The Legend of Korra's Epic Series Finale: A Comparison Between the Two Avatar Finales

Hi guys, it's Jaz. So the Legend of Korra aired it's season finale on Nick.com the other day, and I must say, it actually made me feel some type of way. I honestly think that the series finale of LOK (Legend of Korra) best the Last Airbender on several fronts. I'm here to talk about why, now mind you this is my opinion completely so don't get bent out of shape over my personal thoughts, I enjoyed both series and I don't believe that any shows from the USA are even on their level.


The Avatar and their development: (keeping it brief)

Okay so first up we have Avatar Aang, from the first series. His character growth stems mainly from him learning all the three other elements ( Water, Earth, and Fire.) which will make him a fully recognized Avatar. It's basically Aang's coming of age as we see him go from a child that ran away from his responsibilities, into a young boy wise beyond his years accepting his duty as the avatar. In the end, I don't feel that Aang changed too much, I mean yeah he accepted his role of Avatar but he was still the person he was from the get go. Everyone including Zuko and even past Avatars wanted Aang to take down Fire Lord Ozai by any means necessary (kill him more or less). Killing is something that goes against everything that Aang stands for, so for those of you that don't know, Aang doesn't kill Ozai...he takes his bending away, but nonetheless he didn't change when his peers wanted him to.

Now we have Avatar Korra and I must say that I really enjoyed watching her grow as a character, now she is very different from Aang in almost every way. For starters, shes a girl, she starts off the series as a teenager and she's impulsive, brash and over confident in her abilities. Korra had already mastered 3 elements as a toddler, even her polar opposite element, firebending (she actually uses it more than water).  Her coming of Age is not so much learning all the elements per-say because she achieved air bending and became a fully recognized Avatar by the end of the first season, also being able to energybend and control the avatar state. Korra's growth is more interpersonal than that of Aang's. While Aang had no need to change who he was, and was basically the same at heart from season 1-3 just more responsible. Korra on the other hand needed to change, by the time Book 2 ended we start to see a Korra be less impulsive and brash, actually she is more mature and Avatar like by the tine the series ends. Korra's growth stems from finding balance within herself and becoming the Avatar she was destined to be. I think Korra's growth is more blatant than that of Aang's because you really see her attitude do a 180.


The Villains of the Final Book:

Avatar the Last Airbender's Fire Lord Ozai:  We have the main villain of the first series, Fire Lord Ozai. Oh from the beginning we have been hearing about the ominous Ozai. The man that caused Zuko so much turmoil. Who basically did some underhanded shit in order to further his own goals, putting his family last all for power. Ozai is a dick, who isn't above attempting to kill his own son, or putting so much pressure on his "favorite" daughter that resulted in her snapping. There was no time for being a family man, or a loving father like his brother Iroh (who was technically supposed to be the Fire Lord) His endgame was to use the infamous Sozin's Comet, to power up his firebenders and scorch the Earth Kingdom and take it once and for all. He's powerful and honestly there is little to no good in him, he beat Aang down into a corner, and even held his own for a little while against Aang who was in the Avatar State attacking with monstrous power. He was such a threat, that Aang had to steal his bending away and for him to be locked in jail. While Fire Lord Ozai was the definition of a bad guy, was he a good villain? In my opinion he was okay, I mean we seen this type of ruthless villain time and time again, ruthless villain with no sign of remorse for his actions, he started off the series as a dick, and he ends series a dick.

The Legend of Korra's Kuvira: Kuivira is actually one of my favorite villains in the avatar universe, right next to Zaheer, What's interesting is that this time compared to the first Avatar series, the main villains of each book are a little more detailed, polished if you will. For sake of time, we're here to talk about Kuvira. What is interesting is that she was introduced in the previous book as a good guy, that actually helped Korra and company during a conflict near the end of Book 3. She even helped stabilize the city of Ba Sing Se during anarchy riots which earned her the respect of World Leaders and resulted  in her becoming the nations provisional leader. We then find out that during the time skip that took place, She had been going around as the great uniter and has taken over roughly 90% of the Earth Kingdom. She while at first seemed just a reasonable leader, that wanted to just unite the Earth Kingdom, We see some more of her dark side, she's ruthless and isn't above sacrificing people to further her goes, I mean the woman was ready to sacrifice her own fiance just for a chance at killing Korra in the process. She has even defeated Korra on a one on one fight. She basically leveled a good portion of Republic city. However, when it was all said and done. She was actually, sorry about everything she had done, and accepted her loss. Kuivira grew up an orphan abandoned by her family and honestly just wanted the best for her kingdom and nobody to go through being abandoned. Kuvira is actually a reflection of Korra in a lot of ways, she reminded me a lot of Korra from the series start, and Korra even says she sees a lot of herself in Kuvira, and I think that an enemy that the protagonist, can relate to is always a sign of a good story.

What they did in their time as Avatar: (I will say both have done a lot, but some people don't give Korra enough credit.)

Aang: Okay so I will talk  briefly about what all Aang did during his time as the Avatar (Not going to cover every detail but just what was important. Well for starters, Aang stopped the Fire Nation from taking over the North Pole, He obviously defeated the Fire Lord ending the long war and ultimately restoring balance between benders. After the cartoon ended and  He then proposed the Harmony Restoration Movement which was basically moving the Fire Nation from out of the Earth Kingdom. He then helped Zuko find his mom (yeah they put something we all wanted to see in comic books smh). Then helped revive a past Avatar's festival, and lets not forget he formed Republic City, where a majority of The LOK took place at.

Korra: Despite how much hate she got from fans of the series, Korra actually did a lot, let's see she defeated Amon, a person that was causing a lot of animosity between benders and non benders, and a person that had the ability to remove bending from people including Korra. She defeated Vaatu which is basically the spirit of chaos and evil, in a result opening spirit portals, and blending the spirit realm with the real world, not to mention bring the return of airbenders back into the world. In the series finale also save republic city from a dictator and open another portal into the spirit realm within Republic City.


Series finale:

The Last Airbender: Okay...I want you to not shoot me for my opinion about the series finale.....I didn't care for it that much, for starters....Aang wasn't really in it that much, he was missing from the group and meditating on an "island" about how to defeat Ozai without killing him, so we got Aang off meditating while Sokka and Toph are stopping air ships, and Zuko and Katara fight Azula. I liked the Zuko/ Katara vs Azula fight, which I personally thought it was cool to see Zuko calm and collected while Azula was losing her shit, a complete role reversal. Sokka and Toph stopping Airships was neat. Okay so we've been waiting, now Aang finally comes to fight the Fire Lord, its a crazy little fight, Aang had a shot to kill Ozai but didn't and well Ozai beat him into a corner and Aaang by chance was able t enter the Avtar state again something that he thought he lost, and tun the tides on Ozai. As he was about to lay the finishing blow, Aang stopped himself and well instead of killing him, he just removed his ability to bend. Yeah oh the island that Aang was on turned out to be a lion turtle, that imparted him with the ability to energybend, which can remove bending from someone. Oh and how we hoped we would find out about Zuko's mom? Nope. Oh and Katara finally gets with Aang. Ugh, this enemy didn't sit with me well at all...I felt really unsatisfied. I hate Deus ex machnia resolutions and Aang learning how to take bending away strikes me as one, like it was just a simply resolution to tie up the gigantic loose end that was Ozai vs Aang.

The Legend of Korra: Oh man this did it for me, I was happy as hell about it. Kuvira was leveling the city in a giant laser blasting robot, that all of Korra and the gang worked hard to immobilize. You had this feeling of build up the entire series because the action was subtle with some really dope fights here and there. We had a weakened Korra dealing with her defeat and almost near death experience from the last book. Yes Aang suffered a defeat before the final book and had to deal with that too. However, this really messed her up and even weakened her both psychically and mentally. Also there was a lot me just waiting or her rematch with Kuvira who defeated Korra while she was in her weakened state. Now Korra finally able to fight, finally gets a rematch against Kuvira inside her robot. Korra didn't kill Kuvira and their fight was pretty evenly matched, it just resulted in stalemate of sorts  because of the robot exploding, Kuvira tries one last attempt to kill Korra but Korra ultimately saves her life, and the two talk and have an understanding of each other. Korra pretty much tied all loose ends in her series finale in a reasonable way, and then at the last few moments, she and Asami yes Asami, the girl that in the first book she had a strained relationship with because both had feelings for Mako have a moment, and take each others hand and go into the spirit realm on a vacation. YES KORRA AND ASAMI ARE BISEXUAL AND ITS CANNON AND ITS AMAZING, BOOM. I ALMOST FAINTED. So the Avatar creators slam in some points for the LGBT community and end the book wonderfully leaving me fully satisfied and leaving no questions for me to ponder on.

Had to Show it

So there you have it, I loved both the series within the Avatar Universe, however....I feel like the series finale to the Legend of Korra was so much more powerful and satisfying than that of the original series. I feel that Korra deserves a lot more credit than people have been giving her, yes it's not like the first series, and that's okay, I think that if we just basically had a rehash of the first series all over again following the same basic plot elements, a lot of fans would of been satisfied but a lot of fans would of fell off with Avatar. So in the end, I applaud the shows creators for taking the series in the direction that they did.

Any thoughts about the series finale? Or Maybe you liked the first series finale better and want to say why? Go for it, I am always down to talk about Avatar, later guys.

You can hear Jaz on the CP Time Podcast and watch him play Kingdom Hearts on YouTube
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