Korrasami

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Pairing
Pairing: Avatar Korra/Asami Sato
Alternative name(s): Korrasami
Gender category: Femslash, F/F
Fandom: The Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Canonical?: Yes!
Prevalence: Popular
Archives:
Other:
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Korra/Asami, widely known as Korrasami, is the canon femslash pairing of Avatar Korra and Asami Sato in The Legend of Korra.

Canon

Korra is the Avatar and protagonist of the show. Asami Sato is a non-bending engineer and heiress, later CEO, introduced in the 4th episode of the show. Korra and Asami were initially romantic rivals (both vying for Mako's attention) who later became friends and eventually romantic partners.[1] Though some fans argued that the final scene was ambiguous and left the specific nature of Korra and Asami's relationship open to interpretation, the creators clarified that the two were, in fact, girlfriends.[2]

Fandom

Korrasami began as largely as a crackship and an alternative to the love triangle drama in the first season when both Korra and Asami were interested in Mako. However, despite their initial rivalry, the two fairly quickly became friends whose relationship only grew deeper over time. There was a lot of development of the relationship in Book 3 of the series and the popularity of the ship increased a great deal.[3] [4] On November 7, 2014, Korrasami surpassed Makorra as the most tagged ship on AO3 in the The Legend of Korra tag. [5] [6]

Fandom reaction to canonization

The fans of the ship were ecstatic when the final episode premiered. Many videos were posted of people’s reactions to the final scene where it became canon. [7] [8] Many fan works were quickly produced celebrating the ship, often depicting them in the spirit world or holding hands as a nod to the final scene. Even outside the fandom people were excited, [9] as Korrasami is a same-sex relationship between two women of color, something unheard of in cartoon media. Some speculate one or both of them to be bisexual or pansexual, while others headcanon one or both of them as lesbians.

Those against the ship called the ending vague, or underdeveloped, criticizing the writing. There were also those who were opposed to showing a same-sex relationship or a relationship between two people of color. The creators of the show ended up making separate Tumblr posts to confirm the status of the ship. [10] [11]

Ongoing Influence

In the ensuing years, Korrasami continued to be both a popular ship in its own right and a point of comparison for LBGTQ+ representation in American media. As new cartoons came out with more explicit representation of same sex relationships (such as Catradora and Lumity), some fans compared Korrasami negatively to these shows. This received a large pushback on Tumblr, where users discussed how earlier shows fighting for what little representation they could manage to get approved by their networks paved the way for greater acceptance of same-sex relationships depicted in cartoons. [12] [13]

Korrasami paved the way for Steven Universe and She-Ra to do what they did in the following years. And, yes, those were leaps forward whereas this was a step. But I saw it on another post, and I’ll echo the sentiment: Korrasami walked so Catradora could sprint.

raedmagdon, 2020 tumblr post [14]

Korra and Asami only held hands because Nickelodeon wouldn’t let them do more. Nick infamously cancelled Korra and put out the rest of season 4 as a webseries only.
[...]
Let’s not forget that in the US, it was illegal for gay people to get married until 2015. Korra aired in 2012. In Texas, it was a punishable felony to even be gay until 2003. No, literally. Just being gay was an arrestable offense here in Texas until 2003. We have come a really long way in 20 years! But don’t fucking dare disrespect any of these other shows by saying they didn’t try, or that their representation didn’t matter. The Owl House is standing on the shoulders of giants. Lumity is only where it is because Korrasami and Bubbline helped get them there.

expobeau, 2021 tumblr post [15]

Tropes & Fanon

  • Refrains: The phrase "just the two of us" is very popular in the fandom
  • Spirit world vacation: The series ended on a shot of the couple heading off on a romantic getaway. Naturally, many fans felt compelled to figure out what happened next.
  • Spirit World portal: One of the most popular subjects for fanartists is illustrating Korra and Asami kissing, embracing or otherwise interacting in the spirit portal as they are transported to the other world
  • Turtle-duck date night: The art that launched a thousand fics (released after the conclusion of the series by the show creator)
  • Hand holding: The two are often depicted holding hands as a nod to the scenes where the two hold hands: the final scene and the third season finale.

Events

Notable Fanworks

Fan Fic

Fan Art

Meta

Podfic

Zines

Archives, Communities, and Resources

References

  1. ^ Avatar Wiki: Asami Sato article
  2. ^ IO9: Legend of Korra Creators Confirm that Korrasami Is Canon article
  3. ^ How Korrasami went from my crack ship to my OTP in four seasons post by SemiJuggalo
  4. ^ A Korrasami Retrospect and Why We'll Be Endgame post by Cesare_Blanc
  5. ^ Today, a f/f ship of two woc just beat all other ships in ao3, for a massively popular fandom. by angerish
  6. ^ Korrasami Confirmed a post by show creator Michael Dante DiMartino on his tumblr
  7. ^ Korrasami Becoming Canon Live Reactions. Posted by replicariku on [date].
  8. ^ Gif set of Korrasami becoming canon live reactions. Posted by mrlazyputa on [date].
  9. ^ i dont watch korra but im glad shes with her girlfriend by bbyfemme
  10. ^ Korrasami is canon, Archived version a post by show creator Bryan Konietzko on his tumblr. Posted December 22, 2014.
  11. ^ Korrasami Confirmed, Archived version a post by show creator Michael Dante DiMartino on his tumblr. Post December 22, 2014.
  12. ^ If in five years tumblr decides that The Owl House was A Bad Show, Actually..., Archived version. Posted by renthony on May 28, 2022.
  13. ^ Broke: The Owl House had better lgbt rep than Steven Universe, Avatar, and She-ra. Posted by novelist-becca on August 2nd, 2021.
  14. ^ Korrasami Reactions, Archived version. Comment by raedmagdon, from a reblog posted on July 26th, 2020.
  15. ^ Korra and Asami only held hands because..., Archived version. Post by expobeau on August 1st, 2021.