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burst-of-iridescent · 2 years ago

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the official zutara dissertation: conclusion

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

#zutara #zutara meta #the official zutara dissertation #and we're done!!!#this series has been so fun to write and seeing everyone's reactions made me so happy #i hope this was as enjoyable to read as it was to make <33 #and also shoutout to all these amazing metas and sneezy's god tier zutara video #anti kataang #anti maiko #ana out *drops mic*

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zutarawasrobbed · 3 years ago

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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.

#zutara #atla #avatar the last airbender #we’ve both been going through it with some others in our discord #but EIP could be easily interpreted as Zutara’s first date

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ecoterrorist-katara · 11 months ago

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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 #harutara #Katara parentification discourse #my meta

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zutara · 3 years ago

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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!!!

#replies #disquieted #text post

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the-badger-mole · 2 years ago

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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.

#atla #anti aang #anti bryke #the lionturtle was sucky storytelling #THE YEAR OF CONTENT!!!!

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burst-of-iridescent · 2 years ago

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i can't find sneezy's tumblr T^T

i believe it’s @/sneezypeasy! (putting a slash so i don’t accidentally tag her) i don’t think she posts very frequently but her content is a 10/10 every time.

#asks #our zutara lord and saviour

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zutarawasrobbed · 3 years ago

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Can I just take a moment and say…

@sneezypeasy deserves an award for her detective skills and uncovering one of the most coveted scripts in Zutara fandom history.

#zutara #original script findings #TSR original script award

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myimaginationplain · 1 year ago

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@sneezypeasy , I disagree with several of your thoughts on Mai, as well as your opinions Katara & Aang's dynamic; however, I fundamentally & heartily agree with your stance on moral judgment's place (& occasional lackthereof) in literary analysis. Purity culture has imbedded itself deeply into all sides of modern fandom, & you'll often see opposite sides of a fandom-war weaponize the exact same style of moralizing talking point against one another. Anti rhetoric is a hypocritical losing game where the only winners are those who have a vested interest in shifting fandom's overton window to the right. So, I want you to know that I'm reblogging this in good faith, & that I agree with you where fandom culture & the nature of media critique are concerned.

...from what I have noticed: when it comes to moral arguments surrounding both ships, anti Kataang shippers tend to frame their criticism more along the lines of "how the show portrays Kataang in abusive/problematic ways"; in contrast, anti Zutara shippers tend to frame their criticism more along the lines of "how the fandom portrays Zutara in abusive/problematic ways". Anti Kataang shippers tend to bash canon, anti Zutara shippers tend to bash... Zutara shippers. (There is an interesting way this difference manifests, by the way, in terms of how each side of the ship war wields the accusation of fandom toxicity towards the other.) Either way, I think that's a distinction that isn't irrelevant here.

This part of your response is interesting, & I agree that the distinction isn't at all irrevelant. Not for the same reasons you probably do, though.

There's a natural, unavoidable imbalance that comes with comparing the canon of a work to fanon. Canon is what it is, & is what it will always be, unless the work's creators see fit to retroactively change it. Canon is out of the fans' grasps; we can't truly change it, no matter how much we may want to, & and therefore, canon will never really be Ours.

Fanon, in contrast, is pure imagination. Your own mind is the limit when it comes to fan work. Fanon is never going to be bogged down by only having a certain number of episodes to tell your story within, or studios mandating what can or cannot be written, or having to compromise with a whole team of fellow writers, or lack of hindsight.

What I'm saying is that, nine times out of ten, fanon will win over canon in the minds of fans. And why wouldn't it? To most people, fanon is just Canon Plus. The original story, but tweaked & adjusted to suit a person's own hyper-specific desires. But this is exactly why I think people seeking to critique a piece of media need to be mindful of the inherent bias this creates. Canon is concrete, immutable, cannot be changed by you; faults and all. Fanon is pure imagination, ideas which were created by you & exist solely for you. Comparing canon to fanon is like comparing the grilled cheese sandwich you had for lunch to your idea of a nine-course meal at a Michelin star restaurant. The two can technically be compared, yes. And it's definitely okay to want one more than the other. But we shouldn't pretend that this is a fair & level playing field, either.

To bring this back to the actual topic at hand: I agree that anti-kataangs tend to attack canon, while anti-zutaras tend to attack zutara shippers. But not because kataang shippers are particularly attracted to personal attacks any more than zutara shippers are. This happens because there is no canon zutara to disagree with or to attack, because canon zutara does not exist. Romantic zutara is a thing of pure fanon, & therefore, the only realm it can be critiqued through is that which zutara shippers provide.

To make a very long winded point shorter, what I'm basically trying to say is that the ATLA fandom, & zutara shippers in particular, have a habit of talking about kataang & zutara as if both ships are just as canon as one another, & just as tied down by canon's constraint as one another, when that's not at all true. It's like taking that grilled cheese & the imagined nine-course meal I talked about earlier, & talking to your friend about the nine-course meal as if it actually happened. Like I said before, that isn't a level playing field.

(This isn't me trying to be all Fanon Bad, btw. A lot of, if not most of, my ships are fanon, & I live off of fan fiction. I'd just like people in fandom to be a bit more conscientious about how inherently unfair it is to compare the text of a work to your personal ideas & headcanons as if they were equal, seeing as the latter doesn't have to go through focus group testing & whatever else.)

Why I Deliberately Avoided the "Colonizer" Argument in my Zutara Thesis - and Why I'll Continue to Avoid it Forever

This is a question that occasionally comes up under my Zutara video essay, because somehow in 2 hours worth of content I still didn't manage to address everything (lol.) But this argument specifically is one I made a point of avoiding entirely, and there are some slightly complicated reasons behind that. I figure I'll write them all out here.

From a surface-level perspective, Zuko's whole arc, his raison d'etre, is to be a de-colonizer. Zuko's redemption arc is kinda all about being a de-colonizer, and his redemption arc is probably like the most talked about plot point of ATLA, so from a basic media literacy standpoint, the whole argument is unsound in the first place, and on that basis alone I find it childish to even entertain as an argument worth engaging with, to be honest.

(At least one person in my comments pointed out that if any ship's "political implications" are problematic in some way, it really ought to be Maiko, as Mai herself is never shown or suggested to be a strong candidate for being a de-colonizing co-ruler alongside Zuko. If anything her attitudes towards lording over servants/underlings would make her… a less than suitable choice for this role, but I digress.)

But the reason I avoided rebutting this particular argument in my video goes deeper than that. From what I've observed of fandom discourse, I find that the colonizer argument is usually an attempt to smear the ship as "problematic" - i.e., this ship is an immoral dynamic, which would make it problematic to depict as canon (and by extension, if you ship it regardless, you're probably problematic yourself.)

And here is where I end up taking a stand that differentiates me from the more authoritarian sectors of fandom.

I'm not here to be the fandom morality police. When it comes to lit crit, I'm really just here to talk about good vs. bad writing. (And when I say "good", I mean structurally sound, thematically cohesive, etc; works that are well-written - I don't mean works that are morally virtuous. More on this in a minute.) So the whole colonizer angle isn't something I'm interested in discussing, for the same reason that I actually avoided discussing Katara "mothering" Aang or the "problematic" aspects of the Kataang ship (such as how he kissed her twice without her consent). My whole entire sections on "Kataang bad" or "Maiko bad" in my 2 hour video was specifically, "how are they written in a way that did a disservice to the story", and "how making them false leads would have created valuable meaning". I deliberately avoided making an argument that consisted purely of, "here's how Kataang/Maiko toxic and Zutara wholesome, hence Zutara superiority, the end".

Why am I not willing to be the fandom morality police? Two reasons:

I don't really have a refined take on these subjects anyway. Unless a piece of literature or art happens to touch on a particular issue that resonates with me personally, the moral value of art is something that doesn't usually spark my interest, so I rarely have much to say on it to begin with. On the whole "colonizer ship" subject specifically, other people who have more passion and knowledge than me on the topic can (and have) put their arguments into words far better than I ever could. I'm more than happy to defer to their take(s), because honestly, they can do these subjects justice in a way I can't. Passing the mic over to someone else is the most responsible thing I can do here, lol. But more importantly:

I reject the conflation of literary merit with moral virtue. It is my opinion that a good story well-told is not always, and does not have to be, a story free from moral vices/questionable themes. In my opinion, there are good problematic stories and bad "pure" stories and literally everything in between. To go one step further, I believe that there are ways that a romance can come off "icky", and then there are ways that it might actually be bad for the story, and meming/shitposting aside, the fact that these two things don't always neatly align is not only a truth I recognise about art but also one of those truths that makes art incredibly interesting to me! So on the one hand, I don't think it is either fair or accurate to conflate literary "goodness" with moral "goodness". On a more serious note, I not only find this type of conflation unfair/inaccurate, I also find it potentially dangerous - and this is why I am really critical of this mindset beyond just disagreeing with it factually. What I see is that people who espouse this rhetoric tend to encourage (or even personally engage in) wilful blindness one way or the other, because ultimately, viewing art through these lens ends up boxing all art into either "morally permissible" or "morally impermissible" categories, and shames anyone enjoying art in the "morally impermissible" box. Unfortunately, I see a lot of people responding to this by A) making excuses for art that they guiltily love despite its problematic elements and/or B) denying the value of any art that they are unable to defend as free from moral wickedness.

Now, I'm not saying that media shouldn't be critiqued on its moral virtue. I actually think morally critiquing art has its place, and assuming it's being done in good faith, it absolutely should be done, and probably even more often than it is now.

Because here's the truth: Sometimes, a story can be really good. Sometimes, you can have a genuinely amazing story with well developed characters and powerful themes that resonate deeply with anyone who reads it. Sometimes, a story can be all of these things - and still be problematic.*

(Or, sometimes a story can be all of those things, and still be written by a problematic author.)

That's why I say, when people conflate moral art with good art, they become blind to the possibility that the art they like being potentially immoral (or vice versa). If only "bad art" is immoral, how can the art that tells the story hitting all the right beats and with perfect rhythm and emotional depth, be ever problematic?

(And how can the art I love, be ever problematic?)

This is why I reject the idea that literary merit = moral virtue (or vice versa) - because I do care about holding art accountable. Even the art that is "good art". Actually, especially the art that is "good art". Especially the art that is well loved and respected and appreciated. The failure to distinguish literary critique from moral critique bothers me on a personal level because I think that conflating the two results in the detriment of both - the latter being the most concerning to me, actually.

So while I respect the inherent value of moral criticism, I'm really not a fan of any argument that presents moral criticism as equivalent to literary criticism, and I will call that out when I see it. And from what I've observed, a lot of the "but Zutara is a colonizer ship" tries to do exactly that, which is why I find it a dishonest and frankly harmful media analysis framework to begin with.

But even when it is done in good faith, moral criticism of art is also just something I personally am neither interested nor good at talking about, and I prefer to talk about the things that I am interested and good at talking about.

(And some people are genuinely good at tackling the moral side of things! I mean, I for one really enjoyed Lindsay Ellis's take on Rent contextualising it within the broader political landscape at the time to show how it's not the progressive queer story it might otherwise appear to be. Moral critique has value, and has its place, and there are definitely circumstances where it can lead to societal progress. Just because I'm not personally interested in addressing it doesn't mean nobody else can do it let alone that nobody else should do it, but also, just because it can and should be done, doesn't mean that it's the only "one true way" to approach lit crit by anyone ever. You know, sometimes... two things… can be true… at once?)

Anyway, if anyone reading this far has recognised that this is basically a variant of the proship vs. antiship debate, you're right, it is. And on that note, I'm just going to leave some links here. I've said about as much as I'm willing/able to say on this subject, but in case anyone is interested in delving deeper into the philosophy behind my convictions, including why I believe leftist authoritarian rhetoric is harmful, and why the whole "but it would be problematic in real life" is an anti-ship argument that doesn't always hold up to scrutiny, I highly recommend these posts/threads:

In general this blog is pretty solid; I agree with almost all of their takes - though they focus more specifically on fanfic/fanart than mainstream media, and I think quite a lot of their arguments are at least somewhat appropriate to extrapolate to mainstream media as well.

I also strongly recommend Bob Altemeyer's book "The Authoritarians" which the author, a verified giga chad, actually made free to download as a pdf, here. His work focuses primarily on right-wing authoritarians, but a lot of his research and conclusions are, you guessed it, applicable to left-wing authoritarians also.

And if you're an anti yourself, welp, you won't find support from me here. This is not an anti-ship safe space, sorrynotsorry 👆

In conclusion, honestly any "but Zutara is problematic" argument is one I'm likely to consider unsound to begin with, let alone the "Zutara is a colonizer ship" argument - but even if it wasn't, it's not something I'm interested in discussing, even if I recognise there are contexts where these discussions have value. I resent the idea that just because I have refined opinions on one aspect of a discussion means I must have (and be willing to preach) refined opinions on all aspects of said discussion. (I don't mean to sound reproachful here - actually the vast majority of the comments I get on my video/tumblr are really sweet and respectful, but I do get a handful of silly comments here and there and I'm at the point where I do feel like this is something worth saying.) Anyway, I'm quite happy to defer to other analysts who have the passion and knowledge to give complicated topics the justice they deserve. All I request is that care is taken not to conflate literary criticism with moral criticism to the detriment of both - and I think it's important to acknowledge when that is indeed happening. And respectfully, don't expect me to give my own take on the matter when other people are already willing and able to put their thoughts into words so much better than me. Peace ✌

*P.S. This works for real life too, by the way. There are people out there who are genuinely not only charming and likeable, but also generous, charitable and warm to the vast majority of the people they know. They may also be amazing at their work, and if they have a job that involves saving lives like firefighting or surgery or w.e, they may even be the reason dozens of people are still alive today. They may honestly do a lot of things you'd have to concede are "good" deeds.

They may be all of these things, and still be someone's abuser. 🙃

Two things can be true at once. It's important never to forget that.

#I'm just barely restraining myself from going on about my (needlessly complicated) thoughts on zutara & how zutara shippers imagine it #because this post is very very long already & I shouldn't muck it up any further lol #atla #avatar the last airbender #kataang #zutara #shipping #fandom #fandom bs #anti bs #purity culture #meta

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