The Importance of Korrasami

It was December 19th, 2014, when many Avatar enthusiasts turned on their TV’s to watch the finale of The Legend of Korra (TLOK). After nine years, the last episode of the Avatar franchise was bound to air and people were excited. It was that day that history happened, Nickelodeon had greenlit an LGBTQ+ relationship between the main characters, Korra and Asami Sato. They ended the show by having Korra and Asami walk off into a newly created spirit portal, and hold hands while looking lovingly at each other. Even though their relationship was later confirmed by the creators, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Yes, the show did confirm a bisexual relationship, but they weren’t allowed to go any further than a hand hold. On the creators end, they wanted to go further, but Nickelodeon censored them to just a hand hold, due to a fear of backlash and homophobia. Despite this, the ending was still so meaningful to many LGBTQ+ individuals, as this was such a huge step in children’s television in terms of representation. Many people disliked the ending of TLOK because they believed that this type of relationship was not “suitable” or “appropriate” for kids, or that it would be too difficult for them to understand how two women could love each other romantically, like a man and a woman would. The Legend of Korra walked so that other children’s cartoons such as “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, '' “Steven’s Universe” and “Adventure Time'' could run, explicitly featuring LGBTQ+ relationships.