i read RCB almost two years ago and it's still one of my favorite fanfics. i know this is sort of an open ended question, but can you explain your interpretation of the ending to me. not exactly what happened, but the meaning behind it. thanks.
I love this question. That it exists, first of all–so, thanks–but also your use of interpretation rather than, I dunno, something more emphatic. There are the famous Tolkien/Lewis arguments about applicability vs allegory, whether the reader takes things from fiction or the author puts things there. Of course it’s both, to varying degrees; but in any case I like that you’re asking what I got from it, rather than what I put in. (I’m definitely gonna say what I was trying to do also, however.)
Many people assumed a nasty ending was coming, because I tagged it Noir AU and applied many of the relevant tropes. The thing is, noir and its adjacent genres quite often ended with the guy and girl quite literally riding or driving into the sunset, not having fixed the wicked city but escaping it. Very nearly, Korra and Asami could have done that. There would have been consequences, though, because “violence begets violence” was a whole… thing. They had killed too much and had too much usefulness to powerful people to just leave.
“Ah, but couldn’t they just kill Lin, maybe a few other people, and leave?” Probably they could do that, but again, consequences. You can’t kill your way out of killing. It wasn’t intended to be a pacifist story, or suggest that that ought to be their future, however. Sometimes they had to commit violence–or at least, their choosing of it might be justified on some level–which inevitably led to more. It’s not fair, but it is very, very noir–and I hoped, almost mythic–that there is an almost malevolent angle to the city, the world; it demands things of you and then punishes you for them; you can’t escape violence with violence, but can you escape the fates at all, using any means?
Yet, they were not wholly defeated, as they had one another, and the promise of love. Perhaps it would have to bloom in shadows, but sturdy things often do. Maybe the best end for them is going down together, or maybe they can work together to find a real, genuine way out, but it’s that connection that is meant to stand against the omnipresence of killing, for all the Battle Couple aspects they may have.
So, what’s gonna happen? I’m a firm believer that only things you actually write get to be canon, so I don’t get to hand-wave a sequel into being and say see, here’s how it goes. The main plot threads I meant to leave, though, were: 1) Korra and her killing/bloodbending, as Lin/Noatak try to forge a weapon of her; 2) Asami and her identity, losing herself again and yet, still a tool; 3) Kuvira is alive, ambitious, and Very Mad, though thousands of miles away; 4) And yet, love.
Some people looked at this, and said yeah, they’re fucked. Others saw an easy escape. Most were in between. It will be hard, messy, and maybe, ultimately, ineffectual, but they will have eachother. It’s all valid, though.
All of that said, the shortest interpretation I have might go like this: Life is hard, pain and violence are a circle, and sometimes there are no good choices. Love can’t fix all that, but it can make it more bearable, and if you’re afloat long enough, no sea is endless, maybe you’ll find a shore.