Some comments were made about "Legend of Korra" in another thread. I wanted to respond to them but felt that it would be a bit off topic there, so I figured I would just make another thread for it.
I'm a fan of Avatar The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, it's one of my favorite things. I grew up with ATLA airing on Nickelodeon, and was right in the target age when it premiered (which was 16 years ago... darn I'm getting old). When Legend of Korra came out, it almost felt like the franchise was growing up with me. I always liked LOK. I liked that it was a new generation of characters in the Avatar world, I liked the leap forward to a new era. And importantly, I liked Korra as a character. I loved how fierce and confident she was, while clearly being a character who had a lot of growing to do.
Needless to say though, LOK is rather divisive among people who count themselves as fans of ATLA. A fair amount of it is dislike of the format change - ATLA was one epic multi-season story, while LoK was first conceived as a single season miniseries that ended up having several seasons added with relatively separate stories. I think it's fair to prefer ATLA's approach over LOK's, but I don't think it's fair to say LOK is bad in itself simply for the choice of format. Plenty of shows take a season-by-season approach to storytelling and are considered good. If anything ATLA is a rarity in how it pulled off a single multi-season story arc.
The other criticism is about the characters, Korra in particular. She seems to rub people the wrong way. Like I said above, I do like Korra. I like how she's basically an inversion of Aang's character, as different takes on the "chosen one" trope. Aang is diplomatic, carefree, easygoing. He's the boy who never wanted to be the Avatar. Korra by contrast is confrontational, headstrong, driven. She's the girl who only ever wanted to be the Avatar. She had a lot of growing to do, of a different kind than Aang's. A lot of Korra's character development had to do with finding value and strength in herself beyond just her identity as the Avatar.
Now, if you just don't like Korra, you don't enjoy watching her, that's fine. You like what you like and there's no real arguing with that. But some of the reasons given for disliking Korra do at times seem...misplaced. So, some responses.
When you say "Mary Sue vibes", what do you even mean? Because I don't see how the pattern of a Mary Sue really fits Korra. She's not some sort of self-insert, she is skilled at bending (like other characters from ATLA were, including Aang) but has challenges getting the hang of things like airbending and spirituality. And other characters don't just like her upon meeting her. And she screws up. A lot. And has to deal with the consequences.
I also don't know what you mean by "virtue signal SJW themes". There's the whole Korra and Asami holding hands thing at the end, sure. I wouldn't defend that, and book 4 is the weakest season overall in my opinion. But it's at the very end of the series, so I hardly think it ruins the rest of it. And there are some aspects of the show like the Equalists that I actually see as a critique of progressive social movements and the revolutionary zeal behind them.
What makes Korra whiny, exactly? I don't think it's fair to say she had "everything handed to her", she did unlock three elements as a kid but the actual story is about other challenges and struggles she faces. And much of her childhood was spent isolated in a high security compound due to her guardians' decisions, rather than getting to travel the world like Aang did - hardly a healthy upbringing for a child.
As for her being irreverent and disrespectful... Yes. She's a headstrong girl and that results in her butting heads with authority figures at times. I don't hold that against her as a character though. For one I see that as part of the growing and maturing she has to do. And importantly, that maturing does happen in the story. But she also often has legitimate reasons for being upset with the authority figures (ie the aforementioned childhood isolation). She just tends to process and react to it in a less than positive way. But story makes sure to show that when she does eff up, she comes to realize her mistake, and apologizes to people like Tenzin and her father for pushing them away.
I'm also unsure how Mako is supposed to be whiny, too.
As for other favorite characters, no love for Lin Beifong?
Like I said before, if you just didn't like Korra, if she made the show unenjoyable then sure, you don't have to like her. But I'm not sure where you got the idea that she's "cooler and more powerful" than Aang. She's different from Aang, certainly, but I don't think those differences are ever used to portray her as cooler than Aang. And the story picks up at a different point in her training than ATLA did with Aang, and Korra did unlock three elements as a kid, but she still had to train for years to actually master them, had more trouble with airbending then Aang had with any element, and in any case Aang reached the status of "fully realized Avatar" and saved the erro world when he was five years younger (physically) than Korra was when she first accomplished anything. So I don't know where you're coming from on that.
I'm a fan of Avatar The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, it's one of my favorite things. I grew up with ATLA airing on Nickelodeon, and was right in the target age when it premiered (which was 16 years ago... darn I'm getting old). When Legend of Korra came out, it almost felt like the franchise was growing up with me. I always liked LOK. I liked that it was a new generation of characters in the Avatar world, I liked the leap forward to a new era. And importantly, I liked Korra as a character. I loved how fierce and confident she was, while clearly being a character who had a lot of growing to do.
Needless to say though, LOK is rather divisive among people who count themselves as fans of ATLA. A fair amount of it is dislike of the format change - ATLA was one epic multi-season story, while LoK was first conceived as a single season miniseries that ended up having several seasons added with relatively separate stories. I think it's fair to prefer ATLA's approach over LOK's, but I don't think it's fair to say LOK is bad in itself simply for the choice of format. Plenty of shows take a season-by-season approach to storytelling and are considered good. If anything ATLA is a rarity in how it pulled off a single multi-season story arc.
The other criticism is about the characters, Korra in particular. She seems to rub people the wrong way. Like I said above, I do like Korra. I like how she's basically an inversion of Aang's character, as different takes on the "chosen one" trope. Aang is diplomatic, carefree, easygoing. He's the boy who never wanted to be the Avatar. Korra by contrast is confrontational, headstrong, driven. She's the girl who only ever wanted to be the Avatar. She had a lot of growing to do, of a different kind than Aang's. A lot of Korra's character development had to do with finding value and strength in herself beyond just her identity as the Avatar.
Now, if you just don't like Korra, you don't enjoy watching her, that's fine. You like what you like and there's no real arguing with that. But some of the reasons given for disliking Korra do at times seem...misplaced. So, some responses.
Everything else that happened, with Mary Sue vibes from Korra to virtue signal SJW themes,
When you say "Mary Sue vibes", what do you even mean? Because I don't see how the pattern of a Mary Sue really fits Korra. She's not some sort of self-insert, she is skilled at bending (like other characters from ATLA were, including Aang) but has challenges getting the hang of things like airbending and spirituality. And other characters don't just like her upon meeting her. And she screws up. A lot. And has to deal with the consequences.
I also don't know what you mean by "virtue signal SJW themes". There's the whole Korra and Asami holding hands thing at the end, sure. I wouldn't defend that, and book 4 is the weakest season overall in my opinion. But it's at the very end of the series, so I hardly think it ruins the rest of it. And there are some aspects of the show like the Equalists that I actually see as a critique of progressive social movements and the revolutionary zeal behind them.
I think the biggest problem was the characters. I can endure bad plot structure so long as I enjoy the characters, but I found that most of Korra's cast was unlikeable. Korra came off as a whiny brat who got everything handed to her and is incredibly irreverent and disrespectful towards her seniors such as Tenzin. Asami was very meh. Mako came off as whiny too often. The only tolerable main character was Bolin. The only characters I actually liked were and wanted to see more of was Tenzin, Varick, and... um... I'm struggling to think of another character I liked.
What makes Korra whiny, exactly? I don't think it's fair to say she had "everything handed to her", she did unlock three elements as a kid but the actual story is about other challenges and struggles she faces. And much of her childhood was spent isolated in a high security compound due to her guardians' decisions, rather than getting to travel the world like Aang did - hardly a healthy upbringing for a child.
As for her being irreverent and disrespectful... Yes. She's a headstrong girl and that results in her butting heads with authority figures at times. I don't hold that against her as a character though. For one I see that as part of the growing and maturing she has to do. And importantly, that maturing does happen in the story. But she also often has legitimate reasons for being upset with the authority figures (ie the aforementioned childhood isolation). She just tends to process and react to it in a less than positive way. But story makes sure to show that when she does eff up, she comes to realize her mistake, and apologizes to people like Tenzin and her father for pushing them away.
I'm also unsure how Mako is supposed to be whiny, too.
As for other favorite characters, no love for Lin Beifong?
I'm in general agreement with @Val the Moofia Boss. I wound up dropping Korra after the first few episodes because I strongly disliked Korra as a character (egotistical, way "cooler and more powerful" than Aang, disrespectful, undisciplined) and didn't find they were adding any other characters I wanted to watch, certainly none worth having to put up with looking at Korra for.
Like I said before, if you just didn't like Korra, if she made the show unenjoyable then sure, you don't have to like her. But I'm not sure where you got the idea that she's "cooler and more powerful" than Aang. She's different from Aang, certainly, but I don't think those differences are ever used to portray her as cooler than Aang. And the story picks up at a different point in her training than ATLA did with Aang, and Korra did unlock three elements as a kid, but she still had to train for years to actually master them, had more trouble with airbending then Aang had with any element, and in any case Aang reached the status of "fully realized Avatar" and saved the erro world when he was five years younger (physically) than Korra was when she first accomplished anything. So I don't know where you're coming from on that.