NOTE: This was originally posted on my Tumblr (agentarmando.tumblr.com)
Happy Avatar Day everyone!
Today is the premiere of the first two episodes of the new series
Legend of Korra, which is supposed to be a sequel to the original series
Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’m here to give you a breakdown!
***slight spoiler alert, so watch the episodes using the links at the end!***
My first impressions in the first minute or two is “WOW!” It’s interesting how they immediately thrust you into the action. This is compared to the original Avatar series, where it took a while for character development and action to happen. The creators of the Avatar series said they would only create 26 episodes so they could avoid “filler” episodes. Let me tell you that they made good on their promise. Not to say that Avatar: the Last Airbender was a whole bunch of fluff. It’s just that it was not always a linear story, and sometimes that took away from the enjoyment and excitement of the show, but it was very negligible. Sometimes, it was nice seeing a slight departure from the main storyline (like with “Tales of Ba Sing Se”), but at other times, it didn’t work so well (like with “The Beach”). Another reason why the Legend of Korra gets down to the nitty-gritty right away is because they assume that you’re a fan of Avatar (like me) and know already what the role of the Avatar is. That being said, for best enjoyment, watch the Avatar: the Last Airbender series. It’s built for the Avatar audience, as many underlying stories have roots in The Last Airbender series (what happened to you, Zukko’s mom? Darn Ikki and her ADD!) and a lot of these storylines may fly over your head if you don’t know about them.
This Avatar is a very interesting change from Aang, the previous Avatar from the Last Airbender. While Aang is very spiritual and doesn’t have so much ease mastering the four elements, Korra masters water, earth, and fire (her naturally opposite element, which is supposed to be the hardest) when she’s still a toddler, and doesn’t really care about spirituality and discipline (reminded me of myself in my earlier years, lol). She apparently has all the talent in the world, but she can’t airbend to save her life. This is going to be the big propeller of the main storyline, as another problem is that there’s only one master airbender left in the world (again, see The Last Airbender if you haven’t already to see why that is).
Another cool thing is the way how the creators really made the world change with the times. You can definitely tell it’s not the same world of the Last Airbender. Katara (wow, she’s still around?) even says how Aang’s time has passed, and her brother Zokka is also gone (it’s so sad!). You also find out that Toph is long gone a bit later. I think it’s fitting how the creators made Katara as the “sole survivor” of the original gang of friends that was the crux of the Last Airbender. Katara was always there for everyone in the group, was the person that held the group together, and took charge when the team needed a leader. Now in a way, she was rewarded by still being around when everyone else is gone, and you can tell that while Katara has indeed aged, she hasn’t lost a step at all and is still ticking.
Another interesting thing that I liked was how they changed the problems in the world to reflect the changes in the times. For example, in the original The Last Airbender series, the Aang gang always had to scrounge up some food by foraging or hunting in some remote location. Now, there are real cities, and now you have to worry about having money and not being homeless, or police making your life difficult for trying to be a good citizen while the real crooks get away, and they arrest first and ask questions later (they must be talking about the present, lol).
Of course, the new Avatar brought everything back that made The Last Airbender such an awesome series. There’s that awesome humor (unmistakeably American), while at the same time having a strong anime flavor, and they mix together very well to create a really good show. This maybe even the best cartoon I’ve ever seen. There’s also a perfect mix of humor, drama, action and romance (although not so much on the Legend of Korra…yet). I gotta admit, I really like watching the pro-bending matches. Only the Avatar series can invent a professional sport and make it look good. If the next episodes are as good as the first two, the Avatar cartoon series will definitely overtake Sailor Moon as my favorite show ever. The reason why Sailor Moon is my favorite TV show ever was because just like Avatar, it had a little bit of everything like humor, drama, action and romance.
So far, the Legend of Korra started off with a bang. With new, awesome storylines returning along with the same humor and other stuff that made The Last Airbender so great, it’s turning out to be really good. Add to that a killer soundtrack that’s even better than The Last Airbender (and that in itself was really good), and nice anime-ish drawings, and this series has a potential to take off with the sky not even being close to a limit.
Here are the links for the two episodes in case you missed it:
http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/legend-of-korra-101-full-episode.html
http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/legend-of-korra-102-a-leaf-in-the-wind-full-episode.html
***slight spoiler alert, so watch the episodes using the links at the end!***
My first impressions in the first minute or two is “WOW!” It’s interesting how they immediately thrust you into the action. This is compared to the original Avatar series, where it took a while for character development and action to happen. The creators of the Avatar series said they would only create 26 episodes so they could avoid “filler” episodes. Let me tell you that they made good on their promise. Not to say that Avatar: the Last Airbender was a whole bunch of fluff. It’s just that it was not always a linear story, and sometimes that took away from the enjoyment and excitement of the show, but it was very negligible. Sometimes, it was nice seeing a slight departure from the main storyline (like with “Tales of Ba Sing Se”), but at other times, it didn’t work so well (like with “The Beach”). Another reason why the Legend of Korra gets down to the nitty-gritty right away is because they assume that you’re a fan of Avatar (like me) and know already what the role of the Avatar is. That being said, for best enjoyment, watch the Avatar: the Last Airbender series. It’s built for the Avatar audience, as many underlying stories have roots in The Last Airbender series (what happened to you, Zukko’s mom? Darn Ikki and her ADD!) and a lot of these storylines may fly over your head if you don’t know about them.
This Avatar is a very interesting change from Aang, the previous Avatar from the Last Airbender. While Aang is very spiritual and doesn’t have so much ease mastering the four elements, Korra masters water, earth, and fire (her naturally opposite element, which is supposed to be the hardest) when she’s still a toddler, and doesn’t really care about spirituality and discipline (reminded me of myself in my earlier years, lol). She apparently has all the talent in the world, but she can’t airbend to save her life. This is going to be the big propeller of the main storyline, as another problem is that there’s only one master airbender left in the world (again, see The Last Airbender if you haven’t already to see why that is).
Another cool thing is the way how the creators really made the world change with the times. You can definitely tell it’s not the same world of the Last Airbender. Katara (wow, she’s still around?) even says how Aang’s time has passed, and her brother Zokka is also gone (it’s so sad!). You also find out that Toph is long gone a bit later. I think it’s fitting how the creators made Katara as the “sole survivor” of the original gang of friends that was the crux of the Last Airbender. Katara was always there for everyone in the group, was the person that held the group together, and took charge when the team needed a leader. Now in a way, she was rewarded by still being around when everyone else is gone, and you can tell that while Katara has indeed aged, she hasn’t lost a step at all and is still ticking.
Another interesting thing that I liked was how they changed the problems in the world to reflect the changes in the times. For example, in the original The Last Airbender series, the Aang gang always had to scrounge up some food by foraging or hunting in some remote location. Now, there are real cities, and now you have to worry about having money and not being homeless, or police making your life difficult for trying to be a good citizen while the real crooks get away, and they arrest first and ask questions later (they must be talking about the present, lol).
Of course, the new Avatar brought everything back that made The Last Airbender such an awesome series. There’s that awesome humor (unmistakeably American), while at the same time having a strong anime flavor, and they mix together very well to create a really good show. This maybe even the best cartoon I’ve ever seen. There’s also a perfect mix of humor, drama, action and romance (although not so much on the Legend of Korra…yet). I gotta admit, I really like watching the pro-bending matches. Only the Avatar series can invent a professional sport and make it look good. If the next episodes are as good as the first two, the Avatar cartoon series will definitely overtake Sailor Moon as my favorite show ever. The reason why Sailor Moon is my favorite TV show ever was because just like Avatar, it had a little bit of everything like humor, drama, action and romance.
So far, the Legend of Korra started off with a bang. With new, awesome storylines returning along with the same humor and other stuff that made The Last Airbender so great, it’s turning out to be really good. Add to that a killer soundtrack that’s even better than The Last Airbender (and that in itself was really good), and nice anime-ish drawings, and this series has a potential to take off with the sky not even being close to a limit.
Here are the links for the two episodes in case you missed it:
http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/legend-of-korra-101-full-episode.html
http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/legend-of-korra-102-a-leaf-in-the-wind-full-episode.html
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