Legend of Korra‘s biggest inconsistency with Avatar: The Last Airbender was Korra using the other elements at such a young age, proving to the White Lotus order that she truly was the next Avatar. Mastering one element can take a character years to do, but mastering all four – earth, air, fire, and water – can take much longer for the Avatar, considering there’s at least one element that is contradictory to his or her nature (based on whichever nation they were born into).
Aang notably struggled with both earthbending and firebending, whereas Korra’s greatest hurdle was with airbending. She knew how to airbend to some extent, but she was unable to unlock her abilities for quite awhile, despite being comfortable with every other element. This is one of many ways Aang and Korra’s journeys were different. Aang spent several months – and traveled the entire world with Team Avatar – learning how to use and master each element so he could defeat Fire Lord Ozai. Korra didn’t need to follow in Aang’s footsteps since she could already use three elements.
Korra was just four years old when the White Lotus visited her house and found her bending the other elements, which proved to them – after an extensive search throughout the water tribes – that she was the next Avatar. What’s interesting about this is that Aang didn’t even know he was the Avatar, and could therefore bend other elements, until he was 12 years old. He had to be told early because of the impending war with the Fire Nation. So while Aang’s situation was understandable given the circumstances, Korra’s broke tradition; she wasn’t 16 years old when she learned she was the Avatar, nor did she need formal training to learn how to bend water, fire, and earth.
![Korra’s Biggest Inconsistency With Avatar: The Last Airbender](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Baby-Korra-Waterbending.jpg)
Seeing Korra bend earth, fire, and water was enough to convince the White Lotus that they had found the new Avatar, but the Air Nomads had Aang perform a different test: When he was a child, they gave him toys representing the four elements and waited for him to select the ones that belonged to the past Avatars. It was a simple way to confirm Aang’s tether to his spirit’s previous lives. Korra never received that test, but then again, she was from the Southern Water Tribe, not the Air Nation.
Every nation has its own way of identifying the Avatar, but it’s fair to assume those ways don’t typically involve waiting for someone to merely bend each element – doing so could require years of patience. That’s why there have been cases of the Avatar being misidentified. Of course, showing Korra use the other elements at the start of The Legend of Korra was likely the easiest way for the show’s creators to introduce Aang’s successor to fans, but they inadvertently created an inconsistency with the original series.