Avatar: The Last Airbender was a children's TV show that grabbed the hearts of adults and kids alike. The action was exciting and fresh, and the characters had a depth that you do not often come across in a cartoon. When the last season, referred to as Book Three: Fire, was over, while it ended satisfactorily, we all felt an empty place in our TV-watching hearts at the hole it had left. So when it was announced that there would be a sequel, we all leaped with joy and eagerly counted the days, hours, and minutes till The Legend of Korra premiered.

Worries that the successor to Aang's legacy would not be able to compare were short-lived. Korra exceeded our expectations and punched our worries in the guts. She was tough and brazen, with a heart the size of the Earth Kingdom, and her Books were a must to all fans of the original series. We did not watch solely for the nostalgia we drank up every time characters from The Last Airbender were mentioned. Korra's own friends became the reason we watched so ardently. Jinora, Bolin, Mako, Asami, and more became the cast of characters we would remember fondly once The Legend of Korra was over.

Since Korra and her friends started the show at an older age than Aang, it makes sense that the issues plaguing them from Book One to Book Four would be more mature. Some of the complications and dangers facing Korra were so mature as to be downright dark. Within the show as well as without, problems beset Korra's existence, and the reasons behind them might surprise you.

20 Fights Like A Girl

The foremost attribute about Korra that separates her from Aang as an Avatar is her raw strength. As soon as we met her as a little tyke in the Southern Water Tribe, she was just busting moves using the three elements she had at her command. Korra is a fighter. While both Aang and herself had great heart and compassion, there was no doubt that she had more steel within than he did.

That didn't stop Nickelodeon executives from worrying that the show would not appeal to a male audience. They did not believe that a show featuring a female protagonist would do well with the boys who would watch. We find this lack of faith disturbing. When the show was tested with screenings, the boys watching had no qualms about gender. Her awesomeness was the bottom line.

19 166 And Still So Young

When Aang got lost in the storm that left him and his flying bison frozen at the bottom of the ocean, he was twelve years old. He spent one hundred years in the ice sphere, stuck as a twelve-year-old. After he got out and lived his life, he expired at the age of 166. However, biologically, he was only 66.

We as an audience do not feel this too greatly when we find this out because his "spirit" lives on within Korra. However, this is hugely tragic when you think on the fact that Aang was the first of his friends to go. They all became far older, and outlived the Avatar they had come to know and love over the years. Apparently, some of Aang's energy was expended as he spent those years frozen in time, and that is why he wasted away at the relatively young age of 66.

18 Same Old World

When watching Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra, we are treated to a world that looks visually different from ours. The architecture is reminiscent of some of our cultures, but it is a pleasant amalgamation. The addition of human mastery over the elements adds another layer in how their world operates differently than ours. Unfortunately, Korra's world and our world can be uncomfortably similar, and this is apparent when Korra comes out to her parents.

After visiting the Spirit World, Korra and her girlfriend Asami head over to Korra's home village in the South Pole. Once there, Korra comes out to her parents. They react wonderfully, but they warn Korra about being open about her relationship to the rest of the world. They caution her that others might not be so understanding. This relays to us as fans that the prejudices that we have to endure in our world exist in Korra's, and we would be lying if that didn't depress us somewhat.

17 Who Elected You?

In Book One: Air, when Korra first comes to Republic City, we, as well as she, meet the United Republic Council for the first time. Korra's airbending teacher, Tenzin, serves on the Council as well as one of this season's antagonists, Councilman Tarrlok. The other three council members remain nameless for the most part. This group runs the city, which means they make decisions which affect thousands of people. With that much power, it begs the question: who elected them?

The answer? No one. No one voted to for single person on the council. It's never said how the members in Book One got their positions, but it is told that the first members of the United Republic Council were appointed by Avatar Aang. He selected each person as representatives of their respective nations. While we're sure Aang would never select someone inappropriate or ill-suited to the job, his method of governing Republic City did not last, as the people of Republic City later decided to have a democratically elected president after the council dissolved.

16 The First And Only Dark Avatar

The Avatar, as seen in the shows as Aang and Korra, is supposed to be the embodiment of good. They represent the power of light. We know their strength by seeing their incredible ability to bend all four of the elements and the occasional appearance of the Avatar State, during which they become ten times as powerful as they normally are. In Book Two: Spirits, we got to see how the Avatars came into existence, and we got a better understanding about how the spiritual side of the Avatar functions.

We also got to witness the rise of the first Dark Avatar. Until this Book, we never even knew such a thing could exist. But with the series' focus on bringing balance to the world, we should have expected a dark side to the Avatar's light side. When we first meet Korra's uncle, Unalaq, he seemed only to want to bring harmony between the physical world and the Spirit World. But what we didn't guess is that part of his plan to bring "harmony" was to become a Dark Avatar by allowing Vaatu, the spirit of chaos and darkness, to join with him just as Raava, the spirit of light and peace, had joined with Wan, the first Avatar.

15 In Sickness And In Health...

Kuvira was a steely-eyed antagonist with the physical and bending strength to match Korra's. You knew she meant business as soon as you first met her in Book Four: Balance. She did an excellent job of stabilizing the Earth Kingdom after the anarchy that reigned after the Earth Queen Hou-Ting was murdered, but she took it a little too far. In trying to bring order to the Earth Kingdom again, she began to desire to control it herself. We believe her intentions initially were decent, but she quickly turned into a controlling dictator.

During her attack on Republic City in her giant mecha suit, her fiancee was captured by our heroes. Her fiancee, Baatar Jr., was the son of Suyin, Kuvira's former mentor. Korra threatened to keep Baatar away from Kuvira for as long as they lived if he didn't convince Kuvira to stop the attack on Republic City. Since Baatar Jr. loved Kuvira so much, he made the call, begging her to stop so they could be together. His loving fiancee traced his call, told him she loves him, and then aimed her arm cannon at his position. Then she fired. Cold? Nah, that's just Kuvira.

14 Discrimination Throughout The Ages

Besides being an Avatar of the highest caliber, Kyoshi was bi. Korra finds this out after talking with Kya, Avatar Aang's daughter, about her own situation with Asami. Kya, who also prefers women to men, told Korra that her father was nothing but supportive of her. However, she gives Korra the same warning that Korra's parents told Korra: the world won't be as understanding. Kya goes on to tell of Avatar Kyoshi's preference for both men and women and how she tried to get the world to accept this, but couldn't make any progress.

We tend to idealize our favorite fictional worlds. But just because we picture a world a certain way, does not make it so, especially when comic books that expand the canon come out and dismiss our hopes so summarily. But what is important to remember is that by including the topic into the story, the creators are promoting acceptance, or at very least a discussion about it.

13 Lin's Scars

Our introduction to Lin Beifong, Chief of Police at Republic City, is her arresting Korra in a thrilling new display of metalbending. We had seen Toph metalbend in Avatar:The Last Airbender, but we had never seen her use metal cables spooled in devices at her wrists to sling herself around like Spider-man. Lin, Toph's daughter, lived up to her mother's name, metalbending like a master and sporting twin scars on one of her cheeks. We assumed that her scars might have come from some epic battle against a perp resisting arrest or something like that. Her scars tell of quite a different tale.

Lin's younger sister, Suyin, was a bit of a troublemaker. With a famous mother, you either try to follow in her footsteps or you rebel, and Suyin chose to rebel. Lin, on the other hand, joined the police force her mother had created. While on patrol, Lin intercepts a car racing away from a robbery. She stops it with some crack metalbending, only to discover that Suyin was the driver of the vehicle. Suyin snarkily tries to walk away, so Lin sends a metal cable to restrain her. Suyin, who can metalbend as well, snapped the cables away, sending them to lash against Lin's cheek, scarring her for life.

12 Why Did You Do The Thing, Zhu Li?

The eccentric Varrick was a delightful new character we met in Book Two: Spirits, so hilariously refreshing. Meeting him was akin to meeting King Bumi for the first time in Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, his wacky genius behavior could not hide the cruel treatment of his poor assistant, Zhu Li. Varrick was the dictator of her life, constantly throwing around insane orders, one of which was to physically carry him places. These interactions were considered comedic, but when she yelled at him in Book Four and abandoned him, we understood why. He had treated her like less than dirt. It was no wonder that she left him to join Kuvira.

When we found out that she had only joined Kuvira to sabotage her and that she was still loyal to Varrick, some of us cheered. Others had their mouths drop open in shock. Varrick had done nothing to earn her loyalty in all the time we had seen them together. And what's worse, they decided to get married. Sure, it was comedic and cute. But seriously. He made her carry him on her back 20 miles a day while she had a sprained ankle. This can't be a healthy relationship.

11 A Link To Aang

Korra's battle with the Dark Avatar brought about one of the most horrendous moments of the show. During her battle with Unavaatu, he managed to pull Raava out of Korra's body. Raava was the spirit of light that had made countless Avatars have the ability to master all of the elements. Not only that, but she had connected all of the Avatar's lives to each other through generation after generation. After she had been yanked out of Korra, Raava was thrown onto the ground and beaten until every past life of the Avatar had been destroyed.

With those links gone, even after Korra returned Raava back inside her and subdued Vaatu, she no longer had access to any of her past lives. This was clearly devastating for her, for she had no one she could turn to for advice on Avatar matters. But it was also deeply wounding for fans. We would never again be able to see Aang help Korra out as Roku was able to appear to Aang in the previous show. And that was something we had been looking forward to.

10 Vacuuming Your Problems Away

If we're being totally honest with you and ourselves, we thought the Earth Queen was a horrible woman who deserved to die. There. We said it (typed it). She was a hateful woman who maintained the line between rich and poor in her kingdom and she kidnapped airbenders to form her own personal army. So when the criminal Zaheer used his newfound airbending skills to suck the air from her lungs, we weren't too devastated.

But that death is actually quite haunting when you consider the manner in which she went. Air was forcibly removed from her lungs, and she had to panic helplessly as Zaheer's air stream sphere kept any air from returning to her. She went out with her hands at her throat and a probably pretty intense burn building in her lungs. After figuring that out, we decided that while we're still glad she got removed from power, we wish she could have grown a conscience and retired instead.

9 You're My Favorite

If you are in a family with siblings, then you've probably faced the big question: Do my parents have a favorite child? Now, we're all the children of mundane parents (I'm assuming), but imagine if your father was Avatar Aang, savior of the world from an oppressive Fire Nation Fire Lord. The pressure of wondering who your famous father preferred would be quite heavier.

Kya and Bumi, two of Aang's children had to wonder about this after Aang's youngest child, Tenzin, was born. Aang was the last airbender alive in the first show, so the need to pass on his airbending knowledge to his airbending son was vitally important for the continuation of his culture. As such, he spent a lot of time with Tenzin instead of with Bumi or Kya. While sad, this is understandable. However, after he passed on, Aang left most of his possessions to Tenzin. Ouch, Aang. Great Avatar, maybe not so great a parent.

8 Sparky Boom Boom Girl

We were first introduced to the odd and rare combustionbending in Avatar: The Last Airbender when Aang and the gang are attacked by the man Sokka referred to as "Sparky Boom Boom Man." (It's a very apt description.) In both Aang and Korra's stories, we only meet one other person like him, and it's P'Li, one of Zaheer's followers in the Red Lotus. With a thin eye inscribed on her forehead, P'Li can unleash explosive attacks on her enemies by facing them, taking a breath, and then sending a beam from her third eye that explodes on contact.

She's a tough opponent, and someone that you would want on your team. Her unique bending is a valuable commodity, valuable enough for a warlord to kidnap her and train her to be his personal assassin. She had to escape that life, and she was saved by Zaheer, the man she ends up following and loving. This garners her some sympathy in our books.

7 Why Do Shows Always Kill Moms?

Asami Sato is one of the The Legend of Korra's strongest female characters (second only to Korra, of course), and she is a nonbender. She can hold her own thanks to superb self-defense training she received when she was young. She is adept at hand-to-hand combat, and her knowledge of machines and vehicles makes her a force to contend with.

Her defense training came about because of a harrowing ordeal when she was only six years old. The Agni Kai Triad, one of the gangs plaguing Republic City, broke into her family's mansion and robbed the place. In the process of breaking in, they killed her mother. The fact that these benders could just come in and take from his family angered Asami's father so much, that he joined the Equalists in the hopes of leveling the playing field.

6 My Metalbending Ex-Girlfriend

In the annals of the history between Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, there is the story of Tenzin and Lin's relationship. Hundreds of fans flocked to the idea that Toph's daughter and Aang's son had a relationship. Many of them have written fanfictions and drawn fanart depicting what the relationship was and what it could be if Tenzin left his wife, Pema. Regardless, here are the facts of what happened.

Tenzin and Lin were at the rocky end of their relationship. Their separate career goals were tearing them apart. Pema, an Air Acolyte, loved Tenzin with all of her heart, so much so that she decided to confess her love to him. Upon learning this, Tenzin realized that he loved Pema too, so he broke up with Lin and started a relationship with Pema. Lin, as you could probably guess, was none too happy with this. She sorely abused her power and tried to have Pema arrested. On what crime, no one knows.

5 The Kuvira Problem

Parents form their children a lot more than those children might like to admit. Decisions that a parent will make can affect their child for years to come. For Kuvira, her parents' unexplained reasons for abandoning her as a child shaped her to be the control-driven woman she ended up becoming. When she was eight years old, her parents left her, and she was practically adopted by Suyin Beifong, the leader of Zaofu. She excelled under Suyin's tutelage, and she eventually became the captain of the guards at Zaofu.

However, when the Earth Kingdom was in peril of becoming a chaotic mess, she stepped in to guide it because she felt that the world was abandoning it to disorder. She connected her experience of abandonment with what was happening to the Earth Kingdom, and she took it personally. That's why she became such a maniac of order and control. She couldn't let what had happened to her happen to her whole kingdom. Only goes to show that parents should really consider what they're doing to their children. (I wonder who Emperor Palpatine's parents are?)

4 Yakone And His Child Cronies

Speaking of parents messing up their children, Yakone's parenting skills are a shining example of what not to do. Yakone was a big bad crime lord in Republic City during Aang's time as Avatar. A notorious criminal, he was eventually apprehended, and when he displayed his fearsome bloodbending abilities during his trial, Aang did what he had to do and removed Yakone's bending.

Yakone made it out of prison a nonbender, and he moved to the Northern Water Tribe to start a new life. His new life changed when his wife gave birth to two waterbending boys, and Yakone decided to teach them bloodbending so that they could avenge their father against the Avatar. He drilled them relentlessly, forcing them to bloodbend poor polar critters until one day, he asked his youngest son, Tarrlok, to bloodbend his oldest, Noatak. Tarrlok tearfully refused. Yakone moved forward as if to beat Tarlok, but Noatak bloodbent his father to stop him. Noatak scornfully called his father weak and threw him aside. Yakone stopped teaching his sons and died a few years later with his vengeance unfulfilled.

3 I Believe I Can Fly

Zaheer was an amazing antagonist for Korra to face because his goals seemed... reasonable. Whenever he spoke, he sounded articulate. And when he said that all he wanted for the world was freedom, that doesn't sound too bad. By "freedom," he means a lack of restraint and order though, which isn't good if people are harming each other. Nevertheless, he was a fairly charismatic opponent.

Zaheer ends up learning how to fly, to truly fly, not using airbending to propel himself up in the air. He becomes weightless. When the portal to the Spirit World was opened, it caused the balance in the world to shift, creating new airbenders among the population. Zaheer was one of them. He spent some time in an air temple, learning from Guru Laghima, who achieved true flight. Laghima stated that in order to become untethered, you had to lose all earthly attachments. Zaheer seems well on his way to this level, but he still has one huge attachment: P'Li, his combustionbending girlfriend. When she dies in battle, his last attachment is lost as well, and he rises from the earth.

2 No Good Movie For Us

The live-action Avatar:The Last Airbender movie was... disappointing, to put it lightly. Off-putting casting choices and some of the cringiest line deliveries known to man are just a few of the problems besetting M. Night Shyamalan's attempt at putting our favorite cartoon show on the big screen. After seeing that bucket of ruined expectations, we liked to imagine a world in which the show's creators were the ones in charge of making an Avatar movies.

And you want to know the sucky thing? They almost did. The creators pitched to Nickelodeon an idea for an animated movie as a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nickelodeon didn't go for it, so that movie remains lost to us. Luckily, the plot that would have gone in the movie was used in the Avatar comics The Promise, The Search, and The Rift. If you have not read these comic issues published by Dark Horse Comics and you are an Avatar fan, go find them immediately. They are worth your time and money.

1 Valid Complaints

Perhaps the most unsettling thing about Korra's villains versus Aang's is that they make some degree of sense in what they are pursuing; they just go about it in the wrong way. Fire Lord Ozai, the villain in Avatar: The Last Airbender was a man obsessed with gaining power and dominion over others. He had his own father killed and would not have hesitated to kill his son (for more on Zuko, check out my list right here). That's a man you can definitely get behind hating.

However, each of Korra's antagonists fought for some cause that was understandable to us. Amon, leader of the Equalists, wanted to create equality between benders and nonbenders. Unalaq wanted to bring balance to the physical and Spirit World. Zaheer wanted to spread freedom to everyone. And Kuvira wanted to bring order to the Earth Kingdom where there was none. When taken out of context, none of their aims sound bad. Of course, Amon was a bloodbending liar, Unalaq became a power-mad Dark Avatar, Zaheer thought freedom was complete anarchy, and Kuvira wanted order with an iron fist. But still. Their causes, at least, were valid. No wonder poor Korra suffered in Book Four when she looked back on all her fights. So many of these antagonists' worthy goals involved her out of the picture. At least people wanted Aang to fight the Fire Lord.