Hello Anonymous!

This season’s animation has left some people a little miffed, to be sure (hopefully Beginnings was as pleasant a departure for you as it was for me), but I’m not sure if we’re seeing less Martial Arts Reference work in Book Two or if we just haven’t seen that much direct bending in Book Two. Outside of fighting the Dark Spirit in the premiere, most of Korra’s bending has been in restricted space, even using that rope like a ribbon dagger when she thought her father was part of the rebellion.

The first season had reference, but since this is far in the future from A:TLA’s nation-specific type bending, the styles were re-defined and mixed with some MMA for Book One:

Featuring:
Sifu Kisu – Traditional Chinese Martial Arts
Mac Danzig and Jeremy Umphries’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
Steve Terada and Jake Huang’s “Tricking” Martial Arts

Book Two has had a different and less fluid look to it thus far. I don’t think they’d go as far as to abandon all animation reference for the battle scenes, but the one “Epic” battle we’ve gotten this season was between Wan and Vaatu and was animated by Studio Mir, so it’s hard to make a call at the moment.

-Da7e-