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THIS MIGHT ALL BE PROVEN WRONG and I will be glad if it is, but for now? I am not too happy with what we know about the sequel so far.
For one thing, Korra is described as "hotheaded, independent and 'ready to take on the world.'", which very unfortunately brings to mind just about every single one of the strong and subversive action heroines of the nineties. Even if I liked the characterizations in the first series... to an extent, I'm not sure if I quite trust creators with this issue. Besides, it seems like the character they're comparing Korra to is, uh, Katara (speculation about similar fanbases at least). So yeah. Not too promising.
While on the topic of characterization, there will be more of the cheesy romance. There will. They promised us. Considering how self-satisfied they are with the way Aang/Katara turned out (= it was perfectly done and so meaningful), I have to say that I am less than thrilled to think about how it's going to go down. And that was what they got in a full-length series... (Disclaimer: I liked some of the couples in the original, at least in a distant sort of way. I liked Mai/Zuko.)
There also the fact that "a generation or two after" sequels aren't really my thing. (Close sequels? Depends.) Or rather, it would be fine if we got a completely new cast. But they're not going to do that. We will be seeing more of Aang. They promised. ....It's not even about not wanting to know that my favourites are DEAADDDD; it's about not wanting to know about the Great Afterwards, period. I don't need to know who decided to procreate with the person they were crushing on when they were thirteen, even if I loved the characters. It feels like cheating, leaving us with child heroes and then revealing to us how their whole lives went; even if they're not showing us the whole story, they're still showing us the end results. I want space for my imagination.
As for the last... steampunk. Which. Could be done very well, and it was already there in the first series, but I'm kind of afraid that they'll forget it's a fantasy world? They did promise that it would maintain the same kind of "tone" to the first series, but one of the main reasons I loved Avatar was because it was a genuine FANTASY. Sci-fi is fine by itself, but Korra is building on an already-existing world. Like, fantasy is pancakes and steampunk is garlic and they both taste delicious, but you're not supposed to MIX them (see also: final fantasy x is a fine tragedy, final fantasy x-2 is fine brains-off pink bubblegum fun, but if they're supposed to be of the same continuity = get that shit away from me).
Then again. It could be a fun mix! But it wouldn't be the same.... In a bad way. But then again....
...But then there's always:
"[...] inspiration from Shanghai in the 1920s [...]" No getting around it, that is awesome undiluted no matter how you look at it. Everywhere ever in the the 20s = kind of my favourite.
For one thing, Korra is described as "hotheaded, independent and 'ready to take on the world.'", which very unfortunately brings to mind just about every single one of the strong and subversive action heroines of the nineties. Even if I liked the characterizations in the first series... to an extent, I'm not sure if I quite trust creators with this issue. Besides, it seems like the character they're comparing Korra to is, uh, Katara (speculation about similar fanbases at least). So yeah. Not too promising.
While on the topic of characterization, there will be more of the cheesy romance. There will. They promised us. Considering how self-satisfied they are with the way Aang/Katara turned out (= it was perfectly done and so meaningful), I have to say that I am less than thrilled to think about how it's going to go down. And that was what they got in a full-length series... (Disclaimer: I liked some of the couples in the original, at least in a distant sort of way. I liked Mai/Zuko.)
There also the fact that "a generation or two after" sequels aren't really my thing. (Close sequels? Depends.) Or rather, it would be fine if we got a completely new cast. But they're not going to do that. We will be seeing more of Aang. They promised. ....It's not even about not wanting to know that my favourites are DEAADDDD; it's about not wanting to know about the Great Afterwards, period. I don't need to know who decided to procreate with the person they were crushing on when they were thirteen, even if I loved the characters. It feels like cheating, leaving us with child heroes and then revealing to us how their whole lives went; even if they're not showing us the whole story, they're still showing us the end results. I want space for my imagination.
As for the last... steampunk. Which. Could be done very well, and it was already there in the first series, but I'm kind of afraid that they'll forget it's a fantasy world? They did promise that it would maintain the same kind of "tone" to the first series, but one of the main reasons I loved Avatar was because it was a genuine FANTASY. Sci-fi is fine by itself, but Korra is building on an already-existing world. Like, fantasy is pancakes and steampunk is garlic and they both taste delicious, but you're not supposed to MIX them (see also: final fantasy x is a fine tragedy, final fantasy x-2 is fine brains-off pink bubblegum fun, but if they're supposed to be of the same continuity = get that shit away from me).
Then again. It could be a fun mix! But it wouldn't be the same.... In a bad way. But then again....
...But then there's always:
"[...] inspiration from Shanghai in the 1920s [...]" No getting around it, that is awesome undiluted no matter how you look at it. Everywhere ever in the the 20s = kind of my favourite.