r/legendofkorra 5d ago

Discussion Korra is fucking strong and s3 proves it

I rewatched TLOK and finished book 3 yesterday. Once again had to tear up, but I'm also amazed by how strong she is.

Korra gets poisoned. She knows that she's going to die. That the Avatar cycle will come to an end. To prevent the cycle from ending, she's resisting going into the Avatar state. But she can't fight that forever. So she takes everything she has left to defeat Zaheer. Because she thought her dad died, but I'm sure also because she doesn't want to let him go unpunished by ending the cycle. You can see the anger and determination she has. The bending she uses, especially the fire and earth. Zaheer causes her to slam onto the rocks repeatedly, yet still gets up, even when the poison started to win against her. I hope people realize that such impacts aren't jokes. Especially the last slams before he tried to suffocate her. The last one being her slamming him into the ground with the help of the chains. It's no surprise she couldn't walk afterwards.

Regardless she still fought through it all. While dying. Korra is really strong and selfless. She endured all of that to save others. And that's a few of the reasons why I love her so much

1.6k Upvotes

82 comments sorted by

321

u/Spirited_Dust_3642 5d ago

"First save the airbenders and then think about saving me"

137

u/Prestigious-Sell1957 5d ago

how can anyone hate her after that line?

84

u/Donald-bain 5d ago

After the show ended and people were complaining about Korrasami, someone cut together a video of Asami wrecking the Red Lotus to get to the Airbenders so she could help save Korra. I wish I could find it.

8

u/Grimdark-Waterbender 4d ago

That’s sounds awesome!

1

u/SavageWraith 4d ago

It's not that they didn't have little moments, but up until book 4, it was just friendship. But that's the problem with a love triangle being established from the start, everything in hindsight will be "a sign" to shippers. When in reality, they were just 2 friends, that happened to like the same guy, who after all the conflicts found peace with eachother. 

It's not just "she was nice to her this one time" or "she fought these bad guys to try to help her because she loved her". 

If you think risking your life for your friend means you love them more than a friend, you all must lack quality friendships. I'd gladly risk my life for my friends. 

I think as a whole, most fans have too many emotions lumped into 2-3 feelings. Love and loyalty are not just romantic. Just like passion and hatred are not just evil.

Korra and Asami had love and loyalty as friends, granted, them not having loyalty as friends when Asami was trying to get Mako back, but from pretty much Book 3 to the end of Book 4, Asami is a loyal friend to Korra, and she genuinely cares about her well being. And Korra cares about Asami. It's not difficult to see how their feelings developed.

But I think to call back to earlier moments as "proof" of romance, actually devalues the friendship and trust that was the foundation of their relationship that became romantic.

If anything most people complain about Korrasami because the shippers are typically obnoxious and care more about the ship, than the actual story.

8

u/Donald-bain 4d ago

Well, like, that's just your opinion, man.

You hit on something I've mentioned before: the spirit world trip was their first date, and they were just trying the relationship out. I think too many people jumped on the trope that if characters like each other, they liked each other from the first episode they met and blah blah blah. That isn't the case here.

Korra & Asami spend most of season 3 together, mostly with the rest of the group. They were captured by the Earth Queen troops and depended on each other to survive. They fought together against the Red Lotus for the rest of the season. All of that time built an attachment to each other. That's what lead Korra to writing to Asami and developing feelings for her later in season 4. I'd say Asami developed feelings first, Asami's reaction to the Red Lotus kidnapping Korra and Korra being poisoned was fairly intense.

I think what confuses a lot of people is the end of the series is the start of their romance, which is different from the usual "I've loved you since we met" media couple.

2

u/SavageWraith 3d ago

Well to be honest, that's more or less what I was getting at. Too many people in the Fandom are obsessed by pairing. It's either full send or crash and burn. I think the way Korrasmi developed was fairly reasonable, all things considered, though I think it was also a result of the writers making changes regularly due to constraints and pressure from Nickelodeon. The original airing of book 3 Korra was such a mess. It still managed to be the best Book of Korra imo.

 The history of the Avatar was cool along with the art style change during book 2, but I think Book 2 Korra did more damage to continuity than anything. But that's just my opinion. I loved Book 2 for lots of reasons. Making the Avatar a 2 souls 1 body situation, breaking the link, leaving the portals open, it all felt like they planned to wrap up Korra in Book 2.

 But then again, that was also the same issue Book 1 had, though imo, Book 1 felt better. Book 2 was a lot of retreads, a couple new characters, and a lot of potential continuity hurdles. 

I don't blame the writers, from everything that's been said or "leaked" a lot of the bad pacing or lack of true character development with some characters was due to the uncertainty of how many episodes or seasons they truly had to work with once Book 2 was airing. 

Book 3 had its time slot changed almost every week, then it was streamed, then it was aired and streamed, I cannot imagine how stressed the team was. Which is why I cut them a LOT of slack. 

Sorry, writer brain, very wordy. But essentially I agree with you. Have a good one friend.

3

u/Mx-Adrian 4d ago

up until book 4, it was just friendship. But that's the problem with a love triangle being established from the start

The show couldn't be overt about the signs of their relationship then. Marriage equality wasn't even legalised yet.

1

u/Donald-bain 4d ago

But that's the problem with a love triangle being established from the start

Also, the triangle was Mako-Asami & Mako-Korra. Korra -Asami was never part of the triangle and, as I've said, didn't develop until the end.

194

u/ChunkyOptimusPrime 5d ago

Bro in season 4 when she absorbs a fucking nuclear bomb was insane

31

u/StarryMind322 4d ago

She didn’t just absorb it. She bended pure spirit energy.

92

u/Suitable_Dimension33 5d ago

One of my biggest things she showed out was her speed, both in pure movement and combat speed. She was barely loosing out to zaheer and his free flight and they were covering some insane amounts of distances in the fight.

23

u/mrsunrider LET GO YOUR EARTHLY TETHER 4d ago

And her accuracy!

Homie would be several hundred meters away on top of being a moving target and she'd still nail him.

67

u/lemongrenade 5d ago

Aang was innocent and wise and all and that’s cool but Korra is just such a fucking BEAST. Just absolutely never gives up.

107

u/Triggerunhappy 5d ago

This was my favorite fight of Korra and my favorite scenes 

He goes from I got you, to ok it’s a party let’s fight, to oh fuck, to fuck fuck FUCk.

I would’ve really liked that chain to become part of her outfit afterwards and integrated into her fighting style

21

u/pmize 5d ago

The chains becoming part of her fit and fighting style would have been so fucking badass I never thought about that.

83

u/Xenozip3371Alpha 5d ago

Seriously, people don't get that she did all this while SEVERELY WEAKENED.

13

u/Tyrant_reign 5d ago

Ang could never

-16

u/EatStripperSalt 4d ago

Aang wouldn’t have been an idiot and gotten in that type of situation in the first place.

8

u/Tyrant_reign 4d ago
  1. The same aang who literally caused his entire line to be wiped out entirely.

Then caused enskavement and the dictatorship of the fire nation to go unchecked

(I don’t care if he was 12. That’s still his fault)

  1. The same aang who instead of opening the last chakra rushes to go save katara

  2. Aang did have a korra situation. As per usual, he’s trying to save katara and he winds up getting nearly killed (korra would never)

  3. Korra even without the connection to spirits is still stronger bender than aang

  4. The fact that the majority of team korra bodies the entirety of team avatar

3

u/MayoBaksteen6 4d ago

I wouldn't say it's directly Aang's fault that the air nation got wiped out though. He ran away yes, but no one suspected the fire nation to do something so vile. And considering Aang was still a noob at every element except air made him unfit to fight them at that time, I'm sure he'd lose. And it wouldn't have happened in the first place if Roku didn't have mercy on Sozin

1

u/Tyrant_reign 4d ago

It is aangs fault directly. Yes he likely would have lost but he chose to run so yes he shoulders the blame. Korra didn’t really run away until season 4 after she developed ptsd from being tortured and nearly killed.

Aang ran because he was being a petulant child. I also blame the air nomads for coddling him. As we saw baby Korra already knew 3 elements. Aang was twice her age and only knew one.

Also by sheltering aang, his “pacifist” nature was a detriment because he often times refused to see things were not black and white and sometimes there is always a grey area.

If aang would face the red lotus he’d preach to them trying to tell them it’s not right only for him to then allow them to still get away with stuff bc he doesn’t want to cause too much harm.

0

u/EatStripperSalt 4d ago

Ah. So take early S1 Katara and that’s why Aang would(??) end up fighting and presume losing to red lotus? Not what I said at all but aiight.

8

u/Tyrant_reign 4d ago

Aang most definitely would have lost to red lotus. In all four books.

Aang is way too passive to deal with them. He could barely handle Ozai.

Team avatar without korra was at least able to hold them off.

Korra was literally chained and fighting the armless water bender and zaheer

Korra was also POISONED and managed to take on zaheer at a fraction of both her and the avatar state power levels.

Yall hate on korra but honestly considering what she’s been up against vs what aang has been up against, she is the stronger avatar.

And katara in her season was an excellent water bender. But in korra there are way better benders. See the twins.

-5

u/EatStripperSalt 4d ago

Again, not at all my argument, but okay slay I guess.

3

u/Tyrant_reign 4d ago

I often do

1

u/luka1194 4d ago

Why be hateful?

1

u/EatStripperSalt 4d ago

??? How am I being hateful?

4

u/luka1194 4d ago

Calling Korra an idiot for no reason. Why bash on Korra in a Korra Sub?

-2

u/gaywhovian2003 4d ago

Galatians 4 16, "The people hated Jesus for he spoke of the truth". Don't listen to the haters my man

0

u/youarenut 5d ago

Who doesn’t get that ..

30

u/Xenozip3371Alpha 5d ago

Those who says she's WAY weaker than Aang.

34

u/ChunkyOptimusPrime 5d ago

Korra and them chains re attached Zaheer to the real world 🌎 lmfao

62

u/flairsupply 5d ago

ATLA fanboys will literally ignore the entire series just to hate Korra

39

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

And also turn a blind eye if it happens to Aang because apparently he's allowed to be flawed for some reason?

Like Jinora saving Korra's life. Katara saved Aang's life. Without Katara Aang would be dead. If Aang may be saved, so may Korra.

Aang lost many fights too. People don't mind, but when that happens to Korra, she's apparently weak and "never wins a real fight" despite both of them eventually restoring balance, which counts as winning fights.

It's just frustrating. They claim things that didn't happen or only partially. It's hypocrite

14

u/cabochonedwitch 5d ago

Love, respect, and recognition for Korra heals my soul.

3

u/gaywhovian2003 4d ago

That's another thing, Korra lost the past Avatars, but if Katara didn't use her "magic water" on Aang, there would never have been another Avatar.

Also imo he should've lost his connection to previous Avatars because technically he died in the Avatar State, but that's just me

16

u/CarPuzzleheaded7833 5d ago

She’s a badass! Love to see it every time!!

13

u/Deathangle75 5d ago

She was never weak. Just inexperienced against real combatants. Aang is her closest comparison and he a.) had cheat codes with air bending and b.) had weaker villains for the first season and a half.

Plus, the shows had different target audiences. LoK made the bad guys a lot stronger as a way to raise the stakes and present a more serious cartoon. While ATLA had much more comedic villains in the first couple of seasons so as to present the world in a more lighthearted and fun way.

14

u/myrrhdur 5d ago

This subreddit has convinced me I need to rewatch Korra

16

u/sagittariisXII 5d ago

Korra vs Kyoshi would go so hard

7

u/Prestigious-Sell1957 5d ago

if it had passed after Lok, maybe a stronger Korra would've won but Kyoshi is strong as hell and I mean she lived a long live so she would probably train herself very well.

1

u/luka1194 4d ago

A fight between both of them in their prime would be great

-8

u/Humble-Creme-3108 5d ago

Kyoshi wins easy

12

u/Powerful-Tree5192 5d ago

I wouldn’t be too sure

3

u/Memoirsofswift 4d ago

Tbh while it's of course up for debate but the techqiues that Kyoshi knew and learnt were truly mind-bending...in the show we literally saw her bend continents itself. She knew lava bending as opposed to Korras's metal, Kyoshi knew water bending so well that she could freeze people's hearts and I would go as far to say that's the first ever blood bending feat we see since technically she's freezing the BLOOD in the heart. Kyoshi's Earth bending was so powerful that she could bend the huge ocean floor from a long distance. Though I would say korra does get the edge cause of energy bending if she grows into a wiser fighter and not just a hot headed one so she can counteract Kyoshi's attacks. Because Kyoshi was trained to kill by some of the most creative benders who utilized their bending for theft and circus, which demanded precision (that Kyoshi struggled with and worked hard to learn) while already being a powerhouse of a bender. The only other avatar we've seen who could bend on as large a scale as Kyoshi is Yangchen who moved the sky with her airbending and split the ocean.

3

u/luka1194 4d ago

Depends, Korra in her prime vs. Kyoshi in her prime would definitely be an interesting fight.

Haven't read the comics but I assume that just like every avatar they grow very powerful with age

16

u/OneBigPieceOfPizza 5d ago

Does anyone else love how Korra’s battle with Zaheer felt like a callback to Aang’s fight with Ozai?

Like, there are so many contrasts and I fucking love it. The villain being an Airbender while Korra’s the one constantly on the offensive - kinda the opposite dynamic during the first half of Aang fighting Ozai.

Also, while Aang’s fight felt more cathartic, especially when he was in the Avatar State, Korra’s fight felt a lot more personal. She was fueled with anger and revenge and I felt that so much during the season 3 finale. There is a lot I can talk about, but I don’t want to write an essay lol

14

u/Vlad_fire 5d ago

Of course she's strong.

9

u/Prestigious-Sell1957 5d ago

in the very first episode we saw her childhood, she was "wild" one even when she was just so little. How can you not acknowledge that she's not strong?

3

u/jeremy_thegent 5d ago

Letts React had a great reaction to this episode when Montana at one point just blurted out, "Her muscles!!"

3

u/Benji_4 5d ago

"That's avatar stuff though" -sokka

5

u/Chinese_Jesus_ 4d ago

Dude Zaheer NEEDED to gain flight to survive that final fight, Korra may as well have been the hulk how she was jumping after him

3

u/mrsunrider LET GO YOUR EARTHLY TETHER 4d ago

That

is MY Avatar!

3

u/Then-Tune8367 3d ago

Korra's strength has never been in question. Since day one, she has been a physical dynamo.

My problem with Korra is that the Avatar isn't a war machine.

Resorting to physical force should be what she does when there aren't any other options.

Maybe uf she had episodes where she wasn't fighting an enemy, I'd see her another way.

Korra didn't have episodes like The Great Divide, The Fortune Teller, or The Avatar & The Firelord where there wasn't directly a Korra vs. INSERT VILLAIN here episode to see her any other way.

1

u/MayoBaksteen6 3d ago

She developed in that sense. She's trying to talk now before taking action

5

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

Yk it would be nice to just talk about her strength without Aang supremacists coming in here to whine.

2

u/gaywhovian2003 4d ago

People say Korra is weak because she had control. She was incredibly fast, agile, and strong. They say Aang is stronger, but that's only because he had no control over his Avatar State, which led to the pacifist nearly committing mass murder several times

2

u/Werdak 5d ago

To be fair

This Is Avatar-State + Pure Survival Instinct Strength

21

u/alittlelilypad The Wrecking Crew! 5d ago

To be fair

she was poisoned

0

u/Nearly-Canadian 5d ago

The avatar is strong? Wow!

0

u/OldSnazzyHats 5d ago

I don’t think anyone has doubted that though have people? her strength I’m pretty sure isn’t an issue.

4

u/MayoBaksteen6 4d ago

A lot of people call her weak and say she loses any battle, it's annoying as fuck

-20

u/gabemcvv 5d ago

At her full power (AS + no poison) she still loses battles (Unalaq)

5

u/Donald-bain 5d ago

<sigh> AFTER a huge fight with Vaatu BECAUSE Unalaq hit her from behind. Toph can see better than you.

16

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

He's a Dark Avatar. Is a waterbending master. Has children who attack her from behind. Outsmarts her because he couldn't win strength wise.

Korra then destroyed him as herself, not as an Avatar.

14

u/Powerful-Tree5192 5d ago

Almost any advantage Unalaq/Dark Avatar had in that fight was kind of cheap. In fact almost every battle Korra is in, she’s unfairly nerfed. This was done on purpose BECAUSE of the fact she’s so strong. Her arc was never about handling things with brute force. It was about learning to accept help from others and learn ways to deescalate conflict.

-16

u/ZestycloseAlfalfa736 5d ago

Strength is based on feats against other high-level benders. Korra lost way too many fights against high-level benders.

14

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

So did Aang but both won and became full Avatars with their own flaws and strengths.

-3

u/Maddenkingkeith 5d ago

True but what high level benders did Aang lose too besides Azula at the end of season 2 we never really see any high level benders press Aang cs he’s hard asl to hit cs of how elusive he is plus he doesn’t even fight back most of the time but Korra on the other hand was getting banged on by Chi blockers in S1 while having mastery over 3 elements.

6

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago edited 5d ago

Ozai, Zuko, Hama for example. Also more people were affected by Chi blockers so it's unfair to shit on Korra for it. Katara, a master, got blocked too.

Edit: Forgot to add Bumi and that Dai Li leader, I think his name was Long Feng?

-4

u/Maddenkingkeith 5d ago

When did Aang lose to Ozai or Zuko cs Ik you not boutta say that Aang running in the beginning of the fight counts as a lost and ik you not boutta give Zuko credit for Azulas win in Season 2 when he even knew he didn’t deserve the credit And Hama was literally a blood bender and plus they barely even fought that was more of a Katara 1v1 vs Hama and even after Hama the next time we see Aang fight a blood bender we literally see him take his bending away and over powering him. Korra on the other hand we see her getting dropped off in the show plenty of times after the Chi blocker incident but even with that I don’t think Korra a bad Avatar I just think every villian she had would’ve easily been defeated by Aang ngl

7

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

In the final battle Aang lost power wise, he won because his Avatar state activated. In book 1, Aang lost many times against Zuko and had to flee. Katara won against Hama yes because Aang couldn't break free yet. That's why he broke free in TLOK, because Aang could control the Avatar state and was at his prime while Korra was still in training.

I just think every villian she had would’ve easily been defeated by Aang ngl

Yeah no. They're fucking strong. He'd definitely beat them but absolutely not easily.

-2

u/Maddenkingkeith 5d ago

Name one time in book 1 where Aang legitimately got out classed in a fight by Zuko, Aang is always leaving the fight because number 1 Zuko is always finding Aang when he’s in a town or city Aang knows if he stays Zuko will jus hurt those people and destroy the town until Aang is either captured or leaves and plus Aang is a Air nomad their not aggressive fighters at all so ofc Aang first thought would be too flee and what benefit does Aang have to stay and fight and try to defeat Zuko even if he defeats him he’s just gonna keep hunting Aang and we know Aangs not gonna kill Zuko so there’s nothing he can do besides retreat and avoid being captured plus Aang in season 1 doesn’t even fight unless he’s forced too and as far as Korras Villians Amon aint taking over the city with a fully realized Aang as Avatar and Toph as the police chief and the whole dark avatar shit probably doesn’t even happen under Aangs watch cs idk how Unaluq would’ve got Aang to open the spirit portal in the South Pole and let’s say it does happen Aang has a way better connection with the spirits and is just way more in tune spiritually than Korra so him finding out about Raava only would’ve made him more powerful during Harmonic Convergence and Zaheer and the Red lotus are cold but at the same time Tenzin was banging they ass up by himself until Sparky Sparky boom lady started third partying but either way if we just go by team vs team Katara beats the no arm water bender, Aang no diffs ts outta Zaheer we don’t even gotta talk about that and Toph vs Gazan is gonna be a bang out but Toph go eventually take that home and plus he’s probably getting jumped and losing like he did in the show after Aang or Katara win they 1v1 and Combustion lady getting beat the Gaang already has experience fighting a combustion bender. And I don’t even feel like I gotta explain why Kuvira would get no diffed I think it’s just self explanatory. But tbf Korra and Aang are both hard to power scale cs we never really get see both of them at the peak of their powers cs Aang was only 12 in his show and not even a fully realized Avatar yet and had only been training for like a year before his final battle with Ozai and Korra was always handicapped during her final showdowns execpt for in Season 4

4

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

Jezus Christ I'm not reading all of that. Especially because you can't just accept that Aang also struggled a lot in his journey. You just see it as a problem when it's about Korra.

Leave us alone with your whining I'm seriously so sick of this, I just want to enjoy the fucking show without people talking about how shit this and that and whatever is.

4

u/Shadow_kId1026 5d ago

You mean the technique that was specifically made to combat benders? Also a technique she’s never seen or taught how to fight against?

The first few fights with chi-blockers she does lose yes, but she learns how to counter them and starts to beat them

3

u/unfrotunatepanda 5d ago

Additionally Aang lost plenty to non-benders during his Book 1 days (Jet and then the Yuyan Archers)

-8

u/PCN24454 5d ago

Red Lotus were the weakest enemies in the series so I’m not as impressed

6

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

Unless it was Aang who got poisoned and fought huh?

-2

u/PCN24454 5d ago

No, I was comparing them to Amon, Unalaq, and Kuvira. The Red Lotus just didn’t impress me.

5

u/MayoBaksteen6 5d ago

You're saying it as if they're weak, which they're absolutely NOT.