When we hit our lowest point, we are opened to the greatest change.

A continuation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we are introduced to an older Avatar, Korra who doesn’t take any shit and speaks what’s on her mind.

If you are one of those people who watched Avatar and are adamant to watch Korra don’t worry, I was there. If you have never seen Avatar, don’t worry you don’t have to. Sure there are a few references and people brought up from the original series, but Korra is a new Avatar with a separate story and characters.

For those not familiar with the Avatar lure, when the current Avatar dies they are reincarnated into the next element in the cycle. Aang was an airbender and when he died the Avatar became Korra, a waterbender. The next will be earth, and finally fire before it rotates again and again.

Korra has been sheltered in her water tribe her whole life and finally ventures out into the city to be taught her final element air, by the only person who can teach her: Aang’s son Tenzin. Can I just say how weird it must be for Tenzin, that he’s basically teaching his dad how to airbend or his dad is dealing with relationship problems.

Along the way she meets a new group of friends and become the “New Team Avatar,” taking out bad guys (and pissing the police off along the way.) Aang was never in the spotlight while we saw him. He was more focused on learning the elements, but Korra being older people expect her to have all the answers, and the media does a good job of ripping her image apart. So not only does she have to deal with a new enemy every season, but the backlash over not being the best Avatar.

Korra is a great character (she was my first Women in Fiction post.) She starts off as a really strong Avatar but is broken down along the way. Like Avatar, the characters all go through their developments, but Korra has the biggest.  Also, Aang and Korra have completely different personalities. While Aang was fun but still laid back and spiritual, Korra is a free-spirit and has mastered the physical side of bending.

Over the course of a few years Korra changes the world in ways you would never expect (and since this is spoiler free I’ll just say you have to give her credit by how much she did in the first three seasons.)

However, just because the show is on Nickelodeon I wouldn’t say it’s target was solely kids. There are many dark moments this time around, even more than Last Airbender. I do recall the creators saying this is aimed at the audience that watched Last Airbender and now that they’re older, the show needs to act older as well (with older characters.)

One thing Avatar didn’t do enough of was include adult characters. Sure there was Iroh (ahem) and people like Bumi but on Legend of Korra one of the main characters is Tenzin, a father. Then there’s Toph’s daughter, Lin and the rest of Aang and Katara’s children. It’s nice to have an older generation helping the younger out.

If you are a fan of Avatar don’t worry there are plenty of references and characters you will see again. Yes some are dead and gone, but many are alive and still helping the Avatar out. If you haven’t seen Avatar, these references aren’t big enough to push you off track and be confusing. It works both ways.

This is all my opinion and in the end it’s up to you, but I didn’t want to give Korra a chance. I was hesitate and just wanted to compare it to Last Airbender, but I am so glad I finally gave in. I love Korra, I love this show.

And in recent news…a spinoff movie is in the works apparently going to be made by Netflix. When or if this happens we’ll just have to wait and see…but in the mean time a continuation of the series in graphic novel form has been confirmed.

(And if this movie happens we can only pray it isn’t a Last Airbender)