Ocelli and I just watched the finale. Overall, we both thought it was really good! I didn’t have any problems with it myself. I just can’t see how they’ll be able to continue the rest of the series though, since everything seemed pretty final: Amon/Noatak was openly discredited and later blown-up, the Equalist movement has consequently fallen apart, Korra got her bending back and she and Mako openly professed their love for each other, and Korra has also opened her connection to the spirit world and can airbend. We even saw Lin get her bending restored as well. Yet this is still being referred to as Book I. They’re going to have to contrive a new villain, then. But I don’t see how they can do it without feeling forced.
I know they did it this way so that this could function as a self-contained series in case they didn’t get renewed. Which is sadly a fact of life with today’s scratch-happy network executives. So I can’t fault them for that. Still, I think Korra’s future is all but assured. So it’ll be interesting to know where they go from here.
Speaking of voice actors, I was surprised that Korra had a lot of familiar actors in its cast. Many already picked up on Clancy Brown as Yakone, but there were many others…
Janet Varney (Korra)- She’s done a lot of voice acting and TV work. But prior to this show, she did a lot of work with Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett on Rifftrax.
David Faustino (Mako)- Probably best known to everybody as Bud Bundy on Married…With Children.
J.K. Simmons (Tenzin)- He’s probably best remembered for his portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies; a role he’s been reprising in Ultimate Spider-Man as well. He’s also the voice of Cave Johnson in Portal 2, and he’s also been seen in the Farmers Insurance commercials.
Mindy Sterling (Lin Beifong)- She’s been known mostly for doing comedic roles, most notably as Frau Farbissina in the Austin Powers movies.
Seychelle Gabriel (Asami Sato)- She actually has a history with the Avatar franchise, seeing as how she played Princess Yue in the live action version of The Last Airbender (the less said about which, the better). So I guess you could consider her participation in this show as a way of atoning for that. She also can currently be seen playing the character of Lourdes on the TNT alien invasion show, Falling Skies.
Daniel Dae Kim (Hiroshi Sato)- This actor has been associated with a string of popular shows, including Lost and more recently the new Hawaii Five-0.
I think another problem with the second season is…Korra can bend everything. She defeated the bad guy. We can assume she gave everybody back their bending. So what now? No continuity in the antagonist? Making up for the character development that was nearly absent from the first season? Or will it just be mindless episodes that don’t follow a plot at all? It just doesn’t seem like there’s any reason for the story to have a second season. This is another reason why the last 5 minutes completely ruined the finale (not to mention several parts in the rest of it) for me. There’s no longing for a second season if everything is solved.
I understand they were originally making this a mini-series, but if they would have cut out a few minutes of the ending, the second season could have been great. They could show her relearning all of the bending she lost, travel to places beyond Republic City and meet new and exciting people. But no, I guess it’s not that way.
Just to add, I just read IGN’s review of the season finale. And I found myself in agreement with practically everything they said. They gave both episodes a 9 and a 10, respectively.
though I have said it before too - I really have no idea what to expect from the next season as this one summed up almost everything . it will HAVE to top it somehow . and if it doesn’t , it’s probably consist of fillers . which are fun and will fill alot of holes . but will really be pointless…
I’m also concerned that Book 1 was so complete that the story has no where to go. Still, here’s hoping Team Avatar will continue the journey outside of Republic City to new places.
Well, IMO, it would be nice to see a fully matured Avatar (one who knows all the elements and everything) in something other than flashbacks or visions for the second season. So far, with Aang and Korra, we’ve only seen Avatars in training. Maybe they’ll even have a time skip.
It still seems like they got voice acting done rather quick, considering they only got renewed for a second season right before the series premiered (from what I’ve heard).
