anghraine: avatar korra in the avatar state (korra [avatar state])
Anghraine ([personal profile] anghraine) wrote2023-07-20 05:28 am
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Tumblr crosspost (27 June 2020)

I was just talking on Twitter about renunciation narratives and how much I dislike them, and … okay, there’s a lot I love about ATLA (and LOK tyvm), but perhaps the thing I personally enjoy most about Avatar as a whole is that it’s more interested in interrogating abilities and duties around them than structuring scenarios where rejecting one’s potential is all but obligatory. 

Both culminate in the integration of very human character and needs. There’s Aang’s preservation of individual and cultural integrity and autonomy against forces that would extinguish them on either side; there’s Korra taking compassion on the darkness and vulnerability in herself which has haunted her in the form of visions and ultimately in Kuvira—combined, in both cases, with the necessary and rightful exercise of ability. 

Aang doesn’t give up the full extent of his abilities, but rather the reverse, finding an exercise of them in line with his ethos, and in consequence reaches a zenith of public acclaim. Korra doesn’t find peace through giving up her abilities (it’s a marker that Something Is Very Wrong when she’s unable to use them properly); her ultimate peace and resolve is expressed through her use of them. 

That’s just Aang and Korra, but it’s pretty pervasive through the shows that you don’t have to choose between having—and using—special abilities and adhering to personal imperatives. And like … in media that goes for You Must Choose, typically that choice appears because the story is structured in such a way as to demand it rather than emerging organically from characters (I’m thinking of examples in certain books but trying not to use them, lol). Personally, I hate it! So I’m really glad Avatar and, increasingly, other things are out there going … no, actually, you don’t have to stifle/reject your abilities to stay true to yourself.