#lok analysis

[scarlett-fire-cat]

The Avatar State of Fucking Around and Finding Out: Why Korra Will Always Read Her Villains For Filth 🌊🔥🌪️⚡

Can we pleeease stop acting like Korra is just a muscle-bound powerhouse and start talking about how she is a masterclass in emotional survival? Because let’s be real for a hot second: the sheer amount of absolute audacity, entitlement, and predatory garbage she had to deal with throughout The Legend of Korra would have broken anyone else. But our girl? She doesn’t just fight back with her fists—she will unapologetically dismantle your entire fragile ego and read you for absolute filth.

Here is a comprehensive lesson and a very necessary warning to the rogues' gallery of absolute clowns who thought they could play with the Avatar and get away with it:

Councilman Tarrlok (The Predatory Narcissist): Let’s call it what it is. His behavior was creepy, entitled, and a total violation of bodily autonomy. He tried to corner her, use his political power to manipulate a teenager, and when that didn't work, he literally bloodbent her and locked her in a metal box. He thought he could strip away her agency, but Korra saw right through his manipulative, cruel facade.

Amon (The Creepy Masked Man): The literal embodiment of psychological terror. He targeted her core identity and her body, trying to make her feel powerless. But you can't mask a fragile ego forever, babe, and Korra unmasked him in front of the whole world.

Zaheer (The Philosophical Dumbass): This man read one stanza of poetry by Guru Laghima and decided that gave him the right to pump mercury into a 18-year-old girl’s veins. He hid behind high-level philosophy, but at the end of the day? He was just a violent, hyper-fixated hypocrite who got dragged back down to earth by the very girl he tried to break.

Unalaq (The Psycho Loser Uncle): Imagine being so deeply pathetic that you rip your own niece’s soul out of her chest and destroy her ancestral heritage just to become a giant, glowing dark spirit. The ultimate toxic family member who weaponized spirituality because he couldn't handle his own insignificance.

Tahno and Prince Wu (The Unwanted, Objectifying Suitors): I am looking directly at these two pathetic poopheads. Tahno thought a hair-flip and some pro-bending arrogance gave him a pass to invade her personal space, and Prince Wu spent an entire season treating her like a shiny, accessory bodyguard instead of a human being with a soul. They mistook her beauty and youth for an invitation, and they both got humbled real quick.

Kuvira (The High School Bully Dictator): "The Great Uniter"? More like the Great Insecure Bully. Kuvira literally kicked Korra while she was down, leveraging Korra's severe PTSD to feed her own fascistic empire-building ego.

Bataar Jr. (The Loser Bitch Sycophant): The ultimate simp for fascism. Imagine betraying your entire loving family just to play second-fiddle to a dictator who literally fired a spirit-cannon at your forehead. Absolute clown behavior.

The Bottom Line: In general, Korra is actually incredibly caring, sweet, dorky, funny, and deeply empathetic. She is a hidden romantic at heart (shoutout to her past with Mako, but her present and future with Asami is the ultimate endgame 🏳️‍🌈), and she loves her friends and family with every fiber of her being.

But if you dare to threaten the people she loves? If you try to take advantage of her because of her beauty, her body, her agency, her gender, her power, or her youth?

Not only will she physically kick your sorry ass into next week, but she will also use her sharp tongue to verbally incinerate everything horrible and disgusting about you. She doesn’t do patriarchal catfights, and she doesn't do cheap drama. She chooses solidarity, she chooses growth, and if you step to her sideways, she will read you for filth.

Don't fuck with the Avatar Korra. 💅💥

[sanrielle]

Beifong headcanon:

Suyin knew that Toph had retired to the swamp (and possibly even visited her from time to time) but promised not to tell anyone her location. However, she told Lin once they reconciled. Opal also knew she was alive, but not exactly where. My reasoning for this is the mild reaction Lin and Opal had to Toph randomly showing up, as well as Lin's line, "You know, after Su and I patched things up, I thought, 'Maybe I should reach out to Mom'." Why would she say that if she didn't a) know she was alive and b) had some idea of where to find her? I like this explanation much better than what some people assume, which is that Toph abandoned everyone and made them think she was dead. I don't really understand why people want to think the worst of her. She had flaws but still had a big heart. I think she just got to a point where seismic sense made it too hard for her to live around other people.

[lokfeedsthegays]

Hi just a reminder, Mako’s character development was NOT a “redemption arc”. He was never bad to begin with.

I see a LOT of people mischaracterizing Mako as being the main instigator for a lot of the problems regarding that whole stupid love triangle or people calling him a “player” or whatever.

Did he make the best decisions in that situation? No, of course not, but really none of them did. I’m tired of people leaping to defend Korra and Asami for that whole thing while targeting Mako negatively.

This isn’t to say I don’t like Korra and Asami, I love them and I want to marry them. But none of the characters were great in that, and not to mention that scenario is only a part of Mako’s character. Korra and Asami were his first friendships/relationships in life. The only real other interaction he got from someone around his age was his brother.

So OF COURSE he’s not going to be perfect in that. And the same stands for Korra and Asami! Now, I’m not excusing what they did. Both kissing Mako without his consent was not okay, and the scene where Korra physically harasses Mako at his workplace will never sit right with me, and Mako should have been more honest, open and communicative with both the girls.

But let’s not chalk Mako up to all that. Let’s not let bias get in the way of seeing what’s truly great about his character. If you take less interest in the love triangle like me, and look past that mess, you can see Mako really is a good and likeable character, even in Season 1. He’s loyal (yes, he’s LOYAL. Argue with me about it if you want, but that’s just the definitive answer of what he is), he’s caring, passionate, driven, and most of all he loves his friends and family a LOT.

He is so much more than what a lot of the fans make him out to be. So please, whether you love Mako like me or dislike him, I implore you to contemplate on the true substance of his character and reflect on why you or other people are hating on an awkward teenager for being bad at relationships, when he’s done so much more good for himself and others.

Rant over, please appreciate Mako <3

Bye

[sugarqueen-katara]

I was rewatching atla/tlok in a random order and realised that Book 3 episode 1 of atla (The Awakening) and Book 4 episode 7 of tlok (Reunion) are really similar

1. The avatar returns 

Aang wakes up after weeks being in a coma

Korra returns after being gone for 3 years

2- Both avatars feel like they have failed

The classic "I need my honour back"

“I feel like such a failure” after being defeated by Kuvira

3- Finally (my favourite) the I like your hair kataang/korrasami scene

partial credit/inspiration @asamisato-korrasimp​ 

[avatar-state-kate]

Okay so I know the standard take is that Mako is Zuko 2.0, and I guess this is a thought that you might have watching the second episode (angsty firebender I get it) that just gets stuck even when it stops making sense.

Now I don’t think LOK set out to have direct one to one replacements of the original Gaang and this is the wrong way to watch the show (and why some people hate it and Korra so much; she’s not Aang 2), but if we’re playing the comparison game Mako is most similar to Katara in the original Gaang, not Zuko.

Mako’s similarities with Zuko include

Firebenders

Angsty/ can be hot headed

That’s really it- Zuko’s arc, his motivations, has nothing to do with Mako’s own arc and motivation.

Mako’s similarities with Katara

Lost a parent(s) at the age of 8, and witnessed the death/saw the body

Keeps a memento of said parent(s) with them at all times. It is their signature, a prominent element of their character design and how we are meant to define the character

Both Katara and Mako use this trauma as their means of relating to others- we know the Katara bringing up her mother joke but this is how she relates to others losses in the show; it’s her saying she understands/can relate. In season 1 Mako telling Asami and Korra about his scarf is similarly used as a means for Mako to connect emotionally (in contrast Zuko tells no one about his scar, Iroh tells us)

As a result of the loss of a parent(s) had to step up and take on a caregiver role; Katara in Sokka’s own words stepped up and became somewhat of a mother figure. For Mako this is a much more dramatic shift as there was no Hakoda or Gran Gran, he is Bolins sole provider and care giver. This imo is the source of most of Katara and Mako’s differences, with Katara being much more emotionally open and trusting of others where Mako is closed off and distrustful of people he doesn’t know.

Even though they take the caregiver role seriously, and naturally fall in to it when in a group, they both also somewhat resent having to fill it at all. For Katara this is the plot of “The Runaway”, as she decides to let go and pull off a heist with Toph (unfortunately their arrest proves she needs to be the responsible one or else). For Mako this plays out in season one as he assures Bolin he’ll find a way to get the money for the probending pot “I always do”. Mako’s tone is resentful, he doesn’t like that he always has to be the one to take care of everything, but like with Katara in “the runaway” when Bolin try’s to help he is kidnapped by equalist and would have lost his bending if Mako and Korra didn’t go to save him. Mako’s shirking of responsibility mostly comes from his dating (which makes me look at the love triangle a little kinder, it’s the only time he ever did anything for fun/for him). If I find the meta I will link it here, but essentially it looked at how Mako’s preference for Korra was related to control and how she took it away- losing control/being out of control sounds negative but it is an escape from being a caregiver. Mako (and Katara) always had to have/be in control, and as a result he doesn’t know how to give it up, initially both his relationships with Korra and Asami start with them in control; Asami hits mako with her bike and talks him into a date where she has taken care of everything, and Korra kisses him first, in both scenarios he doesn’t have to be in charge for once

both have a bit of a temper- but unlike Zuko neither is ruled by their anger. Yes Mako gets angry in tense situations (Korra and Wu going missing), but unlike Zuko this isn’t the source of his bending/his drive. Katara is also known for having a temper (I’m completely calm!) but again she is not ruled by it.

Katara and Mako are driven by their desire to help others. With Katara this is very obvious (“I will never turn my back on people who need me”) but for Mako, as he enters the series with a very small circle of people he cares for (I.e. Bolin) this is not as readily apparent. However starting in season 1 Mako’s motivations for everything is connected to his desire to care for Bolin. While it is not a trope that has aged well, making Mako a cop is a cliche to show that he cares for others and is willing to sacrifice himself to that end (again, not that it is true to life, but in 2012 that’s the message Mako and Lin being cops would send according to tv language). Mako proves this to be true in the shows final when he risks his life to takeout the mecha/spirit vine core

They have similar arcs; both have a personal journey of learning to care for themselves, and that learning to care for yourself makes you better able to care for others. With Katara we see this through the development of her water bending, a skill that is ultimately for her but allows her to protect her friends and literally save Aang and Zukos lives through healing. For Mako it’s a subtler arc of learning to tend to his own emotions, and by doing that he can better meet the emotional needs of others (his inability to do so is the main culprit on his end for the love triangle- but all parties played a role). We can see this in comparing any of the fights Mako had with Korra in season 2 with Mako’s outburst at Wu after his failed coronation in season 4, where Mako is able to recognize he went to far and immediately apologize/de-escalate with Wu, with Korra every fight escalated because he didn’t understand what answer she wanted (he answered what she was saying verbally and not reading her emotional needs/cues). Mako having taken time for himself between the love triangle and season 4 is actually able to be their for Wu in a way he didn’t know how to for Korra back in season 2 (his speech to her in the final is him achieving this with Korra too)

There are plenty of additional little tid bits they have in common, like both dating the avatar, being noted for having a somewhat dry/lame sense of humour, both being very particular (Katara with how tha camp is run and Mako with his log book), but all suffice to say that no, Mako is not the new Zuko.

[aroace-mako]

Yeah I also need more Mako fans!! Honestly he's my favorite character in LoK and sometimes the hate he gets feels?? Like?? Too much?? Anyway Team Happy Mako 😂

i think it’s safe to say at this point i’ve become captain of the mako stans and i love that for me

i would say like 99% of the hate he gets from the lok fandom is completely unwarranted (get ready for a rant on mako antis lmao):

1. the love triangle: his and bolin’s financial well-being depended on asami’s continued financial support and korra staying on the pro-bending team! i mean what was he supposed to do? plus, he later makes up for it by being an absolute sweetheart by sleeping under his desk so he wouldn’t make either of them uncomfortable🥺🥺🥺

2. hAvInG nO pErSoNaLiTy: first of all, this is “looks like you had car trouble” erasure. second of all, even if he’s not as expressive as the rest of the characters, that’s what a lifetime of childhood trauma will do to you

3. talking about his parents too much: people do this with katara too. i mean they both saw their parents die in front of their eyes! that’s gonna give you a lot of baggage

4. he’s a cop: this one is a lot more nuanced, but @avatar-state-kate has a really good post about it that i cannot for the life of me find. but if i remember correctly, it basically said that saying “i hate mako, acab!” is just a cop-out (im sorry for the accidental pun, i literally couldn’t think of a better word) to avoid actually analyzing copaganda media. plus the same people who say that also simp for lin beifong

anyways i’m sorry for the rant, welcome to the mako stan team:)

[e-e-e-s-the-avatar]

Korra captured and defeated zaheer, mr. "Let go your earthly tether," with a literal earthly tether and I just think that's real neat.

[l-egionaire]

Avatar's "Last Airbender" Issue

I've seen some people finding the idea of the plot line in The Legend of Korra season 3 where Harmonic Convergence gives random people bending as not that great. They don't think that it makes any since and feel it should've been done differently. I personally am okay with the plot line but I did have an opinion on the idea of finding another way to introduce more airbenders and its that there really wasn't another way to do that in canon and thats because the writers of the first Avatar wrote themselves into a hole.

What I mean by that is that since the very first episode of the original Avatar they stuck with the idea that Aang is the last Air Nomad. Now that was a bold move because in most media where someone is referred to as "the last of their kind" they usually aren't. Superman was supposedly the last of his kind and then a ton of Kryptonians showed up on Earth including his cousin, an alternate universe version of his cousin, his clone, and his dog. The only other media where a character is legitimately the last of their kind is Toothless in How To Train Your Dragon and even then he meets a dragon whose species is conveniently almost exactly like his.

But by making the fact that Aang is the last Airbender an unshakeable rule, they also limit themselves in the stories they can have. Want to have another character with Airbending? Can't. There aren't any. Want to explore Air Nomad culture? Can't because they're all dead and Aang can't do that. By making Aang the last of his kind they do add depth to his backstory but they also limit the kinds of characters they can have and the stories that can tell about airbenders and that progresses into the Legend of Korra. Any new Airbenders have to be Aangs descendants because hes the only ond who could pass down airbending. Korra even points out in the first episode that the reason she needs Tenzin around to teach her is that there aren't any other airbending teachers. Because they limit themselves by making Aang the last of his kind, they also limit what they can do. Harmonic convergence was the only way to get new airbender characters because they'd already set the rules that there can't be any other airbender characters besides Aangs bloodline. I've heard people give the idea that Aang could give people airbending like the lion turtle did but we never get any indication he can do that. Taking bending, yes, but not giving it. While it might not feel enough to some people, harmonic Convergence was the only method of bringing in new airbenders unless they retconned that there were survivors and Aang and the others somehow missed them despite no doubt searching for years. And I'm sure fans would've complained about that idea too.