#Anti kataang

[zukosbangtan]

the thing i wonder about ka.taang shippers is if they're aware that they can admit that there simply are signs and scenes between zuko and katara that can be interpreted as romantic and that there is a reason why a lot of people ship zutara. like u can admit that but still prefer kat.aang or still dislike or even hate zutara as a couple. these things can coexist. like i can easily say that yeah there are scenes throughout the show that hint at kata.ang coming together but i still don't like that ship bc of other reasons and prefer zutara 🤷‍♀️ and i can easily admit that cause i'm not insecure abt zutara and think that the ship even then still stands more than strong enough. like them saying that we are delusional and that there's absolutely nothing that hints at zutara or them possibly having romantic feelings for each other and it's just us making shit up is just wrong. like it just screams insecure lol

[carto0ncritter]

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

[lord-save-me]

“Kataang is so bad!” “No, Zutara is bad!”

Actually you both suck by focusing so much on what you hate, antagonising people for simply liking a ship to repeat the hate cycle and then wonder why the fandom is so bad.

Y’all need to watch the great divide again and actually engage with the media you claim to love

[liliacviolet]

Kat*ang fans constantly say that Zutara is a ship based on trauma bond because both Zuko and Katara conected over the fact that they lost their mothers and it's so funny that they don't realize how easily we can apply the same kind of logic to their own ship.

Did they forget that A*ng constantly opens up to Katara about his past, the guilt that he feels because he ran away, about how much the loss of the air nomads affect him and many other things while Katara constantly listens, comforts and supports him?

Did they forget that Aang is told he has an attachment on Katara that he has to let go of in order to master the avatar state and he never does it in the third season?

Like, why when A*ng has an obvious unhealthy bond with someone everyone is ok with it, but when Katara opens up to someone that's not Aang all of the sudden she has a trauma bond?

And I know that they are saying this because Zuko and Katara used to be enemies and Zuko comes from the oppressor side, but I don't see the same kind of logic being applied to Zukka when Sokka opened up to his "oppressor" about Yue and Zuko opened up to him about his uncle or when he opened up to Toph about Iroh and she tried to talk with her "oppressor" about her parents.

Maybe it's because those characters traumas and the way they bonded with Zuko over them were framed in a comedic way, but isn't it better that they took Katara's grief and her getting closure seriously instead of being like "I lost my mother" "That's rough buddy"?

I bet if the writers took this approach in "The southern raiders", everyone would be like "See? Zuko doesn't give a fuck about Katara and her mom 🤣"

[camcat1320]

If the story would have continued with a Book 4, I believe Aang was supposed to have a fall arc. Imagine it- Aang as an incel yandere.

Aang: I saved the world for you, Katara, to be with you. Everything I do is for you. Come on, say yes and let's be happy together.

Katara: Aang, if I say it, it would be a lie. I don't feel the same way as you do and I can't change that.

Aang: Why not?

Katara: I'm sorry, Aang, I just can't. I don't know why I don't feel the same way. I just don't.

(inspired by Little Women)

do you ever think about how zuko struggled with making the right choices all his life, and yet he decides to die for katara without even thinking about it? and how katara has put her own needs second to those of the people she loves since she was eight years old, but here zuko is choosing her over his life, his throne, his chance to end the war, putting her first over absolutely everything he should care about? and also how after all of that, somehow the fans were the insane ones for thinking they were in love?

[theweeklydiscourse]

My trouble with Kataang is that the development of their romantic subplot is totally Aang-centric. Before you say: “Well duh, he’s the main character” consider that a good romance needs to involve both sides of the relationship and ideally delve into both of their respective feelings for one another. Katara’s perspective is almost entirely absent from the development of Kataang, save for a few vague musings and a blush here and there. What, romantically speaking, attracts her to Aang? When did she first realize her feelings for him? How does she balance those feelings with their chaotic situation?

I can only guess the answers to these questions because the show provides us with very little concrete evidence that could help us understand Kataang. On the opposite end, we can absolutely pinpoint Aang’s feelings for Katara and track how they shifted over the course of the show. His feelings for Katara are loud and narratively relevant, but the same can’t be said for Katara. Her side of the relationship is ignored until the very last moment.

[kittenfangirl20]

I don’t get this Kataang fan, even when they defend the choice for Katara to not easily forgive Zuko, they turn this into a rant against Zutara. I am a Zutara fan who was cool with Katara taking a while to forgive Zuko. Then this thing about his Zuko was terrible towards Mai, but still wants to ship them together. To me they were both toxic towards each other which is why I don’t want them together. But to them acknowledging that and the fact that Zuko was abused was coddling Zuko. Then if you disagree with them they will get offended especially if you point out that they don’t like Zuko because they never say anything positive about him.

[comradekarin]

when i got on twitter and said if katara had killed yon rha, zuko’s opinion of katara’s core character wouldn’t have changed (we even see that the split second shot of him seeing her blood bend) but aang’s would have- THEY NAILED ME TO THE FUCKING STAKE YALL! they hated jesus because he told the truth!

[illycanary]

Katara's Story Is A Tragedy and It's Not An Accident

I was a teenaged girl when Avatar: The Last Airbender aired on Nickelodeon—the group that the show’s creators unintentionally hit while they were aiming for the younger, maler demographic. Nevermind that we’re the reason the show’s popularity caught fire and has endured for two decades; we weren’t the audience Mike and Bryan wanted. And by golly, were they going to make sure we knew it. They’ve been making sure we know it with every snide comment and addendum they’ve made to the story for the last twenty years.

For many of us girls who were raised in the nineties and aughts, Katara was a breath of fresh air—a rare opportunity in a media market saturated with boys having grand adventures to see a young woman having her own adventure and expressing the same fears and frustrations we were often made to feel. 

We were told that we could be anything we wanted to be. That we were strong and smart and brimming with potential. That we were just as capable as the boys. That we were our brothers’ equals. But we were also told to wash dishes and fold laundry and tidy around the house while our brothers played outside. We were ignored when our male classmates picked teams for kickball and told to go play with the girls on the swings—the same girls we were taught to deride if we wanted to be taken seriously. We were lectured for the same immaturity that was expected of boys our age and older, and we were told to do better while also being told, “Boys will be boys.” Despite all the platitudes about equality and power, we saw our mothers straining under the weight of carrying both full-time careers and unequally divided family responsibilities. We sensed that we were being groomed for the same future. 

And we saw ourselves in Katara. 

Katara begins as a parentified teenaged girl: forced to take on responsibility for the daily care of people around her—including male figures who are capable of looking after themselves but are allowed to be immature enough to foist such labor onto her. She does thankless work for people who take her contributions for granted. She’s belittled by people who love her, but don’t understand her. She’s isolated from the world and denied opportunities to improve her talents. She's told what emotions she's allowed to feel and when to feel them. In essence, she was living our real-world fear: being trapped in someone else’s narrow, stultifying definition of femininity and motherhood. 

Then we watched Katara go through an incredible journey of self-determination and empowerment. Katara goes from being a powerless, fearful victim to being a protector, healer, advocate, and liberator to others who can’t do those things for themselves (a much truer and more fulfilling definition of nurturing and motherhood). It’s necessary in Katara’s growth cycle that she does this for others first because that is the realm she knows. She is given increasingly significant opportunities to speak up and fight on behalf of others, and that allows her to build those advocacy muscles gradually. But she still holds back her own emotional pain because everyone that she attempts to express such things to proves they either don't want to deal with it or they only want to manipulate her feelings for their own purposes. 

Katara continues to do much of the work we think of as traditionally maternal on behalf of her friends and family over the course of the story, but we do see that scale gradually shift. Sokka takes on more responsibility for managing the group’s supplies, and everyone helps around camp, but Katara continues to be the manager of everyone else’s emotions while simultaneously punching down her own. The scales finally seem to tip when Zuko joins the group. With Zuko, we see someone working alongside Katara doing the same tasks she is doing around camp for the first time. Zuko is also the only person who never expects anything of her and whose emotions she never has to manage because he’s actually more emotionally stable and mature than she is by that point. And then, Katara’s arc culminates in her finally getting the chance to fully seize her power, rewrite the story of the traumatic event that cast her into the role of parentified child, be her own protector, and freely express everything she’s kept locked away for the sake of letting everyone else feel comfortable around her. Then she fights alongside an equal partner she knows she can trust and depend on through the story's climax. And for the first time since her mother’s death, the girl who gives and gives and gives while getting nothing back watches someone sacrifice everything for her. But this time, she’s able to change the ending because her power is fully realized. The cycle was officially broken.

Katara’s character arc was catharsis at every step. If Katara could break the mold and recreate the ideas of womanhood and motherhood in her own image, so could we. We could be powerful. We could care for ourselves AND others when they need us—instead of caring for everyone all the time at our own expense. We could have balanced partnerships with give and take going both ways (“Tui and La, push and pull”), rather than the, “I give, they take,” model we were conditioned to expect. We could fight for and determine our own destiny—after all, wasn’t destiny a core theme of the story?

Yes. Destiny was the theme. But the lesson was that Katara didn’t get to determine hers. 

After Katara achieves her victory and completes her arc, the narrative steps in and smacks her back down to where she started. For reasons that are never explained or justified, Katara rewards the hero by giving into his romantic advances even though he has invalidated her emotions, violated her boundaries, lashed out at her for slights against him she never committed, idealized a false idol of her then browbeat her when she deviated from his narrative, and forced her to carry his emotions and put herself in danger when he willingly fails to control himself—even though he never apologizes, never learns his lesson, and never shows any inclination to do better. 

And do better he does not.

The more we dared to voice our own opinions on a character that was clearly meant to represent us, the more Mike and Bryan punished Katara for it.

Throughout the comics, Katara makes herself smaller and smaller and forfeits all rights to personal actualization and satisfaction in her relationship. She punches her feelings down when her partner neglects her and cries alone as he shows more affection and concern for literally every other girl’s feelings than hers. She becomes cowed by his outbursts and threats of violence. Instead of rising with the moon or resting in the warmth of the sun, she learns to stay in his shadow. She gives up her silly childish dreams of rebuilding her own dying culture’s traditions and advocating for other oppressed groups so that she can fulfill his wishes to rebuild his culture instead—by being his babymaker. Katara gave up everything she cared about and everything she fought to become for the whims of a man-child who never saw her as a person, only a possession.

Then, in her old age, we get to watch the fallout of his neglect—both toward her and her children who did not meet his expectations. By that point, the girl who would never turn her back on anyone who needed her was too far gone to even advocate for her own children in her own home. And even after he’s gone, Katara never dares to define herself again. She remains, for the next twenty-plus years of her life, nothing more than her husband's grieving widow. She was never recognized for her accomplishments, the battles she won, or the people she liberated. Even her own children and grandchildren have all but forgotten her. She ends her story exactly where it began: trapped in someone else’s narrow, stultifying definition of femininity and motherhood.

The story’s theme was destiny, remember? But this story’s target audience was little boys. Zuko gets to determine his own destiny as long as he works hard and earns it. Aang gets his destiny no matter what he does or doesn’t do to earn it. And Katara cannot change the destiny she was assigned by gender at birth, no matter how hard she fights for it or how many times over she earns it. 

Katara is Winston Smith, and the year is 1984. It doesn’t matter how hard you fight or what you accomplish, little girl. Big Brother is too big, too strong, and too powerful. You will never escape. You will never be free. Your victories are meaningless. So stay in your place, do what you’re told, and cry quietly so your tears don’t bother people who matter.

I will never get over it. Because I am Katara. And so are my friends, sisters, daughters, and nieces. But I am not content to live in Bryke's world.

I will never turn my back on people who need me. Including me.

[juniperhillpatient]

the tragic comedy of the way I keep getting Zutara posts “based on your likes!” but I don’t even ship Zutara at all I just like a lot of posts from people who do because I hate Kat.Aang & enjoy seeing the ship read to filth. get on my level of haterisms lolol

[azulapunchedozai]

No amount of "She wanted to lay-low after the war" will justify whatever the heck happened to Katara in TLOK

"She doesn't have enough reason to have a statue" And the cabbage man has?

"She wanted to focus on her children" They managed to portray Zuko a good father because of how well his children has turned out while being the freaking firelord. I don't know what's stopping the writiers from doing the same to Katara.

"She wouldn't wanted to involve herself in politics" Did we all watched ATLA????

If you think reviving the Avatar, who, if you're not aware died during the Avatar State, is not enough of a reason to even RECOGNIZE Katara's contributions, I think you need to freaking rewatch ATLA and realize how much they downgraded her in TLOK

[happybirthdaydarling]

I’m sorry but Katara should have been integral in rebuilding the culture of the Southern Water Tribe. She should have become the chief based on merit, and she should have ensured that their traditions remained alive and well. A leader in her own right, protecting them and teaching girls and boys alike how to fight.

She should have brought Hama back with her and Hama could have received a simple “banishment” as her punishment for locking up the village people - after all she already did a couple of decades as time served - and Hama could have helped educate in the old ways. Katara will never let another water bender be stolen from their lands again.

Katara deserved to be a diplomat and leader and cultural preservationist who communicated with Republic City (council still headed by Sokka) and traveled often, but always came home to the southern water tribe.

She did not deserve to be stuck in a mommy role, remembered as a healer, whose biggest accomplishment was birthing the next airbender. She should have been a mythical figure, the last water bender of the southern tribe who resurrected the avatar and stopped the cycle from being broken, a healer and fighter. She should have been revered.

[carto0ncritter]

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

The "sibling-coded" ship in question:

[ecoterrorist-katara]

”Aang is the one who reminds Katara to be a kid” PUT SOME RESPECT ON TOPH’S NAME!!! Toph brings out Katara’s inner child, not the sunshine rainbow flower crown inner child, but her internal gremlin. Her pettiness and violence and self-centered mischief. Aang is a ride-or-die friend sometimes, but when they’re together, Katara’s priorities are always 1) the state of the world and 2) Aang himself. Like she can be playful but she’s never really distracted from her sense of responsibility.

With Toph, Katara prioritizes much more childlike things, like having the last word in an argument, and whether her friends think she’s cool, and laughing in a day spa, and petty revenge. Only Toph can drag Katara down to her level of immaturity and I think that’s beautiful

[liliacviolet]

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

[burst-of-iridescent]

every time someone compares kat.aang to everlark an angel loses its wings