Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by deoxys

Book 2 Trailer.

Blew away my expectations. They certainly know how to make a trailer, to say the least. The art direction looks fantastic, and the soundtrack sounds great, too... the trailer music gave me chills.

Originally Posted by Concept

Bloody hell. Impressive trailer.

Either I am one hard guy to please or else you guys are way too easy to please. 'Cause while the trailer was okay, it quite seriously excited me 0%. Let me clarify: it didn't put me off either (so like, no -10% or -50% excitement), but I watched that trailer and had zero excitement, zero smiles on the face, zero reaction period, really. The thought that kept racing through my mind while watching it was "When is this gonna get good? What did Deo and Concept see that made them so excited?" Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidn't see it. It was a fairly ordinary trailer. And a rather conservative one too. You want a good trailer? This is a good trailer. The trailer I just watched ... it was an okay trailer but nothing more. Really not seeing why you guys are so mega-pumped by it. And I think I say that as someone who was probably less disappointed by Korra S1 than either one of you. ^_^;

I guess the biggest concern I have with this trailer is that it showed me absolutely no indication that Korra will be able to outperform the original series. At the end of the first season, I felt like the two were "same but different," both really good productions but with different sets of strengths and weaknesses. Today, I feel I can more comfortably declare that Avatar: the Last Airbender is categorically the superior product. And that's fine, that doesn't have to mean that Korra is bad just because it can't live up to its predecessor. But like ... you guys are acting so excited when Season 1 let you down, and I don't see why you have any cause for celebration when this trailer doesn't really show anything that would indicate that you're going to get more satisfaction than you got from Season 1.

Spoiler: show

Never was a fan of the Spirit World romps in the original series -- Roku's flashback excepted -- so I'm less than enthused for an entire season of the stuff.

Not really seeing why one of Tenzin's bratty daughters is Korra's gateway to the spirit realm. Why not Tenzin himself? Why not Korra herself? Aang didn't need a human gate to gain access; if Korra does, whatever , but I still don't see why it has to be a bratty little girl and not any of the world's numerous bending masters, including her father, the world's #1 airbending monk.

Not enough Bolin and Pabu.

Looks like Asami isn't out of the picture just yet. Understandably so? But one does wonder what the whole Mako x Asami situation is going to be like considering how the first season ended on a pretty firm Korra x Mako note.

One thing that made the original series so fun was that it was a saga of discovery. In fact, it was a saga of discovery in a lot of ways! But the one way I want to talk about is that it was a saga of discovering new and exciting teachers/teammates for Aang each arc. The second season introduced Toph. The third season had Zuko finally joining the team. I didn't really see any indication of this happening in Korra's trailer for Season 2. We just saw a whole bunch of old faces, with the solitary exception of some past Avatars and some spirit world beasts. Tenzin. His daughter. Asami. Mako. Korra. It's like, okay, cool, but a hint about the next villain (if any) would've been nice. Or a hint about the next sidekick would've been nice. I guess part of Korra's problem is that Team Avatar is already way too big. In A:tLA, we originally had a team of only three humans and two animals. It was plenty big enough, yes, but it also was small enough to allow for additional human team members. So we got Toph in Season 2 and it didn't feel the least bit crowded. (In fact, in many ways it felt complete.) And then in Season 3 we got Zuko and it was like "Now we're really complete! " But with Korra, we've already got Korra, Mako, Bolin, Asami, Korra's dog, and Pabu on the main team (so one additional human than A:tLA Book 1) not to mention the omnipresence of Tenzin, Toph's granddaughter, and Tenzin's kids. Maybe the writers feel like we've already reached max capacity for new Team Avatar characters and so they don't plan to have Korra meeting anyone new (spirits excepted). And maybe the writers feel like we don't need another bender sidekick since we already have all the bases covered (Korra with water, Korra and Mako with fire, Korra and Bolin with earth, and Korra again with wind). I dunno. We'll see.

P.S. Okay, so we did see the one new Eskimo dude, but I can't even tell if that's a new character or just Korra's father. ^^; Either way, I'll be pretty damn disappointed if we're going to get a waterbending villain two seasons in a row.

Mildly excited. We'll see. Might opt to watch this one as it airs, might opt to do what I've done before with Avatar and MLP:FiM and sit the season out until it's all or mostly all aired. Undecided. Avatar is one of those series where you just really, really want to marathon it. You don't want to be told "HA HA! Now you have to wait a week until your next half-hour morsel! " Each episode flows so cleanly into the next that it's like a book you don't want to put down. But we'll see.

[Concept]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Either I am one hard guy to please or else you guys are way too easy to please.

I think it's less either of these and more just that (judging from your spoiler tagged bit) we want very different things out of this season, and the trailer suggests more what Deo and I want.

Spoiler: show

Never was a fan of the Spirit World romps in the original series -- Roku's flashback excepted -- so I'm less than enthused for an entire season of the stuff.

Not really seeing why one of Tenzin's bratty daughters is Korra's gateway to the spirit realm. Why not Tenzin himself? Why not Korra herself? Aang didn't need a human gate to gain access; if Korra does, whatever , but I still don't see why it has to be a bratty little girl and not any of the world's numerous bending masters, including her father, the world's #1 airbending monk.

This is the big difference right here.

Spoiler: show

I loved the spirit world stuff, and felt it never got nearly enough screen time in the original series. Now this made sense - being an airbender Aang was already pretty good on the spiritual stuff (as much as a ten year old kid can be) and the main overarching story was about him gaining enough skill/power to deal with Ozai. I was also worried that this season would be as much "Spirits" as the last book was "Air", ie all of about two scenes attempting to learn it then suddenly getting it randomly in the final showdown. Now I'm bit more hopeful about the Spirit World getting a heavy focus. Also pretty excited about the first Avatar stuff, which would've contributed to my mood when I posted my reaction.

Also with regards to the "gate to the spirit world" thing - I really think that's just someone going through excercises with her or somesuch, rather than a necessary gate or anything. She needs training on the spiritual stuff just as much as Avatars need training in the four elements. As mentioned before, airbenders pretty much win on the spiritual/philosophical side of things (it is after all the main focus of their entire society what with them having lived in temples and so on), so I imagine she'll have a main teacher (probably Tenzin) but that anyone and everyone who can help will do so - including what is currently presumably the #2 airbending monk in the world, Tenzins eldest daughter. I mean, Aang was a pretty damn spiritual guy by her age.

[Tyranidos]

I have a question, Talon. Why do you think Korra needs to follow the formula of TLA in order to be any good?

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Tyranidos

I have a question, Talon. Why do you think Korra needs to follow the formula of TLA in order to be any good?

Didn't say that. [/auto-lose for you kthxbye]

[Tyranidos]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Didn't say that. [/auto-lose for you kthxbye]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Spoiler: show

Not really seeing why one of Tenzin's bratty daughters is Korra's gateway to the spirit realm. Why not Tenzin himself? Why not Korra herself? Aang didn't need a human gate to gain access; if Korra does, whatever , but I still don't see why it has to be a bratty little girl and not any of the world's numerous bending masters, including her father, the world's #1 airbending monk.

Originally Posted by Talon87

Spoiler: show

One thing that made the original series so fun was that it was a saga of discovery. In fact, it was a saga of discovery in a lot of ways! But the one way I want to talk about is that it was a saga of discovering new and exciting teachers/teammates for Aang each arc. The second season introduced Toph. The third season had Zuko finally joining the team. I didn't really see any indication of this happening in Korra's trailer for Season 2. We just saw a whole bunch of old faces, with the solitary exception of some past Avatars and some spirit world beasts. Tenzin. His daughter. Asami. Mako. Korra. It's like, okay, cool, but a hint about the next villain (if any) would've been nice. Or a hint about the next sidekick would've been nice.

Yeah, I know, you had an explanation for this one, but it's still a complaint about it not being the same. Also you may have said similar things when you wrote your thoughts on each episode of Book 1, but I'm too lazy to look through them.

[Talon87]

Not my problem you're too lazy to seek honest answers but peppy enough to be an ass who puts words into the mouths of others. I shouldn't have to be the one to waste his Sunday afternoon to defend himself from unfair attacks and, frankly, I'm not going to. If you want to see my detailed thoughts on Book 1 of Korra (and of the Korra project as a whole), search this thread for posts made by user Talon87 and start from the beginning. If you don't, that's fine too, but you'll basically have to retract your unfair accusation.

Also, there's a laughable world of difference between saying LoK has to follow A:tLA's formula (which is what you accuse me of suggesting) and pointing out internal inconsistencies with the universe-building (which is what you've quoted me identifying above in the first quote) or pointing out something I liked about A:tLA which I think KoL can manage too but not as easily (which is what you've quoted me saying in the second quote). Nowhere have I said "Korra must start with a girl who knows one element and takes us on her adventure of learning the other three from companion-masters." In fact, if you bother to look at my old posts ...

EDIT: Not gonna waste my Sunday afternoon, but I may as well end this argument with surgical sharpness:

What do I mean by that? Well, each avatar had his or her own story, let's say. Things which set them apart from other avatars and made their stories unique.

There's no need for the writers to redo what they've already done before. And since we already saw the advent of a new kind of bending in A:tLA, there's absolutely every reason to hope they don't go that angle again. Meaning ... if they're not going to have Korra invent a new way to bend, and if they're not going to have Korra spend an entire season on energybending, then Korra's titular legend is going to have to come out of something else. It's going to have to come not from how she bends but instead, perhaps like Roku, out of the special circumstances she finds herself in. Roku wasn't legendary or appealing for inventing new shit. In fact, Roku was a perfectly status quo avatar, unlike Aang. Perhaps Korra will be much the same. And perhaps she will fascinate fans of the new series just as much as Roku's story fascinated A:tLA fans.

That should satisfy all but the most skeptical that I have always been on Team Originality, not on Team Copy+Paste. Link.

I'm sure I could keep reading my old posts and find more proof that I know what my own heart wants but ... naaah, I'd rather go back to what I was doing before checking in.

[Amras.MG]

I'm not sure why you immediately assumed the worst about Tdos' intentions, Talon, I thought it was a fair question.

[Tyranidos]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Not my problem you're too lazy to seek honest answers but peppy enough to be an ass who puts words into the mouths of others. I shouldn't have to be the one to waste his Sunday afternoon to defend himself from unfair attacks and, frankly, I'm not going to. If you want to see my detailed thoughts on Book 1 of Korra (and of the Korra project as a whole), search this thread for posts made by user Talon87 and start from the beginning. If you don't, that's fine too, but you'll basically have to retract your unfair accusation.

Also, there's a laughable world of difference between saying LoK has to follow A:tLA's formula (which is what you accuse me of suggesting) and pointing out internal inconsistencies with the universe-building (which is what you've quoted me identifying above in the first quote) or pointing out something I liked about A:tLA which I think KoL can manage too but not as easily (which is what you've quoted me saying in the second quote). Nowhere have I said "Korra must start with a girl who knows one element and takes us on her adventure of learning the other three from companion-masters." In fact, if you bother to look at my old posts ...

EDIT: Not gonna waste my Sunday afternoon, but I may as well end this argument with surgical sharpness:



That should satisfy all but the most skeptical that I have always been on Team Originality, not on Team Copy+Paste. Link.

I'm sure I could keep reading my old posts and find more proof that I know what my own heart wants but ... naaah, I'd rather go back to what I was doing before checking in.

Fair enough, I guess. I made that post because I was intending to find more examples of you saying "TLA did it like this, why can't Korra?" as I could have sworn I remembered you posting stuff like that before. But since neither of us want to go through all of your posts in this thread, you win.

Anyway, to remain on topic, I didn't bust my load over the trailer but it is very well done IMO. I especially love the music.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Amras.MG

I'm not sure why you immediately assumed the worst about Tdos' intentions, Talon, I thought it was a fair question.

So Amras, tell me: why do you hate black people so much?

What? It's a fair question. .................................... oh, not for you, you say? :o A fair question for the proper recipient? I see! :o

[Amras.MG]

Originally Posted by Talon87

So Amras, tell me: why do you hate black people so much?

What? It's a fair question. .................................... oh, not for you, you say? :o A fair question for the proper recipient? I see! :o

[Talon87]

Just making a point. I didn't take kindly to the line of interrogation because it's not a fairly-posed question to me of all people. You're right that it's a fair question, but it's no fairer to ask me and only me out of all people on UPN than it would be to ask you why you're racist.

[Amras.MG]

I think he asked you directly because he was genuinely curious and wanted to have a conversation with you specifically about it, because he was interested in your (particular) opinion.

[kusari]

Going to ignore the whining and try to make things a bit more on topic.

Spoiler: show

I quite liked the trailer. From what little I can deduce about the plot (Spirit World and First Avatar), the eagerness that has been within me since the finale of the first season has been partially satisfied. The actiony parts make it look like Book 2 is going to have a big scuffle like the first did. It also seems that we'll be getting a bunch of traveling since there's at least two (jungle/forest and tundra) locales shown (that I can remember off the top of my head. Music choice was excellent and makes me excited to see if they make similar soundtrack choices for the actual series.

Hopes/Expectations: -- Further fleshing out of characters who weren't all that important in Book 1 (prominence of Tenzin's daughter kind of suggests some of this)
-- Equal focus for Wan and Korra
-- Villain to have a slightly more interesting plot than Amon (not to say Amon's was bad, but it felt a bit weak in places)
-- Bumi and Iroh get more screentime because I loved those guys when they appeared
-- Canon BoSami (More crack than anything, but my inner Tumblr Fangirl wants it)

[Amras.MG]

No kusie you are whining, silly.

That said, I hope your hopes are fulfilled, except maybe that last one, but that's just because love is gross and has no place in television or life.

[deoxys]

>mfw no one is shipping Desna or Eska with Bolin yet




"You amuse me. I'm going to make you mine."

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by deoxys

>mfw no one is shipping Desna or Eska with Bolin yet




"You amuse me. I'm going to make you mine."

Didn't even see them in the trailer. Bolin getting (hot?) twins sounds like fair compensation for missing out on Korra. Not really digging the femdom vibe from the .gif though, but ... yeah, let's face it, Our Man Bolin is definitely not the relationship pants-wearing type. ^^;

[deoxys]

They weren't in the trailer, this was a promo gif released by Mike DiMartino.



I just realized Desna is actually a dude... not that that changes anything I guess?

Kinda weird the two twins male/female look *exactly* the same, aside from one wearing eyeliner to differentiate.

[Talon87]

Nah, I figured that was a possibility even as I walked right into the trap you lay. Figured they could both be dudes, figured one could be a dude while the other's a dudette.

Anyway, not like it matters: they look mildly villainous so it seems doubtful anything's gonna happen for Bolin there. Bolin's latest loan sharks, maybe?

[deoxys]

New Korra trailer: here

Premieres Friday, September 13th at 7PM Eastern

One thing I'd like to point out from the trailer that I speculated on earlier in the thread:

Spoiler: show

Looks like earlier predictions were right. Korra is going to abuse the hell out of the Avatar state. Because she's Korra. Groan.

[Amras.MG]

That trailer really deflated a lot of the enthusiasm I had mustered for Book 2. Shit.

[deoxys]

Originally Posted by Amras.MG

That trailer really deflated a lot of the enthusiasm I had mustered for Book 2. Shit.

It's Nick. They make their commercials to appeal to a young audience, which is why it was mostly just humor.


I think the real meat of Book 2 is what we saw in the SDCC trailer. That's the kind of Korra I expect we'll be getting.

[Amras.MG]

Originally Posted by deoxys

It's Nick. They make their commercials to appeal to a young audience, which is why it was mostly just humor.


I think the real meat of Book 2 is what we saw in the SDCC trailer. That's the kind of Korra I expect we'll be getting.

I really hope that's the case. I was also referring to the issue that you noticed. Do you know if they will be putting episodes up on their website this year, like they did last year?

[deoxys]

I'm not sure... hopefully they will. I don't remember how soon after the episodes aired that they put them on the website, but I think it was within a few days and then it was available to watch for a limited time before being unavailable for a few months. Or something like that (that's how Viacom operates with a lot of their online cartoons and shows).

Also yeahhh... regarding what you said, yeahhhhhhhh... I like Korra (the show), but I'm not particularly looking forward to more of Korra (the character), unless she's going to be maturing. If that's their goal, to show she's transitioning from a reckless teen to a responsible one, then I can accept it I suppose.

[Kindrindra]

SO I'M FINALLY WATCHING AVATAR

GET READY, GUYS

THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT

[Kindrindra]

Would there be any reason to not watch the English dub?