#Im just over the kataang romance narrative

[nyasialiveshere]

this is so so unpopular...but they both lowkey deserved better. They trauma bonded and never got a chance to explore and grow and change. That is why Aang was a terrible dad to his other two kids and I'm guessing Katara who was originally a strong willed person...didn't do anything about it. Their relationship wasn't healthy. Aang was 12...12 and then marries his first crush who was basically his fill in mother at what 16? He pretty much had no childhood and then immediately started having kids. I love both katara and aang but idealizing their relationship doesn't do them any favors. Not saying culturally Katara wouldn't of married young anyway but that was NOT Aang's culture and he certainly wouldn't of grown up to be strapped down and monogamous.

He worshipped Katara, correct, but just because she is the girl and he is the guy who sacrificed everything does NOT make it a healthy happy perfect relationship. I admit Zuko is a bad match for her too. But realistically Katara would of married some guy her age and had kids young regardless of the events of the show. Aang had nothing to go back to. No culture, no home, no friends. Of course he was desperate and had abandonment issues. Sorry I just cant with Zutara or Kataang. Like those kids didn't need to be with the equivelent of their middle school classmates. I would of been fine if they all grew up and ended up with other people. It would of been much healthier.

“Katara deserved better”

And then it’s Katara ending up with the boy who worships the ground she walks on, thinks she can do no wrong, gave up God mode for her, helped her commit environmental terrorism, cheered her on when she was beating misogyny out of an old man, was ready to take her to the other side of the world to find her a teacher when he’d just met her, constantly says he believes in her, that she’s amazing, that she inspires people and he’s proud of her.

But yeah, Katara deserved better.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

https://www.tumblr.com/enbyzutara/745302321089675264/im-sorry-to-break-it-to-you-ka-shippers-but?source=share whats ur opinion on this

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“Non-consensual”

Aang misjudged the moment and kissed someone he had already kissed twice consensually twice before in a moment where that person really didn’t feel like kissing him. That’s not good, but it’s not the same as him forcing himself on her. You’d think the people that like that a ship that literally only exists because the bad guy tied a girl to a tree and fans then made rape-turned-romance fics about it wouldn’t be so quick to judge the protagonist for a poorly timed kiss between two characters that were flirting constantly (and again, have already had two consensual kisses before). 

“It’s not shown as explicitly wrong to the very young audience”

Katara snaps at him after ir. He is kicking himself for it. The whole tone of the scene is “Aang needs to calm to down and not rush into it, he needs to respect Katara’s decision to take some time to think about whether or not she wants to be his girlfriend officially.” The show couldn’t possibly be more clear. Are we supposed to assume neither Zuko nor Iroh feel guilty over stealing that ostrige-horse from Song, despite the show repeatedly proving they’ve changed as people, just because there’s no scene of them explicitly saying the words “That thing we did was bad”?

“The Kataang endgame is just ‘Hero Gets The Girl’“

They were endgame because there were three seasons of BOTH characters having feelings for each other. It was set up from the first episode. It’s not just because “Well, Aang is the protagonist.” It just made sense. Hell, if anything the show was starting to fall victim to the stupid trope of “Main couple cannot get together for real until the last episode, even the story already reached that point naturally before said episode” - it’s the whole reason why they had to force this conflict of the kiss. They were running out of ideas on how to keep them apart.

“The finale, aka the episode in which they get together, coming right after the Ember Island fiasco is a bad narrative choice”

That I agree with. See? It’s easy to criticize the show/writting/characters without blowing things out of proportion.

[enby-axels]

i have nothing against narusasu, in fact, i understand why an immense amount of people ship them. but i can't help but feel its queerbaiting? what do you think? at the end of the day, it's all business. kishi and the executives know that narusasu is the most famous ship so they took advantage of that. the canon ships are all just collateral and ways to create a new generation. it's like their thinking, "oh it doesn't matter if we haven't put any effort in developing the canon couples. as long as there's a new generation, we're good. we have narusasu anyways to keep majority of the fans engaged but we can't make them canon cuz otherwise, no kids. no new gen. no new series. no money." yes, developing a story as large as naruto ain't easy. there were other heavy plots to be addressed which are the main themes of naruto. romance is the least thing of significance but godammit, the way they executed the canon couples is so cheap and poor. i used to ship ss and it's really disappointing how these two characters' development got butchered. they should've just remained friends in the end if canon is how they're currently being handled. it's really telling that genin ss had more development and moments than shipuuden ss & adult ss combined. you're right, platonic sasusaku is underrated.

i honestly dont know. i wouldnt call it queerbaiting; personally, i think all the queer interpretations of sns are completely unintentional on kishimoto's part. and i dont know enough about the popularity of naruto ships to say for sure that sns is the most famous.

plus, with queerbaiting, there also has to be an expectation of representation. i for one never expected romantic sns to be canon, and most of sns fandom didnt either (im assuming).

i agree that the main ships (naruhina and sasusaku) werent developed very well at all. it feels like their romantic moments were just sprinkled in, rather than truly developed and prioritized as part of the storyline and greater narrative. for instance, compare the development of naruto's canon ships to the development of bleach or atla's canon ships. you can tell kubo and bryke actually cared enough about ichihime, renruki, kataang, and maiko, because the romantic relationships actually mattered to the plot, characters, and the main themes.

ichihime and renruki's relationships contributed significantly to bleach's themes of protecting loved ones and being protected by them. kataang and maiko's relationships contributed significantly to atla's commentary on imperialism, grief/loss, forgiveness/redemption, and choosing love over power/nationalism. meanwhile, naruhina and sasusaku's relation to naruto's main themes were put on the backburner. there was potential, but to me, it feels like kishimoto just didnt care enough about the romances to make them essential to the story he was telling.

and yes, platonic sasusaku is underrated. i wish there was more content, but we cant have it all 😞

just in case you're interested, here's one of my favorite naruto fanfics (x). it's sakura-centric and very focused on sasusaku friendship. i cant recommend it enough; the characterization, relationship development, and take on chakra theory are so good

(tbh, the more i think about it, the more i feel my preferance for platonic sasusaku is due to the way naruto fanfic writers portray it in contrast to romantic sasusaku. the platonic sasusaku fics i've read tend to have better characterization, in contrast with the romantic sasusaku fics i've (tried to) read)