As the sequel series to the incredibly popular Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra was perhaps the most highly-anticipated animated show of the past few years. Though it was initially envisioned as merely a miniseries, the series order has since been expanded to four seasons and 52 episodes.
Season 2 – a.k.a. “Book Two: Spirits” – is fast approaching, and now we know the precise premiere date: September 13th, 2013. Plus, there’s a new trailer for season 2 (above) that depicts the more fun elements of The Legend of Korra than the previously released Comic-Con trailer.
Courtesy of Yahoo! TV, the footage seems to suggest that the main conflict of “Book Two: Spirits” will have to do with the Spirit World – which seems to be infringing upon the Earthly realm – and Korra’s passage inside it. Now, we’ve seen Avatars travel to the Spirit World before (Aang did it all the time in his spirit form), but this will be the first time we’ve seen an Avatar travel there in his/her physical form.
There’s also been some indication that the character will learn to fight “Dark Spirits,” whatever those are. Presumably, they’re like regular spirits, only more evil. (Note: You can see the Dark Spirits in the trailer attacking Korra and her friends.)
Much like season 1 was a huge step forward in terms of animation over Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 2 looks to be an improvement over its predecessor. Which isn’t a surprise – every season of the original series improved its animation considerably. It got to the point where the series finale almost looked like an entirely different show from the series premiere.
Though The Legend of Korra season 1 was undeniably successful, fans nevertheless had their issues with it. For one, the out-of-the-blue reveal of a previously unknown character to be the mystery villain “Amon” was seen as a bit of a cop-out. There was also never any serious explanation as to how Amon waterbended other benders’ powers away – except that it was vaguely related to bloodbending. Somehow.
The other major issue was the way in which the show wrapped up Korra’s big conundrum. She’d lost all her bending powers but airbending in the middle of the episode, but by the end of the episode, she’d managed to revert back to normal – and revert every other powerless bender back to normal, as well.
But for every cop-out or (pseudo) deus ex machina, there were a hundred funny, emotional, and action-packed moments to make up for them. The animation was amazing. The characters were great, particularly Korra, Tenzin, Meelo, Lin, Bolin, and – last but not least – Naga the amazing Polar Bear Dog. Yes, the first season had its issues, and yet I can’t wait for the second to premiere next month.
What do you think, Screen Ranters? Are you amped up for more Legend of Korra? Drop us a line in the comments.
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The Legend of Korra season 2 premieres Friday, September 13th @7pm on Nickelodeon.
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