The Legend of Korra: Book Two – Previews, Spirits and Excitement

The Legend of Korra, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino’s eagerly awaited follow up to Avatar: The Last Airbender, was my favorite show on TV during the first season (“Book One – Air”), managing to beat out even Community and Game of Thrones. Book One, though short at only 12 episodes, was just superb. It was gorgeous, with incredible animation, kick-ass character designs (especially Korra herself, who is so unusual for a female character in kid’s TV!) and an evocative soundtrack. The plot and characters were stand-out, especially the heart wrenching final act.

So suffice to say, I’m so excited for Book Two – a full season! – that I’m devouring every preview and tidbit of information possible. Here’s what I’m the most excited to see from the information that’s come out so far.

(Spoiler warning: Information about an unreleased season ahead!)

I really hope that scholar guy is still in here, some where, and has tea with the owl often.

The big previews from SDCC are filled with interesting bits, but one of the huge interests to me is where we see Jinorra, one of Aang’s grandkids, flying on some cooling dragonfly-ish creature into what looks like the great Spirit Library (from ‘The Library,’ a season 2 episode of The Last Airbender) and meeting Wan Shi Tong, the giant Owl guardian. Wan Shi Tong posed some interesting moral questions to the original Gaang, which didn’t have much time to get explored in their rush to discover more about the Fire Nation and their plans. However, knowing what Wan Shi Tong thinks of humans (VERY LITTLE) and Book Two’s focus on the Spirit World, this is a great character to have return in Legend of Korra. Also I’m really excited to see more Jinorra, who looks so much like a young Aang, especially since it seems very much like she’s going to play a bigger role in Book Two than she did in Book One.

She doesn’t look like she’ll turning into the Moon any time soon.

Speaking of active roles! Tenzin’s siblings, Kya and Bumi, look to have some significant screen time in Book Two as well. I’m really looking forward to seeing Katara and Aang’s three kids interact, which promises to be hilarious. Plus I can’t ever get enough of exasperated J.K. Simmons (Tenzin). Korra’s cousins, the twins Desna and Eska will also be appearing; these waterbenders are the children of the chief of the Northern water tribe (Unalaq, brother of Korra’s father Tonraq). Why am I so excited to see them (beyond, of course, the fact that I devour world-building like the rabid fangirl I am)?  Eska, the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe, is voiced by Aubrey Plaza, the hilarious actress from Parks & Rec (April), who’s also done a lot of nerdy stuff including this fake trailer for a Daria reunion movie. Plaza is a great actress and it’s very cool to see the Legend of Korra continuing to have great voice acting.

One of the problems with Legend of Korra, Book One, was that it only ran 12 episodes – originally it was just a mini-series and wasn’t intended to be a full season of a series. This meant some of the pacing was rushed, and while that didn’t reflect much in the main plot (the Equalists’ Revolution), it did strongly reflect in some places, like the characterization of Mako and Korra’s romantic relationship. Their ‘love story’ felt pretty forced and lacked a lot of depth. That’s why I’m really excited to see what happens with them, and the characters related to that relationship (like Bolin, WHO IS MUCH BETTER FOR KORRA ahem and poor butt-monkey Asami).

I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS MAN AND HIS SPEAR AND HIS MASK

But of everything that looks awesome about the Legend of Korra’s Book Two, the thing I am by far the most excited for is the two-part mini-arc telling the story of Wan, the original Avatar. Not only is this a story we know nothing about from canon thus far, but the art direction is going to be completely different than we’re used to seeing. Bryke (the fan portmanteau for the show’s creators) have talked about how in order to portray events from a long time passed, they changed the art style for these two episodes, focusing less on realism and more on ancient woodblock prints and ink paintings. I think this shift in style has paid off amazingly just from the screenshots we’ve seen so far. Between how pretty these two episodes look and how interested in Wan’s story I am, I couldn’t be more excited.

Legend of Korra, Book Two – Spirits, will premiere on Nickelodeon this fall. In the meantime, we here at Dorkadia highly encourage you to watch The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, Book 1 – Air to catch up with the stunning world of Avatar. You can also check out The Last Airbender comics and the Legend of Korra’s breathtaking soundtrack.