth to benders
Edit: typo
I love how you actually did something with Bolin rather than making him the dumb comic relief.
Edit: Also, like how you made him wise, or I guess an empath is a better way to describe him.
Bolin is the Sokka of the group. the heart and soul.
@@dagan2000 He’s not that guy pal 😂😂
@@dco7710 in this re-write he is though
This was my best part he fixed. I love Bolin. The potential he had.
@@dagan2000 except sokka is also the brains of team avatar's entire operation, a tactical genius, boomerang bender extraordinaire, meat connoisseur, cactus juice enjoyer, and the most chad fucking southern water triber to walk the earth.
Korra losing her bending for a bit to discover (a) who she is and (b) what life is like for non-benders (hence making her a better Avatar) has always seem so obvious to me that I was in disbelief that it didn't happen like that
I was disappointed that she got her bending back so fast, she didnt really get humbled and learn to solve issues without brute force through bending
@@julie-18 hell it doesn't even nescasarily have to be for that long, even just a handful of full episodes to deal with it would do wonderfully
@@Emily12471 I think, that's when the problems with Nick only greenlighting one season kicked in.
It sucks and it could've still been handled better, but they probably didn't want the potentially only season of Korra to end on such a downer.
@@LlartyVoz yea sucks
Korra going on a journey to find her bending back again instead of it being handed back to her is so good because that is the exact point of how the Avatars are supposed to master the elements. Not by being handed teachers and learning in a controlled stilted environment, but by exploring the world and finding friends and masters yourself. A great ending to this rewrite.
It would've made sense for her to travel and run into the turtle god like aang did and to end up getting some sort of bending back as some sort of reward for inadvertantly doing something it hadn't told her to do explicitly. But at the same time they already introduced the turtle god thing in the backstory so maybe they would've been too on the nose? I feel like it would've been cool if they brought that in story-wise later, AFTER she ran into the turtle maybe. Idk?
That would just make the series a retread of Aang
@@pn2294not necessarily. There’s always more to learn about the elements and it seemed clear that, despite knowing how to bend 3 of them, she didn’t seem to truly understand or respect them. They were just tools for fighting to her. It especially would’ve been a different journey and experience due to how different Korra is from Aang, the setting, and the characters. I would’ve loved to see her gain new appreciation and perspective of the elements as well as her spiritual journey with more of a relationship and bond with Aang.
you completely missed the point of the show
Reminds me of a quote really
"It is not the the Masters that seek students, but it is those who seek the Masters"
Not the actual quote mind you, but that's the gist of it
I thought maybe having Sokka come back in a minor way and comment on the equalist conflict might be interesting, due to him being the main non bending in the original series.
Agreed. In the post-ATLA comics, there’s some political turmoil with benders and non-benders turning against each other, and Sokka is like “hey, the non-benders aren’t wrong here.” Having him back to weigh in on this would’ve been perfect.
But also, LOK doesn’t have him except in flashbacks, and I will die mad about that.
@@catdragon2584 there theory (I am not sure if it’s theory or confirmed) that he died while defending korra from red lotus and I think it could have been interesting if mistreatment of non bender that was existing prior to his death really became problem after he died, it could also be fun if he had the idea for democracy in universe to solve the problem of the United republic but it was one step to far for the high class of republic city and no matter how much he tried he couldn’t pass it
I feel like if they were to bring him back, it would have to be in a big role. Sokka's THE guy to turn to about non-bending/bending inequality since he had a major story in the comics relating to that; if he was alive in Korra in a minor role, I'd be asking the question of 'why isn't he taking charge of this'? Sokka helped save the world and built republic city, he would've been not only trusted but a role model to non-benders everywhere. So, Sokka being dead in this timeline is the best outcome since this is a new generation with new leads- too much involvement from the old characters would cheapen that- and his role would have to be big otherwise there would be a plot hole
But yeah I would've enjoyed some more flashbacks with him involved, or more mention of him being a hero to non-benders
@@catdragon2584 I don’t even know why they tried to force a whole “non benders are oppressed” conflict at all. It makes no sense
@@ReblazeGaming Uhhhh because logically, it makes complete sense? In older times, bending was still stronger but could be balanced out by how technology was largely based on non benders, likely because benders were more scattered and so it wouldn’t make sense to focus on them entirely. A skilled swordsperson can still take down a bender. However, as industry and technology advance, it advances in population centers and focuses on bending, like with the military. The divide widens, and there’s more resentment between the two groups. In addition, culturally bending is seen less and less as a beautiful, magical, martial art, and more as a power that people deserve if they’re born with it. Hence, pro bending. That makes things worse as well.
Would have added a bit more emphasis on her growing up isolated from people her own age and how its affected her socially.
We are shown how that affected her. It deprived her of all sense of spirituality, frustrated her to no end which made her short-tempered and aggressive and made her overly attached to her status as the Avatar.
@@vetarlittorf1807 We did see the ‘after’ but not really the ‘how’ before it. Yes, she became violent due to this, but _how_ exactly? That’s probably what OP wants from the story.
Edit: by this, I mean we can have more concrete examples instead of leaving it all for interpretation, because not everyone can catch on to the implications.
And seeing as Korra is portrayed to already be quite the temperamental before even being trained by these people, people might just chalk it up to it being who she is rather than who she became after being isolated.
@@vetarlittorf1807 Not to mention the fact that she didn’t even know how to approach a relationship hence Mako
Boy this is so true I feel like a person who's grown isolated and brainwashed all of their life into believing that they are the chosen one and they deserve a full training academy all to them and a bodyguard corp worthy of presidents and an education and all their needs attended would cause a bit of a disconnect between the individual and reality. That would be interested an avatar who can't relate to basically anyone but the richest of rich people because of that over privileged upbringing. Not even Aang had that
@@thecod2345 that person is always around to argue against any korra criticism with no nuance tbh. they live to "no, actually" everything someone has to say about korra. even if the criticism is valid
“The immense power of the avatar state left to the whims and emotions of an unstable child.” -Amon
Bravo! I love every bit of this rewrite. devoted “cabbage-head” here.
I was nodding with these changes from the very start. "I'm liking this, yeah, yeah." Then you made Asami an Equalist and you blew my mind. Master stroke.
Considering her visual as well as narrative design, the archetype of the well-intentioned-villain turned heroine really does feel like the part she was always meant to play. (Shameless advertisement for the incredible "Parts to Play" fanfiction over at AO3, which implements this character change in as canonic a way as possible.)
I remember a lot of people in the beginning wanted asami to be an equalist (or have something in her story be more related to them other than just her dad being one) I know that's been one of my headcanons for a long while too
I felt the same way, the only thing missing is a much tighter overall focus on pro-bending
Apparently, Asami being an equalist was the original plan for her character, but either Mike or Bryan (can't remember which one) ultimately decided against it.
@@Isewein *frantic bookmarking said fic and binges it*
I was always surprised they didn't do something with Tenzin struggling to see Korra as her own person and developing his attachment to her as a reincarnation of his father. I feel like it would've added a dimension to his protectiveness over her and expanded their dynamic to a point where, by Korra coming into her own, she's able to provide occasional moments of comfort and guidance to Tenzin as Aang once would have.
Also, loved this rewrite, amazing job!
Tenzin advising the reincarnation of his father was always weird to me 😬
This makes me wonder if Aang and Katara raised their kids to be aware of the fact that their dad would die and reincarnate as someone else to avoid this exactly. Especially Tenzin, since he would be the only one in the world able to train the next Avatar in airbending
that is a cool aspect they could have taken into consideration, and it could also tie back into tenzins lack of spirituality somehow, maybe as he comes to terms with the fact that korra is her own person and not just his father reincarnated, it could help him connect with the spirit world, to help korra reconnect with the avatar cycle and aang, maybe. idk good idea lots of potential.
one thing I love about Korra is how her and Aang were perfect for each others world, Aang was a pacifist who was ill suited for the 100 years war, whereas Korra was built to fight yet her enemies needed diplomacy and reason to truly defeat.
i've said this a million times OnG
Especially since Korra comes after Aang, and might equate Equalists to the old Fire Nation when in reality they are just normal people with genuine concerns.
I don't know what you mean by Aang not being perfect for his time period. He was a pacifist yes but have you seen the show? He wasn't afraid of hurting people or getting shit done he just didn't like killing, which is a big difference. The world honestly almost couldn't have had a better avatar than Aang. He was kind, resourceful, a bending prodigy, courageous, generous, and most importantly wouldn't bend his ideals for the situation. Sure without Deus ex Lion turtle he would've been in a pinch, but honestly not killing Ozai proved to be best solution. It avoids making Ozai a pariah, proves a good example for others who might try and throw the balance of the world, and shows the world that violence isn't always the answer. Which after a hundred years of war the world really needed
Or the world could be in relative peace, and the whole show could have been about winning the pro-bending championship
That is true
Amon was one of my favorite villains. One gripe I had with Korra was how there kept being an “Ozai” level villain every season and how she just seems to magically power through
What? She literally losses and gets her ass beat way too much in the show, wayyyy too much.
probably because she is always up against final boss level villains every books. Complaining that she gets her beaten way too much is like complaining minecraft players getting wrekt in dark soul.
@purplelionpoliticsandhisto5025 Well yeah and it feels contrived how she keeps coming out on top.
@@purplelionpoliticsandhisto5025I think what he meant was that she always seems to find strength to find these god level threats again and again when it would feel much more realistic if it had been more contained on one single villain and not a pantheon of them. It makes Kora feel inhuman to be able to power through all that. A single villain would make Kora feel more more tangible as a person to look up to.
And they should have saved Satan Kite for last
This fills me with such an intense longing for the alternate universe where THIS is season 1 of legend of korra. Your ideas are so fascinating. It made me miss the show so much… I wanna rewatch it now! We deserved equalist asami SO MUCH. Asami as a character meant a lot to me as a child - but I can only imagine how much more influential she would have been if she was allowed to be more than just a supporting character.
I agree with you wrt mako, I know he’s an unpopular character in the fandom these days but I think rather than him being a “bad” character he just didn’t have enough personality outside of that love square. Also, I really love bolin in this rewrite. The tension between the brothers being ideological rather than a love battle 👌👌👌
I didn't really like Bolin until Book 4. But once we were there, he was pretty awesome and I loved him.
@@4ncientGu150 same, Bolin really came into is own as "not a cheaper Sokka knock off" in the 4th season.
At first, when you said "Asami is an Equalist", I was taken aback. "How would that possibly work?" I thought. "How could you make this character carry that charm while making her an antagonist?" The main issue is that I thought you meant to have her simply take over Hiroshi's role. But no, what you did was much more brilliant. You consolidated the best parts of Hiroshi and the Lieutenant (both of which were minor characters, if you could call the Lieutenant one at all) and elevated them into a major and sympathetic character. That was the best change you could have made for Asami. Following that, you also gave us a true lowest point for Korra, which was very much missing in the proper story. That was good too.
I'm glad you gave Amon a proper send-off - not one of complete failure, but one of where he was still giving the victory he wanted in a way that mattered. More importantly, I think that the way you handled Mako and Bolin was expertly done. You gave Bolin more emotional scenes (which he needed), and Mako was given something real to do. And the final confrontation being against Asami was amazing, as the Lieutenant in the actual show just never really did anything to challenge the characters (just their fighting prowess).
The only thing that I feel didn't work in your rewrite is how seemingly quick Asami went from attacking them to hearing them out. I feel there could have been just a little bit more showing that Asami wasn't all in on the extreme tactics that Amon was employing, a scene similar to how you had Maki questioning his place on the task force. Like… maybe once she heard that Korra HAD decided to actively go against Tarrlok, she questioned if she should take Korra in but then had to act fast when Korra figures out that she's the Lieutenant (since that fight would have been needlessly difficult on Asami's part). The only crack we got to see in this rewrite was when Amon was threatening to take bending away from children who have done them no wrong. I think a couple more scenes prior to that would have been perfect.
With all of this in mind, do you have plans to rewrite the rest of the series? With the changes made to this season, I could imagine that keeping the major story beats in book two would be very difficult. Books three and four would be a bit easier, though depending on how you'd write book two, it could quickly become impossible.
The major throughline in all four books in The Legend of Korra is of her grappling with her identity and becoming more spiritually minded. After the changes to book one, with her having already going through that initial period of self-discovery and accepting that she needs to build herself back up, I can't really imagine the scene of losing her past lives being as compelling now (especially since the book two finale was already not that compelling to begin with). Perhaps seeing Avatar Wan could be the ultimate place to learning how to regain her bending abilities rather than that amnesia plot. Hm. Questions for later.
Funny enough; the original plan was to have Asami turn out to be an equalist, but either Mike or Bryan (can't remember which one) liked the character too much to write it.
One under appreciated part of this video is that you chose to take Korra out of Republic City. I don't know why the show insisted on keeping her there so much we could've explored the much more interesting parts of Avatar's world
I think the reason the show stayed in Republic City as much as it did is mostly budget. the crew has talked about ATLA being the travel show it was was expensive and harder to plan because they were constantly making new locations and characters.
It would have been really nice if Korra had spent more time outside Republic City in the show to check on how the rest of the world had changed since the Hundred Years War. I always found it very annoying that we saw so little of the rest of the world. We don't even see anything from the Fire Nation or how they have changed. So I definitely like this rewrite where Korra has to leave and go on a journey to reawaken her abilities and understand a world that is learning to function without the Avatar.
I love this comment. I've been trying to figure out why I didn't like LOK as much as ATLA. I knew because of the budget, the story seemed rush. But I didn't realize till now that the lack of travel and exploration really impacted the way the show was portrayed as well. Hopefully the next Avatar series can meet these certain aspects that made ATLA top tier
Personally I couldn't get enough of the aesthetic of Republic City, but with so much potential in this world, I agree.
Which Volume 3 did actually do atleast, take the show outside of Republic city
This is so good. It was thrilling, pretty creepy at times, and super satisfying. I really like the part with Bolin whittling the stones with Korra. It’s such a little moment that gives depth to his character. The arcs for Bolin, Mako, and Asami were just what these characters needed and the nonbending stretch with Korra was perfect. I would definitely be interested to see how the other seasons would play out with your version of season one as the base.
this is actually a perfect rewrite in my opinion. i hated how the show dissolves the equalist movement without validating their concerns; it almost gave this weird message like.. "inequality is made up! stick to the status quo!" which never sat right with me.
See this wouldn't be a problem if the entire equalist movement was removed in favour of a story more focused around pro-bending
I agree because Amon was easily one of her best villains and they didn't do that arc justice to show how much of a threat he is
@@theoutsiderjess1869 For me, one of the biggest problems was the twist that they decided to make Amon a bloodbender and decided that exposing him as a bloodbender would be enough to end the equalist movement. Amon should not have been a bloodbender; it undermines almost everything about his character.
I would've kept him as a non-bender. If the show really needed him to be Tarrlok's brother, I would've written it that Tarrlok was the prodigy their father wanted, while Amon, being a non-bender, was seen by Yakone as useless and discarded. He was left to fend for himself until he was found by a family that was part of the non-bending underclass, they then gave him the name Amon, and he saw the plight of non-benders in their society. Eventually, while seeking to learn how the Avatar took away his birth-father's bending, he met an ancient spirit with a grudge against the Avatar, and this spirit taught him energybending. Learning that there was a time before the avatar and a time before people bent the elements was the last straw that pushed him to resolve to destroy bending society.
@@matthewmuir8884 this is an awesome idea! And it could easily be told via flashback the way his current backstory was. The scene would have to be a bit longer to convey the information, but it doesn't have to be super detailed. For example, it would only take one or two shots to establish his father's favouritism by showing an expression of resentment as his brother is taught bloodbending in the background.
Edit: I just rewatched the scene and it's a lot longer than I remembered and is also narrated, so you wouldn't even have to extend it. Did put it in fast forward so I could come back and edit this lol.
@@jessicabrauman Thanks. Yeah; the one problem I can see would be that the flashback in the show is given by Tarrlok, so he would have to somehow know about the bits of Amon's backstory that take place after Amon left.
1:42 There are a lot of things I would personally change about legend of korra but If I had to boil it down to just one aspect that could've given S1's ending a more introspective ending it would be this: leave Korra with just airbending for an extended period of time after her fight with Amon. Not only is air the only element she isn't proficient with, but it's the only element with a philosophy that can teach Korra the things she need to further develop into an avatar figure: self-restraint, evasion, connections to her spiritual self, and the ideal of pacifism from the air bender culture. This causes several consequences and opens up new ideas to explore:
1- It expands on the damage Blood bending can do, as it could cripple the avatar.
2- It those wonders for Korra, as it gives her a new set of challenges she has to face and overcome as a normal 1 element bender.
3- Korra's fiery personality would clash with the Ari nomad's philosophy and air bending techniques. Air bending requires a more evasive and versatile mindset, a wisdom and innovative mind. It would give Korra a great character development in that direction, leading to her learning something akin to Iroh's lesson to zuko about the four elements. Both by applying her training in the other three elements to Air bending and vice versa once she recovers her powers back.
4- Air nomad culture is more spiritually connected than other bending styles (as show in ATLA), thus it would be interesting to see how Korra would develop her spirituality and her growth into the avatar as a spiritual figure when she is so severly limited.
Not to mention that her re-unlocking her elements may be instead used as a ‘reward’ of sorts for her because it can be implied that her mastery of airbending equates to her mastery of the spiritual self, allowing her to finally commune with her past selves.
So yeah, not only does it ground her in many different ways, she also gets to work for her powers in order to gain them back. Much MUCH better payoff. Sadly the time restraints to pull this off the best it could be really does hamper this sorta story telling.
She was about to kill herself on that cliff, if she didn't get the other elements back, it would be a short show.
this was one of the many unfortunate consequences of planning the first season to be a stand alone mini series. A lot of lok's problems could have been addressed had they had an actual direction planned for the entire series
@@JaydenDimaio so have her not want to kill herself, if were exercising rewriting the story
i´m actually impressed with the Mako stuff, you actually managed to make the most boring character in Korra into one of the most interesting.
Ikr he feels like an actual person now
My biggest problem with Mako is that for the first two seasons, he's just reduced to being Asami or Korra's boyfriend and isn't allowed to be a real person.
They try to fix this in later seasons but by that point it's too late.
@@sophieamandaleitontoomey9343 if he died destroying Kuvira's robot, at keast he would've done one interesting thing
@@sophieamandaleitontoomey9343 but yeah, he never gets much to do
@@santiagogarza8121 Nope and he gets most of the blame for the love triangle which I feel is unfair.
I’ve always thought it would be significantly more effective if the original characters were discussed more, especially in book one. Like, perhaps Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko are all mentioned and treated like national heroes early on (not shown in person, maybe through statues or mentions), but Sokka and Suki go unmentioned completely, with their connection to the war lost from history and their absence stressed. As Korra unites nonbenders and benders, she could restore this conundrum with Sokka and Suki’s names brought back into public knowledge, showcasing that the ending of the war, and by extension the building of Republic City, would never have happened without their contributions. It would be a great allegory for how the victors write the history books, and, could compare to how minorities are often unmentioned in them
you people need to realise that TLOK is not a sequel to A:TLA. it's it's own freestanding story with it's own Avatar. You wanna see how the world was after A:TLA? read a comic
@@user-mf5kn8bn9hIt is a sequel to ATLA. Not a direct follow-up but it’s not some spin-off. It’s a shared world and Korra demonstrated very poor world building and interconnectivity between the shows, which is nonsensical given the impact TLA’s characters had on the world.
@@user-mf5kn8bn9hLegend of Korra IS a sequel tho??
I think the problem with "how rarely minorities are mentioned in them" is that they're rarely those generals and leaders of note. Which is incredibly common in empires as well where one ethnic group leads the society.
The hard truth is that they're rarely ever at the level of making such large changes. Frederick Douglas is such a relevant figure in the anti-slavery movement because he was one of those rare black leaders. Though you didn't see congress have a significant black population at all during that period. And that's a relatively high level of society who still don't often get mentioned since they're simply not that relevant to the conflict as an individual and only relevant as "congress" or "the radical Republicans"
Not to mention how most states historically are largely ethnically singular, thus minorities not even being present.
I like the minimal use of atla characters early on. It needed to be made clear that korra is her own unique avatar and while yes she can rely on aang as a mentor as he did with Roku. And it’s not like the show just ignores how important aang and the people around him were as there are statues of them everywhere. Not just aang but we see statues of toph and zuko showing yeah these people at clearly being shown as the founders and legacy of republic city . So it’s already subtly implied that just like the founding fathers in America aang and the rest of team avatar have been mythologized over the years, but I like it never gets directly brought up and its only ever just hinted at.
I always found it weird how kept in the dark Asami was about Hiroshi being an equalist. You’d think with how hard they both took the loss of her mother/wife, Asami would feel at least have some bender resentment and Hiroshi possibly encouraging or straight up indoctrinating her into the equalist movement. Hell, they even state in the show that Asami was taught self defense to better “protect herself”, the writers could have easily slipped in something about her learning it so she can fight in the equalist movement.
Also after reading through her wiki, the writers originally planned for Asami to be an equalist spy but ultimately decided she’d be an ally so at least they considered the antagonist route!
Her training could have made her a compelling surprise reveal when korra finds out she's been living a double life, secretly training with another pro-bending team. Imagine the reveal in the grand final when tge fire ferrets come up against the opposing team and korra realises her love interest had been a part of a rival pro-bending team
@@pandemisis3017 Exactly, and her joining Team Avatar would feel more validated by her slowly unlearning her equalist roots and learning to trust benders. and as an extension, the world. It would actually give her a more fulfilling arc instead of her being just another side character.
@@pandemisis3017 Wait why would Asami be on a pro bending team?
@@ReblazeGaming im confused by this too
I wished they didn’t change this, and maybe give her a redemption arc to be on the team later like with Zuko. To be honest I find “canon” Asami to be boring.
I really like the change that you made to the end with her not miraculously getting her bending back but being given the hint that there are mysterious forces and spirits out in the world. It's a nice setup for her to regain her bending over future seasons and, in doing so, gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for each element and the cultures and histories surrounding the elements.
It's a great set up for season 2, actually, with harmonic convergence and the origin of the avatar and bending as we know it. makes it feel less cheap imo.
Love the fact that korra doesn’t get her bending back (At least in the first season). Shows real consequence and could open up possibilities of exploring the world like aang did. In legend of korra they don’t really go anywhere, korra only maintains peace in republic city. Opening up the possibility of traveling the world to potentially find other lion turtles to get her bending back would be so much more interesting. Could also open up ideas to harmonic convergence and her getting her bending back that way as well.
It would also add even more drama and tension if the show was based primarily around pro-bending, so korra would have to face the possibility that she might have to leave the fire ferrets.
This is exactly what I had thought. The harmonic convergence would have been the perfect opportunity to give her powers back, when she had restarted the avatar cycle.
Honestly that sounds cool, Korra loses her bending and is stuck with only one or two elements then the next season is Korra getting the flashback of the first avatar. So they go on a journey to find the lion turtles in hopes of getting her bending back
I think Korra had a major issue with lack of real consequences, so I definitely agree
@@thalmoragent9344 They tried to add consequences in season 4 from 3, which was the PTSD, but it felt rushed and not finished. Not only she proved before that losing didnt bother her that much but she got beter faster and a bit out of no where.
I love how you changed bolin from just being mainly used for comedic relief to being a well rounded and insightful person. I never liked the dynamics before where it seemed like the story kinda just split Sokka's character between Asami and Bolin
I like how you made Bolin so important for Korra in this story, and like how you handled Korra and Asami in this one too, Mako felt like Katara to me with trying to find closure in finding the person that killed their parent
While it’s not within the limits of season 1, it always frustrated me that the non-bender equality seems to be forgotten about in the second and later seasons.
That's the major issue of season 2.
We get spirit vines they got to learn to live with beginning of season 3, but then we leave republic city asap. And don't get me started how they uno reversed a genocide! No you do not get to do that! Not without exploring the reconstructed nature of the air nomad culture way more then they did! Season 2 feels like nothing happened of consequence, no connection to season 1 or 3, like Mike and Bryan just wanted to forget that season even existed beside more airbenders to play with. to be fair most of the fan base want to forget it too :\
Season 3 & 4 are the best seasons when taken together because they narratively feel like they have some flow and time to breath though its clear they didn't fully narratively planned and explored different ideas.
Agreed. It was this huge thing that seemed to stem from tensions way older than republic city, maybe even older than the war. And then it just, never came up again?? Even when rebuilding the city? It took a massive movement just losing its leader to almost completely fizzle out? The only thing that changed was the council, but there was no analysis of the ripple effects of the movement, no discussion of how it impacted daily life in small ways, not just bureaucracy. In later seasons it’s like it never happened. Which could be read as the suppression of dissent by the state, but that’s my interpretation and the show itself was reasonable pro-cop and pro-state.
Like this was a REVOLUTION, one that threatened a lot of the underlying stability of republic city. Bending was used in industry so large groups of people losing their bending and police brutality and corrupt govmt are all massive things that impact the fabric of the society, not to mention the collective trauma of it. I feel like it’s reasonable to say that a huge conflict in one season shouldn’t be able to just be written out in regards to its influence on the rest of the show.
As the comment thread right above this one says, the whole reveal of Amon being a bender just is a disappointment. It really feels like the writers couldn't address the nuanced position of bender vs non-bender.
it really should have exploded in S2.
I get it, they only had one season initally but it makes that even more obvious with such disconnect between major plot points.
It's because they solved it by electing non bender president that represents their voices, which is something they always wanted.
I know right? Like, if you were going to abandon the whole concept anyway, you should have just trashed the idea at the start and focus the show more about pro-bending
Don't get me wrong, I love LoK - great characters and fantastic world....... but PLEASE tell me the new Avatar Studios is beating down your door right now with wheelbarrows full of money
Idk for some reason IP on avatar just seems underfunded and underappreciated by the exec class
Agree to disagree. It was atla that got the ball rolling.
@@maYTeus if it really were underfunded and underdeveloped there wouldn't be Avatar Studios at all
@@LuisSierra42 Shows how much avatar studios is worth when they aren't even hinting at anything in production and when they sell adaptations rights to Netflix they let the creators leave. They already sold avatar to a movie production that has to be wiped from history. I feel like avatar could be on par with Star Wars but the intent is nowhere close.
The characters were pretty weak in Korra.
I've never liked the trope where someone loses their power, only to have it returned within a few scenes. It's like trying to condense a meal down to being "dinner flavored" when there is so much more to be explored in that identity.
I love this. Especially giving Korra having to deal with having her bending removed earlier, because I felt that sadly was not enough of a thing. She just seems to get over it for no real reason, and I like her getting air bending being a trump card is genius. You thinking of doing a follow up on how your changes to this would effect future seasons?
I just didn't like how she just kind "Got it" after she lost all her other options, I mean if it was after loosing her other bending and she was forced to train to become better with air-bending, forcing her learn the spiritual side of the art then I'd be okay with it but she doesn't she just gets it and never struggles with it again
@@jimvoozhenzhan8435 True. It's like with too many other things, "soon as she gets it, she gets it all the way"
Korra writing team: we can't make a character sympathetic if they apposed the hero. That would be ridiculous!
The rest of Avatar: Hi, Zuko here.
Wut? Every single Villain had a symphatetic, if flawed motive.
Is not Korras writing team the same as the team that wrote Zukos arc anyways?
Yeah that's a dumbass take right there. ALL of Korra's villains are WAY more sympathetic and complex than all of ATLA villains with the exception for Zuko.
What? The villains of Korra were the strongest part about that show.
Even better than a sympathetic villain, there could have been a rival on a powerful opposing team of pro-benders that the fire ferrets would have to overcome in order to win the pro-bending championship
@@Matkatamiba They were strawmen of ideaologies the writers didn't understand.
this rewrite literally gave me CHILLS
when you describe amon taking korra's bending away, i could just hear her scream, her torment, her horror, the literal chills. and then later she gets airbending bc she meditates?? controlling her body's temperature???? like zuko's breath of fire???? IM SCFREAAAMIIIIING DSKGDKG and then having her and asami fight but she's using the airbending tactic of dodging, exactly how aang did in episode one? i saw it so clearly. i fangirled so hard. AND THEN THE REVEAL OF ASAMI BASICALLY BANNING THE AVATAR FROM REPUBLIC CITY???? MY JAW DROPPED!!!!! BRO!!!!!! I WOULD GIVE MY KIDNEY TO SEE THIS REWRITE BE ACTUALLY ANIMATED OMG
Even though the rewrite is amazing, I still like the shows first season. There were a lot of flaws that this rewrite addressed, but I still liked it.
I want to see him rewrite the TRULY shit season now. *Sadistic Grin*
ew
@@ineednochannelyoutube2651 that would be Game of Thrones S8 kek
@@Itomon What GoT season 8? The series ended at 6!
And of course, the video is titled “Fixing the Worst Season of LoK” xD
Wow this gives so much more depth to all of the characters, especially Asami, I really like her even though it felt like in the show there wasn't much to her. And I love the addition of Noatak's scar coming from Yakone, that felt really interesting
By far the best change was giving more time for kora to cope with no bending. Really helps define her identity
I always though it was funny how they decided to give that arc for her during S4, since season 1 seems to fir so much more with herself at that point and what is going on.
@@adv78 Eyy I also thought the same thing! I have a feeling they wanted to bring this arc earlier rather than in season 4 but unable to do so due to production issue/beef with nick
Thank You! Out of all the problems that season 1 had, that final "Aang giving back her bending" always felt wrong. How you rewrote it offers a hopeful future without the complete happy ending.
This was a really beautiful re-write.
Wish this could have been the story we got to see on screen.
I hope to see you do Season 2 as well..
i also want to see a season 2 fix, itd be interesting to see how hed pull together that mess
Assuming we pick up from where he left off, it's primed for season 2. She'd naturally be back home and exploring the first avatar's origins as well as learning more about the spirits makes a lot of sense. She'll feel like an outsider in her own home both cuz avatar and only air bending surrounded by water benders. And katara pointing her towards the lion turtles for guidance and thus learning about the first avatar from them would be logical since she no doubt knows Aang learned about spirit bending from them.
He needs to!!@
I would love to see the "Dark Avatar" idea play into this. Season 2 was by far the worst, but it could be helped if Unalaq/Vaatu better reflected Korra. Giving him all four elements (albeit only Water mastery and need for the Avatar State to use the other three) would be dope when Korra no longer has any but Air.
I don't like the concept of either vaatu or Dark Avatar.
I think the Dark Avatar concept would have been a great final season, but they kind ruined it
I think "Dark avatar" better keep for another avatar, an avatar that just too determine with order and start to suppress another, avatar series and spirit should be grey instead of good vs bad like nowadays, like the original story, spirit and avatar isn't just bad or good
In my opinion, it would be interesting if the Dark Avatar was a member of the Red Lotus (I know that Unalaq was one, but he left it for his own ambitions). The theme of anarchism suits Dark Avatar very well, as Vaatu is the spirit of chaos.
That's interesting. I liked that season the most. And I loved the idea of a dark avatar
This is amazing. The only thing I'd consider changing is still having Mako and Bolin grow up on the streets by losing their parents earlier. Having it be due to an equalist riot (or nonbender riot before the term equalist came about) is a great change. And Mako could still have those reality check moments of not understanding his inborn privilege, because like many in the city he was dealt a terrible hand growing up in poverty, but he was able to pull himself purely because he was a bender. Having him realise that it was probably more to do with being born with superpowers and less to do with his own willpower would humble him and accomplish a lot of what you were going for with that scene. Maybe it's unnecessary, but I've always found it compelling that Mako and Bolin went from street rats to bending celebrities.
What (as I understand it) was narratively intended (even if it wasn't narratively executed) was that all the young protagonists define themselves by a role that doesn't really fit or always work.
Because he essentially raised Bolin while trying to shield him from the worst parts of their lives, Mako defines himself completely on protecting and providing for his brother who...doesn't really seem to need him anymore.
Bolin couldn't really help much, but he could always make his big brother smile (or at least relax) by being happy. Only now that things are finally going well that doesn't seem to help anymore.
Mako doesn't resent his little brother's independence, but now that it's arrived he's kinda lost.
This would particularly work, as the comics try to start the bender/non-bender tension soon after the 100-year war
I'm imagining a really powerful moment at the end of the season.
"It feels like selfishness for me to be alive. The next avatar will have all four elements and I have... just one. If I go away then the world would be better off..." and then dealing with that depression.
Only AFTER her resolve held true would Aang show up and tell her she spiritually mastered herself.
When I started Legend of Korra, I thought Amon was such a cool villain and the conflict was really intriguing. I also thought he was going to be the villain for the whole series like Fire Lord Ozai…. then she defeated him in the last episode of season one just when it was getting good. I was so bummed honestly 😭
It would have been better if Amon was some sort of corrupt official tampering with the pro-bending circuit, fixing matches and whatnot. Then Korra would have to find some way tp deal with him in order to have a fair shot at winning thw championship
thats just a consequence of the way it was planned/contracted, the first season was going to be the only season, and it kinda shows with the second season being much more inconsistent.
Same here! But at the same time that finale made me CRY lol
Yea. Amon had a lot of potential and the limited time ended up rushing his finale a bit.
samee
I personally would have liked to see Korra learn that she needs to trust the people around her better and that she's not the best, smartest, or most qualified for everything. She does kind of learn this but also seems to repeatedly disregard these lessons for no reason. I also would have liked to see more development for Mako and Bolin. Mako wasn't a very interesting character and I found myself forgetting his name after I finished the show. Bolin was a better character but he still mostly boiled down to comic relief.
i, agree. i would've like it more if the writers would write about the brothers' little flashback just like the original avatar; where some characters would have flashbacks and we get to understand with them.
The Benders vs Non-Benders plotline had so much potential, precisely because ATLA didn't do too much with it. An entire 3 season show could have been made about this one conflict.
I agree
This would also explain how Asami's so good at fighting. Getting some training and getting irl experience are very different
And the Lieutenant had such a cool style without really having importance. This gives Asami more presence in the minds of viewers as a serious opponent while giving her a more memorable fighting style
Step one: make each opposing character actually right.
Step two :actually make Korra advocate for genuine solutions to the problems they present.
Not even close
@@joecooper8527 It's pretty close. It's a good start, but it only addresses some elements of the story.
That would imply some actually relevant and informed political takes from the writers hahaha
@@lostvarius We've got authoritarian bad, anarchy bad, revolution bad, and uh status quo kinda not the best?
Nah. If you make them 100% correct they cease to be villains. They all had a point. But it's VERY important for the sake of conflict that they were radicalized and they took things too far.
Arcane is widely considered the best piece of animation of 2021. Are you gonna argue that the opposing characters are just 100% correct?
Whether you consider the real villain to be Silco or the Piltover council, or both, they're still both radicalized people who fight for something they genuinely believe in.
Same could be said for Amon, Tarlokk, Zaheer, Kuvira, to an extend even Unalaq.
This would have been infinitely times better than what happened in the actual show
Before the reveal, I was convinced Amon had somehow discovered Spirit Bending and was kinda disappointed when it turned out to be just Blood Bending.
yeah that's kinda some nonsense. Spirit Bending was established to be something only a few people could do, so giving Blood Bending a similar utility just ruins that idea. Why learn to Spirit Bend when all you gotta do is be a morally ambiguous Water Bender?
@@Stephetheon and extremely gifted, if you wanna do it more than once every month
@@Stephetheon Yeah and blood bending was shown to be evil enough for its own sake, it doesn't need an extra even more evil ability behind it, it just loses some of the original threat as a result of the power creep
Or they could have had blood bending only block bending temporarily or until a chi blocker hits the right spots to unblock it. Having it be "spirit bending, but bad and no large character struggle" is odd
All Korra villains get crazy nonsensical power buffs that make it impossible for her to defeat them directly for no particularly good reason. The show asks you to embrace that; I have trouble doing so, and that affects the quality of the show for me. The whole show - especially the camera - just revels in watching Korra get beat up, suffer, then get saved and win by contrivance rather than by any decision she made or insight she had. I just do not get how people can watch this and find it inspiring. It’s a beautiful show, it sounds great, full of all kinds neat ideas and aesthetic appeal. But it just revels in pain, waves away the cause at the end of each season, and leaves Korra even more broken.
The amount of angsty fanfiction that can come from this rewrite is absolutely mouth watering
Okay I have a lot of thoughts after watching that. Overall it was so good.
The idea of Korra losing her bending midseason is absolute genius. Also the line "you can go, you're one of us now." Chills
Personally, I always wished Jinora was a bigger part of team avatar. Maybe age her up a little and give her a bit of a rebellious streak. Maybe she sees Korra as her chance to get off airbender island and see the city a bit. I just feel like airbending was a little underrepresented during the first season.
I was thinking something along the same lines! I've always been invested in Jinora.
Like, when Tim mentions that both Jinora and Korra sneak out to the Pro Bending show, I loved that and wish it were expanded upon a little like this.
I feel like they could have had an interesting earlier-show arc where she just wants to be a little more free, incidentally acting a little more like Aang, while Tenzin continues his strict ways with her and he could see a sort of parallel between his free-spirited daughter and teaching Korra. Katara could make a couple of comments on how much her granddaughter feels like Aang, yadda yadda
Very true. I really like Jinora too and considering the season was the book of air, it really lacked a bit more emphasis on the element as a whole. Considering how spiritual air bending culture is, there could’ve been a natural evolution into the next season’s spirit focus. Have her continue to learn her better at air bending, learn about the spirit world, connect with Aang and the other past avatars, meet Iroh too, and all on top of regaining her ability to bend the other elements with a new appreciation and understanding of them.
Ditto@@BuddyChy
Jinora, Ikki and Meelo had the combined personality of one person
@@tobitobi2493 How so?
this was so riveting??? like, a GORGEOUS rewrite, i’m so upset this isn’t the show we actually got !! but i’m very glad this version of the story exists in some form. i’d love to see a season 2 fix if you haven’t done one already!
I love it. It always irked me how the equality movement just stopped after Amon got defeated and how the show never ....showed...us examples of systemic oppression towards non benders except as a result of Amons terrorist attacks.
It's this thing that every form of media does, they have a villain with valid points that society should address but make him a murderer or say he didn't really believed in anything to dismiss the real problems
What's funny is that the show showed us the opposite. The richest guy in the city is a non bender all the criminals besides the equalists are benders, implying that most poor people are benders too.
Yeah if the antagonist has an actual valid point, making them all evil is cheap and lazy writing to justify beating them down and their progress to achieve their goal. It’s actually a very dangerous thing to portray since it’s assuming that it doesn’t matter how important a movement or it’s valid points are, if its leader(s) are baby eating cultists than we should just completely dismantle and shut down that movement
@@ImTitan16 yeah that really needs to be flipped if they really want to show us this is an issue. Korra needs a moment where she actually talks to an equalist. You show the power plant with the lightning benders. Show an equalist tell korra he was laid off from that job because a fire bender could do his same job more efficiently for the same amount of money. have him explain how amon gave him purpose when him n his family were down on their luck. this could be a scene where they capture an equalist or she ends up talking to people in disguise at one of her rallies.
That's because there was no systemic oppression of non-benders, that was just all a lie created by Amon, the re-write seems to not understand this. Amon had no valid point nor did his movement independent of him. The show openly shows us with the main characters, Mako, Bolin, and Asami that Amon's movement is a lie. They're not just exceptions either there are plenty of other examples. Bender could not take over the jobs of non-benders because benders are by far the minority, also the advancing technology has done nothing but make life better and easier for non-benders
@@The1Ryu yeah but the show never said that. No where in the show is it said that amon was lying. Plus if he was lying why did so many non benders agree with him? If there was no problem then there would be no equalist
I would change the end in this little way:
Aang and the past Avatars say they can't restore her bending back, but that they can lend her theirs.
Aang unlocks Korra's avatar state, where she can bends all elements. She is still left with airbending in her normal state.
Korra goes in a new journey trying to find herself and master the avatar state.
That could be cool, especially if they stuck with her losing that connection in season 2, and then she regains her powers to fight vaatu
I think that would have received too much fan backlash for it to feasibly be done. I think that having a season dedicated to Korra regaining the ability to bend all four elements would have been good though. Maybe even one where she learned to energy bend on such a level that she could undo whatever Amon did with his bloodbending, it could have even involved her seeking out the last lion turtle to be given instruction in energy bending.
Making Asami more interesting from the beginning is a great change, she's one of my favourite characters. Even though I really didn't care for both the love triangles early in the show, I liked how they never really pitted Korra and her against each other - they were friends, they wanted the same thing (for some unknown reason), but they never really took it out on each other. I hate when women are written that way. This rewrite, however, is done from the position of knowing they'll end up together, so it's probably a lot easier to develop their relationship in a meaningful way from the start.
Korrasami is non-canon. That shit was so forced. Shippers can’t read social cues. That’s where you guys got your ‘proof’ lol.
Look at the LOK commits. That shit was so unloved. The fact you have to change it to ask it fit the inane ramblings of tumble shippers means it’s non-canon.
@@scottysbottom5769 Did you read the comics? The way it's done in the show is... *with room for improvement*, politely said, but they get more depth afterwards. But yeah, it's a shame. The Dragon Prince deals a lot better with its homoromantic relationships, but none of them are main characters. Maybe in the show they attempt after that? ;D
@@scottysbottom5769hate to break it to you, but Korrasami is canon, whether you like it, or think it was the wrong way to go, it is canon
The rewrite making asami a spy is interesting because that was how she was originally written
(Edit: To preface this, I genuinely love LoK and think the worldbuilding is mostly quite good.)
Part of the issue I always saw with the whole classism focus during the first season is that the way they set up how bending manifests is pretty counter to how class inequality actually arises.
Class is almost always *intergenerational,* typically arising due to inherited wealth/title/caste/etc. and with only occasional rise or fall in station. But it's been established in the Avatar world that while genetics play a *role* in someone being born a bender or non-bender, simple random chance also plays a large role. Aside from cases like the Fire Nation royal family putting so much effort into only marrying powerful firebenders or those with powerful firebender lineages, or the Air Nomads' hyperfocus on spiritualism resulting in their all-bender society, any regular family is going to have a mix of benders and non-benders. If every single bender has non-bender siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, in-laws, etc. then you wouldn't have the sort of social segregation and isolation which leads to those sorts of prejudices and societal divides unless there were extremely deeply ingrained religious or cultural enmity toward non-benders. There would certainly be some imbalance when it comes to opportunities for benders vs. nonbenders, but you'd be very unlikely to have whole slums of non-benders when many non-benders are inheriting the wealth and social standing of bender parents/family. Same goes for prejudice and stereotypes, it wouldn't make much sense for some metalbender cop to hassle a random non-bender and talk about how non-benders are inclined toward criminality when the metalbender cop standing next to him is likely to smack him upside the head and be like "Dude. My parents and one of my daughters are non-benders, jackass."
Good points! The more I look at this show the more shit-tier world building stands out. The writers wanted to talk about politics without first understanding any level of society, philosophy, history, or even questioning the status quo.
I mean, just because it doesn't translate good into reality doesn't mean such discrimination based on pure chance wouldn't be possible or even unrealistic. You even have a real life example of just that. Inherited wealth? Well historically, who was able, due to pure luck of genetics, to inherit wealth?
Of course discrimination of non benders wouldn't translate 100% into sex based discrimination but the fictional world of Korra doesn't work like real life. But I have no trouble imagining it.
And just like everyone having a mother doesn't stop sexism, benders having non bending relatives would probably not stop it.
@@messymessr Saying it's "shit-tier" is way further than I would go. I genuinely love the show and feel the worldbuilding and writing is quite good for the most part. I'm just saying that there could have been better ways to tell a story about classism than using bending for the allegory. If they did want to use bending as part of a discrimination allegory, a story about ableism could have been interesting and might have fit the worldbuilding a bit better.
Agree. I think both series does a great job showcasing non-benders in positions of power across all the nations. The there is no correlation between bending and social class as simply having the ability to bend doesn't necessarily make you good at it or provide any monetary benefit.
Not to mention how gangs and organized crime usually arise out of disenfranchisement or hardship. Having benders be the ones with systemic power, and then forming gangs rather than just abusing their relative power within society just...doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus the destitute levels of poverty of the brothers at the start of the series shows that in the society being a bender does not directly equate to getting out of poverty which also undermines the idea of treating bending directly as a class in this way. Idk, it all gets a lot messy if you look at it for more than a moment.
I think the problem is that they decided rather late in the process to treat bending vs non-bending as a class issue within the world, rather than either extrapolating what a stratified society would look like in a bending world or thinking about the consistency and implications of posing bending as an empowered class. Either way could have worked, but they didn't really do either, so it comes a part at the seams
It does make Asami's character arc more interesting and it makes sense to have her as an antagonist in this season. However, there would be long term consequences for the rest of the series having her occupy the role as described here. I think she would, at least in Season 2, be reduced to a more minor role and wouldn't be Korra's companion or even necessarily an ally. Instead, it's more likely that she would be heavily involved in reforming Republic City's government and by Season 2 might even be president instead of Raiko. In other words, she wouldn't have time to travel around with the Avatar and wouldn't be forming a closer relationship with her at that time. Not that this is a bad thing, but her role in the series would be very different moving forward from Season 1. That's not to say that you couldn't have her on Team Avatar by Season 3. It would actually be a pretty good arc for Asami in Season 2 if she was president and Varrick successfully engineers a scandal that forces her to resign after she refuses to provide military aid to the rebels fighting Unalaq. Her Season 3 arc could then be about her getting over that humiliation and Korra could be help her with that, since she knows what it's like to have everyone lose faith in you and thus can emphasize with her.
Yeah, but do you remember what he said in the beginning of the video? They thought that this was only season that would exist, so he write it with this in mind. This being the only season, he is kinda purposefully making it not fit the future arcs you mentioned
I always loved the concept of season one, but I was really annoyed by how they brushed off the conflict between the benders and nonbenders. Those were real problems, and it made sense that the inequality would have taken place like that. That's why this rewrite makes so much sense to me. 28:00 made me tear up a little, and I wish that the show had taken this path. It provides so much more emotional depth for Korra that I didn't really get at first.
I love the fix you did for Mako and Asami's conflict and character development. 😳 and right on about not invalidating the Equalist's concerns by making one of their members a more nuanced character in the story.
Also, aww man, how much better would LoK have been if there was less executive meddling. (Just for the record, I still love the show)
Was an immediate click for me… because Korra had so much potential but the constant shifts behind the scenes really made a mess in the writing (considering the lore takes a random unnecessary change between both shows and seasons) but the overall story is not the problem.
Also one personal fix would be to cut even the later “love triangle” (Mako, Korra, Asamj) by setting up the idea that Asami (keeping her as an equalist) has a thing for Korra as a person and struggles with her role as the avatar because of how benders act and the undeserved worship for the avatar as the master of bending. Then you could have Asami be someone who helps Korra see that she is more than just the avatar and her nonbender traits are what make her someone Asami thinks could actually help. This not only would set the ground work for their relationship later on (at the expense of the annoying Mako drama) but also would make there be a shift where Korra puts in more hard work in the mental and spiritual aspects of her role as the avatar than in her bending. This will mark the start of the more spiritual shift in later arcs (if we have to keep those overall arcs the same).
@@XOISHTAR That's would have been an amazing concept for Asami amd Korra's relationship. I love it
I agree korea had so much potential but k pop ruined it
@@hannastewart1051 plus it opens up Mako for actual development as his own character rather than becoming the toxic boy they both like at first… you could focus on his progress as Bai Fong’s chosen heir for the police force, and likely create a bigger impact of season four’s main conflict. All while allowing them to build an actual relationship we get to see between Korra and Asami instead of just kinda dropping it in at the end after only lightly touching on them getting closer.
@@theninjabird9510 thank you!!! Autocorrect really like to keep changing names on me… I thought I had caught it the first go around.
This is a great rewrite! I think my biggest gripe with the series as a whole is its dismissal of legitimate political concerns because the heads of the movements always took things "too far" and had their own personal deeply flawed ways of conducting their ideologies. There are very reasonable and valid origins for the antagonists' societal motivations but since they're depicted as unsalvageable villains it just kind of comes off like Korra and the gang are only maintaining the status quo or doing what they personally think is best without truly understanding those who are victims of the system. I love your integration of themes and concepts that come up later in the original show, and I'd be thrilled to see you tackle rewrites for the other three seasons if you choose to do so!
Does he need to begin a good video with low-key-cringey claims?
No, Korra was not Good. Just like the Life-Action-Movie,
hour-long Essays are made about it being laughably bad.
@@slevinchannel7589 There are only a handful of videos bashing Korra and they don't offer much insight. If Korra is so bad, then why is it so well acclaimed by fans, casual viewers and critics alike? Tim loves the show for a good reason, because it's an objectively well made and well written show. There are some hiccups, yes, but the good outweighs the bad. Then again, I guess that doesn't matter to whiners like you.
@@karimion2157 Buddy, you bring-up basically non-arguments, a lot of them, but can you prove it's not a dumbster-fire that is objectively much worse than most Shows, let alone the thing it meant to Copy?
The reason why the writers had to have Amon's ideology fail is because it wouldn't play out like this UA-camr thinks it would. Even in this rewrite many Equalists wanted benders to lose their powers and believing that 2 minute speech will change this is deluded. If the Equalists win they will depower or expel the benders, not just agree to live alongside them because a non-bender might get elected. Especially when they objected to benders because they were competing against people who could use literal magic, something that wasn't addressed in this rewrite.
Also if the Equalists won but were happy to live with benders then they won't object to Amon. Especially they don't know he's a bender or he's still able to remove the bending of benders.
@@slevinchannel7589 Lol says the one who brought up nothing but a hollow baseless argument in the first place.
I actually quite enjoyed Korra despite everything that held it back, so I am really excited to hear your take on what would have made it better!
Me to however my main gripe was that i liked the villains more then the heros..... Thet just weren't that interesting also another problem i had with korra was with the lack of bending based technology and a kinda dislike the huge jump in technology not because i think that its unrealistic but because if another avatar series happens and there's another technology boom for the time jump were gonna end up with a avatar with a I-phone and a avatar series in the 2020's would lose that good ol aesthetic it had thats my opinion at least
@@nolanlong1979 i think that there was already a bending based industrial revolution during the 100 yrs war with ba sing se and of course the Fire Nation ... And a few years after the end of the war there was a more mechanical IR started in CraneFish town which result in what we see in LoK but still keeping some advantages with bending like getting electricity from lightning benders whom became more common after the war and at the end of LoK we see the premice of a new one when they start using spirit vines which will incredibly improve technology . And all that happening in a very short amount of time will indeed make the avatar world after Korra unnappealing for many
This really does deepen things a bit, with meaningful connections with not just characters, but also the world as things happen. Great job. I still love korra a lot, and I could definitely feel the pressure of trying to create a story vs not knowing if they'd even get another season, which is completely the higher ups fault.
This would have made Asami and Korra's eventual relationship waaaay more interesting, too.
right? it makes both of them deeper characters, and their relationship has a lot more depth (and spice, lots of spice if your girlfriend kicked you out of her city before you started dating)
True true! If the rest of the books are executed this well, they will end up in a much more developed and natural romantic relationship by the end of the series
Stewart Howell There was no planned relationship. Non-canon. Lesson is shippers can’t read social cues.
Non-canon.
Especially if at some point Korra had to find a way to balance her relationship with Asami, and her commitment to the fire ferrets and burning passion for pro bending
@@scottysbottom5769 it is tho it’s literally in the comics
One thing I wished when I saw the first episode is that, when she was getting lectured about causing more damage than she was fixing, someone might have offered to take her up high (like above the bridge) to show her the complex traffic system, how it works so well, until someone steps out of line and then people get hurt. From seeing that, maybe she might then have appreciated more why there are so many rules and the dangers of breaking those rules. Sure, she might still choose to break a rule, but she'll do less damage if she understands what the rule is and why it exists. Also, she might understand that if she tries to stay within the rules, the nice authoritarian lady lecturing her (Lin Beifong) would actually be one of her greatest allies.
Well, that's the only thing I might try to sneak into your rewrite.
"oh sorry I thought you were one of them" *takes a moment to brace myself for all the things this rewrite is gonna give me that the show couldn't* okay. Okay I'm good.
Ok wow, that conversation between Korra and Bolin at the end of Episode 9 is GOOD. I mean the whole video is amazing, of course, your quality is never anything but, but that one conversation literally just made me pause the video and take it all in. Such nuance and compassion and richness conveyed in a single conversation.
Korra only needed slight changes in writing decisions. That was always the disappointing thing about the show. You wonder how they will address an issue and then go "eehh" at the choice made.
Korra was so frustrating, solely because they would have these neat concepts and you were like, "okay, cool, hows this gonna be resolved and oh. well. thats one way to do it. i guess" It was so close, and yet so far.
Amon is so bone chilling how he lurks in the shadows and is so confident to “use” Korra to his own ends…
As much as I love zaheer he kinda only works with the red lotus Amon really should’ve been the joker to korra’s Batman and he kinda was
My biggest gripe is that Korra doesn't feel like an achieved person. Her arc is a deconstruction of Aang's arc, his power and mastery is replaced by her clumsy confidence, and by the end she is not only not confident in herself, but she is not powerful. Which is fine in any other circumstances, but it never felt like she accomplished anything or got over her problems. In a series that explores the darkness of mental issues she should have come out of it stronger and more able to handle them, and she didn't. If I lived in her world, I wouldn't trust her, at all.
What a load of crap
Maybe it was a kind of situation where the mental issues wore her down to the point she was more vulnerable
I also feel like she should have devolped sooner. She doesnt change much in the first 3 seasons, then in the forth she changes alot. It should have been more grudal
If this is your interpretation neither of you were paying attention. She is only confident now because she learned from and accepted her losses. She's also vastly more mature, level-headed and sympathetic in Book 3. Saying she only changed in Book 4 is a blatant lie.
@@marktwayne9796Sorry but it’s just a badly written character.
I cant say enough how incredible this video is. You are clearly very knowledgable about writing. I wish the best for you!
To paraphrase a very wise individual:
"Legend of Korra isn't BAD... it's just so much less compelling."
I couldn't disagree more. Legend of Korra is more compelling to me than ATLA, it just isn't as tight written as ATLA.
Disagree. More compelling but also more confusing
I just see Korra as wasted potential with an avatar who isn’t nearly as exciting to watch as Aang. She’s the failed successor and because of that fact, the series suffers for a very large audience
@@BoredOuttaMyMind I disagree, she is far more exciting and compelling than Aang and has a more meaningful arc. She isn’t a failure by any means
@@Unison23 We’ll agree to disagree, then
I absolutely love this take on the story. There are so many good moments of philosophy between the characters and the emphasis on the non benders makes Amon's role in the story, as well as Korra's development, so much more interesting and connected
As a non-writer, just an avatar fan and consumer; I think this re-write is perfect and i would be thrilled to have this version aired, re-done as a fan project maybe? I would love to (and even pay to) watch this re-imagining of Avatar Korra. I am already hooked on how Korra gains her bending back in the second season and what her new role in the world is.
One thought on the new Avatar that is coming in 2025: I think in modern age in the avatar universe, a good role for the avatar would be more focused on her spiritual side instead of the bending. The Avatar can rely on thousand of years of experience, with which he/she would become a really good counselor to different political institutions. Though I have no idea how this could be made into an interesting series :D
I always wanted them to explore Korra at her lowest more, having a character in a children's show basically contemplating suicide is a powerful moment and they could have done so much more with it.
I’m curious if you were to continue doing this style of videos how would tackle Korra recovering from the poisoning in S3 in this new timeline of yours?
So much of a possible character arc and the drama of Korra losing her powers is covered pretty well in post Season 3, through out Season 4.
I wonder how you would make the crisis of her losing her bending here in S1 unique and not make it feel like Korra is being forced to learn the same lesson over again.
i actually dont want him to create a whole new storyline without considering the existing seasons... like I would love to see how he would incorporate his new storyline into the plotlines of other seasons , like how he would makes things work when he has to mix korra's journey to get her bending back and s2 civil war, like would he include Wan's origin story as the avatar (and how he would modify it to fit his story) to korra's journey to fully becomes the avatar again?
Well considering that she didn't exactly learn anything in S1 bc she got her bending back due to magical plot reasons, her S3 arc shouldn't be a big deal. With HFM's changes, however, I think that he'd have to re-write a shit load of stuff to even begin to make the entire storyline work. S2 really screwed a lot of lore up and messed with even more character-level stuff, so he'd have to fix that first.
It's like HFM walked up to the twin towers after 9/11 and started rebuilding them by himself. He's gonna have to do it from the ground up, and it'll take awhile.
Probably how i wished the show actually handled it. Korra doesn't need to recover physically from some left over poison that's the cause of her problems. It's the fact she's traumatised and unable to cope with it. She's physically fine, but mentally an absolute wreck.
Maybe She has trouble waterbending because she cannot let her mind 'flow' without her trauma being triggered. Or the heat of fire reminds her of being fucking chained over lava!
Maybe that plot point won't happen in his version of seasons 3 and 4, or it'll be really different
Always down for a "helping korra" video... Good luck Tim
Wow I felt all these characters Bolin kept his charm but mako is fixed and you even fixed Korra I'm blown away honestly
I also love the connection between kiyoshi and toph made here. Kiyoshi created the dai Lee in order to establish order and create peace but they were soon corrupt and feared. Similarly we see Toph’s metal bending police created in hopes of establishing order and protecting those in need, soon becoming biased and targeting non benders (also a nice parallel to real world police brutality and injustice).
this was one of the best fixes I have ever seen. I really hope you continue this and I'm excited to see how you handle season 2
My gods! I want to watch THIS version!!! This is introspective, moving, and rich with character development! I love it!
Before watching:
I feel like korra's arc of not being able to airbend due to her personality and seeing her take those lessons and use them in pro bending and then, only when shes at her lowest point discover her air bending is a strong story. I think moving it an episode sooner and maybe next ep talking with tenzen and working spiritually to regain her lost bending. Either over a whole episode by gaining them one at a time on a spiritual journey and hint at the past which is expanded on in season 2 or in a partial episode thing where she has some sort of spiritual realization. It would be a personal experience of growth.
After watching:
I see your point of having Korra no longer have her powers at the end but you said one of the rules is the season has to be self contained. As in there is no expectation for a season 2. I'd argue that Leaving Korra entirely without her other elements does two negative things. It passes up a great moment where she can actually explore the spiritual side of being the avatar and present a really strong shot at personal growth to balance the fact the rest of the season is focused on the conflict around the main character. And while she's having this experience the city is going to hell in a handbasket around her and there's not much she can do yet because she *needs* to do this. It could be set up as making the avatar look negligent despite her claims to be trying to help because what she's doing doesn't initially look helpful to an outsider. I'm not sure how to fully articulate that thought but I think you know what I mean.
Having Korra getting kicked out of the city and having her relationship with various characters permanently affected, Korra getting kicked out of the city founded by the avatar, etc is permanent punishment enough I think. All that is great to convey the consequences of everything that happened. It still makes the point needed.
As for gaining the power back, it shouldn't be an easy deus ex machina, but a full episode dedicated to the spiritual growth required to achieve that after going through at least an episode without her powers. Hell, have Amon take her powers away in the first encounter and let her go through the spiritual awakening for the *entire* rest of the season. Maybe she's not back to full power either. Having them sealed has caused blockages in her energy that she has to overcome, but it comes full cycle in that now she has to work at the other elements to bring them up to her level of airbending... But this also puts her back into the position that she has again become a symbol of everything wrong in Republic City and acknowledge that. She has to go out into the world as a weakened but realized Avatar with the understanding that not everyone may want her and more empathy because of it.
EDIT 1 YEAR LATER: I also want to point out that the trope of the main character permanently losing their powers at the end of a season is an EXTREMELY tired trope and rarely does it feel deserved. I've seen it time and again in books and shows and movies and it often pollutes the message because it's not done correctly. It has the potential to be done correctly here but it needs to be weighed against the avatar regaining their powers as a symbol of overcoming as a message.
I think the only show that did it correctly was (and trying to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it) the one with the jerk with no eyes and the weird door and the the one grumpy character with the prosthetic arm. If you know, you know. The loss of power there DIRECTLY served the plot and was vital for the MC to get the one thing they wanted throughout the entire story and the sacrifice was made out of love and not out of obligation. Therefore it meant way more.
I don’t see how Korra discovering air bending the way she did is strong. She discovered it only though necessity but that isn’t how airbending works. It should’ve had something to do with letting go or going with the flow
@@umwhathat's one classical way to learn Airbending. I always liked that there were different forms of the same bending, but for obvious reasons we never really see more than traditional Airbending.
Korra's Airbending for the rest of the series would always feel almost like firebending: fierce and precise, used in an aggressive form to push back, rather than as an evasive measure. I always thought it would have been interesting to delve more into that "style of Airbending" somehow. Maybe through old air temple scrolls?
@@raze2012_ I see what your trying to get at - but the show didnt even do that. Like yeah, what if there was a dissident Airbending style called 'Storm style' or 'Tempest style' that is an expression of chaos, that the Air Monks tried to suppress, and Korra rediscovers it. Maybe the storm style would actually allow Airbenders to brew lightning, and so it was deemed too dangerous. But no , theres no secret airbending style , Korra just tried really hard and deus ex airbending kicked in for the plot.
@@raze2012_ but we never see that brought up again ever in the series? the whole point of the entire season was that she couldn't airbend because the way airbenders are is so counter to her upbringing. humble, free, and always changing things up to find that trickity trick to win, vs korra, who was brought up full of herself, with no freedom at all, and solving every problem with a punch. the show even has a beautiful scene where she learns to move like the leaf in probending, showing that it's *not* that traditional airbending is wrong, it's korra, AND that korra can learn.
and then that just gets dropped, and she learns to... airbend with a punch. there's no connection in that scene to how airbending works at all, the same way bolin lavabends. he's at his lowest point, and suddenly it just works for no reason. compare that with toph's metalbending, where we understand immediately exactly why metalbending exists, and why toph is able to do it. they did it with the be the leaf scene- they could've done it with korra actually unlocking airbending too.
I believe that she can explore her spiritual side as she recovers her bending
The only part I'm confused about is why Asami was helping them as much as she was (prior to the betrayal & even prior to her talk with Mako). I get that she felt conflicted but still. Maybe it was explained & I missed it though.
I got the vibe that her "helping" was often setting them up for traps. Like her giving Mako the map was immediately followed up by Mako being attacked by equalists, so it seemed to me like Asami was setting him up.
Lol considering a noir spy genre, it would make sense of asami is helping to get close and to learn Korra's weakness. That is until she goes native and switches sides
Was this written to work with your “Fixing Legend of Korra Season 2” video and will you be writing up any changes to season 3 and 4 in the future? Loved the video!
Season 3 was pretty good but it's gonna have to change a bit due to the rest of the series changing
even though Amon is my second favourite villain (Zaheer will always steal my heart as number 1) I was really disappointed to find out that Amon was just using an advanced form of bloodbending to take away peoples bending. when we left off in the original series, aang had learned a new sort of spiritual bending to take away the firelords abilities, and i was expecting some kind of extension or exploration of that method going into korra. something more elementally neutral, something that could maybe even be learned by anyone - unlike bending that was essentially inherited. it felt like such a strange change of what i had been anticipating.
I think what they went with works better. Amon was using illusion to warp the truth in his methodology and bending. It ties together well.
If it was something that could be learned by anyone, then it would be more interesting for Amon to just be a non-bender.
Also its just more interesting that in a world of magical abilities there are things that can just be made up in it too and believed with smoke and mirrors.
they should have given amon some spirit lasers, because everyone knows that a concentrated spiritual laser beam is the answer to everything
@@SLYKM In addition it could create future problems, more Amons, it would lose its punch. Maybe unlike the technic Aang uses, Amon's method has flaws, with enough spiritual connection or mediation to open chakras someone can regain their bending on their own. Cause I subscribe to the theory of Amon using bloodbending to block chakras.
@@baconator_x4098 Ooh, this could also explain how Korra was able to use air bending again.
I have to rewatch this show to really remember smaller details, but she was able to bend again on her own without needing to be "healed." Right? Lol
@@SLYKM
Here is an idea:
Among is still tarrlok's brother and yakon's son, but he was born a non bender.
Abused and scarred by his father, he eventually run away, heck, maybe even kills his father, and go on a journey, eventually learning, either by himself, or from a lion turtle, the art of spiritual bending, like aang learned it, and manage to take people's bending away.
Maybe in this version he is the older, yet failed brother, while tarrlok is the prodigy, though unlike the original series pair of older failure and younger prodigy, perhaps in this version tarrlok always tried to be gentle with his older brother, who couldn't bend, and tried to help him, while Amon grew ever more distant and frustrated, taking his anger over the world, and on his little brother.
This sounds so amazing I would definitely watch this. I feel like you hit the nail and gave these characters proper personalities and goals. I love the twist and style of storytelling you went for. Bravo!
I love that Amon's efforts ended up having positive effects too. The benders would not have listened if it wasn't for the attempted revolution.
this is why I hate people thinking he has "the right idea but the wrong methods" like please, bending has been around for 10 thousand years and so have nonbenders, they have ALWAYS been treated like this and always had to sttrugle in a world built for benders. The fact that people only started paying attention when a BENDER was speaking in favor of nonbenders really says a lot. (Of course ppl didn't know Amon was a bender but it was his ability to take away bending that got everyone's attention)
Everything Amon did had to be done for them to be heard, and also he is the only Lok villain whose plan didn't involve any killing.
How would *you* have rewritten Amon and what do you think they did really well? To be honest, I think Amon is probably the best villain in the series' history.
~ Tim
I added a character that becomes the dark avatar but I didn't give myself the same restrictions as you.
Zaheer>Amon IMO
I don’t recall Spirits actually giving anyone abilities it was only the giant lion turtles who gave the ability to bend, it would have been interesting if spirits tried to possess benders and non benders because of 100 years of neglect despite Aang’s efforts
Korra is good as it is. Why the hell do you have to rewrite anything that's not book two?
@@sagittario42 Great but can be even better.
Loved the rewrite. Asami’s declaration was just breath taking
[Asami from the stage]:
"YOU are breah taking!"
My rewrite (that I've actually been working on, mind you) primarily focuses on fixing the series' awful politics and themes. To that end, I made a focus out of Amon not being the main villain, instead making him a fakeout villain who seems like a scary bringer of chaos at first, but instead it turns out he's bringing an extremely necessary shake up to upend the failure of a society that he was created in. Instead of a gangster's son, I made him a doctor who learned blood bending as a tool of healing, then honed its offensive skills by hunting down and using it on the gangsters who'd harmed his patients. So he has that intimidation factor as he's essentially a serial killer with methods that are kept mysterious and a notably frightening appearance, and between the testimony of the victims he's depowered and the word of his followers proclaiming him the herald of equality, rumors circulate of him as this enormous threat that could potentially endanger any bender, portraying him as a self-righteous vigilante who appointed himself a judge and executioner at the same time. And in the wake of the fear generated by Amon's rise to prominence, enter Tarloq, an opportunist looking to further boost his own public support among the ruling class. And with his promises of protection against Amon, he's able to institute a covert fascist takeover at the expense of non-benders, making him the most loved man in the city among benders and pulling the wool over the eyes of Korra, since she believes all the rumors owing to her sheltered upbringing and the stories of Aang's exploits leading to her seeing Amon as just the same kind of threat. And when she's eventually captured by the equalists and bound to a chair, her body paralyzed by chi blocking, Amon doesn't threaten her. He takes off his mask, and speaks to her as an equal. I also really like the "You're our Avatar too" line, but in my version, it's Amon who says it, not just some random civilian. What he says shakes Korra to the bone, not because it frightens her, but because for the first time in her life, it makes her question everything she thought about herself, everything she thought she was. Amon, seeing her struggles in her expression, takes it a step further, and uses his bending to restore her faculties back to normal, and unties her. "I am not interested in threatening you, young Avatar," he says, "I'm asking you to decide for yourself what you really believe. I've made my case to you, and whether you believe me or not, I will not stop my mission to bring justice to this city, on behalf of those people whom it has spent decades oppressing." And Korra, unsure in the moment, gets up and leaves. Next couple episodes focus on her struggling to decide what's the right thing to do, getting exposed to the true barbarism of Tarloq and all the people who'd sooner throw their lot in with his iron boot than see their own positions threatened, and when she finally encounters Amon again amidst an attack like the one on the bending arena, his men take fighting stances, expecting her to attack them, while he merely cocks his head, waiting to see what she chooses. And she holds out her hand to him, as he takes it, she calls back to that line from Kyoshi: "Only justice will bring peace." From then on, the story centers on Korra fighting alongside the equalists, with Tarloq and maybe even Lin as their primary opposition (though Lin can probably be talked down with a similar approach).
I think this approach fixes one of the biggest problems in Korra, which is just the awful approach it has to its themes. And it's where I introduce the he theme of the series: that the Avatar can't just be a protector of stability, that only prolongs the problem, and instead they may need to actively break the existing social order to do the right thing and pursue a more just world. Balance is not the absence of tension, and that was a mistake many avatars, Aang included, fell into just because it's the easy intuitive answer, when in reality it was wrong. The Avatar needs to be more than that, they need to be the voice of the people who can't speak for themselves, and Amon is the first to teach Korra that, a lesson she'll continue to learn even from her enemies as they apply it in new ways in later seasons.
Is your story posted anywhere yet?
@@angelharper2176 No, it's sort of an on-again-off-again project
I love the second paragraph, and even though it doesn't focus on ATLA or TLoK, Pop Culture Detective has a great video called 'The Hidden Politics of Marvel Movies: Defenders of The Status Quo' that focuses on the same issue. I feel that in most fantasy settings there's no line between stability and consant conservatism and your approach would go a long way to remedy that.
oh i LOVE this !! if you ever decide to post the rewrite anywhere, i’d love to read it. it sounds incredible, at least on a thematic level
But how does it end?
Does korra stage a coup against tarlok?
What happens to amon afterwards? He did commit crimes, so does he get jailed? What about the blood bending issue?
I really like your take on the plot, but the resolution needs working on. But tbf, the show s resolution with the dual unliving of the brothers was garbage.
One of my main issues with the season was Amon’s secret identity. I thought he was a really cool villain that was actually a step up from the villains of atla (except Azula), but I really didn’t like the twist that he was Yakone’s son and a powerful bloodbender. I think it would have been cooler if his story he gave was true, and that he was a non bender who learned how to remove bending. My personal favourite explanation for this is that he encountered a dangerous spirit that taught him how. While this rewrite doesn’t consider future seasons, I do think that could have led nicely into the conflict woth the spirits in the second season, with that theme already established in the first season. The flashbacks to Yakone could have just been a warning about Tarlok, who was set up by Yakone to keep his bloodline and benders in power forever. I think if they had kept Tarlok as a threat around for longer, it would have made for a cool duality in the show. One bending villain and one non bending villain, and how Korra has to try and strike a balance between the two. While the practicalities of how Amon actually got his powers may have some problems, they don’t cause any more issues than removing bending with bloodbending, or bloodbending without even doing the motions of waterbending. I feel like the backstory not only makes Amon less cool by having him be just another bender, but my main problem is that it means he doesn’t actually believe in the cause he’s fighting for. Given his backstory, his actions make absolutely no sense, and it feels like they did it so they could make him a more blatantly evil threat so there isn’t any conflict about destroying him and his cause. It would have made for a much stronger story in my opinion if he was what he said he was, and if the backstory twist was scrapped.
This comment isn't getting nearly enough love. I totally agree, I think it plays right into what he's talking about with not taking the bender vs non-bender conflict seriously. Amon turning out to be a bender that's just taking advantage of non-bender sentiment in the city is (in my opinion) what made the writers feel justified in ignoring a more nuanced story about non-benders. Because the whole movement is delegitimized in two seconds with the big reveal, they get to say "it was never about non-benders anyways, it was about Yakone... so why would we even make that a compelling conflict in the season".
I definitely agree. It would be so much more interesting if Amon was just telling the truth
Having the connection to Tarlok just went underexplored/underutilized. I do think there's a lot that could have been done with it, up to and including keeping them as brothers, but having Amon be a nonbender. Additionally tying in his ability to remove bending directly to something with the spirits as suggested makes perfect sense with him running out onto the ice of the poles and perhaps stumbling into the spirit realm. Hell, it could even be Vaatu and/or Unalaq who taught him how to do it, more cleanly tying the seasons together.
i don't like him getting it from a powerful evil spirit as spirits being straight evil and good was something I really disliked from S2 but i agree on him learning the power from somewhere else. Plus it just being bloodbending is really meh to me. When you make something even more powerful than it was.
I think him learning to take powers through being a spiritual individual would have been cool though.
@@coleflournoy5314 agreed, it's like setting up an emotional scene in a show or film and then turning it into a slap stick comedy moment, you lose all build up
As soon as she gained Airbending in "Book 1: Air", I thought the other seasons would be about relearning each element.
Since she was practically born with the other 3, she never really "learned" them in the first place.
Kinda disappointed when it ended with her just regaining them all deus ex machina style.
Korra was supposed to be a mini series, until Nickelodeon saw the success and gave them permission for a second season. They couldn’t end it on a cliffhanger, because it was supposed to be the end
"I'm the MarySuevatar, you gotta deal with it!"
I personally much preffer the route they went with, as just calling them the same names as existing "books" would be too confusing and actually relearning every single element could get tiring. She could maybe relearn acrossa rewritten season 2 (which is, after all, all about spiritual stuff) but beyond that no.
@@sowpmactavish Korra is not remotely a Mary Sue, even in the bad internet definition of "Highly competent/prodigy woman exists." That definition gets bandied about with vague references to training for their power, but then Korra spent literally her whole life training, we see her at the end of like 15 years of training in 3 of the elements. If Korra is a mary sue, so are Batman, Superman, literally every shonen protagonist, and Aang, who was crowned an Airbender master at age 12! Funnily enough though, those GUYS never get called Sues.
For the actual definition, i.e. a character that exists solely for the author to fawn over to the point of warping the story to the sole purpose of glorifying the character (see, for example, most 90s anti-heros, who are all terrible people doing terrible things for terrible reasons, but they are the writer's favorite, so they get to be the hero), you cannot seriously present any part of what Korra goes through as constant glorifying. She loses all the time, she is never portrayed as perfect, literally the only thing that is unusual is her doing what should be common sense: bending multiple elements as a kid. Outside the air nomads who were 100% benders, how would literally anyone know their kid was a bender, unless they bent stuff, because it is a natural talent they have, and it gets used at some point. She just gets to do all 4, because the avatar.
They should have stretched it. Use it to explore old and new bending styles, their pros and cons(got to add them too), traditional vs spiritual, light strikes vs heavy, etc. There is a lot to explore here.
I LOVE this rewrite! I can definitely see your changes making for more effective and impactful storytelling. Not that I personally disliked season 1, but many of the points that I disliked like the rushed feeling towards the end, you really address well. I hope you can do more videos like this! I kind of want to try this exercise myself!
I'd be behind a rewrite of the rest of the seasons, honestly XD
After watching 'How to Divide a Fanbase' by Closer Look, it made me realize that this should be a more populated genre. Sure, you get fanfiction/fanart. But it's easier to make a rewrite with a video essay and basic (or more than basic) understanding of story development. And, although I like Korra (mainly cuz it has older characters and dark (really dark) themes), listening to you rewrite the first season and mention flaws of the others made me hungry for these 'fixes'.
Hungry to better understand how these elements within a story can be moved around to improve the narrative (and the 1st season was definitely, hypothetically, improved XD)