pulpofiction:

i’ve been meaning to make this post for a while but here we go, i might as well do it tonight

[tw: discussion of rape, assault, violation]

The scene where Korra gets her bending taken away makes me uncomfortable and disturbed on a very raw, visceral level and it’s because to me, personally, de-bending reads like an analogy to sexualized violence and assault due to the similarities in power dynamics. (I am, right now, disclaiming a YMMV on this interpretation.) I just saw a comment that said Korra “fails hilariously” in her plan and it made me more upset than the rest of what was said in that post for these reasons:

The removal of bending, in the way Amon does it, is a fundamentally violating act that leaves its victims - those we see - traumatized, hopeless, and depressed. Witness Tahno, Korra, and Lin’s metalbenders. It is a forcible violation of both the physicality and the spirituality of the victim. Their bending, an intimate part of their selves, is removed from them via a physical means that involves restraining them against their will. It is not an act of justice but an act of control and power, much like how sexualized violation and assault is an act of control and power, to exert dominance over the victim: Amon does it to make examples out of people, not to dole out justice; his victims are targeted and selected for politically motivated reasons (first a crime lord, then a cheating, bullying pro-bending team, and then a councilman and his family) and defeated in shows of strength and force. Amon removes Korra’s bending explicitly to control her: there’s no way he was initially planning on removing her bending in an abandoned storage room, away from the public eye. That would completely undermine his narrative of taking power from successively more public figures, entrenching his power over the populace. Instead he does it because she is out of his control, out of line with his carefully tailored plans - she ruins his rally and reveals his secret, and whether it was effective or not it still damages Amon’s public image - and she needs to be “destroyed”. Amon does it to put Korra in her place. In short: much like how acts of sexualized violence and rape are not about sex, but power and control, I read Amon’s removal of Korra’s bending as not about justice, but about overpowering her and controlling her. The power dynamics are uncomfortably similar, whether or not this was Bryke’s intention.

How is this hilarious?

Honestly, I’m sick of narratives where the women have to suffer like this; I’m tired of narratives that are violent against both the minds and bodies of women, and I don’t care for the lack of sympathy for Korra. She goes through a horrific, traumatizing experience that almost literally destroys her - her sense of self, her perception of who she is, her self-love - and I have nothing but sympathy and love for her, for all her faults and flaws.

Your mileage on this may, of course, vary, but I find it almost unforgivable that a proud, strong, enthusiastic young woman protagonist had to be forced through such a destructive and vile experience in the name of character development.