Zeiya Shay

What a beautifully written story. I wondered it when I finished ATLA and I'm wondering the same after finishing TLOK, how in the hell do these writers write such fulfilling plots with character developments for each of them? Take on heavy political issues and solve not only tactfully but spiritually and emotionally? How are they able to show healthy relationships which also have conflicts and then resolution. It's 52 episodes but the story makes me feel like I have at least seen 200. And the most important thing for me, as a woman, was to seeing the powerful characters that were women. At first, the internalised sexism was not letting me think these are going to be fulfilling strong characters because they are are mostly always portrayed by men, right? I mean, the Chief of Police, the strong villains, the leaders a.k.a The Earth Queen (who was just as vain as the her father but still) and Su the matriarch of metal clan, THE AVATAR HERSELF, obviously. But that changed as I watched and I saw that NOWHERE were the women victimised or shown they were powerless. The wives of powerful men like Tanroq and Tenzin weren't shown helpless. Korra's mom was also probably a non-bender (cause i don't remember seeing her waterbending) along with Pema but they were guiding people in their own way. It was so refreshing to see this and so empowering. I wish I had seen this as a young girl as a powerful positive portrayal of women's power and physical strength (checked out the guns on Korra and Lin Beifang?) Also, can we talk about the freaking amazing the friendship of Asami and Korra is which breaks the narrative of how women fight over men and are each other's worst enemies? In the beginning, it was shown that they didn't like each other because of the common factor of liking Mako and it was important to show that cause most shows and stories just stop over there. But THEN, when Mako wants to be with Korra, Asami steps back and lets them be together instead of being jealous or sending snarky remarks. She just resumes the work on building her industry back (also an amazing beautiful power move cause she is not shown helpless just because a man left her for another woman). Then when finally the whole Mako-Korra relationship is over and Asami has kissed Mako, the girls just talk it out and get OVER IT rather than mulling over it, cause their friendship is greater than any man they were dating in the past. Even Mako gets over it cause they really are mature young adults who understand how to work through things. Honestly, Asami and Korra going into the spirit world as the ending of the show is the best. I mean, yeah, there probably might be people out there thinking that they will get together or whatever. But the point is that they are just two young women enjoying a great friendship between them and being there for each other. Which is what is always shown in male-centric shows or anime. Overall, I love TLOK as much as I love ATLA and I would never compare them cause Iroh is in both of them, guiding people even after his death. Ang was amazing but so is Korra and she's got her family AND her friends AND Ang's family which is like her own. The writers of both the show are truly phenomenal people who are masters of great storytelling with spiritual symbolism. I have learnt so much from these stories and I just want to thank them for these extremely majestic experiences that is ATLA and TLOK.