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The Legend of Korra is the show I always wanted. Even if I didn't know it before.
Detailed, nuanced setting-building that takes into account technological advance and cultural change over time? Check! Exploration of the issues that can come up when some people are just More Special than others with the way local magic works? Check! Characters with nuance and depth, across a wide variety of ages, economic levels, and personalities? Check!
It keeps hinting at going for overdone tropes--the relentlessly dragging love triangle where no one just talks to anyone! anyone who dislikes the protagonist is unreasonable and unsympathetic!--and then dodging away, because, really, why go for the simple, boring version when people could act like complex characters instead? And all sorts of personalities are...okay. They're not just played for laughs. You can be perky or grim or stoic or serene or goofy or nerdy and it's okay, you still get to be a developed character who's more than that one note held up for others to differ from.
Girls can like the same boy and still get along. Boys can like the same girl and still get along. Not getting to date your first choice love interest isn't the end of the world. The first person you fall in love with is not necessarily your soulmate o' destiny. It's...surprisingly mature.
Except I'm not surprised, exactly. It's that breath that stops being held when one has braced for the usual inescapable tropes of certain types of storytelling (tropes aren't bad, but by god, some are pernicious), and discovers that the people telling the story aren't going to do that. And the people who wrote Avatar: The Last Airbender were like that before. (Even more so in the second and third seasons.) I expect them to do good things, and they do.
I guess I'm being a bit vague, to avoid spoilers. It's a good show. It's got an excellent plot that keeps managing to surprise me--and not in the WTF way, but in the "Oh, of COURSE!" way. There's moral complexity! One of the episodes had a "You and me, we're not so different" speech from the villain to the protagonist which, for the first time in my memory, actually made relevant and compelling points, rather than being ludicrously easy to dismiss. (By the viewer, it is. I roll my eyes every time I see a character brought down by one of those speeches when it's just stupid. Which is usually. But this one...made sense.)
And my god, the action sequences are gorgeous. (As are the sets.) Everyone gets to be Batman levels of awesome. People take turns being the one who Saves Everyone Else, and it is different and awesome every time.
I swear, it nearly makes me want to seek out fandom. (I know better.) There's just so much amazing to gibber about! If I could build worlds and write plots as well as these folks...
Detailed, nuanced setting-building that takes into account technological advance and cultural change over time? Check! Exploration of the issues that can come up when some people are just More Special than others with the way local magic works? Check! Characters with nuance and depth, across a wide variety of ages, economic levels, and personalities? Check!
It keeps hinting at going for overdone tropes--the relentlessly dragging love triangle where no one just talks to anyone! anyone who dislikes the protagonist is unreasonable and unsympathetic!--and then dodging away, because, really, why go for the simple, boring version when people could act like complex characters instead? And all sorts of personalities are...okay. They're not just played for laughs. You can be perky or grim or stoic or serene or goofy or nerdy and it's okay, you still get to be a developed character who's more than that one note held up for others to differ from.
Girls can like the same boy and still get along. Boys can like the same girl and still get along. Not getting to date your first choice love interest isn't the end of the world. The first person you fall in love with is not necessarily your soulmate o' destiny. It's...surprisingly mature.
Except I'm not surprised, exactly. It's that breath that stops being held when one has braced for the usual inescapable tropes of certain types of storytelling (tropes aren't bad, but by god, some are pernicious), and discovers that the people telling the story aren't going to do that. And the people who wrote Avatar: The Last Airbender were like that before. (Even more so in the second and third seasons.) I expect them to do good things, and they do.
I guess I'm being a bit vague, to avoid spoilers. It's a good show. It's got an excellent plot that keeps managing to surprise me--and not in the WTF way, but in the "Oh, of COURSE!" way. There's moral complexity! One of the episodes had a "You and me, we're not so different" speech from the villain to the protagonist which, for the first time in my memory, actually made relevant and compelling points, rather than being ludicrously easy to dismiss. (By the viewer, it is. I roll my eyes every time I see a character brought down by one of those speeches when it's just stupid. Which is usually. But this one...made sense.)
And my god, the action sequences are gorgeous. (As are the sets.) Everyone gets to be Batman levels of awesome. People take turns being the one who Saves Everyone Else, and it is different and awesome every time.
I swear, it nearly makes me want to seek out fandom. (I know better.) There's just so much amazing to gibber about! If I could build worlds and write plots as well as these folks...