ryu-slayer

[ryu-slayer]

I saw a comment on the petition that said, “Acolyte is honestly an amz8mg show. I'm not sure where the hate is coming from, but there is plenty of love to combat it,” and they are not wrong. People love this show, and we must fight the hate.

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Heh preach brother. We are few and far in between.

I do find it funny that I seem to be in the minority as a man who ships zutara, it’s like being the only male cheerleader

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this modern day fandom culture is killing me because we’re losing the art of shipping

these days you have to publish a dissertation and make a 100 page powerpoint with textual and subtextual evidence to back up the fact that you like seeing two characters together because apparently people can only ship what’s canon now

back in my day we used to be able to ship characters who never interacted,

we used to ship characters that didn’t even exist within the same media

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Bending: Part 7 (zutara)

AU where Katara finds unknown man on the shore, not far from the Northern Water tribe village. No one is speaking truth, bending is forbidden and Katara questions many things that seemed certain.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

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you will never convince me that zuko didn’t think about katara in the fire nation i know in my SOUL that he remembered her and their interaction in the catacombs every single goddamn day and the only reason the creators didn’t show it is because it would have read way too much like the most pathetic, down-bad yearning for bry.ke to ever be comfortable with lmao

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Just like what mother aniseya says, the acolyte is osha's journey after pulling the thread

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Zuko: Katara... I found someone I really like. How should I confess to her?

Katara: Just wing it, I'll say yes.

Zuko: How do you just wing a con-

Zuko: Wait...

Zuko: How did you-

Katara: *smirks*

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Zutara is the enemies to lovers trope but HEALTHY AF

zutara is the enemies to lovers trope without the toxicity, with a genuine redemption arc, with two characters who actually help each other grow, where they’re well and truly equals in both power and personality, where neither has to sacrifice what makes them special to prop the other up, where both have a loving and supportive network that would encourage instead of hinder their relationship -

zutara is like peak ‘enemies to lovers’ that is miraculously both wholesome af yet filled with delicious angst and honestly, nothing’s ever come close to just how incredible it is and we’re just spitting facts here, friend.

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In Kataang, we never get to see Katara hint that she might return Aang's romantic feelings if there isn’t some external factor pushing her to consider him as a potential partner.

Katara only recognizes Aang as a 'powerful bender' after Sokka explicitly mentions it.

Katara only suggests that she and Aang kiss because that's what they must do to escape the cave. And, since this scene and the cave scene between Zuko and Katara are clearly parallels, I've gotta say something I noticed: after she and Aang (probably) kiss, Katara runs off without looking back, but after she and Zuko share that intimate moment, she looks back over her shoulder (which is clear romance coding)

It's Aang who insists that the two of them dance.

In the final scene, Katara is proudly presented to Aang as his prize for saving the world thanks to good ol' deus ex machina.

The two of them don't have a single conversation, Katara never mentions WHY she still chose Aang despite his previous toxic behaviors and unhealthy attachment/possessiveness. In TSR, Aang forced his own ideology onto Katara even though she needed to explore her dark side and find closure (which Zuko understood perfectly, and some people think ZK is "toxic"... sigh). I get that Aang had good intentions, but he never took the time to understand Katara.

Maiko also has this problem; Mai does care about Zuko, but she’s never been on the same page as him. Even if you care about someone, that doesn't mean you fit together romantically.

Mai never cared about doing the right thing, Zuko grew into a person who did.

Mai's apathy clashes with Zuko's passion and emotion. She doesn't understand him or know how to comfort him, unlike Katara.

Kataang and Maiko shouldn't have been endgame

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once again here to say that as much as bryke resented zutara, it is frankly Weird (though no less delightful for me) that the finale, which again!!! is a time you want to really emphasize closure to relationships that are going to resonate with the audience, story-wise, that So Much time is dedicated specifically to the bond between zuko and katara.

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do you guys ever think about how insane the lightning scene was during the agni kai like specifically zuko SACRIFICING his life for KATARA????

like let’s break it down together.

zuko stupidly (affectionate) mentions lightning to azula, provoking her. god knows why he did that, it was only gonna end badly. then she bends lightning, and i think she knows at this point that zuko Can lightning bend since he redirected the lightning back to ozai on the day of black sun. ozai definitely told azula.

and azula KNOWS zuko cares about katara deeply. if there’s one thing she knows, it’s how to take down zuko. and so she PIVOTS, shooting the lightning at KATARA instead, which literally disqualifies her from the agni kai. did she know she wasn’t going to win? she just wanted to hurt zuko? not too sure. but ANYWHO she bends the lightning to katara.

and zuko sees this. and he’s like absolutely NOT. and this boy…RUNS FASTER THAN LIGHTNING.

RUNS FASTER THAN LIGHTNING.

and absorbs the lightning, redirecting part of it, but he takes in most of it.

and then…azula goes after katara. and while he is on the GROUnd with LIGHTNING coursing through him, it literally burned and teared his insides, he is actively DYING…his instinct is to try to help katara.

let me say it again. he has just been STRUCK—not even struck—ABSORBED LIGHTNING…and his FIRST instinct when DYING is to reach for KATARA.

and mind you, this isn’t any regular schmegular lightning. this is SOZIN’S COMET CHARGED LIGHTNING. AZULA, ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL BENDERS EVER WHOSE BENDING IS CURRENTLY BEING STRENGTHENED BY SOZINS COMET SENT THIS LIGHTNING.

his injury is on his chest, so while he’s convulsing on the ground, somehow he manages to FLIP OVER onto his CHEST…his lightning torn CHEST…and he tries to reach for katara to help her.

of course because he is actively dying, he can’t help her and his hand falls down.

but OH MY GOD?

and then katara’s point of view is SO AHHHH

because katara only came with zuko because he asked to. in her words, he admitted to his uncle that he needed help facing azula. and he asked her. she immediately caught onto azula trying to split them up, and she knew the agni kai was a bad idea. but zuko reassured her, and she knew it had to be done.

i wonder what context katara had of agni kai’s before this moment. she obviously knew zuko would have to fight azula, but was she aware of the significance of agni kai’s in zuko’s life? the fact that his father scarred him in one? that he was almost killed in both of the agni kai’s he’d participated in, at ages 13 and 16 respectively? did she know that his father tried to kill him with lightning the first chance he got on the day of black sun?

(did she know that the only reason he knew how to save her later on was because his father did the same thing to him?)

the fight comes to a standstill, zuko essentially beating azula. katara hears zuko mention lightning (idiot) and azula takes it.

katara knows how powerful azula’s lightning is. it killed aang.

and azula bends lightning, and suddenly, katara sees azula’s eyes lock on her, before it shoots out of her fingers, and katara is paralyzed in fear. but zuko, ZUKO jumps in front of her, saving her.

it isn’t until he hits the ground that katara is snapped out of her frozen state, immediately running to try to heal him, but azula is on her first.

katara then evades azula, who is unhinged (for reasons we will not get into here) and eventually outsmarts her with the water and the chains.

and katara runs to zuko, to heal him.

but i wonder what she was thinking. i wish this scene was more fleshed out. its pretty short (and sweet), katara flipping him over, healing him, he stops shuddering, thanks her softly. she thanks him instead, and she helps him stand.

but katara, realistically, was terrified.

azula’s lightning killed aang. and the only way she was able to bring him back was with the spirit water.

this is sozin’s comet supercharged lightning from azula. and she has no magic healing water.

(in my head she used bloodbending. but the fact that she canonically single-handedly revived zuko from sozin’s-comet-powered lightning from azula with just her hands is so incredible)

what if the moments she spent fighting azula were too long? what if she had already lost zuko by then? what would she have done?

at this point, she and zuko are far gone from being enemies. they are (canonically) friends. they have a deep connection. what if she couldn’t save him?

but for zuko, it was the easiest choice in the world. he didn’t hesitate for a second. katara’s life over his, always.

katara heals him, and he thanks her. so softly, so gently. and with tears in her eyes, she tells him that she should be the one thanking him.

i fear i want to throw up! i love them so much!

and i love this for katara. she has been taking care of everyone around her all her life, sacrificing her childhood for them. she assumed her mother’s role after she died. katara deserves to be loved the way zuko loves her. fully, completely, deeply, enough to die for her with no hesitation.

thank you for reading me freaking the freak out about zutara

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discourse about redemption arcs would vastly improve if instead of always asking “is this character redeemable?” people started asking “what message would it send to redeem this character?” and “would it be logical or satisfying on a narrative level to redeem this character?”

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kataangs are so funny bc why are you making a headcanon about zuko being some kind of sugar daddy to katara?

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"Zutara is sibling-coded you can't ship them!!!"

The "sibling-coded" ship in question:

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Oh yeah this the ONE!!

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"I’d rather eat shards of glass than have Bryke canonize Zutara. I’m very content with Zuko being single and the Kataang marriage turning out terribly, thank you very much."

Don't you think that's unnecessarily petty (and untrue, by the way) ?

All the claims that Kataang had a terrible marriage are false fabrications.

I'm not even angry. I don't understand why you're so keen on spreading misinformation. Just a ship's fanon.

Are Civil War: Part 1 and 2 from The Legend of Korra “false fabrications”?

If those episodes have been decanonized and deplatformed, please let me know! Otherwise, we have nothing to talk about.