Everyone seems so pessimistic about these movies - I think we should do the opposite, and be optimistic

Seriously, Shyamalan is really confident about this movie. Granted, Shyamalan is confident about all his movies. But for this one he is even more confident than usual - at one point he was quoted as saying that he thought that this could turn out to be the next Star Wars. So far we have all been praying that he manages to come somewhere close to that. But instead, what I think we should do is ask: what if he turns out to be right?

What if Avatar does indeed turn into the next Star Wars or Lord of the Rings - and for the first time it's potential is truly recognized? Needless to say, after that Avatar is saved. It has been several years now since the last Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies came out, and games, special editions of the books, and other such things are still rolling out. If The Last Airbender does turn out to be a big hit, the original series will be brought back and praised as no other TV show has ever been praised (prior to the release of the movies, the Lord of the Rings was considered a very average series, and now it is considered by many to be one of the greatest works in all of English Literature). If Shyamalan and Bryke can pull this off, the other shows that we have clashed with for so long won't even be able to touch us.

Of course there are a few things that the movie will (in my opinion) need before and after it is released:

- Play down the connection with Nickelodeon. Although it would be great if Nick decided to support the movie with a lot of advertizing, I think that it would be most helpful if people didn't know about the Nickelodeon connection.

- An awsome trailer is a must. Somebody should recommend some of Raven's trailers to Shyamalan - if adapted for the movies it would probably help tremendously.

- Even if we, the original Avatards, hate the movie, we must support it. The first Lord of the Rings movie was almost killed when it recieved scathing reviews from the fans of the original books. The same thing must not happen with Avatar - popularity is popularity after all.

Of course, the 690 days (and counting) that we have to wait is a fairy large obstacle to surmount. Fortunatly - we do have an event to look forward to in the much closer future - next Febuary Avatar will be at the next comic-con, and Bryke are sure to have some kind of announcement for us - about the movies, about Ursa, about something. According to the flyer that by now everyone has surely seen, somewhere around Febuary the rumored 3 hour long movies/mini-series is scheduled to be released. So in Febuary we may well get a boost for our avatardism - but in this regard we should not get too optimistic, as there has been no official confirmation.

However, even if there is no mini-series/hour-long-movies, I think that we could pull it off. When the original Star Wars trilogy was first being released, there was a three year gap between each movie. Even more impressively, I have spoken to adult Star Wars fanatics who managed to maintain a fanatical loyalty to Star Wars for an astonishing twenty years waiting for the prequel trilogy. Thankfully, we got off lightly with less than two years.

It really is too big an ask to request that people keep Avatar as the center of their lives for more than 600 days. My advice is this: even if you let it drop out temporarily, don't let it go. Build a shrine to Avatar out of your DVDs in the corner of your room, get a couple of calendars and start a countdown for the movies, and watch and fall in love with the series every now and then when you feel like watching something good just for old time's sake.

Let Avatar become a part of your life in the way that Harry Potter became a part of your life during the stagering break between the 4th and 5th books - silent, not thought of often, but always present, ready to burst out whenever the moment is right (I can remember starting up Harry Potter theory conversations with people during the oddest times over th course of that hiatus).

You know what? I agree with ya' guys! It took me a while to notice, but I've honestly never seen Shyamalan so excited to make a movie! Hopefully that excitement will turn to a level of enginuity and creativity none of us have seen before! And no, that honestly wasn't sarcastic, I feel reinvigorated...