What is Avatar The Last Airbender The Legend Of Korra?

It's a Nickelodeon animated franchise made up of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) and its sequel The Legend of Korra (2012-2014), set in a world where benders control water, earth, fire, or air.

Where did Avatar The Last Airbender The Legend Of Korra come from?

The original series was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko in Burbank, California, and premiered on Nickelodeon in February 2005 with animation produced by South Korean studios.

What does Avatar The Last Airbender The Legend Of Korra mean?

The name covers both series in the franchise, with "Avatar" referring to the reincarnating spirit who can bend all four elements and serves as the world's arbiter across the two shows.

How do you use Avatar The Last Airbender The Legend Of Korra?

Fans engage through fanart on DeviantArt and Tumblr, ship debates like Zutara versus Kataang or Makorra versus Korrasami, and fiction on Fanfiction.net, where the two shows together hosted over 50,000 stories by 2015.

Is Avatar The Last Airbender The Legend Of Korra still popular?

The franchise stayed a classic reference point, with The Last Airbender rated 9.2 on IMDb and Korra at 8.7, and Netflix greenlighting a live-action reboot in 2018 with the original creators attached.

Avatar The Last Airbender The Legend Of Korra

2005animated series fandomclassic

Published August 15, 2026

Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated series that aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008, followed by sequel series The Legend of Korra from 2012 to 2014. The franchise built a massive online fandom around bending, shipping wars like Zutara versus Kataang, and the canonical Korrasami ending.

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Overview

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a Nickelodeon animated series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko that ran for three seasons between 2005 and 2008, set in a world split into four nations whose benders can manipulate water, earth, fire, or air1. The story follows Aang, a twelve-year-old airbender pulled out of a hundred-year iceberg by siblings Katara and Sokka, who has to master all four elements to end the Fire Nation's war3.

The 2012 sequel The Legend of Korra jumps forward roughly seventy years to Republic City, where new Avatar Korra learns airbending from Aang's son Tenzin while facing off against the anti-bender Equalist movement led by Amon3. Both shows lean heavily on East Asian visual language, Chinese calligraphy for in-universe writing, and anime-style action choreography built with cultural consultants on staff6. The franchise's IMDb ratings sit near the top of animated television, with The Last Airbender scoring 9.2 and Korra 8.75.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Nickelodeon (broadcast) / Tumblr (fandom spread)

Creator

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

Date

2005

DiMartino and Konietzko co-created the series out of Burbank, California, with South Korean studios JM Animation, DR Movie, and Moi Animation handling the animation production1. In interviews on Nickelodeon's site the two creators described hiring consultants for martial arts, calligraphy, and cultural representation to ground the setting in real Asian traditions rather than fantasy pastiche6.

The Last Airbender premiered on Nickelodeon in February 2005 and wrapped its three-book run in July 20081. Nickelodeon greenlit The Legend of Korra as a sequel that debuted in 2012, though the network famously pulled part of season three off broadcast mid-run and shifted the remaining episodes to online-only release before the series ended in 20141.

How It Spread

The fandom exploded on art and blogging platforms well past the shows' original air dates. By April 2015, DeviantArt hosted more than 141,700 submissions tagged "avatar the last airbender" and over 79,300 tagged "the legend of korra"1 2. Tumblr became the main hub for fanart, meta essays, and gifsets covering both series8 9, while the r/TheLastAirbender subreddit crossed 138,000 subscribers by the same period10.

Shipping wars defined a huge chunk of the fandom's public output. The original series split fans between Zuko/Katara (Zutara) and Aang/Katara (Kataang), the latter of which became canon by the finale1. Korra added Makorra, Borra, and eventually Korrasami to the mix, with the Korra/Asami pairing hinted at in the December 2014 finale1. On December 22, 2014, DiMartino and Konietzko confirmed Korrasami as canon on their personal Tumblrs, and Konietzko's own Korrasami fan-art post picked up around 77,040 notes1.

Outside animation, the franchise's live-action attempts fared badly. M. Night Shyamalan's 2010 film The Last Airbender pulled a 6% score on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed roughly $131 million against a $150 million budget4 11. In 2018, Netflix announced a live-action reboot with DiMartino and Konietzko attached as showrunners, promising a "culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast" in direct contrast to the Shyamalan version7.

How to Use This Meme

Fan output typically centers on three formats: character-driven fanart posted to DeviantArt and Tumblr, ship-focused fiction on Fanfiction.net where The Last Airbender sat around 39,600 stories and Korra around 12,700 by 20151, and reaction gifsets pairing show moments with unrelated jokes. Debates often use "Zutara vs Kataang" or "Korrasami" as shorthand for wider arguments about writing choices in the franchise1.