Andrew Thornton

I really did love this show. It has a very interesting premise, great characters, and concepts. The story is engaging and the more you learn about the universe and the characters the more you end up loving them. I think the best word to describe this show is charming. Despite being aimed towards a young audience, it has plenty of interesting characters and concepts to keep viewers of any age engaged. While this show is really great, it does have its drawbacks. This show probably could have been 3-4 seasons instead of 5, and that's because this show wastes a lot of time with Steven doing random, inconsequential things in Beach City, developing characters that frankly don't serve any relevance to the entire story. It spends more time developing beach city than it does developing the gems and diamonds themselves. The diamonds especially get very little screen time until the second half of the last season, which is kind of ridiculous considering that they are suppose to be the main antagonists. The story is so engaging and entertaining when it's the focus, but between each episode dealing with the actual story there are 5 that have nothing to do with it. But despite this, the show is still very fun to watch. The story is so engaging that you'll find yourself trucking through 3, 4, 5, 6 episodes of nothing significant just to be sure you don't miss anything. All in all while this show has its flaws, it I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys cartoons.

This show isn’t bad by any means, but it’s a far cry from ATLA. First of all most of the characters are not that likable. Korra is arrogant and brash, which doesn’t really change throughout the series. The main group consists of Mako, who has hardly any development, Bolin, who is basically earth bending Sokka but without any of the leadership or creativity of Sokka, and Asami, who is kind of generic and bland as a character for most of the series. The problem with these characters is that the show neglects to actually develop or flesh out any of them. Korra is mostly annoyingly brash and despite everything she goes through, she really doesn’t change or learn anything. She completely lacks any connection to the cultural and spiritual side of bending, which gets annoying after a while as she continues to try to solve every problem with a direct confrontation. The other three characters are so bland and lack any real personalities or motivations that they really aren’t worth caring about. By far the best character and the one with the most development is Tenzin. We understand his struggle with his fathers legacy and the legacy of the air nomads and the pressure he is under. And over time he begins to realize that he’s not Aang, nor should he try to be him. He is really likable and is a genuinely good person. Possibly the thing that annoys me the most is how watered down the bending is. In ATLA each element was based on a specific martial art, and that style was clearly represented in the way they had to move in order to actually bend the elements. I’m Korra every element essentially has the same motions and there’s really no creativity in the way the characters move or use their bending. Korra uses the same gestures to throw rocks or fire at opponents. Earthbending is treated the worst in this regard. There are no rigid stances or techniques used in the show. Characters essentially use basic arm motions to throw rocks at opponents or make walls appear. The only element that is really used to it’s full extent is water, and that’s mostly in Book Two by Unalock and his twins, where they use the water to move around and freeze it in order to gain advantages on their opponents. Overall the bending is extremely disappointing, especially to fans of ATLA. Overall TLOK just seems to lack the heart and weight of ATLA. It’s not really fair to compare the two, as it’s next to impossible to come close to ATLA, but when it comes from the same creators and the same people, it’s hard to ignore how inferior it is. All in all it’s easy to tell they threw out things like character development, the uniqueness and diversity of the elements and their cultures, and many things that made ATLA great in favor of flashy animation and serialized storytelling. It’s hard to enjoy this final product when it’s apparent that this show was more of a cash grab with mediocre at best story telling. It’s disappointing when you know that these creators and writers can do so much better.