Why you should watch The Legend of Korra on Netflix right now

The Legend of Korra is a must-watch on Netflix right now

The Legend of Korra is available on Netflix starting today, and you should really give it a chance!

For fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender (and there are only two kinds of people, the fans of ATLA and people who haven’t watched the show yet), this seems like a no-brainer. The Legend of Korra is, after all, the direct sequel to the Nickelodeon hit, providing you with a fun glimpse at where the characters you know and love ended up, while still having enough separation for a brand new story.

And yet, there might be a part of you that’s doubting. Should you give The Legend of Korra a chance? Will it, in any way, taint your love for Avatar: The Last Airbender? Can you really add something to perfection?

The answer is anything but complicated. For me, it’s a very resounding yes.

Let me preface this by stating that I’m not usually big on sequels. At least not sequels that are close enough in time to the original story that they can in any way, shape or form, taint the journey I enjoyed. See basically the new Star Wars movies. But, thankfully, that’s just not the case with The Legend of Korra!

First of all, because, obviously – there is a new Avatar, so this show starts years after Aang’s death. It is, of course, sad to think the boy whose adventures we followed is gone, but in the Avatar world, no one is ever truly gone, and it’s infinitely easier to get into this story knowing that whatever Aang did, or didn’t do, that’s in the past.

No re-writing history here.

The show doesn’t really focus on the descendants of the original Team Avatar either, even though we get a glimpse of all of them, through flashbacks and/or actual appearances. We also get to know some of their kids (and grandkids!) pretty well. This is a brand new story, with a brand new Avatar, and also, an entirely different journey.

We knew going in that it couldn’t be the same, but it’s refreshing to see how different Korra is from Aang, not just personality-wise, but Avatar-wise. When we meet Korra she is already a master Water, Earth and Fire bender, and all she needs to learn is air-bending. Enter Tenzin, Aang’s youngest son and the only air-bending master left.

From the start, this sets up a different journey than the one we followed in Avatar: The Last Airbender. That was about learning the elements, and also about learning how to rebuild your family after you’ve lost everything, as much as it was about making a better world – one of balance – and one based on mutual respect and friendship.

The Legend of Korra is more about how hard it can sometimes be to maintain the balance, and how the work of helping people is never, ever over. It’s also – very much like the original – about how you can make your own family, either by need or by chance, out of the friends who love you.

But it’s also about how, sometimes, you have to find the strength within yourself. Your friends, your family, can’t carry you through life’s vicissitudes, only you can do that. They can only provide support as you carve your own path.

Unsurprisingly, as this is, on its face, a kid’s show, The Legend of Korra is filled with as many great messages as Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it’s also, refreshingly so, a new take on how to be a hero, how to be a powerful woman, and how to find a balance between what the world needs you to be and what you want to be.

Seems like the kind of message we could all use a refresher on, doesn’t it?

The Legend of Korra is available on Netflix today.