Why is Korra's Final Relationship so Popular? (Spoilers Allowed))

[Winter]

It's Valentine's Day, we have to talk about at least one Romantic relationship before the day is done so I figured we could talk about one of the most ground breaking relationships in Western Animation, one that actually changed the face of children's animation in a way few ever do, and why it's still so popular almost 6 years later. That of course being Korra and Asami Sato from The Legend of Korra who hold the title of first official same-sex couple in a TV series that was directed at children.

For my part the reason I love this couple so much is that they are shown to be a actually healthy couple throughout most of the series run even before they started to show signs that they were beginning to fall in love with each other. Unlike Korra and Mako Korra and Asami had built their relationship on foundation of friendship and had been there for each other at some of the hardest moments of each others lives. With Korra and Mako the two spent most of the first season arguing with one another and Mako repeatedly accused Korra of trying to ruin his relationship with Asami and use his brother to get back at him for not going out with her. And for Korra's part we have her treatment of him in the first half of Book 2 where she is just plain abusive towards him for no reason. Sure I don't like Mako but Korra was just being a jerk for no good reason.

Contrast this with Korra and Asami, the two do hit a few road bumps but they are able to work past the problem and talk it out and are able to see each others point of view on the matter. The only time they had a serious argument was in Reunion where Korra questioned if Asami's father could be trusted and Asami got angry with Korra on the matter. Korra realized that she hurt Asami's feelings and didn't escalate the argument and instead apologized for her poor choice of words.

To make a long story short, (to late), what I feel works best about Korrasami comes down to three things.

1: The two have great chemistry. Unlike either girls relationship with Mako Korra and Asami play off each other a lot more naturally with the two often being a lot more fun to watch.

2: Their relationship has a more natural build to it. With the first season Korra and Mako didn't really have a reason to fall for one another and, as stated before, spent most of the first two seasons arguing with each other. With Korra and Asami the two go from Aloof Rivals for Mako's affection, to friends, to partners in fighting crime, to best friends and finally to lovers over the course of 3 years out of universe and 4 years in universe.

3: They genuinely love each other. With Mako their interest in him was, IMHO, as superficial as you could get. Mako was created with the soul purpose of being Korra's love interest because he was hansom and brooded a lot. With Korra and Asami there was, again IMHO, always more to it then that. Korra at first saw Asami as nothing more then a prissy rich girl but came to see how much they had in common. Asami, on the other hand, had heard so much about Korra and over the course of the series came to be there for her at some of her lowest moments.

And that's why I think Korra and Asami are still such a popular ship even to this day. Why do you think they're such popular couple?

[Thanotos Omega]

In addition to just being good overall, but just the fact it happened for those who had been force fed terrible romances their whole lives and told these were OK but two girls weren't, i mean loom at Aang, he managed to be the biggest creep in TLA because he didn't just hit on a girl, he kissed her without permission right after she said she wasn't sure she was into him, that was somehow OK, but girls and boys being with a same sex partner wasn't according to allot of people and it felt like vedication,

[Sir Will]

To be fair, Aang's 12. While it doesn't make it ok, it's more understandable.

I still need to see season 3 and 4. For season 1 and 2, Asami's my favorite character. All the others are jerks or idiots at one time or another. She's too good for the Korra I left off with (halfway through season 2) but I do hear she improved by the end, and seems start even by the end of season 2, from Chuck's reviews.

[Winter]

In Korra's defense, as far as season 1 is concern, she was very isolated for most of her life until she arrived in Republic City so it would make sense why she acts the way she does. Much like Aang being 12 it's not to excuse her actions but it does make it more understandable. I will not defend how she acts in the first half of Season 2 though other then to say she was badly written and I suspect that was done to make the viewer sympathize with Mako who was still someone of a creators pet at that time.

And yes Korra does improve as the series goes on, she still has a rather short temper but her outbursts for most of the series post Spirits is a lot more understandable and played more for laughs and against people who deserve instead of being directed at her friends and family. As for Asami, she remains as awesome as she always was and seeing her get her happy ending with Korra at the end of Balance is, without a doubt, one of the best moments of the series as it's just so nice to see the two find happiness with each other.

It helps that DiMartino really took the time to learn from his and Bryan's mistakes in Air and made sure that Korra and Asami continued to do what made them such a popular paring to begin with. They contrast and complement each other and instead of having the two fight for sake of drama or trying to make one part of the couple look better by comparison their arguments make more sense and are ones that the two work to over come together instead of acting like one has to solve all the problems themselves.

[clearspira]

I liked it because she is bisexual, not lesbian. Why is this a good thing? Because my biggest problem with Willow over on Buffy (a show that I was watching alongside this) was that she went from 100% hetero to 100% lesbian very quickly, to the point that when influenced by a jock that owns a jacket that makes him irresistible to women she goes off and tries to magically change his sex. Willow's sexuality was treated like a light switch. But with Korra, despite your seeming dislike of him, I can believe she loves Mako, and I can believe she loves Asami.

[clearspira]

To be fair, Aang's 12. While it doesn't make it ok, it's more understandable.

I still need to see season 3 and 4. For season 1 and 2, Asami's my favorite character. All the others are jerks or idiots at one time or another. She's too good for the Korra I left off with (halfway through season 2) but I do hear she improved by the end, and seems start even by the end of season 2, from Chuck's reviews.

Not only 12, but naive, emotional, and most importantly, he is from a culture that is far behind ours socially. The end of Book 1 has Katara not being allowed to learn waterbending because she is a girl to name one example. The men of this world probably do a lot worse than that.

[Winter]

I liked it because she is bisexual, not lesbian. Why is this a good thing? Because my biggest problem with Willow over on Buffy (a show that I was watching alongside this) was that she went from 100% hetero to 100% lesbian very quickly, to the point that when influenced by a jock that owns a jacket that makes him irresistible to women she goes off and tries to magically change his sex. Willow's sexuality was treated like a light switch. But with Korra, despite your seeming dislike of him, I can believe she loves Mako, and I can believe she loves Asami.

With Mako I wouldn't say that she loved him but rather that she was infatuated with him. Asami is someone she truly loves while her interest in Mako seemed, to me, rather superficial and based more on the fact that he was a star athlete and a good fighter.

As for Willow, yeah it does bug me that the show seemed to just forget that Willow was ever interested in men to begin with when she very clearly loved Zander & Oz and while she does seem to love Terra a little bit more broken by their breakup then she was with either of her male love interests but that doesn't mean she was only ever interested in women or that those relationships are less important to her.

Asami I fully believe is Bi but with Korra I'm a little uncertain on that point but that's just me.

[Worffan101]

Mako's a jackass, the creative team got their house in order in time for season 3 and TLOK finally got really good through there and season 4. And LGBT people are desperate for any kind of representation that doesn't get killed off stupidly.

[ProfessorDetective]

It's an LGBT couple in a mainstream animated series. Simple as that. My problem, though, was that they chickened out on the idea and only had them together for, like, thirty seconds at the very end. I would have rather seen at least a full season of them being together. Admittedly that's a problem with MOST romances in long-form media: getting together is almost always the destination, never the journey. The last time I saw a series heavily focus on any couple in the actual show was Kim Possible, and that was a fluke (it was supposed to end with the getting together like normal, fan demand lead to the extra season with them together). The best was, honestly, The Addams Family. TV sadly seems to have peaked early, on this one.

[Winter]

I don't think it's as simple as them being a LGBT couple in a mainstream series. It's certainly a factor I won't act like it's not but I don't think that's the only reason as they were already one of if not the most popular Fan-Preferred couples of the series, even beating out Zutara in some fan polls.

Funny story, before season three had started I had posted a comment on YouTube that basically said that Korra and Asami were Not going to get together and that we wouldn't so much as see them hold hands let alone do anything even remotely romantic. And by the half way point of Season 3 I was fully on board the Korrasami ship and WANTED to see them get together and in Venom of the Red Lotus I thought that there actually was a good chance of it happening.

And at the end of the series, when they joined hands and entered the spirit portal at the end I have Never been so happy to be so thoroughly proven wrong. Sure I would have liked to see more of them being a couple but S&P at the time prevented Mike and Bryan from going all the way with their relationship and still had to keep it to a small amount of screen time.

And now we have the comics which is taking more time in exploring their relationship and allowing them to be more open about their feelings. And, IMHO, it's actually really well written and even better then Sokka and Suki who I felt was the best overall canon couple in the show until Korrasami became canon.

So while them being the first openly same-sex couple in children animation is a big part of the their popularity I really don't think that's the Only factor. If it was they would have been out shown by Adventure Time and Steven Universe's LGBT couples who have been more open about their romantic relationships but Korra and Asami's relationship is still as popular today as it was almost 6 years ago.