Korra

Korra is the current incarnation of the Avatar and immediate successor of Avatar Aang. Born and raised in the Southern Water Tribe, where she mastered waterbending, earthbending, and firebending, she later relocated to Republic City to attain a similar proficiency with airbending under the tutelage and guidance of Tenzin, as well as to help her overcome her aversion to the spiritual aspects of the bending arts. With the assistance of Aang's spirit, Korra gained the ability to energybend and, after connecting with her past lives, she gained the capacity to enter the Avatar State at will, marking her transition into a fully realized Avatar. However, due to her temporary separation from Raava during the Harmonic Convergence of 171 AG, she no longer has a connection to her past lives. Following her battle with Zaheer and the Red Lotus, she spent three years recovering from trauma. Later, after defeating Kuvira and bringing an end to the Earth Empire, Korra started a romantic relationship with her best friend, Asami Sato. On the surface, Korra is fierce, independent, and pugnacious, but beneath her tough exterior, she possesses a strong loyalty toward her friends and duty as the Avatar. She also has admirable compassion and devotion, demonstrated when she expresses love toward things such as her family and friends. Her offensive battle style means that she is always quick to initiate or rise to a challenge and is similarly quick-witted and impulsive, especially in heated situations. As an "Avatar-in-training", she lacked perception toward the damage her bending is capable of, and her rash decisions often resulted in her accidentally insulting others. True to Korra's character, Lin once stated to Tenzin that it was "hard to believe [his] sweet-tempered father was reincarnated into that girl". Her personality is, in many ways, the opposite of her past life's; Aang was a peaceful, diffident, nomadic airbender, whereas Korra is tough, impatient, headstrong, sarcastic, and assertive. She has a habit of getting close-up to people when confronting them, sometimes grabbing them by the chin when trying to get her point across. Additionally, while Aang was initially reluctant to be the Avatar, to the point where he ran away to prevent his responsibilities as the Avatar from disturbing his life, Korra fully embraced her position as the Avatar from a young age reveling in its power. However, similar to Aang, she also has a good sense of humor, enthusiasm, and vulnerable teenage charm. Being initially unable to connect with her spiritual side proved to be a stumbling block in Korra's training, and she admitted that her personality is the opposite of the typical airbender's; as Tenzin noted, Avatars tend to struggle with the bending art most opposite their personality. Due to the lack of a spiritual center in her life, Korra is impulsive and therefore has a hard time hiding her true feelings; this could be seen in her reaction to learning that Asami Sato was Mako's date during the gala Tarrlok threw in her honor, where she immediately expressed her jealousy by being rather hostile toward Asami and short with Mako. Due to her concentration on the physical side of bending, Korra was initially quite worried when she saw "the revelation" of Amon's true abilities during his demonstration, a fear which expressed itself in Amon's words in the nightmare she had soon afterward, "Once I take your bending away, you will be nothing." This and her later encounter with Amon revealed this fear. She tried repressing these fears for the good of Republic City when she joined Tarrlok's task force but had trouble staying her usual upbeat self and became rather reclusive and eventually made the rash decision to call Amon out in a one-on-one duel. This indicates that she is ruled by her emotions even when she tries to pretend they do not exist, leaving her vulnerable to Amon, as shown by the results of the said encounter. Like her immediate predecessor Aang, Korra places a high priority on her position as the Avatar, despite their different approaches. Although at first, Aang was uncomfortable with having to use outright violence to bring balance to the world, he eventually developed an unrelenting determination toward following his age-old destiny. Korra, on the other hand, takes a non-conformist stance over her Avatar training. For instance, after trying out pro-bending, she told Tenzin that the reason she had been unable to airbend was that the Avatar no longer needed it and was instead meant to focus on modern styles of fighting. Tenzin quickly stamped her proposal out as preposterous, reminding her that the Avatar is destined to master all four elements at all costs. Upon learning that she was kept locked away from the world by Tonraq and Tenzin, Korra became quite irate toward them, being hostile whenever they tried to speak with her. Korra expressed more hostility toward her father after learning about his past in the Northern Water Tribe. However, when she found out that Tonraq was not involved with an effort to overthrow Unalaq, she forgave him quickly. Korra has no qualms intimidating or threatening whoever had offended her friends and loved ones, as exemplified when she struck fear to the Equalist protester to find out Bolin's whereabouts, and when she threatened to feed Judge Hotah to Naga if he would not comply to her wishes. After learning the truth about her father's banishment, Korra developed an animosity toward Unalaq, which caused her to dismiss him as her spiritual mentor. Once she realized that Unalaq had been using her to try to free Vaatu from his prison in the Spirit World, her animosity toward her uncle increased in intensity. Despite this, however, Korra did lament that she could not save him from Vaatu, showing that as badly as she felt toward her uncle, she never wanted him dead. After learning the origins of the Avatar Spirit through the life of Avatar Wan and regaining her memories, Korra became more patient and humble, as exemplified when she thanked Tenzin for his undying loyalty to her. After the Harmonic Convergence, Korra demonstrated a more patient demeanor yet still retained her impulsive nature. This is evident when she tried to physically force Ryu, an airbending slacker, into becoming a part of the new Air Nation against his will, with Mako and Bolin eventually forced to drag Korra out to stop the mayhem. Korra's temper and rage, once provoked, could border on murderous, as during her captivity by the Red Lotus and still believing that Zaheer had killed her father, Korra declared that she would be free and none of the Red Lotus would survive. She fully intended to kill Zaheer, showing her righteous fury, but with a dark and wrathful side to her as well. After barely surviving her encounter with Zaheer and having the poison removed from her system, Korra was placed in a wheelchair during her recovery, which left her traumatized and in a state of depression. She still showed compassion and pride for her friends throughout, however, and was present when Jinora received her airbending tattoos, crying during the ceremony. In the following years, she struggled to recover, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and being haunted by flashbacks to her encounter with Zaheer. Although she recovered physically, her emotional struggle led her to embark on a journey to reconnect with her Avatar Spirit while hiding her identity as the Avatar, going against her tendency of being prideful about it. In spite of this, on a subconscious level, Korra was afraid of stepping back into her duties as the Avatar, terrified that if she were to do so, she would experience the same kind of trauma Zaheer incurred on her all over again. Though her anxieties of letting go of her pain impeded her recovery, after an elderly Toph helped her to face and overcome her fears of her past enemies, Korra bent the residual mercury out of her body and regained the ability to enter the Avatar State. However, it was not until Korra confronted Zaheer in person and was helped by him to accept what had happened to her and release her fear of "what might have been" that she was able to fully reconnect with Raava.