It took away all the mystique from the concept of Avatar, and introduce basically a retcon on the origins and all mythology of this world.
Nice animations, however.
Completely agree. The Wan story was pretty cliche and did nothing new in terms of story. It also took a lot of the unknowns of the universe and just spurts it all out with very little finesse. The reason many (yes including me) liked it at all was the fact that the rest of season 2 was so horrible in comparison that ANY return to form was welcome. If season 2 was actually good, there would be more complaining about Wans story. At that point I was thankful that the show writers can still write characters that I don't absolutely despise.
Speaking of the characters, I think that keeping the same characters will greatly diminish the show no matter how much better the story gets. As I said I despise pretty much every character in the show, and I can't see the show creators changing them in a huge way.
Korra was a completely insufferable bitch throughout season 2. My complaints about her character have been discussed to death so I won't go on, but since her character "change" at the end of the season she is just really boring with pretty much no personality. So the show writers can only make her bitchy or boring, and seeing the comments about the previews it seems like it's back to the former. My favorite Korra moment was her "date" with Bolin, she actually seemed like a good character then, but now we know everything about her, and she seems pretty much nothing but incompetent. She better start making smarter decisions soon or else the site will just be other people cleaning up her mess, which is not something you want from an avatar.
The biggest problem with Bolin and Mako for me is that the entire season they essentially did nothing but somehow came out much stronger than they ever were. In season 1 they were on par with the other pro benders in the sport (Korra was handicapped so they were never similar strength wise) however suddenly at the end of the season the two of them could fight Tarloqq (or Unaloqq I don't even remember) evenly even though they didn't do anything remotely like training throughout the season. They pretty much only got a huge power upgrade because the writers found it convenient to make them relevant again to the show. So this season any awesome stuff they do doesn't feel earned, and would have me do my eyes more than anything else.
Asami simply existed to swoon over Mako, maybe she'll be better this season?
Lin was laughably incompetent last season, since she apparently has a much bigger part in this season, maybe the show writers will actually give her a brain this season. After she was pretty bad ass season 1, how will they explain her uselessness in season 2? If they just ignore it, then they also ruined Lins character for me too.
I greatly dislike all of Tenzins kids because they are all pretty much the same jokes again and again with too much screen time for what they are. Of course jinora was the hero of last season, but why not flesh her out more than just make her a deus ex machina factory.
Aangs kids are the closest thing to characters that interest me, because they are leagues better than any other characters in the show. However there better be more stuff happening with them that what they did last season, if they are still fighting about the same "dad lived you more" stuff this season itll get old pretty quick.