I'm guessing the significant amount of firebending means that the show will start off with Korra finishing her
firebending lessons.
I don't think so. From the preview info that has been released prior to this trailer we already know that Korra has mastered Water, Earth and Fire. The only element she hasn't mastered yet and supposedly one of the reasons she went to United Republic City is because she needed to learn Airbending from the foremost master and Aang's son Tenzin. For whatever reason she is firebending a lot in the trailer though, your guess is as good as mine.
Breakdown of the Trailer: (These are my own personal observations of the trailer, take it with a grain of salt
)
0:06 - Camera pans down from the top and focuses on three cloaked figures walking with a lamp through a blizzard at night. There is a backdrop of a large town in a land that appears for all intents and purposes perpetually locked in winter. (Possibly the South Pole)
0:09 - Sun appears to be rising/setting. (My bet is on setting) Camera shot zooms out from a distant structure on an isolated island with floating objects (about 4) around it. Could this possibly be a sky bison sanctuary that Aang might have founded to house and preserve the last sky bison herd that we heard he found? The floating objects are too distant to see but a brief and close look at their flight pattern around that tower is very reminiscent of how Appa had flown.
0:12-0:14 - Sky bison flies in from the left, and glides toward a high-walled water tribe citadel. The insignia of the water tribe can clearly be seen on the large ice gate. No igloos around so I'd say this citadel might be a fort of some kind rather than a walled-town and it looks like whoever lives in that fort was expecting our mysterious visitor with dots on that parade ground that might be a full-welcoming committee. And if you freeze the shot at 0:12 you can see what appears to be a red-robed figure riding in the saddle of the sky bison. Could this guy be related to the three cloaked figures we saw earlier in the trailer at 0:06?
0:16-0:19 - We see a junk ship slowly gliding by at about a good long distance away from the island where what appears to be a temple to Aang is by itself and a statue of Aang reaches from my estimate to be more than a hundred feet tall. URC is presumed to be in the distant background though it maybe the way the camera is shot to focus more on the foreground hence blurring the background details. It's possible that the distance from the city in the back may not be that far away.
If there is a founders day in URC, and there may be pilgrimages of the cities inhabitants to the temple, I would not want to be in that temple on that day, The structure of the temple from a distance looks like it could accommodate upwards of a hundred people in it at a time, but considering the possible millions of people living in URC, that's more like trying to fit the ocean in a thimble.
0:21-0:22 - camera slowly pans to the left of a closer shot of Aangs statue. Possibly from the deck of the junk? And if this is an adult statue of Aang as we've been told from the panel at SDCC, a closer look at his adult features seems to show Aang with a more defined asian look than when he was portrayed in the old animated series. (The epicanthic folds of his eyes are more noticeable) Other details I noticed was that he's depicted as wearing the talisman of the Airbending abbots that we saw he had on him at the end of the old series and he seems to be holding in his hand a traditional abbots staff rather than his air-glider which everyone remembered more.
0:25-0:28 - we see a shot at night of a small water tribe village in the background. Korra is mounted on her Polar bear-dog Naga and ready to leave on a journey with an expression of sadness reminiscent of someone leaving for a long time. We can only assume then that the silhouettes of the two people standing in the lighted doorway are her parents come to see her off or at the very least her immediate family. It remains to be seen if Korra may be an only child as we don't see any other family come to see her leave.
0:31-0:33 - camera slowly pans to the left again. (I am beginning to sense a pattern
) We see Korra with her back turned away sitting on an outcropping of rock and staring at what appears to be URC in the distance at night. And boy is it a sight.
0:35-0:40 - We see Korra waterbending as similar to the intro to the old series complete with calligraphy in the background. This one lasts 5 seconds, a good 3 seconds longer than the previous intro with what I remember as Master Pakku. Is this a foreshadowing of what's to come for the intro to the series?
0:42-0:47 - camera pans to the left (There is a pattern! ;D) We see Korra arriving on Naga to a sight of what looks like a facsimile of the Brooklyn bridge in New York leading to URC. There are three Zeppelins in the sky, all of the same make and model from what I can tell apparently suggesting they may have a similar use/purpose? We can see the skyline of URC in the daytime. It is a breathtaking sight though skyscrapers are known to illicit that sort of reaction.
Random detail: We see a man on the right hand corner walking away from the bridge next to Korra wearing what looks like a bowler's hat, bow tie and coat while underneath he's wearing more traditional asian garb of a short-tunic and knee-high boots. We can also tell from the opposite shore-line as the camera pans by that there's a fog or mist over the opposite shoreline suggesting that this shot may have been taken during the early morning hours. And even at the suggested early hour is seems there's a lot of people already up and about.
0:48-0:50 - We see a shot of what appears to be a public park (ref. Central Park in NYC) with several of the trees in autumn shades and another shot of the background of the skyscrapers in URC. In the middle of the park-shot with apparently her owner sitting on the embankment we see Korra's polar bear-dog relaxing in the waters of the park. I guess this hybrid animal is more polar bear than polar canine.
That is one animal I wouldn't want to ride or be near for another few hours until her fur is dry.
0:50-0:52 - We see a public assembly in a large square in front of what appears to be a Roman-forum-like structure. (possibly the UR City Hall?) The architecture of the buildings around the structure appears to definitely mirror early 20th century NYC with obvious Asian influences. The front entrance of the City Hall structure reminds me of some of the architecture seen on the Thai Royal Palace (http://www.royaltravel.org/images%20and%20sounds/Thailand/BD001.JPG)
0:54-0:55 - we see what appears to be a Probending league arena with the traditional blue and red team division. A large spotlight focuses on the ring (suggesting a clear implication that there may be electricity in the Avatar-verse?) The arena appears to be raised twenty or thirty (?) or so feet above a pool of water. There are two gantries on the east and west side of the court suggesting this is where the teams will enter the arena. The ring itself is ringed with what appears to be rope barriers. An announcers stage/box is on the opposite side of the camera shot.
My guess is one team loses or wins when the one team manages to knock all of the opposite teams members out of the ring?
0:56-0:57 - Korra musing about something with arms folded in front of her for a moment and then her brow furrows in a determined look as she makes her decision.
0:58 - we see a ball of flame and Korra smiling and bending her way through it like she was opening her favorite closet.
0:59 - We see the backdrop of a shop and a guy apparently firebending at Korra and our heroine stopping him from bending. A look of shock appears on the guys face as Korra disarms him (figuratively) by clasping her hands onto his. At this point we can assume Korra may have mad unarmed non-bending fighting skills to want to get that close to an opponent while mostly negating both their bending abilities.
Upon closer inspection we see the guy Korra is fighting is wearing tan-gloves and a red scarf over a dark brown coat.
1:00-1:01 - Camera rotates around a fight scene with Korra and what appears to be a masked assailant charging at her in an attack pose reminiscent of Ty Li while another person in a red-scarf who doesn't appear to be masked is cartwheeling behind her (and in front of the camera). With the attack pose of the masked attacker engaging Korra we can guess that this one's fighting style maybe related to Ty Li's chi blocking martial art and thus we may infer that Korra may be in the middle of an attack by the Equalists. Korra appears to prefer Firebending as a form of defense in this battle.
Lighting appears dimmed here suggesting this fight maybe taking place on the streets at night.
1:02 - we cut away to a scene on a street with many shops and Korra's faithful mount looking on in what appears to be stunned disbelief as she sees a man being thrown bodily through an unfortunate shop window in a spectacularly badass fashion.
1:03 - the camera shot shows the inside of the shop as the man plummets through the window he was thrown into breaking many items with him to the ground. The shop appears to be a clockmakers shop. (Do I hear the sound of some indignant clockmaker lamenting the demolished state of his clocks like a certain cabbage merchant of yore?) The man appears to be the apparent fire-bending man Korra was engaged and holding hands with at 0:59
1:04-1:05 - we see a scene of what looks like two probender competitors duking it out on-screen and another firebender who's off-screen. The one on the far corner of the screen appears to shoot a projectile of some sort of stone suggesting he is an earthbender while his comrade shoots fire off-screen at the one who is trying desperately to dodge both attacks at once with seeming success.
1:06-1:07 - we see Korra in red probender(?) uniform dodging and countering a volley of firebending blasts at her.
1:08-1:09 - we see a chase scene with Korra fleeing away on Naga from the view of a roof-top and what appears to be one of those elite metal-bending police of URC flinging himself from said roof-top after our heroine.
1:10 - we can see the face of the Five-Oh chasing Korra and shooting in mid-air what appears to be two threads of the supposed metal cables that these guys keep behind their backs.
1:11 - cut to Korra in probending attire once again bending away and countering a fireball directed at her. A look of annoyance passes on the face of our heroine as she firebends her way clear.
1:12-1:13 - camera pans around rapidly around three men. One in the middle looks well dressed with a hat while the other two have no headwear to speak of as they all look to see Korra join in on their company. My guess is a mugging gone horribly bad for the muggers? We can tell at 1:13 that the third man on the right is the apparent firebender that Korra fought earlier in the trailer at 0:59.
1:14 - we see a masked individual with green googles and a red-scarfed opponent fighting each other in the scene continued from 1:00-1:01. The red-scarfed individual may be the firebending brother Mako we heard about while the other is apparently fighting Mako sans bending at all. Another allusion to the mysterious Equalists?
1:15 - We see Korra firebend a kick of fire blast upwards while her masked opponent deftly counters with a kick hold(?) of his own. At this point we can assume, with Mako apparently in the same fight scene as Korra, that there are two masked assailants attempting to block our heroes chi.
1:16 - We see a panic-stricken Korra on Naga galloping through the busy daytime traffic of URC. Pedestrians are shocked as they see the girl on the Polar bear/dog rampage by with motorists trying desperately to stay out of her way only to slam into other motorists. (one car vs. truck apparently)
1:17-1:18- We see Korra smiling confidently at first in a slugging match with her masked assailant as she continues to firebend at her opponent and he continually counters her every move at bending. With each counter that her assailant successfully delivers against her, Korra's expression changes from one of confidence to alarm and surprise.
1:19-1:20 - we see a probender competitor get knocked from the arena and sent flying into the water down below.
1:20 - we see Korra next to Naga with a look of surprise on her face as she narrowly dodges a shot of metal cable from the back spool of a metal bending cop. Her hand was outstretched to the police as if trying to reason with him or asking him to stop before dodging the metal projectiles.
1:21 - Korra looks annoyed as she dodges more metal cables thrown at her. Possibly as URC's finest attempt to apprehend our heroine.
1:22 - We see Korra on the back of Naga and making a break for it while she naturally fends off a metal bending cop with a swift boot to his face. That's gonna leave a mark. You gotta give credit for persistence to that cop for attempting to tackle Korra off a moving Polar bear-dog.
1:23-1:24 - We see Korra again in probending uniform with mountain ranges behind her as she fends off firebending blast after blast while getting off a few of her own.
1:25 - we see an overhead shot of our heroine determinedly firebend at something/someone in front of her.
1:26-1:28 - Camera pans right then zooms out following Korra and Naga galloping through the frozen tundra of what looks to be the south pole.
1:29-1:30 - Close up head and shoulders shot of our heroine smiling with a look of determination on her face as she rides on Naga.
1:31-1:32 - a hooded head is facing away from the camera and then turns to reveal a masked face following all the cliches of a supposed villain of the story by the redundancy of wearing a mask to conceal your face and wearing a hood to conceal even more distinguishing features. Nevertheless while Bryke have shown their homage to setting villains (such as Cobra commander, deathstroke/slade, shredder, Darth Vader etc.) by observing masked antagonist tradition, it is no less bad-Equus asinus in execution. Cliched, but bad-Equus asinus
1:33-1:37 - cut to the title screen.
1:38-1:40 - a green eyed swept-back haired probender, presumably Bolin, whispers "the... avatar?!" to his companion standing close to the camera while he vainly tries to hide his expression of awe and fear of a smug and smiling Korra in what appears to be the Probender arena.
1:41-1:43 - shot fades to black then cuts.
whew... that was long...
My own prediction: I predict Mako will be the next Zuko of fangirls fame. While Bolin will be the next Sokka pulling a respectable 2nd in terms of fangirls swooning over them.
SOOO Awesome!
The trailer looks down right awesome and I already love Korra's animal guide<3 The ending of the trailer was equally funny and reminds me just how much I LOVE this series ^^v
)
