Avatar: Fears And Hopes

So it's finally happened. We're getting a new season of Avatar... sort of.

The Last Airbender:Legend of Korra? I sure hope they change the name.

And I'm very hopeful/excited/scared. One of the great qualities of Avatar is that it was a truly serialized series with a well thought out beginning middle and end. The characters had emotional depth and individuality, and the writers weren't afraid to hit you in the gut when they had to. So to rephrase, Avatar never pulled its punches. Each season finale showed interesting and sometimes painful new growth from each character... and that'd be just normal if it weren't for every episode in between that took the same care to keep us interested in the story.

The thought that we will be getting an Aang-less Avatar is sad and that's only the beginning of my fears. Aang as a character was complex and interesting at nearly every bend.

He's not just some main character that's glossed over to save time for the rest of the gang. As we watch his journey we consistently see him mature emotionally and discover the meaning of right and wrong, and that's why it's so scary when we watch him make one mistake after another. We know that he feels worse than anybody about his incompetence at BEING the Avatar. And when he finally does something right, we cheer. And that ending... that ending sews it all together quite perfectly. After a shaky season one finale wherein Aang cannot control his powers and basically becomes what he sees as the lowest form of being and an even more frightening season 2 finale...

Aang discovers that there is another way. He has choices and some of them are actually more moral than he ever could have realized by himself.

The Last Airbender, M. Night's movie was a travesty.

"Are you planning on telling me something I need to know?"

And it's so ridiculous to think that such good material, which only needed to be pulled from the episodes and refilmed in liveaction, could be torn apart and destroyed so carelessly.

I am passionate about this material, and I know millions of others feel the same way as me.

They feel like family.

So here's my hope, that this new series (The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra) be just as specifically thought out and molded as the original series. If it's the same show runners, then I have faith. And, it's only a 12 episode miniseries... so I can assume this is the case. In any event, it will be interesting to see what happens next.

I am hopeful I am excited I am scared... in love with Avatar.