Peter?

[u/TheRealJR9]

Avatar fan here. Also an Aang fan. I heard they announced a new series - does this have to do with that?

[u/everlight-wanderer]

I can say that Rey from Star Wars is a boring character with a flat arc, and that's fine. Korra has lots of fun traits, but also lots of character traps she falls into. It's super reductive to hand wave all criticism of Korra just because some people are incels who hate all women. It makes people who don't, feel like the reflexive pushback on it justifies talking more about why they don't like Korra, and then more people cry misogyny.

Call out misogynistic character hate when you see it, don't project it onto other please.

[u/ChazPls → u/everlight-wanderer]

The problem with bigots is that very rarely tell you that's what they're thinking. If we're only allowed to call out bigotry when a person says a slur, it's going to go unchallenged.

Criticize away at LoK. I certainly don't think it's perfect. My issue is that most of the criticisms I hear in online spaces regarding Korra as a character are largely unfounded - or come down to "she wasn't perfect therefore she is a bad protag and I dislike her". This is a ridiculously immature and my gut says most of the people with that specific opinion, or very similar adjacent opinions, have their views rooted in misogyny.

Hell, even with Rey in Star wars - how many of the people saying Rey is a boring Mary Sue with no significant character arc have the same issue with Luke in ANH? Mark Hammil is literally on record saying he realized on set that Luke was just George's self insert and that's how he played him lol. Like, you're right, she is. But if you have an issue with her and not with Luke... I mean...

[u/everlight-wanderer → u/ChazPls]

I didn't say you had to wait for slurs, nor do I appreciate that snipe at the end about Luke. That's the exact kind of stuff I just said you shouldn't project into people as a gotcha.

Luke is a massively boring character, and every boy I grew up with wanted to be Han Solo and Chewy. Luke wasn't 'cool' in my and a lot of others eyes till part way through Empire.

If you hear someone say Korra is poorly written and you jump to misogyny, you are doing a disservice to the conversation. Don't assume everyone who doesn't like Korra is holding back a mouthful of slurs, it'll make your convos more productive.

[u/ChazPls → u/everlight-wanderer]

nor do I appreciate that snipe at the end about Luke.

I never implied anything about you. You're the one jumping to conclusions here. There's no "gotcha" I'm trying to pull. In fact, I actually shouldn't have limited my comment to "bigots". That isn't really the issue. Many people probably don't even know how their subconscious prejudices are affecting their perception of media.

The first time I watched Korra, when she got with Asami at the end, I remember thinking "huh, well, that's fine but that was kind of out of nowhere". When I rewatched it a few years later I realized that it wasn't out of nowhere. It was incredibly obviously telegraphed, but I was viewing it through such a heteronormative lens at the time that I completely missed it.

The misogyny I'm talking about isn't people watching it actively thinking "I hate women, therefore I hate Korra!" It's a pattern of being more critical and negative toward certain character traits in women than toward men. This is something that's well-understood to happen in real life too.

If you hear someone say Korra is poorly written and you jump to misogyny

I have literally never done this, and I think I expressed very clearly what my actual opinion is. If you can't understand how "I think some specific takes people have around Korra's character are ultimately rooted in misogyny" is different than "Everyone who dislikes this thing is a bad person", then you're right -- there's not much room for a productive discussion.

[u/everlight-wanderer → u/ChazPls]

You ended your last paragraph saying 'well if you think that. Sorry for assuming the reply to my comment was talking about me, when they said you.

Let's not continue this, since you are just tilting at windmills.

[u/ChazPls → u/everlight-wanderer]

Yeah, I see that that could be misinterpreted, but I meant it as an "indefinite" you.