The Legend of Korra

Sebastián Tamayo

The Legend of Korra

• Book One: Air• Book Two: Spirits• Book Three: Change• Setting

The first season, Book One: Air, sees Korra move from her secluded upbringing at the South Pole to

Republic City to learn airbending from Tenzin, Avatar Aang's son. She enters the pro-bending league, and

befriends the brothers Bolin and Mako, as well as Asami Sato, heiress to Future Industries. The

ambitious politician Tarrlok enlists Korra to fight the anti-bender uprising of the "Equalists", led by the

masked Amon, who strips benders of their abilities. Korra and her friends, aided by police chief Lin

Beifong and United Forces General Iroh, manage to unmask Amon as a bloodbender and Tarrlok's brother, ending the Equalists' coup. A spiritual

meeting with her predecessor Aang allows Korra to realize her powers and to restore the ability to bend

to Amon's victims.

The second season, Book Two: Spirits, begins six months later with dark spirits terrorizing the seas.

Korra turns to her spirit-attuned uncle Unalaq, chief of the Northern Water Tribe, for tutelage, and opens

the polar portals to the spirit world at his direction. Unalaq then seizes power in the Southern Water

Tribe by force, starting a civil war in which he is opposed by his brother and Korra's father Tonraq,

whom Unalaq earlier arranged to depose as heir to the North. Seeking allies against Unalaq, Korra

experiences the life of the first Avatar, Wan, who fused his soul with the spirit of light, Raava, to seal

away her dark counterpart Vaatu. Aided by his twin children Eska and Desna, Unalaq frees Vaatu during

the Harmonic Convergence, a decamillennial alignment of planets, and fuses with him in the form

of a dark Avatar. As Korra fights him, her link to the previous Avatars is broken, but with the help of

Tenzin's daughter, Jinora, she manages to defeat Vaatu and Unalaq. She chooses to keep the spirit

portals open, allowing a new coexistence of spirits and humans.

The third season, Book Three: Change, begins two weeks later with people all over the world

discovering airbending powers as a result of the Harmonic Convergence. As Tenzin, Korra and her

friends try to recruit them for the Air Nomads, the dangerous criminal Zaheer escapes his prison, frees his allies Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P'Li, and attempts to kidnap the Avatar. This fails thanks to the help of Suyin Beifong, Lin's previously estranged sister and

head of the Earth Kingdom's Metal Clan. But Zaheer and his team – members of the Red Lotus, a secret

society dedicated to the overthrow of all authorities – kill the Earth Queen, causing her kingdom to

descend into chaos, and then try to force Korra's surrender by taking the Air Nomads hostage,

including Suyin's daughter Opal. In the final confrontation, Zaheer's comrades are killed, but he

comes close to achieving his goal of killing Korra while in the Avatar State, which would end the cycle

of the Avatar's rebirth. Eventually, though, he is captured with the aid of the Air Nomads led by

Jinora. Two weeks later, a weakened, wheelchair-bound Korra watches as Jinora is anointed an

airbending master, and Tenzin rededicates the Air Nomads to service to the world.

water

fire

Air

Earth

The Legend of Korra is set in the fictional world of Avatar: The Last Airbender 70 years after the events of that series. The world is separated into four nations: the (Northern and Southern) Water Tribes, the Air

Nomads, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation. The focus of the series is "bending," the ability of some humans (and animals) to telekinetically manipulate the element associated with their nation (water,

earth, fire, or air). Bending is carried out using spiritual and physical exercises, which are portrayed in the series as similar to Chinese and other Asian martial arts.

Only one person, the "Avatar", can bend all four elements. Cyclically reincarnating among the world's four nations, the Avatar is responsible for maintaining peace and balance in the world. The Legend of Korra

focuses on Avatar Korra, a seventeen-year-old girl from the Southern Water Tribe. At the start of the series, she has already mastered waterbending, earthbending, and firebending, but must complete her

training by learning airbending from Tenzin, the youngest child of Aang and Katara.[16]

The first season is mostly set in Republic City, the capital of the United Republic of Nations, a state that emerged after the end of the war that occurred in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The metropolis, described as "if Manhattan had happened in Asia" by the series' creators,[17] has become a melting pot for people of all nations. Its residents are united by their passion for "pro-bending," a spectator sport in which two teams composed of one earthbender, waterbender, and firebender try to throw each other out of a ring

using bending techniques. The second season is mostly set in the southern polar region, and the third season in the Earth Kingdom.

The Legend of Korra received widespread critical acclaim. David Hinckley of the New York Daily News wrote that the "visually striking" series is "full of little tricks and nuances that only true

fans will notice and savor, but nothing prevents civilians from enjoying it as well."[63] Brian Lowry of Variety felt that the series "represents a bit more ambitious storytelling for older kids,

and perhaps a few adults with the geek gene." Prior to the first season's finale, Scott Thill of Wired hailed The Legend of Korra as "the smartest cartoon on TV," able to address adults'

spiritual and sociopolitical concerns while presenting an "alternately riveting and hilarious ride packed with fantasy naturalism, steampunk grandeur, kinetic conflicts, sci-fi weaponry and self-aware comedy."[65] In The Atlantic, Julie Beck characterized the series as "some of the highest

quality fantasy of our time", appreciating it for combining nuanced social commentary with Avatar: The Last Airbender's "warmth, whimsy, and self-referential wit".[66] According to Forbes,

by telling "some of the darkest, most mature stories" ever animated, The Legend of Korra has created a new genre, "the world's first animated television drama".

Conclusions