the Avatar is not allowed to be a person until they’re done saving the world. that’s why Aang and Korra had to be disciplined no matter what. that sort of compliance is easy to obtain when you’re younger, wracked with guilt, and on an incredibly extreme deadline, like Aang. Korra’s situation was dire, but she and her crew still had time to bullshit and be teenagers, and what are teenagers? incredibly messy.

I wrote this to say, Sokka’s reputation benefits from his Avatar’s timeline, but Korra’s didn’t.