People often point to Korra's Team Avatar and complain that they aren't as powerful as Aang's, but I think that's missing the point.
One of the central themes of Avatar has always been balance. There is a balance between fate and free will, between the physical and spiritual worlds, between tradition and change. The Avatar exists to maintain that balance, and the universe itself has a way of nudging events in the direction they need to go for that balance.
That was the problem his story presented. He was a child who had suddenly been given a responsibility far beyond anything he was prepared for, so the world placed teachers in his path. We see that most clearly with the swamp and his vision of Toph. He needed people who could teach him how to become the Avatar. The universe put them in his path.
Korra's problem was the exact opposite.
Aside from airbending, she already had masters. She could bend the elements as a child. She had training. She had power. She didn't need people to teach her how to be the Avatar.
She needed people to teach her how to be Korra.
Aang got to be a person first and then learn how to be the Avatar.
Korra was the Avatar first and then had to learn how to be a person.
That's why their Team Avatars are so different.
Korra's companions are not exactly weak, either. Asami is a brilliant inventor, engineer, pilot, strategist, and businesswoman. Mako and Bolin are professional athletes who are still more capable than the overwhelming majority of benders in the world. Tenzin is the greatest airbender alive.
But the point is that Korra doesn't need people to teach her how to throw a punch. She already knows how to do that. She is, by far, the most powerful member of her group. What she lacks is perspective. She lacks connection.
She needed people who had jobs, responsibilities, families, ambitions, relationships, and ordinary lives. She needed people who could remind her what exactly she was trying to protect.
Korra learned bending from masters. Mako and Bolin show her how ordinary people use bending. They show her what bending looks like when it isn't practiced by sages and masters. They teach her about the lives of working people because, for most of her life, Korra didn't have access to that world.
Asami helps Korra adapt to a rapidly industrializing world filled with automobiles, aircraft, radios, factories, and technologies that weren't a part of Korra's isolated upbringing. She represents the modern world in the same way Tenzin represents the old one. More importantly, she gives Korra a perspective that doesn't revolve around bending at all. She didn't need them to be Masters, she was the heavy hitter, she needed them to have her back.
And yes, they failed one another sometimes.
But so did Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko.
People also seem to forget that Katara wasn't a master when The Last Airbender began. Zuko certainly wasn't either. Toph was exceptional, and that's why Korra also had Tenzin, who fulfilled a similar role as both teacher and guide (though not in mannerism or tone).
That's why it always irritates me when people say Korra's Team Avatar wasn't as strong.
That wasn't their purpose.
Aang talks about his friends from before he was frozen all the time. Bumi. Kuzon. The other Air Nomad children. He already had an identity outside of being the Avatar because he'd already had the chance to be a child.
How often does Korra talk about friends she had before arriving in Republic City?
She had teachers. She had guards. She had trainers. She had expectations. She had the title of Avatar. She didn't have a life.
Korra didn't need masters of the elements. She needed people of the world. And they were exactly that.
That's all you really need to know to understand why their Team Avatars are so different.
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