I am so hype about the new Avatar series after Shamalamadingdong raped what could have been a brand-new amazing movie trilogy.

I'm ready to get it in for that Korra. She looks pretty badass.

Ix turned me onto the series sometime last year I want to say. When he told me there was a Nick cartoon worth watching, I thought he was pulling my chain. But as it turns out, it was a fantastic show. A very rare instance of good American anime.

I consider myself fortunate that I never went to see the movie. Actually as of the past year or so, I've stopped watching movies entirely. Majority of the time, they just aren't worth what you pay. That's even if they don't rape your eyes with something you thought you would like. The only think I watch these days are the Marvel films. They don't make me want to shoot myself.

But yeah, I'm totally looking forward to Legend of Korra. It's bittersweet though as I'm going to miss the original cast just like you mentioned in your first post. Really going to miss Toph.

Lots of geeky interest came out of Nickelodeon’s upfront presentation, where networks present what they’ve got cooking to the TV press.

The big news is we finally have a release date, 11 a.m. April 14, for “The Legend of Korra,” a sequel series to the beloved “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Nick’s description: “The series centers around a new Avatar named Korra, a 17-year-old headstrong and rebellious girl who continually challenges and bucks tradition on her quest to become a fully realized Avatar in a world where benders are under attack. ”



I have to say I, like many other fans, am terribly excited about this. I especially love that the fantasy world didn’t remain static. In the trailer, you see cars, microphones, cameras. It looks great.

But there were some other animated goodies announced (text from Nick):

– “Raving Rabbids,” which will join the net’s animation line-up in spring 2013, brings to television the hysterical physical comedy that has become so popular in Ubisoft’s “Raving Rabbids” video games. Nickelodeon has secured global broadcast rights for 26 new CG episodes of “Raving Rabbids,” which will be produced by Ubisoft.

– “Monsters vs. Aliens,” the all-new animated television series marking the third partnership between Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation. Green-lit for 26 episodes and based on the popular characters from the 2009 blockbuster hit feature film ($383 million worldwide gross); the new series will continue to follow the funny escapades of the beloved, well-meaning monsters.

– “Robot & Monster,” which will also be hitting Nickelodeon’s air for a 26-episode run for the 2012-2013 season. Created by Josh Sternin, Jeff Ventimilia and Dave Pressler, this CG-animated buddy comedy is set in a unique world where gangs of Howling Cyber Monkeys roam the streets at night, everybody loves bacon, and robots and monsters live side by side, but typically don’t get along.

On the live-action front, “Supah Ninjas,” co-starring George Takei (“Star Trek”), will be back with new episodes.

We also get a series starring one of the most annoying human beings on the planet, Lucas Cruikshank (aka Fred), in “Marvin, Marvin,” a series about alien teen Marvin living with a human family.

And they’re actually doing another live-action “Fairly OddParents” movie, “A Fairly Odd Christmas.” The first one was cute in a campy way, but …

It seems like Korra and Mako are assholes. Korra is a homewrecker and Mako is a near-two-timer. And my heart goes out to Bolin, who was CRUSHED. I swear, in these things, the Bolins of the world NEVER get the chicks. Which is such bullspit, because then Korra used Bolin's kindness for her own personal gain. Heaven forbid she give a glance to the guy who's not acting like an aloof jackass every 5 minutes. I wish they had left the love stuff on the cutting room floor, cut the drama from the lovin', or at least downplayed it like in the original series.

Unfortunately, everything this season has been rushed because of Nick giving them 13 episodes at first, then when they were almost done, gave them 13 more. They were like "wtf man, we finished the storyboards with 13 in mind!", so they left the current season as it was and just made another season for the other 13. I think they would have probably handled it better if they had been given more time.

But I will say that this is a blemish on an otherwise promising series. I love the cluck out of Amon. This dude I think gives the Fire Lord a run for his money as best bad guy.

Okay, I thought that after letting the disappointment of the finale pass, I'd be able to look back on Korra with fondness for the most part, but...it's really bad. My biggest problem is with Korra.

She came into this series as a brash, warrior type character, who didn't know much of anything else except bending. When introduced, I thought the season would spend time teaching her spirituality, that bending itself is secondary to the spiritual understanding of bending as a way to keep balance. This progress would develop as her relationship with the nonbending population develops. I thought it was an important starting point that Korra came into this thinking "bending was the greatest thing in the world" because, to fix the imbalance between the benders and nonbenders, she'd have to be able to fully sympathize with nonbenders in a way she can't do when she is thinking less of them for not being able to bend. It seemed unlikely to me that Korra could think of nonbenders equally to benders if she is so in love with the physical side of bending. Learning the spiritual side of bending would not only enable korra to complete her training as the avatar but this would be the point in which she learns the value of nonbenders because spirituality is something ALL people possess (hence the Air Acolytes in Tenzin's Airtemple). With her previous notion of bending being the most important thing in the world, she could find a way to solve the problems of benders vs nonbenders.

Instead, Korra, amazingly, learned not a single damn thing in the entire series. Look back in the first episode, and go through the series, all that happens is that Korra goes through a period of self doubt. But she doesn't change in any way. She came into this thinking bending was the best thing ever, and she demonstrated that that is exactly what she still thinks in the finale, because despite unlocking her airbending and spirituality, she was about to kill herself just because she couldn't shoot flames out of her hands anymore.

And she never really grows out of the mindset that the avatar isn't really just this superhero who kicks the bad guy's ass. The Avatar's job is to bring balance to the world, and that means solving this imbalance between Benders and nonbenders. But her only priorities, other than romancing Mako and Probending, was to beat up Amon. Throughout the series, she never really paid attention to the idealogical conflict going on, with the one exception of when Tarrlok went crazy and started oppressing people in front of her eyes. And she completely failed in that regard, btw. Lin is the one who got her friends out of jail, and then she tried to go fight Tarrlok (again, stuck in the "beat up the guy making trouble" mindset), in which she lost. As far as we know, that nonbending curfew law may very well still be in effect, since we never saw them repeal it, but korra seemed unconcerned because Amon was still on the loose. Now, amon was the bigger threat at that point, so I will concede that going after him and leaving the politics for later may have been the correct course of action, but it seems to me that Korra never even took it into consideration. I think she just assumed Tenzin would take care of it, and he probably will, but that's suppose to be her job as well. The show even acknowledges that her being so physically oriented this is a problem (Tarrlok pointing out how he and Korra are very similar people in how they force things to go their way when they want), but they never DO anything about it. How can she be an avatar that brings balance to the world when her method of operation is to hit things until they work the way she wants them to?

The show really doesn't seem to be aware of extreme lack of development. For example, look at near the end of episode 10 where Tenzin tells korra they need to hide away and think of a plan. Korra, grudgingly, says that he is telling her that they need to be patient, and Tenzin praises her, telling her she is learning. This is baffling because it's obvious that Korra is only submitting to this plan because of his authority, and would much rather NOT be patient. And if you think I'm looking too much into it, just look at Korra's very first speaking scene in the next episode in the next episode where she wants to reveal herself and attack amon like usual because he essentially called her chicken. The show also covers up her lack of development by giving her dues ex machina's like free candy, so she can balance the world without really trying. Have to take care of amon? Here your airbending is suddenly unlocked. Amon's got you in a grip with bloodbending? Hey your strong, you can kick out of it anyway. Lost your bending and you want to kill yourself over it? No worries, you got in touch with your spiritual side, you can have your bending back now. Everyone else still has lost their bending? Here, you have full control of the Avatar State AND can energy bend, something Aang had to work his ass off for, just for free. Isn't she a wonderful avatar, everybody? Look at all she can do!

I highly doubt that the writers will take the series this direction, but with how immature Korra is and how she was just made the most powerful person on the planet in the last episode, the most logical sequence of events would be to show how dangerous a teenage girl with the powers of a god with shaky values beyond said physical powers would act. Imagine if Mako decides that another girl has struck his fancy. Korra could very well go on a rampage. She starts chasing down criminals, not caring about collatoral as she viciously attacks criminals in the streets, in the avatar state, with earthquakes and hurricanes and firestorms, causing untold property damage. And who would be able to tell her off if she decides she doesn't want to hear it? After all, the man of her life, mako, has just dumped her for another girl! Her life sucks and she is miserable and....See what I mean? The idea of Korra as the avatar is a frightening one. Having never earned those powers, she never developed the maturity that she needs for me to trust her with them. But they're never going to take the show in this direction because it's clear we're suppose to be cheering for Korra when she got everything at the end.

I have other problems, and I do have things I like about this show, but good lord, did they drop the ball with the central storyline.

The show really doesn't seem to be aware of extreme lack of development. For example, look at near the end of episode 10 where Tenzin tells korra they need to hide away and think of a plan. Korra, grudgingly, says that he is telling her that they need to be patient, and Tenzin praises her, telling her she is learning. This is baffling because it's obvious that Korra is only submitting to this plan because of his authority, and would much rather NOT be patient.