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Hello this is Abby, also known as byebyezombie on Youtube and hellozombie on my other sites. This Tumblr contains snippets from my life and other magical shenanigans, as well as reblogs and more reblogs.Interests
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Attractive villain is attractive.
Okay I’m done now holy jesus.
omfg I love you for this
this would have been me if i weren’t so busy crying
/LAUGHS AND DIES AND THEN CRIESDGHFIAS
Oh yeah, that was totally me. Liek y u so sexy tho, Amon?
Immediately after my previous entry, I marathoned episodes 6-10 of The Legend of Korra. Was I utterly and completely foolish in prematurely accepting the viewpoints of the Mako bashers? My verdict is absolutely not.
But before I dive into the ongoing failure that is Mako, I will confess that I was too harsh on the show in general. Episode 5 really made me forget just how fantastic this series is outside of his drama. Episode 6 was truly awe-inspiring from start to finish, and the rest were also superb (aside from you-know-who). Tenzin is amazing. Lin is amazing. I wept for her. I wept for Tahno. Tarrlok’s metamorphosis into a vicious antagonist was superbly done. The art, choreography and music are as amazing as ever. This production is one for the ages. They’ve gotten so many things right. So, so many things.
Yet the romantic storyline — the one element that gets so much disproportionate weight from the fandom and seemingly from the writers — has gone horrendously wrong.
Bolin, alas, isn’t as amazing as he should be. I don’t blame him, really. I blame the botched development and whitewashing. There is nothing that can be done for his character, at least not this season. Maybe they’ll give him his due in the next season. Or maybe they’ll just make him even stupider and more susceptible to getting manipulated. For now, I can’t consider him my favorite character anymore, not when Tenzin and Lin are tearing it up so much. Yet even at his most one-dimensional, he’s still a much more interesting character and better person than his big brother.
Asami is who I’m worried for right now. There is a loose parallel between father and daughter here. They’ve both been hurt by firebenders. Hiroshi Sato’s love of his life was murdered by a firebender, and he subsequently collapsed into bigotry. Asami’s love of her life is (or was) a firebender, and she — according to Korra at the end of Episode 7 — supposedly needed his emotional support to overcome the grief of her father’s betrayal. She doesn’t receive that at all. At this point, the correct resolution would be Asami learning that she doesn’t need a boyfriend, much less an unloyal douche, to overcome grief. Even in her heartbreak, she would defy the temptation of bigotry and instead become the beacon for the benderless.
In my opinion, Asami becoming a villain would be profoundly damaging and insulting. As much as I resent Mako and think she has EVERY RIGHT IN THE WORLD to be angry and pissy, I really don’t believe it justifies a backstabbing. He is only one person, and a glorified blank slate at that (which I’ll get to shortly). Everyone else on Korra’s team has proven more than worthy of her loyalty. Anyone as intelligent as she’s been established should understand that, even with a broken heart. Mako should not be given so much fucking weight.
Yet giving Mako all the weight in the world seems to be the writers’ agenda. That’s how Bolin was sabotaged and I fear the same for Asami. The impending arrival of General Iroh gives me faint hope that she at least won’t become evil, if only because he seems like the logical rebound for her (and he already displays more class and integrity in one scene than Mako in 10 episodes). Which leaves the door open for Makorra.
Which leads me straight to the man of the hour.
If you strip away all of his love triangle bullshit, then what’s left of the character Mako? What identity does he have outside of his romances? He’s a good-looking young man who is good at pro-bending, but what drives him?
Mako is a public figure. In the show’s universe, he must have admirers. He has fans. Particularly fangirls. They could’ve had a few scenes of fangirls (and other admirers) congregating as they express concern and support for their pro-bending champion as he joins the fight against the Equalists. They could’ve had Amon or Tarrlok threatening those fans to catch Mako off-guard and derail whatever strategic advantage Team Korra was trying to achieve. We could’ve seen both his compassion and his rashness come into light.
Mako had a teammate who bailed on him before Korra came along. They could’ve brought back this teammate, who could’ve felt very bad about leaving his team after witnessing their bravery against Amon. He could’ve even sacrificed himself for the greater good. We could’ve seen how Mako inspires others. We could’ve seen how much he cares through his subsequent grief and guilt. This could’ve been a defining moment for Mako.
Mako was a gang member. He could’ve had lingering sympathies or ties to this unsavory facet of his past. We could’ve seen how this might’ve affected this pro-bending career and public image. Or maybe we could’ve seen him desperately calling up his former gang acquaintances for assistance against the Equalists. This of course would’ve backfired, as the gangs would simply use Team Korra for their self-serving agenda. It could’ve been a learning experience for Mako, as he resolves to make better decisions in the future and not succumb to vices or false solutions.
These are just a few of many ways they could’ve given depth to Mako’s character. An actual sense of purpose and proportion within the story. Legitimate growth. Reasons to like him and support him. A flawed, textured, admirable person worthy of Korra’s attention.
Instead, what do we get from Mako?
A vacuum of douchebaggery.
A vacuum of entitlement.
A vacuum of manipulation.
A vacuum of unfaithfulness.
A vacuum of hurt feelings.
A vacuum of character derailment.
Vrrm vrrm, Bolin.
Vrrm vrrm, Asami.
No matter what you personally think of Mako, or Makorra… can you honestly tell me that Mako is a well-developed character? On the same plateau as characters like Tenzin and Lin? As Korra, sans Episode 5? As Asami, sans her impending character assassination?
Vrrm.
You can like him as much or much more than any other character, and that’s a completely valid subjective response. But can you actually claim that Mako’s character holds up from an objective perspective?
Vrrm vrrm.
Is there anything about Mako that makes him a worthy man for Korra? Why should Korra want him? Why should I want her to want him? Why should I want him to be a part of this story at all?
Vrrm vrrm vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm.
Mako the vacuum, ladies and gentlemen.
Some say his character was modeled as the show’s equivalent of Zuko and that his entire relationship with Korra is the writers’ penance to shippers that wanted Katara and Zuko together. I’ve personally never watched most of A:TLA, yet I understand that Zuko is a rounded character with multiple motivations for his antagonistic role and a fully-realized redemption arc. Zuko is not a vacuum.
One Tumblr entry tried to justify Mako’s behavior by likening it to Sokka’s various love interests. Wow. There is literally nothing to compare here. Sokka has a relationship with one girl before circumstances forced them to separate, then has a relationship with another girl who ultimately dies, then reunites with the first girl who helps him bear his grief over the second girl. Somewhere in between, he has a fleeting infatuation with a third girl’s looks. That’s not love at all, yet the entry felt compelled to give it as much weight as his actual relationships. Which occurred at separate intervals of time. Sokka did not cheat or manipulate anyone. Sokka is not a vacuum.
I’m personally disgusted whenever I read arguments like “Mako is just like Zuko/Sokka” or hypocritical sexist bleating against Asami, but in all honesty, these people are a shameful minority on their end, just like the people sending hate mail to David Faustino (seriously WTF is wrong with you?) are a shameful minority on our end. The majority of Mako/Makorra supporters are just viewing and appreciating everything at face value. That’s 100% fine. I just want them to respect and understand why we feel like we do right now.
I should be heading into The Legend of Korra’s season finale with extreme fanboy giddiness. Thanks to Mako, I am dreading it. I have already resigned to the fact that Mako won’t receive his correct resolution (e.g. swift commeupance) this Saturday. I’m just hoping the cumulative damage will be as mitigated as humanly possible.
I’ll probably make one final post discussing my feelings about the season finale and how it affects my overall opinion of the series. Or maybe not. I’d honestly rather forget aboutLegend of Korra at this point. This entire ordeal has drained me far more than I ever wanted or expected. I thought my fandom activities this weekend would revolve around fretting overBrave’s less-than-stellar reviews and whether or not it’ll live up to my expectations. Thanks to this, I’ve barely spared a thought for poor Merida. I’ll probably see it on Saturday night, with the aftermath of Korra’s finale still fresh in my mind. Hopefully it won’t distract me too much from absorbing Pixar’s latest.
Before I wrap this up, I want to address DiMartino and Konietzko aka ‘Bryke’. I harbor absolutely no personal animosity towards either of them. They are a superlatively talented duo who have given us a modern mythology so richly detailed and so capable of evoking such raw passion from all sides. This is their creation and their right to do as they please within 22-minute runtimes and S&P. I will absolutely NOT condone any activism or campaigning intended to force Bryke into altering their creative vision. I wish and hope the anti-Mako camp never degenerates into such selfish entitlement.
All that said, I would be lying if I said this entire situation won’t affect my trust or interest in the remainder of Korra or any future projects they take upon. Because for all of their talent and vision and imagination, they have somehow created a monster out of Mako. They never wanted to create that monster. They just wanted to create a character named Mako that would be entertaining and compelling to the viewer. But at the end of the day, that monster arose from good intentions. They should have foreseen this monster and neutered it before it was too late. Now that monster is out in the wild, and they’ll have to live with the consequences to the series and it’s legacy.
AUGH, THE PART THAT GETS ME THOUGH?
Korra got EVERYTHING handed to her in this final episode.
She suddenly discovers she can airbend after having her bending taken away. She couldn’t fight Amon without it? And even then, she discovered it over MAKO? NOT, IDK, HER MENTOR AND THREE SMALL KIDS BEING HELD PRACTICALLY AT GUNPOINT?
No, she just got it to further the plot.
And she gets her bending taken away. I never thought they’d go that far. But when they did, I got excited. This meant she could learn what it REALLY meant to be a non-bender, to see that maybe the Equalists had a point, and to try and learn them again so she could get better and mature.
NAH, SHE JUST GETS FREEBIE AVATAR STATE.
It’s not like it took four seasons and multiple statements of “THE AVATAR STATE IS THE LAST RESORT TO LIFE THREATENING SITUATIONS” for Aang to get it.
But she gets it when she’s crying AFTER the life threatening situation, when Katara said like FIVE MINUTES AGO that she’s cut off from her bending? Wouldn’t that mean she’s cut off from the spiritual world and thus Aang?
Nah, Korra can’t earn anything, it has to be given to her. She hasn’t learned or changed at all since the start, it’s just been one season of Korra repeatedly getting her ass kicked and someone else making it better.
Damn, y’all, I think I’m done.
THESE ARE MY FEELINGS. Like seriously SHE DIDN’T WORK FOR ANY OF THAT. How long was she supposedly trying to airbend? How many times have Korra herself, or Lin or Tenzinand his entire familybeen in danger and she couldn’t do jack shit, but the second it’s Mako, she magically can?
And you know what, I could have dealt with it if it stopped there, because they’ve always been painting Makorra as this epic endgame thing and it’s expected. But then at the end, to have Aang show up and spout some bullshit line and then hand her the Avatar state like it’s nothing so she can magically fixeverything? It’s just bad writing, plain and simple. I get that they weren’t sure they were getting S2 but if the pacing of this entire series is so incredibly off that apparentlythatwas the only way they could figure out how to end it, you got problems.
Seriously handing everything to her at the end completely invalidates everything she struggled for for the entire rest of the series, imo. She didn’t earn that, she didn’t work for it, and I seriously just…cannot with this show anymore.
Verdict: Problematic as fuck in many, many ways.
Korra feels like she is nothing without her bending. She can’t accept Mako’s (half-assed as it is) love because she defines herself totally by her bending. Without it, by her standards, she’s not worthy of love.
And instead of addressing this and showing Korra that she is in fact a full person even without her bending, they totally play into it and reinforce her feelings of inferiority! She is only able to accept Mako’s declaration of love when she feels she is worthy, which can only happen when they’ve given her back her bending.
Yes, Korra wasgivenher bending back. She was totally robbed of the chance to make herself stronger and to actually make a connection with the spiritual realm. We didn’t see her attempting to make that connection. And writers? It’s not being at your lowest point that makes you stronger. It’s climbing your way out of your lowest point. It’s healing that makes you stronger.
Korra was interruptedin the middle of crying, in the middle of working things out, in the middle of beginning toheal herself.
Being broken doesn’t automatically make you stronger. Overcoming. Loving yourself. Radical self-love. Learning that you can lean on family/friends. The process of surviving. The process of healing. Korra was totally robbed of the chance to heal. She didn’t get a chance to work out her issues regarding her self-worth.
Korra literally feels as though she is not the Avatar without the ability to bend, and just giving her her bending back without addressing those issues is reinforcing that complex.
This is important. The loss of her bending also showed us a ton of emotional complexes and trauma that Korra has surrounding her bending. And Korra also needs to heal and learn from *that*. She never got the chance to come to terms with herself, and to learnwho she isoutside of being a powerful bender.
She was literally taken by surprise by the fact that she was able to get in touch with Aang, because she wasn’t attempting to. She didn’t try to get into the Avatar State, she didn’t struggle with her inner demons (which are totally real and totally exist!). She was just given her bending back, which sure, solves the problem of not being able to bend, but does notat allheal the emotional complexes that Korra has regarding herself and her bending.
On a less serious note, I also have pretty serious problems with Makorra. Mako needed to break it off with Asami a long time ago. Like, an episode and a half ago. Not breaking it off with Asami? Telling her you still care without being totally honest about how you feel about Korra? Dick move.
Also, I have seen no evidence, no evidence at all that Mako and Korra are in love with each other outside of these grandiose declarations they’ve made that almost seem to come out of the fucking blue.
Think back to ATLA. The relationship between Katara and Aang was beautifully developed, even though we practically knew they’d be endgame from the beginning of Episode 1.
Here? We’re basically told that Mako and Korra love each other, although I’m pretty sure we have never actually just seen them enjoying spending time with each other. Korra and Bolin have more of a solid basis for a relationship, being that they play and laugh and seem to actually enjoy each others company. Hell, Korra and Asamihave more of a solid basis for a relationship.
And this isn’t even touching on how I feel about the Equalists. The Equalists have a totally legitimate complaint. Very small example: the Council contains no non-benders. Non-benders have no political representation, although I’m pretty sure that a very large proportion (possibly even the majority) of people in the Avatar universe are nonbenders. (I mean, there are 4 airbenders. Four.)
But that’s another post. This is just my ranty feels about LoK finale, and how I feel it failed in a very few key, crucial ways.
Spontaneous closet/trial cosplay for the night. I love this fool.
If only I was super tall. T_T I’ll stick to my Korra for now. XD
I loved this and I wanna see more of him fighting! Tenzin is TOO BOSS.