#kuvira is redeemable

[harleyification]

I gotta put my frustrations somewhere, but I still cannot BELIEVE that Legend of Korra put in the fact that Kuvira made "REEDUCATION CAMPS" for water and firebender people/ethnicities, and this fucking dictator only got a smack on the hand as well as a redemption arc in the fucking comics.

They literally said she did That. And I'm supposed to sit here and think that she was worthy of being given a second chance all because she ratted out her own people.

What. The fuck.

[larissel]

white ppl hating on kuvira need to stay quiet

[awesome-normal-heroes]

You wanna know something kinda messed up?

The creators still won't give Azula (a mentally broken child solider that was only doing her job) a redemption like Zuko or even a happy ending, not even in the comics...

Yet Vlad (a bitter grown-ass man obsessed with a married woman, her son and world domination) is getting redeemed after one comic...

They're even giving Dan (an evil adult version of Danny that destroyed the world in an alternate future and enjoyed it) a second chance?

And don't get me started on Kuvira!

She's almost like a female version of Ozai that's an earthbender, yet even in the cartoon, she's still treated with more respect in her defeat than Azula.

[wilcze-kudly]

And your other kids, Su. You know, the much younger and innocent of warcrimes ones? The ones who were most definetly severely traumatised by those events?

Like Opal almost died because Kuvira shot at a bunch of airbenders. Even more intense, Kuvira directly targeted Wing and Wei and they would've died had it not been for Lin.

And they are clearly upset by Su's constant affection towards Kuvira. Theyre shown to be wary if not outright scared of Kuvira. But Su dismisses their concerns every time.

And like, I'm all for Kuvira's redemption but I wish the idea of the fracture Kuvira and Baatar Jr left in the family was more explored.

Don't get me wrong, it feels in character for Su to blatantly disregard morals and literally everything else in order to keep her family together. That's kinda her thing. It's clear that she was the main proponent of the idea for Kuvira to be put under house arrest and live alongside the rest of the family.

Kuvira 'redeeming herself' by helping with Guan was literally a gift from the heavens for Su. I am actually sorta suspicious that su secretly wanted Kuvira to return to the family the whole time. That's why she was so upset that Kuvira wasn't apologetic about her crimes.

And I'm trying to imagine what Su's other kids are going through due to all this.

We don't see anything from Huan. He literally doesn't speak to at all in the comic and it's probably because he's not an important character, but you know what, I'm interpreting this as trauma.

Opal and the twins are shown to be extremely wary and angry with Kuvira. I feel especially bad for the twins, at least Opal gets to leave with the airbenders. Wing and Wei are stuck living with a person who almost killed them and another one who heavily contributed to it.

But, like, what else are they all supposed to do? Argue with their already visibly distressed and traumatised mother? We can see how hard, especially the twins, Su's kids adore her and are extremely devoted to her.

One thing I really would love to see Lin tearing into Su for this. Like, Lin knows what it's like to be hurt by a sibling, knows that it takes time to heal. I want to see Lin actually pouring out how hurt she had been due to Su's actions.

I want to see Lin trying so hard to make sure her niece and nephews won't go through what she had gone through. I want to see her sorta going into overprotective mode with them and do her best to try and make them feel as safe as she can make them.

She can see them becoming bitter and disillusioned. She can see Huan becoming even more reclusive, she can see Opal's temper getting shorter every day, she can see the twins losing their spark. She can see herself in them and she doesn't want them to become like her.

GIVE ME LIN BEIFONG TRYING TO BE A GOOD AUNT

GIVE ME LIN BEIFONG PUSHING HERSELF TO GIVE HER NIECE AND NEPHEWS THE UNDERSTANDING AND CARE THEY WON'T RECEIVE ANYWHERE ELSE

[corpsedisturbed]

im well aware there is a problem of racism within the zutara shipp community, i won't pretend to be dumb and say i don't notice how a lot of fanworks have katara abandon her culture in order to become fire lady or how zuko protects her from "the evil misogynist men from the water tribes" and how the fire nation is sm cooler than the southern water tribe, the whitewashing, etc. those are real things, it's disgusting and as a POC, it makes me feel insecure in the fandom. there is a problem w nsfw fanarts and fanfics of zutara as minors too

but all of this isn't limited to the zutara shippers and this isn't a defense but a plea for all of you to look closely with what and who u interact w. literally this week we saw a kataang shipper be exposed as a racist and a harasser. I'm on twitter again and her interactions w other kataang shippers are many but the warnings coming from other people come a long way too and i barely saw any ka addressing the situation. there was a exposed of a zk group chat some months ago who were actually proshippers and the exposed was created by a zutara shipper who was even harasseed by zk shippers (the ones in the gc and others too)

avatarfandompolice is another racist user who receives a lot of attention too. zvtara-was-never-canon is managed by a zucest shipper. hell there is a literal zionist lurking around both the zk and ka fandoms (starlight-bread-blog)

a lot of the anti zutara discourse i see the majority of time doesnt actually focus on the racism the fans have towards katara but go on to call it a toxic shipp and a colonizer/colonized shipp. funny thing is, these people praise zuko's arc and his friendship w the gaang. if u actually think zuko is a colonizer and he shouldnt be w katara romantically, he shouldnt have a friendship w any of the gaang either. they all suffered under the FN's imperialism but this discourse only appears when romance is brought up and specifically w zutara. as i said before, there is a problem of racism within the zk shippers but it isn't inherent to the shipp. a lot of times this anti discourse comes from a need to have moral high ground. but honestly, do u think u have moral high ground while stanning kuvira, a grown ass woman who put waterbenders and firebenders in concentration camps? do u think u have moral high ground when u insist zutara is ass but ship zukaang, a boy who is 12 and the other who is 16? do u think u have moral high ground when u ship azula and zuko, the siblings? do u think u have moral high ground while u shipp zukka and doesnt think it is colonized/colonizer bc "sokka doesnt care ab his culture"?

and it goes both ways btw. zk shippers, do u think u have moral high ground when u interact w racists fanworks and refuses to aknowledge their existence but at the same time say kataang is inherently misogynist and their shippers too? do u think u have moral high ground when u attack zukka by being homophobic? do u think u have moral high ground ignoring that by having a redemption's arc, zuko needs to have smth to redeem about and that something is his horrible fucking choices a lot of yall try to woobify? do u think u have moral high ground when u try to justify zuko being a bad and possessive boyfriend just bc u don't like mai?

there is a problem of racism, misogyny and homophobia in the fandom and im tired of everyone pretending their little bubble is perfect and never a part of the problem. i love avatar but anyone w half a brain knows the show is racist and stereotyping at times, just like the creators. yk, the two white men who appropriated a lot of things.

it was a long rant and i don't expect people to read it but I just needed to rant ab it anyway

[akiizayoi4869]

I finally realized why all of these talks about whether or not Azula should be redeemed annoys me. Besides the fact that it's been more than 15 years since the show ended and people are still having this discussion when the answer couldn't be more obvious, we have Kuvira. Someone who did way worse shit than Azula ever did. Who made numerous prisons to confine anybody who stood in her way. She got a redemption arc. Albeit a very shitty one. But the point is, she got one. If Kuvira of all people can be redeemed? Then there's no reason as to why the 14 year old abused child soldier can't be redeemed, or is "undeserving" of it. And to the people who say "she hasn't suffered enough!" um, did you not see this girl's breakdown?

I think she's suffered enough.

[aceof-stars]

Why are my favorite ships always:

Different but in the way that they make perfect partners and achieve so much together. Believing in each other when it seems like no one else does. Different and despite that, they understand each other until they completely don't. Some kind of betrayal and at least one of them has abandonment issues. So much emotional constipation and painful pining. Childhood friends to [insert decades long mess here] to finally, finally lovers. "My heart has always been yours. Even when I hated you. Even when there was so much distance between us I thought we'd never pull through. There's no one else in this world for me. So, yes it's you, it's always been you".

And the only two that have qualified so far are Wrightworth (Phoenix + Miles from Ace Attorney) and Baavira (Baatar Jr + Kuvira from Legend of Korra). I love how Wrightworth's partnership led them to find the truth and redeem each other, while Baavira's led them to create a dictatorship and commit war crimes.

If you have any more examples of ships that fit, please let me know.

[beifongswh0re]

im thinking angsty Kuvira thoughts

some of it is canon, some is not

Since Vira became a big character in my fic, ive been thinking about her a lot and her story is already sad but my brain makes it even worse.

So I feel like all Kuvira wanted from Suyin was to be loved by her, just like she saw her love the rest of her children. She started creating the Earth Empire only to try to prove to her that she could do something meaningfull. She got eaten up by all that power in the end but at the same time, she felt she wouldn't do well enough if she didn't finish "uniting" the Earth Kingdom.

Because nobody ever made Kuvira feel like she was good enough.

Suyin's kids didn't consider her their sister;

Su didn't quite treat her like her daughter;

Toph took some interest with her when she saw her being a talented bender but at some point just dissapeared;

Her parents just left her in Zaofu and she never heard from them again;

Just think about how traumatized she was. She wanted a family, parents, somebody to take care of her when she wad a child but nobody did that. What proves it more is the fact that she got with Baatar Jr. Like, IF THEY CONSIDERED EACH OTHER SIBLINGS THAT WOULD NOT HAPPEN (im still angry at bryke that it happened, tho)

And then, Korra gave her a chance to redeem herself, to prove she only wanted to do good. Even then she was the type to get to the goal no matter what but Suyin kept her from doing stupid shit that would have bad concequences later. She also listened to Su pretty easily, she still trusted her after all that happened. She was so happy when Suyin offered to take her back home, too.

I think that being in Zaofu would still be hard for her. She'd train with Wing and Wei, spend some time with Baatar Sr. but it wouldn't be enough. It still wouldn't feel like home because her relationship with the Beifong family was still fucked up.

The guilt kept eating at her because she almost killed them all yet they still managed to be kind to her. Not to mention that if she hurt Wing or Wei by accident she'd go into full panic mode because she was afraid to hurt any one of them ever again.

Idk, she's a really sad character and I can't keep my mind off of it.

[korrasamibottles]

Doesn't have to be the character you think is the most evil, just the one you most love to hate/hate to love. They suck severely but whenever they show up you can't look away.

PROPAGANDA:

Amon/Noatak - Bloodbender with a genuinely tragic backstory. Reinvents his entire identity and creates a sham political movement that exploits real tensions between benders and non-benders instead of going to therapy. Explodes at sea with his baby brother Tarrlok.

Hiroshi - Straight up tries to murder his daughter and then runs away like a coward. Bit of an elitist snob. Calls Mako a rat which is ironic considering he's the one spending a not-insignificant portion of his time skittering through a series of underground tunnels.

Varrick - Steals Asami's company and also every scene he's in. Invents the movie and immediately uses it for war propaganda. Has only a wisp of a ghost of a moral compass. Helps start at least two sectarian conflicts. Always has some kind of foot situation going on (bunions, calluses, etc.) and makes it everyone else's problem. Treats Zhu Li terribly and for some reason she agrees to marry him anyway.

Unalaq - Nasty little manipulator. Jealous of his hotter older brother so he gets him banished from their tribe. Was part of the Red Lotus plot to kidnap Korra as a baby. Has an arguably erotic encounter with the ancient Spirit of Darkness that makes him huge and also red (honestly it's an upgrade).

Raiko - Total loser who didn't want a tree growing through his office and was a massive bitch to Korra. Failpresident who coped with his re-election loss by starting the in-universe equivalent of Fox News.

Zaheer - Horrifically brutalizes Korra and then haunts her for like 4 years. Kills the Earth Queen and creates a power vacuum later exploited by Kuvira. The kind of guy you meet at a protest who seems cool at first but then he says something completely batshit that makes you want to back away slowly with your hands up.

Queen Hou-Ting - Shitty old despot whose favorite activities are abusing palace staff and bleeding her people dry. Hates animals. Literally her only redeeming quality is that she's related to Wu. Got very creatively murdered by Zaheer. Probably nobody cares about her but I needed more evil women for this poll hashtag feminism.

Aiwei - Funny little guy with some great jewelry who always knows when you're lying. Let Zaheer and Co. into Zaofu via a secret tunnel attached to his room. Currently enjoying a long vacation in the Fog of Lost Souls.

Kuvira - Created what was essentially a nuclear bomb and looked super hot while doing it. An ethnonationalist who put dissenters in camps and probably killed tens of thousands of people and was only mildly apologetic about it.

Guan - A less hot and less competent Kuvira. Brainwashes Asami, Mako, and Bolin into attacking Korra in the comics. Even more unsuccessful at politics than Raiko.

[atla-confessions]

cry cry cry kuvira got redeemed and your favorite didn't idk why y'all want azula to be redeemed when bryke is just going to messed it up with shit writing. you guys literally took one look at rote and said that's what you want for azula too? hell no! azula should be a bad bitch and cause chaos. you guys are boring.

peace out losers

X

[linnorabeifong]

Sad Angst

Not the biggest Linvira shipper but I’ve read some absolutely adorable fics for them. So hear me out for the angst. I feel like with Lin being older and with her self sacrificing attitude everyone would expect her to be the one to die first… but what if she didn’t ? Kuvira is young, and blinded by ambition. Imagine her falling into a relationship with Lin while trying to redeem herself. Going on dangerous missions across the EK to try to make things right after the end of her house arrest… and one mission goes south. Leaving Lin alone…again.

[thesebitchesrgay]

1 and 10 for the salty ask game?

im gonna do supergirl and LOK for this one bc they're my current brainrot

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

supergirl: pls dont come at me for this but i cannot see agent reign, i get the appeal, ive read fics with agentreign in them and they're super cute, but ive never personally been invested in them.

also, while i definitely think kara's had a crush on cat, i like them too much as a mentor/mentee to ever go near a supercat fic. (but i understand the appeal of both those ships)

legend of korra: mako x wu, i dont rly ship them but i think their dynamic is FUCKING hilarious. also ik its technically a:tla and not lok but i dont ship zukka, i love sukka too much, but i do prefer zukka over zutara. (fight me)

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

supergirl: guardiancorp. it felt so needless. i can come up with ten better ways they could've done the harun-el storyline without them getting into a relationship. i shipped pretty much anything the writers threw at us but i could NOT get behind lena x james at all. actually here's one i just thought of: james reveals he's guardian, lena starts helping him be a vigilante = lena and james form a bond and she uses the harun-el to save him bc shes a hero - OH imagine lena being overwatch!

actually, all of season 4 makes my blood boil - not bc i think it was a bad season, it was just too good at its job and i hated it for making me wanna rip my hair out every second. xenophobes taking over? lex luthor manipulating linda? alex loses her memories? the episode right after? the supercorp angst? oh my god the REVEAL?

10/10 would recommend, but you couldn't pay me to rewatch it.

legend of korra: no notes, just make more of it.

wait no if theres one thing i could change - its not the show its in the comics - kuvira's "redemption" arc. ma'am. you were literally a dictator and you tortured people. go on a year long trip to restore your honor. actually, scratch that, go on a meaningful road trip with each member of the beifong family (the apology tour). i do believe you can change but the rote arc felt too rushed - maybe end on a more open note instead of saying "thats it, she's redeemed!"

this one is also more a:tla: please PLEASE give my girl azula a redemption arc

thanks for the ask!

[yell0wsalt]

4 (Irosami)

9 (Ryuvira)

14 (Linzin)

4. Which one is more protective? Who needs to be ‘protected’? (Irosami)

OMG these two!!!  They kill me with this. They’re equally protective of each other in one way or another. 

Iroh has the tendency to shoulder burdens on his own and has little self preservation. 

Asami loves him, she really does, but man does it frustrate her when he does that. She is someone who does well in keeping Iroh grounded. And when he does too much of this to himself, she’s there to shake him by the shoulders and tell him, “Please don’t keep running yourself into the ground like this! I’m here for you.”

Asami, on the other hand, is equally bold and takes a lot of chances in the situations she finds herself in.

Do they put her in danger on occasion? Yeah. But she says she has a job to do, so…

From an outside perspective, Iroh will worry for her and tends to be more explicit about his concern in acting protective. While he knows she can handle herself and that she is capable… he can’t help it.

The question of who needs to be protected? They would equally argue that the other does. It works out then that they’ve got each other’s back. They work so well for that.

9. What are their thoughts on having children? (Ryuvira)

Absolutely not.

Kuvira believes that given her rough childhood with her bio family and then feeling like an outsider with the Beifongs, she would not be a good role model of a parent. It’s a frightening and foreign concept to her. She also wouldn’t want to bring a child into her world with her own history. “Redeemed” or no, it would cause a lot of problems for the kid.

Kids make Ryu feel uncomfortable. While over the years in his line of work and trainings, he’s gotten better on how to handle kids, he is perfectly happy with the concept of returning them to their parents at the end of the day

The only child they’re okay with is their fox cat fur child Claw-ssus

14. How do their personalities compliment each other? How do they clash? (Linzin)

In the ways that their personalities compliment one another, they also clash, and I find that fascinating about them. 

Lin is typically the more explicitly stubborn, focused, and grounded of the two. She tends to stay dialed in on her goals and outside of that, caring for the ones she loves.

Tenzin is not so much stubborn, but rather serious when it comes to his goals and what he wants out of life. Can that be displayed as stubbornness? Yeah, depending on the occasion and circumstance.

When it comes to Lin, he’s persistent in wanting to have her in his life. Lin is stubborn in closing herself off when her head is speaking louder than her heart. 

Like, shut up and let him in, he’s trying!

This also tends to be a pattern when it comes to any conflicts they have in their relationship. It’s not always Lin digging her heels in, though. Very situational dependent since they each have their own life goals, passions, and interests.

They drive each other to do better in what they want out of life and by the end of the day, they are able to return to each other and still “get” each other. Let their guards down and accept one another. 

Speaking on the serious sides of their personalities, Lin’s may be more dominant while Tenzin is more of a free-spirit with a sense of humor that he tries to keep in check on occasion. While Tenzin feels as though he is supposed to be a more serious leader and set a good example, Lin loves to see the more lighthearted side of him as it brings levity in her life. She also appreciates the breaking down of his more serious demeanor in front of her.

OTP asks

[wilcze-kudly]

do you find it odd azula basically did everything zuko did ( he burnt down a village, she seized ba sing se, they both tried to kill aang multiple times) and wasn’t afforded a redemption( like mai and ty lee who helped in everything she did and this are also culpable ) despite being redeemable ( caring for ty lee as shown by her apology in the beach episode) and was also younger than everyone else and very mentally and abused but somehow kuvira the facist is redeemable and so is ursa who neglected azula?

I do think about that anon I think about it a lot.

I want to say that the reason Zuko got a redemption arc is because we were following him from the beginning of the series and he had time to grow. I have also heard that there was a plan for Azula to get a redemption arc but it never came to fruition.

However when looking purely at the canon material we see that Azula had virtually no support network other than two other teenage girls who were scared of her and also struggling with their own shit, she spent at least 3 years with her only family member being her abusive dad who molded her into a weapon. Like did we really expect her to turn out as anything else?

On the other hand we have Zuko, whom we see do horrible thing, but he has a supportive (and also enabling tbh) uncle, who helps him through these dark times. Zuko has a support system, he gets chances that Azula never got. His banishment was awful, but I think it also saved him in the long run because he was able to free himself from Ozai's direct influence.

Azula never got the chances Zuko did, ironically due to her talents, and because she succeeded where he did not. Being a "good daughter" was a death sentece for her morality.

And I don't want to say that Azula is purely a victim, and that she's a good person. She's not. She has her kind behaviours but she has done awful things. But so has Zuko. Azula was just better at it lol.

When it comes to Ursa, I have mixed feelings about her. I try to stave away my biases against Ursa, but she reminds me very much of my own mother (if you wanna know what type of woman my mom is just mix Ursa and Lin Beifong, and add in Catholicism.). So Ursa kinda makes my skin crawl.

I think Ursa is a very good deduction of a victim, but it comes at the cost of her being a good mother. I think her situation made it difficult for her to parent both her children, hence the gross favouritism towards Zuko. It sometimes feels like Azula was a sort of 'sacrificial lamb' that Ursa allowed Ozai to influence, which let her focus all her attention on Zuko.

And once again, it's hard to blame Ursa fully for her behaviours, due to the strenuous, horrifif position she was in. I want to believe that she did her best, even if she made the occasional mistake.

I think her behaviour in the Search, while shitty, is also at least semi realistic due to her abuse and the awful frame of mind she was in at the time.

This does not really decrease the effect her behaviours have had on Azula, and we should take them into account, even if we don't fully blame Ursa for them. Ursa isn't a bad person, she's someone forced into an awful situation, where it would be impossible for her to take an objectively perfect action. That doesn't mean that she didn't massively drop the ball on Azula.

As for Kuvira, it's honestly really funny to compare Azula and Kuvira. Azula is 14 and has no support system and a controlling abusive father. She is a pawn to Ozai. A talented, brilliant pawn, but a pawn nonetheless.

Kuvira is an adult woman, at least early to mid twenties by my estimate. She had a support system which she handily rejected, probably due to her past traumas. She created her Empire and led it. She had all the cards in this situation.

So why is Kuvira more deserving of redemption?

I think honestly the reason Kuvira got a redemption arc and Azula didn't has more to do with the people around them, especially their mothers, or mother figure in the case of Kuvira.

Azula has no support system, and her mother always treated her like the problem. Ursa's treatment would favour Zuko, the "model" child, over Azula, the "problem" child.

While Kuvira had a support system. It wasn't perfect, but the Beifongs, particularly Suyin clearly cared for her. Also, Suyin was extremely lax in her treatment of Kuvira. Suyin's parenting actually favoured Kuvira, the "problem" child, over, for example Opal, the "model" child.

I think Suyin and Ursa can be posited as opposites, in a way. Ursa seemed to have grown up in a very loving household, but was forced to raise her children in an abusive environment. On the other hand, Suyin grew up in a neglectful, if not abusive household, but managed to create a loving, safe environment for her children.

Ursa sees Ozai, a man whk hurt her, in Azula, and Ikem, a man she loves, in Zuko, to the point where she even lied about Zuko being Ikem's son, which put Zuko in actual danger.

Suyin probably sees herself in Kuvira, they have plenty of parallels between each other. Of course she'd be kinder to Kuvira. Kindness and forgiveness probably saved Suyin's life.

And in the end, Ursa cannot give Azula the love she's craved for so long. While Suyin openly embraces Kuvira, for better or worse.

When we see what characters receieved redemption arcs over Azula, the pattern quickly emerges:

Zuko had Iroh and Ursa, Kuvira had Suyin and the Beifongs.

Azula only had an abusive dad and friends who were scared of her and who probably couldn't help her even if they wanted to.

It's a shitty way to treat characters we know deserve better, but it's also sadly realistic. Shitty people with support networks, with people willing to bat for them are more likely to "get better". And shitty people who are on their own, or surrounded by other shitty people... they have to stew in their misery and shittiness.

I hope Azula gets her redemption arc. But I don't think she ever will, because the only person who seemed genuinely kind to her in the comics was Aang, but I think she's much too fargone at this point to even care or see it as genuine. It would take a really long, intricate comic novel or series to even start on Azula's journey, and I don't know if the creators of Avatar are willing to put the time, effort and money into that.

Damn that was depressing.... oh well, back to ye ol'e Azula is the Shaman from tlok theory because that at least gives me hope lol.

[thatoneguy56fanfic]

Thought I’d do something a little bit different. Obliviously Korvira is my OTP, and I love them dearly. So I thought I’d share some of my personal favorite ways that I headcanon them falling in love with each other.

1. An AU where Kuvira becomes a member of the Krew during B3. Since they’re a lot alike, I can see Korra and Kuvira becoming pretty close friends rather quickly. They’d have a lot to bond over, which could eventually lead to romance.

2. In a more canon AU, I can see them slowly growing a bond during Korra’s visits while Kuvira is in prison. Kuvira knows a lot about politics, especially about the Earth Kingdom, and I can see them discussing different political issues for hours. The number of their visits increases once Kuvira is on house arrest, which is also when they start up a romance.

3. An already redeemed Kuvira befriends Korra after she gets out of prison, and they end up spending a lot of time together.

4. Kuvira has to live with Korra during her house arrest. They start off as rather awkward roommates. Then slowly become friends, and eventually fall in love.

There’s a lot more that I could list, but these four are my favorites. I just enjoy thinking of different ways for these two to end up falling in love.

[akiizayoi4869]

Avatar's (unfortunately) canon bullshit №57: Kuvira was redeemed and got her own arc and Azula didn't.

Honestly I would probably be fine with Kuvira getting a redemption arc if the writers had actually done it right instead of....whatever the fuck Ruins Of The Empire was supposed to be. But either way, you're right and you should say it, anon.