Was The Owl House a refuation of The Legend of Korra?

“The problem was, those guys were totally out of balance. They took their ideologies to far.”

• Toph Beifong

“That’s assuming that’s coming from genuine intent.”

• The Titan

When The Owl House usually gets compared to other shows, it’s usually things like Steven Universe, due to the more realistic take on villain redemptions and actual LGBT representation, or Star Vs The Forces of Evil, for lacking its melodramatic elements and not doing away with magic. But rarely due I see a comparison with The Legend of Korra, particularly as the finale seems to be a very brutal refuttal of that shows’ ethos.

In LOK, most villains are extremists. They do horrible things, but mean their stated goals and Korra even incorporates their ideology to some extent: while the equalists fizzle out inexplicably, president Raiko comes in to offer representation for non-benders, the spirit portals remain open allowing the pirits and humans to co-exist as Unalaq wanted, and Wu dismantles the earth Kingdom monarchy in favour of independent democracies, a mixture of Zaheer’s and Kuvira’s goals.

In TOH, the villain too is politically motivated. That is, he is a puritan with a genocidal wish to “protect humanity” by killing off all witches and demons. Unlike Korra’s villains though, the show’s finale makes it abundantly clear this is a facade for a desire to be the hero of his own story. No entertainment is given to the idea that he might have genuine intentions.

I find this particularly interesting; I’m not sure if it was a direct jab or pure coincidence (since unlike LOK’s villains there really isn’t a way to logically compromise with Belos’ desire).