Oh, this fandom loathes teenage girls of colour. Especially with how they treat and talk about Korra.
"She's too aggressive!" - uh, it's almost like all she knows is fighting and training for war. Plus have you seen how Tonraq bends? No thoughts, just bending on instinct. It's genetic.
"She's violent!" - once again, all she knows is fighting. Maybe talk to the White Lotus why they raised her that way. They clearly wanted a human weapon and took the chance with Korra.
(If anything, Korra didn't crash out nearly as much as she should have. Zaheer deserved being crashed out on. As did President Raiko.)
And I've been seeing this recent narrative of acting like Korra is this manipulative bitch who toys with people's feelings........when she's a literal sweetheart. I've even seen some discourse about how Korra was overreacting to the literal chemical and psychological warfare that Zaheer put her through and how Aang would never let things get to that point (as if he wasn't literally killed in the Avatar State).h
(Also........Korra really got groomed like 3 different times in three seasons. Tarrlok, Unalaq, Zaheer's whole arc with Korra was essentially an analogy for sexual assault...........why were the adults around her not doing more to protect her? This girl spent her whole early life being abused in some way and she's being treated like the villain. None of these men get anywhere near the amount of heat that people have for Korra)
No, yeah, almost everytime I see any 'critique' of Korra as a character it will inevitably fall into some type of misogyny/racism.
I'll actually push back a little on Korra taking a lot of her bending fron Tonraq, though I'm sure she did a little. I think she probably learnt a lot of it from Katara.
💬 5 🔁 2873 ❤️ 5419 · I learned from Katara, the best there is.
There is a lot of grace in how Korra bends. Also, her more 'aggresive' bending style is not just something relating to her. Mako and Bolin also have much more aggresive/MMA fighting styles. This probably reflects to the animators including more "modern" martial arts into their reference for tlok characters fighting styles.
Side note, though, I absolutely adore Tonraq's bending style. It's so unique and almost earthbender-y, which makes me wonder if its something he'd picked up while travelling from the north to the south during his banishment
You're spot on with the fact that Korra was raised as a human weapon, and that clearly affected her greatly. She wasn't given certain tools she would need, not only as the Avatar, but as a human being too. A lot of Korra's social difficulties in the show, especially in B1. And I believe that many of those difficulties are what people interpret, quite uncharitably, as aggression or cockiness.
When, really, Korra is quite a friendly, and sweet person. Even I get slightly caught of guard by how 'aggreable' she is with characters like Lin whenever I rewatch the first book. She just doesn't let people push her around, and occasionally overreacts when someone starts something with her.
I hate the rampant comparing of Korra and Aang. Also, Aang and Korra both have arcs around injury/temporary disability? Like are we forgetting that Azula blocked his chakra and he couldn't go into the Avatar state?
This discussion also feels so inane, bacuse Korra and Aang face different foes and struggles in their lives. And they are completely different people. Like, yeah, Aang may have handled the diplomatic issues around Korra's time better, but tell me Korra wouldn't have absolutely bodied Ozai before the end of B1 if she were in Aang's place? It's a stupid discussion, because clearly, every foe Aang and Korra are matched with is supposed to hit at their weakest points. That's good storytelling.
And yeah, I find it fascinating how the blame for things done to Korra gets shifted from the men who did her harm to her. Like when people say she lost the previous lives, as if Unalaq hadn't held her down and ripped them out of her. There is certainly a chilling aspect to how Korra's villains were very engaged in 'dismantiling' her personally, violating her physically and spiritually in various ways. Aang's battle with the Fire Nation and Ozai was more ideological in nature, while Korra's is deeply personal. Which is another thing a lot of Korra's haters tend to overlook.
Also yeah, Unalaq and Tarrlok specifically just give massive groomer vibes in how they treated Korra, and Zaheer isn't really far behind.
