#equalist meta

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

Why I Dislike Amon and Kuvira

Note: While I don’t think The Legend of Korra (TLOK) is as good as Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA), I still think it is a pretty good show, and that 99.9% of its problems can be traced to Nick not giving Bryke a full four seasons with a proper budget from the outset. However, I don’t think any piece of fiction is perfect, hence why I criticize TLOK like I do ATLA.

Amon and Kuvira are two characters who are important to TLOK’s narrative not only on an individual, character level, but also because they represent previously unaddressed social issues in ATLA’s world as well.

This is because in Amon’s case, the Equalist movement he heads deals with an important issue that the original ATLA glosses over at best: the issue of benders being innately superior to non-benders.

Or more specifically, the fact that, unless you are a highly trained and/or highly gifted non-bender like Piandao, Mai, Ty Lee, Suki, or Sokka, your bog standard bender who has the slightest amount of training has a nigh-insurmountable power advantage, and thus has every incentive to lord their unearned power over non-benders.

Meanwhile, Kuvira deals with an issue that up until her becoming the main villain of Season 4 was barely addressed in TLOK’s intro and glossed over in the ATLA comics: how would Earth Kingdomers feel about the United Republic being formed from the Fire Nation’s oldest Earth Kingdom colonies.

Or more specifically, how, after getting pressured by Fire National colonialists and those close to them, King Kuei and Avatar Aang worked with Fire Lord Zuko to give the oldest colonists the option of self-determination, which they exercised to form the United Republic.

This, even though the oldest colonies were dominated politically and economically by the Fire Nationalist colonists and their close allies, with the marginalized Earth Kingdomer masses having little to no say in regards to the above mentioned process.

(If you disagree with my characterization of how Earth Kingdomers would view the resolution of the Yu Dao crisis, please check out The Problem with Yu Dao and A Potential Solution where I go into much more detail about this topic.)

However, it is precisely because Amon and Kuvira represent previously unaddressed social issues in ATLA’s world that I dislike them.

For in Amon’s case, before his identity was revealed, I was interested to see how the Krew would defeat him, let alone defeat the Equalist Movement since it wasn’t a problem that could be punched.

However, after his identity was revealed, I quickly soured on his character since, with him being a psychic, 24/7 bloodbender, it became apparent that the only way to beat him would be having an Avatar State Korra fight him or through a deus ex machina, with the latter being the way how he was defeated.

And I started disliking him once it became clear that the Equalist movement died off just because he was exposed as a fraud and Republic City’s all-bender council got replaced by a democratically elected unitary executive, one who so far has been non-benders due to non-benders numerical dominance.

This is because the underlying issue of benders having an innate advantage over non-benders never really got resolved, and so I hate how Amon’s character was used to avoid a real discussion or give any real solutions to said problem.

Especially since in real life, even if a movement’s leader is exposed as a fraud, the movement, or at least some variation of it, will continue to persist since movements, or more specifically, underlying issues in society, create leaders, not the other way around.

Meanwhile, I dislike Kuvira because, despite growing up in a world where the horrors of the Hundred Year War and the failures of the Hundred Year War era Fire Nation were surely taught to children like her, she decided to repeat them with her concentration camps and illegal and immoral war of conquest.

(Yes, I know canonically Kuvira did not know about the concentration camps, but even if that is the case, I still hold her responsible for them.) 

(This is because commanders/generals in the real world are responsible for the actions of their subordinates when it comes to war crimes, and more generally, leaders are generally responsible for the actions of their subordinates when their subordinates are acting within the scope of their relationship. Thus, I hold her to that standard, even if the war crimes tribunal of the United Republic doesn’t.)

(Also, her attempt to retake the United Republic was an illegal and immoral war of conquest since the United Republic had been a sovereign state for over 70 years, with its sovereignty recognized by all the other nations in the world, including the Earth Empire’s predecessor, the Earth Kingdom. Moreover, even if it hasn’t been said explicitly yet in canon material, I am pretty sure in the 70-odd years between the end of ATLA and the start of TLOK the five nations signed treaties making wars of conquest illegal.)

This, even though her adopted grandma fought in the War and was friends with Fire Nationals who grew up in the Hundred Year War era Fire Nation, and more likely than not told her about her and her Fire National friends experiences.

And why does she do all that? Not because she actually believes that the way the United Republic was formed was immoral and an act of injustice against the Earth Kingdom, but because of unresolved abandonment issues.

And when she “redeems” herself, she does the bare minimum before finally admitting her fault and getting house arrest in Zafou, the closest thing to paradise on Earth.

I thought Kuvira could have been used to tell a story about the evils of revanchism, and how an inability to let go of past territorial injustices and focus on the present leads people to becoming the very monsters they claim to be fighting against.

That and what steps an authoritarian conqueror would have to take to credibly redeem themselves not only in the world’s eyes, but also in the eyes of their people, who they betrayed and misled with their lies about peace and prosperity through violence and subjugation.

Instead, we instead essentially get a sane, adult Azula who doesn’t have the excuse of indoctrination and got a really undeserved and unearned redemption that fanfics often give to a heavily woobified Azula.

This, all while never directly addressing the Earth Kingdom’s lingering resentment towards the United Republic, nor ever giving a concrete resolution to said resentment.

So to conclude, I dislike Amon and Kuvira’s characters because the resolution of their arcs were not only unsatisfying on a personal level, but also ruined the potential to meaningfully address key issues present in TLOK’s world, thus weakening TLOK as a whole.

[novaae]

Okay so here are my thoughts on Bumi and the Equalist movement, because that is genuinely such a great plot-point that I don't think was ever explored fully (like many plot points in LoK lol).

Firstly, there's no way that Bumi wasn't an inspiration for these guys. Nonbender at such a high position, that too without the influence of his parents? Known for his strategic mind and genius ideas? There's no way that the Equalists didn't admire him, and probably bastardised Bumi's public opinions.

Add to it his childhood, and also his career, which they would have used as a propaganda piece. Like, I'm sorry Bumi doesn't come into the public picture as much as his siblings (which may have been a personal choice), but there's no way his teenage and joining the UF wasn't highly documented. Baam. Proof that the Avatar stood for discrimination, if he couldn't pay proper attention to his own son, what about the nonbenders of the world.

Add to it, Iroh II (a firebender and everything) getting promoted to General in his 30s (I see some people hc him in early 20s and uhm. Hc what you like but if we go with that line, makes even more sense why he is incredibly unpopular in Equalists.) A younger BENDER getting promoted over a NONBENDER with more experience? Nevermind that it could have been another personal decision.

(That being said, if the issue was bad enough for so many nonbenders to rally behind the Equalists,,,,, Bumi could have definitely been shafted because of being a nonbender.)

I feel like the only reason he avoided getting a discreet invitation was because of his job. He was rarely in RC, mostly port cities, and even in RC he probably spent most of his time in Air Temple Island.

As for Bumi's reaction to the Equalist movement, I think in the beginning, or at least till it was revealed that they were terrorists (total cop out btw), he did privately support them. Like not as in making donations or voicing it out loud, but if it ever came up on in family dinners he'd pull up good points and said that if the UN ever had elections, Bumi would vote for them.

As a result, when he gets news about them actually being a terrorist organisation and taking away people's bending, he would feel awful on the inside. Even more-so when his own beloved niblings were harmed so directly. He would prefer for his family to not bring it up.

He still supports non-bender representation in the Congress of UN though.

-

Tagging @wilcze-kudly, @linnorabeifong and @superliz6 because you guys showed interest.

[jennawynn]

ok so I dipped into the equalist!Asami tag and saw things and listen... I know it's real fun to reimagine and everything, but honestly, can you imagine?? Back then??

People can't even handle good but bitchy female characters who don't actually do anything wrong NOW and you think fandom would have given Asami a redemption arc? If she was an ACTUAL Equalist and doing literally anything that causes someone (in particular Korra) pain? You think korrasami would be canon? There's been tons and tons of meta about how and why Zuko's redemption arc was successful and NONE of that would apply to equalist!Asami.

So which would you have rather had? Canon equalist!Asami or Canon Korrasami? Cause you know 10 years ago it would have been one or the other... and korrasami was too damn important to let it be squandered because audiences suck.

[darkdisrepair]

asami and yasuko sato meta

okay i know this isn't critical role meta for those of you who follow me for that but the comics that just came out are making me feral over asami and her mom

they needed to include this because it puts so, so much of asami and hiroshi into context.

it's clear that yasuko was the heart of their little family from the beginning. i mean, look at her and little asami. while they always say in the show that she is very much hiroshi's daughter, i think that she was equally if not more her mother's daughter.

for one, they're spitting images of each other. i can't imagine how hard it was for hiroshi after yasuko died to see asami- and it also explains why he was so set on keeping asami out of the equalist movement for as long as he did.

i think, deep down, he knew that what he was doing was wrong and he couldn't bring himself to put asami into that world, too, and her looking like yasuko only solidified his need to keep her safe.

i think it's also clear that yasuko would not have stood for the equalist movement. if you look at the rest of the comic, yasuko clearly has a great perspective with benders and non-benders, which she passes on to asami.

but also this comic just hammers home the tragedy of the sato family, and that asami really was old enough to remember a lot about her mom. and old enough to remember a lot about her mother's death, too.

it's just so sad to think that yasuko probably died not long after this comic took place. and it's also sad that her vision of an engineering school never really took off- because that would have been the perfect creative outlet for hiroshi, instead of becoming a terrorist.

i wish lok explored more of asami's relationship with her mom, and the grief that comes with losing someone as lovely as yasuko seems.

they're so adorable and just ahhh yasuko deserved better

[kuno-chan]

Asami Should Have Been An Equalist

I'm sure this has been done and, one day, I want to do a meta on this, but I feel like by not making Asami an equalist, a big source of personal conflict (and therefore, development) got taken away from her.

I was watching a video talking about how she was supposed to be an equalist and several comments were made about how Asami would have been more developed or interesting.

And, for preface, Mako and Korra break up and stay broken up like canon. This isn't about ships. I do have my preferences, but I genuinely think if Asami had been allowed to be an equalist who came over to the good guys she would have had a strong arc throughout all 4 books, her relationship with Korra would have developed both characters further (Korra is developed in canon, but this would have added layers) as a former enemy of benders follows the more bending bender to ever bender and even if they weren't sure they could do Korrasami, they still could have had Makorra broken up and Korra and Asami have the closest relationship in the show if not one of them. Even better if we did get canon Korrasami like we did.

But this would have made Korrasami much more developed and deeper regardless of how the show ended ship wise for them (speaking explicit canon KS or not. Again, not factoring in romantic MK here).

But Asami being an equalist was a strong personal source of conflict and a Huge opportunity for ongoing growth that, when taken away, wasn't replaced by something with the same weight. That's the primary issue. Hiroshi going to jail in s1 solves that arc and she's left floundering for the next 3 seasons.

An equalist arc could have seen Asami changing sides in s1, maybe dealing with feelings of betraying her family in s2 which could have paralled Korra's family arc, her personal feelings of how she feels about benders as Korra is finding new airbenders and bringing back the Air Nation, s4 could have had this arc conclude with reconciling her past actions, forgiving herself (and her father maybe) and figuring out how to stand up for non-benders in the world without hurting innocent people (bender and non-bender alike) alongside Korra's messy personal arc.

And that's just one loose option. As much as I know they liked her so much they wanted her on the good guys side, I feel like it also robbed her of some much needed internal conflict.

[firelxdykatara]

I would actually be really genuinely interested to read your defence of Makorra. I’ve never really been partial to any of the TLOK ships but I know that one gets a lot of hate (even though I don’t see anything wrong with people shipping it) and I’m just curious to see your take.

I've been sitting on this a bit, because it's been a while since I actually sat down and thought about what it is I love so much about Makorra--the fire/water and slap-slap-kiss/BST energy aside--and it reminded me that I actually rewatched the first three episodes of LoK not that long ago (which is when I had my revelation about Equalist Asami, and how I think that the Equalist Mako and Korra fight in episode three was originally meant to be Asami's true introduction to the show, to be revealed when it became clear she and her father were Equalists), because of this meta by @devildogdemon on episode three that reminded me just how much those early episodes made me love Makorra well before the love triangle crashed onto the scene and everything went tits up.

I've spoken before about how what I really loved about Makorra was the potential:

I personally loved Makorra, but I loved it for what it could have been, not what it wound it actually being in the show–but that’s because the love triangle was sloppy as hell and poorly handled, and it took the place of actual bonding for the krew and development of their individual friendships.

This still holds true, and I think the foundations were all very well laid out in the meta that I linked above.

When Mako and Korra had time alone together, and were in a stressful situation, they worked incredibly well together, despite the way their personalities--Mako a bit staid and stoic, used to shoving down his emotions so that he could be the parent his little brother needed and, as a result, never learning how to process how he felt in a healthy manner, while Korra spent her whole life among adults and as a result never really learned how to just be a kid, or how to relate to others her own age, so she is brash and reckless and does what she thinks is necessary because she's never been around people who had to ask permission before they just Did Things and hey, she's the avatar, shouldn't she be the one everyone is looking to for leadership???--tended to clash, especially early on.

They slid almost effortlessly into the Battle Couple trope when it came time to fight--to try and get Bolin back, and to protect one another--and those scenes in Book 1 feel a lot like Zuko and Katara training together at the end of book 3, covering each other's blind spots and accomodating for each other's weaknesses. This is also, incidentally, the episode where Korra winds up wearing Mako's scarf--the one memento he has from his parents, who were killed when he was a child. Sound familiar?

-insert image of katara's necklace around zuko's wrist here-

And before anyone gets on me about the parallels, I'm not saying that Makorra is the same as Zutara (although if you told me that Bryke intended it to be, I'd believe it--either because they thought they were finally giving the shippers what they wanted or, more likely, they wanted to show why they believed zk would never work), but the parallels do exist, and it's largely because Mako occupies the same position within the krew that Katara does within the gaang. They also have the BST and the banter more than any other relationship in the krew, so of course they're going to wind up paralleled to the relationship in the gaang that had the most narrative tension. They are still, at the end of the day, very different relationships, because Mako and Korra are very different people than Zuko and Katara.

But I'm just saying, the symbolism of one half of the pair wearing the other's only physical link to their dead parents........it's there. I didn't make this up.

They also, again like zutara, have this moment of emotional closeness and vulnerability early in the book--in episode 3, where Mako reveals to Korra what happened to his parents and why he had history with the triads, which casts some light on why he acted the way he did in the very first episode (I've seen people getting on Mako's ass about how 'mean' he was to Korra, but like, a) he was very calm about it, and b) how else would you expect someone who lived hand to mouth on the street for an entire decade to react to someone claiming they had 'nothing' in the same breath as admitting that they'd never had to want for anything in their entire life?), and allows them to become closer emotionally--as friends and potentially more, given the explicitly romantic framing of the interaction and several others throughout the episode.

Ultimately, what initially drew me in to Makorra was that slap-slap-kiss/Belligerent Sexual Tension they had in the beginning of book 1, but what really makes me think of what they could have been is the way their relationship developed in episode 3 and the groundwork that was laid for a slow-burn there, rather than Korra deciding she was in love with him just in time for Asami to crash into the scene and nab him first.

(Incidentally, had Asami been an Equalist like she was originally supposed to, this could all have been part of a larger plot and Korra could have slowly come to realize what Mako meant to her while examining the things she felt when she saw him with Asami--meanwhile, all of their relationships could have been given room to breathe and grow, especially if Bolin's puppy crush on Korra were dropped, and Mako and Korra clashing over Korra's suspicions of Asami wouldn't have been quite so ugly if both of them were proven just a little bit right. And then allow for that betrayal to shake the foundations of the krew before Asami works her way back into their good graces, and Mako and Korra don't get together until they've navigated the fallout from that and discovered how much they really mean to each other.)

Uh... yeah, I rambled for days, hopefully I answered your question adequately! I just. I really love Mako, and I really love what he and Korra could have been to each other, and I really love who Korra could have become if the show let her actually grow organically instead of giving her Character Development Through Brutal Torture, and all of that has I guess kind of sunk into a ball of how the show would look if Makorra were done better to me lol.

[harrowharkboygf]

while i do think that equalist spy asami is an interesting and very fun concept, i think that if they were to do that, it would change a lot of fundamental aspects of her character and i think ultimately she wouldn’t be the same asami we see in the show

like a lot of her actions in book 1 (immediately offering to help the fire ferrets, giving mako & bolin a place to stay, throwing her lot in with korra relatively quickly despite not really being close with her until book 3) establish her as someone who is always eager to be useful and trusts people very easily.

but if all of those same events happened with the reveal of equalist spy asami, all of those establishing traits would be negated and i think even if there was a redemption arc, redeemed ex-equalist asami wouldn’t be the same as canon asami and i think the krew dynamic and korrasami’s dynamic would also be very different

[lokgifsandmusings]

Definitive Ranking of Book 1 Episodes, #10/12

10. 1x11 Skeletons in the Closet

Bending is ILLEGAL, Asami drops it like it’s hot, a wild fanservice appears, and Noatak and Tarrlok build a snowman.

*Back a month later with Starbucks and more nitpicks*

Actually, real talk: can someone explain why part of the goyim gets upset with Starbucks not being Chirstmasy enough? Because I was just in one and it looks like Rudolph threw up everywhere. What ever happened to a nice autumnal display...

No, let’s get back to definitively ranking Book 1 episodes!

And let me just say: this has been a struggle. I know logically that Book 1 is fine. Obviously it engaged me enough to watch Book 2, even if I only saw the back-half in one sitting while I was drunk. But still, like I said in my first essay on this season, it just doesn’t get any deeper, unlike the other books. Instead, you notice all the hanging threads, and tugging on them leads to...well, whatever this is.

The thing is, I purposely do these definitive rankings in reverse order so that I sound increasingly more enthused. But when I saw I’d be writing about this one, I sat staring for five minutes trying to come up with a reason as to why it was better than “The One With All The Love Triangles” or “The One Where Amon Gets Caught.” It has slightly fewer contrivances?

Okay, stepping back, this episode isn’t all that complicated, or all that bad, really. The Equalists have taken over Republic City after their carpet bombing of it (you know...for equality!), so the Krew is underground in the sewers, eatin’ street gruel and flirtin’ with the person they’re not dating 10 feet away from the person they are dating. We get a glimpse of Republic City under the Equalists, which includes the apparent outlawing of bending, coupled with a line of handcuffed and blindfolded benders being paraded before Amon to be “cleansed of their impurity.”

Iroh II sails his face into a trap, and then he, Bolin, and Asami decide to go after Hiroshi’s army of biplanes (to prevent them from doing the same to Bumi’s fleet), while Korra and Mako want to go after Amon himself. They sneak onto Air Temple Island so they can ambush him, only to find a de-bended Tarrlok locked up. He explains how he and Amon are both sons of Yakone, and they can all bloodbend any day of the year. That’s how Amon has been taking away people’s bending. Korra and Mako then decide they’re going to expose Amon as a waterbender at his Equalist rally.

Let’s leave the Noatuk truth-bomb for last, cause that’s worth digging into a bit. Character-wise, this isn’t a very strong episode for any member of the Krew. Asami finally pulls the plug on Mako, I guess, which given that he’s acting like Korra’s boyfriend anyway makes plenty of sense. So that’s something? Otherwise, the biggest moment is Korra deciding she has to go after Amon herself. Which is kind of regressive? I mean, she doesn’t really have the skills or capacity to beat the guy, and the last time she tried to seek him out to fight on her terms, she got captured and very nearly lost her bending.

Korra: Wait, I'm sorry, but I'm not going with you tomorrow.

Mako: What?

Asami: Why not?

Korra: I'm sick and tired of hiding from Amon. It's time I face him.

Iroh: That's not a good plan. We need to stick together.

Korra: I'm not waiting for him to hunt me down. My guts tell me it's time to end this, on my terms.

Iroh: Korra, this is not a mission you should be handling alone.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s totally understandable why Korra would not want to just wait for Amon to go after her, and why she feels she’s not exactly needed in this “destroy the fleet mission.” But like, isn’t the protagonist supposed to have some kind of character growth?

I know I talked about this already in my “Endgame” piece, and yes, I think overall it’s a good thing that she had plenty of space to keep growing after Book 1. It just seems strange that her solution to the Amon situation is more “well NOW I’m going to do something about it!” despite her being no more prepared to take this on. Despite her having no strategy past “ambushing” him on Air Temple Island. And guess what, even when she has more information and tries to approach it in an inventive way, she still gets her ass kicked! She still gets de-bended!

Again, this is a narrative. What is the message supposed to be in Korra pursuing this option? Are we supposed to be cheering with her? Are we supposed to agree with Iroh?

Really, it’s this episode where the backwards nature of the writing becomes clear. Bryke needed Korra and  Mako pursuing Amon alone. They needed them to run into Tarrlok. They needed a way for Amon to get exposed by forcing him to waterbend. They needed Korra to get de-bended but then still airbend. None of this particularly flowed from character actions, and certainly not personalities. Shit just occurred *to* our protagonists, and that’s disappointing to think about in a story as thoughtful and intriguing as LoK.

I’m not saying that plot-points shouldn’t be planned out, btw! I’m just saying that they need to be done with respect to characterization and character journeys. Book 2 was one stumbling block after another, but that finale came together spectacularly well because the focus was on Korra’s arc. She beat Unalaq by literally tapping into the core of who she was and ripping her reality into existence. Sure there were contrivances that set it up, but we’re not talking Korra just randomly going against her own self-interest. That was Civil Wars!

Really, the emotional weight of this episode was Tarrlok’s story (and I know mileage varies there), so maybe this complaint is more along the lines of a nitpick. But it’s incredibly disappointing on a revisit to realize that Korra more or less stagnated after 1x04, with a small exception being in her attitude towards Asami (the result of exposure). Which maybe is what was behind Korra being the one to put up boundaries with Mako this episode? Mildly?

However, this also means that Korra’s most significant character development of the season was in the context of navigating the teenage dating game. And I’d be floored if that’s really what people wanted out of the Avatar franchise, or what Bryke even intended.

That’s maybe the kicker, here. This was the episode where it felt as though Bryan and Mike just had to start wrapping things up, logic-be-damned! But...wasn’t this the season where they had the most amount of time to plan?

Even a very small change could have gone a long way. A common complaint of “Endgame” is that the airbenders just showed up on stage, handcuffed. I don’t mind that it “undercut” Lin’s sacrifice (mostly because I don’t think it *did*. The point was that she was willing to do that), but I do think it felt like a total asspull when we more or less saw them get away. But what if word somehow reached the sewers (or was even intentionally delivered there) that Amon was holding the airbenders captive? Hell maybe Iroh could have brought this information. Then, that would have created a sense of urgency where it made sense for the Krew to split up, and it would have made sense for Korra and Mako to go to Air Temple Island specifically. Did they even have a way of knowing that’s where Amon was operating within this episode?

Again, writers should generally have an endpoint in mind that they write to. But it shouldn’t require contortions in logic to get there. And if you can’t think of a compelling reason for your characters to reach it...well...it’s probably time to rethink those beats, then. “Skeletons in the Closet” is an episode where just about everything that happens felt like it needed a second thought.

A perfectly good example of that is with the Equalists. In “Turning the Tides,” they bombed the entire city and captured enough benders where in this episode, they had an incredibly long line of them just waiting to be de-bended, including more policemen and White Lotus Members. The Equalists also declared bending illegal and stuck an Amon mask on Aang’s statue.

I have just...so many questions about how all this works. Like, logistically how have The Equalists actually taken over a city? I mean first of all, the crowd to whom Hiroshi announced bending being outlawed makes Trump’s inauguration look impressive.

Second of all, if we just talk about power dynamics of the universe, how does this work:

These are the SUPERPOWERED people. And the ones we’re seeing in this picture are literally trained fighters. They’ve got blindfolds on so...that’s it? Game over? No seismic-sense earthbenders? I’m not trying to victim blame here, but when you’ve got such a disparity in skill, to see these proportions of the benders to nonbenders here, with the benders doing absolutely nothing but being faceless and passive, it really pushes the envelope of believability.

Wasn’t the implication of the Equalist revolution that there actually was a revolution? That the *masses* went along with this, since they were the ones abused, ignored, and/or silenced under bender rule? Except then that makes the Equalists carpet-bombing the city even weirder, because this aftermath doesn’t seem to follow. Unless the only survivors were the people at Hiroshi’s rally.

Again, it’s the backwards writing. They needed the Equalists to have taken over, so they did. I’d totally buy the Equalists just controlling Air Temple Island and camping out there, maybe with important prisoners, but no. They successfully destroyed the United Forces and it was bad enough that their general had to retreat into the sewers and communicate his orders through Gommu.

I almost don’t even want to touch Iroh. He’s fanservice, and pretty heavy-handed fanservice at that. I really don’t care about giving people *something*, but fanservice that works is like...the picture of Aang airbend-juggling sushi rolls. It’s not some rando Mary Sue (and I truly mean a textbook Mary Sue here) showing up, ordering around our main characters to get us to the next action set-piece, and then watching him literally fly around with no explanation as he grounds Hiroshi’s fleet and saves the day.

He’s significant to us because we recognize his namesake, and because he’s voiced by Dante Basco. But just imagine if you were a viewer watching LoK without having seen ATLA. Wouldn’t this character feel incredibly odd to you? Wouldn’t you wonder why we were focusing on him at the cost of our regulars getting more time to contend with this new situation?

Like, oh I don’t know...ASAMI? I know, I know what this sounds like. At this point I’m gonna just lean into my reputation. But seriously, her FATHER just bombed the city, he’s making speeches about illegal bending, he blows up Iroh’s fleet here with inventions we didn’t know existed, they make a plan that revolves around facing head-on, and we get a single line of dialogue from her about it. Which the transcript hilariously describes as “somewhat bitterly”:

“It's time to take down my father.”

Yes, that was somewhat of a reaction. Does anyone want to check in if she’s conflicted?

Or like, Korra is apparently driven by extreme impatience now. Even though Mako says she won’t go alone, is there a reason we don’t get anyone actually challenging this or asking why she can’t help with the airfield and *then* go after Amon? Especially Mako, since he’s signing up for it, and he was the one with a slightly more cautious approach to sneaky things in 1x03?

“Hmm ... My grandfather would respect the Avatar's instinct. So will I.”

Aaaaand finally, speaking of “who are you and why are you suddenly the focal point?”, we’ve got the infamous bloodbending brothers.

Uh, so. Confession: I actually kind of like them? I mean, they ranked halfway up my list in the Definitive Ranking of Complicated Familial Dynamics, so that’s something. But really, I think their story in and of itself is fine. It’s about the futility of revenge, I guess, and there’s the poetic tragedy of the way both brothers did become instruments of their father’s plans despite the fact that they both wanted to escape that fate. Tarrlok wanted to be the city’s savior and have influence through upstanding, noble means; a clear backlash against his crime-boss father ruling from the “underbelly” through brute force. Noatak, meanwhile, truly believed that so long as people had the potential for the fighting dominance his father displayed, there could be no justice in the world. He was a bender who hated his own power, and emulated Aang’s course of action with Yakone, which somewhat ironically led him to think that he truly needed to debend Korra.

It’s a bit of flawed logic, I guess. “I’ll never become an instrument of revenge against the Avatar! Instead, I’ll apply what the Avatar did to you to *all* benders...including the Avatar!”

I guess he’s just an equal-opportunity debender who understands the symbolic importance of taking away Korra’s bending? Oh look, I made a pun.

But yeah, it’s a fine enough story, and I’m not sure we’re supposed to be viewing Amon as the world’s most balanced thinker anyway.

The problems with Amon are that the Equalist logistics don’t make much sense, as I noted, and the guy himself gleefully debending the sole survivors of genocide in the name of justice is a bit much to swallow, especially after Bryke tried to demonstrate how nonbenders really do have legitimate grievances with regards to their treatment by members of triads and law enforcement alike. Of course the puppy-kicker had to go down, and it’s kind of a shame that what was a nuanced issue was turned into something so black-and-white.

The problem with the bloodbending brothers, however, is actually one that’s kind of similar to the problem with Kuvira. Their personal stakes are entirely disconnected from Korra herself. She runs into them, and has altercations with them, and as the Avatar she has a unique symbolic and political importance. Therefore she “matters” in both of their plans, which is why Tarrlok kidnapped her (what was the long term of that, exactly?), and Amon purposely didn’t take away her bending when he first captured her. It’s similar to how Kuvira understood that Korra had an importance to the people of the Earth Kingdom and for that reason, took pleasure in knocking her down a peg after her absence for three years; but she was driven by personal reasons relating to the Beifongs.

And this is fine, by the way. I’d say LoK’s most successful antagonist was Zaheer, who again, was targeting Korra for strategic reasons, but not exactly personal ones. Not every conflict is going to be Clark Kent vs. Lex Luthor, with years of history and damage between them. I do happen to think that kind of dynamic is the most effective (Zuko and Azula, anyone?), but again, villains being motivated by something entirely external to the protagonist is absolutely fine, even if it’s their own personal familial baggage.

However, given that Book 1 tripped over itself and couldn’t actually land the beats of the main plotline, nor provide Korra with any sort of growth in its telling...having the focus on the bloodbending brothers is incredibly weird. Like, why was the creative energy put here, of all things? It’s a sad story, sure, but what does it actually mean to Korra?

Being generous, it allows her to create a plan where she exposes Amon instead of trying to brute-force the situation, but...that plan doesn’t work at all, and she wins by punching. Was this showing development in her strategic thinking? This goes back to the issue of her wanting to hunt down Amon again.

What it sort of feels like, and forgive me for saying this, is spin-off fanfic that people wrote who got interested in the villains. It’s not *bad* by any means. There’s interesting dynamics here. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of Korra’s journey, which it did. In the end, the biggest moment of the season was Tarrlok’s murder/suicide. It’s a tragic story, sure. It’s just not Korra’s. And at least with Kuvira, it was her arc that bent to suit Korra’s needs, not the other way around.

I’m pretty sure from here on out I’ll actually have some positive things to say about Book 1 episodes, don’t worry. It’s just the final chapter of the season is really where all the flaws of the storytelling came into full view, and though “Turning the Tides” arguably started that, this is the episode where the wheels came off. “Endgame” was the crash.

#12 1x12 “Endgame”

#11 1x05 “The Spirit of Competition"

1x11 photo recap found here

Book 2 ranking/essays found here

Book 4 ranking/essays found here

[avatar-state-kate]

Okay so I know the standard take is that Mako is Zuko 2.0, and I guess this is a thought that you might have watching the second episode (angsty firebender I get it) that just gets stuck even when it stops making sense.

Now I don’t think LOK set out to have direct one to one replacements of the original Gaang and this is the wrong way to watch the show (and why some people hate it and Korra so much; she’s not Aang 2), but if we’re playing the comparison game Mako is most similar to Katara in the original Gaang, not Zuko.

Mako’s similarities with Zuko include

Firebenders

Angsty/ can be hot headed

That’s really it- Zuko’s arc, his motivations, has nothing to do with Mako’s own arc and motivation.

Mako’s similarities with Katara

Lost a parent(s) at the age of 8, and witnessed the death/saw the body

Keeps a memento of said parent(s) with them at all times. It is their signature, a prominent element of their character design and how we are meant to define the character

Both Katara and Mako use this trauma as their means of relating to others- we know the Katara bringing up her mother joke but this is how she relates to others losses in the show; it’s her saying she understands/can relate. In season 1 Mako telling Asami and Korra about his scarf is similarly used as a means for Mako to connect emotionally (in contrast Zuko tells no one about his scar, Iroh tells us)

As a result of the loss of a parent(s) had to step up and take on a caregiver role; Katara in Sokka’s own words stepped up and became somewhat of a mother figure. For Mako this is a much more dramatic shift as there was no Hakoda or Gran Gran, he is Bolins sole provider and care giver. This imo is the source of most of Katara and Mako’s differences, with Katara being much more emotionally open and trusting of others where Mako is closed off and distrustful of people he doesn’t know.

Even though they take the caregiver role seriously, and naturally fall in to it when in a group, they both also somewhat resent having to fill it at all. For Katara this is the plot of “The Runaway”, as she decides to let go and pull off a heist with Toph (unfortunately their arrest proves she needs to be the responsible one or else). For Mako this plays out in season one as he assures Bolin he’ll find a way to get the money for the probending pot “I always do”. Mako’s tone is resentful, he doesn’t like that he always has to be the one to take care of everything, but like with Katara in “the runaway” when Bolin try’s to help he is kidnapped by equalist and would have lost his bending if Mako and Korra didn’t go to save him. Mako’s shirking of responsibility mostly comes from his dating (which makes me look at the love triangle a little kinder, it’s the only time he ever did anything for fun/for him). If I find the meta I will link it here, but essentially it looked at how Mako’s preference for Korra was related to control and how she took it away- losing control/being out of control sounds negative but it is an escape from being a caregiver. Mako (and Katara) always had to have/be in control, and as a result he doesn’t know how to give it up, initially both his relationships with Korra and Asami start with them in control; Asami hits mako with her bike and talks him into a date where she has taken care of everything, and Korra kisses him first, in both scenarios he doesn’t have to be in charge for once

both have a bit of a temper- but unlike Zuko neither is ruled by their anger. Yes Mako gets angry in tense situations (Korra and Wu going missing), but unlike Zuko this isn’t the source of his bending/his drive. Katara is also known for having a temper (I’m completely calm!) but again she is not ruled by it.

Katara and Mako are driven by their desire to help others. With Katara this is very obvious (“I will never turn my back on people who need me”) but for Mako, as he enters the series with a very small circle of people he cares for (I.e. Bolin) this is not as readily apparent. However starting in season 1 Mako’s motivations for everything is connected to his desire to care for Bolin. While it is not a trope that has aged well, making Mako a cop is a cliche to show that he cares for others and is willing to sacrifice himself to that end (again, not that it is true to life, but in 2012 that’s the message Mako and Lin being cops would send according to tv language). Mako proves this to be true in the shows final when he risks his life to takeout the mecha/spirit vine core

They have similar arcs; both have a personal journey of learning to care for themselves, and that learning to care for yourself makes you better able to care for others. With Katara we see this through the development of her water bending, a skill that is ultimately for her but allows her to protect her friends and literally save Aang and Zukos lives through healing. For Mako it’s a subtler arc of learning to tend to his own emotions, and by doing that he can better meet the emotional needs of others (his inability to do so is the main culprit on his end for the love triangle- but all parties played a role). We can see this in comparing any of the fights Mako had with Korra in season 2 with Mako’s outburst at Wu after his failed coronation in season 4, where Mako is able to recognize he went to far and immediately apologize/de-escalate with Wu, with Korra every fight escalated because he didn’t understand what answer she wanted (he answered what she was saying verbally and not reading her emotional needs/cues). Mako having taken time for himself between the love triangle and season 4 is actually able to be their for Wu in a way he didn’t know how to for Korra back in season 2 (his speech to her in the final is him achieving this with Korra too)

There are plenty of additional little tid bits they have in common, like both dating the avatar, being noted for having a somewhat dry/lame sense of humour, both being very particular (Katara with how tha camp is run and Mako with his log book), but all suffice to say that no, Mako is not the new Zuko.

[beyond-far-horizons]

Katara’s potential in LOK and importance of older female role-models in life and fiction

This was not meant to turn into a meta and yet has done! Just a disclaimer I’m still working my way through The Legend of Korra but have mostly been spoiled by reading some great analysis on here. So this isn’t meant to be a comprehensive take and also isn’t meant to disrespect the people who like Legend of Korra or this particular aspect of it. It’s just a subject very close to my heart and my work as a creative practitioner, student of psychology and media analyst, so I really wanted to discuss it. 

Contains some spoilers esp for Season 1.

So I’m biting the bullet and getting into LoK despite reservations. I overall really loved Avatar the Last Airbender and Katara is one of my favourite characters. I admit one of my biggest issues with starting LoK was hearing how her character and agency were drastically reduced compared to the original series.

Now I know LoK gets a lot of flak for a variety of reasons and it was always going to be hard following such a beloved series as A:TLA and trying to do something different. However I’m actually enjoying certain aspects including Korra herself, despite the fact she can be bratty and immature at times (which squares with her age and upbringing). I also find the premise of the Equalists and especially their mysterious, terrifying leader Amon really interesting and I just wish the creators had done more with that plot line. (I forever seem to be going on about missed potential in the stories I consume!)

However the more I continue the more I’m annoyed because I realised we were robbed of Badass Grandma!Katara and also more matrilineal mentoring/bonding between her and Korra. 

Spoilers but I wanted to see Katara go toe to toe with the villains esp give her being intimately connected to their history. I wanted to see her deal with the shadows of the past, the history of trauma associated with bloodbending and the Fire Nation and also the very intriguing points Season 1 was trying to make about the role of bender vs non-bender and the Avatar themselves. All things Katara was deeply involved with as someone who experienced inequality firsthand, fought relentlessly to abolish it and was the previous Avatar’s finder, teacher and later his wife. 

Katara being Aang’s first mentor and implied to be Korra’s waterbendering tutor adds yet another dimension and potential to explore. That whole relationship must be strange for everyone involved but I’m always a sucker for female bonds, found family and intergenerational friendships.

I know LoK is about the new cast taking over - Tenzin fills the role of Korra’s mentor figure onscreen and is loved by many. There are lots of ways to tell a story and the creators focused on Korra’s issues with airbending to contrast her personality and development with Aang’s, as well as to flesh out Aang’s family and the rebuilding of the Air Nomads. 

Yet I miss the potential of seeing wise fierce mentor!Katara on screen. We fans love callbacks, so seeing Katara in action as she used to be would be a joy, and older more powerful characters need not overshadow younger ones. For example Uncle Iroh was beloved and integral in A:TLA despite the fact we saw very little of his backstory. He didn’t take over Zuko’s journey, he aided and complemented it. Plus Toph gets her chance to shine.

There was so much to play with, especially in Season 1 (and would have been a nice reference to Aang meeting Katara first and then Zuko and Toph later). So much contrast between Katara’s experience with Hama, her thoughts about her mother, Gran Gran and the reintroduction of South Water Style. The trauma of bad parental/mentor relationships vs the good examples one can use to alchemise negative patterns that A:TLA was known for (see Iroh, Zuko and Ozai for reference). I don’t want to get too far into spoiler territory but all of this links back to Katara, Hama and Water Tribe and I would have loved to see a further exploration of that and a contrast between her loving bond and fear for Korra vs the villains’ and their education. This would have created more depth between Korra and Amon and co (and wow do I wish that dynamic was explored further - does she even know what happens to him??), and between Katara and Korra and their respective journeys to shoulder their burdens and mature as people and women.

Just think about all those juicy, angsty callbacks we could have done to Hama’s haunting episode! How Katara could have decided to be a better mentor than Hama was to her. (Katara was always a good mentor but if there was any issues in her relationship with Korra re Aang etc this could have been a good place for dramatic tension and resolution.) Of course for all we know this did happen but we don’t see it because we don’t get to see Katara’s training with Korra or much of Katara at all in LoK apart from her failing to heal Korra.

Plus I adore badass ladies and badass grandmas, I have loads in my original fiction. I love people defying stereotypes and sadly there is still a lack of stories not only depicting a range of female role-models but female mentoring and matrilineal bonding.

Read the incredible bestseller Women Who Run with the Wolves by Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés if you want to learn more about the power of storytelling, myth and female hero journeys and initiation. A key part of that book is how women have been historically and psychologically undervalued and harmed by the prevailing culture for centuries. Also how it has broken matrilineal lines of wisdom and support and distorted cultural values of how girls and women (not to mention boys and men) view the Feminine. This leaks down into our modern day stories via inherited psychological conditioning and unexamined tropes. 

For example - how many ‘wise old men’ figures can you think of in pop culture, myth, fairytale, religion? Quite a few I’d imagine. Now contrast that with the ‘wise old woman’ archetype...I guessing not as many. I’m sure you’ll find a few but I bet more often the words that come to mind are ‘witch’, ‘sorceress’, ‘crone’ etc. 

The Fairy Godmother (I gave you that one for free;) ) is an exception but she is a watered down version of the powerful, ambivalent figures of folklore such as Baba Yaga. Trust me if the Yaga was your mentor, as she was to Vasalisa in the fairytale Vasalisa the Wise/the Beautiful, you ain’t coming out of that encounter with a crystal slipper, you’re coming out it with a burning skull that incinerates your enemies and I’d like to see that tale popularised!

As mentioned Katara did feature in Korra’s life as a support, a vague mentor figure and a healer - in fact she is the one that initiates Korra’s heroine journey by supporting her decision to leave the stifling confines of her compound, go to Republic City alone and learn airbending. She also offers emotional and medical support during Korra’s traumatic recovery later on in the series. But mostly Katara’s involvement is at the peripheries of The Legend of Korra except when she was failing to heal her.

This isn’t to say that comfort and softness in female relationships are lesser than battle prowess or mental fortitude. Or that failure always bad, it is human and can be a powerful narrative tool for character development. I’m not interested in the infallible ‘Strong Female Character’ stereotype and neither is Estés. Her book illustrates that the Feminine encapsulates all of these qualities and many more and looking at the original Katara she was a perfect example of that. She was empathetic, intelligent, powerful, fierce, devoted, flawed, playful, angry.

I guess what I’m saying is that I miss that Katara and I miss the opportunity of  seeing Korra interact with and learn from that Katara, especially as they have so much in common in terms of shared history, powers, culture and even looks. I’m also missing the opportunity of seeing that Katara battle Amon and all the drama and backstory that could have ensued from those encounters! After all Katara took on her mother’s killer, Hama and the Fire Nation (including one angsty honour-obsessed Fire Prince and his powerful sister), you’re telling me she would have just let Korra, her family and friends be in grave danger in the name of ‘leaving it to the kids’ ESPECIALLY since her own history turned out to be so deeply connected to all of this? Nah...

It’s important for girls* to see a range of wholesome female characters and dynamics play out in their media from an early age, especially to rework and combat the historic negative tropes that our culture is still steeped in. It’s also important to address the devaluing of the elderly, in particular elderly women. The Legend of Korra does in fact build on this from Avatar the Last Airbender by having an even greater range of capable women and girls across ages and morality spectrum. Korra herself (who I’m liking a lot more than I thought I would), is a real stereotype breaker. Toph I’ve heard fulfils the ‘wise old (crotchy) woman’ archetype later in the series. I just wish, given how much I adore A:TLA’s Katara, that we could have seen her shine in an elder role too. 

(*I use terms like ‘girls’, ‘woman/women’ and ‘feminine’. I mean these to also include a broad interpretation of the Feminine than just the hetero/cis-normative one, but sometimes it helps when critiquing something to narrow things down esp something so already psychologically complex in a simple meta.)

[ourimpavidheroine]

Have you seen the review of lok season 1 by Anansi's library? It raises a lot of points about the political implications of the way the Equalists are depicted, for example. And you realise it was made by a person who loves lok but sees what a mess it was.

So first of all, I feel like this ask is pretty loaded.

...a person who loves lok but sees what a mess it was.

Which is kind of setting me up as a person who agrees with that? Or should agree with that? That TLOK was a mess and I should agree with that?

That’s not something I agree with, let me get that straight. I do not, in fact, think that TLOK was a mess. I do think there were some areas in which they stuck the landing and others where they needed some work but I do not see it as a mess. (Unlike Voltron, for example.)

So if you are looking for me to agree with that premise then I don’t. (And if you aren’t looking for me to agree with that premise then never mind!)

And in terms of me watching/reading reviews of the show:

One of the things that makes a successful review is being able to approach the media from a neutral place and review it for what it was, not for what you wish it would have been. Critique vs. criticism, in a nutshell.

9 times out of 10 when I see reviews or critiques of the show they are all about what viewers wanted to see instead of what they did see. And, if I am going to be perfectly blunt, that sort of thing doesn’t interest me at all. 

Like. AT ALL. 

No offense meant but I would rather whack myself repeatedly on the head with a toy hammer then watch a half hour of someone I don’t know (and by that I mean don’t know personally but also don’t know anything about) giving their super intense nitpicks about everything that wasn’t perfect to them. It’s not only time I don’t have (I mean, I’m a working adult, most of my not so frequent spare time is spent writing fanfic and reading books) but time I would really rather spend doing something I enjoy.

And maybe that is a cranky old generational thing! Or maybe it’s a working adult who has to curate their free time thing! Or maybe it’s just my ADHD brain that loses focus even with the subtitles my Auditory Processing Disorder demands thing! But there it is.

I tried very hard to listen to that review but the second they said they didn’t like Lin because she was a cop and ACAB I was done. That’s not a review of the show, that’s giving me your personal opinion about cops.

And let me make it very clear, I happen to agree with that opinion about cops in general, so it isn’t about whether or not I agree with people. It’s about that fact that telling me you don’t like a character because you have a personal issue with cops is not a review. It’s an opinion. And like I said, I am a)not interested in the personal opinions of strangers and b)am pretty selfish about doing what I enjoy during my free time. Sifting through the shit out there to find the very occasional gold nugget is exhausting for me. I just can’t. Not enough spoons in my day.

And trust me, it’s not just this YouTuber. (Who, in fact, I had never heard of before.) It’s most of them, in any fandom. It’s why you hardly ever see me reblogging reviews or meta on this blog. It’s because I don’t seek them out and for the most part, ignore them. It may be that after 20 minutes of listening to people talk about their personal preferences there might be an interesting nugget in there that is actual critique instead of criticism but I never make it that far. 

[cobraonthecob]

In your LOK salt post you mentioned 2 things I can't help but comment on Bloodbending being the only bending subset art that’s demonized (meanwhile lightningbending gets to power Republic City) Bloodbending is terrifying & was created by a horrifying woman (she had a valid reason to create it but after getting out she used it on innocent people who's only sin was being in fire nation territory.) Poor mishandling of the concepts/conflicts (the Equalists being led by a bender) Hitler wasn't Aryan.

okay so you’re likely to be a canon purist (and this is a generalization and I’m sorry but that’s my first impression here) but I’ve been living in fanon and headcanon land since I prefer to have the “no bending is inherently evil”. 

Lightningbending is terrifying! It’s fast (see: Ozai and Azula), no counter if you’re not a firebender (unless you’re a bloodbender who’s strong enough to bloodbend w/o a full moon), and it’s heckin’ lightning!!!! Does that mean it should be demonized? According to you, probably. According to me? No bending should be “demonized” because it can hurt or was invented by someone who was traumatized. 

and if you want to come over to fanon land, you’re welcome to join, since several people explore bloodbending in a way where it doesn’t have a negative use - it can be used in the medical field ranging from heart attacks to strokes, or it could stop lightningbending or a chi-blocker from getting to close. or see this post i made a few months ago (inaccuracies are likely, I was a bit cranky and tired then)

I...don’t really want to address the last comment since my memory of history is terrible besides the usual “yeah this dude was bad don’t let history repeat itself (even though it totally is) but what I was thinking of when I wrote that particular line was this meta by Araeph (it’s a bit long but my salt’s origin can be found there, please be patient)

[meggannn]

(based on your previous ask) do you mind if I ask how you feel about lok? is there a general consensus if it's good or bad? youre really insightful and just wanted to know if there were any major issues you had with it

yeah sure, i’ll do my best. if you want a quick answer to your question, here is a link to some of my other korra posts where i say pretty much the same thing as i do here, just in fewer words. cause this post will be mostly an unhappy summary of my experience watching the show. this post will contain spoilers, and disclaimer, i am a really biased, disappointed asshole, so i’ll just admit that now. 

short answer: i liked the concept of lok more than the product we got. a lot of that is because you had a physically buff brown wlw protagonist written mostly by cishet white men and, as you can imagine, it wasn’t handled great. when i think of lok now i tend to fluctuate between bittersweet nostalgia and quiet, simmering rage.

if you don’t care about the show summary, skip at the middle paragraph break down to my tldr.

so for those who don’t know, LOK was really my first “big” fandom on tumblr. when it was announced, a bunch of ATLA purists were already hating on it because 1) brown woman, 2) it was unrealistic to go from ATLA’s technology to streampunk in 70 years, and 3) it wasn’t ATLA, basically. it was my first big interest that i got to participate in as it was airing, and i was really excited about it. i defended it, i wrote meta, i liveblogged, i wrote tons of fic and spammed theories/wants before the damn show even had a release date. all that is to say, i was Invested, and i believed in it before i even saw it. people called me a bnf, i’m not sure if that’s true, but i did gain a lot my followers in my first few years on tumblr by posting korra stuff. a lot of them – hello – i think are still around today (i’m not certain how all the video games hasn’t scared them off yet)

i should say at this point that my opinion of LOK the show has been really wrapped up in the ugly stain left by the fanbase. korra the character has been the subject of tons of racist, misogynistic criticism since the moment we saw her back; when she showed up on screen as a proud young woman who fought with authority and stood up for herself, that was the nail in the coffin for her reputation. i agreed that she had a bit of growing up to do, because ATLA/LOK have always been stories about coming of age and maturing, but i disagreed strongly with this notion that she deserved to be “humbled,” which is what a lot of fans were looking for.

the overall consensus on if it’s “good” depends on who you ask. most people agree that ATLA is better overall: it was better plotted because it benefited from more writers in the room and more episodes to flesh out the world. opinions on LOK specifically range based a lot on their opinions of the K/orra/sami pairing, if they were involved in or what side they were on in any of the fandom wank, and also just complete random chance.

i’ll go more in depth into my ‘history’ with the show below, but i just wanted to mention that all the while the show was airing, korra was being hit with waves of criticism by so-called fans for basically being a confident brown woman who were calling for her to learn her place, respect her elders, etc. another common theme was fandom’s brilliant fucking idea that asami, a light-skinned feminine non-bending woman who was more polite and reserved than korra, would’ve made a better avatar. because you know why. (korra was often described as brutal, rough, unsophisticated, next to pretty, perfect asami. and asami is a fine character, to be clear, but that’s what she was – fine. nothing really stands out about her, which is a fault of the writing, because she had a lot of potential too.) so anyway all of this did sour my mood toward engaging with other fans outside my friend circle.

–

it was around maybe the middle of book 1 that i realized the writing for the show was simpler than what i was expecting – not that it was childish, which it was (because it was written for children, i understood that), but i felt like the plot meandered and the twists came out of nowhere. it felt like they were making it up as they were going, and it opened threads it didn’t answer. one of the biggest threads was the equalist revolution, which was a very sensitive topic that got jettisoned when the leader was revealed to be a fraud, and that devalued the entire movement in an instant. really disappointing, because i was looking forward to seeing that addressed. for a lot of people, this was a dealbreaker, and they started walking. i stuck with it, but loosely.

book 2 aired, focusing on the spiritual world and some really cool history. it still suffered a lot from awkward b-plots and loose threads it didn’t know how to tackle. korra lost her memory and then regained it 2 episodes later with no consequences, mako flip-flopped between korra and asami because bryke don’t know how to write teenage romances without making it a love triangle, and at some point bolin kissed a girl against her will and they didnt acknowledge that at all? i honestly don’t remember. anyway at the end of book 2, even though korra saves the day and prevents the world from descending into darkness for ten thousand years, due to events beyond her control, korra loses the spiritual connection that ties her to all of the previous avatars – aang, roku, kyoshi, wan, everyone. and people hit the fucking ceiling. “korra’s not a real avatar if she lost her connection to the old ones! that’s the entire point of the cycle! this show is bullshit, it’s not canon anymore!” (the entire point that finale demonstrated that korra’s power alone was enough to save the world and she didn’t need anyone else. but people found that ~unrealistic~ i guess). as you can imagine, being a fan of LOK is starting to get a little tiring by now.

books 3-4 is where the korra haters got to love the show again, because they were both straight-up torture porn. after everything she did saving the world, this is the arc where korra got beat down, tortured, dragged into the dirt, swallowed and spat back out. book 3 is a lot of people’s favorites because it was the first book that felt fully plotted out before it was put on air, which is why i enjoyed it too. but for me it was difficult to see a girl, whose identity revolved around being the avatar after being raised and sheltered to think it was all she was good for, effectively abandon her life and even her name by the beginning of book 4 because the events of book 3 were that traumatizing for her. somehow this was character development. we were encouraged to stick with it because we hoped korra would find herself again. and she did, sorta.

but it makes me furious that people who had quit in books 1-2 came back during 3 because they heard these books were better – aka book 3, the book that featured korra the least, and books 3-4 in which korra got her ass handed to her in some of the hardest fights vs some of the cruelest villains of the series. (nevermind that the book 3 villains suffer from the anime villain curse: they quickly went from “cool character design” to “wait, how does this rando group of villains show up with powers literally no one in the universe has ever heard before?” – questions no one ever answers)

anyway book 4 is a mish-mash of… i’m not sure. i’ve rewatched all the books but i don’t know if i’ll ever touch this one again. the culturally appropriating airbender wannabe, zaheer (a complete rando who somehow masters airbending enough to fly, which was a huge middle finger to airbending masters aang and tenzin for no reason) a guy who literally tortured korra one season before and put her in a wheelchair, is the one who the writers send korra to for her spiritual awakening that lets her save the day. not tenzin or jinora, her spiritual teachers with whom she has positive, healthy relationships – they send her back to her abuser who terrifies and degrades her a bit more before deciding to help. this was a pattern: the writers made both korra and asami face their abusers (in asami’s case, her father) for catharsis instead of gaining peace over their trauma another, healthier way because…. i’m not sure why. there is no reason why. and then there’s the guilt tripping nonsense of asami feeling as if she had to forgive her father, who tried to kill her, because he said he was sorry and sacrificed himself for her in the finale. it’s angst galore, if you like that kind of thing, which i normally do, except this is less angst and more just the writers trying to hammer in torture porn, grimdark, and poor attempts at morally gray nonsense into their finale season.

anyway at the end of her journey, korra, our buff brown woc, learns that she had to suffer to learn how to be compassionate and relate to her enemy. i’m not exaggerating, she literally says that. which is lovely.

–

tldr: i wasted a lot of emotional time and energy into this show and was extremely disappointed when some of the ending’s notes were “you had to suffer to become a better person” and “forgive your abusers/villains because aren’t we all the same in the end?”

but also on a strictly narrative level, LOK also bit off way more than it could chew both emotionally and thematically. it had an amazing premise, but it was not committed to

utilizing the steampunk genre to its best potential in the bending world (after the creativity in the rest of the worldbuilding, the LOK series finale was literally fighting a giant robot – seriously?)

giving its hero the respect and character arc she deserved. and i don’t say that because i think korra had no growing up to do in b1, she did, but she didn’t deserve for it to happen like that.

so basically i realized that a lot of the writers that made ATLA great weren’t brought back for LOK, and it showed. i realized that the LOK writers, when they listened to fans, were listening to the fans that whined the loudest, or (more likely, since they plan seasons years before we see them) they thought from the beginning that it was a good idea for korra to go through years’ worth of pain just to be spat out a humbler, “better” person

the reason i told you all that about me defending LOK in the beginning is because i need you to understand that i believed in LOK longer than i probably should’ve. i wanted it to be everything i was expecting in a diverse children’s show with an unorthodox female protaganist. but just because they had a brown wlw heroine doesn’t mean that they deserved to be praised for it when they treated her like garbage.

and korra and asami walk into a beam of light together in the last second of the show and i’m supposed to applaud the writers for their bravery or something

[equalmeasurefiction]

You’re Oppressing Yourselves: An exploration of interpretations, bad writing, and missed opportunities

Responders and Writing Techniques

There is a method to my madness.  Part of that method is to introduce an idea and then bring it up again only a few posts later to help me explain my logic.

So let me begin this meta by explaining that I’m a #4 in terms of how I engage with a piece of media—I’m a responder.  So, my first instinct is to try and make sense of a work within the framework that has been provided by the creator, or to provide my own framework in order to achieve a better understanding of what I’ve just absorbed.

This is why I tend to write fanfiction before I start writing metas.  I can’t actually ‘see’ a work until I’ve chewed it up and reprocessed it/responded to it.

As a result of this particular quirk, I’m less likely to point out ‘bad writing’ right off the bat.  When I come across something ‘inconsistent’ or ‘out of character’ for a given character in a fictional work, my first instinct is to try and figure out what the writer is trying to tell me about the character.  Now, most of the time, my approach falls flat, because there are many inexperienced or rushed or frustrated writers in the world and when a character does something dumb or out of character it’s usually because the writer didn’t think things through, didn’t like the job, or is simply lazy.

That said, my tendency to try and read into inconsistencies isn’t entirely unfounded.  Creating character inconsistencies is a valid writing technique, and it can be very effective when properly deployed. This technique can be used a foreshadowing, a means of setting up backstory, or even a proverbial Chekhov's gun.  Character consistency and inconsistency is immensely important to character development, so any action that is ‘out of the ordinary’ for a character is a big deal.

Okay, now that I’ve put a bit of framework in place, let’s dig into Legend of Korra.  This is, after all, a show so full of character inconsistencies that it’s the only standard character trait.  We’re going to be focusing on a particularly inflammatory line from Season 1, Episode 1.

I’m going to provide a bit of critical analysis before digging into my perspective as a responder, because it’s important to point out bad writing in all its forms.

The Scene

Equalist: Are you tired of living under the tyranny of benders?  Then join the equalists!  For too long the bending elite of this city have forced non-benders to live as lower class citizens!  Join Amon, and together we will tear down the bending establishment!

Korra: What are you talking about?!  Bending is the coolest thing in the world!

Equalist: Oh yeah?  Let me guess, you’re a bender!

Korra: Yeah!  I am!

Equalist: And I bet you’d just love to knock me off this platform with some water bending, huh!

Korra: I’m seriously thinking about it!

Equalist: This is what’s wrong with the city!  Benders like this girl only use their power to oppress us!

Crowd: *General Outcry and Agreement*

Korra: What?!  I’m not oppressing anyone!  You’re-you’re oppressing yourselves!

Critical Analysis

When I look back on this scene, I can’t help but think that everyone should have realized that Legend of Korra would never really be able to measure up to Avatar: the Last Airbender and adjusted their expectations accordingly.  There are some very serious writing problems in this first episode and, for me, this scene captures them perfectly.  All of these problems stem from one incredibly important, but often ignored fact: this is the first episode.

First episodes are ‘introductory’ episodes.  They’re the ‘first chapter’ of a story and it’s important to set the status quo.  While it’s certainly possible to drop a group of characters into the midst of crisis in the first episode, it’s important that you establish character during the crisis.  Unless a writer is pulling some big, fancy flash-back sequence, it’s too soon to start including character inconsistency moments (unless you want to establish ‘inconsistency' as a core character trait, which is what LoK did).

This scene is a character inconsistency moment.  It is built up over the course of several previous scenes and comes to a head in this particular character interaction.  The sequence begins with Korra trying to buy food off a food vendor and being told off for not having money…

It continues the thread with Korra meeting the homeless man and being surprised by his poverty...

These two scenes both set a thematic tone and reveal important information about Korra’s character.

The thematic tone that’s been set by these first two interactions is ‘money and poverty in a city.’  The audience is watching as Korra stops, listens, and learns from the people she encounters.  Korra is surprised at what she encounters, revealing her ignorance of the greater world, but at the same time, she does not become combative with the people who are ‘educating’ her.  She accepts what she’s being told as truth and places her trust in the locals…

In light of the thematic setup and the characterization provided by the previous two scenes, I think it’s readily apparent that this scene makes no sense in the context of episode.  Korra was not confronting non-bender oppression in the scenes leading up to this, she was encountering economic realities.  This scene disrupts Korra’s characterization as someone who is capable of listening and growing an awareness of the problems of others.

Even Korra’s interjection in this scene, which opens her conversation with the equalist is completely out of left field.  The equalist is talking about benders oppressing non-benders.  Korra, however, ignores the discussion of oppression (which is surprising considering her temperament and approach to ‘solving problems’ in the very next scene) and argues that the act of bending is great and amazing.  This has absolutely nothing to do with the point that the equalist was making, which goes against everything that we had been shown about Korra’s character up until that point.

All the same, this scene would have been fine if the writers had actually done something with Korra’s reaction in the course of the series.  But there is no exploration or examination of Korra’s behavior in this instance.  They gave the audience Chekhov’s gun and then did nothing with it—that’s one of the biggest sin’s a writer can commit.  A good editor would have nixed this scene before it made it to production.

So, this is a scene that is thematically inconsistent and creates character inconsistencies and traits which are never resolved in the course of the series.  Why does this scene exist?

I think it all comes down to one line: ‘You’re oppressing yourselves!’

That line carries a huge amount of emotional and psychological baggage for anyone who has ever been part of a minority group and has been shouted down by someone else.  Many have been conditioned to react to that line negatively because their lives have been flooded with it and similar sentiments.  That line is loaded with ‘shock value’ and was probably included to provoke a reaction.

Its inclusion isn’t just bad writing, it’s a blatant attempt at making a ‘statement’ through a character.  And making a statement through a character without ‘follow-through’ (making sure that Chekhov’s gun goes off) is bad form.

Responder Analysis

But this scene can make sense in the context of the series.  However, making it make sense would involve Bryke actually writing a loving family and exploring the dynamics of that family.  I’m not convinced that Bryke knows how to do that.

I’m going to pull a little from personal experience here.

Now, I’ve seen ‘you’re oppressing yourselves’ tossed around online for ages, but I’ve only ever heard anyone say anything remotely close to it in real life once.  A friend made the comment after we left a lecture that discussed theories on civil liberties and the development of certain aspects of oppressive language in regards to a specific group.  We ended up talking about it and I was really surprised to learn that they had a close relative who was part of that ‘you’re oppressing yourselves’ group.

This relative was a family matriarch, had a lot of power within their community, and was a financially successful business person.  For my friend, the idea that someone who was like that might suffer any form of oppression seemed absolutely ridiculous.  How could one of the most influential and powerful people in my friend’s life possibly suffer any form of oppression when they commanded so much power and authority within their community?

Back to Korra.  Up until this particular scene, Korra blindly and blithely accepts what she’s told, because she doesn’t know much about Republic City.  The writers are showing her lack of knowledge.  If Korra accepts what she’s told when she has no knowledge on a topic, then why would she argue against the idea that non-benders were oppressed unless she felt that she knew a thing or two?

Now, I doubt that the White Lotus took the time to explain bender/non-bender relations to Korra (one of the many, many baffling holes in her education…), so that means that whatever understanding that Korra has about non-benders comes from personal experience.  That means that there must have been a strong, non-bender in Korra’s personal life who informed Korra’s understanding of the relationship between benders and non-benders.

The first and most obvious strong non-bender in Korra’s life is Pema.  The wife of Aang’s son, Tenzin, who has no fear of her husband and who, on occasion, bosses him around.

But Pema and Korra don’t really share much screen-time and they rarely share much time talking about anything (outside of ill-fated romance).  So, that means that the tough-as-nails non-bender might be a little closer to home.

Let’s talk about Senna, the Avatar’s mother who is never shown to have any bending ability in any existent season of Legend of Korra.  Tonraq is a powerful bender, and someone that Korra clearly respects and admires.  If Senna, his wife, were a non-bender and Korra spent the first five years of her life in a household where her non-bender mother actively argued with, bossed around, and was respected by a powerful and formidable water bender what conclusion would she naturally reach?

This is why I favor the theory that Senna is a non-bender.  Korra’s outburst is out of character for her, unless it’s a defensive reaction to having her understanding of a close, personal relationship with a non-bender disrupted.  It can be painful and difficult for a child, particularly a sheltered child, to be made to recognize the vulnerability of a parent or provider, especially when the child is put on ‘the side’ of the oppressor.

But Senna is not a non-bender.  This scene only serves to tell the audience that the lead character is an ignorant, unlikable brat.  And it really bothers me that this scene, which could have set up for some incredibly powerful mother/daughter moments and an exploration of family dynamics, was nothing more than a pointless dig at the audience…

Which why I’m ignoring Bryke’s canon and going with my own head canon where Senna is concerned.  So, tough non-bender Senna is my jam.

[queenconsuelabananahammock]

Honestly I really loved book 1 and 2 of loK. The people calling Korra a Mary Sue were really stupid because she wasnt meant to just be another Aang and her struggle wasn't with mastering bending, it was with learning airbending while finding her place in a world that seemingly didn't care about the avatar anymore. Book 3 and 4 got too meta and admittedly I didn't finish the series, but if you look at just 1 and 2 as a miniseries, LoK is a really fantastic continuation of the avatar universe imo

If you're looking at her finding her place in the world, I agree to a *de*gree. My problems with Book 1 wasn’t really related to Korra. She was so much fun to watch grow. But the1. Random and overly complicated villain backstory2. Ridiculous love...rectangle3. Poorly written equalist movement plot where I guess they wanted to be serious/deepBut I lived for Korra and Queen Lin. The fight scenes were fantastic as always. And I loved the way that they did Republic City.

[firelxdykatara]

so i think i just figured out something, as i’m rewatching book 1 (in part because of @devildogdemon and their great makorra meta from this morning which ignited a lot of feelings for me)

first of all, i’d love to take the first three episodes of LoK and bottle them up and protect them from the rest of the show, bc while they weren’t perfect, (a lot of complaints such as the unnecessary westernization of the worldbuilding still would’ve held true) they could have been the foundation for a much better show. there’s genuine bonding, character growth, and relationship development here, a lot of which is derailed by asami’s arrival in the next episode and the weird love triangle shenanigans that ultimately proved the downfall of any chance the krew had at being a found family--at being true friends even.

i’m pretty sure asami was originally meant to be one of the equalists mako and korra were fighting when trying to save bolin from the triad.

one of them is very clearly a woman, and there’s this odd focus on her riding a motorcycle--it seems odd in hindsight, bc nothing really came of it, but if I’m right and that was supposed to be asami, it makes sense given her introduction in the next episode. she fights up close and personal with both korra and mako, and korra is there bending multiple elements, so she would know a) that korra is the avatar, b) that mako is close to her, and c) that they are trying to save someone close to them who was in that transport (and unlikely to be Shin).

this makes asami very conveniently coming just short of running mako down in her motorbike a lot less contrived if that was purposeful--asami, on orders from her father and amon, getting close to mako so that she could get close to the avatar through him, and keep tabs on the group in order to keep them from interfering with the equalists and their agenda.

i realize that bryke decided not to have asami be an equalist bc they liked her, but like, that just proves to me that they really didn’t know what they were doing--because if they’d kept asami an equalist, and had her go through an arc where she grew closer to mako, korra, and bolin, and grew to genuinely care for them, to the point where she couldn’t betray them and instead wound up betraying her father to help them and then worked to prove herself and regain their trust...............that could have been the foundation for an amazing character arc.

and it would have meant asami had more to her than nice hair, money, and technology.

we were truly robbed.