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Korra’s Growth (Book 1: Air)
Korra starts out having been separated from the world and immediately put on the pedestal of being the avatar. This leads to her entire self-identity and self-esteem being based around being the avatar. She isn’t allowed to establish herself as a person before she is discovered to be the avatar. This lead to her valuing her physical strength and bending prowess as the visual measure of her worth. When that physical side comes into question her entire self-identity is shaken and she doesn’t know how to deal with it which leads to frustration. This frustration feeds the impulsive characteristics she already has and leads to poor decisions, which she is faced with consequences for time and time again.
In the first season Korra’s overconfidence and brash attitude put her into many precarious situations. She challenges Amon to a one on one and ends up ambushed and almost gets her bending taken away. She refuses to shut down the pro bending championship and the arena ends up attacked and Amon sends a signal to the rest of the world that the revolution is a force to be reckoned with. She gets ambushed by Hiroshi and kidnapped by Tarrlock after jumping into situations she wasn’t fully prepared for. All of her actions come from good intentions, but she doesn’t know how to enact them in a way that brings about a peaceful resolution because of her inexperience with society and other people as a whole. Korra struggles with the conflict of wanting and being expected to bring change and balance with her lack of social experience which is the root cause of her inferiority superiority complex as well as coming right after Aang, one of the most influential and powerful avatars. It’s made very clear that up until this point Korra is desperate to prove herself to others and herself. She is struggling to balance her waning confidence by being in the shadow of Aang with the impending threat that Amon and the equalists face. When the equalists finally make their bid for the city and everything goes south Korra is forced to face the outcome of her inability to adapt to the circumstances and develop her power. This is a wake up call for Korra who hadn’t had to adapt to anything within the confines of the white lotus compound. Her lack of experience when it comes to the world and its complex inner workings left her wholly unprepared for the equalists and their revolution. Korra is forced to realize that the situation won’t wait for her to be ready to face it and that she has to step up to the plate in spite of her spiritual and airbending shortcomings.
She rushes to finish Amon to save the city, after finding reasons to avoid the situation until this point, and loses her bending in the process. Korra’s biggest fear becomes a reality. The physical strength and bending she so prided and based her self-worth on has been taken away. How can she be the avatar if she can’t bend the four elements? She reaches her lowest point, but instead of having to face her worst nightmare she is given a way out through the past avatars. Korra then comes to think that her powers can solve all of her problems, that her powers are a get out of jail free card. Amon was the biggest and first threat she had faced until that point so her careless mindset when it comes to her power develops because of this outcome. This makes her attitude at the beginning of season 2 make complete sense. Korra throughout season one was slowly becoming less brash, but because she managed to get her bending back through her avatar abilities she becomes even more overconfident in her power. With season two her over confidence and lack of thought for consequences due to the ending of season one had to be excised through the trials and tribulations she faced once again. To overcome this she had to face something that challenged her weaknesses and made it so that she couldn’t rely on her powers to be a get out of jail free card so that she no longer had that safety cushion and would be forced to move past her carelessness.