I realize I am a bit late to respond to this, but I want to point out that monasticism in the Eastern religions (which essentially means Buddhism) is a temporary state - at least in some traditions - and is not connected with the idea of permanent celibacy. A person will live in a monastery for a few years as a way of gaining wisdom and maturity, before getting married and proceeding to raise a family. In some traditions a person can even be married and live in a monastery at the same time.
Hey
louisak, I do realize that not all Buddhist traditions include celibacy as a permanent state (or at all); however, although celibacy may not be mandatory, it is certainly an option in some traditions. As opposed to some religions, such, as, say, the LDS, where it seems that celibacy is not seen as acceptable for anyone, indeed my understanding is that for women, not being married is seen even as an impediment for entry into heaven.
Anyway, perhaps I was completely misinterpreting even the original ATLA canon regarding this, but my impression from ATLA was that celibacy was a theoretical ideal for Avatars, not really because of the sexual aspects, but because marriage in ATLA society, is certainly portrayed as it actually was in traditional East Asian societies, as often being motivated not by romantic love but by political and other practical considerations, especially in the upper classes. (Not that love marriages don’t exist at all, but we see Katara’s grandmother had to flee all the way to the other end of the “earth” to avoid an unwanted arranged marriage, even though her prospective husband actually did love her.)
So, it seemed to me that ideally, the Avatar, being able to control all four elements, is supposed to be impartial and above politics, and consider what is good for the whole world, not just the interests of his own close family members, or those of the specific tribe, kingdom, or nation he or she actually happened to be (re)born into. So, if the Avatar remained single, then it would be less likely that a spouse, children, or in-laws could exert undue influence over the Avatar to favor a particular elemental faction.
All this being said; at this point, what really annoys me about this whole denouement, is not the scene itself, but the show creators’ attitude in essentially saying “if you didn’t see Korrasami coming, it means you’re a homophobe, or at least not as open-minded as the people who did catch on”.
Now,
UnumCorpus brought up JKR “outing” Dumbledore as a similar example, but at least JKR (as far as I know) never said anything similar about the people who didn’t catch on to Dumbledore/Grindelwald. (And yes, I know she made some dismissive comments about the anti-R/H shippers, but that was more about their reading comprehension, she didn’t insinuate that people who didn’t catch on to Ron/Hermione were bigoted in some way.)
Although I do recall that in the HP fandom, when the Remus/Sirius ship was very popular, I recall that many “R/S” shippers would try to “win” shipping arguments by casting fans who didn’t see the two as romantically involved, as homophobes. It’s essentially an ad hominem attack, and while I can understand why extreme shippers do it, it strikes me as pretty unprofessional when authors do it themselves.
Also, come to think of it, JKR’s recent remarks about Ron/Hermione being “forced” are also similar to the ATLA creators are now claiming the Kataang ending of ATLA was “forced”. That strikes me as even odder than JKR’s remarks, because Kataang seemed much more obvious in ATLA than R/H did in HP. If they really wanted to sink Kataang, they had ample opportunity to do it in LOK itself, just because they kissed at the end of ATLA doesn’t mean they got married and had children. Though perhaps they were trying to hint in LOK that their marriage wasn’t actually that happy, it seems most fans took it as “of course the marriage wasn’t perfect because no marriage is”, not as something meant to actually sink the ship completely.
And BTW, I think that JKR did a really poor job setting up Harry/Ginny – not that they’d eventually wind up together, that was pretty obvious, but the idea that H/G would actually function as a successful long-term relationship. I came away seeing Ginny more as a trophy wife that is meant to be Harry’s reward, than a believable character in her own right.
And yet, despite all the flaws I now see in the work, I actually still consider myself an HP fan! So while I sympathize with those who feel they can’t in good conscience remain ATLA/LOK fans, I also think that it’s valid to remain in the fandom as well.
I don’t understand this argument at all. How else am I supposed to see it? I’m not a queer person so maybe I did see the interactions as nothing more than platonic. But give me some credit here. When they held hands and faced each other, I DID interpret that as a romantic gesture, which is why a lot of people are saying “Where did that come from?”. It is not the viewers fault for failing to read the creators’ minds when the creators didn’t do a good job developing that narrative.
. I have no ill will against the creators. Hmmm, I admit Book 3 was the best for me in terms of action and pacing. I do love Book 2 finale and Avatar Wan even though Unalaq is a really cheesy villain 
.