Oh believe me, you won't find me stanning for LoK's writing on the whole of things. It's one of those series where I love a lot about the characters and the world and it has moments of brilliance, but there were so many writing decisions that were either good ideas handled badly or just bad ideas to begin with. I kind of went into the comics with the very low bar of "at least give me canon Korrasami," so my low expectations led me to feel pleasantly surprised when there were actual relatable moments in there. Bryan and Mike were never great even at their het romances, and honestly I'd had little faith they could write f/f with any authenticity, but by the already low standards of the rest of the writing on LoK, it was pretty decent IMO! I've wondered if Irene Koh, the illustrator, had any input. I heard that after things fell through with the first illustrator and they hired her, there were some script overhauls. But it's not like the first script was ever released, so we may never know what, if anything, was changed. I like to think that even though she isn't a writer on the series, maybe they bounce ideas off her and then write with that influence?
On the topic of general discomfort with Avatarverse handling of LGBT stuff, while I was thrilled that more characters were confirmed as gay or bi since prior to the LoK finale we had essentially nothing, I was pettily annoyed that they went against some of my personal headcanons wrt sexuality of previous Avatars. They confirmed Kyoshi as bi (and she's getting prose novels about her coming out!) and no gay/bi male Avatars, but I'd always either headcanoned her as a lesbian and Roku as bi, or just headcanoned all Avatars as bi. It does kind of stand out that the only probably canon mlm in the series is Aiwei (minor LoK villain) and that's only based on an answer they gave a fan that wasn't recorded, so it isn't referenceable anywhere. Like, it's two straight guys in charge of the writing decisions, and I've never felt that Korrasami was fetishing or male-gaze at all, but these subtle biases do come out. I'm certainly not saying that they're wrong for not matching my, Nonny Q. Fan's, personal headcanons (that part's more just brattiness) and obviously I'm not complaining about focus on f/f at all! Just, out of the last five Avatars, that gives us two bi women and three straight men. I'll probably read the Kyoshi books, and hope for f/f content.
Regarding your question before about why people prefer to write/interpret Bubbline as not exes getting back together, my impression is that they don't know the canon that well. For both AT and LoK, when there was a hint of f/f, we got a bunch of curious fans who were like, "These characters intrigue me, but I don't really have time for the whole canon." That's really kind of a function of how little canon f/f there is in anything. I did think Marceline's mingled bitterness and longing came across in her song that started it all, and I would assume fans just here for the Bubbline would watch that on YouTube or something, so I don't really know how they missed that, but I saw a lot of stuff with people seeming to assume they hadn't kissed yet/had no former relationship baggage. When all their centuries of baggage was part of what made them great!
I'd always kind of headcanoned that a big part of what made them break up in the past is how Bonnibel is very Mad Scientist Will Fix All the Things, and tried to "helpfully" fix things about Marceline Marceline didn't want fixed, and then refused to admit she was wrong. I feel like Marceline just wanted an apology, and got more and more bitter every year she didn't get one. I think she always wanted to kiss and make up, she just wanted Bonnibel to do one thing to initiate that, to make her feel valued. While kind of knowing that she could initiate it at any time and Bonnibel would take her back, and wanting to, but being too proud herself. Plus, being functionally immortal, they feel like they have forever to wait for the other one to give in. I'd guess that the moment Bonnibel almost died was when Marceline realized she didn't want to wait and risk later becoming never.
Also, I liked that we got a shot of Susan Strong and Frieda, though they should have kissed too! Go borrow Rebecca Sugar's spine and make it gayer.
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Re: BUBBLINE YOU GUYS
Date: 2018-09-05 11:06 pm (UTC)Oh believe me, you won't find me stanning for LoK's writing on the whole of things. It's one of those series where I love a lot about the characters and the world and it has moments of brilliance, but there were so many writing decisions that were either good ideas handled badly or just bad ideas to begin with. I kind of went into the comics with the very low bar of "at least give me canon Korrasami," so my low expectations led me to feel pleasantly surprised when there were actual relatable moments in there. Bryan and Mike were never great even at their het romances, and honestly I'd had little faith they could write f/f with any authenticity, but by the already low standards of the rest of the writing on LoK, it was pretty decent IMO! I've wondered if Irene Koh, the illustrator, had any input. I heard that after things fell through with the first illustrator and they hired her, there were some script overhauls. But it's not like the first script was ever released, so we may never know what, if anything, was changed. I like to think that even though she isn't a writer on the series, maybe they bounce ideas off her and then write with that influence?
On the topic of general discomfort with Avatarverse handling of LGBT stuff, while I was thrilled that more characters were confirmed as gay or bi since prior to the LoK finale we had essentially nothing, I was pettily annoyed that they went against some of my personal headcanons wrt sexuality of previous Avatars. They confirmed Kyoshi as bi (and she's getting prose novels about her coming out!) and no gay/bi male Avatars, but I'd always either headcanoned her as a lesbian and Roku as bi, or just headcanoned all Avatars as bi. It does kind of stand out that the only probably canon mlm in the series is Aiwei (minor LoK villain) and that's only based on an answer they gave a fan that wasn't recorded, so it isn't referenceable anywhere. Like, it's two straight guys in charge of the writing decisions, and I've never felt that Korrasami was fetishing or male-gaze at all, but these subtle biases do come out. I'm certainly not saying that they're wrong for not matching my, Nonny Q. Fan's, personal headcanons (that part's more just brattiness) and obviously I'm not complaining about focus on f/f at all! Just, out of the last five Avatars, that gives us two bi women and three straight men. I'll probably read the Kyoshi books, and hope for f/f content.
Regarding your question before about why people prefer to write/interpret Bubbline as not exes getting back together, my impression is that they don't know the canon that well. For both AT and LoK, when there was a hint of f/f, we got a bunch of curious fans who were like, "These characters intrigue me, but I don't really have time for the whole canon." That's really kind of a function of how little canon f/f there is in anything. I did think Marceline's mingled bitterness and longing came across in her song that started it all, and I would assume fans just here for the Bubbline would watch that on YouTube or something, so I don't really know how they missed that, but I saw a lot of stuff with people seeming to assume they hadn't kissed yet/had no former relationship baggage. When all their centuries of baggage was part of what made them great!
I'd always kind of headcanoned that a big part of what made them break up in the past is how Bonnibel is very Mad Scientist Will Fix All the Things, and tried to "helpfully" fix things about Marceline Marceline didn't want fixed, and then refused to admit she was wrong. I feel like Marceline just wanted an apology, and got more and more bitter every year she didn't get one. I think she always wanted to kiss and make up, she just wanted Bonnibel to do one thing to initiate that, to make her feel valued. While kind of knowing that she could initiate it at any time and Bonnibel would take her back, and wanting to, but being too proud herself. Plus, being functionally immortal, they feel like they have forever to wait for the other one to give in. I'd guess that the moment Bonnibel almost died was when Marceline realized she didn't want to wait and risk later becoming never.
Also, I liked that we got a shot of Susan Strong and Frieda, though they should have kissed too! Go borrow Rebecca Sugar's spine and make it gayer.