However, this interpretation I completely disagree with. Even if Asami is a flat character (which she is), to say that her only destiny on the show is to become the love interest is absurd and insulting. Asami is underdeveloped -- but not a dependent trophy wife. She's a smart, independent character. She has limited scenes, but she doesn't just sit there and look pretty. When treated badly, she asserts herself. She doesn't need anyone else. She has her own things going on, and she successfully remained unattached for more than half the show. Her story arc, while limited, in no way fits the "designated romance" trope.
There's was no cliche getting-together-for-good moment at the end. Korra and Asami are at that stage right before either party admits their feelings -- when you're still really good friends and probably want to be more, but haven't made that final jump. Their friendship has been built up slowly through the course of the entire series. A stark contrast to Korra and Mako's instantaneous "I really like you and I think we're meant to be together." Did Asami deserve more scenes? Heck yeah. But to say that Asami's just a trophy wife is, frankly, a big pile of bull.
I think that's one of the more realistic relationships on the show, purely because they spend time as friends first -- if Korra and Mako had actually built up rapport for a while before diving into "true loveeeee" then that relationship would have been way more palatable.
I have to agree with Selena on the trophy wife thing. Asami has a lot going on off-screen. She's a highly capable engineer who took over her father's super-science company. She does a lot more than sit around waiting for Korra to notice her.
Well, then, maybe it's just me. But let me say this; it doesn't count how much a character has going on when the camera isn't looking. Zhu Li and Varrick both had multiple awesome engineer moments on camera, and in the climax Asami is literally taking orders from Varrick. If engineering and business skills are Asami's qualifications for being in Team Avatar, she should've been replaced with Varrick. I might feel differently had Asami done the EMP instead of Varrick and Zhu Li, but as is she is basically disposable for anything done on camera.
It would have been nice if Asami had gotten a level-up, however. All the other members of Team Avatar got one to some extent. The only half-exception is Mako, who began season 1 as a champion probender who could lightning bend and put his advance into investigation instead of combat. Korra got spirit powers and a bit of metalbending, and Bolin got lavabending.
Chi-blocking, signature weapon, heck, you could go out there and add a little version of Varrick's spirit cannon to Asami's equalist glove. Don't look at me like that; you know a handheld version of that would be awesome.
They had actually intended to write Asami off the show after Book 1. Which is probably why they didn't know what to do with her after that.
She was originally meant to be an Equalist agent. She was supposed to flirt with Mako purely to get close to the team -- and by extension, Korra. She was going to help Amon try to defeat the Avatar. After which, she'd disappear from the series -- going to jail with Hiroshi. But the writers decided that it was kind of cliche to make the "rival female" into an actual enemy.
I would have liked to see Equalist Asami, but only if she redeemed herself and joined the team at the end of Book 1. Oddly, I think Equalist Asami would have been even more independent than canon!Asami. Because then she would have joined without any emotional baggage attached, and no one would have seen her as "the girlfriend." And if they'd made Asami a chi-blocker -- like an older femme fatale version of Ty Lee -- she could have gotten more use.
Alas.
I had not heard that, but it makes sense. Equalist Asami is full of all sorts of amazing potential, and I am sorry they dropped it rather than editing it. Imagine if they'd kept parts of it and changed the ending. Asami the Equalist intruder seduces Mako, makes Korra jealous, and doesn't have the heart to actually go through with betraying Korra to Amon at the end. Remove that coda where Korra gets her bending back and you have the setup for one absolutely glorious sucker-punch ending.
Alas, I'm sure Nick execs would have shot it down....
At first I attributed Korra's failings to her relationship with Mako -- they liked to have Mako rush in and "save his lady love" in true melodramatic fashion, so Korra would accordingly fail at something to allow that. After that? I don't know. It felt like she was unnecessarily struggling the whole time. Which, given the scenes where she does throw down, makes no sense. Because when Korra's at the top of her game, she does tend to outshine Aang. Both in and out of the Avatar State.
The writers usually make really good female characters, but they'd never done a female lead before. Maybe they had some awkwardness there? I don't know. But for how powerful she actually is, Korra was kind of shit on. That bothered me a lot throughout the series.
But, final review of show: Lots of good themes and ideas, but all awkwardly and messily executed.
I don't think anyone can disagree with your bottom line. Korra has the same problem a lot of Final Fantasy games do: oodles of great idea, but it really needed one more draft to iron out the bugs and smooth things together.
I expect the whole female lead thing is a product of thinking too hard about it. For better or worse romance is en-troped into our fiction, so even if it doesn't really fit it winds up being there. I can't even call it sexist because it affected Aang's arc in ATLA as much--if not more--than it did Korra's.
I just find the hook-up at the end to be an annoying trope because it winds up getting crammed in where it doesn't belong. As much as I love ATLA, I think that the Justice League cartoon had the better ending, in part because GL and Hawkgirl don't get together at the end. The writers were truthful to the events and to the characters, not to the trope.
Anyway, as expected, after seeing the finale I no longer give any shits about social implications of Korrasami blah blah blah. I didn't care that much to begin with and any trepidation has been both rejected by other people in this thread and completely overshadowed by my hatred of bullshit giant mechs that don't belong in this setting.
Things I did like:
- Korra using compassion to solve a problem
- The last few minutes, starting with Korra's conversation with Tenzin.
I tolerate the mechs OK. The creators clearly intended to take Korra into a steampunk direction, and while I am annoyed they went in the mech direction, it was not a bad direction to go. It just wasn't as great as something like doubling down on airships. I was much more annoyed by Platinum's Unobtanium nature. I mean, seriously; it resists metal bending, it resists lavabending, and it's strong enough to serve as armor.
I'm not sold on the compassion thing, both in Korra and in fiction as a whole. It's not like it's wrong-hearted, but it leads to some lackluster denouments. Of course the protagonist feels some emotional connection to the villain while the reverse isn't true; 90% of the time that's the difference. The problem is how do you land the ending if the protagonist has to use kiddie gloves. Aside from Trigun and ATLA, which had their protagonists work their asses off for the conclusion and spends zero time on denoument, the only time I've seen this work right is the Veggie Tales Jonah movie. As you've probably not seen it, I'll summarize it like this; "Jonah is a hypocrite and a terrible person."
Thing is, I find most protagonists who always hold back on lethal force to be weak, and the only way the climax can end is with the villain somehow undermining the threat he or she posed earlier (exactly like Vet pointed out). There are exceptions. Vash the Stampede is literally not human, therefore his extreme position is him holding himself to extreme standards. Trigun also uses Vash to deconstruct the stereotypical Clint Eastwood Western Heroes and contrast it with Wild West mythology, so in context it isn't being entirely literal, either. Aang had the conclusion the whole time; we just hadn't seen it until the moment he used it. Korra squeaks in with a technicality because she never wound up in a spot where she could both kill a villain and lethal force was also appropriate.
Edited by Egann, 23 December 2014 - 08:26 PM.
