With The Legend of Korra - Book One: Air out on Blu-ray this week, we touched base with creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino about some of the inspiration for Book One.

There was a gap of about a year and a half between when Avatar wrapped and Nickelodeon approached us about doing a new series. During that time, Mike and I took a much-needed break creatively from the Avatar universe, but nevertheless we still kicked around some ideas of how that world could evolve in a few directions, and even some explorations into its history. Many of those ideas have resurfaced in the four books of Korra, and since only one of those has been released I'll just leave it at that for now! But when it came time to think of ideas for a new series, the first thought was, "Let's make it about the next avatar after Aang," and the second thought was, "Let's make the new Avatar a girl."

The Legend of Korra- Book One: Air Blu-ray Review

Any time before the new series that we had entertained the idea of Aang's successor being another 12-year-old boy, it just wasn't interesting to us. But when we made Korra a girl, and aged her a few years older than Aang, and made her much more aggressive than Aang, and set her in a new time period, suddenly Mike and I were very inspired to work in this world again.

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Writers have pitched the "Fake Avatar" idea numerous times over the years, and I've never found it that compelling. I guess the reason is that if a character claimed to be the Avatar, the audience knows they're lying, so they know way more than the hero, which takes out much of the drama. It's possible there is a version of this kind of story that could work, I just haven't heard it yet.The spirituality and morality of Avatar are organically part of the world and the story, so it never feels like we are forcing a "moral to the story" at the end of an episode. Our hero is a reincarnated being with strong ties to the spirit world, so certain types of stories will naturally come from that. And with Aang, we had a hero who was a monk, who was essentially non-violent and a vegetarian, waking up in a world at war. His worldview was in direct conflict with reality, so it was easy to focus stories around these ideas. On the flip side, Korra is not connected to her spiritual side when we first meet her. Her stories have developed out of this weakness in her. Moving forward with the series, we will explore even more deeply the spirituality of the world. But it's all in service to the story we're trying to tell. We start with the characters and their struggles and weave the story around that, rather than try to impose a pre-determined moral on it.

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Though we did have a few main characters in Avatar who represented the non-benders of the world, most of the people we focused on were benders. However, benders are the minority in their world population. So after spending three seasons dealing with a war of cultures that was largely element-versus-element, turning our attentions to the relations between benders and non-benders gave us a fresh story to tell. And with Republic City being a melting pot where different kinds of benders are mingling, the differences there became less about disparate cultures and more about the haves and the have-nots, which in this case is about having a physical advantage and ultimately power. Mike and I are always interested in the idea of trying to a balance between different cultures, elements, people, family members, and especially characters trying to find balance in themselves.I think these two questions can be answered together. Yes, the villains have been some of the most interesting characters in the show. We're always looking for a villain whose values directly oppose the hero and who forces the hero to deal with his or her greatest weakness. In the case of Amon, his worldview is opposite of Korra's. He thinks bending is the cause of all the suffering in the world, while she thinks it's the greatest thing. Because of his ability to take bending away, Korra has to face her ultimate fear — who would she be if not for her powers? This idea was interesting to us because it's something we can all relate to. I think a lot of who I am and how I identify myself is tied up in what I do as far as art and writing and the show. What would I do if one day I couldn't draw or write? Everyone has a unique ability or personality that is part of his or her persona. I think it's fascinating to explore what makes us who we are. Is it our jobs? Our hobbies? Our families? There's no simple answer, of course.

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Definitely. As humans our hangups seem to shape our interaction with the world around us. They are often the source of our intolerance and friction with people who think differently than us, and even the reason we build walls between us and the people close to us. 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. So while developing Korra, we talked a lot about not only humanizing Amon and looking for the source of his agenda, but also giving some valid points to his side of the argument. Everyone likes to demonize the other side, but like Mike said, it is rarely that simple. And that's where it gets more realistic and interesting to us as writers.We are very self-regulating. Even though we're pushing the limits of what a kids' animated show can be, we're aware younger kids are watching. Certainly Korra is at times darker than A:TLA, but the audience has also grown along with the show. To Nickelodeon's credit, they've given us a ton of creative freedom. We get pushback occasionally, but we've always been able to find a solution that balances the story we're trying to tell and the network's needs.Absolutely. I think this is the golden age in live-action TV dramas, and many of those shows are what I find most inspiring. We're definitely still interested in the Avatar/Korrauniverse and fantastical world building in general, but I think many of the core themes and tones found in our two kids' series would be present as well in any sort of adult dramas we might be lucky enough to make in the future.

The Legend of Korra - Book One: Air Blu-ray is available now.Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN