I knew almost nothing about this show going in, but I enjoyed The Last Airbender so I decided to check it out. I heard it had problems, but no one told me it was straight-up fascist propaganda.
What I'm about to rant about isn't me reading too much into it, because the points they're trying to make are about as subtle as a horse pissing, and this is a popular franchise that all ages watch and are influenced by.
Republic City is clearly supposed to be America.
The Equalists are clearly supposed to stand-in in for a leftist group fighting against oppression. Their posters are even designed like leftist posters.
The Equalists are disadvantaged minorities, similar to MLKs civil rights movement or the woman's suffrage movement. Except in this show, these people have harder lives because they are born without superpowers, and because of this they are jealous and bitter of those who do have superpowers and want to take everyone's powers away because of jealousy.
This is akin to saying minorities aren't really oppressed, they're just genetically inferior and not 'special'. Korra straight up tells an equalist that they want to be whiny and oppressed. Our Hero, everyone.
Can't wait for the episode where Korra tells someone who can't afford cancer treatment that they're just jealous of healthy people. Hell, considering how hamfisted the Equalists as an expy for leftists is, this is like saying that leftists are jealous of healthy people and want to make everyone sick.
This isn't subtle, the way this show misrepresents the left is straight out of the Nazi propaganda playbook.
Even if you can look past the pro-fascist morals, the show is just boring. Gone is the adventure and unique fantasy setting of The Last Airbender. The show now spends most of the time focusing on a boring love triangle and an uninteresting sport. It was actually this that made me stop watching because it was so slow-paced and the characters were so unrelatable/unlikable.
I mean, The Last Airbender could be lib as shit sometimes (the Ba Sing Se episode comes to mind) but it at least was a fun adventure about defeating a fascist empire. In The Last Airbender, the hero wins by taking away the superpowers of the leader of the evil empire. Making the pro-power, pro-empire morals that The Legend of Korra is trying to put forward seem even more hypocritical and hollow.
Another thing that sucks is that I've seen most criticisms of this show are hand-waved away as people just not liking it because Korra is a "strong female lead".
Neo-Liberals hiding fascism behind progressivism, name a more iconic duo.
Anyway, that was me shitting on a show about 10 years too late, but fuck it. I had no idea it was that bad.
Wait until you get to the fourth season, literal nazi power fantasy/apologia.
UwU the nazis just wanted to make the Earth Kingdom Great Again and helped a lot of people, they just got a bit power crazy derailed, but it's okay cuz we gonna redeem Earth Hitler later on UwU
Liberalism and nazism, one big heart.
Kuvira is obviously a KMT stand in. she's a progressive force, regardless of Radio Free Earth Kingdom has to say. Ultimate proof is that the resolve the series by balkanizing the Earth Kingdom into it's province republics so they can never again present unified resistance against military or financial imperialism.
Thesis: Kuvira is a nazi
Antithesis: Kuvira is fighting for national liberation
Synthesis: The writers are such scratched libs that these are both true.
Huh, yer right
Kuvira as Chiang makes sense. I believe it was mentioned she was even putting down warlords to reunite the fractured Earth Kingdom.
The comic book is worse.
I disagree. I think Kuvira is much more a analogous to "strong man" third world anti-imperialist leaders like Nasser or Gaddafi.
In the context of being a underdeveloped, overexploited country like the Earth Kingdom, "make it great again" is different than in highly developed imperialist country. Kuvira is a modernizing force violently restructuring feudal relations and changing a kingdom into a nation-state while also militarily repossessing Earth Kingdom lands from colonizers and imperialists.
If the Fire Nation were talking about "making the nation great again" that would be just fascism.
Honestly given that Kuvira were given nazi imagery such as the superweapons and having concentration camps (that were never shown even though theres a goddamn murder suicide scene) wouldnt suprise me if they think Gadaffi is literally Libyan hitler.
Even with her giant robot, I think that's treated kinda like the WMDs the west is in constant fear of third world countries developing.
That said, you're right. The folks who ran the show probably don't see a difference. They're likely the type of libs who unironically used terms like "islamo-fascist" to describe Assad or Saddam.
You are right, BUT I can't dismiss the robots' nazi helmets that simply
Sure, the lib writers could just be saying "liberation nationalists are as bad as nazis"; but one can also read "nazis were liberation nationalist smol beans but they got meanie greedy revengful derailed"
Again, I'm now completely convinced of what @TheLepidopterists said.
Plus I don't know shit about the KMT