So, The Last Airbender is good. Korra is also good, in a lot of ways. Animation? Brilliant. Choreography? Yes. Anything beyond a surface deep reading of its representation as politics? Well…

Its so weird, how did they go from AtLA, to this show where every good guy is either a cop or a CEO or literal royalty and every single villain is some caricature of a leftist? In the last season, theres a king whos demonstrably dumb, vain, and in no way should be in charge but hes just still played as the good guy and anyone who doesn’t want him to be king is evil???

The Avatar, protector of the people, seeker of balance, coming in just to restore the status quo leaders every single time. Its the definition of liberal politics. Just made this thread to bitch, but lets all complain about how many times the heroes in these stories blindly return everything to how it was because “any change = bad”

  • BASED_BALL [none/use name]
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    15 years ago

    LOK is the most liberal show ever I mean apparently the main setting is a westernized industrial country with a cosmopolitan populace like apparently new york just sprung up from a state full of refugees and unconvicted war criminals/colonizers

    then they learn nationalism is alright actually and all the villians are people who dislike the status quo

  • Awoo [she/her]M
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    5 years ago

    The Avatar, protector of the people, seeker of balance, coming in just to restore the status quo leaders every single time. Its the definition of liberal politics.

    Why do you think it’s so popular with the American audience? This is the exact reason it has been so incredibly successful in the US while less so in other territories.

  • AllTheRightEngels [comrade/them]
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    15 years ago

    LoK also took a massive dump on the sense of adventure ATLA had, I was never a fan of 90% of the show taking place in the same modernized city

    • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]OP
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      05 years ago

      Yeah, I think the Avatar world is unfortunately tiny. The whole thing is 3 countries, because the Air nation just has a few temples. The whole consists of the population of New York.

      • AllTheRightEngels [comrade/them]
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        15 years ago

        It is tiny, but at least with ATLA they visit different villages/cultures and like learn from them and expand their worldview; LoK doesn’t bother with this. One of the things I love about ATLA is watching its characters expand their worldview, learning and growing from others, and adding new bending techniques into their own, etc

  • thelasthoxhaist [he/him]
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    15 years ago

    another thing is that LoK has to make its villians do 100% evil things so people know they are evil, The equalists have to be bending racists and nothing else, Unalaq its like an avatar fanfic villian when he becomes the dark avatar and he was always evil, Zaheer is the best and they have to make him a 14 year old edgy anarchist so people dont sympathize when he kills a literal tyrant, and finaly Kuvira has to be the avatar version of literal hitler so people dont like her and in the books they end up redeeming her!.

    i agree with this video and the other 3 in the series that goes in depth about Legend of Korra not knowing what political ideologies are

  • shitstorm [he/him]
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    5 years ago

    They lowkey ruined Toph. She literally had a speech where she said Amon and Zaheer took “equality and freedom too far” and that’s why they were bad. Also she went from blind bandit “let’s break some rules” to queen of the cops.

    • PlantsRcoolToo [any]
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      15 years ago

      I think LoK is a great example of lib brain, and in that sense is a really interesting think to examine. For liberals you can take freedom and equality too far

    • CatherineTheSoSo [any]
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      5 years ago

      I mean, people grow up and sell out. Not everyone sticks to the ideas they held when they were ten.

    • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]OP
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      25 years ago

      Oh yeah, I was annoyed. Toph invents the police?? The blind bandit who hates the rules invented metal bending super cops???