There seems to be a nearly constant debate about which Avatar series was better, The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. While many fans claim the clear choice is ATLA, a small group still believes TLOK is the better series due to a number of reasons including its mature themes, LGBTQIA+ representation, and sophisticated villains.
However, in a lot of ways, Korra ruined some of the key foundations Airbender worked so hard to make. Sure, the series takes place 70 years later and a lot of advances both in character and environment take place, but the show felt totally different for many and left an air of disappointment. On the other side of that argument, TLOK introduced some new themes that helped improve Aang's story and the world of Avatar as a whole.
Updated on September 27th, 2021 by Kit Morris: While this list originally had some great points, there are other things that were never brought up. Seeing as how fans still have strong opinions on both shows, and that there are other adaptations and new stories from the franchise that are currently being worked on, other reasons on why The Legend of Korra helped and ruined the original series should be included in this article.
14 Ruined: Made "Special" Bending Too Easy
One of the major things TLOK ruined in Avatar was the access to "special" bending in each element. ATLA showed viewers just how difficult the likes of metal, blood, and lightening bending were. Toph created metal bending all on her own and, sure, she may have made a school for it in TLOK, but it doesn't necessarily explain how nearly every earth bender could now also be a metal bender so easily. And even though the series showed how much of a difficult time Bolin had with this, he learned how to lava bend instead, still giving him a special bending.
Only Katara and Hama knew of blood bending, it was a rare skill that only two people on the planet knew, and one was in jail while the other swore off the skill altogether. Yet, now Amon can use it so easily. And the same is said for lightning bending. Zuko barely mastered it, Aang only learned how to redirect it, and Azula, Iroh, and Ozai seemed to be the only fire benders who could manipulate it. But once again, it seems like every fire bender also has lightning bending. It made the struggles the characters in ATLA went through to learn these skills seem far less than they were.
13 Helped: Pro-Bending
Pro-Bending was one of the best concepts in TLOK. It united the nations and made the idea of bending as a sport seem fun. It changed the pace and diversity the nations held during ATLA, and united them by each element being vital to a team, water, earth, and fire coming together to battle and be victorious.
Even with all the craziness that was occurring with Amon, our new Team Avatar still found a way to play their matches and bond over Pro-Bending.
12 Ruined: Vague Stories For Most Of Original Team Avatar
Aang and Katara get pretty fleshed out timelines between ATLA and TLOK, yet many of the characters fans came to love were given vague backgrounds and some went unmentioned altogether. Sokka became head of the police, but we know nothing of his life outside of that. Fans are unsure if he stayed with Suki or if he had any children and many theorize he could be the unknown father of Suyin Beifong.
It is unclear who Zuko had Izumi with, though many assume it is Mai, the answer was never revealed. It is also unclear what happened in general to Suki, Mai, and Ty Lee, and why these vital characters go unmentioned in TLOK.
11 Helped: Introduced Team Avatar's Kids
It was such a treat to see Aang and Katara's three children, Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin. While Tenzin is one of the main characters of the series as he is Korra's air bending instructor, it is also fascinating to see that Kya becomes a water bender and Bumi has no bending. And Tenzin's children are some of the stars of the show, especially Jinora who is said to be one of the best characters in the series by many.
Fans also got to meet Toph's children and Zuko's daughter and grandson (albeit, briefly). Lin Beifong is one of the main characters in TLOK and is totally reminiscent of her mother. Her half-sister, Suyin has a number of kids who end up becoming vital to the final season's arc.
10 Ruined: Korra Destroying The Link To The Avatar Cycle
One of the heavy hitters of The Legend of Korra was when Korra ended the Avatar Cycle and began a new one. This act destroyed her link to all her past lives.
Because of this, she and every Avatar after her will no longer be able to gain the wisdom of their past lives and will only have Korra to mentor them. This breaking of the cycle will leave Korra and subsequent Avatars to totally fend for themselves and learn new bending skills on their own.
9 Helped: Iroh In The Spirit World
Iroh is arguably the best character across both series of Avatar and he got the ending he deserved in The Legend of Korra. In ATLA, Iroh was seen multiple times being in tune with the Spirit World. In the first episode that introduced the Spirit World, Iroh saw Roku's dragon fly above him with Aang on his back.
At the end of season 1, he also expressed great knowledge and care for the spirits and their well being when Zhao tried (and succeeded) to kill the Moon Spirit. He was the wisest character in the series as well, giving advice to any character who needed guidance. Because of this, it's great that he ended up going to the Spirit World after he passed away.
8 Ruined: Complicated Relationships
Korra does some funky things when it comes to romantic relationships, and while in a way it makes the characters feel more real, it also just complicates and floods the story. The idea of Korra x Mako x Asami being so relevant for all seasons complicated the story immensely.
Korra and Asami were friends but both had feelings for Mako who also had feelings for both of them and jumped between the two whenever the other would break up with him all the way until the end where Korra and Asami decided to drop Mako and be together instead. While this idea is utterly amazing and finally gives some representation to the LGBTQIA+ community, it also felt a bit left field for many of the fans who wished they had developed the Korra/Asami relationship earlier, instead of constantly implying friendship and fighting over Mako.
7 Helped: Mature Characters & Themes
As mentioned, the romantic relationships in Korra are both a hinder and a blessing. The idea of couples breaking up and simply not working out is a more mature concept that The Last Airbender didn't really cover.
Overall, due to the older age of Team Avatar many of the themes were portrayed in a mature light. Korra dealt with some pretty heavy-duty depression in a later season and the villains aren't just evil for the sake of it, but are rather complex and make viewers question if they're right.
6 Ruined: Destroyed The Idea Of Energy Bending
This ties directly into the point of Korra breaking off the Avatar cycle. Although Korra is shown to be able to restore the bending abilities of those that Amon stripped bending from, it isn't explained if she's mastered the ability to strip energy away. Without her connection to the Avatar cycle, she doesn't stand a chance to truly master energy bending, a skill that Aang learned from the Lion Turtle right before facing Ozai.
She also has now stopped all Avatars after her from learning the skill as well. This skill would have helped her immensely in her battle with Amon and against pretty much every foe she faced.
5 Helped: The First Avatar
The Legend of Korra gave us the mythos behind the very first Avatar and how the cycle even began with Avatar Wan. It also gave us the lore of Raava and Vaatu and they're constant battle for peace and chaos.
This concept introduced the implied idea of light and dark and Raava's commitment to making sure the world is kept at balance. She is the Avatar spirit. The Wan arc in Korra is one of the greatest arcs in either series as fans get to see where it all began and witness a complete story in such a short time.
4 Ruined: Worse Heroes
While the main characters of The Legend of Korra are fine protagonists, they're not nearly as great as Aang, Katara, and their friends were from the original series. One of the biggest reasons for this is that Korra's comrades didn't spend nearly as much time with her as Aang's companions did with him.
Throughout The Last Airbender, Katara, Sokka, and Toph follow Aang on his adventure shortly after they met him and only go their separate ways a few times. Korra's friends are constantly in and out of her life, causing them to not be as important to the story.
3 Helped: Great Villains
The Last Airbender had a lot of great antagonists, such as Ozai, Azula, Zhao, and Long Feng. However, one problem that the villains had was that most of them worked together, with Ozai being their leader. Because of this, he was the only villain that was seen as a huge threat since the rest of the Fire Nation wouldn't have fought Aang if it weren't for him.
The main villains in The Legend of Korra don't work with each other and are the leaders of their own separate groups, which makes them a bigger threat than most of The Last Airbender's antagonists. Amon, Zaheer, and Vaatu are all great enemies that are just as important as Ozai was.
2 Ruined: The Ending
The Last Airbender has one of the best endings from any TV series ever made. Nearly everything that fans could have wanted was in it, such as Aang defeating Ozai and ending up with Katara, Zuko fighting Azula and becoming the next Fire Lord, the 100 year war coming to an end, and more. And the things that weren't in the ending that most fans wanted were in the comics, which continued the adventures of Team Avatar.
Unfortunately, The Legend of Korra's ending was inferior in every way. Kuvira, the final antagonist of the series, barely made an impact on the series compared to those that came before her, the heroes were completely fine after the final battle despite almost dying moments before, and while it was great that Korra and Asami ended up together, it came out of nowhere. The ending would have been so much better if a character like Vaatu or Amon was the final enemy Korra faced and if Asami and Korra's relationship was more relevant to the plot.
1 Helped: Benders Vs Non-Benders
While in The Last Airbender, the main conflict was between the Four Nations, a huge conflict from the beginning of The Legend of Korra was between benders and non-benders. People that couldn't bend weren't focused on much in the original series. The only time someone not being able to bend was an issue was when Sokka felt like he wasn't as important as his friends.
In the sequel, however, non-benders are just as important as benders, especially in the beginning of the series, which was a great spin on things that fans didn't see coming.