Summary
The Legend of Korra enhances iconic Avatar moments through greater context and broader narrative connections.
Understanding the full timeline elevates the stakes and expands the lore of both series, making them more engaging.
Accepting Korra’s unique journey over Aang’s and allowing her story to stand on its own enriches the entire Avatar franchise.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was the series that started it all, but The Legend of Korra successfully gave greater context to scenes in the original series, making them even better. Knowing the entire context and timeline of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra elevates the stakes and conflict of the action and expands the story’s lore. While Avatar still has most of the best moments of the series, they have become even more iconic thanks to The Legend of Korra.
Once the audience accepted Korra’s flaws and strengths and stopped comparing the show to the original series,
The Legend of Korra
developed its own stories and elevated
Avatar: The Last Airbender
as a franchise engagingly and organically.
The Legend of Korra remains divisive today because it’s so different from the original series. Korra is the opposite of Aang in many ways as a protagonist because she’s meant to be a foil. However, viewers had trouble adjusting to an Avatar who addressed problems differently from Aang. Once the audience accepted Korra’s flaws and strengths and stopped comparing the show to the original series, The Legend of Korra developed its own stories and elevated Avatar: The Last Airbender as a franchise engagingly and organically.
8 Aang Taking Ozai’s Bending
Season 3, Episode 21, “Sozin’s Comet – Part 4: Avatar Aang”
In one of the series’ most iconic moments, Aang finally comes face-to-face with Firelord Ozai, the primary antagonist of Avatar, and uses his power to take Ozai’s bending. Season 3 involves Aang’s conflicted feelings around killing Ozai because the air nomads believe in pacificism. However, Ozai poses a threat to the entire world if he is allowed to live with his bending. In an amazing twist, Aang summons the power to take Ozai’s bending from him, saving the world and adhering to his moral code.
The Legend of Korra addresses this directly because the existence of the power to take someone’s bending irrevocably changes a world that relies on and worships power over the elements. Season 1’s antagonist, Amon, is a water bender, but he uses blood bending to make it seem as though he can take people’s bending. Korra lives in fear of this power, as she defines herself by her abilities, but it turns out that only the Avatar has this skill.
7 Roku Explaining The Avatar State
Season 2, Episode 1, “The Avatar State”
When Aang triggers the Avatar state by force in the premiere of season 2, Avatar Roku appears to him and reveals that the Avatar connection can be broken if he’s killed in the Avatar state. This information changes everything for Aang because up to this point, he viewed the Avatar state as something that made him extremely powerful but was totally out of his control. Roku’s information makes it clear that Aang can’t rely on the Avatar state to save him and that his success is just as reliant on his control over it.
This all comes to a head when Korra loses this connection. Some viewers questioned why Korra had to lose her Avatar connection, but her journey after losing the link is the inevitable conclusion to the warning that Roku issues in the original series. Aang and Korra have different journeys as Avatars, and comparing their experiences isn’t fair to either character. However, The Legend of Korra expands on Aang’s struggles with inadequacy and living up to the legend of the Avatar, compounding them by having Korra be unable to live up to Aang’s legacy.
Related
Last Airbender: Every Confirmed Avatar That Came Before Aang
The hero of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang, was preceded by countless Avatars, but only some of the adept benders have been explored in detail.
6 Aang’s Block Getting Triggered
Season 2, Episode 20, “The Crossroads Of Destiny”
Losing her connection to her past lives was devastating for Korra, but her experience trying to recover after her battle with Zaheer in season 3. He tries to kill her while in the Avatar state so that no new Avatars will ever be born, and this causes Korra intense emotional damage. This event mirrors when Aang is locked out of the Avatar state in the finale of season 3 when Azula strikes him with lightning during a crucial battle. For a long time, most of the Fire Nation believed that Aang was dead.
Aang’s pain of being blocked from the Avatar state and his experience with the trauma is not as fully explored in Avatar, but knowing how Korra deals with it later gives insight into what was going on with Aang. Korra gets to seclude herself and recover, but the stakes are higher for Aang because at the end of season 3, he has to face Ozai, and there’s no way he’ll win without the Avatar state. His defeat at the hands of Azula and Zuko in Ba Sing Se is even more devastating because of what Korra will later go through.
5 Katara Using Blood Bending
Season 3, Episode 8, “The Puppetmaster”
Blood bending is taboo in the universe of Avatar and Korra, as it’s a type of water bending that involves using the water inside someone’s body to control them like a puppet. It’s a brutal technique that Katara first comes into contact with in season 3 when she meets a water bender living in the Fire Nation who escaped from captivity many years ago by using blood bending. She implores Katara to use it, telling her that they must use any means necessary to defeat the Fire Nation.
The rhetoric of winning by any means and the use of blood bending is shared by Amon in season 1 of The Legend of Korra. It’s also the general sentiment of many of the antagonists of both shows. However, it’s up to the heroes like Katara and Korra to refuse to give in to hate and harm others for the sake of their cause. Even though “The Puppetmaster” is a standalone episode in Avatar, the repercussions of blood bending echo throughout The Legend of Korra.
4 Aang’s First Journey To The Spirit World
Season 1, Episode 7, “The Spirit World”
The spirit world plays a critical role in the Avatar’s development, and Aang and Korra’s connection to it is part of what gives them their power. Aang has no idea what the spirit world is or why it’s so important until he accidentally travels there and learns about his job as the Avatar. There is an enormous amount of lore about the spirit world, and Aang returns there many times to confer with his past lives, seek the help and knowledge of a spirit, or look to the past to gain wisdom for the future.
One of Korra’s most impactful acts as the Avatar is when she opens the door to the spirit world from the real world and meshes the two realities together. This event occurs at the end of season 2, and though Korra intends to bring balance to the universe, the two worlds’ convergence has pros and cons. Looking back at the beginnings of the spirit world and comparing it with its explosive impact in The Legend of Korra makes Aang’s first interaction with it even more pivotal.
3 Toph’s Introduction
Season 2, Episode 6, “The Blind Bandit”
Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Toph is one of the most powerful benders in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and she’s one of the few characters present in both shows. For a long time, Toph’s existence is only hinted at in Korra, and the series primarily deals with her children, who are leaders among Earth benders. However, Korra eventually meets the older Toph, and she helps her along a spiritual journey of coming to terms with her triumphs and failures. While Toph’s character took a different arc in Korra than Avatar indicated, it’s still fun to see her again.
When Toph first joined Aang, Katara, and Sokka on their journey to defeat Ozai, she was an outsider, and her power didn’t stop her from feeling out of place in the group. However, they soon come to rely on Toph, and she’s instrumental in Aang learning earth bending and the winning of the war. Her impact on the series can only be guessed at when she’s introduced, but The Legend of Korra enshrines her importance.
2 The Destruction Of The Air Temples
Season 1, Episode 3, “The Southern Air Temple”
Firelord Sozin’s decision to destroy the Air Temples and eradicate the Air Nomads sets the events of both Avatar and Korra in motion. Although Aang escapes from the Southern Air Temple before Sozin can get to him, he’s completely isolated from his family and culture without the Air Nomads, and his return to the Southern Air Temple to witness the destruction is one of the most emotional moments of the show. Aang realizes how alone he is, how much is riding on his defeat of Ozai, and the evil that tyrants are capable of.
The aftermath of Sozin’s actions has repercussions in The Legend of Korra, as it was up to Aang and his children to revitalize the Air Nomad tradition and keep their way of life from dying. This fact puts enormous pressure on Aang’s son, Tenzin, who becomes Korra’s mentor, and he desperately wants to carry on Aang’s attempts to save the Air Nomads. However, when Korra reunites the real world with the spirit world, it results in a boom of new air benders and gives hope for the future.
1 Katara Meeting The Northern Water Tribe
Season 1, Episode 18, “The Waterbending Master”
The differences in culture and infrastructure of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes are touched upon toward the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1, but The Legend of Korra fully develops the dynamic between the two nations. When Katara arrives at the Northern Water Tribe from her home in the South, she’s shocked to learn that while the city and society are more technologically advanced, they don’t allow female water benders to learn combat skills. Though she quickly proves herself and insists on being taught, it illustrates a deep-rooted prejudice.
Korra is a water bender first because the Avatar cycle dictates that a water bender will become the next Avatar after an air bender. This familial tie means that Korra’s loyalties are with the Water Tribe, and when there is a conflict between the Northern and Southern Tribes in season 2, the fighting escalates, and they ask her to choose sides. Based on the differences between the two groups, it’s clear from Katara’s initial interactions with them that a power struggle would one day occur.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an Animated Fantasy and Adventure series that appeared on Nickelodeon and was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The series featured voices from Zach Tyler Eisen, Jack DeSena, Dante Basco, and Mae Whitman. The premise follows a young boy named Aang, an Air Bender who is set to be the next Avatar, master of all elements, in a bit to unite the nations together and bring peace.
Cast Mako , Dee Bradley Baker , Jack De Sena , Michaela Jill Murphy , Zach Tyler , Dante Basco , Mae Whitman
Release Date February 21, 2005
Seasons 3
Directors Dave Filoni