about mako going with korra to finish her recovery arc in beyond the wilds without asami and supposedly hinting to makorra is just like how zuko went with katara to confront the man who murdered her father and aang not being there instead of zuko must mean they were hinting to zutara
No. They are not comparable. There’s important differences between the two events. (Sorry, this got a little bit long; it was originally like three paragraphs and now it stretches to a bit more).
One, Korra and Mako had a previously established romantic relationship whereas Katara and Zuko did not. Bryan and Mike failed to take into account that an entire episode dedicated to the relationship of Mako and Korra five episodes before the finale when they had a previously established romantic relationship and when it had been established the episode before that Mako was still clearly in love with Korra causes practically the entire fandom to make assumptions. Those assumptions are not viewing things through a ‘hetero lens;’ that is poor writing and relationship development. If you are going to have two people end up together, and especially if you are going to have your main protagonist end up with someone, you need to show on-screen development. You need to make it a priority. Not the priority (obviously, because plot takes precedence), but a priority. Mako and Korra got six episodes dedicated in some shape or form to the progression of their relationship in Book 1. How many did Korra and Asami get? Maybe two (The Earth Queen and Long Live the Queen), and they were both in Book 3.
A previously established romantic relationship between two characters casts their relationship in a different light, regardless of whatever the Korrasami shippers want to say. Korra and Mako, whose mutual issues during their relationship have been resolved by their character development over the course of the last two books, were shown as a healthy, compatible relationship in Book 4 who still worked together and fought together seemlessly, supported each other, and though they fought, apologized to each other (something lacking in their Book 2 relationship).
If Bryan and Mike wanted to sink Makorra, they should have sunk it, not dropped hints and blatantly shipteased us throughout Books 3 and 4. Anyway, these are all issues that the Zutara relationship never had. Zuko and Katara’s first positive interaction was in the Book 2 finale, and their next one wasn’t until Zuko was teaching Aang firebending half a season later (and like seven episodes from the end of the show). There’s no ‘previous romantic relationship’ bogging down the fandom’s perception of the two characters and their relationship to each other or the narrative itself. Bryke failed to make the status of both the Makorra relationship and the development of the Korrasami relationship clear. That’s on them, not the fandom.
Two, the context of the two situations is completely different. Aang stayed behind in The Southern Raiders because he was ideologically opposed to Katara’s way of dealing with her unresolved grief and pain over her mother’s death. He tried to help Katara in the way that he knew how, and Katara did not see that revenge wasn’t the way to go. So he let her go, trusting that she would make the right decision when the time came. He trusted her to make the right choice and choose healing over revenge.
Zuko meanwhile accompanied Katara because he understood her desire for revenge and also desperately wanted for Katara not to hate him anymore. His decision to accompany Katara was just as important as Aang’s decision to stay behind, because it cemented both relationships: Aang as someone who trusts Katara to make the right decision and Zuko as someone who understands Katara’s past enough to help her achieve what she thinks she needs. They were both vital in her decision to spare her mother’s killer in different ways.
This is completely different in the case of Beyond the Wilds. Asami does not even have the choice of accompanying Korra. There is no ‘I should stay behind; take Mako with you instead.’ There is no drastic choice between two ideologies for Korra to make. This is a matter of personal healing for Korra due to a traumatizing event done to her person with the intention of hurting and killing her personally. She is going to confront a man who destroyed her, body and spirit. That is an important event. And Asami apparently doesn’t even know about it.
Mako, the man who has seen Korra at both her absolute highest and all of her lowest points, is the one that goes with Korra to confront Zaheer. He plays the role of both Zuko and Aang, by coming with her for support and understanding but also stepping back and trusting her to make her own choices and decisions. Asami may as well be a distant penpal Korra’s never met for all ‘Beyond the Wilds’ and Korra’s spiritual healing arc is concerned. She has no advice, she has no role, and she has no impact on the entire situation.
And third (and most importantly), the actual connection present between the two couples is completely different. Up to that point, Katara and Zuko had had very low levels of positive interaction with each other. The Southern Raiders was Katara finally forgiving Zuko for betraying her in Crossroads of Destiny and finding a kindred spirit (almost an older brother figure, actually) who had gone through the same kind of experience she had. Aang, though he experienced the genocide of his race, didn’t have the personal agenda of revenge Katara had. Zuko did (he’d been there, done that), not to mention the fact that his mother is gone as well.
Katara and Aang, meanwhile, had been friends w/crushes on each other since literally Episode 1, and this was made very apparent. They had a ridiculous amount of positive interaction with each other, and they fought and forgave each other just like every other friend/couple does. They fought together, traveled/lived together, laughed together, comforted each other, and were basically at each other’s sides constantly for nearly a year.
Zuko’s recognition of and connection with Katara’s past and unresolved feelings about her mother’s murder does not mean they were hinting Zutara in that episode. Although it was pretty depressing to realize that had Zutara happened, they would have had a more believable build-up than Korrasami (they were shown on-screen going from hating each other/using the other to being honest to being betrayed to becoming friends to an almost younger sister/older brother relationship in basically six episodes (plus a couple in Book 2)—and they did it believably, with shown on-screen development of their changing relationship together and how the trust slowly built up. Like that was some good writing, let’s be honest here).
Korrasami didn’t really have that. They went from jealous half-rivals to sort-of friends to good friends to lovers with very little on-screen interaction and very little connection outside of their mutual relationships with Mako. Like they literally had that one conversation in the beginning of Book 3 and suddenly they became best friends for no real apparent reason. I mean, Korra and Asami were friends before, but there was no real build-up. No development, and no real reason for them to become so close. They literally bonded over Mako…and then what? What are their common interests? What do they like about each other? etc etc etc. things we didn’t get, and things we actually got with Zuko and Katara.
Asami was really never there for Korra except for that first part of her recovery, not for any of the situations Korra found herself in throughout all four books, and neither was Korra ever really there for Asami for all of her issues (losing her company, her father, etc).
Look, I may not ship Zutara, but even I can admit that you have a far better basis for saying Zutara could have happened than Korrasami.
