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.
Politics of the show fucking blows, but imo, the worst thing the show does is Korra.
Korra has a problem in that the show sells her as a competent badass with a small oversight in her abilities in being unable to airbend, and achieve the actual avatar state. But throughout the first book she's constantly losing every fight, unable to bring her mix of bending abilities to bear in an interesting way and achieve victory. All she has to do at any time is win one fight, or merely have the enemy escape from her. But for the sake of plot and being a fighting show, the writing becomes contrived so she must fight and have a scene where she loses.
Contrast this with atla, where Aang's significant ability to airbend leaves him a capable and experienced fighter, but airbending is a pacifistic art that relies on pushing your opponent back. And in atla Aang isnt concerned with stopping some big bad immediately, all he really ever needs to do is live to fight another day. Aang primarily relies on his airbending for this reason, even when he has the other bending abilities he doesnt need to incapicate anyone by dropping rocks on their head or fireball anyone.
Korra never gets past this key writing problem. Around halfway of book 2 you will realize Korra never wins a fight that isnt relevant to the plot (season finales) or where shes heaped out of it by whatever bullshit of the season. Even after mastering all the elements, she still never activates the avatar state and wins fights. I also really hated the death of the avatar spirit in book 2, it felt like a huge fuck you and loss of the remembered cultures of the world since man conquered the elements. Korra just really sucks ass. She isnt the avatar, she has none of the spiritual connection and neither the ability or competence to protect it even after being trained as a child to do the job.
terrible show, the fights suck, 2/10
I 100% agree with you on this part. Especially with the newer novels. The spiritual aspect of the avatar as a reincarnated being that has spent hundreds if not thousands of lifetimes solving spirit and human problems is highlighted and become so important for many of the plot points of the book. In Yangchen's novel she is basically going partly mad from her powerful spiritual connection where the gets triggered flashbacks to other lives at the weirdest times, but she also bears the brunt of those joys and traumas. One moment she could be walking down the street and the smell of street food trigger a deeply recessed avatar memory, and the next moment she could be witnessing her own death over and over again. It's so fucking good and they fucked that up with Korra.