The Legend of Korra/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Abandon Shipping: Often with a rapid turnaround time.
    • When a promotional poster distributed at ComicCon 2011 featured Korra with an Earthbender boy and a Firebender boy, Ho Yay Shipping began immediately. Later, during the panel for the show, it was revealed that the boys were siblings, and everyone not into Incest Yay Shipping jumped ship.
    • When all that was known about Meelo was that there was a character with his name, people thought he might be Korra's Love Interest. Needless to say, when he turned out to be a toddler, that thought died out completely.
    • Tenzin and Korra. They were the first two named characters and were paired up almost immediately in a Mentor Ship... until it was found out that Tenzin was a married man in his fifties with three (and then, four) kids.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Mako is a stoic and a focused athlete determined to win the prize money and protect his little brother at any cost. On the other hand, Fandom!Mako is an emotional crybaby tormented by his own good looks, obsessed with his beloved scarf, plagued by his raging Tsundere crush on Korra, and permanently tortured by the very thought of his worst enemy, Hasook. It's good to note, however, that this interpretation isn't taken seriously, especially since he actually gives his scarf away to his grandmother in Book 3.
    • Amon got a lot of this, from being a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain to a Knight Templar to a Complete Monster taking advantage of oppression. To be fair, very little was known about his actual character at the time until it was revealed that he was always a Well-Intentioned Extremist, albeit one that was severely deluded and warped by years of abuse at the hands of his bloodbending bastard of a father.
    • Upon seeing how the government of Republic City actually operates, with a ruling council based on the five extant Bending tribes, the entire city is turning into this. Is the government of the city really so callously favoring benders? Does Republic City even have home rule? However, this seems to be the central conflict of the show.
    • Some Tahno fans wonder how much of his taunting was him being a Jerkass and how much was just, well, taunting opponents before a sports competition (though even his big fans agree the cheating was not okay). A lot of people also think he and his teammates weren't the ones who bribed the refs, and that maybe it was Amon (he sure had that speech right and ready...) or more likely, Hiroshi.
    • Yakone. Did he genuinely love his wife, or was he simply using her in order to keep his cover as a good man? Did he love his sons and abuse them due to a Snap Back to his old self, or were they his tools since their birth?
  • Angst? What Angst?: Averted. Korra tries to invoke this after seeing that Amon can take peoples bending away. But after she encounters him face-to-face, she admits to Tenzin that she has never been more afraid of anything in her life.
  • Awesome Art: The Art Evolution and animation budget are much appreciated.
  • Awesomeness Withdrawal: Part of the reason why fan interest is so high.
  • Badass Decay: The Order of the White Lotus. From a collection of Badass Grandpas to a bunch of generic bodyguards. (Incredibly inefficient ones, at that!) This actually gets lampshaded by Zaheer of the Red Lotus in Book 3.
  • Cargo Ship:
  • Complete Monster: Arguably Yakone in Book One, and definitely Unalaq in Book Two.
  • Crack Pairing:
    • Korra/Yue the Moon Spirit with a separation of 70 years and a metaphysical plane proving no obstacle to the pairing's Memetic Mutation on deviantArt.
      • Hilariously, this foreshadowed the pairing of Korra with a character voiced by the actress who played Yue in The Last Airbender becoming the fandom's most popular ship.
    • There's also Howrra: Korra x Howl (Hot Order of the White Lotus Guard). Said guard gets about two seconds of screen time, but the ship still has a pretty devoted following.
    • A growing number of fans ship Jinora having a one-sided Precocious Crush on Mako or Bolin.
    • Dokorra (Korra x The Doorman from "The Revelation") is notable for having been started by Bill Rinaldi, the show's production/martial arts coordinator and the inspiration for the Doorman's design.
  • Creator's Pet: MAKO. By Book Two, he's practically the Avatarverse's Wesley Crusher!
    • Subverted in Book 3, when the downsides of his lifestyle and character start popping up frequently. For some though, Kai picks up where Mako left off.
  • Creepy Awesome: Amon and Tarrlok. They must get it from dear old dad.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Pretty much anything from the Track Team release, but especially "The Rally."
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Poor Asami has gotten hate for apparently getting in the way of Makorra. A good summary of the attacks against her is here
    • Pema's also gotten some heat because, apparently, one is a "homewrecking whore" for being married to and having children with a person who used to date another character in the past, in the backstory. Some fans have even accused her of performing some sort of massive moral wrong for confessing her feelings even though this, and changing relationships, happens in real life frequently. This actually started for a few people with blaming her for Korra forcing a kiss on Mako, even though this was Korra's own misinterpretation of her advice, badly worded or not, and still ultimately Korra's own responsibility.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: There have been some fans who consider this to be a key point against the Equalists--the only person in the last series who lost his bending was Firelord Ozai as an alternative to outright killing him, making it one step above the death penalty, essentially. While some of the gang members certainty oppressed non-benders, as seen by Korra herself, the White Falls Wolf-Bats simply cheated at a sporting event, and were never shown on screen discriminating against non-benders specifically (though they were jerks in general).
    • Others point out that Amon probably didn't care too much about how bad the Wolf-Bats were, and was just using them to make a point for everyone to see/hear.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: There are major parallels between the Equalists and the early 20th century Communists; Amon himself has much in common with Vladimir Lenin. The similarity becomes even striking when Tarrlok's views start to reflect the movement's biggest competition, Fascism.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: While Tahno eventually became sympathetic, the fandom already got him a pair of leather pants when he was at his Jerkass prime. And then there's Amon. When the fandom isn't Rooting for the Empire, they're swooning over him for... other reasons.
    • The Equalists in general get a lot of this kind of treatment, and Tarrlok as well.
    • While Eska isn't truly evil, some fans actually claim that she was not abusing Bolin and plotting to pull him into a borderline rape marriage in Book 2.
    • Zaheer as well. Sure he's an anarchist who has committed murder on-screen and was planning on killing Korra in a truly horrific way, but he's so nice and pleasant to most people, even his enemies, that fans have found themselves excusing his evil actions or even flat out rooting for him and his friends, who also get this treatment - P'li mainly for being cool and a Jerkass Woobie, Ming Hua for being disabled yet badass and attractive, and Ghazan for having a great sense of humor.
    • Kuvira got this treatment almost instantly, usually coupled with Ron the Death Eater for Korra herself.
  • Epileptic Trees: Plenty, mainly concerning how Aang ultimately bit the dust and whether any other members of the old cast might still be alive.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Howl (Hot Order of the White Lotus guard) has had mere seconds of screen time and no lines, yet has gained quite the fan base. He's even been shipped with Korra.
    • Tahno, much like Azula, was well-recieved by the fanbase despite taking plenty of cheap shots.
    • Shiro Shinobi, the Pro-Bending announcer, for his hilariously hammy delivery.
    • General Iroh got this for a few reasons: one for being voiced by Dante Basco, who was Zuko in the previous series, another being his absolute badassery that he displayed when he battled the Equalists after they took over Republic City, and he's also well loved by fangirls for being a handsome, well-mannered man.
    • Despite appearing in Book 1 for several seconds, Bumi became ridiculously popular for his inferred wild-man persona. The love for him continued in Book 2 due to him being hilarious, surprisingly badass when needed, and for being an all-around fun character to watch.
    • Varrick. The guy is pretty much Crazy Awesome personified, and his eccentric behavior, hilarious moments, and skills as a surprisingly smooth manipulator got him tons of love from the fans, and even those who hated Book 2 admit that he's easily the best part of it. Thanks to his popularity, he's remained a part of the show as of Book 3 and beyond.
    • Order of the Red Lotus member Ming-Hua is pretty popular among the fans, and it's unsurprising as she's not only a pretty creepy and very capable battler despite the fact that she has no arms, but is also voiced by fan-favorite voice actress Grey Delisle.
    • Opal Beifong gets this for being an absolutely adorable down to earth sweetheart who gives Bolin pretty solid advice on just being himself. In fact, her status as someone who Bolin just may finally have a shot in having a stable, lasting relationship with helps her popularity a lot.
  • Evil Is Cool: Amon. He's voiced by Steve Blum, makes dark threats, has a scary mask, and doesn't even bat an eye when a bunch of flames come flying into the zeppelin that he and his mooks are using to escape in "And The Winner Is...". He's also considered by many a fan to be a superior villain to Ozai, whom a great number of fans found a Generic Doomsday Villain rather than the epic Big Bad who supposedly trained Azula - the poster-girl for Evil Is Cool in the original series.
    • Vaatu in Book Two, the Red Lotus gang in Book Three, Kuvira in Book Four, and even Varrick have made claims to this as well.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Amon, if you just go by his voice, and once he's unmasked and his burn scar is revealed to just be makeup, he's also quite the handsome man as well.
    • Tarrlok as well, for similar reasons to Amon. It must run in the family.
    • Zaheer and his gang are all very attractive as well in a rugged, band of anarchistic thugs way.
    • Kuvira has already received a huge following of fanboys and fangirls who find her sexy.
  • Fandom Rivalry: A small but enduring conflict with fans of James Cameron's Avatar, which is resented for monopolizing the word at the expense of The Legend of Korra's U.S. title.
    • "GAME OF THRONES IS SO MUCH BETTER!!!"
  • Fanon: Some Tahno fans like the idea that he's descended from the Swamp Tribes.
  • Genius Bonus: In The Revelation, when Amon removes the bending of the members of the Triads, he does it differently than Aang did, first touching the back of the neck and then the forehead. What's one of the chakras on the back of the neck called? The amon.
  • Girl Show Ghetto: Much attention was paid to averting this, with a creator interview noting that while Nickelodeon execs were gun shy at the prospect of Korra as a lead, a test-audience of boys "thought she was awesome."
  • God Never Said That: Despite the quote from Andrea Romano being that the original cast might as well be dead, for all of the impact they'll have on the plot, numerous people still insist she declared the entire cast to be dead and gone, accusing her of being mistaken or lying when it was proved otherwise.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Before the series aired, some fans called it Batman meets Avatar. Then in the third episode, Mako reveals that he witnessed his parents being murdered by a mugger, similar to Bruce Wayne's backstory. He was even eight, the average age most writers use for Bruce.
    • Hiroshi Sato saying to Mako: "So, I understand you're dirt poor." The Brutal Honesty is played for laughs at first, but "The Aftermath" reveals that Sato actually does hate Mako. It's especially harsh considering that Mako is a Firebender, and Sato lost his wife to a Firebender.
    • When Bolin at first thought that Tarrlok was a possible suitor for Korra, this moment was played for laughs when he at first offered to protect Korra but then went "oh, I like that better!" after realizing that Tarrlok was just an adult trying to get Korra on his task force. The rape-y overtones of Tarrlok bloodbending Korra, though, indicate that perhaps Bolin really did need to teach him a lesson.
    • Ikki's Death Glare at Tarrlok after noting his weirdness takes new light after Episode 8 when Tarrlok goes into outright villainy.
    • There were (and are) fans who believe Asami is associated with the Equalists. Then in Episode 8, Tarrlok tragically exploits her Non-Bender status (and her father's Equalist status) to accuse and arrest her.
    • Then there is Episode 1 where Lin basically wanted Korra out of Republic City for her destructive behavior. Then it actually happens in Episode 8...
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The idea of anti-bending revolutionaries with robots had been used before in a much-maligned tie-in video game for the original series.
    • When Mako and Bolin were first revealed as characters, fans thought Bolin would be a goofball clown and Mako would be a brooding lady's man. Turns out Bolin is The Charmer, not Mako, and the responsible Mako is too busy taking care of his brother and working to keep them off the streets to really focus on anything else.
    • How I Became Yours was ridiculed, among many things, for depicting bloodbending without the Full Moon. Yakone and Tarlok both possess the ability to bloodbend without the full moon. However, the show explictly points out that this has not been done before, not to mention that it's a genetic anomaly exclusive to Yakone's bloodline.
    • At one point in Book 2, Varrick shoots a propaganda film that paints seemingly Well-Intentioned Extremist Unalaq as a card carrying villain with a plan to destroy the world. Turns out, he was right on the money. Dead on, in fact.
  • Incest Yay Shipping: Predictably, the SDCC revelation that Mako and Bolin were siblings did not dissuade some fans from shipping them.
    • The same happened when it was revealed that Amon (Or as he's really called, Noatak) and Tarrlok were brothers.
  • Internet Backdraft: Go to any forum or comment thread and make this observation: "Character A/Character B is the new Zutara!" It doesn't even matter which two characters you use, an argument will inevitably follow.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Korra has been shipped with Mako, Bolin, Amon, Lin Beifong, Asami, that one Order of the White Lotus guard at the beginning who only had ten seconds of screentime, and the Moon.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Amon. He lets Korra escape his meeting, knowing she's the perfect one to spread the message of his power. He refuses to take away her bending because that would just make her a martyr. And his greatest achievement is sending a threat to city hall to shut down the championship, knowing damn well they wouldn't listen. He then had his equalists sneak in right past the security guards by hiding their equipment and the bombs in their popcorn.
    • Varrick from Book 2. The fact that he successfully played Asami and Bolin right into his hands and pulled a fast one on Mako by setting him up to take the fall for terrorist activities while he could successfully absorb Asami's company into his own shows that under his goofy, eccentric exterior, he has the sharp mind of an expert manipulator.
    • Kuvira from Book 4 has shown strong signs of this as well, orchestrating a complete dissolving of the Earth Kingdom into the Earth Empire dictatorship with herself as head of the nation while being hailed as "the great uniter." She's so charismatic and persuasive that even some of the good guys have shown support of her cause, namely Bolin, who's outright joined her side.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Korra. And you've gotta deal with it.
    • Shiro Shinobi has garnered this title by standing his ground during an Equalist attack, continuing to report what's going on in the exact same tone. He also used to report on bending criminals.
    • Lin Beifong. Like mother, like daughter. She was a fan favorite from the start. What really sealed the deal was when Amon attacked the stadium and...well, just watch.
    • Amon. Way before the series began airing, he was already considered awesome, and the fact that he's shrugged off such major issues as lightning, explosions, and even bloodbending powerful enough to cripple the Avatar just shows how much balls he has.
  • Memetic Molester: Amon. The events of "The Revelation" and "The Voice in the Night" have only emphasized the point.
    • Tarrlok is getting pretty popular too, what with the events at the end of "When Extremes Meet".
  • Memetic Sex God:
    • Korra, to an almost unbelievable level. Straight girls and gay guys galore have proclaimed themselves willing to cross the street for her, and many fans proudly identify as "Korrasexual". In fact, it's almost impossible to find a fan that doesn't consider Korra one of these. And it just gets more feverish and insane with every new piece of info. It helps that she's launched a ton of ships.
    • Tahno, too. Mostly because of his voice which is by some considered unbelievably sexy, even to those who just think he's a creepy jerk, and because of his offer to show Korra how a real pro bends/give her private lessons.
    • Kuvira. Just Kuvira.
  • Mentor Ship: As the first named characters, Korra and Tenzin were paired sight unseen. Though piecemeal revelations about Tenzin's age and family life caused many to abandon the pairing, it still has it fans.
  • Minority Show Ghetto: Like its predecessor, easily averts this, proving extremely popular.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Yakone bloodbending the entire courtroom. If it's not the act itself, it's the sadistic glee he takes in it. Another one would be him commanding his two sons Noatak and Tarrlok to bloodbend each other, and attempting to violently beat Tarrlok when he refused.
    • Amon crossed this in the finale when he attempted to remove Tenzin and his children's bending, which would effectively be spiritual genocide due to them being the last Airbenders in the world.
    • Tarrlok also crossed this when he began to remove the rights of Republic City's non-bending population, and attempted to round them up like cattle to be hauled off and arrested.
    • Hiroshi Sato goes flying over the MEH when he abandons the only family connection that still made him somewhat sympathetic and tries to kill his own daughter, reasoning that "she can't be saved" because of her sympathy for benders. This, combined with joining the Equalists to eradicate bending after the death of his wife, and any atrocities he contributed to because of his weaponry, he nullifies the only Freudian Excuse he had going for him.
    • Even before his horrifying master plan is revealed, Unalaq soars over it when he threatens to completely destroy the soul of Jinora, a pre-teen girl, to make Korra open the other spirit portal. And then he actually attempts to do it, causing Jinora's spirit to get sent to the fog of lost souls! And if you think he couldn't possibly get any worse than that, in the following episodes he nearly kills his own brother, rips out and destroys the Avatar spirit of Raava, thus severing Korra's ties to the spirits of her past lives forever, and merges with the embodiment of evil in an attempt to exterminate humanity and rule a world cast into eternal darkness as the supreme spiritual ruler, the Dark Avatar.
    • The Earth Queen is pretty much a colossal bitch right from the get-go, but it's clear that she's just plain irredeemable when it's discovered that she's had Ba Sing Se's newfound Airbender population spirited away by the Dai Li and forced into conscription for her secret army.
    • While it's hard to tell if he was bluffing or not, Zaheer threatening to commit genocide against the newly-found Air Nomads if Korra didn't surrender herself to him and his gang is pretty chilling nonetheless. Him also joining in with Ming-Hua and Ghazan with beating a weakened Tenzin nearly to death would qualify due to not only how cheap of a blow it is, but for how damn brutal it is.
      • It turns out he was bluffing since they actually used water-made clones of the Air Nomads when threatening to kill them if Korra didn't surrender herself. The real Air Nomads were incapacitated so they wouldn't get in the way of the Red Lotus' plans for Korra, and their Red Lotus guards treat them quite well, all things considered. The Red Lotus as a whole, however, cross the horizon by bending mercury poison into Korra so that she can go into her Avatar state and they can murder her once she's in it, making her "the last Avatar."
    • Kuvira went over it big time when she gave the order to have Zhu Li, who was The Mole in her imperial army dropped in an evacuated town that she was going to have blown up by her spirit-charged super weapon as a test drive.
      • She then proceeds to graft said super weapon to a giant mech suit and threaten Republic City with it's power as a show of force so that the entire world would submit to the Earth Empire. And she shows just how dedicated she is to her cause when she risks the life of her fiance, Bataar Beifong Jr., to have a shot at eliminating her enemies.
    • Bataar Jr. crossed the line when he ordered to have his mother, father, and brothers all locked up when they refused to bow before Kuvira. He's also the one who actually constructed the super weapon.
  • Narm: People's loved ones getting killed by firebenders in their backstories. The first time was tragedy, the second time was irony, and the third time was comedy. It's even led to a running joke that a guy named A. Firebender (who happens to be a Waterbender) is running around killing everyone's parents.
    • One inherited from the first series - the term "Bender" gets thrown around a lot in this franchise, and if you are familiar at all with British slang, then it becomes very narmful. It's a derogatory British term for homosexuals.
  • One True Threesome:
    • Korra/Mako/Bolin. No, the fact that the two boys are siblings didn't even slow them down.
    • After "The Aftermath" it seems Mako/Korra/Asami is building steam.
    • Lin/Tenzin/Pema
    • Tahno/Korra/Bolin is starting to rise in popularity for those who can't decide if they love Borra or Tahorra more.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Right before the terrorist attack in Episode 6, you see a bunch of random members of the arena's audience slowly and silently starting to reach into popcorn bags to pull out masks, bombs and/or electricity devices for the attack.
    • The finale of Book 3 lets us know that The Order of the Red Lotus has not fallen with Zaheer's defeat. It has agents all over the world, all of them violent anarchists who are dedicated to destroying all forms of government in an attempt to establish unlawful chaos in their place. And considering what Zaheer did to Ba Sing Se, the thought of these people running around undetected throughout the world is unnerving to say the least.
  • Periphery Demographic: Large and healthy. To put it in perspective, the 1-hour series premiere had a 1.01 adults 18-49 rating out of its 4.5 million viewers, and another episode had almost 4.1 million total and a 1.13 adults 18-49 rating.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: It's Avatar. There are a million and one, and that's not even counting the crackships.
  • Promoted Fanboy: In a way. Mike and Bryan are huge fans of Cowboy Bebop and have cited the influence it had on their work numerous times, in addition to including multiple references to it in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now they get to work with Steve Blum himself, playing the Big Bad Amon. It's not unreasonable to guess something like this happened.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: "The Aftermath" has done wonderful things for Asami's popularity among the fanbase. We finally got to see her being chums with Korra and kicking tail on the racetrack. And let's not forget the climax of the episode.
    • Believe it or not, Mako's getting here too come Book 3, in which he stays out of romantic relationships, has a stronger relationship with his family and friends (his brother Bolin in particular), and while still a competent cop, has more clearly defined Adorkable traits and You Suck humor thrown his way to contrast with the near perfection he displayed in Book 2.
  • Ron the Death Eater:
    • Or more appropriately, "Asami the Equalist". Some fans still keep this up even when episode 7 of the only 12-episode Equalists story arc proves the exact opposite. Yes, Asami knocks out her own father, leaves behind the life of luxury she's always known for the sake of her Bender friends, and is the main reason that the city isn't completely turned into Amon and Tarrlok's personal hate vs. hate battleground…and yet fans STILL say she's just acting and is secretly an Equalist spy.
    • Poor Pema just can't have a break, what with "stealing" Tenzin from Lin. According to the fandom, she's an Equalist spy solely for this; nevermind the fact that her own children are airbenders, and nothing suggests that she's such a Complete Monster. Some people have gone as far as saying she hates her children, just because she expressed desire of having a non-bender like her.
    • Korra gets this a lot after Book 2. Yes, she may have been angry at all the stress she was going through, and lashed out towards her loved ones. And yes, she behaved irrationally for a bit. But despite the fact that this was intentional and she did develop into a more level-headed Avatar, many fans make her out to be a raging cunt who throws around her power too much.
    • Mako has been made out to be outwardly abusive to his girlfriends in some fics, despite the fact that this is one thing he would not be, since many of his worst actions stem from him being too afraid to hurt either girl he likes.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Some fans support the Equalists stripping all benders of their abilities as the only way to put all people on a level playing field and end the oppression of non-benders, even if the benders themselves don't consent to the procedure. (Related material like nick.com's Are You A Bender or an Equalist? quiz actively exploits the phenomenon) Debates on whether or not bending is an intrinsic part of a person and the show's civilization/culture, and if what the Equalists are attempting is a fantastical form of mutilation or not, can get quite heated.
    • It's happened literally with Kuvira and her "Earth Empire", whom some actually see as logical and better at fixing world issues that Korra ever could.
  • Ruined FOREVER: The fact that the technology goes so far as to include cars and motorcycles.
  • The Scrappy: As noted above in the Creator's Pet entry, Mako isn't exactly a popular character. The guy gets a ton of hatred from the fanbase for his less-than-smooth handling of his relationship with Asami and his feelings for Korra, his Jerkass behavior at times, and the fact that he never properly learns or regrets his mistakes. And it got worse in Book 2 when he became a police officer instead of Bolin (Who due to being an earthbender, a lot of fans hoped he would get the job and potentially become a metalbender) then goes on to be written as the only competent cop on the force while Lin Beifong has been dumbed down and his main partners are two incredibly idiotic cops. Others feel that Bolin taking a level in Jerkass along with Korra doing the same are also meant to make him look good as well. Then fans were infuriated when he lied to an amnesiac Korra who he had previously broken up with about still being in a relationship to his girlfriend Asami's face. The fact that he was named after a beloved voice actor rubs the salt in the wound for some, even though it was meant to be a tribute.
    • Korra herself became this for the first half of Book 2. While her being angry about her home being taken over by her uncle and her subsequent lashing out towards others as well as her anger towards her father keeping her fenced in as a kid are justified, many fans viewed her as obnoxious and bratty, with a lot hating her more for her more irrational behavior such as trying to get Republic City's armed forces involved in the war. While the second half redeemed her in the eyes of more than a few dissenters, it still doesn't stop her vocal hatedom from calling her the worst Avatar of all time.
    • Bolin also has his share of haters who just don't find him funny as the comic relief, nor useful or effective as a character.
    • All three have been coming along pretty well in the fandom's eyes in general as of Book 3, though there is one character who has already filled The Scrappy void: Kai. A bratty little thief who is introduced as a pathological liar, Kai does nothing but cause trouble for those who trust him and constantly gets himself into bad situations such as angering a mother Air Bison despite Jinora flat out telling him not to touch her babies, which is what got him nearly killed by her. Add that with him getting shilled in a lot of major battles, and you have one hell of an irritating little character.
      • By the end, Kai reached Base Breaker status. Some were annoyed by him at first and appreciated that he matured considerably by the end of Book 3, while others preferred him as a little shit and thought his Character Development and Ship Tease with Jinora made him less interesting.
    • Among the villains, Unalaq tends to be the one who gets the most flak because of the fact that he lacks a lot of the depth and Evil Is Cool factor that the other villains have thanks to lacking any and all redeeming qualities and engaging in a lot of moustache-twirling villainy. The fact that he was set up as a Well-Intentioned Extremist type of villain who sincerely believed himself justified in the evil actions he was indulging in before his true Complete Monster self surfaced doesn't help his case at all.
  • Ship Mates: Some supporters of Korra/Mako also pair Bolin/Asami and vice versa. And those who ship Korra/Bolin are likely to ship Mako/Asami. If two of these four characters are being shipped together, then chances are the other two form a second pairing.
    • Fans who ship Korra/Tahno also usually keep Mako with Asami, and Bolin usually just keeps his status as The Charmer.
  • Ship Sinking:
    • Advance press revealed Korra's mentor Tenzin as Aang and Katara's son, canonically quashing persistant fan theories that Official Couple Katara and Aang's relationship dissolved in the timeframe between series.
    • The reveal that Tenzin and Lin used to date put a dent in Tokka shipping, and killed off the popular theory that Sokka was Lin's father. Even leaving aside the potential squick factor, first-cousins dating doesn't fly on American television.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat:
    • Zutara shippers resumed where the previous series left off well in advance of airing, with new conflicts actually touched off by the Ship Sinking above. Now that Nick.com revealed that Zuko's still alive, you can bet old!Zutara shipping will be in full force.
    • Mako/Korra and Bolin/Korra factions rapidly developed and began tearing into each other despite the lack of character descriptions. All the fandom needs are names and faces to launch a thousand battleships.
    • Mako/Korra found a new rival in Tahno/Korra, despite the fact that at the time Tahno had only spoken three words: "Go for it." That was all it took for some shippers to go crazy.
    • A screenshot of Mako and Asami caused the Makorra shippers to have a panic attack. Ladies and gentlemen, it begins.
    • After Episode 6, Tenzin/Pema found a new rival in Tenzin/Lin
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: There's a surprising amount of Jinora/Skoochy fic. One is Tenzin's Cute Bookworm airbender daughter and the other's a street rat who trades information for money, and naturally they've never met; they just happen to be the only introduced characters in their age group. Interestingly enough, Jinora does end up getting a canonical love interest in the form of Kai, who is also a trouble-making street urchin.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: When the series was initially announced, some were upset that it featured a Time Skip, and thus wasn't an immediate continuation of Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While a lot of fans were overjoyed to see Zuko finally make a reappearance as of Book 3, the hype sort of died down since he didn't really do much of anything with his screentime. However, the fact that there is one book left may absolve him of this status in due time.
    • The same however can't be said with Zaheer's co-horts Ming-Hua, Ghazan, and P'li. For characters with such interesting designs and unique powers, we barely get any touching up on their backstories or motivations unlike Zaheer. Pl'i did at least have her tragic past bought up in an intimate scene with Zaheer, but it still wasn't all that much. And now that they're all dead, there's no real way we'll be able to see glimpses of their pre-Red Lotus days outside of flashbacks with Zaheer.
  • Ugly Cute: Meelo. A direct quote from SDCC: "Strangely though, the more ugly he was the cuter he became." In fact, Meelo was originally going to be a good-looking cute kid, but the team fell in love with Ryu Ki-Hyun's uglier designs.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Many fans were surprised to learn that the Council page (the person that delivered all those gifts from Tarrlok and outted Tarrlok as a bloodbender) is actually a man.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: Could be seen as the Transformers Prime of hand-drawn animation to some.
  • The Woobie:
    • Bolin. He lost his parents when he was six, and had to live on streets with Mako. In the series proper, he gets kidnapped and nearly loses bending powers while trying to help his brother with earning money, gets electrocuted during his rescue, and can't sleep well for a week afterwards. Then, in episode 5, he gets emotionally crushed by two of the people closest to him, after which, in the course of a single match, he gets hit in the stomach hard enough to make him vomit, gets (unintentionally) fire-blasted in the back by his brother before getting knocked out of the ring, and finally gets a pretty nasty injury to the shoulder before getting knocked out of the ring again. To top it off Nickelodeon's website reveals that he has an inferiority complex in regards to his brother Mako. Poor guy. And that's not even going into him getting into an abusive relationship in Book 2 with a woman he's legitimately afraid of! And Book 3 shows that he's not able to metalbend because of a severe mental block he has in place due to his low self-esteem though on the plus side, he does learn to lavabend.
    • Asami Sato, the longer the show progresses. Seriously, it has to suck to find out that your dad was working with Amon this whole time. Made even worse by Asami's adamant defense of her father throughout the episode. Plus, Hiroshi is the only family she has left. The poor lady collapses into Mako's arms in the final scene. THEN she finds out her boyfriend may have a crush on Korra. THEN she finds out about the kiss. And farther AFTER that, her father foes off the deep end and tries to flat-out murder her with her almost killing him in self-defense. And Book 2 just keeps on going. Her company is on the verge of collapse, it ends up in serious danger when Varrick has all of her tanks for the Southern Water Tribe's war effort stolen, Mako (Who she's hooked up with again) gets put under arrest for being framed for an act of terrorism, THEN he goes on to pretend that he was always dating an amnesiac Korra (Who he had broken up with)and gets very intimate in front of her. You really start to wonder if the writers really have it out for the poor girl.
    • Korra. Dear god, she easily makes both Bolin and Asami look small-time when it comes to Woobie-dom. At the end of every season she experienced at least one traumatic event: Amon debending her which was heavily implied to have turned her suicidal were it not for a timely Deus Ex Machina, Unalaq and Vaatu tearing Raava out of her body and completely severing her connection with the past Avatars, and the worst being Zaheer getting members of the Red Lotus to bend poison into her body, forcing her into the Avatar State so she can be killed to put an end to the Avatar. Thanks to the trauma induced by these events, Korra experiences full-blown PTSD and loses the ability to go into the Avatar State. When all is said and done, you'll really want to give the poor girl a hug.
    • Jerkass Woobie: Tahno. He just looks so sad and hopeless in episode seven after his bending was taken away in episode six and that there is nothing anyone can do about it. It almost makes up for his douchey behavior from before.
    • Tarrlok and Amon as well. While they do commit quite a few heinous crimes throughout Book 1, it's easy to see how they became the way they did after learning about their horrifically abusive childhoods with their abusive monster of a father.
    • Zaheer and the Red Lotus gang have shades of this. While they are dangerous anarchists, being betrayed by one of your allies who leaves you all to rot in four hellish prisons sucks hard. It's telling that Ghazan chooses to kill himself rather than go back to prison.


  1. ↑ Hot Order of the White Lotus guy
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