Fixing Korrasami and the End of Korra

POSTAL ADDRESS (if you're kind enough to send me a letter or something!)

Tim Hickson
PO Box 69062
Lincoln, 7608
Canterbury, New Zealand

Script by meeeeeeeee
Video edited by Lalit Kumar

The artist who design my cover photo:

Stay nerdy!
Tim

[crimsoneclipse]

The series would have so mich better if they build the gang as friends more before they dived right into the love triangle. Like, make us care about them first before you make them lovers.

[tenshi]

I don't think having mako die is a good decision. Like you said, it makes the ending a lot more somber, but I think it has more rippling effects past that. With how this plays out, mako dies on bad terms with kora and asami, and then they get together right after his funeral, which is like... Damn? That's rough buddy

[BeastRider]

KORRA GREAT.

..but I still feel like Mako needed more attention even in this re-write. Him having non-bending prejudice is really good conflict, but as the story goes on it still feels more like he's just there to be the team fire bender more than anything. Back when season 1 of Korra was airing, the memes for him surrounded his being a team mom, and to this day I still feel like that could have been his most defining roll in team Avatar. Mako being overprotective of Bolin, Asami, and Korra could have been a good dynamic for the team, and I thought this would be an interesting contrast with his natural insensitivity and emotional immaturity. Him being the older sibling and losing his parents forces him to grow up fast - he would learn to take care of himself and his bother (domestic and responsible) but develop an unhealthy callousness as a coping mechanism. It would contrast even more with Bolin's seemingly boundless optimism, and avoid him being Katara 2.0. Perhaps it could have been Wu that finally breaks through to him, having Mako tearfully open up and admitting he misses Bolin during the book 4 conflict or something. It could be part of a series long arc for him that tragically ends in his death.

[dallasgrey]

A way to get around the Opal airbender/Beifong problem in this rewrite, is to make it so that Sue kind of has a connection with Opal, who could be an orphan. Opal as an airbender might stop by Zhou Fu often, and is invited into the family in a way. That way she is still an airbender and has a connection to the Beifongs

[samweli__]

Man you got me over here grieving over Mako's non cannon death 😭

You did a great job with this series, had me on the edge of my seat through all four videos.

[SirBucketing]

so when i first saw the final episode, i didn't even think they were in a relationship (granted i was young and naive) but there was nothing building up to it, so when i did learn that it was supposed to be a romantic relationship i was surprised. so i think you building up to it is really good. because when i first saw it i genuinely thought they were going on a " Girl's trip" to the spirit realm

[trace]

I'm enjoying these rewrites (KORRA GREAT), but one thing- if you're abiding by the same episode limitations that the Korra team had, you should only give yourself 12 episodes to fit everything in. Bryan Konietzko wrote a post on his Tumblr at the time the show was airing talking about how Nick had cut the show's budget for season 4, and they had to make a choice between making a clipshow episode to save money or fire some of their staff to cut costs. I don't think they were happy about having to do "Remembrances" either.

[froukje]

My god I am so invested in this. Let me tell you--Audiobooks are NOT my thing. My mind always wanders and ends up anywhere else rather than the story i'm supposedly listening to, but your rewrites had me hanging on to every word. I honestly felt like a little kid again, leaning my head on a pillow close to the screen and watching my favourite series better than ever before. Thank you so much for doing this

[arando]

Maybe it's just me but I always got the feeling that the Fire Nation in Korra's time was undergoing a mirror to the Japanese Sakoku isolationist policy

[red_skies]

“Mako is just being Mako”. Pretty much sums up his character in each season

[ClockworkBlade]

I imagine the cannon moving through the city slowly. Stopping regularly to fire a sweep across the city, leveling parts of the city, destroying forces and blasting key buildings and locations to take out any place for the enemy to hide…. A nightmare on the battle field for sure

[lukereynolds]

I think one missed opportunity in your rewrite is in the episode where korra visits zaheer in his prison. In the original story, this part is focused on her reconnection with rava. I think in this version, you have her reconnect with vatu. Rava being the spirit of order would love kuvira. And I think it would be really interesting if we saw rava speak about how kuvira is doing it all correct. Then we have korra find vatu, and vatu opens up her eyes to how the chaos she feared so much in season 3 is the only thing that protects the everyday person from people like kuvira. Great job though love this!

[Great_Olaf]

Your description of the situation with Ikki being rescued from the Earth Kingdom soldiers implies to me that you changed the scene where she basically Lima Syndromed them into letting her go (I know she was technically rescued in the original, but she was really close, and the way she talks right after implies that she was doing it completely on purpose, and that was freaking hilarious).

I could see Kuvira doing the camps thing, less as a concentration camp reference and more as a re-education camp reference, plus a bit of a reference to how the Earth Queen was capturing the airbenders in the original show (I know you nixed that because of your shift in how the new airbenders emerged in this). Less a racist, revanchist action, more as a pragmatic "these people have abilities that could be valuable to the empire, and if they're living here they must be made to serve us by any means necessary." kind of action.

[Sootielove]

I've always thought the best come from a love or passion for the original, and this series shows it. You really highlight what works and what doesn't with Korra and you capture the tone of the original while improving it drastically. I'll always love Korra but I love exploring the ways it could have been better

[chillpill]

A huge issue I’ve alway had when it came to Korra was how they showed off character struggles. It felt like a lot of the time instead of the problem a certain character is facing being the main issue, it is the lover of the character being mad at them and that is where the struggle is derived. I.E Bolin stuggling with the morality of working with Kuviera being manifested by Opal. Macos struggle as a cop being Manifested by korra. And Genora wanting to rebel, Manifested through Kai. The writers seem to think that a great way to show a character is struggling or changing, is to give them love related conflicts and it starts to feel forced and overdone.

[laurenthomas]

Korras disability, depression and development in season 4 was very important and meaningful to me as a newly disability teenager when I watched it - it was done beautifully

[joshlincoln]

@Hello Future Me
Only watched half way through, so far, but I'm enjoying how this is all continuing on from previous videos and I agree with the omissions.

One thing I'd do differently: Korra only gets her earthbending back in the swamp, not her firebending. There are some narrative reasons for this: Korra only needs her earthbending to remove the metal poison and, in your reimagining, she has only regained one element at a time so far. Conceptually, earth is the element of substance, and you must have inner and outer strength to move the element (see Toph's lessons to Aang). So Korra needs the firm will and the resolve to alter the substance inside her and remove the metal, which she learns through Toph and the badgermoles.
She regains her firebending when she goes to Zaheer. Up until this point, she has lost her drive and her passion for being the avatar - two things which are essential for firebending. And it is the trauma and fear of Zaheer that is stopping her - similar to how Zuko's firebending is blocked by his loss of purpose after he renounces his Father. So she confronts Zaheer, and he confirms her strength and zeal (like he does in the show) and motivates her to regain that courage and drive to go into the spirit realm, thus resolving her psychological/spiritual crisis. She then encounters a dragon spirit (maybe even Fang with Roku) and does the dancing dragon with it to regain her bending.

I've been looking forward to this final reworking for weeks now - really looking forward to seeing how you conclude this. Hope you like my ideas Tim. And please take care of yourself - these weekly reviews of RoP and HotD must be tiring along with your usual content. You owe us nothing more than you owe yourself health and happiness, and we will understand if you need to take a break.

[wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus]

Kuvira turning out to be the good guy would have been such a great ending, and a clever subversion of Chosen One trope this universe is fundamentally built on. It is crazy how much unused potential there is with The Legend of Korra.

[darkmatter]

Honestly Im so glad you're making this tbh, I finally see someone say korrasami was underdeveloped and how s4 was weird as hell

[Chorismos]

Thanks for this Tim. I especially Hated how Kuvira was simultaneously cartoonishly Evil and Sympathetic. Especially considering she commited genocide.