#legend of korra crit

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

[comradekatara]

some of my favorite characters in lok are guru laghima and xai bau and we only even know who they are because zaheer talks about them. but i care more about them than i do like 90% of the actual onscreen characters in the show.

[teratocore]

The more time goes on the more beef I have with LoK gonna be honest.

I think my basic crits of the series is that it lacks the nuance and maturity of the original series and it goes out of its way to demystify the original series for stupid battles and kaiju nonsense. Like it has some interesting ideas but it puts shock value over actual worldbuilding and characters. Whatever though bc revolutionary representation moment or something.

[felucians]

why did i go on the legends of korra tag and people are comparing the air nation and water tribes to Celtic nations such as Ireland and Wales.

yes they are a colonised group, but the differences between the Irish/Welsh and the Tibetan people and Inuk are vastly different.

It's also incredibly insensitive to compare cultures of color to white nations which whether people like to admit it or not have a system of racism in place and participated within colonisation.

you have every other media to see yourself in and yet you choose the media that only has poc?

[korras-fingerguns]

question do lok antis know how to use tags or

[genrebender]

Some Canonically Queer Characters:

Asexuals and/or Aromatic:

-Jon Sims - asexual biromantic (The Magnus Archives)

-Jay - aromatic & asexual (Supernatural Academy -in show not sure about books)

-Alastor - aroace (Hazbin Hotel)

-Caduseus Clay - aroace (Critical Role: Campaign two the Mighty Nein)

-Lilith Clawthorne - aroace (The Owl House)

-Artemis/Diana aroace (PJO)

-Hestia aroace (PJO)

-Athena/Minerva alloromantic & asexual (PJO)

-Reyna Ramírez-Arellano alloromatic & asexual (PJO)

Bisexual:

-Luz Noceda (The Owl House)

-Korra (The Legend of Korra)

-Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra)

-Millie (Helluva Boss)

-Moxxie (Helluva Boss)

-Loki (Marvel Comics and MCU)

-Loki (PJO/Magnus Chase books/Riordianverse)

-Tony Stark (Marvel Comics only)

-Logan/Wolverine (Comics non 161 universe)

-Jesper Fahey (Grishaverse/Six of Crows)

-Nina Zenik (Grishaverse/Six of Crows)

-Tommy Shepherd (Marvel Comics)

-David Alleyne (Marvel Comics)

-Hercules (Marvel Comics)

-Marvel Boy (Marvel Comics)

-Yizhi (Iron Widow)

-Shimin (Iron Widow)

-Zetain (Iron Widow)

-Mystique (Marvel Comics)

-Kate “Kitty” Pride (Marvel Comics)

-Harley Quinn (DC)

-Poison Ivy (DC)

-Catwoman (DC)

-Joker (DC)

-Tim Drake (DC)

-Wonder Woman (DC)

-Yuuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! On Ice)

-Bow (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

-Glimmer (She-Ra)

-Mermista (She-Ra)

-Sea Hawk (She-Ra)

-Lonnie (She-Ra)

-Rogelio (She-Ra)

-Kyle (She-Ra)

-Entrapta (She-Ra)

-Tim Stoker (TMA)

-Georgie Barker (TMA)

-Vax’ildan (Crit Role: Campaign 1 Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Vex’ahlia (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Allura (Vox Machina)

-Caleb Widowgast (Mighty Nein)

-Mollymauk/Lucien/Kingsley Tealeaf (Mighty Nein)

-Laerryn Coramar-Seelie (EXU Calamity)

-Juno Steel (The Penumbra Podcast)

-Star Lord (Marvel Comics)

-Apollo (PJO)

-Zeus/Jupiter (PJO)

-Poseidon/Neptune (PJO)

Demisexual:

-Keyleth (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Essek Theylss - demisexual & demiromantic (The Mighty Nein)

Pansexual:

-Deadpool (Marvel Comics and implied in movies)

-Blitzø (Helluva Boss)

-Rita (The Penumbra Podcast)

Lesbian:

-Adora (She-Ra)

-Catra (She-Ra)

-Perfuma (She-Ra)

-Scorpia (She-Ra)

-Netossa (She-Ra)

-Spinnerella (She-Ra)

-Kima of Vord (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Beauregard Lionett (The Mighty Nein)

-Yahsa Nydoorin (The Mighty Nein)

-Kara Brunehilde (Venture Maidens)

-Rem (Venture Maidens)

-Gidget (Venture Maidens)

-Hemithea (Riodianverse)

-Josephine (Riodianverse)

-Lavinia Asimov (Riodianverse)

Gay/Achillean:

-George (She-Ra)

-Lance (She-Ra)

-Double Trouble (She-Ra)

-Taryon Darrington (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Shaun Gilmore (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Orym (Critical Role: Campaign 3 Hell’s Bells)

-Teddy Altman (Marvel Comics)

-Billy Kaplan (Marvel Comics)

-Bobby Drake (Marvel Comics)

-Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel)

-Cecil Gershwin Palmer (WTNV)

-Carlos (Welcome to Night Vale)

-Nico di Angelo (PJO)

-Hyacinthus (PJO)

-Ganymede (PJO)

-Wylan Van Eck (Grishaverse)

Trans (M&F):

-Jewelstar (She-Ra)

-Perfuma (She-Ra)

-Khemdal Dust (The Mighty Nein)

-Terra (The Mighty Nein)

-Yussa Errenis (The Mighty Nein)

-Sipriotes (Riodianverse)

Nonbinary:

-Double Trouble (She-Ra)

-Jay (Supernatural Academy)

-Bryce Feelid (The Mighty Nein)

-Juno Steel (The Penumbra Podcast)

-Raine Whispers (TOH)

-Masha (TOH)

-Pottery Barn??? (Riodianverse)

-Mother William non-binary & two-spirit (Riordianverse)

Gender-fluid:

-Loki (Marvel Comics)

-Loki (Magnus Chase books)

-Mollymauk Tealeaf (The Might Nein)

-Bryce Feelid (The Mighty Nein)

-Alex Fierro (Magnus Chase books)

Not specified in cannon but generally queer:

-Amity Blight (TOH)

-Raine Whispers (TOH)

-Ed’s Clawthorne (TOH)

-Mara (She-Ra)

-Martin Blackwood MLM (TMA)

-Melanie King WLW (TMA)

-Victor Nikiforov (Yuri!!! On Ice)

-Scanlan Shorthalt (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Zahra Hydris (Vox Machina/TLOVM)

-Stolas (Helluva Boss)

-Eadwulf Grieve (The Mighty Nein)

-Zerxus Ilerez (EXU Calamity)

-Will Solace (PJO)

-Magnus Chase (Riodianverse)

-Piper McLean (PJO)

Polyamorous:

-Yizhi (Iron Widow)

-Li Shimin (Iron Widow)

-Wu Zetain (Iron Widow)

-Star Lord (Marvel Comics)

-Caleb Widowgast (The Mighty Nein)

-Astrid Becke (The Mighty Nein)

-Eadwulf Grieve (The Mighty Nein)

-Lonnie (She-Ra)

-Rogelio (She-Ra)

-Kyle (She-Ra)

[audriandae]

Hello and welcome to me

i've realised i forgot to add a self introduction here.

Hi, Audrian, here. I use they/them pronouns.

I do things! Inconsistently!

Art (semi frequently. I often don't end up sharing it) [#audrianart]

Writing (more frequently. I barely share it) [#audrian writes]

D&D (not as frequently as I'd like. scheduling issues my beloathed)

Scream (so frequently. at least once a day. mostly irl)

Minecraft! (streaming Life Lost every Saturday from 1-4pm EST!)

Main fandoms I enjoy:

Traffic Light SMP [3rd Life, Last Life, Double Life, Limited Life, Secret Life] (so unwell about them. I've seen Grian's, Tango's, and Pearl's perspectives, so expect content mainly from that) (and also have you heard of the Life SMP Mafia games–?) [#lifesmpmafia]

D&D (mainly Crit Role C3, EXU, Candela Obscura, a bunch of the short campaigns)

Countdown to Countdown (Webcomic by Velinxi, check it out if you haven't, it's so good)

Fandoms I may scream about occasionally:

She-Ra

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Legend of Korra

The Owl House

more to be discovered when I scream about them

Disclaimer: the content I create is at the whims of a tiny monkey on a unicycle clashing cymbals together and screaming. the monkey controls my brain. I do not control the screaming unicycling cymbal crashing monkey. i'm also really bad at consistency.

[rwdestuffs]

So some WB animation & CN staffers are trying to unionize now. No clue whether this means anything for Chicken Dentures, but at this point I'm waaay more hopeful about that & other Texan 'pay us already' animation developments than this hashtagnewvolumelaborwhatlabor? sewage. Lately fndm/rwde wank seems to get very lost in the weeds of in-show character crit, but the former clique's nonresponse to so many disclosures remains fucking awful.

I'm hoping it means that the animators, writers, voice actors, and everyone involved in the show gets decent pay. I get why fans want to see the show continue. For a lot of people, this is how they met online friends, made connections with other artists or writers, and found a community where they belong. But I think that that community can survive even if the show gets delayed like hell.

If fans can keep shouting at Sony to delay Beyond the Spider-Verse so that the animators, writers, VAs, etc. can be paid properly and have the time they need to make a good movie, then so can the fans of RWBY. The main issue is that greenlighting the show is very much out of their hands, so while Spider-Verse is pretty much greenlit, RWBY isn't, so fans need to show enough support to prove that there is enough demand for the show in order for it to continue.

Fans can wait a few years for RWBY so that the animation is good, the writing is good, and so that the people working on it aren't worked to death. And while I'm somewhat curious as to what the show will bring us (good and bad), there needs to be an understanding that a good story is one that takes time.

Legend of Korra once had a filler episode just so they could keep their animators and other such personal on the show, I don't see why RT can't have some delays to make sure their show would be of both quality, and of humane production.

I admittedly, haven't been around the rwde/crtq tag as much lately, so I don't know what's going on. And that's mainly because I've come to the conclusion that any flaw in RWBY is also a flaw in other shows. Say what you want about Emerald, at least they didn't take a doll off the corpse of a girl and send it as a halfhearted idea of a gift to a family member while giving another family member something that was actually had thought put into it, like Iroh. Say what you want about Ilia, at least she didn't hire an assassin to go after the main heroes because she was unsure of her place in the place that rejected her, like Zuko. Say what you want about Ruby, at least she didn't claim to be a non-killing pacifist while also burying people in an avalanche, like Aang did.- Basically, any flaw within RWBY is also a flaw within other shows that are also critically acclaimed, like AtLA.

The main point I'm trying to make here is that the story does deserve to be told. It does deserve to have its ending. But that shouldn't come at the expense of animators, writers, voice actors, or anyone really. If RT can't make the show in a humane way, then they should hand it off to a company that will. If that means they go down, well… They brought that on themselves. And maybe if these guys can get unionized, the show can be made without the expense of people around them. And I'd like to think that the show itself would improve if it were made humanely.

So while I have no idea what the future will hold, I'm hoping that it'll be at least somewhat better than what we have right now. If we fail to make the world better for the next generation, then we've failed as a generation. And the same can be said about previous generations. And future generations too.

[candlekind]

Introduction or Some Shit

If you're seeing this, you're peeping our blog. Hi. Don't mind it being empty; we're still looking for folks to talk to. :)

If you happen to be interested in any of the following medias, feel free to follow us. We're always looking for new friends.

General DNI Crit + Minors DNI please. Proper, extensive list will be up later.

Host will reveal themselves later; for now you can just call us DX.

We're looking for folks into the following:

Reading Materials - Homestuck (Not Including Beyond Canon/^2) - Shadowhunters/ETC - Divergent - They Die At The End - Ranger's Apprentice - Series of Unfortunate Events

Watch Content - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Miraculous Ladybug - Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra - Cells At Work - There's Definitely More (It's just 6 AM And I Can't Think) Games!! This is the LONG LIST. *PC* - 999/VLR/ZTD - Alice: Madness Returns - Assassin's Creed Series* (Slowly playing through it!) - Code Vein - Darkest Dungeon - Dying Light - House Flipper - Maplestory - Octopath Traveler - Project Zomboid - RAFT - Slime Rancher - Starbound - Stardew Valley - State of Decay 2 - Watchdogs/Watchdogs 2 - The Wild Eight *Switch* - Animal Crossing (NL/NH) - Pokemon (D/P/Plat+) - Mariokart 8 - Mario Party: Superstars - Splatoon - The Legend of Zelda (OoT/WW/TP/SS/BOTW)

*PS4* - Kingdom Hearts (Haven't Played 3; Played Re:Mix SLOWLY.) - Spiderman (Don't Remember The Full Title) - Detriot: Become Human More to be added as the library expands I guess lol.

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Korra and her Brutalization: A Legend of Korra Meta

In honor of International Womens’ Day, I want to talk a little bit about Legend of Korra and the treatment of Korra (and to a small extent other women) throughout the show. Content warning: there's some disturbing scenes that I show here, but if you've watched all of LoK, you should be fine.

Korra starts off confident; she is a young avatar who is eager to learn and feels suffocated from the isolation she is kept in from a very young age. But that doesn’t stop her, and like the headstrong girl she is, she moves to Republic City to make a difference and step into her role as the avatar.

Korra immediately starts to doubt herself; she becomes unsure of her abilities and frustrated with herself, and through that she learns to become emotionally vulnerable with Tenzin. To me, this was really great. It showed that you can be confident and vulnerable, and that the two aren’t necessarily independent of each other.

(I’m going to be honest, the 2nd season I didn’t really remember much of, so I’m just going to skip over that. Because what I really want to talk about is season 3.)

In season three, Korra faces the Red Lotus, an “anarchist” group that essentially wants to kill her. And they get pretty close. First, I want to talk about how Tenzin is beaten by the Red Lotus. This has been brought up in Lily Orchard’s (in?)famous LOK video, and while I disagree with her on many many topics of the show, I really think she has a point here. When Tenzin is being brutalized by the Red Lotus, the camera pans away. It is SO painful to see him like this, and the directors know it. It’s TOO painful to see it, so they don’t show you it, and the episode ends before we can see him be defeated.

Contrast that with Korra. They show you every detail of this. And I mean every detail.

It’s disgusting, and they refuse to treat her with any sort of decency or respect like they do Tenzin. It’s almost like they want us to enjoy her torturing. It’s genuinely gross.

People will often refute this by saying “LoK is just a darker show! Look at what they did to the Earth Queen!” And while yes, it is marketed towards an older audience, there’s still no point in brutalizing Korra this way. The main difference between Korra and the Earth Queen is that… well, Korra’s the protagonist. We’re supposed to be rooting for her, and while the Earth Queen being suffocated was definitely dark, it wasn’t unprecedented. The audience was never supposed to like the Earth Queen—she exploited and kidnapped her own people, so of course we wouldn’t care THAT much if she died. But we’ve been with Korra since the beginning. We’re supposed to want her to be happy, and why on earth would we want her to be tortured brutally in such a disgusting way that gives her absolutely no dignity? If we want her to succeed?

(here Zaheer uses the same technique used on the Earth Queen to suffocate here on Korra. for some reason)

In Season 4, the main focus is on Korra and her healing from the brutal things the Red Lotus did to her. She is clearly still struggling, and it could have been another great way to show how being physically strong and confident doesn’t mean you can’t be vulnerable. But they make a lot of bad choices in this season.

One of my main gripes is that in order to heal, she has to return to her abuser, Zaheer, and HE has to teach her how to feel better.

I don’t want to compare LoK to ATLA, although it’s very important to mention that a show that’s a direct sequel, uses its old characters, and banks off of references, should be able to be compared to its predecessor. But I think it’s important to compare Korra’s arc here to Zuko. This doesn’t come out of nowhere; Korra has a lot of similarities to Zuko. The chopping of her hair is a significant turning point in her arc, and there’s an episode called “Korra Alone” (which is clearly a direct callback; shown below).

The difference between Zuko and Katara is that, a. Zuko never had to accept his abuser, and b. Zuko started off as a villain.

One of Zuko’s major points is when he confronts his father—his abuser. He does not bow to him and give in, saying that maybe he had a few good points or his heart was in the right place, but he directly says that Ozai was wrong for what he did. This isn’t the case with Korra. For some reason, Korra has to learn to trust her abuser. The person who did this to her:

And she has to hear him out.

This leads me to my second point, and what’s basically the complaint I have; despite being a protagonist, the show treats Korra like a villain. It frames her torture scenes as if we’re supposed to be excited that she’s being brutalized, as if we’re supposed to think she deserves it. And it’s not even handled properly as one of the villains we know so well—Zuko, who was able to overcome his abuse and become a protagonist who we root for. Again, Zuko and Korra aren’t directly the same characters, but there are parallels between the two and the show encourages their comparison. When it comes to Korra, however, we’re supposed to believe that she deserves everything that comes to her; the brutal scenes and the lack of dignity, even if she is a protagonist.

And in the end, that’s what we’re meant to believe; that Korra deserved what happened to her. In the finale, Korra says, “I finally understand why I had to go through all that. I needed to understand what true suffering was, so I could become more compassionate to others.”

This is, to put it short, ridiculous. I hate this so much I can’t even begin to say how much I hate it. No, Korra did not have to go through the torture she went through. She did not have to go through the mercury poisoning. She did not have to go through every hardship she did. This “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is so harmful because Korra’s healing revolved around accepting her abuser and thanking him for the awful things he did to her. Korra wasn’t even that cocky by the end of the first season, so what it’s essentially indirectly teaching girls is that if you’re confident, you’ll pay. It’s disgusting.

Zuko got a banishment to the Earth Kingdom, got to have his ideas and practices challenged, but he never got physically tortured. I truly, truly believe that one of the main reasons why Korra is quite literally villainized by the show is because she was a confident, brown teenage girl. None of the male characters are treated with such disrespect and we never get told that they need to be “humbled” by abuse.

This is not completely resolved to LoK; there are some aspects in ATLA that I think could’ve been fixed had there been more women in the room. I tag her a lot (bc her metas are awesome), but I really recommend you read @araeph 's Katara: Consumed by Destiny series. I also have a meta here about how Katara is treated in ATLA, specifically in “The Fortuneteller.” (I want to emphasize that while I am anti-Kataang, I don’t believe that Katara’s treatment had to do with the ship itself or that kataang is inherently anti-Katara. It’s just a note about how her character is treated in this episode and beyond.)

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re ‘glad’ that LoK didn’t feature Suki or Mai or Ty Lee, because they can’t imagine how poorly they’d be represented. And honestly, I can’t blame them.

This isn’t to say that we need to stop watching LOK or even ATLA. I think the internet has this weird problem where we’ve been told that the way to get rid of problematic media is to just stop consuming anything even remotely problematic altogether. But certain aspects of media will always be relatively problematic, since as content creators we sometimes input our biases into the things we create. The solution, then, is not to banish anyone who puts any harmful stereotypes into their content from society, but to actively and healthily criticize it. Bryke are not God, but they’re also not demons put on the earth to suppress woc. They’re white guys that have implicit biases that have worked their way into the content they produce. I think the lesson learned here, is to have women, especially BIWOC, in writing rooms, to prevent atrocious acts from happening to future Korra's.

Happy International Women’s Day, y’all.

[harshuki]

has anyone else seen that video deconstructing why lok sucks ass but there’s that one part that talks about how Korra was constantly put through the most unimaginable, traumatizing pain that was absolutely nothing like what was seen in atla or any of the other characters on the show and was almost (definitely) fetishizating and dehumanizing? like that one scene from s3 where zafar puts metal in her body (?? I think) and the scenes where she’s writhing in pain are put into excruciating detail ... yeah let’s talk about that

[pinepickled]

Well. Idk how to really articulate this. But I feel like people have begun to criticize media for what it has done for everything /but/ the message it was supposed to send. Take Euphoria. I myself haven't watched it, but I have seen two YouTubers do a review on it. One was KennieJD, who said she did not like it due to the fact that it showed nude minors and explicit sex including minors, as well as the lack of criticism of this fact. Whereas Tee Noir, the other youtuber I watched who did a video on it, and she instead focused on the message and representation that Euphoria was supposed to be conveying, i.e. the struggles of an addicted teenager, mental illness, abuse, and other such topics.

Now, Kennie doesn't claim to be the expert on these topics nor does she center her channel around politics and social issues- her bad movies and a beat series is just a fun little thing she does on her channel and which may occasionally contain her own grievances with the issues of a show i.e. racism, sexism, the works. But still, she does not claim that we should regard her opinion as the peak of education or something to live by.

So now the question is: do the "problematic" things in a show undermine it's message?

My answer is no. Engels owned a factory, yet this does not erase the fact that he advocated for workers rights. Bernie may have a rocky past with feminism, but that does not mean he does not advocate strongly for women's rights. In a more movie focused setting- and bear with me, i do not watch many movies- just because Zaheer from Legend of Korra did bad things (that uneducated writers had him do) that does not undermine the general message of anarchism. The message of the show can be seperate from the bad actions of a character, and the other problematic themes of a show, especially when it is known that the writers of a show (like Bryke) don't know much on the topics they may discuss.

Yet time and time again, I seem to see people ignoring the /message/ a story is trying to convey in favor of "canceling" it. It seems unproductive and unhelpful in my eyes.

Tldr: you can still like the message a story conveys and criticize other aspects that aren't the main focus.

[itsmoonpeaches]

TW: mentions of racism, scathing language, overall anger

You morons really did it, huh? To make matters worse, you continue to do it. If you really didn't want POC in a fandom, you might as well say that to our faces. It's pretty low of you to use gross, disrespectful language to a POC in a fandom circle and then not listen to their pleas of you know...stopping that.

Hi, ATLA and LOK fandom. It's you.

Of all the asinine things I am accusing you of, it is racism. It is ignoring POC. It is using platforms that are supposed to be a safe space for content creators who are POC or otherwise to express themselves and harassing them for their valid views. It is selectively hearing POC. It is choosing to push POC to the side and not letting them be angry when they have every right to be.

Microaggressions are one thing, and can be remedied with time and effort and understanding because a lot of the times these things are just simply unknown. But abuse? Blatant racism? Attacking people for having views, for being who they are, and calling them known racist slurs? That's unforgivable.

Until the ATLA Renaissance, I never expected this out of this particular fandom. Lo and behold, I guess I'm the naïve one. I'm sorry, what year is it again? Did we not just go through 2020? Were all the protests on police brutality against the black community not enough for you? ("Only justice will bring peace." -Avatar Kyoshi) Are we not currently living in a world where the tag #StopAsianHate is an actual thing? Are we also not currently trying to survive through a pandemic?

I guess I really thought better of you ATLA/LOK fandom. You are aware that this show has an all POC cast, right? Are you delusional to think otherwise?

To be a fan of a story that preaches equality, peace, freedom, and balance, I would think that we were all on the same page here. Apparently we're not.

Apparently there are some actual toddlers here. Whiny, awful, toddlers that need their hands held and that will never learn a lesson after being told that what they're doing is bad. You few out there, whoever you are, you are disgusting.

Get out. You don't belong in this fandom. You don't belong anywhere, least of all hanging out in an inclusive environment.

If all you wanted was to see fandom spaces wiped of POC, then create your own racist trash bin in some other septic tank where your stench can keep up with the other shit.

Your stupidity is the reason why POC leave the internet, why we leave fandom, why we stop creating.

I did not need to see person after person leave the fandom disheartened for the last few months. I did not want to see friends hurt by your poison. I don't want to see it again. Yet, I just did.

Go to hell.

If you're complacent, then you're part of the problem.

[mightyoctopus]

When I started watching Legend of Korra, I honestly expected it to deal with themes of poverty more. Many scenes in the first season lay a solid foundation to be worked on, but subsequent seasons just ignore it, apart from a quick acknowledgement of Ba Sing Se’s rigid class system in season three.

Like, two characters in the main cast (Mako and Bolin) are orphans who used to be homeless! Why doesn’t this get explored more?

When we’re first introduced to them, they’re working as pro-benders. You might say, “That seems like a prestigious career. I’m sure they’re making lots of money.” BUT, their employer is also their landlord and he uses this position of power to exploit them. They’re a scene where he holds out a wad of cash (the price money they won) and he just keeps deducing things (rent for their apartment, payment for the gym, equipment, etc.) until all the money is completely gone.

This is a real problem in the real world, where lots of workers get a “legal wage” but have to give large amounts of it right back to their employer, who provides them with transportation, board and loge. (Where I live, Eastern European farm workers and harvest helpers are especially affected.)

Because of all the deductions, Mako takes on a second job at a power plant, where he generates lightning. I think this is meant as an analogue to real-life factory work. Likewise, Bolin gets involved in gang crime due to the promise of money. (He is unable to complete the job and get the money, though, because he gets kidnapped.)

Their money problems only get solved when they meet Asami, by chance, who is very rich. The wealth disparity between these characters only gets explored through a few jokes and gags.

In the first episode, we’re also introduced to Gommu, who is described as a vagabond and lives in a bush in a public park. Korra shares a meal of fish with him and they get talking. Korra says that she thought everyone in Republic City was living it up. Gommu chuckles and says she’s got a lot to learn. Right after, a police officer shows up (because fishing is forbidden) and they run away in opposite directions.

Having this right there in the first episode? Having the rich and good reputation of the city contrasted with its poorest occupants? Seeing how the law is not in place to uplift them, but to criminalize them? That seems like a great set up! Too bad nothing was done with it.

Gommu shows up again in one of the last episodes, when the city is overtaken by equalists and the Avatar and her friends find shelter in an underground vagabond camp. Once again they share food, which Bolin names “the best-tasting street gruel [he’s] ever had. Seriously!” while Asami spits hers out.

There are also some more small scenes and details, like Mako wearing the same patched-up undershirt for all four seasons.

Written down like this, it might seem like a lot, but in the end it doesn’t lead anywhere. While all this would serve as a great foundation, it’s not build upon. If there were plans for a poverty-subplot, they got dropped completely.

I wish they weren’t.

[oreo166]

Avatar Hot Take #2

Time for another topic that might fuel some backlash and more controversy.

The amount of negative flak given to Aang for kissing Katara when he shouldn’t have in the EIP (Ember Island Players) episode -- compared to how much given to Korra when she first kissed Mako in the SoC (Spirit of Competition) episode -- is ridiculous:

Now let me give y’all a disclaimer right now: I am NOT saying that kissing Katara was the right thing for Aang to do at the time. In fact, I agree that it wasn’t.

  With that said, however, nor was kissing Mako the right thing for Korra to do.

Yet why do I see many people calling Aang “selfish”, “entitled”, and even “ab*sive” for his error in the EIP episode? Heck, I’ve seen comments go far enough to imply that Aang should’ve been punched in the face! So would anyone mind telling me exactly where the frick all those kinds of comments are for Korra?

And no, what Aang and Korra did in the EIP and the SoC episodes respectively were not different. They were anything but different. Let’s examine the context of the specific scenario of each of the two episodes, shall we?:

EIP Scenario: 

Aang asked Katara if she really meant what she said about seeing him as a “little brother” even though that’s what her actress said. Even after she replied that she herself never said so and only her actress did - implying that she did NOT see him like a brother - Aang still replied, “But it’s true, isn’t it?” Plus, he didn’t even say it with an angry or explosive tone; rather he said it with a clearly saddened yet calm one. This implies that if Katara had bluntly said that she had no romantic interest in him, Aang would’ve ultimately been fine with that.

Aang mentions to Katara the time when they previously and mutually kissed during the Invasion (and yes, it was mutual since Katara kissed back). He also told her that he thought they’d start dating each other by then. However, he acknowledges that they still weren’t together regardless. And Aang was still obviously broken-hearted yet calm when saying all of this. And to be honest, many hints were shown of Katara having at least some romantic interest in Aang such as Katara’s previous cheek kisses she’d only ever given to Aang; her suggesting the idea of kissing in the Cave of Two Lovers; and etc. So Aang really wasn’t wrong to believe that she wanted to be with him.

Afterwards, Katara solemnly says, “Aang, I don’t know.” Aang then asks, “Why don’t you know?” Katara explains, “’Cause we’re in the middle of a war, and we have other things to worry about. This isn’t the right time.” “Well, when is the right time?” Aang asked. “Aang, I’m sorry, but right now, I’m just a little confused,” Katara said as an ultimatum. So right here, Katara doesn’t say that she doesn’t want to date Aang at all. Rather, she doesn’t whether she actually will be able to or not since they were fighting in the war, and Aang still had yet to face the firelord. And at the time, neither Katara nor Aang knew how much longer the war would last, nor did either of them know if they’d still end up alive by the end of it. Aang, however, didn’t understand that. Rather, he started growing impatient, for he wanted to get a clear and direct confirmation from Katara herself if wanted to be with him or not -- which wasn’t exactly what she gave him.

And as we all know, Aang non-consensually tries to kiss Katara afterwards; she immediately pulls herself away from the attempted kiss, shouted at him for it, and stormed off. This part doesn’t need any explanations.

SoC:

Korra told Mako, “Save your breath. You’ve already made it clear how you feel about me.” “No, I haven’t. What I’m trying to say is as much as you drive me crazy, I also think you’re pretty amazing,” Mako replied. So right here, it’s blatantly made clear that Mako likes Korra back.

“So you do like me?” Korra asked. “Yes,” Mako sighed with uncertainty, “but I like Asami too. I don’t know. Things are complicated. I’m feeling really confused, and -- .” Then, as most of us know, Korra interrupted Mako with a non-consensual kiss, yet Mako kissed back regardless. Bolin, seeing it all, broken-heartedly runs off bawling. Mako and Korra blow up into an short argument about it, and Mako storms off as a result. So basically, what made Mako confused was that he romantically liked his girlfriend at the time, Asami, and Korra; he didn’t know he should’ve decided what to do about that.

So in both scenarios, Katara and Mako, at the very least, reciprocated Aang’s and Korra’s interests in them repsectively (even if it possibly was to a lesser extent). And yes, Katara DID develop romantic feelings for Aang. Hints proving so existed, as subtle as they may have been. However, Katara and Mako also explicitly said that they were confused, yet Aang and Korra still kissed them regardless. So really, there’s nothing that suggests that Korra kissing Mako in the SoC episode was more okay than Aang kissing Katara in the EIP episode.

Heck, I’d even argue that Korra’s kiss was actually even worse than Aang’s. Like I said before, Mako was already dating Asami at the time -- and Korra knew that herself! And while albeit Korra really was seeing mostly as a platonic hangout, she was technically dating Bolin as well; therefore, she ended up ripping Bolin’s heart when he saw her kiss his brother. It doesn’t matter if Mako kissed Korra back unlike Katara with Aang. You don’t kiss someone who already has a significant other. So if any of you anti-kataangers really want to preach about consent, then you ought to be talking about Korra more.

Now let me get one more disclaimer out of the way: I’m NOT saying all of this to bash on Korra or her relationship with Mako! Just like Aang — who angrily called himself an idiot after realizing his mistake of kissing Katara at an inappropriate time — Korra realized her mistake very soon after. In fact, we even get to see Korra apologize to Bolin for breaking his heart. For me to bash on Korra and her relationship with Mako, I’d have to end up bashing on Aang and his relationship with Katara — and that’s DEFINITELY NOT the purpose of this post.

TL;DR: Cut the double standards! Either bash on both Aang and Korra for their inappropriately-timed kisses or don’t bash either of them at all!

[avatar-state-kate]

I see a lot of avatar fans throw ACAB around, especially when discussing lok, and while I understand why the fact that the slogan has almost become a meme rather then actually initializing any real discussion about the depiction of police in legend of korra is honestly such a shame.

We could be discussing how the republic city police departments origins as an offshoot of Toph’s metal bending academy perpetuates the myth that police departments are pro social institutions.

Or how Lin and Mako’s self sacrificial character traits fulfill the hero cop archetype of someone willing to “do the job” despite the danger.

How Lin’s book 1 subplot wherein she has to resign from the force in order to correct her mistakes follows the ‘good cop’ trope wherein police need to work outside of the law to actually do their job, and how this emboldens real life police to operate outside of the law, and desensitizes citizens to officer law breaking.

How in book 2 Mako begins a similar plot trajectory, but instead is punished by the narrative, as his plan to work with the triads fails. Rather then being a hero like Lin, Mako’s status as a ‘good cop’ actually trying to solve the case of the SWT cultural center bombing ends with him being arrested, as being a good cop isn’t enough in a bad system. We could be debating the effectiveness of this criticism, how does Mako being right or Varrick being turned into a hero play into all of this?

We could be discussing how “when extremes meet” portrays the police as a tool of oppression as wielded by Tarrlok, a foe that Korra as an individual can not overtake as it is a system not an enemy she is fighting. How Tarrloks uses his task force and the republic city PD against disenfranchised populations, republic cities nonbenders, subjecting them to unjust laws such as the curfew and in humane conditions with the shutting off of their power. How this episode dipects it’s heroes being unjustly arrested- that breaking the law if justified when they are laws such as those Tarrlok was implementing in this episode.

Zaofu, as the shows utopian city state is overrun with military personal; why does lok’s vision of utopia include such a strong police presence? Why are the police so integrated into ideas of a ‘good’ ‘prosocial’ society, why can the show not imagine another way?

The depiction of police in LOK is not purely positive or negative, however the criticism does ultimately endorse the goodness of the good cops- policing is not a system problem in legend of korra, but a leadership problem. This image of police, as a not inherently oppresive system is a great entry point into what the goals of copaganda are, and how police criticism in media can itself serve these end goals.

There is a lot to be said on LOK and copaganda, the least of it being “I hate Mako, ACAB” but I guess the fandom isn’t ready to have these discussions.