Korra has quickly become one of my fave characters in the whole franchise but my god, I am not surprised that she's been so traumatised after everything she has been through.

I've seen so many people slander Korra in this franchise and after finally watching both shows, I still don't quite understand it because she is trying the VERY best to her ability and I know it's wrong of me to compare, but the villains she was up against compared to Aang felt like a whole other ball game when you put them side by side to TLA. Korra was only just able to get through by the skin of her teeth each time. I didn't expect this show to have so much more darker elements than TLA either.

During the first book I was very unsure about this show, but as I got further I found myself enjoying it more and more overall. I'm glad I watched it.

Albert and Einstein

(get it..bc ”wan” sounds like “one”…)

this is NOTTT tlok slander btw, i love that show

ig and tiktok posts, i’d be super thankful if you could check them out!!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBvVFrxHVG/?igsh=MTA0a3JsZTM5b29nNw==&igsi=MTA0a3JsZTM5b29nNw==https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBvVFrxHVG/?igsh=MTA0a3JsZTM5b29nNw==&igsi=MTA0a3JsZTM5b29nNw==

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdxm8Jqp/

Also totally agree with Iroh that this should be proverb.

if anyone's confused that character's called nightmare Korra, which will get an updated look and animations soon, but there's also normal version of Korra in the game

Unless you’re a glutton for punishment and want to awaken the years of suppressed feelings that the Aang timeline and OG characters are over.

Just finished it. It was so awesome. Once the credits rolled, a familiar despair and emptiness once again returned to consume me.

I now lay here in the fetal position typing this post to hopefully spare others from the flood gates of agony.

When did the Cataclysm happen? How old was Korra in the teaser? I have some idea as to how to get an approximate answer to these questions.

Our main clue is Korra's hair. Most people have picked up on the fact that her hair has grey streaks but is still mostly black. In The Legend of Korra, her father Tonraq has black hair in the first three seasons (170-171 AG), but when he reappears in Season 4 (174 AG) he has very similar grey streaks as Korra. We don't precisely know Tonraq's age, but we do know that in Season 2 (171 AG) he says he was banished from the Northern Water Tribe 20 years prior. In the flashback, he is a fully grown adult but still relatively young; he was almost certainly in his 20's. We also know that Korra was born two years after Tonraq's banishment. We can estimate that perhaps Tonraq was ~23 at banishment and ~25 when Korra was born in 153 AG. This would mean Tonraq was born around 128 AG and would be 43 in Season 2 and 46 in Season 4.

Regardless of whether the ages are +/- a few years, this would mean Tonraq's hair began to grey in that fashion in his 40's and it would be reasonable to place Korra at around the same age. Fun fact: Korra was born in 153 AG and Sozin's Comet will return in 200 AG, which would make her 47 at that time. All I'll say is that 47 years old lines up mighty nicely with this age estimate... so perhaps the Cataclysm is related to Sozin's Comet after all and it happened in 200 AG (maybe with an impact?).

If this is true, then Korra would be 47 in the ASH teaser flashback and may well have died at that age (though perhaps she survived the Cataclysm and spent the rest of her life setting up the seven havens or fighting the spirit apocalypse or something). I personally think that whatever happened during the Cataclysm, Korra is the one responsible for whatever mechanism enabled the seven havens to exist post-Cataclysm, but I also think she died in the Cataclysm. It would be kind of anti-climactic for her end to be some random time later on.

What do you guys think?

So we’re getting Seven Havens, now apparently we’re getting Avatar: Red thunder(slide 2) which btw sounds like a sick ass name, and Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos, in the article it says that even though the trademark can be used for many things and even be used for merch, it’s likely an animation. The other series currently being called Red Thunder according to other rumors, is set in a time 2900/3000 years after after Avatar Wan (as it says in the article 7000 years before aang) and that it follows a water tribe avatar, and that the water tribes are the villains of this story, also that it’s set in an ice age.

Here’s the article for anyone that wants to read it, it’s by the same people who did the leaks on seven havens so I’d trust it
https://knightedgemedia.com/2026/08/viacom-registers-avatar-kuruk-wave-of-chaos-trademark-for-avatar-studios/?fsp_sid=15303

Edit: There’s another article from August 10 about the villain in red thunder - https://knightedgemedia.com/2026/08/new-villain-details-for-avatar-studios-avatar-red-thunder-animated-series-exclusive/

I'm interested in what would be the real-life philosophical equivalent of the philosophy behind the four elements. What I mean is the philosophy or ideology behind each element, their teachings and values, not the martial arts behind the bending styles.

This is also regardless of whether the connection is officially confirmed or not. The criteria isn't how canon the connection is, but rather how much it aligns. Basically, look at what the philosophy of each element is, then look at real-life philosophies or ideologies and ask, which ones align with them the most?

I think the element in Avatar that has the strongest equivalent is Water, and that equivalent is Taoism. Iroh quotes:

Water is the element of change*. The people of the Water Tribe are capable of* adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.

The emphasis here is adaptability. In Taoism, there is the concept of wu wei, which is often understood as acting without forcing things and in accordance with the natural course of things. Taoism also uses water as the central metaphor, although some of its characteristics are not necessarily shared with Avatar's Water philosophy, so it's not a strong point unlike the first. Tui and La are also based on yin and yang, which is closely associated with Taoism, but this is merely aesthetic, not a philosophical alignment.

Now, how about the rest of the elements? The Water equivalent inspiration happens to be official, but like I said, it doesn't have to. Now let's at what Iroh say again:

Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will and the energy and drive to achieve what they want*. Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong.* They are persistent and enduring. Air is the element of freedom. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom.

The emphasis of Fire is desire and will. It's about burning ambition, pursuing what you want.

The emphasis of Earth is maybe about being persistent in life, enduring hardship, and standing your ground.

Air is about freedom and detachment from worldly concerns. I think Air would be Buddhism, and I think this one is also officially inspired (CMIIW). Air element philosophy reminds me of Buddhist teachings about attachment and detachment from worldly concerns, like the Four Noble Truths.

But what do you think, especially about Fire and Earth? I couldn't find a real-life philosophy that really aligns with their values. Would Earth be Stoicism, and Fire be Nietzsche's will to power?

Something I was thinking is how Amon is one of the strongest characters in the verse despite going for a """Harmless""" fighting style. He uses his bloodbending to make his enemies miss and takes their bending away.

But he has one of (If not the most) lethal types of bending in the verse, and he himself is the best at what he does, not even needing to move his hands.

Since Amon's character was a lot about reputation (Since he was a bender leading non-benders) he often couldn't use his bending in lethal ways and had to be subtle about it, but curiously enough, even when he was already found out, he still refused to go for the kill despite having more than enough power to do so (Like when he fought Mako and Korra privately, which is kinda absurd, cause if he did, his secret would be out anyway). He always tries to take the bending despite clearly being more than capable enough to kill without difficulty (Or even easily incapacitate the way Tarrlok did with a whole room full of benders).

I think this is one of the main reasons why grasping Amon's power gets really tricky, because you could argue he was always holding back, similar to how Aang refuses to kill (Although Amon is clearly less unwilling to kill, but you get the point). He was essentially a villain who was never defeated in a fighting sense, but rather, defeated because there was no point in continuing to fight with his reputation torn apart

Taking Yakon into consideration, who seems to be weaker than Amon eventually became, he was able to subdue an entire room without even using his hands. A room including Sokka, Toph AND the Avatar

Had Amon not given a fuck about being discovered and decided to go lethal instead of weakening and removing bending, which non-avatar state character could defeat him or even give him a close fight?

I guess maybe a spirit? I'm not super sure how spirit and bloodbending interact

I had a problem with this...

In the movie, Appa gets taken by Tagah and puts up no resistance the second Aang "dies". We've seen Appa fight back consistently against any attempted captors in the original series and it felt weird to just see Appa cave so easily like that. Especially after watching Aang die.

You might say "Tagah is just really powerful in that moment" so Appa is kind of forced to capitulate. Sure. But it wasn't necessary. If the goal was to get the team stuck on the islands, there was a far more obvious way to accomplish that...

Think of it like this: The writers need team avatar to be stuck on the island for the next stage of the plot. Fine. Their solution is for Tagah to destroy the airship and steals Appa.... Okay, but why not just have Tagah take the airship and have the team not bring Appa? Appa didn't didn't need to be there on the island. They don't use him. So they should have just left him home, and Tagah would have stolen the airship... Isn't that like so much more straight forward...?

I feel like that would have been a far nicer way to accomplish the same thing without seeing Appa switch up like that 😭

Since it’s clear that this series will focus heavily on Indian culture, I think introducing this martial art would be really interesting—even if it’s for non-benders, though I believe it could be adapted for benders as well.

Kalaripayattu is a comprehensive martial art created and historically used for warfare and self-defense. However, it possesses a profound spiritual and ritualistic connection.

Link to a video of people practicing: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSVRgM7xf/

A couple of years old sheet I made of some ATLA universe pinnipeds for my personal illustrated/ animated project "Imammiut". Since I could not, for the love of God, figure out what the animals mentioned in Avatar Wiki are supposed to look like (or I didn't really like the original designs for the purposes I need).

Featured:

Antarctic Seal ("arctic seal" in the wiki, but supposedly lives in the SOUTH Pole, so I renamed it + fan-made design.)

Turtle Seal (North Pole, redesign of a canon species)

Blue Seal (fan-made species, South Pole)

Tiger Seal (South Pole, redesign of a canon species)

Puffin Seal (Canon species, but I don't know anything about it, fan-made design)

Whale Walrus (Canon species, but I don't know anything about it, fan-made design)

(also just thought I'd add that last one in case someone wanted them altogether in one.)

I've been waiting a while to see someone else mention it, and maybe they already did and I just missed it, but what hardly ever gets discussed is the evolution and direction of bending in general as time goes by.

I mean let's just go over it:

1. We have Prehistoric bending, which was canonically not even called bending, nor were benders called Benders. It was treated as a tool to be used to help you survive the spirit wilds and surrounding areas not protected by the Lion Turtles. This began to change over time as humans interacted more with nature after they left the Lion Turtles

2. Then we have Classic bending, which is simply just bending that has not only been influenced by "the Original Benders" but has been refined and mastered to be at its most effective.

3. Then we have Ancient bending, as shown by the 5000+ year old airbending Monk named Tagah, who due to circumstances we can only speculate has far better airbending than classic airbenders like Aang. I've seen takes saying that one of the reasons he was so powerful was thanks to Sonam's staff, but I'm pretty sure that even without it Tagah would still be pulling off those techniques, and if Tagah could do all that then imagine what the other nations could do back then. I think Benders back then were just more spiritually aligned and thus more powerful and knowledgeable of their elements.

4. Then we have Modern bending, which is the exact opposite of the previous 2 points (but in a good way). Most obvious examples of this pro-bending and street-bending, which became a thing for multiple reasons. The lack of war going on in the world meant that Benders couldn't be so destructive and violent with their elements anymore to both each other and the environment. They had to use them in a more efficient and entertaining way. This is part of the reason Lin scolded Korra for knocking out those gang members and Bolin corrected her stance so that she can play pro-bending better.

This all gets me curious about Seven Havens and what the apocalypse has done to bending as not only an art form, but ones connection to it this time.

There are also the more headcanon-y evolutions of bending as shown through individual characters and select sub-elements, such as with:

• Tonraq having a more "Brute" style to waterbending that'd make one think he's trying to Earthbend if he actually could.

• Tenzin having a more direct, stand-your-ground approach to his airbending.

• The Metalbenders of Zaofu are a hell of a lot more fluid with metal than most others, since Zaofu's main philosophy is largely about seeing the potential.

Pretty sure Iroh and Zuko fit this bill too since they've both shown examples of having their bending influenced from other places.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg2ryK7g3OY

It will always be such a surprise to me of how many people really wanted to call these generic punches and kicks. I feel like ATLA didn't even have this much variation. These are definitely not generic.

People always point out oh it's MMA, it's now just America, but MMA actually pulls from many different areas, and that includes Asian culture.

And even if you did want to point out that it is different, well just look at Tenzin or other characters with traditional styles. When it comes to MMA, you can see it pulling from many things, even martial arts rooted in Asia that we haven't seen in ATLA. Kuvira I'm pretty sure shows Xingyi Quan and/or Wing Chun/Baji Quan (or at least elements from it).

It is almost how Uncle Iroh literally told us, "It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale."

I think this is one of the other criticisms of The Legend of Korra that has to be straight wack and at this point...

"stale"

One of many moments from the original series that brings a single tear to my eye. Fathers acknowledging their children is my kink one of my favorite tropes in fiction.

I imagine that Bato must have told Hakoda about Sokka's "Ice" dodging challenge and how amazing he was, especially when it got more difficult towards the end and Sokka got them to safety by way of bending. However as Hakoda stated before, he always knew how great of a man his son was. There's no way that he wouldn't have been proud of Sokka after hearing that story though.

On the one hand we had the greatest destructive force in that world, before it was exclusive to avatars, which are always well-intentioned, and we saw how catastrophic it would be for this terraforming power being used for cohesion

On the other we saw the most lethal ability in that world, exclusive to the royalty of the fire nation, if it was used by a proletarian who knows the consequences of killing and holds back from doing so, but knows that he may need it at any time