So I’ve been reading a lot about how people are comparing Korra to Aang and saying that Aang is the better of the two Avatar’s. I guess I can’t really say that the people stanning for Aang are wrong but I think there’s something to be said for Korra as a character that I’m not seeing said (and that could be because I’m just not following the right convos jsyk).
Korra in my mind isn’t a fuck up for the sake of not trying. She’s naive. She mistakenly thinks that busting up some ‘bad guys’ are going to solve the problem. She mistakenly thinks that she’s going to be amazing at pro bending because she’s the avatar so of course she’d be awesome. She mistakenly thinks that joining the Task Force and busting up some Equalists is going to solve the problem of bending vs non-bending social issues. She mistakenly thinks Amon isn’t interested in fighting her at the statue. She mistakenly thinks that because she’s challenged Amon to a duel one on one, that he’s not going to show up with a bunch of people to jump her. She’s naive and she doesn’t think beyond the action.
Aangs wisdom lay in that he knew that you have to think BEYOND the current problem to the outcome and how it would effect things beyond the now and into the future. That idea alone is a core principal of pacifism. That doesn’t mean that Aang knew exactly what would happen as the outcome and sometimes he was quite surprised.
Korra has a hard time looking beyond the problem at hand and to how her actions will change things in the long run. She doesn’t think that busting in on Equalists in training or beating up a Anti-Bender protester is only going to piss non benders off more. Korra doesn’t look beyond the action. She just acts.
She doesn’t think that Amon would show up with a bunch of Chi-Blockers to jump her, because she expects him to be an honorable fighter (I mean he gave those benders a chance to fight him alone before taking their bending away). She throws down the guys from the Triple Threat Triad without thinking of the safety of the people around her or the damages she’s going to inflict. It makes one wonder if she’s ever had to think of the safety of others when she was bending.
Aang was awesome. He was adorable, bad ass and in a way almost perfect. He was for the most part a paragon of what was good and whole and just (which doesn’t mean he didn’t go through his rough patches).
Korra is not Aang. Korra is a DEEPLY flawed character which I think makes her incredibly interesting to watch. My hope is that Korra will come into Aang’s circle of wisdom as we progress through the series, because lets face it, if she’s like this at the very beginning she’s going to change and it’s going to be pretty drastic.
Storytelling at it’s core is a path of change and Korra’s path is going to turn her into quite a different person by the end of the series.
