Tumblr crosspost (5 November 2019)
Jul. 1st, 2021 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineAn anon asked:
why do you think korra doesn't have any siblings? almost everyone else in avatarland raised in a family structure has siblings, unlike most other media where everyone's an only child for simplicity - why do you think that doesn't apply to korra? did her parents find out she was the avatar at four and just go, lol nope we got our hands full? or is it an avatar thing, that they stand alone? aang had the monks and the 100-year nap to explain away a lack of family connections, but korra doesn't.
I replied:
Hmm, interesting question! I think there are, as always, two angles to consider—in-story reasons and storytelling reasons.
In-story—well, I certainly never imagined that Avatars are always only children. But I can definitely see Senna and Tonraq going “lol nope” after Korra (I love her, but she’d have been … a handful). Of course, it’s also possible that they would have been willing to have more children but it just never happened.
As far as the storytelling goes, siblings could well diminish the sense of Korra’s isolation, and even if not, unnecessarily crowd an already very dense story. The creators don’t tend to treat sibling dynamics as an afterthought the way some media does; their relationships are very much foregrounded in some way or another, so Korra+siblings would almost certainly take up valuable space in the story, especially with the effort required to square it with her characterization. So I can see why Korra-the-only-child made the most sense for them.
steinbecks responded:
your bloodbender bro reblogs and korra asks are seriously like, what year is it… where am i
I said:
Party like it’s 2012! 🎉🎉🎉
why do you think korra doesn't have any siblings? almost everyone else in avatarland raised in a family structure has siblings, unlike most other media where everyone's an only child for simplicity - why do you think that doesn't apply to korra? did her parents find out she was the avatar at four and just go, lol nope we got our hands full? or is it an avatar thing, that they stand alone? aang had the monks and the 100-year nap to explain away a lack of family connections, but korra doesn't.
I replied:
Hmm, interesting question! I think there are, as always, two angles to consider—in-story reasons and storytelling reasons.
In-story—well, I certainly never imagined that Avatars are always only children. But I can definitely see Senna and Tonraq going “lol nope” after Korra (I love her, but she’d have been … a handful). Of course, it’s also possible that they would have been willing to have more children but it just never happened.
As far as the storytelling goes, siblings could well diminish the sense of Korra’s isolation, and even if not, unnecessarily crowd an already very dense story. The creators don’t tend to treat sibling dynamics as an afterthought the way some media does; their relationships are very much foregrounded in some way or another, so Korra+siblings would almost certainly take up valuable space in the story, especially with the effort required to square it with her characterization. So I can see why Korra-the-only-child made the most sense for them.
steinbecks responded:
your bloodbender bro reblogs and korra asks are seriously like, what year is it… where am i
I said:
Party like it’s 2012! 🎉🎉🎉
no subject
on 2021-07-04 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
on 2021-07-07 07:53 pm (UTC)