Everything changed when season 2 aired. And it was the worst season of avatar for sure, but 1 was good, and 3 and 4 were amazing. But by the time 3 started there was a hatedom. There were anti korra youtubers and everything. I’ve been in the fandom since korra started and a friend got me to binge atla to join him watching it. I remember being called a crack shipper on reddit in season 1 for my pro korrasami stance.
The worst part of the anti korra people is their lack of media literacy. Its fine if you prefer the tone of atla or prefer aang’s struggle of morality vs duty, but a lot of the critiques of Korra aren’t that. They’re calling her a Mary Sue despite her being in line with every avatar in specialness and power level. I remember critiques that she never really struggled which was patently untrue or that she was immature which was her growth arc.
Ultimately I trust bryke. Korra is one of my favorite characters. She felt like a reincarnation of aang struggling in his shadow. And it’s clear the creators of the show liked her too. I suspect the end we will see is what we keep being shown by this setting’s content: each avatar is an imperfect but ultimately good human who stepped up and is now in an impossible position but continues to do their best.
So yeah I’m excited and I want nothing to do with the fandom. I assume they’ll hate this avatar before long too.
My experience doesn’t go that far back. Other than a few random ATLA episodes as a kid, I first watched Avatar (IIRC) just about after Book 4 aired, and the order was LoK -> ATLA -> LoK again. The Reddit fandom seemed pretty positive back then, though.
And yeah, misconceptions about lore are always really annoying, especially when people are really certain/aggressive but don’t accept references.
I’m excited, but afraid Bryke will try to “appease” the fandom, which is impossible. I hope they don’t.
Yeah reddit was mixed at the time. It’s funny because by the time I quit reddit the fandom had divided in half. And I don’t want to imply that there weren’t anti korra fans during season 1, it’s just there wasn’t really anything for them to latch onto except their misreading of the scene where she regained her powers. And the hate for her character has always had currents of misogyny, homophobia, and racism. The homophobia was milder before season 4 concluded, but there was a full on “it came out of nowhere” backlash that culminated in both creators of the show waiting a day and posting why they did it. I talk about having been a crack shipper in part because those posts vindicated us, the creators of the show shipped it too.
And as for why I trust them, it’s two things: firstly that they fought the network to make korra a girl, then they asked and got permission to make her end up in a queer relationship and they never looked back on either. The comics kept them together and had Kya mention being a lesbian and talking about how the four nations each treat queer relationships, as well as mentioning that Kyoshi was bi. And it managed to not feel preachy, but more like the cool aunt just sitting her down and explaining how the world works for people who aren’t an army unto themselves.
Then there’s the books. I’m not going to say F.C. Yee is the best writer I’ve read, but for novels continuing a beloved setting he’s done excellent and they’ve created a theme of struggle and failure for avatars. The world we were introduced to in the boy in the iceberg is one destroyed by the absence of the avatar and so has developed a nostalgia. Whereas in Kyoshi’s books we see a world demonizing Kuruk because he refused to let others fight alongside him or to tell the world that he was fighting spirits and it was killing him lest he ruin their image of Yengchen. Meanwhile Kyoshi is both celebrated and demonized much like Korra as she struggles to right a complicated mess. Yengchen is similar. She’s doing espionage and trying to build infrastructure because of things that happened in her childhood and her predecessor focusing too heavily on rebuilding the fire nation. And as this happens she’s haunted by memories of the hate the world showed her past lives for failure or incomplete success.
In short only one piece of media in this setting treats complete success as something even possible for most avatars. We see why four past lives tell Aang that stopping Ozai is more important than the only air nomad not killing. We see time and time again that Korra was not the exception, Aang was, and we see that the successors of great avatars often struggle in their shadows.
And one thing I find extra frustrating about people not getting that Korra’s flaws and struggles are what make her interesting is that that’s what we liked about the gaang. Bryke don’t write characters that are wholly good or evil. We’re introduced to this in the storm where aang is shown to be a coward and zuko to have been noble. Iroh killed a lot of people before becoming good. And that remains a major theme of korra and the comics and the books. Zaheer is an amazing villain for that reason, and him and Kuvira both contributed to stopping the other…
Sorry about ranting, this remains my favorite fandom and I’m kinda fangirling about more coming
Sorry about ranting, this remains my favorite fandom and I’m kinda fangirling about more coming.
No I’m the same, I can’t stop thinking about the Avatar world, especially since the Seven Haven leaks. Going a bit meta, the Avatar and their cyclical nature/struggle is such a beautiful storytelling device.
misogyny, homophobia, and racism
Oh my gosh… I try not to go off on this anymore. But I do sometimes replace “Korra” with “Zuko” in whatever was said, or quote Bryke’s response.
F.C. Yee
I thought he did a great job, especially with the Kyoshi novels! And yes, the Avatar picking up their past lives’ mistakes is so poignant and cool. I’d dispute your assertion and argue that Aang “failed” later in life too, allowing things like corruption and anti-bender sentiment in Republic City to fester, tolerating the awful Earth Kingdom monarchy, letting long dissent within the White Lotus and their role fester into the Red Lotus and so on. He left a political mess, too, and his dogmatic pacifism was ultimately to blame. But this was largely implied background/subtext in LoK, never explicitly spelled out.
In short only one piece of media in this setting treats complete success as something even possible for most avatars.
…Still, I do agree in the context of ATLA. Being in the unusual position of watching LoK first, still reeling from her recovery, I found it a bit odd that Aang never had to deal with that trauma, and didn’t really have to compromise his pacifism in the end.
is that that’s what we liked about the gaang.
This is a weird thing… Last time I was on Reddit, they did idealize the Gaang. Flaws and mistakes were not really that. This is one of the reasons I left /r/thelastairbender behind.
And as for why I trust them, it’s two things: firstly that they fought the network to make korra a girl, then they asked and got permission to make her end up in a queer relationship and they never looked back on either. The comics kept them together and had Kya mention being a lesbian and talking about how the four nations each treat queer relationships, as well as mentioning that Kyoshi was bi. And it managed to not feel preachy, but more like the cool aunt just sitting her down and explaining how the world works for people who aren’t an army unto themselves.
True…
But I’ve also watched a few Viacom investor slides, and what makes me weary is that they are A: treating Avatar like a kids franchise, bucketing it with TMT, Spongebob and so on in presentations, and B: explicitly pushing sprawling, heavily monetized franchises.It makes me think they are going to push the writers towards a younger audience (with the twin post-Korra Avatars reportedly being 9 already raising my eyebrow. And with this, comes “family friendly” scrutiny, especially in the current political environment.
Oops. Here I am, rambling too.
But yeah, I’m excited too. Honestly I’m going to get a lot out of my system just writing fanon fantasies down before the premiere :/
Everything changed when season 2 aired. And it was the worst season of avatar for sure, but 1 was good, and 3 and 4 were amazing. But by the time 3 started there was a hatedom. There were anti korra youtubers and everything. I’ve been in the fandom since korra started and a friend got me to binge atla to join him watching it. I remember being called a crack shipper on reddit in season 1 for my pro korrasami stance.
The worst part of the anti korra people is their lack of media literacy. Its fine if you prefer the tone of atla or prefer aang’s struggle of morality vs duty, but a lot of the critiques of Korra aren’t that. They’re calling her a Mary Sue despite her being in line with every avatar in specialness and power level. I remember critiques that she never really struggled which was patently untrue or that she was immature which was her growth arc.
Ultimately I trust bryke. Korra is one of my favorite characters. She felt like a reincarnation of aang struggling in his shadow. And it’s clear the creators of the show liked her too. I suspect the end we will see is what we keep being shown by this setting’s content: each avatar is an imperfect but ultimately good human who stepped up and is now in an impossible position but continues to do their best.
So yeah I’m excited and I want nothing to do with the fandom. I assume they’ll hate this avatar before long too.
Interesting.
My experience doesn’t go that far back. Other than a few random ATLA episodes as a kid, I first watched Avatar (IIRC) just about after Book 4 aired, and the order was LoK -> ATLA -> LoK again. The Reddit fandom seemed pretty positive back then, though.
And yeah, misconceptions about lore are always really annoying, especially when people are really certain/aggressive but don’t accept references.
I’m excited, but afraid Bryke will try to “appease” the fandom, which is impossible. I hope they don’t.
Yeah reddit was mixed at the time. It’s funny because by the time I quit reddit the fandom had divided in half. And I don’t want to imply that there weren’t anti korra fans during season 1, it’s just there wasn’t really anything for them to latch onto except their misreading of the scene where she regained her powers. And the hate for her character has always had currents of misogyny, homophobia, and racism. The homophobia was milder before season 4 concluded, but there was a full on “it came out of nowhere” backlash that culminated in both creators of the show waiting a day and posting why they did it. I talk about having been a crack shipper in part because those posts vindicated us, the creators of the show shipped it too.
And as for why I trust them, it’s two things: firstly that they fought the network to make korra a girl, then they asked and got permission to make her end up in a queer relationship and they never looked back on either. The comics kept them together and had Kya mention being a lesbian and talking about how the four nations each treat queer relationships, as well as mentioning that Kyoshi was bi. And it managed to not feel preachy, but more like the cool aunt just sitting her down and explaining how the world works for people who aren’t an army unto themselves.
Then there’s the books. I’m not going to say F.C. Yee is the best writer I’ve read, but for novels continuing a beloved setting he’s done excellent and they’ve created a theme of struggle and failure for avatars. The world we were introduced to in the boy in the iceberg is one destroyed by the absence of the avatar and so has developed a nostalgia. Whereas in Kyoshi’s books we see a world demonizing Kuruk because he refused to let others fight alongside him or to tell the world that he was fighting spirits and it was killing him lest he ruin their image of Yengchen. Meanwhile Kyoshi is both celebrated and demonized much like Korra as she struggles to right a complicated mess. Yengchen is similar. She’s doing espionage and trying to build infrastructure because of things that happened in her childhood and her predecessor focusing too heavily on rebuilding the fire nation. And as this happens she’s haunted by memories of the hate the world showed her past lives for failure or incomplete success.
In short only one piece of media in this setting treats complete success as something even possible for most avatars. We see why four past lives tell Aang that stopping Ozai is more important than the only air nomad not killing. We see time and time again that Korra was not the exception, Aang was, and we see that the successors of great avatars often struggle in their shadows.
And one thing I find extra frustrating about people not getting that Korra’s flaws and struggles are what make her interesting is that that’s what we liked about the gaang. Bryke don’t write characters that are wholly good or evil. We’re introduced to this in the storm where aang is shown to be a coward and zuko to have been noble. Iroh killed a lot of people before becoming good. And that remains a major theme of korra and the comics and the books. Zaheer is an amazing villain for that reason, and him and Kuvira both contributed to stopping the other…
Sorry about ranting, this remains my favorite fandom and I’m kinda fangirling about more coming
No I’m the same, I can’t stop thinking about the Avatar world, especially since the Seven Haven leaks. Going a bit meta, the Avatar and their cyclical nature/struggle is such a beautiful storytelling device.
Oh my gosh… I try not to go off on this anymore. But I do sometimes replace “Korra” with “Zuko” in whatever was said, or quote Bryke’s response.
I thought he did a great job, especially with the Kyoshi novels! And yes, the Avatar picking up their past lives’ mistakes is so poignant and cool. I’d dispute your assertion and argue that Aang “failed” later in life too, allowing things like corruption and anti-bender sentiment in Republic City to fester, tolerating the awful Earth Kingdom monarchy, letting long dissent within the White Lotus and their role fester into the Red Lotus and so on. He left a political mess, too, and his dogmatic pacifism was ultimately to blame. But this was largely implied background/subtext in LoK, never explicitly spelled out.
…Still, I do agree in the context of ATLA. Being in the unusual position of watching LoK first, still reeling from her recovery, I found it a bit odd that Aang never had to deal with that trauma, and didn’t really have to compromise his pacifism in the end.
This is a weird thing… Last time I was on Reddit, they did idealize the Gaang. Flaws and mistakes were not really that. This is one of the reasons I left /r/thelastairbender behind.
True…
But I’ve also watched a few Viacom investor slides, and what makes me weary is that they are A: treating Avatar like a kids franchise, bucketing it with TMT, Spongebob and so on in presentations, and B: explicitly pushing sprawling, heavily monetized franchises.It makes me think they are going to push the writers towards a younger audience (with the twin post-Korra Avatars reportedly being 9 already raising my eyebrow. And with this, comes “family friendly” scrutiny, especially in the current political environment.
Oops. Here I am, rambling too.
But yeah, I’m excited too. Honestly I’m going to get a lot out of my system just writing fanon fantasies down before the premiere :/