#rather than talk to a tlok anti

[tamras-shieldmaiden]

Random thoughts on Baatar Jr. (or why I don't really like him much)

Note:

Although this could be construed as anti-Baatar Jr., this is me voicing my reservations about the character and in no way this clashes with my position of defending his role as romantic partner to Kuvira in canon continuity. I do not agree in erasing or undermining this fact when justifying headcanons about her preferences.  I believe both positions can coexist without one contradicting the other.

So on to the topic. I've seen some people ask around these parts why Junior is a disliked character among some TLoK and Kuvira fans so I wanted to give it a shot by answering from the perspective of a Kuvira fan who has previously expressed her lack of fondness towards the Kuvira/Junior pairing. I'd like to start off by stating that, unlike others, I do not hate the character, just as I do not hate Suyin Beifong. They both are instrumental in Kuvira's story and both serve a purpose in the overall story of Book 4. Suyin in particular can be quite fascinating in all her complex and flawed glory, and I would've preferred to see their complex family dynamics better portrayed in Ruins of the Empire but alas, that didn't happen and what did happen left me disappointed in its rather superficial approach.

Anyway, back on topic. My personal discontent with Jr comes more from the fact that he is an embodiment of a child of *privilege with the negative connotations this term implies. He acts like one throughout the series and I wonder if he has realized how much this fact played out in his favor, from having his role as collaborator conveniently overlooked, to being embraced back by his family and receiving a rather lenient sentence compared to Kuvira or Zaheer. But Asami is also a child of privilege, you may say justifiably so. Well, yes, she is, but I personally believe there are striking differences between them that I will point out a bit later. I think Jr. would be in the same bracket as Wu since both are members of influential families in the Earth Kingdom.

So, why I do not particularly empathize with Jr.'s plight? I mean the guy was shot at with a weapon of his own creation (talk about irony) and had his sentimental relationship shattered in the cruelest way imaginable you may say, and from a romance standpoint, I would agree with that statement. But we have to talk about context, which shows that the circumstances dealt with far more than his romantic woes.

Let's get some facts straight. Like I said before, this guy is a child of privilege. Unlike many other characters who were dealt a crappy hand at life by being orphaned or abandoned, some literally growing up by themselves in the streets (Mako, Bolin, Kai), Jr. is the firstborn child of the granddaughter of Lao and Poppy Beifong. He was raised in what looks like a caring, loving family in a progressive, stable nation with his material needs met. Compare his situation to Asami's who witnessed tragedy firsthand in childhood and again, saw her progenitor and role model break bad before her very own eyes, and almost lost her livelihood to Varrick's schemes in Book 2. The Beifong family has been influential in the Earth Kingdom since the times of Avatar Kyoshi as we learned in the Kyoshi novels, and to this family of prestige is where Junior was born into. We're talking silver spoons here, unlike the Sato's who would be considered in comparison a new money family. I'm not sure if Varrick was born into money or if he built his business empire so I can't account for him in this comparison. But Baatar boy had everything going on for him from the start. He wasn't raised in Gaoling or Ba Sing Se. He was raised in the utopia his mother built from her own design and vision, a city where she ruled. That's a pretty impressive leg up in life if you ask me, but it seems that wasn't enough for him. Living under the enormous shadow his parents cast, inside what felt like a gilded cage made him feel unsatisfaction with his role in the family and made him fester resentment towards them, a resentment that found an outlet when Kuvira rebelled and left Zaofu for good. Did he care for the stabilization cause to contain the chaos that threatened to collapse the Earth Kingdom? I don't think this wasn't explicitly stated in the series but I might not be remembering certain details. What is explicitly shown is that he cared for his happiness which was manifested in his desire to marry his fiance. This is what brought him in a collision course with the person he believed corresponded to his feelings in the same way, but didn't because their values weren't aligned towards the same priorities and goals.

When Jr. relented to Korra's bluff in the warehouse, to me it looks like an extension of the privilege he experienced his whole life. What's years of planning and the hard work and effort of the troops under his command and Kuvira's worth when his personal happiness was threatened? It apparently was expendable enough to acquiesce to Korra's demands after a brief show of defiance. His fear was that he would be kept apart from Kuvira. As long as he could secure his personal happiness, everything, including finalizing the last step of the unification campaign could be set aside as long as he could marry Kuvira and be left alone in their Empire. Notice that the change of heart that he experienced after the warehouse is blown away is not because he suddenly realized that the invasion was wrong either strategically, politically, or morally, but because with her actions she chose the Empire over him. Once he cast himself apart from his family when he declared his fiance his only family (rather callously) and not having the Beifong clout as a source of privilege, he feared being cut off from Kuvira who was now that source. It might outwardly look like a demonstration of his love and devotion towards Kuvira to halt the invasion so the Avatar wouldn't keep them apart but it also showed a dereliction to the mission and his duty as second in command and at least to me, it showed a disregard to his troops and their collective effort and success which brought them to the last step of their **goal. Say what you will about Kuvira but she had the respect of the troops and was a source of inspiration to them, to the point of attempting to rescue her from the hands of the Avatar herself after Kuvira's rendition. Maybe because I served in uniform, I pay more attention to these things, and perhaps that's why I think Jr.'s decision could have felt like a betrayal to those under his command, and to Kuvira herself who valued the goal of unifying the country more than her own personal happiness (something I've talked about before). Apparently, he wasn't aware of that, even though he was the person closest to her for three years. That is pretty telling of his priorities and it is a rather big oversight to have about the person with whom you plan to spend the rest of your life.

The nail in the coffin in demonstrating that he is, along with Suyin, embodiments of privilege, is how rather easily he is forgiven and for his role in all the dictator business, he is given a leniency Kuvira wasn't offered, at least until the end of Ruins of the Empire, but his role is never really questioned, and the protection of the Beifong power and prestige comes back to protect him again.

So in summary, I believe this might be one of the reasons this character isn't that well-liked, and although ROTE tried to portray him in a more positive light with his role in defeating Guan, unfortunately, and this is a critique of ROTE in general, we can't say for sure if he regretted his role and actions as co-leader of the Empire. That introspection would have given him much-needed depth and would've served to present him as a character more self-aware of his acts.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_privilege

**the justification or the merits of said invasion are not being analyzed. That's subject for other lengthy analysis and are not relevant to the point being made.

#the legend of korra #legend of korra #tlok #lok #meta #character analysis #anti-baatar jr? #baatar jr #earth empire #zaofu #kuvira #ruins of the empire #rote #shoulda made this thing short by just calling him a spoiled egocentric brat like my fwend Mags described him 😄 #another round of ramblings #i should get back to fic writing

[bellatrixobsessed1]

we’ve been mutuals for ages so i thought it was time to ask about your unpopular atla/tlok/kyoshi opinions :D

xD Tbh I feel like my opinions tend to be more controversial with Avatar than unpopular. Obviously I'm open to discussion if anyone wants to have one or if anyone needs clarification on any of these opinions lol. My goal isn't to cause fighting and more discourse but rather open up some discussion. Mostly I'm a to each their own kind of person; even if I don't like a certain ship or agree with certain headcanons I won't be bashing people who do ship/have them. And I don't think that xyz headcanon is wrong just because I disagree with that.

Disclaimers aside lol;

Some of the ones that I know are unpopular for Avatar:

I don't ship Azula/Therapy (there's a lot to get into here and I've done it quite a bit). My bottom line is that I don't mind Azula/Therapy so long as it isn't being used as a means to belittle people who do ship her with other characters. I'm also fine with it in the light that Azula/Character while she's getting therapy or something like that. There's a lot more to it, anyone can feel free to ask for clarification here. But I kind of don't really even see it as a ship so much as a concept. And as a joke I don't really find it that funny as I feel like it takes a very serious topic and makes it sound 'cute' or 'quirky' and that just ain't it for me.

I don't ship Zukka. Tbh I don't really feel strongly about it at all.

I don't ship Mailee either. I've seen quite a bit of Mailee content that is pretty anti-Azula so I tend to just stay away from that. Though I'm down for recs with fic and art that aren't anti-Azula

I don't think that Azula is a lesbian. I feel like she is Bi/Ace or Aro/Ace. Which is probably due to me being aro/ace and wanting some rep lol.

I am very very neutral to Suki. I feel like a lot of people really like her. I think she's just eh. I have no strong opinion on her either which way.

I don't really hate any character. There are some characters I like less/don't find as interesting but I don't really hate any of them.

I do feel kind of bad for Ozai as he was also probably abused as a kid. The reason I don't feel as though he's redeemable though is because he's a grown man who is pretty set in his ways.

Foamy mouth guy isn't funny.

I feel like Katara's power/strength is more in healing than fighting. Like that's her specialty and it kind of bothers me when people downplay that because imo it's refreshing to have a character who is considered great and powerful not because they are the strongest fighter but because they are a great healer and defender. Aang is also a good example of this.

I don't really talk about this much because it really isn't that deep xD but I get confused when people talk about Katara's bloodbending as if she can just do it any time??? Correct me if I'm wrong but she can only do it during a full moon. Amon and his family are the only people who could do it without a full moon. So it kind of bothers me when people just casually toss 'oh Katara could totally kick Azula/Toph/Zuko's ass with bloodbending anytime.'

I like both Azula and Zuko and feel like both of them either get babied or demonized. And that takes away from the complexities of both of their characters.

Iroh isn't completely wise. He has moments where he's not morally correct. And he should have moments like this because it would be unrealistic for him to never do wrong ever.

Kataang vs Zutara is getting really old.

I feel like this fandom can be very hostile to Azula fans and it gets hard to deal with so sometimes I have to just avoid the tag for a while. Idk if this one is an unpopular opinion or if other people feel the same. But then again I've heard that Katara and Aang have also had an influx of hate as well. In general it's just sad to see such cool characters getting talked about in the ways that some people talk about them. I've seen people say that "it's Azula's fault that she's being abused by Ozai" and "Katara needs to shut up about her mom and move on" and "Zuko is whiney and overdramatic." And these statements are just :S Basically I wish that the nice people could start talking over all of the people who just seem to enjoy bashing their least favorite characters more than they like talking about their favorites.

I don't entirely hate the comics. There are aspects of them that I hate but there are also parts that I really enjoyed.

LoK

Not a fan of Suyin. Not just because I like Kuvira but also because of her backstory with Lin. NGL she struck me as kind of a brat.

I'm not a big fan of Opal or Zhu Li either. Like I don't hate either of them but they just aren't my cup of tea.

I liked Tanho from the start.

Meelo is kind of annoying imo.

I don't like Mako at all. He lost me when he cheated on Asami.

Idk if this is unpopular but I didn't really like season 2.

I was kind of disappointed with Kuvira's backstory. I liked aspects of it but I had different expectations.

I don't think that it was a rushed backstory so much as the writers only had like 80 pages per comic to work with. It would have been better if it were in the show or something.

Korra wasn't a bad Avatar. She had her own road blocks to overcome and her own learning to do just like Aang.

I don't really have any for Kyoshi except for maybe that I don't think that Kyoshi is this aggressive murder machine lol.

Again anyone can feel free to discuss. I try to keep an open mind with these types of things.

#avatar the last airbender #azula #zuko #legend of korra #fandom #unpopular opinions