Throughout The Legend of Korra, the main characters have to face the most horrific obstacles.
With a much darker tone than Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend Of Korra wasn't always about the fun adventures of the next generation of Team Avatar. Last Airbender may have touched on issues such as genocide, imperialism, class wars, and poverty, but Korra laid out all of its themes and topics for even the younger fans to see and understand.
RELATED: Avatar: 7 Ways Legend Of Korra Ruined The Last Airbender (& 7 Ways It Helped)
In this franchise's continuation, the villains aren't just caricatures of evil, they are outright heinous masterminds with horrific torment of the Avatar at the top of their to-do list. The problems nor the villains within the series are ever resolved easily, and sometimes things get ugly. Throughout Korra, the main characters have to face the most horrific obstacles.
When the marriage between Bolin and Korra's cousin, Eska, didn't work out in Book 2, Eska just couldn't understand that Bolin has a choice in who he marries. In one scene, the gang is looking through a pair of binoculars for a clearer image of what looks like an oncoming threat across the ocean. However, the torrent of waves is caused by none other than Eska, who's charging at full speed to chase after Bolin.
Although there is a bit of humor here, it is genuinely terrifying to see someone so grotesquely adamant about their possession of the person they love. Eska's face is also rather horrifying to look at.
Although there has always been a hint of the dark side of the spirit world, The Legend of Korra laid bare the evil that can come from the spirit world with the introduction of the dark spirits. At the start of Book 2, Korra is targeted by a monstrous being that the group comes to realize is a corrupted spirit. More than the shock of the beast, the revelation of this corruption is what's so eerie.
RELATED: Avatar: 5 Ways The Spirit World Changed In Korra (& 5 It Stayed The Same)
Worst of all, the corrupted spirit attacks in the dead of night with no one knowing except Korra's polar bear dog, Naga. If it wasn't for Naga's alarming howling in the darkness, the series could've ended right there.
Granted, corrupted spirits were popping up everywhere in Book Two, so it was bound to happen that Korra would have to face one out of nowhere. However, when she was bombarded by one on her way to the Fire Nation, it was an upsetting turn of events. Her home of the Southern Water Tribe needed military support, which is why she was headed there, but the attack by the corrupted spirit put a huge dent in her plans.
The most terrifying part of this scene is not just how scary the sea beast appears, but how Korra, in her Avatar State no less, was unable to defeat the rampaging beast. She even tried purification on the beast, but that failed and Korra was swallowed whole, and supposedly dead.
Normally brash characters like Korra go through their stories as the triumphant heroes, but early on, Korra is forced to learn the hard way that reality is more sinister than she realized. When Korra challenges the villain Amon to a one-on-one duel in the middle of the night, she is ambushed by him and his supporters.
Witnessing the hero being held down with no escape and threatened by an evil mastermind was unpleasant. The scene also establishes Amon's terrifying genius, revealing that he's not foolish enough to rush into battle without a foolproof plan. Plus, his promise to save Korra for last was haunting for viewers and especially for Korra who is emotionally broken down from the traumatic experience.
When Korra fights Tarrlok to end his corrupt reign over Republic City, it was a shock to learn that he, like Amon, is a bloodbender. In their fight at City Hall, there is no water for the two waterbenders to fight with, which is just fine for Korra since she has fire and earth, but as a last resort, Tarrlok uses his surprising skills as a bloodbender to subdue the Avatar.
Bloodbending was always unsightly, as first seen in Book 3 of Last Airbender, but in Korra, it's on a much more horrific level. When Tarrlok bloodbends Korra, the audience can hear Korra's bones crack and the blood inside her swishing around. The body horror of Korra's body contorting like she's possessed was certainly terrifying to watch.
In flashback scenes, fans are given the chance to see what else the original Team Avatar had done in their lives, focusing on their apprehending of the mob boss Yakone. Although he at first appeared to be a typical mafioso, more talk than action, Yakone was in fact a powerful bender with a terrifying specialty in bloodbending.
His talent in the vile art was immense as he didn't even need a full moon to activate the power. Yakone was also so strong in bloodbending that he could do it with his hands literally tied. When he was on trial for his crimes, he used his bloodbending to render almost everyone unconscious, save for Aang who was the one person who could stop him.
When Korra needed help in closing the Spirit World's portals in Book 2, Jinora came to her aid as someone with a close connection with the spirits. Unfortunately, when Korra found her way to the portals, she was betrayed by her own uncle who held Jinora hostage, coercing the Avatars into opening all the portals and releasing all the spirits into the mortal world.
Korra's uncle had both the ability to purify and corrupt living beings, and he used the threat of the latter power to force Korra's hand. Proving how serious he was about hurting an innocent child, he nearly corrupts Jinora right before Korra's eyes, which was painful and unpleasant for Jinora to experience.
Near the end of Book 3, Korra is captured by The Red Lotus, a group of criminals who broke from their imprisonment and will do whatever means necessary to create a world of anarchy. The heinous rebel group tie Korra up and forced raw mercury into her body, poisoning her to death. Their plan was simple; once the poison is administered, the Avatar State will be triggered to protect Korra, then all The Red Lotus has to do is kill Korra in that state, thus ending the cycle of Avatar for good.
RELATED: The Legend Of Korra: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Red Lotus
Similar to bloodbending, the poisoning leaves Korra's body contorting and twisting in unnatural ways, but additional effects make this torture much worse. Korra is in an even worse state, with her eyes bug-eyed from the slow death's pain, she even begins to hallucinate the enemies of her past, making for an even more traumatic experience.
After being poisoned and nearly killed by the Red Lotus in Book 3, Korra suffers from PTSD, seeing horrifying visions of the group's leader Zaheer. This trauma that Korra faces is even worse than when she was overcoming her fear of Amon. Zaheer's plan not only was close to killing her but put her through the most unbearable torture.
Bits of the mercury that the villainous group used to poison Korra is still stuck inside her body at the start of Book 4, which prevents her from entering the Avatar State. Being in her lowest state of the series, Korra has few coping mechanisms to properly deal with her PTSD, so while she is tormented with the visions of the man who almost tortured her to death, the Avatar Spirit itself begins to haunt her as well.
In spite of airing on a children's channel, Korra was supposed to be for a more adult audience, and that change in tone can be easily seen in the Earth Queen's death in Book 3. Before this season, character deaths were never explicitly shown on screen, let alone by an airbender.
The airbenders are supposed to be pacifists, but the villain Zaheer breaks the tradition and takes every hostile measure he can to exact his plot. When he approaches the Earth Queen, another corrupt politician who abused her power, he shows her no mercy, forming an airball around her head and pulling all the air out of her lungs until she dies. The visual of seeing someone suffocating to death is enough to scare one's mind, but it's also pretty terrifying to see a power used to do so much good being used for such a horrific act.
NEXT: The Legend Of Korra: Team Avatar's 10 Biggest Accomplishments, Ranked