Hello everyone, Airspeed Prime here to present another edition of Community Opinion. This time is the Christmas Edition. The topic this time round was as follows. [caption id="attachment_7266" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

The Legend Of Korra was of course the biggest talking point of the year, but not the only one. 2012 saw the release of The Promise comic series also.[/caption] 2012 Avatar Year In Review - Positives, Negatives and general thoughts on how 2012 was in terms of Avatar as well as a few thoughts on what is to come in 2013. I posted about this in early December and members had up to today to message me with their opinions. So lets get into the post. Airspeed Prime (Site Super Moderator and Podcast Main Host) For me 2012 was a mainly positive year for Avatar stuff. Far and away the best year since 2008, in that we had a show on tv to watch. While the media that came out this year was great, there were also a couple of negatives with how they were handled. Community is also an important aspect of the fandom and this year definitely saw some of the best discussion ever, but also in certain parts of the fandom became overly negative to the point that I feel stuff that is mainly regarded as being awesome is mainly talked about for it's minor negatives instead of the huge positives. I will now talk a bit more about these in detail. Negatives -The biggest negative from this year has to be how Nick completely failed to capitalise on Korra's popularity. No merchandise available in brick and mortar stores and a severe lack of any Korra information since SDCC 2012 tell the tale. If not for a strong news month in December we would have nothing to talk about, but the lack of Korra info since the show aired has been shocking, to the point where many of the fans who do not frequent forums like this had no idea that Korra was even getting a 2nd book let alone a 3rd and 4th. Add to this that as far as I know Nick do not show reruns of Korra regularly if at all since "Making Of A Legend". What this lack of info has done is just keep the excitement around Korra down, we should be very excited, but we are left wondering when we will get any book 2 news. Nick need to step it up this year,and where has Korra Nation's content gone ? -The site was the target of a pretty big hacker attack back in June/July. Just weeks after Korra had aired the site was hit by this attack, it permanently deleted all forum posts for a 3 month period including all Korra episode discussions (I.E the time when the forums were most active). Thankfully myself and Jordan were able to restore all of the news posts, but to lose all of those posts and some of the best times on the forums was a big disappointment. Just knowing that some people out there targeted this site for some reason is shocking, why? Thankfully things are now in place so that it can never happen again and luckily the site and community bounced back stronger than ever. -No Korra for the UK in 2012. While I now understand their plan to wait and air Book 1 and 2 close together, it is still annoying to have to wait so long to see the show on tv here. -I don't want to go in depth on this one, but I feel I should mention this. I feel parts of the fandom have become overly negative based on the reactions I have seen to The Promise and Korra this year. It is not that I feel there is nothing bad about them, I have my complaints also, but I always mention first and foremost that they are excellent. My issue is that in parts the fandom seems to have just focused in on the negatives rather than realising how good the Avatar content this year was. It has really made me think twice before going to places like Tumblr to get fan reactions, luckily the community here is very objective in it's analysis. We all just need to remember it is called a fandom for a reason, we are fans of Avatar, be happy that there is new content coming out. Talk about negatives, but remember to mention the positives also :) Positives -Korra, naturally a new Avatar show is a huge positive. It was fantastic to see Avatar on tv again and be involved in all the discussion surrounding a new show. It was such a great time to be in the fandom. I personally loved Book 1, it managed to balance: plot, character development, humour and action very well. My only negative being a bit of explanation at the end missing. Book 1 Air was good by itself, but it mainly showed the potential Korra has as it goes into it's next 3 Books. It has me so excited to see what is still to come. -The Promise comics are my biggest positive from 2012. I say that because of what this series means for the Avatar franchise at large, we can get important stories via the comics and not just shows. Shows take years of pre production and animation and the crew needs a break after each show. With the Avatar universe just becoming bigger and bigger we cannot just rely on shows to tell us stories. With the comics we have another medium where they can put out these stories with out the insane amount of time that a show requires. The Promise itself was in my opinion a wonderful continuation of ATLA, it felt just like the show while adding to it in it's own way. Gorgeous art and great writing made it a joy to read. I talked about potential in relation to Korra, the comics have that times 100. -This site's community. Immediately after the site hack both myself and Jordan really did think that it was a blow that the site would not recover from, having lost so much content and so many members due to 3 months worth of content being deleted, we did wonder who would stick with us through the tough times. We were both so delighted to see the support that we received from members both old and who had lost their accounts and even some non members. Everyone banded together and we grew closer as a community because of the hack. So while we won't ever get those 3 months back, we grew for the better. Myself and Jordan pretty much spent a whole day adding the news posts back and explaining what happened, so we were happy to see how quickly things returned to normal. All because we love this site and it's community so much. -The Podcast. The Avatar Online Podcast is a personal positive. In the planning since 2010, it was only March 2012 when it finally got going with myself and Callum. We were both incredibly nervous on that first podcast, but after 30 minutes we settled into things nicely. From there the podcast just proceeded to blow all my expectations away, from how well it was received to the lack of complications involved. I would never have believed it if someone had said I would have been on over 50 podcasts before the end of the year. More personally for me, the podcast allows me to talk to other fans about Avatar, no one where I live likes it so each Sunday is my one day a week where I get to talk to fellow fans. I think it will continue to grow in 2013 when new Korra content comes out, the listener interaction already is great. Those are most of my positives and negatives from the year. I will go more in depth on this topic on this Sunday's podcast. So I will end with my thoughts on 2013. 2012 showed the potential of Korra and the comics. I think 2013 will show us how good both can be. Spirit World and Ursa both to be explored in 2013 are things all fans are excited for. 2013 will also see the release of the first pieces of mass market Korra merchandise with Book 1 on DVD and the junior novels. 2013 is shaping up to be the best Avatar year ever. Agent Nebraska (Moderator) 2012 overall was an exceptional year for Avatar fans. Focused on the new television series, The Legend of Korra, this year contained much for post-ATLA time periods, as well as further reaching into the Avatar World as a whole. For the most part, 2012 was truly an exciting year. The main factor towards the success of this year was, of course, The Legend of Korra. Overall, I really liked the new show, although many others found several problems with it, which I will discuss later. In my opinion, it was an outstanding continuation of the Avatar story, winning IGN’s Animated Series if the Year award, and contained a breathtaking and exciting plot as well as a vast expansion of the Avatar World. This year also brought with it The Promise series, the exciting, character-developing, plot-continuing trio of graphic novels which take place directly after the events of ATLA. These were an enormous hit, bringing fans a newer connection to the characters they know and love and a bit of context leading into LOK. I think The Promise was very exciting and it really told an important story and developed characters, like Aang, Zuko (*fan girl sigh*), Katara, Toph and her students, Sokka, and even Sneers, whom we had seen in just two episodes. Along with the good things, there have been few bitter feelings, though they were still existent. The main thing is what the world thought of The Legend of Korra. Many found the show disappointing, as it did not fill the expectations given to it by ATLA. I strongly disagree with this, not only because it has only one season, but because I felt that the show was satisfactory and, though a bit short proving for slightly awkward timing, told a great story with a satisfying amount of character development. Overall this year’s excitement was quite short-lived, due to the shortness of LOK’s seasons, although it was still present. For the next few months, we must only hope to see more and more Korra news rolling in, as well as handling our anticipation for the new graphic novel series, The Search, which deals with a very popular topic, Zuko’s mother. My biggest point of anticipation is the upcoming Korra season, in hopes that it will be able to redeem the show’s name as the best kid’s show on television. KoolKorra As a whole, 2012 was a really great year of Avatar for the fans. We received forms of Avatar media such as comic books and graphic novels. We also welcomed the new Avatar show in our arms, the Legend of Korra, which really amped up the volume for 2012. Overall, this was the year of Korra. For the positives, we, the fans, got The Promise Trilogy, which continued Avatar Aang’s story, wondering how the United Republic came to be, the Legend of Korra, the widely acclaimed popular show which made more room for my love for Avatar, and in my opinion, the biggest thing because it’s my top favorite show. The 2nd biggest thing for me, was making an account here on ATLAOnline because I finally found a community where i can share my love for ATLA and LOK, listen to Airspeed’s entertaining podcasts, and also get more news on Korra, otherwise, i wouldn’t know what would happen in Book 2, the dates the Search comes out, or even know there’s a book 3 and 4. But as we get positives, we are balanced with negatives, having a rushed first season of Korra (as it was first conceived as a 12 ep miniseries), no love for Korra from Nickelodeon (they stopped showing Korra right after the first season and turned Korra into Nicktoons) and i did not like that, and of course, our impatience for Book 2, Book 1 DVD, Zuko’s Mom, and much more that comes in 2013. Plus, without much Korra news, there’s not much activity and speculation going on except for the Korra Speculation Team, forever thinking of what would happen in Book 2. As we say goodbye to 2012 and welcome 2013, it may actually be lucky and even bigger year for Avatar and the community. As we wait Korra Book 1 DVD the first manufactured piece of the Korra franchise, the complete trilogy of the Promise, the 3 installments of the Search trilogy, free comic book day, and of course, Book 2, our speculation party grows bigger and bigger and the next End of the World date grows more false and harder to believe. So far, I believe 2013 will be the biggest year for us yet. Goodbye 2012 and hello 2013! Evil firelords, spirits and apocalypses are not allowed to enter.

Hyriu85

This year has been a year full of Avatar and especially for me. We have book one of korra comics and so much more. The Positives of this year are a lot. Book One of The Legend of Korra came on nick last April which is huge. Then the Promise Comics which we have been waiting for, for literally years. We also get a sneak peak at The Search Part 1 which is awesome! Also for me this is the year I joined the site! I also read several cool fan fics and I am currently writing one myself. There are many Positives for me this year. Now to the negatives for me. The huge wait for korra to even come was bad. I also think the Promise comics should have all came out before korra. Then of course the huge silence and wait for book 2 of korra. So this has been the year of Avatar with a lot of goods and a pretty big bad thing. Next year 2013 I think is even more the Year of Avatar with the Promise Hardcover, The Search comics, the Mai comic on Free comic day and of course book 2 of korra. So there is a lot going on next year that I am looking forward too.

MiamiJoseph

2012 was a splendiferous year in terms of Avatar. I got back into the avatar series just early this year. When I last watched it, book 3 of ATLA hadn’t even premiered. Six months ago, I saw an episode of LOK, recognized the series immediately and I became instantly obsessed, as well as ending up watching the whole original show in record time. I also found this site and I was surprised to see that I had missed all the legend of Korra and ‘the promise’ speculation. So I impulsively preordered/bought all of the promises (by the release of Part 3) and bought virtual-based episodes of LOK on Zune: Microsoft’s version of ITunes. It was exciting to read and participate in all the discussions about speculating Korra Book 2 and discussing the promise the moment it came out

. Just recently I preordered LOK on DVD and The Search Part 1. Overall, a very busy avatar year

. I’ve already marked my 2013 calendar for all the new stuff that is going to be released next year: The search series, LOK Book 2, and most likely the DVD for book 1. I’m gonna need to clear some space in my room to store all this new merchandise. I can’t wait to join in friendly arguments about what’s going to happen in Book 2 and the search. I don’t care what they say about December 21, but as long as Korra’s story isn’t over, I’m not going anywhere!

- There you have it, a selection of opinions on 2012 from our members. How do you feel 2012 was in terms of Avatar ?

Amon Just Wants A High-Five, And Your Bending