#sokka doesn’t

[sokkas-therapist]

NOBODY BOTHER ME the writers of the Boiling Rock episodes said that Sokka and Zuko fight like an old married couple

[gaang-incorrect-quotes]

Zuko: Are you okay?

Sokka, crying: Yeah, it was just the onions.

Zuko: *Picks up an onion* What the fuck did you say to Sokka?

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

Firelord hair care is so important to me (and Sokka, apparently)

[veraleraa]

I need a Zukka fanfic where Zuko thinks he is doing normal friend things, and Sokka is over analyzing every single thing Zuko does because it all seems too romantic to be platonic but too platonic to be romantic. So while Sokka is losing his mind, Zuko is happy because he has his first real friendship, like a casual by Chappell Roan type situation. I’m sick of seeing fanfics where Zuko falls first, I need Sokka to lose his fucking mind because he is in love with Zuko.

[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.

[hypnoticsphere]

i think zuko would be horrible at texting. like genuinely just so awful

sokka sends him a good morning text and zuko sends this in return

[ambriel-angstwitch]

Sokka: You know what the problem is? You’re really cute and powerful, so no one ever told you to shut up.

Zuko: You think I'm cute?!

Sokka: SHUT UP!

[spiterunsmylife]

It really would be the funniest thing in the world for Zutara to be live action endgame

[bisexuallsokka]

fascinated with my coworker who hasn’t seen atla in like fifteen years and yet i successfully converted her to zukka nation before realizing how much blind faith she had in me and i think i accidentally led her to believe that sokka and zuko canonically are izumi’s dads

[lesbian-honey-lemon]

not me ignoring anything that happens in the comics or Legend of Korra just so I can write a post-canon Zukka fic about Zuko, Sokka, and Toph being idiot kids on a mission to find Sokka’s sword

[newfangledsoul]

I think the thing with Sokka’s early sexism being removed is less about his character arc (tho that’s important from a character standpoint), and more about the audience seeing that character arc.

Of course Sokka says iffy and sexist things, he’s acting like an entitled teenage boy. Many entitled teenage boys exist. I’m sure many of them watched Avatar growing up. The point is that these boys see Sokka doing what they do, and that they see Sokka is wrong to do so.

The purpose of an arc like Sokka’s isn’t to create a character who is sexist and who the audience shouldn’t like, who says iffy things and needs to be censored now that we’re in a more “civilized” age, it’s to be a teaching tool to the young target audience of the show. To show little boys that acting like this is wrong, and that girls can be just as strong as boys (this is where the Kyoshi warriors come in). Sokka is a great character because he goes through a genuinely hopeful sort of growth; his arc is something we hope teenage boys with his attitude go through in their own lives.

Taking away this arc deprives the story of one of its core ideals: teaching children what’s good and what’s bad. If they never see Sokka behaving badly, if they never see him being proven wrong, if they never see their hero who acts like them growing and changing for the better, you deprive them of a phenomenal role model who they might genuinely be inclined to base their behavior off of.

Shows like Avatar were so great because they showed growth. Sokka learns to overcome his biases, Zuko learns to overcome his pride and comes to understand what honor truly is, Katara learns to channel her temper into drive and not let anger overtake her, and Aang learns to uphold his principles even in the face of more convenient—if morally questionable—methods.

I think nowadays people (Hollywood) tend to forget that shows for children are often meant to be teaching tools, and not just entertainment. They forget that people—even kids—are flawed and so characters must be too if the audience is to learn anything from watching them on screen. It’s not enough to take an animated show and make it pretty and expensive, you have to translate the substance of the show, too. Otherwise you lose any purpose or power it might have had.

[sokkas-therapist]

Chat is it toxic to have thoughts of an arranged marriage au where Katara and Zuko are stuck in a strictly political arranged marriage and have agreed to do their own thing (ie: Zuko will stay in the Fire Nation and be Firelord while Katara stays in the water tribe as the active Chief), but Zuko has been having a secret affair with Sokka since before the arranged marriage? Sokka is an ambassador for the SWT in Caldera so they ended up getting really close (even though Sokka isn’t there 24/7 bc he travels a lot). And now things have gotten really messy and the palace staff has gotten too close to figuring things out and no one knows what to do…this is soap opera level drama but I’m kind of living for it 

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

“You said you didn’t know how to dance, Sokka!”

[tragedykery]

azula calls a lesbian couple a slur and they’re like hell yeah hi fellow [slur] and azula is left spluttering she wasn’t reclaiming it she was using it as a slur she is not a fucking [different slur]!!!!!

[longing-for-rain]

I think the funniest part about Aang stans talking about how “feminine” Aang is…is the fact that Aang canonically became extremely offended by that idea

[zukosdualdao]

tbh in my headcanon conception of them zutara is not super pda-heavy. they like being near to each other, they can read each other’s expressions really well, they gravitate toward one another almost without thought (even before they get together), and they’re very much the “sit on the same side of the booth” couple and pretty much always know where each other is in a room at a given time.

but those intimate gestures—holding hands, kissing, gently cupping each other’s faces, comforting embraces—are something they largely like to keep private, something just for them.