It’s tough being the follow-up act to a legend. Last week, we covered some of the struggles of the plucky crew of Avatar: The Last Airbender, as they tried to work out their cultural differences and save the world. They eventually did, and the show became such a success that a sequel became a viable option for Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the show’s creators. In an interview, Konietzko recalls that “the first thought we had was: Let’s do a story about the next Avatar. That was the first thought. The second thought was: Let’s make it a girl”. The third thought was to make the next Avatar someone radically different than Aang, someone who was “really a go-getter, she wanted the responsibility, she reveled in it, in her title”. And so Korra, and The Legend of Korra, which recently aired its series finale, was born.
Her first words in the series were as a four-year-old, bragging to judges sent to determine if she really was the reincarnation of Aang: “I’m the Avatar! You’ve got to deal with it!” Charming childhood bravado could only take her so far, though. The show put Korra through the ringer repeatedly, eschewing Last Airbender’s multi-season plot for different villains every season. Although very different, each of these villains claimed to be fighting for some semblance of equality. The first, Amon, was the leader of a group known as the Equalists who sought to radically change the nature between those who could manipulate elements and those who could not. The second dealt with Korra’s changing relationship with the spiritual and how to work those beliefs into an increasingly technological world. The third, however, dealt a force that no one in the world of Avatar had dealt with previously: the harsh force of militant anarchism.
Avatar’s lead characters have often been opposed by core groups who seek their own gain, in contrast to the Avatar’s selflessness. In Korra’s third season, titled “Change”, the core antagonists seek no power for themselves. By this point in the show, Korra has already radically changed the dynamics of the world, allowing spiritual creatures a permanent home in the mortal realm and reigniting dormant airbending abilities within hundreds of seemingly random individuals. The anarchists seeks to push this change further (the show added character by giving the voice of the group’s leader, a new airbender named Zaheer, to legendary punk singer Henry Rollins). They want to disrupt the old, elemental power structures currently in place, starting with the outdated monarchy of the Earth Kingdom and ending with the Avatar herself. In a gruesome act for a kid’s show, Legend shows the Earth Queen being murdered. Korra is forever one step behind, working within a framework that is not equipped to handle the speed and efficiency of a decentralized anarchist force. They move faster than her team and have goals nearly impossible to predict before they take action.
This leads to Korra facing defeat after defeat, wondering if her unique abilities are out of place in the world, and eventually to her capture by the anarchists who poison her and plan on killing her. In response, Korra practically becomes a fire breathing dragon wielding the maximum amount of power her body will allow, but the poison slows her fight. At the peak of her realized potential, her opponents still refuse to fight her on the same plane. She engages in a thrilling fight with Zaheer, who is able to utilize his newfound skills with blistering efficiency. She puts up a stirring fight but is on the verge of death when she is helped by a group of new airbenders whom she has been helping to train. They’re able to turn the tide together.
This might sound incredibly convoluted if you haven’t seen the show. Here’s the breakdown in case: Zaheer and his anarchists operated on a radically different playing ground and achieved astounding success in a short period of time because of it. However, their focus was small and rapidly changing, while Korra’s vision for future airbenders gave her greater strength. No one had planned on new airbenders saving the Avatar from certain death, of course, but no one had planned any of it. Korra emerged from her youthful exuberance to develop a strong vision for the future, something Zaheer and the anarchists lacked. The attachment to old power structures was a mistake, but her failures forced her to change her patterns and become a visionary.