Avatar: The Legend of Korra

[thetruepandagod]

inb4 tahno dives into a lightning bending amon and explodes while saving korra?

[Insanecyclone]

The Mako hate is that bad?

http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/

Hello, everyone! I wish I had some time to draw something new for the blog, but I’ve been buried in all sorts of work. So in an effort to post something related to the Book 1 finale this Saturday, here is the rough concept for the press art I posted last week. It might be interesting to those of you who like to see this sort of process work.

I have some more specifics on our San Diego Comic Con activities to share:

WHAT: The Legend of Korra Comic-Con Panel
WHEN: Friday, July 13 from 11:15a – 12:15p
WHERE: Ballroom 20
WHO: Co-creators and executive producers Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Joaquim Dos Santos (co-executive producer), Janet Varney (Korra), David Faustino (Mako), P.J. Byrne (Bolin), Seychelle Gabriel (Asami) and Andrea Romano (voice director). The panel will include an in-depth discussion of Book 1 and a live performance by the voice actors.

WHAT: The Legend of Korra Comic-Con Signing
WHEN: Friday, July 13 beginning at 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Nickelodeon booth

I’ve been told that Ballroom 20 holds 4300 people, so just get 4300 people to hold your places in the Game of Thrones line for Hall H, and pop over to Ballroom 20 for a spell. Among other things, Andrea is going to lead the actors in a live table read of some key scenes from Book 1. We’ve never done that sort of thing at a panel, so it should be really fun. ***Remember: The actors are not the characters, so be nice to David. He isn’t Mako. He just plays one on TV.

Which reminds me, I caught wind that there was a brutal war in the fandom this week. In lieu of me having time, let’s all just pretend I drew a really funny comic about that and posted it just now. And we laughed. And it brought us joy. And the fandom hugged it out.

[Insanecyclone]

Q&A

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/...our-questions/

I envy everyone reading this story because you have yet to see what I just saw–the two-part season finale of “The Legend of Korra.” You’re in for a very good weekend.

Fans of pop culture know that most franchises, series, and movies end not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a groan–from suffering fans who get to the finish only to find it profoundly and cruelly unsatisfying. Hollywood’s dreammakers tease us, they tempt us, they promise revelatory conclusions, and then they go out like “The Matrix Revolutions,” or “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” or “Lost.” But still we press on, waiting for “The Dark Knight Rises,” or for George R.R. Martin to finish “A Song of Ice and Fire,” or for the great Hayao Miyazaki to complete another great film.

“The Legend of Korra” finale delivers. You’ll get no spoilers from me. Check back in with Speakeasy after the show on Saturday and we’ll talk.

The Wall Street Journal contacted the creators of “The Legend of Korra” in advance of the June 23 season conclusion to pose to them your questions about the finale, the show, and the franchise’s future. You sent us your questions through Speakeasy and on Twitter. Here’s what “Korra” creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko had to say. (We cleaned up some of the original questions a bit in the interest of clarity, grammar and punctuation.)

[GermanCityGirl] Were you inspired by any real-life women when you created Korra or Lin Beifong?

Bryan Konietzko: I think Korra, I later realized she was inspired by my sister, who is pretty tough. I have many sisters, but one of them. Definitely female MMA fighters, I’m a big mixed martial arts fan, and watching women’s MMA grow was definitely an inspiration. We just had an idea for a character and wanted to do a personality that was the opposite of Aang’s, and that’s how Korra came about. Beifong, she was Toph’s daughter we knew that, and her personality just gelled pretty quickly.

Michael Dante DiMartino: [Lin Beifong] was more just inspired by Toph. But visually she was somewhat based on one of the producers that worked at Studio Mir, the animation studio in Korea.

Konietzko: Although she’s a sweet, very petite woman who doesn’t share Lin’s personality–most of the time.

[Avemii] Will you go more in-depth about Aang’s death?

DiMartino: That’s certainly an interesting arena to explore. You know, I know a lot of fans get upset when we don’t have enough time to explore every side character fully. We just have a limited amount of time, so we have to figure out the best story we want to tell and how we can best tell that, and how to weave in all that backstory stuff and character stuff. But it all has to be in service of the main plot. While sometimes a side character or side story may be interesting, they don’t have relevance to the main plot so we don’t have time to get into that stuff. Certainly I think Aang and the whole gang from the old series, their legacy continues to sort of influence and kind of be a part of Korra’s world.

[SpiderHyphenMan] Is there anything you wanted to put in but couldn’t because of the 12 episode format?

Konietzko: I actually prefer this format…Mike and I are mostly interested in telling a really driving plot. We feel that 12-14 episodes is a better length for that. Now that we’re really trying to improve the quality of the animation and we’ve raised the bar on that, it takes longer just to make those twelve. It’s like the HBO series or AMC. They don’t do 26 episodes. I think they’re more crafted and I think a tighter story comes out of it. You don’t have a lot of meandering and fluff and exposition and stuff. So I think we like it.

[Dr. Dardo] Will book 2 stay confined to Republic City the way book 1 did?

DiMartino: I would say it’s a mix of both. There’s definitely a significant part in Republic City, but there’s also a little more exploration of some other areas which we won’t tell you about just yet.

[They both laugh, like they're in on some secret joke.]

Konietzko: It’s definitely not as confined, but like Mike said, about half and half.

[BrowningWilliam] What inspired the baby’s name, Rohan?

Konietzko: That’s my nephew’s name. His father’s from India. He and his brother both have really cool names. Now I have to figure out a way to work his brother’s name into the show or he’s gonna be really mad at me.

[ZboyThunda] Will there be a Korra videogame?

DiMartino: There’s some online stuff they’re working on. No console games at this point. The other thing–a lot of fans know about them–are the comics we’re doing with Dark Horse. Vol. 2 of the first set just came out, and it seems like people are reading it because it’s selling really well. It’s a cool way to see the old characters again, and there are some little Easter Eggs in there setting up the idea of Republic City and what happens in “Korra.” So it’s a nice little bridge story.

Konietzko: And it seems like the fans have plenty of energy to explore all of these characters on their own with the fan fiction and the fan art and the online arguments and debate and essays and stuff. It’s amazing the amount of energy they have for all that stuff. Almost more than I have to work on the show itself!

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/...ew-the-finale/

The season finale of a TV show like the animated fantasy “The Legend of Korra” can be bittersweet for fans. It’s great to see burning questions answered, but it’s a bummer to have to suffer the long wait for the next season. Followers of more adult-oriented fare like “Girls,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Mad Men” know this feeling all too well.

To preview the season finale of “The Legend of Korra,” and provide some solace to fans by giving them a peek at the future of the show, the Journal spoke to “Korra” creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Here’s what they had to say. ‘The Legend of Korra” season finale airs on June 23 on Nickelodeon.

What should fans expect from the season finale?

DiMartino: They can definitely expect more awesome stories, and a few more surprises for sure.

Konietzko: We’re really proud of the way the last two episodes came together—especially how the music came together. It’s some of the best music that the composer, Jeremy Zuckerman, has ever done. Really emotional, and we’re really excited to see how people respond to the end of this little story.

Will the music from the show ever be released?

Konietzko: We would love to. It’s something we’ve been pushing for for years, even back on “Avatar.” Especially now with the music on “Korra” where Jeremy has been incorporating a lot more live instrumentation, string performers, Chinese instrumental specialists and stuff like that. We would love to. It’s a big goal of ours for sure.

The penultimate episode had the surprise appearance of General Iroh. What can you tell us about him? Are we going to see more of him in the future?

DiMartino: Yeah, he’s in the finale. Just so we’re clear—he’s Zuko’s grandson, not his son. I think there was some speculation about whether he was his son or grandson. It is his grandson. He’s voiced by Dante Basco. The idea behind him was to have a swashbuckling hero-type guy. He’s the youngest general in the United Forces which is kind of the U.N. of the “Avatar” world now. We just thought it would be a fun way to tie in the legacy of Zuko without having Zuko be present there.

Konietzko: It would be hard for Zuko to swashbuckle at his current age.

What made you decide to bring Dante Basco back into the cast?

Konietzko: Like Mike said, the whole book one of “Korra” even though we’re striking new ground, it was all built on the foundation of the original series. In the episode “Out of the Past” you see how the events involving Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph, have set the stage for the current story. For us it was a way to incorporate Zuko’s legacy with a new fresh face.

DiMartino: We loved Dante’s work on the old show and we were looking for a way to organically weave him into this one.

A lot of fans were struck by the scene in which Lin Beifong sacrifices herself and then has her bending taken away. What was it like creating that sequence?

Konietzko: I like nothing more than a character sacrificing himself or herself for the sake of others. That’s drama at its finest for me.

DiMartino: That scene is definitely one of my favorites from the whole first season. It’s got so much emotion wrapped up in it. In terms of her past relationship with Tenzin, and the fact that his family are the last airbenders and she’s willing to make this sacrifice to save them. And Jeremy’s music in that section just brought home the whole tragic feeling.

Is it tough for someone who has created a character people really like to hurt or kill that character? I’m reminded of Boromir dying at beginning of the book “The Two Towers.”

Konietzko: That was my favorite scene in “The Lord of the Rings,” so I guess I just gravitate towards that sort of stuff. I’ve been interacting with the fans a bit online, and I try to imagine a show they would find entertaining in which nothing ever happened to the characters. I don’t think it would be an engaging show, I don’t think it would be a fun show to make. For this kind of series, you have to have high stakes, and you have to have consequences, or else it’s like a sitcom show that just resets every week, and they live in a bubble. I think it’s touching that the fans feel so close to the characters that they feel personally hurt. I’ve felt that way in plenty of TV shows—“Game of Thrones,” “Mad Men.” How could they do that to that character? That’s drama.

How far along are you with season two? Is it still scheduled to be 14 episodes?

DiMartino: Yeah, book two is fourteen episodes. We’ve just finished the writing on it and we’re just in the middle of storyboarding and animation and every other thing we have to do to get it to a viewable state.

Konietzko: A lot of work goes into these shows. It takes a long time on animation. With “Korra” we’ve really taken a lot of time to craft it. We’re aiming pretty high, and in order to keep up the quality it just takes a lot of time and a lot or work…I think people are like, okay, what’s next? We’re like, guys it took us two years to make that, come on, we’re still working!

People hate the long wait between seasons for shows like “Mad Men,” or “Game of Thrones.” How should fans deal with that interim period?

DiMartino: I’m a fan of a lot of those shows, and sure, right when the last episode of a season airs I think “Man I want to find out what happens next!” It’s just a natural reaction. I think we’re in this culture where you have Netflix and if you haven’t seen a show, you can watch six seasons of a show and cruise through it. People forget that back in the 80s, you had to wait. You couldn’t watch your favorite show anytime you wanted to watch it. It just takes a long time, especially with animation, to make these shows. But once the next season comes on, people forget that they were impatient about it.

Konietzko: There’s nothing we can do about the harsh realities of how long it takes to make this stuff. You just hope the fans understand it takes time. It’s not like we’re lounging around, playing tennis and only occasionally working on it. We’re working on it all the time, as fast as we can. If there were a way to do it faster we would. Like Mike said, if you watch all three seasons of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” in a weekend—that took us six years to make. Six really hard years. That’s just making art.

How many seasons do you see yourselves doing “Korra” and when will there be a decision on a third season?

Konietzko: Those aren’t really the decisions that we make. I see that with the fans too. I think they think Mike and I pick the show up and greenlight it. That’s not the way it works.

DiMartino: We have story ideas for past book two. So we will see if and when those stories come to light.

[Serra]

I like the way Amon operates but it's hard to find him as interesting as Zuko or Azula for me. I think my problem is that he's so cold in everything he does that it's hard to believe his motivations are what he says they are. Vengeance, civil equality; these are things that by their nature inspire passion, but Amon is anything but passionate. So, this combined with the fact that he hides his identity make it seem as though his real motives are as yet unknown, and it's hard to get invested in a character with unknown/unclear motives.

Speaking of "villians," does anyone else think the leader of the wolfbats might turn into a recurring ally character like Jet's gang or Tsuki if Korra finds a way to restore everyone's bending?

I agree about the lack of passion. Amon's clearly a good strategist, but it's getting kinda old that none of his plans really fail. I mean, even Zhao had his plans that didn't work out, same with Azula. For Amon, the only things that are really going wrong are that Korra constantly seems to slip away. I think the closest to anger we've seen out of him is when he asks the mustached guy (who I'm surprised each time I see, cause I keep thinking he gets captured..) "didn't I tell you not to underestimate her?" or whatever. But, at the other end, we're not even getting this sense of unjustified arrogance that we got out of a lot of the other villains in this show. Is Amon arrogant? At times sure, but with everything going his way, why wouldn't he be a bit smug?

[Salodin]

Amon seems like too much of the perfect antagonist. Hopefully something will happen tomorrow to either change that, or explain why he's so baller at being a villain.

[Kobb]

The Mako hate is that bad?

I don't hate Mako, I just hate what his character has become. His sole purpose is to be Prince Charming for Korra while basically being a dick to Asami. I truly don't care about the shipping BS, but I'd like a character that mattered a bit more is all.

Bolin has already been in this trap recently. He has barely any lines or screentime. When it's time to fight he barely manages to hold his own. I know he's there to be Sokka 2.0 but it isn't working from a comedic or battle point of view.

[Eurell]

I don't hate Mako, I just hate what his character has become. His sole purpose is to be Prince Charming for Korra while basically being a dick to Asami. I truly don't care about the shipping BS, but I'd like a character that mattered a bit more is all.

Bolin has already been in this trap recently. He has barely any lines or screentime. When it's time to fight he barely manages to hold his own. I know he's there to be Sokka 2.0 but it isn't working from a comedic or battle point of view.

I think the problem is how many people they have to showcase now. Instead of just 3-4 kids fighting, its 4 kids, + tenzin + Lin + whoever else they throw in (like the 3 airbending kids last episode). So not everyone gets enough time dedicated to them to truly show off how powerful they are. Although when they do show them, they are normally ridiculously bad ass, like when Mako redirected equalist robot lightning.

[vadre]

I do think that Mako's pretty retarded as far as relationships goes, but whatever they've got a smaller amount of episodes for this stuff to happen in. Hopefully in the finale each character will get some kind of focus to show them off.

[Sunrider]

I agree about the lack of passion. Amon's clearly a good strategist, but it's getting kinda old that none of his plans really fail. I mean, even Zhao had his plans that didn't work out, same with Azula. For Amon, the only things that are really going wrong are that Korra constantly seems to slip away. I think the closest to anger we've seen out of him is when he asks the mustached guy (who I'm surprised each time I see, cause I keep thinking he gets captured..) "didn't I tell you not to underestimate her?" or whatever. But, at the other end, we're not even getting this sense of unjustified arrogance that we got out of a lot of the other villains in this show. Is Amon arrogant? At times sure, but with everything going his way, why wouldn't he be a bit smug?

My only real beef with Amon is that the mystery around him is absolute. He's kind of like Aizen in the sense that he pretty much keeps winning and we really don't know anything about him.

It's not as if I care in particular about his identity, it's just that there's been nothing but a textbook origin and idealistic vision to build on; Amon as a character, nor any of his subordinates, has shown enough substance to me to really be moved by his cunning. I'd be more impressed by his unbeatable nature if I felt more invested in the character, there just hasn't been anything to invest in.

[thetruepandagod]

[Akiyama]

Yeah, Amon always winning is sort of but if it were him always failing to finish his plot out, then it'd just be laughable and boring, so hey. Gotta let him win all the time so when Korra does beat him, it's major.

As far as Mako. honestly, him as a character.. he's just a shallow teenager who can't make up his mind. Pretty normal for a high-school aged guy. :< Here's hoping he mans up and chooses, though.

[Eurell]

I thought he handled it pretty well when he chose Asami. It's pretty understandable I think that the triangle didn't get bad again until she was kidnapped.

I also like that Amon hasn't really been beating yet. It makes him more intimidating imo. Zhao and zuko in season one to me both seemed like jokes. It was like any other kids show as far as, bad guy makes plan, kids foil their plans again! They were both great characters, but neither of them had a lot of screen time as scary villains that could actually do some damage to the good guys.

[Qeomash]

For all of you Koh-konspirators:

Spoiler: show

Source

http://i.qkme.me/3pspe6.jpg

[Marootsoobutsu]

http://i.qkme.me/3pspe6.jpg

Laughed way harder at this than I should have.

[Fhloston]

^Nice, lol. New episode today! The wait is going to be unbearable since I usually wait for the wife to get home from work to watch it. QQ

[Ragnus]

Koh theory is awesome...

[Insanecyclone]

almost time

[Insanecyclone]

BUMI

[Insanecyclone]

WHBAAT

WHAT

[Corrderio]

DUN DUN DUUUN!