I'm not really a huge shipper of the pairing, though I appreciate the inclusion of bisexual characters and a lesbian pairing, even if it got almost no time to develop.

I don't think Asami was nearly as stable in her sense of self, necessarily, as you might think. Keep in mind she's had to deal with her father's betrayal, and her subsequent growth as the person responsible for their company. Not to mention romantic interests are hardly a thing that are concrete and well-known, particularly at their age - Asami is only 22, after all.

Yes what she went through must have played a role, and maybe her forgiving her father and accepting his apology, is a way of accepting herself as well...
And I also appreciate the inclusion of a bisexual pairing, as I expected it less in a show like this.

"metalbending doesn't work on platinum" was kind of pls and broke my suspension of disbelief, but I guess they needed to bring back the 'the bad guys have something that the good guys can't deal with' plot mechanic
I'm a little wary of the recycled idea, but since it's just a minor worldbuilding component, I can overlook it to facilitate everything else

I seem to remember someone complaining that Korra undoes the "there is no good or evil" that TLA apparently posited, but I'm not so sure that's entirely the case. While I am a bit dissatisfied with the good vs. evil idea, there's definitely hints of it throughout TLA, with Zuko's struggle between what's explicitly positioned (by Iroh) as good vs. evil.

I do like some of the callbacks in the mythology to the world - the dragon's dance of fire being literally as old as the Avatar itself, and the lionturtles who gave spiritbending at S1 being the ones who granted all bending, and being the protectors of humanity in the primordial age.
It's also interesting how Wan's (lol literally "one") personality foreshadows the later Avatars, both in his silliness/pranks, seriousness/nobility, and mercy/unwillingness to actually hurt people
and also, ofc, his first/best friend among the spirits being a lemur spirit, which was kind of amazing, haha

But yeah, while I appreciate the origin story, I think the positioning of the ying-yang/Taoist symbolism as explicitly good vs. evil is a bit of a misstep, or rather a miscommunication between what those ideas represent and the lack of moral judgment in that thought, and what the show puts forward as good vs. evil. But Avatar isn't Taoism per se, only inspired by it, and I guess some of those ideas come from the intersection of eastern philosophy with a Western writer/directing company.

Nonetheless, interesting! S2 certainly isn't quite as bad as I was led to believe, but always better to have too-low expectations than too high.

Korra and Asami's pairing did NOT come out of left field if you were paying CLOSE attention, but then again that's the thing. It's very, very subtle, IIRC they never had a proper scene where they explored the possibility but rather it was aside glances, the camera deliberately lingering for a second too long or showing or not showing certain things, etc.

Example, there's a scene where Asami's bending over an engine to fix a car and apparently Korra checks her out. I personally don't think it's sufficient but some do. Another, imo more telling example is when the whole gang is together for season 4 and they rescue Prince Wu. Someone cracks a joke or something, Korra laughs, but instead of looking at any of the boys, she looks at Asami first as if to see if she finds it funny too.

That's what I'm talking about when I say it's subtle.

I also understand if you were thrown off by the whole love triangle, IIRC there was a scene with Asami and Mako that might have been as late as season 3. It's where Korra loses her memory and Asami uses her chance to jump on Mako, I think. I can see how that would have been a red herring for a lot of people.

Personally, I don't think the relationship will last. They have a notorious history of being pretty bad at personal communication, plus as you guys have said Asami has went through a lot. If I had to guess she kind of just fell back on to Korra to use as a rock. Which is great and all until you depend too much on a person, then it starts to go downhill.

giant mechs can pls go tho