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pumpkinrootbeer · 7 months

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i do think it is legitimately very funny whenever someone tries to make the claim that lavabending is inherently a very slow subbending and therefore not good in a fight. specifically when using that argument against Bolin's skill as a bender.

Sure, I feel like in very specific instances with Ghazan that could be a fair argument to make. It takes him a moment to destabilize the Ba Sing Se wall and for him to kick up enough lava to destroy the airbending temple. (to the point I would argue that if Bolin had been versed in lavabending like he was in s4 he would have swept the ground with Ghazan), but in moments where he's actually in a fight his lava is incredibly quick.

Just the lava frisbee on its own is an incredibly quick move

But making that argument with Bolin in particular is absolutely batshit when outside of lavabending he is an incredibly quick fighter. I would say it is one of, if not the, most defining things about his fighting style. He moves very, very quickly and uncharacteristically agile for a earthbender. This is a known thing. Like

I am not the first person to say this but no other earthbender does backflips like he does. And THEN with lavabending he is just as quick if not more so

Bolin since season 1 has had an uncanny knack for bending incredibly fast, and his lavabending is no exception to that rule. It's honestly something that haunts my brain all the time because how quick he is with it low-key breaks the balancing? a little?? Like earthbending was always shown to be very strong but in turn it was slower than other types of bending, but with Bolin that doesn't really seem to be a hangup he has.

#:v #bolin #legend of korra #NO ONE IS DOING IT LIKE HIM....#the way people will sit down and try to convince me with their whole chest that mako is a better bender is wild.#Like mako has a lot of other strengths but I would not say he stands out as this uniquely strong firebender #honestly except for azula most of the firebenders we see are talented for sure but none of them like Otherworldly strong when in bending #Again not saying he is weak but if you want the Strong bender of the lok group it's Bolin hands down 🤷#obvs Korra is strong but she's the avatar she's going to be strong #Bolin is just a guy he's a kid for the majority of it a child who has had zero formal training #and I would argue could beat the majority of the beifongs #with the exception of toph but even then it's not gonna be this easy toph sweep #sure toph can metal bend and is an incredibly skilled earthbender but also Bolin is also very skilled and has Hot Rocks #tho tbf I hate comparing those two can't they just both be good?#anyway Bolin solos su and the chief in a real fight I will die on that hill Specifically #s4 Bolin I mean it's the lava diff #god I sound like a powerscaler put me down now guys #anyway. Bolin 🔛🔝

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evienyx · 4 years

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This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I read the first part of your story wrong and thought that Ozai died in the bath due to it over heating. After I read through the whole thing and corrected that misconception, I now wonder how different this fanfic would be if Ozai died in the bath. What major changes would be made other than lots of laughter? How would everyone react?

omg this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.

Okay, okay, here we go:

- - -

What had started as a normal day quickly delved into chaos when, in the early afternoon, a servant came running through the halls, announcing, “Someone call the Fire Sages! The Fire Lord is dead!”

There had been shock, and then everyone had kicked into high gear. It was war time, after all. They were always prepared for assassinations. They should have expected it more, honestly, what with the desperation the Earth Kingdom troops had been showing recently, and with Sozin’s Comet less than a year away.

Then, though, news had gotten out that Fire Lord Ozai had died in the bath, and not from assassins, but from the water being too hot.

The palace had lulled for a few moments when that news came out, before continuing.

Princess Azula was storming about, demanding that the Fire Sages get here faster, because she wanted to be crowned today, and the Fire Lord can only be crowned in the light of Agni.

As the Princess was rampaging, though, one servant woman, who must have been feeling particularly bold, came up to her and asked, “My princess, isn’t Prince Zuko the Crown Prince?”

All the servants in the nearby vicinity had frozen. Older ones recognized the woman, Keeli. She had always been close to the Prince Lu Ten before his tragic death. Silly woman must have convinced herself that she could speak to all royals as if they were close friends.

Princess Azula clearly was not at all entertained by Keeli’s words. She looked about ready to kill the woman before clenching her fists and saying, “Well, my brother isn’t here, now is he?” The Princess’s teeth gleamed, shiny and sharp.

Then, though, Keeli had changed the game completely when she said, “Oh, but he is, my Princess.”

Princess Azula had all but demanded that Keeli show what she meant. Some servants whispered to one another that it might be a trap for the Princess, but, then again, even if it was, the Princess would most likely be able to fight her way out without even breaking a sweat. Princess Azula clearly knew this, too, as she followed Keeli into a random door and disappeared for half of an hour. During that time, the Fire Sages arrived, and were told that the Princess would be back shortly, but to prepare for a coronation. They were told that the Fire Lord had unfortunately passed away in the bath.

No one had snorted at that.

No one.

After that half-hour was over, Princess Azula emerged with Keeli at her heels from that random door in that random corridor looking more serious and sober than anyone had ever seen her look in all of her thirteen years. She had turned to the nearest servant and demanded in an eerily calm voice that a wheelchair was needed. Then, she had disappeared back into the door, leaving Keeli there to wait for what the Princess had ordered.

Another twenty minutes later, and an emancipated Prince Zuko had emerged from the door, looking as if every breath and every movement caused pain. Princess Azula was at his side, her jaw locked into place and her eyes flaring. Blue flames danced on her fingertips, and everyone stayed wisely away.

Still, people whispered.

The Fire Sages had taken all of the revelations in stride, and Prince Zuko was crowned Fire Lord in the late afternoon sun. His father burned behind him, and he did not look back once. Instead, he stood and faced his nation, the common people crowding in with the nobles below, and smiled.

That night, at the coronation ball, Fire Lord Zuko declared that Crown Princess Azula was his official royal advisor. The Fire Lord and royal advisor had then proceeded to leave the ball and go to the party in the streets that had been hastily set-up (well, it was more like the Fire Lord had decided to go and the Crown Princess and Royal Advisor had accompanied him because 1. she was a better bodyguard than anyone else in the world and, 2., there was no way she was letting that Dum-Dum out of her sight ever again. They had picked up the Ladies Mai and Ty Lee on their way into the streets).

Fire Lord Zuko started fast on ending the war, freeing war prisoners, sending letters and signing documents with his sister at his side. One day, they were inexplicably joined by a woman dressed in Water Tribe blue. No one argued with the woman, though, because she made Princess Azula eat (who, in turn, forced the Fire Lord to eat).

Two weeks in, Princess Azula confronted Keeli, and the next day, the Fire Lord and his sister were reunited with their long-thought-dead cousin, Lu Ten (well, it was more like Fire Lord Zuko did his best in his injured state to hold his sister back and stop her from killing their cousin).

Lu Ten was officially restored his full royal status, and his family was bestowed it as well. The next day, he was made the other royal advisor. Word was that he had been forced into it by the Fire Lord and the Princess because “You learned for your whole childhood how to be Fire Lord” and “Another person here needs to know what they’re doing to keep Zuzu from sinking the whole homeland.”

Another month later, word came that General Iroh had landed in the capital.

The reunion was tearful, and people were yelling and crying and laughing and there was a very large amount of blue fire going in every direction at one point, but eventually everyone calmed down enough for General Iroh to introduce his guests.

When the general had been in the Earth Kingdom, making his way back to the Fire Nation, he had encountered the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and invited him along, as his informers in the White Lotus had whispered to him that the Fire Lord and Crown Princess were both very close with a Water Tribe woman who called herself ‘Kya,’ just like the late wife of the Chief. Chief Hakoda had agreed to join him, though he took a few extra men with him before sending the rest on their way home.

The general had also encountered (as in, been beat up by) a young earthbender who, when the war had ended, had promptly run away from home, been captured, invented metalbending to escape, and run away again only to charge right into Iroh and the Southern Water Tribe men he traveled with. She had proceeded to lock them all in earthen cages until Iroh pleasantly invited her to tea. The girl, Toph Beifong, had then joined them, insisting she wanted to get off the continent, and a metal ship now sounded like a great idea.

Princess Azula had promptly asked the Beifong heir just how she had beaten Iroh up, and Toph had happily relayed the details. They had then transferred quickly into a test of just how good Azula was at lying.

General Iroh had turned to his son and nephew and said, “We may have just unleashed an evil upon this world greater than Sozin himself.”

Fire Lord Zuko’s story had been shared to the new arrivals, then, and both Chief Hakoda and Toph Beifong had asked where they could find Ozai. Then, they had heard he was dead. Then, they had heard how he died. While Toph laughed so hard that she almost caused an earthquake, Chief Hakoda had grumbled as his wife wrapped her arms around him, “At least it was water that did him in.”

A week later, Zuko had turned to his sister late one night as she sat on his bed and said, “Lala, I think Chief Hakoda and Lady Kya are trying to adopt us.”

Azula had responded without looking up from the document she was scanning, “Agni, Zuzu, you are slow.”

One month later, the world awoke to the news that the Avatar had returned.

Fire Lord Zuko had promptly invited the Avatar to the Fire Nation, with notes from the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe (along with his wife), the Grand Master of the White Lotus, the heir to the Beifong family (who had not, sadly, written the letter herself), and all three advisors to the Fire Lord, one of whom was the Crown Princess, one of whom was thought to be dead in a war now months gone, and one of whom was an old general who had switched sides. Iroh said they were covering all possible ground here.

One more month later, a beast that hadn’t been seen in a century touched down out of the sky and deposited the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, the son of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, the last waterbender in the South Pole, and a one-hundred-and-twelve-year-old Avatar in the entrance courtyard of the Fire Nation palace.

The two Water Tribe siblings had promptly screamed and slammed into their mother in full force, and had then been joined by their father. One full family unit once more.

They had then been introduced to the Fire Lord and his sister, the Crown Princess who was now known for her madness. There had been a beat of fear before Kya had hugged the Princess and Hakoda had placed a hand on the Fire Lord’s shoulder, and Sokka had suddenly grinned and blurted out, “I always wanted a brother,” only to be socked in the shoulder by his sister.

The Leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, Suki, had immediately hopped in line with the Crown Princess and her two friends, Mai and Ty Lee, and the Fire Lord had gotten a distant look in his eye as he muttered, “They’re multiplying.”

The Fire Lord and his advisors had done all the formal “Welcome to the Fire Nation” and all that with the Avatar before the kid had groaned, asked, “Can we just go nap in a garden or something?” and promptly been dragged (along with the Fire Lord) by Toph Beifong into a private courtyard, where nine of the most weirdly diverse children (a Fire Lord, a Princess, two Fire Nation nobles, an Avatar, a Kyoshi Warrior, a Beifong heir, a single waterbender, and master Water Tribe strategist) all soon collapsed onto the ground as turtleducks gathered around them and nipped at their toes.

Later that afternoon, when the new members of their growing group of oddly-connected people found out just how Fire Lord Ozai had died (and what he had done to Zuko), Sokka had promptly turned to Aang and asked, “As the Avatar, can you, like, declare something, uh, spiritually protected or something? Because I think that needs to happen to make sure that that bath house is never torn down ever.”

There had been laughter, but then the Crown Princess had turned to the Avatar, her eyes steely, as she asked. “Can you?”

No one quite knew if Aang could, but that didn’t stop anyone, and it was done within the hour.

“That bath house stopped the war,” Katara mentioned a few hours after.

“No,” Aang said, looking ahead at the Fire Lord and the Crown Princess walking next to one another, Azula supporting Zuko just a bit and staying at his speed as he continued to readjust to walking. “They did.”

#fractures atla #ask #ask away #yo uh so #this one got away from me #really easily #but i had to cover everyone ok #also azula is a bit less nuts here bc #she never had her crazy 'break' and also never had to deal with #ozais pressure during the avatar hunt or anything #what are we calling this au?#the...#bath house au?#yeah i like it #bath house au

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equalmeasurefiction · 7 years

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Holy Daddy Issues, Tenzin!- Part 2: Why Korra Doesn’t Talk to Strangers

Holy Daddy Issues, Tenzin! Part 1

I have started so many metas based on this one post right here (Korra’s Journey). But the problem with every single meta that I’ve started is that they all touched on problems that were tangential to the issue at hand. While I knew that the problem in Season 4: Episode 2- Korra Alone (S4:E2) was indicative of a much larger issue within the Korra franchise, I couldn’t pin-point the underlying cause. There are so many problems with the Korra series that it’s easy to get lost in the weeds when you’re analyzing.

But it wasn’t until I started thinking about the ‘family’ theme in Legend of Korra that I finally felt I’d found the root of the problem. I think the reason why Korra doesn’t talk to anyone in S4:E2 is because the Avatar series is about family. It’s not about Korra, it’s not about the responsibility of being the Avatar, it’s not about friendship or the communities people form when they go out into the world or even how people are interconnected by society and government, it’s about family. More specifically, it’s about the typical nuclear family where there is a father, a mother, and a collection of children.

Every single main character in the Legend of Korra series is part of a family (except maybe Varrick, but he ends up ‘starting’ a family with Zhu Li, so he’s kind of ‘the future.’ It works well for his character). All the core issues and problems within the series are derived from family.

Again:

The Equalist Revolution in Season 1 boiled down to family and being unable to escape from it.

The Civil War Arc and Harmonic Convergence Event came down to sibling rivalry (Korra even points out that Unalaq is jealous of his brother).

In Season 3 we have the family that Korra could have had--the Red Lotus.

Finally, in Season 4 we have all the families on display (the surviving ones), breaking away from each other and getting the closure they need as they move toward greater independence.

When the series is viewed in this light, a lot of things that seemed like bad decisions make a whole lot of sense. Why doesn’t Korra talk to other people who are outside the immediate group in her series? Simple: according to the show’s underlying thematic logic, relationships that aren’t in some way filial (ie: do not represent or create a ‘nuclear family connection’) are of no importance. Sibling relationships are important (Mako & Bolin, the Kataang Kids, Tarrlok & Noatak, Unalaq & Tonraq to name a few). Paternal relationship are vital (like, huge. I’m not going to bother to list them all, because the list would be insane). In Season 3, maternal relationships become significant (Beifongs). Hetero-normative romance is vital, because it’s the root of the nuclear family (the path to forming that mother/father pair). Romantic relationships are vital because they represent the possibility of creating a family (note that Korrasami only happens at the end of the series--it’s not a baby-producing relationship). Male characters are only important if they represent fathers, brothers, sons, or boyfriends. Female characters are only important if they represent mothers, sisters, daughters, or girlfriends.

There is no room in Legend of Krora for any character whose relationship with the main cast doesn’t involve a filial or family-creating relationship.

There are no characters in Legend of Korra that are in any way analogous to Haru, Jet, King Bumi, Ty Lee, Ju Dee, or even Toph (who, Taang theories aside, was the only member of the main group who didn’t seem seriously romantically interested in another main character, and wasn’t related to either romantic lead). All of these characters, despite having minor romantic arcs, had character arcs that helped the audience understand the stakes of the conflict, appeared multiple times throughout the series, functioned as allies to the main cast/main antagonists, and informed the Avatar world.

In the Korra series, there were no characters who were just friends and allies. There were no characters who weren’t somehow related to Korra’s group or to the Gaang by romance or by blood. And as a result, Korra’s world feels much, much smaller than Aang’s.

If Legend of Korra were explicitly about family--if it were a series that explored the world in the aftermath of Aang--this wouldn’t be a problem. But this series is supposed to be about Korra and her journey to become a strong Avatar. And being the Avatar is about saving the world from destruction, chaos, and the perpetuation of human suffering. The Avatar is supposed to be the bringer of peace, they’re meant to be embroiled in massive political and social struggles that span continents and cultures.

But Korra’s entire world, the entire thematic thrust of her show, is about family. . And this functionally cripples Korra’s development. This theme limits her ability to act and interact with the world she exists in. She says that she’s the Avatar, but she can’t actually ‘be’ the best Avatar. After all, she’s not solving the world’s problems, she’s confronting family problems.

And yes, every single problem that Korra ‘resolves’ relates back to family and she only puts an end to the conflict after the family dynamic has been revealed. She could only beat Amon when Tarrlok revealed their family connection. Her conflict with Unalaq was filial. Her relationship with the Red Lotus was very much tied to her relationship with her father (Tonraq got a lot of screen time as soon as the Red Lotus started to become a threat and I maintain that Zaheer is a kind of ‘dark father’ to her). And Kuvira? Well, Kuvira’s main beef is with her surrogate family (Beifongs) and Kuvira’s strife is meant to mirror Korra’s own struggles with her surrogate ‘family’ and their restrictive decisions (it also functions as a nice introduction to the idea that Korra’s not going to end up with a guy--note that when Korra’s kind of ‘into’ guys/dating Mako there’s a male antagonist, when she’s starting to pay attention to Asami the antagonist group gets mixed--this raises even more questions for me...).

So, how does this relate to S4:E2- Korra Alone?

Korra is finally, after 3 Season, presented with the opportunity to interact with the world and engage with people on her own terms-- not as the Avatar, but as Korra.

What happens?

Nothing.

Korra doesn’t have a heart to heart with a single ordinary person. Instead, she wanders around, takes part in underground fighting rings, and struggles aimlessly right up until the spirits lead her to Granny Toph. And when Toph’s advice and aide isn’t enough to fully resolve Korra’s struggle, Korra has to go to Zaheer (because mothers and grandmothers can’t fix daddy issues).

As I've previously stated, Zaheer represents an alternate father-figure to Korra. If things had been different, Korra would have been his protege, his ‘daughter.’ Ergo, his violence against her can function as a metaphor for child abuse.

Since all of Korra’s character growth, success, and development revolves around family-related conflicts, the only way she can resolve her PTSD is by confronting the ‘father-figure’ who inflicted the damage. After Korra confronts Zaheer, she feels better and is more equipped to fight Kuvira. Once again, everything is resolved through filial relationships.

Family vs Korra

Now, family is a great theme in any written work. It’s something that the vast majority of human beings can connect to on a personal level. After all, most people a family. And a lot of the moments involving family in Legend of Korra were really great.

That said, the family theme in Legend of Kora was in conflict with the development of the main character. The narrative focus on filial connections and relationships was so overwhelming that very little time was actually spent on Korra.

In fact, one could argue that the one character who had the least to do with this central theme was Korra herself. Yes, she was constantly embroiled in family conflict, but she was never invested or interested in these conflicts. Maybe she’d feel bad about something related to the conflict, or she’d be impacted/influenced by a relative or romantic interest, but for the most part her character wasn’t interested/invested in these struggles.

And this gets into the biggest problem with this theme. Family was of prime importance to every single other character in the show except Korra. Sure, Korra felt that family was important to her and she loved her family, but the center of Korra’s existence, the entire drive of her character, was ‘being the Avatar.’ Her drive wasn’t doing things to protect her family and the people who were important to her. Her drive was being a great Avatar.

Korra’s quest to be a great Avatar, to be successful and solve world problems was sidelined so that the series could talk about family.

This is probably why S4:E2 is such a disappointment to so many viewers and it’s probably the reason why I felt so disappointed in Season 4. It felt like we were finally going to talk about Korra and her growth and development. For a moment it seemed like we might actually touch on things that were of central importance to her character.

And then everything went right back to family. Again.

#Holy Daddy Issues Tenzin!#Theme #Family #family ATE legend of korra #When your daddy issues are too much #Bad Writing #The main character isn't important #Writing Stuff #avatar: legend of korra #a:lok #Holy Daddy Issues Tenzin! Part 2

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