Reviews WesternAnimation / The Legend Of Korra

By the end of season 3 it was pretty clear that at least someone on the team was shipping Kora and Kuvira. They were having conversations where they'd look at each other and blush.

It was even more prominent in early season 4 with "you're the only one I felt like I could open up to" and the rest of it.

Most of the people I knew were going wild with the shipping teases but no-one actually believed they were going to go all the way because of same-sex and all of that. I'm really interested to know when the writers actually started doing it though. They clearly didn't have it planned out in season 1, so I guess they listened to the criticism and Tumblr comments and actually decided that Korra and Asami were a better couple for each other. The writers were definitely deliberately developing the storyline in Book 3, but were they thinking about it in Book 2?

Thinking about, I reckon they decided it during Book 3. They were layering on the Korra/Asami friendship there and it probably just clicked more than they thought it would. At the end of 4 it does leave the relationship at a different place than normal, it's less a "I've loved you from the moment I saw you" kiss thing and more "I'm realising you're a really special person in my life, do you want to try and go further with this"

Sorry for talking to myself here but I was wrong again:

Word of God, the co-creator was thinking about it during Book 1. For Book 2 he decided to push the friendship and see where it went. In Book 3 they wanted it to happen but thought the network wouldn't allow them to do it, so they just put in a lot of romantic undertones and finally they tried to work a way to actually get it canonised. http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace

Part of the reason why people may be skeptical about Korrasami is the circumstances leading up to it being "made canon".

Proof of Korrasami

1. Asami taking care of the poisoned Korra in book 3 "If you need anything..."

2. Korra only sending letters to Asami

3. Korra blushing when Asami complemented her

4. Holding hands and and staring into each other at the end of the series

Alternate interpretation:

1. Korra almost died and can't take care of herself, Asami's concern need not be based on attraction.

2. Sending letters to the person who took care of her when she was sick.

3. First person to notice and complement her after this new look, Toph did the same thing when Katara complemented her in Ba sing se.

4. Asami's dad just died, holding hands thing really could have been sisterly (a la Frozen) and supportive.

Unless you live in a fairly unaffectionate world, a platonic friendship showing these same "signs" isn't even remotely rare. Bryke almost certainly intended the relationship to be more than friendly. However, those who don't see it aren't "blind" or "in denial" necessarily.

• Did intend

Thank you for addressing these problems. Its nice to have someone other than me address some obvious flaws and not get called a "nostalgia blinded idiot".

You are *exactly right, overall this season just really didn't interest me, even season 3 didn't really wow me but it was honestly a whole lot better and I enjoyed it a lot more than season 4...4 just had too many wasted moments and honestly stuff I just didn't find realistic or very well executed.

And then of course the *extremely* poor execution of the whole Korrasami ship. When it comes to ships, I honestly don't really care much what the writers do as long as they actually give it development and put work into it...Korrasami does not fit that standard at all, even a little bit. It's especially hard to swallow since, as one of the other comments pointed out, pretty much everything that could be used or argued to be a Korrasami shipping moment is not implicitly romantic or even close to it. In all of the fiction I've followed, I've only ever really had two pairings of characters not meet my standards of being developed and those are Angela/Broadway on Gargoyles and Korrasami....and Angela/Broadway had *far* more development and was far more obvious than Korrasami *ever* was.

^I agree on Angela/Broadway. I know Gargoyles isn't the topic of discussion, but I thought you might appreciate knowing that you aren't the only one who feels that way.

As a counterpoint some of the things that signal the Asami/Korra relationship are the exact same things which signalled the Mako/Asami relationship. For example the thing that happened that is meant to make us know that Asami and Mako were now in a relationship was when Mako and Asami were alone together, Asami talks about the pain of losing one of her parents and Mako comforts her, after which Asami lays her head on his body. And from that we're meant to know they're together.

Here Korra and Asami were along together, Asami talks about the pain of losing one of her parents and Korra...

Lots of shows have highly ambiguous events between the male lead and female lead which are meant to imply romance to the audience, even though it's totally normal stuff. And this case should be less obvious because neither of them really realise they're in love with each other until the very last episode. Its just a very different kind of relationship to normal TV deals

Romance has always been clumsily handled on Last Airbender, and Korra was no different, it just appeared worse since it got more screen time.

^That's just plain debatable though (all of it), not fact

There was distinctly focus on it in Last Airbender, with it only being used as bits of a running subplot, rather than a major one until the very end. Korra made it a primary focus almost immediately. And it was not as well received.

Still doesn't mean all people didn't like it, as you've been implying; we've all got different opinions, just like mine that it wasn't clumsy at all (on either show)

if asami was male no one would doubt it was building up to romance

"If Asami was male no one would doubt it was building up to romance"

Wanna bet?

Just ask the people that have been debating whether Cloud and Tifa are really an item... for over 17 years and counting... despite the Lifestream Event, "The Night Beneath the Highwind", and Word of God outright confirming that they are. And that's a het pairing.

There was also the debate over whether Noa and Asuma (from Patlabor) could be considered an item, which went on for almost 20 years after the series' finale. And they had more onscreen chemistry than Korra and Asami ever did. Yet, no one knew their official status until the live-action sequel finally resolved the issue, by revealing that they'd gotten married several years after the finale.

If fans have scrutinized two het pairings, the first of which was blatantly obvious before Square Enix confirmed it themselves, what makes you think they wouldn't question tne validity of Korrasami?

No one's denying that Bryke confirmed it, but much of the evidence being offered as proof of it, comes across as platonic - even the part about Korra writing letters to her. When you think about it, who else could she have written to?

• She had lied to her parents about being in Republic City, so obviously, she they weren't an option.
• More to the point, she told them she was staying with Tenzin and his family... without telling Tenzin that. So she couldn't risk writing to him either, otherwise, he might've told her parents he'd heard from her, not knowing about the lie she told.
• Korra knew from personal experience (Book 3) that if Lin knew that she had run away, she would've tracked her down again and hauled her ass back home. So she definitely wasn't gonna risk talking to her about what she was doijng.
• She also knew that Bolin couldn't keep a secret worth sh*t. A fact which he admitted himself.
• And Mako may, or may not have been supportive, plus he works too closely with Lin.

By process of elimination, Asami was her only option - if we're looking at the situation logically. Which is how I saw it.

It would've been different had Korra been writing her love letters, instead of just needing someone to confide in - as friends often do. Like many people, I have certain friends that I find easier to confide in, than others. That doesn't mean I'm attracted to them. All that says is, I can trust them more about those things, more than I do with the others.

Okay, I've seen a lot of criticism regarding how Korra and Asami's interaction can be interpreted as platonic. The reason that the subtext is clear despite the individual moments being minor is because of the number of them. Korrasami was a crack ship before Book 3, because their interactions were few, but then they kept getting scenes together and we now know those scenes were intended to be romantic development. And while the buildup is certainly subtle, it is there. If you flip a coin ten times and it keeps landing on it's side, things aren't as random as you thought. Even if a single toss doesn't make much difference, something's up with that coin.

By the way, Korra wrote that letter to Asami before running off. So aside from Bolin-can't-keep-his-mouth-shut, none of those points matter.

"And while the buildup is certainly subtle, it is there."

Which is why many didn't see it that way, up until the final scene. Because, until that moment, they only seemed to be close friends.

"By the way, Korra wrote that letter to Asami before running off."

Korra wrote more than once. We saw Asami reading multiple letters from her, while Korra travelling incognito.

Which episode had Asami reading multiple letters?

"Which episode had Asami reading multiple letters?"

I've seen the episode once (so I don't remember the name), but iirc, it's during the scene where Korra was doing her voice-over, while Asami was reading one of them. The same scene also showed Korra in her room with bunches of wadded paper on the floor around her bed.

Also, when she finally reunited with Asami and the others, Asami mentioned that she and Korra had been in touch during her absence, because she had written her several times. Which is why Mako and Bolin wanted to know why she hadn't said anything to either of them.

That didn't happen. The episode you're thinking of is "Korra Alone". Korra was reading letters from her friends, we never saw Asami reading any from her. And the discussion at the restaurant referred to the single letter Korra sent to Asami about not being able to go into the Avatar state. The two of them only had one two-way exchange, again, before Korra ran away.

My memory was faulty then, but I'd still find it hard to believe that Korra only wrote once during the six months she was away.

When was it said that Korra wrote before leaving?

There was a voiceover of her letter to Asami taking place before she left the south pole. While she was traveling around, she sent a letter to her parents, but that's it. Out of everyone in Republic City, she only contacted Asami before disappearing.