the colorist yaoi discourse is worth having in the newest avatar show,
b/c an animation studio doesn't randomly spawn in a couple that looks like a racist fujoshi's yaoi fanart out of nowhere,
and the fact that the dark skinned one wasn't marketed anywhere & only exists as a backdrop to the pale skinny character makes it worse.
NTM, the pale one's so prominent that he's arguably a protagonist— despite being one of the most annoying characters in all of avatar, in no small part because of how almost his entire characterization exists to pander to koreaboo fujos, which makes the above colorist treatment of his bf very (unfortunately) explainable.