#what pema did was messed up and tenzin was also kinda fucked up for doing that

[tooquirkytolose]

I want the legend of korra opinion

Lmao it's not even all that out there, I just think lin beifong had every right to be as pissed at her sister as she was and su beifong IS a holier than thou snooty patootie who says she tried to apologize but every time we actually SEE her 'try' to apologize it's in the vein of im a different person now, the past is in the past, I've moved on why cant YOU move on which is not the way to go and im pretty sure Lin would have heard her out if she'd just have said hey my bad I'm sorry like just stick to IM SORRY

Also the fact that her son helped kuvira and was her fiancé and I just KNOW that little nepo baby is gonna get off with a slap on the wrist and taking the neutral approach with her big fancy city not giving aid to the earth kingdom and also I just don't like her 😌

[marginal-notes]

TLOK Episode One a.k.a. Korra immediately goes on a rampage

So, as mentioned, I’m finally getting around to watching The Legend of Korra with all of my terrible tastes and general thoughts. 

Don’t give me spoilers, my indignation will be funnier without them. 

What I Know About Korra Going In:

If the show can have all of Aang’s bending teachers still around for the audience’s nostalgic pleasure, Suki better be alive and kicking too or I am going to throw a fit

Technology progressed pretty intensely in ways that I will want to pick apart later

Listen, what the fuck is Republic City. Why. Why does this exist. Show you better answer me fast with why this exist for a legitimate in world reason that isn’t just: “The audience is a bunch of American kids and teenagers and we want to uphold the liberal ideals of democracy because of course that’s the motives of the victors after a global war of probably unprecedented scope despite like, Zero (0) indication that the idea of democracy was rattling around anyone’s heads in ATLA.” 

If this is the reason, I’m going to quit watching. Disgraceful. Disgusting.

Something involving anti-bender sentiment.

Something involving something called the Red Lotus which I am side-eyeing the shit out of 

Bloodbending?????

Spirit World shenanigans and Avatar backstory that’s on thin ice with me. 

Love triangles. UGH. TERRIBLE. WHY DOES MEDIA DO THIS. WHO FINDS THIS INTERESTING. PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND SO YOU CAN EXPLAIN TO ME. 

Alright, here we go. 

WELL, 30 SECONDS IN AND I GOT MY WISH FOR AN EXPLAINATION ABOUT REPUBLIC CITY.

Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko transformed the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations, a society where benders and nonbenders from all over the world could live and thrive together in peace and harmony.

Okay. I’m.... I’m going to withhold judgement for now until I watch like, literally more than 30 seconds to fully form my thoughts about this move. I THINK IT’S A DUMB MOVE AND IF THIS IS WHY PEOPLE KEEP HAVING FIRE NATION DEMOCRACY FICS I QUIT.

So. We get a panning shot into this city. Very urban city that’s the product of the industrialization and like whatever the hell that propaganda voice over is talking about. 

As a method of setting the scene and immediately letting the viewers feel and know the passage of time between ATLA and TLOK, I love this shot. There’s no mistaking this for being immediately after ATLA. We’re listening to one of Aang’s kids. There are skyscrapers. The Fire Nation palace in ATLA probably counted towards the architectural development towards urban skyscrapers, but that architecture is fully formed by TLOK. Brilliant. 

I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!

What a cute brat. Her poor parents, oh my god. 

Also, is she supposed to be a prodigy. 

Again with immediately setting contrasts against ATLA. Very cool demonstration, extremely effective distinction between Aang’s journey around the world trying to find teachers and learning how to bend in the middle of a war vs. Korra at peacetime with a whole entire facility dedicated to her. 

Not sure about how I feel regarding the White Lotus’s presence. 

IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE KATARA????

That's your grandmother, Meelo.

Does he not visit his parents. It can’t be that hard to swing by for like. Yearly festivals if the Water Tribe has those. I don’t see why not. Maybe something for when the winter night ends, I can see that being festive. 

Tenzin do you like. Not call? Not write?? Sir???

Oh my god, Pema. I hope she really likes kids, despite how rowdy they are. 

Wait. How old is Tenzin. Thirties to forties? 

How old is Katara. 

Is this going to be a repeat of the Fire Nation royal miracle babies. 

I get that, but I don't think keeping me locked up in this compound like a prisoner is what he had in mind.

Going by the episode title, I bet we know what Korra has in mind. Speaking of this compound, where’s the Southern Tribe? The aerial shots look like it’s in the middle of nowhere. Is she so far removed that she doesn’t even spend time with the tribe she was born into? Cause that sure as hell wasn’t how Aang was raised. 

Honestly fascinating as these contrasts keep coming. The bizarre presence of the White Lotus. The way her teachers come to her instead of her seeking her teachers the way Aang and Roku did. 

The Avatar must have always been a special political figure, without any good contemporaries to our world, to be honest. Back in ATLA, we see that Roku isn’t beholden to Fire Nation citizenship - he seems to transcend that. And it honestly seems important that Roku and Aang went out to the world, experienced the other nations and their ways of life. I think Aang does have a line regarding this. 

Because Korra’s situation? Can easily turn into a nightmare, given the realities of what being the Avatar could easily mean. 

OKAY THIS SHIP. Very cool looking, very neat, I continue to love every visual manifestation of the passage of time between ATLA and TLOK. One small question. What’s with the rigging poles. 

(source)

To be fair, this is a battleship from the British navy, but aesthetically I think we can say this is a fair inspiration. From what I remember while researching the coal fic, the rigging and poles there serve no function. It’s aesthetical. At best, there’s a limited function, but it’s predominantly for aesthetics in the transition into the ships like the Titanic with no rigging at all. 

Which raises my question about WHY ON EARTH?? The Fire Nation navy in ATLA??? Were clearly way past this stage in design? Literally during Sozin’s time too??? Almost two hundred years before this current shot in TLOK? Why would the ship design regress like this??? The Water Tribe ships probably wouldn’t evolve into the designs that Europe used? Earth Kingdom ships would probably be more inspired by East Asian designs which also wouldn’t end up with this system for sails? 

Where does this aesthetic come from. 

IS THAT A CAR. 

....

.......

..........

I am not qualified at all for dissecting the potential social and cultural explanation for the western influenced aesthetics appearing. I am but an ignorant banana, I don’t know shit. 

.......

oooooooh this is going to slowly annoy me isn’t it.......... 

That will be twenty yuans.

[Jaws theme]

The city's huge. I bet we could find a place to rustle up something to eat.

You know, I’ve seen plenty of weird shit in Central Park and around NYC before. Korra, you are so unprepared.  

Are you tired of living under the tyranny of benders? Then join the Equalists!

Oh boy. Let’s.... let’s put a pin in this thought. I’ll come back to it once I know more about what’s going on. Because. This will either be fun. Or I’m going to have to create a second spite fic folder. Please, show, don’t give me reason to create a second spite fic folder. 

On a different note though, I really do love the choices so far for setting up this show’s forward path. There’s no way to mistake this as a rerun of ATLA. This is it’s own separate story and I love that. I really do respect that. The way the different threads are emerging feel really smooth: 1) the impact of Korra’s isolation towards her culture shock in the giant city - which must smell and sound REALLY weird to her; 2) her prodigious talent in the physical, exciting parts of bending meshing with her teenage nature and also clashing with the spiritual parts of being the World Bridge; 3) the absolute hot bed of chaos every part of Republic City must be. 

Kinda funny that people would still have sideburns in the same style as from like. Seventy years ago. Vintage. 

Mr. Chung, please tell me that you have my money, or else I can't guarantee I can protect your fine establishment.

My terrible taste in interests rears its head again. Listen, you cannot imply something like the mafia or the triads exist in universe and not have me immediately ALL OVER THAT. Republic City, you are such a mess. Like, for this alone, I might write a single fic for TLOK that’s just about trash collection and disposal. And corruption. And- 

I am fascinated by the genetics and molecular/cellular biology behind the yellow and white eyes in this universe. 

Police! Freeze where you are!

Bitch what the fuck. How many of these rigid airships are part of the police. Are all of them for the police? Are the police literally patrolling people from the sky? 

Also, that better be helium in those ships instead of hydrogen by this point in time. I’ve already made my post about the fleet of hydrogen ships in Sozin’s Comet. 

How much property damage is being inflicted thanks to these couple minutes. The police just. Stab the brick work. There have got to be so many bitchy lawsuits about that. 

This poor girl’s culture shock. 

HEY I HOPE THAT POLICE OFFICER SWUNG THEMSELF ON A CLOTHLINE, NOT AN ELECTRIC LINE LIKE I FIRST THOUGHT. 

HEY YOU CAN RIP SOMEONE’S SCALP OFF LIKE THAT. 

HEY WHAT IS WITH THIS WHOLE SCENE. 

HOW ARE THEY JUST RIDING ON THOSE WIRES, HOW MUCH TENSION IS IN THAT STUFF. 

HOW DOES THAT ZEPPLIN MOVE THAT FAST AND LIKE. AGILE. 

YALL. 

WHY DOES THE POLICE STATION LOOK LIKE THAT

Well then, why are you treating me like a criminal? Avatar Aang and your mother were friends. They saved the world together.

Oh this bit is fascinating, I love it. It’s only been 18 minutes, but the level of sheer propaganda everywhere trailing after Aang is really cool. There’s so much I want to know now about how Aang got from the end of ATLA, where he probably wasn’t thinking AT ALL about this kind of cult legacy forming around him, to this. 

Lin Beifong’s shut down of Korra’s attempt to use her status as Avatar is great. Just because Korra’s born into this elite role and then locked up and probably pampered in her compound, where everyone is well aware of her status and what it means, it doesn’t mean she gets to strut around with no idea how stuff works or the context behind what she’s seeing and then doing whatever she wants. 

Contrasts, love ‘em. 

On a different note, the design of this room. 

As far as I can tell, it’s a dim, doorless room, which is honestly. Really terrible design. And it says something about the way the Republic City police functions and how that reflects on the chaos of the city itself. 

Putting someone dragged into the police station in a dim room without any door as a sign of a possible escape is just a terrible idea. The only thing you’re going to succeed in is making the person tenser and more belligerent. Your suspect or witness gets more nervous, gets more combative, gets more unreliable in this kind of environment. In turn, the police probably starts feeling more and more entitled to harsher retaliation. Conflict resolution? De-escalation? That really doesn’t look like its in the core of the city police. They’re wearing armor for god’s sake. 

Everything so far in this first impression of the police is really damning about their attitude and Lin Beifong’s leadership. Rather than using a rappel line down from the airships, they damage buildings. In chasing Korra, they further damage property. The armor, this freaking room. The fact that so much about the active police shown so far depends on metalbending, which implies that very few people can join the field police. The fact that for the gang to be so blatantly in the open about their presence and territory, there must be dirty cops on their payroll. 

There has to be so much Lin Beifong hate in this city. 

I have done my best to guide Republic City toward the dream my father had for it, but you're right. It has fallen out of balance since he passed.

If anyone tries convincing me Republic City was ever in “balance” they’re a punk ass liar. I don’t think the city could have ever been in balance, whatever that is. The way it was created, the speed it expanded, the life that must be lived there - balance? Don’t kid me with that propaganda. 

Tenzin could be trying to find a balance alright. I just wonder how many people vehemently disagree with his idea of balance. 

Hello? I'm Korra, your new Avatar.

Well, TLOK is definitely in the era of mass distribution of news and the idea of public sentiment at a level never seen before. This is going to be very interesting for its populist implications, along with other developments regarding politics. 

Oh Korra. Did no one try rehearsing this with you? This is a terrible first impression for you to give to people. 

Also, what is this building. Is this like a city hall? Why is the roof on the building to the side slanted like that. That’s an angle I’d expect from like. Snow concerns. In northern Europe. 

Love that Avatar Aang propaganda. Starting to feel like we’re going to see a lot of it going forward. 

Oh my god, everything about this press briefing (?) is highly concerning. This rampaging teenager suddenly appearing without any warning or announcement. The clear lack of script or practice. The open location just to anyone instead of to a select set of journalists who would be sympathetic/under government control. Lin fucking Beifong and Tenzin being the only people accompanying Korra on the stage. 

What a disaster. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

You know, I’m enjoying this more than I expected to. The general writing is great, the use of visuals and other small details to set the time and place is excellent, the worldbuilding implications are rich in potential. I’m looking forward to exploring where the plot threads introduced so far will lead towards!

[guileheroine]

a silly ficlet of not-yet-very-established relationship for korrasami month, day 20 (prompt: muscles), modern au/the everthere 💨

“Ooh. Zen.” Korra only says, by way of good morning, once she’s glugged down a litre of water and set the cup on the table.

“Korra,” Asami acknowledges her, businesslike (by way of that’s not a good morning and you know it). There isn’t a twitch in her form as she remains sitting with her feet pointed together in a long stretch, facing the sliding door to the garden, her back to Korra.

She has her yoga pants on and a tank top, which means this quiet time has been expressly marked into her mental schedule, whether a half hour ago or a week.

For a moment, Korra stands witless, without the bearings to consider the idea this seeds, her own next move on the day that stretches before her. Public holidays always feel this way. A Monday off isn’t really invigorating enough on its own terms to have her up early, but the alarm for class that she’d completely forgotten to disable is. And now she’s kind of at a loss, though not in a bad way.

And Asami here, trying presently to touch her nose to her toes isn’t helping. Normally she just goes for a run before diving into something a little more cerebral.

Clearly, it’s an odd morning for them both.

“So, is this... what you do before I get up?”

There’s a twinge in the collected line of Asami’s spine, only just percperceptible, as the laugh in her chest interrupts her posture. “Yeah, it’s a whole new world out here. So peaceful. Who knew, huh?”

Korra’s smile is fully formed, not that she can see it. “Then should I mind my business?”

Silence.

She isn’t sure if she’s read the implicit invitation correctly, nor if she says I’m gonna join you, but Korra thinks it to herself, which is enough for the moment. She proceeds on autopilot and by the time she’s returned downstairs with suitable clothing and a mat she feels more herself. Everything is in focus, especially five foot ten of very limber friend. (It’s not even the kind of thing she’d usually remember, let alone search out, but lately every detail of only Asami crawls for headspace.)

Well, girlfriend.

Wait. She’s not gonna ruin Asami’s very earnest effort to have a healthy and relaxing morning. Looking at it now, this seems like the next in all the little ways Asami’s been cooling down since finishing up with school for good. In which case Korra, for one, finds it extremely welcome and indeed healthy and relaxing.

She mirrors her movements, the very best way to mess with her from afar, but Asami takes it in stride. In one calf stretch she’s leading her through the next pose, and in a few more they’re alternating turns to guide. Korra relishes the unspoken groove they’re in. They exchange more by sight, but although conversation is slow from the priority they give to their bodies, it’s smooth.

“Hey, you never come to the gym with me anymore,” Korra muses, turning her head on the mat to consider Asami as she tucks her knee to her chest with both arms.

Asami wraps her own hands around her leg, and while she breathes deep before answering, Korra continues to reflect. They’d work out together pretty often back when their schedules matched better. Though they were easy days for Korra compared to her real training, she remembered those first couple years fondly: the simpler days of their friendship. Before twists and turns excruciating in ways both bitter and - fucking finally - sweet.

“Oh, you know it’s just ‘cause you’d intimidate me,” Asami says, dripping with sarcasm instead of gently simmering like usual. Her voice rides low with it as she she uncurls and bends carefully into the bridge pose, sloping up slowly.

Korra moves alongside, pulling to feel the stretch in her locked fingers against the mat. “Or I’d distract you...” she counters matter of factly. She blinks at Asami; at the long, sinuous line of her, with her ribcage and her hipbones practically catching the light.

Asami tightens the stretch, but lets her head loll to the side. “Well, speak for yourself,” she says, breathier from the angle.

Okay then?

Korra looks up at the ceiling instead, and nudges at her mind to wander elsewhere. “Just thinking about how my mom used to make me do yoga every weekend during high school.”

“Oh, really? Hah.” That’s her normal voice again. “Did it help?”

“I mean… yeah, I’m pretty sure it did. Man, you know what? Now that I think about it it’s probably some shit Tenzin and Pema sent her.”

Asami giggles. “Zen buddies.”

As only middle aged parents could be. Korra snorts. Remembering her turn, she ponders absently what stretch she’ll pull them into as she inhales deeply. Her eyes fall closed as her chest and back open up, enticed with an effortless ease by the pose and her steady breath. Asami does the same and she makes - quite the bridge. The slip of a sigh draws Korra’s attention once again; and it finds the hem of Asami’s shirt also slipping a few inches chestward as she deflates.

Korra sits up as decisively as she can in this mindful pace, waiting for Asami to follow before she flips onto her front. “You know, this is yoga, technically. If you’re a just a little more conscious of your breath.” With her legs flush along the floor, she pulls her shoulders and torso up, weight on her palms. “Breathing is the more important part - which felt kinda phony when she said it, but Mom did show me some moves that really helped me destress.”

“Oh… I bet I could really use that. I just didn’t ever really get the hang of yoga, ‘cause I feel like I never know if I’m doing it right.”

It takes Korra a second of staring dumbly ahead to realise how pointed the statement is.

“What, you’re saying you’re still stressed?” She veers off easily, trying not to bite her lip. “You’ve no reason to be.”

Asami coughs, barely, but Korra notices that her upward dog threatens to buckle with a similar amusement. “It’s… hard to come down, you know, that’s all. And today I wanted to go to the bank for the new car before I realised-”

“Sit up, fine,” Korra says. “I’ll show you.”

She accedes wordlessly, a smile playing on her lips.

Korra pulls her mat to the centre of the floor and crawls over its length catlike in order to smooth it down, watching Asami watch her. She gestures for her to sit in the middle.

“Okay, cross your legs.” She sweeps around to examine Asami’s posture and then aids her to adjust it, with a tap here and a gentle push there. “Press your feet together. Spine straight.” She takes her hands and guides them to clasp loosely over her ankles.

Then Korra leans back on a hand, satisfied. “Hold that position, I’ll teach you how to breathe.”

That point must be very clear. Now, she sidles up behind her. “Just - notice how you breathe. Like, don’t force it.”

Asami’s arms are trim with their lean muscle, but Korra reminds her to loosen with a flat, lingering hand over them. Hardly thinking, she even flicks her thick ponytail over one side, eyes tracing up the racerback of her top until the rhythmic rise and fall of Asami’s shoulders curves her thought back to the exercise.

Korra slides an arm around her, under Asami’s own straight arms, to press without pressure below her ribs.

She thinks that’s a protest, in the form of more force in Asami’s exhale that she’s been explicitly told she can have. Her voice is a whisper. “What are you doing?”

“Noticing how you breathe.” It’s true, not even an excuse.

And she breathes like a hypnotist.

A glance at her focused face tells Korra that Asami would shrug if she could. Korra just tucks her chin over her shoulder. For ease of observation. “Now inhale deeply through your nose, for a count of four.” Asami remains impeccably still as Korra’s hand moulds over her abdomen, moving with it as she breathes in. “Hold it, for a sec - exhale for eight.” Through the thin shirt, she’s both firm and sleek - Korra skims over her skin with her sensible fingers to check the crucial balance of these remarkable qualities.

Having exhaled, Asami says, “You know that focus is a very important part of yoga?”

“Yeah, I’m the instructor here.” She curls the fingers of the hand around her inwards as a retort, causing Asami to shake her off. Korra settles shortly, with a light, unassuming hand over about the diaphragm again. “In for four again, and hold it for eight this time.”

They both manage to hold for eight. Asami clearly has a harder time of it, what with Korra holding all the way from her ribcage to her waistband in a long and luxuriant swipe. She exhales for six or seven maybe, certainly not eight.

“Alright, now what are you doing?”

Korra can’t keep the laugh out of her voice. “Admiring your, uh, form. It’s really hot, actually.”

“That a technical term?” Asami’s eyes glint.

Korra tugs down sharply on the hem of her shirt to make her bow forward, giggling. “You know what, I think this is blocking your energy from me.” She slips her hand under the shirt this time. “Try holding for eight again.”

As Asami breathes Korra runs her other hand gently along her side. Her posture remains perfect. All the dips and ridges with their even tone. She’s long and strong, treelike. One of those very pretty trees, like a birch or an aspen probably - slender and supple despite all the keen shapes. And Korra feels them out, skin on skin.

Asami’s tenser than she should be this time, even though she had been doing so well. Korra can tell her count’s failed.

“Control your breath,” she says over her shoulder.

“Control your hands,” Asami bites with no bite.

“Trying to help, I told you.” Korra sniffs and replies smoothly. She’d said hands, hadn’t she? So Korra puts the second over the first under the shirt - all the better to centre her. Asami hums suddenly to relieve her… whatever she’s feeling, while Korra smirks into her shoulder.

Then Asami loosens, and makes a valiant attempt at an even inhale. She unclenches her stomach from where she had tightened so as not to squirm too much; letting her hand fall away, bravely, from where she’d momentarily placed it over Korra’s to prevent it from roving.

Maybe Korra should honour the attempt. But it’s a lot easier to honour her own wicked whims. What with five foot ten of beautifully toned girlfriend.

Asami sucks her bottom lip in as Korra spans the expanse of her abdomen with a silky, inquisitive touch. And when she pulls her arms tighter around her, her practised breath hitches high.

Korra doesn’t laugh in her ear so much as in her neck. “Again, control your breath.”

Asami cheeps. “I cannot do that.” She rubs her nose on the back of her hand, face flushed, as they both take a moment. The edge that enters her voice somehow doesn’t detract from the utter modesty. “But you should - I mean, I can keep trying, if - you show me again.”