(no subject)
"But you haven't even seen any episodes this season, Vik. It's a show with a Strong Female Main Character! How can you just dismiss it because of something you read?"
Pretty easily, it turns out. :/
Korra as the Strong Female Lead wasn't doing much for me last season. She was barely keeping her nose above water in terms of not being led, never mind doing any actual leading; what can you do, I thought, with teenaged leads in a city ostensibly run by adults. Lin Beifong was everything I wanted in a lead character, but her activities this season seem limited to running an all-male cop squad badly. I never had any interest in the much-dwelt-on love-quadrangles, and the villains are so obviously the villains (things I hate in animation: when you look at a set of characters and know immediately which ones are designed to be the villains) that there's no fun keeping track of their latest laughably transparent ploy to manipulate and control the naive young heroes. (Again, an adults-run-this-town problem, but surely there's some way to get around that and keep Korra as the motivating character, without having the show be 101 Ways Korra Ticks All The Grownups Off?)
And then there's The Bolin Thing, which, I gather, goes like this:
Bolin becomes an actor, which predictably goes to his head. He flirts with his co-lead, who wants nothing to do with him. Then he goes offscript during shooting and kisses her when she's tied to a table and can't stop him, ignoring her anger, clenched fists, and disgust. And then he says it "felt so right" and later tells her, regardless of all evidence to the contrary, that in his opinion, she liked it too.
Tell me someone hits him over the head and shoves that language back down his throat. Tell me the characters don't whimsically conclude that boys will be boys and ah to be that young again amirite? Tell me Ginger gets to retaliate in a way that doesn't minimize her right to not be assaulted. Tell me the aftermath doesn't turn the focus back to how Bolin is feeling or present him as needing audience sympathy because it's so unfair of her not to reciprocate his feelings. Tell me that and maybe I'll tune in again.
My tolerance for certain types of characterization has apparently descended to 0%. Welp.
Originally posted on Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.
Pretty easily, it turns out. :/
Korra as the Strong Female Lead wasn't doing much for me last season. She was barely keeping her nose above water in terms of not being led, never mind doing any actual leading; what can you do, I thought, with teenaged leads in a city ostensibly run by adults. Lin Beifong was everything I wanted in a lead character, but her activities this season seem limited to running an all-male cop squad badly. I never had any interest in the much-dwelt-on love-quadrangles, and the villains are so obviously the villains (things I hate in animation: when you look at a set of characters and know immediately which ones are designed to be the villains) that there's no fun keeping track of their latest laughably transparent ploy to manipulate and control the naive young heroes. (Again, an adults-run-this-town problem, but surely there's some way to get around that and keep Korra as the motivating character, without having the show be 101 Ways Korra Ticks All The Grownups Off?)
And then there's The Bolin Thing, which, I gather, goes like this:
Bolin becomes an actor, which predictably goes to his head. He flirts with his co-lead, who wants nothing to do with him. Then he goes offscript during shooting and kisses her when she's tied to a table and can't stop him, ignoring her anger, clenched fists, and disgust. And then he says it "felt so right" and later tells her, regardless of all evidence to the contrary, that in his opinion, she liked it too.
Tell me someone hits him over the head and shoves that language back down his throat. Tell me the characters don't whimsically conclude that boys will be boys and ah to be that young again amirite? Tell me Ginger gets to retaliate in a way that doesn't minimize her right to not be assaulted. Tell me the aftermath doesn't turn the focus back to how Bolin is feeling or present him as needing audience sympathy because it's so unfair of her not to reciprocate his feelings. Tell me that and maybe I'll tune in again.
My tolerance for certain types of characterization has apparently descended to 0%. Welp.
Originally posted on Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.