I don't think Zaheer was the sole reason for Korra's PTSD, but rather the final straw. The visions Korra has of her past enemies suggests they contributed to her trauma as well.
I genuinely love LoK and Korra so much, even more than AtLA despite being objectively less consistent/quality. There's something fascinating about a show (and character) in the shadow of something great, trying to follow in its footsteps, but realising their flaws and natural differences mean they can never be great in the same way. It can be a flaw in its pacing, but I really agree that Korra's insecure position forcing it to have a new focus each season allows the show to shift and change. It gets to understand its flaws, strengths, and find its identity as it goes. You also hit the nail right on the head with Korra's character development in direct relation to her villains being one of the best parts of the show. It follows such a great arc with Amon and Tarlok punching her in the face with how much she doesn't know about the world, emotionally and socially, and forcing her to find a new perspective on what she can lose. Then Unalaq makes her confront the legacy of the Avatar and accepting that she can make change in the world on her own terms, not what the past dictates. Zaheer and the Red Lotus again bring her so low, telling her the world is better without her and stealing her physical prowress. She has lost everything and is nothing.... but she goes on. She wants to be the avatar and now knows she is human. And Kuvira... Korra confronts a version of herself she wanted to be. Kuvira is physically powerful, inspiring change, doing what she wants, screw whoever tells her otherwise. After Amon, Tarlok, Zaheer, she knows more than ever how that isn't the way to change the world, but her sense of justice is not what was wrong. She has perspective on the world and as scared and human as she is, she is still the Avatar. It is not a contradiciton. She can confront Kuvira and teach her past self this humility, fear, and care. I know Korra can put people off the show, but it really is the Legend of Korra. Her character journey is harsh but an incredible turn I genuinely don't know they would have done if the show was planned from the beginning.
I love Korra. Maybe because I saw a lot of myself in her. Thinking you have life figured out as a kid. Trying to prove something to everyone as a teen. Slowing down and accepting yourself as a young adult. Besides I ship the hell out of korrasami. That is the reason I watched the show. Korra was alot of us.
You are the kind of content creator that the Avatar fandom wants and NEEDS. Thank you for looking at more than just the comparisons of the two series. Korra is a character with SO many layers that you need to analyze a lot to understand who she is. It's like uniting Aang, Katara and Zuko into one character. Aang's power, Katara's personality, Zuko's incredible and well-crafted development, creating a very amazing character.
Uughhh FINALLY someone with an enlightened view on Kora personality like I'm in tears over what you wrote, you and this UA-camr served 35:09 justice to her character 😞👏
i think legend of korra has some of the best ideas in the whole avatar franchise, it’s just the pacing. the last airbender had room to grow into an amazing storytelling masterpiece.
I really like the idea you brought up of Unalaq wanting to become something "more than human" (the Dark Avatar thing) as a kind of dark reflection of Korra's over-attachment to her Avatar identity. I've never seen season 2's story framed that way before, but it really does a good job of tying the crazy spirit stuff back to Korra's personal development. That's a pretty cool way of looking at it.
Very good stuff here. I liked your viewpoints here. I love the journey Korra goes through and I’d say it was a much more spiritual experience than what Aang went through. And all facilitated by the incredible villains she has to face. Which includes herself. In the earlier seasons she is her own biggest enemy. And learning to see the flaws within herself and grow from it is what makes her a much better person by the end. Great video!
tbf I don't think you'll get any flack for "simplifying" Ozai's motivations. His and Sozin's whole deal is how privilege and power develops selfish, simple people. Ozai's motivation is always more power for himself and he'll use blunt force and intimidation to get it. It's part of AtLA's strengths that they'll have all these nuanced discussions about war and grey morality, but the heart of it is usually simple selfishness and greed
I mean, the reason they created Zuko in the first place was beacuse they realized the fire lord couldnt be a recurrent villian, then they made Zuko a complex character and thats why they needed azula in book 2. Ozai dont really have a personality and the creators know it... But its because he dont need to have a personality. Its a good character, its imposing, evil and have grwat lines, it shapes the plot very well, but you wont remember him for his deepness. Altho tbf Unalaq goed more or less the same way, he has motivations... But its never rwally explained why he wants chaos unlike the red lotus in book 3. There are villians that work as deep characters and then there are villians that works as bosses. Ozai is in my opinion the best boss villian you could have.
@@Missing_no Azula was already created in book 1 and was set up to be important later on (big hit from the Live Action to have her around more during book 1), and they had a recurring villain in Zhao. Zuko was always meant to be antagonized by the royal family, the episode when they cross into fire nation territory in pursuit of aang makes it very clear Zuko is an antagonists to both the avatar and the fire lord, hardly a villain when his first evil act was not attacking any civilian, disarming in a non lethal way the defensse army (only sokka but from Zuko's point of view at this point a soldier), and fighting one on one with Aang with no intention (although no care either) or harming civilians, Zuko is this figure of chivalry who thinks is on the right but is ultimately good from the beggining
@jodashi200 Mmh fair enough i might not explained myself that well. When they first created the plot before the start of the show they realized that they couldnt have the big bad firelord outside the palace following Aang but they needed a recurring villain so they tought of Zuko and Iroh. Originally Iroh was going to be a bad person that first would be perceived as an inofensive character and later be revealed to be very powerfull, Zuko was going to be the first treat but the villain was going to be Iroh, Zuko was conceptualized as a character that will get reedemed to tecah Aang firebending since ever. But later they prefered Iroh as a good character that would guide Zuko, but they wanted someone from the royal family to be a recurring character outside the palace so they created Azula. Zhao is a villain, but he is more an antagonic force to Zuko than Aang, thats why most of his episodes are focused towards Zuko, Aang actually not being that much treatened by him (he dont have any issues fighting him when he eventually fights him). By the time they started to make the first episode they already had the plot stablished in respects of Zuko being a treat who will get reedemed, Iroh being good, and Azula being a more dangerous treat. Thats why Azula appears in the flashback of Zuko being burned. I believed most of the plot was already shaped before they started Book 1
The interesting thing about Ozai is that while he may come off as less complex than Azula, he is still the product of a toxic culture. In the comics, he gives Zuko advice about being fire lord, and it's shown that his form of love is all about possessiveness, truly believing what what he's doing/saying is right because of his divine right to rule.
@@OpticalSorcerer Yeah, he's a fantastically real portrayal of how hereditary power corrupts. I do think he's less complex than Azula, but a simple motivation isn't bad
When you stop comparing the two avatar series, LoK comes out as a really good cartoon. Despite being put through the ringer, it *did* get 4 seasons. Kinda hard to do when Korra herself is almost constantly comparing herself to Aang, though.
Funny how people tend to forget that Korra went through amon, unalaq, Zaheer and the red lotus in the span of one year My Lord, I'll be tripping if the same thing happened to me
Actually there's a one year time skip between season 1 and season 2 season 2 and 3 are the only ones that happened in one year while season 4 happened 3 years later
At 16 years! And it was the first time she even was out of the south pole! I would be god damn lost just being a civil traveling to republuc city for the first time, imagine being the Avatar that was insane. And she didnt even had her past lifes to guide her after that.
@@OthandoSimamane-ss1xpits one year since the first time Korra went to Republic City, but it was 6 months beetween the end of book 1, then 2 weeks since the end of book 2 to get through book 3. Altho, people forget that Book 2 didnt happened in 1 week, Korra got lost for at least a week in the ocean, and when she recovered her memory the guru lady told her that "the spiritual conversion is only a few weeks away", so, idk
Aang’s story is great, but I feel Korra’s world without the fire nation being the big bad makes the world more interesting with antagonist from all around the world with their own goals, plus we actually see the world change in all aspects, I only wish we got to see the fire nation and how different their attitude is and architecture change but I understand how it isn’t really needed ig 😓
I think they didnt do it because we have the comics exploring that in a way, and because being in the fire nation would take atention to Aang in the Korra series. I would loved to had a non bender villian tho, there is Amon, but at the end he was a bloodbender. We had fire, water, air, earth and spirit villians but never a non bender... Unless you count the Earth Queen, the equalist as a movement also counts tho (Amon might be a bender, but those chi blockers were a real treat, they took the city in a one day fight!) I think Hiroshi might count as well, but i wanted a big villian be a non bender. Maybe one day we could have a prequel comic with Zaheer as a non bender?, that would be cool to read.
I agree that having the different season villains was a great choice, and they don't just disappear completely after their defeat either. I think with the insane amount of change and shifting of power enacted by Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko, this completely different society is bound to be *incredibly* flawed and these 4 are able to show the flaws really well. Through the disparity in work and class between benders and nonbenders under the advent of electricity (which I think Aang could have forced onto larger populations from what he internalized in the episode where an ancient temple he cares so much for is desecrated but he is forced to be okay with it), Unalaq in the neglect of the spirits within this unity of the nations, Zaheer in the power structure that was enforced to forcibly keep this unity together, and ultimately Kuvira in this complete embrace of unity and equality to a monstrous degree. The show's pivot from atla's imperial nations to lok's mixture of more modern democracy alongside the imperialism and these independent nations and groups needs a diverse cast of villains to help explore the extremely fast changes in power and society within the last what, 60 years? Showing the current leaders to also be incredibly flawed in their interactions and emotional maturity is also a great choice in reinforcing this, because even if they can be right in their widespread action, it often hurts the individuals that would have been in more of the forefront in atla
I love videos like this. The writing in this show is actually so good and I’m tired of people constantly not seeing past the typical critiques, preventing them from forming their own opinions.
I love Korra, is such an amazing series. Book 3 to me is the best book of the franchise. The only thing about the book 1 endings is that, it does make sense and i think the aang scene is brilliant (Korra thinking about suicide to then move on could be read as Korra opening her earth chakra, and if you analize it that way you realize that the entire book 1 has specific moments where Korra open her chakras, thats why she achieves avatar state), but the reason so many people didnt get it is that, the excution of that scene _is_ rush, i think it would been perfect if they had another episode, focusing on Korra on the south pole and the ascending of Riko as president in Republic City as a way of make non benders equal (the political issue was in great part that the gobverment was all benders). Book 4 took note on that and made a whole episode focusing on Korra's journey to recovery from the south pole to the swamp. The Book 2 ending is well executed, but the action was a little over the place, giant blue korra to me makes the same sense as giant blue water spirit aang of ATLA book 1, the issue is that the whole book is very spiritual and talk based but the climax is action, is a tone shift. Book 3 took note and made the Zaheer fight muuuuuuch better, easily the best action in the franchise, Book 4 with the giant Kuvira is also much better executed as action. Book 3 and 4 show the improvement of the series.
Mhm, mhm... question; where have you have you been all my life😫😫! I've been waiting for this take on Avatar Korra because it was such a special experience for me, but I didn't quite know how to put in words and seeing so many negative analysises (don't think that's how it's supposed to be said🤔) of it, I thought I was the only one who appreciated how much quality it had as Korra's journey. So, thank you, this is officially my favourite take on Avatar Korra🥹🤝
Its so sad that Korra gets so much hate, most people that hate the show online never even watch book 3 and 4!, and they were the best books by far! This video is so refreshing
I am glad to hear someone defend the legend of Korra like this. I still have some bad feelings about season 2, but the series definitely gets too much hate overall. I would love to know your deeper opinion on how the show handled the spirits. Personally, I think they started giving too many spirits, clearly human-like minds. It might just be me, but it ruins the "you should respect spirits" idea to a point. I mean, if it is some type of unknowable thing of emotion and thought that is alien to our world, then worshiping them makes some sense. Many of them may not be able to use words, but that is because they have inhuman minds. But then, after a while, so many of them talk and seem to have human-like minds that I pretty much see them as arrogant anime elves now. "You should have festivals celebrating our greatness because we are ancient and inherently spiritually powerful, unlike you lowly humans." This could be a spirit or an anime elf talking. Heck, when the comics mentioned people trying to make hotels in the spirit world, my first thought was, "Why not?" The spirits were allowed to flood the human world, and I assumed humans would have the right to flood into the spirit world in equal numbers. If the spirits have massive spirit forests in the human world, there should be just many cities popping up in the spirit world. I believe humans and spirits should live together as equals. But equality means they BOTH need to be willing to give something up. The spirits mostly go wherever they want and lash out when they think people aren't showing them enough respect. Which is more understandable if they don't talk. The best example of this would be in the original show. Because Hei Bai didn't talk, we understood that it was "its" forest in the same way an ancient bear would lay claim to a forest. It doesn't really understand ownership, can't talk, or even tell humans apart. If it talked and could hold a conversation, then there would be no excuse for it going into the human world and attacking random people. Especially when the human and spirit worlds were apparently supposed to be separate at the time. So, that was a human forest in the human world, and that spirit had no right to be there at that time.
If you aren't humble, whatever empathy you claim is false and probably results from some arrogance or the desire to control. But true empathy is rooted in humility and the understanding that there are many people with as much to contribute in life as you.
Look when Korra was traumatized by zaheer, I can take korra’s ptsd seriously and I see how she is struggling with that depression. It is believable. The defeat she faced is felt. Aang in the other hand I can never take seriously. Sure he had his defeats like getting nearly killed in the avatar state and all but still
I genuinely always resonated far more with the Legend of Korra than I ever did AtLA. I appreciate what AtLA does, but I just connected with this show so much more
I have always loved LoK and never could understand why so many people didn't like her story, the writers made me feel so much of her growth in each book
I'm so used to watching critiques on The Legend of Korra (which I have fun watching ngl). But I saw this video and was interested. I'm so glad I watched it. I feel like the show is always put down for "ruining atla's lore" (which I'm not sure how I feel about, because they are in the same franchise, and I believe should therefore be consistent and respectful of each other), when LoK is trying to be its own thing, and branch out, with new writing styles, and more in-depth character work. I appreciate LoK for that, even if I didn't personally like the narrative choices made for the finale of season 2, I can still say that I had a fun time watching it, and I think it was significant for Korra's overall character arc. I do agree that atla's lore should have been taken more into account there, but at the end of the day, it exists, and I'm glad that it does. This video really helped me realize that I was letting other people's opinions shape everything I thought about the show, just due to being bombarded by critiques at every turn (as it seems to be the popular opinion in atla spaces). I can't say that I disagree with said critiques, but I'm thankful for the different perspective. It's nice to take a step back sometimes and enjoy a story for what it managed to accomplish. Also, you are so right. The antagonists in LoK are all really narratively solid and enjoyable to watch. My favorites were the Red Lotus and Amon, although I enjoyed all of them.
Fans are so stupid if they think that one of the main weaknesses of this show was that Korra faced a different villain in each season instead of having one main baddy for the entirety like the OG show did. Do people fail to comprehend that the avatar will face many different threats as they live life? Aang did; he faced Yakon and will face off against someone new eventually.
Korea went through so much development that in Book 3, her reflexes had changed. When the seer guy blew up his apartment, Book 1 and even Book 2 Korra would've used Fire Bending to redirect the blast. It's a valid response, but Korra had been through so much development that she used Air Bending instead. That's a level of development Aang never got. Also, I think they could've done more with Unalaq to explain how he got the spirits on his side despite being so obviously evil even when he and Korra's dad were young, but other than that, Unalaq wasn't a bad villain.
You are stepping onto a minefield here. Great video and I agree with some of your takes here but some things were not taken to their logical ending or were not used properly or abandoned
Korra was a phenomenal series, and one that imo was better than ATLA. The villains were obviously the best part, and Korra was a great protag to go against these villains, and have a character that grew so much to the point we saw her go from a teen to adult (iirc she's 20 or 21 at the end of book 4?) So we see growth, downfall, trauma and rise respectively. LoK imo is the better half of the two but I love both series. But LoK is the one I return to more
Each of Korra's villain represents something that they're supposedly fighting for, or against. Amon: (Equality/Egalitarianism) Unalaq: (Spiritualism) Zaheer: (Freedom/Anarchy) Kuvira: (Unity/Fascism)
11:21-11:32. NO!!!!! I don’t care what fans will say because this right here is the truth!!!! And I am glad some one besides me is saying it. Ozai was such an archetype that I often forget that he’s the main bad guy Aang has to fight; I forget that he exists. The side character villains are more complex and interesting than interesting than ozai. Hama, Jet, Long Feng, Azula, Zhao. These villains are more fascinating and complex villains. Ozai is nothing but power hungry and a cliché. 15 yrs have passed since 8th grade and I am still saying it: “Ozai is a complete nobody.”
I love Korra as much i love ATLA. ATLA has season 1 which. Isn't that good( not bad just OK) Korra got season 2(which isn't terrible, just below average )
12:50 i... wha?! i've never heard of anyone having interpreted that scene like that. She was destraught, sure. But she did not seem even close to such a choice.
I agree. in the first episode she also goes to that same cliff, and in the aire temple she also looks for what's closest. Korra always looks for this high points when she wants to be alone, nothing really told me she was going to jump
It's a relatively common interpretation. I won't go into the things people point to as evidence because, let's face it, unless the writers come right out & say that's what they meant, people can always say "that's looking too deep into it, she just looks over cliffs shen she's sad." Instead, I'm going to point out that it HAS to be deep because Aang literally says it's her lowest point, a point so extreme that it opens her up to the "greatest change" that she could never embrace before. That doesn't make any sense if she's just kind of sad in a way she's been a bunch of other times. It needs to be something bigger than that or it's by definition not her lowest point that would explain why conquering it is such a massive breakthrough for her.
prefer korra's antagonist over ATLA, the firenation got boring after a couple of episodes, reason i can rewatch korra alot more, for ATLA i gotta nitpick which episode to watch, 25 episodes out of 60 are good
Ehhhhhhhh - Amon and Zaheer are great Villains. Unaloq is.....no. Sorry I can't do it. They had the seed of something good but then veered off the rails into him just being influenced to becoming the Avatar of Evil. But that season was rock bottom bad. Kuvira has potential but they burned that by not giving us any of her motivation except through exposition in the last episode. I think they resolved Amon's plot too neatly. It needed to be more than he had an evil father.
See, the issue is you make all these great points, and the story goes out of its way to undermine her character growth at every turn. Everything here sounds great! None of it is adequately represented in the characters actions until almost being represented in the final season.
What do you mean by undermine? The video did a great job with showing examples of character actions in the show with every statement. What examples do you have other than the vague, regurgitated nonsense that people have been spouting repeatedly over the years?
@Theguyoverthere603 But if you watch the series you see her character reverting to her season 1 mentality almost every episode, and often times directly contradicting the image of Korea the show it trying to present
You mean like in book 3 when she knew about Zaheer and instead of going head on like she tried amon she agreed with Lin with retreating while keeping her duty as avatar? only to face Zaheer AFTER trying to be level headed? and even then facing him with a plan to take advantage of numerical and terrain to surprise the red lotus and capture their heads? Or that time in season 2 when she saw north soldiers about to fight with souther villagers and stepped in to stop the fight despite actively wanting to crack a mountain with their faces. Season 2 first part is Korra trying to navigate politics until she exhausts every resource and goes full avatar will or season 4 when she tries to talk Kuvira down instead of destryoing her because she feels like she needs Kuvira to surrender, and by the end she literally steps in to save her life in the right decision that Kuvira should be the one who disarms the army if they want to have a chance at reconstruction. Korra grows a lot, she's still a teenager, but she shows so many time she learnt her lessons
Can I ask why that is? What is it exactly that you disagree with? I thought most people liked the Korra villains and I’d be curious to know how they fall short in your opinion.
Or maybe you just didn't understand the philosophies that were being presented. Also, the writers were never trying to critique anything. They just gave the villains motives that reflect Korra and the world.
@vetarlittorf1807 Amon was a critique of communism, Unalaq was a critique colonialism, Zaheer was a critique of anarchism and Kuvira was a critique of fascism. This is explicit text in the show ans the bumbling attempt to present the typical liberal squering of these ideas. Meanwhile Varric (actual war profiteer) gets off scot free. Because capitlism.
@@anthonyjohnson6199First of all, Amon has nothing to do with communism, nor does Unalaq have anything to do with colonialism. Amon is just a populist based on Hong Xiuquan and Unalaq is just an extremist. Zaheer and Kuvira were not critiques for anything, they just happened to be anarchist and authoritarian respectively. It's clear that you've just been watching Kay and Skittles' nonsense without any critical thinking.
@@vetarlittorf1807I totally agree with you, to me the first 2 seasons was never about critiquing those ideologies but about people who don't believe in them but use them as tools to gain power
33:40 While I’ll never believe that torturous suffering is something people inherently deserve to go through, good can come in the comfort of knowing someone else knows your pain, even if in a small way & make you feel just that little less alone ❤️🩹
11:21-11:32. NO!!!!! I don’t care what fans will say because this right here is the truth!!!! And I am glad some one besides me is saying it. Ozai was such an archetype that I often forget that he’s the main bad guy Aang has to fight; I forget that he exists. The side character villains are more complex and interesting than interesting than ozai. Hama, Jet, Long Feng, Azula, Zhao. These villains are more fascinating and complex villains. Ozai is nothing but power hungry and a cliché. 15 yrs have passed since 8th grade and I am still saying it: “Ozai is a complete nobody.”
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I don't think Zaheer was the sole reason for Korra's PTSD, but rather the final straw. The visions Korra has of her past enemies suggests they contributed to her trauma as well.
Agreed 👍
Holy crap, it's the Oscar
I genuinely love LoK and Korra so much, even more than AtLA despite being objectively less consistent/quality. There's something fascinating about a show (and character) in the shadow of something great, trying to follow in its footsteps, but realising their flaws and natural differences mean they can never be great in the same way. It can be a flaw in its pacing, but I really agree that Korra's insecure position forcing it to have a new focus each season allows the show to shift and change. It gets to understand its flaws, strengths, and find its identity as it goes.
You also hit the nail right on the head with Korra's character development in direct relation to her villains being one of the best parts of the show. It follows such a great arc with Amon and Tarlok punching her in the face with how much she doesn't know about the world, emotionally and socially, and forcing her to find a new perspective on what she can lose.
Then Unalaq makes her confront the legacy of the Avatar and accepting that she can make change in the world on her own terms, not what the past dictates. Zaheer and the Red Lotus again bring her so low, telling her the world is better without her and stealing her physical prowress. She has lost everything and is nothing.... but she goes on. She wants to be the avatar and now knows she is human.
And Kuvira... Korra confronts a version of herself she wanted to be. Kuvira is physically powerful, inspiring change, doing what she wants, screw whoever tells her otherwise. After Amon, Tarlok, Zaheer, she knows more than ever how that isn't the way to change the world, but her sense of justice is not what was wrong. She has perspective on the world and as scared and human as she is, she is still the Avatar. It is not a contradiciton. She can confront Kuvira and teach her past self this humility, fear, and care.
I know Korra can put people off the show, but it really is the Legend of Korra. Her character journey is harsh but an incredible turn I genuinely don't know they would have done if the show was planned from the beginning.
I love Korra. Maybe because I saw a lot of myself in her. Thinking you have life figured out as a kid. Trying to prove something to everyone as a teen. Slowing down and accepting yourself as a young adult. Besides I ship the hell out of korrasami. That is the reason I watched the show. Korra was alot of us.
You are the kind of content creator that the Avatar fandom wants and NEEDS. Thank you for looking at more than just the comparisons of the two series. Korra is a character with SO many layers that you need to analyze a lot to understand who she is. It's like uniting Aang, Katara and Zuko into one character. Aang's power, Katara's personality, Zuko's incredible and well-crafted development, creating a very amazing character.
Uughhh FINALLY someone with an enlightened view on Kora personality like I'm in tears over what you wrote, you and this UA-camr served 35:09 justice to her character 😞👏
as a life-long korra defender
THANK YOU
finally an essay that gives Korra what she deserves! thank you very much for the video! great job!
i think legend of korra has some of the best ideas in the whole avatar franchise, it’s just the pacing. the last airbender had room to grow into an amazing storytelling masterpiece.
I really like the idea you brought up of Unalaq wanting to become something "more than human" (the Dark Avatar thing) as a kind of dark reflection of Korra's over-attachment to her Avatar identity. I've never seen season 2's story framed that way before, but it really does a good job of tying the crazy spirit stuff back to Korra's personal development. That's a pretty cool way of looking at it.
Might be an ice-cold take, but after watching this video, here's what I realized: ATLA is like watching Superman while LoK is like watching Batman.
18:30 yeees!
Very good stuff here. I liked your viewpoints here. I love the journey Korra goes through and I’d say it was a much more spiritual experience than what Aang went through. And all facilitated by the incredible villains she has to face. Which includes herself. In the earlier seasons she is her own biggest enemy. And learning to see the flaws within herself and grow from it is what makes her a much better person by the end. Great video!
tbf I don't think you'll get any flack for "simplifying" Ozai's motivations. His and Sozin's whole deal is how privilege and power develops selfish, simple people. Ozai's motivation is always more power for himself and he'll use blunt force and intimidation to get it. It's part of AtLA's strengths that they'll have all these nuanced discussions about war and grey morality, but the heart of it is usually simple selfishness and greed
I mean, the reason they created Zuko in the first place was beacuse they realized the fire lord couldnt be a recurrent villian, then they made Zuko a complex character and thats why they needed azula in book 2.
Ozai dont really have a personality and the creators know it... But its because he dont need to have a personality. Its a good character, its imposing, evil and have grwat lines, it shapes the plot very well, but you wont remember him for his deepness.
Altho tbf Unalaq goed more or less the same way, he has motivations... But its never rwally explained why he wants chaos unlike the red lotus in book 3. There are villians that work as deep characters and then there are villians that works as bosses. Ozai is in my opinion the best boss villian you could have.
@@Missing_no Azula was already created in book 1 and was set up to be important later on (big hit from the Live Action to have her around more during book 1), and they had a recurring villain in Zhao. Zuko was always meant to be antagonized by the royal family, the episode when they cross into fire nation territory in pursuit of aang makes it very clear Zuko is an antagonists to both the avatar and the fire lord, hardly a villain when his first evil act was not attacking any civilian, disarming in a non lethal way the defensse army (only sokka but from Zuko's point of view at this point a soldier), and fighting one on one with Aang with no intention (although no care either) or harming civilians, Zuko is this figure of chivalry who thinks is on the right but is ultimately good from the beggining
@jodashi200 Mmh fair enough i might not explained myself that well.
When they first created the plot before the start of the show they realized that they couldnt have the big bad firelord outside the palace following Aang but they needed a recurring villain so they tought of Zuko and Iroh. Originally Iroh was going to be a bad person that first would be perceived as an inofensive character and later be revealed to be very powerfull, Zuko was going to be the first treat but the villain was going to be Iroh, Zuko was conceptualized as a character that will get reedemed to tecah Aang firebending since ever. But later they prefered Iroh as a good character that would guide Zuko, but they wanted someone from the royal family to be a recurring character outside the palace so they created Azula.
Zhao is a villain, but he is more an antagonic force to Zuko than Aang, thats why most of his episodes are focused towards Zuko, Aang actually not being that much treatened by him (he dont have any issues fighting him when he eventually fights him).
By the time they started to make the first episode they already had the plot stablished in respects of Zuko being a treat who will get reedemed, Iroh being good, and Azula being a more dangerous treat. Thats why Azula appears in the flashback of Zuko being burned.
I believed most of the plot was already shaped before they started Book 1
The interesting thing about Ozai is that while he may come off as less complex than Azula, he is still the product of a toxic culture. In the comics, he gives Zuko advice about being fire lord, and it's shown that his form of love is all about possessiveness, truly believing what what he's doing/saying is right because of his divine right to rule.
@@OpticalSorcerer Yeah, he's a fantastically real portrayal of how hereditary power corrupts. I do think he's less complex than Azula, but a simple motivation isn't bad
When you stop comparing the two avatar series, LoK comes out as a really good cartoon. Despite being put through the ringer, it *did* get 4 seasons. Kinda hard to do when Korra herself is almost constantly comparing herself to Aang, though.
I love positive Korra content
Funny how people tend to forget that Korra went through amon, unalaq, Zaheer and the red lotus in the span of one year
My Lord, I'll be tripping if the same thing happened to me
Actually there's a one year time skip between season 1 and season 2 season 2 and 3 are the only ones that happened in one year while season 4 happened 3 years later
@OthandoSimamane-ss1xp the time gap between season 2 and 1 is six month
So while not accurately 1 year, it is still roughly 1.5 years
At 16 years! And it was the first time she even was out of the south pole!
I would be god damn lost just being a civil traveling to republuc city for the first time, imagine being the Avatar that was insane.
And she didnt even had her past lifes to guide her after that.
@@OthandoSimamane-ss1xpits one year since the first time Korra went to Republic City, but it was 6 months beetween the end of book 1, then 2 weeks since the end of book 2 to get through book 3. Altho, people forget that Book 2 didnt happened in 1 week, Korra got lost for at least a week in the ocean, and when she recovered her memory the guru lady told her that "the spiritual conversion is only a few weeks away", so, idk
Oh wow I didn’t think of that and tj think she was my age going through all that
Aang’s story is great, but I feel Korra’s world without the fire nation being the big bad makes the world more interesting with antagonist from all around the world with their own goals, plus we actually see the world change in all aspects, I only wish we got to see the fire nation and how different their attitude is and architecture change but I understand how it isn’t really needed ig 😓
I think they didnt do it because we have the comics exploring that in a way, and because being in the fire nation would take atention to Aang in the Korra series.
I would loved to had a non bender villian tho, there is Amon, but at the end he was a bloodbender. We had fire, water, air, earth and spirit villians but never a non bender...
Unless you count the Earth Queen, the equalist as a movement also counts tho (Amon might be a bender, but those chi blockers were a real treat, they took the city in a one day fight!)
I think Hiroshi might count as well, but i wanted a big villian be a non bender. Maybe one day we could have a prequel comic with Zaheer as a non bender?, that would be cool to read.
I agree that having the different season villains was a great choice, and they don't just disappear completely after their defeat either. I think with the insane amount of change and shifting of power enacted by Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko, this completely different society is bound to be *incredibly* flawed and these 4 are able to show the flaws really well.
Through the disparity in work and class between benders and nonbenders under the advent of electricity (which I think Aang could have forced onto larger populations from what he internalized in the episode where an ancient temple he cares so much for is desecrated but he is forced to be okay with it), Unalaq in the neglect of the spirits within this unity of the nations, Zaheer in the power structure that was enforced to forcibly keep this unity together, and ultimately Kuvira in this complete embrace of unity and equality to a monstrous degree.
The show's pivot from atla's imperial nations to lok's mixture of more modern democracy alongside the imperialism and these independent nations and groups needs a diverse cast of villains to help explore the extremely fast changes in power and society within the last what, 60 years?
Showing the current leaders to also be incredibly flawed in their interactions and emotional maturity is also a great choice in reinforcing this, because even if they can be right in their widespread action, it often hurts the individuals that would have been in more of the forefront in atla
I looove how zaheer helped korra in the last season
Finally, someone who recognize that unalaq is a great villain. he's an underrated and overhated villain
Azula is the only villain from the original show that even hold a candle to these villains
30:08 Even after all these years I still can't get over how extremely good-looking that watch tower guard is. 😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽
I love videos like this. The writing in this show is actually so good and I’m tired of people constantly not seeing past the typical critiques, preventing them from forming their own opinions.
I love Korra, is such an amazing series. Book 3 to me is the best book of the franchise.
The only thing about the book 1 endings is that, it does make sense and i think the aang scene is brilliant (Korra thinking about suicide to then move on could be read as Korra opening her earth chakra, and if you analize it that way you realize that the entire book 1 has specific moments where Korra open her chakras, thats why she achieves avatar state), but the reason so many people didnt get it is that, the excution of that scene _is_ rush, i think it would been perfect if they had another episode, focusing on Korra on the south pole and the ascending of Riko as president in Republic City as a way of make non benders equal (the political issue was in great part that the gobverment was all benders). Book 4 took note on that and made a whole episode focusing on Korra's journey to recovery from the south pole to the swamp.
The Book 2 ending is well executed, but the action was a little over the place, giant blue korra to me makes the same sense as giant blue water spirit aang of ATLA book 1, the issue is that the whole book is very spiritual and talk based but the climax is action, is a tone shift. Book 3 took note and made the Zaheer fight muuuuuuch better, easily the best action in the franchise, Book 4 with the giant Kuvira is also much better executed as action.
Book 3 and 4 show the improvement of the series.
Mhm, mhm... question; where have you have you been all my life😫😫! I've been waiting for this take on Avatar Korra because it was such a special experience for me, but I didn't quite know how to put in words and seeing so many negative analysises (don't think that's how it's supposed to be said🤔) of it, I thought I was the only one who appreciated how much quality it had as Korra's journey. So, thank you, this is officially my favourite take on Avatar Korra🥹🤝
Its so sad that Korra gets so much hate, most people that hate the show online never even watch book 3 and 4!, and they were the best books by far!
This video is so refreshing
@@Missing_no I know, right! Totally feel the same way.
I am glad to hear someone defend the legend of Korra like this. I still have some bad feelings about season 2, but the series definitely gets too much hate overall.
I would love to know your deeper opinion on how the show handled the spirits. Personally, I think they started giving too many spirits, clearly human-like minds. It might just be me, but it ruins the "you should respect spirits" idea to a point.
I mean, if it is some type of unknowable thing of emotion and thought that is alien to our world, then worshiping them makes some sense. Many of them may not be able to use words, but that is because they have inhuman minds. But then, after a while, so many of them talk and seem to have human-like minds that I pretty much see them as arrogant anime elves now.
"You should have festivals celebrating our greatness because we are ancient and inherently spiritually powerful, unlike you lowly humans."
This could be a spirit or an anime elf talking.
Heck, when the comics mentioned people trying to make hotels in the spirit world, my first thought was, "Why not?" The spirits were allowed to flood the human world, and I assumed humans would have the right to flood into the spirit world in equal numbers. If the spirits have massive spirit forests in the human world, there should be just many cities popping up in the spirit world. I believe humans and spirits should live together as equals. But equality means they BOTH need to be willing to give something up. The spirits mostly go wherever they want and lash out when they think people aren't showing them enough respect. Which is more understandable if they don't talk.
The best example of this would be in the original show. Because Hei Bai didn't talk, we understood that it was "its" forest in the same way an ancient bear would lay claim to a forest. It doesn't really understand ownership, can't talk, or even tell humans apart. If it talked and could hold a conversation, then there would be no excuse for it going into the human world and attacking random people. Especially when the human and spirit worlds were apparently supposed to be separate at the time. So, that was a human forest in the human world, and that spirit had no right to be there at that time.
If you aren't humble, whatever empathy you claim is false and probably results from some arrogance or the desire to control. But true empathy is rooted in humility and the understanding that there are many people with as much to contribute in life as you.
Look when Korra was traumatized by zaheer, I can take korra’s ptsd seriously and I see how she is struggling with that depression. It is believable. The defeat she faced is felt.
Aang in the other hand I can never take seriously. Sure he had his defeats like getting nearly killed in the avatar state and all but still
I genuinely always resonated far more with the Legend of Korra than I ever did AtLA. I appreciate what AtLA does, but I just connected with this show so much more
I live for positive Korra content, thank you!!
Thank you for this omg my baby Korra deserves love
I have always loved LoK and never could understand why so many people didn't like her story, the writers made me feel so much of her growth in each book
U ate this analysis!
Like korra is that girl
I'm so used to watching critiques on The Legend of Korra (which I have fun watching ngl). But I saw this video and was interested. I'm so glad I watched it. I feel like the show is always put down for "ruining atla's lore" (which I'm not sure how I feel about, because they are in the same franchise, and I believe should therefore be consistent and respectful of each other), when LoK is trying to be its own thing, and branch out, with new writing styles, and more in-depth character work. I appreciate LoK for that, even if I didn't personally like the narrative choices made for the finale of season 2, I can still say that I had a fun time watching it, and I think it was significant for Korra's overall character arc. I do agree that atla's lore should have been taken more into account there, but at the end of the day, it exists, and I'm glad that it does. This video really helped me realize that I was letting other people's opinions shape everything I thought about the show, just due to being bombarded by critiques at every turn (as it seems to be the popular opinion in atla spaces). I can't say that I disagree with said critiques, but I'm thankful for the different perspective. It's nice to take a step back sometimes and enjoy a story for what it managed to accomplish. Also, you are so right. The antagonists in LoK are all really narratively solid and enjoyable to watch. My favorites were the Red Lotus and Amon, although I enjoyed all of them.
Fans are so stupid if they think that one of the main weaknesses of this show was that Korra faced a different villain in each season instead of having one main baddy for the entirety like the OG show did. Do people fail to comprehend that the avatar will face many different threats as they live life? Aang did; he faced Yakon and will face off against someone new eventually.
A non-BoJack video?!? HOW DARE YOU
Korea went through so much development that in Book 3, her reflexes had changed. When the seer guy blew up his apartment, Book 1 and even Book 2 Korra would've used Fire Bending to redirect the blast. It's a valid response, but Korra had been through so much development that she used Air Bending instead. That's a level of development Aang never got.
Also, I think they could've done more with Unalaq to explain how he got the spirits on his side despite being so obviously evil even when he and Korra's dad were young, but other than that, Unalaq wasn't a bad villain.
Kuvira ended up proving Zaheer right about corrupt leadership.
You are stepping onto a minefield here. Great video and I agree with some of your takes here but some things were not taken to their logical ending or were not used properly or abandoned
Korra was a phenomenal series, and one that imo was better than ATLA. The villains were obviously the best part, and Korra was a great protag to go against these villains, and have a character that grew so much to the point we saw her go from a teen to adult (iirc she's 20 or 21 at the end of book 4?) So we see growth, downfall, trauma and rise respectively. LoK imo is the better half of the two but I love both series. But LoK is the one I return to more
Awesome video 🎉🎉
Each of Korra's villain represents something that they're supposedly fighting for, or against.
Amon: (Equality/Egalitarianism)
Unalaq: (Spiritualism)
Zaheer: (Freedom/Anarchy)
Kuvira: (Unity/Fascism)
I think you are right about Ozai.
11:21-11:32.
NO!!!!! I don’t care what fans will say because this right here is the truth!!!! And I am glad some one besides me is saying it. Ozai was such an archetype that I often forget that he’s the main bad guy Aang has to fight; I forget that he exists. The side character villains are more complex and interesting than interesting than ozai.
Hama, Jet, Long Feng, Azula, Zhao. These villains are more fascinating and complex villains. Ozai is nothing but power hungry and a cliché. 15 yrs have passed since 8th grade and I am still saying it:
“Ozai is a complete nobody.”
not some nostalgic fan here wants to deny your appreciation of the villain writing from LOK 😂
Sees you calling Unalaq a great villain... it's treason then.
31:54 Actually Korra was 17 but point well made.
Can you make a video on Korrasami?
Korra is so mentally strong
"Wrote an entire fanfiction series based on this single fact." Samesies.
Writing for the villains > writing for Korras team avatar
Korra is an interesting show but I do see why people hate the show.
I love Korra as much i love ATLA.
ATLA has season 1 which. Isn't that good( not bad just OK)
Korra got season 2(which isn't terrible, just below average )
12:50 i... wha?!
i've never heard of anyone having interpreted that scene like that.
She was destraught, sure.
But she did not seem even close to such a choice.
I agree. in the first episode she also goes to that same cliff, and in the aire temple she also looks for what's closest. Korra always looks for this high points when she wants to be alone, nothing really told me she was going to jump
It's a relatively common interpretation. I won't go into the things people point to as evidence because, let's face it, unless the writers come right out & say that's what they meant, people can always say "that's looking too deep into it, she just looks over cliffs shen she's sad." Instead, I'm going to point out that it HAS to be deep because Aang literally says it's her lowest point, a point so extreme that it opens her up to the "greatest change" that she could never embrace before. That doesn't make any sense if she's just kind of sad in a way she's been a bunch of other times. It needs to be something bigger than that or it's by definition not her lowest point that would explain why conquering it is such a massive breakthrough for her.
prefer korra's antagonist over ATLA, the firenation got boring after a couple of episodes, reason i can rewatch korra alot more, for ATLA i gotta nitpick which episode to watch, 25 episodes out of 60 are good
First comment/view
disagree
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Hmm....hey, so if you do positivity posts, how much would you charge for me to commission you to give UA-cam just ONE positivity video about RWBY?
Ehhhhhhhh - Amon and Zaheer are great Villains. Unaloq is.....no. Sorry I can't do it. They had the seed of something good but then veered off the rails into him just being influenced to becoming the Avatar of Evil. But that season was rock bottom bad.
Kuvira has potential but they burned that by not giving us any of her motivation except through exposition in the last episode.
I think they resolved Amon's plot too neatly. It needed to be more than he had an evil father.
I disagree. I think Unalaq worked great as an antithesis to Tenzin and he definitely enhanced the narrative. He just had a boring personality.
@@vetarlittorf1807 Yes but they didn't do that lol.
@@89technical Yes they did.
@@vetarlittorf1807 No. They hinted at it but then veered into just making him a tool of Vatuu.
@@89technical Him working with Vaatu didn't change anything about the character.
first.
See, the issue is you make all these great points, and the story goes out of its way to undermine her character growth at every turn. Everything here sounds great! None of it is adequately represented in the characters actions until almost being represented in the final season.
What do you mean by undermine? The video did a great job with showing examples of character actions in the show with every statement. What examples do you have other than the vague, regurgitated nonsense that people have been spouting repeatedly over the years?
@Theguyoverthere603 But if you watch the series you see her character reverting to her season 1 mentality almost every episode, and often times directly contradicting the image of Korea the show it trying to present
@@fandomweebsvsmemes9803 With that statement you proved that you're either intellectually dishonest or never watched the show.
You mean like in book 3 when she knew about Zaheer and instead of going head on like she tried amon she agreed with Lin with retreating while keeping her duty as avatar? only to face Zaheer AFTER trying to be level headed? and even then facing him with a plan to take advantage of numerical and terrain to surprise the red lotus and capture their heads?
Or that time in season 2 when she saw north soldiers about to fight with souther villagers and stepped in to stop the fight despite actively wanting to crack a mountain with their faces. Season 2 first part is Korra trying to navigate politics until she exhausts every resource and goes full avatar will
or season 4 when she tries to talk Kuvira down instead of destryoing her because she feels like she needs Kuvira to surrender, and by the end she literally steps in to save her life in the right decision that Kuvira should be the one who disarms the army if they want to have a chance at reconstruction.
Korra grows a lot, she's still a teenager, but she shows so many time she learnt her lessons
Each villain is a weak strawman of ideologies that the writers don't like.
this whole video is a trash take
Can I ask why that is? What is it exactly that you disagree with? I thought most people liked the Korra villains and I’d be curious to know how they fall short in your opinion.
Im sorry but I disagree. Korra's villians were badly written because the writers didnt understand the philosophies they were critiquing.
Or maybe you just didn't understand the philosophies that were being presented. Also, the writers were never trying to critique anything. They just gave the villains motives that reflect Korra and the world.
@vetarlittorf1807 Amon was a critique of communism, Unalaq was a critique colonialism, Zaheer was a critique of anarchism and Kuvira was a critique of fascism. This is explicit text in the show ans the bumbling attempt to present the typical liberal squering of these ideas. Meanwhile Varric (actual war profiteer) gets off scot free. Because capitlism.
@@anthonyjohnson6199First of all, Amon has nothing to do with communism, nor does Unalaq have anything to do with colonialism. Amon is just a populist based on Hong Xiuquan and Unalaq is just an extremist. Zaheer and Kuvira were not critiques for anything, they just happened to be anarchist and authoritarian respectively.
It's clear that you've just been watching Kay and Skittles' nonsense without any critical thinking.
@@anthonyjohnson6199 Lol. Lmao even.
@@vetarlittorf1807I totally agree with you, to me the first 2 seasons was never about critiquing those ideologies but about people who don't believe in them but use them as tools to gain power
33:40 While I’ll never believe that torturous suffering is something people inherently deserve to go through, good can come in the comfort of knowing someone else knows your pain, even if in a small way & make you feel just that little less alone ❤️🩹
11:21-11:32.
NO!!!!! I don’t care what fans will say because this right here is the truth!!!! And I am glad some one besides me is saying it. Ozai was such an archetype that I often forget that he’s the main bad guy Aang has to fight; I forget that he exists. The side character villains are more complex and interesting than interesting than ozai.
Hama, Jet, Long Feng, Azula, Zhao. These villains are more fascinating and complex villains. Ozai is nothing but power hungry and a cliché. 15 yrs have passed since 8th grade and I am still saying it:
“Ozai is a complete nobody.”