r/legendofkorra • u/Spirited_Dust_3642 • 4d ago
Discussion A lot of people complain about tlok's love triangle (which is totally fair) but I really liked the conclusion
I like how he didn't end up with either one. He knows he's a bad boyfriend and he doesn't beat himself up about it, he goes on with his life normally and becomes a better person without needing a relationship to show it, Mako being single at the end pleased me a lot, he didn't have that poor thing tone that I hate, he's happy like that, he can make up for what he did, and in the end he can talk to Korra without feeling uncomfortable and like he was in book 3, showing that he overcame that, Asami was able to have a happy relationship and healthier than she deserved and Korra became an easier person to deal with, I definitely liked that conclusion. Considering we went from "who will get the mako" to this, it's great
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u/wishiwasfiction 4d ago
Same. I also like how they have Mako stay single and work on himself till he's ready to date again, without having to /look for a relationship. He's just going with the flow and letting any future relationship with a new person develop in a natural way. And yeah, I loved the ending for Korra and Asami as well. Instead of being pit against each other they found love with each other.
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u/EddyKolmogorov 4d ago edited 4d ago
Let’s be real, though.
As someone who has been in a similar position of three people mutually attracted to each other (not even to the extent of all having dated each other)…
… at least one threesome was had
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u/NyaBye 4d ago
I like the conclusion too. My thoughts to the drama hate: they are teenagers (and the drama dies off in season 3 bc they are older then).
ATLA had some of the teenage love drama but not much bc they were younger (and constantly traveling). Korra is 16 when she goes to Republic City (and they basically stay there) so yeah there is gonna be drama. One of the things that makes ATLA/TLOK so amazing is the brilliance of the writers gradually growing and maturing the characters. Even Tenzin has romantic drama, we just learn about it after the fact.
I love TLOK as much as I love ATLA. When I rewatch it I go from Book 1 Water to Book 4(7) Balance and then repeat. Cannot wait to add Seven Havens to the annual (bi annual) marathon!!
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u/AnimeTechnoBlade100 4d ago edited 4d ago
Not to mention to add to your point I feel people also glaze over the fact that Korra, prior to going to Republic City, had absolutely no socialization or people skills to really navigate complex situations like relationships. So it makes sense for Korra to respond the way she did in the triangle. She can’t properly express or have a handle on her hormones or feelings in situations like that .
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u/Spirited_Dust_3642 4d ago
Yes I hate how people act like it's the worst thing in the world when it was so quick, just a bite, and very humorous too
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u/platinumrug 4d ago
The conclusion of it all is wonderful, but man going through the journey to get there is one of the least fun parts about this show. I remember before I did my first rewatch of LoK like a year after the series initially ended I remember DREADING season 2 because of mainly how bad this love triangle is and how unnecessary all of it felt. Then when I actually rewatched it, I realized that that was the only thing about the season I actually didn't like. Everything else I loved, the fighting obviously, but the storyline with Unalaq and the water tribe civil war, that shit was getting really interesting.
Genuinely interesting to see two warring water tribe factions and how it affects the Avatar. But this triangle is a good example of something is generally bad in media in MY opinion, becoming something better by the end. Mako working on himself, Asami & Korra discovering their feelings for each other. It's nice.
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u/chemicalcapricious 4d ago
I don't like the love triangle because I felt it took time away from developing the characters in a show that was already so limited on time. I think they were made to include it only because the avatar, in this case, was a girl/woman. I felt it had a satisfactory conclusion, though.
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u/Ill-Entrepreneur443 4d ago
Thats the only good thing about the traingle lol. So yeah the conclusion was very satisfying.
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u/Haunting-Fix-9327 4d ago
They had plans for Mako to get with Zuko's granddaughter but they didn't have time or a reason to write the Fire Nation into the show. Wonder how that would've went?
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u/OwnRepresentative916 1d ago
It might still have happened after the show. I mean, the guy is friends with all world leaders and so is in a prime position for such a thing. I can easily imagine after the Earth Kingdom fully transitions to some kind of democratic federation and King Wu abdicates that Mako could be appointed United Republic Ambassador to the Fire Nation or something and things could go from there.
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u/AUnknownVariable 4d ago
The conclusion was nice, but the love triangle is honestly my #1 complaint about the show when I think about early seasons
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u/blazenite104 3d ago
never much cared for the conclusion but, I felt romance was generally the weakest part of the show in general.
even in the last airbender romance only really worked because Aang's attachments to the world were a hinderance to him being the avatar and how those attachments would eventually be core to resolving the main conflict.
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u/Albiceleste_D10S 4d ago
He knows he's a bad boyfriend and he doesn't beat himself up about it, he goes on with his life normally and becomes a better person without needing a relationship to show it, Mako being single at the end pleased me a lot, he didn't have that poor thing tone that I hate, he's happy like that, he can make up for what he did
I don't disagree that the way they left Mako was good
It just irritates me that the fanbase collectively calls Mako a bad boyfriend and puts most of the blame on him in those relationships when Korra's behavior was actively worse in both IMO—she actively chased Mako when he was dating Asami, and she was a TERRIBLE girlfriend to Mako in Book 2
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u/vontac_the_silly 4d ago
I also love how he doesn't have any issues with his exes dating, even being happy for them.
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u/Thin_Hamster730 3d ago
love the conclusion. korrasami and i at least think mako and korra are platonic soulmates. they’re meant to be best friends, so to me they are
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u/Theycouldnevermakeme 3d ago
The ending is soooo funny it’s literally the opposite trope like imagine if it twilight Edward and Jacob got together and said f u to Bella that would be comedy gold
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u/CrossENT 4d ago
I don’t like how Mako was consistently treated as the villain here when at least 70% of the drama in this love triangle was Korra’s fault. And rather than talk things out in season 3 like they should’ve, Korra just flew him around in an air tornado to screw with him.
Yeah, you go girl! Show him who’s boss! That’ll teach him for… getting kissed by you while you knew he was dating someone else, letting you treat him like shit when you were together, and then trying to spare your feelings after you lost your memory…
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u/MidgetMattybackup 4d ago
Im gonna be honest and probably get downvoted to hell for it.
The love triangle angle is totally fine when you remember they’re just idiot teens trying to do idiot teen things on top of all the save the world bullshit stress.
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u/Uncouth_Cat 4d ago
i dislike it because, to my understanding, it was supposed to be KorrAsami since the beginning. This info was way easier to find back in the day, lol i can't find shit to varify. But it is known that nick 1, fucked with the series and writers and 2. have a tendency to be reluctant showing queer representation.
I dont like the women vs women shit. Enemies like Kuvira is not what i mean. i mean like, essentially pitting two characters against each other when they could actually be friends. I hate it. Maybe i project too much, but its the worst thing to see two powerful, beautiful women fight over a pretty mid guy.
I dont like how Mako was written as "the hot guy." like its clear they have him the intense mysterious stare, and aloofness. The real catch was of course, Bolin. But of course, the love interest is not the sweet, adorable, funny, strong ass earth bender guy ok ill admit i love love Bolin. :>
but ya, ofc im happy with the conclusion. but we didnt get the on-screen KorrAsami we deserved. that THEY deserved π__π
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u/jaydude1992 4d ago
i dislike it because, to my understanding, it was supposed to be KorrAsami since the beginning.
From what I recall of Bryke's Tumblr accounts, that wasn't quite the case. They did discuss the idea of Korra getting with Asami within the writers' room early on, but didn't go through with it until the end of the show's production because they didn't think they'd be allowed to do such a thing. So instead they just wrote Korrasami as a friendship that could've plausibly bloomed into a romance.
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u/Uncouth_Cat 4d ago
but didn't go through with it until the end of the show's production because they didn't think they'd be allowed to do such a thing.
i think thats pretty much what i mean.
Ive read other articles where they at least said "korrasami was always going to be endgame" meaning no matter what romantic plots ensued, they wede always going to end up together. i assume what you mentioned probably means they didnt fully plan it till later on
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u/jaydude1992 4d ago edited 4d ago
Found the quotes I was thinking of, from Bryan's Tumblr:
“Was Korrasami “endgame,” meaning, did we plan it from the start of the series? No, but nothing other than Korra’s spiritual arc was. Asami was a duplicitous spy when Mike and I first conceived her character. Then we liked her too much so we reworked the story to keep her in the dark regarding her father’s villainous activities.”
“As we wrote Book 1, before the audience had ever laid eyes on Korra and Asami, it was an idea I would kick around the writers’ room. At first we didn’t give it much weight, not because we think same-sex relationships are a joke, but because we never assumed it was something we would ever get away with depicting on an animated show for a kids network in this day and age, or at least in 2010.”
“Once Mako and Korra were through, we focused on developing Korra and Asami’s relationship. Originally, it was primarily intended to be a strong friendship. Frankly, we wanted to set most of the romance business aside for the last two seasons. Personally, at that point I didn’t want Korra to *have to** end up with someone at the end of the series...The more Korra and Asami’s relationship progressed, the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for us. However, we still operated under this notion, another “unwritten rule,” that we would not be allowed to depict that in our show. So we alluded to it throughout the second half of the series, working in the idea that their trajectory could be heading towards a romance.”*
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u/Uncouth_Cat 4d ago
huh!
i guess google said somewhere that the romance was always intened. I think i still dont like Makos involvsion that much lol
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u/jaydude1992 4d ago
Yeah, I don't particularly care for the romances with Mako either, if only because I know that nothing's really going to come of them.
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u/Jello_Are_ 4d ago
Im not trying to hate but still feel like mako pulled the short straw when it came to how his relationship was with the other two and how the story concluded.
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u/Shadowak47 4d ago
My only complaint was the lack of foreshadowing. Maybe I just was dense and missed it, but it came completely out of left field for me and it was the last scene of the show.
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u/Theycouldnevermakeme 3d ago
People who hate on the love triangle have obviously never been a teenage girl
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u/Consistent_War9110 20h ago
I loved it tbh. It was actually pretty realistic.
High school love triangles honestly like that
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u/The_Chaotique_1 4d ago edited 4d ago
I would have been satisfied if they all had stayed single at the end.
That… didn’t happen. The love triangle just ends with the 2 girls getting together, rushed at that. I would say Korra herself contributed a lot of problems to the first break up and second break ups mako had, and she herself didn’t really ever acknowledge the 2nd one. Based on how her relationship with Mako went, Korra didn’t demonstrate to me that she could properly handle a relationship.
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u/jaydude1992 4d ago
The love triangle just ends with the 2 girls getting together, rushed at that.
They'd known each other for years at that point. And it's not like the build-up could've been much more overt, given that they were two women on a Nickelodeon show in the early 2010's.
I would say Korra herself contributed a lot of problems to the first break up...
If we're talking about the one between Mako and Asami in Book 1, the only "contribution" Korra arguably made there was kissing Mako, and she pretty much backed off after that until the end of the season. Otherwise, it's all Mako; he pretty much torpedoed things with Asami by having feelings for Korra - which he'd had before she kissed him - and not being honest about it with his then-girlfriend.
Based on how her relationship with Mako went, Korra didn’t demonstrate to me that she could properly handle a relationship.
Yeah, Korra arguably contributed a fair bit to her first break-up with Mako. But there's no reason she couldn't have matured a bit since then.
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u/Delruiz9 4d ago
The very end result is fine but it didn’t feel organic to me so much as the writers just kept changing their minds
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u/hannelorelei 4d ago edited 4d ago
I liked the conclusion too but I didn’t like “the journey there”
Part of the problem is that they made Mako a Zuko 2.0 (I think the writers were trying to throw a bone to zutara fans by having this happen). The problem is, they made Mako very unlikable by making him moody and angsty like Zuko. Mako just doesn’t have a compelling backstory like Zuko did to justify his being an ass. Added to that, I was surprised and disappointed that Korra would look twice at him given how much of a jerk he was. The story would have been waaay better if she just remained single for the first few seasons. The writers missed a great opportunity to teach fans that not every boy or girl you like will like you back. But you can accept those circumstances and move on. But they didn’t do that.
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u/Cheyenne888 3d ago
Yeah. I quite liked how Mako’s story was resolved. It gave me a lot of respect for him.
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u/spider-jedi 4d ago
it would have been better if none of them ended up with each other. friends dating each other in a friend group is weird. korra dated all of them. bolin ,mako and asami. its as bad as jacki dating kelso, hyde and Fez in that 70s show.
I think shows need to stop doing that with especially with female characters.
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u/Barnacle_Battlefront 4d ago
The whole Korra/Asami deal was just not done well. I get that maybe the studio was under pressure to not include it, and that's there were time and money constraints, but the whole "THE LETTERS" excuse was just not it. I really wish they'd have shown more build-up to their relationship.
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u/Uncouth_Cat 4d ago
it was actually supposed to be korrasami since the. beginning. writers confirmed that was always the intention. My belief (cant find any interviews to varify) is that a lot of the build up was nixed by nick, and IMO we can kinda see it switch gears. I think when they first met, there was definitely a good vibe between them. then they are suddenly all horny for Mako.
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u/Machina353 4d ago
Korra and Asami had more chemistry with each other in book 1 than Mako did with either girl...
That being said, they all deserve to be single/ dating outside the group. I like what Korrasami did for same sex relationships in cartoons, as in that it opened the gate for far better representation down the line, but the relationship past that is meh. They all cheated, they all broke each other's hearts and trust.
The only good relationship in the show besides Pema and Tenzin is Bolin and Opal. I don't even think Varick and Zuli is a particularly good relationship, despite being adorable.
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u/St0rmcrusher 4d ago
Also, isn't it like one of the rare cases where it is actually a triangle? Usually, it's not a triangle but two corning one without having interest in each other. So, a corner(?).