MovieChat Forums > The Legend of Korra (2012) Discussion > Korra and Asami

Korra and Asami

posted 8 years ago by john-m-holt
22 replies | jump to latest

I was a fan of The Last Airbender series. From the beginning we all see love interests and from simply the first book we get a feeling of our characters. However, This was completely misplaced. This isn't the only show to have done this (kids show or not). I am not against Same-sex relationships. Infact I have a friend who is gay in happily in one (not that it should credit me in any way). If you are going to have relationships like this in a show, you need to give REAL hints, and from the start have it set up. I don't mind if a character is lesbian, or bi-sexual, but please show it. Let the love interest fester, cheap moments of simply becoming closer friends being turned around as an excuse for a "out of the blue" last second ending to make a relationship is simply dumb. I feel it was one of the last things animated for the series (and I don't mean because it is the ending episode. They do edit these all at once, but with certain parts first).

I won't be watching the next series anyway. The Legend of Korra proved you simply leave a good series alone.

[–] TompaDompa 8 years ago

I feel that they only added this relationship AT THE VERY LAST SECOND do to the supreme court ruling in June 26th, 2015.

They didn't. The series ended in 2014.

Don't listen to the negative ones; their arguments are irrational.

[–] windkirby 8 years ago

The two characters were growing closer ever since the season 3 premiere. Seemed very natural to me. I feel like people who criticize the show for this just aren't really paying attention tbh.

[–] moviefan320 8 years ago

They weren't exactly close beforehand, but started to become better FRIENDS. Then Korra ended up injured and hadn't seen any of her friends for three years. She wasn't responding to their letters either, she sent Asami ONE letter after two years and then broke off contact again. If they had let Korra and Asami share more scenes together in season 4, then it would've been more natural. Have Korra take Asami with her to see Zaheer, have Asami tell Korra how she inspires her to be a better person, have Asami be the one the shot focuses on when Korra goes missing through the portal and calling out her name. They gave all of this to Mako, who they weren't going to have be with Korra anyway. Also subtlety was never Bryan and Mike's strong suit, especially when it came to romance.

[–] Bioshock_Man 8 years ago

I feel like people who criticize the show for this just aren't really paying attention tbh.

Or maybe we're not blinded by fanboyism and stupidity, unlike you.

I'm tired of talkin, Fuchs. I just wanna get up to my shack and get drunk.

[–] Bioshock_Man 8 years ago

It was poor writing to be honest, Bryan and Mike can't write romance.

Even in Avatar: The Last Airbender the romance was the weakest aspect of the show.

I'm getting tired of this shipping trend, especially when the creators make it a priority to please their fans.

They announced a new comic book series for Korra last year, and guess what? They're only interested in Korrasami, they don't give a damn about the story.

Also, ignore windkirby, the guy is a moron who is blinded by his fanboyism and will never admit that The Legend of Korra is a mediocre TV show.

I'm tired of talkin, Fuchs. I just wanna get up to my shack and get drunk.

[–] RobtheMovieGenius 8 years ago

Does somebody have to beat you over the head with romance for you to see it? It was done on a kid's network about two young women, one being a teenager. They had to be subtle.

Aang and Katara?

You were talking about a 15 YO girl vs a 14 YO boy... how powerful was they supposed to write it???

"...insert corny quote here"

[–] DanishPrince 8 years ago

Aang wasn't 14 but 12.

[–] Bioshock_Man 8 years ago

They had to be subtle.

That's a terrible way to excuse poor writing.

Aang and Katara's relationship could've been a lot better, but it feels rushed thanks to all the unnecessary filler in Book 3.

Aang had feelings for Katara since Book 1, but she only saw him as a little brother, as a friend, no more. There's a chance Aang may die fighting the Fire Lord on The Day of the Black Sun, so he kisses her for the very first time... and nothing happens.

No, seriously, there's no tension, awkward talk, nothing, until The Ember Island Players, and she basically rejects him. Again, nothing happens for the following episodes until the very end.

Of course it felt weird when they finally kissed at the end of the series, they rushed the hell out of the relationship because they wanted to tie all the loose ends from the series instead of telling a more compelling story, and all the Zuko fanservice (which ruined Katara's character, de-evolving a well established character into a merciless psychopath, but that's another story).

I'm tired of talkin, Fuchs. I just wanna get up to my shack and get drunk.

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

There were hints. Assami was the only one Korra wrote to. Watch their almost flirtation during their reunion.

Even Mako notices something is up between them and asks.

Can't stop the signal.

[–] DeusExKatrina 8 years ago

It was very subtle, but sadly it had to be. I'm surprised Nick let it happen at all.

From an objective standpoint, if you take your feelings about it being a gay pairing out of the equation, it was a great trope subversion. It was a way to give the love triangle an unpredictable and unconventional ending. I'm fond of anything that burns a trope or two to the ground.

---
Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame.

[–] imasnowbear 8 years ago

Holy crap, I actually had to make an account because this defense of the finale and writing in general is just so infuriating. Realize that when ATLA was created and made, they had writers like Aaron Ehasz as the most prominent, and many others who had major talent. ATLA was great because Mike and Bryan are terrible creators when they work alone and in the major holding of how things go. The writers of the original series kept Mike and Bryan on a good, well written track, and that was why ATLA was so amazing, not to discredit Bryan and Mike entirely, they surely helped mold their world into the final product.

But realize that the writing in Season one of LOK was very poorly written, bouncing all over the place, terrible romantic writing, terrible pacing. Mike and Bryan worked on this season together, and didn't have much other writing talent helping them. It was only until later seasons did they start to get some more writers helping them create the show. This is why LOK started to get better, because they had writers to keep them somewhat in check. Season three was really good, and season four was alright, even if a lot of things still went wrong.

Why am I writing this horrible small essay? Because the final ending where Asami and Korra basically became a couple (implied in the show), is dropped on us like a bomb shell. Please hear me out until the end of this, as to why it is horrible. It was either a storyboarder or writer who came out to the public that after everything was done, the couple scene was added after production. Please note the link OP is biased and the title should be taken with a grain of salt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/korrasami/comments/2prls1/wow_bryke_even_hid_the_korrasami_ending_from/

The ending was changed to fit the narrative that they wanted to propagate, and this is why the ending is terrible, please read my whole message. Because after the show ends they come out to the fans and reveal they did it for the homosexual people in the world. They go on about how they're trying to be progressive, how they're trying to push animation to new heights. This is literally the same as that one show that had a trans voice actor for the sake of pushing an agenda. The guy that made that show is a total sham and hack, exploiting people to make money, recognition or fame from it. But that aside, this is exactly what Mike and Bryan did, and it shows in the writing in LOK. Romance was already terrible in Avatar altogether, and they dump this crap in to be progressive.

A character made to be homosexual for the purpose of being homosexual is disgusting and hack like behavior. I love me a good out of trope alignment story. I loved the DLC for The Last of Us with the Lesbian Apocalypse Survivors Ellie and Riley. Broke Back Mountain was a great flipping movie. But this is trash, and pushes homosexuality for the sake of being progressive, and whats more, they trash the story.

I HATE HACKS.

[–] Bioshock_Man 8 years ago

... okay, I'm just gonna say it, are you really a snow bear?

I'm tired of talkin, Fuchs. I just wanna get up to my shack and get drunk.

[–] imasnowbear 8 years ago

Yes. I am really a snowbear. :)

[–] DeusExKatrina 8 years ago

It didn't come out of nowhere. They started building it up at least at the start of the last season, when Korra started showing that she was more comfortable with Asami than she was with any of the others, and keeping in contact with Asami instead of them. A romance that takes a season to occur isn't out of left field in the least.

---
Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame.

[–] imasnowbear 8 years ago

At most you can see Friendship. Mike acknowledged that they only put it in on the last Season. Sorry to burst your bubble but Avatar has always done Romance mediocre. At least with ATLA it was not put in for a stupid reason, and written with more flow.

[–] trekkie_knight 8 years ago

Plenty of people saw that there was more than friendship. Plus Bryan mentioned that the development of the closeness of their relationship started even before Season 4, which it clearly did.

[–] imasnowbear 8 years ago

Considering Mikes opinion differs and a storyboard artist already acknowledges that the romance was put in after the original storyboard was completed, yeah it's hamfisted.

They even say they put in the romance to represent the LGBT. So you are for token representation, even if it hurts the ideology and group it tries to bring in a positive light? Tokenism isn't great to begin with, and when mixed with poor writing it becomes trash. Korra: 8.7 ATLA 9.2 There is a reason Korra is worse and it involves a plethora of different reasons, including the poorly designed romance which was yes, to many users implemented poorly.

[–] trekkie_knight 8 years ago

What Bryan said was:

No, not everyone is queer, but the other side of that coin is that not everyone is straight. The more Korra and Asami’s relationship progressed, the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for us. However, we still operated under this notion, another “unwritten rule,” that we would not be allowed to depict that in our show. So we alluded to it throughout the second half of the series, working in the idea that their trajectory could be heading towards a romance.

But as we got close to finishing the finale, the thought struck me: How do I know we can’t openly depict that? No one ever explicitly said so. It was just another assumption based on a paradigm that marginalizes non-heterosexual people. If we want to see that paradigm evolve, we need to take a stand against it. And I didn’t want to look back in 20 years and think, “Man, we could have fought harder for that.” Mike and I talked it over and decided it was important to be unambiguous about the intended relationship.

Given how many people in the LGBT community reacted positively to this, I'd say you're really reaching by claiming doing this actually hurt "the group it tries to bring to a positive light." You can check out any collection of youtube reactions of queer people saying how important that moment was to them to see that. I know of at least one case where someone came out because of it. So I'm pretty sure said "group" reacted much more positively than not, and many of those that weren't happy were because it didn't become as explicit as they wanted.

You're also really reaching if you think that a slightly higher score on IMBD is somehow an objective measure of higher qualify. Especially in attributing that discrepancy specifically to Korrasami, despite there not really being evidence of this. Many other people thought it was better than any other romance they've written because it progressed more organically.

[–] imasnowbear 8 years ago

I believe you're right that a lot of people reacted positively in the group it tried to represent. I also believe a lot of people don't care if tokenism is put in to include them. That being said I would like to retract my statement about completely hurting the group, but it does make tokenism a big quality here, not good writing.

However I do disagree with your second paragraph. I stated that there are a "plethora" of different reasons on why Korra scored lower, and yes, this includes the romance. Many people were annoyed at the blatant use of Tokenism, and if you can't write a good plot piece and include it just for the sake of inclusion then it turns into pandering and it becomes stupid. We've just witnessed something like this in an off topic subject with a game called Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear where they added a transgender character with terrible writing with their admitted use to include a token transgender for the sake of inclusion. Many transgenders came out on the forums and stated that it was disgusting that they'd sacrifice good writing for a token transgender. We can see this by the insane amount of reviews that not only mention the bugs, but also mention the political agenda pushing and crappy writing to include a transgender for no reason.

It's a bit off topic but it shows that people don't take kindly to bad writing, and the scoress show. Korra scored lower for many reasons, and this includes the terrible romance at the end of Season 4.

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

Tokenism is sometimes a necessity. Just look at the portrayal of African Americans in the early days of cinema and tv.

Yes, a lot of them were tokens, and written as stereotypes. But they helped to break down that barrier.

People who can only focus on the token aspect of a character are the very reason those "tokens" are needed in the first place.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] imasnowbear 8 years ago

Tokenism in todays world can often be looked at as an unneeded utility. We have such good writers now in terms of character depth and expression that you don't need to include stupidity in order to include a demographic. I loved the examples of Broke Back Mountain, The Last of Us main game and the DLC, Life is Strange game, and other good examples of well written, well created homosexual romances. When it's intuitive and flows like water and feels like silk, it feels organic. Including something for the sake of tokenism and to perhaps propel the movement in todays present time is inexcusable, because it hurts the final product. Well written > poorly written, and it hurt TLOK because of it.

I can agree with you that token characters were needed back then, and perhaps sometimes even now. What I don't agree with is that it was good writing. I will readjust my original statement however in that tokenism is never good for the story, but it can be good for progressing real life. But in this day and age you have so many good writers that why not just write a good character, instead of making a poor product? Lots of tokenism now a days is just there to be used as a pat on the back, as that one show that uses transgenders and minorities as a way to propel its popularity instead of making good written plots and characters. This is my argument, not that inclusion of these demographics is bad, as I just want to see good stories, not crap.

[–] shogunreaper 8 years ago

it was there, very subtle though.

i thought it was kind of dumb and came out of nowhere the first time i watched the show.

but after a repeat watch knowing how it ends you pick the little things up.