Things I am Excited For: Avatar: Legend of Korra

One of the hard things about being a geek -- and by "hard" I do not mean actually difficult but I mean "maybe I should rethink my life choice" -- is that even though you may have loads of stuff to read and watch and otherwise enjoy and engage in, there's still that moment where you get way too excited about the next big thing. It will never be enough!

So while I'm really enjoying the Twin Peaks and the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes I'm watching, the Fruits Basket manga I'm consuming, and the little bit of headway I've made on A Vindication of the Rights of Woman -- hey reading that for fun is geeky -- I'm still excited over the news that came out this week for Avatar: Legend of Korra.


Image courtesy Nickelodeon, taken from WSJ.com

You probably do not need me to tell you that Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Nickelodeon television that is not to be confused with either James Cameron's blockbuster movie nor the cowardly, racist and reportedly not very good live action film it inspired -- is amazing. Like the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World comic series, it's a great example of a western media learning from anime not just by aping its style, but by getting to the heart of its appeal and making something new. It's also brought Eastern Culture and a plethora of strong female characters into the homes of the young and the young at heart.

The spinoff series, which will have a female Avatar as its lead, was announced last year but this week was the first time we saw her face. The Wall Street Journal also has an interview with the creators where it's announced Nickelodeon has ordered 14 more episodes. Good news upon better news, there.

I was a Janey-Come-Lately to Avatar: The Last Airbender. I knew while it was airing that people enjoyed it, often saying it was a great show because it had a serious, involved story that could be enjoyed by adults as well as kids. While I think they overemphasized the seriousness of it (the show has a lot of jokey pratfalls that are meant to appeal to children) I loved almost all aspects of it.

Yet I hadn't realized quite how much it had meant to people until the controversy surrounding the movie. As a woman, as someone who was once a young girl, I was overjoyed by the great amount of strong and very different female characters that populate the story. (And they're different in both personality and design, which is another great thing.) I am white, and while I grew up searching for female characters to relate to and enjoy and didn't always find much, I'm sure those who grew up non-white found even less.

It's sort of a bummer that it's mostly hated because people thought it was bad more than people thought it was racist. There are still some who will argue that just because a character is entrenched in Asian and Inuit culture and writes in Asian languages and uses Asian styles of fighting DOESN'T MEAN HE CAN'T BE WHITE (OR WHITE WITH A TAN) and that makes me depressed. Of course, the fact that the live action movie was both racist and bad perhaps speaks to a general lack of care inherent in its creation in general. The two go hand in hand in this case.

Not that such sad news doesn't make this any less funnier:



Ahhhh, that never gets old.

But the anticipation for this new show makes it better, at the very least. And I'm really happy to have this to look forward to.

That being said, if Korra falls in love with Katara and Aang's kid I'm going to find that a little creepy. Your girlfriend can't be your dad. I draw the line here.

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Meanwhile, I'd be remiss if I as a white blogger were to discuss Asian culture for entertainment and not acknowledge the tragic earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. Please give what you can and try to do no harm.