#the censorship that korrasami faced

[awakefor48hours]

I swear tumblr zoomers describe Korrasami's relationship like historians looking at actual gay relationships

"They were just good friends"

"Their relationship was so ambiguous"

"There was nothing too special with them"

[maybe-boys-do-love]

It's wild that the whole global trend of gay-focused happy ending romance shows and movies has only been going on for *looks at calendar* a measly ten years!

Just ten years ago. 2014. That's when you get the discovery of a market for queer romance series and films with happy endings. That year the OG Love Sick in Thailand came out. Brazil puts out The Way He Looks, which deserves so much more credit than it receives for influencing the aeshtetics of the genre. Looking premieres on HBO, and although it had low ratings, it's an important touchstone. And, despite Nickelodeon’s censorship and shifting the program from tv to its website, the Legend of Korra confirms Korrasami in its season finale.

The next year, in 2015, we get Love Sick season 2, and China, pre-censorship laws has a few options: Happy Together (not the Wong Kar Wai one lol), Mr. X and I, and Falling In Love with a Rival. Canada, premieres Schitt's Creek. In the US, Steven Universe reveals Garnet as a romantic fusion between two female characters, and will proceed to just be so sapphic. Norwegian web series Skam premieres and sets up a gay protagonist for its third season, which will drop in 2016 and entirely change the global media landscape.

Then, 2016! This is the MOMENT. That aforementioned Skam season happens. Japan puts out the film version of Ossan's Love and anime series Yuri!!! on Ice. China has the impactful Addicted Heroine, which directly leads to increased censorship. The US has Moonlight come out and take home the Oscar. In Thailand, GMMTV enters the BL game and Thai BL explodes: Puppy Honey, SOTUS, Water Boyy, Make It Right, plus, the Thai Gay OK Bangkok, which, like its influence, Looking, is more in the queer tradition but introduces two dramatically important directors to the Thai BL industry, Aof and Jojo.

By 2017, Taiwan enters the game with its History series. Korea’s BL industry actually kicks off with Method and Long Time No See. Thailand’s got too many BLs to mention. Call Me By Your Name, though not a happy ending, makes a big splash that will send ripples through the whole genre, and God's Own Country offers a gruff counter-argument to problematic age differences and twink obsessions. This is also the year of Netflix reboot of One Day At a Time bringing some wlw to the screen, and the Disney Channel has a main character come out as ‘gay’ on Andi Mack ( I’m am ready to throw fists with anyone who thinks the Disney Channel aesthetic isn’t a part of current queer culture). And I'd be remiss not to mention the influential cult-following of chaotic web-series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo: "Sometimes things that are expensive...are worse."

All this happened, and we hadn’t even gotten to Love, Simon, Elite, or ITSAY, yet.

Prior to all this there are some major precursors some of which signaled and primed a receptive market, others influenced the people who'd go on to create the QLs. Japan has a sputtering start in the 2010s with a few BL films (Takumi-Kun, Boys Love, and Jujoun Pure Heart). Most significantly in the American context, you have Glee, and its ending really makes way for the new era that can center gay young people in a world where queerness, due to easy access to digital information, is less novel to the characters. And the QL book and graphic novel landscape was way ahead of the television and film industries, directly creating many of the stories that the latter industries used.

There's plenty of the traditional queer media content (tragic melodramas and independent camp comedies) going on prior to and alongside QL, and there are some outlying queer romance films with happy endings that precede the era but feel very much akin to QL genre tropes and goals, many with a focus on postcolonial and multicultural perspectives (Saving Face, The Wedding Banquet, Big Eden, Maurice, My Beautiful Launderette, and Weekend). I don't mean to suggest that everything I’ve listed ought to be categorized as QL.

Rather, I want to point out how all of these new-era queer romance works are in a big queer global conversation together, in the creation of a new contemporary genre, a genre that has more capacity and thematic interest to include digital technology and normalize cross-cultural relationships than other genres (there's a reason fansubs and web platforms are so easily accepted and integrated to the proliferation of these series).

You're not too late to be part of the conversation. Imagine being alive in the 1960s and 70s and participating in the blossoming of the sci-fi genre. That flowering is where gay romance sits now. Join the party.

[gayfandomblog]

Please explain tummy slice controversy bc I don't remember this one

in the korrasami hug that aired in 4.07, there's a gap between korra and asami's stomachs. in the "previously on" footage shown at the beginning of 4.09, there's no gap. at the time, this led to rumors of censorship. specifically, there were posts/comments speculating that the original hug made it into 4.09, and the aired hug was changed to reduce the appearance of closeness.

my personal belief is that the aired hug is the original take, and the footage that appeared in 4.09 was a retake to correct various problems with korra and asami's models (particularly their faces and head shapes in the frames leading up to the hug), which for whatever reason didn't make it into the episode.

here's another comparison showing what I mean about their faces:

but to be clear, we never heard confirmation one way or another. my speculation is equally supported as anyone else's. it remains a mystery.

[hauntingofhouses]

hot take time about the mizu and akemi ship. y'all can disagree but i said what i said, because again, it's just an opinion!!!!

putting the rest under a cut so y'all are free to ignore this if you want. i'm just rambling anyway and, again, these are just my personal opinions.

okay like i gotta hand it to blue eye samurai like it's genuinely impressive that they've written their characters so well, like each one of them feels so real and fully-realised

and as a consequence of that, it actually. for the first time ever. has me rooting against a sapphic ship becoming canon endgame LIKE LMAO ???? i didn't think that was POSSIBLE but here we are ???

cuz like if you know me at all you know i usually instantly latch onto any femslash ship at any given opportunity. like i don't think yall understand. i was ride or die for korrasami before it was even remotely a thing, like at that point korrasami was still a CRACK SHIP in the fandom and i was gunning for it immediately and begging them both to leave mako's stupid ass!!!

but SOMEHOW this show, with all its gender fuckery galore and all its well written characters, has somehow made me look at the mizu/akemi ship and say "i'll pass." like dont get me wrong i was pinning my hopes on it initially in the first episode, but by the time i got to the end??? NAH.

like don't get me wrong they ARE cute and sexy on paper and i DO definitely see them developing feelings for each other (mizu towards akemi especially, less so the other way around because akemi just does not strike me as the pining type) but for an endgame? nah. it'd be weird and messy for both of them like!!! they'd be bad for each other!!!

they both want and need completely different things in life (mizu wants vengeance but needs acceptance/belonging; akemi wants freedom but needs autonomy and empowerment).

and they don't even share much in common that would help them bond in a romantic way? like not even interests-wise, but like. personality-wise too. their perceptions of life and approaches and experiences all directly contrast each other. like i know that they're narrative foils and all, which is great, excellent really, but romantically? there is no common ground between them.

besides, of course, both being AFAB and struggling with the patriarchy and misogyny, both having a surrogate father figure who raised them (swordfather for mizu; seki for akemi). aside from those things, they diverge in almost every single way?

like i do get the appeal of the "yin and yang" dynamic of opposites attract in ships (i have so many such ships from other fandoms after all), so i do suppose that, if given enough time for a really long and intense slow burn, it could work. but with all the plot plot plot the show's got going on, i don't know if that's going to be possible, especially now that mizu is ??? apparently going to london ????

and what would their endgame even look like? the two of them running off into the sunset together? why? when akemi has everything she wants and needs in edo palace? which, by the way, is completely the opposite of what mizu wants and needs, as mizu needs a place where she is free to be herself and is accepted and loved for who she is. she does not need, nor want, a life of political intrigue. she is not made for it, nor is it meant for her. akemi, on the other hand, is perfectly suited for such a life, while being completely unsuited for a life on the road, travelling, or living on a farm in the middle of nowhere. nor would akemi like or enjoy such a life either! she'd get freedom, yes, but it would hardly be fulfilling, especially now that she has decided that she wants greatness!

i don't know. if they become canon endgame, the show better put in the work. because this is a netflix adult animated show with the freedom to do that (unlike, say, cartoons on nickelodeon and disney where the creators all faced heavy censorship to get some rep in), so if they're taking the sapphic endgame route, they better buck up and put their backs into it because seeing the state of it right now, the chemistry is bone-dry and the prospects are disastrous!!!!

so until further developments prove me wrong and change my mind, every time i see mizu/akemi content somehow escape the confines of the mute function, i just reenact the gengar gay wrongs gif:

[ur-frndly-neighborhood-memer1]

"Because we don’t frame murder, genocide, or abuse as good things in kids shows"

Yes, instead we see Zuko's burned face, the skeletons of air nomads, Azula's mental breakdown, the literal suicide of Amon and Tarrlok...

And please don't come at me with not killing Ozai argument. Yeah yeah, Aang spared Ozai while everyone around him told him to finish him off, big deal

But in LoK, we have a breathtaking conversation the Earth Queen, a mindblowing fight with P'li, and a shocking swimming lesson with Ming Hua... Oh, and how is Ghazan doing in, y'know, in the place that probably isn't heaven? Yep! Good thing that they didn't show adult content in Avatar series😊

But anyhoo, for that Korrasami thing... Yes, there had been some moments between them in season 3 and 4. Yet, all scenes could easily pass off as some casual moments between two friends.

What I mean is that there wasn't a significant moment to imply that they had something romantic between each other. Maybe except their final scene?

Look, I'm not trying to be rude or anything. All I'm saying is that it's annoying how we can have much worse and possibly traumatizing scenes but not allowed to have a same sex relationship in cartoons. I know it wasn't entirely about Nickelodeon, but it doesn't excuse anything at all.

For what you say about Steven Universe, I only watched its first 3 seasons. So I don't wanna talk about something that I don't really know. But for Catradora... Well, Catradora was actually rushed in my opinion. And as far as I know, it's a Netflix series and was made by DreamWorks. So they probably didn't have an issue with censorship or anything... But why were they rushed? It's really not related to topic, I'm asking out of curiosity lol

KORRA AND ASAMI: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY

As everyone who watched Legend of Korra knows, Korra and Asami officially become a couple at the end of book 4. However, it's not really exposed in the show but only subtly hinted in the last scene.

And this is what I don't like about their relationship. It feels sort of forced and happened out of nowhere. Of course, I know it happened because of Nickelodeon's nonsense politics about LGBT because it was a kid's show and blah blah blah... But because of Nickelodeon's homophobic politics, Legend of Korra lost a great opportunity to present a healthy, nice LGBTQ+ couple.

Just imagine, this could have been what happened!

Yeah, there was supposed to be a kiss scene too! But it was cut because Avatar is a kids friendly show😊 There's nothing wrong about committing genocide (slaying all air nomads), abusing children (Zuko getting burned by his father), descent into madness (Azula's breakdown), committing suicide (Noatak and Tarrlok's death), killing someone (The Earth Queen's "breathtaking" and P'li's "mindblowing" deaths)... But thankfully, Nickelodeon draws the line at LGBTQ+ 🙂👍

Korra and Asami could end up becoming an awesome ship! There should have been at least more moments between them to build the romantic tension; such as looking at each other longly without realizing it, smiling at each other romantically, touching each other's hand... And you would know there was something going on between those two.

Because the show literally skipped their relationship development. Which is why it's given in the comics instead.

Those two deserved more screen time and an opportunity to build their relationship openly! I don't know about you, but I will never forgive Nickelodeon for that... JUST LOOK AT THEM!

All I can say about them is:

(And putting this picture is actually spot-on because Disney also shortened "The Owl House" because of Luz and Amity's relationship... Which is why I sometimes feel like Lumity's development was kinda rushed. Eh, Disney just being Nickelodeon 2.0 I guess. Sad)

[elvesofnoldor]

i mean people discussed this thousands time over but lok was definitely a bumpy ride. i like where they MIGHT have been trying to shape korra’s arc into, which is one about korra growing from a naive, sheltered and a little bit hot headed but nevertheless incredibly kind-hearted and good-natured teen to a level headed and seasoned warrior who has come to understand the complexity of the world through her struggles. i love that Korra’s story was all about self-discovery and it was all about learning what it truly means to be the avatar. despite how bumpy her arc was, i do come to love how unique it was meant to be. she started in a very different place than aang. aang never wanted to be the avatar, but korra wanted more than anything to be the avatar. it’s no wonder that korra had trouble airbending even though her most recent past life was an airbender. but one thing she had in common with aang was capacity for compassion and kindness. Even though their journey was so different, they are similar in that both aang and korra had to survive and struggle with tremendous pain and trauma other people has inflicted upon them and came through the other end learning that their pain and trauma did not have to define and change them as people. with aang, this manifested in the narrative as him struggling to control his avatar state--often triggered by the fear of losing people he loves and cares about. because the pain he has to struggle with comes from trauma of losing his entire people to genocide. At the end, he found a way to defeat fire lord ozai without killing him, staying true to himself while achieving what he must achieve to restore balance to the world. i think they tried to have korra go through a similar process, what with sympathizing with kuvria and saving her and in the process opening a whole new spirit portal. And the infamous “i need to suffer so that i can be more compassionate” line in the last couple of minutes of the show is probably referring to her sympathizing with kurvria, as korra said to her earlier that she knows what she feels because she knows “what it’s like to be afraid”. now, idk if “being afraid” has anything to do with the war crimes kuvria has committed and about to commit, i think they were just trying to have korra sparing kuvria to take on the same sort of significance as aang sparing ozai even though that wouldn’t work very well because these two fights SHOULD have played different roles in the two avatars’ respective development/story. And, let’s put aside the fact that anybody could become more compassionated--even people who already are compassionated in the first place, i have to say that the last season or so still give off this “we don’t really know what to do with our female protagonist anymore so we are gonna have her tortured to ‘take her down a peg’ so that she has something to struggle with” stench. because with the way things ended at the end of s1, it didn’t seem like they had a concrete plan from the get go. even if they worded things better and changed that line into something about growing from her pain and not letting it define and change as a person and learning through her mistakes and her pain that being a hero and warrior doesn’t always mean punching her way through her problems (which was what her arc was supposed to be about anyways) instead, that stench may not go away anyways. sometimes i wonder if her arc across four seasons would have been so erratic if she was not a dark skinned female protagonist, after all, i doubt it was her being a female protagonist alone that caused the nickelodeon to be so against production of lok from the very beginning. sometimes i wonder if the fan base can be so nitpicky about her behaviours if she wasn’t not a dark skinned female protagonist. no. the fan base would definitely not be as unkind had she not been a 1. woman 2. dark skinned woman, but i do wonder about how the production of the story arcs would have gone. idk. it’s not the best show ever, that’s for sure. but i expected to love korra and i love her still. Overall, im just glad i watched this show and experienced the story at last. 

[duelistgamer]

I was just thinking about the moment Caitlyn softly caresses Vi’s face while in her room… and how we would have flipped if it was korrasami

I want animated korrasami dammit

I want their relationship further explored in B3 and B4

I want their kiss animated, can you imagine?

We could have had more of them but censorship happened at the time

And don’t get me wrong I’m thrilled with caitvi but… I don’t know. We often say korrasami walked so the rest could run but… sometimes I wish they had happened later, so we could’ve enjoyed them at their fullest

[shasta-reese]

Supercorp ficlet

So the CW couldn't even do the bare minimum of a korrasmi-esque ending so I've taken it upon myself to write how they could done an extremely subtle-are-they-actually-endgame-ending. Here's how it could've gone. This is set right after the wedding hug btw. I am not really a writer but I hope you enjoy this.

--

Kara and Lena pull apart to wipe their tears when they hear Nia calling for them. They turn their heads towards her and turn back towards each other smiling while sniffling, still reeling from their emotional moment sensing that there was more to be said but neither starts and they stare at each other for a moment longer. It's Lena who composes herself first and clears her throat.

"We- um- we should go say goodbye to Kelly and Alex before they leave for their honeymoon." Lena stumbles at first, her hand gesturing towards the newlyweds' direction, still not moving from their spot.

"Yeah...yeah we should." Kara shakes her head a little, out of her little stupor. Kara starts to move but pauses mid-step and reaches for her glasses, slightly hesitant but takes off her glasses nonetheless. Lena watches as Kara slowly sets down her glasses on the barrel near them. As Kara's gaze lingers on her glasses, Lena observes the pensive expression on her face.

"Hey," Lena whispers as Kara looks back up to face her. "You're with me, right?" Lena asked with a small smile, holding her hand out to Kara. Kara takes a moment to process the question but her lips turn slowly into a wide smile and stares right into Lena's eyes.

"Always." Kara answers and takes Lena's hand in hers, lacing their fingers together as Lena's smile widen. They finally walk towards the couple leaving who're shouting their goodbyes to their daughter and to be good.

Kara might be unsure about a lot of things right now, who she wants to be, what the future might hold for her, how she'll balance everything. But the one thing that she is sure of in this very moment is that no matter what life throws her way, is that the woman right next to her holding her hand will be there every step of the way.

--

And as Kara and Lena walk away hand-in-hand the camera watches them move further away and refocuses on Kara's glasses left on the barrel, and end scene. I know its not really a korrasami ending but its similar and this really is the bare minimum they could've done. Even if they did do this it would've felt like a cop out. Cuz korrasami only ended so ambiguously because of Nickelodeon censorship and to add on the fact that gay marriage wasn't even legal yet in the US. So any show airing right now doing a korrasami ending would feel like a cop out.

[kittytishers]

shout out to korrasami and bubbline for giving us all the right bits and pieces. these relationships werent rushed or shoehorned, they were methodically developed in the face of censorship (and much more well done than many many other canon ships out there).

[awakefor48hours]

Here's your yearly reminder that korrasami is not an "ambiguous" relationship and they did not "just hold hands"

See you guys again next year.

IDs in alt

[megashadowdragon]

It also cost him his romantic relationship with Korra permanently, so I definitely wouldn’t say that he was never held responsible for what he did or that he never faced any consequences for his actions. I think it was more that it was treated as a joke by Bryke outside of the show itself and then later on (like Book 4′s ‘Remembrances’), so it colors how the situation was actually treated in-show at the time.

However, this is less about the characters themselves and more how the fandom treats the characters. It’s just ridiculous that Zuko is beloved while Mako is reviled, considering the magnitude of what each character did during the course of the series. And Mako was the most hated character in the Book 1 fandom too,(I was there; I remember it well), so this goes well beyond anything that he did or how his actions were treated later on in the series. It’s a disproportionate size of grievance vs size of fandom hatred leveled at the character. It’s also ridiculous and kind of ironic considering that Mako was originally created to be ‘Zuko-lite’ in a sense, though even from the beginning he was always more the Katara equivalent.

fantastic-nonsense . tumblr . com/post/145386459410/helbertinelli-fantastic-nonsense-lol-remember/embed

to be frank when I see people claim mako ending up single was karma because of mishandling the love triangle I go korra should have ended the show single as well given that she kissesd mako mako mishandling love triangle isnt something worthy of being punished/karma for 

love triangle gets messy in real life. 

I always found the idea that a character making a mistake and isnt specifically punished for it  and good things happen to him afterwards the  its being rewarded for their flaws to be nonsense ( korrasami was just a last minute retcon ( there was no buildup or hints to korrasami besides the last few minutes in season 4 finale  which was ooc for both of them and broke the narrative  which led to idea of makorra getting backtogether

korrasami buildup wasnt subtle and nonexistent and the attempts t oblame it on censorship is bs fr

“Censorship explains why we couldn’t get a kiss and an “I love you” in the finale or blatant romantic scenes, not the utter lack of Korra-Asami interaction as a whole. They had six (to six and a half) minutes of interaction in the last season, spread out over six interactions/conversations. They’ve had nearly no on-screen interaction since “Long Live the Queen,” actually. They had the 5 second “I can come to the South Pole” convo in “Korra Alone” (which Korra refused), the single letter, their interactions in “Reunions,” and then the tea scene in “Remembrances.” After that, they don’t speak again until the last two minutes of the finale. The episode after “Remembrances” is the Korra-Mako field trip to the Spirit Wilds and Zaheer’s prison and the culmination of Korra’s recovery arc. Where was Asami? She had two lines in the whole episode, and they were both to Varrick.”

seriously people try to claim korra and asami hugging in b3 as evidence ignoring that their hug didnt get a camera zoom and music swell like makorra hug 

( both kataang and makorra got theme songs which played through out the story while zutara and korrasami didnt ) 

and when jinora said they couldnt find her the camera focused on makos reaction 

and the scene with makorra and the looks they gave each other screamed I love you

[not2old4fandom]

i wouldn't compare what sg is doing to sh*rl*ck. that show constantly treated its audience like idiots for seeing something they quite clearly put in there, and used characters themselves to constantly laugh at the very idea that they could be gay, basically mocking everyone to their faces w constant no-homos. sg doesn't do that. they just put something in there and dance around adressing it, which is more in line w ships that had censorship troubles, like korrasami, bubbline, or gabrielle/xena

Oh wow that is shitty. Really they did that!?  Like I said I had no idea about what was going on in the Sherlock fandom, not my jam,  that’s crazy though. I actually wanted to say to the last anon, that the reason why I’m holding on to  Supercorp endgame is  because you can tell that the only thing holding them back from canon is a bts issue, which is a higher up looking at viewership numbers and trying to decided if Supercorp is going to make them money. 

They’re wondering if the numbers will decrease or increase if its made canon. Wondering if they gonna lose advertises? Wondering if they want to be known as the queer superhero network etc etc 

The writers and the production team have set up all the work for Supercorp endgame. They are just waiting for the green light BUT they also have a kill switch if the person at the top CW/DC whoever, sees its not the best financial option. The kill switch being Lex and the book of destiny. 

Which is why, as a lot of others have said, if we want to see Supercorp happen its up to us, the fans . It is so so so so important, absolutely vital that fandom makes the loudest and the most positive noise on social media. And not just Supercorp, the show as a whole.  Because the show needs to know there are  other demographics watching as well. The bosses need confirmation that Supergirl numbers will stay level or grow if this massive decision is made. 

Sorry for the long ass reply anon!

[tourmalinedreams]

A lot of you on this site look at LGBTQ and/or poly representation that has a few flaws in regards to the writing (but are overall relatable and positive) and have the balls to tell fans that they're wrong, stupid, or both. There are people who take their voracious need for what they think of as airtight flawless writing and shove it in the faces of those of us who are mainly looking for a few crumbs of recognition and comfort, as well as laying into writers who have always fought for said representation.You may be one of Those People.

I think a huge issue here is that if you do this, looking at a romance that ended up feeling somewhat underdeveloped because of censorship or cancellation and sneering like it's all for nothing, I'd say you need to pony up and finally read/watch The Celluloid Closet. I won't explain the whole thing because nah, but so many of you prioritize your film student skills or your status among popular cishet white critics over the fact that a few decades ago, all LGBTQ characters in the movies and on television were shown as monstrous, freakish, or diseased. You can’t keep insisting that diversity for diversity’s sake is always bad or that representation has to be better than everything that came before it. I don’t always like the same WLW/MLM/poly ship as others, but I don’t hijack their posts to insult their intelligence and complain that “UGH those two were sooooo last-minute! It’s pandering and you’re stupid for liking it!” Like........WOW that is some serious brainrot.

Don’t be dismissive of other people’s happiness. Crack open a few history books. Do it before you humiliate yourself.

TL;DR Vito Russo didn’t do extensive research, deal with violent homophobia, and go through the AIDS crisis just so you could mock other LGBTQ people for liking Korrasami and Poison Quinn.

[tantei-armin]

After whats happening in Brazil at Rio's Book Biennial and all the fight over censorship of LGBT+ content in media for kids, I really REALLY wish Disney would take Felipe Neto's example be be bold enough to actually give Elsa a girlfriend in Frozen 2.

Making a movie with a lgbt main character would be great of course, but having an already loved and known character such as Elsa fall in love in the middle of the movie with another woman and kiss (just like all the straight couples do in 90% of animated disney movies) would be one huge ass FUCK YOU to hoomophobics, specially to homophobic parents.

Just imagine that mother taking her children to see the "let it go movie my kids love", and then as the movie progress "BAN" right in her face and she cant make her kids unsee it.

We are moving. Korrasami happened, Gravity falls showed gay characters kissing in the background, miraculous ladybug have a non-binary characters based on a real non-binary person.

But it's still all too quiet and not clear, gicing space for people to say things like "they are not gay its ur interpretation I think they are just best friends".

We need bold statements. And Disney have the power to do that. SO JUST FUCKING DO IT! Shoe the word that you are not gonna stay silenced just because a few intolerant idiots are against love and feel personally offended when things arent like they want.

[bettycrockerflowers]

bisexuals* and remember this was 2012, if they made their romance more explicit then it wouldn't be allowed. Nickelodeon didn't even allow the kiss to be shown on air, their romance was likely stunted due to censorship. Alex Hirsch got censored by Disney trying to show a minor gay relationship in the same year, Korra was no different. Showtime also got changed for later seasons past season 1 to a later time of day, stunting viewerships. Korra got MASSIVELY fucked by Nickelodeon, and it also had way fewer episodes per season than Avatar - there is simply not enough time for development like there was in Avatar.

I'm mainly gonna address your points on the Korrasami romance, as you seem to have a personal problem with it when the relationships Korra had at the beginning were also rushed. She saw Mako and immediately fell in love with him, no buildup to it but there's no problem with that for fans apparently.

Also, it is realistic. Same-sex relationships are not common in her universe, likely why she didn't realize she liked women until she bonded with Asami and slowly developed feelings. I mean, it isn't even revealed that Kya is a lesbian in the show, she talks about it in the comics. Yes, it isn't shown, but again that's likely due to the limited episodes and censorship of gay relationships. Remember, the kiss had to be shown in comics and not on screen. The comics are where their relationship is fully established, not the show, and probably because there's a lot more creative freedom. Also, alternatively, you do not need to show everything in story-telling. Telling is fine, if it is not overdone and done right. Yes, Korra does suffer from rushed storylines, but that doesn't mean Korra is static and doesn't change - she DOES change. At the beginning, she is a rash, hasty 17 yr old who fights first and thinks later. She has been raised in the Southern tribe under the guide of the White Lotus, sheltered from the real world.

She's excited as fuck to finally have freedom, and immediately goes overboard & wrecks havoc, and get this - immediately faces consequences because she's arrested for her destruction. She's only saved because Tenzin has her back and bails her out.

*also teenagers are kids, and Korra grew up as a sheltered child & teenager. yes, she should make better decisions but she's bashful and stubborn, and yes, used to getting her way as the Avatar. It's how she was raised + plus her temperament. She learns humility later on, after everyone starts genuinely resenting her for her actions as the Avatar. I do wish the show had more episodes, I think Korra would've been fully fleshed out instead of relying on the comics

*Additionally, the Mary Sue complaint is a common one aimed at Korra... and that's simply not true. A Mary Sue is a perfect character, one who has no flaws and is liked by everyone. Just because you think Korra is static (she's not) and doesn't face consequences (she does) does NOT make her character a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a female character devoid of flaws and perfect, something that Korra isn't. Korra is deeply flawed, and constantly gets her ass kicked in the show - something that isn't characteristic of a Mary Sue. Also yes, Asami and Pedma are strong women but that doesn't exclude Korra from the list. She is able to overcome mental weaknesses and being defeated various times to come back stronger. I mean, Toph literally kicks our girl's ass on the first meeting! A Mary Sue would've gained some special ability to enable her to defeat Toph, while having little to no bending experience.

[ricekrispyjoints]

about adam

i’ve seen a few posts that are asking people to remember that shiro is still “our gay rep” with or without adam

but here’s my concern : dreamworks execs are cowards and without adam, we are never going to get on screen confirmation of shiro’s orientation

below a cut bc i got a lil ranty

(please note : on the whole, i liked this season ! this particular disappointment  re : canon LGBT rep was unfortunately not that surprising, but i just have a lot of feelings about it and wanted to get it down)

so without adam even ALIVE anymore, i feel like our chances of addressing his and shiro’s past -- the “safe” and more implicit way to confirm shiro’s gayness -- is slim to none

not only was this a thinly veiled bury your gays trope, but think about the korrasami series finale reveal : the only way we had anything “canon” was that they held hands at the end. did the words gay/bi/wlw/sapphic etc ever come up ? nope. 

dreamworks is, in all likeliness, not going to give us a dialogic version where shiro TELLS US how he identifies. shiro is never going to get to say “i’m gay” or “i’m attracted to men” or “adam and i were together romantically” or whatever. he’s not going to get to use his words, bc dreamworks probably wants plausible deniability.

p much the only way we’re gonna get our on screen, confirmed rep, is through subtle actions, which require shiro interacting with a male character in a way that can be construed as a mlm relationship : he’s going to have to hold hands/hug or sOMETHING physical

(yes i know he and keith hug a lot, and i’m here for it, but i don’t think that means they’re together)

anyway, the second part of what bothers me about what happened to adam is the fact that once again, all we really get is creators in a panel discussion saying “this guy’s gay” or “shiro and adam were engaged/on the path to engagement” (i’m not sure the exact words they used, since my info is 2nd hand)

and i guess faced with dreamworks’ censorship, talking at a panel is all they felt they could do for the fans, since several creators have expressed a desire to have him be canonically gay even from the start

now i could make an entire post on how i’m bitter that they’ve known from the start that shiro was gay and yet they still put him through the most absolute SHIT (i mean he canonically died and y’all knew he was gay... fuckin’ rude)

but my point is, it feels like once again we were promised some big canon reveal and once again all we got were INCREDIBLY subtextual hints that they may have been important/close to each other

but compared to how deep and profound the interactions between shiro and keith are (even if you read these scenes platonically), who’s gonna look at the 30 second conversation between shiro and adam and go “oh yeah they’re together/they’re in love/they’re dating” ???

i can’t be sure how much of that is dreamworks censorship and how much is the showrunners thinking that somehow, those little scraps were “good rep” but.... 

like the only way i see us getting ACTUAL on screen rep now that adam is dead is if keith asks shiro about it in s8 or something. like, having shiro acknowledge what they were to each other. but given that we almost entirely glossed over the mourning period and even the happy reunions post-battle for earth.... this seems almost impossible

anyway i’m really disappointed in the way adam’s character and “arc” (if it can even be called that) was handled, and i think that he was honestly the best bet we had for confirming shiro’s gayness and then he was killed off before shiro even got to say hello, and that, friends, is just disappointing