#jetko fits so well with canon like

[geegers22]

Jetko is RIGHT THERE!! It feels like they just hate Zutara more than they want an actually compelling m/m ship

lol you just know all those "well zutara is bad cause colonization or something" arguments are all bad faith cause like 50% of the time u take a look at the blog that is saying that and they wholeheartely shipping zukka, like i guess the colonization argument doesnt apply if its sokka then.

There's so much 'it's ok if it it's gay' hypocrisy going on in that side of the fandom and it's just so funny to me. Especially when it's coupled with trying to give z/s all the zutara moments and dynamics rather than leaning into Zuko and Sokka's canon dynamic, cause at that point what it tells me is that they really do wanna just ship zutara but they're allergic to m/f ships and don't wanna admit it

So they make up reasons why zutara is bad and problematic, ignore the fact that all of those reasons apply just as much to z/ukka because 'it's ok if it's gay' and then pretend they 'solved' the ship war (by removing the girl the war centered around from the equation). But it's really just hypocrisy all the way down and also probably more than a little jealousy, so at this point I just have to laugh.

And even the people who ostensibly apply the same argument to z/ukka won't say boo about ships like jetko or jinko and I think that's ultimately because neither of those ships are very popular so they aren't a 'threat' to the canon ships the way zutara is for some reason. (I will never understand why k/ataang shippers are so damn insecure. Like even if on the remotest chance the endgame ships in the netflix adaptation are different, it won't affect canon in any way, so WHY do so many of them have such a bug up their ass about zutara being so popular?)

Anyway, I maintain that jetko is the m/m ship that actually deserved to have the massive surge in popularity during the renaissance that z/s got and I'm still bitter about it cause jetko actually has the sauce. (And allows for my favorite atla ot3 without a whole lot of contortion hehe)

[ultfreakme]

im a zutara multishipper though i often feel like a fake cause im not as hardcore as most of em.. i forgot all about that scarf scene its not as memorable as I'll save you from the pirates is that probalmatic imeaniguess but it was a fun scene in the cartoon ..

. so many zuts are celebrating over a silyl scarf scene but i can tell there's higher chances of hell freezing over than zutara and i dont look forward to them going again We were robbed when it doesn't happen. i love being a multishipper though cause i was very well fed with zukaang

im begging shippers not to bully gordon over shipping and it is interting to note how uncomfortable zutara makes the actors prob cause they recognize Kia is a teenager and Dallas is 22 year old.. theres hooplah over how the age gap is fine cause she' ll be 18 and theres a difference with 11/14 vs 15/ year old met guy when he was 20. of course kia is uncomforatble with zutara she met dallas aas a child. but here we got people treating her like she's an adult already.

the way kia is talked about creeps me out and i still think about the people telling me im a fake fan bec i think maybe we dont talk about kias age like shes not even real. i do enjoy the fanart comig from promo pics cause people are super talented but sometimes . it feels that people are shipping Kia/Dallas more than zuko/katara

Hi!! Honestly it's fine if you ship even if things for the ship are considered 'problematic'. I mean I ship Zukka and both of them have genuinely wanted each other dead or gone for a good chunk of the show lol.

I think, and I'm not going to generalize and say EVERY Zutara shipper, but one thing I've encountered as a pattern of difference between Zutara shippers and every other ATLA ship shipper, is canonicity. Zukaang, Zukka, Jetko, MaiLee, TyZula, Tokka, Taang, none of them are of the mindset that their ship will be canon so no one has any real problems with these ships. But a lot of Zutara shippers I've seen on twitter at least are convinced that Zutara was meant to be canon, and this inability keep fanon and canon separate is what's getting people's hopes up. And when it's made clear that these ARE separate, there's upset. I've seen the same thing happen with multiple other shippers and ships across fandoms.

Being a multishipper sounds fun anon, and I hope you're doing well <3

You're so right on the way people act about and treat Kia. Dallas has on interview said Kia is like a little sister to him, and yeah people keep forgetting that these two met when Kia was a child and he was an adult. It's why Dallas and Ian are fine when they talk about Zukka or can joke about "shipping" them.

I've noticed that people are doing the thing again(in 2024 dear GOD), where they keep waiting for young girls to be "legal" to be fucking creeps. People did it with Billie Eilish, the Olsen twins and a bunch of other female celebs and artists. I just feel terrible for her and Gordon, and I wish people would stop being weird about the actors and take a hint because Kia, Dallas, Gordon- none of them are being subtle about being uncomfortable about zutara. The only way they can be more obvious is plaster it on their foreheads. I didn't know about people talking about...ugh I can't even say it, Kia and Dallas like a ship GROSS. Leave Kia and Dallas out of it gosh. I got an ask a while back basically saying people will stop being mean to Gordon if Zutara becomes canon and I was flabbergasted. Like, you won't treat a child, with respect and dignity, because your 20 year old ship isn't real???

I've said this before, but people are just jumping to make Kia out to be more...older? People saying she looks like Gordon's mom(I will hunt these people on sight she looks like a child). And it's this, intermixing of sexism and racism and colourism (I've seen people be extremely disgusting about Dallas and Gordon too about their appearance. Pretty much everyone who doesn't fit into Western beauty standards are receiving awful hate- Thalia Tran playing Mai, Elizabeth Yu playing Azula).

People seriously need to get a grip and start learning to differentiate between fiction and real human beings or this is going to hurt EVERYONE involved, but especially Kia and Gordon. It doesn't matter if Kia is 18, she DOES NOT LIKE IT. DALLAS sees her as a sister, like i wish people would keep that in mind.

[erisenyo]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks to @noexoozes for the tag!!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 40!! Though a few of them are drabbles/shorter things from tumblr that I've been slowly porting over, so without those its 32

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 1,638,585 lol holy shit

3. What fandoms do you write for? ATLA! Though I'm thinking about having a go at the Radiant Emperor for @radiantemperorweek if my schedule allows it 🤞I've also been Consumed lately by a particularly pairing of the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid, with a few specific things I'd love to see that were offscreen in the books, so we shall see there as well...

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Love is in the Hair - post-canon established Zukka, one-shot, banter, silliness, identity shenanigans with people not realizing they're sharing political gossip with the Fire Lord

These Things Written - part one of the series that started it all, "what if Zukka was canon", three-part full series rewrite, lots of angst, lots of smut, lots of feels (and technically the next two parts are also on this list, but instead-)

Lessons in Proper Asset Management - post-canon established Zukka, smutty one-shot, Sokka's competence kink vs Zuko being really good at finance, absurdity ensues

Part-Time Plumber, Full-Time Problem - Modern AU smutty Zukka one-shot, based on a grindr exchange about needing a wrench, identity shenanigans, banter, and Mai and Suki absolutely roasting their respective BFFs

Ten Rules For Sleeping With You - canon and post-canon get-together > established relationship fic, all the things Sokka has learned when it comes to sleeping next to Zuko

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes! I am very behind right now, but I appreciate the time and thought people put into them so much, and I love chatting back!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Ohh I love a happy ending, so this is hard. Its probably Darling I Think There's Maybe Something You Should Know, part of my Zukki series where we end with Sokka and Suki realizing Zuko doesn't think they're together, and has been going on other dates.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I love a happy ending, so this is hard in a different way! I'll go with To Be Named, To Be Known (To Be Loved), because ending with a big wedding and laughter just sets a particular mood :)

8. Do you get hate on fics? I wouldn't classify it as hate as much as people occasionally disagreeing with certain characterization, usually Iroh or Katara from the Burning Bright series, and having a lot of feelings about it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Lol you bet I do. And basically all of it? I think the only thing I haven't written technically is f/f and that's just because I haven't had time for my foursome get-together fic yet

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Not yet and I'm not sure I will, sometimes the framework of two stories fits well together, but I tend more toward AUs than crossovers

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! These Things Written was translated into Russian

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Technically Night Call, though that was more like tumblr posting back and forth that suddenly got long enough for AO3 haha

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? I primarily write Zukka, but I have so many favorites! I love Zukki, Jetko is great, my Jeeko longfic idea has had me in its grips for years, there are ships across other fandoms I love to read. I'm a multishipper at heart.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I...don't actually have any of these. I only post thing when they're already finished, and I don't do well writing multiple works at one time, so I tend to just finish things sequentially rather than have a bunch of WIPs floating around. (Ideas that I want to write but may never...that's a whole different question.)

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm really good at writing fun smut scenes that still back a lot of emotional punch, and I love dialogue! I also think I'm good at inverting tropes and reader expectations in fun ways to draw out/build narrative tension.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Descriptions, probably. I struggle to make place and people descriptions feel integrated into the next, rather than like clunkily bolted on. Usually I feel like its interrupting the pacing and I end up cutting it significantly back.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I'd be cautious of it if I didn't speak it myself, unless I was trying to represent someone with a similar level of competency, just because there are so many nuances of word choice and sentence structure and translation that would probably go over my head.

19. First fandom you wrote for? ATLA!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? This is impossible to answer! I love them all so much in such different ways. To Open Every Door to Night, To Meet Each Rising Sun will always be up there, writing Azula was so much fun. I think Of Tea and Turtle Ducks (and the Turtle Duck Guy) absolutely knocked the whole overarching metaphor out of the park, To Cleave These Roots We've Made is maybe my best like angst/emotional intensity fic, All Along You Were There (But I Missed It) just delivered on the mood and vision I had so well and showcased this warm romance so perfectly, and I'm really cheating so I'm going to make myself stop there haha

And lets see, tagging @sword-and-stars @spacecasehobbit @ranilla-bean @lizardlicks @hot-flippin-mess and anyone else who wants to play!

[venomlion3]

Shiptober 2020 Entry #5 - Starstachio! More info under the cut!

No, Pistachio, he isn't thinking about Princess Twilight AND WE'RE BACK! The entry for today was originally Jetko, but I lost motivation for it so I replaced it with Starstachio :3c While these two have never interacted in canon as far as I'm aware, I really like them as a ship? I didn't really know what to do with Star Tracker in my verse until I came across some ship art of these two, and after that it was kinda set in stone. Since I still need to catch up on MLP (lucky for me every season but season 9 is on Netflix), I wasn't really sure what Pistachio was like. Based off of the picture I used I assumed he was rowdy, so I gave him some scars, but when I watched some videos with him I realized that he was more of a fashion-loving dork than anything. Regardless, I think the scars fit him, so maybe he got them while modeling?? Idk Anyways, these two are married in Venomverse with 2 kids: Macadamia Cluster and Shellbark Solstice. Their names have ties to Astronomy and whatnot thanks to Star's idolization (and crush) on Twilight Sparkle, as well as nuts because. Y'know. Pistachio. Atm I'm thinking they probably met thanks to their connections to Twilight and Rarity, but other than that I'm not so sure. Whatever, they're a cute couple uwu

Previous Entry: https://venomlion3.tumblr.com/post/631268223663456257/shiptober-2020-entry-4-stoncy-ronance-more

Next Entry: https://venomlion3.tumblr.com/post/632085311755829249/shiptober-2020-entry-6-levihanpeto-more-info

[loopy777]

You've (famously) done an entire fic where Mai riffs on various shippings, but I'd love to know what your *personal* thoughts on all the different ATLA ships are. Obviously, I know you like Maiko, Maikka, and Sokkla, but how about a bunch of other ships? Like Kataang, or Taang, or Sukka, or Tokka, or Jinko, or Yukka, or Toko, etc.? How about F/F or M/M ships?

“Mai’s Ramblings” is still famous? Huh. I still need to figure out how to get it on AO3.

Anyway, I’m afraid my answers can all probably be summarized as “It’s fine.” I like the ships I like pretty much because the involved characters are my favorites. But I’ll give it a go and see what I can say…

Kataang: These two fit well together, and I think the cartoon does a pretty good job of showing how they have complementary personalities and priorities. If anything, it does too good a job, because there isn’t really any reason to delay them getting together until the finale aside from genre convention. Katara’s “confused” feelings never get an explanation, just a range of possibilities, leaving the fans to try to fill in what seems to be a critical part of the subplot. But when they’re together, they build each other up nicely.

Taang: I like that they have similar heights, and the way they look when they’re Earthbending in unison. Very superficial, I know, but them’s the breaks. After their initial difficulties, I think the cartoon did a good job as showing them as friends, and that can be a good basis for a romance. But I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a single fanfic for this pairing that I liked, and that affects my feelings on the pairing.

Sukka: Here’s another ship I like because I like the characters. Sokka is one of my favorites, I’m fond of Suki for her cool ninja abilities and the depth she could have, and I think they have complementary personalities. I like their storyline in the cartoon (it’s the romantic plotline with the most meat on its bones in the entire cartoon, IMO), with how it combines with both Sokka getting over his sexism and moving on after Yue’s death. It also had the best shippers, back in the glory days of ASN.

Tokka: I prefer this pairing as friends, simply because the romantic fanfics are all just variations on the “Sempai, please notice me!” theme, and I’ve never been into that. The non-romantic stuff for this pairing is all about them being buddies and getting into shenanigans and trolling the other characters and getting in over their heads and- well, all kinds of fun stuff. That said, friendship is a good basis for romance, so I think they could be good as a couple.

Jinko: I’m kind of cool on this one because I don’t think Zuko really had any attraction to Jin, and Jin herself is a fairly generic character. The fun of their date is mostly about seeing Zuko being a dork (making it a much more successful implementation of the same idea behind the Fire Teen antics in “The Beach,” especially with Azula’s subplot there), and I just don’t see Zuko getting that invested in a strange girl at that point in his life/story.

Yukka: I like it as a doomed romance, but I’m a bit biased on this one because the first episodes I watched of Avatar were “Lake Laogai” and “The Earth King,” so I knew that the ‘Suki’ who Sokka is excited to see would win out over Yue. Yue’s death and role are cool, and her conflict between her duty and her feelings are compelling, but I’m more invested in her as a tragic figure than someone who really works for Sokka. She’s his fantasy of his perfect mate, and even if she lived, I think he’d have to eventually realize that he needs someone less reserved. Likewise, I think she appreciates Sokka’s goofy charm and his kindness, but I’m not sure she really likes him for the full range of his character, including his flaws.

Toko: I like the dynamic between Zuko and Toph, but this is another one where I like it without the romantic flavor. However, while it’s another “Notice me, Sempai!” attraction, I think it works a little better than with Sokka because Zuko is a much more oblivious personality. He can completely miss Toph’s attempts to throw herself at him, no matter how blatant, while Sokka would eventually figure things out. But, romantic or just friends, I think this dynamic has good thing going with the way Zuko and Toph have similar parent-issues, but enough contrasts in their issues and situations so that they don’t feel like repeats of each other. They can start with an understanding of each other, while still being able to learn from each other. And I think Toph would fare best if pulled into Zuko’s Fire Lord life, if just because she is good at walking away. Which leads me to…

Zutara: You didn’t ask about it, but I think it merits an opinion. It’s not my favorite Katara ship, but “The Southern Raiders” shows how they can egg each other on in the worst ways, and that can be very interesting. Zuko and Katara also play off each other in high-energy ways, so I can see why it fascinates. But my biggest problem with it is that it supposes that Katara gets subsumed into Royal Fire culture, becoming ‘Fire Lady’ and living her life in service to Zuko’s. Maybe if Zuko doesn’t become Fire Lord, it would be more interesting to me, but no fanfic wants to go that route. I don’t see Katara resisting assimilation in the way Toph would, if just because Katara would take it all seriously, while I can see Toph maintaining a wry detachment even while married to Zuko.

Katoph: Putting Zuko aside, I’m in love with the idea that Katara was nursing a little crush on Toph that helped fuel their rivalry, and her confusion about Aang was caused in part by also having an attraction to Toph that she didn’t realize. I don’t see the pairing working out, if just because Toph is canonically boy-crazy, but I think it would be amusing to see Toph try to let Katara down gently and Katara not having a clue what’s going on.

Kazula: I think these two could have an interesting dynamic, either romantically or not, but I’ve not seen enough to really get a feel for it, and I haven’t gotten around to any of my fic ideas for bouncing them off each other, so I can’t say much about it. But I think they have enough similarities that there’s something that could be done with them.

Ty Zula: I recently did a post on this.

MaiLee: I did a post on this as well.

Zukka: I struggle with this one. Zuko and Sokka have a solid friendship, and as I’ve said, friendship is a good basis for romance. I’ve even written a fic where Sokka is in a three-person marriage with Maiko, But I really do think there’s something more in their Bros friendship, as established by “The Boiling Rock,” than any romance could bring out. A little distance is necessary for the way they keep measuring themselves against the other, and I’d hate to lose that aspect.

Jetko: This is another one where I think the fandom over-estimates Zuko’s interest in the other party (the first being Jinko), but that’s what makes it hilariously fun. Jet as Zuko’s obsessed stalker who develops a kind of romantic fascination with him is practically canon, and Zuko dealing with that in a surly and exasperated way sounds delightful.

Zukaang: I mean, isn’t this one canon? Make Aang a girl, and I don’t think you’d have to alter a single line of dialogue in the cartoon to get the entire audience to see it. The pure hero bringing the angsty anti-villain over to side of the angels is the basis for countless romances, and “The Firebending Masters” shows wonderfully how these two would work as partners. And as the Avatar, Aang wouldn’t get subsumed into Zuko’s life as royalty. Honestly, it’s the second-best Zuko ship after Maiko, and that’s only because Maiko snuck in there with the Childhood Friends bit.

[marciego]

WAIT I WANNA ASK YOU ABOUT TYZULA AS WELL BC I LOVE HOW YOU TALK ABOUT SHIPS YOU LOVE SO PLS TYZULA FOT THE SHIP GAME!!! - iris

girl let's gooooo this is amazing!!! i'm genuinely so happy we get to talk more about atla here this is so much fun, and omg that's SO SO kind thank youuuu, i love talking about things i love!!!

Ship It

What made you ship it?

if i'm being 100% honest here? i don't remember szdefrg

like, atla is something i first watched as a child, but like a really tiny child and i was obsessed with the show, but i was still too young to really make anything out of it, i just know that i was so upset with the ending that my brain rewrote the ending for it to fit what i wanted, so from 8/9 to 13/14 when i rewatched atla for the first time, i was absolutely convinced zutara was endgame </3 also mai didn't exist to me i had completely erased her from my memory

ANYWAY. that was to say, when i rewatched atla at 13/14, i got to the first scene with azula and ty lee and was like "oh i remember i really really liked their relationship they're Special tm" which just meant "they're gay" because at 8 i didn't really have explicitely gay ships (i guess you could count jetko and tyzula as my first non articulated gay ships), and every scene they had together i was like?? they're in love?? GIRL PLS THE BEACH. ty lee going "if you want a boy to like you just laugh at his jokes even if they're lame" and then you think back of all the times ty lee did her "omg azula you're SO funny" thing when it really wasn't that funny and you're like. hm! curious i wonder why she did that!

What are your favorite things about the ship?

SO many things, but i especially love their potential post canon i think. there's no way zuko would be leaving azula like this post canon, especially once he realizes that, while it doesn't excuse anything she's done to him, she had to deal with her own kind of abuse too, completely sheltered from any adult that wasn't ozai, without ursa and iroh's guidance, and it could only fuck her up you know. and with katara's help they could help her slowly get better, but her healing can only do so much and azula would have a lot of like. reflection to do you know, on herself, on her family, on her brother, on the fire nation, on what she wants in her life. i really think ty lee could be a huge part of that, i like thinking about ty lee having these very genuine feelings for azula, about her being her best friend from the very moment they met, but she then saw her change a bit more every day as they were growing up, she saw her go further and further to get what she wanted and to some extent she was okay with it, but deep down, and while she still loved her, she knew it wasn't exactly the girl she wished she could have been, so giving up on their relationship seemed like the good thing to do. but slowly, she could see something that looks maybe a bit more like the little girl she knew and loved, or something akin to what she could have become in normal circumstances, and she could get closer to her again, carefully at first, to make sure she wouldn't get hurt again. and on the other end of that relationship, slowly recovering, azula would be here, with the brother she swore to hate her whole life, the friend she didn't trust enough to love her so she opted to controling her instead, and the enemy that took her down in the end, and she'd see them all caring for her in their own way, and maybe that could be the first step in realizing that being feared is not the way to go, actually.

i fully believe ty lee's patience, bright personality, and boundless love could help her, that wouldn't "fix" or even "heal" her, because it's something that takes time, and she went through so much abuse that she'd have to completely reconstruct herself and her beliefs after that, but it'd help, and i think azula deserves to learn to love again. also they'd be the absolute best aunts to zuko's babies so <33

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

i mean probably because i think the atla fandom has bad opinions overall but i have no idea what that could be aszdefrg, nowadays i tend to only enjoy atla with my friends and mutuals whithout going into the fandom anymore, so that's why getting to talk about it here with y'all makes me so happy <3

[firelxdykatara]

gods, ok, apparently i’m not done.

atla fandom? we need to have a chat.

(....ok that made me sound pretentious as fuck. and maybe i am, but this needs to be said, cause i’m getting....real, real tired of a Certain Corner of this fandom and as a result, this is gonna be a discourse-heavy post so feel free to scroll past if that’s not your bag. as always, my salt posts all carry the catch-all #salt for ts tag, which you’re free to blacklist/filter at your leisure. i’m Very Annoyed at the moment, which will probably come through in the following post, so just. yknow. be prepared for that. or ignore it, that’s perfectly valid too.)

under a cut bc i do care for my followers and their sanity i swear lmao

there’s a real serious issue in this fandom with not understanding what queer terminology actually means or implies, especially when applied to a fictional narrative.

i’m specifically talking about ‘coding’, here. (if i were in a more meme-y mood, i might have said ‘the atla fandom found out about the term “gay-coding” and haven’t shut up since’.)

to the people who say ‘zuko is gay-coded’, i have this to say: you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. because he isn’t. i’m sorry, but he’s not! and the fact that this is such a prevalent claim in this fandom is distressing, bc it says to me that none of y’all know what gay-coding is or when and how to apply it! please, i’m begging you, go and look up these terms and what they mean and when they should be used before actually trying to plug them into your critical analysis, because when you misuse them and then call other people delusional for disagreeing with you it casts a pall over the entire fandom and is, i think, the root of some of the worst toxicity this fandom has to offer.

and the thing is, there are cases where gay-coding would apply--for instance, a couple series that are famous for queerbaiting their audience by coding their main characters as being attracted to one another (sometimes even despite their openly stated sexualities) come to mind, but those shows bare no similarities at all to atla and how zuko was written and portrayed! (and it would be funny, if it weren’t so obnoxious and infuriatingly wide-spread throughout the fandom, because the only queer couple we actually seen on-screen in either show wasn’t even queer-coded in any respect, and they’re canonically bi! [yes, i’m shading korrasami, or more accurately i’m shading bryke for refusing to give ka the build-up and development they deserved].)

this absolutely isn’t to say that headcanoning zuko as gay is a bad thing or invalid in any respect. (although the tendency for zukka shippers to do this specifically to keep zuko away from katara and/or invalidate his canon relationship/attraction to girls is more than a little eyebrow raising. especially since sokka is usually allowed to be bi, bc fans have no problem letting sukka stay in the background bc it’s no real threat, while jetko shippers are happy to have both boys be bi. [possibly bc katara is less a threat to jetko bc jetkotara is every bit as valid as any single ship between the three, but zukka can’t exactly let katara join in, and if the potential exists for zuko to be attracted to her then canon giving them the far deeper emotional bond becomes a threat to zukka’s existence? idk for sure--you be the judge.]) i prefer to hc zuko as bi (and always have, long before the atla renaissance), bc i don’t think zuko being attracted to boys is outside the realm of possibility, and it isn’t a threat to my ship since zuko&katara had a deep and emotional bond in canon that is very easy to develop further into something that becomes explicitly romantic--but the headcanon itself isn’t really the problem (although what it’s often in service to can be).

it’s the strange insistence that this is the only way to read his character, bc he was coded that way and so anyone who doesn’t see it must be too straight to understand--and i really shouldn’t have to say why and how that is so incredibly fucking insulting. (the ‘hetero lenses’ comment wasn’t cute when it came from bryke six years ago, and the same sentiment being repackaged and delivered by zukka shippers ain’t cute now.)

calling zuko gay-coded not only demonstrates ignorance as to what the term actually means, and how to usefully apply it in critical analysis, but also validates the frankly bullshit insertion of institutionalized homophobia in the world of atla where it was neither needed, nor wanted, nor ever hinted at in canon. as a queer woman i’m still infuriated by one fucking comic panel shoving institutionalized and systemic homophobia into a world where it was entirely unnecessary (and doing this in the first installment of the franchise showcasing a queer relationship??? making korra and asami worried about ‘coming out’ when they could have just gone on to have cute adventures together and tell people ‘hey we’re dating’ and have everyone else be ‘that’s awesome =DDD’ [because it is, in fact, possible to just have a world without homophobia i promise!!!!!] double yikes, i’m still pissed at bryke about it), and i doubly hate that ‘zuko is gay coded’ has become so widespread that ‘ozai hates him bc he’s gay’ has become a staple in that part of the fandom.

not only does making zuko gay and implying (or outright stating) that ozai hated and abused him because of it completely undermine zuko’s character arc by making his abuse about his sexuality rather than ozai’s toxic pride and anger at seeing himself reflected in his ‘weak’ son, but it comes very close to outright stating that abuse and trauma are inherently gay experiences, and they aren’t!!! they really aren’t, i promise!!!

abuse and trauma narratives exist outside of ‘my dad hates me because i’m gay’. and, quite frankly, there are MORE THAN ENOUGH queer trauma narratives out in the world. we do not need to start trying to retroactively make them canon in a series where they didn’t exist! if you’re gay and see yourself in zuko and project your own experiences on him, that’s understandable and valid. that does not make zuko gay-coded. and honestly, the insistence that he is makes very little sense to me, because you’re essentially trying to give the show credit for work you put into interpreting the characters! why would you want to do that? why not own your own headcanons and take credit for them, rather than insisting they are canon and everyone else is wrong for not seeing them??? like, i’ve said before that i’ve always headcanoned zuko (and katara) as bi, and even support it with my interpretations of evidence from the show, but the difference between ‘i think zuko is bi’ and ‘zuko is definitely gay-coded’ is that i know that bi zuko is my interpretation of canon, and that it is work i’m putting into the show that wasn’t actually intended by the creators/writers, no matter how much sexual tension i read into the jetko swordfight.

and like, zuko’s character arc doesn’t actually parallel a queer one all that well to begin with. it’s easy enough to do the work and twist it sideways just enough to make the general points fit, but the fact is, zuko’s arc is not one of self-discovery. it’s not one of coming to understand something fundamental about himself that he can’t change, that he was hated for, and coming out to his father in a dramatic confrontation where he shows that he understands himself and doesn’t need his father’s acceptance to be fulfilled.

zuko’s arc is actually one of trauma and healing. and those can (and often are--like i said, there are more than enough queer trauma narratives in the world, atla really doesn’t need to be one of them) be part of queer narratives, for sure! but they aren’t uniquely queer. and zuko’s confrontation with ozai during the eclipse doesn’t read like a ‘coming out’ at all. (yes, i’ve seen that post. yes, i rolled my eyes and moved on, bc unlike some people, i’m capable of not clowning on correctly tagged posts i disagree with.) zuko is specifically confronting ozai over his abuse, because his arc wasn’t about discovering anything fundamental about himself (and therefore realizing that ozai was hating him for something he couldn’t change)--it was about realizing that he was not at fault for the way his father treated him. it was also about realizing that the fire nation was broken and corrupt at its core, and that his father was an aspect of that he needed to break away from so that he could help the world begin to heal.

he says it himself:

Zuko: No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

making this about zuko being gay and rejecting ozai’s homophobia, rather than zuko learning fundamental truths about the world and about his home and about how there was something deeply wrong with his nation that needed to be fixed in order for the world to heal (and, no, ‘homophobia’ is not the answer to ‘what is wrong with the fire nation’, i’m still fucking pissed at bryke about that), misses the entire point of his character arc. this is the culmination of zuko realizing that he should never have had to earn his father’s love, because that should have been unconditional from the start. this is zuko realizing that he was not at fault for his father’s abuse--that speaking out of turn in a war meeting in no way justified fighting a duel with a child.

is that first realization (that a parent’s love should be unconditional, and if it isn’t, then that is the parent’s fault and not the child’s) something that queer kids in homophobic households/families can relate to? of course it is. but it’s also something that every other abused kid, straight kids and even queer kids who were abused for other reasons before they even knew they were anything other than cishet, can relate to as well. in that respect, it is not a uniquely queer experience, nor is it a uniquely queer story, and zuko not being attracted to girls (which is what a lot of it seems to boil down to, at the end of the day--cutting down zuko’s potential ships so that only zukka and a few far more niche ships are left standing) is not necessary to his character arc. nor does it particularly make sense.

(and before anyone brings up his date with jin--a) he enjoyed it when she kissed him, and b) he was a traumatized, abused child going out on a first date. of course he was fucking awkward. have you ever met a teenage boy????)

anyway, uh, that was a lot of words, so have a tl;dr: zuko is not gay-coded. there is nothing uniquely gay (or even uniquely queer) about his character arc or characterization, and he was certainly not coded gay in an attempt to sneak a queer character past the censors. if anyone involved with atla was gonna try that, it would’ve been in lok, and as established, they didn’t even manage to queer-code the actual queer relationship before the last few minutes of the final episode. headcanoning zuko as gay is absolutely fine (though if it’s only done to keep him away from female characters he may otherwise be attracted to, that smells more like misogyny than anything else), but insisting that this reading is the only one that makes sense, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be straight (hello, queer woman here making this insanely long thinkpiece) is very much not.

ship what you like, but stop trying to invalidate other ships and other interpretations of characters just to make your ship seem more plausible. it’s really not a good look.