#he wasn't nudging kataang along when he wrote some of their most important eps is like

[thethiefandtheairbender]

hi!! i’ve been reading your atla metas and i know there’s been some conspiracy theories about aaron ehasz in the writer’s room, but i think you would be very happy to know that he recently liked a tweet acknowledging how azula and katara are narrative foils in zuko’s life! your meta on that was excellent btw

I think that might've been my tweet tbh! He and I are actually mutuals on twitter cause I mostly post about his show The Dragon Prince (TDP) (which imo makes the preferences pretty clear as a result, but I'll get more to that in a minute) and one of my friends has interviewed him a few times for it

I bring this up because years ago (well before I was on twitter) he expressed interest in reading a meta I wrote regarding Katara/Aang's romantic development with the main ship of TDP, Callum/Rayla. This was noteworthy because at the time, Callum and Rayla were heavily implied but not actually canon.

The reason I say it makes the preference(s), if they are some, clear is because Callum and Rayla, although not initially planned, have parallels to both Katara and Aang as well as Mai and Zuko:

They are literally Moon, Ocean, and Sky per the show's magic system. Rayla is a Moonshadow elf, linked to life and death, and Callum becomes a Sky and Ocean mage

There are parallels between bloodbending and dark magic (including evil puppetmasters) in which, like how Katara breaks and learns bloodbending to save Aang's life in S3, Callum likewise uses dark magic to save Rayla even after claiming he'd never use it

Rayla and Zuko both leave their partners apologies and goodbye letters before they go on quests they don't want to drag the other person into

"No, I think it's great! You're like a secret hero!" / "It's because Rayla is a hero."

Rayla being a little older and bit of a magical instructor for Callum in a similar manner to how Katara teaches Aang waterbending

[in defense of "you ran away"] "Aang is the bravest person I know. He's done nothing but help people and save lives since I met him!" / [in defense of "you ran away"] "Rayla's brave. She saves people [...] Rayla, you're the most amazing person I've ever met."

Callum and Aang asking Rayla and Katara, respectively, to trust enemies who could be allies (Claudia, Zuko) due to their past history, and the girls reluctantly going along with it

There's also this post again from pre-Callum and Rayla going canon in S3:

Although there's some overlap perhaps with how Zuko helps Katara in show re: her mother's death, as Callum will be helping Rayla get her parents' back and give closure that way, but it's framed very differently. Whereas Zuko is surprised by how Katara responds to Yon Rha and Aang is ultimately portrayed as the one who knows her better ("You were right about what Katara needed"), the closure Callum offers is more in line with how Aang reaffirms Katara's ability to choose, as Rayla was going to stay behind and die for her parents' perceived failure and has to reevaluate upon finding out the truth:

Katara: But now that I know he's out there, I feel like I don't have a choice. Aang: Katara, you do have a choice.

Rayla: What does this mean? What should I do? Callum: I don't know. But it's your choice. No one else's. Rayla: We should decide together.

There are more parallels, and nothing in TDP is a 1:1 by any means - every character / couple / aspect of the show is its own unique thing - but like... you can see where they're pulling more inspiration from, I think, and I expect there'll be more parallels going into S6-S7 for TDP.