Fandom Misogyny Victim Tournament
Round Two, Bracket 6
Korra (Avatar: The Legend of Korra) vs. Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Korra
Willow Rosenberg
Propaganda below the cut:
Korra:
Fandom picked her apart, called her a b*tch, blamed her for every bad thing that happened TO HER in the plot, disliked that she's loud, disliked that she's strong, disliked that she's confident in her strength, disliked that she's not like their beloved boy Aang. It's been years and you still can't sneeze in this fandom without something starting to yell that Korra is the worst Avatar ever.
She is so so strong. She did her best. She faced down enemies and cataclysms like most Avatars before never did and she fought tooth and nail for both humans and spirits, almost dying in the process, multiple times. Her personal growth and the character arc of such is impressive and well done. She's ride or die for her friends and for strangers too. And the fact that she takes no crap and can punch someone's face in for it is a bonus, not a flaw.
She gets an insane amount of hate for not dealing with everything that happens to her "better", mainly for showing traits considered cool in male characters like being a hothead and choosing violence
My bisexual queen went through the horrors while saving her world four times and she does not deserve the hate she gets, give her a break
She made mistakes and experiences "negative" emotions. People acted like she was the devil incarnate. Meanwhile; those same people fawned over Zuko, who is not only notoriously hot-headed but also literally raided and burned whole villages. People also do not seem to hold the same contempt for Azula as they do for Korra, which I believe is in part due to racism/colorism.
She was trying her best and she had the whole world on her shoulders with very little help to hold it. also, put "korra back muscles" into the search engine of your choice and behold.
Willow Rosenberg:
Back then, when the show aired, Willow was a very beloved character. Once the show progresses and her storyline got more dark, people started to notice more her flaws, which was a good thing! But now it seems that many people in the people are only able to conceptualize her through her flaws; and that the only reading of her character that are valid are the ones who seem to think she was always inherently a bad person. Many fans express like toward her only in a "wow she sucks" way, igniring that she is a character with flaws but also a history of feeling guilty for them and in the end overcoming them and that she is supposed to have a good balance between qualities and flaws like any others well-written characters. (And she is well-written. She is the character with the best and longest arc and character analysis in the show after Buffy. I think some people hate her also for that, because they wished theirs faves- whoever they might be- had received the same attention and space from the writing, and they can't accept that Buffy's best friend, and not any of her love interests, is the second most important and second most well-developed character in the show.) For a fandom who LOVE morally gray fictional male characters, this fandom is truly unable to grasple with women who are complex and flawed but still sympathetic.
She's a deeply relatable character, a former gifted child (in the true sense of the term; she wasn't just good at school, she was a genius who was able to crack the FBI security at sixteen) who grew up loved and sheltered but quite emotionally neglected and lonely, an only child of parents who often travelled for work and with only one friend, who often didn't prioritize her as much as she did him, despite loving her. For this reason, she is scared of losing the people she loves or being abandoned and rejected by them and becoming lonely again, and she often use her intelligence and her usefulness (in magic or computer skills) to prove them she is valuable in the group and in theirs lives. Despite being shy and bullied in High School, she always remained proud of her quirks and unicity, and once she went to college she thrived and became "cool" in a new, more open-minded environment, but her dream sequence in Restless showed how deep down she always feared that her bullies were right and she was fundamentally uncool and thus unlovable, which is also a very relatable feeling for many girls who were bullied and mocked during theirs teens. She love fiercelly and sometimes obsessively, and she really thinks Buffy, Xander and then Tara are the best people ever and that the best thing that happened to her life was meeting them. She renounced to the chance of going to Oxford or Cambridge or Harvard, all universities she was accepted, to remain at Buffy's side after High School. She is often blamed for moving into Buffy's house without paying rent when Buffy was struggling with money, but the fact that most fans ignore is that the reason she moved into her house and tge way the money were spent in the first place was to keep Dawn (the most important thing for Buffy in the world) safe, feed, clothed, and in school. Spike is often praised for that but Willow and Tara were the ones who were Dawn's main caretakers while Buffy was dead, and Willow's machinations and lies to to the system were the things that kept Dawn (the most important person for Buffy) out of foster care. Willoe's addiction storyline is not the best but the way the fandom treats it as if acknowlodging that Willow gad an addiction means not acknowlodging her agency or that she has flaws on her own, or to prove that Willow was always a bad person, is very troubling and a symptom that most btvs fans are incredibly ignorant about addiction and the nuances of being one, living with one or loving one. After a period of "magical rehab" Willow need to learn how to re-gain control of her magic and her worst impulses and how to use her talents and power for good and this is a very important narrative. In the ending, Willow's arc culminate with her being fundamental for the spell to activate all the Slayers, breaking Buffy out of the cycle of narrative isolation she had been trapoed for most of the show. In this way Willow re-learns to trust herself and her power while also empowering her best friends and hundred of girls like her, that now won't have to fight and die alone, one after the other, because they could fight together and hopefully survive by helping each others.
