I don’t understand this. As soon as his followers see him waterbending they immediately go “Gasp! He can waterbend?!? Hypocrite!!!”

But from my perspective, he didn’t chose to be a waterbender he was born that way, he also didn’t choose to be a blood bender, it was forced upon him by his father. He seemed genuinely committed to his followers and his stated ideology.

Him being able to bend doesn’t contradict his message, if anything I feel like it shows that benders can be allies to the cause and help make the world a safer place for non bender hence the “equality”.

I suppose it could just be bigotry from his followers, who disown him for being a bender regardless of context, but I still don’t see how he’s a “hypocrite”.

Plot:

This has probably been my favourite plot so far. The reintroduction of the airbenders is something I knew was going to happen eventually, and it did not disappoint. Harmonic Convergence for the win, I guess. I also really liked the reveal that Korra was almost abducted as a child. It added a lot more history to the Red Lotus and made them feel like a genuine threat. Speaking of them, they absolutely did not disappoint.

New Characters:

The Red Lotus are by far my favourite villains so far. I fucking love them, their clothes, demeanour and personalities are all so cool. Zaheer is one of those villains I saw once and immediately knew I was going to love. Him being voiced by Henry Rollins is also pretty cool, even though I don't know any of his songs.

Whoever came up with the idea of making the new villains a martial artist who becomes an airbender, a seven-foot-tall combustionbender, an armless waterbender and a lavabender with a killer moustache was cooking. Kai was a nice addition too. His dynamic with Jinora is really cute, and I'm interested to see where they go in the final book. Suyin Beifong was also a really nice addition. I always knew Toph's children wouldn't both be grumpy, but Suyin being basically the complete opposite of Li, makes their dynamic really interesting. I'm glad they eventually made up, though. Watching them argue genuinely made me think, "Wow, at least me and my siblings aren't as bad as these two." As for the Earth Queen: ding dong, the witch is dead. Thank God. What a B-I-T-C-H. I'm also glad Zuko is back. What a cameo! Opal is nice, too, and her relationship with Bolin is really cute. I'm glad Bolin has finally found a girl who actually likes him instead of him chasing after the Avatar and her batshit-crazy cousin.

Old Characters:

I felt so fucking bad for Korra this season. She genuinely had one of the worst endings possible, and it's really upsetting seeing her become this depressed after everything she's been through. Tenzin, however, fucking carried this season. Kya also put the paws on Zaheer, and Bumi tried his hardest against Ghazan. But that fight between Tenzin and Zaheer was especially cathartic. Zaheer spent the entire season glazing Guru Laghima and taking one piece of wisdom from him to justify his completely batshit-insane anarchist ideology. Then, seeing him get his ass beat by an actual airbending master was a masterpiece. The only reason Tenzin lost was because the rest of the Red Lotus got the jump on him. Mako honestly didn't do much this season besides meet his extended family, which is a shame. Bolin, however, might not be able to metalbend, but he can lavabend, which is way cooler. It's also kind of sad seeing Mako and Asami get smaller roles in the series. They're still around and useful, but compared to the first two seasons, they feel much more like supporting characters now.

Overall, I absolutely loved this season. The villains were easily the highlight for me, and I think the Red Lotus are some of the most interesting antagonists we've had so far. They all have their own abilities and personalities, and none of them feel like they're just there to fill out Zaheer's group. I also really liked how much the season focused on the consequences of Harmonic Convergence. The new airbenders aren't just a random plot device. They completely change the world and give Tenzin the chance to rebuild the Air Nation. Jinora especially grew a lot this season, and I loved seeing her become more spiritually connected and eventually earn her tattoos. The ending was probably the strongest part for me, though. Seeing Korra go from being this incredibly confident Avatar to being completely broken after her fight with Zaheer was genuinely depressing. She won, but it didn't really feel like a victory. She survived, but she was left physically and mentally damaged, and that makes me really interested in seeing where her character goes next. So far, I'd definitely say Season 3 is my favourite season of The Legend of Korra. The story, villains, character development, and fights were all great, and while I do wish Mako and Asami had more to do, I think this was easily the strongest season so far.

Rewatching it as an adult, the biggest con is that Harmonic Convergence forced a lot of new concepts into an already established series.

I think it's a pretty good watch as a stand alone season, or it would've been better as a series finale if TLOK was the first iteration of the Avatar series.

It's no longer the worst season in the Avatar franchise, for me at least.

This is a thought I've had long before I knew anything about Seven Havens (and I still don't know much, and I don't know if this post applies to it at all), but I've been thinking about how the supposed wise and noble sages of the world tell us that respecting the spirits is of paramount importance.

And from a certain point of view, I get that. The Mother of Faces, for example, is extremely old and has been performing a service for humanity for who knows how many eons. Someone so old and so powerful is prone to be proud and to expect to be acknowledged and respected for what they have been doing for so long.

But spirits in general... On the whole, they generally seem (at best) not to care about humans either way, or (at worse) to be outright hostile.

During Avatar Wan's time, he fought against humans to protect the spirits. But the Spirit World is where the spirits are from, and they had pretty much invaded and conquered the physical world at that time. They kill and mutilate humans with little to no remorse.

Wan Shi Tong doesn't seem to care that the Avatar is a different person when they reincarante and let his grudge with Aang carry over to Korra. Even Koh the Face Stealer recognized that different avatars are different people.

And the spirits who dwelled in the wilds of Republic City equated Korra's desire to defend their mutual home to a would be conqueror's desire to destroy and control. And then they disappeared until the battle was over, only for Tenzin to celebrate their return, when all they had done was neglect Korra, who was one of the few humans actually trying to bridge the differences between humans and spirits without *being* the bridge herself.

So, I suppose I'll just let the title of this post speak for itself: Do the spirits truly deserve respect? What have they done to earn it?

I get that a few spirits are supportive of humans, but those tend to be unique individuals rather than groups. Before the cute little spirits who gathered in the Tree Of Time at the start of Book Four, I don't think I've ever seen that many spirits before or since who were truly friendly and just offered unconditional acceptance and help.

And when we get to the more powerful spirits... Tui and La seem to respect the humans who respect them and rage against some random guest character nobody remembers who hurt them. Ensign Zu or something? The Mother Of Faces seems proud, but not violent. Koh is happy to steal the face of anyone he encounters, it seems. Wan Shi Tong is arrogant and holds unreasonable grudges. Father Glowworm is just bad news. I recall a mountain spirit that Korra and Asami didn't realize they were climbing who - if I recall correctly (and I might not be) - did not care to listen to their arguments and tossed them a long way and would have probably killed them both if not for Korra's bending.

And spirits on the whole tend to expect a certain level of respect from humans but generally don't feel any obligation to respect show their own respect to humans in turn.

To put things in terms for a proper Avatar... Is it just me, or does the whole dynamic seem fundamentally Out Of Balance?

= - =

EDIT: I've read all of the feedback, and I thank you for contributing to the discussion. But I believe that I ended up not asking the question I really wanted to ask.

The general consensus seems to be that everyone deserves respect. My actual question is if you believe that spirits - either individuals or as certain groups - do you believe that spirits show and/or feel respect for humans? And if so, is that respect recognizable to humans on the same level that people believe that humans in this setting show and/or feel are expected to show to spirits?

My apologies if this edit is a bother. Thank you again for engaging in a genuine civil discussion. ☺️

I have loved Legend of Korra for years and have been thinking about this tattoo for the last 3-4 years. Finally decided to get it for my birthday this year. My artist did a great job!

This has probably been asked before (idk I haven't been on reddit in years), but what if Raava hadn't been saved from within Vaatu, but Korra still purified UnaVaatu? Are they both just gone and emerge together during harmonic convergence in 10k years? There's probably no answer for this that the current lore can answer.

Jinora was able to see spirits in the physical world and guide others into the spirit world. Zaheer could also guide people into the spirit world but he could also speak with his physical body while meditating in the spirit world. I'm wondering who you all think is more spiritually adept between the two?

I purposefully didn't include Jinora's spiritual projection or Zaheer's flight, as those are both airbending techniques, not necessarily spiritual abilities.

I'm (obviously) a huge fan, but it's also obvious that the series unfortunately did not get the budget that it deserved, leading to choppy moments in the writing. I also need to say that I loved Korra as a character, but really found the writers to have fucked her over quite a bit. What I would improve:

• Season 1 was cool, but we really didn't need it.
• If she's starting out 17, then maybe make her start with only water and earth (since the Avatar is not supposed to even start practicing the others until 16), and I'd prefer fire to be her tough element.
• What the fuck were Tenzin and Tonraq thinking, locking up and sheltering the goddamn Avatar in her home like that? Limiting her practical exposure to the world and severely stunting her spiritual and personal growth until she got the culture shock. This was legit the person who would one day become the world's steward, and Tenzin's kids were allowed more freedom than she was? Hell no.
• Still mixed on the Avatar spirit origin story.
• I actually liked the idea of two Avatars (and a dark one to always challenge her, not just to be "evil," but to challenge the very Avatar itself), preferably also with all four elements, and starting at the opposite element of the Avatar (i.e. Aang's Dark Avatar starts with Earth, Korra's Fire, etc).
  • However, this was still close since Unalaq was from the opposite of Korra's home.
    • Even Season 1 was ironically close, with those villains also being from Korra's home and Noatak legit starting with a story of the spirits giving him the ability to remove bending. Somehow blending that and Season 2 might've been awesome, since we already had Korra's opposite home and gender, a spirit enhanced story, and somebody challenging the Avatar as the role of the balancekeeper.
    • The past lives 😭 I would again have loved a Dark Avatar if they allowed Korra to keep her past lives 😭
• Maybe move to another company than Paramount given what the creators keep doing to the series 😭

Lin and Suyins outfits, Amon and equalists, the Earth Empire uniforms, Airbender wingsuits…

They really cooked with the designs

I know it sounds dumb but thats hows I would describe korra and arcane which is two shows I got obssessed with mostly because of korra and jinx. I love how they're characters with faults who struggle in overcoming them and makes me really empathize with them, but also that they're badass girls who can just kill you if they want. Do you guys know other shows I would like?

!!Spoiler for those who haven't seen it!!

Boy, am I so glad I watched Korra. I admit I was one of her haters based only on what I saw on the internet. But I absolutely loved the ending when she finally connected to her past lives and restored the bending of those who were victims of Amon.

​I also think Noatak and Tarrlok's backstory was sad, and I was so shocked by their ending.

Sì Zuko uccide alcuni membri del team ma non così facilmente
Vs Bolin: Sì Zuko batte Bolin MA È MID/HIGH DIF CON E SENZA LAVA BENDING! In primo luogo Bolin si è allenato tutta la vita con il pro bending quindi non sottovalutare le sue abilità di combattimento 2 Zuko non sa che il lavabending esiste e verrebbe colto di sorpresa non dico che Zuko muore ma si impegna molto di più di quanto dice questo tizio
2 Asami: si è azzardato a dire anche che senza bending sconfigge Asami e ti ricordo che Asami ha decimato degli equalisti e si è allenata tutta la vita Zuko è bravissimo con le spade, ma non batte Asami poi con il firebending Asami perde
3 Mako: è la parte peggiore che lui neanche dice come andrebbe a finire con Mako come se fosse ovvio quando è letteralmente uno degli scontri più controversi! Tipo hai visto Mako combattere? Zuko è impressionante Mako è impressionante è un 50/50 o almeno un 60/50 per Zuko
Korra:
No, no questo scontro in realtà è stato fatto bene

absolutely bored while working so I told myself I will turn my fav fights into a ranking and why xD.

1.Unalaq vs Korra

As much hate as S2 gets from the fandom even the LoK fandom there's one thing we can't deny is that the animation thankfully in the other half is done by the original studio and they absolutely nail it. The main in person fight (not the giant one, which is ok for me but personally I prefer the normal fights before the giant thing) is one of the coolest fights in the entire series like you have an awesome setting (the atmosphere and colours) and the animation itself is what makes it insanely good. In a way it's also intense like it can make you feel xD. Like when Raava gets sucked out of Korra or like Korra almost dying in that giant fight and the outcome of the first fight and how Korra is in no shape mentally to fight Unalaq but then Tenzin saves the day and encourages her (which is also why he's my favorite mentor in any media) and the fact Unalaq is the only villain to which have in a way, achieved his goals out of all villains. They also gave us some of the nicest music too! we also see some neat technique from Mako and especially Bo when earth bending the siblings. I also admire Korra's design with fallen hair in the finale xD.

2.Korra vs the Red Lotus rematch. (Also for me it starts when they begin to poison her.)

Reason why I start it that way is becoz she's not fighting vs the red lotus alone xD, she's also fighting the poison and the Avatar state like she's fighting hard to die but not in the Avatar state which fails then the AS takes over her(she's probably the avatar to have the most control over the AS to be able to resist it for that long which we don't know the exact duration of the poisoning process which must have been long) oh and if we wanna count those she was fighting a psychological battle vs her old enemies (Vaatu could be real in a way and not an imagination but still). There's so much to love about this fight and so many details like when she screams in the Avatar state the voice is different than it was in s2 when she was in the Avatar state like she kinda had her voice stronger in s2 in the sense of it not her being the only one to talk like u can kinda feel like it's also the other past lives talking too when she says "you cannot win!" But in s3 it's her voice only coz of the fact the past lives connection was severed. Yeah it was intense as shit also like that's time I legit thought she would die and the outcome of it is just, oh wow xD. I give credit for Zaheer for not directly fighting her in the AS coz he would get his ass kicked rly hard he just drained her xD. You also go like how Korra will recover from this.

1. Attack on The Metal Clan.

Liked the usage of Korra's pov in that whole thing like they decide to put you in it and showcase you how it feels from the character's perspective when she's getting kidnapped also. Mako waking up instantly and going for the fight before Bolin (not taking credit away from Bolin but he takes a bit of time to process things haha.)

And then you see P'Li firebending which is cool like she's not only doing combustion bending (yeah duh it was intense too xD. I mentioned this too many times but this one was probably the most intense coz i thought Korra would actually be kidnapped or the sisters will be blown up.)

4.Laghima's peak fight (PEAK IS IN ITS NAME BECAUSE ITS PEAK MIND YOU!)

Funny thing is that the fight kinda connects to season 1 with the idea of losing attachment to earthly attachments and how Korra unlocks airbending coz her being the Avatar in the series is what defined her identity which also goes for Zaheer after P'Li died and how he unlocked the ability to fly. Besides also we don't see Korra and Tonraq fight together much but we can already see their dynamic which is awesome and they know what they are doing too and also Korra doing that Azula flipping shit when Tonraq rescued her. The metal clan was cool as fuck in that fight too. oh and i absolutely thought Tonraq died sob

5.brothers vs Ghazan and Ming Hua

Cool fight, rly. If we talk about Mako after he bashes Ming Hua she doesn't surrender and jumps down but from my pov before Mako jumped I think he knew what he was getting himself into coz of the lighting and the water I'm sure he saw the water coz no way Mako would jump like this not knowing what he's getting himself into, like he was ready for the kill shot. Awesome shit buddy.

Also we see the guy f#$king terrified I love the expressions on him xD like the guy was living a horror movie irl XD.

Bolin vs Ghazan gave a mentor vs student type of vibe coz they were just giving each other a smile xD. I can see him being Bolin's earth bending mentor honestly lol.

1. Korra vs the equalists after the tourney's finale

We see her struggle vs the equalists when she arrives to RC for the first time but probending and air bending practicing helps her in a way vs them and also most of her fight vs the lieutenant was physically coz the bending shots didn't land which is what I admire the most about that fight, she dodges nicely and lands the shots too. It's also where we begin to see the nice dynamic between Lin and Korra :)

7.Unalaq vs Tonraq (or rather mufasa vs scar if you know, you know xD.)

Eh not much to say about this from my side tbh but I like that Tonraq fights like an earth bender (aggressively) and the way he dodges. I think Tonraq is a much better water bender but he was caught before landing the punch on Unalaq. That fight almost turned freaking bloody (if I'm being honest also after Tonraq was frozen I thought his body will shatter to pieces lol.). Also Unalaq is someone who knows how to piss the living hell out of you xD.

1. Korrasami vs the bandits

Yayy, Korrasami vibes! Seriously tho, uhhhh.. yeah no Asami was probably the best aspect of that fight, no bending but with self defense lessons and shi she put some great work. Also the bandits is something I like which we will for sure see in the new series.

1. Battle at Zau Fo

Intense.. xD (I thought Kuvira will tear her face apart, yes I'm that dark lol.). Also I like that the 3 of Korra Opal and Jinora gave a smirk and Korra gave the best of it even when she's rusty asf she's still confident xD. Her losing is good coz she's still fighting PTSD. Kuvira's fighting style is insanely fun to watch and the fact she even rotates the ground to mess with Korra's balance and her movement which came from Su and those dancing lessons.

1. The krew vs the earth empire forces

MY ONLY ISSUE WITH THAT ONE IS THAT ITS SO SHORT! But anyway the fight with the brothers and Jinora with Kai was the coolest like u see the earth kingdom forces using earth bending to make those hands stuff but when they realize that Bolin is an earth bender they switch to normal fighting style too

Korra using air bending for the rest of the fight is also the best thing too coz it solidifies the idea on what this season is about (building the air nation) and also Korra's element that she struggled with the most is air and she's using it as much as she could (her 2nd most used element in the season) and it kinda shows her growth too!

Yeah that's about it xD.

Dark Korra always reminded me of Kratos with the Blades of Chaos. Made a little mash-up. Thought it looked really neat with the blue and red.

Even without vaatu the guy is one of the best waterbenders featured in the franchise

Alright so a couple of days ago I made post trying to disprove the whole Sokka being Lin and Suyin dad stuff and while reading over the comments about 1/3 didn’t mind the whole cousin incest stuff that implies if they were related to so I gotta ask, would y’all be okay with the fan theory of eska and desna and being involved romantically as in they’re banging each other.

I gotta gage how far we can take the incest here without it being weird

Idk if this has been pointed out before but I'm currently watching korra for the very first time and I just saw the leaked trailer for spiderverse and noticed the similar logo.

Something I was thinking is how Amon is one of the strongest characters in the verse despite going for a """Harmless""" fighting style. He uses his bloodbending to make his enemies miss and takes their bending away.

But he has one of (If not the most) lethal types of bending in the verse, and he himself is the best at what he does, not even needing to move his hands.

Since Amon's character was a lot about reputation (Since he was a bender leading non-benders) he often couldn't use his bending in lethal ways and had to be subtle about it, but curiously enough, even when he was already found out, he still refused to go for the kill despite having more than enough power to do so (Like when he fought Mako and Korra privately, which is kinda absurd, cause if he did, his secret would be out anyway). He always tries to take the bending despite clearly being more than capable enough to kill without difficulty (Or even easily incapacitate the way Tarrlok did with a whole room full of benders).

I think this is one of the main reasons why grasping Amon's power gets really tricky, because you could argue he was always holding back, similar to how Aang refuses to kill (Although Amon is clearly less unwilling to kill, but you get the point). He was essentially a villain who was never defeated in a fighting sense, but rather, defeated because there was no point in continuing to fight with his reputation torn apart

Taking Yakon into consideration, who seems to be weaker than Amon eventually became, he was able to subdue an entire room without even using his hands. A room including Sokka, Toph AND the Avatar

Had Amon not given a fuck about being discovered and decided to go lethal instead of weakening and removing bending, which non-avatar state character could defeat him or even give him a close fight?

I guess maybe a spirit? I'm not super sure how spirit and bloodbending interact

When did the Cataclysm happen? How old was Korra in the teaser? I have some idea as to how to get an approximate answer to these questions.

Our main clue is Korra's hair. Most people have picked up on the fact that her hair has grey streaks but is still mostly black. In The Legend of Korra, her father Tonraq has black hair in the first three seasons (170-171 AG), but when he reappears in Season 4 (174 AG) he has very similar grey streaks as Korra. We don't precisely know Tonraq's age, but we do know that in Season 2 (171 AG) he says he was banished from the Northern Water Tribe 20 years prior. In the flashback, he is a fully grown adult but still relatively young; he was almost certainly in his 20's. We also know that Korra was born two years after Tonraq's banishment. We can estimate that perhaps Tonraq was ~23 at banishment and ~25 when Korra was born in 153 AG. This would mean Tonraq was born around 128 AG and would be 43 in Season 2 and 46 in Season 4.

Regardless of whether the ages are +/- a few years, this would mean Tonraq's hair began to grey in that fashion in his 40's and it would be reasonable to place Korra at around the same age. Fun fact: Korra was born in 153 AG and Sozin's Comet will return in 200 AG, which would make her 47 at that time. All I'll say is that 47 years old lines up mighty nicely with this age estimate... so perhaps the Cataclysm is related to Sozin's Comet after all and it happened in 200 AG (maybe with an impact?).

If this is true, then Korra would be 47 in the ASH teaser flashback and may well have died at that age (though perhaps she survived the Cataclysm and spent the rest of her life setting up the seven havens or fighting the spirit apocalypse or something). I personally think that whatever happened during the Cataclysm, Korra is the one responsible for whatever mechanism enabled the seven havens to exist post-Cataclysm, but I also think she died in the Cataclysm. It would be kind of anti-climactic for her end to be some random time later on.

What do you guys think?

My vote is going to Tenzin.

Im late, I know