The Legend of Korra

Elaborate.

This part kind of put a damper on the joke I told my friends. XP

... "glommed"?

That fuckin' reaction is beautiful, my god. My sides hurt.

Yeah. I just told my friends it makes the part where Maleficent appears in the fireplace look like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. XD

As funny as it is, that joke is so...weird in comparison to the rest of the jokes in the franchise. It sort of feels like it should be in a different show. The animation, the expression on Korra's face and the use of a realistic background make it feel as if the show is almost breaking the fourth wall.

Edited by deuteragonist on Jul 25th 2018 at 5:36:41 AM

It reminded me of gag anime.

Speaking of crazy faces, the Creepy Twins Northern Water Tribe girl looked like the Crypt Keeper. XD

Saw this on the Turf Wars YMMV page:

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • Bolin has joined Mako on the police force, after many fans pointed out that as an earthbender, he made far more sense in this role than his brother in the first place.

Was that actually a "complaint" that anyone had? Also, I'm tossing around the idea of creating a clean-up thread for the Avatar franchise YMMV pages, as I've noticed a lot of questionable entries. Would anyone be behind that?

Edited by TheMountainKing on Jul 26th 2018 at 4:05:48 AM

Never heard of it, sounds like runaway head canon to me. Why would an earthbender be any better or worse at being a police officer?

Bolin joining Lin on the force was a very popular headcanon after season 1.

And indeed many fans complained when it was shown that Mako would join in season 2 instead (as Mako had a lot of prominence in season 1 and they wished Bolin would strike out on his own and become more relevant).

It did not help at the time that it seemed Bolin would remain stuck on the Probending Arena (which some fans felt overstayed it's welcome or just did not like).

I don’t know how I feel about Bolin joining the police. Nuktuk, Hero of the South, on the other hand is a hero I can get behind.

Yeah, that part's great. XD

Bumi is Crazy Awesome.

Edited by Demetrios on Jul 27th 2018 at 9:15:36 AM

This reminds me of what I really liked about the much-reviled love triangle from the first season; it showed how much love triangles suck for everyone involved.

Maybe it's just from all the anime I've seen, but way too often love triangles are played as thinly-veiled male power fantasies; "Bitch, get away from my man (not that he's my man, because it's not like I like him or anything, BAKA), and now I'm going to push my bust against yours to show my boobs are so much bigger, because that is totally a thing real women do, and OH NO WE'RE SUDDENLY NEKKID JUST AS HE WALKS IN, YOU PERVERT!"

In this case, Mako's indecision between the two is shown as negative; Korra and Asami keep getting mixed signals from him, and it only makes the situation more complicated.

Also, Korra and Asami come out of the love triangle pretty well. Korra's resentful of Asami at first, but that quickly fades once she gets to know her. Asami finds out there might be something between Korra and Mako — and immediately confronts Mako about it, because she knows what Korra feels for Mako isn't nearly as important as how Mako feels about Korra.

Edited by drac0blade on Jul 29th 2018 at 12:54:25 PM

So if this is a male power fantasy then what examples are there of a a female power fantasy (ruling out easy guesses like Wonder Woman and She-Ra)?

Edited by Soble on Jul 29th 2018 at 5:47:31 AM

Twilight has the exact same situation but with reversed genders.

Love triangles are in favor of whoever is in the center, gender wise IMO.

I’ll also object that something like that is to be lauded, since It was played straight, it just made everyone far less likable.

"Triangle" is a bit of a misnomer when you think about it. They're really more like Love Angles. There's three points and two lines. I can't really think of any instances of a third line existing, which makes sense; if a third line existed, it wouldn't be a Love Triangle. It'd be a poly relationship.

I should note that Love Triangles don't always favor the hypotenuse. There are basically two kinds of triangles:

"It's all about the hypotenuse. The suitors vie for the hypotenus's favor, and they are empowered to pick which one they desire."

"It's all about one of the arms. The hypotenuse is in a Bad Relationship with the other arm, and our hero must rescue them from the tyranny of making choices for their own life."

Harem anime usually favors the first option, while the second is the lifeblood of romantic comedies. Indeed, Legend of Korra utilized the second; Mako is in a relationship with Asami but he's wrong and Korra has to show him that he's wrong and needs to be with her before he ruins his life by being with someone who isn't her!

The original plan to have Asami actually be a villain would only have made this even more apparent.

The second option is also, in my opinion, the more toxic of the two. As it implies that the hypotenuse needs to be saved from their own life choices, it can come across as very condescending and self-serving on the part of the triangle's designated hero. It's the main reason for why rom-coms are as problematic as they are.

Indeed, the first option sometimes is even presented as the second option with the perspective flipped. As noted, Twilight is hypotenuse-focused. Bella likes Edward and Edward likes Bella, but Jacob thinks she's wrong and wants to save her from making choices for herself. It's the same dynamic, except the "hero" is now the "villain" of the triangle because the story isn't told from his perspective.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 29th 2018 at 9:59:02 AM

As a cartoon about animal spirits fighting goo once said

"Ain't a love triangle. It's a love line segment with one very ambitious point."

"Wrip deserves a clever partner"
"Wrip deserves to choose what she likes"

Edited by Bocaj on Jul 29th 2018 at 12:10:16 PM

And then the show subverts that with "Spirit of Competition," when Korra realizes what a stupid train of thought that is, and it ends up such a clusterfuck that she never tries it again.

Seriously, throughout the rest of the season, Korra make no more attempts to peruse Mako. People take her "she's going to need you" line at the end of "The Aftermath" as when she gives up on him, but really it's much earlier than that.

This is why I can't buy the whole "the love triangle made everyone worse!" line of thought — Korra learned you can't force someone to love you, and while she still likes the guy, agrees to just be friends with each other, showing real emotional development. And the first season is when the two girls start building a strong friendship with each other, and neither lets their feelings of Mako get in the way of that.

Edited by drac0blade on Jul 29th 2018 at 9:31:34 AM

I came out of the mess that was shipping in season 1 liking Asami a lot, thinking the writers pushing Makorra at the end not doing Korra any favors (doesn't help that I was already sour on her for pushing her feelings on Mako earlier in the season despite the laters relationship), and absolutely loathing Mako for making flip flopping on both.

When season 2 decided the best course of action was to play the mess again, I quit the show.

Asami remained one of my favorite characters that I wished the writers used better, and both Korra and Mako became my least liked characters (Korra for things other than shipping, and Mako because of what I felt was writing favoritism and the shipping mess).

Korra recovered quickly in season 3. Mako didn't leave the dog house until season 4.

All in all, I got serious problems with the whole show, despite noted improvements over time.

To me, Avatar ended when The End came up on screen at the end of season 3.

Edited by MrSeyker on Jul 29th 2018 at 12:36:46 PM

Season 2 felt like they tried a mulligan on the love triangle; they briefly brought it back in order to give it a much more satisfying conclusion.

It didn't really work for me. It made me dislike the characters too much (I felt specially sad that they dared to have Asami crawl back to Mako).

Seriously, the shipping in Korra S1 and S2 just hit all the wrong notes for me.

Doesn't help that I don't like shipping drama built on geometric shapes.

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with you. It's just that if we're going to get a stupid love triangle, at least it can lead to interesting character development, a mature resolution, and all that. It could have gone so much worse.

There actually is a version of the love triangle that's a real triangle: When each one likes one person, but doesn't care for the one who likes them. It's not as commonly seen, as it lacks the wish fulfillment of the other two and pretty much requires that at least one of the participants be bi, but the long-running comic Strangers In Paradise revolved around it.

We actually get something close to it in the first part of season one: Bolin's into Korra, who thinks he's just a friend, while Korra's into Mako, who says he's not into her. We're just missing the third angle, for very obvious reasons.