In the outskirts of Seoul lies the Gasan Digital Complex, a sprawling business district full of luxury malls and hyper-modern glass office buildings. Occupying the entire 17th floor of the stylish Mirae Tower — literally translated as “Future Tower” — Studio Mir feels much smaller than the animation campuses scattered across Hollywood and Burbank.
Still, it’s here in this office that Studio Mir produced some of the most critically-acclaimed animated shows of the last decade, including The Boondocks, The Legend of Korra and Netflix’s 2016 collaboration with DreamWorks Animation, Voltron: Legendary Defender, soon to return for a second season.
A South Korean animation firm, Studio Mir was enlisted to create the look and feel of the critically-acclaimed reboot of World Event Production’s Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Polygontraveled to the company’s South Korean headquarters in Seoul to sit down with Studio Mir and discuss its work on the show’s upcoming second season, as well as the studio’s own history and future.
Considering South Korea is one of the many countries spread across Asia that provide work-for-hire animation contracts for popular animated shows like The Simpsons, Animaniacs and Bob’s Burgers, it has been fascinating to see a company like Studio Mir emerge from a market that remains largely anonymous to consumers of animated TV shows. Even street artist Banksy once collaborated with The Simpsons to produce an opening credits couch gag that lampooned the South Korean animation market, depicting it as nightmare, authoritarian factories producing mass-marketed Western cartoons for a consumer market.
The gag was decried by South Korean animators in an article featured in Time. This is the kind of environment where Studio Mir — with its diverse and impressive résumé — comes from. Whereas animation studios in the U.S. and Japan consistently receive praise and accolades for their artistic merit, other foreign animation firms suffer from a more negative perception.
Inside the animators’ studio
Upon entering, it's clear that Studio Mir’s facilities are effectively divided in two. The well-crafted lobby, complete with wooden walls and framed awards and accolades, gives way to glass doored meeting rooms and business spaces. Meanwhile, animators work in more traditional office quarters, filled with drawing tablets, storyboards and towers of empty coffee cups, along with bookshelves full of art books, design materials and drawing references. It’s there, among personalized cubicles, that the animators at Studio Mir are busy working on the second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender.
Voltron: Legendary Defender is a modern reboot of the American Voltron series, itself created from licensed footage of the Japanese cartoon Beast King GoLion. The American Voltron from the ’80s was made from edited Beast King footage and dubbed over with original dialogue to create a new storyline in which five pilots control individual lion mechs, who together can combine to form the Legendary Voltron, defender of planet Arus.
2016’s Voltron on Netflix isn’t made from cut-up footage, instead featuring completely original animation from Studio Mir that blends CGI with Japanese anime-esque designs and fluid action sequences, creating a space opera of epic storytelling and scale.
Arriving at the studio, I was told my interview would be in the CEO’s office, just through the central hallway. On my way, I walked past a glass-walled meeting room where, after the interview, the space would be filled with animators sitting down for a table read of Voltron.
'We have table reads for the scripts here as well,' Studio Mir's business translator, Sandy Lee, explained to me during the office tour. Avast 2018 license key. “I think they're assigning parts right now.”
In the office of Studio Mir's CEO, I met Kwang-il Han, animation director and executive director at Studio Mir, and Seung-wook Lee, head of business development and also an executive director. The company’s CEO and founder, Jae-Myung Yoo, happened to be visiting Studio Mir’s brand new Glendale offices in California at the time and unfortunately couldn’t join us.
Both Han and Lee have been with the studio since its inception, Han having worked with Yoo at MOI Animation on Avatar: The Last Airbender as an animator in the show’s second season, and as animation director for The Last Airbender’s third season. Despite the enormous impact of The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, the company feels tucked away in anonymity, even as it works on the next big hit.
Studio Mir’s story begins in 2010 when the studio founder, Yoo, a twenty five-year veteran in the industry, started Studio Mir with the intention of bringing together the best animators in the country. The company’s name comes from Mir, the Soviet space station. Meaning “peace” in Russian, Mir was the first space station launched into space for long-term human habitation, before the launch of the International Space Station. Citing the space station’s scientific breakthrough and collaborative spirit, Studio Mir debuted with 20 members working on the company’s first project: The Legend of Korra.
“It was purely their trust in us, based on the foundation of Avatar’s success”
“Since we were a brand new company, there’s hardly a case where we would normally get such a huge project like Korra. However, Yoo and [Avatar] creators Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino shared a working history that stretched back to even before the prequel series, Avatar: The Last Airbender,” Lee and Han explained, via translator.
As it turns out, Yoo was an animator who worked on the pilot for Avatar even before the show was picked up by Nickelodeon. Yoo, Bryan Konietzko, and Michael DiMartino created the pilot for The Last Airbender in Korea’s JM Animation, where Yoo was working at the time. Following the show’s success, Yoo’s working relationship with the Avatar team was formed, allowing his newly formed studio to begin working on Korra.
“It was purely their trust in us, based on the foundation of Avatar’s success, that made it possible for Studio Mir to begin working on The Legend of Korra,” the directors said.
If you are unfamiliar with Avatar: The Last Airbender or its sequel The Legend of Korra, the two stories are set in a fantastically rich world complete with geopolitical strife, Asian philosophy and a cast of multifaceted young heroes. In the world of Avatar and Korra, fantastical martial artists known as “benders” wield the elements of air, fire, water and earth as a form of combat, and balance is kept by the Avatar, a leader capable of mastering all four elements. Korra in particular became famous for introducing one of western animation’s first bisexual heroines in the show's eponymous hero, Avatar Korra. Studio Mir’s history runs through both shows, forming perhaps one of the most interesting list of credits in animation.
While it’s been nearly a decade since Avatar: The Last Airbender left the air, it’s important to remember that itdebuted as one of the highest rated animated television shows within its demographic. As one of Nickelodeon's top-rated programs globally, The Last Airbender represented a milestone series for the network, garnering critical praise, huge viewerships, cult status and even a contentious live-action adaptation from M. Night Shyamalan. To say Avatar: The Last Airbender was a success seems like an understatement, even now.
Originally conceived as a limited series, The Legend of Korra went on to air for four seasons. Taking place decades after the events of The Last Airbender, Korra updated the show’s universe, taking place in a fictional 1920s-esque era that introduced steampunk technology to the world’s established “bending” martial arts, as well as a new team of heroes led by the new avatar Korra. Korra's finale in particular drew wide critical appreciation when Korra was implied to be in a same-sex relationship with another character on the show, Asami. Konietzko and DiMartino later confirmed that this interpretation was the one they intended.
When asked about Korra’s ending, Han and Lee acknowledged its cultural impact, but ultimately decided to not comment.
“We are well aware of how the show has been received in a socio-cultural context, but we, as the animators, don’t feel we can comment much on the show’s story,” they said, recommending I seek out Korra co-creators Bryan Konietzko, and Michael DiMartino if I wanted more.
But while the studio doesn’t intervene with either Korra or Voltron’s story, both of which were dictated by Western writers and storyboard artists, Studio Mir was involved with Korra’s pre-production and storyboarding stage. This allowed for the company to have more creative control in directing the show’s famously intricate and highly choreographed martial arts scenes. Han, a fan of Jeet Kune Do — the martial arts style of Bruce Lee — often used real-life martial arts choreography as a reference for Korra’s exhilarating and intricate fight scenes. The same attention to hand-to-hand combat scenes can be seen on Voltron, albeit with more lasers and robots.
“We actually had a martial arts director who could provide us with references. He was the same guy who worked with us on The Last Airbender, and he helped out on Korra, so for about nine years [he worked with us]. However, he was very old and retired midway through Korra. Actually, the creators Brian and Mike did some of the action choreography themselves to provide references, so that was fun.”
So then how did the studio jump from the fantasy, martial-arts story to the epic sci-fi, space opera Voltron? “Most of the crew on Voltron, Joaquim [Dos Santos] and Lauren Montgomery, as well as the episode directors, were all part of the Korra team,” explained Lee. In fact, it was also then Nickelodeon senior vice president Mark Taylor's move to head of TV production at DreamWorks TV that brought the gang back together, as they say. “[Mark Taylor] gathered all the Korra crew, including Studio Mir, from Nickelodeon, to create a post-Korra project, which was Voltron.”
The biggest question facing Studio Mir is whether Korean or other foreign animation studios can become as big as firms located in the U.S. and Japan. “Those two markets, Japan and U.S, they are the top markets in animation and the reason is because they have a strong, stable, local domestic market to start with, even before thinking about globally,” said Lee. “That’s not the case for Korea because of the small population size, and we don’t have a mature market that consumes animation here the way it is consumed in the U.S. and Japan. There’s a lack of diversity in merchandising, as well as the poorer perception our audience has towards animation.”
Have any of the shows Studio Mir has worked on aired in South Korea? .. “No.”
I asked if any of the shows Studio Mir has worked on have aired in South Korea. After some thinking over, the two directors explained that the first season of The Legend of Korra got a very quiet release on Nickelodeon Korea.
What about The Last Airbender?
“No.”
Update: After the publication of this post Studio Mir clarified to Polygon that The Last Airbender aired in Korea to a bigger reaction than Korra on EBS, a major Korean educational channel. This meant that a majority of the show’s fan base was younger children. In addition, season 1 of Voltron was very recently aired on the cable TV channel, Olleh TV, but like Korra, it was a very quiet release.
As a result of South Korea’s less-than-hospitable domestic market, Studio Mir has largely looked — and thrived — abroad. “That’s why we partially want to go more globally, and maybe come back to the domestic market and bring that success back here.” With credits on The Boondocks (season four), Guardians of the Galaxy (the animated TV series and related shorts) and the feature film Big Fish and Begonia for Chinese directors Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun, Studio Mir’s global focus appears to be paying off.
I asked how the studio handles the perception associated with South Korea’s work-for-hire animation industry, best-known for producing animated labor for foreign companies.
“We get that question a lot because we work on shows from other studios,” explained Han. “It is a perception we also face with as creators. However, that kind of perception was broken after working with [Studio Mir founder] Jae-Myung Yoo, because whichever project he was working on, he poured his heart into it and took ownership of it creatively, even if it wasn’t an original work. It’s inspiring for us to learn how you can take ownership of a project creatively, so we think that [for] whatever project we are on, regardless of it whether it’s our own product or another studio’s.”
“It’s inspiring for us to learn how you can take ownership of a project creatively”
As for plans in the near future, Studio Mir was more coy, refusing to divulge details of any upcoming projects in the immediate future. “We’re going to be on the safe side and not say anything here,” the directors said, but Studio Mir is intent on expanding its roles to encompass the full scope of production, from pre- to post-production, a first for the ambitious studio. In the meantime, the new season of Voltron: Legendary Defender will continue Voltron’s fight against the Galra Empire on Jan 20, 2017 on Netflix.
The second season of Voltron had only just been announced when I spoke with Studio Mir, but I was eager to ask about how they envision the company’s direction in years to come. These plans apparently involve the CEO’s vision to develop a kind of “cultural city,” an amusement park complex imagined by Studio Mir.
The way the studio describes it, the amusement park would be something like Disneyland, populated by Studio Mir’s original characters and mascots, but it would also hopefully train young animation talents, and create a kind of animation campus, a la the Walt Disney Company.
“But that’s very long term,” the team explained. For a company that’s already gone from fantastical worlds of magic to robot space lions, those goals don’t seem so out of reach.
Matthew Kim is a writer whose work on culture, entertainment and technology can be seen at such publications as VICE, Kill Screen, Inverse and elsewhere. He also once wrote about finance, but that’s neither here nor there. You can follow him on Twitter @LawofTD.
OR
Season 1Welcome to Republic City
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Korra, the new Avatar, travels to Republic city to start her Airbending training.
A Leaf in the Wind
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Against Tenzin's prohibition, a frustrated Korra sneaks out to visit the pro-bending sports arena.
The Revelation
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Korra attempts to infiltrate the Equalist movement and learn more about its mysterious leader.
The Voice in the Night
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Korra becomes part of Councilman Tarrlok's task force which aims to rid Republic City of the Equalists.
The Spirit of Competition
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As Asami steals Mako's heart, Korra struggles to express her feelings for Mako and also at the same time Bolin tries to win Korra's heart by being brave enough to ask Korra to go out with him. The tension gets higher as the Pro bending tournament starts.
And the Winner Is..
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Korra and the Fire Ferrets are in the pro-bending championship, but will the Equalists allow the game to go on?
The Aftermath
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Korra suspects that an ally is working with the Equalists.
When Extremes Meet
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Korra faces off with Councilman Tarrlok as Equalist activity continues to rise in Republic City.
Out of the Past
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After being imprisoned by Tarrlok, Korra attempts to analyze the mysterious visions she has been having. Meanwhile, Tenzin, Lin, Mako, Bolin and Asami search for Korra, having been given false information by Tarrlok.
Turning the Tides
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The Equalists begin their attack on Republic City.
Skeletons in the Closet
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Korra and the rest of Team Avatar go into hiding in Gommu's underground shelter where benders and non-benders live together in harmony.
Endgame
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The duel between Amon and Korra - will Korra be powerful enough to beat Amon?
When people ask me what my all-time favorite shows are, I can't say I'm a hipster with a particularly original list. I love The Wire, Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, and a host of other programs universally regarded as excellent. But one sneaks on that list that might not appear on some others? Avatar: The Last Airbender.
It may seem strange to place a Nickelodeon animated series about element-wielding warriors on a list next to the best comedies and dramas of all time, but years later, the show still holds a special place in my heart. It's not just one of the best animated shows I've seen (and I generally don't like anime), it's one of the best shows period, and when I first watched the series, I was amazed with the brilliance of the universe, the complexity of the characters, the humor, the emotion, all of it. It was pretty close to perfect.
The same is true to some extent for The Legend of Korra, the sequel series to the original Avatar: The Last Airbender that fast-forwards a few decades into the future, creating a mostly new cast and storylines within the same universe. Again, it's one of the best shows airing now, animated or otherwise.
And yet, what's happening/has happened to the universe of The Last Airbender is one of the greatest tragedies of pop culture. The show has been routinely abused, not only in its adaptations to other forms of media, but also in how the show itself is being treated by its own parent network, Nickelodeon. Right now, the fourth season of Korra is airing only online, pulled from airwaves for reasons fans are still puzzling out. And all of this has become even more relevant given the recent release of Platinum's Legend of Korra video game, which is already being declared one of the worst releases of the year.
But to rewind, things started going downhill years ago. The original show was allowed to air on Nickelodeon without incident and attracted a worldwide fanbase as a result. Its popularity allowed Hollywood to seriously consider a big-budget blockbuster adaptation of the animated show, with live actors standing in for their 2D counterparts.
The movie was a disaster from the start. The film was helmed by director M. Night Shyamalan, a superfan of the show, but someone whose star had fallen sharply over the past decade, with each new movie worse than his last. But the real problem was said to be with the producers behind the film, who kept forcing elements into it that ruined everything. There are many urban legends about all the awfulness that happened with The Last Airbender, but chief among them was the desire for an all-white lead cast (the characters are Inuit/Asian on the show), with the villainous "Fire Nation" being entirely Indian. Lead actor Noah Ringer was not actually an actor, but a martial artist chosen for his acrobatic skills above all else. The show's trademark humor was stripped completely from the film, as were a large number of subplots from the show Shyamalan wanted included.
All of this added up to a terrible script read by a terrible cast that produced a terrible film. The movie scored a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, a score usually reserved for straight-to-DVD horror sequels. It's widely regarded as one of the worst big-budget films ever made, and not in a "it just wasn't marketed well" John Carter way. It really is that bad.
Fanboy Wars: The Newest eBook From Forbes
And yet, what's happening/has happened to the universe of The Last Airbender is one of the greatest tragedies of pop culture. The show has been routinely abused, not only in its adaptations to other forms of media, but also in how the show itself is being treated by its own parent network, Nickelodeon. Right now, the fourth season of Korra is airing only online, pulled from airwaves for reasons fans are still puzzling out. And all of this has become even more relevant given the recent release of Platinum's Legend of Korra video game, which is already being declared one of the worst releases of the year.
But to rewind, things started going downhill years ago. The original show was allowed to air on Nickelodeon without incident and attracted a worldwide fanbase as a result. Its popularity allowed Hollywood to seriously consider a big-budget blockbuster adaptation of the animated show, with live actors standing in for their 2D counterparts.
The movie was a disaster from the start. The film was helmed by director M. Night Shyamalan, a superfan of the show, but someone whose star had fallen sharply over the past decade, with each new movie worse than his last. But the real problem was said to be with the producers behind the film, who kept forcing elements into it that ruined everything. There are many urban legends about all the awfulness that happened with The Last Airbender, but chief among them was the desire for an all-white lead cast (the characters are Inuit/Asian on the show), with the villainous 'Fire Nation' being entirely Indian. Lead actor Noah Ringer was not actually an actor, but a martial artist chosen for his acrobatic skills above all else. The show's trademark humor was stripped completely from the film, as were a large number of subplots from the show Shyamalan wanted included.
All of this added up to a terrible script read by a terrible cast that produced a terrible film. The movie scored a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, a score usually reserved for straight-to-DVD horror sequels. It's widely regarded as one of the worst big-budget films ever made, and not in a 'it just wasn't marketed well' John Carter way. It really is that bad.
Fanboy Wars: The Newest eBook From Forbes
The Fight For The Future Of Video Games is a warts-and-all look at the clashes between the video game business and its passionate fans.
And now, The Last Airbender's other attempt to break out of TV has been met with similarly scathing reviews. The sequel series, The Legend of Korra, now has its own video game made by Bayonetta's Platinum Games. Reviews are rolling in and in an industry where a 6/10 is a failing grade, the game has been given 3s and 4s by major outlets. This is creating a very, very weird situation where one studio, Platinum, is releasing a GOTY contender in the form of Bayonetta 2, and one of the worst games of the year in the same week.
Again, the game shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material, all but completely devoid of a plot and other characters outside Korra herself. Combat is serviceable, depending on who you ask, but the overall experience is desperately lacking. Perhaps it's not quite as bad as The Last Airbender movie debacle, but it's definitely a big miss by most accounts.
These are two forms of media that could have done extremely well with the brilliant, element-bending universe of The Last Airbender, but the property was butchered into something unrecognizable not once, but twice now.
The saddest part of all of this is that the show's own masters, Nickelodeon, are abusing the one aspect of the universe that's actually still good, the show itself. Even after The Last Airbender was beloved and successful enough to spawn Korra, Nickelodeon pulled it off the air midway through the third season. Then, they decided to air the fourth season almost immediately after, but only streaming online.
Title sequences introduce you to the vibe of a show, whether it's a dramatic ballad for a romance series or a peppy pop tune for a guilty-pleasure reality show. Whether you grew up watching cartoons during an after-school special or use Netflix binges to keep up with more intense shows, it's easy to get attached to a series' theme songs (after all, you do listen to it every time you stream an episode), but do you truly pay attention to who performs them? Television theme songs. Some of your favorite singers in the game didn't just create hit songs for themselves, but they also set the mood for some of the classic television shows we all know and love.
Fans are still trying to figure out what the hell is going on, with the common thought that a combination of (relatively) low ratings and themes too mature for the channel have caused it simply not to fit into their line-up. That does make some amount of sense. The Legend of Korra is a very 'adult' show, not in terms of violence or sex, but rather its actual maturity level. With that said, it is still bizarre that a network that has 24 hours of airtime every day can't find twenty minutes a week to air a show better than most live action dramas on TV today.
All of this is just profoundly sad, and it's a tragedy how one of the most innovative, creative universes filled with rich, interesting characters has missed so many opportunities to expand into other forms of media effectively, and now the show itself is under attack by the channel that birthed it in the first place.
I won't be playing The Legend of Korra to completion, as I don't need that series tainted like The Last Airbender movie marred the original Avatar. There's no word on where the series will go after Korra wraps, but hopefully Nickelodeon's mismanagement won't mean the universe is dead forever. There absolutely could be more sequel series, actually good film adaptations and amazing video games in The Last Airbender's future, but the brand has been dragged through the mud for years now, and hopefully it's not permanently crippled as a result.
Read my follow-up post: Building a Better 'Legend of Korra' Video Game
Canon digital photo professional 4. Follow me on Twitter, like my page on Facebook, and pick up a copy of my sci-fi novel, The Last Exodus, and its sequel, The Exiled Earthborn, along with my new Forbes book, Fanboy Wars.
How should Destiny spend its $500M budget? I explain below:
OR
Season 1Welcome to Republic City
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0
Error: please try again.
Korra, the new Avatar, travels to Republic city to start her Airbending training.
A Leaf in the Wind
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0
Error: please try again.
Against Tenzin's prohibition, a frustrated Korra sneaks out to visit the pro-bending sports arena.
The Revelation
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0
Error: please try again.
Korra attempts to infiltrate the Equalist movement and learn more about its mysterious leader.
The Voice in the Night
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0
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Legend Of Korra Full Episodes
Korra becomes part of Councilman Tarrlok's task force which aims to rid Republic City of the Equalists.
The Spirit of Competition
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0
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As Asami steals Mako's heart, Korra struggles to express her feelings for Mako and also at the same time Bolin tries to win Korra's heart by being brave enough to ask Korra to go out with him. The tension gets higher as the Pro bending tournament starts.
And the Winner Is..
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0
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Korra and the Fire Ferrets are in the pro-bending championship, but will the Equalists allow the game to go on?
The Aftermath
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0
Error: please try again.
Korra suspects that an ally is working with the Equalists.
When Extremes Meet
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0
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Korra faces off with Councilman Tarrlok as Equalist activity continues to rise in Republic City.
Out of the Past
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0
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After being imprisoned by Tarrlok, Korra attempts to analyze the mysterious visions she has been having. Meanwhile, Tenzin, Lin, Mako, Bolin and Asami search for Korra, having been given false information by Tarrlok.
Turning the Tides
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0
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The Equalists begin their attack on Republic City.
Skeletons in the Closet
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Korra and the rest of Team Avatar go into hiding in Gommu's underground shelter where benders and non-benders live together in harmony.
Endgame
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Legend Of Korra Season 2 Kiss Cartoon
The duel between Amon and Korra - will Korra be powerful enough to beat Amon?
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