The Legend of Korra S1E12 Full & Uncut Reaction!
🕑 Added 2021-10-07 19:14:38 +0000 UTCHey hey Patrons!
Another season and another finale down y'all and man is this a big one!
We have a great time checking out the finale! And we also take the time to parse through Korra as a series, a season, and a character, along with some of the outside forces, namely Nickelodean's gunshy nature in the wake of the 2010 movie, might have affected Korra's production and the overall shape of its story.
But we're still asking the big questions folks!
How good is the reporter/announcer in TLoK? My dude has some next-level scoops every single week!
How dope is Asami's RIPELY MECH SUIT COSPLAY?
And Korra recovering her Airbending is one of the most exhilarating moments in all of ATLA !!
and followed by one of the most tragic...

Follow the password-protected link to hang!
Password: GetAwayFromHerYouBoomer
NOTE FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS!
WE'RE TAKING a few weeks off of Korra, but we've got some exclusives coming the next two weeks in its place so we can get caught up on YT!
Maybe we got a couple a Two'Tree Sparkley Vampires for yall coming up next Thursday and an exclusive podcast covering S1 for yall as well! We'll resume with the spooky Spirit Zone of S2 on October 28th!
xoxo,
The Watchers in the Bar
Comments
AE Jones
Hey guys.... Morgan thinks Korra didn't suffer enough.
Jacob Keyser
the thing about Korra is that each season was green light one at a time. they never knew if they would get another season
frnknstndrgqn
Not gonna lie i cried my eyes out when i saw aang LOL
Štěpán Komárek
The best episode is in Season 2, best season is Season 3, please, dont give up! ;-)
Fano
Hey folks just a quick note that this post is missing the "Korra" and "ATLA" tags, I have a bookmark that goes directly to posts filtered by these tags and this one isn't showing up. Just a heads up in case other people do the same thing when trying to watch older content.
ChipHand_Z
Those are all fair criticisms of The Dragon Prince, but I personally think that even if the animation suffers, the art direction, story and characters really carry. I do like Legend of Korra (especially seasons 3 & 4), but I was definitely a little disappointed with some of the choices they made along the way. Although I like ATLA the best of the 3, I do prefer Dragon Prince to Korra personally.
Benji Schulman
Totally agree with Morgan about the ending of season 1, it seemed to easy and cheesy for me. I wouldve LOVED to see Korra truly cope with the loss of her bending abilities and kind of start from the point where aang began in ATLA, only with air and his spirituality to guide him learning the other elements except shed be relearning them. But I know at the time they were making this first season that Nick last minute told the creators there wasnt going to be a season 2 so they had to rush the ending and made it neat and full circle, which is fine imo but it definitely felt too quick and I can see where their original direction was going. That being said later seasons (esp 3 and 4) develop Korras character SO much and in such an amazing way, I mean the writing in this show is so fucking good its just that Nick wasnt fully supporting LOK at the time so there are parts to it that feel cheap and not well thought out. Enjoyed the reaction as always :)
Ci-Ci
Yeah the animation for both series is so amazing! I heard a lot of good things about dragon prince but when I watched it the animation style really took me out of the story and I ended up dropping it. IDK, I should prob give it another chance since I only watched episode 1.
Jack
Just joined, great reaction! You should do some voice acting, very cool voice!
Michelle
and also it goes without saying but, ATLA and Korra have amazing animation thats top notch in the medium of animated television. Whereas Dragon Prince really doesnt, there the story and characters are what really matters and not like, spectacular animated sequences. Especially that season 1 with the framerate lol
Michelle
i like the dragon prince just fine, but i do think it also has some issues and really isnt as good as ATLA or Korra really. And unlike Bryke, Aaron did get a really good deal with Netflix and the time to plan everything in advance, so its not like Bryke are bad writers or something. Its honestly really impressive that they managed to write all of season 1 on their own and have it be so good despite all the production troubles.
ChipHand_Z
That being said, if you want to add a new show to your watchlist that has a very similar tone and feel to ATLA, Aaron Ehasz's new show The Dragon Prince is a very fun whimsical ongoing fantasy adventure series that seems to have the same heart as ATLA. I highly recommend (also, the guy who voiced Sokka voices the main character).
ChipHand_Z
Very entertaining episode! Not surprised to see that you guys were slightly disappointed with the finale though. One thing that's interesting to note is that the creators of Korra (Michael DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko) worked on Korra without the head writer of Last Airbender, Aaron Ehasz. Although Korra does a lot of things well, I do think it lacks some of the charm of the original series.
Jamal Cheatham
I find reactions and discussions like this are my favorite way to watch Korra because when I first saw it I hated it and didn’t watch it again till I was 18 or 19. I’ve mellowed out, so I’ll say LoK is fine but not for me.
Ci-Ci
Gonna have to politely disagree. Save for the one flash back episode, I enjoy the mental health exploration of season 4. A really good rep of ptsd and a good cap for our main characters growth. But that’s the way I see that season, I’m sure you have your reasons to dislike.
Scott
For another show to watch, consider these options. Go thru clone wars twice as fast(100+ episodes?) or maybe the expanse(on amazon prime)?
rickie woodson
i dont have amazon prime but back when i did, i so didnt watch their stuff lol. the boys, invincible, man in the high castle, just add magic and upload are the only shows i watched on there. sigh i LOVE just add magic
rickie woodson
your conversation gave me some food for thought. if you havent started season 2 yet ignore this..........................so lets pretend sean's right and if they had been greenlit for 3 seasons up front and they kept amon and tarlokk around ala azula and her pals, with that as the plan it makes season 2's villain oh so more reasonable to have. i know folks have a problem with them but i dont. LOVE SEASON 2!!! probably my favorite season. season 3 is close but starts off slow
rickie woodson
i hope this other legacy show is xmen. or gargoyles. or sailor moon. ill take all twothre of em
rickie woodson
you come back after my dentist appointment. kismet!
rickie woodson
how dare you! big bang theory is one of the greatest show EVER. LOVE IT! rewatching it now. major crush on sheldon. and lets not go there. the girls arent that hot. they arent hot at all. even if they were, the guys are still hot. sheldon and lenoard can GET IT!
rickie woodson
great show
rickie woodson
season 4 sucks. its all about seasons 1-3 like avatar is all about seasons 2-3. imo
mattjofre
Thankfully a lot of what you mention that you'd like to see explored will be throughout season 2 & 3. Season 3 is my favorite Avatar of both series, it's a banger of a season. Also, you should really check out The Expanse on Amazon. The best sci fi on TV right now.
Jonathan Sha'ashoua
Just wondering... Sean, what language is it on the poster behind you?
Dark Queen Fenris Ulfr
Thing when you discusing Korra at the start, When they were making the show Nickelodeon didnt told the creators if they were geting renewed or not so each season is kinda self contained casue Nickelodeon was being an ass At the time everyone knew nickelodeon was fucking them over, they fot of air for a couple episode on season 3 and became online only for a while, it was a mess
Ci-Ci
Hey! Would you guys ever do a live stream discussing korra ? Like at the end of the series like with avatar? New-ish here ( found you guys at the very end of avatar) and don’t know what your usual gig is :)
Beowolf Chow
Ever read "The Scorpion and the Frog"?
Sean TankTop
LOLOL omg Pat, now that you say it!
Sean TankTop
oh we're going to the end.
Sean TankTop
his scars just weren't facial
Sean TankTop
the deepest and darkest read, and probably the most true tbh
Mathies
the fact that Amon had a "scar" doesn't make him not a waterbender, but it does validate his backstory and in turn invalidates Korra's accusations because part of it already seems to be wrong.
Avi Chetri
The what if scenario of having just this Korra mini-series and no other seasons would have really made Korra a lacking character in this universe. I'm so glad we got so much more. Hope to see you guys give out more Avatar stuff soon! Love you guys.
Patrick Boyda
Here I was thinking the thing that would be the most triggering to a bunch of Chi-towners would be Bolin ripping up the Equalists' runway -- he'd be on the right track to be Mayor of Republic City
dannydarko27
Insert Nahid's "This is not a kids show" here🤣🤣
Sean Silence
The reason Korra getting her bending back feels so easy is because this was supposed to be the end. She beat her bad guy and became a fully realized Avatar. She'll go on to do other Avatar things. The End. The episode was finished before they were told to do a 2nd season. Also, as far as Katara's healing. Yes, she could bloodbend, but she hadn't practiced with it and we're talking about messing with the brain. It would take too much risky experimentation to figure out how to reverse what Amon did. I have no doubt that Amon destroyed some people's minds while he figured out how to do the technique.
Ci-Ci
While season 2 has its issues due to budget cuts, there are still amazing and important episodes and lore expansion, so I def still enjoy season 2. Also what happens in two has such a profound impact on the rest of the series! Still such a valuable season, even with some bugs :D
Ci-Ci
So true! Love both series as their own thing, while they are set in the same universe, they are both very different journeys thematically and story-wise. Both beautiful in their own ways. Once you allow TLOK to be independent from the original story and stop expecting ATLA re-hash, it is amazing! The conflicts and characters are different, directly darker, and thats what makes it a good follow up to a great show. I think why it was so criticized originally was because it came out so soon after ATLA and people compared it so heavily to the source material. I picked up TLOK not expecting ATLA 2.0 during the pandemic and I was so pleasantly surprised. I hope Avatar studios does some new stuff for Korra, like animating the comics or another stand alone story, now that they have more liberty to do as they please.
Casey Turner
Nothing like a murder suicide to cap off the first season of a kids show
Briana J
I'll miss the Korra reactions because seasons 2-4 are more fun in my opinion. The fandom isn't into S2 all that much but I enjoyed the other characters' arcs the most. Have a good break! Everyone deserves to chill.
Eric Smith
What Sean said is broadly accurate, but despite OTHER types of Nickelodeon fuckery happening,, I figured I'd clarify that seasons 3 and 4 were ordered together
Eric Smith
Morgan: jokes about a body reset. Me: oh good, they'll understand the cliff scene 😉
Brianna Grout
YES while we love ATLA as a whole TLOK has a lot of great character development for Korra compared to Aang. I love both these shows for different reasons and while the first series is what I grew up with a holds a special place in my heart. Korra is so much darker compared to it.
Justin
What’s really sad is that when korra was on the cliff I think she contemplated suicide because you can’t be the avatar and help the world with one element so I think she wanted the next one to come along so they could do it. That’s why aang said “when we hit our lowest point we open ourselves to the greatest change”. Crazy good season
Beowolf Chow
Korra's moment at the cliff was a pretty decent way to tie her arc together, all time constraints considered. Her brashness and bravado, and all of her fears stem from the fact that she knew she was the Avatar most of her life and it formed her *entire* identity. Amon terrified her, because she didn't know who Korra would be as a person, without being the Avatar. This is why most incarnations aren't told what they are until they're nearly adults, even Aang was told too young. And so at the cliff, after being told she will never be the thing she has formed the core of her identity around, she thinks she has no future. She thinks that the world would be better off if she stopped existing. That's a thought that crosses the minds of many people who contemplate suicide, that the world would be better without them; and the scary thing is that because of the Avatar cycle, she has proof that that would actually be the case. It would have been great if they got more time to flesh that out, but then again, maybe Nicelodeon would have noticed in time to stop it, like some of the other themes they kiboshed.
Kay
I think what sums up all the issues that LoK faced is simply this, at every moment Mike and Bryan were told this would be the their last book. And they made 4 books of Korra! Book 1 was supposed to be a mini-series. Then at the end, they were given the green light for Book 2, but only Book 2 lol. And then Book 3 came, and they had to be moved from TV to Nickelodeon's god awful pre-streaming era website. Then they were given the greenlight for Book 4, while still under the assumption that Book 3 would be their last book. Combine that with budget cuts and Nickelodeon in general not treating LoK as a priority at all, there were so many challenges the showed faced to be created. It really is astounding to me that they made the show as great as it was despite all these setbacks and that reflects so much on how incredible the talent and care that everyone that worked on the show had.
Lorenzo Baxter
We don't need to see Korra relearn her bending. It serves no purpose and wouldn't advance her character. It just retreads ground from ATLA. Sure it could've been better if she didn't get her bending back. But she should get it back through spirituality, not just having teachers again. But other than that, there isn't really a plot point for her of quality. She's a genius at bending so that wouldn't take long seeing as she's done it before.
Chandra
Am I the only one who can’t see episode 9, I saw 8, then straight into 10?
Ci-Ci
Keep in mind while season 2 isn’t the fandoms fave, mostly due to budget cuts, it still has great lore, some great episodes, and value to the overall story arc and korras arc. Her suffering is far from over ( 🙂 everyone u know what I’m talking about). Personally season 3-4 are my absolute favorites and have the most continuous story elements. I think you guys will love the big bad of 3 a lot! I hope you guys watch the whole series through because Korras full arc by the end of the series is one my my favorites. It’s tough, having watched Avatar, not to compare the stories so directly but after I let that go, this became one of my favorite animated shows.
Tenuous Pterodactyl
I definitely understand having issues with this finale. As much as I enjoyed it there were quite a few things that rubbed me the wrong way and so many things felt rushed. Which makes sense given the crazy stuff that went on with the production of this show. I think if they knew they were definitely getting a second season they wouldn't have tied up everything so quickly, and we could've gotten Korra's journey to relearn her bending. Having said that, this was still a pretty solid season and I loved seeing Iroh in action and the reveal of Bumi was great! Looking forward to your reactions for season 2 when you get back from your break!
Nick Z
This season was so great it blew my mind when I found out how bad this show was fucked over by the studio. Talk about art through adversity.
Sean TankTop
Totally Lorenzo! I would bet a sizable chunk of change that material will be what they cover in this first feature film they produce at Avatar Studios.
Lorenzo Baxter
Totally fair point, I've just never gotten the news about movies, and of course after the fuck up movie that shan't be mentioned, that was probably tossed in the dumpster. I just know about certain plot points they had mapped out, like an Azula redemption arc, which would've been sick as hell to see.
Sean TankTop
I'm pretty sure that there was never a Season 4 concieved. The movies make more sense and it's just not a good follow-up to the enormity of the scope of ATLA's story. https://screenrant.com/avatar-last-airbender-season-4-rumor-debunked-creators/ If I was a betting man, I think that The Search's story will be the framework for the feature film that Bryke are working on now. If you wanted a story that is fairly self-contained, holds a lot of emotional purchase with the fandom, all the VAs can still slip into their parts and will rally nearly everyone to Paramount + to check it out, I would bet they'll take a crack at that before we get another full-fledged series.
Nick Smerkanich
that final scene with Tarlok is hauntingly beautiful- always sticks with me. Have a great day everyone!!
Lorenzo Baxter
I never heard about movies but I do know the avatar comics were supposed to be season 4, which was scrapped.
Michelle
yeah props a lot to Bryke and the folks at studio mir for putting up with this whole production mess. It really wasn't their fault. And it wasnt just Korra that Nick fucked over in this era too. Most of the early 2010's had horrible management of their toons. Harvey Beaks and the 2012 TMNT cartoon also got screwed over.
Michelle
yesss! i cant wait for you guys to get to that like batshit final fight in the twilight movies. you know the one where Arno does that lil wacky laugh out of nowhere lol
Warpdrive
Yeah. Basically what happened with Korra is: Book 1 was planned as a miniseries. The plan afterwords was to do TV animated movies based on what eventually became the first couple of ATLA comics(The Promise, The Search, etc). Nick rejected doing movies as they weren't interested in doing any sort of TV movies at the time, and gave Bryan and Michael the episode order for Book 2 midway into production of Book 1(past the point where they could change the ending all that much). Book 1's premiere was so successful on TV that Nickelodeon greenlit them for another 26 episodes, which then became Books 3 and 4. So Books 2, and especially 3 and 4, feel like a more coherent story despite them still kind of having their own season stories/arcs due to Bryke being able to include some story threads and stuff that carry over.
Sean TankTop
We do talk about it.
Sean TankTop
We still got like 3 or 4 weekly posts to stave off that. Not to mention Eclipse and a few other things dropping. You'll get through it.
TrixieTurner
Yeah nickelodeon really fucked the creators when it came to Korra, they originally made this season as a mini series and it wasn't till the end that nickelodeon told em to make a season 2. Beyond that nickelodeon constantly dicked them around with the number of seasons and episodes they'd get and they could and couldn't do, to the point where they didn't want an overarching bad guy and wanted each season to have its own self contained conflict. It's honestly impressive LoK came out as good as it did despite the deck being stacked against them and really speaks to the creators and writers ability.
Michelle
oh man that breaks gonna kill me i love yalls korra reactios so much 😭! but anyway, im so glad yall are finally done with season 1. and i look forward to all the future korra and ATLA stuff!
Sean TankTop
Oh god yes, we’re just super burnt out and want to get everything cuaght up with on YT, but we still got dope ATLA stuff dropping on both those weeks
Lorenzo Baxter
I dont know if you guys talk about it in the reaction, but if the ending felt fast or whatever, Nickelodeon misled Bryan and Michael (the creators of the show) giving them just this first season. So they thought this was it. This was originally meant to be the series finale. But then they got a season 2, which Nickelodeon fucked with them more by slicing the budget.
SaviorOfNirn
I'm sad that a break is happening for Korra, but I'm glad you're going to still continue it. It's so worthwhile to watch the whole show.
Jacob Shaw
I remember the first time watching this episode and seeing the end of Amon and Tarrlok just... Just whoa. The writers did not fuck around! I will say, there are a few more brutal death scenes in season 3 that I know you guys are going to love so I can't wait.😈