In the Spirit of Subtlety

The Reclamation of Queerness in The Legend of Korra

Abstract

Throughout the 2012-2014 American fantasy series, The Legend of Korra (TLoK), co-creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko used their platform to portray characters and situations that would cause viewers to challenge their social biases. In their series finale, they tackled the challenge of representing a queer identity in the genre of children’s cartoon that had previously assumed it as too taboo. However, while the network airing the show was accepting of the possibility of the portrayal, they heavily censored how far this representation would extend. They would allow hints into the relationship between Korra and Asami, but an overt romantic gesture would not be allowed on air. Yet despite such discouraging news, DiMartino and Konietzko ultimately decided to work within these boundaries, using thoughtful scrutiny in the writers room during the finale’s creation. In choosing direct parallels to heterosexual romances already present in the Avatar Universe and directly addressing audiences on their animation’s intent, TLoK reclaims its queer representation as something more than a product of censorship. In doing so, the queer representation affirms its subtlety as a virtue beyond the constraints it was born from, ascertaining the subtlety as an artistic choice in portraying a more realistic and accessible representation of a queer identity.  Though such accessibility was not understood in the culture of the show’s creation, the show’s later reclamation and the world’s changed cultural view of the LGBTQ+ community now marks a new era of queer media that articulates a more complex identity beyond its queer representation.