!!Series finale spoilers ahead!!
If you haven’t already heard, The Legend of Korra ended this past Friday, bringing an end to the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel and generating a wave of chatter online. After four seasons and 52 episodes, the series hasn’t always hit the right notes. One of the elements of The Legend of Korra that I had voiced concerns about in the past is the show’s handling of romances. The series’ first two seasons fell into many of the deadly traps of fictional romances, from convoluted love triangle drama to drawing comedy from a certain male character’s suffering in a relationship with a controlling woman. But how the series ultimately ties up its relationships leaves plenty to discuss.
In seasons three and four, we saw those aforementioned problematic relationships fizzle out, leaving most of Korra’s gang single. In their place, the show focused on the steady maturation of Korra and her friends, and the creation of bonds much stronger than the rather superficial romance-of-the-week of the previous two seasons. In a way, the most generic relationship drama–the infamous love triangle between Korra, Asami, and Mako–turned out to be the most innovative, namely because the romance drama got ditched.
By turning to a scenario in which neither girl ends up with Mako, creators Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino shed a restrictive, not to mention overused, element of storytelling that ends with someone winning the love interest’s heart and thus, winning happiness. Instead, Korra offers its viewers a revision that doesn’t disregard love, but simply adjusts our expectations of what kind of love really matters. Take Mako and Korra for example. They’re romance may have crashed and burned, but they become friends who have each other’s backs. This is their happy ending. They’ve moved passed their passionate adolescences to find more stable relationships that don’t necessarily register with the standard comedic ending. It’s not an unheard of conclusion for the lead male and female characters, but one that seems much more natural than their previous on-and-off romance. Bonds of friendship and family prove sturdier than anything in Korra. Even Baatar, Jr. discovers the love of his family to be stronger than his romance with this season’s antagonist, Kuvira!
Of course, we did get a good dose of classic comedic endings as well. You can’t get more classic than ending with a wedding, and that’s exactly what The Legend of Korra gave us as a conclusion for wacky genius duo Varrick and Zhu Li. Yet even more standard relationships like this one ended up putting a heavy emphasis on partnership above anything else. While Zhu Li had been colored as Varrick’s assistant in seasons two and three, the show made a notable effort to depict Zhu Li asserting her equality and Varrick beginning to recognize Zhu Li as a partner in both their professional and personal relationships in season four. While played for laughs, their marriage vows raise some doubt as to how much Varrick has actually changed how he expects his relationship with Zhu Li to work, but perhaps this brief moment is a good way of acknowledging that change doesn’t happen so easily.
My favorite change, however, is the relationship that bloomed between lead women Korra and Asami. Konietzko and DiMartino made a smart choice earlier in the series by making Asami and Korra friends despite their mutual love for Mako, avoiding much of the typical underhanded fighting between female rivals-in-love. This relationship reaches new heights in this last season, as the girls grow into women who depend on each other more than anyone else, supporting each other during the most turbulent periods.
With a final shot of Korra and Asami holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes as they prepare to embark on a journey at the end, Korra creators have pushed the envelope one last time in the show. There’s a debate about whether this final shot sends a message of prevailing female friendship over romance or cements Korra and Asami’s relationship as more than friendship, but lovers. (UPDATE: Korra creators confirmed that they are, in fact, lovers. Thanks, Megh!) Whether you see them as just friends or as a couple, you have to admit that The Legend of Korra leaves its viewers with a wonderful break from standard stories. Not only do the leading women not have to end up with the guy to find happiness, but they each find their most important companion to be another woman. Their relationship is defined as a bond much stronger than a fairytale romance between a prince and a princess. It’s one of support, love, and partnership between women.
The Legend of Korra ends with a bang just as it began with one by sticking with its muscular, kick-butt heroine when doubt was expressed about the appeal of an action show with a female protagonist. Korra marks herself as a heroine never to be tied down by standard storytelling, leaving gender stereotypes and romance cliches far behind in this last season.
Gagging on Sexism 
Great post! As it so happens, the romance is canon! So happy! Here’s one of the creator’s posts on it: http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace
I just heard! Very cool that the creators of Korra not only took steps to suggest that their main character enters into a same-sex relationship at the end of the show, but also confirmed it!
This article makes the best case I’ve read so far for exactly why the Mako’s S1 and S2 characterization grated so badly. While the love triangle was annoying, that could have been expected in any number of teen dramas. It was that the romance horned in on the message of Korra’s own character development we thought the show had been building up, especially in contrast to the way ATLA had also promoted familial and friendship bonds.
Two Mako analogues I’m reminded of are Naruto’s Sasuke and Buffy’s Angel. There were so many complaints about the way Sasuke seemed to be taking over the story, whereas BtVS always reinforced Buffy’s journey as independent of Angel’s. Early seasons’ Mako swung too much towards the Sasuke end of the scale. Thankfully, Bryke realized their error.
And I have yet to think of a good analogue to Asami yet, which shows how unique it is to a have a character like her in this type of ensemble cast.
Thanks for the link! And good distinction about what makes the Mako-Korra-Asami love triangle narrative problematic. I think that’s one of the reasons why the romances in the last two seasons were more successful. Those romances were part of the story, but plenty of space was given to character development outside of romance, Korra’s character in particular.
I like the idea of Korra and Asami being a couple…but I really hated HOW they did it. Asami was hardly developed in the series (secondary characters as the Beifongs have a lot of more screentime and importance than her), her romantic scenes with Korra were really lackluster and the complete thing felt really out the blue.
I mean, look at book 4: Asami’s words didn’t help Korra to overcome her issues, it was Tenzin’s, it was Mako who was with her in the trip to Zaheer’s prison, not Asami; Korra didn’t try to confort Asami after her father’s death, they showed Mako looking worried when Korra banished in the portal instead of Asami … seriously I know they couldn’t show it explicitly but if they could give Zhurrick sustance despite their love was hinted in the middle of book 4 (as opposed to Korrasami, that was an option since makorra’s breakup) they could well do something that feel like a legitimate pairing.
To be honest, I was caught off guard by their paring, too. The creators say that the hints are there so I’ll withhold judgment until I watch the series over again, but I still think it’s fair to say that their relationship wasn’t clearly defined based on the surprise of fans. After the first two seasons placed such emphasis on romance, I have to admit that I’m glad their relationship wasn’t given as much screen time as the Mako-Korra-Asami triangle, but a little more onscreen development in Book 4 would have been nice to really hit the ball home. The episode that covers their letter exchange was a good touch though!
I’m more irritated at Bryan and Mike’s hypocrisy, since they made that post pretending they care about lesbian representation when back in their first blu-ray commentary, they loved their main couple and called Mako and Korra soul mates, and it was evidently not to pander to people who liked Zuko and Katara back years ago. Back when ATLA had just finished, they mocked women who like Katara and Zuko as a couple because they didn’t prefer their self-insert hero. Then when Korra’s first book finished airing, they complained about the backlash Makorra (as a couple) received, blaming their bad writing on “angry fangirls,” then said there would be no more romance after book 2 finished airing and there was an even bigger backlash. Then now, in order to eek out some praise for their show, since their ratings fell hard enough to have Nick put them on-line only, they jump on the “PC” bandwagon in order to please the remaining fans to distract them from their previous awful writing choices.
Man, I haven’t seen the series past season two, and if this last part of presumed intimacy is true I’ll have nothing to do with the show.
How can deception, lies, and outright callousness be thought upstanding and good? Moral relativity is a sham and only serves to justify lusts. No one lives that way either, so I reject any premise of that which is rooted in lustful passions and a ungrateful heart towards the Creator can ever be good.
Perhaps put another way: The Emperor can pretend he has clothes on, but he’s still butt-naked no matter how much he reasons. Morality is immutable to the whimsical wishes of a person.
Sheesh, Political ploys are annoying, often not well-thought out and praise lies and wicked behavior as moral because people “feel” that way.You might as well call Hitler a noble man since he certainly “felt” and believed with all his soul he was just saving the world from liars and murders. Whatever fits moral relativity.
But thank God justice and truth do not exist to the whims of society or any individual. So I thank you for the well-written posts.