especially ruining my life. but in the most amazing way possible.
MDD: So we kind of elude to the fact that Zuko has met Korra before, but he probably stopped by the South Pole when she was-
BK: Back when she almost got kidnapped.
MDD: Yeah, well certainly there. She would have been super young then, but he probably stopped by every once in a while. Probably said hi.
BK: The intense cold probably hurts his bones and his joints.
MDD: They haven't seen each other in a while.
BK: I'm sure he was a great, fun, grandpa figure.
-TLOK 3.10 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, & Lauren Montgomery
MDD: Can we talk about this little line about Mako reading Jinora's books? It kind of came from an idea where since Mako wasn't dating Korra and Asami anymore, he was burying himself in books and studying. Reading on the airship and stuff.
BK: I like that.
MDD: He's a lot smarter now.
-TLOK 3.04 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Jeremy Zuckerman & Josh Hamiliton
BK: So yeah, I mean honestly, I was a little worried about adding Kai just because we had so many characters. Nothing against him. And then I was a little worried-I just didn't know because he was kind of Aang's age and he was a little Aang-like, a little bit of a trickster. I was like, "Man, I don't know if people are gonna like them or feel like he's stepping on Aang's toes or something," but talking to the fans at comic con - man, they love Kai.
JdS: Do they like him?
BK: Yeah. I like his hair.
MDD: Yeah, he's a cool little kid.
BK: Angie and I-we had a tough time with his design. Maybe because I was worried about him being too similiar to Aang or something and Ryu took the one Angie I had done and I don't think we had done a good job. Ryu gave him these cool suspenders and made his hair really fun to draw.
-TLOK 3.03 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Joaquim dos Santos, Tim Hedrick, & Josh Hamiliton
JdS: Has anybody done a gif of them clasping hands saying "Bros," or anything?
MDD: None that I've seen. But someone will now.
BK: Bro power.
JdS: Bro power.
-TLOK 3.02 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, & Joaquim dos Santos
BK: We had the teeny bopper love triangle stuff. The writers, Mike, and I, were interested in actually setting that aside now. It was fun for us for the first two seasons, but now we're more interested in Korra and Asami just kind of getting over that. And through that process actually becoming friends and just exploring that. They didn't let this little kind of romance thing get between them. They weren't petty about it. For us, it’s more fun having them as friends rather than adversaries or rivals.
-TLOK 3.01 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, & Joaquim dos Santos
BK: I just wanna point out, I don't put too much weight on awards. They're nice to win when you win them and if you don't-it's fine, whatever. It's just an award. But I am...I am chafed that Jeremy has never won an award for Avatar or Korra.
MDD: I'm with ya!
BK: It is a crime and it really doesn't speak well to these organizations that are ignoring the artistry that you're doing - I mean, just the level of this stuff.
JZ: Well, thank you.
-TLOK 3.13 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Joaquim dos Santos, & Jeremy Zuckerman
Source: SoundCloud / Jeremy Zuckerman
MDD: We really wanted to make it feel like what Korra did to save the Air Nation took a-as Tenzin says, "a great toll." And it's not gonna be a quick bounce back for her.
BK: At the time of this recording (this has not been released and fans haven't seen this yet). I'm sure people are going to be very upset. I think they think we delight in having Korra go through bad stuff, but it's not like we're 'heheheh' here. Y'know, evil cackles. You need to have high stakes for these stories to resonate and to be dramatic. And like Mike said, we didn't just want "Oh and then..." You see these action movies where people get all beat up and the next scene, they're fine. We didn't want that. Not only physically is she quite compromised, but emotionally especially.
JdS: That's a really important point. You never see that. You never see the emotional toll of violence.
MDD: She's trying to put on a brave face, but you can tell she's in rough condition.
-TLOK 3.13 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Joaquim dos Santos, & Jeremy Zuckerman
BK: I love how this always feels really realistic to me when everyone's standing around and they look really awkward and uncomfortable and they don't know what to do.
JdS: This scene beautifully boarded by Lauren Montgomery, too.
BK: I love seeing the emotion in her dad here.
-TLOK 3.13 with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Joaquim dos Santos, & Jeremy Zuckerman
It's the forbidden fruit. Everybody wants what they can't have.
Bryan Konietzko on Makorra
David Faustino's Q&A with Bryan and Mike about Makorra, Sokka, Kya, and more on SKEE 24/7 (Dash Radio)
...[W]e love writing flawed characters. We didn’t want to make her like: “How do we make the most likable character?” Because then those characters are kinda shallow, you know, there’s not a lot of depth there. And we like having really human characters who make mistakes. It’s certainly arguable that maybe we coulda handled some of those scenes better or something so that people… got it? I don’t know. But who’s to say? I think the cumulative effect of her character arc works. At least for us and what we were aiming for. But it is funny. We heard, especially during the first half of Book Two, when I was here last year—Was that just last year? It’s crazy; we already aired all of Book Three. Um, yeah—One of the questions I got was like: “Korra sucks, why did you do that? Why did you make her suck?,” and it was just like… I laughed, I was like “All right, well, you know…” But then Book Three, we just saw people embracing her and defending her, and really feeling empathy for her and a connection. Which is cool, it’s nice that people have stuck around for her journey. And you can’t really look back and obsess over where we lost connection with the audience. I mean, it’s important to recognize that, but we just have to do what we’re setting out to do. Do our best and then you kind of move on.
Bryan Konietzko answering, "Do you feel like viewers have been more critical of Korra’s personality than of Aang’s?", x
I think even with Mako, too, stuck in a job he hates, is a more adult kind of thing. When he was young he was the hotshot, an athlete and good looking guy, and now he’s just in this job he hates and doesn’t really have a life. That’s a very adult-type story.
Bryan Konietzko answering,"With the time jump between Book Three and Book Four you’re now writing about characters who are in their twenties. Is that a fun transition compared to the young teens of Avatar, or a weird one?" x
When Nickelodeon, in 2009, told us they wanted us to come back and do another series where we could do whatever we wanted, the first thought we had was: Let’s do a story about the next Avatar. That was the first thought. The second thought was: Let’s make it a girl. And we didn’t just stop there, we wanted everything about Korra, pretty much everything, to be different than Aang, to be opposites. Aang was this peaceful monk, a little trickster who wanted to kinda hide from the problems and not shoulder responsibility. He had to learn to become the hero, and we wanted Korra to be the fighter, to be really a go-getter, she wanted the responsibility, she reveled in it, in her title. But she had to learn to let go of her ego and become a more balanced spiritual being. And so in a lot of ways they had opposite arcs. A lot of things mirror each other in their development, but yeah they were kind of on opposite paths. It was deliberate; it kinda worked out?
Bryan Konietzko, answering the question if Korra and Aang represent opposites, x
We just wanted to thank you guys so much for sticking with us these last four seasons. It's been so amazing. We love you so much and love Nickelodeon so much for giving a chance to make the show. And of course, the show would not be possible without the brilliant minds of Mike and Bryan. One of the great things about what Mike and Bryan do at comic cons is that they show you a lot of behind the scenes stuff on the animation side. What we felt like what wanted to do was show you what it's like for us as actors to prepare. So, we shot some footage of us getting ready and we wanted to share it with you since this might be our last con. Thank you so much. We love you.