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The Legend of Korra (potential spoilers within)


KyleJCrb
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So, just watched the premiere of the new Last Airbender sequel series The Legend of Korra. They haven't lost a beat in following the original series with strong characters, great writing, and amazing animation. Definitely makes up for that horrible Shyamalan abomination, and I'm really looking forward to more episodes. What do you guys think?

Edited by KyleJCrb
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Just finished watching them, myself. Allaying my fears, Korra doesn't show any signs of being a lesser production than the original Avatar:TLA. A few lines were a bit generic/cheesy, but I'm going to put that down to "because these were the first couple episodes." Characters were well-written, the humor was really spot-on (that small "I'm watching you" sequence between Korra and Chief Lin was hysterical), and the animation was drop-dead gorgeous.

Suffice it to say I'm pumped for April 14.

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A few lines were a bit generic/cheesy, but I'm going to put that down to "because these were the first couple episodes."

Yeah, I noticed this as well, but thinking back, TLA had a few of those too. It's still pretty strong dialogue overall, and I figure it'll only improve as the writers and voice actors get more comfortable with the characters.

Also, the Chief Lin bit was hilarious. Tenzin's son saying "yeah, you're a bad teacher!" cracked me up AND made me feel bad for the guy at the same time. And Korra is just an awesome character in general.

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I'm not sure how I feel about her having basically mastered all the elements at the outset of the series. One thing I liked about The Last Airbender was the journey Aang took itself; he seemed to learn so much more and came off as much wiser than a lot of the adults I know. Its definitely gonna be smaller in scale than The Last Airbender. I think the quality of the show is going to be determined by what kind of conflict we see between Korra and the anti-benders. If they're interesting and complex like the Fire Nation royal family was, then the story will be interesting. If not, then its just gonna be Korra and Mako slobbering all over each other.

- I like the jazz fusion they incorporated in the musical score.

- I have to say metalbending armor looks pretty badass.

- And a polar bear dog just isn't the same as a flying bison... :sad:

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They were a little heavy-handed with Korra's characterization (she's impulsive and stubborn, we get it) and I'm not sold on the setting (it went from pseudo-medieval with some isolated firebending-powered tech to early 20th century skyscrapers and Model Ts in 70 years?), but overall it was an interesting couple episodes. I don't have cable TV at the moment, but if they keep putting the episodes up online, I'll definitely keep watching.

I forgot how trollish the Avatar writers are, though. "Hey, what happened to Zuko's mom, anyway?" "Well, it's an amazing story--" *immediately interrupted*.

Edited by Native Jovian
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Well remember all the technology that the Fire Nation had in the original series. Then remember that Republic City, where this takes place, was founded as a joint effort between Aang and Zuko 70 or so years beforehand. I think that the new setting makes sense, especially if the other nations built and improved upon what the Fire Nation already had.

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I thought it was great, and I'm not really bothered by the setting at all.

70 years really isn't that short of a time for technology to grow from what has already been shown in the previous series. Not all of the fire nations technology required a firebender, remember the prison they had all those earth benders at? That place was run on coal, it's not that big of a leap to go from fire bending to power something to coal and other such things as a power source. The ships and zeplins also likely relied on coal more than fire bending for power as well. The only thing we saw that was explicitly completely powered by fire bending was the little tanks, and that may just be because to them it's more practical that way than to have to have a physical fuel source. All of this technology probably relied on stirling engines, it didn't take 70 years to go from stirling engines to combustion engines.

We in the real world developed a lot of technology fairly rapidly especially once the industrial revolution hit, it was an explosion of innovation and growth, and it's been snowballing as time progresses. It's probably the same in the Avatar world, and it's likely helped along even faster by the fact that many people can manipulate the elements already.

I'm also not too bothered by the way things are setting up in this series, it seems to be in line with the previous one. I think you guys need to step back and remember not to stick the original avatar on a pedestal. It's always had a balance of cheesy/silly with good story telling, and occasionally heavy handed bits.

Edited by cobaltstarfire
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I thought it was great, and I'm not really bothered by the setting at all.

70 years really isn't that short of a time for technology to grow from what has already been shown in the previous series. Not all of the fire nations technology required a firebender, remember the prison they had all those earth benders at? That place was run on coal, it's not that big of a leap to go from fire bending to power something to coal and other such things as a power source. The ships and zeplins also likely relied on coal more than fire bending for power as well. The only thing we saw that was explicitly completely powered by fire bending was the little tanks, and that may just be because to them it's more practical that way than to have to have a physical fuel source. All of this technology probably relied on stirling engines, it didn't take 70 years to go from stirling engines to combustion engines.

We in the real world developed a lot of technology fairly rapidly especially once the industrial revolution hit, it was an explosion of innovation and growth, and it's been snowballing as time progresses. It's probably the same in the Avatar world, and it's likely helped along even faster by the fact that many people can manipulate the elements already.

I'm also not too bothered by the way things are setting up in this series, it seems to be in line with the previous one. I think you guys need to step back and remember not to stick the original avatar on a pedestal. It's always had a balance of cheesy/silly with good story telling, and occasionally heavy handed bits.

I agree with this. Remember, Book 1 was pretty mediocre compared to Books 2 and 3, and it's been 3-4 years since Sozin's Comet aired. They just need to get back into stride, that's all.

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I've also seen the show already. In short, it is awesome in every way.

The music in this show is incredible.

According to the Track Team (the guys who did the Music) the soundtrack style was imagined as, "If China had developed Jazz in the 1920's". I can't wait to hear how far they take that because already know they go Chinese fricking Dixieland in the future...

I think that part of the reason for the rare cheesy linse is the crew trying to figure out style, the tone and more importantly, their audience. They've stated that Korra is going to be a more mature show and I think the occasional cheesy line is a result of them figuring out that audience. The first 2 episodes are them easing into it, going from TLA to...the future.

The cheesy lines could also be 1) attempts at a joke that just didn't work or 2) just a weak part of the script.

From what I saw of the show, Mako is going to be a very good character for David Faustino. He gets to go from the guy who was Bud Bundy to Zuko without the angst. The best part is that he's the straight man it seems, but David Faustino has good comedy chops.

Joss Whedon mentions in interviews that he casts Comedians and Comedic Actors for the really dramatic parts because they always deliver on drama even if they've never done it before.

With that in mind, I can't wait to see the episode that is to come where apparently the Equalists(Anti-Benders) kidnap Mako's brother Bolin. I really see how he plays, "They have my brother and I'm a firebender...".

Another surprise for me was J.K. Simmons as Tenzin. He was unrecognizable and he plays the part so well. I kept saying to myself as I watched, "Who is Spiderman? He's a public menace!" and "Cave Johnson, we're done here..." and now I know he can add a monk with a wife and 3.5 children with one of them biting his head to that repertoire of classic performances of his.

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If Book One is Air... I wonder what Book Two will be...

...unfortunately, there may not be one, the creators were waiting on ratings before confirming multiple seasons.

Took me an hour to find the show, considering I'm non-US based. However, when I did, I loved it. Well thought out, especially the pro-bending idea. I mean, what else could it be, an all-element Earth Rumble?

I have to admit, the first time I saw Tenzin, I lol'ed at his son acting like OM NOM NOM YUMMY HEAD.

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