Follow-up: Why Does Zhurrick Get a Pass?

New Year acknowledgement yay.

Okay, so my last post was about The Legend of Korra and specifically the final canon coupling. I honestly don't care for shipping in most instances: I never cared about the romances in Harry Potter for instance and I only like NaruHina in Naruto because I love Hinata an unbelievable amount and just want her to be happy and I honestly hate how stupid that makes me feel because I don't even care about my friends romantic lives but I want a fictional character to be happy.

So yeah, I don't ship much. In LoK though the finale ended with Korrasami and it honestly made me feel things, things I went into detail over in the last post (or meant to). But not everyone had that reaction and the criticism I see leveled most often that bugs me most about the pairing is that it was too rushed, came out of nowhere or was underdeveloped. Now, fair's fair. I said myself last time that there should have been more development between Korra and Asami and even I in hindsight realize that nothing came off overtly romantic between them until the finale.

I believe that romance can happen in a variety of ways though and I thought that the pairing was great at the end because it was more of a realization than a culmination. Kataang from Avatar: The Last Airbender was a culmination of the development between the two characters, Aang and Katara, over three seasons and 60 episodes (they weren't in one). Korrasami, meanwhile, is not the endgame that Kataang was, it's the beginning of their relationship. Aang and Katara kissed to confirm they were together, Korra and Asami held hands in a moment of realization that they could be together. That's how I interpret the scene anyway.

Now, what's my point in bringing this up again? Well, the title of this post says it all... well, not really, I'll still be going on here. For all the accusations against Korrasami being rushed and out of nowhere, little attention has been paid to the real rushed relationship of the show: Zhu Li and Varrick. The two were introduced in the second season and in addition to the third they had a boss/employee relationship going on. Nothing between them in those two seasons ever made them seem like anything else.

Then suddenly in season 4 episode 5, we get a ship tease moment between them. Note, this is nearly halfway through the season, and the next time we get any moments between them is in episode 11. That's at the end! The next episode Varrick PROPOSES! This is a rushed relationship. This came out of nowhere. Look, I don't hate it. I have no strong feelings about Zhurrick one way or the other. I like Varrick as a character and believe Zhu Li barely has a character. At least Korra and Asami had two seasons of character development becoming closer friends and eventually found romance in it. They didn't propose marriage or even end the show calling each other their girlfriend. It was the start of something new. Yet Zhurrick is allowed a pass for some reason, ending the series with THEIR WEDDING! Seriously!

Argue how vague Korrasami is all you want, but can anyone honestly claim that it was more rushed and out of nowhere than the wedding the show ended on? I really don't want to make this about LGBT issues either, but it reeks of a couple getting a pass because their Hetero and the other being questioned and dismissed because they aren't. And don't even get me started on the claims it was just Fanservice or feminist agenda or progressive for the sake of being progressive. Ugh, see now I'm annoyed and might just have to go look at more Korrasami art. I never look at fanart! This is what I've been reduced to!

I just really hope we get some fucking Korra comics. I need more Korrasami in my life.

-Subtle