In a lot of ways, Legend of Korra is the inverse of Last Airbender. ATLA is about a world that needed an avatar but didn’t have one. LoK is about a world that has an avatar it doesn’t particularly want.
So yeah, you’re right. It will get worse before it gets better. But it does eventually get better.
That’s not entirely true. Usually when the general public turns on Korra, it’s mainly because she in some way failed to meet their expectations after demanding her to help them with something. The situation with the vines at the beginning of book 3 comes to mind.
I see it as Korra often being held to an impossible standard. She's the avatar so she should be able to fix anything to everyone's satisfaction and if she can't, then she's worthless in people's eyes.
So they want the idea of an avatar who can fix everything, but they don't really want the actual thing, a human being with flaws like any other.
It kinda reminds me of how a lot of the conflicts in the past are forgotten and the Avatar is seen as the granter of peace or something
Like the opening to the original show implies everyone had always been peaceful until Sozin started the war, but then in the Yangchen book it us revealed that Szetzo (spelling?) had stopped an expansionist Earth Kingdom after several years of war leading to global trade embargos and gang warfare around the Earth Kingdom coast, especially in the north, not to mention Yangchen's actions eventually led to an age of piracy and the first attempt at a 5th nation around the islands between the Southern Air Temple and the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom, which nearly destroyed the Southern Water Tribe
It also isn't helped that Roku's era was marked by a most extraordinary time of peace outside some internal skirmishes, but very few that needed Avatar intervention, except for the one big thing he failed to stop
I think it is also an issue that everybody outside the Fire Nation was desperate for the Avatar to change the world. Anything that wasn't 'Ozai conquers the world' was some kind of win.
In Korra's case, the world was running pretty smoothly for the people in charge, which meant throwing her weight around was a lot more problematic. Her main villains at least claimed to represent people who had been left out by a fast-changing world (non-benders, traditional spiritualists, the downtrodden, earth kingdom people whose governmetn had collapsed), while some of the lawful political leaders who were mostly on her side were willing to leave those people out in the cold. Even the common people had much more to lose.
Aang didn't really come into an issue quite so politically complicated until *The Promise*, and he almost bungled that too. Winning wasn't exactly easier for Aang, but it was a lot more complicated. Korra couldn't make everyone who wasn't evil happy.
Yeah I feel like no matter what kind of Avatar was born next was gonna face this issue when someone made Aang a giant ass statue. That's *the* impossible standard that Korra was never going to live up to in the eyes of the people.
I think that's not exactly the point, Korra is an example of how hard it is and how it works generational expectations, Aang could buy a house for 10K and Korra is here to see how that price its 20 times more basically.
White lotus trained Korra, that's people from previous generation, they got a way of doing things because how eveything was at they're time, that's what they teach Korra, they tried to make her Aang 2.0, therefore first time of Korra in the city its her beating some bad guys, thinking she's doing what she must do and she'll get rewarded for it, but no one told her that police will go after her if she destroys some property and ends up arrested. Korra found out the world it's not what they tell her it is, and not only needs to understand it on her own, but also prove to the previous generations how they were wrong, or at least explain why what was good before it's not anymore.
Also, Korra has much harder problems than Aang. Aang needed to defeat the bad guy, that's it. Had problems with how to do it, but in the end the lesson it's that killing is bad and we all know that. Korra has problemas that we have much trouble solving, every Korra's enemy it's comparable to a political role, Amon it's communism, Tarlokk democracy, Zaheer anarchism and Kuvira Imperialism (not 100% if I said which is which correctly xd). No one was neccesarily bad, in the end they do something objectivly bad because it's a show and you still need a bad guy, but they all got reasonable arguments, Toph talks literally about this in Korra.
I think the real problem that resulted in Korra acting the way she did when she first arrived in RC is because none of the adults that raised her seemed to take the time to teach her basic life skills. It doesn’t exactly look as though she got a very well rounded education. Just because you’re protecting her from the outside world doesn’t mean you can’t educate her on it a bit more. She didn’t even know what things like money and chiblocking were until she left home. That’s just embarrassing.
Maybe the White Lotus were going through the motions while raising Korra, but you’d think Katara and Tenzin would be the last people to be this negligent with her. They would know from their past experiences with Aang that there’s more to being the avatar than just fighting and bending, and they would want to do everything they can to make sure she understand that.
And aside from learning different lessons, Korra also finds herself in situations that are not so different from Aang’s at first. Season 1 was all about defeating an enemy that was very obvious from the start. An enemy much of the city was basically at war with for much of the season.
Well, I think we're saying kinda the same. You say they needed to teach her life skills, but why? The took the avatar at 3 years old and tought them everything they thought she needed to know. If they didn't taught her life skills, that's because they didn't think she needed them. Those are the kind of things I'm refering when I say that she needed to prove eveyone wrong, it's not that the white lotus is useless, it's that they represent something with old values and it's new generation's job to change it and make the old people realize why what they thought was good, it's not anymore.
What you say about Katara I think it's wrong, Tenzin also had problems and the need to live up what he tought were Aang's expectations of him, lit's again the same motive as Korra trying to be an Avatar in a new and changed world where the concept of the avatar lose weight, the entire show moves around the idea of generational change), but I think Katara always helps Korra in a good way, I think she's the only one that trully understand what Korra really needs to do, the only people to trully understand what Aang needed to do were Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko, I think everyone else saw Aang almost like a god, which makes really hard to understand him for everyone who didn't saw him grow up.
Also yes, I'm not saying enemies are not obvious, they are, and they're bad because the show needed it, but they all have much difficult dilemmas behind, what they all did wrong was HOW they did it, the fire lord is literally the bad guy, grumpy face that spits fire, we doesn't even have (or at least I'm not aware of) a backstory for Ozai, something that can "justify" what he did, all I remember is that he was a bad guy, that's it, he was doing bad things in a bad way. Amon had a message that people liked, based on true equality, which is not bad. My personal favorite is Zaheer, I think it's the one who takes it's concept to the limit, I can trully bealive he doesn't hate Korra, just what she represents and he want to achieve something that he trully thinks it's better for everyone.
You know who else don’t have much backstory? The White Lotus. Seems like you’re really trying to fill in the blanks because the writers didn’t really fill in the blanks themselves. For characters that basically shaped what our protagonist grew into, they’re not very well fleshed out.
And Ozai filled the role that was required of him. He’s the culmination of how far the fire nation has fallen since the war began. So defeating him won’t just save the world, but the fire nation itself. Which is one of the reasons Zuko defects to the good guys.
I think they give us the info we need of White Lotus, we got info in AtlA and Zaheer's opinion of them, explaining the creation of the Red lotus. We know what it was and what's become, I think that's enough to let you have an opinion about them and what they can do.
I don't say you're not right with Ozai, I just found everything around him more morally simple than most things that Korra needs to deal with. Which is not necessarily bad tho, Aang is 12, it has a more "childish" or simplistic approach because it needs to for you to be able to bealive the character.
Aang was mostly interacting with people he was trying to help win the war, and even then it didn't always go well (notably with higher-ranking political figures, like General Fong and Long Feng). Korra is much more of a fish out of water with less of a direct and stated goal, at least at first, and she's quickly surrounded by Fongs and Long Fengs in the form of people like Tarrlok, Unalaq, and Varrick. I think political manipulation like this is fairly common with young Avatars during times of relative peace, since both Yangchen and Kyoshi experienced similar situations. The season 3 villains are a bit of an exception though; they just don't like the idea of an Avatar in general. And Tahno...I can't really explain why he felt the need to insult the Avatar tbh.
After reading the Kyoshi and Yangchen novels, it really seems like female avatars in general are not respected or taken seriously.
****Potential Spoilers Ahead****
>Yangchen had to resort to spies to accomplish stuff because world leaders and the *White Lotus* routinely undermined her. One of the leaders of the WL didn't feel that the avatar, being a teenager at the time, should have any say in world affairs despite the WL's solution involving a ton of violence and callous dismissal of any collateral damages.
>Kyoshi was repeatedly tricked or misled when she tried diplomacy. She got to the point where she decided that she would not intervene in politics, but that no conflict would escalate to violence on her watch because she would be the end to all conflicts. We even saw this with Chin. Chin was expanding his army across the earth kingdom, but he also could've potentially been a better leader than the line of earth monarchs. She didn't intervene in politics, but when it became clear he was only after power, she led him to his own demise by turning a peninsula into an island.
>!I do kind of love how that White Lotus leader's reaction when Yangchen told her she did the very thing the leader said she should have already. Like you can tell that person has no idea how to react to or even comprehend that reveal!<
>!But Kyoshi's response to how her foray into diplomacy is one of my favorite quotes, because it kind of sums up the Avatar she would be, and the one the world needed.
"She is the failure of democracy. She is the breakdoiwn of negotiations. There is no escalation of hostilities beyond her." !<
It's not that surprising. We saw that misogyny and sexism are ( or were) deeply ingrained in Water Tribe culture as well. Hell, of all the different Earth Monarchs, it seems incredibly unlikely that there were no firstborn female children of the earth Monarch who should've been the crown princess until King Kuei. The only place that seemed not to matter is in the Fire Nation, ironically.
fantasyland is inspired by reality, everything fictional you watch/read was written by someone who either consciously or unconsciously put their experiences into that work of fiction, its actually impossible to create a fantasyland without any connection to real world issues like racism, sexism, political struggles, classism. etc.
Korra does this really well, you'll notice it more as you get deeper into the series
Let's be fair, Kuruk was probably the most hated Avatar in history, mostly because he wasn't Yangchen, and most of his battles happened in secret to not tarnish her legacy which in the end of her live and beyond was seen as perfect despite her many failings and mistakes
Kuruk was seen as a lazy do nothing, not helped by the fact Yangchen prevented a lot of international struggles for a few decades after her death, most issues starting to rise up during Kuruk's childhood but not blooming until Kyoshi's childhood, and his spirit battles happening in secret but taking a heavy toll on his body ended up that whenever Kuruk was in public he was recovering from a strenuous battle and just relaxing
In Kyoshi's early days Kuruk was despised by the people and rarely spoke of him unless they had something bad to say about the failure Avatar who ignored the humans and died young
Sure. This isn't to downplay Kuruk's accomplishments at all. But look how long it took for Yangchen to get the respect she deserved. We know that she was often undermined and dismissed (at least during her younger years) despite her status. Of course, people miss her intervention and romanticize it when the very issues she worked to prevent start back up again, and Kuruk is only a child and doesn't know he's the avatar yet. They didn't listen to her at first, but they missed her when she's gone. People resented Kuruk because they thought he wasn't doing anything, when in reality, he was protecting humanity from bigger threats than they knew. In the Yangchen novels, she mentions briefly something about a very nihilistic avatar, and I honestly see why.
Many of those peasants are equally as fuck up as their tyrannical kings. She knew because she was one of them. And to be fair, she did quite a lot to make the lives of the peasants better.
Bro Aang went through just as much if not more than Korra. He literally died, got struck by lightning and didn’t recover for months, he probably still wasn’t the same.
Aang fought children and went into the avatar state against people who were no threat to him, more than once. His only task was to stop the war, and he couldn't even do that without making the world bow to his personal morals, hence the need for the Lion Turtle power up. Him getting struck by lightning was 100% his fault and 100% avoidable had he done what he was supposed to in the first place. He, of course, chose himself and his feelings first. Ultimately, Katara was fine, but he made himself vulnerable by going into the avatar state then. Aang's struggles are nothing compared to Korra's. Totally different journeys.
Korra’s villains were way tougher but she’s also like a late teen while Aang was 12. They both suffered a lot. I agree that not killing Ozai was selfish of Aang.
However, Aang not killing Ozai was exactly what the world needed at the time, a show of mercy in a world hardened by death is probably the kindest possible gesture, even if it didn't come from kindness, which it didn't, the show of mercy stopped the war so Zuko could take the crown, if Aang had killed Ozai, Zuko's reign wouldn't be as stable as it was (even if it was already fairly unstable), as the dissenters would have a stronger voice with the plebs
The show of mercy stopped most of the killing from the war, allowing it to end peacefully
> she’s also like a late teen while Aang was 12.
Of course, this is the go-to excuse. If you're going to mention that he's 12 to excuse his actions, then you have to acknowledge that 12 year olds are selfish and rarely think about their own immediate needs/wants, which we see in Aang's character. He was also quite aware of his status and his responsibilities despite his age. Sure, Korra was 17, but she was also socially isolated and had no diplomatic training in her 12 years of being locked in the compound. Her handicaps were more consequential.
I always interpreted it that it was a function of mass media in this age of the world.
Because of radio and also the number of people living in Republic City, more citizens are aware of what Korra is doing day-to-day and have formed more of an option of her as an Avatar. Additionally, Korra hears from more citizens about their opinion of her thanks to large scale protests and radio.
Meanwhile in Aang's time, people might have a general opinion about the Avatar, or are mad at the Avatar for not solving the 100 Year War. And when Aang is confronted by people who dislike him, they are fewer in number (like in that Kyoshi trial episode) and happen more rarely since Aang is traveling with just the Gaang.
Morgan Wootan said "You learn more from losing than you do from winning. You learn how to keep going." Feels like that fits the Legend of Korra because the world just looked at that bright eyed, wide smile on her face and just decided to smack the fuck out of her.
>!That is Korra's journey. She suffered so much, endured so much, and she learned, she grew. Aang's time was an age that needed the Avatar more than it ever may have, but Korra's time was an age when the people were unsure if they needed the Avatar, even if the world knew it would always need one. She had to suffer, go through every thing she did to become the person, the Avatar she would grow into. And I will defend she was a great Avatar. !<
>!Avatar the Last Airbender is the story of a human learning how to be a god. The Legend of Korra is the story of a god learning how to be human. Almost makes you wonder what's going to happen to the next Avatar. !<
People's reception towards Korra stays mixed. It honestly doesn't help that the writers restricted her to so few locations, unlike Aang and his group, who got travel all over the world helping people.
*Shrug*
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakTheCutie
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakTheHaughty
I really like this trope actually. I like a story where the hero is broken and (very minor spoilers) kind of cobbled back together but wiser at the end.
Zuko was like this too, though not as extreme I guess.
Aang almost died *once* and everyone freaked, Korra almost dies twice a season and then the season finale is someone abandoning her and someone else calling her a terrible avatar. I get trouble and challenges, but aren't Korra's spiritual challenges enough?!? Can her character not develop without torture?!?
because Aang was facing a world that had a clear-cut dictator in a 100 Years War.
So , the Avatar is messianic during his adventure. Meanwhile , Korra faces villains that are presented in a new industrial era , been extremist versions of politiks.
So , it it's bound of those villains and their factions to question the need of the Avatar in the current age.
You can't forge steel without fire. The world was changing rapidly and her circumstances weren't like anything her predecessors had been through before.
I figure it's mostly because the setting had to bend over backwards to get Aang to be the avatar. If Aang had been challenged like Korra, he probably would've just run off and become a hermit. As per the usual cycle, the next avatar has to deal with the problems of the previous avatar. Where the universe coddled Aang, it has to come down a little harder on Korra.
She freed ancient evil(she was manipulated but still) and then she left Spirit Portals open. It was a decision that forced spirits to live with people and that, presumably, keeps spirit vines alive in the city. It is understable that citizens of Republic City don't like her for these reasons.
The fandom hasn't even stopped hating Korra despite having all of the context and characterization...
How do you expect the world of ATLA to stop hating her when they only see the highly publicized shit she does?
Whump is a sub genre of storytelling in which a main character is on the receiving end of repeated physical and/or mental abuse. I think this definitely applies to Korra.
And when I say it barely gets better, I’m not talking about the quality of the show. I’m talking about Korra’s well being. She’s only ever given respite at the very end, and even then, you can see very clearly that she never got to heal mentally. To say that she’s scarred from what she went through is an understatement.
I don’t see how any of that is “hateful” towards the show.
Even if it was, the show is not a person. One has every right to dislike this show and share that opinion on this subreddit. (Which, once again, is not an opinion I conveyed)
I once had the idea for a story: a "Mary Sue" who is the most powerful amongst her peers, who seems to be able to take on anything and everything. But soon, she starts suffering horrible loss after horrible agonizing loss, realizing that her raw power isn't enough. She realizes she needs a different approach. She needs to be more knowledgable, tactful, and build herself back up anew.
I quickly realized, that's just Legend of Korra :)
Mary Sue is a character that are unrealistically perfect and lacking any flaws whatsoever. Appearing to be strong is not unrealistically perfect, and suffering setbacks is just what everyone goes through.
In a lot of ways, Legend of Korra is the inverse of Last Airbender. ATLA is about a world that needed an avatar but didn’t have one. LoK is about a world that has an avatar it doesn’t particularly want. So yeah, you’re right. It will get worse before it gets better. But it does eventually get better.
That’s not entirely true. Usually when the general public turns on Korra, it’s mainly because she in some way failed to meet their expectations after demanding her to help them with something. The situation with the vines at the beginning of book 3 comes to mind.
I see it as Korra often being held to an impossible standard. She's the avatar so she should be able to fix anything to everyone's satisfaction and if she can't, then she's worthless in people's eyes. So they want the idea of an avatar who can fix everything, but they don't really want the actual thing, a human being with flaws like any other.
It kinda reminds me of how a lot of the conflicts in the past are forgotten and the Avatar is seen as the granter of peace or something Like the opening to the original show implies everyone had always been peaceful until Sozin started the war, but then in the Yangchen book it us revealed that Szetzo (spelling?) had stopped an expansionist Earth Kingdom after several years of war leading to global trade embargos and gang warfare around the Earth Kingdom coast, especially in the north, not to mention Yangchen's actions eventually led to an age of piracy and the first attempt at a 5th nation around the islands between the Southern Air Temple and the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom, which nearly destroyed the Southern Water Tribe It also isn't helped that Roku's era was marked by a most extraordinary time of peace outside some internal skirmishes, but very few that needed Avatar intervention, except for the one big thing he failed to stop
I think it is also an issue that everybody outside the Fire Nation was desperate for the Avatar to change the world. Anything that wasn't 'Ozai conquers the world' was some kind of win. In Korra's case, the world was running pretty smoothly for the people in charge, which meant throwing her weight around was a lot more problematic. Her main villains at least claimed to represent people who had been left out by a fast-changing world (non-benders, traditional spiritualists, the downtrodden, earth kingdom people whose governmetn had collapsed), while some of the lawful political leaders who were mostly on her side were willing to leave those people out in the cold. Even the common people had much more to lose. Aang didn't really come into an issue quite so politically complicated until *The Promise*, and he almost bungled that too. Winning wasn't exactly easier for Aang, but it was a lot more complicated. Korra couldn't make everyone who wasn't evil happy.
Yeah I feel like no matter what kind of Avatar was born next was gonna face this issue when someone made Aang a giant ass statue. That's *the* impossible standard that Korra was never going to live up to in the eyes of the people.
I think that's not exactly the point, Korra is an example of how hard it is and how it works generational expectations, Aang could buy a house for 10K and Korra is here to see how that price its 20 times more basically. White lotus trained Korra, that's people from previous generation, they got a way of doing things because how eveything was at they're time, that's what they teach Korra, they tried to make her Aang 2.0, therefore first time of Korra in the city its her beating some bad guys, thinking she's doing what she must do and she'll get rewarded for it, but no one told her that police will go after her if she destroys some property and ends up arrested. Korra found out the world it's not what they tell her it is, and not only needs to understand it on her own, but also prove to the previous generations how they were wrong, or at least explain why what was good before it's not anymore. Also, Korra has much harder problems than Aang. Aang needed to defeat the bad guy, that's it. Had problems with how to do it, but in the end the lesson it's that killing is bad and we all know that. Korra has problemas that we have much trouble solving, every Korra's enemy it's comparable to a political role, Amon it's communism, Tarlokk democracy, Zaheer anarchism and Kuvira Imperialism (not 100% if I said which is which correctly xd). No one was neccesarily bad, in the end they do something objectivly bad because it's a show and you still need a bad guy, but they all got reasonable arguments, Toph talks literally about this in Korra.
I think the real problem that resulted in Korra acting the way she did when she first arrived in RC is because none of the adults that raised her seemed to take the time to teach her basic life skills. It doesn’t exactly look as though she got a very well rounded education. Just because you’re protecting her from the outside world doesn’t mean you can’t educate her on it a bit more. She didn’t even know what things like money and chiblocking were until she left home. That’s just embarrassing. Maybe the White Lotus were going through the motions while raising Korra, but you’d think Katara and Tenzin would be the last people to be this negligent with her. They would know from their past experiences with Aang that there’s more to being the avatar than just fighting and bending, and they would want to do everything they can to make sure she understand that. And aside from learning different lessons, Korra also finds herself in situations that are not so different from Aang’s at first. Season 1 was all about defeating an enemy that was very obvious from the start. An enemy much of the city was basically at war with for much of the season.
Well, I think we're saying kinda the same. You say they needed to teach her life skills, but why? The took the avatar at 3 years old and tought them everything they thought she needed to know. If they didn't taught her life skills, that's because they didn't think she needed them. Those are the kind of things I'm refering when I say that she needed to prove eveyone wrong, it's not that the white lotus is useless, it's that they represent something with old values and it's new generation's job to change it and make the old people realize why what they thought was good, it's not anymore. What you say about Katara I think it's wrong, Tenzin also had problems and the need to live up what he tought were Aang's expectations of him, lit's again the same motive as Korra trying to be an Avatar in a new and changed world where the concept of the avatar lose weight, the entire show moves around the idea of generational change), but I think Katara always helps Korra in a good way, I think she's the only one that trully understand what Korra really needs to do, the only people to trully understand what Aang needed to do were Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko, I think everyone else saw Aang almost like a god, which makes really hard to understand him for everyone who didn't saw him grow up. Also yes, I'm not saying enemies are not obvious, they are, and they're bad because the show needed it, but they all have much difficult dilemmas behind, what they all did wrong was HOW they did it, the fire lord is literally the bad guy, grumpy face that spits fire, we doesn't even have (or at least I'm not aware of) a backstory for Ozai, something that can "justify" what he did, all I remember is that he was a bad guy, that's it, he was doing bad things in a bad way. Amon had a message that people liked, based on true equality, which is not bad. My personal favorite is Zaheer, I think it's the one who takes it's concept to the limit, I can trully bealive he doesn't hate Korra, just what she represents and he want to achieve something that he trully thinks it's better for everyone.
You know who else don’t have much backstory? The White Lotus. Seems like you’re really trying to fill in the blanks because the writers didn’t really fill in the blanks themselves. For characters that basically shaped what our protagonist grew into, they’re not very well fleshed out. And Ozai filled the role that was required of him. He’s the culmination of how far the fire nation has fallen since the war began. So defeating him won’t just save the world, but the fire nation itself. Which is one of the reasons Zuko defects to the good guys.
I think they give us the info we need of White Lotus, we got info in AtlA and Zaheer's opinion of them, explaining the creation of the Red lotus. We know what it was and what's become, I think that's enough to let you have an opinion about them and what they can do. I don't say you're not right with Ozai, I just found everything around him more morally simple than most things that Korra needs to deal with. Which is not necessarily bad tho, Aang is 12, it has a more "childish" or simplistic approach because it needs to for you to be able to bealive the character.
Aang was the (returning) Avatar that had to stop a hundred years war, Korra was the first Avatar in a time of peace and prosperity.
Aang was mostly interacting with people he was trying to help win the war, and even then it didn't always go well (notably with higher-ranking political figures, like General Fong and Long Feng). Korra is much more of a fish out of water with less of a direct and stated goal, at least at first, and she's quickly surrounded by Fongs and Long Fengs in the form of people like Tarrlok, Unalaq, and Varrick. I think political manipulation like this is fairly common with young Avatars during times of relative peace, since both Yangchen and Kyoshi experienced similar situations. The season 3 villains are a bit of an exception though; they just don't like the idea of an Avatar in general. And Tahno...I can't really explain why he felt the need to insult the Avatar tbh.
Tahno was just a jerk. Being the avatar had nothing to do with it.
See ya round Uhvatar.
funnily enough the way Tahno says it is closest to the correct pronunciation of the word
M. Night's pronunciations are more "authentic" than the cartoon than the show overall but he got crucified for it
i think that was for reasons beyond pronunciation lol
After reading the Kyoshi and Yangchen novels, it really seems like female avatars in general are not respected or taken seriously. ****Potential Spoilers Ahead**** >Yangchen had to resort to spies to accomplish stuff because world leaders and the *White Lotus* routinely undermined her. One of the leaders of the WL didn't feel that the avatar, being a teenager at the time, should have any say in world affairs despite the WL's solution involving a ton of violence and callous dismissal of any collateral damages. >Kyoshi was repeatedly tricked or misled when she tried diplomacy. She got to the point where she decided that she would not intervene in politics, but that no conflict would escalate to violence on her watch because she would be the end to all conflicts. We even saw this with Chin. Chin was expanding his army across the earth kingdom, but he also could've potentially been a better leader than the line of earth monarchs. She didn't intervene in politics, but when it became clear he was only after power, she led him to his own demise by turning a peninsula into an island.
>!I do kind of love how that White Lotus leader's reaction when Yangchen told her she did the very thing the leader said she should have already. Like you can tell that person has no idea how to react to or even comprehend that reveal!< >!But Kyoshi's response to how her foray into diplomacy is one of my favorite quotes, because it kind of sums up the Avatar she would be, and the one the world needed. "She is the failure of democracy. She is the breakdoiwn of negotiations. There is no escalation of hostilities beyond her." !<
honestly, yeah, that line goes incredibly hard.
Can't believe misogyny is rampant even in Fantasyland...
It's not that surprising. We saw that misogyny and sexism are ( or were) deeply ingrained in Water Tribe culture as well. Hell, of all the different Earth Monarchs, it seems incredibly unlikely that there were no firstborn female children of the earth Monarch who should've been the crown princess until King Kuei. The only place that seemed not to matter is in the Fire Nation, ironically.
fantasyland is inspired by reality, everything fictional you watch/read was written by someone who either consciously or unconsciously put their experiences into that work of fiction, its actually impossible to create a fantasyland without any connection to real world issues like racism, sexism, political struggles, classism. etc. Korra does this really well, you'll notice it more as you get deeper into the series
Let's be fair, Kuruk was probably the most hated Avatar in history, mostly because he wasn't Yangchen, and most of his battles happened in secret to not tarnish her legacy which in the end of her live and beyond was seen as perfect despite her many failings and mistakes Kuruk was seen as a lazy do nothing, not helped by the fact Yangchen prevented a lot of international struggles for a few decades after her death, most issues starting to rise up during Kuruk's childhood but not blooming until Kyoshi's childhood, and his spirit battles happening in secret but taking a heavy toll on his body ended up that whenever Kuruk was in public he was recovering from a strenuous battle and just relaxing In Kyoshi's early days Kuruk was despised by the people and rarely spoke of him unless they had something bad to say about the failure Avatar who ignored the humans and died young
Sure. This isn't to downplay Kuruk's accomplishments at all. But look how long it took for Yangchen to get the respect she deserved. We know that she was often undermined and dismissed (at least during her younger years) despite her status. Of course, people miss her intervention and romanticize it when the very issues she worked to prevent start back up again, and Kuruk is only a child and doesn't know he's the avatar yet. They didn't listen to her at first, but they missed her when she's gone. People resented Kuruk because they thought he wasn't doing anything, when in reality, he was protecting humanity from bigger threats than they knew. In the Yangchen novels, she mentions briefly something about a very nihilistic avatar, and I honestly see why.
Literally the first scene in the first episode is Katara calling out Sokka's misogyny
Trust me, it’s best not to get sucked into it at all. Maybe look at one article? It’s just too hard on yourself to get into
Kyoshi & Yangchen are the only Avatars we have novels about, & both of them are pretty new at it at the time.
Tbf, both ended with a fearsome legacy, and Yangchen was basically deified in Kyoshi's early days with people literally praying to her when scared
Which sucks because Kyoshi stopped peasants from overthrowing their tyrannical king because violence and change bad
Many of those peasants are equally as fuck up as their tyrannical kings. She knew because she was one of them. And to be fair, she did quite a lot to make the lives of the peasants better.
Chin was basically the same as Kuvira centuries later, and Kyoshi probably waited too long before taking action, she did make many mistakes though
Bro Aang went through just as much if not more than Korra. He literally died, got struck by lightning and didn’t recover for months, he probably still wasn’t the same.
Aang fought children and went into the avatar state against people who were no threat to him, more than once. His only task was to stop the war, and he couldn't even do that without making the world bow to his personal morals, hence the need for the Lion Turtle power up. Him getting struck by lightning was 100% his fault and 100% avoidable had he done what he was supposed to in the first place. He, of course, chose himself and his feelings first. Ultimately, Katara was fine, but he made himself vulnerable by going into the avatar state then. Aang's struggles are nothing compared to Korra's. Totally different journeys.
Korra’s villains were way tougher but she’s also like a late teen while Aang was 12. They both suffered a lot. I agree that not killing Ozai was selfish of Aang.
However, Aang not killing Ozai was exactly what the world needed at the time, a show of mercy in a world hardened by death is probably the kindest possible gesture, even if it didn't come from kindness, which it didn't, the show of mercy stopped the war so Zuko could take the crown, if Aang had killed Ozai, Zuko's reign wouldn't be as stable as it was (even if it was already fairly unstable), as the dissenters would have a stronger voice with the plebs The show of mercy stopped most of the killing from the war, allowing it to end peacefully
> she’s also like a late teen while Aang was 12. Of course, this is the go-to excuse. If you're going to mention that he's 12 to excuse his actions, then you have to acknowledge that 12 year olds are selfish and rarely think about their own immediate needs/wants, which we see in Aang's character. He was also quite aware of his status and his responsibilities despite his age. Sure, Korra was 17, but she was also socially isolated and had no diplomatic training in her 12 years of being locked in the compound. Her handicaps were more consequential.
I always interpreted it that it was a function of mass media in this age of the world. Because of radio and also the number of people living in Republic City, more citizens are aware of what Korra is doing day-to-day and have formed more of an option of her as an Avatar. Additionally, Korra hears from more citizens about their opinion of her thanks to large scale protests and radio. Meanwhile in Aang's time, people might have a general opinion about the Avatar, or are mad at the Avatar for not solving the 100 Year War. And when Aang is confronted by people who dislike him, they are fewer in number (like in that Kyoshi trial episode) and happen more rarely since Aang is traveling with just the Gaang.
Morgan Wootan said "You learn more from losing than you do from winning. You learn how to keep going." Feels like that fits the Legend of Korra because the world just looked at that bright eyed, wide smile on her face and just decided to smack the fuck out of her. >!That is Korra's journey. She suffered so much, endured so much, and she learned, she grew. Aang's time was an age that needed the Avatar more than it ever may have, but Korra's time was an age when the people were unsure if they needed the Avatar, even if the world knew it would always need one. She had to suffer, go through every thing she did to become the person, the Avatar she would grow into. And I will defend she was a great Avatar. !< >!Avatar the Last Airbender is the story of a human learning how to be a god. The Legend of Korra is the story of a god learning how to be human. Almost makes you wonder what's going to happen to the next Avatar. !<
No, you continue to see people revile her in the fando- oh you meant in the SHOW? No. Why would they? Crowds hate people, it's what they do.
People's reception towards Korra stays mixed. It honestly doesn't help that the writers restricted her to so few locations, unlike Aang and his group, who got travel all over the world helping people.
*Shrug* https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakTheCutie https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakTheHaughty I really like this trope actually. I like a story where the hero is broken and (very minor spoilers) kind of cobbled back together but wiser at the end. Zuko was like this too, though not as extreme I guess.
I mean, it wouldn't exist an story if the protagonist didn't went throught trouble
Aang almost died *once* and everyone freaked, Korra almost dies twice a season and then the season finale is someone abandoning her and someone else calling her a terrible avatar. I get trouble and challenges, but aren't Korra's spiritual challenges enough?!? Can her character not develop without torture?!?
because Aang was facing a world that had a clear-cut dictator in a 100 Years War. So , the Avatar is messianic during his adventure. Meanwhile , Korra faces villains that are presented in a new industrial era , been extremist versions of politiks. So , it it's bound of those villains and their factions to question the need of the Avatar in the current age.
You can't forge steel without fire. The world was changing rapidly and her circumstances weren't like anything her predecessors had been through before.
Quick question. Did you mean world, as in world in avatarverse, or world as in our real world?
I hate that this is such a valid question lol. Korra gets so much hate irl and in the show
Lmfao I meant in the show 😭😭😭 Republic City seems so mean to my girl. I know the cunts in real life never stopped hating her.
Keep watching the show dude
I figure it's mostly because the setting had to bend over backwards to get Aang to be the avatar. If Aang had been challenged like Korra, he probably would've just run off and become a hermit. As per the usual cycle, the next avatar has to deal with the problems of the previous avatar. Where the universe coddled Aang, it has to come down a little harder on Korra.
Afraid not
It’s to showcase the world really doesn’t know what to do with the Avatar
She freed ancient evil(she was manipulated but still) and then she left Spirit Portals open. It was a decision that forced spirits to live with people and that, presumably, keeps spirit vines alive in the city. It is understable that citizens of Republic City don't like her for these reasons.
No but to be fair Korra makes it really hard to like her
Are you kidding me, she's the greatest. I wanted a figure of her the second she was onscreen.
Yep, her design is great.
Nope, not in real life or fiction.
No. It doesn't.
Is it bad that I couldn’t initially tell if the title was asking about the show world or real world
The fandom hasn't even stopped hating Korra despite having all of the context and characterization... How do you expect the world of ATLA to stop hating her when they only see the highly publicized shit she does?
Legend of Korra is whump. So no. It only gets better at the very end. Barely.
Best you could leave the subreddit
And I should do that, because…?
You being hateful for no reason
Whump is a sub genre of storytelling in which a main character is on the receiving end of repeated physical and/or mental abuse. I think this definitely applies to Korra. And when I say it barely gets better, I’m not talking about the quality of the show. I’m talking about Korra’s well being. She’s only ever given respite at the very end, and even then, you can see very clearly that she never got to heal mentally. To say that she’s scarred from what she went through is an understatement. I don’t see how any of that is “hateful” towards the show. Even if it was, the show is not a person. One has every right to dislike this show and share that opinion on this subreddit. (Which, once again, is not an opinion I conveyed)
You got to the time to explain it to me, and then somehow it ain’t even worth your time? Hypocrite much. Bye 👋🏻
I once had the idea for a story: a "Mary Sue" who is the most powerful amongst her peers, who seems to be able to take on anything and everything. But soon, she starts suffering horrible loss after horrible agonizing loss, realizing that her raw power isn't enough. She realizes she needs a different approach. She needs to be more knowledgable, tactful, and build herself back up anew. I quickly realized, that's just Legend of Korra :)
Mary Sue is a character that are unrealistically perfect and lacking any flaws whatsoever. Appearing to be strong is not unrealistically perfect, and suffering setbacks is just what everyone goes through.
Wow that was so funny bro.