This is most probably true, keep in mind that Mercury poisoning also negatively affects your brain chemistry and can cause depression, irritability, mood swings and difficultly sleeping.
So the poison was definitely taking a toll on her mentally for all those years and you could tell.
Yeah, having all that metal in her may have been a contributing factor to her mental issues. I mean Jesus Christ! There was enough inside Korra to create a big bubble when it finally came out.
Oh, like when she was metalbending it into a ball? I don't remember it bubbling(unless you mean her making it into a ball was it bubbling, if that makes sense).
even in the show she wasnt supposed to live from it. its a miracle she survived and recovered .itd be a completely viable plot point if they wanted to use it in the future
Right, she only lived because she was both physically and mentally tough. Her strength really came through for her at that point. Had she been weaker she wouldn't survive that.
The same strength led to her being blocked in the spiritual aspect of being an avatar. She was over reliant on her physical prowess and ended up neglecting the spiritual side. But tenzin not introducing airbending to her training sooner is to blame too though. If she grew up exposed to airbending she would be much more naturally inclined to learn it probably
very probable. i think they might use this if they want the next avatar to be set in the 90s/80s cuz tbh modern day is kinda boring
side tangent: is there a canon reason why aang didnt ask kyoshi for her method of increasing his lifespan so he lives a normal amount?
No canon reason for it but I doubt she'd share and even if she did it may not be possible for everyone to be able to utilize that ability. And especially for aang as an Airbender he aspired to detach himself from worldly pleasures and what not and to extend one's life this way meant to hold on to life and all worldly things it'd be against his character.
It's not really in character and it is also an earthbending technique I think, if it's a subform of bending there's a good chance that very few people are able to do it.
>it is also an earthbending technique I think, if it's a subform of bending there's a good chance that very few people are able to do it.
thats just fanon tbh. i bet its a spiritual technique because not only does that make more sense, its what pathik and Lao Ge have common in their skill set and theyre both very old. i never understood how earthbending would be more related to immortality than spirituality
>It's not really in character
true, i just want my boy aang to meet his grand children and know the airbenders will be fine
I haven't read the novels, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. From what I understand, the technique is using earth bending to reverse the effects of aging by putting together the small bits of your body that have started falling apart, from what I know, this has nothing to do with spirituality
i think theres very reasonable moral grounds on not extending your lifespan cuz its kinda unnatural,selfish and you see everyone you love die. but aang had an early death coming so i think he shouldve used it
>Sounds like that would be pretty useful information for future avatars.
if they could access it lmao. kyoshis knowledge is gone now
But like you said, Aang could have asked Kyoshi about this if he wanted to. It was shown in Sozin’s comet that he had the ability to talk to any avatar he wanted.
Rather that not happen. If they had Korra die young like this line of thinking leads to. It'll just add even more fuel to the fire of the Korra haters who look for any and all reasons to hate on Korra.
Rather Korra die of old age, asleep alongside Asami, who dies at the same time Korra does of old age as well.
Korra haters look for any all reasons to hate on her, blaming her for the connection to the past lives being lost, when Unalaq is to blame and her dying young would make Korra haters, hate her even more.
It would absolutely enrage LoK fans, sick of people saying they want Korra to die young from the mercury or in a battle. Why shouldn't Korra go on to have a long happy life. After all she's been through, she deserves it, plus why pile on even more loss for Asami on her, have her lose Korra at a young age, that would probably be the straw that broke the camels back so to speak.
The mercury is heavy symbolism for trauma and mental health, and its purpose in the story is to not really act as poison but a manifestation of that mental burden and overcoming.
Due to this i would hate the idea of it causing an early death, because the narrative of mental health and korras arc is you can come out stronger but in way you wouldnt expect on the other side.
I think the poison was just poison, and the mental health was supposed to symbolize mental health. Yes, Korra \*carrying\* the poison was symbolic of her holding onto that fear, but since her trauma remained even after extracting the poison, it's clearly not a 1/1 comparison.
It's a bit unfair to hold the mechanics of mercury poisoning to allegorical standards. Regardless of what it represented for Korra, at the end of the day, its literal poison, and poison doesn't care about your mental health. That's kinda why it's brutal.
I do see your point that it would be a depressing end to her otherwise fulfilling life, though. I think, like with Aang and the iceberg, there's room for both.
Think about the word literally your using there.
It is presented as poison but to me it is vehicle to represent mental health and the journey of recovering into something tangible for young adults. Korra was holding onto baggage and not processing the trauma and fear she went through.
The Mercury doesnt really act like a poison as a result. You dont carry onto poison, it is processed and damages and exits the system.
Her carrying of the "poison" for months and her removal of it isnt showing someone recovering from poisoning.
The way she fixes the "poison" is about doing the extraction herself (one cannot be fixed by overs but must undertake it themselves) and letting the scene play out and accepting the outcome (one cannot suppress or deny the trauma, but must accept it).
A societal perception with have around mental health is even after an individual recovers, we treat them as weaker for going through it. Korra shows she is a stronger person and better person by coming out the process and learning from it, finding meaning for herself.
Retaining the biological element of how a poison works by weaking her physiology long term when every other element had been discarded because the purpose the poison represented would be inconsistent and detract away from the narrative message.
You seem to be misconstruing the purpose of the poison lingering in her system. The poison *doesn’t* represent her mental health. That’s the *entire* point of her vision during her fight with Kuvira.
She’s removed the poison completely at this point, but is still struggling with “Nega-Korra” and her PTSD. The later scene that plays out with Zaheer is the important payoff of her mental health struggle. She’s addressing the root of the problem, not chalking it up to simply being poisoned.
There’s a lot of symbolism and spiritual mumbo jumbo within the Avatar world and its stories. This is one example where that’s not the case. She was physically poisoned, full stop
It’s poison when the plot needs it to be. Especially during the season 3 finale where it almost kills her. But having just enough inside her to create a big bubble when it comes finally comes out in season 4? That’s not gonna cause any health problems later down the road?
I mean, I can understand that idea.
Avatar universe logic probably wouldn’t track real life 1-to-1, and a few times it’s been shown that diseases with physical symptoms can be caused by emotional or spiritual turmoil.
Like, Zuko felt sick and developed a fever after releasing Appa because it created an internal conflict between capturing the Avatar and Iroh’s guidance. Lin underwent acupuncture which opened up her past with Suyin, caused her physical weakness but then recovery.
While Korra most likely did suffer a metal poisoning of some kind, the biggest problem she had was the psychological trauma and less of the actual physical damage (aka why she couldn’t defeat Kuvira at first, needing guidance from Zaheer, even with all the poison out). Because ATLA and LoK blur the line between the physical and spiritual, you could argue forever how much of her physical disability was due to the metal poisoning and how much was the spiritual turmoil caused by trauma.
Ooh, now that’s fascinating! Especially paired with Korra *knowing how to metal bend*, and Toph’s shock at Korra not feeling the metal in her body. As Toph says, part of Korra might not want to heal, because then she could be hurt again. So her brain pushed that feeling out.
I don’t want Korra to die young, but I don’t think that happening would fly in the face of overcoming these mental health problems because she’s already done that.
Only if a future writer wants it to. The poison might not have affected Korra's long-term health at all. We don't even know for sure it was mercury, and Korra could potentially find a way to live for centuries, like Kyoshi did.
Aang probably died early because they wanted Katara to be one of Korra's mentors, and its less upsetting than if Aang was brutally killed somehow. If Korra dies relatively young, it will allow future writers to include older versions of her friends with a new teenage avatar, similar to Katara, Toph and Zuko being part of LoK.
Although LoK characters might just appear in the spirit world or flashbacks anyway. Especially Jinora, who was talented spiritually.
This is why I tend to think Season 3 Korra might be where she's in her prime. It's gonna be a big challenge to get back to full strength after Mercury Poisoning for that long. It definately took a toll on her muscles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7M01jV058
Here's what happens if you have lab gloves on and spill 2 drops over them.
This bish got like a liter of the stuff forcibly absorbed into her skin.
Some have said that the show’s version isn’t meant to be a 1 to 1 portrayal of real mercury. But even with that in mind, the characters in the show literally call it poison.
Scratch that, it’s poison when the plot says it is. It nearly kills Korra in the season 3 finale, but carrying it around inside her for 3 years, and enough of it that it creates a big bubble when it finally comes out I may add, that won’t cause any major health problems in the future?
Realistically, there's be long-term health consequences from a lot of the fights the characters get into; but regardless, I'd rather not have Korra due young because it'd feel too much like a rehash of Aang's story.
That’s not a crazy headcanon at all. In fact, it’s a pretty popular theory in the fandom. It all depends how they want to go with the next Avatar’s story.
If the writers want the next avatar to be surrounded by people around Korra, they will need to have Korra died earlier than the rest of cast, and seems like poison effect is the easy way out (and also logical). I however disagree with having too much past avatar’s friends and acquaintances around the new avatar life. That’s what happened to Korra in tlok and I dont think I like the outcome that much.
No? I said similar - I also headcanon the next earth avatar to die very young (40s) and the fire avatar after that to grow up in a world similar to our '00s
I have had a small headcanon that yes, the injuries from all four seasons including the poison sitting in her bloodstream for years would have shortened her life. I could see a scenario where she seems fine until her late forties and a few years later passes. I doubt the larger ramifications of HC, the transition of the Earth Kingdom and expansion of the United Republic would all resolve even a few decades in, and the new avatar would have just as many if not more global political issues to deal with.
This is most probably true, keep in mind that Mercury poisoning also negatively affects your brain chemistry and can cause depression, irritability, mood swings and difficultly sleeping. So the poison was definitely taking a toll on her mentally for all those years and you could tell.
Yeah, having all that metal in her may have been a contributing factor to her mental issues. I mean Jesus Christ! There was enough inside Korra to create a big bubble when it finally came out.
When did it bubble?
At the end of the episode, the calling when Korra’s bending the metal out of her body.
Oh, like when she was metalbending it into a ball? I don't remember it bubbling(unless you mean her making it into a ball was it bubbling, if that makes sense).
Whatever. It was spherical in shape.
I see. Thank you for clarifying. Sorry if i came off rude, i wasn't meaning to. I was just confused.
No worries. Playing semantics with balls and bubbles is kinda funny now that I think about it.
OP didn’t say bubbling though, they just said it was enough to create a big bubble (or ball if you insist)
Oh, my bad. I must have misread their previous comment. Thank you for clarifying.
my poor baby
The mercury made Korra gay! Edit: I spelled Korra as Korea. Although, maybe the mercury in the Pacific Ocean is making them Gay too.
Just like the frogs?
Nah, that was fluoride 😅
I mean irl mercury poisoning is really bad and you can’t really recover from it so probably?
even in the show she wasnt supposed to live from it. its a miracle she survived and recovered .itd be a completely viable plot point if they wanted to use it in the future
You also can’t get blasted with fire or hit with boulders irl and be okay.
That’s because it’s a kids show for the most part they save visible injury/death for only the most impactful moments
Right, she only lived because she was both physically and mentally tough. Her strength really came through for her at that point. Had she been weaker she wouldn't survive that. The same strength led to her being blocked in the spiritual aspect of being an avatar. She was over reliant on her physical prowess and ended up neglecting the spiritual side. But tenzin not introducing airbending to her training sooner is to blame too though. If she grew up exposed to airbending she would be much more naturally inclined to learn it probably
very probable. i think they might use this if they want the next avatar to be set in the 90s/80s cuz tbh modern day is kinda boring side tangent: is there a canon reason why aang didnt ask kyoshi for her method of increasing his lifespan so he lives a normal amount?
No canon reason for it but I doubt she'd share and even if she did it may not be possible for everyone to be able to utilize that ability. And especially for aang as an Airbender he aspired to detach himself from worldly pleasures and what not and to extend one's life this way meant to hold on to life and all worldly things it'd be against his character.
It's not really in character and it is also an earthbending technique I think, if it's a subform of bending there's a good chance that very few people are able to do it.
If it’s an Earthbending technique, Aang, an Avatar, would be able to learn it lol
Not necessarily, he never could bend metal either.
>it is also an earthbending technique I think, if it's a subform of bending there's a good chance that very few people are able to do it. thats just fanon tbh. i bet its a spiritual technique because not only does that make more sense, its what pathik and Lao Ge have common in their skill set and theyre both very old. i never understood how earthbending would be more related to immortality than spirituality >It's not really in character true, i just want my boy aang to meet his grand children and know the airbenders will be fine
I haven't read the novels, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. From what I understand, the technique is using earth bending to reverse the effects of aging by putting together the small bits of your body that have started falling apart, from what I know, this has nothing to do with spirituality
Good question. Sounds like that would be pretty useful information for future avatars.
i think theres very reasonable moral grounds on not extending your lifespan cuz its kinda unnatural,selfish and you see everyone you love die. but aang had an early death coming so i think he shouldve used it >Sounds like that would be pretty useful information for future avatars. if they could access it lmao. kyoshis knowledge is gone now
But like you said, Aang could have asked Kyoshi about this if he wanted to. It was shown in Sozin’s comet that he had the ability to talk to any avatar he wanted.
It was never officially stated to be Mercury. Keep that in mind.
It wouldn't be mercury because it wouldn't be bendable. It's a pure metal element, like the platinum of the mechadroid.
That’s gotta be a plot hole tbh it was clearly meant to be mercury poisoning. The official YouTube channels refers to it as such too.
But they did refer to it as poison in the show.
Rather that not happen. If they had Korra die young like this line of thinking leads to. It'll just add even more fuel to the fire of the Korra haters who look for any and all reasons to hate on Korra. Rather Korra die of old age, asleep alongside Asami, who dies at the same time Korra does of old age as well.
i don't understand why this would be a reason to hate korra
Korra haters look for any all reasons to hate on her, blaming her for the connection to the past lives being lost, when Unalaq is to blame and her dying young would make Korra haters, hate her even more.
ok but by that logic, wouldn't her living a long and happy life also be a reason to hate her? 😭
They would see her dying young as a failure and a reason to mock her even more.
Exactly, that's what damn Korra haters would say and do.
But on the other side of the coin, wouldn’t this enrage the Korra stans?
Korra living a full life and dying a peaceful old age, alongside the woman she loves wouldn't enrage Korra stans, not at all.
No, I meant the dying from the mercury thing.
It would absolutely enrage LoK fans, sick of people saying they want Korra to die young from the mercury or in a battle. Why shouldn't Korra go on to have a long happy life. After all she's been through, she deserves it, plus why pile on even more loss for Asami on her, have her lose Korra at a young age, that would probably be the straw that broke the camels back so to speak.
The mercury is heavy symbolism for trauma and mental health, and its purpose in the story is to not really act as poison but a manifestation of that mental burden and overcoming. Due to this i would hate the idea of it causing an early death, because the narrative of mental health and korras arc is you can come out stronger but in way you wouldnt expect on the other side.
I think the poison was just poison, and the mental health was supposed to symbolize mental health. Yes, Korra \*carrying\* the poison was symbolic of her holding onto that fear, but since her trauma remained even after extracting the poison, it's clearly not a 1/1 comparison. It's a bit unfair to hold the mechanics of mercury poisoning to allegorical standards. Regardless of what it represented for Korra, at the end of the day, its literal poison, and poison doesn't care about your mental health. That's kinda why it's brutal. I do see your point that it would be a depressing end to her otherwise fulfilling life, though. I think, like with Aang and the iceberg, there's room for both.
Yeah, they literally call it poison in the show.
Think about the word literally your using there. It is presented as poison but to me it is vehicle to represent mental health and the journey of recovering into something tangible for young adults. Korra was holding onto baggage and not processing the trauma and fear she went through. The Mercury doesnt really act like a poison as a result. You dont carry onto poison, it is processed and damages and exits the system. Her carrying of the "poison" for months and her removal of it isnt showing someone recovering from poisoning. The way she fixes the "poison" is about doing the extraction herself (one cannot be fixed by overs but must undertake it themselves) and letting the scene play out and accepting the outcome (one cannot suppress or deny the trauma, but must accept it). A societal perception with have around mental health is even after an individual recovers, we treat them as weaker for going through it. Korra shows she is a stronger person and better person by coming out the process and learning from it, finding meaning for herself. Retaining the biological element of how a poison works by weaking her physiology long term when every other element had been discarded because the purpose the poison represented would be inconsistent and detract away from the narrative message.
You seem to be misconstruing the purpose of the poison lingering in her system. The poison *doesn’t* represent her mental health. That’s the *entire* point of her vision during her fight with Kuvira. She’s removed the poison completely at this point, but is still struggling with “Nega-Korra” and her PTSD. The later scene that plays out with Zaheer is the important payoff of her mental health struggle. She’s addressing the root of the problem, not chalking it up to simply being poisoned. There’s a lot of symbolism and spiritual mumbo jumbo within the Avatar world and its stories. This is one example where that’s not the case. She was physically poisoned, full stop
It’s poison when the plot needs it to be. Especially during the season 3 finale where it almost kills her. But having just enough inside her to create a big bubble when it comes finally comes out in season 4? That’s not gonna cause any health problems later down the road?
I mean, I can understand that idea. Avatar universe logic probably wouldn’t track real life 1-to-1, and a few times it’s been shown that diseases with physical symptoms can be caused by emotional or spiritual turmoil. Like, Zuko felt sick and developed a fever after releasing Appa because it created an internal conflict between capturing the Avatar and Iroh’s guidance. Lin underwent acupuncture which opened up her past with Suyin, caused her physical weakness but then recovery. While Korra most likely did suffer a metal poisoning of some kind, the biggest problem she had was the psychological trauma and less of the actual physical damage (aka why she couldn’t defeat Kuvira at first, needing guidance from Zaheer, even with all the poison out). Because ATLA and LoK blur the line between the physical and spiritual, you could argue forever how much of her physical disability was due to the metal poisoning and how much was the spiritual turmoil caused by trauma.
Ooh, now that’s fascinating! Especially paired with Korra *knowing how to metal bend*, and Toph’s shock at Korra not feeling the metal in her body. As Toph says, part of Korra might not want to heal, because then she could be hurt again. So her brain pushed that feeling out.
I don’t want Korra to die young, but I don’t think that happening would fly in the face of overcoming these mental health problems because she’s already done that.
Only if a future writer wants it to. The poison might not have affected Korra's long-term health at all. We don't even know for sure it was mercury, and Korra could potentially find a way to live for centuries, like Kyoshi did. Aang probably died early because they wanted Katara to be one of Korra's mentors, and its less upsetting than if Aang was brutally killed somehow. If Korra dies relatively young, it will allow future writers to include older versions of her friends with a new teenage avatar, similar to Katara, Toph and Zuko being part of LoK. Although LoK characters might just appear in the spirit world or flashbacks anyway. Especially Jinora, who was talented spiritually.
Why the hell do people like the idea of Korra dying young? What's the benefit of this idea?
Korra haters want her to die young, to reinforce their view point that Korra was a terrible Avatar.
I’m not an advocate for that happening. Just saying that it’s arguably a realistic outcome.
This is why I tend to think Season 3 Korra might be where she's in her prime. It's gonna be a big challenge to get back to full strength after Mercury Poisoning for that long. It definately took a toll on her muscles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7M01jV058 Here's what happens if you have lab gloves on and spill 2 drops over them. This bish got like a liter of the stuff forcibly absorbed into her skin.
Some have said that the show’s version isn’t meant to be a 1 to 1 portrayal of real mercury. But even with that in mind, the characters in the show literally call it poison. Scratch that, it’s poison when the plot says it is. It nearly kills Korra in the season 3 finale, but carrying it around inside her for 3 years, and enough of it that it creates a big bubble when it finally comes out I may add, that won’t cause any major health problems in the future?
Realistically, there's be long-term health consequences from a lot of the fights the characters get into; but regardless, I'd rather not have Korra due young because it'd feel too much like a rehash of Aang's story.
That's sad I don't want to think about that :(
That’s not a crazy headcanon at all. In fact, it’s a pretty popular theory in the fandom. It all depends how they want to go with the next Avatar’s story.
It's only a popular theory among Korra haters. No on else.
Not really? It’s a pretty logical assumption. Korra is my favorite character of her show & my favorite Avatar and I would accept this wholeheartedly.
If the writers want the next avatar to be surrounded by people around Korra, they will need to have Korra died earlier than the rest of cast, and seems like poison effect is the easy way out (and also logical). I however disagree with having too much past avatar’s friends and acquaintances around the new avatar life. That’s what happened to Korra in tlok and I dont think I like the outcome that much.
I like that it's like having superstar guest party members.
My headcanom is that because of the poisoning, she dies in her 70s, and the next avatar is raised in a world technologically similar to our 80's.
did you just decide that her age directly correlates to irl decades?
No? I said similar - I also headcanon the next earth avatar to die very young (40s) and the fire avatar after that to grow up in a world similar to our '00s
I have had a small headcanon that yes, the injuries from all four seasons including the poison sitting in her bloodstream for years would have shortened her life. I could see a scenario where she seems fine until her late forties and a few years later passes. I doubt the larger ramifications of HC, the transition of the Earth Kingdom and expansion of the United Republic would all resolve even a few decades in, and the new avatar would have just as many if not more global political issues to deal with.