The legend of Korra

[Math_Mage]

Maybe for you. I admit Korra was a flawed show, but I still enjoyed watching it a lot - and so did many people who are complaining right now, in fact. And seriously, saying that Korra went miserably wrong just makes you sound unaware how much crap there is on the TV. Watch some of the **** that's there, either from kids' shows or just shows in general. You're seriously comparing Korra to that?

I enjoyed getting my fix of Jedi action in the Star Wars prequels. There are plenty of movies out there worse than the Star Wars prequels, too. But we say George Lucas got the prequels miserably wrong because there was so much potential to be gloriously right that doesn't exist with a movie like, say, Sharktopus.

So no, I'm not comparing Korra to other TV shows, good or bad; I'm comparing the quality of Korra's setup to the quality of Korra's execution. The original series establishes a high-quality broad setting, and Republic City is amazing. Each of the characters are well-conceived and -introduced, and several narrative threads are developed that could weave together into a complex and meaningful story. But each of the characters turns one-dimensional and falls off of his/her arc, the story threads get tangled up in bad pacing and terribly written romance, and in a rush to tie off all those threads the writers abandon any semblance of narrative depth.

We're left asking, "What if?" What if Mako and Bolin were defined as characters beyond their relationship with Korra (a complaint usually leveled at female characters in stories with a male lead)? What if there was a voice, any voice, among the protagonists expressing ambivalence towards Amon's philosophy and goals? What if Korra had a visible arc of either Airbending training, spiritual development, or social perspective (e.g. grappling with Amon's ideas rather than just his minions)? What if the story's potentially morally complex antagonists (Tarrlok and Amon) hadn't been reduced to frauds; or what if we hadn't glossed over the fact that Amon's true backstory is just as valid a motivation as his cover story? What if we saw a perspective from the lower levels of the Equalist movement more complex than the protester in episode 1? What if we saw a bender, any bender, who continued to function without their bending, forcing Korra and us to question the assumption that losing bending is the end of the world? What if the last episode never happened?

Don't tell me this couldn't have been accomplished in a kid's show. The original series did most of this. Korra was set up to do most of this. They just didn't do it. That's why I'm disappointed.

And yes, they only had 12 episodes to work with (grrr Nickelodeon execs why you so bloody stupid grrr). Which is why they should create a season-sized story arc within the broader story they're trying to tell. That, or tell a story that fits in a season, with a few loose ends that could lead into the Equalist arc. This story doesn't fit, and trying to cram it all in sapped it of substance.