The Legend of Korra was the continuation of an epic story that began with Avatar: The Last Airbender. Some of the stories that began in Avatar were finished in Korra, but several dropped threads from the old series were never picked up again in the new series. TLoK had more than a few forgotten storylines as well.
Some of them simply faded into the background, others were attached to plot holes or missing backstory, and some plotlines got off to a great start only to fizzle into a bowl of sea prune stew. Here are ten storylines from The Legend of Korra that were never resolved, or haven’t been resolved yet. With a new live-action series in the works and another movie a definite possibility, these adventures might have satisfying endings after all.
There’s Nothing About Mako
For a character that was placed in the forefront so early, it’s both a surprise and a disappointment that Mako’s story simply fades into the background and remains unfinished. He was good enough to go pro, dated two members of Team Avatar and was a valuable member of the Republic City Police Force, so why did his storyline just stop being interesting?
The last we hear about Mako is that he’s a cop in Republic City and that’s it. Perhaps the writers were saying something about the fate of every high school quarterback, to fade into obscurity while the nerds become movie stars and spirit guides in the future?
Lin’s Legacy
Lin Biefong, the estranged daughter of Toph Beifong, had one of the most compelling character arcs of the third season. Her introduction early in Season 1 was a new spin on the “tough cop” trope and a welcome bit of fanservice. Toph was everyone’s favorite and we were hoping to see the descendants of our heroes from The Last Airbender continue their stories in TLoK.
The reconciliation with her family was still in the early stages and she was still at the peak of her career when the series came to an end. It would have been great to hear more about all of that. Lin Beifong also appears in The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, but no further information is given about her life after we see her briefly appear at the wedding of Varrick and Zhu Li.
Bloodbending and Chi-Blocking
This mysterious power first appeared in the original Avatar series and is one of the important plot points of Season One. You’d think that we’d learn more about it, but we don’t. The excuse seems to be that Noatak is just really good because his dad was.
We don’t know anything about Yakone’s intense powers, either. Any mysteries attached to this unfinished storyline went up in explosive flames, but there might be others with the same skills. Whatever happened to Azula’s friend Ty Lee, anyway? Maybe she knows how this happened, but she’s absent from the Legend of Korra series, too.
The Drama of Toph
It feels like there’s a whole series missing when it comes to the life and times of Toph Beifong. We see her arrest Yakone, and her character appears extensively in the comic books, but we know virtually nothing about her personal life.
She had two children, with fans speculating wildly about the father of her first child before the true parentage of Lin was revealed. Toph’s romantic relationships didn’t work out and that’s all we know.
Councilman Sokka
The audience is often teased with brief glimpses of the best non-bender Team Avatar ever had in The Legend of Korra, but we know less about him than Toph, his sister Katara, or Aang. Considering how popular Sokka was in the first Avatar series it was a surprise not to see more of him in the more recent one.
Sokka was involved with the capture of Yakone, the criminalization of blood-bending and saving the young Avatar Korra from the Red Lotus. But that’s the career side of Sokka. Other than the fact that he became a councilman in Republic City, all of the stories of his personal life are left completely blank.
The Ghost of Aang and Spiritbending
This isn’t really about Aang, it’s about Korra. At the end of Season One, Korra loses all of her bending powers except air-bending. Aang appears and gives her the powers of the Avatar again. So, does that mean he just taught her how to spirit bend? Isn’t that a big deal?
Korra restores Jin, but did she cure others that had been attacked by the Equalists? It’s assumed that she did, but we never see it happen. At least the power of spirit-bending itself, and why a lion turtle would know how to do it, is at least partly solved by the tale of Avatar Wan. It would have been interesting to find out more about spiritbending but this storyline is all but forgotten.
The Red Lotus
Granted, they lost one of their most valuable members and everyone else went back to prison, but what about where they came from and any other wayward members? If this organization was strong enough to challenge the White Lotus, penetrate their compound and assault the carefully guarded baby Avatar, wouldn’t it be great to hear about their origins or previous exploits?
Even in captivity, they presented such a danger that they needed special prisons isolated from certain elements. Those crazy high-security cells gave us some of the most visually stunning moments in the series. Wouldn’t it be great to hear more about the early days of the Red Lotus?
The White Lotus
What happened to the White Lotus? Are they using all of their time and manpower to guard Zaheer? They were conspicuously absent while Kuvira was stampeding over the Earth Kingdom and didn’t have much to say about Unalaaq’s civil war, which seems odd since they were the entire front line of the assault to liberate Ba Sing Sae in The Last Airbender series.
Of course, characters like Uncle Iroh and King Bumi would have moved on, but weren’t there younger members that took on leadership roles? It seems that Tenzin and Katara are in tight with the hierarchy but it’s never specified if they are members themselves. Was Sokka a member of the White Lotus?
Zaheer and Airbending
Of course, Zaheer is a badass, because he’s voiced by Henry Rollins. As satisfying as that is, it doesn’t explain very much about some of his bending powers. It still would have been more interesting, and less confusing, to find out who Zaheer is and how he became so accomplished.
This is connected to the issue of how much training matters in the Avatar universe, and the jury’s still out on that. Other explanations are certainly possible, such as inherited talent or a suddenly unblocked chi, but we never find out that crucial backstory. It’s a conspicuous blank space for one of the best villains in the series.
Master Jinora
It was a pretty amazing moment when Master Jinora stepped forward with her tattoos. We knew that Aang’s daughter had promise, and we’re just as proud of her as Tenzin is. She was a force to be reckoned with in Season Four, a great fighter with strong spiritual energy.
What seems like the beginning of a great story is simply a dropped story thread, at least so far. After Jinora appears at the wedding of Varrick and Zhu Li she simply disappears. Some idea of her future plans would have been nice. She’s still an interesting character with great potential, so hopefully, we’ll see a resolution to her story in the future.
