movies/tv Which Avatar series was better: TLA or TLoK

[The Cynical Lone Wolf 615]

Since both series are over I think its appropriate time ask the question:
Which of the two Avatar  series is the best? Allow me to explain mine my  thoughts on the series high and lows

Korra

 

Pros
+An actual good homosexual couple and its was build up over 2 seasons/books; good for Korra you deserve the ultimate thumps up
+The finale felt like a proper conclusion
+Good Character Development
+We get see the legacy of TLA's cast,but isn't the main focus
+Korra is way then better Aang. We saw her cry and depressed, we really never got that with Aang
+Good villain creativity
+Death was lingering threat throughout the show
+Explored the lore a lot more (i.e spirit world and history)
+Explored relationship or "ships" with Korra
Cons
-Season 2 was a mess
-Most villains names are easily forgettable
-Fire Nation was reduced to cameo appearances. I wanted to see what became of the fire nation since TLA's time
-Very loose story overall for the series
-Where was  Yue? If anything should would have been perfect in season 2

The Last Airbender

 
Pros
+More structure and simpler  narrative (i.e Hero's Journey)
+More iconic villains
+It had no bad season
+Explored the world
+More iconic cast as well
+Better music
+Good Character Development
Cons
-People didnt really die in this series
-The cliffhanger in the finale that get didn't get resolved until The Search comic 
-Ships only teased
-That filler episode in season 1

Overall

It's a really hard choice, both have bad and good parts. TLA had 2 bad episode, while Korra had 1 bad episode and 1 bad book/season, yikes! Korra makes up for that fact that it tired something new, a homosexual couple and that is daring to do. It also have also gave us Avatar Wan and explored the spirit world a lot more then TLA did. Futhermore, I  did like the villains in Korra because they more identity and purpose to them,but I can only remember Amon and  Kuvira. On the other hand, Korra did have a good cast,but I felt it was too big and I liked the smaller cast in TLA.  So I would say TLA is the better series,of the the two, mainly because its story is simpler and the cast overall is more iconic.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So whats series of the two do you like better and why?

Edited December 24, 2014 by COBLoneWolf

[galaxysquid 2,122]

I haven't even seen The Legend of Kora. I've only seen The Last Airbender. Whoopsies. I'd say that one was better right now.

 

I think I'm going to give The Legend of Kora a try soon, though. 

[[NULL] 907]

As much as I like LOK, I think ATLA is better, simply because everything was planned from the start, and Nickelodeon didn't screw over the creators multiple times. Thus ATLA didn't have as many hiccups as LOK.

Edited December 21, 2014 by SpaceOnion

[Shanks 10,816]

Both are great but I like Legend of Korra a bit better due to the fact that it was willing into go into darker subjects while still having some light hearted and humorous moments. Went much deeper into lore and spiritual aspects. We got to find out more about the avatars and even the very first avatar who was as much a softie (Aang) as a total badass. It also had the best villains and went much much deeper into their motivates with some of the villains actually making some good points. The series would have benefitted greatly though if Nickelodeon hadn't pulled the rug out from under them as there are certain things that could have used a bit more elaboration. I would especially liked to have seen more about the motives of the Order of the Red Lotus. And seeing what the Fire Nation was like during Korra's time would have also been quite interesting.

[Eloquence 2,076]

Last Airbender, no question. The writing, plot, and characterization were all leaps and bounds ahead of Korra, the series was polished and superbly paced, and everything in Last Airbender at least made some sense, enough that I wasn't raising an eyebrow at anything too much at least.

 

I will give Korra the fact that it was at least willing to hint at homosexuality being a thing that exists, while Last Airbender wasn't. That I did dislike about Airbender, it's definitely one of its most irksome shortcomings. However, I also have to call BS on Korra "having a queer couple", because it doesn't. As a for-realsies queer woman, Korra and Assami felt like some half-assed attempt to pander to my demographic. If they'd had the guts to let them kiss at the end, I'd be very happy with it, but as it stands there are already better representations of queer people in other children's media.

 

I will also concede that the creators of Korra were given a lot of issues to struggle through, and probably could have created something much better without said struggles. I can respect that.

[ReverseFaller 2,484]

Both of them were great shows, but I'm going to have to choose The Legend of Korra. While the Last Airbender was this epic adventure, I like that the Legend of Korra had a different story to tell each season. It was also nice to have a different villain for each Book. Each of those villains also seemingly representing ideologies was kind of cool as well. (Ideologies such as Communism, Theocracy, Anarchy, and Fascism.) The whole "Ancient" vibe of the Last Airbender was neat, but I prefer the more modernized world of The Legend of Korra. Korra's growth as an avatar was well done as well. Especially her getting over her PSTD. Another cool thing about Korra was the lore, such as the story of Avatar Wan. Anyways, I'm sad to see the Avatar world come to an end for now. I hope they make Korra comics in the future. 

[Moss 95]

I can't really remember the last airbender,but I think that LOK was better because overall the villans were more interesting (anyone is more interesting than ozai),and while I didn't like the first 2 books,3 & 4 finally got some consistency and delivered.I liked how the villans goals weren't just to destroy/conquer the world.The stakes on the show were never as high as ATLA,but that seemed to be a good thing.LOK while a bit rocky was still better for me because I guess it was more my thing.

Edited December 24, 2014 by MOSFETv2

[GONEFOREVER 518]

Last Airbender, definitely. It had superb animation, plotline, smoothing out, and characterization. Also, it kind of annoys me how Legend of Korra breaks one of the defining points Avatar Last Airbender: Aang was the freaking LAST AIRBENDER. Maybe they should have renamed the series Avatar: The Last Airbender (unless after this is all over he gets in a relationship and single-handedly repopulates all of the airbending temples).

 

Also, adult Aang  . 

Edited January 14, 2015 by DolosusDoleus

[Rainbow Dash 1,472]

I stopped watching TLoK after the first two episodes because I was tired of people on Facebook JUST NOW GETTING INTO THE SHOW. From then I just caught an episode whenever it was on and I had nothing else to watch....even then I couldnt get into it. I would have loved to see TLA after the series finale. Like another series where Aang was a secondary character to Prince Zuko as the tried to rebuild the four nations. 

Also, whatever happened to THE LAST AIRBENDER MEANING SOMETHING!? I was led to believe that Aang was the last Airbender...I didn't know he could pass his skills down the line. It should have been called Avatar: The Last Airbender(unless he finds love and passes on his airbending). Of course, they probably covered this at some time in Korra, but after seeing the first episode I didnt care for lore anymore.

TLoK seems like its trying to hard to be like the first one. 

[Megas 27,972]

The Last Airbender for 2 reasons

 

- TLA was thoroughly planned all the way through while LoK was originally planned to only be one Book, making it feel loosely connected

- LoK would be equal if it wasn't for the weak Second season 

Edited December 24, 2014 by Megas75

[[NULL] 907]

 

 

Also, it kind of annoys me how Legend of Korra breaks one of the defining points of the Avatar as a person: There can only be one avatar at any time, the next avatar is born EXACTLY when the previous one dies.

Wait, when was this contradicted? I don't remember Aang being alive in The Legend of Korra.

 

Yes, I know I'm biased judging from my avatar.

[Frostgage 7,978]

I'm actually shocked, pleasantly so, that anyone shares my preference of Korra.

 

Hmm, I don't really want to spend half an hour writing up a wall of text, especially when everything has pretty much been said already. Honestly, I'm not one to analyze things and search for flaws, and as such I can't name a single thing I dislike about The Last Airbender, but I still would say I prefer The Legend of Korra, for a few reasons:

 

- Book 3 is my favorite thing in television history.

 

- I found the characters slightly more interesting/relatable, and thought that they went through more character development. All of my favorite characters either hadn't been introduced, or I didn't really love them until book 3/4.

 

- The show was targeted for slightly older audiences, including some of the fans of the original series, evidenced both by the age of the characters on the show and the show's content itself. Not that targeting towards younger audiences is bad, but I can appreciate TLoK a little bit more. I know that I was never as emotionally invested in TLA as I was/am TLoK.

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things but this will do for now. Of course all this is just my opinion and I understand/respect why people would disagree with me.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Frostgage

[Lagom 204]

I haven’t seen TLA in a long time, but I still consider it my favorite. Both TLA and TLoK have very different pro’s and con’s and what I liked about TLoK is how they handled darker topics to a younger audience. The character development was amazing, even if it was slow and I got frustrated with Korra, she was realistic however this influenced the plot of the story and we could have gotten more out of it. 

TLA was a mix of all of the great things from humor, action, romance(without being too much), message, story, character development.. 

[mars 4,863]

@COBLoneWolf, I've moved your thread to the Media discussion section of the Everfree Forest. The media discussion subforum is meant for discussion of shows, while the debate pit is more about debating topics that are political, religious, or ideological in nature.

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

Both shows are astounding, so it's not an easy choice here, but I prefer Legend of Korra just a bit. I prefer the darker, more adult tone and the more complex sociopolitical themes. The villains are much more interesting, and the plot, while not impervious to pacing issues, was still tighter and more focused than ATLA which often felt like it was comprised of more than a few filler episodes. That being said, ATLA had a much better focus and development of its core characters, and I enjoyed that stronger group dynamic for what it was. Both shows are on equal footing as far as action sequences and storytelling goes, but I think LOK really pushed the envelope further than ATLA did in many ways. While both shows have explored death, there were several times more deaths in LOK, and many of them were fairly disturbing in nature. The show has also tackled other complex issues such as PTSD, as well as really progressive steps in depicting bisexuality between major characters, and it's hard to overlook these really ambitious steps. All in all though, I will always treasure both shows for what they were and I know I can look back on both of them several years from now with nothing but fondness.

 

It's a personal preference, but I just connected with and cared more about Korra as a protagonist than I did Aang, and not only that, but she's my favorite character in the entire franchise, if not my favorite fictional character practically ever, so that helps tilt the gears in LOK's favor too. xD

[Twi The Totodile 200]

I haven't seen TLoK yet (Don't judge meh, I'll get to it eventually), so for now I'm gonna have to say TLA.

 

And from what I've heard in this topic so far, I think TLA is gonna stay my favorite

[LongGoneGr 1,305]

I've seen just enough of Korra to give it a fair shot in this. And frankly, I HATE KORRA. It didn't live up to the Avatar name, Aang (my favorite character) is dead, it's plot was overdone, they tread dangerous territory too many times, and the finale crossed the line for me. Korra wasn't as well developed character as Aang, she wasn't as lovable, and she was way too overplayed.

 

 

So, yeah. TLA wins this one, hands down.

[Alex Z 848]

I love Korra but, Last Airbender will always be my favorite.