Miss - A Legend of Korra Fancomic

[espanolbot]

By Siquia


http://siquia.deviantart.com/art/Miss-342013947?q=gallery%3Asiquia%2F21292269&qo=3

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

sooo tiny....

[espanolbot]

Fixed, it resized by mistake.

[biod]

I can feel my heart dying inside my chest. ;_;

[icon_uk]

Lovely! And very cool that Zuko's VA liked it and said so! :)

[arilou_skiff]

I can't see nothing.

[espanolbot]

Fixed

[monkey12]

The thumbnail looks interesting. Is there a mirror to a version with a legible font size?

[espanolbot]

Fixed

[akodo_rokku]

Aw that's adorbs.

Almost enough to make me forget how bad Legend of Korra was.

[rainspirit]

Wait, Legend of Korra was bad? I thought I heard the opposite?

[espanolbot]

It was a good show, though the creators not knowing whether they'd get a second season or not led to things getting a bit... rushed towards the end.

If they'd had more episodes in the first season in addition to a confirmed season two before they started, events and character development might have moved a bit more organically, but as such a lot of people seem to dislike it because it moves at an accelerated pace.

And then there are people who dislike how the story went, resolutions, character actions within the story etc. but they're down to personal preferences so I can't really talk for them.

Like people didn't like the idea that Korra was a flawed person, and not a fairly cleancut person the same way that Aang was. The fact that she makes bad decisions, feels fear and gets depressed are seen by some people as things that make her a bad character as opposed to things that make her more of an actual person and not a two dimensional character within their own show.

[akodo_rokku]

It's not just that Korra has flaws though, it's that he basically does nothing positive throughout the show and only accomplishes anything through Deus Ex Machina when her crush is in danger.

Considering the Avatar history of amazing female characters like Toph, Katara, and even Azula, Korra (who has years of experience on all three) is a mess.

[espanolbot]

Well she becomes a successful athlete, is considered to be a prodigy amongst Avatars for her ability to bend the other elements, is part of a pseudo-SWAT team and fills her role very well despite being effectively shamed into the role, her figuring our how to escape from Tarrlok's box, then there's her work to try and fight the Equalists independantly which overall had more successes than failures. Mostly because Amon's powers lead to no-sells so she couldn't attack him directly due to his own abilities.

Saying she does NOTHING positive for herself or the plot unless her pseudoboyfriend is in peril is kind of a disservice to her as a character.

Korra is older than the previous Avatar cast and grew up in an entirely different environment (seperated from her parents when she was like four, constantly trained in bending and not allowed to interact with anyone her own age until she ran off to Republic City) so her having a different set of issues and personality quirks is natural compared to, say, Katara etc.

Like people thought that her being scared or depressed at the possiblity of someone taking her bending away was stupid, when that was the thing she was brought up to think was what made her special. So she comes off as arrogant because she's the Avatar and has known she was for most of her life (previous Avatars avoided this by not being told until they were 16), and becomes possibly sucidial when it seems that that's taken from her, due to her defining herself through her role so much.

[akodo_rokku]

The pro athlete thing can be discarded completely I think. I liked pro-bending a lot in the first episode, but then they dragged that pointless storyline on for SIX EPISODES and I couldn't have given a damn by the end of it. Her being involved with pro-bending didn't really advance the story and it's not like she helped anyone or saved lives by doing it so while it might have been okay as a side-plot, and maybe getting ONE episode of focus (comparable to say, a Clark Kent the Journalist story) it was pretty much a waste of time.

Bottom line, Korra comes off as unlikeable and weak for most of the series. Escaping from Tarrlok's box is pretty much the only time she overcomes that. She spends the rest of her screen time crippled with self-doubt and emotional turmoil. It's fine to *have* that, but you have to balance it out with the hero being heroic and they didn't do that. Frickin' Meelo got a better Big Damn Hero moment than Korra ever did. And lets not even get into the love triangle/quadrangle/triangle again. Mako was such a cipher any girl being interested in him made no damn sense, so the amount of time dedicated to Korra struggling with her feelings for Mako was even more wasted.

Really though a weak and unlikable protagonist is just scratching the surface of the problems with Legend of Korra. There's the complete *bullshit* of Amon, the fully incompetent Bolin & Mako, characters constantly grabbing the idiot ball (Lin's the worst offender, Tenzin's probably second) the central conflict being given no actual support (the Equalist movement held no water because they never showed any real 'Bender Oppression' or that non-benders had worse lives than benders in any way) Iroh 2 being blatant fanservice, Deus Ex Machina after Deus Ex Machina in the last few episodes... I could continue but it makes me sad to think about it.

I tried to rationalize it as "being rushed" but the more I thought about the show as a whole the more disappointed and angry I got. And when I found out the Ehaszes weren't involved everything kinda fell into place. Legend of Korra just doesn't have good writers.

[espanolbot]

Let's just agree to disagree.

Though Mako does have a personality, he's just an asshole.

Asami was cool though, I liked Tenzin, and Lin was more competant than she wasn't.

And the HORRIBLY rushed execution of Amon's backstory was kind of imcompetant. Someone literally telling us his backstory and motivation in a five minute monologue? Serious?

Amon's backstory would have been better if they had hinted throughout the series instead just of outright just tells us it in one chunk.

[biod]

In hindsight, there was that moment Korra's waterspout is dissapated by Amon when the equalists attacked the stadium (which made the rush job even more infuriating)...

[akodo_rokku]

Definitely agree on Amon, that's the source of my whole "mystery that's not a mystery" comment. I mean you have a mysterious masked villain, generally that means the villain is someone we already know in disguise. But no, Amon's just some dude.

My biggest problem with Lin (and the metalbender police as whole) was that for most of the series they seemed to completely forget THEY'RE FREAKING EARTHBENDERS. Lin constantly got electrocuted unconscious via her own cables when she could have avoided it just by throwing rocks. When your villains are only winning because your heroes are terminally dumb, you are not writing a good story.

[benuben]

"he Equalist movement held no water because they never showed any real 'Bender Oppression' or that non-benders had worse lives than benders in any way"

Eh, not true. What about the mafia guys from the first episode? And they mention that benders are the ones, who caused all wars ect. Yes, it's not rational, but that's the point. People, when facing a problem, often oversimplify the thing and blame it on whole group of people, instead of individuals actually responsible. An I would remind you, that the city is ruled by council made of benders and benders only, just like the police.


What's wrong with Tenzin? And how is Katara amazing character? Atleast Korra realized, when she did mistakes and apologized. Katara was just an asshole.

[espanolbot]

In addition to the bender on nonbender crime, the policeforce (the active part of it anyway, the other guys in the policestation might not have been benders) and the rulers of the city being comprised mostly of benders, there's also the mass unemployment the city was experiencing which may be due, in part, to benders being able to secure jobs easier than nonbenders.

Such as Mako being able to walk into a job at the power plant just off the street, despite the high levels of unemployment and homelessness.

In addition, there's also the implication that at least a portion of the nonbender population is kind of ghettoised, as shown by Tarrlok's decision to cut the power to their section of town (at night, in the middle of winter) just so he could have anyone who complained arrested for a) breaking kerfew while being a nonbender, and b) classifying them as an "Equalist rally" in the process.

And Katara was a great character in a lot of respects, but she was kind of a terrible person in a lot of ways too. Such as her criticising her friends for doing something, only to turn around and do the exact same thing while justifying it as being for the common good.

Plus there's her mean streak, as demonstrated by her mocking Toph's blindness ("It's such a beautiful night tonight, shame you can't see it TOPH!") or telling her brother that he didn't love their mother as much as her because he didn't want to hunt down and murder her killer like she wanted to.

[akodo_rokku]

When did they show high levels of unemployment and homelessness? I don't recall any such thing. Is this something that's just hinted at, some Word of God thing, or what? Because if the show had shown a decent amount of non-benders having sucky lives I'm pretty sure I would remember it. Since one of my biggest complaints is that the Equalist Movement was based on that but they never actually showed it.

And I knew the bender gang from the beginning would be brought up. I'd like to point out that it's the only example of "bender oppression" *before* the Equalists start making terrorist attacks.

The Equalists lacked that essential grain of truth at the center of their crazy to make them believable. That's where you get a good extremist group from. A real concern that's been blown insanely out of proportion. I mean, even the Tea Party has that, and they're mostly a bunch of racist nutjobs.

As for Katara, I didn't say she was a (morally) good person. I mean she was, the whole Gaang was really. I said she was a good character, and a strong female one specifically. Good characters can be completely without morals -- and so can strong female ones for that matter. See: Azula. Korra is not a strong female character, or a good character. She's a lump who was only inspired to save the day when the boy she liked was in danger.

[espanolbot]

The unemployment thing is both Word of God and was outright said in the first episode, in addition to the numerous street kids etc. that were wandering around.

There's also the gangs that kille both Mako's parents and Asami's mother as examples of the bender gangs preying on nonbenders.

And Korra wasn't inspired to save the day because her boyfriend was in danger, she lashed out at someone who was going to attack her friend and who'd already directly or indirectly killed hundreds of people and it just happened to do something.

Hell, if it had been Tenzin or Bolin or whoever she might still have had the same reaction. Just because she had romantic feelings for the guy doesn't mean that ALL of her actions where driven by said feelings.

Look, it's unlikely that I'm going to change your mind of this, but it kind of seems that you're looking for bad things to the extent that that's all you see in the show.

[akodo_rokku]

It's entirely possible I'm exaggerating the badness of the show in hindsight, because I loved AtLA *so much* and LoK just doesn't come anywhere near it's quality. So maybe it's not that bad taken on its own? But as a successor to AtLA it's completely unworthy.

[benuben]

I liked it.... But I do realize it's flawed and hope the second season will be much better.

One of the things that are really starting to bother me about Avatar universe is evil dad-nice mom thing. It's starting to get really damn sexist.

[espanolbot]

Iroh, Tenzin, the Machinist and Katara/Sokka's dad were all great dads (albeit in the latter case kind of abscent after his wife's death), but you are kind of right, there aren't that many evil mothers in comparison.

[benuben]

I never said all fathers are bad. Hell, Tenzin is my favorite character of the show. I'm just saying everytime they made evil father character mothers are always good and inocent. I'm sure writers had no bad intention, but it's starting to get bit uncomfortable, especially for something like Avatar, which is one of few franchises, that otherwise really treats both genders equally.

[akodo_rokku]

I have a few friends that were able to look past its flaws, but myself and most of my Avatar-loving compadres were really disappointed by it. Love triangles that made no sense, mysteries that just... weren't mysteries, characters we weren't given any reason to care about beyond fanboy nostalgia, and a pile of deus ex machina.

Aaron and Elizabeth Ehasz, who were Producer/Head Writer and Writer respectively on AtLA aren't involved in LoK, and it that seems to why the writing is suffering.

[biod]

I loved it, but it just fell apart in the last two episodes.

[espanolbot]

I felt what weaknesses that there were in-show could be explained by the creators not knowing whether they'd have a second season, or they're just covered in the background of the show itself.

Hopefully Nick's decision to allow there to be four or five(?) seasons of Korra will allow the creative staff to have more breathing room.

[biod]

It was an aweful end to a series and a worse ending to a first season. Either way I found the ending to be damn near inexcusable.

[biod]

Naga and Tarlokk were the only elements in any way improved by those two episodes.

[akodo_rokku]

Agreed on both counts! Naga was a nice enough pet but hadn't really defined herself like Aapa. And then in the finale she was totally fucking awesome.

And Tarlokk blowing both himself and Amon up, well, it was nice to see him finally making the right choice. And surprising that Nickelodeon would air something so incredibly dark.

[espanolbot]

Tarrlok I wouldn't say IMPROVED... his info dump kind of derailed the narrative flow of the story. Him deciding that he was a ood guy now because he realised that he was accidentally following in ihs father's footsteps seemed a bit pat for someone who previously seemed to be of the Lex Luthor brand of diabolical mastermindery.

[biod]

Discovering that the person he most hated and feared was the product of the exact same upbringing as him, sacrificing everything that was left to stop the disaster from playing out again, and a convincing start of darkness?
I say those are huge assets to his character. A big fat detriment to the rest of the story, sure...