When Avatar: The Last Airbender achieved such astronomical success, it was only a matter of time until a spin-off came to fruition. Luckily, fans were rewarded just a few short years later with the Legend of Korra, a series set 70 years in the future and following a brand new Avatar.
Legend of Korra did incredibly well in ratings and fans have praised the show (albeit not nearly as much as they praise Avatar: The Last Airbender). But there’s no such thing as a show without flaws and this series was no exception.
Katara saying most of her friends had passed on
The series itself was never renewed for more than one season into the future so this one isn’t really fair, but Katara mentioned in the very first episode of the series that Aang and most of her friends had passed on, entrusting the world to the new Team Avatar.
However, as the series went on, audiences were rewarded by getting to see several fan-favorite characters from the original series, including Zuko and Toph (both of whom were still alive). Ergo, it really seemed like the only people who had died were Aang and Sokka. The writers couldn’t have known they were going to do this during the very first episode, therefore it’s a flaw fans have no problem overlooking.
Earth Queen eating Bosco
In a blink and you’ll miss it moment, it’s revealed during season 3 that the current Earth Queen hated animals so much that she wound up eating Bosco (the former Earth King’s pet from ATLA). When Kai gets himself captured by sky-bison poachers, the head of the poachers reveals to Kai that he’s rounding up airbenders to send to the Earth Queen, as well as turning the baby sky-bison into steaks for her majesty.
He then reveals that she also ate Bosco and frankly there are so many flaws with that possibility that the only one that needs to be mentioned is that Bosco was probably long-gone by the time the Earth Queen could’ve done something so heinous.
Korra not giving everybody their bending back
Amon was one of the scariest antagonists and most formidable opponents that the Avatar Universe ever had, using his blood-bending to take other people’s bending away and having little remorse while doing it. It reached a point where he literally had benders lined-up in order to “cleanse them” of their ability.
During the season 1 finale when Amon takes Korra’s bending away and it’s restored by Aang’s spirit, Korra immediately uses her newfound powers to give Lin Beifong her bending back… but it’s then revealed in season 2 that Korra felt no need to give the hundreds of other people who lost their bending their ability back.
How quickly the world advanced
The technology in the Avatar Universe certainly advanced quite a bit during ATLA with the addition of airships and tanks, but things got taken to new extremes in Legend of Korra when in only 70 years the entire world had gone through an industrial revolution where cars and electricity and radio and scores of other technological advances had become common.
Not only that, but by the end of the series they had magnetic trains and colossal giants thanks to Kuvira and reached a point in their technology where fans just had to look the other way when it came to any potential realism.
How often Korra lost
One of the main complaints among fans was how different Korra was to Aang – she was purely physical and concentrated on the “fighting” aspect of being the Avatar (mastering the elements) and completely ignored the spiritual side.
Fans even acknowledged that they would’ve been fine with this difference… if it weren’t for the fact that Korra lost nearly every meaningful battle. She was a pro at taking down chumps and amateurs but could hardly ever hold her own against other masters. For an Avatar that was supposed to be a fighter, she really wasn’t great at winning fights.
Bolin & Varrick following Kuvira
Kuvira becoming a dictator in season 4 with Korra out of commission made perfect sense – the world needed somebody to establish order and Kuvira stepped up to the challenge.
However, what made zero-sense at all was the fact that Bolin and Varrick openly followed Kuvira for 3 long years, even after she blatantly strode into villages and towns and “liberated” them without giving them any other choice. It literally took Kuvira trying to build a spirit-weapon for Bolin and Varrick to realize she was crazy and it made no sense why.
Lavabending being a sub-set of earthbending
Make no mistake, the many sub-sets of bending are all incredible and a sight to behold, lavabending being no exception. However, it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense that the ability was a sub-set of earthbending instead of firebending.
The premise was that the earthbender could generate enough friction with the rocks to create lava, but in reality, it seemed as though lava should have been a sub-set of firebending instead (especially since Roku had been seen bending the lava in ATLA). But this ability was so cool that nobody really cared that it didn’t make sense.
Amon & Tarrlok
Don’t get us wrong, Amon & Tarrlok both had to go (regardless of the fact that an exploding suicide was a little dark). However, their deaths provided a lot of plot-holes. After Korra managed to stop Amon and expose him as a waterbender in front of all his followers, Amon went to his brother and the two of them managed to escape on a speed-boat, until Tarrlok blew the two of them up.
Again, this was a satisfying death, but nobody besides the audience saw it, meaning that Korra, Tenzen, Lin, and everybody else still think they’re out there somewhere. A pretty significant plothole.
Jinora’s Spirit Projection
Season 2 was riddled with moments that fans simply had to look the other way during, but this was one that still has fans scratching their heads.
During the season 2 finale, Korra faces off in a giant, spirit battle against Vaatu and Unalaq and there’s a moment when all seems lost, only for Jinora to project her spirit into the battle (despite her body being at the South Pole) and helped Korra defeat the evil spirit. If that sentence didn’t make sense, that’s because it didn’t make sense to audiences watching it either. Even worse, the writers still never really explained Jinora’s “spirit-projecting” even though she continued to use it for the remainder of the series.
Vaatu & Unalaq fusing
When fans got to see the origins of the first Avatar, it was revealed that a man named Wan fused with a spirit named Rava and they became the first Avatar. So, naturally, when Unalaq fused with Vaatu 10,000 years later he became the first Dark Avatar. W
What didn’t make any sense was why the fused-version of Unalaq and Vaatu grew into a gigantic spirit-monster out of nowhere. Instead of being a Dark Avatar, they became a giant dark spirit that was easily vanquished by a giant spirit Korra’s spirit bending (with a little help from Jinora’s spirit projecting). Let’s just call a spade-a-spade and say nothing about the spirit world made any sense (and it seemingly wasn’t meant to).
