We Need Another Avatar

this video is sponsored by surf shark okay so i've been sitting on this script for probably 10 months now but with the release of the legend of korra on netflix i finally have the opportunity to record clips so i can make the actual video and what a video this will be one of the best parts about being a full-time script and novel editor is being able to understand and appreciate all the writing aspects that contribute to making great fictions so great but as i have discovered there's a horrible flip side to that it is that i can plainly see how much better so many stories could be looking at things with an editor's eye is not something you can just flip on or off every book movie video game or tv show that i watch is constantly being analyzed in my mind for what i see as strengths or weaknesses and unfortunately more times than not fictions leave me thinking that their potentials were not fully realized and of course that leads us to the last season of the legend of korra and how in my useless professional opinion it squandered its truly massive potential and if you ask me which none of you did but i'm going to tell you anyway korra should have died and kovira should have taken over the world and no i'm not saying this because i love kovira and hate korra personally i think kovira is a poor man's azula and korra is actually a decently well realized protagonist still though korra should have been worm food by the end of season four but before i start boiling my blood and gnashing my teeth in my explanation let me get some stuff out of the way first the legend of korra is all things considered a good show it has great characters great set pieces great use of lore and possibly its best quality great art design and animation the legend of korra was a wild ride and it took me to places that i honestly did not expect from the avatar series amman is fantastic though i will say i am a little bit biased on that front his voice actor steve blum is such a favorite of mine that i would pay a monthly subscription to hear him read a sears catalog it is almost a shame to take the bending of someone so talented almost kovira was intimidating zahir was just a straight boss and unlock was anyway the legend of korra overall in the grand scheme of things was a good animated show especially compared to some of the um entertainment that nick has flaunted out but my ever present anger with korra does not come from comparing it to nick's stable of inbred misfits it comes from comparing the legend of korra to the original avatar series now don't get me wrong i knew from the get-go that whatever sequel nick chose to make to follow up the last airbender wasn't going to be on the same level expecting something like that would just be unfair because avatar the last airbender is widely considered to be one of the best animated shows of all time when i heard of the legend of korra i expected a respectable entertaining cartoon that paid homage to the original while creating its own unique narrative what i was not expecting was for the legend of korra to be so tonally erratic the first season was this strange mixture of three shows that seemed to be more forced to coexist rather than naturally doing so i mean pro bending is super cool air bending is literally the most visually stunning bending art in the show come at me and again steve blum those men were supposedly the best in the bending world and yet it only took a few moments for me to cleanse them of their impurity each is fine on its own but i felt like i was watching the equivalent of a kung fu movie where the main character just falls into the wwe while needing to take down al qaeda in the 20s season 2 on the other hand is basically just the avatar version of midichlorians stretched out over 14 episodes season 3 is honestly my favorite and it's literally only because of the additions of such cool antagonists and i don't even mean like their backstories and motivations and philosophies were cool i mean the red lotus were just plain awesome to watch destroy stuff pylee is basically if you slapped brienne of tarth until wanted but the bullets were made of the sun zahir uses air bending like ted bundy would and meanwhile doesn't have freaking arms how can you not like that but in truth season three is also where the seeds of my disappointment were planted mainly because i was so excited to see how the show was transitioning into something i didn't ever think i was going to get from nick moment by moment the show was darker and more mature than ever before if my memory serves this was the first season of korra to be banished to the nether realms of nick's labyrinthine hellhole of a website and i have no proof of what i'm about to say next but i would wager that the show got pulled from tv and put exclusively online for being so dark tenzin gets beaten and basically tortured on screen the earth empress was forced to audition onset for gravity korra is bound in force-fed mercury so that the antagonist could kill her you know yeah piley's face explodes and even though the season ended how should i say not as dark as it could have kora still walks away with literal ptsd and chronic depression so all-consuming that it carried over into the next season and if season three planted a seed of disappointment season four was a mighty oak that fell upon me to crush my spirits a new antagonist was on the rise and from a nation we hadn't seen occupy that role in quite a long time she was smart dedicated ruthless and commanded respect from those around her on the flip side cora was a mess she is mired in self-pity needs actual physical therapy just to walk and is haunted by the visions of her traumatic experiences on the daily and from an editing and storytelling perspective i can get behind the narrative premise of season four it's the tried and true practice of showing the protagonist in their lowest moment up against the greatest challenge they have faced yet but coming through in the end anyway and that right there is what grinds my gear so much about the legend of korra's ending the show had a real opportunity to make an impactful profound statement about the nature of depression and overcoming it instead of beating back her mental demons and defeating kovira korra should have conquered her depression and still died if the showrunners wanted to center their season on such a harrowing realistic depiction of depression that would have been the way to do it because overcoming depression isn't about beating a single hardship and then walking into a pillar of light to enjoy everlasting happiness i wish it was but it's not beating depression is about waking up every day face to face with a horrible life-altering roadblock and the pain that comes with it knowing that just doing the bare minimum is going to be excruciatingly difficult and giving up would be so much easier but still fighting on anyway kovira should have won because sometimes depression gets the better of you even when you put up your best efforts against it but that doesn't mean you stop trying that mindset could have been internalized throughout the entire rest of korra's team after her death they could have thought korra might have lost and kovira might have won but korra never gave up and neither can we the season began with korra searching for the tools to battle against her emotional and mental instability it could have ended with the rest of the gang taking on the lessons that she learned to conquer her instability and use them in her honor especially for a season literally titled balance but if you think i'm done no i'm just getting started because cora's death is the gateway to the potential that i think was locked away and lost not only should cora have died there should have been another season showing the aftermath of how kovira used the avatar to take over the world yeah you heard me once korra died the new avatar would have been born into the earth empire what my twisted little editor's brain thinks should have happened is that kovira finds this new avatar as a child whoever he or she might be and then raises them up in her image eventually using their literal god-like abilities to complete her conquest of the world and honestly if you think about it this just fits too well with the premises that season 4 set down kovira as a character is all about two things number one the supremacy of earthbenders and the earth empire and number two super weapons that make things not breathe anymore she employs mecha suits for her soldiers spirit plasma cannons and an actual gundam kovira's entire approach to antagonism is taking natural and spiritual powers and turning them into assets for her own advantage and what might i ask is the avatar just the epitome of the natural and the spiritual combined into one form what better crescendo would there be for kuvira's character than to literally kill the avatar then manipulate her reincarnation from a young age and turn the earth avatar into a god weapon to take over the planet it almost writes itself this hypothetical next season could take place 20 or so years after season 4 following bolin and mako and asami and everyone including maybe their children in an effort to defeat kovira they could resist kovera for years and years battling against her chipping away at her power over them you know like how you fight depression the gang defeating kovera after so much time and so much loss would have much better served the show's thematic message and what's more the season could have flipped the entire series on its head and had the avatar be the antagonist it could have shown this new avatar in conflict with himself since the avatar is meant to balance the nations perhaps instead of training this avatar in the four elements covira could have made them earth-centric substituting fire bending for lava bending water bending for sand bending but leaving air bending untaught since it's so antithetical to earth bending it could have been really cool to see the avatar switch sides to right the wrongs of kovira or maybe usurp kovira and rule the world as a malicious god emperor or a million other possibilities i'm not trying to write a fanfic here but you get my drift and for those of you thinking that this possibility is just too dark or complex there is actually a plethora of justification for all these events to come about want to see the earth avatar go through a conflict of identity and character take inspiration from zuko who literally did that same thing concerned about the time skip already happened between the series worried that an evil avatar would go against the nature of the show we had a literal evil avatar in an actual evil airbender in the seasons before this but maybe the whole kovira kills korra and rules the world plot line is too dark for you if that's the case might i remind you about the time that iro sun died in a war causing the fire lord to order zuko's execution so that ozai might feel the same pain of losing a child then prompting ursa to murder the fire lord her father-in-law so that ozai could usurp the throne from his grieving brother that's straight out of game of thrones right there and way darker than anything i've proposed a season like i described would really have been the culmination of the themes of avatar and just for maximum clarity no i didn't expect this all to happen but i'm still mad that it didn't the setup was there the characters were in place in my dark little twisted heart hoped that the show would really capitalize on the opportunity it had created for itself and leave its mark as another generational animation yes there were other problems in the show but killing korra and having another season that focused on remaining hopeful in the face of consistent pain would have been a much more cogent ending than what we got like i said though i just needed to get this off my chest and since cora has been added to netflix now seemed like the perfect time another show on netflix that i have been absolutely crazy over is better call saul and i would have never been able to watch it had it not been for surf shark surf shark is a vpn service that allows you to bypass the region-coded restrictions that netflix and a lot of other streaming services have better call solve season 5 is not available to watch in the us but with surf shark netflix thinks i'm in germany which allowed me to binge the entire season in like two days i'm sure many of you out there have been disappointed by shows being denied in your country but with surf shark that shouldn't be a problem for you anymore and if that wasn't enough not only is there a 30-day money-back guarantee surf shark has coupled with this channel so that anyone who uses my personal code gets an 85 discount on the service plus three months free trust me with all the shows out there just waiting to be watched this is as good an opportunity as ever so click the link below and check out surf shark for yourself anyway thank you guys for watching all the way to the end as always it was a pleasure and i will talk to you all again soon [Music] you

Channel: Savage Books

Views: 114,243

Rating: 4.4582868 out of 5

Keywords: avatar the last airbender, the legend of korra, savage books, writing tips, dialogue dive, aang, korra, airbending, earthbending

Id: Hx5wlcO1kwU

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/JosephBapeck]

Watched it. It's stupid fanfiction that flies in the face of Korra's arc. So much for having a keen editor's eye. His analysis is weak.

[u/riku35]

Make sure to check out u/akimble1's channel Savage Books for more content!