#meanwhile katara is straight up like 'i will fucking shoot you' to zuko and it takes a lot for her to not actively despise him

[noperopesaredope]

(This isn't a bash against all Zutara shippers. I'm sure plenty of you are chill. This is more of me talking about the general toxic attitude of the Zutara fanbase)

I try so hard to not be a Zutara hater but GOD does the Zutara fanbase make that difficult.

The funny thing is, while I know there is a whole Kataang vs Zutara rivalry where both sides have been very passionate, but most Kataang shippers I have seen have been extremely chill with other ships that involve Aang or Katara (besides Zutara). Funnily enough, the only ones I've seen insult Kataang are Zutara shippers (maybe there are some exceptions to this, but I have yet to know).

And when I do see people refer to Kataang shippers in a derogatory manner, it's usually in the context of 'Kataang AND Zutara shippers suck' or 'Kataang shippers are basic bitches' (which is honestly kinda fair, and I say that as someone who likes the ship).

Kataang shippers seem to like wholesome and fluffy relationships (aka Kataang) and their main problem is that so many Zutara shippers will constantly insult Kataang and even slander Aang like crazy. I've mainly just seen Zutara shippers start fights and Kataang shippers end up falling for it every single time.

But while they constantly fight with Zutara shippers, as I said above, Kataang shippers seem to be chill with most other ships. In fact, almost all the ships seem to get along with each other besides Zutara. I've seen a few Kataang shippers who think ships like Taang are really fun, among others.

I think the thing is that while everyone says that the fandom has a toxic shipping culture, when you look around at the fandom (or at least how it is today), you realize that most of it is really chill and casual. And I think that if most Zutara shippers were more chill and less pretentious (because that's how some of them feel at this point: pretentious) and didn't shit on other ships, most people would be fine with it.

It would be just another one of the ships that has its own little corner of the fanbase. I'm pretty sure even I would think it's pretty okay and wouldn't feel such deep distain for it if Zutara shippers weren't constantly complaining about their ship not being canon. If Zutara shippers weren't always saying how "Kataang was bad and Zutara should have been canon" when literally nobody else cares about what ships are canon, then everyone would get along great with them. But the problem is that the overall Zutara fanbase loudly expresses dissatisfaction with what they don't have rather than cherish what they do.

Yes, Kataang shippers have their own part in the shipping war, but they have also establish goodwill among other ships and will usually just do fanart or whatever (and I'm pretty sure a lot of them wouldn't even care if the ship never became canon properly). Meanwhile, Zutara shippers have instigated so much shit, the fanbase has burned bridges with all other ships as a result and is low key known as "the toxic side of the fanbase."

Conversely, every Zukka shipper I've seen has been pretty chill towards and had good relations with other ships like Maiko, Sukka, Yukka, Jinko, Jetko, and even Zukaang when Zuko is aged down/Aang is aged up. They also respect the women and will acknowledge the validity of these ships. And all these ships respect each other in turn.

Zukka shippers know that their ship would never be canon and most (including myself) actually kind of prefer it that way. They think various other ships are fun and cute, and many are willing to explore other potential ships that could also be interesting on their own. Half of the reason this ship came into existence is likely because people thought "teehee this would be funny," and don't take it too seriously.

Basically, public image matters, and how you treat "opposing" ships will affect whether or not people will like your ship at all. If outsiders see a shipping fanbase with a shitty attitude, it won't matter how much chemistry the characters have or how much you analysis their scene: people will automatically like your ship less.

So just don't whine about canon and be nice.

I think that one of the reasons I hate zutara and I like zukka is because the zukka fandom is pretty much the opposite of the zutara fandom.

I've never ever seen a post where someone tries to prove that zukka should've been canon or that it IS canon. Zutara shippers take every scene between the two and over analyze everything to the point that it's exhausting and annoying.

Zukka shippers don't do that, and most of the fandom is just like, "Haha, what if these two kissed?" And honestly, I love that sm more than the over analyzing