I'm surprised there isn't already a thread on this (if there is, Sorry! I didn't see one!). Some potential rumors of the series include:
* It may be set 70 years in the future.
* Aang is featured in the series in the Spirit World, as Roku and past Avatars were to Aang in the Last Airbender.
* Korra is from the Southern Water Tribe.
* She has already mastered three of the four elements prior to the series, and is trying to master "Air". Aang's son, Tenzin, is supposed to teach it to her.
* Most of the story revolves around a steampunk metropolis called Republic City. It's the epicenter of the world, and a virtual melting pot but is plagued by crime and a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip the city apart.
While it's pure speculation as of yet, it's a really appealing idea to me, especially considering the industrial revolution that happened in the Fire Nation during Aang's generation. I had ideas of how the Earth kingdom would probably start becoming more industrial as well if Toph is able to teach other earth benders how to bend metal, and there might end up being something of an arms race between the two countries.
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Most of this is actually confirmed, and are not rumors anymore. I had been waiting to talk about some of this stuff Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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That look's awesome. It'd be really weird to see Aang old.
It'll be interesting whether or not they go for having it be a closed story like Aang's, where from the first episode we knew it would culminate with him fighting the Fire Lord, or if they will try to make it more open and just about her being the Avatar.
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We were talking about some of the rumors in the movie thread, but its good to have some real information! The creators had said we'd know more about Comic-Con time so I figured it'd be any day now. Yay!
The only thing that confuses me is the timeline. Originally, the rumors had it set 100 years in the future. If Aang is going to be a spiritual advisor like Roku, then that means he's dead. But 82 years old is kinda young in the Avatar universe. Bumi was still kicking butt at 112 years old, Guru Patik was 150 years old, and Avatar Kiyoshi lived to be 230 years old.
I have mixed feelings about the steampunk vibe. I like how it was handled in Aang's story because it was there but it wasn't too obnoxious. It had steampunk elements but it wasn't STEAMPUNK. But an industrialized Earth Kingdom makes alot of sense. I am excited for the whole "anti-bending revolution." I think Bryan and Michael could do some really cool things with that!
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I think throwing "true" Steampunk into Avatar Classic would have been excessive. But bear in mind it IS a hundred years in the future. I'm perfectly happy with an Avatar world takes the classic elements and shows us the logical progression of where the world would go in a hundred years.
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steampunk is such a b.s. word anyway. for the purposes of the new series, assume it means someone trying to summarize the fact that a newly metalbending earth kingdom and the legacy of the Fire Nation's industrialized war machine, along with the tinkerer nomads, combine in the cultural epicenter of Republic City to create an environment of grim, mechanized urbanism.
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That sounds pretty much like straightforward steampunk to me.
edit: unless you're a steampunk puritan who only uses the word when it specifically refers to victorian style and non-magical power sources. But seriously, if you have a gritty, crime ridden urban setting with retro-industrial technology, steampunk is a perfectly good word.
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Really the only reason I call it bs is because people end up using it loosely to the extent that any proto-industrialization-element or any victorian theming of fantasy tech becomes 'steampunk.' The way most people are going to use it, though, Korra will be "more steampunkey" than The Last Airbender.
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here's the show's creators being very very very diplomatic about the movie
quote:What did you guys think of the live-action version of “The Last Airbender”?
Konietzko: We’re just really focused on this new show right now, and kind of taking this off in its own direction and not concerning ourselves with that right now.
So you didn’t follow the casting controversy about the movie version of “The Last Airbender”?
Konietzko: We didn’t head up that film. We’re just happy to be back generating the original content in this mythology, which is what we do.
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I saw the headline "Airbender II set for 2011" and ran from the story fearing it was the sequel to the movie. This is SSSSSSSooooooooooooooooooo much better news.
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Blayne Bradley
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Why would they make a sequel if it did so badly as people think it did but Firefly somehow ended up canceled?
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Um, what? The TV show (which this is a sequel to, not the movie) did just fine. The movie was universally panned, but actually made decent money anyway. In either case, a sequel is fairly justified from a marketing standpoint. Ignoring for a moment the fact that Firefly had so many things going against it for so many inexplicable reasons that I don't think it's a particularly good benchmark for when TV executives should/will cancel things.
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Blayne Bradley
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I'm under the impression that the movie didn't do well financially, did this change?
And I know making a sequel series to the tv show makes sense, I'm excited for it afterall, but people did bring up the movie having a sequel, which I just found surprising based on what I heard.
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It's proving to be a modest success, and made about $80 million in the first two weeks IIRC. Paramount hasn't yet announced a live action sequel (with or without M Night) as I think they're still waiting and seeing.
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: I'm under the impression that the movie didn't do well financially, did this change?
No, it's not doing bad. it'll probably move the studio back into the black through dvd sales and the % take of total box office. It's also not doing good, however, so odds aren't great that viacom will risk a sequel under shyamalan.
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If they make a sequel I wouldn't mind if they let Sam Raimi do it, though he has a lot in the pipeline.
If they were to do a reboot though I'd want Christopher Nolan to do it, just because I KNOW it would be good.
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I just don't want a sequel unless they're willing to scrap the previous casting decisions. No, not so much because of the racebending crap, but because Shyamalan picked a kid who doesn't really display acting talent.
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I'd be willing to blame alot of Ringer's acting on Shyamalan's inability to direct (and the kid's age.) Think back to poor Daniel Radcliffe under Chris Columbus' misdirection and combine that with his young age. Then think about how much he grew as an actor no only as he gained experience but as he began to work under different directors.
I think Noah Ringer had alot of promise. On the rare occasions he was allowed to smile, he just lit up the screen. It was a very short flicker of Aang's character. But instead of being allowed to act like the kid he is, Shyamalan gave him nothing but horrible dialogue and bland dramatic moments. Shaun Toub, Dev Patel, and Chris Curtis are professional actors and even they came across poorly.
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Ringer can't really be compared to Radcliffe. Even in the early HP movies, there was plenty of evidence of present acting experience and talent. It wasn't even his film debut, and he had been starring in television since he was 10. In short, independent of Columbus' stilting of the talent, the talent was present.
I earnestly do not see the same in Ringer. I do not know if he could even be fast-tracked through an acting education to compensate for his lack of talent.
We'll see if my opinion changes after watching him in Cowboys & Aliens, where he will be directed by Jon Favreau and star alongside daniel craig and olivia wilde.
The word talent appears five times in this post.
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VERY excited to read all the news about the new series. I'm excited to see them take it in a different, possibly more mature direction, but I hope they don't lose some of the playful spark that I loved so much about the first one. What I enjoyed so much about the funny in TLA was that Sokka was often the butt of jokes, but he wasn't JUST the butt of jokes, he was also an integral member of the team, and was given his own time to develop and shine. They've always been good at striking a balance, and I hope that continues.
I'm very excited that Aang's son Tenzin exists to carry on the Airbending culture, and I'm especially excited to see how a possibly brash and hot-headed Korra will bump heads against the heir of Aang's peace, playfulness and wisdom in Tenzin.
It's going to be weird to see the whole thing take place in an industrialized melting pot seventy years in the future, but I expect they'll do a great job of making it feel evolved without being alien.
I have to say, I'm not sure what the fascination with steampunk is as a genre, and why it gets some sort of special recognition. It's sci-fi/fantasy set in an industrial revolution era, yes? The American Gilded Age, more or less. A friend of mine is really into dressing up in steampunk type outfits and another friend of mine said she wanted to "get into steampunk" which seemed like an odd turn of phrase to me. Is there really that much special/unique to it, and what's the allure that has a following? I originally thought it was some sort of hipster, counter-culture throwack thing, now I don't know.
I think setting a show, story or movie in an industrializing setting can do a lot of interesting things depending on the message you're trying to portray. For a series that dealt a lot with large binaries: violence/non-violence, war/peace, and that specifically pitted technological advancement against protection of nature, industrialization is the perfect backdrop for the themes that were so important in the original series, and that I suspect will be even more prominent in the next one. I feel like affixing the steampunk label to it however makes it seem like they're just following a fad.
Shanna -
They said in the interview that Aang died in his seventies because of being frozen in ice for a hundred years. It took a toll that sapped some of the longevity from his normally long-lived Avatar body.
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Still, this is NOT a sequel to the movie but the animated television show. So as long as they don't take up M. Night's terrible pronunciations, it should be good.
Posts: 503 | Registered: May 2005
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I imagine the term was used mostly for shorthand for the purpose of the press release. I mean, look how many descriptors we can add to the potential series just after reading "steam punk".
I also think that it's hardly fair to call steampunk a fad -- it's popularity has been increasing lately, but it's been kicking around since the 80s.
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Citation needed? Not doubting, just curious where it was stated.
quote:Is there really that much special/unique to it, and what's the allure that has a following? I originally thought it was some sort of hipster, counter-culture throwack thing, now I don't know.
What's the allure? It's just plain cool. Conceptually, and visually, in ways that are distinct from both sci-fi and fantasy. It represents a time period where we were just entering "the future," but at a point when technology was still made of big, clunky pieces that the average human could understand and tinker with, rather than inscrutable blackboxes. And the visual style is simply a particular visual style that some people like.
I personally love steampunk, and am pissed that right as I'm graduating and entering the industry, it's reaching the status of "fad" so that anything I do with it will feel like I'm following a trend.
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The creators were interviewed, I think at Comic-Con, and said that it will be shorter than the last episode, and that there won't be any filler episodes like TLA had. They acknowledged that the filler episodes could be great, and some would argue that the best material was even in the filler episodes, but that this show was 'lean and mean' in comparison. No official word yet on how long, as a mini-series, it will be.
As far as steampunk goes, I guess I misspoke. I get what's so cool about the setting of an industrializing society. I said a couple posts up what I thought were the especially interesting aspects of it as a time period/setting.
It's the fad part I don't get. It seems to me like there are two things here: the setting of an industrializing society, and steampunk. Steampunk is both the first and the second, but by giving it a special name, and by its transition into becoming a fad and gaining a cult following, it has become something distinct from what it began as. When people say they want to get into steampunk, or want to dress up as steampunk characters, and become a part of the cult following, I don't think it's because they appreciate all the nuances and what not of a society in the midst of technological transition. I think a lot of it is "this is a cool fad and I want to get into it." In other words, I think for a lot of people, steam punk is sort of a more modern version of why people like to go to renaissance festivals. It's an excuse to dress up and be part of a small community of like-minded individuals. Thus I think there is a difference between people who like a thing that happens to be called steampunk, and people who glom onto Steampunk as a cultural phenomenon.
I fall into the former category.
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quote:Thus I think there is a difference between people who like a thing that happens to be called steampunk, and people who glom onto Steampunk as a cultural phenomenon.
Well, I agree that there is a difference. But the name has predated the "fad" by decades, and I think it's a perfectly useful word to describe a particular set of things that people like. It's like saying "Space Opera."
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Blayne Bradley
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13 episodes is roughly the same length of some of the best anime series(s) so I'm game.
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quote:So, Im currently using my iPod to type a short message, but I just got out of the avatar signing at the Nick booth. One pretty big piece of info- Korra IS a miniseries, and Bryke is happy because tha means they can really make an impressive 12 episodes instead of hits and misses like they felt they had with original series. Also, expect Korra to air in LATE fall 2011.
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That's a letdown. I mean, I'm sure the miniseries will be excellent. And I won't have even been waiting as long as the people who wanted more from the moment TLA ended, but that's still a letdown. Hopefully something else is in the pipeline already.
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Well if an absolute ton of people watch it(as is likely), then, I can't imagine that the writers would have a serious problem getting more support from nickelodeon.
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I'm sure support won't be a problem. I've read in many places that TLA was the highest rated show in the history of Nick. I'm surprised that they didn't do something at least as big as the original series the second time around, and the only reason I can imagine why they wouldn't is because the creators themselves didn't want to get involved with anything that big again. I'm sure they have their reasons.
It's just frustrating from the point of view of a fan who craves more material.
I would guess that Korra won't be the end of it. I would worry about them taking a miniseries and turning it into something bigger though, unless they work it out ahead of time. Part of what made the original so good, I think, is that they plotted out everything before hand.
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Frankly, as a fan who DOES think there's plenty of so-so episodes in the original series, I'm not sure that a miniseries is a bad idea. Stories should be as long as they need to be, not longer. I suspect they have a particular story arc in mind that'll take 12 episodes, and might leave open further questions for a future arc if necessary.
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Frankly, as a fan who DOES think there's plenty of so-so episodes in the original series, I'm not sure that a miniseries is a bad idea.
But don't you see? the two tribes had to learn to work together and put aside their differences in order to cross the canyon!
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Frankly, as a fan who DOES think there's plenty of so-so episodes in the original series, I'm not sure that a miniseries is a bad idea.
But don't you see? the two tribes had to learn to work together and put aside their differences in order to cross the canyon!
Why does everyone mock Thd Great Divide? Haha. To be honest, that was the very first Avatar episode I ever saw and it was enough to convince me to check out the rest if the series.
Now Season 3, on the other hand, had some doozies. The Headband? The Painted Lady?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I actually liked the Headband quite a bit and thought the Painted Lady was pretty decent.
I actually didn't have THAT big a problem with Great Divide when I first saw it, but it's definitely among the least enjoyable ones for me. I join in on the poking fun at it because its fun to make fun of (and is not sentient, so I don't worry about hurting its feelings), notsomuch because it really deserves it.
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