The Legend of Korra

A few days late (anniversary of the finale was on the 19th), but a post on how Korra changed LGBT representation on tv. I kinda want to quoteblock the whole thing, but I'll just do the first two paragraphs.

Yeah, I remember when there was a whole kerfuffle over Marceline/Bubblegum and how Cartoon Network had to remove a video and Marceline's voice actress was forbidden from talking about it during cons or something.

And yet, in the series finale of Adventure Time, their relationship is pretty solidified as romantic and they even kiss.

(3)

...Irredeemable might be going into [as] territory. I mean this show got kicked off Nick for the Earth Queen and Combustion Woman's deaths IIRC.

Swanqueen was never going to happen for a lot of reasons, so frankly I don't feel bad for its fans getting laughed at. Them and especially Supercorp fans.

I have nothing against gay relationships, I like Korrasami, but women being close to each other or having some sort of dynamic while being major characters in no way means they should be dating or would choose to date each other.

Edited by VeryMelon on Dec 25th 2018 at 8:25:01 AM

I mean, it's practically a Biblical Commandment that when two people of the opposite gender interact, no matter for how long, kissing (or more) will ensue. Swanqueen and Supercorp shippers werent any different from Snowbarry or Olicity . Hell, the Snowbarry and Olicity shippers were far more deserving of mockery given the ugly shit they pulled on the actors.

I hadn't heard anything bad that the Snowbarry fans did. (Olicity fans, on the other hand, can be fanatical.)

I don't think Korrasami particularly changed anything, especially since the finale aired online. It was a huge deal, and even nowadays it is (how often does the main character end up in a same-gender relationship, in any medium, when they'd previously been in only straight romances? and with their own Betty/Veronica at that), but I can't say the series itself did anything. It was one major thing in a long stream of changes concerning the acceptability of LGB characters in children's media.

They've repeatedly insulted and harrassed Candace Patton. On one occassion when she was talking about a procedure she had to go through, her twitter got flooded with accusations she was exchanging sexual favors to keep her character on the show.

This is a bit off-topic from LOK but Candice Patton’s Iris seems to get a lot of hate in general, not just from the Snowbarry fans. I haven’t watched the Arrowverse in months so I’ve been out of the loop but I remember the Iris hate-train being almost as big as Felicity’s.

As far as Korrasami, my opinions on it have changed a bit. Personally, I think it’s...fine. Good for Korra and good for Asami. It’s definitely one of the things that could have been written better but so is a lot of the things in the show so whatever. There’s way worse queer representation these days anyway. Has anyone seen Riverdale and Voltron?

Riverdale is actually better than Korra on that front though. Like, yeah they only have a few gay characters but Cheryl and Toni were built up decently well and are handled well as a couple without it being a thing that was shoehorned in at the last minute.

I mean. YMMV. It doesn't exactly help that the lesbian of the cast is Cheryl, the evil hellbitch from Incest-Murder Central.

Meanwhile poor Kevin Keller's been one of the protagonists since day 1 and the closest he's ever been to having a boyfriend is a dude who got Put on a Bus almost immediately after they hooked up, then came back for a couple episodes two whole seasons later just to be a crazy psychopath and die.

Korrasami may not have gotten a lot of screentime, but neither of them are depraved monsters or dead. They're. Like. Good people. Who you want to root for and see happy.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 27th 2018 at 7:08:44 AM

It counts for something or a little something anyway that the sequel comics expand on the relationship

I still say Asami was just playing both sides throughout Legend of Korra. <.<

Bisexuality

Asami is definitely bisexual. Korra probably is too.

I mean, it's possible that Korra's gay but only realized it about herself after breaking up with Mako. But. Like. When she was chasing Mako, she was super into Mako. So I doubt it.

Occam's Razor says they're both bi.

The existence of bisexuals, incidentally, puts Korrasami leagues ahead of a lot of LGT^Hey! Yes, I did that on purpose. representation in media.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 27th 2018 at 8:09:47 AM

Honestly, looking back my biggest problem with Korrasami is that I like Korra and am invested in her character whereas Asami is as interesting and engaging as stale white bread.

Cheryl hasn't really been portrayed that way for awhile though? Like, yeah she's not exactly the nicest of the bunch, but I'd still say she's one of the heroes of the series.

Yeah my main issue with Korrasami is that the romance itself was really weak.

Romance in general was always super weak in this show and its predecessor.

Edited by Wispy on Dec 27th 2018 at 7:30:13 AM

Korrasami has never really impressed me on the representation front, because it's clearly something they didn't actually intend to actually do when making the series and only threw in towards the end - because it had a big fanbase and the show was ending anyway (what was Nick going to do, cancel them?). As a result, from a plot perspective they just kind of... fell together.

You can see it again in Voltron, where the largely shared team spends seven seasons vaguely implying - mostly through Word Of God - that Shiro was gay but not really doing anything about it in the actual plot. Then they fully reveal it in Season 7, only to kill off his boyfriend quickly after and thus continue to not actually do any development along those lines. And then they throw the bone with the very last shot of the Where Are They Now episode being Shiro kissing some random guy, expecting people to go "ooh, progressive!"

It's zero-effort representation, and arguably quite exploitative. Like being dangled a tiny worm on the end of a fishing line.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 27th 2018 at 7:36:30 AM

I think those examples were less "the writers didn't intend for this, and threw it in at the last second to pander" and more "the writers were literally not allowed to be as explicit as they wanted, so they were forced to throw it in at the last second, when they didn't have to worry about the show getting renewed".

I could buy Nick being that restrictive, but at the same time I find it difficult to buy that the Korrasami ship was ever intended by the writers before the season where it becomes a thing: the writing just doesn't go that way in the earlier seasons.

I'm less convinceable about that being the case in Voltron, given all the other themes it tried to explore, and especially since when the formula is repeated like that it looks less like forced censorship and more like a playbook. The thing with Shiro really does feel... calculated, like they were playing to push the anticipation from the LGBT-desiring portion of the fanbase.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 27th 2018 at 7:45:57 AM

Regarding LOK they explicitly only pulled the trigger at the last second because they only asked at the last second if it would be okay and Nick was like ‘shit do we still air you? Sure whatever’ but there was some attempts at building more of a connection between the characters in the last two seasons

So it didn’t come entirely from nowhere. It came from ambiguous character beats that would have been just gals being pals if the trigger hadn’t been pulled

Retroactive relationship building

So, then, on this topic, what would you consider the "best written" romance in the franchise?

<opens mouth>

<closes mouth>

You know, that's a good question. I guess maybe Mai and Zuko. Most of the romances in this franchise have some problem or another with plotting, characterization or pacing, or overreliance on twists and tension, but that one was built up fairly well in the short time it was present in the story, and led up to an effective payoff.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 27th 2018 at 9:03:24 AM

...and then got nuked in the comics.