Legend of Korra Premiers In Less Than A Week

Legend of Korra, which has ditched the title Avatar undoubtedly because of James Cameron's abomination, premiers in FOUR DAYS. Make sure to check out their expansive internet exploration of the main city in the story, Welcome To Republic City.



I'm very excited for two reasons: one, it is a female-centered cartoon, and we don't have many of those. Two, I had many criticisms of The Last Airbender because Nickelodeon is a soulless monster run by brain-eating zombies. As such, they placed limitations on the show that shouldn't have been there and further reminded the market why little boys ran from Nickelodeon and into the arms of the Internet and Cartoon Network.

One of the biggest examples is no usage of the word "die" in the proactive sense. People have died. Characters are concerned that people will die. But at no point in the show does a character actually die, nor does any character say that they will kill someone. Everything is communicated through wan euphemisms. The character of Jet, for all intents and purposes, dies, but that is never said. The show even makes fun of itself later on, which to me was a direct mocking of Nickelodeon's restrictions on the show.

These limitations forced the show into certain narrative dead-ends. Iroh should have died. Why? He theoretically caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people in the past (the show even states that he is considered a war criminal in the Earth Kingdom), and we are supposed to feel bad about his son? There are certain Shakespearean restrictions on narrative, and there is no redemption for someone who has caused that much destruction.

The trailer for Legend of Korra, and also Nickelodeon's recent overtures to the male market with Dragonball Z Kai, give me hope that this show will have dramatic power. The Last Airbender was a better show than the new Thundercats, but without the fear of real repercussions, there was no drama. Lots of characters died, and continue to die, in Thundercats.