(art korraconfessions)
This comment/theory from Kaarel J via e-mail:
Hey.
First of all, at this point, I think any rationalization for Asami being evil after all is going to be too convoluted to be taken seriously. It’s an increasingly silly conspiracy theory, and actually, I found that this point of view caused you guys to neglect discussing her emotional developments as they appear to be on the face of episode 7.
The behaviors you hold to be suspicious all make perfect sense if you think things through. Having lost his wife to violence, it’s natural that Hiroshi would have provided combat training to his daughter. (This also sheds some light on Asami’s line about feeling safe with Mako earlier.) While I initially had the same impression about the race that you did, upon review, it seems pretty clear that the opposing driver simply made a risky play and failed. He hit Asami’s car, not the other way around.
I think Asami could be described as “manipulative” insofar that she seemed to take Korra to the racetrack specifically to impress her, but that was most likely part due to an honest attempt to dispel Korra’s animosity and make friends. The race was a nice, simple and demonstrative way for the writers to shift Korra’s opinion of Asami for the better.
I agree that we need more Naga. Pabu’s kind of outdoing her.
DA7E SAYS:
I disagree with you on the Asami front, but I wanted to address what you said about our doubts on Asami and the Sato family endgame made us neglect talking about Asami’s character development.
You’re right, I think, and that frustrates me a little bit, because we should have taken more time to discuss why it was the way it was and I’m feeling a bit of regret for writing it off as “Asami has a Darth Vader in Return of The Jedi” moment.
So look for Asami’s character development to be revisited in a future podcast episode, because I do think that she’s been relegated to side-episodes for her character development and that’s a big part of why I think she has a future outside of Team Korra Generation 2.
That being said, I still generally disagree. Take the last scene of “The Aftermath” as an example: It’s about Korra telling Mako to take care of Asami because she’s been through a lot and Mako quietly going back to Asami while we see that it pains Korra because she still has feelings for Mako. If Asami was equal with our three teenage protagonists, I think we’d get more of a peek into her feelings rather than just using her as something for Korra and Mako to confuse each other with.
Does she know about the kiss? Just thinking about that kind of makes my head spin.
BUT – I am not the be-all-end-all of Asami theories. You guys are. And now we have this nifty comment section on each post at RepublicCityDispatch.com and everyone can throw in their two cents.
WHAT’S UP WITH ASAMI? BAD? GOOD? WHY? Jump in the comments!