xrhiax:Sorry guys, this is a really long post. Basically me ragging on Bryan Konietzko, who I love
xrhiax: Sorry guys, this is a really long post. Basically me ragging on Bryan Konietzko, who I love with all my heart, but I’m really just very angry right now. This picture is my answer to Bryan’s admission of Korrasami being canon. This relationship was given a more intimate, meaningful moment than any single Korrasami scene. I understand now that Bryan and Mike intended from the outset of book 4, at the very least, to have Korra and Asami be a couple, and yet they had very little development - Asami was just ‘there’. Maybe Bryan is right, maybe I was looking through my ‘hetero lens’, but even through it, I saw so much potential for Kuvira and Korra. Many people didn’t see that the writers were aiming for Korra and Asami to be a couple - even the Korrasami shippers themselves didn’t expect to win! - and I think it’s pretty crappy to blame the fans for that. It is a writer’s job to challenge whatever ‘lenses’ the viewers bring with them when they watch a show. They had an entire episode to run only clips and they chose to run Mako’s one-man romance novel centered on how much he loved Korra. They could have shown Tenzin’s journey through the show, or how far Asami had come since book 1 - that would have rocked; the clips episode being shown first from Asami’s POV, and then Korra’s. It would have helped people get the message. Instead, they chose to showcase Mako’s memories next to Korra’s. They missed an opportunity to challenge this ‘hetero lens’. They missed it again in making Asami’s only sacrifice in the finale the loss of her father. It gave Hiroshi the credit for getting team Avatar into the mega suit, instead of giving Asami something to be thanked for, and it made her a character for Korra to console instead of thank at the end, creating an imbalance in the give-take of a relationship, right before it became romantic. If Asami had been in a hummingbird with, say, Zhu Li, and she ejected Zhu Li so she could keep cutting, and then miraculously survived against all odds, with an injury or two - see ‘Mako’s arm’ - Korra could be genuinely amazed and have a zoom-in moment of realization that would - again - BREAK THROUGH THE HETERO LENS. We could also have had a worried Asami looking for Korra after the huge spirit blast, instead of a zoom in on Mako. I love Mako, I love him getting screen time, but book 4 would have been the right time to give him less screen time and let him fade out of the main plot. Heck, you could have given him a cute girlfriend, even if she just got one scene where she brings him lunch and gives him a kiss. Or let Mako date Wu, even. Wu genuinely loves Mako, and I think Mako loves him too. That would create a nice little aha moment when Wu mentions dissolving the monarchy. If two bisexual characters is good - four is awesome! I’m also bummed about Bolin being completely ignored at the end of the finale. Korra gets the girl, Mako gets a pat on the back, and Bolin gets … ? To marry a couple of other people? Plus his girlfriend didn’t die? He was part of team avatar too, and he deserved at least a close-up. They could’ve thrown him in to stand next to Mako when Korra thanked him, and then Bolin could get a ‘hey, thanks for not letting Mako kill himself’. I loved Zhurrick, but if any couple needed a pre-battle ‘I might die so lets make out’ scene, it could have been Korra and Asami. No kissing, of course, but we could have had a hug, even some tears. And their wedding, great as it was, took screen time that could have been allotted to better defining Asami and Korra’s relationship. Korra could have formally introduced Asami to her dad! That would have CHALLENGED THE HETERO LENS. I don’t know if this was just bad writing, or budget problems, or just a bunch of people who didn’t know how to plan out a queer ending, but I think it’s pretty crappy of Bryan to blame the fans - and flat out call them homophobic - for their not seeing something the writers had the opportunity to make clearer. As they say, ‘a joke isn’t funny if you have to explain it’, and in the same vein, you don’t get credit for writing something if you had to explain what you wrote. Korra could have written more than just one letter to Asami. Asami could have gone with Korra to the south pole after her poisoning. Asami could have gone with Korra to Zaheer’s prison. Asami could have had the flashback episode to reflect on her feelings for her gal pal - not enough scenes for that? Well shit, Bryan, you should have written some! Asami could have had so much more development. We could have gotten Korra commenting on another girl being attractive, to point out subtly that she is also attracted to girls - someone who is not Asami, because everyone compliments their friends. The fact is, they wrote Korra as straight in book 1. They changed her sexuality later on, and while that can happen in real life, there would be a period of questioning for the character. I just think the fans shouldn’t be blamed for assuming a character is straight, when the character was written as straight, and we were not provided a ‘wait am I queer’ moment. So basically, everyone who expected Makorra to happen again got screwed into expecting it, and everyone who wanted Korrasami didn’t expect it at all. All of the fans got screwed. I award you no points. This is really well articulated, and almost mirrors my exact arguments. I mean, would it have been so hard to show Asami and Korra concerned for each other’s safety during the life or death final battle? There was just nothing there. Asami almost got crushed but there was never a cut to Korra genuinely concerned over her safety. There were so many innocent, simple ways to develop their romance that Bryke never bothered with. Frankly, I think they wanted to have their cake and eat it too without any of the narrative effort. Now they can be praised for the ending without actually delivering. I also said the exact same thing about the clip show being a missed opportunity. High fives. -- source link
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