#katara & zuko friendship

[rennelelorren]

Hi~ I`m with some Aang and Zu

oh and somehow this one was funnier like sketch or idk :_b

[sillybillylulu]

I love your art style! Maybe you could make a Zutara screenshot redraw if you want to? Doesn't have to be romance-coded, could be just platonic. :) Thank you in advance. And I read that you have a block currently, I feel with you. Same thing for me with writing. Take your time.

So sorry for the wait pookie!! I'm just loaded with requests but I hope you like it! Also I hope your writing block is already over 🫶🏼

Part 17 of re-drawing avatar screenshots!

Also I couldn't decide on what scene I wanted so this took even longer than I intended 😭

(meant as platonic but can be tagged as romantic)

[parsley-the-crow]

Favorite friendship dynamic has got to be, “Villain grows to respect hero causing their worldview to change and eventually (probably as a result of hitting rock bottom) realize they were wrong and repent. Hero accepts this, offers their friendship, and helps the villain begin to grow as a person by directing them how to go about earning redemption and how to heal from whatever was making them do villain stuff before.”

This is how I see post season two Romeo and Jesse MCSM, Viggo Grimborn and Hiccup Haddock (if Viggo had lived) in How to Train Your Dragon: Race to the Edge, The Pines Twins and Pacifica from Gravity Falls, Zuko and the Gaang in ATLA, and my own two OCs, wish I knew more.

[queen-morgana91]

AANG is the person in the gaang Zuko turns to whenever he feels down or he has to talk about important things btw

[theotterpenguin]

the performative accusation that shipping zutara (and occasionally this criticism is levied at jinko/zukka) is colonialist apologism has been addressed in some excellent posts, explaining the inaccuracies and problematic implications of this logic far better than i ever could - like this post and this one and this one and this one and this one.

and i know this topic has been talked about to death, but if you could indulge my contribution for a moment, i just find it interesting how this sentiment results from the cognitive dissonance of atla fans being unable to reconcile with the idea of their favorite show's political beliefs not lining up with their own.

atla is a largely philosophical children's show that at its core deals with themes of love, redemption, and destiny vs. free-will. atla examines these themes through an anti-colonalist, anti-imperalist lens that deconstructs the idea of racial divisiveness and the idea that people of different ethnicities are inherently different. this is message is pretty explicitly stated by guru pathik:

Guru Pathik: "The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same." Aang: "Like the four nations?" Guru Pathik: "Yes. We are all one people. But we live as if divided."

and also by uncle iroh:

"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements and the other nations will help you become whole."

this theme is developed across three full seasons, with the crux of this message culminating in zuko's friendships with the gaang - despite coming from different nationalities and different backgrounds, they have all had their own experiences being hurt by the fire nation and work together to take down the oppressive fire nation government. the question of destiny vs. free will is also explored through zuko's character - despite starting off as an antagonist, he develops into a symbolic representation of how the fire nation's oppression hurts its own citizens. he unlearns the fire nation's imperialist propaganda while simultaneously unlearning his father's abuse. rather than following misguided beliefs of what he thought his destiny was as the heir to the throne, instead he forges his own path.

thus, to claim that zuko can never form a deep and meaningful relationship with any of the gaang because of his nationality goes unequivocally against the themes of the show. and a major part of this is because these are fictional characters being used to analyze different theoretical questions within the show and in some cases, are used as symbolic representations of different philosophical ideas - their friendships and their character arcs serve a purpose within the text that cannot be easily transcribed onto real-life dynamics between people.

it's illogical to criticize fans who are choosing to understand atla at the level of the themes that are presented by the text - who are interested in exploring similar philosophical questions brought up by the show through the context of relationships.

if you don't like the themes of forgiveness and redemption that atla explores, your criticism should be aimed at the writing of the show itself rather than other fans. because you are giving far more thought to the "implications" of a close friendship or romantic relationship between someone from an imperalist nation and someone from an oppressed nation than the writers ever did. (and if you fall in this camp of people, i would hope you wouldn't be reblogging fanart of zuko and the gaang together while simultaneously claiming zuko could can never escape the sins of his ancestors and can never form a deep relationship based on trust and intimacy with katara or sokka or jin - because that would just be hypocritical).

and as a side note, people seem to apply this flawed logic to zutara far more than other ships solely because the show spends the most time exploring the complicated nature of fire nation imperalism in the interactions between zuko and katara in the latter half of b3. this is because they've been juxtapositioned against each other and paralleled with aang since the beginning of the show in ways that toph, sokka, and suki are not, who have mostly been used to examine different themes. there simply isn't enough time to explore these complicated themes with all the other characters, even if they theoretically exist in zuko’s dynamics with these characters, so the writers focus the most on zuko's relationships with katara and aang, and these relationships are given far more narrative weight, so have more content to criticize. but zuko and katara also canonically become friends by the end of the show. if you want to discount the existence of their friendship, claiming that it will always be tainted by the fire nation's oppression regardless of what is shown in the text, then you also have to discount zuko's friendships with aang, suki, toph, and sokka - because even if this isn't shown as a permanent barrier to their friendships in the show, it’s also not shown as a permanent barrier to his friendship with katara. if your logic is solely based on the idea that a person's identity in a relationship as a colonizer or a victim is fixed and unchanging regardless of character development, this would apply to zuko's friendships with everyone else as well.

[threalcrabbysamantha]

sometimes it feels like i’m existing on a different plane than some of the atla fandom, like when people complain they can’t find zutara fics that also contains a positive depiction of the friendship between Aang, Katara, and Zuko

baby, I read them all the time - are we using two different AO3s??

[elmundodeflor]

And just like that, she’d fallen for him.

Spring. Summer. Autumn. The world had its cycles. There had been peace before war, and peace would come after bloodsheds and battles.

Katara looks at Zuko, at how he stares out to the width in the horizons. The curves of his nose and lips are soft, much like the colors of the leaves around them. The lines of his jaw and cheeks are sharp, in contrast.

He’s a beautiful man; she’s always thought so, even when they were enemies and he’d sworn he’d kill them. She likes it better this way, though— being friends, confidants, long-time companions. Kindness suits him more, either way. She likes how his face looks when he’s calm, — when there’s no rage to contort his scar, no scowl furrowing his brow.

She also likes that he knows her. That they can stand, silence pending between them, and it’s never too tense or uncomfortable. Zuko is just that good to her. He never puts too much pressure on her shoulders, — she’s had enough of that already. Instead, he soothes the rough edges. Lets her make her own choices and never judges her for them.

He looks back at her. An easy smile grazes his features; baffling, tortuous, beautiful. Katara has to fight the urge to freeze some water from her bottle and smash it across her searing face.

“Do you wanna…”, his voice cuts through the wind, raspy as it ever was. When he talks, it’s evident that he’s nervous. That he’s been circling around his thoughts and can’t seem to find the words. “I mean…”, he tries again. “Do you wanna stay here until you decide what to do?”

She hums, then turns her gaze back to the gardens. Aang had asked her to travel the world along with him, — to be by his side and help other people, from other nations and villages. She had yet to give him a proper answer.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to— go on missions, hear the masses’ suffering and be present in whatever way she could. Maybe, it was that she simply had pictured something different for herself. She could be so much more than just the “Avatar’s girl”! She could go home, lend a useful hand to Sokka and her dad advocating for their tribe. She could be an ambassador.

She could be with Zuko.

She can imagine the whole thing all too well, actually, — being on the palace, with him, until she could confront Aang about what to do. They could go for an evening stroll, feed turtleducks by the lake. Zuko’d make tea way past dinner time, and she’d laugh along with Suki when he’d burn his tongue by the first sip.

“There’s nothing I’d like more.”, she tells him, then. They are in one of the many balconies, staring out at the sun. The last scraps of summer have flushed with the breeze, and now the trees look all kinds of reds, yellows, oranges. Almost like they’ve caught on fire.

Zuko smiles at her again. A shy, wonderful thing that makes his eyes glint. His hair’s shaggy and overgrown, and falls limp between the honey of his irises. His cheeks burn a bright pink that, Katara deduces, might be from the gentle light warming up their faces.

“Okay.”, he says. He likes this, as well, — having her around. That he can open up to someone he can share his scars with, both the physical and the ones that lay underneath.

Katara inches close to him, just enough so that their elbows nudge together. The world has its cycles, she believes. Blue skies bleed into the darkness of the night. Ice defrosts when heated-up. And just like that, she’d fall for Zuko— delicate, and raw, and over and over. Helpless, like the moon that carries down the tides. Hopeless, like the autumn leaves that fall, ever so slow, and now gather at their feet like sea-foam.

“Okay.”

[hersterical]

Modern atla au where both Toph and Zuko are rich kids who meet the rest of the gaang while backpacking across Europe. Toph is also running away from the people her parents hired to escort her on her trip. Zuko was also originally traveling with Azula but she thought it’d be funny to steal his wallet and phone and abandon him while he was asleep on a train in a country whose language he doesn’t know

I don’t know how the rest of the gaang factor into this. Maybe Aang convinced Sokka and Katara that it’d be fun to follow his favorite band around on tour. Sokka hates the band but he met Suki, who is also following the band on tour, at the first stop and then decided that Aang and Katara needed his protection and common sense.

[lunaphertalks]

zuko & sokka *return home together in a stolen fire nation air ship*

aang: looks like it was a fun "fishing" trip

toph: did u at least find some good meat?

sokka: i found the best meat of all. the meat of friendship and fatherhood.

katara: ew 🫠

zuko: 🤦

toph: so which one of you is pregnant?

aang: *cackling*

sokka: what!?!

toph: fatherhood... ✨friendship✨

zuko: ☠️

sokka: 🤯

sokkas dad *exists air ship*: hey ev--

sokka *pushing him back on the ship*: nope. no no no. were leaving.

aang *hands on zukos shoulders*: sokka! how could you! you cant leave him to be a single mother!

zuko: IM NOT PREGNANT!!!

toph: *rolling on the floor in peels of laughter*

(s3e13)

[stellaforastar]

Deleted Scene </3

[Katara’s bedroom window, the big one, above her bed. Piandao’s Castle. Approximately fifteen minutes after Katara and Zuko left for their date]

“I see them!” Suki hissed. Jin and Toph barrelled into her side. Feet bouncing on Katara’s bed to clamber to the headboard to look out the window and down over the hill and at two figures cloaked in red, black, and obvious delight in each other’s company as they wandered towards a night together. “Aw he’s -Toph!” 

“I can’t see!” Toph protested. 

“You can’t see anyway!” Jin shoved Toph’s head out the way. Toph climbed onto the headboard and muscled herself in between Jin and Suki. The older girls curved to accommodate her. 

“Tell me what they’re doing? Is Sparky stuttering?” 

“He’s definitely blushing, I can see from here.” Suki said smugly. 

“Ah.” Jin put a hand on her chest. “One moment they’re screaming at each other in the streets of Ba Sing Se. The next you’re sending them off on their second first date.” She wiped a tear away. 

“You’re not seriously crying?” Toph said flatly. 

“No.” Jin laughed. “But I am -” 

“Shh!” Suki waved a hand at the girls to hush up and squinted through the window. “I think he’s going to go for a hand hold!” 

The window in the next room over opened and Haru’s arm stuck out, snatching Sokka’s. A bush of elbows peaking through the other side of the sandstone. 

“Sokka! Put your boomerang down!” Haru shouted. 

“Sokka?” Suki asked. Her boyfriend’s head popped out the window next door. 

“Suki?” 

“What are you and Haru doing in Toph’s bedroom?” 

“Surveillance.” Sokka said as if it were obvious. 

“He wanted to see Zuko and Katara leave for their date. He’s crying.” Haru’s smug smile popped out next. Toph and Jin poked their own heads forward. 

“I’m not crying.” Sokka’s voice broke. “But Katara - she’s - my little sister.” He definitely almost cried. “And she’s out there, growing up. Let a man have his moment!”

Yes this is based on a real life experience of mine. Rushing over your bed with all your best friends to stare out the window as another friend goes on a first date is an unparalleled giddy moment of joy.

[daughterofchaosstuff]

"Some friendships are so strong, they can even transcend lifetimes."

~Avatar Roku (Book III: Fire)

Toph : “Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?”

Aang : “I don't see why not.”

[broadwaybalogna]

All this discourse over Kataang and Zutara is so fucking exhausting. Like, I’ll be looking through the Zutara tag tryna find a cute lil thing to read and all of a sudden 50 people are bashing and hating on the ship. Now, I can’t speak for kataangers and whether they see the same shit on their tag but I’m sure it’s true. Y’all, literaly just stick to your ship and… Enjoy it??? Is it really that hard to watch other people enjoy a ship??

Now for a personal message:

Kataangers- YOUR SHIP IS CANNON!!! You have nothing to prove! It’s cannon!

Zutarians- I respect the dedication to the ship. But you have GOT to stop provoking Kataangers😭 (Kataangers also need to stop provoking)

How long has this been going on for??? How many circles have y’all gone through??? Is this not FUCKING EXHAUSTING!?

(I’m going to tag both Kataang and Zutara so just so y’all know: I ship Zutara. If you come onto my blog looking for Kataang content, you won’t get it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t welcome you!)

[discordiansamba]

local merman has to be reminded his daughter cannot, in fact, breathe underwater like he can. in fact, he frequently has to be reminded of this fact with all of his friends. he's just so used to being able to do it himself that it just slips his mind. at least katara and aang can use their bending to hang out with him underwater, though.

[kstarlitchaotics]

Anti Aang: But Zuko hates Aang

Anti Zuko: But Aang hates Zuko

Aang and Zuko in canon:

I do sometimes enjoy the ships I come across but also sometimes I don't think it's worth it anymore 🥴

Over decade later people are still doing this sh*t majority do to war shipping and in general

When it comes down to it THEY DON'T HATE EACH OTHER I mean really is it hard to ask for once no antis probably it is

[billsbae]

i love a good hogwarts au in every fandom i'm in, so here's my houses headcanons for atla

katara — gryffindor

sokka — ravenclaw

aang — hufflepuff

toph — slytherin

suki — gryffinor

zuko — hufflepuff

azula — slytherin

mai — slytherin

ty lee — slytherin

[anretoga]

Finally it’s done! 🤧 I’ve wanted to draw the cast of NATLA since there were a lot of pictures from them. Then, I chose these specific ones because I believe it captures their personalities and how excited they are to be a part of the adaptation☺️. Mind you they’re are also fans of the og show. It was really sad when they received all the hate and backlash from the fandom after the release. I thought the fandom is grown enough to know that they were NOT in control of the production, but I guess I was wrong, evidently. One thing is to give criticism, which is something the production needs to know, and another thing is to throw hate towards the actors because of their appearance, something no one has control with. Really disappointing how low the fandom went with it. These kids have the talent and they were great doing their parts. They were so grateful to be a part of it, their tour interviews shows how they bonded as a family and we see how they convey their characters’ personalities. I believe they’re going to be amazing in the upcoming seasons. I’m so happy they got the greenlight. I have also hope the production will take the criticism and improve what they have to 🙌🏼. Either way I just wish them the best in their lives 😊