Hey guys. I received an absolutely amazing analysis on Asami’s characterization throughout the seasons and how Korrasami was most certainly seeded along the way, and is the most natural outcome for her. The author is a philosophy graduate who prefers to remain “Anonymous Asami Admirer.” This is a MUST read IMO, and eloquently conveys a lot of what I’ve been struggling to put into words for a while. And it’s also quite enjoyable! Without further ado…

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There are many reasons why Korrasami might seem too subtle or underdeveloped and it has been discussed ad nauseum all around the internet. But what is abundantly certain upon multiple viewings is that Asami was indeed in love with Korra long before Korra was able to reciprocate those feelings. The problem is that taking each Asami “gesture” by itself is not enough to convince anyone definitively, but if everything she did is taken as a whole, the picture becomes a lot clearer. I will try to present the whole picture as I see it:

A PORTRAIT OF ASAMI’S DEVOTION (a.k.a. Asami Kicks Your Ass at Love… and Probably Everything Else Too)

1. Asami, the Rich and Beautiful… Spy?

Asami is strongly drawn to Korra at first sight. Why? Because Asami is, at heart, a deeply just person who believes in equality, compassion, and kindness - the very qualities the Avatar is meant to embody. This is why Asami cannot even bring herself to dislike Korra for “stealing” Mako away. Asami, being more sophisticated and savvy, knows how to impress people and “play the game”, but she is still young enough to be idealistic and impressionable. Showing Korra around her mansion and taking her racing are meant to impress - these “generosities” are easy for an heiress like Asami. As fate would have it, Korra comes along at a time when Asami’s moral compass is about to be severely tested by her father. It seemed as though Asami passed the test with ease but it’s likely that the “aura of the Avatar” made all the difference. Asami is at an age when society presses you to choose between finding your own path or grasping at the carrots society dangles at you. She decided to stand by her own principles and that also meant standing by the Avatar.

Calling Asami “generous” seems insufficient when you look at her total contribution. She never HAD to give anything; nobody would have blamed her if she quietly tended to her own life of rebuilding the company and trying to redeem the family name after her father’s betrayal. However, we witness Korra (and what Korra represents) gradually becoming Asami’s personal and moral center of gravity. It’s very satisfying to find your true direction in life, especially when you’ve lost everything! Asami repaid this new-found purpose to Team Avatar with as much kindness as she could muster, i.e., providing all manner of technological, logistical, and personal support. Viewed in this way, Asami’s generosity seems grander than just being a kind person, it points to a deep devotion to a cause - and that cause is twofold: Korra as friend and Korra as Avatar/physical representation of Asami’s drive to create a better world.

Whether she is fully aware or not, Asami is already in full-steam-ahead mode at the end of season 1, unlike Mako, who only really got there in the series finale. Mako, being a more self-centered person, never 100% trusted that Korra was truly an altruistic person (to him, Korra was human first, Avatar second), so he was constantly doubting or dismissing her thoughts and feelings, seeing her as he saw himself, whereas Asami trusted Korra 100% from the moment she turned on her father - that was her point of no return. I think this is why Bryke felt that Asami was a compelling character and changed their minds for her arc, because she could have easily gone another way, because many people would have. But she didn’t. She chose to give it all up for the greater good. For herself and for Korra. And this immediately puts her in first place as Korra’s spiritual equal. Spoiler: Nobody will catch up to her. She peaks early.

Asami solidifies her role in Team Avatar as the “designated driver”. As someone who rarely drinks, it sucks to be the sober one, but it feels good to be the safety and support for your friends when they are most vulnerable to danger. And that’s what Asami quietly is: She is the backbone of Team Avatar. Backbones are often taken for granted until they start acting up…

2. Asami + Korra, Sitting in a tr… Sand Skimmer?

By season 3, it is clear that Asami finds herself flirting with Korra (oh the posing and hairbending!) As has been pointed out, being beautiful does not automatically make a person flirtatious or promiscuous and we only see the flirtation seriously directed at Korra from here on out. (I’m happy to NOT make Asami a victim of stereotyping or to view her through the male gaze by claiming that she’s asking for attention. Women can indeed pretty themselves up and not want male attention. Gasp!)

I think it is 100% right to say that Asami is not initially aware that she is flirting so hard at the start of season 3. I’m a psychology graduate so I know that when you do something subconsciously long enough, you have to begin justifying it to yourself in your rational mind. Generally speaking, the only rational justification for uncontrollable flirting, pointed at a specific person, is simply that you have romantic feelings towards them. At some point, Asami, being a smart and rational person, realizes this and ramps up efforts to be near Korra, e.g., watching her meditate, sitting beside her at all times, running away with her spiritless body, etc.

By the latter part of season 3 it is clear that Korra really enjoys teaming up with Asami. Korra’s expression in almost all of those scenes can loosely be interpreted as a satisfied grin. You don’t see her grin like that when she’s teamed with Mako. Their symbiotic teamwork shows they are entirely synchronized. This kind of connection cannot be underestimated! I have only had this kind of connection with one person - my spouse! In order to achieve it, you need to know the person well enough to accurately predict what they will do 99.9% of the time. Do you know how hard that is?! (My spouse and I once got separated in a foreign country when trying to board a train. The train door closed in my face! Our phones weren’t working! We both hopped on and off trains trying to figure out which train the other would have taken. An hour later we ended up at the same train station and it was not our destination! No easy feat!).

Korra and Asami’s different strengths and weaknesses balance out perfectly to solve whatever problem arises, like being kidnapped, accidentally destroying an airship in the middle of the desert, etc. They each do their part, often wordlessly, and the result is always greater and far superior than either could have achieved alone. Conversely, when Korra and Mako team up, there is no such symbiosis. They often take turns and jump in when the other is exhausted or in danger. With Mako, Korra shows no enjoyment of the process of teamwork itself, there is only the immediate goal to be achieved (except for the pro-bending but that was a team/learning thing not a couple thing).

I think it is dead on to say that Asami realizes she not just crushes on but lurrrrves Korra when she almost dies in the season 3 finale. Nothing jolts your true feelings to the surface like near-death! With the state Korra was in after the Zaheer battle, Asami already gave up weeks of her life to care for her. Asami is the one who doesn’t leave Korra’s side through Jinora’s ceremony. Who else could have done it? Tenzin would have been too busy cleaning up Zaheer’s mess. Mako and Bolin are not natural caregivers, they couldn’t do it all day and all night. Lin? She’s truly impressed with Korra by now but she ain’t gonna rub Korra’s paralyzed feet! Korra’s parents? Yes, but that does not explain why Asami is the one glued to that damn wheelchair, especially if she was presumably just called in to give the “makeover” before the ceremony. Asami earned that mothereffin’ spot AMONG the effin’ immediate family by effin’ caring for Korra 24/7! There’s a reason Mako and Bolin were on the other side of the room! Having sacrificed that time, Asami is then willing to give up even more time AND move halfway around the world with Korra to help her recuperate. Who could honestly give up a business empire, painstakingly rebuilt from the ground up, for a friend? If Korra kept extending her absence would Asami suddenly say, “Nope, gotta get back to my business. Sorry!” Never. Listen, if I were as rich as Asami, and Korra was my dear friend, I’d hire her the best doctors and nurses money could buy and build a special suite for her in the local hospital so I could visit her every day. But if I luurrrved Korra, I’d still do all that AND drop everything to be with her no matter where she wanted to go, no matter for how long. Because you only do that for your one true love… not your “friend”.

If at this point it’s not clear to people that Asami is head-over-heels in love with Korra, then they are either saints themselves or just completely oblivious/ignorant of what regular-people behavior looks like. Asami’s behavior is not regular. Would she make the same sacrifice for anyone else placed in Korra’s position? I highly doubt it. Asami is making grand romantic gestures left, right and center! You get a grand gesture, and you get a grand gesture, and you get a grand gesture! (And by “you” I mean Korra.) Maybe people can’t see it because Korra is suffering too much to see it and, unfortunately, we only really see Asami through Korra’s eyes. (Poor Asami!)

3. Korra’s Back and Better than ev… WTF, is that a Mega Maid?!

Season 4 is where Korrasami loses me a bit simply because the story is too packed for them to have much interaction. BUT, the interaction we DO get to see is precisely what we’ve been seeing all along - symbiotic teamwork after years apart, as seen when escaping from the train. Asami constantly writes heartfelt letters to Korra and continues even when there is no response. Why? Because she loves her. I lived overseas for 10 years of my life. I’m the type of introverted person who only has very close friends. I wrote to my friends. The dearest friends who didn’t write back? After a couple of years, I stopped too. That doesn’t mean I can’t pick up with them later, but I won’t keep writing if they don’t bother responding. Mako doesn’t have much to say. Bolin is… illiterate? Korra eventually writes back only to Asami. Can this be interpreted as friendship because Asami is just more capable of understanding, as a friend? Absolutely. Can it be that AND romantic love? Yes. Is it actually both for Korra? Maybe, maybe not. Because we see through Korra’s eyes, the answer is not clear. Korra is in no place to think about that so, by proxy, neither are we at that moment.

However, we do know how Asami feels already. AND we are privy to what Asami does while Korra is gone. Let’s see… 1) Asami single-handedly rebuilds Republic City’s infrastructure to exactly match Korra’s vision of humans and spirits co-existing peacefully - not the cheapest option!, 2) Asami constructs an Avatar Park with a huge statue of Korra and is seen going there and smiling at the statue when she is at a particularly low point in her life due to her father’s reappearance, 3) Asami’s personal interest is working on biomimicry technology to further enhance the bridge between the human and spiritual worlds, 4) She swaps her red and black satomobile (her colors) for a blue and brown one (water tribe colors), 5) She modernizes the railway system, helping to speed up the stabilizing of the Earth Kingdom, which Korra believes is her responsibility. Why would Asami do all this? Clearly it is not just for money or her own vanity (heck if I’m gonna build a statue, it’s gonna be of me!) Once again, we are forced to see her as an effin’ SAINT if she’s merely doing this for a cause. It makes a lot more sense if she’s doing it for a cause AND for Korra. She’s helping Korra from afar because that’s all she can do. And she continues to do it even when Korra is unresponsive and eventually goes missing. If that’s not love then I seriously don’t know what love looks like.

As for the uncharacteristic Asami outburst when she and Mako reunite with Korra? It has been explained beautifully. Contrasting Korra’s argumentative style with Mako’s makes it very clear that Korra and Asami argue like lovers. They can be honest and even snap, but the other knows to absorb it (cut through the crap) and get to the heart of the issue. Listen. Empathize. Reflect. That’s what good couples do. Do friends argue like this? Only the closest of friends. What tips it into romantic territory is the immediate contrast afterwards: we see Korra and Mako argue like adversaries, trying to win rather than trying to reach common ground. Mako can’t empathize with Korra, that was his problem to begin with, and it always puts Korra on the defensive. Can lovers argue like adversaries? Yes, but they usually won’t stay lovers for long (see Makorra, season 2). Bryke is giving us a glimpse of what healthy couples do.

By the end of the Kuvira mess, Asami has given every-effin’-thing she could possibly give to Korra. Her city is once again destroyed. She’s poured out the entire contents of her huge heart, over and over, this way and that. There is literally nothing left for her to give. And, oh yeah, her dad’s dead. -_- The ball is squarely in Korra’s hands and, yay, she is finally ready to catch it. Korra not only catches it, she f*ckin’ firebends into the spirit world! How’s that for synchronized?!

And that is how you write a story of two women falling in love. It’s not going to look like a hetero rom-com, often full of clichés and clearly coded behavior. It is a story not often told, so it’s unfamiliar to a lot of people. Ask any queer female couple who are deeply in love and have been together for a long time. Chances are their story would look very similar, and chances are there are a lot of people who would be surprised, nay, shocked to see them suddenly holding hands walking down the street one day. It’s a rare and special sort of love. And I, for one, am thrilled for them for finally getting to see themselves on screen! It’s about effin’ time!