The Legend of Korra Was a Sequel That Had Faith in Itself

Whenever a revival or legacy sequel to a well-liked piece of media springs up, one of many first actual questions is which veteran actors will return. These days, actors going again to the iconic roles that helped make them well-known is virtually a job unto itself, if not the purpose of those revivals from the bounce. Either in actual life or on a meta degree, characters being confronted with their legacy and getting pressured again into the highlight is commonly one of many massive speaking factors round these revivals.

As a end result, the nostalgia grabs have grow to be extremely blatant, and more and more secure with how and why they create again these now older characters. While these characters could also be allowed to age, by way of characterization, they should be preserved in amber in order that their return presents them to us precisely as we remembered as soon as upon a time.

The revival increase has actually taken off within the final handful of years, however one can argue that it actually began off with The Legend of Korra again in 2012, which broadcast its first episode on TV 10 years in the past as we speak (it truly debuted a few weeks earlier on-line, however particulars, schmetails). Now a full decade outdated, the sequel sequence to Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender feels prefer it got here out at simply the correct time. Having debuted at a time the place it was comparatively secure to be unshaped by huge expectations set upon it by followers—though that’s to not say there wasn’t any grumbles—Korra was free to discover the legacy of its unique sequence in a extra nuanced means than an try lately would’ve allowed. Rather than merely persevering with the adventures of Aang and the unique Team Avatar—as an alternative casting them because the elders to a brand new Avatar and a brand new era of youthful heroes—creators Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko determined to not simply coast on the goodwill that the unique Last Airbender sequence earned them after its finish in 2008.

Much of Korra is about exploring if its titular hero and her buddies can stay as much as the legacy of Aang and the unique Team Avatar that hundreds of thousands of followers grew up with. If it wasn’t being requested instantly of Korra herself, it was being requested of Team Avatar’s now grownup kids. It’s right here the place Korra exhibits a shocking quantity of nuance with which it paints the grownup variations of those beloved characters, and the methods by which they helped or failed their offspring. Much of it, naturally, facilities round Aang and the eventual household he began with Katara.

As the one airbender within the household, the couple’s youngest son Tenzin thought-about it his obligation to maintain the traditions of his father’s folks alive by his 4 kids, who would hopefully go to repopulate the air nomads and produce their tradition again from the brink of extinction. Much of Tenzin’s baggage together with his father is among the present at its each its strongest and weakest, emotionally. Seeing Tenzin confront a vision of his father in season two’s finish and be taught to be his personal man felt like the correct arc for that character, because it did for him to ultimately cede the duty of constant the airbender legacy to his oldest daughter, Jinora. Much of that, actually, might be owed to JK Simmons’ lived in, “experienced father” efficiency as Tenzin, significantly when he will get wistful about the way forward for his those who his father won’t ever be capable to really see together with his personal eyes.

But the trail to getting there was… tough, particularly once we meet his siblings in season two, waterbender Kya and nonbender (however ultimately, an airbender) Bumi. The duo introduced with them the revelation that Aang would spend extra time with Tenzin over them through the youngsters’ youth, and this plot level rubbed followers the improper means on the time. Logically, it is sensible for Aang to foist all his hopes and desires for his folks on the shoulders of his solely child to exhibit airbending skills. But their dynamic in that second season feels much less like a bunch of adults having to confront their father’s difficult emotions on their household and extra like three grown kids bickering forwards and backwards. It’s later seasons that do proper by Kya and Bumi, permitting them to really feel like precise folks moderately than remixes of Katara and Sokka.

It’s additionally within the third and fourth seasons the place Korra examines the thought of legacy by the Beifong household. Toph is likely one of the unique Airbender’s greatest characters, and her daughters are equally nice in their very own proper. Her eldest, Lin, served as a enjoyable supporting character for the primary two seasons, and with the introduction of Lin’s sister Suyin in season three, we see how a lot each girls have taken after their mom, each in demeanor and in bending prowess. Because Toph gave each her ladies relative freedom whereas elevating them, Lin turned a metalbender cop together with her, whereas Suyin rebelled, ultimately pressured to skip city after Lin arrested her and Toph needed to keep away from a scandal.

Surprisingly, a lot of the strife across the three Beifong girls largely rests on Lin’s shoulders; after founding the steel metropolis of Zaofu and beginning her family, Suyin reveals she and Toph patched issues up a while in the past. It’s Lin who must be taught to forgive her household; each her sister, and by extension Suyin’s daughter Opal, who needs to attach together with her aunt, and later Toph, whose approval she needed a lot that she let it dictate her complete life. Having spent a long time in a swamp and mellowed out, Toph is content material with letting her daughter be upset together with her, however can also be keen to supply to assist as greatest she will be able to. The Beifong household all through Korra is simply constantly satisfying, each as a result of they’re an awesome family of powerhouses, and since the present has realized to not overburden this household with an excessive amount of happening like they beforehand did with Aang and Katara’s bloodline.

At instances, the query of what the characters owe to the previous is even requested of Korra’s villains. Season one’s twin antagonists, Amon and Tarrlok, had been the sons of a gangster whose bending was taken by Aang and who taught his sons how you can bloodbend so he may have his revenge. Kuvira, the villain of season 4, was deserted by her mother and father as a toddler and grew up as Suyin’s surrogate daughter, solely to go away the Metal Clan and create an Earth Empire after the the assassination of the Earth Queen a season prior. Kuvira will get an opportunity to repay the Beifongs for taking her in as a toddler by dwelling with them below home arrest on the finish of the Ruins of the Empire comedian trilogy. Tarrlok, in the meantime, understands that he and Amon are doomed to repeat their father’s cycle of vengeance, and opts to blow the pair up in a murder-suicide. It stays one of many present’s extra surprisingly darkish moments, and proof that typically, you need to kill the past yourself.

One of the issues that makes Korra as a present so fascinating is the way it asks the query of legacy nearly solely by the point of view of the characters within the current. That doesn’t sound spectacular, nevertheless it’s straightforward to think about how in one other world, the present may’ve contrived a solution to function extra of the unique Team Avatar members who’re nonetheless alive, or completed twin timeline shenanigans in order to point out Aang’s group as adults and evaluate them with Korra’s crew. But the wisest factor the present does is allow them to be supporting gamers; as Toph stated again in season 4, she, Katara, and Zuko are outdated as hell, they usually had their time.

It’s as much as the brand new era to face on their very own, and that’s ultimately what Legend of Korra does. While it’s a messier present than its predecessor, the truth that it was in a position to embrace that mess and make it into the general level of the present is why it’s one of many stronger legacy revivals we’ve gotten.

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