The Legend of Korra

Title: The Legend of Korra
Episodes: "Welcome to Republic City"

Network: Nickelodeon
Premiere Date: Saturday, April 14th
at 11:00am (ET/PT)
Regular Air Date: Saturdays at 11:00am (ET/PT)

Add'l Notes: Pro-bending Arena Rules (1, 2,3)

And then there was Korra: abrasive, self-affirming, spontaneous, cavalier, a dreamer, and a fighter.

This talented seventeen-year-old girl is the next avatar; however, she also happens to be terribly impatient, relishes conflict, and is really bad at public speaking. Maturity is the best medicine for a young and petulant future-hero; but in all likelihood, Korra, as with her forebear, won't have the luxury of Time to sip it down ahead of the encroaching anarchy.

"I am the avatar.... deal with it." --Korra

The Legend of Korra is Nickelodeon's long-ballyhooed sequel-series to Avatar: the Last Airbender, and from the looks of things, has set an improbably high standard for itself from the get-go. The premiere episode of The Legend of Korra jettisons viewers seventy years (and a generation and a half) into the future, where a more discernable brand of peace is available to the citizens of all nations. It is here that we find Korra, descending from the Southern Water Tribe, attempting to step more firmly into her destined role as Avatar, proper.

Korra is indeed the world's next avatar, but she is incomplete. In fact, Korra is woefully incomplete. The girl is a prodigy of close-quarters combat and gains pleasure from baiting others into confrontations (in which her victory is assured). Make no mistake about it: from the moment envoys from the Order of the White Lotus knocked on the door of the family igloo, a pudgy, four-year-old Korra was already tossing around haphazard fireballs and raising modest stumps of earth like a child possessed. The Legend of Korra is Korra's story; but it's rather evident that this teenager must do more than get through her spiritual "block" -- airbending -- if she's to quell a new brand of social unrest that's been brewing as of late.

Korra, starry-eyed, anxiously awaits her
arrival to the big city (top); while moments
earlier, Tenzin (below) offers a bit of advice.

The Legend of Korra is spectacular from the outset. Some of the lighting integration is overboard and some of the coloring is inconsistent, but the overall experience is markedly warm.

In any case, the exposition I have provided here is more than you'll get from the actual cartoon. The new animated series isn't wholly breathless in its lusty pursuit an epic adventure, but the program's clever writing and brilliant editing exhaust just the right amount of energy, putting Korra's emotions into context before she rushes off to the big city for training.

But The Legend of Korra, for all its dramatic positioning of a girl coming-of-age in a world too industrial and too prejudiced for tradition, still portends a great deal of fun and hilarity as only the franchise's creators can deliver.

Altogether, "Welcome to Republic City" rolls with the punches quite nicely, and delivers a solid introduction to the new avatar (and her new world) with grace and simplicity.

It's easy to get caught up in the background noise of a series premiere such as this: trying to memorize character charts, glancing over cut-and-pasted model/sketch sheets, remembering who that girl with the hair loopies was, back in the old series. Thankfully, the premiere episode of The Legend of Korra takes it nice and easy. The young avatar, holed up in a training compound established by the late Avatar Aang and the Order of the White Lotus (to protect the avatar from future pursuers), is grinding her teeth but for the chance to get things started with her airbending instructor.


As expected, the element bending in The Legend of Korra is exquisite from the very beginning. This thug (right) gets tossed through a building after he and his idiot pals call Korra, derogatorily, fobby.