#anti bolin

[rightwheretheyleftme]

One of the main messages of Avatar: Kissing girls without their consent is fine!

Because even if the boys who violated their consents never learn their lesson

They can still be heroes

And get the girl as a reward for their bravery!

Reminder: These storylines were written by 2 grown men

[beifong-brainrot]

Hot take about Opal

Oh anon I have way to many thoughts about her to string them together into a coherent thought, so here's some word vomit:

Opal's best moments happen when she is not with Bolin. Bopal as a ship fucks up Opal's character (and Bolin's but this ain't about him). The strength of Opal's character lies in her fierce loyalty to her family, which will even lead her to break her oath of pacifism if they are threatened. Her best scenes by far are when she's interacting with or talking about her family.

She's not the "nice vanilla girl" even though I'm like 90% sure that was the role she was meant to play, and was placed in the show purely to be Bolin's girlfriend. But Opal is fierce and very willing to fight fascists, even if they are her own siblings (you can't tell me she wasn't about to slap the shit out of Baatar Jr here).

There's also a very interesting dichotomy to Opal's character, especially to B4. Her interest and connection to airbending and the freedom it represents versus her loyalty and love for her family, which is literally her earthly tie (y'know... because... earthbenders. badumts 🥁). I wish this had been more explored, rather than Opal just being used as an extension of Bolin's arc.

I will also say that people are much to harsh on her for her shitty attitude towards Kuvira. Opal's behaviour towards Kuvira when they were children made a lot of people act like she was some sort of spoilt little brat, but sh really... wasn't? Kuvira came into Opal's room, demanded to play with Opal's dollhouse and then destroyed it when Opal didn't let her. And she wasn't even punished for it!

Was the "stray dog" comment out of line and incredibly shitty? Yes! But it was very warranted.

(Also that scene was some nice foreshadowing since Kuvira wanting ,something, not getting it, and then trying to destroy it, be it a dollhouse or Republic City, is a pattern lol)

In the comic book, Opal's attitude towards Kuvira is even more understandable. She has the right to never forgive Kuvira after what she's done. Kuvira almost killed her and her family members.

Additional lightning round of hot takes:

Opal was more into Korra than Bolin

She's more similar personalitywise to Lin than to Su (see my post about this)

I think that while she's a natural at airbending, she really struggles with adopting their philosophies and their morals. I don't know if she'll ever be fully able to grasp them

She deserves a girlfriend

And I want more angry Opal and she deserves it.

Look at her lil pouty face.

[atla-confessions]

personally i have problems with aangs writing and the fact that he kissed katara without consent, which is never addressed properly. that seems like a prominent zk concern. this whole masculinity thing feels like a straw-man

It wasn't 'properly adressed' because it was a one time mistake he recified afterwards and not 'non-consensual kissing'.It's literally a common trope,especially in the 2000s,for love interests to kiss eachother without asking first and i can name like 10 examples off the top of my head.Including in the Avatarverse itself?????Korra kissed Mako when he was dating Asami and not only did she not get called a r*pist in the making like Z/Ks do Aang but Bolin' sadness over witnessing it was turned into a meme.We don't think that 'concern' seriously from y'all because you don't mean it and just hate Aang and want to make Zuko look good and plenty of other users have dealt with Z/Ks trying to convince everybody 'No girl would choose Aang over Zuko' as a stock phrase on the basis Aang is too wimpy due to his male femininity and Zuko is better as the 'manly brooding older man' option Katara supposedly always dreamt of 'canonically'.If you honeztly think people don't take potshots at gender in a fandom around since 2005,i think you're just a little stupid

X

[awesome-normal-heroes]

Imagine betraying your anti-bender father for your bending boyfriend and the Avatar, only to learn that they kissed behind your back and then later they become a couple...

And then they do it again the next season...

Imagine the writers making you date the girl that he cheated you with... Forgiveness is one thing, but dating her? Seriously?

Asami deserves better...

[baku-usagi]

Talking to Co workers about how much I despised legend of Korea reminds me of how much I did love bolin, and how said I was that he was played for a comic only character. The show was honestly such a garbage fire with so much potential. Big sigh

[invertedspoon]

that moment when you join a fandom online after years of happily absorbing the media alone and now you have to figure out what tags you have to block after seeing the most downright disgusting takes you've ever seen

[beifong-brainrot]

Honestly reducing Bolin's post Kuvira arc to just "how do I get my girlfriend back after I fucking betrayed her and her family got sent to a FUCKING CONCENTRATION CAMP" instead of "oh I really fucked up how fo I redeem myself after doing a lot of bad stuff in a misguided attempt to help people" is awful for his character. I do like Bolin in the beginning of B4 since an arc of him working with the villain because he got manipulated is very in character for him and also could be an intwresting way to show how his character grew after he went through the same thing with Vaarrick in B4.

I also thinkBolin helping the refugees before he got to Repuvlic City was a good moment for him as it genuinely shows that he regrets his actions and is actively trying to redeem himself. I wish they'd have kept that momentum going, but the moment he's back with the main cast, this arc is immediately diminished to a lovers spat.

Opal's family are also reduced to macguffins in this storyline, which kinda makes us feel less invested in their rescue. Which kinda sucks because it was genuinely heartwrenching when Opal was forced to escape and leave them behind. Like the image if her calling out to them that she'll be back for them and that she loves them as Ikki and Jinora hold her back?

Always makes me feel something. Especially that the Beifong family could be very interesting Pov characters due to their relationship to Kuvira and Baatar and, oh yeah, being the only people who actually willingly tried to fight back against the dictator who was locking innocent civillinas up in work camps. The Beifongs were the only people who opposed Kuvira from the beginning yet they get reduced to objects for Bolin to help retrieve in order to get back with his gf cause she's cranky because her family got kidnapped.

It also makes it feel like Opal getting back together with Bolin is like a reward he gets after going on a quest instead of an active process of him to redeem himself for redemptions sake.

Hell they even use the "he worked his way out of the doghouse" phrase, as if, if you just work hard and your girlfriend will totally forgive you for selling out her family to the fictional Nazi-Stalinist hybrid.

Coupled with the reservations Opal showed in the beginning of the series about Bolin and how he's changed due to serving Kuvira it makes it seem like her role input into the relationship doesn't matter. Like I know she isn't a main character but damn. She was such a strong character throughout B4 only to immediately get yeeted back into theove interest zone after she and Bolin start dating again.

It's also unnecessary because Bolin was shown to care about the Zaofu crew, like when he tried to go helo them instead of flee to safety before they were attacked by Baatar Jr.

Why not just make it so he feels personally responsible for their fate? He's dating Opal, presumably he knows them at least a little and him and Wei have... something queercoded going, why not just have him want to atone for his mistake of serving Kuvira and that being his reason to save the Beifongs.

We never see any of the Beifongs other than Opal forgive Bolin, save for the very ambiguous cheek pat from Wei. Because only Opal's romantic relation to Bolin matters, rsther than the forgiveness of the people whom his actions indirectly endangered.

In fact, having Bolin be the person who advocates for actively trying to remove Kuvira from power as opposed to the rest of the Krew being perfectly alright to mildly bummed out by the suffering in the Earth Kingdom, would create a very interesting dynamic between them.

Bolin's storyline in B4 is a very fun concept but it immediately falls appart after he gets back to Republic City and his character is sidelined after he gets back with his girlfriend. And this is the final season, no wonder the comics are struggling to do anything interesting with him.

I don't think the writers of tlok even realise what a complex and interesting character Bolin could be due to his childhood, how he's internalised it and his personality. Reducing his final arc in B4 to being about romance is so depressing to me.

To the Legend of Korra writers who somehow decided that it would be funny for Bolin to fake leg injuries just to get out of trouble with Opal: why?

Surely after having realized just how manipulative Kuvira was, you'd think he would have, you know, not done that? That scene gave me so much secondhand embarrassment that it's really difficult for me to rewatch that episode.

[variouspolltournaments]

Anti-Propaganda is not allowed. Please only give reasons to vote for something and not give reasons to vote against something.

[rayes-rain]

Guys I figured out why mako's character is so much more bearable and even likeable to me after season 2.

In the first two seasons, mako is framed as a stern, brooding, no-nonsense badboy who is emotionally insensitive to most people and yet manages to pull all the ladies. In fact, later in the series, we are told that mako is still known as a ladies man, despite never having been shown this outside of him stumbling into romances with asami and korra. Due to this tell-don't-show aspect and his anti-charisma, I was left to wonder how he's even so liked by korra and asami and his behaviour towards them makes me resent his character.

This all changes in season 3. We are shown how mako has thrown himself fully into work. He doesn't have a social life. He sleeps under his desk. When he does have to interact with korra and asami he acts extremely awkward.

Him being socially closed off, awkward, and quiet isn't really anything new to his character, but the show at that point had stopped insisting that mako is a broody badboy because of it, that this in and of itself is an attractive quality. His personality is now framed for what it is, a kind of pathetic loner who has to work on building his relationships with everyone outside of his brother. It is framed as something he needs to grow to get better at.

His plotline of being wu's bodyguard also hammers home the comedic potential of stoic mako constantly stumbling into wu's shenanigans and keeping him out of trouble.

I don't care for mako as a brooding love interest, but I love him as the straight man in a comedic duo. First with bolin, then with wu.

[fantastic-nonsense]

☔

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I had to browse through my 30+ WIPs to figure out if there was one I was willing to classify in this category, and...if there was a fic that fits it's a Legend of Korra fic concept I wrote up like 8 or 9 years ago in the immediate aftermath of the series finale. I genuinely don't think I'll ever get to it; not only because I've long since left the LOK fandom and have no real interest in finishing any of my fic ideas that aren't my "Justice for Asami Sato" WIP, but also because it would likely need a whole series of fics to properly explore everything I wanted to cover. I will, however, happily give a detailed outline of what I was planning on doing since I'm never going to get around to it.

Basically, the concept was to completely imagine LOK as the story might have been written if the creative team had known from the beginning that they would have 4 seasons to tell the story of Korra. I was looking at the disjointedness of plot, themes, and character arcs that happened because Bryke originally planned the show as a miniseries and then didn't know how many more seasons they would get...and thinking about how to connect everything together more coherently (within my own preferences and ideas of how things should have been told, of course).

The tl;dr of each fic is as follows:

Book 3′s plot would come first, as it should have in the show: Korra travels to Republic City to learn Airbending from Tenzin, only to find that some spiritual mumbo jumbo has created new Airbenders. Thus, she’ll learn airbending from Tenzin while they’re all on the search for the new airbenders. Meanwhile, the Red Lotus has escaped and is coming after Korra. Ends the same way, with Korra physically incapacitated and suffering from major PTSD

Book 4′s plot would be next: the fall of the Earth Kingdom creates a power vacuum that Kuvira fills. Meanwhile, we watch the season-long restoration of Korra’s physical/mental/spiritual wellbeing. We get the story of Wan and Raava this season, as part of Korra’s recovery arc (so she can discover and restore her bond with the Avatar Spirit).

Book 1 now becomes Book 3: also in the wake of the Red Lotus’s destruction and the tyranny of Kuvira’s Earth Empire, anti-bender sentiment has sprung up around the world. Amon takes advantage of this sentiment within Republic City. Korra, now residing in Republic City, has to deal with the anti-bender revolution as a fully realized Avatar (but one that is still struggling to fully recover from the Red Lotus and is now terrified of losing her bending because of the events of the first two seasons)

Book 2′s dual plot would end the series: Korra has to deal with the Water Tribe Civil War while Harmonic Convergence approaches, which would have had lore drops throughout the show after the ‘Avatar Orgins’ revelations back in the second fic. The series ends with a bang as Korra defeats the spiritual manifestation of darkness and chaos and pledges to lead the world into a new spiritual age. 

A fairly detailed explanation of how I'd planned out this reimagining is below the cut, if you like.

Ask me a question about one of my WIPs!

The first fic ("Air") was going to start out with the re-emergence of the airbenders due to a freak spiritual event; this was going to be the reason Tenzin wouldn't be able to train Korra in airbending at the South Pole compound, as he was focused heavily on recruiting and training new airbenders and wanted to put off training the Avatar for another year or two. Meanwhile, the Red Lotus breaks out of their prisons and starts readying themselves to go kill the Avatar.

Korra would make her way to Republic City to try and reason with Tenzin that he could just train her while looking/training the other airbenders, meet Lin while breaking up a robbery in progress, and escape from the RCPD with the help of Mako and Bolin, two pro-benders who just lost the finals this season (but they’re sure that they’ll come back next year even better). They introduce her to Asami Sato, their sponsor and Mako’s girlfriend. She explains who she is, what she’s doing in Republic City, and what’s going on….and they decide they want to help her. They all end up stowing away on Tenzin's ship along with Lin, who basically designates herself as the Air Family's bodyguard (because god forbid Tenzin go swanning off into the Earth Kingdom without any protection for his small children).

We'd spend most of the fic dealing with the three intersecting plots: 1) Korra struggling to learn Airbending and spiritual direction from Tenzin, 2) Tenzin finding and training the new airbenders+Korra, and 3) the Red Lotus political plot and their attempts to kill Korra (which both fall under the “no more world leaders” heading of their group goals).

Subplots would have been more or less the same subplots as the existing Book 3, with some of the Book 1 issues mixed in: resolving the Lin-Tenzin tension, Tenzin struggling to be a teacher and rebuild the Air Nation, korra struggling to figure out airbending, Mako and Bolin finding their family, and the romance issues (Korra-Mako-Asami with a season-long Masami breakup arc and the Bolin-Opal romance…the Mako-Bolin drama over Korra doesn’t happen because we meet Opal basically right off the bat). Korra still ends up hurt and traumatized at the end of the fic. Despite initiating the Avatar state for the first time while fighting Zaheer, she can no longer connect after the physical and spiritual trauma she suffered, so she stays behind at the South Pole to be healed and further mentored by Katara.

The second fic ("Restoration") would have picked up one year after the first fic ends and covered the basic plot of Book 4 with some of the character arcs that Book 2 dealt with (except better): The fall of the Earth Kingdom created a power vacuum that Kuvira fills. Korra's doing her season-long recovery/spiritual discovery arc while dealing with the threat of Kuvira; we also get the Wan-Raava story here, to properly sow the seeds for the Harmonic Convergence plot later down the road.

Mako and Bolin go back to pro-bending, but both find it unsatisfying after going globetrotting. Mako's single, and Bolin and Opal (who's moved to Air Temple Island to continue her training) are still dating. Asami, who's chafing under the restrictions of being back in Republic City and once again living with her father, joins an underground street racing group as a racer and part-time mechanic; she's super lonely, since Korra is still recovering from what the Red Lotus did to her and (from her father’s POV) she no longer has any ‘socially acceptable’ reason to interact with Bolin and Mako since they’re no longer dating. So all of that happens, culminating with Kuvira's attempted invasion of Republic City. The Krew would reunite to fight her off.

The third fic ("Equality") would have picked up about six months later and reinterpreted the Equalist plot. In the wake of the Red Lotus’s destruction of the Earth Kingdom, the chaos that unfolded afterwards, and Kuvira's attempted invasion of Republic City, anti-bender sentiment has sprung up around the world. Amon takes advantage of this sentiment within Republic City. Korra, now residing full-time in Republic City, has to deal with the anti-bender revolution as an Avatar who is now terrified of losing her bending after fully recovering from what the Red Lotus did to her.

Bolin took a long trip back to the Earth Kingdom with Opal to see Suyin+his family and help stabilize the country a bit, but they're both on their way back to Republic City in the first chapter. Mako has, after bonding with Lin in the first season, joined up with the RCPD to work under her and is working his way up the ladder (hoping to reach ‘detective’ status). He’s still having Issues adjusting, especially without Bolin around. He goes and hangs out on Air Temple Island with Korra when he’s off-duty because people actually seem to like having him around and there’s always something that he can do (and he likes feeling Useful). But lately he's been hearing some concerning stuff at his job about the Equalist movement, and he's got a bad feeling about what it means for Korra and for all benders in Republic City.

So Mako has his police corruption investigation arc. Bolin is trying to figure out what he actually wants to do with his life now that he's not a pro-bender anymore. Asami starts getting suspicious that her father is up to something and decides to take matters into her own hands. And Korra is dealing with the Equalists and how to balance the "you're our Avatar too" undercurrents amongst the non-bending population.

The final fic ("Spirits") would start up about six months after Amon's defeat. Book 2′s dual plot would end the series: Korra has to deal with the Water Tribe Civil War while Harmonic Convergence approaches, which would have had lore drops throughout the series after the ‘Avatar Orgins’ two-parter back in the second fic. The series ends with a bang as Korra defeats the spiritual manifestation of darkness and chaos and pledges to lead the world into a new spiritual age.

Unalaq still sets up and starts the Water Tribe Civil War to gain power, but it’s also in service to creating as chaotic of a world situation as he can before Harmonic Convergence (opening a pathway to Vaatu’s domination over Raava; because the world is a) in chaos and b) out of balance, Vaatu will have an easier time winning the fight against Raava). The Raava-Vaatu fight would also be more explicitly framed as order vs. chaos (not light vs. darkness), which would align it more with how ATLA previously handled the concepts of yin and yang.

I was still working on what everyones' character arcs and struggles would look like in that final fic apart from Korra (who was set up to have the same political figure+spiritual leader balancing act Book 2 tried to pull off), but I know that I was planning to give Asami a Tony Stark arc and let her see the direct consequences of Future Industries’ war profiteering, giving her a reason to completely change the company around to focus on energy, transportation, and entertainment instead of selling tanks and biplanes to the Water Tribes. So...yeah. Those are the basics.

....and all of that and more is sitting in a detailed outline in a doc that I will probably never touch again, so I hope this was a fun glimpse 😭

[rightwheretheyleftme]

I just finished watching book 2 of The Legend of Korra. Here’s my top 5 things I hated the most about it:

5. Bolin sexually assaults a woman and it gets played for laughs

No need to explain this one.

4. The mythology of the spirits established in ATLA got completely ruined.

A lot of people smarter than me have analyzed how TLOK took everything that made ATLA magical, mysterious and special and utterly ruined it. My favorite essay about it is this video, short and to the point.

3. The christianization of ATLA

Book 2 of Korra is straight up a christian narrative and it’s not even subtle. Raava is God, Vaatu is the devil, the Avatar is Jesus, and the dark spirits are demons. It’s absurd that the writers took this asian-inspired tv show that had already embraced asian religious ideas such as buddhism and yin-yang and turned it into the most westernized christian story ever.

2. Team Avatar? who? where?

Every non-Korra member of Team Avatar spends the season essentially wasting time. Mako spends the entire season investigating Varrick, which leads nowhere because Varrick escapes prison and suffers 0 consequences for his actions. Bolin spends the season either being assaulted or assaulting someone. And Asami, god bless her heart, has a storyline about wanting to keep her family’s company afloat, which is one of the most boring pieces of television I’ve ever watched in my life. Worst of all, none of these storylines have ANYTHING to do with the main plot. Why does Korra even have a team? These people are deadweight.

Honorable mention: Deus Ex Machina Jinora. Korra needs a guide to the spirit world? Jinora can suddenly see spirits! Korra is losing against Unavaatu? Jinora flies down from the sky with a ball of yellow light and saves her!

Did we get any explanation about how Jinora is able to do any of this? Well, uhhh, mmmh, she was born with a gift! A gift that has never been mentioned or even hinted at before! Brilliant writing.

1. The final battle

There’s no need to write anything here. This was an insult to the ATLA franchise and to good taste.

[beifong-brainrot]

Of course these situations are more complex than that, but something something Lin always being the one to escalate her and Suyin's disagreements to the physical level.

Bonus image of Bolin being me whenever I hear the fandom talk about Suyin

[atla-confessions]

I think . that the best Bolin ship would be anything that wasn’t the abusive dynamic that Boleska was .

X

[luxlitemidnight]

(This fictional piece of creative writing contains themes of medical abuse, torture, and death. Read at your discretion)

A stained and torn paper is found in an alleyway. This is what's written on it.

----------

Official Report

Living Limbo: a study on persistent God's Blood effects with Subject 388.

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Rumors of a condition dubbed "God's Limbo" have been appearing around Harthta for thousands of years. Legends tell of people who should be dead with grievous injuries continuing to live. They were seemingly immortal, undead, prone to psychosis and had supernatural abilities. For a long time, people were uncertain of it's origin, the name coming from the idea that they could be gods held in limbo, before making the connection to God's Blood.

Most of our knowledge comes from a singular afflictee known as "Himmel", an African Wild Dog. Himmel was killed by an arrow strike to the throat approximately 267 years ago. We had the opportunity to interview him and despite the grevious injury to his trachea and esophagus, he was in high spirits. He could only communicate through sign language as he was illiterate and the arrow had destroyed his larynx.

God's Limbo is a condition that occurs when a subject who is actively under the effects of God's Blood dies. The substance in the subject's system appears to restart the brain of the subject while stopping any decomposition. No outside source of nourishment is needed. The subject is, effectively, a living corpse.

Subjects can fall into a psychotic state marked by irrational behavior, dramatically stronger powers, and changes to eye color. Himmel entered this state once during our interview, requiring 8 guards to subdue. His powers are reminiscent of the ancient human legend of Midas, his touch having the ability to transmute people and objects into other substances, with ice being his primary choice. Only due to anti-magic devices were our guards able to stop him, but the tragic loss of one of our guards was suffered. He went into extreme distress when he came out of this state and learned that he had killed a person. He refused to continue the interview.

Around 6 years ago we had the business opportunity to aquire some God's Blood from a supplier known as Bolin. We had a hypothesis that the state of God's Limbo where an individual could have the effects of God's Blood permanently could exist in a still living subject.

Subject 388, one of our older subjects who was coming up on time for her retirement, was the perfect subject. By creating an experience that tricks the body into believing it is dead, the God's Blood effects became permanent in them. However it was not a perfect process. Before the subject's system could be stabilized, subject 388 escaped from the northwestern facility. Not long after, our source of God's Blood dried up with the apparent disappearance of our business partner.

The retrieval of subject 388 and finding a new source of God's Blood is the key to continuing this project. Both of these items are high priority to the company.

Dr. A. Keltner.

[zuko-always-lies]

List of Morally Worst Things Korra Ever Did

Ok, to be clear, this isn't an anti-Korra post. I just wanted to have a list like this for my own purposes. She obviously also does a ton of objectively good things, but I wanted to see her at her worst.

Setting the ancient airbending gates on fire in a tantrum

Kissing Mako when he was reluctant, he was already dating Asami, said he liked both Korra and Asami, and Korra had just dated Bolin

Using Naga to terrify Tahno

Causing massive property destruction in her attempt to hunt down a couple criminals

Siding with Unalaq over her own tribe when he militarily occupied the SWT

Threatening to have Naga eat Judge Hotah

Conspiring with General Iroh II to force the United Republic into war against the NWT against the will of the United Republic's civilian leadership.

Opening the second spirit portal to "save" Jinora from Unalaq, even though Jinora is begging her not to do it.

Trying to basically kidnap Ryu just because he's an airbender even though he was utterly uninterested in joining the Air Nation.

Helping the Earth Queen collect taxes.

Chasing the Red Lotus behind Lin's back?

Threatening to make it her "life's mission" to stop Baatar Jr. from seeing Kuvira ever again?

[magiesheartlove]

Orphaned as a baby, Korra has spent her entire life raised in the idyllic Air Temple Island, off the coast of Republic City. But being the only non-bender in a family of airbenders has never bothered her. Korra is well liked and adored by all who meet her, and she has big dreams of traveling the world and discovering who she is.

On her seventeenth birthday she suddenly discovers that she can not only waterbend… but firebend and earthbend as well! Her adopted grandmother Katara reveals that Korra is in fact the Avatar, and it is her destiny to bring peace and balance to the world, and she will have to start with the anti-bending revolution that plagues her beloved city.

With the help of her childhood best friend Asami Sato, and the pro-bending brothers Mako and Bolin, Korra will need to master all four elements and learn to fully embrace her new destiny.

IN DISNEY MUSICAL FORM!!

And yes, it's got a whole butload of Makorra! If it were written better. And was a classic disney musical