#aang pov

[heavensenthearty]

“I know you didn’t mean it…” He moves his arm just enough to look at me. “But you said it because you knew it would hurt me, right?”

I… I don’t know what to say. “I seriously didn’t mean it. If there’s something I could do to take it back, I would!”

“You can’t.”

These are the most cutting words I’ve ever heard from him. “Zuko, I really, really didn’t mean anything I said last night! I’ll do anything to prove—”

“Aang.” He pushes himself to sit. “… You turned on me. It’s going to take a while for me to forgive that… Not only because of you… I’m going to sleep early. Tell Katara not to make dinner for me.”

[blluespirit]

ch: zuko and katara setting: post-southern raiders note: very ramble-y and not my best work - mostly vibes but oh well. enjoy! (or don't! im not the boss of u)

Katara realises later that Zuko thought she would kill Yon Rah. He was ready for it, he was waiting for it. She didn't think about the expression on his face once she turned away from first the Southern Raiders commander, and then Yon Rah, but she thinks about it now. Still, he never said anything to her, even when he hung back after she walked away from Yon Rah, trying to resist a temptation to do something, say something - he still didn't say anything.

She wants to ask him what he thinks.

That realisation alone is a strange one. She never thought she'd want to seek out Zuko's genuine opinion on anything, let alone something as personal as this. Still, she knows what Aang would say - that violence was and is never an option - but she doesn't fully accept that. Ozai doesn't deserve to rot in some cell somewhere for the threat of escape to linger over everyone's heads. He deserves nothing. Only the darkness of whatever lies beyond.

Maybe Aang isn't entirely wrong, but sparing Yon Rah also didn't feel good, or right, but the thing is, she's not sure killing him would have felt any better. The more she contemplates it, the more she runs in circles around herself.

Maybe there isn't a right answer. Maybe she needed to do it just to do it at all. To see him cower in front of her and beg for his life. To remove the fear of the monster that killed her mother that settled in the back of her mind and settled there like a stone. He is not scary to her anymore. He is nothing at all.

Katara thinks about Zuko and Aang. What does it say about them that one would do almost anything to stop her, and the other would do almost anything to give her what she needed - even if that meant cold-blooded murder? Zuko let her decide on her own terms - even if he thought she'd go a different path. He still accepted that.

She can't discount that he would've helped her do it if she'd asked. He nearly broke the commander's neck on the ship getting answers from him - all for her.

It leaves her breathless in a way she can't describe; more so that he also seems content to leave this wherever Katara wants to leave it. She's sure he'd never mention it again if she wanted it to be that way.

She eventually finds him skulking out the halls of his old holiday house. There's a gaunt, haunted expression on his face that Katara wants to probe, but she backs out at the last second. His eyes soften when they see her - grateful for the distraction.

The light struggles against the drapes, leaving only tendrils of light to soften an old carpet and harden Zuko's expression. She doesn't give pleasantries.

"Do you think I was wrong?"

She expects him to answer quickly, but he hesitates.

"I think he would have deserved it."

Katara bristles. "So you do think I was wrong."

He frowns, takes his time again.

"I think you did the right thing for you. If you'd killed him, it would just be another thing to haunt you."

The fight dies out of her as quickly as it rose. She stares at him and he returns it.

"If I asked you to help me do it, would you have?"

"I - yes." He looks down at his feet, shuffling. "I've never directly killed someone. But I would have helped you."

She doesn't know how to thank him, or if she even should for such a declaration.

It's a shock to her system - as if being plunged into arctic water - that someone would stand by her in such a way. Not judging, simply carving the path. What Katara decided to do at her destination is her decision alone.

"He -" Katara starts, unable to say his name and Zuko's gaze turns sharp, as if he knows what she will say next. "- may have deserved to die, or deserved to live and suffer. The world does not suffer consequences for my action or inaction."

Zuko breathes deeply. She can feel the heat of fire brewing in his exhalation.

"If Aang can't kill Ozai..." her words soften, but the persistence darkness around them weighs them down anyway.

Zuko leans back slightly, just enough so a strand of light burns his face, igniting old scar tissue in a brilliant orange. His eyes turn to the window.

"He's the Avatar," he says. There's a pain in his voice Katara can't help but notice. "He doesn't have the luxury of choice."

[acidicsketches]

Based on this ancient meme

[my-cabbages-gorl]

The Chosen One

[firenaition]

i would pay an absurd amount of money to see an adult azulaang spar. azula, still a killer on the offensive. aang on defense, trying to make it look easy (he's trying to flirt with her mid-duel please ignore him) but is ultimately given away by the tight knit of his brow.

he knows enough to never go easy on her, that's not her way. all elements are fair game. he does try to throw her off by saying things like "you look so pretty when you're trying to kill me," to which she responds by hurling a ball of fire straight at his face. even when he loses (which is more often than he'd like to admit), he still wins every time he sees azula smile when she thinks he's not looking.

[kstarlitchaotics]

Yeah sorry but if it weren't a kid show I think Katara would have killed Yon

[roseride01-blog]

Cargo

Appa knew that he was more than just transportation. 

He knew that he was a member of their family, the same as any human would be. 

Appa and Aang had an unbreakable bond, something he knew even before he was lost, but was solidified by the deep ache inside of the bison that had nothing to do with hunger. Appa missed Aang so much that it manifested into a physical form, and only abated on the shores of Lake Laogai, when Aang hugged him deep and Appa felt the boys tears as he whispered “I missed you, buddy.” 

Appa could not speak words that Aang could understand, nor could the bison cry to show how much he missed Aang, but Appa felt that Aang already knew.

Katara had always believed in Appa, even when sometimes the bison was unsure of himself. She encouraged him when he flew through Fire Nation blockades, desserts that stretch out endlessly, and when the Day of Black Sun came, she fought by his side, not as a master but as a comrade. 

Katara is the one who always kept a hand on him in caves, her touch comforting like winter’s first snowfall. 

Sokka, Appa had to earn his belief, and in a way, that's its own merit— Sokka believed when it was proven, and that meant that it was solid— Appa’s strength and abilities where solid, and Sokka saw that. Sokka had painstakingly designed sky bison armor, something that had never been done before, simply because he felt Appa deserved to be protected. 

It meant more to Appa than Sokka will ever know. 

Toph was different than the others, her measure of strength not coming from what she could see, but rather, what she could feel. In the desert, Appa understood the sheer amount of strength it took to hold up Wan Shi Tong’s library, while at the same time trying desperately to protect him in the sand. two monumental tasks that any earthbender but Toph would have almost no hope of achieving. In the end, despite everything he went through, Appa supported Toph’s choice, because it kept his family from being buried forever. 

Toph apologized in hushed whispers outside the Earth King’s palace, trying to hold tears back, but Appa felt he didn’t need forgive her for the choice she made, so he nuzzled against her and slept outside her window that night. 

Zuko was complicated in many ways, and Appa has seen him in many different complicated ways. An enemy, a reluctant ally, a friend, his family and as a savior. Appa wasn’t sure what it was that came over Zuko as his uncle pleaded with him under Lake Laogai, but when Zuko struck the chains off of him, Appa felt something deep inside the Fire Prince that would not be forgotten. Months later, when he came to train Aang, Appa knew he was destined to be his fire bending teacher, and to be apart of their family. 

When Zuko used his bending late at night to warm the chilly caverns of the Western Air Temple, breathing gentle flames into the air over the sleeping group, Appa didn’t rear back in fear, he huddled closer to Zuko’s warmth. 

They didn’t think of him as an animal, and he didn’t think of them as anything other than family. 

The five lives he carried on his back, the one who he was frozen for 100 years with, the one who comforts him with a touch, the one who was skeptical but truly thought he was magical, the one who fought for him despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, and the one who trusted him even as he was falling to his death, were the precious cargo that Appa carried.

He would protect them, no mater what. 

[thevoiceoflove1993]

i really hate that in the end atla went with romantic aang/katara. i read that originally zuko was supposed to be katara's love interest and tbh i see it. i think that would have been so much better. katara was always alone in a way bc she was the emotional caretaker of the group and kind of in the mom role for aang, who always needs her to tone herself down and be stable for him--meanwhile in katara's encounters with zuko he always respects her emotions and gives her space to express them. their maturity level is more equal, they're both alone in a sense, damn their mothers even sacrificed themselves for the same reason, and them being "endgame" or whatever just would have been such good drama--i mean with how katara started out hating zuko's guts and how she struggled so much with learning to trust him (again). bc of their history it was sooo moving as well in the end when zuko threw himself in the way of azula's lightning attack so that it wouldn't hit katara, so i can only imagine how emotionally satisfying it would have been if they had stuck to their original plan for these two characters. ;_;

[hauntingblue]

The dialogue is bad I get it now....

[hopufull]

cr:chaiinsawmen

[gurinpotte]

pov: avatar aang has just misled you. pranked you. because he loves his wife too much

[queen-morgana91]

Omg a post about that episode where Aang is not treated as the "bad guy" for shipping reasons and other nonsense, finally

Aang wasn't forcing his beliefs onto Katara, he was just drawing his pov from his beliefs and personal experiences

"Katara needed the whole trip to find her own way. Aang should had been understanding of the needs of Katara."

He did

[starlight-bread-blog]

Katara's other canon love interests give her agency, and her pov.

And gets a moment where the two connect over similar losses.

Except Aang.

Kataang is framed entirely from Aang's point of view.

Even when he violates her boundries.

And is unable to handle Katara's grief.

But Zutara?

We get Katara's pov, and give her agency.

He saw her at her very worst, and wasn't at all hostile.

And Katara opened up to Zuko in the most significant way.

[comradekarin]

right, like how katara threatening zuko and implying she’d kill him if he stepped out of line shows how much she loves aang and how she’s sooo ride or die but like her anger at aang kissing her after she said no isn’t legit or she was “confused” when she said he wouldn’t understand her feelings in tsr. almost as if her anger is only real when it validates aang but wrong and dark and twisted and “not her” when it challenges him. its insane that katara spent the last four episodes arguing with aang in s3 but the very moment she sees him again in the finale suddenly everything is ok and she can definitely kiss him now because she finally saw the “light” and she wasn’t really upset with him. well that’s if we even believe the writers were thinking of katara’s pov in ka at all this season….

i love how people (see: ka shippers) will claim that katara is ooc in the southern raiders because she’s too “dark” and “vengeful” and blame that on zuko’s influence, only to then turn around and insist that katara hates zuko with a burning passion even by the end of the show and would never forgive him.

strange, i thought your “real” katara was endlessly compassionate and forgiving, not a raging, grudge-holding bitch? or is that only the case when her (entirely characteristic and legitimate) anger can’t be weaponized as a convenient tool to prevent her from being shipped with zuko?

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Why I feel like Ka/taang is one-sided, despite textual evidence 

ATLA does try to convince us that Katara has romantic feelings for Aang. For example: she seems thoughtful when she realizes that Aang is a powerful bender; she’s offended that he didn’t want to kiss her in the Cave of Two Lovers; she gets jealous when Sokka says On Ji and Aang look good together.

So…what’s wrong with anti-Kataangers? Do we just lack media comprehension? 

To be clear, on their own, these gestures can indicate romantic interest. But at the same time, we have stuff like “Aang is a sweet little guy, like Momo.” We have her ambivalent facial expression after he kisses her before the eclipse, and her hedging during Ember Island Players, and her anger when he kisses her anyway. In the context of these conflicting cues, Katara’s possibly romantic reactions can absolutely be interpreted in a different way, because: 

Acknowledging a friend as a potential romantic interest is not the same as actually being romantically interested in them. (Imo this is something young women struggle with, due to a combination of romance-centrism and heteronormativity that make women feel like they should be in romantic relationships, and that boys and girls who share intimate and deep feelings for one another must be romantically into each other) 

Wanting someone to find you desirable is not the same as desiring that person. (Which is something a lot of women, especially young women, struggle with. Remember all the discourse around Cat Person back in 2017?) 

Being jealous when someone flirts with your friend is not the same as wanting to be with your friend. (Especially when you see your friends as family, or if you’re accustomed to a specific type of devotion from that friend. It is jealousy, and it is possessiveness, but it doesn’t always arise from romantic feelings) 

Growing up in a patriarchal society means that your desires are always filtered through what men want from you, sometimes in an abstract male gaze-y way, and sometimes in a very visceral and interpersonal way when a boy wants you specifically. And Katara’s reactions are just that — reactions. Reactions to what other people — including Aunt Wu, Sokka, Aang himself — have insinuated about her and Aang. She’s not really proactive in her interest in Aang: we don’t really see Aang, romantically, from Katara’s POV. Under the framework of “Katara is reacting to a romantic prospect she’s kind of uncertain about,” it is completely plausible — and indeed likely — that she would sometimes act in ways that indicate romantic interest, in addition to moments where she indicates the opposite. 

Ka/taang shippers often bring up other evidence, like Katara’s despair when Azula hits Aang with lightning, or how protective she is of him when Zuko joins the Gaang. The thing is, these pieces of evidence aren’t necessarily indicative of romantic love. The fact that Katara genuinely loves Aang makes the whole thing more complicated, not less, because — especially at that age, especially when Aang is twelve years old and grew up in a sex-segregated society of monks — it is really difficult to tell the difference between platonic love and romantic love. Their mutual devotion is layered and complex yet straightforward in its sincerity. What was not straightforward, until the last five minutes of the show, is whether this devotion on Katara’s end is romantic. The romantic arc for Katara and Aang is not really an arc, as Sneezy discusses in this classic ZK video. Katara actually becomes more conflicted over time and we never see an event that clarifies her feelings. She seems more interested in him in The Headband than on the Day of the Black Sun, and she has never been more hostile to his romantic overtures than in the penultimate episode. 

And in light of this, it’s pretty easy for fans to fill in the blanks with a different interpretation: maybe Katara’s weird expression after their kiss at the invasion means she didn’t enjoy it; maybe the kiss made her realize that she doesn’t actually feel that way about Aang; maybe against her will and her better judgement, she’s developing feelings for another person, a person who hurt her and whom she fervently tried to hate until he pulled off what is in my opinion the greatest grovel of all time in the form of a life-changing field trip. Maybe. Am I saying that Zutara has more romantic interactions than Ka/taang? Of course not. But ironically, the lack of romantic interactions means that it’s not inherently one-sided, the way Ka/taang became in the latter half of season 3.

I’m not arguing that Katara’s unequivocally not into Aang. Obviously the text declares that she is, because they get married and have kids. But I am saying that there’s a very good reason that so many people, especially women, see Katara’s interest in Aang as ambiguous. It’s not because we can’t pick up “subtle” hints of growing affection. It’s because we know not all affection is romantic, and it’s really easy for someone else’s insistent romantic intentions to muddle what you want.

P.S. I first started thinking about these topics (platonic vs romantic love, desiring someone vs wanting to be desired, etc) in the context of compulsory heterosexuality, a term describing how queer women contort themselves into relationships with men even if they’re not really into men. I saw a post a few days ago joking about why so many queer women seem to be into Zutara. I wonder if part of the reason is because as queer women, we are very sensitive to the ways in which we can talk ourselves into wanting things we don’t actually want, and Katara’s romantic interest in Aang can be easily seen that way. 

[biconickyoshi]

Second set of comic pages from the latest chapter of The Avatar and the Fire Prince, this time for Zuko's POV! He's with Jet in Ba Sing Se here - I decided to give Jet the hairstyle he has in Netflix AtLA when we first see him, because for him, this outing with Zuko is a ~special occasion~ lol.

I skipped a short snowball fight section (bc I didn't feel like drawing it lmao), so there's a bit of a gap in the scene between these two pages.

You can check out the pages I made for Aang's POV here :)

PAGE ONE

“Hey!” Jet exclaimed with a laugh, pointing in the air. “It’s snowing!” 

Zuko felt himself smile as well as he noticed the gently falling flakes. “Huh. Looks like it must have really come down while we were in there,” he said, surveying the streets, which were covered in a layer of white that had not been there when they’d arrived.

When he looked to his left, he was confused to see Jet grinning mischievously at him.

“...Why are you looking at me like that?” Zuko questioned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Suddenly, to Zuko’s further confusion, Jet darted into the street and crouched down in the snow.

“What are you doing?” Zuko called out as he ran after him, looking around nervously at the people passing by, who were beginning to stare at the Freedom Fighter with puzzled expressions as well.

“This,” Jet replied, bolting upright and spinning around.

Before Zuko knew it, something freezing cold smacked him directly in the face.

Jet practically cackled as Zuko wiped the remnants of the snowball from his face and hair.

“Very funny,” Zuko muttered, though he couldn’t help but smirk at Jet’s infectious joy.

“You didn’t even see it coming!” Jet laughed. “You should have seen your face!”

PAGE TWO

“...What about you? Are you having fun?”

Zuko exhaled through his nose with a small smile as he looked up at Jet again. “Well, I have to say, I—“

His words seemed to catch in his mouth. The Freedom Fighter was grinning at him as he always did, but there was something about his words and expression that felt familiar.

Suddenly, an image of Aang flashed in his mind, smiling at him with that crooked grin he loved so much.

“Hotman?”

Zuko could immediately felt a pang of longing deep within his chest, and he tore his gaze away.

“...I think I’m getting tired,” he replied quietly.