The Legend of Korra

Closeted lesbian learns magic kung fu.

I was going to write something lengthier about its animation, plotting, character arcs, mythology, and action scenes, but fuck it, BeeDub's review sums up the appeal just fine.

my score assumes someday I will receive a personal apology for season 2

The show acknowledges that Amon has a point-- that discrimination against non-benders is a problem. In season 2, a non-bender president is elected for the United Republic... and thus that issue is solved, I guess? Of course liberal democracy must naturally flourish and of course the villains must be defeated (they're craaazy after all). The world bends towards its telos. Why did they think it was a good idea to make Korra an extended political allegory when it's this monumentally stupid?

It isn't quite as good as The Last Airbender, mostly because I feel that it suffers from a lack of focus, which each season seemingly going off in a different, unrelated direction (compared to TLA's strongly-connected three-act narrative structure.) That being said, it's still a better show than the majority of Prime-time network dramas, and features some amazing animation, world-building, character development etc.

Even without comparing it to its superior predecessor, 'The Legend of Korra' disappoints due to its failure to capitalize on the tremendous amount of potential afforded it nearly every season. From the Anti-Bending revolution to the Harmonic Convergence, 'Korra' finds itself misguided and poorly plotted almost every time. The saving graces of the program are its score and breathtaking animation and art direction, all of which are without rival in the Western realm of animation.

Korra: the legend of an inconsistent avatar. Inferior to Avatar: the Last Airbender, this show has some interesting premises set up for each season only to see them crushed by banalities, deus-ex solutions, plot and character inconsistencies. Korra herself seems incapable of learning so we don't really have a character arch, outside of it being recited to us. Also, too many cheap screenwriting tricks, too many buildups with poor payoffs. PSI 84 on Criticker? Man, I wish I avoided this one :P

One of the best animated series I've ever seen and easily the equal of The Last Airbender. The great strength of this show are the changing plotlines. Where TLA had only a single quest, Korra expands this to 4 accompanied by 4 unique villains. Through these quests, the writers explore a wide swath of topics, including anarchism/spirituality/family/revolution/etc. I firmly believe that the intelligent and enlightened Zaheer is one of the best "bad guys" ever created for children's TV.

Everything that Avatar: the Last Airbender is...this isn't. If you want something that actually has the quality writing and characters we expect then go watch Dragon Prince.

Turning the distinctive movements of martial bending into psychic powers; forgetting about Ty Lee's chi strikes and retconning bloodbending to be able to block bending; injecting needless relationship drama for its own sake; replacing the balance ethos with binary Good and Evil; progressing the plot Just Because instead of from character motivation; relying on J.J.'s "Mystery Box" style to carry season arcs; and more. This is a garbage series that has degraded one of the greatest.