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From a post I made about three years ago
:
I don't think that's a valid argument, ever. Swap Anna or Elsa for a guy and they'll look a lot more like a couple than Korra and Asami did. If you swap Timon or Pumbaa for a female character, they'll look like a couple. Same thing can be said for a lot of buddy cop movies. I'd even go as far as to say Wallace & Gromit would look like a couple if Gromit were a woman.
Male–male, female–female, and male–female interactions cannot simply be assumed to always hold the same meaning, even if what actually happens is precisely identical. That's not exactly a good thing, but it certainly can't be ignored.
Season 4 was when they actually intended to make it a thing. I was speaking of the rest of the series.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
I don't think anyone argues for that being a plan in seasons 1 and 2. By the fourth they seemed to have plans for certain, but many wonder if it was enough.
And nobody is sure if Season 3 was build-up or became such in hindsight, which is why people still argue about this.
Queen of Good Things, Honest
The first time I started seriously considering Korrasami to be more than just a Ship Tease gag here or there was season 3's "Long Live the Queen", when the episode's B-plot was basically devoted to how these two are just the bestest best duo there ever was and together, their partnership can achieve anything.
I haven't seen the show in a long time so I can't really pinpoint exactly what it was, but I remember coming away from that episode feeling like it was a super-shippy episode for Korrasami.
When the season ended with an intimate moment between Korra and Asami - having Asami prepare Korra's hair for her and push her wheelchair, putting Asami in a position of care typically reserved for the designated love interest - I was completely sure that this was meant to be canon.
For me, season 4 just came across as an experiment in seeing how explicit they'd actually be able to make what was, by that point, an obvious romance.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 28th 2018 at 12:48:40 PM
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That was probably the only moment where I truly saw the shippyness. Even with me not having a strong opinion on Korrasami being canon, that's still one of my favorite moments in the series. I wish there were more moments like it in the series because it feels genuine and full of character.
I think Korra being separated from Asami for most of Season 4 really hindered the relationship from being particularly interesting or compelling. I also think the series shafted Asami really, really hard after Book 1 and they replaced her character substance with just being Korra's helper.
...
I can't for the life of me see the scenes between Asami and Korra at the end of Book 3 as romantic. My idea of romance is probably skewered. It just seems caring but neutral.
Redmess
There is definitely cultural precedent for female-female interactions being allowed to be much closer than boy-girl interactions. Victorian novels, for instance, are chock full of young girls who are incredibly close and touchy with each other, much more so than even their actual male love interests. This is also why same sex ship teasing seems a lot less convincing than when it is between a boy and girl.
All the more reason why same sex relationships should be a lot clearer and more direct in fiction.
Optimism is a duty.
The King Without a Kingdom
I thought Varrick/Zhu Li was a very good couple and I'm surprised no one brought that up besides me.
It's been 3000 years…
Probably because not many people liked it, myself included.
I liked it, especially because both characters are fun comic relief. But they are very much side characters.
"Zhu Li, do the thing!"
Queen of Good Things, Honest
I like Varrick. I like Zhu Li. I like Varrick and Zhu Li.
I'm not a fan of the ship. Because employer-employee romance plots are gross endorsements of workplace sexual harassment.
My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.
Technically Zhu Li wasn't working for Varrick by the time they got hitched.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
They’re a gray area and probably generally not to be trifled with, but I wouldn’t say they’re synonymous with sexual harassment.
Funny but not helpful
She’s president now so the power balance has swung way the other way
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Zhu Li is president? When did that happen? Turf Wars?
Funny but not helpful
Yes
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
The King Without a Kingdom
Huh. Good for her.
It's been 3000 years…
So we have cars in LOK.
How long until we have planes. Will planes even be a thing if the Air Nation takes off and there's just spirits and flying bison everywhere.
Maybe the introduction of spirits to the human world has utterly ruined this world's tech tree I mean - there's not much reason to develop anti-bending tactics when potentially anybody can be a bender now (lion turtles) or have some form of spiritual backup (the owl, nature spirits). The spirit world was already ruining parts of Republic City in Book 2 IIRC and it's not like anybody really can do anything about the spirits taking over/populating.
Edited by Soble on Dec 29th 2018 at 9:15:58 AM
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
Funny but not helpful
They have planes and also rigid frame airships already
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
a
Don't the biplanes show up way back in the first season?
Hitokiri in the streets, daishouri in the sheets.
The King Without a Kingdom
If I'm remembering right, the area around the spirit portal was starting to get overgrown, stretching out into the residential part of the city.
It's been 3000 years…
Funny but not helpful
They took over the spirit wilds
Or kind of always lived there and decided to squat it unless a giant robot ruined the property value?
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
I can't remember anything obviously romantic between the two besides the scene at the end of Book 3, the scenes where they reunite in Book 4, and the finale. Anything prior to Book 2 comes off as my shipping goggles being on too tight, If this was planned prior to Book 4's start and is an example of Hide Your Lesbians, their subdued interactions worked in their favor. The more overtly romantic scenes in the series are badly written more often than not.