RANT RANT RANT

It has been forever in a day since i last posted, and i apologize for that. I have been posting/abusing tumblr lately and so it has swallowed a great deal of my time but I will resume posting here quite soon. It's funny because this post is actually a post about tumblr. So today while i was looking through people's updates, I ran across a picture of Korra, form the new Avatar:the last airbender series. Now for those of you who do not know, Korra is a young woman who has dark tone skin (as seen below) and as such apparently with some of the fan base she resonates a connection, which is completely and totally fine to be honest there is nothing wrong with that. I will tell you with what is wrong with what I saw earlier today.

Okay so I am going to post the photo that has started this sort of racial argument in question and then the comments about the image right below it. I have edited out the curse words because sadly they were frequent to be used (because if you really want to get your point across you have to curse.) and with that we begin.

First I want to establish something. For one, this is fan art. Say it with me now, FAN art. This is a persons own rendering of Korra, based off of a desire they had to draw her this way. I thought art was supposed to be freeing, a part of expression that was supposed to be deep? I didn't know that if my rendering of a fictitious character offended someone because i changed the skin tone slightly I would be put down.

And that is exactly what happens to a person (who happens to be white) in the comments that were attached to the picture. That person was tore down for their views on the image and the part that was focused on was that this person is white. The person makes a good point in dealing with the issue that the artist may not be very well versed in skin tones and his comment even resonates with an issue he has with the facial features which may be over caucasian. But despite this and even putting it in a respectful manner this person was tore down.

I know and understand that not everyone will agree with my own opinion and not with theirs or anyone else's. But the main aspect here is being respectful. If you have an issue what is wrong with just talking to the artist? And if someone doesn't agree you do not have to tell them names, insult their race or curse them out. it is the internet. Chill. But i know I will probably receive some hate from writing this and that is fine, you do not have to agree but if you will respond please be respectful and I will give the same courtesy.

Also just to be clear I love the Last Airbender series. I watched it with friends while I was at college and when I heard it was returning my thoughts never went to the color of Korra's skin or that she was a woman or anything. All that mattered was a show I had enjoyed was returning and I was excited to watch it. But in moments like these, when a person cannot even create a piece of art that they decided to do without getting crap form the fanbase makes me regret being a fan. It is a cartoon show, do not read more into it than what is necessary.

My main point, and concern if you decided TL;DR is that when it comes to FAN art, race, design, anything should not matter. it is your art. There will be people who like it, and those who do not. Keep on striving artists. I also wanted to give an example of a nice person who did comment on the image so you can see there are nice people on the internet and therefore hope.