If you say you didn’t watch Avatar: the Last Airbender when you were younger, you’re lying.
Even if you’ve reached the point where you can’t remember the name of “that big fluffy thing they rode,” you still watched it. It was the exciting, yet strangely dark show of Nickelodeon where characters had superpowers we all secretly dreamed of having and moral conflicts we only vaguely understood. In 2012, four years after the end of the original series, came Legend of Korra, a sequel series featuring a new Avatar, Avatar Korra. Now, into its fourth and final season, the show (which now only airs online) carries much of the same excitement as the original series. While many are reluctant to watch the show, believing it to be a “kid’s show,” it actually carries many significant and progressive messages, making it an extremely important show.
Here are some reasons why YOU–yes, you (I know you’re a college student)–should watch Legend of Korra.
1. It features an amazing cast of female characters!
Just like the original series, this show trumps gender roles and stereotypes, but goes even further by presenting a female Avatar, Korra. It refuses to adhere to the “strong female character” mantra that assumes female characters that aren’t “strong” are weak. Instead, the female characters in the show are real. Korra struggles both with being a teenager and the awesome responsibility of being the Avatar. She is combative, excitable, master of all four elements, yet undeniably human. Alongside her is her closest friend, Asami, a beautiful, rich heiress, who is also a pilot, engineer, fighter and businesswoman. Her beauty and status are never once used against her in the show to trump her intelligence and she openly insists that she should not be seen as a weak for this.
Meanwhile, we have Lin Bei Fong, who serves as head of the Republic City Police Force; Jinora, airbending master at age eleven; and her mother, Pema, who is content with simply serving as a mother and raising her children with compassion. And that doesn’t even cover half of the female characters. Yet, every single female character in the show is presented as equal and none are treated as any less than another character for their role as a fighter, mother, Avatar or businesswoman. They are free to cry, get angry, be happy or excited without their emotional state being put into question. And they each serve as role models for all genders to look up to.
2. Its portrayal of friendship.
Just like the original Avatar gang, this new one is just as close and friendly. Though they fall in and out of love, fight, cry and separate, they remain loyal to one another. Most importantly, perhaps, is the relationship between Korra and Asami. Although they encounter the same love interest, they do not reinforce the stereotype that women are perpetually locked in a competition over men. In fact, Korra and Asami remain close friends and never once argue over their shared love interest.
3. It passes the Bechdel Test
Enough said.
4. The art and the world!
Not unlike the first series, the art in The Legend of Korra is aesthetically pleasing with beautiful settings, characters and transitions. The sequel takes place seventy years after the original series and you’re given the opportunity to see how the world has developed in that time. The character dance to swing music now, bob their hair and drive automobiles. There’s a steampunk element that was just being developed in the original series that now takes full form with an industrialized city setting, airships, mechanical robot suits, and more. The battle sequences are amazing, featuring both old and modernized styles of bending which adds exciting flavor that old and new viewers can appreciate.
5. Real-world issues!
Where are the International Studies majors at? What about Political Science? Criminal Justice? Well, none of you will be disappointed. The show honestly and openly deals with issues ranging from political corrupt to crime to anarchy to religion and even to family values. You’re introduced to a world of different cultures and identities and made witness to the integration and divide of these cultures. Conflicts erupt even within nations as well as between benders and non-benders, echoing real-world issues.
6. It’s just definitely not a kid’s show
Unlike the original series where violence was shown (it is set during a hundred year old war), but not as graphic, this show is much more liberal where death and explicit violence is concerned. And a lot more creative. Furthermore, while other shows will put its characters into life-or-death situations and expect them to walk away unscathed, Korra’s characters not only bear physical scars, but also mental, providing an accurate and real portrayal of PTSD and otherwise compromised mental health in the face of adversary. While the audience of the first series was mainly middle and high school students, this show has elements that would appeal to an older demographic—namely the same viewers of the original series, now grown up.
7. It’s exciting!
If you like fighting (pro-bending, anyone?), family values, romance, political corruption, identity crises and more, this is definitely the show for you!
The Legend of Korra provides an exciting plot, range of characters and conflicts that younger and older viewers alike can enjoy. For fans of the original series, it features a whole range of callbacks that will leave you feeling nostalgic. So, next time you’re on Nickelodeon.com (you know, playing games, of course) be sure to check out The Legend of Korra. You won’t be disappointed.
Check out more awesome shows to watch and more reasons to watch The Legend of Korra!