I watched Book 2 today (all of it in one day), and it was a mixed bag but not all awful. I expected to hate the Bolin and Eska parts, but surprisingly enough I found it actually worked in parts. It's true the specific situation was treated as comic relief and I wish the emotional tone had been more mixed (in fact that's my wish for Bolin's entire character in Book 2), but at least it's made clear that Eska's treatment of Bolin was not okay and his friends tell him to leave the relationship. With varying degrees of efficacy, seeing how they're not exactly pros in the ending-relationships department themselves.
But it's definitely true that the show trivializes female-on-male domestic violence. When Korra broke up with Mako and flipped his desk over, or when Beifong laughed it off with a mention of trashing Tenzin's home, or for that matter when Eska came after Bolin (in full wedding gear, no less)... I doubt any of these situations would have been treated as funny if the genders were reversed.
As for the way Bolin and Eska parted, I thought that was actually sort of moving and an important perspective on the issue of abuse. Abusive relationships can be bound up in genuine tenderness and not all abusers are monsters. Some of them are well-meaning people who have issues of their own and problems with communication and human interaction. Ending a relationship with an abuser can be as wrenching as ending a healthy relationship, even more in some cases since the abuser would have planted a lot of fear and dependence in their partner.
What made it less than convincing in Bolin and Eska's case IMO was not that they had real feelings or parted on amicable terms, but rather that there was no real buildup for that kind of ending. The relationship was drawn so flatly and given so little screen time that the "reveal" leaves viewers scratching their heads. It's an area where the unrelenting comic-relief portrayal of the abuse, and therefore of the relationship, ended up not working--not only because it trivialized the abuse, but also whatever real feelings that might have been in the relationship itself.
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But it's definitely true that the show trivializes female-on-male domestic violence. When Korra broke up with Mako and flipped his desk over, or when Beifong laughed it off with a mention of trashing Tenzin's home, or for that matter when Eska came after Bolin (in full wedding gear, no less)... I doubt any of these situations would have been treated as funny if the genders were reversed.
As for the way Bolin and Eska parted, I thought that was actually sort of moving and an important perspective on the issue of abuse. Abusive relationships can be bound up in genuine tenderness and not all abusers are monsters. Some of them are well-meaning people who have issues of their own and problems with communication and human interaction. Ending a relationship with an abuser can be as wrenching as ending a healthy relationship, even more in some cases since the abuser would have planted a lot of fear and dependence in their partner.
What made it less than convincing in Bolin and Eska's case IMO was not that they had real feelings or parted on amicable terms, but rather that there was no real buildup for that kind of ending. The relationship was drawn so flatly and given so little screen time that the "reveal" leaves viewers scratching their heads. It's an area where the unrelenting comic-relief portrayal of the abuse, and therefore of the relationship, ended up not working--not only because it trivialized the abuse, but also whatever real feelings that might have been in the relationship itself.