by Andrea Liu and Alex-Quan Pham
Avatar: The Legend of Korra is the sequel to the wildly popular Nickelodeon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender by creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
Last Saturday, Korra made her debut to the eager eyes of loyal Avatar fanatics.
“It was amazing,” says Alan Nguyen (’13), a fan of the Avatar series since its premiere in 2005. “It definitely met my expectations.”
The Legend of Korra is a successful sequel in that it works off the original series to build an even more complex world, with a more complex plot, more complex bending and superior graphics.
It has been four years since the end of the first series and The Legend of Korra ages itself with its audience, providing a more sophisticated conflict between benders and non-benders in the post-war period. More than the battle between Good vs. Evil in The Last Airbender, the culture clash between benders and the oppressed non-benders in the sequel is more political and more intricate.
The animation, drastically improved now that the creators of the show are backed by a dedicated fan base, makes every emotion palpable across the characters’ faces in a way that far exceeds the quality of other “cartoons.” And the score, by Jeremy Zuckerman, is not only epic, but also nostalgic, hearkening back to the adventures of Aang and his friends in the previous series.
The Legend of Korra has made a good step towards possibly surpassing its predecessor, but it lacks much of the wit that made The Last Airbender so charming. The second episode, “A Leaf in the Wind,” improves in this area, but the dialogue still has a ways to go before it can match with The Last Airbender.
The Last Airbender created a world of many landscapes, from the upside-down Air Temples to the frozen palaces of The Northern Water Tribe. The creators borrowed from a variety of cultures – East Asian, Aztec, and Hindu – to give life to the series’s background. Korra lacks this dimension. Its main setting, Republic City, is a steampunk metropolis with a monolithic culture. Perhaps in future episodes, as we delve into the underground world of Pro-Bending, a deeper world will be discovered. But for now, Republic City, though graphically inspiring, is a comparitively lackluster locale.
Despite its drawbacks, the Legend of Korra may be making strides to be on par with, and even exceed, The Last Airbender. Avatar fans wait with bated breath to see what diMartino and Konietzko will present to us next.
the criticisms and praise are spot on. this is the bessssssstt.