Who is Your Favorite Villain in The Legend of Korra? (Spoilers Allowed)

[Winter]

Just because I'm curious who do you consider to be Korra's best adversary and why.

Here's my opinion on the subject.

Tokuga from Turf Wars. In my Darth Maul after the Phantom Menace I mentioned that I was a bit bugged by Maul's overly complected plan for revenge against Obi-Wan as he's plans for conquering the criminal underworld didn't seem to have anything to really do with that most of the time. For me, Tokuga is Maul after Phantom done right as his main goal, at first, is to take over Republic City's crime world. Like Maul he is disfigured in a battle with the heroes though unlike Maul his disfigurement wasn't intentional on Korra's part it just looked like it was. What makes this work is that as Korra and Asami are some of Republic City's greatest defenders Tokuga wanting to hurt either of them coincides with his already established goal of wanting to take over the Criminal Underworld and him upping the stakes to wanting to take over Republic City as a whole is really more of a means to get back at Korra.

Out of all of Korra's villains, with the exception of Vaatu, Tokuga is the simplest of all of Korra's villains. His motivation both revolve around two things, taking over the world and getting revenge again Korra. His plans are likewise very simple and very depending on who he's going up against, ranging from direct assaults, kidnapping or just poisoning a large group of people. As Linkara said, you don't always need a super morally complex villain just someone who is a big enough threat that you can't take your eyes off them and for me that is what makes Tokuga the best villain in the series so far.

At Number Two we have Zaheer who is the exact opposite of Tokuga in all the right ways. Tokuga is a straight up villain who is obviously evil, Zaheer is more nuanced and is more of a anti-villain. Tokuga has a personal grudge against Korra and is willing to hurt the people she loves just to get to her while Zaheer's attempts to kill Korra are nothing personal and is even willing to help her without question.

But what I like most about Zaheer is willing to do horrible things you get the sense that he's not a evil person and doesn't seem to take any real pleasure in his actions. The closest we get is when he laughs when Korra almost dies and that's more down to him being revealed that he and his friend achieved their ultimate goal.

However, one thing that puts him ahead of the other villains in TLOK is the fact that he was given a lot more time to grow as a character. He appears in almost every episode of Change and during that time we get to see him in every light a villain like him deserves and this helps his relationship with Korra considerably as we got to know him more before his first encounter with Korra.

And my third favorite villain in The Legend of Korra is, Vaatu. Much like Tokuga what makes Vaatu work is the fact that he is just straight up evil. He is the embodiment of chaos and reveals in causing it. He's kinda like if Darkseid became a Reaper that was co-piloted by Voldemort. He's the kind of villain you just want to see more of and is one of the better parts of Spirits

And those are my favorite villains in The Legend of Korra. So who are your favorites?

[CharlesPhipps]

Kuvira for me.

I think Kuvira gets a lot of flack because, well, we don't like unchecked nationalists as a general rule among Korra fans (thank the Avatar). However, the simple fact is that the Earth Kingdom really was ten different kinds of screwed up. After having been the whipping boy of the Avatar universe for who knows how long, she's trying to establish a functioning state for everyone.

It's kind of tragic, really that her actions result in the permanent breakup of the land.

[Antiboyscout]

The writers

[Admiral X]

The writers

Agreed.

[Worffan101]

Kuvira. Fallen paladins make some of the best villains and the fact that 70 years after *Japan got thrown out *China STILL doesn't have its act together (and the queen's a psychopath)...she's even understandable.

Makes it even more of a gut-punch when she goes full-on supervillain.

I dunno why you like the guy from Turf Wars, I found him bland as Hell myself.

The writers

Agreed.

C'mon. Season 2 was rushed and should have come after the others in terms of Korra's journey to spiritual mumbo-jumbo and maturity, but season 3 was smart and season 4 was some damn fine TV.

[Admiral X]

Honestly, I was never all that impressed with the series, which I feel retconned to much of TLA. They also wasted a lot of good opportunities fro ma good storytelling perspective, right from the start.