weirdlet | Korra, Season 2, Episode 5. 6:34 out of 23.05.

I seriously haven't had this much trouble watching an episode since The Ember Island Players. I just- I have this horrible reflexive embarrassment watching dumb shit happen.

I love the ideas of Legend of Korra. I love the characters- just not how they're used in the narrative. And I hate, hate, *haaaaate* the thought of being that one fan, the one who writes a huge alternaverse that's entertaining at first but you just have to wonder 'did you actually like *anything* about the original, or did you just see it as a fine skin to try and wrap your own clearly genius ideas in?' Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, the ElfQuest Alternaverse, Embers...

And at the same time, it's fucking painful to watch what should be so awesome just flatly *fail* at it.

Anyone wanna help me? Just brainstorm, maybe prompt some stuff? A timeline divergence here, a character's hidden personality being different there, a larger exploration of some significant event that got skimmed over there...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

This has somehow just this moment glommed onto another couple of ideas and spun into something truly bizarre. Senna shacks up with Noatak for a brief time during her wild and crazy years, has Korra. Noatak is dark, driven, and haunted by what was done to him and what he was made to do by Yakone. This eventually bubbles into a stew that Senna does not like the taste of, and she breaks it off/lets him go to deal with his 'cause', meets Tonraq in exile, and proceeds to have a very happy life with him, even if bb!Korra is understandably upset at first.

They manage a decent start, but Korra is cautioned about keeping her new-found abilities under wraps for a while. Daddy!Noatak had gotten *real* weird when she first started showing hints of just water-bending, and Senna wants her to not draw too much attention, because that could draw her ex's attention. And there was something *just off enough* that she knows that's a bad idea.

Eventually, there start to get to be rumors getting around, White Lotus searchers sniffing about. Korra's largely self-taught for most of her abilities, maybe has been getting water-bending lessons and holding herself back, but eventually *someone*'s gonna notice how the landscape keeps getting ripped up where Korra's been practicing off in the wilderness. Cue "I have to go"/"You need to go, baby-girl- take this blanket and some money and come hug your father first, *then* you can sneak out in the middle of the night."

Cue sweet, tough, naive Water-tribe bumpkin girl in the big city. It's *awesome*. It's *terrifying*. It's- amazingly expensive to live there, especially if you buy tickets to see holy-balls amazing new sport that *sings* to you in your very marrow.

Cue construction job to make ends meet. Fairly good one, esp. considering while you only present one set of bending abilities at a time, you can use the rest to steady things, ease things along for others. Cue catching the eye of one Miss Asami Sato while working on her new track. Not much comes of this as yet, but the meet-cute has happened.

The thing about working construction in Republic City, you're right there where everything is happening at street level (and when someone is trying to sabotage things, or use your construction site as a mob burial ground, etc. Cue increasing punch-based butcher-bill with the different gangs, and hearing more about this Equalist weirdness on the radio while trying to make your way and not get hit by all the triads you're pissing off with your vigilante justice.

It gets weirder when you discover that your pro-bending idols are about to get hooked into the triads again, and instead of punching them into submission, you grab them and make them friends, pool your resources, and start living together. Protect each other from street crime, from the mob, try not to get gouged by trainers, have each others' backs, all that fun stuff. Even help prep for the tournament, though Korra refuses to participate (low profile) right up until she's got to pinch-hit for their waterbender or risk losing everything.

Then the first big Equalist incident hits, though more likely kidnapping Bolin like The Rally than the big terrorist attack at the arena. Either way, in the process of rescuing her buddy, Korra blows the lid off her secret in a big way. Like, major, public, caught on cameras, undeniably people know they have an Avatar in their midst. Doesn't matter, if her buddy's in trouble, Korra's gonna flatten whatever is in her way. Only now, as someone actively throwing punches/leveling structures on the scene of a big nasty event, she's been arrested with everyone else not actively in hand-cuffs before the police arrived. And now, alone and afraid and wanting to know where the *hell* her friends are- Tenzin comes in to bail.

...And that's where my brain ran out of crack. Make of it what you will.

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Oh, oh- and from there, Korra's swept into training and an uncomfortable level of public scrutiny, plus allegations of cheating if she helped win any matches, plus all of a sudden having *press* to manage, and then at a high-society function she meets Miss Asami Sato again. Girl friend/girlfriend ensues.

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

You are giving me this deep, deep need for Korra, the working class hero. Why do you do this to me?

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Because I like to share my pain.

And also, because I think it takes advantage of that sort of film-noir/Batman thing that the setting was just begging for. I really wanted to see a lot of figuring out this whole city-living thing and dealing with the effects of the triads, the 'living it up' versus the dark, dirty streets that can drag you down if you're not careful.

I want speakeasies, damnit!

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Plus yeah- I really wanted to see that vigilante justice thing get explored, plus have her in the thick of things where she could actually *learn* something about non-benders and what they go through, if she should choose to pay attention.

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

This was one of the main flaws in Korra from a story telling standpoint. They throw all these cool things at us and don't explore the ramifications of any of them.

And I want speakeasies too, and underground gambling parlors, and...

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

And more of that sports-commentator fellow who was supposed to have been a big reporter who took on the triads for a subject!

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

Yesyes, more Shiro Shinobi!

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Hrm- where's Naga in all this?

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

Costing Korra an arm and a leg in feed and floorspace?

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Yes. And occasional parking citations.

"You can't park a-!"

"City ordinance 59240 says yes, I can still tie up my transport-animal there. Naga, sit!"

"Wrrf?"

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

I NEED this, Precious.

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

"I don't get it. Why are these guys running around the parks, shouting about bender oppression? I mean- don't people want bending? Where I come from, they talked about it being a blessing from the spirits themselves." Korra hefted her work-bag, full of clothes and a couple of rice-balls she'd managed not to burn too badly. Bolin had been nice about it, but even she could see that with the amount of char she put on their cookpots, she was never going to be his best student- at least in this instance.

"Don't know," Mako said in reply, flopping down on a bench with little more than a glare as the flock of ratpigeons fluttered sideways and then resettled. He reached out a hand, receiving his half of lunch without complaint.

"I mean- look around us! Walls, streets, fountains- Big Shu does good work! Not least because I work for him," she said with a brief smirk. "Sure we could make them by hand, but why not use the faster, easier way? Stronger, too, and easier to fix up than if you've got to break down concrete. And there's only so much to go around! There's work all over the place, more than the bonded companies can do at once, so we've got backlog clear to Solstice-"

"We're just lucky we've got jobs," Mako said, and that was all before he turned his attention to finishing his rice-ball.

"Yeah, yeah, Mister Sour-puss... I don't think I was going to make it as a hat-shop girl," she said, chuckling, then sobered. "We are at that."