Jake here, and make sure to go vote for Avatar at the TV.com Best of 2008 Awards.  Josh (from the podcast, aka i_mourn_the_wicked) lists the following reasons as why you need to vote!

"First of all, I think it goes without saying that if any fanbase knows how to stir up the pot and get votes in, it's us. (i.e. multiple TV.com awards, KCA's, etc.)

However, this will be a tougher fight. A lot of the fandom has lost touch, and no one has been unaffected by the show ending.

Now, of course, this is the big 3 (Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park), so we have the advantage of the only kid demographic as opposed to previous battles with Spongebob, Naruto, and Ed, Edd, and Eddy. But these 3 are still going, and still have active fandoms due to the constant stream of new episodes. But even still, we have yet another advantage that many of the fans of these 3 shows crossover, and will either have to make a choice, or split their vote(s).

Second of all, the voting is a lot more of a hassle this year. While they have not become complete jerks and they do allow you to vote more than once, it is painfully mundane because the voting is a little ways down the screen and you have to scroll down every time you click "Vote Again"."

Hey all, this is Jake.  Long time, no post.  Life appears to have finally caught up with me and I've been pretty busy.  College, work, friends and moving can really make a person busy, especially when their laptop is busted again.

Anywho, the purpose of this post is to try to iron out some things for the future.  Obviously, Avatar the TV show is over.  Done.  The movies are coming out in the not-too-distant future (if 2010 is not-too-distant, I guess).  But who knows what else will be happening with Avatar.

As it currently stands I'm still paying for the site and will continue to do so for a little while.  And while browsing ASN for the first time in weeks today, I found there was apparently a few survey out for fans to put their input into what they'd like to see in the future in Avatar.

Personally, I'd like to effing have Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Appa, Momo, Mai, and Ty Lee back for an amazing post-war 4th season.  The possibilities are endless.  The creators saying "their story has ended" or "we don't want it to get stale" is just hogwash.  They want the big bucks the movies will bring in, without the hassel of the TV show.  Yes, a TV show is a lot of work, especially one on the scale of Avatar.  But with the large and very capable staff they had on Avatar - continuing the show without their involvement would have been easy.  Aaron Ehasz and the writers would crank out the stories, Giancarlo Volpe and the directors would make sure the episodes and transitions were as good as they could be, the animators would continue their amazing work.

So I guess this all leads up to this - does anyone else want a 4th season?  Is anyone else craving that smooth animation and amazing stories crafted by the Avatar staff?  I'm going to put a poll up shortly asking that question - and if there's enough interest, I'd like to go after creating a massive drive to bring the show back for a 4th season and possibly beyond.  Of course I can't do this alone - so I would like to know if there are other people desiring the same thing.

To me, this would be the only justifiable way Avatar would come back to TV.  I've heard talk of a new series with new characters and such.  Oh please.  The sequel is NEVER good as the original.  The writers put their blood into the characters they created again, and would be hard pressed to do it again.  New characters would seem like rip-offs.  What character could have the backstory of Zuko?  How could anyone possibly come close to the extreme situation 12-year-old Aang was put in?  How can you expect to recreate a character like Toph, a blind person who is the greatest bender in her race because of her disability?  YOU CAN'T!

I may be over-cynical here but I just don't see the creators being able to do this.  And this has nothing to do with how good the creators are - many of the best series creators could not recreate the magicalness of their original creations.  It's a tall order and I don't know how it could be done right without ruining the franchise.  However, I don't see this happening.

So if by some chance you are still reading this, it comes down to this - I want to start a huge online effort for a 4th season of this great show.  A lot of help will be needed, however.  I'm not sure how many people are still active in the fandom or care that much about the show anymore, but if the interest is there I think we should go for it.

As for the continuation of the site, we will see.  I'd like to finish some earlier plans I made and complete the guides and such.  I hope to find some time this fall and during winter break to do this.  If you are interested in helping complete the site, email webmaster@dongbufeng,net to ask what you can do to help.  Thanks!

Added by Dylan Amen Jake, amen. Plus the economic benefits for the creators would be huge. If they started production now, a 4th season would come out early 2010. A new season boosted by publicity from a huge movie, we'd easily see the best ratings yet.

Dylan here and the videogame Avatar: The Last Airbender--Into the Inferno (based on the 3rd season) is now out for the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS2. It will be released for the Nintendo DS on November 24. It costs $30 for the Wii and $20 for the PS2 and DS. Seems like a cheap way to get some Avatar back into your life if you're finding to wait patiently until 2010 for the movie.

Dylan here, and hey, we've got some Avatar news! Animation Insider posts a report of Nick's 3rd Quarter for 2008. Avatar ranked 4th behind Spongebob, The Mighty Bee, and Back at the Barnyard for most watched shows for kids 2-11 on Nick in the 3rd quarter. You might think this is bad, but considering that Avatar only ran for one week on Nick in the 3rd Quarter, I'd say that's pretty darn impressive.

Jake here, and not much Avatar news recently it's depressing.  But IGN has started their reviews again of Book 2: Earth, and they gave 207 and 208 very high marks.  Below are the links to the reviews:

• Zuko Alone Review
• The Chase Review

Thanks to Nico for the heads up here.  It's really interesting they have 208 rated above 207, that's not how I see it but hey everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Speaking of that, sometime in the not-too-distant future I want to post my entire episode list 1-61 here.  If you remember, we all had to rank our top 15 episodes for the 50th podcast.  Well I felt I couldn't come to a clear top 15 without ranking them all, so I did.  I will type them up soon and you guys can look forward to that.  I think it's really interesting to see how all the episodes stack up in the series.  Because ALMOST all of them I would watch again, but some more than others (if you listen to the podcast you know which episodes I have utter distaste for, or you will know if you check my list when I get it up).

I will welcome comments when this happens, and I will probably create a forum thread for lists if you all want so you can discuss and post your own lists as well.  Something for you guys to think about as well I guess.

One more thing, it's much easier to start back and work forward.  I wrote all the episode numbers on a sheet of paper and started at 61 and crossed out when I used one.  That would be my tip, but I'm sure there are other ways of doing it.