Last I checked, deep lore discussions died down, especially from the novels. Interest in more elaborate/speculative discussion, or long fanfics, was gone. Takes on Korra got more and more sexist, far more than when LoK premiered. And, more and more, people worshipped ATLA like an evangelical Bible, like it could do no wrong, with this weird cultish mentality, hence a sea of unreasonable hate for NATLA (and Korra). And even Seven Havens, before it premiered.
People (or Reddit bots) would post straight up misinformation, or flame hints of ATLA critique, like considering it anything but the greatest show of all time was taboo. At one point, I kept running into fans discussed rewatching ATLA many dozens of times, or more, yet… clearly haven’t read the novels.
Okay, maybe I’m not coming across as sympathetic here. Fandom preferences are fine. As more of a lore buff for the whole franchise, I felt… excluded. Like I wasn’t even welcome anymore.
Some of the old, sexist takes on Katara and other women being “bitches” still flare up too, but from my perspective, that hasn’t changed over time.
Ahhh, ok. I can understand some criticism of Korra, especially if you tried watching it when it was new (Nick did them dirty and finished out with online episodes), and it was a rough watch in later seasons, since it was a realistic in depth look at PTSD, but man, fuck misogyny.
It’s not just the sexism though. And it’s not even just Korra, but that anything that isn’t ATLA isn’t okay.
A good example: peeking my head in looking for leaks, I saw tons of haters for Seven Havens before we have seen a single frame of the show. They were already skeptical just because the premise (a post apocalyptic future, an unconventional Avatar Cycle) is different. It reminds me of the cult around the original Star Wars trilogy.
…And personally, I adore LoK, which may have skewed me. If you ask me, it so dense that it gets better with a rewatch.
But I love pretty much all the Avatar media except a few of the comics. Hence it feels so weird to be alienated from the fandom.
I’ll throw some love in for LoK. It was a great drama, handling difficult subjects that a lot of late teens and young adults struggle with. Characters weren’t magically perfect, always making the right choice, or knowing the right words. But also, sometimes a character did everything right, and still ended up with a terrible result.
The original show had a little bit of that in it, but LoK took it to realism levels, and made it main plot points not just in episodes, but whole seasons.
I mean, I adore LoK. The animation and sound design are gorgeous, a huge step over ATLA. I’d argue that Korra and Zuko are the two best characters in the franchise, and it gave us some other fantastic ones, like Tenzin, and interesting (albeit tragically underdeveloped) villians. And it felt like Avatar. I could go on and on, but I basically view it as season 4-7 of ATLA.
The plot’s also so dense, with so much subtly implied, that it’s basically impossible to catch all the connective tissue in one viewing. Like (for instance) Aang’s mannerisms reflected in Korra, visual parallels, the reveal Unalaq was a co-conspirator with Zaheer, and the direct connection between Korra basically being imprisoned in her childhood, the Red Lotus, all the way to Kuvira’s rise.
…Also, the quality of the premiere streaming is like a potato. It’s a crime, compared to all the high-res hand painting of the HD releases.
It doesn’t mean I don’t love the other entries though, or that they didn’t do specific things incredibly well. Ozai pales in comparison to the Kyoshi novel villains, for instance. Zuko and Iroh stole the show in NATLA, getting developed in scenes we never saw in the animation. There’s tons of lore buried in the tabletop games, and the comics, even the whackier ones, nicely expand Avatar’s wild spirituality.
And it makes me said that so much of the fandom loves ATLA enough to rewatch it 20 times, yet harbors hate or apathy for the rest, like they’re stuck in a feedback loop.
Ugh.
Last I checked, deep lore discussions died down, especially from the novels. Interest in more elaborate/speculative discussion, or long fanfics, was gone. Takes on Korra got more and more sexist, far more than when LoK premiered. And, more and more, people worshipped ATLA like an evangelical Bible, like it could do no wrong, with this weird cultish mentality, hence a sea of unreasonable hate for NATLA (and Korra). And even Seven Havens, before it premiered.
People (or Reddit bots) would post straight up misinformation, or flame hints of ATLA critique, like considering it anything but the greatest show of all time was taboo. At one point, I kept running into fans discussed rewatching ATLA many dozens of times, or more, yet… clearly haven’t read the novels.
Okay, maybe I’m not coming across as sympathetic here. Fandom preferences are fine. As more of a lore buff for the whole franchise, I felt… excluded. Like I wasn’t even welcome anymore.
Some of the old, sexist takes on Katara and other women being “bitches” still flare up too, but from my perspective, that hasn’t changed over time.
Ahhh, ok. I can understand some criticism of Korra, especially if you tried watching it when it was new (Nick did them dirty and finished out with online episodes), and it was a rough watch in later seasons, since it was a realistic in depth look at PTSD, but man, fuck misogyny.
It’s not just the sexism though. And it’s not even just Korra, but that anything that isn’t ATLA isn’t okay.
A good example: peeking my head in looking for leaks, I saw tons of haters for Seven Havens before we have seen a single frame of the show. They were already skeptical just because the premise (a post apocalyptic future, an unconventional Avatar Cycle) is different. It reminds me of the cult around the original Star Wars trilogy.
…And personally, I adore LoK, which may have skewed me. If you ask me, it so dense that it gets better with a rewatch.
But I love pretty much all the Avatar media except a few of the comics. Hence it feels so weird to be alienated from the fandom.
I’ll throw some love in for LoK. It was a great drama, handling difficult subjects that a lot of late teens and young adults struggle with. Characters weren’t magically perfect, always making the right choice, or knowing the right words. But also, sometimes a character did everything right, and still ended up with a terrible result.
The original show had a little bit of that in it, but LoK took it to realism levels, and made it main plot points not just in episodes, but whole seasons.
I mean, I adore LoK. The animation and sound design are gorgeous, a huge step over ATLA. I’d argue that Korra and Zuko are the two best characters in the franchise, and it gave us some other fantastic ones, like Tenzin, and interesting (albeit tragically underdeveloped) villians. And it felt like Avatar. I could go on and on, but I basically view it as season 4-7 of ATLA.
The plot’s also so dense, with so much subtly implied, that it’s basically impossible to catch all the connective tissue in one viewing. Like (for instance) Aang’s mannerisms reflected in Korra, visual parallels, the reveal Unalaq was a co-conspirator with Zaheer, and the direct connection between Korra basically being imprisoned in her childhood, the Red Lotus, all the way to Kuvira’s rise.
…Also, the quality of the premiere streaming is like a potato. It’s a crime, compared to all the high-res hand painting of the HD releases.
It doesn’t mean I don’t love the other entries though, or that they didn’t do specific things incredibly well. Ozai pales in comparison to the Kyoshi novel villains, for instance. Zuko and Iroh stole the show in NATLA, getting developed in scenes we never saw in the animation. There’s tons of lore buried in the tabletop games, and the comics, even the whackier ones, nicely expand Avatar’s wild spirituality.
And it makes me said that so much of the fandom loves ATLA enough to rewatch it 20 times, yet harbors hate or apathy for the rest, like they’re stuck in a feedback loop.