Analysis on Korra, with and without bending

[steotrron]

Have been thinking a lot about Korra as a person, not just as a bender. I had a lot on my mind, and I wanted to share with you guys my channel of thinking.

Comments

[silentsymphonie]

1. MY BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABYYYYYYYYY

2. While I personally was pretty satisfied with the ending because I was really looking forward to Avatar-state Korra, I definitely think it would have been interesting to have her discover her self-worth as a person and not just as the Avatar in season 2. That's not to say that this still can't happen (Bryke are pretty creative and I'm sure they can come up with something) but it would definitely have been interesting to see how she dealt with the loss of her powers after the initial shock settled. The scene with Mako was was pretty heartbreaking to me because she just does not understand how someone could be in love with her or even still be her friend if she isn't the Avatar. She honestly thought that Bolin, Mako, and Asami were going to leave her now that they couldn't be a part of the star-studded Team Avatar. I think it's very indicative of the fact that even though she is so famous she still feels incredibly alone.

[kikkyo]

That scene with Mako broke my heart too. Poor girl. I'd have loved to see her have to go through a personal journey and learn how to think of herself as something other than just 'Avatar.' Hoping we get that in the next season too.

[evilsherbear]

I agree with this post so much it hurts.

This behavior doesn't really change that much in the entire season. She pretty much still believes that she's worthless as a person at the end of season one as much as she did in the beginning of it. . . . It's the personal journey of accepting yourself for you who you are a person, and how your experiences have shaped you, which will in turn translate towards your duties as Avatar.

This why the last 10 minutes of the finale really bother me. I wanted Korra to have some self-realization that she IS more than her bending, and start to show a little self love. I would've loved for her to come to this realization, THEN get her bending powers back from Aang. As it stands, it felt forced that she gets her powers back because she was sad (possibly suicidal), and being really sad means you can connect to your past selves and they'll fix your problems for you (that was how I read the scene). It was a chance to show how far Korra had come as a character, and to show some real inner growth.

[daydream11]

She pretty much still believes that she's worthless as a person at the end of season one as much as she did in the beginning of it. To me, this is a problem, especially when most of this season was dedicated to showing how divided benders and non-benders are in society. In many ways I really do wish Korra was left without her powers, and had to live as a non-bender while she searched for spiritual guidance in the different regions of the Avatar world, while subsequently learning first-hand of the hardships and prejudices of non-benders.You've said it better than I could, m'dear. As much as I love to see Aang show up and Lin return to her BAMF ways, leaving her without 3/4 of her bending abilities would have made for some incredible, uncomfortable, obnoxious, beautiful personal growth for Korra and everyone around her. She would have been, ironically, an Avatar in every sense of the word: not only a bridge between the spirit world and benders, but a bridge for benders and non-benders. The Equalist problem isn't going away (or it

[purplebloom500]

This was an intriguing read. Speaking of her aggressiveness, I know that most people hated on Tarrlok because he bloodbended Korra, but from the look on her face, I honestly thought that she was going to seriously injure or even kill him. I mean, that's why he used bloodbending on her. You could tell from the look on his face that he seriously thought he was most likely going to die.

Also, despite the fact that it was cool to see her enter the Avatar state, I would have rather waited for more character development.

[othellia]

This is my headcanon as well. He was out of water and unarmed; Korra was coming straight at him with two fists of fire. I can totally see reflex taking over, and as soon as the bloodbending was out of the bag he couldn't just let her go with an "Oops, sorry for that. Can you totally keep my forbidden technique and the fact that I just used it on you a secret? KTHXBAI."

Not excusing or justifying his actions after that, but I really do think kidnapping Korra was a spur of the moment, last resort decision for him.

[purplebloom500]

It's nice to see that someone else feels the same.

[foodsthatcan]

I read it this way as well. I really thought Korra was going to kill him in the heat of the moment. If I had been in Tarrlok's place, I would have done the same.

[breakattiffanys]

This behavior doesn't really change that much in the entire season. She pretty much still believes that she's worthless as a person at the end of season one as much as she did in the beginning of it. To me, this is a problem, especially when most of this season was dedicated to showing how divided benders and non-benders are in society. In many ways I really do wish Korra was left without her powers, and had to live as a non-bender while she searched for spiritual guidance in the different regions of the Avatar world, while subsequently learning first-hand of the hardships and prejudices of non-benders. In many ways she kind of mirrors Ozai in how obsessed she holds on to her bending as the only thing that makes her, and that is definitely something that I would like to see looked at in season two.Yeah. This was a huge problem with the ending. No one's attitude about bending changed. Everyone still thought it was the worst thing in the world to not have bending, despite the fact that non-benders are in the room and are probably like "

[silentsymphonie]

As a side-note to your first point: I can't decide how I feel about the fact that Amon was a lying liar who lies. On the one hand, I thought it was interesting that as a bender he took up a movement that brought up a conversation about non-bender rights, but on the other hand the fact that he was a bender completely de-legitimized the movement at the end. So instead of thinking that Amon and the people who followed his rhetoric might have had a legitimate complaint, it could be construed that it was just the workings of one upset bender pulling a non-existent problem out of the air in a mad grab for power.

[breakattiffanys]

But the implications of that are pretty damn problematic. So I guess all those equalist supporters were just mindless sheep? There still must've been a reason that there were so many supporters. Even if their leader is just a really good liar, people don't flock to stuff like that for no reason.

[silentsymphonie]

I'm not saying that, I just think that benders will look at Amon's movement and write it off as one crazy guy. So many movements started by leaders that the powerful majority has deemed crazy and unfounded and completely write it off. People are still labeling the feminist movement as unnecessary, and it's people a bunch of aggressive hairy lesbians, forty years after its start. People still look at the original feminist leaders and point out their flaws or their personal agendas in an attempt to de-legitimize the strides that are being made today (such as pointing out that Margaret Sanger was in favor of eugenics as a way to show that the Planned Parenthoods of today should be shut down). Especially because, as you pointed out, attitudes about non-benders and their place in society have not changed or even been addressed.