poppingmakorrabottles

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Happy Ten Years to Korrasami

Can you believe it's been ten years? I sure can't. So much has changed since 2014. Sometimes I look back at this moment a decade ago and realize all over again how special it was. Gay marriage was still 6 months away from being legalized in the US. It was a huge risk to have a children's show imply the main character wasn't straight, and now we have so many examples that have gone further than was possible in Korra's original airtime. I try to hold on to that.

Cheers to everyone who found meaning in this moment. Who joked, or cried, or laughed at these silly memes. Thanks to the creators who fought for this to happen. Cheers of course to the op makorra bottles poster, who has always been such a good sport about this meme and this blog. I hope you're still doing well.

It's been an honor cataloguing these past ten years of memes and lgbtq joy. May there be so much more to come for all of you!

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we popping the BIGGEST bottles when makorra happens tomorrow

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All good romance is earned.

— Monty Oum

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world heritage post: avatar femslash fans on livejournal discussing the possibility of a lesbian or bi lead in the legend of korra in 2010, 2 years before the series first aired. four years later, korra and asami walked into the spirit world together holding hands.

happy korrasami day!

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Steven Universe got blatantly and unapologetically cancelled by the network because the creators pushed for a lesbian wedding, and instead of going, “oh, fuck, that’s incredibly homophobic, we should give Cartoon Network hell for that for the rest of forever, holy shit,” everyone collectively decided to blame the crew for “rushing the ending” as if it wasn’t completely out of their hands. Fuck’s sake.

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I saw Korra on a list of queerbaited characters and I know you people don’t learn your history but goddamn 2014 wasn’t that fucking long ago.

Korra is not queerbait. Korra is the opposite of queerbait. Korra was the creators pushing every damn boundary they could, before gay marriage was even legal, when all cartoon characters were assumed to be closeted by default and it was explicit policy that no queer relationships could be shown. Bryan Konietzko even mentioned that they pushed as hard as they possibly could go to make it clear that Korra was bi and she and Asami were in romantic love. He went to tumblr the exact same day to make sure there was no confusion. The instant they could, they had a comic about Korra and Asami’s first date and first kiss.

Korra and Asami holding hands is a thousand times more radical and queer than any of the craven tokens we’ve been getting these past few years and I will not hear different. There is a vast gulf of difference between creators who could goddamn well make something queer just constantly teasing it because they think it’s funny but would never actually go for it, and creators who actually cannot publish queer content doing everything they can to make it happen. The entire history of queerness is about sneaking past society’s norms and rules, writing our stories in subtext and allegory, and denying those stories their importance in getting us where we are today is foolish and cruel.

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Korra and Asami only held hands because Nickelodeon wouldn’t let them do more.  Nick infamously cancelled Korra and put out the rest of season 4 as a webseries only.

Marceline and Princess Bubblegum only kiss in the very final episode because Cartoon Network wouldn’t let them do more.  There are a ton of interviews with Pendelton and with the voice actresses where they talk about the CN censorship.

Steven Universe got as far as it did because Rebecca Sugar fought tooth and nail, and risked the show getting cancelled (which it did in many countries, if not heavily censored), because Cartoon Network wouldn’t let her.  Ruby was often dubbed over with a male voice, and Pearl/Rose interactions were completely cut.

She-Ra managed to do it largely because it was specifically on Netflix only, and even then, Noelle has said they had to build 4 seasons of storyline very subtly around it so they had enough ammo to convince the execs that Catradora was the only logical conclusion to this show they had already aired.  She didn’t just go in on Day 1 and make it gay; she had to plan many years in advance for how to set up her argument.  Her argument, y’all.

And now we have The Owl House.  Which is an absolutely wonderful show.  And it’s so amazing that we actually get to see queer characters get the kind of representation that so many straight characters get.  And it’s amazing we get to see the romance build up, instead of just a quick peck in the series finale!

Let’s not forget that in the US, it was illegal for gay people to get married until 2015.  Korra aired in 2012.  In Texas, it was a punishable felony to even be gay until the mid-90s.  No, literally.  Just being gay was an arrestable offense here in Texas until 1993.  We have come a really long way in 20 years!

But don’t fucking dare disrespect any of these other shows by saying they didn’t try, or that their representation didn’t matter.  The Owl House is standing on the shoulders of giants.  Lumity is only where it is because Korrasami and Bubbline helped get them there.

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sometimes i still cant believe that amity is canonically crushing on luz and that luz is canonically bisexual and that amity is canonically lesbian and that catra and adora had an on-screen kiss and they are in love and they are lesbians and bow and glimmer are in love and they are bisexual icons and there are so many other amazing queer characters on spop and bubblegum and marceline are also both bisexual icons and so are asami and korra and sapphire and ruby are MARRIED and we got to see them!! get married!! on tv!!! and benson and troy like each other and benson is canonically gay and i’m so lucky to be alive to witness all of the amazing queer rep in cartoons :)

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we popping the BIGGEST bottles when makorra (spanish dub) happens tomorrow

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guys did makorra happen

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this really is like the evil version of korrasami night

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get your bottles ready makorra is happening tomorrow

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can you believe it’s been five years? So much has changed since this happened. I kind of can’t believe how major the shifts in media have been. It’s honestly amazing. Happy five years korrasami. Thank you.

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Happy 3rd Korrasami Anniversary! 💖💜💙

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geez, Mako. super uncool

based on this post

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Hi everyone, I know I’m like a day late, it was finals week. but remember it costs $0 not to be an asshole to the op of the popping bottles post. It’s been three years, chill out. It’s okay to just celebrate the anniversary and laugh at the humor of the post. You don’t have to be nasty. 

Anyway, happy belated anniversary korrasami! Can’t wait for more Turf Wars and new amazing content from everyone who creates! Keep on making amazing things everyone, don’t be ashamed of things that bring you joy.