#but I have grown a soft spot for Zutara in recent years

[raidergamerspice]

I would like to start this particular post off by saying that I do not want to be dragged into Kataang vs. Zutara discourse. I didn't wanna be part of it back then, and I don't wanna be part of it now. It's exhausting enough to be caught up in discourse for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 7 lmao. Thanks.

Anyway, I love to revisit Xiran Jay Zhao's Avatar videos because they're fun to watch, and I loved learning everything they had to say about the Chinese influences in the show and whatnot. Right now, the way they closed off the Ember Island Players discussion is weighing on my mind: in that they said that Team Avatar decided to forget about the play at the end, just like how the Avatar fandom wanted to forget...you-know-what. And this got me thinking...

Would it be wrong to interpret EIP as non-canon to the rest of the show?

I mean, having an episode where the characters watch their own story play back to them while in a theater? This is literally the plot for all those "characters watch their own story" fanfics, except in this case it's dialed up to 11 because their story is highly exaggerated with obvious bias from the Fire Nation. And in those fanfics, it's usually common practice to send the characters back into their respective worlds with their memories of watching their story erased, especially if they were pulled from the middle of their story to see their "future". That's basically this episode: Team Avatar got a break from being in their story just to watch a recap of their adventures capped off with a glimpse of a possible future (again, highly exaggerated with Fire Nation bias). And when it was over, they seemingly forgot about it and went back to the main story (I mean, I might need to look at the comics again to check and see if they actually mentioned the play in any of them, but for the sake of this post, let's assume they never did). I did always find it strange that these Fire Nation play writers somehow got enough information on Team Avatar to semi-accurately recreate some of their adventures with several creative liberties, even with the listed sources on the poster. I mean, "surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage"? Just how surprisingly knowledgeable was he, exactly? What did he know? 🤨

Now, the main reason I'm proposing this brings me back to the first part of this post. Xiran did point out that the way Aang reacted to the Kataang vs Zutara satire in the play gave off the impression that Aang was pressuring Katara, and as a Kataang, that is hurtful to the ship. But I'm not disagreeing with their point, that was a bad move on Aang's part, even though he was at least aware of his actions by the end.

But hear me out: if we're gonna consider this episode non-canon, that would mean we could also interpret Aang's actions as out of character for him. I mean, I kinda always did, even though I wasn't able to put it into words until now. Because, this was really the only time in the whole show that Aang was jealous over Katara having a moment with another guy. Like, he didn't have anything to say about Katara desperately wanting to help Haru - he did want to help her - nor did he say anything about Katara's obvious crush on Jet (though there was that small line about him saying that Sokka's idea that Katara should kiss Jet to jog his memory in Lake Laogai was a bad idea, but I'm choosing to let that slide because again, it was just a small line). And I'm pretty sure him glaring at Zuko as he and Iroh broke into the Crystal Catacombs had less to do with him possibly feeling jealous over finding Katara and Zuko standing close to each other, and more to do with the fact that...well, Zuko was still the enemy, and he just didn't want Katara hurt. Iroh had won him over, but not Zuko. Yet.

Hell, even Aang making a big deal over wanting to sit next to Katara in the theater seemed strangely out of character, because Aang was acting very maturely in just the previous episode, only for him to whine about not getting to sit next to Katara in the very next.

And you wanna know something else? Considering that Aang and Katara left their conversation at the theater both feeling very uncomfortable and tense with what their relationship currently is, it's rather sus that Sozin's Comet Part 1 opened with them acting like it never happened, right? Like, Katara offered him a drink with a smile, and he ran toward her to get it eagerly, with no sign at all of their tense feelings. And even before Aang blowing up at her and the rest of the Gaang near the end, they talked to each other calmly like nothing's wrong. You could argue that they reached a silent agreement to not talk about it for a while, but...you could also argue that there was nothing for them to talk about because it never actually happened. Because that episode wasn't actually canon. 😉

I don't know, maybe I'm just rambling for the sake of another lengthy post lmao. What do you guys think? Is it okay to interpret EIP as non-canon, or should we still look at it as a rough experience for Kataang shippers among meta commentary? I mean, I did always find it strange that Book 3 had 21 episodes while the previous two had exactly 20, so another reason to write EIP off as non-canon would mean that Book 3 would have 20 episodes, right? 😂