#i have nothing against zuko/sokka i just have strong feelings about fanon sokka

[myhyperfixationisiforgot]

The ATLA renaissance shifting the fandom from Zutara towards Zukka without actually changing the ship dynamic is so fucking funny because most of the time it functions pretty well. However today I saw another 'oh Sokka had this forbidden crush on Zuko from the beginning' and. Look. What happened there? Seriously, did we watch the same show? Fucking nobody likes Zuko from the get-go! He's an acquired taste at best. Jet notably falls for Zuko at first sight under explicitly false pretenses. Sokka has both a brain and a decent understanding of Zuko's early role in the Fire Nation. He would not say that.

[ultfreakme]

Im really sorry if this is blunt, but are you taking a break from the atla fandom? Totally understand if you are, btw (dw, I'm really tired rn too)

Yep, a break from the fandom to find out my joy in the show again. I did not have a good time interacting with the larger fandom. I don't agree with a lot of fanon surrounding the show. The discourse is tired and honestly stupid 90% of the time. Everything is about ships, ships, and more ships. I tried to draw my boundaries and regulate my experience but I feel like a majority don't give a shit about my boundaries and squicks.

If I try to to criticize the OG, or point out something wrong with it, people just spin it as some "totally intentional commentary guys the creators are GENIUS". I'm mostly on the zukka side, but it feels like......the fandom worships big creators a lot and take their word as law. And if you go against it or have a different interpretation, it gets completely sunk or ignored. I'm not expecting people to agree but like at least try to entertain something new (like, I don't think Azula needs a redemption arc, I don't think Sokka has any issues with Hakoda, I think Sokka remains childless out of choice and was happy when he died and there's literally nothing in actual canon indicating otherwise- he died younger than the rest, so what? I don't care for the excessive focus on Zuko EVERYWHERE, or the girlboss-ification of literally every female character and ignores their wrongs *cough* Azula and Mai *cough*. I don't like how fanon reduces Toph to "funny strong girl" and never discusses anything else, or how everyone ignores Aang's grief and Katara's genuine mistakes and asshole moments. I have a lot of problems with just how....everything is discussed).

This was not intentional and I don't blame anyone for this but I just felt.....isolated. It didn't feel like anyone was willing to talk about anything new. It keeps circling back to the same thing everyone's already talked about a million times. Which is fine! The show's 2-decades old and it is very direct, the subtext is basically text. But the fandom is set in its ways and thoughts over these two decades and atp it just feels like people patting each other on the back for having the same takes as each other. I don't get the chance to talk about my own stuff or explore anything new, I constantly felt like I was getting sunk under everyone else's interpretations, and there was this invisible pressure to create fanon a very specific way.

Idk, it just felt boring after a while. So, I'm taking a break for a few months, maybe a year. I'll probably upload and work on my fic but I'm not going to interact with fandom at large. I have a couple of friends, but that's all it'll be.

[vomara]

@irresistible-revolution yeah, i'm growing to dislike the pairing more and more as the fandom latches onto it. like... i decided to look through all the episodes briefly just now to recall any significant zuko-sokka moments and it's about nothing. you could quite literally delete their interactions without changing canon, save for the boiling rock episodes. (which, besides those two bonding, is mainly for the reintroduction of hakoda+suki, along with mai+ty lee's betrayal of azula.) there's zuko and sokka's first meeting, in s1e2... and then nothing but the rare fireblast or boomerang thrown at each other. even in "the western air temple", zuko's welcome-to-the-gaang episode, sokka probably had the least notable reaction to zuko -- aang verges on hopeful and is shown thinking about zuko several times, katara is shown as growing more spiteful as she remembers "the crossroads of destiny", and toph has little history with him, so her reactions completely contrast with everyone else. sokka's opinion barely matters here except as peer pressure to keep aang from accepting zuko into the gaang.

they're paralleled occassionally, but it's not too significant. sokka-hakoda is sometimes juxtaposed against zuko-ozai, but so is katara-hakoda. there are a few battle prep scenes that parallel sokka-zuko but more often than not it's aang-zuko. the most significant parallel is their actual position within their family, not anything related to the actual relationship between them -- both of them are swordwielding brothers who are overshadowed by prodigal younger sisters. all of this is so minor that you could remove it or modify it so that there isn't any sokka-zuko interactions, and it would essentially be about the same. meanwhile, if you tried to crop out aang-zuko or katara-zuko interactions, the narrative would actually fail. you'd lose significant amounts of depth and meaning.

not considering aang, katara, or any of zuko's family members, the characters that zuko has the most dynamic with, surprisingly enough, may be mai, jet, then sokka and ty lee, in that order. and yes, i said jet before sokka -- zuko has a three-episode arc with him that's intentionally made to compare and contrast the two, at a time in the narrative where zuko is rarely creating strong or interesting bonds with other characters. sokka and zuko have a two-episode arc that, while focused on them, is also mainly concerned with advancing plot elements, during a time in the series where zuko is actively working to create bonds with everyone. the former feels more significant as a result of its context.

either way, it's like... this is what the fandom is making a full following out of? this is the pairing that's oversaturating the fandom and becoming fanon? this is the pairing that's somehow considering to be realistic post-canon? if i have to sit through more post-canon 'verses where it's just assumed that sokka gets married to zuko without any good development, i think i'll throw myself out the fucking window. and that's double if the person opposes katara getting married to zuko but is just peachy about sokka doing the same.

why does the atla fandom have so many stone cold takes... it's like drinking cold tea. unpleasant and boring