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I saw some people saying that Bryke said once that they gave Katara to Aang because he would be sad if they didn't or something like that. I wasn't able to find anything about it. Can someone please tell me where I can find that video?

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They only made those posts as a response to Zutara fans joking about those scenes and not because they actually care about this so called propaganda or indigenous women

Even the writers said that they wrote that scene to give Aang a reason to get more upset and that it can also be seen as servicing the shippers. Not to mention that they said it themselves that Kataang wasn't a foregone conclusion. That scene reflects what was actually going on in the writing room and has nothing to do with Fire Nation propaganda, but sure...Zutara fans have tone deaf takes and they make it all about ships when that's literally all it is with that moment

god, this tweet is so stupid. the portrayal of katara by the actress playing her was more reflective of how many people on the crew viewed her. actress katara’s outfit didn’t include pants because it was inspired by bryke’s original design for her, and acting like her sexualized depiction was supposed to be some kind of critique when the episode was directed by giancarlo volpe is insane.

volpe’s role encompassed aspects like directing the storyboards, character designs, and backgrounds. he was notorious for his obsession with sexualizing katara, having drawn several now-deleted erotic images of her, including the infamous one of katara in a hooters uniform. he even compared katara’s virginity to her vial of spirit water, claiming she didn’t "give it to zuko" because she was "saving it for aang."

he is a huge kataang shipper who self-inserts onto aang ("i’m kataang because i relate to aang. i want the nice guy to get the girl, not the zuko types"), and he has admitted that his personal biases influenced how he directed episodes. it’s likely that he was responsible for adding the scene where zuko and katara scoot away from each other when their stage counterparts are depicted as lovers, since this moment didn’t exist in the actual screenplay created by the show’s writers.

here's another dogshit take disproven by the writers of the episode themselves. zuko and katara were not depicted as lovers in the play because the writers wanted make some social commentary about indigenous women being stereotyped as seductresses, but to provoke a negative reaction from aang ("how can we pile it on aang?"), so it could lead to the scene where katara rejects aang's romantic advances on the balcony.

the writing team wanted katara to tell aang that she was "confused" about her feelings because this was a plot device needed to keep their narrative options open. contrary to popular belief, aang and katara being endgame was never planned from the start. the question of whether they would get together was still undecided even this late into the series. katara could have very well rejected aang for good in the series finale, as the writers mentioned that aang remaining single was a possibility.

Tim Hedrick: I mean, I don't think it was really settled that Aang and Katara were going to get together at the end of the season. That's where it seemed like it was going, but it was not, you know… a foregone conclusion. Joshua Hamilton: Right, yeah. We had this conversation. Tim Hedrick: Aang could have just… He could have, you know, embraced his monk lifestyle and just wandered off to get into more adventures.

according to these tweets, katara’s sexualized depiction in the play is somehow a critique of the stereotypes surrounding indigenous women, despite the very episode's director having a long history of sexualizing katara for his own entertainment.

i've also seen people claim that aang and toph being portrayed by actors of the opposite sex was meant to be a critique of sexualized racism, with the air nomads being feminized and the earth kingdom being masculinized. but bryke confirmed that aang being played by a woman was actually a reference to how they rejected casting female voice actors for aang because they wanted him to be voiced by a boy close to his age. meanwhile, toph’s portrayal was a nod to her original concept as a muscular teenage boy before head writer aaron ehasz persuaded them to make toph a twelve year old girl.

what makes these tweets even more brainless is that the boy in the iceberg wasn’t actually a fire nation play—it was from the earth kingdom. team avatar is portrayed in unflattering ways not because this was how the fire nation saw them but simply because the episode’s writers wanted to make jokes about them. the in-universe explanation is that the earth kingdom playwright relied on inaccurate sources of information, like the cabbage merchant. in fact, the playwright actually had positive views of team avatar and believed that aang would defeat the fire lord until the cabbage merchant started telling him negative stories about them. if the intention of the play was to show how the fire nation public viewed team avatar, they simply would have made the playwright a fire nation citizen instead of having him hail from the earth kingdom, which was clearly done for humorous reasons.

even if you choose to interpret the play as an earth kingdom parody of fire nation propaganda, the playwright is insultingly named "pu-on tim." tim hedrick, the writer who pitched the idea for the episode, chose this name to mock the chinese language because it sounds like "poo on tim" in english. it references an inside joke among the crew about how the piandao is a real type of chinese sword, but the animatic editor of the series, dao le (who is vietnamese american), mistakenly thought "piandao" meant "pee on dao," and that tim hedrick had named sokka’s master this to make fun of her. these racist jokes about chinese names remind me of when bryke wanted the character of pong to have a counterpart named "ping," with both characters planned to serve major comedic roles throughout the second season.

oh, but sure, the ember island players episode is actually a deeply intellectual and nuanced satire of imperialist propaganda, because the "poo on tim" writer who pitched the episode and the director who would always sexualize katara must be so highly educated and culturally sensitive when it comes to complex issues like racism and misogyny. after all, who could doubt the genius of the children's cartoon created by two white american men who wanted to give east asian characters names like "ping" and "pong"? (and people think "cho chang" is bad).

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People who say that Aang wasn't a bad father and we just make things up about his favoritism remind me of those women that post their husbands not helping around the house and when people agree that they are a pos, they come up with another video to defend them because "we shouldn't judge based on a 1 minute long post".

If the only thing you show me is that person being bad, then that's how they are gonna be perceived.

If you constantly shown me how Aang's neglect and favoritism had a negative impact on his kids to the point they are still talking about it in their 50', then I'm going to assume he wasn't a great dad.

You can't show all of that and then slap a picture to prove that they were actually happy all along and we just misunderstood the all thing.

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Different people that worked on the show talking about Zutara

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I know I'm asking for too much, but can someone please, please, please make some fanart with this? 🙏

I would love to do it myself, but I suck at drawing

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So...I saw some people claim that A#ng mastered the avatar state at the end of the second season, but the reason he wasn't able to enter it is because his chakra got block by Azula and not because of his attachment on Katara and because of this Kata#ng doesn't harm A#ng's arc.

First of all, all we get from the catacomb scene is A#ng trying to let go of Katara, going into the avatar state and Azula striking him with lightning before he was able to complete the process. There's nothing there that would suggest he was able to detach himself from Katara.

If he was actually able to do it, then the writers did a really poor job showing this. If it was so clear that he did it, then we wouldn't have a debate about it anymore. No one needs to debate about the fact that Zuko got a redemption and he changed for the better (unless you ship him with Katara) because the writers bothered to explore this important side of his arc, but when it comes to A#ng, people are still unsure about it and they try to find an explanation for it.

Zuko needed another season to get his character development. You are telling me A#ng did all of this in 10 seconds? A#ng resolved this important inner conflict just like that? Or was he presented with a conflict and a flaw that he had to address, the same way Zuko was at the end of the second season, both of them failed to do it and we had to move on to the third season in order acknowledge those problems and give the main characters some growth? Which one makes more sense?

A#ng never got to let go of his attachment and there are different sources to prove it:

A#ng says in the "Sozin Comet: The final battle" book that he gave up on mastering the avatar state for Katara

The avatar wiki says that his attachment remained intact

And the atla-lore-archive says he was interrupted by Azula while he was trying to go into the avatar state

Also, some people claim that he was not attached anymore because he was better at flirting in the Headband than in the Fortuneteller episode. And...like...how is that supposed to mean he is less attached? A#ng trying to pursue a romantic relationship with Katara, while his inner conflict never gets to be addressed, is the complete opposite of what he was told to do. The ember island episode highlights his attachment and possessiveness the most. He nods when actor Zuko calls Katara "the avatar's girl", he gets upset when he sees Zuko and Katara's actors pretending to have feelings for each other and he kisses her when she obviously expressed that she needs to sort out her feelings.

A#ng tried to let go of Katara in Ba Sing Se, he managed to enter the avatar state, but before he was able to complete the process, he got shot by Azula, his chakra got blocked, he was unable to master the avatar state and his attachment remained the same. The third book was the perfect opportunity to explore this, but the creators realized that they can't have their precious Kata#ng if they bothered to acknowledge this so they decided to fix this all mess with a rock.

So...yeah. KATA#NG HARMS A#NG'S CHARACTER ARC AND THIS SHIP IS REALLY FORCED BECAUSE OF IT.

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Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し

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Mai confronting Azula and risking her life for Zuko

Ohh...he must be worried about her 😔

Nevermind

Zuko the next day

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And the fact that all of this happens after Mai risked her life for Zuko and she could be hurt or dead by that point, but all Zuko seems to care about is Katara hating him to the point he can't sleep. I don't know. I think there were more important things that he could hyperfixate on...just saying.

Same thing with Iroh. He constantly thinks about his uncle and still mentions him after The boiling rock episodes, but he never does it with Mai

I mean i like your interpretation a lot but sometimes I think that’s just how Zuko is with a goal. He hyperfixates, he must capture the avatar, restore his honor, join and train the avatar, get Katara to forgive him. He is very one track mind but that track goes hard. Basically what I’m saying is, I think Zuko staying up all night in front of her tent says more about him than it does about their relationship.

i see what you’re saying, but i don’t view those two things (what his actions reflect about his character vs his relationship with katara) as mutually exclusive. zuko can certainly be single-minded with his goals, but the examples you listed show that his determination is only ever fuelled into things that he cares about deeply, or a means to obtain something he really wants (capturing the avatar would let him go home, training aang would help defeat his father, and so on). he isn’t, for instance, interested in the goal of settling down in ba sing se so he becomes fairly listless and apathetic over the course of his life there (pre fever at least).

so the fact that his goal in this case is to help katara seek closure already speaks volumes about their relationship and his feelings for her. whether viewed as romantic or platonic, his drive to earn her forgiveness and care for her is proof that she already matters to him a great deal; staying up outside her tent all night is simply a manifestation of that.

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Quasimodo isn't Esmeralda's love interest, but he had romantic feelings for her.

Also, why did you bring up Aang in this when I didn't say anything about him? Aang and Katara obviously saved each other in the show too. I don't deny this. If there are Zutara fans who do this, then go and argue with them.

This post is not trying to discredit the Kataang moments. I'm just trying to show that this scene is full of romantic coding

The creators be like: let's add as many cinematographic techniques to make this scene as romantic as possible

The classic "Noooo..." when a character is about to lose a loved one

The slow-motion

The soft music followed by a close-up reaction shot of their eyes

Their hands reaching out for each other

One character holding the person who got hurt/risked their life for them

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Zuko and Aang saving Katara from the falling rocks

✨️Parallels✨️

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I could say the same thing about Sokka

He was getting high on cactus juice and eating radom stuff he found in a cave when they got stuck in the desert while Katara had to step up, guide everyone and support them emotionally

Both of them have leadership qualities. Just because I recognize and point this things out when it comes to Katara's character, this doesn't mean Sokka is less of a leader

I know that a big part of Sokka's arc was to become a leader and he obviously proved that he can be one

But look at my girl Katara. She's exactly like her dad

She was born to lead. She went out of her way to prove that she can be known for more than healing and she just ended up being recognized as one

She is also a master waterbender, but I guess that's not important enough to get a statue

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Thank you for conforming that you saw the blurb about Zuko being Katara's love interest

I was able to find different screen shots with it, so I think it's real

Oh, and this 😏🤣

And Joshua Hamilton, one of the writers, apparently read the bible where they were supposed to be canon which would explain this avatar extra

Also, there is another avatar extra that I found, but I forgot to post

And yeah, people would say that Mai also touched his scar, but Katara was the first who did it and the reason so many fans talk about this scene, while I barely see Mai touching Zuko's face being mentioned, is because the way it's framed makes this all thing more meaningful. The tension, the slow-motion, the soft music, the emotional connection, Zuko being close to change for the better and Katara being the reason he would do this, Katara playing a role in his redemption arc. All of those things make this moment stand out so much in comparison. On the other hand Mai just grabs his face to kiss him and she just happens to touch it. Then she leaves. Zuko connects emotionally with Katara in this scene which is in stark contrast with Zuko trying to do the same with Mai, but instead he gets dismissed and all he is left with is physical intimacy when it's obvious that this is not what he needs. And that's the reason this scene was significant enough to get an avatar extra and why the people that worked on the show easily forgot that Mai touched his scar too

"Eww...Zuko and Katara are like siblings. Why would you ship them?"

Yeah...because siblings are often used for ship baiting

Meanwhile Kataang...

But Zuko and Katara are supposed to be the ones with the siblings vibes?

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Someone here said that the screen shot about Zuko being originally Katara's love interest is fake. I wasn't able to find if this is true or not, but even without that, it's obvious that Zuko was an option in the writing room and there was ship baiting done with Zutara

"Eww...Zuko and Katara are like siblings. Why would you ship them?"

Yeah...because siblings are often used for ship baiting

Meanwhile Kataang...

But Zuko and Katara are supposed to be the ones with the siblings vibes?

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I know that a big part of Sokka's arc was to become a leader and he obviously proved that he can be one

But look at my girl Katara. She's exactly like her dad

She was born to lead. She went out of her way to prove that she can be known for more than healing and she just ended up being recognized as one

She is also a master waterbender, but I guess that's not important enough to get a statue

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"Eww...Zuko and Katara are like siblings. Why would you ship them?"

Yeah...because siblings are often used for ship baiting

Nickelodeon magazine, Atla edition

Avatar extras

Chibi shorts

The fans reacting to the trailer of the second half of the third season

In the first scene Katara is retreating from Aang's kiss

In the next one she is hugging Zuko

Meanwhile Kataang...

But Zuko and Katara are supposed to be the ones with the siblings vibes?