Okay, so I'm sure I could talk a whole lot more about Avatar/Korra, but here are the couple thoughts that I wrote out:
Difference in Character Quality
The biggest difference for me in the shows (and a prime reason I think I preferred The Last Airbender so much) was the quality of characters/how I feel about the characters.
In The Last Airbender, I adore a vast majority of the cast. There are so many stellar characters imo. Like, seriously. Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Iroh, Azula: All incredible. Even more minor characters like May, Ty Lee, and Suki are awesome. Aang himself was great as well, of course, but honestly was not my favorite.
See, I can't say I felt the same about Korra's cast. In fact, in several cases, the opposite. It wasn't uncommon for me to find characters grating/annoying throughout the show.
A couple examples:
Korra. Korra was often frustrating to watch. Why are you so demanding? Why are you so quick to frustration/why do you get defensive so easily? Why are you so quickly getting upset with Mako and keep saying he's picking sides?
And, like, I get that characters don't have to be perfect and it's good for them to be flawed and whatever, but golly, she in particular was just annoying. I felt like the characters in Last Airbender had emotions, but their reactions made more sense to me. Idk, I'm not sure exactly how to articulate the difference but it's there.
Tenzin. When I was first introduced to Tenzin in the show, I got the impression that, because he was Aang's and Katara's son and seemed to follow in Aang's desires in many ways, that he was going to be a wise and reliable character to trust. And then it became apparent that he's actually extremely stubborn and has difficulty seeing any viewpoint but his own. (Examples: 1. All his door-approaches trying to get the new airbenders to help rebuild the Air Nation. 2. His methods of teaching after getting a group of airbenders for the Air Nation)
Even when it looked like he was learning and was going to change his teaching ways, it swapped back again real quick and it was back to his stubborn ways. It was just frustrating to watch.
Honestly, now that I'm looking through the cast, Korra and Tenzin were the main straight-up annoyances. But even these other characters like Bolin, Asami, and Mako (which in general I do like) don't reach nearly the height that practically every character in the original does for me.
Annoying Relationship Stuff in Korra
Now, another major annoyance for me throughout the entirety of Korra. What is going on with all the relationship stuff?? It's a reoccurring thing that just bugged me.
Mako's relationship stuff in Season 1
I didn't personally enjoy the love triangle thing in Season 1, but I think that was just because of my personal preference. What I don't like is specific Mako actions and how the rest of the characters in the end just pretty much go along with it with what feel like fleeting consequences.
As referenced, I generally like Mako as a character, but I didn't like this part: You can't get with Asami, but then bail on her because Korra likes you, but then go back to Asami because the Korra thing didn't work out, but then go back to Korra when she loses parts of her memory. Like, c'mon.
I don't know, something about how he handled it and then the rest of the characters reacted. It just felt wrong/they treated things as if they were no big deal, and it was just frustrating and not fun to watch. Idk.
Bolin and Eska
Okay, most of this relationship makes sense. Bolin, not knowing better, approaches Eska and accidentally falls into an awful relationship. He's unsure how to get out because of how controlling and manipulative Eska is. All that checks out.
What I don't understand is how Bolin in the end decides he actually does love her?? And everyone (specifically Mako I think is the one who is there) is just okay with it/not surprised/whatever?? Like, no Bolin. She's an incredibly demanding, controlling, and manipulative girlfriend, and she deserves no love from you. What are you doing? It just made no sense. And even if you want to reference stockholm syndrome (which isn't really a thing in the first place) or whatever to have it make sense from Bolin's end, it still doesn't make sense why Mako would just go along with it, gah.
Varrick and Zhu-Li
Okay, and then pretty much the exact same thing happened with Varrick and Zhu-Li?? Like, Zhu-Li, Varrick treats you horribly. Like, actually horribly -- ex. making you walk 20 miles with him on your back after you had sprained your ankle. The entire series I was thinking, "Man, Zhu-Li better being making a ton of money to put up with Varrick's treatment of her." Now, to be fair, it seems that Varrick genuinely changes before their marriage and will treat Zhu-Li as his equal in their marriage, so I guess in the end it worked out. But golly, why did 'falling for the person who treats you like a slave' happen twice this show?
The Recap Episode
Okay, this is not fully related, but still is connected. Half-way through season 4, they have a recap episode. A lot of the season 1 recap, at least for Mako, was focused on all the stupid relationship stuff I talked about in point 1. Aka, the worst parts of Season 1. And then the rest of season 4 doesn't even do anything with it. All those relationship drama plotlines went nowhere and was also recapped for no apparent reason.
Conclusion
Like I referenced, there's a lot more I could unpack and talk about in both of these shows, but those are the thoughts I ended up writing. Love love Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not a fan of The Legend of Korra.
That being said, I definitely didn't hate everything in Korra. I thought parts of the world building/magic system were cool, there were some good climatic moments, some cool characters. But for me, it pales in comparison to the original. Which isn't an original take, of course, but is one I now personally have now that I've seen all of both series.
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