Merf. Thinking is Hard.imsuggestingcoconutsmigrate replied to your post: So can we please quit with this fucking “LOL KORRA…
Korra… disrespects Tenzin because she’s a teenager… It’s one of the most believable parts about any of the characters (in the context that it’s a western-made show)…So… it’s realistic to behave like a little shit to your elders… in Western culture, therefore it’s something to celebrate and take further?
It’s somehow believable that someone who’s supposed to be training all her life martial arts which would eventually be a matter of life and death behaves poorly to someone who is, and she knows this, the only person in the world who can teach her a particular skill she needs? OK, I can buy that it’s believable, but it’s still obscenely fucked up.
Korra disrespects Tenzin because she’s an entitled child prodigy who’s never been taught otherwise, not because she’s “a teenager.” But yes, many middle-class Westerner teens do act like entitled little brats that I’ve noticed, so I can see how it’s believable and relatable.
I’m just going to sit in the corner with my Judgey McJudgementalson face on for the rest of the day.
Can we also talk about the fact that if Korra as been sheltered and raised by masters her whole life, she would more likely be repressed and “traditional” rather than acting out to her sifu?
Which is part of what made Katara’s duel with Pakku so intense - the fact that she was willing to violate the expectations of teacher/student and society as a whole.
I can buy that 80 years later, Republic City might not hold to tradition (though, pretty much across asia these expectations still hold in our world…), but how is Korra’s backwater, sheltered ways going to be more outta pocket?
I feel in a lot of ways they basically let go of the cultural consultants because this series is so off base in so many ways.
And adding to this, what kaira said:
Korra isn’t just rude to Tenzin. I found it incredibly disrespectful that she referred to Katara by her first name and not by Sifu and or any other term that would indicate respect.
kairia replied to your post: imsuggestingcoconutsmigrate replied to…
Besides how could a show that is liberally inspired by Asian American culture, ignore the emphasis these communities place upon being respectful to your elders?
Really good points; and yeah, Pakku vs Katara had incredibly different dynamics which was more than just “shitty bratty teenager” even though Pakku certainly tried to paint Katara that way. And we also saw Katara work really hard throughout the series too, to bring herself up to speed on having no teachers.
imsuggestingcoconutsmigrate replied to your post: imsuggestingcoconutsmigrate replied to…
Oh definitely not something to celebrate, people who act like that are little shits and nothing is fucking good about that, but compared to a lot of the other character/development fails there’s been, it wasn’t the most teeth-grinding for me.
I don’t think it would be that teeth-grinding for me if we’d seen some flashbacks or something, to show how Korra turned out this way. I can understand shitty behaviour, so long as I can see how it developed. But because we don’t, it seems extremely off, especially given all the points made above.
