#also i don’t like zutara

[bunthebreadboy]

“The eclipse is Zutara coded” WRONG. It’s Azutara coded. It’s the final Agni Kai. It’s Katara standing in front of Azula, freezing them in water right before Azula tries to lightning bend. It’s Katara being the only character in the series who completely subdues Azula. It’s Azula, who burns hot, who becomes exhausted with heavy breaths, who begins screaming with flames coming out of her mouth. And it’s Katara, who watches with a heavy expression and Zuko at her side.

[burst-of-iridescent]

if he’s your man then why is he jumping in front of lightning for me after he dumped your ass in prison and forgot about you

[cyanorhis]

In terms of “canon-compliant” zutara, I think often about how Zuko’s development is both his redemption and his doom.

Because how come the obsessive go-getter of the show does not fight harder against fate (bryke’s annoying ass) to save his beloved from putting herself into a rewardless martyr-like situation in the form of a marriage that serves as repopulation program? (Which I always thought was ridiculous).

He learns bit by bit to acknowledge and make up for his mistakes. He respects Katara above all else. He fights fair. He does not guilt-trip her nor treat her like a reward. He loves her. He gave his life for her. He would not have survived had she not been the exceptional person she is. He supports her decisions no matter what. He listens to her.

So when she tells him about her ridiculously good and selfish intentions of pandering (once again) to a non-celibate Monk who wishes to have her mother his children for the sake of airbending and his supposed affection that was born out of the self-insert of narrators who give way too much importance to childhood crushes for one’s babysitter, he might argue but he can’t help but love her and respect her decision, both horrified by the cruelty of fate (aka bryke) and filled with admiration for the person she has always been.

If Orpheus loved Eurydice too much not to turn back when she tripped behind him, then Zuko loved Katara way too much not to validate and support her terribly selfless decisions. Because how dare him be selfish and want her for himself. And how dare him tell her what to do after years of war.

It is terribly tragic because on the other side, a part of her wishes he had fought harder.

A “villain” turned “hero” sometimes can mean the upholding of ideals made by two men who enjoy shaming young girls for their choice of love interest. Sometimes, the lack of a “villain” to whisk away the princess from the “hero’s” hands means said princess will remain unacknowledged and forgotten in a narrative that turns it into something of her own volition, a narrative that ignores everything a beloved female character represented for the people she was made to represent (by their own words, must I say). It leaves the realm of picking the love interest (which honestly could simply not ever happened in any form and would still be better than this) and enters the realm of once again giving a poor treatment to a female main character who quite literally Drives the story from its beginning.

And just like Orpheus and Eurydice are doomed by fate, Katara and Zuko are doomed by Bryke. And surprisingly, Katara gets the worse of it.

[acidicsketches]

Felt like doing headshots

[prying-pandora666]

I can see why you voice Azula. Your manipulative and a liar just like her.

You say you have nothing against Zutara but you defend Aang anytime we have valid criticisms of his sexism and racism.

You are highly critical of Maiko and yet you claim to love both Zuko and Mai. If you loved them so much you’d want them to be happy together.

You reblog any Zuko ship that isn’t Maiko. Casually scrolling your blog I have seen you support Zukka, Jinko, Toko, and Zutara but that last one is obviously fake because you also criticize the pirate scene.

Meanwhile you hypocritically support Azula ships like Sokkla, TyZula, and Mailee. You don’t call out Zucest either just like your TERF icon Grey.

Your obvi a Kataang shipper in disguise. Zutarians have been fighting this battle since the beginning. We won’t fall for your Trojan horse.

Azula always lies.

I can see your entire post history behind your eyes. You were born with nothing. And you’ve had to troll, and plagiarize, and drama-post your way to the top.

But true power? The divine right to multi-ship? Is something you’re born with.

Your followers (if indeed you have any) may not know how this is going to turn out.

But I know.

And you know.

Those allegations against Grey Delisle were false. Katy Perry stans made them up because Grey called Katy out on voting for anti-gay politicians.

Whoops. Guess you’re not as informed as you thought.

Don’t flatter yourself.

You were never even a shitposter.

[zukosdualdao]

i know people are (generally) joking when they say it but i do kind of hate the whole “katara could have just moved out of the way when azula shot lightning at her in the final agni kai” argument because it, whether intentionally or not, dismisses the emotional weight of the scene?

like, in case people have forgotten: lightning is fast. the scene dwindles into slow motion for dramatic effect, but that doesn’t mean that’s how it’s actually happening. the emphasis is on zuko realizing what azula is doing JUST in the nick of time (something all characters struggle to do, but he, in particular, has struggled not to fall for azula’s past manipulations) and moving more quickly than lightning to take the hit instead of katara. the emphasis is on the fact that despite zuko, in the past, struggling to figure out what was right or wrong, here he didn’t hesitate for one second. there was no chance of that lightning ever reaching katara as soon as zuko understood what was happening and that matters!!

(i also hate it because in the slightly less-jokey crowd, it seems like a tacit implication that katara and/or zuko is stupid for not realizing she could just move out of the way when that’s not the point!)

[softestepiloguemisc]

people who are hyper critical of aang are super fucking weird and we should say so.

[broadwaybalogna]

Wanted to repost some of my stuff on X to maybe start a following on there as well…

Yeah.. I think I’ll stick with Tumblr…

[kiwisandpearls]

tbh I don’t even hate zutara or zutara shippers themselves. I don’t personally ship it but I can see why it’s so popular and they do look cute together.

so, I think the reason zutara gives me a bad taste in my mouth is more because I’ve seen a lot zutara shippers not really shipping zutara but more just vilifying aang. Like saying he’s this horrible person, he forced katara to be with him, he only got married and had kids with her to repopulate the airbenders, and it’s just like…

you guys do realize you can dislike aang and ship zutara without bending over backwards to make these weird reasons to explain how he’s a horrible person to justify why you hate him. You can just say “I don’t like aang, I prefer zutara” and leave it at that

[magicwithineleteo]

ah yes my favorite ship interaction , sacrificing oneself to save their lover <3

[multivstx]

“you only like zutara because they look good together”

yeah, well no sht

[wiser-girl]

It's less about the ship itself and more about them hating Aang tbh

Do I hate Aang? Absolutely not, that’s my boy. Do I hate Aang as a genuine 100% endgame presented as they are love interest for Katara? …yeah sorry

[hiddenworldofmary]

sunday night reading but you’re indecisive

[hollowkonpaku]

Dude I made this back in 2008…THE LIVE ACTION GAVE ME WHAT I WANTED!!! They gave me more Lt. Jee!!!!!!!!!

[bobafetts-princess]

Regardless of what you think about Zutara or Kataang, I think we can all agree that Zuko and Mai were never right for each other

[zukosdualdao]

the anti arguments about age don’t really matter anyway because it’s fiction and not that serious, but it’s especially jarring when people act like the age gap between zutara is so insurmountable. do people realize that in a modern setting (with a western/us american frame of reference bc that’s what i know) based on cut off dates at 14 katara could be a freshman in high school and at 16 zuko a sophomore and it would not be weird for them to date?