I think people severely overrate season 1 of Korra. True, it doesn't shyt itself until the grand finale unlike season 2 that just wallows in it's own filth beginning to end. But the fact is that you have to take the season as a whole, not segment out individual moments that might have been good if things had gone another way. So, in the end, Amon talked a good game, but turned out to be a pathetic hypocrite defeated by the dumbest plan Korra could come up with, Bolin has no reason to exist, Mako is like if he was written by a deranged fangirl who insists Zuko should have ended up with Katara, and Korra ends up a very unlikable protagonists that gets powers she never earns for no reason. Tenzin is utterly useless as a mentor, and this even continues into season 2. Asami is the only character that we can even remotely argue was well written. At the time, we forgave that stuff because we assumed it'd lead to something better, but it never did.