The Legend of Korrasami
The important conversation of why Korrasami is THAT fictional couple!
By: Mars Rivas
Hi Dweebs and Dweebises! This is Mars welcoming you to our blog where Yez and I discuss extra content about our monthly episodes! Our first podcast was about the tv show “The Legend of Korra” where we dove into the storyline, concepts and characters to explain why we adore this show so much. If you tuned in, you know that at the end of the episode it was briefly mentioned how Korrasami, aka the ship name between character Asami Sato and Avatar Korra, IS SO REAL (not me blogging about a fictional ship). Contrary to popular belief that this relationship was an unnecessary add to the show and sprung out of nowhere, I’m here to present to you my evidence that very few believe about how this fictional relationship was present from the start. We won’t get too deep into detail because we want this short and sweet. Lets go!
To begin I must share that according to creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, Korrasami was actually supposed to occur in Season 1, where Asami Sato’s character was going to be introduced as an antagonist pretending to date Mako to get to Korra. However, the creators eventually decided to scrap the idea, but still had the want to have this ship sail since Season 1. One of the reasons was because Nickelodeon marked LGBTQ content as explicit and would not allow something as simple as a hand hold to be shown between same sex characters. This lead to the couple being introduced until the final season while the creators fought for a scene and the audience feeling that it “came out of nowhere”. But, it is said that even if Korrasami wasn’t “official” before Season 4, there are definitely slight clues throughout that point towards Korra and Asami having feelings for one another.
In Season 1 Korra is not the biggest fan of Asami because she has feelings for Mako and so she judges and assumes that Asami is this perfect, beautiful rich girl who she stands no chance against. On the contrary though, Asami actually really likes Korra and constantly tries to include her and invite her over, trying to prove to her that she is more than just some rich girl. There is this scene where Asami is in her big mansion pool and a lot of people say that the way Asami ignores Mako that entire time and just fixates on impressing Korra is evidence #1.
Asami takes Korra for a ride on her racetrack and Korra admits to her that “she had her pegged wrong as prissy”. Many of the LOK fans took this as a “there is no heterosexual explanation for this flirting” (haha). After that there relationship with one another takes loads of ups and downs for the beginning of Season 1, but by the end Korra is madly impressed with Asami and her personality.
We don’t see much of Asami in Season 2, but in Season 3 Korra and Asami get really close (BFFS close). They spend more time together, go on car rides, gossip, etc.
Throughout Season 3 as the Krew (the avatar friend group) head out to recruit newly discovered airbenders, Korra and Asami spend almost every second together. Fans tend to say that these two characters mannerisms were even similar in a way where it seemed that they could read each other from how well they got to know each other. The first scene where people sense a korrasami connections is in a car where Asami is teaching Korra to drive and Korra does a horrible job. They both start talking about how they both dated Mako and how complicated all that back and forth was. Korra then mentions how she likes having Asami around because she’s “never had a girlfriend to hang out with and talk to before”. Fans immediately took that as a sign that they would become more than friends eventually. Other scenes in Season 3 that are brought up as “proof” is Korra trying to constantly make Asami laugh and how Asami never leaves Korra’s side, always volunteering to be near her. Lastly, by the end of Season 3 where Korra faces near death, Asami actually comes to the realization there that she was in love with Korra and that she wouldn't know what to do without her. This is proven in the LOK comic books where Asami admits to Korra when she began having feelings for her.
She volunteered to go with Korra to the Southern Water Tribe to keep her company while she healed but Korra refused, believing short alone time was needed, not expecting it would be 3 years. That leads to season where they both already had feelings for one another and the way they act around each other proves that.
In short, Korrasami wasn’t a ship that sprung out of the blue as many people assume. Of course all this “evidence” could be interpeted differently by what we may want to see as well, but because of the initial plan to have this ship exist since Season 1, it is safe to assume not every small detail was irrelevant. It was also because of Nickelodeon’s disapproval for LGBTQ content that the creators weren’t able to showcase the ship as much as they would have wished as well. Whether you agree or not, at the end of the day, this ship is a comfort to many LGBTQ folks who didn’t see that representation for themselves on television and they should be free to enjoy what brings them comfort.
Make sure to check out our Legend of Korra Episode if you haven’t already and tune in for our next podcast! Thanks for reading!
