The Last Airbe
nder has been panned by critics lately, which has been drawing a lot of people back to the original [awesome] TV show. Of course the show ended back in 2008 and ended the story, and the creators have stated they are not continuing from that. However, people who watch the show know that after the Avatar dies his spirit goes into another being. The creators know that and now there is another.
Toonzone states that today, Nickelodeon announced that they have green lit a new spin-off series called “The Legend of Korra.”
“Mike and Bryan have imagined a compelling new story inspired by the Airbender mythology that they so brilliantly crafted when the TV series began,” Johnson said. “This new avatar is not only a girl, but also hot-headed, independent and ready to take on the world.”
The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the Avatar after Aang – a passionate, rebellious, and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra. With three of the four elements under her belt (Earth, Water, and Fire), Korra seeks to master the final element, Air. Her quest leads her to the epicenter of the modern “Avatar” world, Republic City – a metropolis that is fueled by steampunk technology. It is a virtual melting pot where benders and non-benders from all nations live and thrive. However, Korra discovers that Republic City is plagued by crime as well as a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip it apart. Under the tutelage of Aang’s son, Tenzin, Korra begins her airbending training while dealing with the dangers at large.
I like this. I loved the story and absolutely loathed that shitstorm of a film. I’m up to being back into this world. How about you?
FlickSmash! 
I’m only interested because it looks like this will be slightly more complex than Last Airbender was. I don’t like it when shows insult my intelligence.
Come on, they bend fire so let’s call them “Fire Nation”? The sheer lack of creativity right there is astounding. But the show did have some high points and I’m willing to check this out when it releases. And it’ll be a big hit for sure. Especially since it looks like it’s going to be CG.
You realize the show is on a kids channel right?
If you think it’s a lack of creativity, the “elements” comes from history. Back then it was believed that the only elements were Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. So I don’t know where you’re getting “insulted” from.
I’m insulted because the premise itself makes little or no sense. Everyone is at peace and all of a sudden, guess what, the Fire Nation attacks!
Two things. A, if they were just coming out of a long era of peace, I highly doubt there would be an “Earth Nation” and “Fire Nation”, because all kinds of people’s would be populating each territory rather than just one kind. Unless of course there are immigration laws put in place that restrict all people’s within their own land, but that doesn’t sound too much like peace to me.
B, I highly doubt that, for example, both the “Earth” and “Fire” government would independently say, “Hey, a certain fraction of our population has the ability to control a certain element. Let’s name our entire country after that element. Fire. No wait…how about Fire NATION! Because, like, we’re a nation! It’s brilliant!”
Also, since WHEN does it have to be Aang who saves everyone? There’s no way that that makes sense. Aang is just one guy. Why can’t all the other “nations” just team up against Fire, instead of waiting around like morons for the Avatar guy to show up? “Well, he’s the Avatar, and he can control all the elements!” So? How does that help? When M. Night adapted it he at least attempted to explain why, in a way that sort of makes sense.
The fact that it was written for kids is just an excuse. The Incredibles was written for kids, and it freaking rocks. The characters are cool, actually believable, and the plot makes sense.
Same with the original Japanese Astroboy from like 35 years ago. Very fascinating and epic story, involving a lot of explosions, murders, suicides, and a lot of character development.
Not that Last Airbender is a bad show, but it has problems. And they don’t simply go away just because it’s a show for kids. You can tell these guys probably didn’t spend too long developing the story.
Just because its a time of peace doesn’t mean that they’re all one land. After Sauron was defeated in LOTR they didn’t get rid of the names Rohan and Gondor or whatever and just called it all “Middle Earth.”
And Aang isn’t the only guy that saves the day and he’s not all that gets credit for it. He relies on his friends and they rely on him, and without them there he would have failed. But the Avatar is the protector of the people. And many other people from other nations do help, as it states that there is a war going on. They state all these things in the show.
As for the Fire Nation just suddenly attacking, it’s been stated that they do want to take over all the nations, just like Hitler and several other beings did in real life. All these examples back up everything you’ve stated. Plus, it doesn’t require a genius to think these things through instead of just sitting there and wondering why they haven’t said or done this or that.
Okay, I never said that it would make sense for all the territories to merge and become one land. I said that the different races would live in harmony. Like in real life. There’s all kinds of nationalities in America, for example. And not everyone wears a certain color all the time according to their nation. How does the gang disguise as members of the “Fire Nation” in season 3? They dress up in red. Genius. Because apparently, unless you hadn’t noticed, “red” is IN. And has been for a few hundred years.
This is another example of the audience’s intelligence being insulted. Guess what, most people can actually keep track of characters to some extent, and don’t need to see a bright-green suit to know the guy’s an earth-bender. It’s really unoriginal and shows a certain lack of design creativity. This aspect had really bad effects on the movie adaptation, especially.
I know what happens in the show. I’ve watched the whole thing multiple times. I never said I didn’t like it or wasn’t well-acquainted with it. I think it’s awesome. But do the Earth and Water peoples team up and take down the Fire Nation? Because I really don’t remember that. Battles, yes. Political and territorial takeover? Not really. Why didn’t it happen, as the Water benders have a huge edge over Fire Benders and the Earth Nation easily outnumbers them? How come they couldn’t accomplish in a hundred years what it took a little kid a matter of months to do? Why did it have to be him? Never really explained.
Sure, you could say “destiny and crap”, but that’s not what the story is about. Avatar isn’t about fulfilling predestination. It’s about “balance”, and how “everything is connected”. The Fire Nation “upset the balance”, basically like the Dark side of the Force. To say that a little kid restored that balance better than millions of element-wielding warriors and many opposing governments and political organizations because of “destiny” is both unrealistic and a little inconsistent with the rest of the story. They might as well have been saying, “And only the Avatar can save the day because it’s a complete cliche that people buy into really easily.”
“Also, we can’t entirely explain why the world needs saving in the first place. So good luck with that leap of logic.”
Sure, Neo was “The One”, but the whole point of that story was the protagonist’s attempts to defy his destiny.
Hitler didn’t just “suddenly attack”. WWII movies don’t start with, “All was right with the world until Hitler SUDDENLY ATTACKED!” That’s just way too simplistic and doesn’t really do anything to set the tone.
Anyone could write that opening. And anyone could write “Fire Nation”. Because there’s this nation where all the people with fire bending skills congregate for some reason! The whole premise could have been thought through a whole lot better and I’m glad that that’s what they are at least appearing to do with the spinoff.
You state that the show is unrealistic when it’s a fantasy show. And in many fantasy stories, it is a kid or a bring who’s not as strong or big and isn’t considered a hero. Harry Potter was young, he was only a teenager, but overtime he grew to learn how to use his powers. Same thing with Aang. And you mention that this film is cliched, but name any material over the past 10 years that has been completely original with nothing reminiscent to another material.
If you want something with a hugely complex story, we have Inception out in theaters right now. And you mention political takeover; last time I checked they didn’t do that in Lord of the Rings, but they did state that people in the east where fighting while we were seeing our many heroes fighting, and there were no political takeover. No one seemed to mind.
And you wonder why they don’t state the reason why Aang’s doing what he’s doing when you’ve already stated them. The avatar is meant to bring balance, the fire nation are ruining that, and so Aang needs to stop them. You don’t need complexity to make this story work.
And I never said that Hitler just suddenly attacked, just that he wanted to take over countries and create the “perfect world,” just like the Fire Nation wants to. And going back to the whole “they attacked!” thing, the opening title of the show they are summarizing what this story is about, and in the show it was never that way. And even if it was, ever heard of a little event called “Pearl Harbor”? Sure the rest of the world was at war, but the United States stayed out of it, and sure enough it happened right under their noses.
You talk about the design creativity. In several fantasy stories, you can tell who’s who by their clothing or the design of their weapons. I know I keep going back to Lord of the Rings, but Rohan had a different design than Gondor, so you could tell the difference. Star Wars, on Tatooine their design is different than on Naboo. You see what I’m getting at? Every culture has a different design in stories and in the real world. People in the Middle East behave different than United States do. Call me stereotypical, but that’s the truth. People all over the world have a different qualities about themselves that makes us all connected but at the same time sets us apart so we all don’t look the same.
I can go on about much more, but no offense, many of the stuff you’ve stated are all over the place and have nothing to do with the show’s plot itself. Sorry you feel this way about the show, and I’m not saying you don’t like it, but a lot of your statements are just about the design and the “destiny” of the Avatar have all been backed up by what I’ve said in this comment. Continue to debate if you like, but I’ve given enough back-up to my theories and can continue to do so.
I haven’t been trying to talk about plot. This is about premise. The world. The “mythology”. It’s paper-thin. It’s just thrown together. Anyone can categorize four nations and name them after elements. Anyone can, rather than invent new beasts, just combine two animals; and then actually just name them the names of the two animals put together.
Look at Naruto, which predates Avatar by several years and is also a kid show. In it, the villages and tribes are also categorized according to elements and abilities. There are clans that specialize in manipulating sand, fire, etc.
But just because Sasuke’s clan is known for their use of fire does not mean they have to be called, “Fire.” They’re called Uchiha. Which, no, doesn’t mean “fire” in Japanese. And no, they don’t all wear bright red.
This laziness also translates to the philosophical aspect of the show.
You bring up a point with Harry Potter, but the fact of the matter is that the only reason Harry could stand toe-to-toe with a wizard as powerful as Voldemort was because of their connection. Their destinies are linked. Predestination rules the world of HP, and Harry’s struggle is with the fate that rules him. He’s able to kill Voldemort because he was always destined to.
All throughout Avatar, there’s talk of destiny, and purpose, and what Aang is “supposed” to do, as well as Zuko. But this doesn’t follow with the nature of the show’s world, which is defined by Pantheism and the New Age. It’s all very generic.
Pearl Harbor was an incredible, haunting event, brimming with drama. It’s a great story and there’s a lot to it.
“When suddenly, the Fire Nation attacked!”
Wow. Who are the Fire Nation? Where are they attacking? How? Why?
“I don’t know, but they’re attacking, so the Avatar needs to save us!”
Really intriguing idea. Not.
Not that you couldn’t do neat things with that (and M. Night totally had the chance), but as-is, that’s a terrible premise for a show. And I mean, that’s literally what the voice-over tells us every single episode.
Fortunately, they made a pretty good show about it, but that only goes to show just how much better it could have been if they had spent some more time on it before the pitch.
“So basically, there’s these four nations based on four elements, and the fire nation attacks!
“Great! Let’s do it! And what you basically just said can be the opening voice-over. It really sets the tone for the epic storyline.”
You keep bringing up the fact that we don’t go into why the fire nation itself when I’ve just explained it for you: Power. That’s what happened with Hitler, that’s what has happened with many dictators over the last thousand of years. And I’ve already told you that just because they say they attack doesn’t mean they just attacked for no reason. That whole opening talking about the fire nation attacking and how the Avatar must stop him is a summary of the events leading up to the reason why we’re watching this show. And again you just answered your own question in your previous comment about why the avatar must defeat him: Because the Avatar is supposed to bring balance to the world. So you’ve pretty much answered your own question.
You keep bringing up the nations and how “oh their element is fire, make their clothing red”. Again, that’s something that is done in so many other stories and in the real world in general yet nobody complains about that.
Many of the things you keep bringing up are redundant and have already been answered in the previous comments. I’ve already explained it all so if you want the answers look back. I’m done repeating myself.