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Unpopular Opinion:  Korra is a good show

So I’ve only just started watching this show with my girlfriend, but let me tell you Korra is the bomb.  I was worried about starting it because of all the hate I see for it flying around but after watching the first few episodes I can tell that this show is just as good as the original series.

It deals with the idea of professional bending so smoothly and cleanly, altering the way people use bending to seem more modern while purposefully pointing out the benefits and detriments of these changes.  Which as a martial artist who started in a very traditional style and branched out to more modern ones I can really appreciate.

But more on that in another post.

The show deals so smoothly and realistically with teenage drama, which I think is one of the reasons people don’t like the show.  There’s no forced plot twist, there’s no conflict arising from nothing.  Everything simply makes sense.  People taking bad advise, acting impulsively, and donking shit up because they are young and stupid, which is such a relief from all the media with angsty teens.

An Korra’s bending style, so different from Aang’s which was almost exclusively defensive.  The aggressive destruction and combination of bending styles to elicit the most damage and solve problems as opposed to evading and avoiding, its everything I loved about the original in a new light.

The new setting?  Its GORGEOUS!  Its the first time I’ve seen steampunk done in a way I genuinely enjoy.  The little touches of industry and modern architecture thrown in the melting pot of elements from the original series are incredible.

All the things I’ve heard which paint the show in a bad light I’m frankly not seeing, but I think I’m beginning to understand why people dislike it.

The difference between the characters in ATLA and Korra is that in Korra people are vulnerable.  The good guys loose, they get captured, beaten, defeated, etcetera, and the characters are so relatable that it makes you feel vulnerable at times.  This is something not done in ATLA, not because the gaang were unbeatable, but because their status quo was to be on the run.  Being run out of town was, for them, not a loss, but a win.  The characters in Korra do not have this luxury.  They loose, because they are outmatched, and instead of simply running away over and over again until they get it right, they are simply out of the count until someone can help them or they can recover/escape.  

Thats what I think people don’t like.  They want to be told that when they face their problems head on that they’ll win.  That the Avatar is an invincible god who stops bad things from happening.  And on some level thats true, for a fully realized avatar.  But the stories about the avatar cycle are not the ones when the avatar is at the peak of their power, but those transitional periods, in which life becomes complicated enough that a story is necessary to explain it.

Thats why the ending to the original series is so fulfilling.  We know there are countless problems the gaang still have to deal with, but now the Avatar has returned and is no longer there to change the status quo, but to uphold it.

Basically, people find reasons to hate Korra, because she shows them that if you face your problems head on, even if you have all the power in the world, you can loose.

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Your friends want to hear from you

One of my closest friends right now is this incredibly outgoing and amazingly personable girl. She’s great at bringing out the best in people and without her I never would have met my girlfriend(another story). Today she was going through a rough time wondering if anyone really cares about her. People want to be around you. The feeling that no one wants to talk to you is wrong, people want to hear from you. As someone who shut themselves off for most of high school please take it from me that believing no one wants you to talk to them is stupid. People care about you and if you should reach out to them not just when you need to but when you want to.

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“I can dream deeply of you, create phantoms of your flesh in my mind, but no matter how deeply I wish I cannot craft you from the sinews of thought.”

- I get eloquent when I eat duck.

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“Poetry is the art of the fool, there is no talent or skill to be had. Such is why the prose eludes the intelligent for lines can only be learnt, not taught.”

-Me after eating duck breast for Christmas dinner. ( it was good but the potatoes were weird)

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“Straight doesn’t exist, it’s just a hypothetical concept.”

-My dad, not talking about sexuality, but I’m still going to quote him

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See I love this so much, but it clarifies nothing for me, I know how to use all of these. Then again maybe that does say something about me.

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“He who is without sin can keep his first stone. This motherfucker’s throwing these hands”

-Me during context I honestly don’t remember