How The Legend Of Korra Ruined Spirits 

Korra spirits either look like cute plushie’s or generic monsters and act accordingly they are also evil or good while the atla spirits where terrifying and awe inspiring with their own morals some beyond our comprehension

A friend once said to me, "In ATLA, spirits were otherworldly forces. In Korra they are nothing but Pokemon and fuel."

One of the worst changes in my opinion was the idea of good and evil spirits. One of the greatest aspects of Atla was that spirits were entities Beyond normal human comprehension, they do not act like humans and they do not think like humans, but they also are consistent in their ways as if they are an alien culture or species.

Even with the most human-like spirit, the Painted Lady, she had such an ethereal vibe about her, the music, the smoke, her voice, was angelic. She wasn’t revealed till the end and only said two words, meanwhile the lemur spirit wouldn’t stop talking lol

One thing I really loved about ATLA's spirits is that, most of them, look like "normal" animals (i.e. Koi fish, monkeys, panda, owls, etc.) while the show's normal fauna was always mixed animals like bat-wolves or platypus-bears. This design choice made the spirits feel unique and uncanny according to ATLA's natural order (I mean in one episode the characters even point out how weird it is that the Earth King's bear is just a normal bear). But Korra's spirits are too cartoonish and goofy or just evil-looking. They don't feel uncanny by the ATLA's standards, they feel like they came from a completely different show.

I liked the scenes with wan shi tong the most. You can understand his viewpoints because humans have caused so much harm and everyone tried to justify their war. TLOK made him look stupid and evil, even though he isn't

The spirits also had a horror like aesthetic to them. Especially the owl from the great library. I get the creeps everytime it lengthens its neck.

I always preferred how spirits were presented in the first avatar, they were inhumans and representations of nature balance. Their whole beings was surrounded by mysteries. The spirits in Korra were quite... disappointing, they were no longer mysterious incarnations of nature but aliens beings all too humans. Not to mention that in the first part of the season, spirits were really hard to destroy, even with bending and yet in the second half, they became very easy to kill. Raava and Vaatu were a nice addition but that story with the lion-tortoise contradict the lore of the first serie were benders acquired their techniques from Badgermoles, flying Bisons, Dragons and the Moon which i honestly find more cool. The idea that humans learned their techniques from animals or even spirits/celestials bodies was interesting and humbling.

What always annoyed me the most about the spirits in The Legend of Korra is that they are still referred to as theses god-like powerful and wise creatures but they talk and act like any other side human character would do and many of them are actually very ignorant specially towards humans as if they were superior to them just by being spirits and still the story would portray them as being the right ones just because they are supposed to be just because they are the spirits

The saddest part about the degradation of spirits is that initially spirits had meaning. The Ocean and Moon, a forest, river or knowledge. They were directly tied to the world itself and Aang who was the Avatar was too. He indirectly impacted by the death of the Moon. In LoK they watered spirits down and defenders created this idea that the spirits in ATLA were all just "high ranking" so they were more important.

I do think the mystery was a big part of the appeal when it came to the spirits --- and imo, Legend of Korra stripping that mystery away didn't do any favors for them. Personally, I think introducing the whole dark and light duality was a mistake. Yes --- the original series DOES have Hei Bai, who transforms into a destructive monster --- but there's a logical reason for this. He transforms out of anger and rage due to the loss of his home. The spirits we see transform in Legend of Korra just transform because --- they're being influenced by dark forces, I guess. And if you ask me, that really strips away the individuality and agency of these beings, turning them into little more than empty husks easily manipulated by Raava and Vaatu, who I found to be the least interesting characters with some of the cheesiest and most boring dialogue in the entire franchise. I think Unalaq that season actively says it's NOT a good vs evil deal, but that conflicts directly with how the story is presented to the viewers. Instead, it comes across exactly like a cliché good vs evil narrative, and it wasn't done in a compelling way. At least, not in my opinion.

I agree that most spirits from Korra seem more cartoonish and not so mystical. But the Fog Spirit was really cool and terrifying, trapping humans into an endless loop of their memories driving them mad.

I wished they went with a similar storyline to Princess Monoke where the spirits became enraged from all the pollution in the world.

I personally like more how the spirit world feels strange and almost threatening with Aang, you really feel in another world, while Kora feels like Alice in wonderland, which I feel is very western, when they should be taking more in inspiration from oriental culture. I think the only thing I liked is when Tenzin goes to look for his siblings and daughter (I think) and they show what the spirits do with the humans who came to break the natural order, I really liked how they expanded it, still maintaining a lot the mystery that made it so cool. But apart from that it is very generic, spirits that look more like mosters from videogames, and good spirits, against evil, while in the original series I liked that spirits fell more neutral, and didn't get in the way of the human world, unless it was necessary, or they were angry. Another thing, I remember a comment mentioned they liked how the spirits with ATLA are base in animals that we have in real life, while the rest of animals are imaginary hybrids.

I sometimes forgot about spirits whilst watching avatar, as that wasn’t a huge focus of the show. But whenever they appeared, I was in awe every time. When I describe Atlas to someone who hasn’t watched it yet, I usually don’t mention the spirits, and then they message me after watching it saying “YOU NEVER MENTIONED THE SPIRITS???” and I just text back “Oh yeah lmao they’re pretty cool right?”

I think it just comes down to the fact that with world building, sometimes less is more. The more that something is explained and clearly understood, the less mysterious and by extension, often the less interesting that it becomes. In the end, I don't feel like Korra retroactively changed the feeling of spirits in Atla for me. I still get chills when I see Koh slink around Aang

I feel the same, bro. When I heard that korras book two would be called spirits I got insanely happy, because they were the most mysterious and cool characters at The Last Airbender. But since I saw the first spirit in Korras show I got totally disappointed, and it kept on while I watched the rest. They just got trivialized.

In The Last Airbender, spirits were very purposeful. They weren't put on screen lightly. When one showed up, it meant things were serious.

I think the idea of having a season on spirits was good but the execution was done quite poorly. Quantifying the spirits was something, I think all of us would've enjoyed if they kept consistent with the same principles and elements of spirits from ATLA. The mystic part of spirits was something I was entrigued by, but LoK played them off as Pokemon, or human-like creatures from another planet, instead of mysterious, neutral and unique aliens of a different realm. I also didn't like how they portrayed the spirit world as a vacation spot or different setting where battles can take place. Before it was a place where you wanted to do the necessary and get out as quickly as possible. The voice acting, visual design and setting dampened the unexplainable/extraordinary forces of nature. Hopefully they dive into spirits like ATLA in the new series, as the open portals make way for spirits like Koh to take advantage. Overall LoK S2 was a roller coaster with multiple dips and very little upsurges. I really enjoyed this analysis though. Thank you!

Honestly, unlike popular opinion, Korra was such a big letdown for me for many reasons, and this is one of the biggest ones. I'm glad someone was able to voice these nuances in regard to the trivialization of spirits and the spirit world. Like you said, they just seemed really sloppy trippy scenes. What made them so special in ATLA was the mysticism and respect they demanded. What really bothered me was the binary divide and easy switching between GOOD and EVILLL in spirits. They just became little minions swayed by whatever force was more powerful with no autonomy, willpower, and character. I respect the risk and world building they took on with Korra, but I ended up really missing the East Asian inspiration that gave ATLA its signature art direction. Going from an advanced ancient Asian inspired world to an industrial age one was quite the drastic change, but it was cool to see the world evolve. The writing, humor, and character development were also lacking in Korra imo. I also kind of hated the main character. Korra had very little character development, and IMO she's one of the worst Avatars there were. She never learned to subdue her brashness and always made things 10x worse due to her selfish pride and shortsightedness in just about every situation but somehow makes it through with plot armor. Also, despite the circumstances, her not leaving the Avatar state and essentially killing all of her past lives makes her totally unredeemable to me. I was outraged when she did that. Another point to the drastic de-mystification of the spirit world was her being able to see the first Avatar so easily. Aang had to meditate harder and harder to go further down to talk to his past lives, making them also a bit mysterious and awe inspiring, but Korra just got everything handed to her on a silver platter. Everything felt like it was too easy. I know I probably made a lot of Korra fans angry, but this is just my honest opinion about the series. As a die-hard ATLA fan, I really wanted to like Korra, but there were just too many shortcomings imo

I wouldn't of even minded if SOME of the spirits looked/acted derpy. Like the whole idea of having a derpy looking/acting but very old and wise spirit that had a more carefree attitude and was the head of a village of other simple (both physically and mentally) spirits too. Like the whole persona of being playful, carefree maybe even a bit of a trickster that does and act in initially silly ways but turns out these actions/words have a deeper meaning/symbolism behind that the gets gradually revealed over the course of its screen time. Could easily become a fan favourite I think due to the relatively uniqueness of a spirit acting this way. BUT it's the fact they made them all derpy in behaviour and appearance and more like a generic monster that's my issue....

The scene where Avatar Wan tried to sneak into the oasis is just ripped straight out of Spirited Away.

Legend of Korra made spirits seem very goofy and pet like

In ATLA, I appreciated how the morals of any spirit were very nuanced and typically above any human understanding- very much inspired from eastern philosophies or balance. In Korra, they transitioned to the spirits to the abrahamic philosophy of Black and white thinking with good and pure spirits and dark evil spirits. The whole background with the angry kite spirits Vaatu and Raava further exemplified it as they had to defeat chaos even though it’s necessary for balance

My favorite thing about Koh is how his design explains how Zuko's Blue Spirit persona got its name. We no that disguise is called the Blue Spirit since it's introduction, but we don't know why. Zuko never calls himself that. I think only Zhao calls the Blue Spirit, "the blue spirit". Well the Blue Spirit is real. It is a spirit that was revered in the western Earth Kingdom, which is why they sell masks of it (S2:E4 The Swamp). That's likely where Zuko got the mask. Zhao likely got the name "blue spirit" from the local Earth Kingdom citizens when he put a bounty on him. Many likely said, that's not a man but the Blue Spirit! Zhao obviously doesn't take spirits and their folklore "too" seriously (he really should have eh?) but I guess he thought the name was appropriate for the thief who kidnapped Aang from under his nose. So back to Koh. One of Koh's faces looks very similar to the the blue spirit and I doubt Koh can steal a face covered by a mask, so he must've stolen the real blue spirit's face at one point.

I agree fully but iroh having a tea party with spirits is the realest thing... yet not executed well

Thank you for making this video! I hated the portal of spirits in Korra it made them into cute animal companions. I missed it when they were ancient, mysterious, and scary. They weren't good or bad they were forces of nature and the supernatural that would punish anyone and everyone if they see it fit.

hei bai didn't even have a "bad to good moment" aang by the end of the episode understands that he was sad and angry about what had happened to his forest and retaliated. and when he was given hope that it would grow back, he was appeased

I think they could have fixed the tea party scene by having less spirits but having the ones there have more weight to them, like Iroh introducing them and each one has a title and something they are known for, Like the giant flower spirit, imagine if he was introduced with the title "Lord of blooming flowers" and them have Korra say something like "I think I've heard of you, people say you..." and have her say something he was supposedly responsible for either positive of negative. Then have him personally say the reason he came was because Iroh and him have been friends for a few years so he decided since Iroh was orchestrating the party and Iroh gave him an invitation he decided to show up. That way it adds weight to Iroh, goes in theme with his character but also adds weight to the spirits there because they have reputations and legends in the mortal world.

Spirits were kind of ruined because there was a large lack of meaning to them. Not every spirit needs to be awesome, magical, or mysterious... But by that same logic they do not all need to be durpy animals that have the mindset of children. The owl? Old, powerful, and intimidating. He didn't want his knowledge used for war. The panda? Animal to be sure, but it had a weight and purpose. Korea spirits - background scenery... No really what spirit in Legend of Korea did anything. Owl? Turned idiot for fan service moment. Evil spirits avatar - we do our best to actively forget about him. Tree nuke laser - humans did it. The tree means nothing.

I really liked how in the spirit world it was more muted colors, then in Korra they made everything so bright.

I agree, the spirit world seems very much on the negative aspect of things. Sure they have a lot of screen time. But it seems like they aren't really important. just like how Korra tries to get help from the spirit in order to fight kuvira, instead they just don't want to. The first avatar past is like spirits just don't give a dang with humans. I'm like, then why are they humans and spirits exiting in the Avatar earth in the first place?

I agree with you on this. They could've honestly done a lot better if they tried to be more creative. My issue is that majority of the spirits in LOK are filler and fodder. I mean they could've introduced spirits that mean something to the Avatar-verse. Like what they did in ATLA the spirits introduced meant something. The tea party scene would've honestly worked IF Iroh was having a tea party with the spirit of the tea plant that brought tea to humans or spirit of earthen ware that inspired humans to make tea cups/pots/utensils, but we have a scene with absolute random spirits that have zero presence. It would make sense for Iroh to spend time with the spirit that brought tea to humans since he loves it so much. Rava and Vatu work cause they have purpose and meaning. Imagine if the water tribe saw the great penguin- seal spirit or ice spirit walking around, everyone's reaction to seeing that would've been great. Or to people seeing the spirits they've heard in stories actually walking amongst them, not only would that have made the lore richer but made the feeling of seeing spirits not feel empty.

This makes me happy the Kyoshi novels went the way of ATLA and had just two spirits get mentioned by name, Koh, and Father Glowworm, who are both used to show the vengeful horror spirits are capable of

They also fumbled the whole light and dark spirits idea so badly people think “good vs. evil” when it should be “order and change.” The avatar kept order for 10,000 years, that’s why technology and borders between bending types barely saw any change until the avatar disappeared for over a century. Vaatu grows within Raava when destroyed, and so Korra became the first Avatar of true balance, trying to maintain order while allowing for change. S2:spirits S3:change S4:balance. I only noticed this because I’m a Taoist and have studied the Yin and Yang philosophy, but people who haven’t didn’t see it at all.

Good points, in tlok they chose quantity over quality, unfortunately

Similar to the Borg in Star Trek Voyager, Spirits were over-exposed to the point of seeming mundane. In ATLA, whenever a spirit was involved in the plot, that spirit was the initiator of the plot, it was the most powerful entity in that plotline, and the spirit has an intrinsic role in the plots resolution. Legend of Korra makes spirits seem like just alternative humans.

The spirits in atla were like a strange force of nature. Their morals were alien. The spirit world was a dangerous world. A world that you don't want to stay longer than nessecary. In legend of korra the spirits were more like talking animals. The spirit world is at the end of s4 korra a vacation destination. A place the avatar takes her girlfriend for fun. Spirits in korra are more like pokemon than the spirits in atla

The spirits in ATLA were like legendary creatures, then in later TLOK they were as common as pigeons and squirrels.

In Avatar spirits were larger than life. They were mysterious, otherworldly and when a spirit talked it was a big deal. In Korra they're Pokémon who can talk.

In the the ATLA comics, I find the Mother Of Faces spirit most fascinating. The giant, worm-like body of her (which bears an uncanny resemblence to Koh the Face stealer) and the creative design of her head makes her really fascinating yet scary (I think she was in The Promise I'm not sure)

The problem with these spirits is a problem of Korra's storytelling as a whole. TLOK has too many throwaway antagonists, like Imagine if Ozai was defeated in Season 1, who would replace him and what would that do for the story?

They may have messed up spirits, but they had some incredible villains

I always thought something was off about the way spirits were portrayed in Kora, but I was never able to put my finger on just _what_ bothered me about it, so I'd say you did a good job at laying out my own thoughts more clearly. ^^

Finally someone mentions this. For me, the spirits in Avatar the last airbender were cool because they felt mysterious, strange, sometimes creepy but always cool. The spirits in Korra look, sound and act like background characters for the Teletubbies.

Regarding their designs, there was elegance in the simplicity of Wang Shi Tong and Koh. The spirits introduced in Korra were neither elegant nor simple.

AtLA’s spirits heavily influenced character and creature design for me as a little kid and those designs stuck with me my entire life. I never watched Korra, but it’s hella sad to see how a majority of the spirits look so plain. Every single spirit in AtLa looks so unique and you get a feel of their personality almost immediately just from looks alone.

you're so right... like spirits in the atla world felt so mystical, and mysterious!! like they were outside of human comprehension in a good way!!

I'm glad that other people agree with this video. My biggest gripe with Korra was that the spirits all had some corrupted mode with the same color palate when they were angry, and that somehow the emotions of humans affected the spirits. Neither of those decisions made any sense if we are building off the lore of the first series.

I think the ATLA spirits look way more *tactile* and therefore more interactable. It also lends them more to being believably menacing or caring. They clearly tried to do a bunch of Spirited Away spirits but they just look lazy. This is reflected in - you hit the nail on the head - the total lack of characterization

In ATLA, spirits were individuals. There wasn't a clear cut between "good and bad" spirits, you had to treat them on a case-by-case basis. And like you said, their scarcity meant more attention to each one as they appeared. In LoK, spirits became an amorphous blob, the equivalent of goblins in a DnD campaign. Nameless, faceless enemies to fight, which ALSO flies in the face of the challenge spirits are supposed to present. They're not meant to be fought off, they're meant to be talked to, understood, convinced, played games with. All that complexity was stripped for the sake of a generic light-and-dark dichotomy that served no purpose other than set a precedent for a "dark Avatar". It's like Bryke got fixated on that concept and then awkwardly tried to bridge the story towards that outcome, artistic integrity be damned.

In The Last Airbender, I remember it was stated in a super early episode or promotional material from when it first debuted that the Avatar Spirit was the spirit of The Earth and it’s people incarnate. I like LoK but hate how it took that away. I also hate how the avatar cycle had a distinct beginning and end.

I like how you can talk about the problems in Korra while still not shitting on the entire show. The Spirit & Spirit World in Korra was definitely so strange and against ATLAs philosophy and years later I still don't understand their choices about it, but it... Happened, and i kinda like how it was at least a plot device to show Korra making mistakes and weird choices, even tho the execution was pretty much fumbled

We are too spoiled in korra ,still love them but i know the mystical aspect of the spirit is kinda feel less and less cool and mysterius . But if we want to compare korra and aang its kinda two side of the same coin still the same but sligtly different . Good video bro

With Korea’s spirits, at least they were ‘lesser’ spirits. Though that still doesn’t excuse the ‘Pokemon’ approach I’m their design. Even if you have Iroh and the Spirits throw a party, it could have been one of the most creative and fun scenes in the show.

Legend of Korra isn’t canon Legend of Korra isn’t canon Legend of Korra isn’t canon

Agree so much. Avatar's spirits were distinct, unique, and felt like a powerful force with their own motivations and powers. But Korra's....look like spirits from spirited away at best. It just felt like instead of these sentient and mysterious and powerful beings, spirits were just now either wild animals looking for a new habitat, or generic citizens when they had sentience. They weren't powerful anymore. They were ghibli-fied. (Being like Ghibli isn't a bad thing, btw. I love their films. Its just that for Avatar, being like Ghibli is so different from the established world, so such a drastic shift is jarring for the audience)

I LOVED the spirits in Aang, they felt like the representation of Nature to me (cruel and giving at times), but than again I’m bias about Aang season, for me Korra was a disappointment….the complexity, moral of the story and study/mix of the cultures of Asia was outstanding in Aang The Last Airbender!!

Spirit World in ATLA: Mysterious, scary, haunting, spiritual. Spirit World in LoK: Uncle Iroh is having a fucking Alice in Wonderland-esque tea party with a two-head frog, and plays with an ugly bastard Radish... The only thing that reminded me of ATLA's portrayal of the Spirit World was the real Jao is trapped in

I really want to examine the individual works Aaron Ehasz. He was the only one of the Last Airbender writers who didn't work on Legend of Korra. Because while I love Legend of Korra, one of it's greatest issues is that it often misfires in the world building department. Spirits is one example, but there's also turning Yu Dao, a really interesting location from the comics, into a generic rip-off of New York, among other things. If individual works from Aaron Ehasz demonstrate a similar quality of world building to Last Airbender, then it'd probably be safe to say he was the missing cog in the that part of their writing machine.

Something messed up about Korra. Humans were basically exiled to the backs of the Lion Turtles. Only those brave enough to go outside for food got temporary Bending. The Outside World is portrayed as hostile and Spirit-infested. If a Spirit touches a Human, they are forever mutated, while the Spirit is unharmed. The Humans did nothing wrong.

Agree 100%. Also, spirits in ATLA were all depicted as being wise or powerful because they have all existed for thousands of years. In TLOK, they either have the personality of a 5 year old kid, a rabid animal, or a quirky adult like the spirit from WAN’s story. The only spirits introduced in TLOK that met the standards set in ATLA are Raava and Vaatu. They all had something about the mm that was larger than life. Then they introduced colorful bunny and butterfly spirits. That would only work if they were depicted similarly to Wan-Shi-Ton or Heibai. I get that they wanted to populate the spirit world, but they could have at least introduced the concept of greater and lesser spirits. Then, at least we would know that there is a big difference between the ones seen in ATLA and the ones seen in TLOK.

I wish they could of gave a realistic approach that was more spiritual. Personally I don't like the idea but at the same time they had to make it friendly for everyone's beliefs.

Bro, you said and depicted every single thing I've felt since first setting eyes on these episodes as they premiered! (INSTANT SUBSCRIBER)

Yes I completely agree with you. Seeing what they did to spirits in korra accually made me stop watching. The spirits where one of my favorite aspects of avatar but in korra they got no respect and where reduced to either dumb animals to be beaten up or tamed, or made in to silly narrow minded humans who looked strange. Also making them strictly good or evil instead of actual ambiguous characters with motivations that are hard for humans to fully grasp.

First thing I definitely noticed when watching ATLA opposed to LOK when it came to spirits was the old ones had intricate backstories & lore to them. New ones were just random filler accessories to show the audience, “Hey look! It’s the spirit world!”

Koh is the energy the Kyoshi books are serving for the spirits. You will enjoy them so much i promise!!

Yeah, I could never really get behind the designs of the spirits in Korra. The thing that always stuck out to me with spirits in AtLA was the fact that most of them were either “pure” animals or had at least some human characteristics. In a world full of platypus bears, turtle ducks, wolf bats, and armadillo lions, things like regular pandas, koi fish, owls, or foxes stand out. It makes them feel more primordial than the “regular” fauna found in the Avatar world. Now looking at LoK, can you tell just by looking at their designs which is the “spirit”: Nala the cougar deer or Bum-Jun the dragonfly bunny? Then there’s the idea that each of the spirits represent something: either a physical location or construct linked to the physical world (ie. the moon, ocean, HeiBai’s forest, the Fire Nation river, etc.) or a concept intrinsic to the human experience (ie. knowledge or identity). Now, can someone tell me what those walking dandelions or any of the other bargain bin “cute mascots” are supposed to be the spirit of?

Thinking on it, I feel like characterization of the individual spirits was really missing, especially for a season so full of them. Like what if Vaatu was more sympathetic, talking about how the first Avatar threw the previous state of the world to the wind and separated the two realms, yearning for the times when the two realms were connected instead of the spirit realm being chained away from the rest of reality purely for the selfish humans' benefit under the first avatar. Still unleashing angry spirits that cause chaos among human settlements, wanting to break down Raava who has "gotten too powerful" and thrown off their balance, and ultimately making that "Ok we should actually keep the spirit portals open and make a NEW idea of balance" conclusion Korra comes to feel more impactful.

I would say that korra didn’t ruin spirits, it just expanded upon them. Atla was about the physical world, as such the spirits we did where more powerful or influential to give us an idea of spirits. Tlok was more about the spirits in later parts so the creators were able to get more freedom in making new spirits and how they interacted with the physical world. The difference between expanding on something and ruining it is that we knew little about spirits so lok decided to help learn more

Hi, thank you for your video! I see your point about how spirits in lok are way less characteristic as they were in atla. I have one comment to this. sorry for that broad western view, but in my perception of the eastern spiritlore, there is the thought that everything in nature is somewhat spirited. Every tree, lake, river, whatever. Yeah there are these epic spirits with names and lore that stand out, but there "tenthousands" of spirits that are maybe just tiny aspects, maybe more feelings that fleshed out characters. And i like to see the countless spirits in lok as representation of these. So the armys of evil spirits represent a outofbalanced nature or maybe a spiritualnature that is in uneas and is uncontrolled. Its a little bit like spirited away from gibli. Hope i could deliver my thought. Thank you and keep up!

I said the exact same thing on a comment recently on some video "don't know if it was from you" don't know if it was your inspiration for this video but I basically agree with everything here Like spirits used to have their own motives and morales and characters had to play by their rules and it makes sense since they live in a complete different plain of existence it's not just about good and evil Also characters never defeated a spirit in combat unless it's spirits that have taken a physical form So when we see the spirit of Roku appearing or when we see the big panda they are simply unbeatable since they exist in another plain... Meanwhile in legend of Korra they seem like generic videogame enemies

The spirits in korra were a mix of Ghibli and Kingdom Hearts enemies. In ATLA they were all individual beings, more thought given form than "species" of critters. When you add too many you have to go more generic bc of production and development. So they had to do short cuts and thats the worst thing you can do for a mysterious, mystical prescence.

In the LOK the spirits seem more like a hostile alien force who are just itching for a reason to dislike and/or attack humans. They are all extremely arrogant and look down on all humans in contempt. I feel like the worst part of it is how a human can’t feel angry, sad, or upset in any way around them or else they become even more hostile and dangerous. It’s like that famous episode of the Twilight Zone where a family has to always have ‘happy thoughts’ around an omnipotent kid or else he uses his powers to deform or banish them. Come to think of it, Iroh is in Hell. Imagine living with beings where you HAVE to be happy and think positive thoughts 24/7? Even with a peaceful man like Iroh, you can’t expect someone to remain happy nonstop.

The story about wan and the lion turtles also contradict the concept of "the first benders" in atla, those being the moon, the dragons, the badgers and bisons. Anyway, imo they couldve done better with the whole Raava and Vaatu spirit thing. In Korra they just simplified it to the stereotypical light vs dark theme. Instead why not go for a "Blinding Justice" vs "Chaotic Freedom" kind of theme? Like yin and yang, they cant exist without one another. Id imagine raava and vaatu also being the strongest or biggest in the spirit world, like top of the food chain thing. Raava, the spirit of blinding justice, wants to punish everything and everyone as a means to attain peace. Vaatu, spirit of chaos and freedom, allows everyone to go apeshit with no consequences, also aiming for some sort of peace. And this is what would lead to them fighting each other, and when Wan (who at this point wouldnt have any bending at all) would do as humans do and try to meddle in their business, fail, then go travel around the world learning the four elements (from the previously mentioned first benders) to try and keep peace between Raava and Vaatu. He then finds them fighting again, and tries to join the fight with his newly learned bendings, then Raava and Vaatu realise they could use him as an avatar to also apply their own idea of peace upon the human world. At which point, they rush to merge and literally fuse themselves with Wan, and since they both entered at the same time, raava vaatu and wan's spirit all got combined into one, "The Avatar Spirit". Then we cut to present time where the avatar's job is to maintain peace among human and spirits and all that. I think, in this way, it would still allow for korra's idea of raava and vaatu being a mirror of yin and yang to exist while also not contradicting the already laid out idea of ATLA's avatar spirit

This was exactly what i didnt like about korra! But no one mentions this aspect and youre so right

LoK really feels like they're trying to go for a more spirited away feel with the more goofy designs. That scene you showed where they hop into the hot springs felt like a direct reference to the movie. But spirited away still make the spirits feel strong and awe inspiring as well as creepy and mysterious. It just feels like a watered down version of it.

The spirit world was closed off from the material world in TLAB. I think it makes sense that Aang only encounters spirits a few times and that the few he does meet tend to be more important, intense, mysterious. They're the spirits with ties to the material world. Korra had a whole spirit world to explore. Just like how not every human in the material world is as memorable, wise or important as Zuko, King Boomi, Ozi, Toph or Iroh, not every spirit is gonna be an incredible spectical.

Nice video! Will you continue your last airbender series?

The last air Bender nailed the concept of non-humans with spirits , cuz at the end of the day they’re not humans , they’re separate entities that aren’t exactly tied down to human morals nor reasons , that’s why it was a bit hard to understand them meanwhile one korra they just turned into Pokémon’s or power rangers weekly villains , good /bad , it went into the horrible stereotype of “monsters “ in animation , there are good monsters and bad monsters , it cheapened their existence

I think in Aang’s story, all spirits have an animal form, unless they’re upset, making them armonious with the physical world and so, having them twisted and weird clearly show they’re disconnected from the world. Even the scary ones will have a shape that will reflect how they are based on an animal form.

LOK reminds me of Matrix:Reloaded- truly the creation of creators that vastly differed from the first, which seemed to be created by someone else.

8:25 Well he isolated himself and his library because he believed that humans no longer "deserved" that knowledge. That would make sense that Wan Shi Tong would then, by extension, completely isolate himself from _the human's_ new knowledge that resulted from their massive tech boom. In isolating, Wan Shi Tong was not protecting their collection of knowledge, but harming it. Weakening it. Making it more irrelevant and out of date. I don't recall _exactly_ how they handled that scene, I'd have to watch it again, but that makes sense to me as to how that works into the overall themes of the season.

The problems with spirits in Korra is the problem with EVERYTHING in Korra: Something i'd call Americanization. I am not by any means a specialist, but, as far as i understand: The whole ATLA world was a homage to Eastern cultures and folklore, taking it as inspiration for the worldbuilding. Korra takes this world and brings it to the West for NO REASON. So: Bending, created to be forms of traditional eastern martial arts, have become boxing-like. Republic City, who has no reason to be a 20's NYC, has become a pastiche of old movies. The conflicts, once based on personal morals and intricate character development moments, have become a huge good x evil affair And, as we focus here, spirits: once an unknown force to be reckoned with, now a cheap Scooby-Doo/Monster-of-the-week deal, with no personality, development, motivation or forethought All of these problems derive from the same issue that was to equate modernization of the Avatar world with "Westernification" of it. Not only in the designs and pacing of the narrative, but the storytelling and the lore were deeply affected by this problem

Bro just appeared on RU-vid and started spittin

I honestly think korra should have kept the spirit portals closed because if she closes them then the red lotus would have stayed in prison & kovira would have never weaponized the vines she basically created her enemies & whos to say the humans wont persecute the spirits like in wans time

Spirits were supposed to be a neutral party, only acting on their terms and morals in their jurisdiction and its why we didn't see them so often in ATLA. Wan Shitong's horrible characterization change in LOK hit me the hardest. He said himself that he closed his library because he was tired of humans using his knowledge for biased and selfish reasons; it was Zhao using his knowledge to locate and kill the moon spirit and burning the Fire nation section to ash that broke his last straw and was the reason Wan Shitong buried his library, only leaving it in the physical world so his knowledge seekers vould scavange the world for more knowledge to add to his collection. Wan Shitong was such a neutral spirit, that one moment he complimented the professor's Earth Kingdom text book and his notes /despite not being a people person/, but when he catches Aang, Sokka, and Katara trying to find info on the Fire nation for the war he says that he's had enough and that he was taking his library back to the spirit world so no human could ever find and harm his knowledge again. Sokka points out that the info would save hundreds of innocent lives from the destruction of the war, and even points out what the Fire nation did to their section of Wan's library, but Wan doesn't care and attempts to kill them in the process of taking away his library. Then LOK comes around, and suddenly he wants to team up with a human to take down the avatar? Even though he said he would never cater to humans again no matter the reason because in his eyes it would always be selfish?? Taking down the Avatar is a very selfish thing to do, one could say. Some spirits cared about balance and peace, like the past Avatar's and Tiu and La. Some didn't and only did what they wanted whether it was negative or positive, like Koh stealing Avatar Kuruk's wife's face, or Hai Bi destroying the village and kidnapping people out of revenge amd rage for his destroyed forest-even if it wasn't the villages fault, which he learns and becoms a gentle spirit and even helps Aang find his way back to his body and out of the spirit world in the last episode of book one. In LOK, the spirits were no where near a neutral party. LOK said that humans emotions dictated their emotions, which didn't make any sense. Kid-Korra got uspet in the sprit world, so they got upset and started fighting? Why? The Legend of Korra should've stopped at season 1, but of course the money said to keep going, so they did and it wasn't pretty. "Its a metaphor for capitalism"- Hobie "Spider-Punk" Brown in Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse

You didn't mantion the fact that the spirits of order and ceos are fency kites.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the spirit world was inspired by the Fey wild, no? Like an existence that is vastly different from our own filled with fairies, gnomes, spirits, and goblins, yet the spirit world managed to set itself apart from that, and became its own thing. Unfortunately, I believe the team behind the legend of korra wanted to further develop it, but sacrificed its own originality that sets it apart from the fey wild. Instead of the spirits being mysterious beings like they used to be, they turned them into wacky fickle creatures who are oblivious to anything of human customs, just like the inhabitants of the fey wild. Taking inspiration from other source material is great, it allows flexibility and help flesh out your ideas, but if you find yourself discarding what made your idea special to begin with, then you need to recite your approach of fleshing out said idea.

honestly other than season 1 and 3 I felt korra was a massive let down.

ATLA spirits each felt wholly unique. Not only that, but every time they had a crazy design the personality of that spirit would always be even stronger than the design. I don't mind derpy spirits, but only if there's something unique about them. Not "This is an animal, but humanoid" or "This is a dark spirit!" I'm okay with a humanoid frog, just make it unique. How about a large humanoid frog that looks normal, but when it opens its mouth the inside is a mirror and the person's reflection talks to them. Showing their negative side, and if the person admits defeat to the reflection their grasped by the tongue and swallowed.

Finally someone said It Thank you for pointing this out man

At first I was in disagreement with korra’s ruining of the spirits’ image because I was okay with the series’ specific focus to explore the previously unknown spirit realm. It’s something a lot of works do in sequels. That being said you raise some good criticisms of how korra demystifies them and dumb down their character to silly good or evil dark. 👍 You make good video analyses!

TLOK should never have existed

Simple answer Spirits in the OG show were like the ones from Princess's Mononoke and Korra's were like the ones from Spirit Away

ATLA spirits are badass forces of nature. TLOK spirits are "cute" and... they don't represent anything.

Iroh playing Shoji and having tea with a spirit would make sense, but they made it look like a kids show😂😂😂

Remember kids Avatar DOES NOT have a sequel

Another reason/point that I would have made was dialog. Just like screen time, the spirits in Korra have too much dialog. However, the way they speak is too human. I'm atla, when spirits speak (if they speak at all), you can tell that they are ancient spirits based solely on their verbiage. In Korra, they just seem either childish, or too human. Korra also removed ambiguity from spirits, not just in motivation. Aside from being good/evil, you never could completely understand the nature of spirits. They always had that air of mystery. But in Korra it's just good spirit dark spirit. Also the whole concept of spirit vines and spirit weapons is just stupid. Let's not even mention how spirits are subdued. In atla, it seemed that Aang was the only one who could really communicate with the spirits. Which makes sense as he is the last of the air nomads and the Avatar after all. But then in LoK, Korea needs to be trained. Which I guess isn't too much of a problem, but then they oversimplify it. Just bend spiraled glowy water around it and it will calm down because magic I guess. Meanwhile, Aang had to struggle to convince Hay-Bai (I am so sorry for what is probably a gross misspelling of its name) to calm down. I like the video, but there is so much more that could be said on this topic.

The Legend of Korra ruined everything.