We wanted the elemental 'bending' to be based on authentic Chinese traditional martial arts, believing this would lend a beauty and resonance to the animation and the fictitious disciplines. Once we had that idea, I started looking for a Kung Fu teacher/Martial Arts consultant. My search led me to Sifu Kisu and I began training with him right away.
As humans our hangups seem to shape our interaction with the world around us. They are often the source of our intolerance and friction with people who think differently than us, and even the reason we build walls between us and the people close to us.
With 'Korra' we've really taken a lot of time to craft it. We're aiming pretty high, and in order to keep up the quality it just takes a lot of time and a lot or work.
Aang was an airbending prodigy, but didn't even discover he could bend the other three elements on his own; whereas Korra was bending three of the elements at age four.
It wouldn't be the Avatarverse without some hairstyle changes, now would it?
Mike and I were really interested in other epic 'Legends & Lore' properties, like 'Harry Potter' and 'Lord of the Rings,' but we knew that we wanted to take a different approach to that type of genre. Our love for Japanese Anime, Hong Kong action & Kung Fu cinema, yoga, and Eastern philosophies led us to the initial inspiration for 'Avatar.'
I always felt like Azula and Long Feng were much more interesting villains and three-dimensional characters than Ozai, who was just sort of a big jerk. Like a really big jerk, but not very complex or human.
While we were in the middle of 'Avatar' we got a lot of volatile reaction from fans. They were very upset with the direction we were taking Zuko.
Nickelodeon came to us at the end of 2009 with a twelve episode 'mini-season' already green-lit for a new series. They let us do pretty much whatever we wanted with it, as long as it was in the 'Avatar' universe and featured bending.
I think it's touching that the fans feel so close to the characters that they feel personally hurt. I've felt that way in plenty of TV shows - 'Game of Thrones,' 'Mad Men.' How could they do that to that character? That's drama.
Mike and I like a balance of tones. We never set out to make an overtly silly show or an overly serious dramatic show.
We knew we wanted the 'magic' in our show to be different than the typical wand-wielding spell-casting fare. For us, it had to be natural and physical, with a source and rules and limitations - and most importantly it had to be a skill rather than just a power, something that a practitioner had to learn and strive for.
The social and political climate came from discussions about how we could find conflict in the wake of a 100-year-long war ending. But as we know in the real world, just because a war ends it doesn't mean that everything turns happy and peaceful. That provided us with some new kinds of conflict for us to explore in 'Korra.'
You've got to earn it; you're not just handed anything in life. That's why no one starts out as a perfect master.
I thought Korra was 17 so Mike and I have to get our stories straight. The main characters are in their late teens, we've always loved those kind of teen love triangle type stories and there was plenty of that in the original series.
I am infamous for writing fight scenes beat for beat, punch for punch. I can't help it!
I like nothing more than a character sacrificing himself or herself for the sake of others. That's drama at its finest for me.
We just don't subscribe to the conventional wisdom that you can't have an action series led by a female character. It's kinda nonsense to us.
I'll just say that America - us included - has a long way to go to catch up with the animated work being done in a handful of countries, namely Japan.
When you have a fully-realized Avatar, it's like Superman, and how do you make that interesting?
