#sneezypeasy

[yourhighness6]

Just finished rewatching sneezypeasy's video again and I think it's safe to say that zutara is the mango boba of ships

[ziezii]

did my annual watch of the infamous @sneezypeasy 's zutara video while folding laundry, it never gets old

[burst-of-iridescent]

Time after time, the official ATLA community on YouTube conducts ship preference polls, and each time zutara loses to kataang and maiko with a crushing score (among Zuko's ships, zutara even lost to Zuko/Jin). Several hundred thousand people take part in the voting, that is, a huge part of the active ATLA fan base. zutara is really rapidly losing popularity.😭

i'm not trying to be mean or anything, but honestly... i don't care.

you have to remember that kat.aang, mai.ko, and even jinko all have the advantage of canonicity to some extent. casual watchers, people who've only seen a few episodes, childhood nostalgia... all of these play a key role in why many people prefer the canon ships to zutara. the average atla fan isn't doing deep dive meta analysis on tumblr, or watching sneezypeasy's 2h video on why zutara should have been canon (excellent watch by the way, highly recommend). they're just going to go along with what's given to them. it's not a reflection of how good or superior zutara is to have more people shipping them.

besides, shipping polls on youtube are hardly a reliable metric on which to judge zutara's popularity. zutara is the juggernaut ship of the atla fandom. this is the ship that invented ship weeks! the ship that inspired new york times bestselling novels. the atla ship with the highest number of fics on ao3, the ship beloved by almost all of the main cast and most of the writers, the ship that people still make art and stories and analysis and edits for more than fifteen years after it was supposed to have sunk.

and personally, that is what i'm here for. that is what keeps me shipping zuko and katara, and keeps me in this fandom. the community that it's created, and the people that it's inspired, and continues to inspire. that's what counts.

so yeah, kat.aang and mai.ko can keep their atla channel youtube polls lmao. zutara doesn't need it, not when we have everything that actually matters.

[late-draft]

I did not like zutara but now after scrolling through your art… I think I get it now……… maybe you converted me………… do you have any!! fic recs of them I am intrigued now I must know more teehee (I hope you don’t mind me asking this!!)

Hi, glad to hear…! I suppose XD The main thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to like anything. People have preferences and that's okay. But I'm always happy when more people appreciate good narrative. Mind if I ask how come it was specifically my art that "converted" you, when there's so much very high-quality zutara fan content, especially as I'm pretty sure I haven't posted quite many things. Most importantly, when there's literal canon in the show itself!

I don't know what you personally like in fics so sadly I wouldn't know what to recommend. I'm also relatively new in this fandom and I'm sure there are people who'd be much more well-versed in what exists in terms of fics. But there's a huge variety, to the point of the varied content being tonally and character-incompatible. This is normal occurrence for a fandom as large and old as this one. There are AUs, canon-rewrites, canon-compliant fics, single-character-POV ones, whole-gang-POV ones, feelings-driven, events-driven, depressingly-tragic, happy ones…

However I'm not gonna leave the ask with nothing - I'd recommend these excellent comprehensive analyses because they look at the mechanics of characters and how the writing itself works, thus increasing appreciation for understanding even what doesn't work!

The famous video essay by SneezyPeasy: https://youtu.be/eRxtWMODfAc?si=f15fH3VgaAKCpKGA

And this essay by Araeph: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650423

[starlight-bread-blog]

Sarcastic Chorus's shallow, overriding Zutara word dump getting almost twice as many views in 3 weeks as SneezyPeasy's in-depth Zutara magnum opus in 2 years is my villian arc.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Here I am, minding my own business, reading “maiko” tag for cute arts, when I come across this post. https://www.tumblr.com/sneezypeasy/745686322481659904/okay-who-the-hell-animated-mai-in-that-one?source=share

And sure, to see all that understanding in one Mai’s look is a bit overreaching, but given that that comment is mocked by Zutarians, who made a 2-hour video and endless meta how Zutara is totally canon and meant to be and if we collectively squint we all will see it in 3-d in every scene of AtLA, is hilarious.

And at least the Maiko thing is backed by her canon actions literally two minutes later. Zutarians mock people for exaggerating stuff that WAS indeed important, just not THAT important, but then turn around and act like Zuko and Katara standing next to each other is clearly proof of their undying love and repressed sexual tension.

[sokkastyles]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well. Thank you for the response on EIP.

I was reading the post made by tumblr user @sneezypeasy on the script of The Last Airbender regarding Kataang. One thing that caught me was the Day of Black Sun kiss between Aang and Katara. In the script, after the surprise kiss Katara is written as smiling. This means that she reciprocates Aang's feelings. But, the show presents her as unhappy. This means that she did not want to kiss Aang and she probably does not share his feelings.

The post even mentions the rumor of the scene being revised. This revision actually creates a problem. Visuals will stick in a person's head longer. By showing Katara's reaction as unhappy, it means that the feelings do across as one sided. And it can easily be interpreted that Katara is not interested in Aang. The script to screen translation was ruined, because while people can ship what they want, on screen people will remember Katara's unhappy reaction.

I would like your thoughts on this.

You are absolutely right about how visuals need to match intention, and I definitely think that's a big reason why this scene is a point of such contention. However, I personally don't think the frown necessarily indicates that she has no interest in Aang romantically. There are many reasons why she might be frowning in that moment, and to me, the big one is that he kissed her right before leaving her. If you think back to Katara's anger at Aang for flying off in "The Awakening," and how it was connected to her trauma over her dad leaving, you understand why this moment is so traumatic for Katara, not because she doesn't care about Aang but because she cares about him. And maybe somewhere in there there are romantic feelings, but I think Aang really takes Katara's feelings for granted, frankly. His kiss here is probably the most explicit he has ever been to Katara about his feelings for her, and he doesn't even give her any time to process it before flying right into danger.

The post I reblogged recently by @ecoterrorist-katara about KA and compulsory heterosexuality talks a lot about this, and a lot of the KA scenes are framed in terms of idealizing the idea that Katara should want Aang, without actually showing us her feelings or taking account that Katara might have her own issues to deal with, and a lot of Katara's issues center around abandonment, and we already know she projects those feelings onto Aang.

That was why she was unhappy in DoBS, and then Aang assuming ownership of her in EIP because of it, when Katara wasn't even allowed to process her feelings over it, certainly didn't help matters.

And Aang does assume ownership of her because of it. He says, "we kissed at the invasion, and I thought we were gonna be together, but we're not." And you can be sure that him ignoring her protests and kissing her a few seconds later also happened because he thought that kissing her once meant he was entitled to do it again. I've seen this attitude from fans, too, that the violation in EIP wasn't that bad because he kissed her before. So let me reiterate that it doesn't matter how into Aang Katara is or whether they kissed before, there is no blanket universal consent to another person's body, and Katara was saying and signaling that she did not want to be kissed in that moment, even if they had had the proper time to process and talk about what happened at the invasion or if Katara had been smiling.

[the-badger-mole]

You’ve criticized the atla finale and Aang’s cop out quite a bit so I’d like to hear your thoughts on the following take I came across today:

“The fact western fans never realized Aang specifically prayed for the guidance of a higher being by assembling an offering of food and water with meditation throughout the evening hence the lion turtle coming and then complained it came out from nowhere, as if the story never put spirits actually exist and interact in that world especially with the avatar, will always be the annoying reaction of this fandom.”

It's a Western show relying on Western storytelling. It borrows elements of East Asian cultures (well, more like mugged East Asian cultures in a back alley and riffled through it's coat pockets for loose story elements), but that doesn't make it an East Asian show. As a Western show, they stuck to well known Western story structure (the arbitrary ticking clock; the foretold savior; the hero gets the girl because he's the hero, etc.). They were telling a Western story for a Western audience, and the thin (very thin) veneer of a mishmash of East Asian cultures (with just the leastest, littlest, baby's hair of a smidgen of broadly Inuit cultures), doesn't justify deviating so far from the familiar storytelling elements- like foreshadowing or Aang actually working to find a solution instead of waiting for one to fall out of the sky- are tossed out at the last minute.

I don't even think that's what they were doing. Thanks to the recent revelations from the original scripts (shout out @sneezypeasy for her hard work uncovering original script notes), we now know that even the writers referred to the Lionturtle solution as "chi-bending nonsense". Even they knew it was stupid, so any arguments that the Lionturtle was smrt ackshually 🤓 doesn't even really have support from the original writers. Bryke wrote themselves into a corner because they would rather die than admit that Aang wasn't perfect and needed to grow- you know, the arc that was set up the season before- so instead they gave him an easy out. They may have tried to justify it after the fact with some nonsense they hoped would sound plausible, but really it was just bad storytelling. And that is why only seasoned writers who know their own faults should try to make such a blatant self-insert character.

[zutarawasrobbed]

I posted 123 times in 2022

49 posts created (40%)

74 posts reblogged (60%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@the-badger-mole

@zutaramonth

@stardust948

@sneezypeasy

@zutarawasrobbed

I tagged 102 of my posts in 2022

Only 17% of my posts had no tags

#zutara - 78 posts

#zuko - 37 posts

#katara - 36 posts

#atla - 27 posts

#avatar the last airbender - 12 posts

#anti kataang - 7 posts

#anti maiko - 6 posts

#atla original scripts - 6 posts

#anti k@taang - 5 posts

#incorrect quotes - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 96 characters

#what kind of grown ass man thinks “hmm i should murder this child for disagreeing with my idea?”

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Honestly, after the shit Aang pulled at the ember island players, I 100% would’ve supported the episode ending with Aang walking in on Zuko and Katara making out.

509 notes - Posted March 18, 2022

#4

Sokka: Katara, how many times do I have to tell you-

Katara: Because you don’t know how he feels about me! What if he doesn’t like me? He’s gonna be the Fire lord in a few days.

Sokka: He literally jumped in front of lightning for you! I think it’s clear!

Katara: Pshhh, he would’ve done that for anyone and you know that.

Sokka: … *Deadpan* He used Suki as momentum to save you from falling rocks when his sister found us at the air temple. Suki was just lucky his shove happened to get her out of the way too. I don’t think he’d do that for just anyone.

Katara: No he didn’t-

Suki: Yes, he did. He flat out told me.

513 notes - Posted January 26, 2022

#3

Suki: Why don’t you just tell Katara how you feel?

Zuko: *Scoffs* Are you crazy?!?! That’s the stupidest thing I could ever do. We just started to be friends!!! No. I’ve made enough reckless decisions in my life.

Also Zuko: *Yeets himself directly into lighting*

682 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

#2

Guys..

The original script adds so much context for a lot of scenes, but this one?

Zuko didn’t just start sleeping next to Katara because he wanted to be close to her. He also wanted to be close enough to protect her from another ambush and bomb attack.

And Katara could sleep with a smile on her face because she knew Zuko would be there to protect her. Zuko gave her the opportunity to sleep without being alert 100% of the time for the first time in probably forever…

I’m not okay 😭

696 notes - Posted October 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Katara: So, let me get this straight. You were in a war meeting... thirteen years old… defended new recruits from being used as fodder… and in return, you were challenged to an Agni Kai- at thirteen- by the officer who proposed it… But on the day of the Agni Kai, you- at thirteen years old- were met by your father… who you refused to fight… and instead of calling it off… he burnt half your face off and banished you?

Zuko: Yes…

Katara: *Nods* Excuse me.

2 Hours Later…

Ozai: *Cell opens* What-

Katara: It’s a full moon tonight.

Ozai: … Why-

Katara: *Sighs and starts sand timer* You have 10 seconds.

Ozai: *Apprehensive* For what?

Katara: To run, before I gut you like a fish 😁

1,918 notes - Posted January 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[sup-geek]

Oh, no, no no no no no no no no! If we're talking with respect to clowning Bryke's utter incompetence as to the shipping war, that's not even the worst part (read: most hilarious) of The Ember Island Players!

It's how that scene takes place, in that it is indeed the only actual scene in which the show's narrative sees the two characters even address the mere p o s s i b i l i t y of them getting together, with Aang forcing a kiss on her and Katara herself in turn yelling at him in anger and storming off... that The Ember Island Players is the Second. to Last Episode. of the series/is the last. episode. b4 the finale*... that audiences knew that to be the case that they watched TEIP as it originally premiered in 2008. Like, homie, if there was ever been a more efficient way of sinking your ship, I mean 'a torpedo struck the ship's magazine compartment that the ensuing explosion obliterated it in its entirety' just obliterating it, I've yet to see it. 🤣

*(To say nothing of how that ensuing finale, you know, quite famously — or infamously, for you Kataangers XD — sees Katara spend some 3/4 of it all but attached to the hip of this here entirely different very much Not Aang male character, that it's the two of them whom the narrative sees share the Quintessential™ Romantic Trope that is the Uber!Intimate/Emotionally Charged Sacrificial Death Scene, that it's... **checks notes** *Kataang* that is the endgame couple. [insert Vine boom/record scratch sfx here])

Seen here: Avatar: The Last Airbender audiences, live reaction, c. July 2008

@burst-of-iridescent, @sneezypeasy, you've anything to add, yes?)

wait one more thing about Ember Island Players that's so funny is like... imagine creating a show and then becoming either frustrated/annoyed/bemused that a sizable part of your fandom ships two characters that you don't want them to. And instead of ignoring it or letting it lie, they decide to use this episode as a moment to show these fans how silly that ship is. And sure, maybe its all supposed to be in good fun but like if the goal, in-part, was to discourage people shipping them, I cannot emphasize enough how acknowledging the pairing in-universe, having people consistently mistake them for a couple, and having said characters constantly over-react to the very notion and get belligerently defensive because they are very much not dating why would you say that is extremely antithetical to that goal.

[yourhighness6]

Petition to force Bryke to sit down and watch @sneezypeasy's 2 hour video on zutara

[burst-of-iridescent]

the official zutara dissertation: conclusion

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 

This dissertation set out to prove that Zutara, rather than Kat.aang and Mai.ko, should have been the endgame ship of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It has discussed why Zuko and Katara would make a good couple within the text, how the narrative was setting them up for a relationship and why a Zutara endgame would have served the themes and messages of the show, as well as the arcs of all the characters involved, better than the canon relationships did.

Many have argued that Zutara is too complicated, too deep, too much for a kids’ show - that much of the subtext and narrative and analysis that really makes Zutara brilliant cannot be easily understood by children. But the reason that Avatar: The Last Airbender still stands the test of time today is because it did care about those very things, because it took difficult, complex issues and still managed to make them meaningful, nuanced and understandable. If ATLA could depict imperialism, colonialism, redemption, genocide and war, I see no reason why it could not have pulled off an enemies-to-lovers ship literally coded in the DNA of the show.

In conclusion, Zutara should have been canon because it would have fixed almost all of the narrative, thematic and character problems I have discussed over the course of this dissertation, and elevated the show to near perfection. The choice to deny Zutara of the ending they rightfully deserved is thus undoubtedly one of ATLA’s biggest flaws and its greatest loss. 

But as Dante Basco, Prince Zuko himself and captain of the Zutara ship, put it:  “Sometimes the feeling of what could have been is stronger than what actually happened, because the memory of perfection lasts longer.” 

Though Zuko and Katara’s story ends in tragedy, it is this very tragedy that still makes them so fascinating all of these years later ‐ because the final element of Zutara’s brilliance is the idea of what might have been, in what has been left solely to our imaginations. In the greatest of ironies, therefore, it was only by leaving the story of Zuko and Katara unfinished that it was able to become the beautiful tale it is today ‐ more powerful and compelling, perhaps, than it could ever have been in canon. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Araeph, 2017. Araeph’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. https://at.tumblr.com/burst-of-iridescent/araephs-greatest-hits-vol-2/zfcozrmeby19

Certified Bi Fangirl Disaster, 2020. The Cave of Two Lovers foreshadows the Zutara interactions in the Crossroads of Destiny. https://at.tumblr.com/theotterpenguin/645662327005478912/p30gsur9gexe

DevilDogDemon et. al, 2021. The Effect of Kataang on Aang’s Character Arc. https://at.tumblr.com/burst-of-iridescent/devildogdemon-juldooz-atla-negromouthandafro/hs2r37t0uipp

FunFanFin, 2017. How Zutara Fulfills The Show’s Key Themes.  https://at.tumblr.com/funfanfin/dentist-open-up-me-wellokay-so-not-only-does/pnwuyp5pxxc4

Marsreds, 2017. It’s called the Cave of Two Lovers, not the Cave of Two “Treasured/Close/Platonic Friends”. https://at.tumblr.com/marsreds/its-called-the-cave-of-two-lovers-not-the-cave/njy7bj7qkoko

My Bated Breath, 2020. Wants vs Need - A Comparison Between Kataang, Taang, and Zutara. https://at.tumblr.com/my-bated-breath/wants-vs-need-a-comparison-between-kataang/vvhl7irrdk69

RoyalTeaLovingKookiness, 2019. The Romantic Framing of Zutara. https://at.tumblr.com/royaltealovingkookiness/i-think-the-anon-who-sent-the-zuko-lost-azula-in/rpfdg8oxfmfq

SneezyPeasy, 2021. Get in losers, we’re stanning Zutara. https://at.tumblr.com/sneezypeasy/get-in-losers-were-stanning-zutara/0x2mbtmsp3xu

SneezyPeasy, 2021. Why Aang’s Lines Sound Preachy in The Southern Raiders. https://at.tumblr.com/sneezypeasy/why-aangs-lines-sound-preachy-in-the-southern/q78urhuqp6lm

SunMoonTurtleDuck, 2021. Why Zuko Had To Take Azula’s Lightning for Katara. https://at.tumblr.com/theotterpenguin/its-true-zuko-would-have-taken-the-lightning-for/ki6rg04v45h2

TheMomentofDavyPrentiss, 2017. Why I Believe Katara Canonically Had Romantic Feelings for Zuko.  https://at.tumblr.com/themomentofdavyprentiss/why-i-believe-katara-canonically-had-romantic/m7a6x8a521n8

TheOtterPenguin, 2022. A Counter Argument to “Zuko Would Have Taken The Lightning for Anyone!” https://at.tumblr.com/theotterpenguin/why-is-zuko-would-have-taken-the-lightning-for/amyfkr6oaz45

[zutarawasrobbed]

Original TSR Script found (not click bait)

Bestie: Good morning! What you been up to today?

Me: Nothing much, just learned where I can read the original The Southern Raiders script…

Important notes:

You need to make an appointment 24 hours in advance and come in person.

They don’t allow you to take pictures but can write notes.

But if anyone wants to read it for themselves and are in LA or close by, go ahead and give it a read; I think you’ll be very pleased.

I would also encourage you to read EIP and the finale scenes because… wow. So much validation ZK nation!

But, if you don’t live in the LA area, you’re in luck because @sneezypeasy did that for us and will be making a long post with her findings.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

The reason I brought up the Momtara & Dadko point is because I think fanon tropes can offer a very interesting POV on what fans find lacking in canon. Most Azula fanon content, including Azutara and Tyzula fics, is about her redemption & being with someone who chooses her. Dramione fan works tend to have a strong emphasis on Draco protecting Hermione and sticking by her no matter what, and Draco being her intellectual equal. Drarry fics tend to center Harry and Draco’s shared loneliness, as well as Harry having the freedom to pursue his desires regardless of what people around him want for him. In the case of Zutara, Momtara & Dadko (alongside another popular trope, Ambassador/Politician Katara) says more about what fans want from canon than what canon actually gives.

That said, I do think there’s some basis for the idea that Zuko could share Katara’s burdens. Though Zuko was a spoiled prince, he also spent quite a few months in food service and that at the very least gives him the canonical opportunity of accumulating similar domestic skills as Katara. The Southern Raiders is probably one of the only instances where we see a non-Katara member of the Gaang doing a domestic chore while everyone is chilling (Zuko making tea and serving it for everyone). I agree that Zuko plays more of a right hand man type of role on the actual quest, but he does carry their bags, and he tells Katara to get some rest while they’re on Appa. Low bar, but it reflects a desire to take care of her, especially since in the original script for The Southern Raiders uncovered by @sneezypeasy, Katara is shown lying down and going to sleep afterwards. Again, I think it’s a fairly low bar as far as expressing care for another person goes, esp in the context of what Katara does for others, but we don’t have a whole lot of competition from the rest of the Gaang.

@theotterpenguin has a great post about how Katara is not shown doing chores from The Firebending Masters onwards, aside from the watermelon juice in the finale. Of course this has other explanations — Suki joins (though she’s not shown performing chores), it could just be an animation coincidence, a lot happens in those episodes etc. And then there’s the way Katara and especially Zuko seem to become the de facto leaders in the 4-part finale, which is interesting because I think Sokka would’ve been a natural fit for that role too. After Zuko shows up, Sokka retains his strategic role (like the Ozai fight simulation), but he also becomes more liable to goofiness, like climbing into Appa’s mouth. It’s an interesting parallel to The Desert: Sokka is usually very responsible but at the 11th hour, he can’t quite be counted on. Katara is the one who had to bottom line everyone’s actions in s2, and now that Zuko is here, he seems to take on that role. It’s not a 1:1 translation of Katara’s role by any means, but he seems dependable in a way that other Gaang members aren’t.

I also have a similar side Harutara headcanon: in The Western Air Temple, Haru is shown hanging out with the younger kids, and I think that can be extrapolated to mean that he’s on babysitting duty and probably keeping Teo and The Duke out of trouble. Zuko and Haru and Suki don’t add to her plate, and Haru and Zuko’s actions can be interpreted as helpful if you squint. I don’t think these actions would be nearly as notable, though, if her canon love interest wasn’t someone who very much needed her caretaking skills. I’m not sure how much I would’ve noticed Haru running off with the younger kids if Katara wasn’t trying to get Aang to stop flying and start regrouping in the very same episode!

The tragedy of Katara’s parentification

Sokka and Katara were both parentified, and it’s a profoundly life-changing thing for both of them. One of the saddest things in ATLA, though, is how Sokka sort of got to outgrow parentification, but Katara never did.

Sokka’s told to be the man. The provider, the protector. He’s not so good at the former (his hunting failures are a consistent source of comic relief), and he takes failures of the latter very, very hard. He doesn’t manage to save Yue, and that wrecks him. After Yue, he becomes extremely protective of Suki in a way that’s borderline offensive to her. He’s willing to do anything to protect his friends and his family, including something as irresponsible as breaking into the Boiling Rock. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Sokka is the only one of the Gaang who unambiguously kills. The rest of them may technically have clean hands because of cartoon logic, but Combustion Man is very dead, and Sokka is the one who killed him. We don’t know how he feels about it, because the show never goes there, but I have a pet theory that Sokka is so uncharacteristically (remember he was team “leave Zuko to freeze to death”) against Katara confronting Yon Rha in The Southern Raiders because he’s the only who knows what killing feels like and wants to protect Katara from it.

But by the end of the show, Sokka’s in a place where he can start to let go of his need to protect. Objectively, all his friends are unbelievably powerful and can take care of themselves, including his sister and his girlfriend. Suki is the one who saves him in the final battle, representing not only a reversal of his initial cartoonish misogyny, but also demonstrating that he is worthy of protection. And of course, he and his friends saved the world, so there isn’t really an enemy that he has to protect them from anymore. Sokka’s loved ones create the conditions under which his parentified behaviour is no longer necessary. Sokka would still have to take the first step to stop seeing himself as the one who has to lay his life on the line, but at least it’s possible for him.

But not Katara.

Katara had to take on the mom role after their mother was murdered, which meant she was responsible for domestic labour and emotional support. Sokka says in The Runaway that her role was to keep the family together. Unlike protection, that’s always a full time job regardless of the war. We see Katara spending more screen time than anybody cooking, getting food, mending, and generally doing women’s work. We see Katara giving everyone emotional support, including strangers and her enemy. We see Katara putting aside her own discomfort and her own hurt in The Desert because if she falls apart, they all die. Nobody ever showed her that she doesn’t need to be the only one who cooks, or that somebody else can be responsible for the emotional wellbeing of her friends, or that — god forbid — someone else can actually be responsible for her emotional wellbeing.

That’s why I never cared for the Ka/taang argument of “he teaches her to be a kid again!” Putting aside the fact that Katara ends up taking care of Aang a lot more as the series goes on, the whole tragedy of parentification is that you can never again be a child. That part of your childhood, your god-given right, is robbed from you. It is extremely precious and important to still be able to be a kid, but breaking free of parentification is not about seeing yourself as a kid. It’s about breaking free of being responsible for everyone’s feelings and behaviours.

For Katara, that responsibility is not problem of perception, but of reality. Unlike Sokka, who was told and shown that his loved ones are capable of protecting themselves, Katara has zero reason to believe that her loved ones are able to feed and clothe themselves and not fall apart emotionally. Between Toph and Sokka who emphatically don’t want to do this work, it all falls on Katara. Telling a parentified child that they just need to loosen up is akin to telling an overworked mother that she needs to just relax (“happy Mother’s Day! You get a break from chores, which you will catch up on tomorrow because nobody else is doing them”). It doesn’t accomplish anything if nobody creates the circumstances under which it’s possible to let go of responsibilities. A lot of Zutara fans, spanning all the way back to the early days of the fandom, like the “Momtara and Dadko” trope where Zuko also does chores. Why? Because even without the concept and language of parentification, many fans recognized that Katara’s performance of domestic and emotional labour is inequitable and probably very taxing.

Growing out of parentification is about more than just letting go of old expectations: it’s also about finding a new way to value yourself beyond the role you grew up with. I’ve said this before, but it’s very important to acknowledge that just because a kid is parentified doesn’t mean they’re actually good at being a parent. In fact, it’s probably a given that they’re not, because they’re kids performing roles that are developmentally inappropriate! Sokka remains a shit hunter; he becomes a decent fighter but he’s still miles behind his friends. A big part of healing from his parentification is finding another area — strategy, engineering, project management (what else do you call that schedule) — where he actually excels, to which he can dedicate his time and from which he can derive satisfaction and a sense of identity. For Katara, fighting for the oppressed and combat waterbending give her that. Crucially, however, Katara does not stop being a girl when she becomes a warrior. She’s still responsible for domestic and emotional labour. Unlike Sokka, whose protector duties were more or less relieved as the series went on and he found new ways to contribute to the group, Katara continued to perform her old role in addition to her new one (which is depressingly realistic btw, look up feminist theory around the concept of the second shift). Still, it’s important that she found these new ways to value herself and her contributions…

…which disappear in her adult life. Where’s adult Katara fighting for the oppressed? Where’s adult Katara enjoying her status as a master waterbender? Where’s Mighty Katara? Where’s the Painted Lady? Where’s the person who vanquished a whole Fire Lord?

What do we know about adult Katara? She’s no longer a rabblerouser or an ecoterrorist. She did not translate her desire to help the downtrodden into a political role, like being Chief or on the United Republic Council. She’s not known as the best waterbender in the world, only the best healer, even though her combat abilities are what she took the most pride in. Even as a healer, she established no hospitals, trained no widespread acolytes (except Korra, I guess?), and made no known contributions to the field.

What Katara is known for…is being a wife and a mother. The same role she was forced to take on at age 8. One which she performed for the next 80+ years.

[zutara]

Don´t worry babes, I was fairly late to the party myself.

SO, there are a few things that happened in the past 3 days or so and this meme by deadontheinsidesexyontheoutside sums it up pretty well.

So first of all, we were blessed as always by THE Queen and King of Zutara themselves, Mae and Dante. They are the gift that keeps on giving and they posted this new IG status yet again screaming their support for our ship to the four winds. Find status behind the cut:

And second of all, sneezypeasy actually *visited the writers guild foundation where she got to read and manually copy the og scripts for The Souther Raiders written by the recently-elevated-to-goddess -status Elizabeth Welch Ehasz who it seems basically heavily sprinkled the whole thing with obvious and bold zutarian goodness. The script makes it obvious what the writers wanted and intended. BryKe as we all knew, simply ignored and refused to go forward with what was obviously there. Anyhow...

You can read sneezypeasy´s full analysis HERE and HERE.

The new Katara Can Sleep Through Everything and Anything meme was born in reference to this part of the script where it seems Katara can sleep through a whole ass bombing:

Source: This Tweeter thread I found when googling wtf was happening.

I hope that cleared out all questions!!!

[theteashopgirl]

The Tale of Zuko (script)

ICYMI, it was recently discovered that working versions of the ATLA scripts are held at the Writers Guild of America’s Shavelson-Webb Library in LA. If you’re interested in the findings from some of these scripts, check out the blogs of korranguyen and sneezypeasy.

Many thanks to korranguyen for looking up the script of The Tale of Zuko (The Tales of Ba Sing Se). For ease of reference, I have copied the relevant section from her blog. Note the parts marked with an asterix* are her own comments, the indented parts are as written in the original script. 

*Zuko telling Jin she has “quite the appetite for a girl” was . . . his attempt at cheering her up with a compliment. Very smooth.

Zuko instantly turns angry.

ZUKO (yelling): She is not my girlfriend!

The whole restaurant goes quiet. Everyone stares at Jin and Zuko's table. The waiter looks at Jin and rolls his eyes, then walks away. Zuko sees that Jin looks a little hurt so he tries to find something nice to say to make up for it.

ZUKO (cont'd): You have quite an appetite for a girl.

*The stage directions lend even more ambiguity on whether or not Jin truly knows how Zuko set off those fountain lights. She covers her eyes, “playfully peeks through her fingers”, then covers her eyes again? Does she peek again? Mysterious.

Jin leads Zuko towards a magnificent fountain, which sits on top of a hill overlooking the city. Zuko seems a bit more comfortable now that they are outside and alone.

JIN (cont'd): I can't believe it! They aren't lit.

Jin touches Zuko's arm. He can tell how disappointed she is, and for the first time all night he knows what he needs to do.

[some parts of the interaction I forgot to write down]

Jin covers her eyes but playfully peeks through her fingers.

She covers her eyes. Zuko quickly surveys the area to make sure that no one is around. Then he does a simple Firebending move and makes a sweeping motion. The lamps ignite sequentially like dominoes, creating the magical image Jin expected.

​*(Oh! Also, one more bonus; Zuko is more comfortable later on during his date with Jin specifically because they are outside and alone. The script also repeatedly describes Zuko as overwhelmed by his surroundings and the dating situation he is in. Autistic!Zuko headcanoners, make with that what you will.)