A lot of people my age or around my age watched many awesome and memorable cartoons as a kid. One of those shows being Avatar: The Last Airbender. I also watched this show as a kid and it was a pretty good show. I wasn’t an insane fan of the show, but for what it was worth, I thought it was a pretty good show. Flash forward a few years when the show was taken off of Netflix. I didn’t really think about the show much after that until a live-action movie was released. M Night Shyamalan who was the director of that movie did everything wrong.
He wanted to make the movie more realistic so he had some things changed like having some of the characters’ names pronounced wrong and he also decided to white-wash some of the characters like Katara and Sokka. This movie was disliked by most if not all of the Avatar fans and it gave Shyamalan a bad reputation as a director. The live-action movie gave fans a bad taste in their mouths and made them want something that could fix it. Then came a spinoff show called Avatar: The Legend of Korra. This show took place 70 years after Aang and all his friends went on an adventure to end the 100-year war. Aang was an airbender avatar, so the avatar after him was going to be a waterbender. Her name was Korra and she was from the southern water tribe. Some people loved the Legend of Korra and some people hated it. It was about a 50/50 split. I finally rewatched Avatar: The Last Airbender after it was put back onto Netflix. I have to say after I rewatched it, I liked it even better than the first time I watched it. I even now call myself a fan of the series. After re-watching the Last Airbender. I wanted to rewatch the Legend of Korra because I never finished watching it because of the rep the show got. When I finished watching the Legend of Korra, I really liked it and even thought that it did some things better than the Last Airbender.First, the span of the show. I did not like how the whole Last Airbender show only took place within a year. I felt like the creators could have had each book take place a year apart. This could have given each character more time to develop. Instead, it feels like the only character who truly developed during the whole show was prince Zuko. Because the Legend of Korra took place over more than one year, it gave all of the characters more time to develop as people. This made us feel closer to the characters because you really got to see them grow and change throughout the 4 seasons. This gave Korra more time to have growth as not only the avatar but as a person. With Aang, it feels kind of like he didn’t really grow that much as a character.
Second, the Last Airbender felt very linear. Because each season of the Last Airbender was as follows: book 1: water, book 2: earth, and book 3: fire, it felt like you would already know the main premise of the season before it happened. The whole time you knew that Aang had to master all 4 of the elements and defeat the fire lord. In the Legend of Korra, because each season wasn’t just about the avatar mastering all the elements, it felt less obvious and more interesting as a whole. This made me want to keep watching more of the Legend of Korra so I could find out what was going to happen. with the Last Airbender, I didn’t watch it as fast as the Legend of Korra because I wasn’t as interested in what was going to happen.
Third, the Last Airbender didn’t have as great of climaxes or high points. When the Legend of Korra had high points, they were very captivating with what was going on and not to mention, the awesome soundtrack in the Legend of Korra. With every fight or hardship, Korra had to go through, the music fit it perfectly, like the end of the first season when Korra loses her bending and she meets Aang for the first time and he gives her the power to restore people’s bending. That scene alone made the show great.
Finally, I like Korra better than Aang. Before the Legend of Korra was even a thing, my favorite Avatar in the whole cycle was Avatar Kyoshi because of how awesome and badass I thought she was. After the Legend of Korra came out, My new favorite Avatar in the whole cycle was Korra because she was everything Kyoshi was and more. Tenzin even says it well, he tells Korra that she did more in the few years since leaving the southern water tribe than most avatars do in their whole lifespan. Aang was frozen in an iceberg for 100 years and died at a relatively young age of 66, but Kora managed to create a whole new world where humans and spirits could live together, while still having time to figure out who she was as a person. Not to mention, she overcame metal poisoning that almost killed her, had to recreate her image, and hinted at her and Asami’s relationship. Aang on the other hand, actually died when he got shot by lightning in his back. He had to be brought back to life with spirit water.
Overall, I loved the Last Airbender, don’t get me wrong that show is what made me want to watch the Legend of Korra. But in the end, after finishing the Last Airbender, I was not sad that it was over, I loved it but I was not sad that it was over. With the Legend of Korra, after it was over I still wanted more of Korra, not because it didn’t leave me satisfied, it did, but because I loved it so much. Korra broke barriers as a character in a kid's show because of how she had to deal with her mental health after she got poisoned and because of her bisexual romance with Asami at the end of the series' final episode. I just wished that Nickelodeon would have let Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino do more with the show. They could have explored Korra and Asami's relationship more or something along those lines. In the end, Nickelodeon was being very restrictive with this show and that is why many people didn't like it. I understood that and I didn't let that change my feeling for the show. Now that I've finished the show, I will have to read the comics that take place after the end of The Legend of Korra!
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