avatarsnowy:

the gravity of some of Korra’s decisions last episode is only just starting to sink in

at the start, she’s so excited for the brother’s to come to ATI because.. well, she wants friends. Real friends. Who she can hang out with and goof around with. Who can be there for her, who she is trying to be there for. And she’s excited to have that, finally. Because while they got to know each other decently through probending and obviously consider each other friends, most of their interactions took place in the arena and revolved around the sport. She wants to be closer, and for obvious reasons. She’s never had a friend in her life, not in a traditional sense. She had the White Lotus and her bending masters, and I’m sure that her parents and Katara supported her like we see Tenzin supporting her, but it’s not the same. She wants friends her age and she’s excited to finally have the opportunity to get closer to them.

And then she finds out that they’re going to live at Asami’s and she’s clearly crushed and it’s so sad because you can tell she’s excited about living around people her own age, about having friends for once, and that’s not the rest of the krew’s fault but it was probably still really hard on Korra. And, you know, honestly? Good on Asami for making sure Korra felt included. Asami isn’t oblivious. I wouldn’t be surprised if she could tell that Korra had some sort of crush on Mako, but she invites her along anyway.

So Korra goes and wow she actually has fun with them? She gets along with Asami and even though things aren’t panning out exactly how she planned, she might have friends anyway and I’m sure that felt great. But then she overhears Hiroshi and her Avatar duties get in the way. She probably realized from the get-go how it might look for her to accuse Hiroshi of having Equalist ties. She probably knew that they’d get mad at her and even shun her, Asami especially.

On one hand, it’s impressive how easily she adheres to her duties, even when they stand in the way of something she wants so badly. On the other hand, it’s just so damn sad. Watching Korra at points throughout the latter part of the episode, it’s just. Before they find the tunnel and prove themselves beyond a reasonable doubt to the rest of the krew, she’s this strange mix of listless and determined. In general, she presses forward and does her Avatar duty and focuses on protecting the city, but in quiet moments, she’s drawn in, she’s sadder.

Korra’s giving something up for the sake of her duties, something important. And even if things right themselves at the end of the episode (so to speak), she was still operating the entire time — especially after Mako’s ultimatum — knowing the consequences of her actions.

Everyone in the fandom has been articulating for ages how badly Korra needs friends. And that’s correct. She needs friends like burning. I guess that’s why it struck me so hard when she had to give that up.

I noticed this too and it really just breaks my heart that Korra has such a burden placed upon her for being the Avatar. Korra is a wonderful person. Let’s just hope this is resolved in the next few episodes when they’re all at Air Temple Island.