I’m sure the word “source” is a red flag to just about any person on the internet. It’s not exactly a term that draws much credibility. That being said, it’s completely up to you if you want to trust my source. I’ll be labeling any information that I acquire from my source accordingly so you’ll know where all my information is coming from.

I can confidently say that I definitely trust my source, but I don’t expect all of you to trust him right off the bat – he’ll likely have to earn your trust in the long run.

We exchanged some e-mails yesterday and he was able to give me some information on the current production status of Book 2.

My source has confirmed that the production on Book 2 is currently coming to close. I don’t know any details on a specific time frame, but I do know that the next step will be marketing. Once Book 2 production officially comes to a close, Nickelodeon will begin working on the marketing of Book 2.

Marketing will be a fun time for the fandom because that’s when we’ll start seeing commercials and advertisements for Book 2. We’ll also receive an official trailer and release date during that phase.

That’s all I was told this time around. I’m not sure when I’ll get any more information, but as you can see, the information I am receiving is not exactly high leveled information. It’s just small tid-bits about production so don’t expect me to start spoiling parts of Book 2.

Only in my dreams, I’m afraid.

Over the course of time, we’ve come to know and love the power set and skill that has existed within the Avatar World. And throughout our journey with the Gaang, we’ve come to understand fire, water, earth and air – each with their own unique abilities, skill sets, weaknesses, and of course, sub-skills. Out of all the abilities that exist within these elements, the sub-skills are the most entertaining by far. Water with the ability to heal, Fire with the ability to generate electricity, and Earth with the ability to bend metal.

But what about Air? It seems as though Airbending was almost ignored when it came to developing the sub-skills, but what would it even be? When you think of a gust of wind, you think tornadoes, hurricanes, extreme cold, ability to fly (or “fall with style” if you don’t have wings or can’t Airbend). Overall, on the outward appearance it would seem that Airbending doesn’t have another skill set. Why should it? You can fly, right? That’s all that matters.

Over the course of our very long wait for any news or sign of Book 2 of Legend of Korra, I’ve heard of talk and banter here and there discussing the new Airbending sub-skill that might (and probably will) make an appearance in Book 2 of The Legend of Korra. But alas, no concrete ideas on what that could be have officially surfaced. But I think I might have a clue what it could be. Airbending is going to start manipulating sound. I know this sounds far fetched, or maybe it sounds spot on, but I do know that the only conceivable thing that airbenders would and could manipulate would be sound, and here are a few reasons why:

Sound is created by vibrating the air to such a degree that our ears can pick it up and transmit those vibrations into signals that our brain interprets into whatever jargon is being communicated. The latter part of that statement is just for educational purposes, the former part is what’s important. Sound is created through vibrating the air.

If you look at the instruments played by the Airbenders, many of them utilize air to play those instruments, flutes, horns, etc. In fact, we have seen very little string instruments that were made and played by the Air Nomads.

The Air nomads are musically inclined. As it were, music is considered free spirited and used for self expression. Think back on the Episode from ATLA when Aang is playing the Tsungi horn with his fellow fire nation classmates. It would make sense that sound would be something that greatly interests airbenders.

My last point is the limitations of what air can do. Air and the different physiological components that go into it are not that vast and expansive as let’s say fire or earth or water. The forms that it can take are many and few at the same time. Sound just seems to fit right there with what the Air nomads are capable of, and also speaks to who they are as airbenders.

What do you guys think? Does Soundbending seem like a cool skill? What other possibilities do you think Airbending could have as their subskill?

If you’d like to see this exchange, check out my latest blog post and enjoy some heated entertainment.

Let me just say that it didn’t really bother me at all. I responded to him a bunch of times because I thought it was absolutely hilarious. But after some back and forth, I realized that this site isn’t about harsh discussion and personal attacks – it’s meant to be fun and community orientated.

This commenter was disturbing the balance of that and he showed no intention of stopping. He kept coming back for more and I realized that simply ignoring him wasn’t good enough. He’d chalked himself up as a pretty big problem in my mind.

So what did I do?

I didn’t take away his commenting privileges. I didn’t e-mail him asking him to stop. I didn’t threaten him.

I banned his IP address from this blog. He will never be able to access this blog again.

Yeah, I have that power.

I take things like this very seriously so let this be a lesson to anyone thinking about disrupting the balance of this community. I will not hesitate to ban you from this blog – permanently.

But please don’t take this as a warning to not get into discussion. I welcome that. But when attacks start getting personnel and you start wishing death on the person, that’s when things will get dicey.

This is just a warning to all potential trolls. You have to lay down the law when things like this erupt, you know?

Yeah, I’m a badass.

I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that labeling something as “coming soon” will only draw more questions.

Anyways, the Track Team decided to be nice and actually give us an estimate on when “soon” really is. According to their latest tweet (which hasn’t been deleted – yet), we should be expecting this “exciting news” in early June.

Doesn’t this all seem so familiar?

We get a date to look forward to and once it actually arrives – disappointment.

I know most of you probably have your guards up by now for these kinds of situations and I wouldn’t blame you one bit. But you have to understand that at some point, we will get some information on Book 2. It’s not like we’ll be disappointment for the rest of eternity – Nickelodeon will crack at one point and let some details lose.

They simply have to.

So is this the moment where Nickelodeon will finally crack?

We can only hope.

Update: Read the comment section and provide your input. It is simply hysterical.

By the time this news broke yesterday afternoon, I had already posted about the Book 3 storyboard art depicting Asami and I was just about on my way out the door to enjoy my Friday afternoon/night. When I got home at around midnight, I checked my phone to find numerous e-mails/tweets essentially telling me that Book 2 would air in the Summer.

And what was the basis of this “confirmation?” The tweet, of course! I wrote a post earlier talking about how The Legend of Korra fandom will pretty much take any release date they may hear about and run with it – no matter how unrealistic it may seem. Though a Summer release date is realistic, this is probably just another one of those cases.

Let me bring all of you down to Earth.

Before you get the assumption that I am completely discrediting the possibility of a Summer release date, understand that I am not. Grey’s tweet could very well mean that Book 2 will release this Summer, but to assume that this tweet confirms a Summer release date is a little silly.

It’s important to look at all possibilities, just as we did with the Track Teams’ cryptic tweet about Book 2 news.

When I think “treat”, I think trailer. And when I think about the Summer in terms of The Legend of Korra, I think about Comic-Con. I think it’s fair to assume that most of the fandom is expecting some sort of trailer during Comic-Con. So could a Book 2 trailer be the “treat” that Grey is referring to?

Definitely.

But is that confirmed?

No.

Interpreting this tweet is really a matter of opinion – there is no right or wrong interpretation. You could interpret it as Book 2 premiering during the Summer or you could interpret it as a possibility that we’ll receive a Book 2 trailer over the Summer.

But understand that this tweet confirms nothing; it just opens up the realm of possibilities for this Summer, which is looking to be a very exciting time for Legend of Korra fans.

The story board art doesn’t give very much away in terms of the plot, but it does give us some detail on the current production status of Book 3.

It looks like production of Book 3 has shifted into the animation stage, which generally tends to take the longest. That means voice work on Book 3 is likely complete, leaving the voice actors to begin work on Book 4 whenever the script is ready.

We can’t really confirm whether or not Book 4’s script is ready yet, but since the voice actors were recently spotted “reKorrading”, it is possible that voice work on Book 4 has already begun.

The Legend of Korra fandom has been deprived of news enough lately, and it’s only a matter of time before Nickelodeon snaps and reveals some information about Book 2.

But even though an announcement for Book 2’s release date is possible, it’s important to keep yourself grounded and look at more realistic options. When it comes to the Track Team, they’re all about music. One thing that Avatar Fans have been begging for has been a Soundtrack for Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

People have been “championing” the cause for quite some time, and even Jeremy Zuckerman (member of the track team) explaining that 2013 is looking bright when it comes to a possible soundtrack release.

Could this exciting news be the announcement of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s soundtrack? That’s where my money is, in case you’re curious.

My preference would be that we get Book 2’s release date (obviously), but I don’t see it happening. It could be wrong, of course – and I hope I am. But what do you guys think? What exciting news will be revealed soon?

According to Bryan Konietzko’s latest Tumblr Post, Book 4 is currently in production. But that doesn’t mean Book 3 is almost complete. Mike and Bryan are currently working on Books 2, 3 and 4 simultaneously, but they are all in different stages of production.

But wait Keval, what about Book 2?

For some odd reason, I get this question in the comments pretty much every time I write about Book 3 or Book 4.

Sorry folks, nothing new. Nickelodeon really isn’t letting anything leak out these days.

But if you’re in for some humor, I did start a Book 2 release date rumor of my own. When I came home from school today, I felt a bit more destructive than usual – don’t ask why, I’m just weird that way sometimes.

When I pulled up Twitter on my phone, I found a whole bunch of tweets asking for Book 2’s release date – nothing out of the ordinary. But it gets a little old when you have to keep telling people that Book 2 doesn’t have a release date. So instead of doing that, I tweeted out confirming Book 2 for August 27^th, 2015.

And for some reason, people believed me!

I was slightly dumbfounded by that, and I was a bit interested in seeing the overall reaction from my followers. I let it sit for about 30 minutes and I noticed that about half of the people were calling my bluff and the other half was essentially going ballistic, screaming: WTF, F*CK THAT SH*T, F*CK NICKELODEON GOD D*MN IT, I AIN’T WAITING FOR SH*T!

It was pretty entertaining at first, but once I saw the retweets coming in, I quickly cleared everything up. I didn’t want my little experiment to get too out of hand. Apparently people consider me “credible” – so much so that they’ll believe a 2015 release year for Book 2.

I guess I should probably stop abusing that credibility.

Just an FYI, the only reason I include this stories in my posts is because news has been really slowly these days, so when I post, I want to make them some-what entertaining.  I’ll stop including them in my posts once we start getting solid information. But let me know if you enjoy them or not.

For Netflix, removing Avatar: The Last Airbender from their Instant Queue was probably a move they’d been planning for some time now. When Netflix loses the license to a show, they have to decide whether or not they want to renew it. That decision is heavily determined by how many people are actually watching the show on Netflix. If only a small population is watching the show, Netflix generally tends to not renew the show.

Losing Avatar: The Last Airbender from Netflix Instant may seem like a surprise to us, but if you look at the situation from a technical perspective, the move probably made a lot of sense.

So if you’re an avid Netflix user who enjoys watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, time is running out. Take advantage of the series now.

And in case you care, I ended up watching Footloose. Julianne Hough is HOT.

The Legend of Korra carries a lot of weight on its shoulders from the incredible success of its predecessor, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the incredibly bad movie adaptation (Thanks M. Night). So did the ambitious new series live up to the hype? I will express my opinions, both positive and negative, pertaining to multiple categories: Story, Characters, Presentation, Entertainment Value, and How Does It Compare to the Original Series?

Story

My favorite part about Legend of Korra is that it captures the same feel as The Last Airbender (the action, comedy, drama, romance mix is still there), but it tells a completely new kind of story. Most sequels would probably recycle the exact same world that was already invented, apply new characters, and change the story, which I would have been perfectly fine seeing Legend of Korra do, but instead, it introduces a brand new setting and a plot that doesn’t resemble that of The Last Airbender’s.

When I watch The Legend of Korra, I notice the same style I fell in love with when The Last Airbender began, but The Last Airbender doesn’t remain on my mind, I’m thinking about Korra’s journey and I’m immersed in the new world. The plot begins in the South pole, where the White Lotus are searching for the new Avatar, which happens to be Korra, a little kid at the time who can already bend water, earth, and fire. Then it skips ahead to the future, where Korra has mastered those three elements, but has not been able to grasp the spiritual sides of them. The next element is air which is supposed to be taught to her by Tenzin, Avatar Aang’s son, but he must return to Republic City where he is a councilman, which postpones the teachings. Korra, being the hotheaded teen she is, decides to go to Republic City to find him and hopefully begin her airbending training. However, she soon discovers that Republic City is far from a utopia, as thugs and gangs walk the streets and not everyone is “living it up,” as she expected.

Korra ends up staying on Air Temple Island with Tenzin and his family with the goal of mastering air bending while under the pressure of being a city-wide icon. One thing that stands out to me in the plot is the number of mature and complex themes/ideas presented, such as terrorism, extremists, and oppression. These qualities add depth to an already detailed story, making the show seem more like a prime time action/drama than a cartoon. Excellent writing also plays a key factor in crafting the interesting story.

Throughout the season, in every episode, Legend of Korra never becomes boring, partly due to the quick pacing which is where I think it succeeds and suffers a little. Because of how many crucial plot points are fit into each episode, the show can sometimes feel quite rushed, but there are also no filler episodes and everything feels necessary. I would have liked to see a 20 episode season rather than just 12 episodes because it would give the story some more time to breathe and develop. The aspect that I thought was most rushed was the romance. It evolved from a love triangle to a love square, which was covered primarily in one episode, and it became awkward and felt forced at times as the season went on. However, I thought it was a fun B-plot that wasn’t concentrated on heavily enough to immensely hurt the story quality.

On a more positive note, Legend of Korra introduces a sport called Pro-Bending, though I also have mixed feelings about it. While think it is a great idea and an awesome break from the main story, I think it could have been shortened to dig deeper into the more important plot. I really like the way the first and second halves of Book 1 are balanced, the first half being lighter and less serious and the second half being darker and more extreme. There is a solid build up to the finale and the final two episodes are excellent, telling a complete story without a cliff-hangar. I’ve heard skeptical opinions toward the finale, such as that it is too complete and it doesn’t hint at a second season, or that it is random and full of plot holes. I like that the finale had a full ending because it leaves a feeling of “What could they possibly do next?,” which makes me more excited for season 2, and a lot of the “plot holes” that people mention either served a purpose or were hinted at earlier in the season.

Also, I think the first season is an introduction to the rest of the series, meaning that the ending is so complete because it is the true ending to Korra’s story of mastering the four elements. Overall, I thought the story was tight and well executed and did an excellent job of portraying a new and believable world for the viewers to ponder. The pacing could have been improved with a longer season, although it didn’t severely cripple the plot. The romance became chaotic and kind of awkward as The Legend of Korr progressed, but there’s no doubt that Book 1 provides another intriguing story for the Avatar universe.

Characters

Complicated and interesting characters have always been The Last Airbender’s specialty and, in Legend of Korra, the characters continue to be the highlight. Every character’s personality and traits are so unique to them that it is easy to define who they are and even choose favorites after just watching the first two episodes. The main group, Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami, make an excellent team because of this, which ultimately leads to great interaction between the four. I also really enjoy the action sequences that involve them working as a team because Korra acts as a water-bender, Mako is a fire-bender, Bolin is an earth-bender, Asami is a non-bender, and, when Tenzin is with them, he is air-bending, so there is every element being used along with a non-bender (reminds me of the old Team Avatar if you include Zuko, which you should).

There are also a number of great side characters like Tenzin, his wife Pemma, his two daughters Ikki and Genora, and his always entertaining son, Meelo. It’s nice to see them function as a family, even in the midst of danger, and they act as a break from the main story when things get intense. Two other cool secondary characters are Lin Beifong, the daughter of Toph from The Last Airbender and the chief of police in Republic City, and Iroh, Zuko’s grandson and a General in the United Forces. Lin’s interaction with Tenzin and Korra almost always makes for great scenes and I liked watching her develop and begin to respect Korra as the season progressed. There are a lot of solid characters, however, one in particular stood above the rest and that was Amon, the menacing and sophisticated leader of the Equalists. Steve Blum does a superb job voicing him and he is depicted as a believable villain through his realistic motives and troubled childhood. Amon is definitely one of Avatar’s best villains, if not the best (it’s between him and Azula).

There are two other villains in Legend of Korra: Hiroshi Sato, Asami’s father and a wealthy businessman, and Tarrlock, the Water Tribe councilman. They both do a good job in their own respects, especially Tarrlock, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker who also does the animal sounds for Naga and Pabu, oddly enough, but Amon is clearly the most interesting. Speaking of Naga, Korra’s polar bear-dog and Pabu, Mako and Bolin’s fire ferret, I appreciate that Korra gets an animal companion just as Avatar Roku and Aang had.

A high point for characters this season is seeing the older versions of Katara, Aang, Sokka, and Toph which arouses immediate nostalgia for me, since I remember watching them grow and become heroes in The Last Airbender. Just as Avatar Roku acted as a spiritual guide for Aang, a fully matured Avatar Aang acts as a spiritual guide for Korra. A knit-picky thing I can say about the characters of The Legend of Korra is that one character, named Tahno, is pretty weird to the point where it’s awkward at times, especially when he is attempting to taunt someone. It can become a little annoying since he is surrounded by other standout characters, but this is merely a personal complaint that, even to me, isn’t significant. Also, Tarrlock’s assistant is kind of a nuisance to any scene she (or ‘he’… I’m not sure) was in. In conclusion, The Legend of Korra has an amazing cast of characters with very diverse personalities and equally diverse actors to bring them to life. No one does characters on TV like Avatar does.

Presentation

Legend of Korra is easily the best looking 2D cartoon (Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the only 3D cartoon that may be better). The animation is gorgeous, from the amazing choreography in the fight scenes to the simplest realistic movements of the characters’ bodies. If you watch carefully, you’ll discover just how intricate the animation is, such as seeing fingers move in different ways and pieces of clothing flapping up and down due to sudden movement. The beautifully captured choreography makes a return from The Last Airbender and it’s never looked better, giving the combat a more realistic appearance. There are a lot cool environmental effects used as well, such as weather and lighting that set the mood for each scene. Plus, they make the environments look great, adding yet another layer of detail to the animation.

The Track Team (Benjamin Wynn and Jeremy Zuckerman) does an outstanding job with both sound effects and scores. All the elements sound strong and independent (you can listen without looking and pick apart the different elements) and Jeremy Zuckerman’s music blew me away, just as it had in the past. Why aren’t his Avatar soundtracks available on iTunes?!

The Legend of Korra also has an impressive cast of talented voice actors, including Janet Varney as Korra, David Faustino as Mako, P.J. Byrne as Bolin, Seychelle Gabriel as Asami, J.K. Simmons as Tenzin, Dee Bradley Baker as Tarrlock, Daniel Day Kim as Hiroshi, and Steve Blum as Amon. Everyone does an excellent job lending their voices to their characters and it really shows in the final product. It’s one of the things that separate The Legend of Korra from any other cartoon. The show also looks incredible, sounds fantastic, and is supported by a talented group of actors. This is the best presentation of any current cartoon.

Entertainment Value

There are a lot of factors at work that make The Legend of Korra the most entertaining TV show currently on air. It’s a bold statement to make, I’m aware of that, and I stand by it. There is rarely a dull moment in the season and the shear scale and complexity of the world will keep you aching to explore more, especially if you were a fan of the original series. Also, The Last Airbender fans will likely feel a sense of nostalgia to the appearances of past characters and from flashbacks involving them.

There is so much variety within the storytelling, characters, and presentation, and there is so much depth to the overall show that it’s hard not to be immersed. Not only is The Legend of Korra an entertaining TV show, but it’s also entertaining just to see how the Avatar series will continue to push the boundaries of cartoons. In a way, The Legend of Korra seems to be the “ideal” TV show, mixing action, comedy, drama, and romance and, for the most part, performing in those genres better than most live-action shows. The Legend of Korra is fun, thrilling, humorous, dramatic, and an excellent follow-up to one of the greatest cartoons of all time.

How does it compare to the Original Series?

Personally, I think season one of The Legend of Korra sits somewhere in between seasons one and two of The Last Airbender. I like the story of The Legend of Korra’s first season a little more than The Last Airbender’s first season, but The Legend of Korra does feel rushed at times, something The Last Airbender never really had issues with. Although, due to the quick pacing of The Legend of Korra, there are no filler episodes, unlike season one of The Last Airbender which had two mediocre ones. I think the characters are equally impressive, but Amon definitely makes a better villain than Admiral Zhao.

I also find Korra to be more interesting than Aang, at least in season one, primarily because her “hot-headedness” makes her pretty unpredictable, which is fun to watch. As for other characters, it’s hard for The Legend of Korra to compete since there have only been 12 episodes and the characters haven’t developed much yet. Both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra have very entertaining premiere seasons, especially when the end draws near and, specifically in the finales. They both have excellent finales, but I enjoyed The Last Airbender’s finale a little more, only because I think the first episode is better and the pacing is less chaotic. Seasons two and three of The Last Airbender are superior to The Legend of Korra’s first season because of their excellent pacing, phenomenal character development, and incredible story telling. However, I’m very enthusiastic about seasons 2 through 4 of The Legend of Korra because I believe that with more time, it could possibly be even better than or equal to the original series.

Conclusion

At the beginning of this review, I proposed a question: “Did The Legend of Korra live up to the hype?” The answer is a resounding yes! I realize that a lot of Avatar fans may be worried that the new series won’t be as good as The Last Airbender was, however, after seeing The Legend of Korra, they should feel relieved. It captures the same feel as its predecessor and expands upon the world to create an enticing new story with brilliant new characters.

This is a journey that I will happily take along side Korra, just as I once followed Aang, and I think any fan should too. As for new viewers of the Avatar series, I have typically found that they can jump right in, despite not watch The Last Airbender. They might not understand the references to past characters as well, but they will likely get the basic idea and still enjoy the show nonetheless. Anyone of any age should watch The Legend of Korra and support it so that we end up with more shows like it and not another CSI. It’s nice to know there is at least one excellent show out there when I see commercials for Honey Boo Boo and ten different Law and Orders.

I give Book 1 of The Legend of Korra a 9/10.