Bryan Konietzko Quotes

Bryan Konietzko

Profession : Director

Birth : June 1, 1975

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.

Bryan Konietzko

We have always put the quest for balance at the center of our storytelling, whether it is the struggle to find it within one character, between a character and society, between disparate cultures or between humans and their environment.

Bryan Konietzko

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.

Bryan Konietzko

Korra and Aang ultimately stand for freedom, equality, and basic human rights, and I think Mike and I are fine with pushing that agenda.

Bryan Konietzko

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.

Bryan Konietzko

I am certainly proud to add 'Korra' to the pantheon of TV characters, which is perpetually sorely lacking in multifaceted female characters who aren't sidekicks, subordinates or mere trophies for male characters.

Bryan Konietzko

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.'

Bryan Konietzko

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.

Bryan Konietzko

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.

Bryan Konietzko

When you have a fully-realized Avatar, it's like Superman, and how do you make that interesting?

Bryan Konietzko

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.'

Bryan Konietzko

We draw inspiration directly and indirectly from all sorts of things, like movies, documentaries, TV dramas, novels, non-fiction books, animation, science and nature shows, and our own life experiences.

Bryan Konietzko

It is a long story how we finally ended up with the title simply being 'The Legend of Korra,' but in a poetic way, I think Korra's big Type A personality willed it to happen!

Bryan Konietzko

After 'Avatar' ended, I spent a lot of time watching MMA and kickboxing fights on UFC, WEC, DREAM, and K-1.

Bryan Konietzko

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.

Bryan Konietzko

In an early version of the story, I thought Aang could shepherd a herd of twenty bison.

Bryan Konietzko

Some Nickelodeon executives were worried about backing an animated action show with a female lead character. Conventional TV wisdom has it that girls will watch shows about boys, but boys won't watch shows about girls. During test screenings, though, boys said they didn't care that Korra was a girl. They just said she was awesome.

Bryan Konietzko

As we wrote 'Book 1,' before the audience had ever laid eyes on Korra and Asami, it was an idea I would kick around the writers' room... The more Korra and Asami's relationship progressed, the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for us.

Bryan Konietzko

Any political or philosophical agenda can and will be perverted by power and/or fear.

Bryan Konietzko

We want our villains and antagonists to have distinct motivations.

Bryan Konietzko