Legend of Korra

[Ｍｒ．Ｒｏｂｏｔ]

[spoiler='The finale in one picture'][/spoiler]

[Flame Dragon]

[spoiler=The Thing]
In talking with my friends, what are the examples of Korrasami given in the show, side from the ending? Like, all they've given me is
-Asami tending to Korra after she was poisoned
-Korra only writing to Asami
-The blushing scene

Honestly, the first two are NOT evidence and the blushing scene could be easily be explained with other reasoning. I'm almost certain their is none other then the fact that they were best friends, but I'm curious if you guys can name others.
[/spoiler]

[Blake]

[spoiler=Well]
It was general chemistry.

A lot of the scenes they've had together after S2 have felt like best friends for sure, but there was an underlying tension there. I'm not normally given to homosexual pairings, even if I like them, due to the fact that I doubt the writers would do so, but... I dunno, I thought Korrasami was silly until I watched the series from S3 on, and they really do just have a spark in the writing. The fact she only wrote to Asami got me jokingly saying "and then they kisses!" To Bree, but there was general tension. There was a huge surge in attention to the pairing once S3 happened, and that's due to te chemistry they were written with. The driving scene is actually the first one I ever saw attributed to Korrasami, and it was due to their chemistry in the scene and beyond more than any singular event.

I have yet to see EP 13 though, so bear in mind.
[/spoiler]

[Flame Dragon]

[spoiler=Well]
It was general chemistry.

A lot of the scenes they've had together after S2 have felt like best friends for sure, but there was an underlying tension there. I'm not normally given to homosexual pairings, even if I like them, due to the fact that I doubt the writers would do so, but... I dunno, I thought Korrasami was silly until I watched the series from S3 on, and they really do just have a spark in the writing. The fact she only wrote to Asami got me jokingly saying "and then they kisses!" To Bree, but there was general tension. There was a huge surge in attention to the pairing once S3 happened, and that's due to te chemistry they were written with. The driving scene is actually the first one I ever saw attributed to Korrasami, and it was due to their chemistry in the scene and beyond more than any singular event.

I have yet to see EP 13 though, so bear in mind.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Response]
See, I wouldn't call that romantic chemistry though. They certainly worked really well of of each other in season 3 (which is where most of their character interaction happens come to think of it) and I loved watching them together. The writing between them worked. But like, I just see that as friends working off each other and nothing about it seemed romantic. And I honestly never saw any romantic tension, and any other type of tension would have come from them both having chased after the same guy.

Not having seen ep 13 is fine since I'm arguing that paring them off isn't something the show set up and that it comes off more as pandering to the shippers than actual good romantic writing.
[/spoiler]

[Blake]

[spoiler=I disagree]
The whole time it felt charged, and it felt more than just friendship. It didn't feel like there was tension from dating the same guy, it felt like genuine deep concern, genuine chemistry as a couple. For most of S3 and 4, whenever the two were together, it was very easy to see them as a couple. The blushing scene kinda pushes it further, especially when your point to it was "it could be something else". Yes, it could... But that's not a strong argument when many people got a romantic tension from the writing and you're trying to prove why it's not. That just seems like you disagree for the sake of proving your argument.

You're entitled to an opinion for sure, but it's hardly "inorganic" or whatever it was you said. lots of people saw the romantic chemistry for the past two seasons, and the fact you don't see it and probably don't want to doesn't mean that it's not interpreted that way by others.[/spoiler]

[Flame Dragon]

[spoiler=I disagree]
The whole time it felt charged, and it felt more than just friendship. It didn't feel like there was tension from dating the same guy, it felt like genuine deep concern, genuine chemistry as a couple. For most of S3 and 4, whenever the two were together, it was very easy to see them as a couple. The blushing scene kinda pushes it further, especially when your point to it was "it could be something else". Yes, it could... But that's not a strong argument when many people got a romantic tension from the writing and you're trying to prove why it's not. That just seems like you disagree for the sake of proving your argument.

You're entitled to an opinion for sure, but it's hardly "inorganic" or whatever it was you said. lots of people saw the romantic chemistry for the past two seasons, and the fact you don't see it and probably don't want to doesn't mean that it's not interpreted that way by others.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Response]
Again, I never saw this. I can't really say more than that. Like, I didn't even think I knew people shipped them until around the blushing scene. And, my "something else" is just embarrassment or self-conscious or something along those line. You see that kind of thing happen in anime between characters when it isn't for romantic reasons a fair bit. It certainly is the next best romantic scene between them minus the ending though, but it doesn't sell it for me. Like I'm not disagreeing for the sake of it. I'm disagreeing because I honestly never saw anything romantic between them. And many people didn't see it. Hell, the most romantic moment between them is possible to not be seen as romantic since I know at least one person has seen it that way (though I admittedly find that odd just pointing out people do think this).

Honestly, this is simply interpretation of the character interaction though. I'm not going to try to make you think what they had wasn't romantic and your not going to convince me it was. It just won't happen because that isn't how we see the interaction. I goal in asking that was for to see if I could get a more specific example like the blushing scene since I certainly could have missed/forgotten something like that. Again, its not that I don't want to see, I mean asking for where to look, but what I see between them overall was that of two best friends.
[/spoiler]

[Pchi]

Taken from Bryan's Tumblr: http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace

 

[spoiler='Spoiler']Korrasami is canon.

You can celebrate it, embrace it, accept it, get over it, or whatever you feel the need to do, but there is no denying it. That is the official story. We received some wonderful press in the wake of the series finale at the end of last week, and just about every piece I read got it right: Korra and Asami fell in love. Were they friends? Yes, and they still are, but they also grew to have romantic feelings for each other. 

Was Korrasami “endgame,” meaning, did we plan it from the start of the series? No, but nothing other than Korra’s spiritual arc was. Asami was a duplicitous spy when Mike and I first conceived her character. Then we liked her too much so we reworked the story to keep her in the dark regarding her father’s villainous activities. Varrick and Zhu Li weren’t originally planned to end up as a couple either, but that’s where we took the story/where the story took us. That’s how writing works the vast majority of the time. You give these characters life and then they tell you what they want to do.

I have bragging rights as the first Korrasami shipper (I win!). As we wrote Book 1, before the audience had ever laid eyes on Korra and Asami, it was an idea I would kick around the writers’ room. At first we didn’t give it much weight, not because we think same-sex relationships are a joke, but because we never assumed it was something we would ever get away with depicting on an animated show for a kids network in this day and age, or at least in 2010. 

Makorra was only “endgame” as far as the end of Book 1. Once we got into Book 2 we knew we were going to have them break up, and we never planned on getting them back together. Sorry, friends. I like Mako too, and I am sure he will be just fine in the romance department. He grew up and learned about himself through his relationships with Asami and Korra, and he’s a better person for it, and he’ll be a better partner for whomever he ends up with.

Once Mako and Korra were through, we focused on developing Korra and Asami’s relationship. Originally, it was primarily intended to be a strong friendship. Frankly, we wanted to set most of the romance business aside for the last two seasons. Personally, at that point I didn’t want Korra to have to end up with someone at the end of series. We obviously did it inAvatar, but even that felt a bit forced to me. I’m usually rolling my eyes when that happens in virtually every action film, “Here we go again…” It was probably around that time that I came across this quote from Hayao Miyazaki:

“I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live - if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.”

I agree with him wholeheartedly, especially since the majority of the examples in media portray a female character that is little more than a trophy to be won by the male lead for his derring-do. So Mako and Korra break the typical pattern and end up respecting, admiring, and inspiring each other. That is a resolution I am proud of.

However, I think there needs to be a counterpart to Miyazaki’s sentiment: Just because two characters of the same sex appear in the same story, it should not preclude the possibility of a romance between them. 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. 

We approached the network and while they were supportive there was a limit to how far we could go with it, as just about every article I read accurately deduced. It was originally written in the script over a year ago that Korra and Asami held hands as they walked into the spirit portal. We went back and forth on it in the storyboards, but later in the retake process I staged a revision where they turned towards each other, clasping both hands in a reverential manner, in a direct reference to Varrick and Zhu Li’s nuptial pose from a few minutes prior. We asked Jeremy Zuckerman to make the music tender and romantic, and he fulfilled the assignment with a sublime score. I think the entire last two-minute sequence with Korra and Asami turned out beautiful, and again, it is a resolution of which I am very proud. I love how their relationship arc took its time, through kindness and caring. If it seems out of the blue to you, I think a second viewing of the last two seasons would show that perhaps you were looking at it only through a hetero lens. 

Was it a slam-dunk victory for queer representation? I think it falls short of that, but hopefully it is a somewhat significant inching forward. It has been encouraging how well the media and the bulk of the fans have embraced it. Sadly and unsurprisingly, there are also plenty of people who have lashed out with homophobic vitriol and nonsense. It has been my experience that by and large this kind of mindset is a result of a lack of exposure to people whose lives and struggles are different from one’s own, and due to a deficiency in empathy––the latter being a key theme in Book 4. (Despite what you might have heard, bisexual people are real!) I have held plenty of stupid notions throughout my life that were planted there in any number of ways, or even grown out of my own ignorance and flawed personality. Yet through getting to know people from all walks of life, listening to the stories of their experiences, and employing some empathy to try to imagine what it might be like to walk in their shoes, I have been able to shed many hurtful mindsets. I still have a long way to go, and I still have a lot to learn. It is a humbling process and hard work, but nothing on the scale of what anyone who has been marginalized has experienced. It is a worthwhile, lifelong endeavor to try to understand where people are coming from.

There is the inevitable reaction, “Mike and Bryan just caved in to the fans.” Well, which fans? There were plenty of Makorra shippers out there, so if we had gone back on our decision and gotten those characters back together, would that have meant we caved in to those fans instead? Either direction we went, there would inevitably be a faction that was elated and another that was devastated. Trust me, I remember Kataang vs. Zutara. But one of those directions is going to be the one that feels right to us, and Mike and I have always made both Avatar and Korra for us, first and foremost. We are lucky that so many other people around the world connect with these series as well. Tahno playing trombone––now that was us caving in to the fans!

But this particular decision wasn’t only done for us. We did it for all our queer friends, family, and colleagues. It is long over due that our media (including children’s media) stops treating non-heterosexual people as nonexistent, or as something merely to be mocked. I’m only sorry it took us so long to have this kind of representation in one of our stories.

I’ll wrap this up with some incredible words that Mike and I received in a message from a former Korra crew member. He is a deeply religious person who devotes much of his time and energy not only to his faith, but also to helping young people. He and I may have starkly different belief systems, but it is heartwarming and encouraging that on this issue we are aligned in a positive, progressive direction:

“I’ve read enough reviews to get a sense of how it affected people. One very well-written article in Vanity Fair called it subversive (in a good way, of course)… I would say a better word might be “healing.” I think your finale was healing for a lot of people who feel outside or on the fringes, or that their love and their journey is somehow less real or valuable than someone else’s… That it’s somehow less valid. I know quite a few people in that position, who have a lifetime of that on their shoulders, and in one episode of television you both relieved and validated them. That’s healing in my book.”

Love,

Bryan[/spoiler]

[Flame Dragon]

[spoiler=Official Statement Response]
 "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. "

And to that I say, they should have pushed it harder. From my (half skimmed) read it seems to me that they wrote season 3 with the intent that their relationship be one between best friends and over time felt that if people wanted to, they could read into it becoming more. And thats fine. I've said I liked their dynamic in season 3 and could see how it could become romantic. The problem is season 4 though. Asami has a much smaller part in the season and the bulk of it deals with her dad. Honestly, they should have scrapped that from the get go. The way they wrote him back in was terrible and cliche and it was obvious that it was to remind the viewer that he existed. The problem he helped them solve could have easily been solved by Asami (she should know what equipment her company has). And the cutter role could have been played by another character (hell the sacrifice could have been avoided by having Korra finding a way to get Asami and Person X out before they are crushed). This time would have been MUCH better spent building there relationship, because honestly when I look back on the final 2 episode I think the only proper scene they have together is the final one and that is NOT how you sell the relationship. Hell, when everyone is unsure of what happened to Korra after spirit explosion Asami should have run up and given it her a hug because "thank god my friend isn't dead" is something you'd get from anyone close, romantic or otherwise. It could even be the scene where she realizes she loves her. Hell, the crushing scene could be the same for Korra. Instead we get HAND ON SHOULDER which is just kind of the opposite of what you'd expect given the feelings she would have for her at that point. I think it is great that they tried to subvert things and go for a homosexual romance for the lead, the problem is I don't think they did a good enough job selling it. 

 

 

Though on the note of, "caving to fans" they could have avoided it by just not having her end up with anyway. Not only does avoid the complaint, it still challenge notions of story telling that the lead gets the guy/girl in the end. Its a more commonly challenged one sure, but it is still super common.

 

Edit: (I've added things to this post SO many times.)

http://summerlightning.tumblr.com/post/105829545997/i-am-very-curious-to-know-what-you-think-about

 

Hits similar notes to what I talked about above. I know when I was thinking on changes I would make to other season 4 stuff having them play up the compliment scene (I stand by the belief that a not super girly women being complimented on her appearance blushing isn't "OMG love" and could just be embarrassment especially since its done elsewhere like this) and, as said in the article, have Asami go with Korra to confront Zaheer. I get she was working on the mech, but that shouldn't be enough to stop her and, again, they needed to sell this relationship and that would have helped a ton.

[/spoiler]

 

I'm not sure if I ever gave my opinion on the series as a whole. So, lets do that

Season 1: Good over all, but has some problems.

Season 2: Terrible, but it at least got better.

Season 3: Good over all, but the middle was a drag and the villains team was horrible underutilized simply being Zaheer and friends.

Season 4: Average over all, with the pacing and Kuvira being terrible holding it back. The ending is something I do take issue with, but it was never something on my radar while watching, so while I think its dumb, its not a factor I'm going to criticize the show for.

 

Over all, I think the show ranges from ok to good. I obviously don't love the series as much everyone else, but I did enjoy it. It personally felt like I was down on the series in my head more than I should have been, especially since I did enjoy it. Maybe if I give myself some time, kind of forget my feeling for it, both good and bad, I'll be able to look at it with a different set of eyes.