I just wanted to highlight this rather simple comment and suggestion from @@TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net. This youtube series is a great watch.
Avatar: The Last Airbender might have some rather lib’d up parts, but there was so much more interesting philosophy in that show. Specifically surrounding the idea of rehabilitation regarding Zuko. It handles the nature of empire far better as well when dealing with the Fire Nation.
There are so many things about Korra that could have been interesting things to explore. It’s mentioned in the video series, but the thing that has always stood out to me is the cheapening of bending as a form of both labor and cultural and personal expression.
In ATLA, there are many feats of bending that are held in extremely high regard, especially in terms of the skill required to perform them. Metal Bending is the result of Toffs extremely developed earth bending skills. Lightning Bending is a skill reserved for only elite fire benders, and the power to redirect lightning is held by only two characters in the whole series. Aang learns the power of the Avatar State through much struggle, and also learns the ability of energy bending from an ancent mythical creature.
There is this real sense of connection between Bending and Nature expressed on ATLA. The idea that some of the original benders were natural creatures, like Dragons, or Badger Moles or Lion Turtle drives home this idea that in order to bend an element, you must be in tune with that element, understand it in both a physical and spiritual capacity.
But in Korra all of that uniqueness is wiped away. Now, tossing lightning is the work of Power Grid laborers. Something your average fire bender can perform for a wage at the electrical company. Pro Bending is a kind of distillation of the bending art form into extremely narrow base components and movements that restricts the kind of creativity and expressiveness found in ATLA, and all performed in a hyper-competitive environment for the chance at becoming rich and famous. Blood Bending, once something only capable of being performed under a full moon, is something that can be trained to perform under any conditions. It’s become a powerful bending tool that can even take away someone’s bending. The implications of which are beyond the scope of what I’m writing here, but just another example of the cheapening of ATLAs feats. Even Aang is thrown into the mix, being shown to use his energy bending ability to punish low level criminals (by comparison).
In the case of lighting bending and pro bending, these are expressions of a kind of alienation we all understand to be a core attribute of Capitalism. This is an interesting idea that the show never explores. What does it mean to be an Earth Bender, in a world where the cultural norms associated with earth bending and the earth kingdom have been destroyed, or warped, by these new social relations? What kind of techniques and skills could have been lost under seeking this new, more efficient form of bending? And what does it mean to be a “master of all 4 elements” in world where increasingly, bending is being whittled down to only its most useful forms in support of this new industrial world?
One could imagine an avatar series that draws on similar themes to that of Princess Mononoki or Castle In The Sky. One that tries to find the “balance” between industrialization and our existence within nature (aka the connection to the elements). Instead, what we get is a show that undermines the achievements of its predecessor, while having almost nothing of value to say at all.
Korra’s liberalism is more obvious, but imo this is bc it actually carries through the material consequences of ATLA’s ending into peacetime i.e. the fire nation does imperialism, pollution, etc, but its treated as hecking wholesome bc the good guys are in charge. But for all that, I appreciate the realism of Korra. It is a true believer in liberalism making a show about liberalism, and it actually depicts liberalism/capitalisms development in a world with fantastical elements really, really accurately.
Like we must remember that AtLA ends with Zuko’s fire nation promising to share their innovations “but we’ll be nice this time” (you know who else said he’d be nice about it? Sozin!!). It ends with every single fire nation bureaucrat, aristocrat, general, businessmen etc still in power. Theres no mention of a purge or restructuring of society. The monarchy continues, the businesses continue to export capital and exploit cheap labour and pollute the world. We dont see this until the comics and korra, but the seeds are already present in atla.
Zuko and Iroh’s redemption arcs are also very personal, based on family dynamics with little/no focus on how they make ammends to the people they wrong. Earth Nation victims of the fire nation are used merely to develop the internal feelings of the colonisers. Mass movements against imperialism are basically non-existent in the show, its all groups of elites fighting either other elites or faceless goons. The entire ideology of the show is left-liberalism.
All that is to say, imo theres much more ideological and artistic continuity between korra and atla than most people admit. Part of this imo is we agree more with liberals on the subjects of atla (liberals and communists both generally agree that invading countries is bad), but when it comes to the subjects of Korra (what should happen after the invader is defeated, how should the economy and politics develop) we have much harsher disagreement with liberals.
Overall I generally agree with most of your cricisisms of the society korra depicts; but imo the fact that the show depicts the alienation, the homogenisation, the commodification, etc, isnt the issue so much as the fact that all of it is framed uncritically as just the “natural progression of society”.