#anon do us all a favor and slam dunk yourself into the trash for me

[firelxdykatara]

how are you gonna talk about shitty writing when you genuinely believe that katara should've become the pocahontas to zuko's john smith? come on now. shipping zutara is one thing, but you can't ignore the colonial connotations of a native girl becoming an oppressor's arm candy, no matter how well-intentioned that oppressor is. fire lady katara is such a gross idea.

the truth is, the only reason you give a fuck about katara is because you want her to be with zuko. otherwise your entire blog wouldn't be dedicated to the idea of her as fire lady. you do. not. care. about. katara. at all. and putting down healers in the middle of the worst global pandemic in 100 years is so shitty, selfish, and short-sighted.

that’s a whole lot of words you’re trying to shove in my mouth there, bud!

unfortunately for you, i’m not about to choke on them.

the thing is, first of all, that it is deeply fucking insulting (and probably highkey racist) of you to attempt to compare Pocahontas and John Smith--real people, who actually existed, and whose story (both the real one, and the fictionalized and romanticized account given in the Disney movie) bears absolutely no resemblance to AtLA in the slightest respect--to Katara and Zuko, fictional characters from a fictional universe who never existed and, again, have nothing in common with the colonial narrative you’re trying to impose on them. I really shouldn’t have to explain to you why trying to compare a genuine colonialist ‘the colonists aren’t that bad actually, see, that native girl fell in love with one’ story (which was based on a false account the white man in question continued to perpetuate long after Matoaka’s death, when she could no longer refute it) to a fantasy where the bad guys lost and Zuko was very deliberately set up to be a good leader and lead them into an age of peace, kindness, and love is like.... tone deaf at fucking best lmfao

if you can’t understand that, then there’s really no helping you.

secondly, you’re the one insisting that ‘the native girl become the oppressor’s arm candy’. that’s your narrative, not mine, and it certainly has no place in my interpretation of canon nor in any of my fanworks. in everything i write and the way i conceive zutara, katara is zuko’s equal in every way that matters--she’s an ambassador with a hand in global politics long before she and zuko get married, and she helps shape the world every bit as much as zuko and aang do as the land begins to heal from the aftermath of the war. there’s nothing ‘arm candy’ about that, and zuko is not her oppressor in any measurable or meaningful sense.

frankly, he isn’t during the show either, except insofar as he is part of the oppressor nation--which is a fair point but, again, the fire nation ceases to be an oppressive power after the end of the war. (no, the comics don’t count. they are badly written and make no sense, so i’ve elected to ignore them entirely. if you can’t, or if you refuse to, then a) that’s your problem, not mine, and b) maybe tell me why you’re so concerned about katara allegedly being zuko’s arm candy but you don’t care when the narrative makes her aang’s) so your assertion that i don’t care about katara really doesn’t mean much to me, since it’s very clear to me that i care about her a whole hell of a lot more than you do.

i care about katara enough to want her to have narrative agency in her romantic relationships. i care about katara enough to want her to actually have a hand in shaping the world, rather than being reduced to ‘the Avatar’s girl’ and contributing absolutely nothing of any meaningful value to the world we see in LoK. i care enough about katara to want her achievements recognized by the world. (aka where is katara’s fucking statue you assholes) i care about katara enough to want her to have a story and a life that is her own, rather than being reduced to a footnote in history because she had the Avatar’s children and that’s the only thing anyone really remembers her for. i care enough about katara to want her to be able to attend important events in her family’s lives (like, oh, her granddaughter’s Air Master ceremony) and to be able to protect her family rather than sitting back and not lifting a finger while they are in grave danger or her people are on the verge of tearing themselves apart.

as for the dig about healers, like....what???? when have i ever disparaged healing or put down healers lmfao. like, projection, much? i’ve never said a single bad word about healing--what i have said is that katara being relegated to the healing huts and nothing else (she isn’t allowed to go save her family even though zuko and toph are just as old as she is and they get to protect their families; she isn’t allowed to go to her granddaughter’s Air Master ceremony, the single most important event in an airbender’s life; she isn’t allowed to so much as raise her voice when her tribe is on the verge of entering into a catastrophic civil war (so much for katara being a respected matriarch of the tribe); she isn’t even allowed to heal a single significant injury throughout the course of the entire show, not even the one caused by bloodbending, despite allegedly being the greatest healer in the world) is a disservice to her character, especially since she’s the one who said ‘i don’t want to heal, i want to fight!’

i’ve said again and again that i wouldn’t have a problem with katara dedicating her life to being a wife, a mother, and a healer, if that weren’t all she would ever be known for. some minor lipservice is paid to katara ‘training two avatars’, and to being part of the gaang who saved the world, and even to getting bloodbending outlawed, but throughgout the entirety of LoK none of her accomplishments matter to the story even a little bit. and don’t give me that ‘it wasn’t her story’ bullshit, because there was certainly enough room for the old men in the white lotus back during atla to kick ass and take names and have pride in their accomplishments. king bumi was 112 for fuck’s sake! so don’t give me ‘katara was too old’ either. she wasn’t. bryke just didn’t give a shit about her.

and evidently you don’t either. don’t let the door hit you in your ass on the way out.