The Legend of Korra

SO. Finished all 12 episodes in 2 days.

Thoughts:

 Spoiler

1. Animation is amazing as always. Probably moreso.
2. I kinda felt they started Korra off a little TOO strong. Having all 3 elements, with only air left, which was learned at the season finale? Aang had to struggle throughout ~2-2.5 seasons just to get them all down.
3. Amon's ability to take away bending doesn't feel like an ass pull after thinking about it. Bloodbending probably went as far as affecting areas of the brain. He probably just shut off the "bending" part of the brain
4. I do feel it felt rushed to give Korra restorative bending powers already. I expected at least a season or so in getting her bending back.
5. Not too big a deus ex machina on restoring bending powers. What Amon did, while powerful, was nowhere as earth shatteringly powerful as Spiritbending. It made sense that Amon's victims could be restored. If it was spiritbent away, then good freaking lucking getting your bending back at all.
6. I could just FEEL the shipping all over the place as I watched.
7. Iroh and Mako gets ALL the ladies. Possibly guys too.
8. Tarlok and Amon in the end was so sad. But I guess he didn't want to risk his brother carrying out their father's wishes again.
9. The setting was great. Really loved the steampunk/retro.

Overall thoughts: I really liked it. I do kinda wish they didn't put so much on the table so soon. It only means they will have to raise the ante even higher for next season. I mean, all Korra needs to know now is how to achieve the Avatar state reliably. The biggest threat has already been taken care of, with no foreshadowing on who's the next big villain. Again like I said, Nick really put down a whole lot of chips down for season 1. They will have a lot to do to make season 2 awesome.

Well, as Jamesie pointed out, the entire series was only supposed to be a miniseries, 12 episodes long. It was later that they decided to make it 26, with a 14 episode second season. Instead of rewriting the entire first season, they decided to just leave it the way they had planned and leave it open for the future. That's why points 2, and 4 are the way they are.

I was considering mentioning #3 myself, I've been thinking that for a bit.