Racebending.com

fannishcodex:

ikkinthekitsune:

Let’s start with the facts as directly provided by the show:

1. Korra was discovered by the Order of the White Lotus at the age of four.
2. The OWL kept her in a compound in the Southern Water Tribe for the dual purposes of training and protection and were quite strict about keeping her under constant watch.
3. Korra’s parents lived outside of the compound, but Korra was still emotionally close to them.
4. Korra considered Naga to be her best friend; there’s no evidence that the OWL provided her with peers inside the compound or allowed her to make excursions outside to interact with anyone her age.

Now, given these facts, what kind of assumptions can be made about Korra’s background?

• Given that, as per point 2, Korra’s protection is at least as important as her training, it is quite likely that she was taken to the compound as soon as it became an option.  It can therefore be assumed that Korra was either immediately taken into the OWL’s custody after her discovery or brought in immediately following the construction of the compound.  Either way, she’s likely been raised by the OWL since the age of four (per point 1).
• Per point 3, the OWL kept Korra separate from her parents.  Given the size of the compound, there’s no reason her parents shouldn’t have been given living space inside the compound itself unless the OWL wanted to limit the amount of time they could spend with Korra.  In fact, given that Korra wasn’t completely cut off from her parents, allowing them to live outside the OWL’s protection creates a potential security risk that the OWL ought to have tried to avoid if possible (since it would be quite a problem if the Avatar’s closest family members were taken hostage).  Presumably, Korra’s parents don’t live with her because the OWL doesn’t want her to get too attached (which offers the further implication that the OWL might be averse to close non-familial attachments as well, limiting Katara’s ability to take a mothering role towards Korra).
• Point 4 directly implies that Korra was never really allowed much in the way of close peer interactions, either.  It’s quite possible that, if all of her teachers and sparring partners were adults far outside of her age range (as was implied by her firebending test), she never had any close human friends whatsoever.  

And here’s the upshot of all that:

Korra has, for all intents and purposes, been denied consistent affection since the age of four in favor of conditional praise.

Her upbringing was, therefore, emotionally neglectful if not outright abusive (and I sure hope that the OWL didn’t treat her the same when she was five as it did during her firebending test).  The OWL might have meant well, but they had no idea how to raise a child and messed it up as badly as they possibly could given a legitimate desire to do what was best for her.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that Korra has identity issues and a need for validation as the Avatar; she learned from a very young age not to count on her parents love, and ended up filling in the hole by impressing people with her bending.  This is, as can be expected, something of a recipe for disaster in terms of raising a well-adjusted individual.

To make matters worse, the majority of the praise that Korra did get would have been in the context of violence, given that her demonstrated talents are all martial in nature.  Her life was highly controlled, except insofar as she could impress the OWL by showing up her sparring partners or use force/manipulation to get what she wanted over the OWL’s objections.  Violence would have been, essentially, the only way for Korra to define herself and take charge of her own life, which inevitably caused her need for validation to become all the more dangerous.

Or, in other words, by trying to train Korra into the perfect Avatar, the OWL itself crafted her into exactly the sort of person who goes to extremes to get what she wants, doesn’t take no for an answer, and has little experience dealing with people as peers as opposed to obstacles.  Korra might be a highly flawed protagonist, but it can’t be said that she doesn’t have a good reason for being the way she is.

When you think about it Korra’s childhood was really messed up.

(via legendofkriticism)

populationgo:

Continuing on my Avatar: The Last Airbender fan cast, I also released fan casts on my personal blog for The Legend of Korra. Below is once again a list detailing my personal explanation for each of them.

Hit the break to read my fan cast for The Legend of Korra!

Read More

Normally don’t post these, but this is definitely much better than the one Korra Nation made. IMDB also has a list of Native American/First Nations actors if anyone wants to give it their own shot: http://www.imdb.com/list/R0EAcZ5CP2A/

korranation:

A. Ezra Miller

B. Jared Leto

C. Rami Malek (Voice of Tahno)

D. Nicholas Hoult

E. Someone we haven’t thought of? Tell us below!

The official “Legend of Korra” wants to know who fans would cast for Tahno. They suggest several options: not even one actor is of Asian or First Nations descent.

It’s just a fantasy casting, but still disappointing to see from the official tumblr. On the other hand, a fantasy casting means it’s pretty low stakes…and yet actors from these two underrepresented groups still can’t compete— and are invisible from the speculation and discussion—when it is rare enough to have fantasy world characters like Tahno that resemble them at all.

(via korranation)

jedifreac:

I have all these “feels” and I just want to throw my creative writing bachelors degree (which means nothinnnng) and my critical race studies and women’s studies textbooks (bell hooks in your face)  and my social justice-oriented in-progress grad degree (not sorry anti-sjers) at the Korra writing team and wave around giant intersectionality pom poms. It’s not that all the writing was awful, it was definitely a fun show, but but I just envision this alternate universe where: 

• Korra, Bei Fong, and other benders who got chi blocked stayed chi blocked.  Yeah, that’s a total cliff hanger, but “The Blue Spirit” was the end of a 13 episode order for the original series and that was a huge cliff hanger, too.
• Toph’s “oh no what a nightmare” line is lampshaded.  (Sokka: “It’s so dark!  I can’t see!”)   Oh what, you have to make a fire out of sticks or bathe with a bucket or use a wheelbarrow to move rocks?  The humanity!
• The fundamental beliefs of the Avatar world are challenged by new ideas and new ways of being.   Where “equality” isn’t a co-opted word but a concept that can be reclaimed by the people.

Have Korra give herself back her bending instead of Aang.  Instead of depicting Korra crying on a bluff because she has now been “downgraded” (from bender of all elements to bender of one special element only five people in the world can bend) and getting her powers back from Aang, have Aang tell her “sorry tough luck but maybe you can find someone to help you.”

Send Korra on a trip through the world on a quest to relearn bending (I know the creators didn’t want another road trip but she is the Avatar and it kind of comes with the job.)  She has spent her whole life living among benders.  Have her live with nonbenders and learn from them.  (Lin can come, too!)

Have Korra discover who she is outside of bending or being a bender.  Like how every other nonbender in the world does it.  Even Aang had hobbies like animal taming and crafting flower necklaces.  Maybe she’ll discover a love for cabbages.

Have Korra pursue a tip on a group of people who have managed to teach themselves bending.  If bending has to do with how much spirituality a person has, we can either posit that people are born with spirituality or innately spiritual as their personality, or we can posit that people can—like they do in real life—become more spiritual over time through meditation, mindfulness, etc.  Korra would then have to learn these skills, unlock these chakras, etc. (ulterior motive of teaching viewers mindfulness skills.)

Have Korra be okay with identifying as a nonbender instead of having it be a great tragedy.  Alternatively, have her keep identifying as the Avatar.  She is still Korra even if she is less “godlike” than she was before.

Radical thought!   Deconstruct the premise of an Avatar all together.  That would be an incredible sequel.  The concept of the Avatar as this person with divine right to lead isn’t as humanist as it could be.  

Where are the philosophers of the Avatar world?  We see that nonbenders like Sokka have shifted the government towards republicanism.   Why hold on to this belief that the Avatar is the only person who can bring the four nations together?  Make the Avatar obsolete.  Let there be determinism. 

Why is the only person people believe can unite the world and bring peace to the world also someone who is born into the gig?   Korra doesn’t NEED to be able to bend to be an amazing leader or the bring balance or peace or unity to the world, does she?   Can anyone be an “Avatar” if bending is removed from the job description? 

I just think it would be so amazing to see Lin Beifong still leading the police force with a belt full of Batman gadgets and a team of both bender and nonbender cops (including other women, please!)  Maybe even getting to the point where she realizes she misses bending but not that much, life is good, and realizing she can have non bending cops work more than just the central park security beat.

How awesome would it be for Korra to get to the point where she is like, “okay, right now I’m stumped, and can only airbend.  I cried on a bluff for a bit and sat with my friends and grieved something I lost, a violation to my body, my person, and my identity.  It sucked to have my bending taken away.  But I’m still the Avatar.  The world still needs me.  I will still do my best to be a good leader, even if I am no longer a human flame thrower.  I will try and understand how Amon manipulated us into this mess and why all this happened.”

And then, for Korra to continue to do Avatar-y things and resolve disputes and get a share of “you’re not a bender why should we listen to you” and really understand more of what the world is like.  And we can see Korra trying and trying to puff out a bit of smoke or water and get nothing, over and over again, until she decides to pick up a sword like Zuko and learn something new.

And then maybe, after a lot of soul searching and thought, it hits.  Korra realizes she is aware of her situation.   She still feels responsible for everyone, including nonbenders who she recognizes has it tough, but she doesn’t feel responsible for uplifting or saving them, just for standing with them as an Avatar.   More than that, she accepts her situation (spirituality win!)  She is completely comfortable with being a bending-less Avatar.  Furthermore, she recognizes that to bemoan her lack of bending as a “bendingless Avatar” would only further marginalize nonbenders.

 Why not?  From the inception of the series the Avatar has been the great unifier because he/she supposedly represents a part of each of the four kinds of people in the world…always forgetting that there are also a group of people who can’t bend at all.  ”You’re our Avatar, too!”

Korra losing her bending provided the show with a unique question:  Why can’t there be a nonbender Avatar representing for once?  The answer seemed to be that a benderless Avatar is simply not the Avatar or a fully functional Avatar.  But for the show to espouse that also reinforces a clear bender-privileging hierarchy.