Avatar: The Legend of Korra

See the old guy at the back? He is Tenzin, Aang youngest son - he is also an Airbender.

I have just finished watching the Avatar: The Last Airbender on a 3-day marathon. Don't get me wrong, it's not a rewatch - those 3 days ago was when I first started watching it.

Im 22 years old. So welcome me to the fandom, maybe?

Words cannot explain how much I loved the whole storyline. Everything about Avatar : TLA was PERFECTION.

The animation? Pure beauty. Storyline? Fantastic. Character development? Wonderful.

My original plan was to watch Legend of Korra. But I thought since this is a spin-off of the previous installment I should watch the first one before getting a headstart on Korra.

Thanks to Tumblr and their generous supply of gifs, screenshots, memes and the inevitable fanfic/fanart: my interest have been piqued.

I started to watch the first 2 episodes(an hour long) online and finished watching them a few minutes ago.

I have to say...Korra is PROMISING.

I can already foresee a great potential for this cartoon to be fantastic. Please don't compare it with Avatar: TLA. Legend of Korra deserves it's own recognition.

Despite the fact that Korra's been receiving some bashing from faithful fans that it didn't liven up to Avatar: TLA standards. Calm yo' tits. Like seriously. The makers put so much into making this don't bash it because it didn't satiate your own headcannons.

I especially like the characters for this film. You know what? I'm too excited to write down a proper lengthy essay on why I like it so I'll just make a list.

A) The protagonist is a lot like me. In a creepy way, she is my mirror image. After watching the pilot episodes I had a shiver run down my spine because her very being is my embodiment. Does that even make any sense? She even speaks like me!

B) The animation. My goodness the animation is pure beauty. The animation is pure anime: the movement fluidity of the animation, the clearcut lines, the fine exquisite movements...I have only seen it in Jyu-Oh-Sei. And I love the quiet, mature setting and overall tone of it. Even the atmosphere feels like you're in the Jyu-Oh-Sei planet.

C) The soundtracks. The choice of music is pure acid. Have you listened to the ending theme? DIVINE! Here's a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AVSJJgFfLU

D) The opening sequence where all the avatar's display their bending starting from Kiyoshi, Roku, Aang and Korra. In my honest opinion it wasn't as epic as Avatar: TLA as it was rather stale to me. But Legend of Korra compensated that through it's divine erhu-based music.

E) I will admit that knowing Korra being there means Aang is no longer living and it's bittersweet. We see him as a boy who achieved so much before hitting puberty, seeing him as an older man who definitely is the epitome of badassary. The affection we have for Aang, Sokka, Zuko, Toph(seriously??? She's the youngest! And she's no longer too), Suki, Iroh, Bumi plus The Cabbage Man and many others kind of makes us sad since in Korra's world they're no longer living. When Katara kind of said it out aloud I really felt the pang of loss. And what's worse? Hearing Tenzin call his sky-byson "Ugi". Even Appa is gone! When I saw the sky-byson I actually said "Appa!" out loud. Then decided to be a bitch and call the sky-byson Ugi. Now ain't that a bitch. Excuse me while I put this bowl of onions away, it's making me shed manly tears.

F) I wish the introduction of the new characters were older. Like young adults instead of teenagers. Because I personally believe teen love is a fleeting thing and Korra-Mako romance...I don't know: something tells me it would be short-lived. I understand the need for romance to spice things up and have some drama going on but at this stage Korra needs to grow up a little more before being in a relationship with someone. Which is why if Korra was in her early 20's her romantic interest(s) would have been more convincing.

G) It's so jarring to see that within 70 years the Avatarverse have become from a nature-spiritual based to a 1920-esque metropolitan era. All in less than 100 years? Really? Well, I think Sokka is personally responsible for introducing machineries and technology with what his mecha-lust and all.

As an impartial fan of both the Avatar installments, I think we as fans should give this spin-off series a chance. Let the story go as it is and who knows we might be pleasantly surprised.

Nostalgia.

I especially loved the demonstration for Air: it felt like the sound team placed a silk cloth over a fan, turned the fan to full speed and fast forwarded the frou-frou sound.

Okay, manly tears are coming again. And this time there's no onions around. *sniff*

Please guys, give Legend of Korra a chance.