Getting into Korra/Avatar for the first time
 

I've started watching The Legend of Korra after picking it up from the library and I really like it. I never watched it in college, but I remember seeing a lot of Tumblr posts about it and the way Nick as a corporate entity kind of cast it aside (apparently it finished its run online instead of on TV?). I already knew some stuff about the characters after seeing probably way too many GIFs of them over the years.

I never watched the original series as it always struck me as kind of simple and childish, but I really like Korra's industrial/steampunk/jazz era setting, and the fact that she's exceptional and heroic without being lazily written as some kind of Mary Sue.

Most people will tell you Avatar is a lot better. Korra has a good Season 1 and a strong Season 3, but Season 2 was a mess and Season 4 was just average.

I never watched either of these shows when they originally aired either, I watched them both for the first time in 2014 so I don't have any nostalgia or anything clouding my view on them. Avatar started in 2005 so I didn't watch it till a decade after it ended. It's a much better series and the characters are all likeable and entertaining.

Each series is only a little over 60 episodes, so you could marathon through both of them rather quickly.

While Avatar doesn't have jazz and very little steampunk I think the writing is much stronger compared to Korra.

I'd agree. The animation isn't quite as slick in the first season of Avatar, but overall I think that show is paced better.

Korra is amazing, especially Books 3 and 4, but Avatar is pretty much solid all the way through.

Well worth the time, IMHO

Of all the shows Nick’s produced, Avatar has some of the best (if not THE BEST) writing. The storytelling is just great throughout, and all the characters get really fleshed out.
I highly recommend it.
Korra’s good too, but not at the level Avatar’s at.

Also Korra suffered from a way too bloated cast. They kept adding new main characters on top of main characters, and a lot of the original cast like Asami barely do anything in the show outside a few episodes.

Avatar handled its 4 main characters really well, as well as the 2-3 major recurring characters it had.

Not counting which show is better, I think its definetly better to watch Avatar first since it takes place before Korra.

But I imagine watching Korra as its standalone thing won't hurt, especially since it takes place a Long time after the original series.

I can't say for sure though, as I've hardly seen Korra, but am a huge fan of Avatar.

I still haven't watched Korra, I remember being so hyped about it as everything about it looked awesome except for the steam punk setting which in my opinion didn't fit the Avatar universe at all, they had already shown countless of generations of Avatars and just now they decided that they understood steam technology? ugh.

I never checked it out after the disappointment reaction by the fans. I got into Avatar during season 2 and had a blast discussing the show on /co/ for the next few years. I remember the meltdowns with all the shippers being devastated.

I say watch TLA first, then korra. It's a much better experience.

Absolutely watch the original series first! It's a lot more consistent in quality, and sets up a lot of necessary information for Korra. Specifically the bits about Bloodbending (something that really should be turned on its face as a medical miracle and not as a technique of torture).

The Last airbender had tanks, jet skis, a giant drill, factories, and a freaggin Zeppelin. So it does make sense that with a 70 year timeskip the technology is more steampunk.

Yeah, the jump in tech only makes me wonder what their Space Age would be like. Especially now that spirits are running loose in the physical world.

I don't get why people have shipper meltdowns over short shows like this. If the writers are going in a certain direction with characters, there's nothing fans can do about it. I mean Avatar came out in 2005, so I imagine the fanbase was very young back then. In fact some people likely grew up with it as one of the first shows they followed. So if that's the case I can see why.

I honestly don't know what people expecting either, since main boy and main girl pairings in kids shows are very common.

I always wanted to see this. If there's a physical outer space, is there a different outer space for spirits? Can one bend in space?

Since Toph was able to bend with a meteorite, it might be possible to Earth/metal bend with space rocks and dust.

Air bending would probably be next to impossible.

Avatar is set in the 1850s, where as Korra is set in the 1920s.
The jump in technology mirrors the same thing in our world.

Only if one had no access to gases.
But if there are people there, then there's access to oxygen. Lots of stuff in space are composed of pretty much nothing but gas, which could prove interesting.

I would be really interested to see an Earth Avatar in the silicon age.

That's a good point.

There would still be astronauts and space stations. I imagine the first humans on the moon would be mostly Earth Benders, to make the task of moving space rocks a lot easier. Which I imagine would be exciting af for them.

Fire Benders would probably be inadvisable in a space station, though, except maybe in limited areas. Air benders and water benders might be the most desirable. Said water benders would probably have a blast working with water in said space station.

When did they give those dates officially?

Also that doesn't mirror our world at all, by the 1920s steam power had been available for centuries.

We know the Avatar cycle went through ten thousand years and from what we know technology was around the same all that time, why? Because it was meant to be one of those fantasy settings that never "evolve" and get more tech like most fantasy worlds.

Avatar and Teen Titans are the first shows that started this whole modern "shipping" community that we have now, sure obsessive shipping existed for a long time before like in Pokemon with AshxMisty but I think the current wave of community in shipping started with those two shows.

PC meant that the level of of technology Korra had was similar to the 1920s also again by the last hair bender the fire nation already developed steam ships, tanks and giant ships so going by those things I doubt Avatar was supposed to be like LOTR where everything stays the same technology wise.

Read my post again.

The 1920s isn't steam punk. The original show implies that it stays mostly the same as in other fantasy media based on how long life has been like that. Obviously there's going to be some anachronism.

To be fair, I can see how things would stagnate for the one hundred years that the Fire Nation had control. And the advancements that the Fire Nation did make were during the reign of Sozin, or maybe even Azulon, but not beforehand. Other than that, we don't really see a lot of what the tech was like for Avatar Kyoshi and her predecessors. Then there's the engineers that did little things in order to combat the Fire Nation.

So, much like the post-WWII efforts of Allied and Axis force engineers putting their heads together for introducing their tech to the public, it makes sense that the Earth Kingdom engineers and Fire Nation engineers would be the key players in creating the tech that Korra has. And what a tech boom it was after years of stagnation!

I'm confused, has anyone said that they didn't have steam power prior to Korra?

I think what they have in Korra that they don't have in Aang's thaw time is reliable electricity, not steam power. Most of the Fire Nation's heavy machinery in Avatar is run on steam. Or at least it appeared that way to me. Their floating metal jail for the Earth Kingdom is run on coal.

I'm still looking for the direct quote, but I'm fairly certain Koneitzko said it at the SDCC where they announced Korra. Also that the Track Team, the folks who provide the music, were making the sound track as if Jazz had been invented in Mainland China.

So hence the 1920s.
Which I think makes it a bit out of date for Steampunk.

Does it though?
And if so, when?

There´s a difference between having steam power and being a steam punk setting, different suspension of disbelief there since I mentioned there´s always going to be some sort of anachronism in stories like these.

You need not find the quote, I don´t doubt you at all that they mentioned something of the like since it´s clear that starting with Korra they intended to have technological advancements, this whole discussion started because of my dislike of this.

But the original show definitely implies to be those settings that you don´t worry about future tech and innovation, not that progress doesn´t happen, look at The Legend of Zelda, centuries pass between stories and things are mostly the same with steam power being used in only one game and most recently BOTW having some robot like creatures that still work in a fantasy setting. We can debate for hours whether eventually you´d have gas powered cars in Zelda since that´s not what they intend with the universe. With Avatar they also talk about ancient stuff like that which happened for centuries and even if we mostly see things in the same settings as TLA is, so at least at the time of TLA the setting did seem like a fantasy setting that you don´t expect time to pass which I like and you can retcon it all in Korra but that was not the original intention. It is the reason I didn´t like that aspect of Korra.

But enough about that, the point in my post always was I love Avatar and need to check out Korra, I hope I love it, and yes the franchise will always be Avatar to me even if Viacom gave it up to James Cameron.

My point wasn't to yuck your yum.
I just think it's interesting that to you Avatar is a Timeless Universe, when the entire point of the first three seasons is time related.

They "retconned" time passing in Korra. Hahaha, oh my God.

Some of these posts remind me why the fanbase scared me away from getting into this franchise...

But I am about four episodes into Korra and still like it so far.

The fanbase is INTENSE.
Not quite Harry Potter level, but certainly a close second.

Nah, the Pokemon fandom is far worse. It's filled with a bunch of entitled manchildren who are upset the franchise now is so different than it was in 1998. A bunch of morons who can't comprehend a franchise going on for 20 years isn't going to be the same as when they were kids.

I doubt those people even exist outside of memes. Any people who don't care too much for the new stuff are usually just content with playing the original games in my experience.

Yeah, now aday you mainly just play the games or read the mangas

Every fandom is the worst.

I don't understand what's so "out there" in expecting a fantasy show that implies tech has been like that forever to stay like that for the immediate sequel.

If I knew how to cross-stitch I'd put this in a sampler.

Words to live by.

They do exist on forums and tumblrs. Like it's ok to lose interest in a franchise or not care about newer stuff. But it's the people who go on mindless hating things for no reason and troll forums or people who like it that's the problem.

Although you're right, every long running franchise has people like this.

There's different levels of annoying fanbases though, you can't compare the Rick and Morty fandom who reached brony status rather quickly with the Jurassic Park fandom who only complain about T-Rex vs Spinosaurus

Because even in the Last airbender we saw tech advance, we saw the giant drill, zeppelins, submarines, and jet skis so going by all of those things the audience should get a clue that this isn't going to be like LOTR or Zelda where 70 years means no progress. Hell the 1st episode should've tipped you off that they weren't going to do that concept when Zuko showed up in a steam boat.

On a side note, I really hate static settings like those mentioned where years and years pass and nothing really changes. That's not how real life works. Now, if there's a fitting, in-universe explanation for why things never change, that's a different story.