Avatar: The Legend of Korra

[sherkahn]

The Wall Street Journal has the exclusive heads-up on Korra, the newest incarnation of Avatar.




The new Avatar, and those brooding, headstrong shoulders of hers are there.

For legality... Sokka.

Comments

[mullon]

She looks awesome.

[espanolbot]

And yet people are complaining that she looks like a man because she has muscle definition. *annoyed sigh*

[janegray]

Those comments are fail, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that many commentators are saying that she looks great and are pointing out that "muscle=manly" equivalence is bullshit.

I few years ago I saw a similar situation (female character was portrayed as realistically fit), but back then virtually all commentators were saying that she looked like a man. Either things have improved in general since then, or Avatar Fandom has got an unusual number of sensible people.

[mistersandman]

Word.

But when the inevitable live-action movie adaptation comes out I expect Korra to be wearing a two piece bikini played by Megan Fox and a depressingly large part of the internet will fail to realize why this is a problem.

[icon_uk]

And giggling, lots of giggling, and possibly straddling a motorcycle... in cutaway leathers...

[baihu]

I think it'll be an improvement if Michael Bay directs it instead of M.Night. At least there would be EXPLOSIONS and SLOW-MO EXPLOSIONS, none of that 6 people to move a pebble crap.

[thanekos]

Certainly be an opportunity to fit Sparky Sparky Boom Man in as an action scene.

[mrstatham]

Yeah, I think I must've been the only man sitting in the audience for Transformers 2 thinking that the sequence with Megan Fox on the bike was near pornographic, given the shorts she was wearing.

But I don't find her attractive anyway, which seemingly makes me unusual, apparently.

[icon_uk]

Not to me it doesn't, but I don't find Shia LaWhosis attractive either so even that was a hiding to nothing for me.

[halloweenjack]

I... what? Just because you can tell she has deltoids? That's insane in the membrane. I just watched Terminator 2 the other day and I thought that Sarah Connor would have put us all past that. So sad.

[sherkahn]

Meh, I know surfer girls who have well developed shoulders and solid structure because they surf. I see nothing wrong with her ...."design".

Here's a thought (and I know I am going to get dinged on stereo types, but I'm willing to risk it in terms of open discussion.)

Korra should be at that age where sexual preference should be an active idea in her mind. Are we ready for a Main Character who is out and LGBT? We have TV shows... is animation ready?

[radioactivepiss]

I'd kill, kill, kill for this (the day an American animated kids' programme has an openly LGBT character is a day I'll jump for joy), but I doubt it'll happen. At the moment- and this isn't my country so I don't know- I think it may actually be against some guideline or another to have animated children's programming have openly queer characters?

[halloweenjack]

Not a guideline so much as a near-certitude that lots of homophobic organizations with "family" and "marriage" in their names would be all SKREE SKREEEEE THEY'RE PUSHING THEIR AGENDA IN CARTOONS WHICH ARE JUST FOR LITTLE KIDS SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE. It would take a producer/studio/network with rather large stones to deliberately go against the haters.

[mcity]

The Fairly Oddparents and Ned's Declassified, both made by the same people, had a very fey character played by the openly gay Jim Bullock. In FOP, he was a drama teacher who temporarily became a supervillain inspired by the Village People. They basically went as far as they could without explicitly identifying the characters as gay.

[venatosapiens]

The thought of a open LGBT animated character that isn't Venture Brothers or Archer (i.e played for comedy) is a refreshing one. That said, I think the likelihood of that step being taken on Nickelodeon is very very low. The Avatar franchise is an important one for them. They aren't going to want to risk any kind of negative publicity.

That said, if there's anybody working in animation who could pull it off in a respectful, well characterized fashion, it's Bryke. So we'll see.

[baihu]

Well, Aang's son would be too old/spiritual son. Won't stop the shipping, but it *might* stop it being a canon pairing in the show itself.

In which case, she might not have a romantic option, which is fine.

Unless we see Zuko's kid, who I personally hope would be something like a male Mai (because genderbent fanart of her and Zuko tends to work with her being a guy WAY too well lols!).

[aaron_bourque]

Can those people be hurt?

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; the answer is yes.