#atla fandom problems

[atla-confessions]

Lemme elaborate on what i mean when i say Zutara shippers tend to be terfy

Seeing girlhood/womamhood as reliant on men('No girl would choose Zuko over Aang' rather than analysis of Katara's actual character)

Treating misogyny as the only kind of oppressive axciss and acting like the others don't exist yet perpetuating them themselves(i.e claiming Z/K hate is 'internalized misogyny,another terf stock phrase btw,yet saying nonstop weird out of pocket things about the Air Nomads,The Water Tribe and even the Fire Nation in a fetishistic way)

Looking for posts on things they hate to harass the ops and accuse them of bigotry(terfs commonly go into transgender tags to cyberbully trans posters and call them 'degenerates' and Z/Ks do the same to Kataangers)

And the most important one,being anti-trans and pretending they aren't and are actually the resonable ones(Z/K is the only Atla ship subspace with zero popular trans headcanons,they call Zukkas 'fujoshis' when most of them are transmasc gays/bi men and fujoshi means 'woman who fetishizes mlm' and mind you there's a male equivalent called 'fudanshi' they could easily use instead,saying Aang being girlish/gnc means he's a bad person/lame/wimpy/a fucking rapist and that last one especialy is a rethoric used on trans women since before the gender binary even had names and using the wrong pronouns on purpose for me and other users)

Plus the fact all the #NotallZutaras anons on here haven't actually done anything to show they think any of this behavior is bad just because they wanna defend their ship is so telling

X

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

i don't often talk about atla by itself here unless i'm comparing it to spop, but there's something i've been meaning to talk about.

i hate how the fandom reduced Toph to “chaotic murder child” when she's clearly so much more than that.

the thing that especially pisses me off is when fans act like Toph is reckless and stupid, when her WHOLE DEAL is that she's extremely observant and patient when it comes to fighting.

this is what set her apart from other earthbenders, she doesn't just use brute strength to win fights. she concentrates on the sound and vibrations, and she waits for the perfect moment to strike. this was the main reason WHY Toph was one of the best earthbenders.

and the fandom acknowledges that she's the best, but somehow doesn't seem to realize WHY she's the best, when it was practically spelled out for us. Toph isn't the best because she's super strong or muscular, she's the best because she crafted her own form of earthbending that utilizes patience and attention to detail. how do people not understand this?

[sad-endings-suck]

some of you are too angry at fictional children

[missaccuracy]

Azula was literally generating lightning while casually lying down and some people still have the audacity to say that she's a bad firebender.

[leantailean]

Mind you, these are the people who say that zutara is a “female gaze”

[melu-lis]

i'm convinced that the "zutara is a colonizer x colonized ship" argument is often an upfront to find a "reasonable" excuse to hate zutara because you can't say stuff like "you only like zutara bc you see katara as a self-insert and think zuko is a hot bad boy" without rightfully being calling misogynistic and it's very convenient to justify misogyny if you can paint your opposition as a bunch of ignorant white women who don't understand the repercussions of colonialism since many believe that misogyny is acceptable if it's exclusively targeted towards white women. what further leads me to this conclusion is that a great deal of zutara antis ship pairings that can be classified as "colonizer x colonized ships" and they often ignore the pitfalls bryke, two white men with a centrist liberal worldview, had in handling colonialism in their show. that isn't to say that poc can't be uncomfortable with zutara, but as a black woman who does ship zutara, i don't see how policing what i can and can't ship is creating a safe place for poc in the atla fandom.

[quobalt]

After prowling through tags related to this franchise, I’ve seen a concerning trend amongst certain peeps in the fandom.

(Talking about Katara and Aang on the first panel, Zuko and Azula on the second)

[jahtrashh]

You all could never make me hate aang, katara, sokka, toph, zuko, jet, suki, mai, ty lee, or azula. You can however make me hate you though.

[coconutsaiyan]

Putting atla on Netflix was a mistake cuz what the fuck is this

[longing-for-rain]

ATLA Discourse Simulator: 2024 Revival Edition

🌊 katara-stan Follow

It’s sad to me how Katara was forced to take on so many responsibilities from a young age. I relate to it as an eldest daughter with trauma in my childhood.

👺 404-literacy-not-found Follow

How DARE you parentify Katara! She’s just a silly little 14 year old not mom friend!!!

74 notes

🌙 zutara-fan Follow

I like Zutara

🚓 avatar-fandom-police Follow

You’re not allowed to do this as it is personally offensive to me, a balding middle-aged man. Your femcel fantasies are pathetic and no man will ever want you. By the way I’m gay so I’m not sexist.

32 notes

🍼 aang-lover Follow

How DARE anyone criticize my perfect little angel boy, he never did anything wrong! Touching girls without their consent is just a SMALL MISTAKE and I’m sure his implied apology was really good!

🙏undercover-tradwife Follow

SO TRUE it’s so sad how many women want to ruin an innocent boy’s whole life over nothing 😢

12,547 notes

▪️zvtara-was-never-canon Follow

Zutara fans are such bitter harpies who self-project their desire to have a fulfilling relationship with a partner who respects them! It’s such a boring relationship anyway. I don’t care about it at all, which is why I made a whole blog dedicated to bashing it.

⛓️ basement-dwelling-pedo Follow

So true kitten! You put those stupid cunts in their place! By the way, when is the next chapter of your bdsm incest rape fetish fanfic updating? I’m getting thirsty 😩

▪️ zvtara-was-never-canon Follow

Don’t worry Daddy, I’ll service you soon. I can’t believe how horribly Zutara shippers characterize Aang. They should be more like me, and write Zuko as a pervert who rapes his sister instead. Please tell me how special and talented I am again, please please Daddy I need it!

29 notes

🔥 firelady-mai Follow

I love Zuko’s redemption arc so much! What a beautifully written story about breaking the cycle of abuse!

🌊 zutara-lover Follow

I really like Zuko too! I always admired his character 😊

🔥 firelady-mai Follow

Fuck you, I take it all back. Zuko is an evil racist toxic abuser. How dare you suggest he taint Katara’s purity with his colonizer genes?

976 notes

[starlight-bread-blog]

It's always "No I don't hate A@ng or Ma! I just want to criticize how their characters were handled", and never "They're fictional and you're offended on the behalf of literal nothing".

Ps: Zks say what you gotta say to avoid harassment. I don't hate them either. It's just absurd that hating a fictional character that doesn't exist is something to be denounced in order to be taken seriously.

[valariecomet]

Right. Because that's how story's work. When a plotline happens off screen that is amazinggggg writing. Absolutely great. I love it when characters randomly start acting entirely different to how they usually do! It's sooooo much fun!

Seriously? I haven't read much of the comics and I don't plan to since from what I have seen they're shit, I read the promise years ago and I tried to read imbalance before giving up on it (the only comic I enjoyed was Katara and the pirates silver), so I'm not even sure if this criticism is justified. However, that doesn't mean this defense is right. If a character grows or changes, show it on screen or give an explanation, if not it's bad writing. Simple.

This isn't the real world, it's fiction so while in real life they should change over that time, in a fictional setting they shouldn't grow off screen because you have to suspend your disbelief and be able to easily follow along. If a character randomly changes it disrupts this flow of the story and messes with the audience. If this happens on the comics (which again, I'm not saying it does) it's bad writing. Plain and simple.

If this seems salty it's because I am. I am genuinely so tired of this fandom, it can't handle any fucking criticism against this show or any of the related bloody comics. Please just accept that nothing is perfect (except Katara) and no piece of media is entirely great. I'm not saying you have to engage with the criticism, just acknowledge there is stuff to critique.

[atla-confessions]

It's really telling with Zuko stans are like "Zuko can't be a colonizer and never ever was, he's an innocent 16 year old boy who doesn't know what he's doing and had an abusive dad! You want a colonizer, look at Azula!"

It really gives away the game. Azula had the exact same abusive parents and is even younger.

They're both Fire Nation Royalty and colonizers, but for Zuko, well, yes he leads a militaristic fleet with one of the most powerful retired generals on a quest to murder the last survivor of a genocide and purposeless terrorizes water tribe settlements and kyoshi island villages with that militaristic force, yes he physically assaulted an old woman to pressure the village to give someone else up like the fire nation systemically did while it was culling them of waterbenders a few years back, and yes he made the fully informed decision to team up with Azula to capture Ba Sing Se and reaped the rewards and glory of it, and he hired an assassin because he really, really wanted to make sure kill that genocide survivor he set out to hunt down. But boys will be boys!

But Azula, that's a 14-year-old grown woman who is the embodiment of all that is evil, so when she does those things, it counts for real.

No analysis of intent or material harm. Only vibes. And also misogyny.

X

[blackbullet99]

Debunking The Stupidest Pro-Zutara Claims.

Howdy y’all.

If you follow me, you know I’m a Kataang truther and a Zutara hater. I always thought Kataang was cute as a kid, but I honestly didn’t appreciate how mutual and well developed their relationship more until I was older. By contrast, I didn’t think much of Zutara initially, I knew it had a huge following and I kinda got why, they have a very interesting dynamic that drastically changes and them becoming friends is heartwarming, but I never got the hype. Then I saw this…

And I was utterly baffled at the mischaracterization, media-illiteracy, Zuko dickriding and Aang demonization on this post. Let’s have a look…

See what I mean about the Zuko dickriding and Aang demonizing. You compare one scene of Zuko making tea for everyone in Book 3, to Aang showing off in Book 1. Need I mention that Aang later apologized for getting big-headed by the end, and later episodes show that Aang (and the rest of the group) all work together. Right off the bat and we get this dumb Katara/Cinderella narrative.

Not another Dadko. Momtara I kind of get, but Zuko is not a father figure. Zuko himself is still young, still growing, still capable of being immature. The first moment isn’t even a parental thing, it’s more Zuko stopping Katara from confronting Aang because he somewhat understands Aang’s frustration of being unsure and conflicting about a huge decision, because he’s been there not long ago.

Comforting someone when they’re worried or grieving isn’t parental responsibility, that’s being empathetic and good friend. Katara comforts Zuko when he’s worried about comforting Iroh and these people lap that scene up.

“Aang acts like Katara’s son” is such a baseless argument. Ignoring the fact that Aang canonically has romantic feelings for Katara and vise-verse, the first moment was a one-off joke about Katara being motherly, the second was also a joke where Katara PRETENDS to be Aang’s mom and her brother’s husband, the last moment is Katara telling Toph how she TRAINS Aang because she’s his Sifu and so it Toph, does that mean Toph is also Aang’s mom?

Let’s go over this for the umpteenth time: Aang kissing Katara was wrong, it was bad, we should’ve seen him apologize, but he immediately regretted what he did, he knew he messed up, he’s not a sexual-assaulter, blah, blah blah. The problem with this is that these are both completely different situations and also Zuko had to be told to get off Katara, so not only is this point meaningless, but it doesn’t even support Zutara.

This has gotta be one of the dumbest arguments here, Aang has always seen Katara as an ally and dear friend first and foremost since day one. Admittedly Aang was somewhat possessive here, but him nodding mean he literally though Katara was his possession, more so him thinking Katara returned his feelings (which she did). But throughout the entirety of the show Aang sees Katara as not only an ally, but a friend, a fellow waterbender, Zuko only saw her as a friend and ally near the very end of the show, before that he simply saw her as a peasant in the way of his goal.

Again, both of these are completely different contexts and both Aang and Zuko were pretty adamant about how Katara feels about them. Zuko frustratingly confronts Katara about why she’s mad it him, he wants to earn to trust and sleep deprives himself so he can resolve this as soon as she wakes up. Katara asks why Aang is so crestfallen, he explains part of the reason, Aang (while being somewhat pushy) wants to know how Katara feels before he confronts Ozai in life or death.

Both are different situations and really I wouldn’t say either is better than the other.

Okay, there’s a lot wrong with these points, lemme go over them as best as I can.

Aang has put his needs over Katara’s several times, just to name three: he gave himself so the Fire Nation would spare her home, was willing to forgo his own Waterbending because Pakku wouldn’t train her, willingly put aside mastering the Avatar State because SHE WAS IN DANGER!

Aang understands the importance of Katara’s family, he leaves so as to to come between Katara and her family when she threatens to leave, he brings back her necklace knowing how much it means to her.

In both of mentioned Aang instances, he realized he was wrong and he and Katara reconciled, the first instance was out of a misguided attempt to set things right after he was killed, and the former is something Aang would never do again, in a later episode he actively takes Sokka to his father and Aang is content for he and Katara to go their separate ways for a while. I find it utterly hypocritical to be a Zuko dickrider while bashing Aang for mistakes he regrets, apologizes for and learns from, you know who else does that?

Once again, THE CONTEXT! In the first scene Katara mentions her mother’s death in a more matter of fact way to explain to Aang that the Fire Nation have killed a lot of people including his own. Aang however in a state of denial dismissed the idea of his own people being killed. In the second scene Katara lashes out at Zuko for all the trouble he caused and Zuko after going through some development prior empathizes with her in a way to get Katara to understand he means no harm.

Aang also empathized with Katara’s loss. In this same episode, he himself says he knows what it’s like to feel the pain and rage Katara feels, specifically when he found out all his people were dead and encouraged Katara to confront the person who caused said pain.

I REALLY HATE making a Katara centric episode about shipping, I really do, many people say Zuko was right Aang was wrong, or Aang was right Zuko was wrong. Neither side was entirely right or entirely wrong.

Zuko was right to take Katara to confront Yon-Rha and this was when he truly began to understand what Katara had been through and see her as an individual, while Katara comes to see Zuko as a friend and forgive him, however he had no idea what Katara was going to do and didn’t think of toll this would take on Katara if she did end up choosing violence.

Meanwhile Aang not agreeing with Katara and confronting her isn’t a bad thing, he understands just what it’s like to lose someone close to you and to feel unbridled rage and hate, he’s been there, he also knows Katara isn’t cold-hearted and she could come to regret seeking violence. He actively encourages Katara to face Yon-Rha without killing him, which she does and as Zuko says he was right about what Katara needed. But as Katara points out she didn’t forgive Yon-Rha, forgiveness wasn’t the right choice, and you know what, this is something Aang accepts.

These points in particular really highlight the stupidity and hypocrisy of the OP. For one, as we can literally see Aang ignored his training specifically because Katara was in danger and he wanted to save her, this is no different from Zuko sacrificing himself to save Katara, in fact Aang has put his life on the line for Katara multiple times. Furthermore OP gets on Aang’s case for leaving Katara to fulfill his duties in the Book 3 premiere, but then praises Zuko for leaving Mai to fulfill his duties. They’re literally praising Zuko for doing the same stuff Aang’s doing and whining about Aang whether he chose to ignore his duties to be with Katara or if he leaves Katara to fulfill his duties, you can’t win!

Okay, screw this guy, this has nothing to do with the Zuko saving Katara, OP just wanted to bitch about Aang not wanting to kill Ozai as if this supposedly makes him selfish even though Aang is literally facing Ozai to save the world and is simply trying to find a peaceful solution, it’s like the theme of this show was lost on this dude.

This was the creep who made weird comments about Katara’s appearance wasn’t it.

I really don’t get what this final point is trying to prove. The first scene is Katara happy that Zuko is alive, the second is Katara happily gazing at Aang, who never at any point tried to change Katara, at all. Point me to one scene, one moment. If this is about how Katara looks, she doesn’t look that different, at the very least, her eyes are slightly bigger in the second pic because she close to someone she loves, but even then it’s a lot of whining from this guy about nothing.

Case in point, this is when I realized Anti-Kataang Zutara shippers have are media-illiterate morons with not a single good take, fake-fans who only care about mischaracterization for the sake of a mid middle-school ship.

Maybe I should make a counter post about what Katara gains from Kataang.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

the way the atla fandom treats azula reminds me so much of how the spop fandom treats catra. don’t get me wrong, i actually love azula, i think she was a very interesting and complex character. but that doesn’t take away from the fact that she was still dangerous and toxic, willing to manipulate and control and kill without remorse.

one huge example of azula being coddled by the fandom is when the comics came out, and she was restrained and put into a straitjacket. i saw many fans complaining about how this was ableist and demonizing trauma and mental illnesses.

which.. i mean i’m sure azula has her fair share of mental health issues after all that she went through. but she wasn’t restrained because she was mentally unstable, she was restrained because she was (at that point) the strongest firebender who could and would kill everyone in a heartbeat.

literally it feels like people sometimes forget that this was a fantasy world where people had magic powers. azula had to be restrained because she was a firebending prodigy who has killed once, and will kill again. yes, she was mentally unstable but she was also a threat to everyone.

and you can see, in this universe, how every criminal was restrained in some sort of way. in tlok, the red lotus were each contained in custom-made high security prisons because they were that big of a threat to everyone around them. ming-hua was disabled and she was not provided prosthetics in her prison, but this was because she used water as her prosthetics and was a waterbending prodigy with criminal intentions.

if azula was mentally unstable but not dangerous, the straitjacket would not be necessary. and i know that irl there’s a lot of history and ethical discourse surrounding the use of straitjackets but in azula’s case, i believe it was necessary. it wasn’t ableism or demonizing mental illnesses, it was simply a safety measure to assure that no one else got hurt by azula.

[ionlybleedbubbles]