I've heard the first episode was screened at Comic-Con and can be found online, but I'll be waiting - getting one appetizer and then nothing more is not for me. Shouldn't have watched that damn trailer either :P

 

I'm wondering about that male waterbender shown a few times...that's either Tarrlok or Noatok/Amon, right? (I'm guessing the latter, can't watch the first book to check right now). And he seems to be some kind of enemy too. Does that mean he survived? (would be lame...)

Or will Korra reencounter him in the spirit world?

 

not 100% sure but i think that's the northern water tribe's leader (the one walking through the mist at about 0:50)

 

goddamn the spirit world animal/creature design is looking spectacular. def looking like some ghibli influence or w/e.

My body is not ready for this.

I really like the premise of the 2nd book, mostly in that it focuses on the Water Tribe considering I have been curious how it and the other two major countries have been fairing in the past seven decades. The spirituality thing makes it look like a war between the religious and non-religious, but that doesn't compare as much as the Equalists who reeked of Nazism/Communism vibes. Curious what kind of person the first avatar is going to turn out.

 

September... at least we're halfway through August.

http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/korra-book-2-september-13th-NHD17484-01.html?xid=korranation

 

Another trailer for Book 2. This one's so much more light hearted. I wonder if the whole season is going to be like that, or if it's going to be pretty much like Book 1 was, and have it be more dramatic than comedic.

 

I miss ATLA's comedy. It was a lot better, and better used. Korra's humor is basically just fart jokes. :/

I think comparatively LOK and TLA are kinda reversed.

 

TLA was straight in to all the travelling and adventure and big story as Aang was so alone and lost, then towards the end you had a few stagnant moments where he spent a long time in one place preparing.

LOK has started with those stagnant moments with her training in Republic City and now in book 2 is going to branch out.

 

Book 2 certainly looks good to me and I feel like they have kinda listened to the viewers to make it better in that the main critique of Book 1 was the lack of travelling and seeing the world.

 

I'm curious how long the Avatar franchise as a whole will run imo it'd make the most sense (if done well) to do four separate avatars consisting of 3-4 books each (Aang had 4 if you count The Promise, which I kinda wish they'd done animation for). That way we can sort of follow a whole cycle of Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Which I think would be the natural limit of the franchise, as re-visiting an element again would be a bit meh and 4 generations would give enough time to sort of finish the story of the air tribe being rebuilt and the fire nation being forgiven by the world.

Of course they shouldn't do four if the series reaches a natural no-one really wants it to drag on and ruin itself stage, but most major shows seem to run for around 10-15 seasons; grouping them all together 3-4 books for 4 avatars would be 12-16 seasons.

I am rather concerned for what they're going to have for book 3-4 since book 2 will be covering Korra's spiritual ability. Usually, the main premise of each book was for the Avatar in question to be working or covering something they are lacking in while dealing with the plot at hand. If she masters airbending and is spiritual, wouldn't Korra have to be nerfed in 3 and 4 given how broken the Avatar State can be? I mean, Aang shows that a guy who can bloodbend telepathically at high noon is still useless with one use of the State.

Don't forget the Avatar State has it limitations - Aang very clearly showed us that it was not all that easy to access and most times he sued it was unwillingly. Plus they can still be killed and if they are killed in said state it ends the avatar line forever.

 

Equally I do not know how wise it is to make assumptions of 'what each book deals with' based on only one prior series.

Aang was the last airbender just reawakening from the ice and his three books were segmented by his learning of water bending, earth bending and fire bending. Plus Korra lives in a whole different world - new cities, new technologies and new philosophies rule the day and there's still plenty she could learn - she's barely mastered air bending and she shows no signs of being able to work with plants, blood, metal or lightning. Not to mention the fact we have seen little of the older characters yet, let along the rest of Aang's children.

To be fair, they did already nerf all of the benders in LoK. Look at what everyone could do by the end of TLA: the five grandmasters of the lotus society each destroyed a fifth of an army, and only two of them were hyper powered fire benders. Sokka, Suki, and Toph took out the air fleet brigade on their own, despite that being crawling with super powered fire benders, and one of them having no bending at all. Pheonix King Ozai was well able to keep up with Avatar State Aang for most of that fight, despite Aang's super powered fire bending being supplemented by thousands of prior Avatars' knowledge, along with all the other bending disciplines. Hell, even in season 1, Aang stops a volcano by sheering into the earth with air, and blowing on lava until it hardens.

 

By comparison, Korra gets tired during a pro bending match that goes on for too long. Bolin gets taken down by mooks all the time. Even Mako is a weaker bender than Zuko was, despite the fact that Mako can lightning bend, which is a very powerful and difficult form of bending in TLA, one Zuko never manages to do.

 

Not that I'm saying this is a bad thing. Bending was OP in TLA, and it made non benders useless. Now, it's a lot more fair.

The whole direction they went just irks me. I hate the technological era it's in. When I started watching LOK I was hoping for TLA continued, but instead it was a completely different show with vaguely similar themes and the occasional reference.

They were making huge technological leaps in TLA. Hot air balloons, giant drills, submarines, and other things that I'm probably forgetting. I don't think it'd be very good or believable if technology stayed at a standstill for over 80 years.

Plus, the only realistic way that another world-exploring plotline could be introduced is if there were another war, or there were a whole new world. Another war would just feel wrong, like this were just a rehash of TLA. Another world is coming up in September.

Look at technology now vs 100 years ago. In 1913, technology was (relatively speaking) in its infancy. Even 80 years ago, the modern computer still hadn't been invented. LoK isn't that far fetched at all.

The whole direction they went just irks me. I hate the technological era it's in. When I started watching LOK I was hoping for TLA continued, but instead it was a completely different show with vaguely similar themes and the occasional reference.

They were making huge technological leaps in TLA. Hot air balloons, giant drills, submarines, and other things that I'm probably forgetting. I don't think it'd be very good or believable if technology stayed at a standstill for over 80 years.

I didn't particularly like submarines, but hot air balloons are pretty basic. The other stuff like drills, tanks, submarines and everything were strictly military technology and were only in experimental use by the fire nation.

 

I mean, I understand that it makes sense for technology to advance, I won't argue that. But I feel like it detracts a lot from the fantasy feel and the setting of the story. How long until Korra has a cell phone o_O

 

I don't see your argument most primitive (medieval, tribal etc) fantasy worlds operate under the assumption that they are going to progress technologically in a similar fashion to the real world eventually with some twist drawn from their particular fantasy.

 

The Avatar world has progressed into an industrial revolution type-era with a steampunk vibe drawing on bending powers and steampower to do things.

 

To me it'd feel wrong if they world hadn't advanced like this - the seeds of it were there in all 3 major tribes/cities in TLA and they've had like 80-90 years of peace to develop this further. If they hadn't come so far it'd feel wrong I mean just look how far real life has come. We only got steam-power in like the late 1700s-1800s and mains electricity like late 1800s-1900s; TV only appeared in the 1900s, computers and gaming we are talking like 1960s-1970s, the internet and mobile phones is like 1990s.

The technology ball starts rolling and just gets faster, for near a century of development from a world where these steam powered devices and bending power systems existed it just HAD to quite advanced or it would make no sense.

 

If we take TLA as sort of mid-1700s tech then it makes sense for Korra to have mid 1800s tech I wouldn't expect her to see any truly modern tech that'd need to be mid 1900s aka a generation later so whoever follows on from her.

But the other groups weren't technological savages, the guys at the air temple were making the gliders and airships etc.

The earth kingdom city had gates and automated delivery shoot things.

The northern water tribe had some advanced things in their icy city too.

 

Plus we don't even know what is out there beyond Republic City at the moment so we cannot judge. Given the technological era one would expect rural life to still be quite primitive in contrast to a handful of cities that are leading progress.

 

Also is not the big city and huge technological leaps a Japanese/Chinese theme? It is what they are known for even historically. Is not martial arts style fighting contests an oriental theme? Is not the idea of the monks at the air temple another one? Is not the stealthy ninja-like police force a japanese theme?

 

Personally I find the whole thing very well done. To of 'gone in a different direction' just for the sake of upholding some tribal primitive style in a world that has not moved forward at all would've been boring - we've been there, done that.

yeah, i feel republic city will be one of the few places in the avatar world to be so advanced because it's the only place (i think) in the world where there are no restrictions based on nationality. this in turn prompted a kind of renaissance where all the outcasts and clever people of avatar land flocked there because that's the hip place to be.

 

i kind of hope that if they do venture out into the world beyond republic city, the benders they encounter are a bunch more powerful than them. it would kinda make thematic sense w/spirituality v technology, ie the more technology advanced, the more careful benders had to be to avoid tearing up gas lines, busting water pipes, burning down a block of houses, etc. eventually republic city benders kinda subconsciously repressed their bending skills to avoid disasters and junk.

 

a melting pot city type area also gives a lot more storytelling opportunity as opposed to a travelling fantasy thing that avatar had. they're both good, but in different ways.

 

this is all pretty much conjecture based on what i think would be cool btw, just a disclaimer.

i kind of hope that if they do venture out into the world beyond republic city, the benders they encounter are a bunch more powerful than them. it would kinda make thematic sense w/spirituality v technology, ie the more technology advanced, the more careful benders had to be to avoid tearing up gas lines, busting water pipes, burning down a block of houses, etc. eventually republic city benders kinda subconsciously repressed their bending skills to avoid disasters and junk.

Actually, I really like this. I agree completely, that would be really cool. The technology vs. spirituality thing would be a really cool thing to explore in Avatar, especially since the people in that world have never been shown as very religious. They believe in the spirits, but that's about it besides a few festivals.

septumbre 13

The fact it is airing on Friday nights must mean Nick must have realized Korra was too dark and scary for Saturday mornings. Anyways, cannot wait for tonight to catch the premiere.

So far I'm very happy with the direction of the series.

 

i kind of hope that if they do venture out into the world beyond republic city, the benders they encounter are a bunch more powerful than them. it would kinda make thematic sense w/spirituality v technology, ie the more technology advanced, the more careful benders had to be to avoid tearing up gas lines, busting water pipes, burning down a block of houses, etc. eventually republic city benders kinda subconsciously repressed their bending skills to avoid disasters and junk.

Actually, I really like this. I agree completely, that would be really cool. The technology vs. spirituality thing would be a really cool thing to explore in Avatar, especially since the people in that world have never been shown as very religious. They believe in the spirits, but that's about it besides a few festivals.

 

I like how they actually kind of did this. That's pretty cool.

 

I also like the twins.

I like how they actually kind of did this. That's pretty cool.

Even better because there's the implication that there's something else driving things behind the scenes.

I couldn't help notice that the festival that the Krew and friends visited, which used to be about fasting and meditation, aired on the same day that Yom Kippur began. That had to be a coincidence.

I hoped that her uncle wasn't a power-hungry maniac, just misguided. Both character types are used a lot, but at least it wouldn't have followed directly on the heels of our previous power-hungry maniac, Amon.

 

And you would've thought the night after seeing a statue in the Avatar room light up that the kid would've asked Tenzen about it, but no. Still, that was some nice character development. I got a little choked up when Boomy spoke at Avatar Aang's statue. ;_;

Odd, I thought Amon was more self-loathing than power-hungry personally. But yeah, I figured Jinora would question Tenzin about the statue given it was so old it looked like it was carved from wood rather than stone so it could be assumed she figured Tenzin wouldn't know any more than she does.

 

Anyone noticed how eerie Korra acted in the new episode? She had no issue giving a death threat to a judge in front of her own mother (and she did act on her intent to Tarrlok prior), and even hunted him down. She is almost the Water Tribe's answer to Kyoshi, a woman who had zero issues saying she killed Chin even though it was really an accident and bluntly told Aang to just kill Ozai.

Oh man. Varrick decided enough was enough and took this episode for himself. I loved him before, and love him even more now, even if I feel a bit betrayed. Excellent episode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also Mako + Asami 4eva

I'm not sure if I can properly express how much I liked those episodes.