I really hate it when someone decides to do a story about a female character or other less-used character type (but this happens most with females)- then chokes with the resolution. Like even when writing something different, they can't bring themselves to do something different.
Two other examples were the anime Stellvia of the Universe- followed the main, eventually the big 'hero' was this really-super-talented boy the main girl liked (there was some theme about how the less flashy parts were important too, but still, he wasn't a needed character. Otherwise a really great series, especially the first half). And heck, the last episode of Kim Possible, which is especially bad because they should've known better and the original finale didn't have that sort of thing.
Argh, Stellvia. I loved the first half of that series, but stopped watching as soon as the nice but unremarkable male character was revealed to actually be super-talented and so much better than our actual protagonist at everything.
Yeees. It's like the theme was, "If you work hard, even if you're clumsy you can succeed and do great things (but don't worry, there'll always be a guy even *better* than you!)".
I had the same disappointments with this book. As I understand it, it was more written as a postscript to the story of the male relative and his lover (who are the protagonists in earlier books in the series) than as the female character's story. Since I never read the earlier books, though, it was just disappointing.
To clarify, I didn't need for the book to have a queer romance. I wasn't expecting one, there's no hint of it in the back cover blurb or the introduction. If Katherine had been straight all along, that would have been fine.
Your experience with this book feels like my experience with comic books so long ago. The cycle key repeating - Cool female hero introduced, cool female hero succeeds, cool female hero makes friends and contacts and loves and arch enemies, cool female hero becomes very successful brand poised to move on to tv shows and movies, cool female hero is given to new, awful writer who decides she's crazy, evil, or needs to be sullied or killed off. Repeat process with new character.
Of course, with comic books it usually is editorial mandate that forces those abrupt murders of otherwise beloved brands. I wonder if that really was the case here? If so, it does underline how subtle the creators of Korra must have had to be, to make an action show about a female lead that resolves in a lesbian relationship, without getting censored into oblivion.
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Two other examples were the anime Stellvia of the Universe- followed the main, eventually the big 'hero' was this really-super-talented boy the main girl liked (there was some theme about how the less flashy parts were important too, but still, he wasn't a needed character. Otherwise a really great series, especially the first half). And heck, the last episode of Kim Possible, which is especially bad because they should've known better and the original finale didn't have that sort of thing.
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It's the bait-and-switch that pisses me off.
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Of course, with comic books it usually is editorial mandate that forces those abrupt murders of otherwise beloved brands. I wonder if that really was the case here? If so, it does underline how subtle the creators of Korra must have had to be, to make an action show about a female lead that resolves in a lesbian relationship, without getting censored into oblivion.
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