#Legend of korra

[purpleheroine]

[redbayly]

Pema Headcanon:

A while back, I saw a post about how Pema in LOK has zero purpose aside from being a homewrecking baby factory who was there to make more airbenders and that she should've had more to her, and I made a comment sharing a personal headcanon I have about her. I have no idea where that post is, but I wanted to share that headcanon here.

Pema is a criminal (maybe a gang member or a former Red Lotus agent) who managed to escape justice and decided to hide by becoming an Air Acolyte. When she got nervous about the authorities closing in on her, she set her sights on Tenzin as no one would suspect the wife of the Avatar's son to be involved in anything shady. Tenzin was still in a relationship with Lin, so Pema began to actively sabotage it, pretending to be their friend while also stirring up their insecurities and points of contention.

After Lin and Tenzin get into a really bad fight, Pema exploits it so that she can be a shoulder to lean on for Tenzin. She crafts a facade for herself as this sweet, submissive, innocent woman who loves the Air Nomad lifestyle and who would be the perfect candidate to continue the airbenders.

After Pema "confesses her love," Tenzin decides he needs to do what's best for his people and breaks up with Lin. Tenzin initially wants to wait before fully committing to a relationship with Pema, but she manipulates him into having sex with her resulting in her getting pregnant with Jinora. Because he's afraid of the scandal, Tenzin immediately marries Pema. Pema gains the respectability and status she needs to protect herself and Tenzin has no clue that he's been played.

Lin, who was furious about the breakup, started doing some digging into Pema's background and found some red flags. She attempted to have Pema arrested, but Tenzin intervened, claiming it was unjust retaliation and getting the entire case dismissed.

All the while, Pema is secretly still connected with her criminal buddies and often shares information with them. She can't completely leave behind the thrill she got from her life of crime.

Pema has some small amount of fondness for her kids, but sees them primarily as a means of protecting herself.

No one but Lin ever suspects who Pema truly is. She manages to get away with everything she did, all because she played her part beautifully.

[whatifitookalilnap]

Mako: Korra, you need to stop! You’re being so reckless you can’t even see this will only hurt your health!

Korra, glaring: oh go to hell! It’s the only way! Right Asami?

Equalist Asami: for the first and probably last time, I agree with Mako. It’s not safe for you, I don’t think you should go through with it

Mako, blinking slowly: am I on drugs, or did Asami just agree with me?

Asami: don’t get used to it

Korra: I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever felt more betrayed in my entire life-

[purrgiri]

Yeah i have no idea what they thought was going to happen

Honstly they are lucky korra wasn't more bitter about it there was potential to a villain arc

I'm only one episode into LOK but I think it's really fucking wild that the Order of the White Lotus raised a girl in a compound and taught her to wield herself like a weapon and then poked at her with a metaphorical stick like "why aren't you spiritual??? Go into the Avatar State for us. You should be like your predecessors."

[amimelens]

[sakeofpower]

[stormbornnn]

[lady-iskra]

And my girl Korra belongs in here as well.

The Avatar fandom is always saying that if we get a continuation after Korra they hope we get to see more complex and flawed characters because atla and lok lacked them

Well I don't want that because y'all can't even handle the ones you were already given

[theresistanceneverquits]

Just so we’re clear

[vita-divata]

Gym bro Korra…..give me gym motivation 🙏

[cafecxonmilk]

Sapphics ships! For PrideMonth

Thanks to everyone who participated on ig to give me ships!

[xr-377]

I see where you are coming from here, but I must express I thought the Equalists being non-benders was still worthy because of all they accomplished and yet still were regulated as an underclass.

Republic City was to my read since the shows original explanation not a Republic of the people but of the Four Nations themselves. It's council, while having non-bending members, were representative of the nations that would not end up being able to politically or effectively claim the former colonies. But the power in those nations were driven by benders, which still bred in to Republic City.

Non-benders in the city flourished and prospered from the new tech, but were still subject to the trickle down social effects of the old system. What resulted was, like you said, a disparaging society where legitimately what was once one of the peak and most diciplined fire bending techniques, lightning, was the equivalent of coal shoveling. In Republic City wealth desparity developed and caused the status quo to shift in the city from bending to monetary power. Criminal organizations were violent reactions from both sides to exploit what leverage they could with the tools they had available. And yet, despite what power the non-benders had the government of the city still catered to the bending ruling class. Not even a big company like Cabbage Corp had due process when accused of threatening benders.

This agitation being stoked into action and revolution, only to be taken advantage of by another member of the empowered ruling class hoping to literally use the very power they were supposedly fighting against to make them the sole keeper of those abilities is really on point to how dictators rise to power.

In the scheme of the Avatar series history in poking at the politics of war it is really on point. Especially when looking at the villains of the later Korra seasons. Amon was provoking social change for control, Unalaq was puppeting tradition and trying to utilize the literal old ways for control, Zaheer was trying to harness the winds of Anarchy for control, and Kuvira is trying to use authoritarianism and fascist steel for control. All of those methods utilize the downtrodden; the underclass who literally built the most impressive city in the world after being oppressed from a century long war they could only be victims in is a fair first target to me.

I think what they showed sets that up well enough, but do think the series suffered from moving too fast. Perhaps they could have shown things better with easier pacing but when you are expecting every season to be your last...

This thing has been bothering me for years: The plot of Legend of Korra season 1 is completely backwards to what the worldbuilding is showing.

Republic City is built to accommodate machines, factories, and cars. The jobs we see non-benders having are in business, including Asami's dad who's a millionaire. The jobs we see benders having are factory workers and organized crime. With a few exceptions such as the metal-bending police unit and the ruling council.

It seems to me that benders are the ones who are oppressed in Republic City, at least materially. The presence of benders in police and government don't change it much since despite its name, Republic City in season 1 isn't a democracy. Benders being oppressed would also make sense as a continuation from ATLA, where we saw Earthbenders and Waterbenders being oppressed by the Fire Nation, and the United Republic is comprised of former Fire Nation colonies.

But the plot is saying that non-benders are oppressed. Amon and his Equalists are presented as having a point but going about it in the wrong way (plus Amon himself being a fraud).

It would've made more sense to be the other way around. The Avatar comic series Imbalance (which is otherwise pretty bad) actually does that right, with benders feeling threatened by the rise of technology in the pre-republic Republic City. LoK shows the end point of that process after decades of technological and societal evolution.

Either the Equalists should've been benders rising up against oppression. Or else if they're still non-benders, they should've been presented as a reactionary movement to benders reclaiming their rights, something akin to the real life KKK forming in reaction to black liberation in the US.

[demaparbat-hp]

They would.

[kowachi]

Anniversary 🎉💕

Celebrating 10 years of Korrasami! ❤💙🌊⚙

@korrasamiweek2024

[pc-98s]

legend of korra was really so ahead of its time. "what if your dad got reincarnated into an angry queer girl" "what if you brought warplanes to the martial arts fight" "what if henry ford was a terrorist and after you got him thrown in jail you dated his daughter and fucked off to the spirit world with her"