Shipping Wars
There are only two fandoms I have ever seen shipping wars. Like, knock down, drag out, nasty insulting fights about pairings.
Harry Potter. I don't care very much.
Avatar (the decent one, as in The Last Airbender and presently Korra). I liked the first series well enough. Art and concept were cool, writing was fun. The original group had a tendency to get on my nerves from time to time, and the ending was a cop out. I liked Zuko, and I think he and Mai are cute and fun in an unconventional way. Other pairings work well.
I like Korra lot more, because I get her a lot more. I am a tomboy. I am fundamentally violent. She is those things. I like her no holds barred badassery. So far, the main cast is great. And I find myself shipping Mako/Korra like burning. He is so hot. I thinkthe dynamic will be fun and bring a lot to both characters.
The shipping wars in this fandom are terrifying, fiery things that pull you in, somehow. Normally, you do your thing, I do mine. No one really ignores reality, though, or pretends things that happened didn't or vice versa.
But the Avatar fandom did and does. It was pretty obvious from the start that Aang and Katara were going to end up together. No misdirection with major characters, no games, no-- ahem-- 'trolling'. I've yet to run into any writers who 'troll' (these is something ridiculous about the word in this context). It's mean and eventually pisses fans off big time. See Bioware's cute little misdirections.
People seem to insist that the Avatar writers 'troll', but no one can name an honest to God time when they did. Just supposed subtext. All over the place. And then they reassign strange meanings and infer things from other statements. Like 'cheesy teen romance' apparently means it won't work out. Except every cheesy teen romance I know does work out. Kind of why there's that adjective in there; it's not realistic.
I think Korra getting turned down by-- I'm betting-- her first big crush in the midst of all this chaos would really, really hurt her and I hope they don't do that. It will tear her apart. There being issues? Yes; I think it will be a big part of Mako's character to expand his world beyond his brother and relax a bit. Korra, chaos incarnate, shoving herself at him *ahem* and him feeling something back will be hard for someone who needs to be in control. I already think she's gotten under his skin a bit. Korra's need for calm and common sense is a part of the airbending and antibending storylines, and it fits with a romance with Mako. She does not innately have these things, and it gets her into trouble. I can see her pushing it with Mako much faster than he's comfortable with. She lacks restraint, after all.
But Avatar relationships always lacked petty drama, which I liked. There's saving the world to do! But fandom seems to get strangely personal about all this and craves needless drama because I guess they haven't seen or had their hearts broken because of it. I hope that doesn't happen to Korra, and this is a preemptive strike on shipwars or a way to not have to spend a lot of time explaining what all is going on and look more closely at the Amon storyline. I don't think Avatar will shatter a girl's heart for drama's sake, even if it's supposedly getting darker (first series was very damn dark, in case you missed the insanity, and child abuse, and genocide, and...)
Harry Potter. I don't care very much.
Avatar (the decent one, as in The Last Airbender and presently Korra). I liked the first series well enough. Art and concept were cool, writing was fun. The original group had a tendency to get on my nerves from time to time, and the ending was a cop out. I liked Zuko, and I think he and Mai are cute and fun in an unconventional way. Other pairings work well.
I like Korra lot more, because I get her a lot more. I am a tomboy. I am fundamentally violent. She is those things. I like her no holds barred badassery. So far, the main cast is great. And I find myself shipping Mako/Korra like burning. He is so hot. I thinkthe dynamic will be fun and bring a lot to both characters.
The shipping wars in this fandom are terrifying, fiery things that pull you in, somehow. Normally, you do your thing, I do mine. No one really ignores reality, though, or pretends things that happened didn't or vice versa.
But the Avatar fandom did and does. It was pretty obvious from the start that Aang and Katara were going to end up together. No misdirection with major characters, no games, no-- ahem-- 'trolling'. I've yet to run into any writers who 'troll' (these is something ridiculous about the word in this context). It's mean and eventually pisses fans off big time. See Bioware's cute little misdirections.
People seem to insist that the Avatar writers 'troll', but no one can name an honest to God time when they did. Just supposed subtext. All over the place. And then they reassign strange meanings and infer things from other statements. Like 'cheesy teen romance' apparently means it won't work out. Except every cheesy teen romance I know does work out. Kind of why there's that adjective in there; it's not realistic.
I think Korra getting turned down by-- I'm betting-- her first big crush in the midst of all this chaos would really, really hurt her and I hope they don't do that. It will tear her apart. There being issues? Yes; I think it will be a big part of Mako's character to expand his world beyond his brother and relax a bit. Korra, chaos incarnate, shoving herself at him *ahem* and him feeling something back will be hard for someone who needs to be in control. I already think she's gotten under his skin a bit. Korra's need for calm and common sense is a part of the airbending and antibending storylines, and it fits with a romance with Mako. She does not innately have these things, and it gets her into trouble. I can see her pushing it with Mako much faster than he's comfortable with. She lacks restraint, after all.
But Avatar relationships always lacked petty drama, which I liked. There's saving the world to do! But fandom seems to get strangely personal about all this and craves needless drama because I guess they haven't seen or had their hearts broken because of it. I hope that doesn't happen to Korra, and this is a preemptive strike on shipwars or a way to not have to spend a lot of time explaining what all is going on and look more closely at the Amon storyline. I don't think Avatar will shatter a girl's heart for drama's sake, even if it's supposedly getting darker (first series was very damn dark, in case you missed the insanity, and child abuse, and genocide, and...)