11 Years Ago, Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Sequel Controversially Ended (And Fans Have Been Debating It Ever Since)

11 years ago, Nickelodeon ended Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s big sequel series in such a controversial way that it’s still been a point of debate for fans all these years later. Avatar: The Last Airbender was a massive success for Nickelodeon as the animated series was one of the most watched with the network, and was able to continue with an official sequel four years later. But for one reason or another, The Legend of Korra just did not hit the same wavelength as the original and came to a rather quiet but divisive end.

11 years ago, on December 19, 2014, The Legend of Korra came to an end not with Nickelodeon, and not even on TV, but as a special streaming exclusive with the Nickelodeon website before that was even a viable platform to really watch things on. This was such a divisive end to the show that it pretty much killed the franchise for a long time, and is still kind of getting hit with the reverberations of that decision over a decade later.

What Happened With The Legend of Korra?

The Legend of Korra had an unfair uphill battle to face pretty much from the jump. Premiering a few years after the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, this sequel series introduced fans to a whole new Avatar named Korra, who is living in a much different kind of world than seen in the original series. Although it’s a sequel, this new series didn’t have many direct ties to the original’s characters due to the fact it takes place years after the end of that first show. But that’s part of the story.

Korra could only exist as an Avatar after Aang’s death, and it meant that she was left to fill in the gaps of history that fans were curious about her predecessor. At the same time, she had to deal with her own troubles as society had changed a great deal for Benders since Aang’s time as well. This meant that fans who wanted to see more of Aang instead started to drop off the show the more Korra became her own character with her own distinct path to follow.

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But the real trouble came during the third season. There were already lower ratings compared to the first series, but The Legend of Korra Season 3 was hit by a massive leak before its premiere. The first seven episodes leaked online, and then eventually premiered to such low ratings that Nickelodeon decided to take the final episodes off the broadcast schedule and release them exclusively through Nickelodeon’s website instead. And this was long before they had a suitable video platform to stream them through.

With those fans of the original series already knocking it, and the massive leak in the third season, this was kind of the final nail in the coffin for The Legend of Korra. It was allowed to end with a fourth season, but that aired entirely with the Nickelodeon website and digital platforms. This killed any potential momentum the series could have built up for the finale, and all the critical acclaim in the world would not have saved it from going out as quietly as it did.

The Legend of Korra Didn’t Have a Chance

Not only was this release already controversial, the end of The Legend of Korra itself sparked a debate among fans as well. Through the final seasons especially, Korra and Asami started to get much closer as friends and eventually, maybe lovers. There was something deeper between the two that creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino were able to strongly suggest, but was something they couldn’t fully confirm on screen at the time.

Usually when you hear about shipping between characters, there’s never any real chance that they will come to fruition outside of the pairings that the creators have in mind. But for “Korrasami,” all the subtext was basically text. The final episode sees the two heading off into the future as pretty much a couple, but The Legend of Korra was never able to put the final stamp on that with any kind of on-screen signal. It’s something that was rectified later in comics, but that’s far from what fans wanted at the time.

It just really seemed like The Legend of Korra never really got its proper shake. It’s more remembered these days thanks to the hilarious way SpongeBob was advertised during The Legend of Korra‘s dark moments, and it took a long time for Avatar: The Last Airbender to recover. It wasn’t for another decade that Avatar Studios was formed to work on a new movie and sequel series. The franchise has taken such a hit with the end of this sequel that it’s all going to remain exclusive to streaming for the rest of its life.

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