Talk:Asami Sato/@comment-4956204-20120404045141/@comment-76.173.105.15-20120405001318

I think I'd feel very bad for Asami if Mako or Bolin were interested in her for her family's money; that wouldn't make them very good catches and if that were the case, I'd probably lose a lot of respect for them (in which case, Mako wouldn't be worth either Korra or Asami's time)...Also, it would mean Asami had low self-esteem because she didn't think she was pretty, interesting, charming, or intelligent enough to get a man, let alone a nobody. Pro-benders or not, they're not wealthy, super famous, or anywhere as influential as the Satos...yet. I mean big deal, they know the Avatar. *They* aren't the Avatar.

If one of them develops an interest in her, I'd rather see something somewhat like an Arwen-Aragorn/Luthien-Beren pedestal effect where he (either brother) feels the need to go out and "prove" his worthiness of her both to himself and everyone else (i.e. he grows from being a boy on the streets to a man with a purpose). I think that would be much more respectful and empowering to her as a female character. I also think it creates opportunities for character development. Otherwise, we're just giving Mako and Bolin undue props because either they're good looking, they're main characters, they just happen to know the Avatar, or point in case for the Equalists, they're benders. We don't want Gary Stus or canon Mary Sues.In order to keep the characters real and interesting, they all need to have depth, have realistic virtues and flaws, and be treated with dignity. I would hate for Asami just to be an object of scorn and hate among the fandom to prove a point that "empowered, modern" women are superior to and cannot co-exist with more traditionally feminine women. This is especially a sore point because she is more identifiably Asian than Korra and there are feminist circles that have attacked (and have even exhibited racism towards) traditional Asian culture and particularly its women for being percieved as too soft or submissive. What is troublesome is that in the American media Asian women have been stereotyped as hypersexualized evil seductresses, dragon ladies, sneaky, and manipulative. In other movies, Asian female characters are often depicted as losing the lead man to a more wholesome, girl nextdoor type who happens to be white. Even in modern day entertainment, if one looks at Harry Potter, Cho Chang is described as "very pretty," but is shown to be morally inferior to Ginny Weasley (Harry's future wife) for no particular reason, both in the books, and even more importantly in the movies where she is shown betraying the DA instead of her friend like in the books (veritaserum be damned, that was an excuse to make her a sneaky traitor). There was never a point in the story for Rowling to have made her character Asian unless she wanted to say something about Asian women (subliminal messages, anyone?). She totally went out of her way to do that. Basically, Asian women are seen as unsympathetic and threatening characters and a lot of the comments on this page and elsewhere seem to suggest that a lot of people really want to see Asami be the embodiment of those negative stereotypes. Azula has already been done and while she wasn't entirely inhuman, she was definitely one of the bad guys; for Asian women this is nothing new. I am hoping Asami will be a good addition to Team Avatar and show the world that an Asian woman can be feminine, sexy (sensual, not OMG I HATE THAT SKANK), a great fighter, get and KEEP a hot guy (whoever he is) and no matter her unique flaws, ultimately be a good person,