So I'm all Caught up With Korra... (Oh, God, Eska)

[attackfish]

I don't usually like writing meta in the middle of a season, because I'm an insecure person who hates it when the show publicly destroys my theories, but here goes...

So there are a whole bunch of interesting things here to talk about, like the fact that they pretty much ripped Tonraq and Unalaq's backstory straight out of Thor, or I really hate Varrick, or that I think I'm in the minority here in that I like this idea of Aang as an imperfect father, who didn't always respond perfectly to his children's varying talents and cultural identities, and has kids that sometimes feel a little resentment because of it, but who was a good man, and with Katara raised a loving family, full of wonderful, flawed people. Or the fact that we have as of yet met two Northern Water Tribe chiefs and their children, but never met or heard referenced a single chief's wife (except possibly a little bit in flashback when Yue's hair turned white). Or that the writers really seem to have a thing about pairs of siblings, (all of whom are pairs of brothers, exept one brother sister pair) were the elder is more straightforward, and the younger is more manipulative, Iroh and Ozai, Zuko and Azula, Noatak and Tarlok, and now Tonraq and Unalaq. Interestingly, in Korra, the siblings who fit this pattern have all been Water Tribe, but the Water sibs from Airbender didn't fit this pattern. Or there's the fact that I really really want to know who the barbarians that Unalaq paid to attack the North were. Are they ethnically Water? Earth? Fire?, Heck, are they Air? Are they none of the above? What would that mean? What's their history as a people? Have they always been in the North, or did they come there recently? World building wonks like me want to know!

No, though, what I'm going to talk about is Eska, and a little bit about Desna, but mostly Eska.

In Avatar: the Last Airbender, the writers did a truly superb job of portraying an abusive girl, in Azula, and showed that neither masculinity, nor adulthood were required for such a person to be a threat, or to cause damage to their victims. I've talked a little before here about just how affirming it was to see a person much like my abuser and first stalker portrayed as a serious, terrifying villain, and how seeing her minions' rejection of her being portrayed as heroic helped me come to terms with my own guilt for "running away."

This is part of why Eska feels like a massive step back for the show to me. Superficially, I think Eska is supposed to remind us of Mai. They both have a similar "goth" sensibility, and both are cool and outwardly unemotional. This is further highlighted when Eska calls Bolin her feeble turtle-duck after Airbender symbolically associated Mai's boyfriend with the same animal. However, Mai's emotionless facade is explained in universe as a psychological defense, whereas, at least for now, it only serves to add to Eska and Desna's creepiness. And there's the fact that Mai isn't an abusive control freak, like Eska, Desna and Azula.

The narrative treats Eska's abuse of Bolin, her attempts to isolate and control him, the way she persistently overrules his objections, or twists his displays of emotions, as a joke. Whereas Azula was treated utterly seriously, and I doubt that a male character doing what she does to say Korra or Asami would be treated in any way but seriously, Eska is funny.The fact that she almost succeeds in dragging Bolin all the way across the world, far from his friends and family is funny.

I'm not laughing.

The humor picked up another distasteful element with the portrayel of Eska as a "crazy (ex) girlfriend." There's a lot of really well written stuff out there about how "crazy" is thrown at women in relationships for daring have emotions and needs that don't jive perfectly with their boyfriend/spouse's desires. Eska's threat being downgraded to that, and used to reinforce that stereotype is just gross.

Then there's the way Eska and Desna's androgyny is used to enhance their creepiness. This is an old, old trope, it's lazy, and like the "evil cripple" trope which associates disability with creepiness, reinforces the idea that there is something wrong with being nonbinary in one's gender presentation. There is in fact a piece of me that given Bolin's apparent attraction to both Eska and Desna mourns for the bisexual, gender binary smashing poly relationship that could have been if Eska and Desna weren't both incredibly abusive, and Nickelodeon were somehow convinced it wasn't inappropriate for kids.

The one thing even I laughed at though, was that betrothal necklace. It looked like something Eska picked up at Hot Topic.

Comments

[lizbee]

Are cut tags not a thing any more?

[wolfs-lament.livejournal.com]

I've been away from things for a while, but just stopped by to say thank you for writing this! I feel like I'm in a minority both for liking where the cloudbabies story is going (especially the idea that Aang was a good man and father, but wasn't necessarily perfect) and disliking Eska and Desna (and Mako, but that at least comes in waves). While most viewers I've seen find the dynamic between Eska and Bolin funny, I find myself angry at her treatment of Bolin. It's become a horrible cycle of hating a scene between them and then reassuring myself that I dislike Eska because she is being abusive, not just because Bolin is just being turned into comic relief, reading other fans' reactions who are either neutral or find it funny and questioning why I dislike their dynamic all over again.

I do feel like the show is heading in the right direction since the season premier and I'm especially enjoying the focus on family, which was a great part of AtLA. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

There's a segment of the fandom that isn't treating this as a laughing matter either (http://masterarrowhead.tumblr.com/post/62364985101/asami-and-mako-better-step-in-and-help-bolin-in), so you're not alone there. Although comparing her to Mai just makes Eska's shortcomings more forthright. In her first episode, Mai showed a lot more emotion, and variety of it, than Eska has. Honestly, before that gag at the end of Episode 4, I half-expected the twins to be revealed as Spirit abominations in flesh suits or something, considering their flatness so far.

Bolin is in a weird spot this season. He's getting a lot more screentime than he did in Season 1, it feels like, but he's still consistently comic relief. That worked well enough when he was a bit player in the mini-series that was Season 1, but in a continuing series he's starting to feel at odds with the wider universe. Asami has the same issue, but in a different way. Bolin at least has a purpose as comic relief. Asami is just... there. Like a more prominent, flatter Suki. The only thing she's done this season is to introduce Bolin to Varrick, and otherwise hasn't had any character interaction with the rest of the cast. I get the sense that the writers just don't know what to do with her, or at least don't know how to use her in this storyline.

I dunno. I feel like Season 2 would've been a lot tighter if they'd dropped Bolin and Asami, and had a Korra/Mako vacation to the South Pole blow up into this civil war thing, maybe introduced more Southern/Northern cast members to take their places. Because neither character really feels like they work outside of Republic City, while Mako can at least coast on his boyfriend status as an outsider to this "family business" stuff.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Eska is hitting a lot of really negative notes for me. If Desna was doing this to a female character, (calling her his slave and possession, using bending to threaten her for speaking to a male character, socially isolates him, ignores his needs, forcing her to carry him around in a rickshaw, demanding she move to his home for him, threatening to ice her up and feed her to dolphin piranhas if she left him, demanding she bow when he leaves the room and commenting on enjoying her groveling, forcing her to marry him, and changing her clothing to suit him and then angrily chasing after her when she tries to leave) this would not be allowed on children's television. It would be an episode of Avatar Law and Order, Special Victim's Unit. It's not funny on any level, and especially given the power imbalance (she's clearly a more powerful bender than him, and she's a princess with an army), it's incredibly unfunny.

And yes, the creators even say "androgynous, creepy twins" as in the androgyny is directly connected to the creepy factor. I can't speak more on gender issues, since I'm still learning. But sadly based on what I've seen with Nick, it will be a blizzard in Eilat before "a bisexual, gender binary smashing poly relationship" is allowed on a Y7 show. Heck, we haven't had an explicitly gay character on a children's show. A few hints, a few nods, but no American show has actually shown it more than "best friends," "in the same room" and such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animated_television_programs_with_LGBT_characters

Most people aren't as educated as you on gender issues. I have two graduate level degrees and I barely scratched the surface, most of my education has been Professor Google.

[redrikki.livejournal.com]

I too am deeply troubled by the Bolin/Eska relationship and the way it has been used for laughs. I posted something about it over on tumblr here (http://redrikki.tumblr.com/post/62378329591/bolin-eska-its-really-not-that-funny). I agree that it's really a large number of steps back considering their previous portrayals of both gender issues, abusive relationships and power dynamics. Over all, so much of Korra has just fallen flat compared to the original series.

Personally, I agree with you that the idea of Aang as a less than perfect parent feels right to me. The guy was raised by monks and has seriously traumatic cultural baggage. Of course he's gonna screw up. It's what parents, even ones with the best of intentions, do. It makes for interesting storylines and fanfic fodder. Like this (http://redrikki.livejournal.com/58663.html)