It was the dead of winter, the North Pole dark and frozen, when the twins screamed their way into the world. Korra was the eldest, born a full twenty minutes before Noatak, though it made no difference except when she wanted to score a point against him. They looked alike and thought alike, and with three years between them and the brother they persistently considered the baby, a few minutes were nothing.
I am tempted to do one of these now…and yes yes yes to Mako being a good guy. I’m not terribly convinced *canon* supports non-benders being oppressed (as logical as it seems though would be), but god I love these.
A little sumptin’ sumptin’ for Korra. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten hooked on a show so fast and thoroughly!
Edit: 8x10” and 8x12” prints are available here.
11x17” and 12x18” posters are available here.
Reblogging for print and posters info.
ideas I didn’t end up writing but really wanted to:
(1) The revolution is successful, and Hiroshi and Amon move Asami and Tarrlok to a gilded cage luxurious private rooms. Tarrlok and Asami are initially hostile but are driven to band together against their infinitely more objectionable relations and split ends; Hiroshi is as shitty a father as might be expected, which unsurprisingly alienates Noatak, who despite his many failings as a brother retains intense if twisted affection and absolutely zero inclination towards resolving Tarrlok’s recalcitrance with fratricide.
(2) Korra stays on the task force, is torn between “accomplishing things and beating people up” and “personal loyalty and ethics” as personified in Tarrlok and Tenzin.
(3) Unalaq and his family die when Korra is very young, before she’s revealed as the Avatar. Tonraq becomes Chief of the Northern Water Tribe and Korra, princess and his heir.
(4) Koirë is a very young Elf of the House of Finwë, largely unaware of the rising tensions between the Númenóreans and the Elves. She sneaks off Tol Eressëa and sails to Númenor to find her fortune with her distant cousins, the Elf-friendly lords of Andúnië. Amandil accepts her into his household against his own better judgment (passing her off, in the dangerous atmosphere of the time, as an orphaned cousin), and before long, she’s up to her ears in the Byzantine politics of Tar-Míriel’s Númenor.
(5) more of the burning, where Tarrlok doesn’t bloodbend Korra, she burns him, and immediately horrified, runs to tell Tenzin what she’s done. As Tarrlok recovers, there’s an uneasy detente between Tarrlok/Saikhan and Korra/Tenzin in the interests of fighting Equalists, the Equalists are using the attack to rally support (if he’s not safe WHO IS), and Amon himself is barely containing his rage.
(6) Korra is one of the bloodbending kids - the oldest, at twenty minutes Noatak’s senior. For whatever reason, she doesn’t manifest her other elements until the usual age, and is simply a waterbending prodigy like her twin, pulled out of healing lessons to be trained as a bloodbender with him. Her power and will easily make her the second-favourite. THIS CAN ONLY END WELL.
ok a year later and i’m still mad so here’s a post
why couldn’t Tenzin have been a woman why couldn’t Noatak have been a woman why couldn’t Tarrlok have been a woman why couldn’t Tahno have been a woman why is the OWL full of men what if Asami’s father had died instead why did they stuff the narrative full of men who seek to control or intrude on Korra’s life and her space and abuse and harass her why why why why!!
in other news, the gender dynamics in lok are my actual least favorite part of the entire narrative by a long stretch.
the only dude who gets a pass here is Mako because he plays a traditionally female role as a passive love interest being actively pursued, down to his design and fanservice moments, and I appreciate the reversal going on here (and i guess Bolin too, but that’s…. because he does nothing)
EDIT: AND KORRA AND ASAMI ARE BARELY FRIENDS AND IT WAS JUST SO FRUSTRATING
There is literally no male character in the entire show who couldn’t have worked perfectly well as a woman. Contrary to some of the other comments (side-eyeing them tbh) it’s not that EVERY other significant figure in Korra’s narrative needed to also be a woman, though it would have been perfectly okay if they were - but hello, some of them? At all? It’s hard to escape the feeling that “well the protagonist’s a woman good enough” was in play.
It’s like, yes on Korra and Asami. Lin just drops out of the plot, more than once. And it’s not even … I kind of expect Korra to be challenged at every turn by variably antagonistic other characters, from minor inconveniences to the archvillain. But I don’t like that they’re all men.
There’s not a one of them that I don’t find more compelling as a woman, and the bloodbending arc is especially - I mean, it’s my favourite part? But it’s ridiculously male dominated. It ties Amon to Tarrlok and resolves their individual arcs together (and starts them together), it explains the mystery of Amon’s powers, it links them to both Aang (through Yakone) and Tenzin (through Tarrlok), blatantly parallels Korra, and resolves the main conflict. And if you look at that - apart from Korra herself, it’s nothing but men, Noatak, Tarrlok, Yakone, Aang, Tenzin.
Her main relationships outside that are with Mako and Bolin, and we get the barest scraps about her relationship with the women in her life. Asami she hardly speaks to. Her mother? Both her parents are collapsed into a sort of collectively nice supportive image that we don’t much see. Katara’s role in her life is barely hinted at. And while a lot of people were pleased that she was so peripheral, I kept wondering why. Elderly people in ATLA (mostly men, but not all) were engaged in the world around them and Katara has a ton of links to RC, and she’d be a welcome relief from the sea of testosterone that Korra’s swimming in. Kya scarcely earns a mention (it’s Tenzin’s brother - surprise! - who turns out to be the militarily significant figure). Why.
The Makorra(ish) version of a set of fics I wrote, because, idk, that’s really where it kept going. Not a lot of changes in this one, even.
A herd of teal deer: Korra’s Firebending, Part 3: On Equalist Ground (2)
I’m always wishing Tumblr would let me reblog more than one post at a time (or combine replies, or something…), so I can’t pass up this opportunity. ^_^
Oh! I don’t know if you know - I had no idea until pulpofiction explained it to me - but when you reblog, there should be a drop down in the upper right corner. If you switch it to text (from ‘link’ probably), stuff should work properly, including the read more. Like so:
Don’t worry. I’ll be alright.
Jinlian:
#lok#korra#naga#here’s the thing#korra’s polar bear dog was literally her only friend for all her 17 years#and it’s an adorable bond like all avatar/spirit animal guides#but it just makes her relationships with mako/bolin/asami so much better#she can turn to *people*!!#people who will talk to her and hold her hand#she can snuggle with naga and receive comfort but it’s not the same#they can’t go out and joke and tease#korra doesn’t have an equal role of taking care of someone in return#but in republic city she gets frIENDS AND I JUST#KORRAAA
 |
