The 15 Best The Legend Of Korra Episodes, Ranked

The "Avatar: The Last Airbender" franchise has been experiencing a surge in popularity in recent years, what with the announcement of two different new TV projects and a planned film trilogy, the bouncing of the original series between different streaming homes as a subscription draw, the creation of a Nickelodeon division focused specifically on "Avatar"-related content, and the "Avatar: Braving the Elements" rewatch podcast hosted by Zuko and Korra themselves, Dante Basco, and Janet Varney. Finally, after many years of insufficient cultural and critical attention paid to what's inarguably one of the best and most beloved fantasy TV franchises of all time, it appears that the industry, the press, and the world at large are catching up to the greatness of Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's creation.

Even so, a lot of that renewed attention has been directed towards "The Last Airbender," with its sequel series, "The Legend of Korra," getting comparatively left by the wayside in fan chatter. But real ones know that "The Legend of Korra" is an excellent show in its own right, and just as deserving of the limelight. Set 70 years after "The Last Airbender" and following the new, Southern Water Tribe-born Avatar who rises after Aang's death, "Korra" was a very different show from "Airbender" in multiple respects. And, as its best episodes attest, those differences made for their own kind of quality television and yielded moments of action, pathos, reflection, fun, and visual grandeur on par with anything in the original series.

Every late-season stretch on "The Legend of Korra" ramps up the stakes vertiginously, and Book One is no exception. "Turning the Tides" stands as an especially illustrative instance of that kind of pivot because we get to see it in real time within the episode. While the early going is slower-paced and quieter, focusing on the domestic dynamics that ensue while Korra is recuperating in Air Temple Island after escaping Tarrlok's (Dee Bradley Baker) imprisonment, it doesn't take long for the other shoe to drop — or should I say shoes, plural. The entire United Republic Council gets kidnapped! And the Equalists launch a mecha tank attack on Republic City! And aircraft encroach on Air Temple Island! And Pema goes into labor!

Given the number of plates being spun, it's remarkable that the episode manages to hang together at all, let alone that it gathers everything into one of the most propulsive and nail-biting installments in "Korra" history. The grand, imposing physicality of the Equalists' hostile takeover is matched by some first-rate bending on the part of virtually every main player, all of which is animated with the series' typical mind-boggling panache and woven together with laudable attention to rhythm and clarity. As if all that were not enough, "The Calling" is essentially the Lin Beifong (Mindy Sterling) Power (Half-)Hour — and seeing her do her thing so mightily, right before losing it all in an unforgettable act of self-sacrifice, is just about all I could ask for from this show.

The Beifong clan takes center stage in "Operation Beifong," the episode that immediately precipitates the climax of Book Four. "Operation Beifong" follows Opal (Alyson Stoner), Lin, and Bolin as they travel to Zaofu to rescue Suyin and the rest of the Beifongs from imprisonment, leading to an unexpected reunion between Lin and her long-estranged mother, Toph. Meanwhile, surprise season highlight Zhu Li (Stephanie Sheh) attempts to sabotage a spirit energy-powered cannon she's been building for Kuvira, but her gambit goes south.

In addition to being a classic "Legend of Korra" helping of high-octane action (how about that Suyin vs. Kuvira metalbending fight!), "Operation Beifong" spotlights the best-written, most fascinating in-group dynamic in the whole series — namely, that between the various headstrong members of the Beifong family and their immediate associates. Lin and Toph haven't spoken in 20 years, and the episode doles out the details of their falling out patiently and smartly, with a truly impressive level of grit and realism for supposedly kid-oriented television — including a casual, offhanded reference to the fact that Lin's father was just a random guy with whom Toph "didn't really work out," unceremoniously quashing years of misguided fan theories. Add to that the large quantities of texture both comedic (e.g. Lin's dismissal of Bolin as "an actor," Toph's refusal to be called "mother" by Jim Meskimen's Baatar) and dramatic (e.g. Baatar Jr.'s [Todd Haberkorn] crisis of conscience, Opal and Bolin's slow reconciliation), and the absolute badassery of Zhu Li's double heel turn, and you've got a top-shelf "Korra" episode.

"The Legend of Korra" could always be trusted to serve up a strong season finale, so it stands to reason that the finale of the entire show would be one of its most memorable episodes. The second half of an action-packed two-parter, "The Last Stand" finds Team Avatar breaking apart Kuvira's giant mecha suit from the inside. But the meat of the episode is what ensues after that: Kuvira escapes haphazardly into the Spirit World, Korra gives chase, and the season's central heroine and villain have a direct one-on-one confrontation that segues shockingly from bending to bonding. Ultimately, the Avatar proves her might not by defeating her nemesis in combat, but by convincing her to surrender willingly.

While "The Last Stand" lacks the benefit of functioning as a payoff to an entire series' worth of plot the way "Sozin's Comet" did, it still manages to put a highly satisfying bow on the trajectory of Korra as a character, and take stock of all the major changes the show's world went through over the course of four seasons. Korra's conversations with Kuvira, in the thunderous climax, and Tenzin, in the meditative aftermath, are filled with the kind of complexity and emotional maturity that always set the show apart. And, perhaps most importantly of all, this is the episode that, in an unprecedented move for kids' TV, officially confirmed a romantic relationship between Korra and Asami — to the joy of millions of Korrasami shippers the world over.

One of the reasons why Book Three was the strongest season of "The Legend of Korra" is that it had the firmest grip on the episodic storytelling format. Sure, the overarching Red Lotus plot, with its relentless forward motion and its barrage of complex moral and physical altercations between Korra and Zaheer, was gripping. But every episode of the season also told its own rewarding mini-story that contributed to the whole without just feeling like connective tissue, as exemplified by "Original Airbenders."

Coming just before the ramping-up of stakes in Book Three's final stretch of six episodes, "Original Airbenders" steps away from the season's main arc to focus on the other world-changing event taking place concurrently with it: The formation of the new Air Nation. With Team Avatar off in Zaofu, the plot focuses on Tenzin as he attempts to train the newly-found airbenders who have joined him at the Air Temple.

It's an opportunity for the series to indulge in some classic "Avatar" comedic zaniness, with an increasingly aggravated Tenzin facing an uphill battle to get an army of casuals to understand Air Nomad mores and philosophies. In addition to just being thoroughly entertaining, amusing, and adorable — so many baby bison! — and making mighty contributions to the franchise's world-building and the developments of Jinora and Kai, the episode recaptures that feeling of character-driven, tonally freewheeling exuberance that "The Last Airbender" offered at its best, and that "Korra" didn't always find time or space for.

Here's another example of a Book Three episode that achieves an especially high degree of storytelling acuity by downplaying plot and focusing on the human element. As character-developing episodes go, "Old Wounds" is particularly rewarding — arguably the most rewarding such episode, in fact, save for #1 on this list — because it turns its gaze entirely to Lin Beifong, a character who established herself from the beginning of "Korra" as one of the ensemble's most compelling figures alongside Korra herself and Tenzin, yet wasn't always afforded the same amount of exploration.

"Old Wounds" follows Lin as she undergoes acupuncture to restore the balance in her chi, and finds herself revisiting all the baggage that made her the hardened, skittish, emotionally repressed person we know. As such, this is the episode where we get to know all about Lin's beginnings, as well as the decades-long particulars of her conflict with Suyin. There's no heroism or villainy to be found in the episode's flashbacks to the sisters' youth, just the deeply-felt complexity of two people responding honestly to the world and to each other. By visualizing the past so vividly, "Korra" enriches the present, deepening both Suyin and Lin as characters, and bringing context to the latter's relationship with Korra — whom, it turns out, Lin subconsciously sees as a proxy for her sister's rebellious teenage self. When Lin finally achieves catharsis, it feels crucial for the show as a whole; such is the beauty of well-done character development.

More than arguably any "The Legend of Korra" episode, "Beginnings" is the one installment that gets consistently and near-unanimously singled out by fans as a high point in the entire "Avatar" franchise — not just because of its strength as an individual two-parter, but because of its sheer momentousness as an act of mythological expansion. It's in these two episodes that we get to learn, alongside Korra, about the Avatar's — ahem — beginnings as an entity, by reaching all the way back to the story of the very first master of all four elements: Avatar Wan, who lived 10,000 years before Korra ... and had the voice of Steven Yeun.

Charting his entire trajectory from impoverished food pilferer to firebender to exile in the Spirit Wilds, "Beginnings" demonstrates how Wan came to befriend the spirits and become a human bridge between the two worlds, eventually merging with Raava (April Stewart), the ancient spirit of light and peace, to become the Avatar. Although Wan's conflict with Vaatu (Jonathan Adams), the spirit of darkness, ultimately proves relevant to the (rather underwhelming) civil war plot of Book Two, it's the self-contained magic of "Beginnings" that makes it such a singular and iconic moment in "Avatar" history. From the gorgeous ink-on-parchment animation style to the Homeric sweep to the plethora of callbacks and affectionate nods to the lore of both "Korra" and "Aang" — finally some clarification about the whole "lion turtles or dragons?" debacle — this is the rare hour of television that immediately feels timeless.

Given how much momentum Book Three builds in its back half, approaching its conclusion as it originally aired felt to some fans like waiting for the whole thing to end with an inevitable, ugly screech. But the season finale doesn't just maintain the previous episodes' level of intensity; it straight-up delivers the most excitement, entertainment, and emotion the franchise has managed since "The Last Airbender" — or ever, as some would argue.

From a straightforward, plot-minded perspective, "Venom of the Red Lotus" is the strongest episode of "The Legend of Korra." No other half-hour in the show's history packs so much gripping action, grand drama, character progression, visual splendor, and seismic narrative development into its running time; it's the kind of dizzying, mind-blowing, expletive-inspiring Great TV that shows like "Game of Thrones" and "Lost" offered at their best. With all the season's plots — the new Air Nation, the Beifong reconciliation, Bolin's lavabending apprenticeship, Jinora's rise to airbending master — converging into a final, embittered, all-or-nothing stand against the Red Lotus, the episode offers a degree of catharsis that would be plenty enough to land it on any list of all-time great season finales. But it's the ultimate showdown between Korra and Zaheer — and the drastic, unimaginable outcome it has for our heroine — that really sets it apart. And it's no coincidence that the best episode of the entire show would come one season later, as a direct consequence of that showdown.