Not going to lie, it’s genuinely upsetting to think about the new “fans” who are going to judge Legend of Korra, without knowing about all of the horrible things that Nickelodeon did to Bryke.
Two things I always remind fans of/tell new fans:
1) they had to FIGHT the network to make the next avatar a girl in this series
2) they could not overtly develop the Korrasami romance. They had to get permission just for that last scene with them holding hands and going into the spirit world and the strong implications the moment had. It really makes me upset when people credit Nickelodeon for “giving is Korrasami”. They didn’t want it.
What people always remind ME about:
1) the last two seasons didn’t even air on television, only online.
3) Nickelodeon originally only bought one season and lead everyone to believe it would be a one and done type deal. Partway through production of the first season (the latter half if I’m remembering correctly) Nickelodeon suddenly changed their minds and ordered three additional seasons so the writers had to scramble and change things last minute when a good chunk of season 1 was finished and/or had started airing.
This is why season 1 seems like its own thing, has a different tone, and speeds through the plot. It’s also why season 2′s beginning is particularly rough and it takes a while for the show to get back on its feet.
4) Partway through production of season 4, Nickelodeon slashed their budget by no small amount out of the blue. The reason why the recap episode exists and reuses previous footage while AtLA got the Ember Island Players episode was because that was the only way they could deal with the sudden lack of money without sacrificing their vision for the finale.
5) The finale was pulled from it’s air block/location with less than a week’s notice and put on Nickelodeon’s website’s streaming option which sucked at the best of times and could not handle that many people trying to watch at the same time. If they were able to watch at all.
One of the creators also had to take to his block shortly after the finale aired to clarify that Korra and Asami were dating and were bi because they could only get away with the handholding scene and there were a ton of fans at the time saying that it was unclear and they were just very good friends. Yes, in 2014 people were still saying that anything short of tongues down throats or sex scenes meant that they were just gals being good pals.
Also it wasn’t just that Korra was a woman Nickelodeon had an issue with, it was that she was a woman of colour. A white female avatar they would have grumbled about but eventually came around to, but they fought the creators to make Korra anything other than a woman of colour and they hated that one of their most popular shows with the older demographic starred someone who was neither male nor white.
And for that they did everything in their power to fuck over production so that they could cancel the show and point to the numbers as a reason why they did it, not because they’re racist, sexist, and homophobic.
