#i’m gonna regret that atla post when i wake up tomorrow morning aren’t i?

[nov4-rocket5]

In a lot of shows where romance is like, the furthest thing away from the priorities of the show like Avatar, Gundam, shonen series in general (Naruto, MHA, Bleach to name a few) and so on, canon couples tend to be incredibly half baked especially when the characters have far more and stronger interactions with like literally everyone else. Like even with Bleach where the one that makes the most sense for Ichigo was a het ship it still didn’t happen so it isn’t just in places where M/M F/F pairings wouldn’t happen or in GWitch where an F/F paiting was canon Suletta had far more chemistry with either Nika or Chuchu than Miorine.

While I don’t necessarily agree with some of this (I really liked Suletta and thought they had a lot of really cute moments, and Ruchigo was fun for the start of Bleach, but I understood Ichihime when it happened), you are absolutely right on romance not being AtLA’s strong suits.

This isn’t necessarily a problem, mind you, (there are way more interesting things to talk about in Avatar than ships). You can really tell Bryke was trying to make it clear who were and were not going to end up together by the end because they didn’t want to focus on it a lot, and having that sort of end goal is important to have (see: LoK’s romance that dragged on and on because they kept changing their minds on what the endgame couples were going to be).

The problem is most of the romance for the actually canon pairings just doesn’t feel very fun or good. Kataang is a perfect example of this. Zutarans are wrong to say that Kataang makes no sense. Of course it does; it's literally built up from the very first episode of the show, but it doesn't feel… romantic. Not to say they didn’t try (and try and try) but I never feel particularly moved by, or invested in, Aang and Katara's romance. I cared about their relationship, but their romantic relationship didn’t have… spice(?) if that sounds right. There's nothing engaging or moving about the numerous things the show does to bring them together. I didn't feel any great sense of triumph when they kiss at the end of Sozin's Comet. There was no point in their romance that I ever felt anything.

And considering how, despite being the canon pairing, Kataang only accounts for maybe 10% of the AtLA fics on AO3, a lot of people agree with the sentiment.