swatkat

I don't generally repeat everything I say on Twitter or Tumblr here on LJ/DW, but I've been following the #Legend of Korra on Tumblr again and my feelings are threatening to overflow. So. I repeat: The reason I react in a knee-jerk fashion when Korra is dismissed as 'arrogant' is because I see her arrogance as the arrogance of a small puppy, proud of its teeth and pouncing abilities, completely unaware of the world, brought up as a blunt weapon by a bunch of old men following an obscure ideology that makes a vigilante out of the Avatar in today's world. And of course she needs many, many lessons - but the thought that she will grow to be as world-weary as, say, Buffy, is painful. It's a very real possibility in the AtLA verse, as the flashback seemed to hint at.

Am I guilty of woobification when I compare her to a small puppy? Yes and no, because well, let's face it, I love her little face and her little smile and want the entire world to be sunshine and roses (and a lot of bad guys to punch) for her, but also because it's a great analogy for her innocence and her sheltered little world, the foundations of which are just being shaken. Aang and co. were never that innocent - Aang had survived genocide; Sokka and Katara had witnessed near-genocide while Zuko and Azula participated in the same. They grew up in a time of (never-ending) war. Korra on the other hand has been brought up knowing she is the Saviour - only, she has never been exposed to the people she's meant to save; they're a mass of nothing to her, not living, breathing entities with thoughts and feelings. They're not real, not yet (and that is why Amon is so terrifying after episode four - he is real). It's interesting that her learning seems to not have included politics or strategy or anything of that sort, as though the Avatar is meant to punch things a lot. I wonder what Aang would have to say of this sort of training. I wonder how painful Korra becoming aware of the world (becoming the Avatar*) will be.

Why do I not have a Korra icon yet?

* 'Becoming I & II': One does not become the Slayer simply by having the requisite superpowers.

I fall more in love with Korra with every episode. ( Legend of Korra 1.04 - A Voice in the Night )

+ Dear fandom, I wish more of you would consider backing up your LJs/crossposting from DW. I realise the LJ outage was not about LJ being stupid or shady for a change, but the lack of LJ for two whole days also made me realise how much of my fannish experience is just on one platform, even after DW and Tumblr, and that's not necessarily a good thing.

+ As much as I love that Cara/Kahlan is pretty much the most popular ship in Seeker fandom, sometimes I wish there was more genfic in it. About Cara - post-Tears, being bored to death in Aydindril while Kahlan is busy and distant and Richard is bored and clingy, dragging Cara to taverns and teaching her to fish (a tiresome activity, she doesn't catch a thing) and challenging her to arm-wrestle because he's just that bored (but don't tell Kahlan). Or how she takes off to ~see the world, despite protests from Richard and Kahlan (Zedd, being the wisest, knows she'll come back; he simply pats her on the back and tells her to be careful), and falls into adventure that somehow involves teaming up with Nicci. And then she comes back, and Kahlan is really happy to see her, but she also has odd scratches in her hands and her face because she was apparently attacked by the Chicken That Was Not a Chicken (but Evil Incarnate). Or about Cara and her son! Who is, without question, alive and being brought up by a secret brotherhood of monks somewhere and who just really does not want to kill people or become like his father. Cara and her sister! Like the time Cara visits, and her niece - who is not even remotely terrified of Cara anymore - pesters Cara to teach her to use a bow and arrow (for self-defence! and hunting!), and Cara's sister displays a shocking degree of skill in the same because she learned a lot of things while fending for herself after losing her entire family to the Mord-Sith.

The last one really breaks my heart. I'm just really invested in Cara's relationship with her family, okay.

+ Legend of Korra might be far, far away, but you can count on Tumblr fandom to produce excellent fan art in the meantime:

( spoilers for the Korra trailer )

I'm also somewhat amused by the Korra/Bolin vs. Korra/Mako fights that appear to be already breaking out. I've heard things about the legendary Katara/Aang vs. Katara/Zuko shipwars - one hopes we'll not have to see a repeat of that here. And anyway, Korra/Chief Metalbender of Awesome >>>> the universe, so whatever. Pfft.


+ I am glad that the outrage over SDCC grossness from Dan Didio and co. has prompted such fabulous back-pedaling. A lot of it is old news - we already know Nicola Scott and Amanda Connor have been working on projects that will be announced after September. But the fact that they made an effort to cover up after the PR nightmare that was SDCC means something.


+ It is really hot. As in, *really* hot. Why won't it rain, universe, why?