This weekend, a video appeared on YouTube which seems to be the opening sequence of The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra.
The sequence introduced the protagonist, but mostly gives a recap os what has happened over the 70 years since the end of Avatar: The last Airbender.
There’s a lot of good stuff here for fans of the series to drool over, though I still can’t get over the title.
The show was originally to be called Avatar: The Legend of Korra, which made sense, but the show was in development when James Cameron’s Avatar came out in theaters, and Nickelodeon changed the name of the show to The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra.
I can understand the reasoning, but I honestly don’t think anyone would have been confused, and the new name simply doesn’t make sense. The show’s not about an Airbender anymore – though I suppose there will be an Airbender character, and perhaps he’s the last one again? I cringe every time I see or hear the title, and I keep hoping they’ll change it back before the first episode airs, but it’s looking less and less likely.
Not that a poorly constructed title is going to keep me away from the show. Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of the best, American animated shows last decade. It boasted an irresistible charm, a well-developed world and back story, and an excellent team of writers and performers.
It was a solidly compelling show, despite looking like it was made for children, especially due to the ages of the protagonists. They fixed this for the new show, as the protagonist is now in her late-teens, rather than barely adolescent. So far Korra looks like the stereotypical hotheaded girl who is too independent to do anything associated with femininity, but secretly wants to wear a dress, and is actually very pretty when she gets done up character, but we can hope she’s a bit deeper than that cliché.
The synopsis for the show is thus:
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 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.
No official release date has been announced, but I would expect the first episode to arrive in the spring or summer of 2012.
