Been seeing ALOK a lot recently on my tl, and though personally I loved ALOK, it was lacking in a certain area which I think they could have fixed and would have made the show up to par with ATLA: IT'S MYTHOS.
Here's a deep dive on Avatar: Legend of Korra . . .

I guess we can start with ALOK's strenghts before getting into the nitty-gritties because DAMN the themes they tackle in this series were so impressive

1. Ok since I've mentioned themes earlier, one theme that it progressed is Political Structures, which i think is a good jumping point from ATLA since they basically had to remake the world from the anarchy of the Fire Nation, and had to decide how to rule after.

2.1 THE BENDING
Solid. Innovative. The introduction of numerous bending forms like lava-bending, blood-bending as a way to block chi to stop people from bending?!? The advancements of metal bending with the limitation of pure metals such as platinum... hands down

2.2. there's also THE MIX BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND INNOVATIVE USES OF BENDING. I think @daxramires makes a great case in his tweets so amma link them in the next tweets. UNDENIABLY, ONE OF THE BEST THINGS EVER is seeing how traditional bending is being challenged with new ideas

2.3 https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274710424332587008?s=21 https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274710424332587008

2.4 https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274714306014138368?s=21 https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274714306014138368

2.5. https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274716919686328320?s=21 https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274716919686328320

2.6. https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274720626008182784?s=21 https://twitter.com/daxramires/status/1274720626008182784

2.7. All the love @daxramires! Solid analyses on the bending fr!

2.8. I haven't mentioned the whole spirit bending thing yet because THAT'S FOR LATER'S DISCUSSION. Keep reading HAHAHA.

3. CHARACTERS
Admittedly they can't contest to ATLA's cast of characters, but I really love the way they tried to make them a homage to ATLA. At times when ALOK's plot didn't do it for me, they had me wanting to stay because I fell in love with them.

3.1 albeit their characters could have done much more work tbh, they were unique and had a different spin by exploring romantic subplots, duties as citizens of a country, and venturing to different territories of human complexity.

3.2 my personal favorite, and probably an unpopular opinion, is Korra's PTSD and having to let go of her past traumas, which was an overarching plot throughout the whole story. LOVED. IT.

so now that that's out of the way LET'S TALK ABOUT WHERE THE SERIES WENT WRONG WITH THE MYTHOS OF THEIR WORLD

can you spot the difference? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The first photo is taken from ATLA and the second one is taken from ALOK

But that's not the only difference. There is a disparity between the two mythos of both shows, which I think was the downfall of ALOK

The charm of the spirit world in ATLA is its closeness to reality and closeness to naturalism. It was highly revered, and its roots were that of Asian mythology.

But instead we were given THIS

AND THIS

Too flashy. Too out of touch. Less Asian mythos, and leaning more towards a more Westernized, colorful, fairytale-like Spirit World (which isn't bad, don't get me wrong. But it counters the mythos that was previously established by ATLA)

The sudden shift of ALOK's season 1 and season 2-4 were so drastic in terms of world building because SEASON 2-4 COMPLETELY FELT LIKE A DIFFERENT WORLD. It's no wonder people felt like they were watching two completely different shows when watching ALOK.