Just about a week ago, Avatar: The Legend of Korra aired its series finale. That it happened in the first place is a triumph for its creators and fans, since the show has been plagued from the beginning with production and budget issues. Add how the show managed to pick up despite a season where even some of us die-hard fans were tempted to give up on it and you have an ending that is more than a little impressive.
Of course, there was something else about the ending that got people talking: The protagonist of the show, Korra, walking off into the Spirit Realm hand-in-hand with another female character, Asami.
Eli Heina Dadabhoy spent their childhood as a practicing Muslim who never in their right mind would have believed that they would grow up to be an atheist feminist secular humanist. Eli has been an active participant in atheist organizations and events in and around Orange County, CA since 2007, and on the national stage since 2011. Eli is a speaker and panelist on a range of diverse topics including feminism, race, LGBT issues, the challenges of deconversion, Islam, non-monogamy, strategies for inclusivity, and the various intersections of the above. You may have heard them at Skepticon, the American Atheists National Convention, the Huffington Post Live, and Have Your Say on the BBC World Service or read about them in the New York Times.
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10 thoughts on “Writings from Elsewhere: Korrasami & Queer Representation”
Haven’t seen the show in question but it does remind me of Dumbledore from Harry Potter. In book six Rowling made it as blatantly obvious as she could without mentioning the word gay that Dumbledore was indeed gay. I honestly can’t understand how anyone who read the books could have missed it. Rowling didn’t confirm it until a few year later though and a lot of clueless people were completely surprised.
I loved the first Avatar series so much. Haven’t watched any of Legend of Korra, but if it’s half as good as its parent show, I’m sure I’ll love it too.
You’re a Korra fan too??? Yes! Loved the ending. I considered for a second that maybe they’ve decided they love each other, but I re-watched and didn’t get a romantic vibe, just a deep friendship they both worked hard to have.
Just got to the show’s confirmation of what they wanted to show. I really have to fault the network. Yes, old fuddy-duddies like me need it spelled out. The writers really wanted to do it clearly, and the show has a long history of going into excruciating detail on how characters feel about each other. If you’re watching Legend of Korra, chances are good you can handle seeing a lesbian relationship and you can handle your kids seeing it. Just a bad call from Nick. Maybe some added scenes for the DVDs/iTunes releases?
There’s a lot of great analyses on the subject floating around, both before and after the confirmation from Bryke. Even I had to make a post about it, which I normally don’t do for anything. Jo‘s analysis on the actual framing of the denouement is pretty genius, though. I thought the reactions of the fandom were interesting both before and after the confirmation, though. First a lot of “why can’t two women just be friends?” (well, then can and are, so why can’t two of the gigantic cast also be lovers?). And now there’s a lot of “there was no build up!” and any attempt to explain that Nick set limitations will simply be met with “no excuse for bad writing!” And the four years of history as friends growing closer and closer even during their rivalry for Mako and any subtext is, of course, not accepted as “build up.” Funny, that.
IT WAS SO AMAZING.
I spent hours and hours reading other analyses of it, watching fantastic live-reaction videos, I couldn’t get enough of it. I almost gave up on it in season 2 – the rest of my family did, when they had all been huge ATLA fans. I’m so glad I kept with it.
[…] not what happened yesterday, when I found out that official Korrasami fan art was going to be sold for charity at a gallery about 30 miles away from me. Obviously, I was not […]
Haven’t seen the show in question but it does remind me of Dumbledore from Harry Potter. In book six Rowling made it as blatantly obvious as she could without mentioning the word gay that Dumbledore was indeed gay. I honestly can’t understand how anyone who read the books could have missed it. Rowling didn’t confirm it until a few year later though and a lot of clueless people were completely surprised.
I loved the first Avatar series so much. Haven’t watched any of Legend of Korra, but if it’s half as good as its parent show, I’m sure I’ll love it too.
You’re a Korra fan too??? Yes! Loved the ending. I considered for a second that maybe they’ve decided they love each other, but I re-watched and didn’t get a romantic vibe, just a deep friendship they both worked hard to have.
Confirmed by the creators as a romance. You don’t gold hands and stare into the eyes of your vest friend while essentially riding off into the sunset.
Just got to the show’s confirmation of what they wanted to show. I really have to fault the network. Yes, old fuddy-duddies like me need it spelled out. The writers really wanted to do it clearly, and the show has a long history of going into excruciating detail on how characters feel about each other. If you’re watching Legend of Korra, chances are good you can handle seeing a lesbian relationship and you can handle your kids seeing it. Just a bad call from Nick. Maybe some added scenes for the DVDs/iTunes releases?
Gotta admit, I did not see it coming. Then again, I’m pretty clueless about most signals, as my forever-alone status confirms.
There’s a lot of great analyses on the subject floating around, both before and after the confirmation from Bryke. Even I had to make a post about it, which I normally don’t do for anything. Jo‘s analysis on the actual framing of the denouement is pretty genius, though. I thought the reactions of the fandom were interesting both before and after the confirmation, though. First a lot of “why can’t two women just be friends?” (well, then can and are, so why can’t two of the gigantic cast also be lovers?). And now there’s a lot of “there was no build up!” and any attempt to explain that Nick set limitations will simply be met with “no excuse for bad writing!” And the four years of history as friends growing closer and closer even during their rivalry for Mako and any subtext is, of course, not accepted as “build up.” Funny, that.
IT WAS SO AMAZING.
I spent hours and hours reading other analyses of it, watching fantastic live-reaction videos, I couldn’t get enough of it. I almost gave up on it in season 2 – the rest of my family did, when they had all been huge ATLA fans. I’m so glad I kept with it.
[…] Writings from Elsewhere: Korrasami & Queer Representation […]
[…] not what happened yesterday, when I found out that official Korrasami fan art was going to be sold for charity at a gallery about 30 miles away from me. Obviously, I was not […]