Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most popular animated shows in the West. The series received critical acclaim and will return to our screens with a live-action adaptation from Netflix. However, The Legend of Korra, a spin-off of the original with a female protagonist did not receive the same amount of fanfare.
After the original series championed the portrayal of strong female characters and depicted a deconstruction of patriarchal ideas, the spin-off series faced several obstacles. The Legend of Korra received poor treatment from Nickelodeon as it was sabotaged because of sexism. Here is how sexism prevented The Legend of Korra from being as great as its predecessor.
The Legend of Korra Executive Producer Talks Sexist Obstacles of the Avatar Spin-off
The Legend of Korra debuted on Nickelodeon in 2012. It served as a spin-off to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which ran for three seasons and received critical acclaim. Unlike the original, the spin-off series featured a female protagonist. However, the series faced several obstacles because of this creative choice.
In 2023, Yoo Jae-Myung, an executive producer of the series spoke about how sexism affected the production of The Legend of Korra during a conversation with The INNERview. He told host Susan Lee MacDonald that Nickelodeon was hesitant to greenlight the series because of its female protagonist.
“Production was suspended because the protagonist was a girl.”
Yoo Jae-Myung made the above statement, implying that Nickelodeon was not on board with the idea of a female-led Avatar spin-off. He added that the production was also never guaranteed future seasons unlike the original which received a sixty-episode order from the get-go. Moreover, the spin-off also did not receive a decent marketing push like the original.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Gave a Strong Message Against Sexism
Avatar: The Last Airbender primarily focused on Aang but also had a cast of other strong female characters, who set the stage for Korra to later take the spotlight. In the original series, characters such as Katara face systematic sexism because of the nature of the society they live in.
The character Sokka, a warrior of the Water Tribe, is the embodiment of the sexism among the Water Tribe. Initially, Sokka is depicted as immature and sexist since he does not trust any female warriors. However, as the story progresses, Sokka slowly learns to respect and appreciate the skills of the female warriors.
Sokka’s character development in the original series leaves a strong message against sexism and patriarchy. Thus, Avatar: The Last Airbender did a lot of hard work to give its female characters the respect they deserve through the lens of Sokka. However, the original’s good work was undone by the obstacles that plagued the female-led spin-off series.
Given the character work in the original, a female-led series set in the same world should have scaled new heights. However, The Legend of Korra was eventually demoted to an online release by Nickelodeon and could never reach the heights of its predecessor. Nonetheless, with the Netflix live-action remake, an entirely new section of viewers will likely discover the spin-off as well.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are streaming on Netflix and Paramount+.
