Fixing Legend of Korra

if you think you can write something better then do it with today's sponsor campfire links all down below i love legend of korra and it's fine if you don't but that's the truth of it it's full of great characters and stories and gorgeous animation that will always stay with me hell season 3 is just as good if not better than the last airbender at times but it's also not perfect that's fine no story is and there are any number of reasons for that there was a lot of studio interference screwing with the show by cutting

their budget mid-production forcing them to change production companies sabotaging their viewership by moving them online and yeah there were also some odd slash mix bad writing choices but that's why today we're gonna fix season 1 which features cora's best antagonist thief mender here are the rules 1. i have to do it in the same 12 episodes they wrote it thinking they would not get a second season so we will too two we are fixing the story not rewriting it entirely it's really easy to be that person who goes well you should have just done an

entirely different story but no there are a myriad of complicated reasons that the story turned out the way it did that you and i will probably never quite understand so we are gonna fix and change things yeah but we're working to elevate that story i see three main issues with the first season one they didn't establish or give enough consequences to the oppression of non-benders two the love triangle conflict doesn't really work that well so we need something else and three korozak is meant to be about her learning who she is without her bending and

amon taking it away is a huge part of that but we just don't get enough time to explore it deeply but before you hear my ideas tell me how you would rewrite the series down below episode 1 welcome to republic city the season opens with cora living a contained controlled life under the watchful eye of the white lotus she has a good grip on fire bending water bending and earth bending but not ear bending and we see she relies a lot on her passion and anger and independence as she fights and moves she's strong says

katara but she lacks restraint korra on the other hand is stoked three elements down barely an adult and ready to face the world she longs for freedom and to do what the avatar is meant to do right fight and justice this is the foundation for cora's character arc she's a prodigy who has had most things come to her in life easily she's the chief's daughter the prestige the power it's made her impulsive a little unempathetic and makes her easily frustrated when she can't get things quickly as well as overly reliant on violence and action rather

than listening and understanding tintin and his family arrive in the southern water tribe with korra expecting him to teach her about airbending and the spiritual side of being the avatar only to reveal republic city is unstable with tensions between benders and non-benders and because of that her training will need to wait core insists that just means that's where she needs to be the place with injustice and imbalance but tenzin refuses and leaves that night cora escapes with naga on a ship bound for republic city upon arriving in republic city cora is astounded she's never seen

so many bright lights before but she soon finds herself in the poorest parts of the city filled with the homeless the drug afflicted the impoverished she sees a bending police squadron clearing out a city park first peacefully and then with more of a threat the non-benders scatter in another place one group tries to light a fire and to announce herself as the avatar arriving in the city she conjures a fire for them and seats to sit down but when korra asks why none of them started a fire because surely one of them must be a

firebender they scoff they're all non-benders you think you'll find a fire bender down here make do make mend an old man says the others look at her nervously as if they're a little worried she might come after them but cora confused as to why people aren't excited at her arrival leaves only for a triple triad gang member to begin extorting the group korra inflamed with righteous anger turns back to save the non-benders and does so but destroys the surrounding neighborhood in the process the place these people clearly called home and nobody thanks her korra then

enters a wealthier part of the city but is stopped by a bender i saw where you came from i don't want thieves around these parts the police close in around her asking if there's any trouble but when she threatens him with bending the man backs off oh i'm sorry i thought you were one of them one of the major criticisms of season one was that it didn't show the inequality between vendors and non-benders enough we see a gang exploiting one person and that the council is maybe ruled entirely by benders but not much else we

don't see real systemic issues that demand real systemic reform this is one attempt to do that to show a city divided into pseudo classes with a deep cultural association of non-benders with stealing and crime something we see in the real world leading to classes divides and creating stereotypes i also wanted to show a systemic bias from the police to assist benders over non-benders being benders themselves that it's not like the average bender is going out of their way to hunt down non-benders but it's a lot more subtle in this society the episode ends with cora

finding the pro-bending arena this monolithic building that everyone seems to be heading towards and she also finds one of amon's pamphlets equality it reads at which point tenzin flies down to intercept her blocking her path you know word travels quickly when the avatar's in town he says a little frustrated we then get a cutaway scene of ammon learning that the avatar has arrived in the city as well and that they must accelerate their plans episode 2 a leaf in the wind tencen takes korra to air temple island away from the pro-bending arena much to her

product station insisting that she returned home but she refuses tenzin storms away frustrated cora then connects with pema janora and iki who try to teach her some basic air bending techniques she doesn't learn much but when tenzin returns and spiescore are trying to learn pema comes up behind him and encourages him to let korra stay tenzin goes to her i can't believe you followed me all this way when i specifically told you not to but i'm impressed so long as we can put that determination to good use with your studies cora punches the air fire

bolts all around ecstatic that night cora has her first dream of aang in the past those flashbacks to your cone and like in the show she's just going to get more of those dreams the following day tenzin takes cora for her first lesson he impresses on her that air bending is about attaining full control over yourself your emotions your body by detaching yourself from the world and the things that affect you not holding onto the past and allowing yourself to change not holding on to one idea of themselves a freezing gust of wind hits them

and chorus shivers but tenzin explains that they can even control their body temperature with careful use of their breath which is why it didn't affect him and keep that in mind because we're just gonna set that aside for later cora tries to airbend but she doesn't move with the world around her she relies on punching and kicking you know asserting herself on the world around her and as a result she's beaten in that spinning boards test she tries again and again and again but fails every single time getting more and more frustrated she is not

used to taking this long to get what is in her mind a very simple thing at the end of the lesson tenzin tells her firmly that attaching oneself includes things like pro-bending and he forbids her from going better from having tried and gotten nowhere cora sneaks out with genora to go and see the pro-bending tournament as in the show she meets marco and berlin who are down a member and she fills in tenzin arrives furious but sees cora putting the lessons he tried to teach her into practice in her own way during the tournament and

he starts to understand that she might have to learn this stuff on her own terms episode 3 the revelation tarlock another counselor in republic city watched cora perform and approaches her after the game you must be the avatar i've heard you're a natural a true prodigy he encourages her to join the council sometime to sit in and hear about the politics of the city with the instability between benders and non-benders that it'd be good to have the avatar to help maintain order i heard you dealt with this yourself first hand and i commend you korb

wants to loving this praise but tenzin insists that she stay out of politics it's here they're also approached by asami a non-bender and the owner of hiroshi industries so there's no hiroshi sato in this rewrite which i guess makes it a sami industries and that's because of our first major change asami is an equalist though she doesn't reveal that she offers to sponsor them noting it'd be well worth having the avatar's face for her company cora immediately hits it off with asami this charming beautiful girl from a whole other world to her who admires her

skills and says that she sees value in the avatar and marco initially refuses insisting that they don't need her money but bolin presses that well they're not going to make it very far without it reluctantly marco agrees cora wonders why marco was so opposed to taking asami's money to which they explained that their mother was murdered by a group of republic city non-benders during the riots a year ago apparently when this instability really kicked off and that since then marco has found it difficult to trust non-benders he describes a non-bender with a prosthetic leg and

scarred arm that he remembers the man's face and swears he will find him one day cora asks what he's going to do and marco says nothing i wanted to introduce this change because to be perfectly honest marco isn't that interesting in the first series bolin is likeable and delivers comedic relief and heart to the story cora is an interesting conflicted character with a real arc but marco is brooding without much of a reason no obvious flaw or goal to overcome in this story he's a dollar shop zuko here marco's trauma in the past and it's

a trauma that does exist in the story we're just modifying it a little bit it really plays into the current narrative conflict and it provides a personal bias and arc for him to overcome his prejudice against non-benders it's just enough to enforce those social divides and give a face to one side of it taking out a mons pamphlet that she found at the end of the first episode korra insists that they look more into this divide these equalists this guy called amon especially if tenzin isn't going to let her get involved in politics as in

the show they piece together where it's happening and go to find the rally here amon reveals himself he gives this brilliant speech about bending being the source of suffering and war in the world and removes the bending of those same gang members who core fought at the beginning as well as a couple of the policemen that she saw impulsively cora leaps up onto the stage to rescue the remaining victims horrified at the idea of losing her own bending she fights amon and his right-hand man referred to only as the lieutenant who like amon keeps his

face hidden but it goes terribly and she has to be rescued by tenzin and tarlok and beifong's police force in the course of that rescue though korra witnesses some kind of police brutality people are arrested for simply attending this rally all of this only hardens marco's resolve that they need harsher measures to deal with the equalists in the aftermath lin befong rails against korra for acting unilaterally like that that they knew about the meeting and they were monitoring it from afar until she had to go and jump up and ruin everything she coins it as

typical teenage avatar entitlement and ignorance not knowing how things really work in a city like this while cora says that at least she did something at least she tried to save people tarlock however insists on forgiveness it is the avatar after all tenzin takes her away but he's also angry and although he empathizes with her frustration he insists that the situation is complicated and it needs to be left to the professionals professionals i'm the avatar what's more professional than that she christ but the episode closes out episode 4 to fight or not to fight tencent

tries to teach coram more airbending but cora can't focus with everything going on she just wants to go out and help with this stuff she insists that the world gave her the four elements for a reason not just airbending and at least she can use three of them to do something good and bring him on to justice there are also further reports of benders disappearing off the streets cora sits down with bolin and talks about how she just wants to help people that she hates sitting around when she knows there's so much wrong in the

world and she's just not sure how to help bolin tells her that sometimes you've got to fight yeah but sometimes you've just got to listen and learn and sometimes you've got to wait before you can really make a difference meanwhile marco tries to find an equalist hideout asami comes across him while looking for korra and offers to help and he refuses it but after struggling and getting nowhere he reluctantly accepts the help beginning to trust non-benders again he even flirts with her and the two get along and laugh and in turn she provides a map

of the city's underground infrastructure tunnels and buildings even the power grid able to nail down where they might be by an unusual consumption of power asami insists that korra and bolin go with marco if he really wants to do this to help keep him safe while asami stays behind insisting that you know although she wants to help them she doesn't want her company to get caught up in a turf war sure enough though they find a huge weapons cache of these new electric gloves that the equalists plan to use but before they can call in

beifong they're ambushed by the lieutenant who electrifies marco and bolin korra only just manages to fight her way out with them and realizing the equalists must be planning something big if they're collecting weapons like this korra challenges ammon on the city-wide radio system to a duel at big ang face island which plays out exactly as it does on the show it's a brilliant scene genuinely one of my favorites in the entire show with him on taking her down easily and promising that he won't take away her bending yet because he has plans episode 5 a

voice in the night korra is shaken by her confrontation with amman and returning to air temple island she's suddenly starting to internalize for the very first time that she isn't necessarily the most powerful person in the world tenzin counsels korra and tells her about how fragile he feels as well that as one of the last airbenders in the world and at one point the only airbender in the world that it was a big responsibility and for a long time there was all he could ever see himself as the last airbender until genora and iki and

pemer came along and he started to see himself as more than that as a father he links this in with airbending by explaining that it's a lot to do with finding peace with oneself not defining ourselves by what we can do for the world by the role that we are born into but recognizing we are valuable outside of that cora internalizes this a little and even manages to learn some more air bending movements but confesses that she doesn't know who she is outside of the avatar that is all she has ever been that is all

anyone has ever really seen her as and she's terrified of a mon because of that even pro-bending is based off her powers and she thinks that marco and berlin would drop her without them makun bolin overhearing her assure her that this isn't the case we love you because you're fiery you're our friend and pabu comes up and sits on top of her head but following that very escalation tarlog opens a special task force with more powers to deal with the equalists beifong opposes this but tarlock tells her that it isn't her business this is a

council decision it's for the safety of the city marco joins the task force but bolin steps aside saying no hey this is going too far for me that yeah he's scared as well but this will only make things worse between benders and non-vendors and it'll only make a mon bolter one of the most common criticisms of season one is that the love triangle between bolin and cora and marco is distracting and you know to be honest it doesn't actually take up that much time i rewatched the series it's not that invasive and it does make

sense for cora as someone who is developing her independence for the first time she wants these kind of experiences but it is also the only real character conflict within the trio and i don't think it's a particularly great example of that and i think that this would be a more interesting conflict it's drawing on their traumatic history together but it also deepens that wider conflict giving more room for growth and personalizing it especially because neither of those romances really come too much in the end feeling a lack of purpose and fearing failure cora joins tarlock

in hopes of reasserting her sense of self-worth her role as the avatar bolin and asami are disappointed and a rift develops in the group in an operation that night they burst into an equalist facility and once again they face the lieutenant marco is initially happy to see some success rescuing a number of benders who are being kept from on but he begins to question his feelings towards non-benders after watching more brutality at the hands of the special task force even targeting people who just happened to be in the building suspicions of them being equalists with

a group of harmless civilians also being rounded up for questioning and the apartment building their rating itself also partially collapses during the fight when marco goes to tarlock about this though the council just insists that it's crucial for law and order and that they had intel the equalists would try to hide like this hide amongst civilians marco looks away nods but reaffirms his dedication to the task force episode 6 and the winner is this episode plays out basically exactly the same as in the show i think it was pretty good ammon warns that if the

probe ending final isn't cancelled there will be consequences beifong and tarlox where to protect the stadium the wolf bats win with foul play and the equalist attack amanda scenes from the sky removes the wolf bats bending and though they fight the equalists do escape only one tiny change i will mention in the midst of the fight cora tears off a section of the lieutenant's clothing revealing a tattoo of a small white rabbit cora would have gotten a hold of him on if not for the lieutenant shocking her at the last minute watching her as they

ascend into the sky before they escape episode 7 aftermath following the terrorist attack at the pro-being arena tarlock calls for beifong's resignation institutes a curfew for non-benders exploiting the tragedy to gain more power he has an iron grip on the council korra feels conflicted but doesn't speak up bolin opposes the measures saying that they're going too far and that rift in the group becomes a fallout between the two brothers with marcos staying on the task force asami comforts korra listens to her worries and insists that there is a right thing to do here and that

the avatar is meant to be a force for good in the world korra just says that she doesn't know what that right thing is to do some of the time and asami says she thinks tarlock is getting out of hand that night the curfew was enforced and we get that iconic scene where the woman calls out to korra you're our avatar too realizing that she has been acting impulsively and that's lead to horrible consequences for non-benders korra decides to stand up to tarlock marco doesn't know which side he should choose unwilling to turn to violence

around so many people knowing that that's been an issue in the past korra banks down here we see that cora is growing she is internalizing that she needs to find other ways to solve her problems but she isn't quite understanding how she's meant to implement that and that sometimes has negative consequences at midnight cora finds tarlock in his office wanting to finish what they started out on the streets insisting that things have gone too far and that she was so concerned about ammon when she should have been concerned about tarlock they fight and she gets

the upper hand until he reveals he's a blood bender he imprisons her and his cellar in a metal box something that he prepared in case she ever turned on him the following day marco goes to the grave of his mother killed by a non-bender not too long ago feeling conflicted on what to do he talks to her about harry's feeling and wonders what she would say there he finds a sami though as well she's grieving for her own father who was killed by a bender around the same time during those very same riots they confide

in each other these similar experiences between benders and non-benders but asami looks like she's holding something back she almost starts to talk when marco says that things should turn out fine soon the tarlock and the task force know where amon is and they've got a plan to take down the equalists really damn soon he asked what she was thinking but she says it was nothing and leaves episode 8 when extremes meet it's the early morning when amon himself comes to face tarlock who thinks he has the entire city in his iron grip you shouldn't have

come here i just dealt with the avatar now i get to deal with you he says but as he tries to blood bend him on a mon resists taking one hard step forward at a time and then turning his own blood bending on him it's you isn't it tarlock says when he realizes whom he faces and the counselor is brought to his knees his bending removed in the early morning explosions rack republic city important infrastructure is either seized or destroyed by a rapid series of attacks by the equalists one by one they capture the councillors

and begin rounding up benders tenzin is drawn into an ambush with a fake message from korra but he only just manages to escape when lin befong sacrifices herself for him she's dragged before a mon and loses her bending we see the tight bond that these two have always had their history together isami breaks cora out explaining the city is under attack and she needs to come with her immediately before korra notices the exact same white rabbit tattoo of the lieutenant asami is one of them and always has been before she can find asami shocks korra

unconscious asami being an equalist is a really important change for me in the show as it stands there is no protagonist that we really like who is empathetic who personifies and legitimizes those equalist concerns there's hiroshi but he's a minor character at best and he's treated pretty explicitly as a villain all of our protagonists are set in opposition to equalism and even asami a non-bender who suffered the very same loss as hiroshi has no sympathy for it which kind of gives the viewer permission to ignore equalist concerns and it feeds into that problem of not

showing it to be a legitimate systemic issue i felt like they were worried that having a sami be an equalist might make us her but so they substituted it for her father but i think this betrayal is so much more meaningful we legitimize those concerns we make asami more interesting and we deepen the character conflict of the story core awakes amidst a massive equalist rally the city finally having fallen under their control bound against a pole on the stage amon gives a speech about the avatar being the ultimate tyrant the avatar thinks they can decide

the fate of nations by themselves deciding for you for all of us for all the world and in their wake they leave a trail of destruction while leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces need i remind you of your homes reduced to cinders by her fire broken by her earth bending while the immense power of the avatar state is left to the whims and emotion of an unstable child while he speaks you see the neighborhood the korra destroyed the beginning the apartment facility brought down by the special task force and the crowd

erupts in applause need i remind you of avatar aang's destruction of the fire nation fleet during the 100 year war that non-benders were sent to die in a bender's war and he gave them no thought or care korra spies marco and berlin in the audience but they're too far away amon has korra untied and says i want you to see that you're no threat to me even with your powers let us fight avatar and she tries but she loses he gets in close and her bending is removed republic cities benders go into hiding ammon lets

cora go you're no threat to us now you're one of us despondent cora gives up bolen finds her he tries to empathize but she insists that she is nothing anymore and she leaves the city marco yells after her what you're just gonna leave the rest of us to fight it out you're the avatar not anymore she says quietly i'm nothing this is in my opinion the most important change season one has the perfect setup cora defines herself by her powers and her position as the avatar and she is faced with an enemy who can take

that away from her but there simply isn't enough time to explore who she is without her powers we get barely half an episode in the original series between her losing her bending and getting it back and as a result her air bending feels less earned than it could have been the principle is there don't get me wrong that she only learns airbending when she grows spiritually and personally and taking away her powers is a vital way to do that but the lack of time to explore that means it feels more like she air bends because

she simply got more emotional seeing marco about to lose his powers too and being too driven by her emotions and relying too much on punching and anger was always a character flaw but this word with several episodes still to go hopefully give her enough time episode 9 darkest hour republic city is at war most of the city lies under equalist control while small group of benders still hold out but the rest are in hiding marco pretends to be a non-bender to avoid the roaming equalist forces he's nearly caught only to be rescued by a non-bender

who hides him in their closet he asks why she would help him and she explains that yeah she supports the equalest movement but doesn't think that he deserves to lose his bending that she got behind the movement before that was a thing he sees her washing from a bucket and asks about why she doesn't use tap water everyone in the city has it he says ha not us not down here she says and marco stay silent starting to see what life is like for them cora walks out into the freezing wilderness up to a cliff

face overlooking republic city she contemplates her existence and purpose in the world now the same way that she does at the end of the series believing herself worth nothing anymore but she steps back unable to do it and slacks to the ground she cries out to aang what am i meant to do who am i meant to be when no visions or voices come she concludes that the avatar state has left her too why would you want to talk to me anymore right korra the last avatar meanwhile bolin and beifong organize a measure of resistance

tenzin is concerned for his family but he's also worrying about korra he doesn't know where she is tenzin warns that things are only going to get worse before they get better no matter who ends up on top and he regrets not acting to support the non-benders sooner bolin volunteers to go find korra saying the city needs beifong the chief of police and tenzin one of the last airbenders more than they would need him if he gets captured cora returns to republic city to those same lowest poorest paths that she found when she first arrived she

sees an old man being hassled and she clenches her fist the muscle memory expecting there to be fire or earth but there's nothing she turns away feeling helpless and slips down an alleyway to find an old ruined apartment building to hide in even the same one that she helped destroy bolan finds cora with the help of naga who follows her scent naga cuddles in close and bolan hugs her the two just sit there in silence together korra unable to explain how she feels bolan brings out a pie show game and they play together korra wins

but bolin just laughs saying it's good to have someone to play with she asks why he came to find her and insists that he cares about her and so does naga he then shows her a small rock carving that he did and not with bending mind you he says but with my hands he teaches cora to chip and carve for a while and cora finds that she enjoys that too see there's a lot more to you than your bending and i care about you for a lot more than that even if we never did another

pro-bending tournament again i still want to be your friend episode 10 out of the past regaining a little self-esteem corey decides to meditate and put some of tencen's teachings into practice alone she heads up to the rooftop it's snowing it's windy and cold but she sits down to meditate anyway and when the wind stills around her and she stops shivering using her breath to control her body temperature she realizes that she is just airbent for the first time cora leaps into the air cheering for herself and bolin burst out onto the rooftop scared that something

had just happened the two then spot an explosion in the distance i have to face a mon cora declares but first we need to talk to someone and this is something that i prepared earlier remember the whole breathing control thing yeah there you go and to be clear i would actually prefer to take even longer like if we had multiple seasons to play with but we don't cora and bolin sneak into a sami's mansion using those same maps that she gave marco all that time ago a special tunnel that leads under her property there they

find tarlock locked up and when he says that his bending is gone they wonder why he's still being kept here after all he let korra go tarlook reveals it's because he knows who amon is and we get that full flashback about noah talks straight out of the series talk is his brother and yokon a ruthless bender is their father with only one change yacon leaves noatak with a brutal scar across his face in his final fight cora finally understands aang's visions he was pointing her all this time towards yacon episode 11 turning the tide korra

and bolin confronted sami in her home demanding she explained why she betrayed them i betrayed you she exclaims you betrayed me when you joined tarlock's task force when you saw what they were doing and you did nothing all we wanted was to be treated like equals not an underclass bolon turns it around but i mean look at you you made it you're wealthier than any of us will ever be and asami's eye is narrow but korra speaks up but that's it right it's so easy to point to you and think everything's but it's not i

know you're the exception and then there's all the rest who never made it but this isn't how we fix it right we don't have to get rid of bending it's just going to mean more fighting more resentment there are other ways what ways asami asks i just want to understand princess korra asami softens for a moment then hardens and seizes up her electric weapons to attack a fight ensues and cora doesn't reveal her airbending relying on those airbending moves to avoid and dodge just like tenzin taught her meanwhile a fight breaks out in marco's part

of republic city between a group of benders and equalists it begins to destabilize the neighborhood as benders tear up the foundations and equal a start in electric fire as marco looks out he sees the man who he thinks killed his mother spotting that prosthetic leg at a distance marco watches from the apartment building above and initially wants to leap into the fray to go after the man before he sees all of the people in the nearby buildings are in danger the fire is climbing higher and when he looks back at the old woman who saved

him he realizes what he needs to do marco begins saving everyone this group of non-benders from the growing fire using his bending to put it out and get them to safety you don't have to fight the old woman tells him after saving the last one you can just leave marco catches the eye of the man that murdered his mother and they stare at each other from across the fray and marco turns away both from vengeance and from violence at least this time returning to cora and berlin bolin carves a way out of the mansion and

the two escape into the poorer parts of the city episode 12 end game cora and bolin eventually come across marco who is safeguarding a group of non-benders amidst the conflict marco almost brings himself to apologize to bolin for getting so caught up in his anger and frustration following their mother's death but doesn't when korra reveals that asami is an equalist and that feeling of betrayal and anger returns and intensifies for him flyers are dropped from the sky calling for a huge equalist rally in the pro-bending arena where amon states that an historic event is about

to take place the trio rushed to the pro-bending arena and they see a mon and a sami down on the stage and they reveal that they have captured tenzin and his family just like we see in the show and we realize that this historic event will mean wiping out airbending forever asami glances to the side while amon speaks about removing airbending from the world she's uncomfortable but she stands by him the revolution is here amon says but korra interrupts amon assures the crowd that they have nothing to fear and that even if he should die

his right-hand man asami would succeed her to finish the fight and just like in the show korra reveals his secrets amon has been lying to you or should i call you noah talk amon doesn't have a special power to take away bending he uses blood bending to do it but the crowds just don't believe her in response among reveals his face rippled and scarred from an attack by a bender except unlike in the show the scar is real it isn't painted and it won't wash off it is from his father yukon even if it was

when he wasn't a bender it always irritated me that the equalist movement kind of fell apart after seeing a monster melt away as if realizing that because ammon lied to them about something i mean that the non-bender's concerns just didn't matter anymore it just felt like a cheap way to destroy the movement but knowing a mon would be reluctant to use blood bending in front of so many people marco kor and bolin move in to rescue tenzin and the other airbenders cora unties the others while marco and berlin hold them off and they flee into

the corridors of the pro-bending arena up to the roof tenzin gets his family out on a sky bison piloted by the nervous beifong marco bolin and cora turn to face amon who has followed them up and burst out onto the roof out of sight of the public amon isn't afraid to bloodbend and he quickly subdues both bolen and marco not gonna blood bend me too cory yells i am not afraid of you avatar you have already been neutralized aman shoves bolin to his knees about to remove his bending when korra reveals her air bending shunting

him onto the ground tenzin watches from afar she can air bend he says cheering her on you've grown avatar sesamon but i assure you even if you kill me it'll just be fuel on the fire of equalism but i see i need to teach you a lesson again shocked but not defeated amman blood beans her as well but cora having a new mastery over her body thanks to her airbending training is able to move just enough to get in one more airbending move knocking him on unconscious and removing his mask asami bursts out onto the

roof and shocks bolin in the back seeing him on down she leaps into the fight with marco and korra dodging bending attack after bending attack she too is taken by surprise with korra's airbending but eventually gets the upper hand on marco furious at marco's treatment of non-benders she pins him down to the ground but remembers back to him telling her about his mother and she telling him about her father begged sasami to stop that it's over that they can solve this another way and assami steps back and sighs tell me how she says assami appears

in front of the rally and holds up amon's broken mask and declares to the crowd amman has fallen but in his last moments he bought us what we have all been fighting for a better world for non-benders like you like me too long has the world treated us like second-class citizens we don't want to live in the shadows of our own city we need jobs we need a voice in the way our city is run and with his last breath amon bought us what we have been fighting for what we need republic city will no

longer be ruled by a council of benders but all of you will vote for who should lead us and as part of this peace she pauses with a deep breath looking back at cora we will govern without the avatar shocked gasps abound when this is revealed because korra wasn't expecting this either she wasn't told asami seems to have decided this for herself but beifong having arrived during the negotiation steps up and asami continues we have shown the world that with this new technology we can bring order to republic city that thugs and bending tyrants are

no longer a threat to us the police force has for far too long been dominated by benders who didn't know what it was like for you for us but with this new technology non-benders will ensure equality before the law too asami goes on do not let the world say that we want blood we want equality and for that we do not need the avatar the avatar will leave republic city immediately the crowd cheers for korra to go who is shocked by asami's sudden reveal they had agreed to a peace but not to this backstage cora

says that she could have done the speech that she is the avatar after all but asami insists that a non-bender had to do it that sometimes people need to solve their own problems i'm the avatar i'm meant to help you're the bender of all benders even without your powers some may want revenge but it's the only thing that will stop most of the equalists from fighting and it's what republic city needs just for now what am i meant to do korra you have the rest of the world and you will do them well i know

how much you care and i know you'll be a great avatar marco speaks up the people don't want violence they want peace their homes their lives back and this is one way we're going to give it to them says asami i should have seen it before i know but i was too caught up in my anger most will follow me will handle it with beifong's help see with this ending cora doesn't unlock air bending with a burst of emotion but by understanding herself and the world more but more importantly it was always a little odd

that in the show the problem was violence and bending and not caring about the damage that they do and cora kind of solved the problem with more violence and more bending and more property destruction it's kind of like lex luthor insisting that superman is too powerful and destroys too many cities and superman just destroys new york while fighting him to say hey that's not true here she defeated the equalists and amman by empathizing with asami and understanding their concerns and finding another way other than violence which she always relied on too much she was symptomatic

of the problem and this is about her growing beyond that the show also doesn't recognize non-bender concerns as much as it could have it gives us a non-bender president in the second season but nothing more and because it falls apart after oman's reveal it suggests that all of this was only motivated by his malice and personality cult i think we need some more recognition of those systemic issues when putting the equalists down make them lose popular support by giving the moderates what they want and the radicals won't have the power to do as much anymore

in this rewrite there are real consequences to the equalist movement people don't get their bending back and there is systemic change asami pushing korra out of republic city as the price of peace also plays into what i feel is the overarching theme of legend of korra and i'm gonna build on this in future videos that the world is finding a way to work without the avatar challenging their role in politics and life but moving on marco finally apologizes to bolin for how far he took things and the two reconcile marco and asami are tense but

they shake hands and admit that they don't want to repeat the same mistakes that happen with their own parents tenzin hugs korra impressed with how she airbend but then criticizes her form and then reiterates our pradios a team of waterbenders and metal benders secretly take a man away kept inside a metal box and chained still to prevent him water bending as much as possible however tarlock ambushes the convoy takes his brother and the two escape into the sunset on a boat tarlock explains the equalists have been defeated but they can live out the rest of

their lives together amon having lost everything takes both of their lives i always really loved that scene the final scene in the series has cora sitting on the edge of one of republic city's massive skyscrapers she's playing with a small ball of air and wonders if she will ever get her bending back at which point aang appears to her saying he's proud because at our lowest point we are open to the greatest change he doesn't give her her bending back like it happens on the show but he does tell her that the world is full

of strange spirits and powers and that there may be a way to restore them out there with that tiny glimpse of hope cora sets out to discover what that means i was always disappointed not that they gave her her bending back but that it happened so easily literally within 13 minutes of her losing it i wanted there to be real consequences to the equalist movement and allowing her the time to internalize who she is without it was vital now there is evidence to suggest that this was actually a corporate interference decision not one made by

the writers and you can see how that might have been the case because cory getting her powers back does feel tacked on right at the end so maybe there was an earlier draft where she didn't get it back and that was a question for the future but we don't know this rewrite also gives stronger arcs to both marco and asami it creates a sort of symmetry between them that plays into the narrative conflict and gives more personal stakes the reveal of oroshi sado being an equalist was good but asami being one would have meant so

much more and here it's an arc isami is also well a little perfect and making her a little more flawed makes her more interesting what do you think of this rewrite though i mean does it solve your main concerns and how would you rewrite it and if you do love writing like me then campfire is something designed for you it's a platform created by writers for writers with pages for characters and cities and magic systems and timelines anything you want but i'm gonna be honest the best way you decide is to try for free and

you can so don't just listen to me click the link down below i do my best to only take sponsors i feel going to be valuable to you and these guys well they definitely do that i personally really like the character design stuff and i found that the interface is a lot more accessible than other systems it lets you keep track of everything and integrate it all so you can see when two characters never interact a la the only time legolas and frodo ever speak to each other as well as who is then alive at

any given time but that is all stay nerdy and i'll see you in the future so you