#who likes non canon kataang

[lady-iskra]

Are Katara stans more likely to become Zutara?

To be fair: I also saw Kataangers, other- or non-shippers who care at least a little about Katara and did complain about the nerfing of her character. But still…maybe it is because of the communities I visit, but it appears to me that most Katara stans are more likely to become Zutara.

The reason I prefer this ship is that I’ve become a Katara stan first. I love every side of her, the loud one precisely, when she stands up for her ideals. And, as for Zutara: There is a deep understanding of each other’s needs along with mutual respect and a special bond those two share with no one else in the Gaang. They are equals—Zuko respects, accepts and loves Katara as a whole, and the same goes the other way around (canon-platonically or headcanon/ship-baiting-romantically doesn’t matter).

So, here’s what I don’t understand: if someone ships, I would assume they care about both characters and how they fit with each other. Yet, I’ve seen many Kataangers care only about Aang: What Aang wants. What his intensions are. That he is just flawed when he kisses Katara without consent…never how Katara feels about his actions, never how she is presented at the end of the OG, in the comics and in Korra.

Regarding The Southern Raiders in this case: I truly believe that Aang just wants to help, as many Kataangers argue in defense of his behavior. The teachings of the monks helped him during his dark times, plus, he is just a kid. He panicked, bc he thought Katara would follow the same dark path, and didn’t know how to express his worries. However, this is also my point against Kataang: He is just a kid. He still has so much to learn before even thinking about a serious relationship; especially with Katara whom he still sees through rose-tinted glasses—including that forgiveness to receive closure is not the right path for everyone.

If you mention this to some Kataangers, even very carefully, they immediately become defensive, saying that it’s just about making Zutara look better and demonizing Aang. And don’t get me started on the kiss by the end. 🙄 I’ve never read anything from them beyond “Katara is clearly happy.” But what makes you think she is happy? No explanation. People who agree with me, showing that they care about Katara, are mostly Zutara- or non-shippers.

Me, on the other hand: I can easily say that Katara has every right to hold a grudge against Zuko after The Crossroads of Destiny, bc he wronged her the most. Totally understandable that he had to go the extra mile with her to receive her forgiveness. I won’t sugar coat his actions to make him or Zutara look better, so much for their complaints—that isn’t necessary anyway. The difference: Zuko stood up for his mistakes, helps Katara to find her closure without asking for forgiveness, even if that is what he hopes. Let’s not forget how she opens up to him, even during this process; more than she did to anyone else.

Aang’s mistakes weren’t that huge, and it would take a scene of maybe a minute or two to truly show the regret of his actions towards Katara.

I believe that if you care about a character like Katara with such huge beliefs and intensions to create a better world, you wouldn’t be okay with reducing her to nothing more than an attachment whose world revolves around her boyfriend/husband—or her sweetie *ugh*. Yet, some Aang-stans seem not to care about this side of Katara and really consider her happy when her life is nothing more than pampering her partner.

[coffee-with-mint-syrup]

The case of live-action atla zutara.

First of all, the scarf scene. I won't be repeating myself, here are some main points - there was absolutely no reason for Zuko to act the way he did and for the scene to be shot this dramatically. Even if they did the shipbaiting in this scene - it means there's a ship which is much more than live-action kataang has at this point. Also I don't really think these guys are shipbaiting type but that's just the impression I got.

Then - the second obvious one - Oma and Shu's visuals. We have star-crossed lovers from two towns at war, basically the local equivalent of Romeo and Juliet (as in legendary lovers who are known above all for their love) wearing coincidentally colors that are primarily associated with two of our characters (who shared this dramatically shot scene in the previous episode).

And I know, it may seem so insignificant - but but but but! - you have to think about this. Of course there are creators, writers and showrunners that are unaware of some non-canon ships or don't care about them. But it's not the case for atla. No, creators of atla were so aware of zutara - they wrote a parody scene in a in-world trashy play to mock this fan pairing and it still proved absolutely nothing and just gave zutara more content. The creators and writers of this adaptation clearly had the discussion "what we should do with kataang" - because there is no trace of kataang in the 1st season. So it was a conscious decision to omit that - but where would the romantic subplot go? Well, I don't know, but they are showrunners, they most certainly discussed options. They are clearly very, very, very much aware of zutara. And they still do this? They still show us Oma and Shu wearing red and blue? All they had to do is to give at least one of them any different color. Any. But they didn't. (for fuck sake, it is the Earth Kingdom - yellow and green would do it)

There were zero, no, nada Kataang interactions, implications or those scenes that are filmed just a little bit too dramatically like the scarf one. I don't know, there's still a chance that they will wait for season 3 to make Aang's crush on Katara happen. I'm also not so sure what will happen to Aang failing to open seventh chakra, I mean - his love for Katara has a huge purpose in series, so it still doesn't look very good. But you can't even imagine how glad I am that they didn't do this secret tunnel thing. It was very uncomfortable.

So it was the more fact-based part of my case, let's get to the irrational, almost delusional part, tin foil hat probably needed.

Almost all the scenes Zuko and Katara shared in the first season kept reminding me of another famous enemies-to-lovers ship that actually became canon in the infamous final episode - Reylo, the way it was filmed in The Force Awakens. I mean - the first fight in the woods where she looses, the intensity of him staring at her, the final fight in snowy location where she kicks his ass and shows her mastering this superpower, him trying to talk to her during this fight and mentioning her learning/having to learn...Zuko calling Katara a peasant reminded me of this "Rey is no one" discourse. I don't know man, I haven't thought about The Force Awakens reylo for a very long time and it just kept popping in my head.

All of this - it's like a blueprint for enemies to lovers.

Also I actually think that the look they shared in the 2nd episode was also shot kinda weirdly and dramatically. It's not to the extent of the scarf scene but I do remember thinking that "why did they film it they way? it's too intense".

In the conclusion I'd like to say that as much as I like all the season 1 zutara stuff they left out in the adaptation - necklace subplot and implications, pirates and the famous "You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" - I think I actually prefer the scarf scene. Yes, it would be so great to see those things in adaptation but in the end of the day they would still be just the things they kept from the original and probably noting more. Like the cabbages or the secret tunnel song or anything else, just things from the source material that implicate nothing. While the scarf scene, the Oma and Shu's clothes - it means they made a conscious decision to make it that way. It means they put some thought into that and some meaning. And this gives me hope there's a chance for Zutara in this adaptation.

P.S. I told about this my sister who hasn't watch the series yet and she said "I think people who made this show are just shipping zutara in secret". I do not necessarily imply she might be right - but creators of animated series (the very same people that made kataang canon, not zutara) DID leave because of some creative differences and because they couldn't control creative decision. Might as well be THAT kind of decision.

[sokkastyles]

I have a question, I know we know that shipping does not equal morality. And I get that, and I really like that. However, on my other blog, that should have been my main blog (yes I am that dumb). I have talked about Aang's non-consensual and criticized how Kataang is written, however, if you ship Kataang I won't come for your throat because that's not my style. I know the few misogynists/antis on here and on Twitter, and I don't want to let a few bad apples be my impression of a fandom, that's not fair, So now I'm side-eyeing myself over my past remarks. Likewise, I know shipping is not equal to morality, but I also want to criticize Kataang because of how flawed it is and how wrong that kiss was (and other things). I have no idea what I'm saying because at this point I'm rambling. What do you think?

Well, there is a difference between criticizing a ship and criticizing canon. I don't honestly care what people ship. I use the antikataang tag because I don't want to argue with people who do ship it, but that doesn't mean I won't be critical of what is in the show. I think expecting people not to engage critically with media is absolute nonsense. But there is a difference between engaging critically with the actual media and criticizing people's fanon or headcanons, which is where you get away from critically engaging with canon and move into the area of criticizing other people's opinions, which is how arguments start.

Like, there isn't really any actual concrete argument you can make to criticize zutara, because zutara does not exist in canon. It's all fanon and headcanons and speculation. And criticizing other people's opinions just makes you look like a dick.

You also have to take into account the intention behind something. The thing about the way Katara's relationship with Aang is presented is that we're supposed to root for Aang to get Katara, and every obstacle towards that end is just there to create dramatic tension for the male point of audience identification. That's the real problem with the noncon kiss, and people who are critical of it are right to point it out.

In contrast, when I say shipping isn't morality, I'm talking about people who write, let's say, dubcon zutara fics. Fanfiction as a genre is largely female-centered fantasy. Yes, even those lurid fics you're thinking of. People write and read these fics for completely different reasons and have completely different expectations than when watching a series like ATLA. Trying to say that someone can't criticize the way the show presents Aang kissing Katara after she said she was confused as a mistake to be glossed over (that is forgotten as soon as it happens) because they also happen to like reading darkfic is nonsense. There's also a long history of women's interests being policed that informs my views here, vs the fact that consent has only fairly recently become a conversation in mainstream media. You have only to look at the way the show itself portrays Katara having interests (especially in boys) outside of Aang as dark and dangerous to see this happening in ATLA itself. Or the way the creators got away with saying that zutara shippers are doomed to end up in abusive relationships while painting Aang as a typical Nice Guy stereotype who expects Katara to magically become his girlfriend (and gets angry when she doesn't) and seeing nothing wrong with it.

The thing is that zutara, if we look at the way it's written in canon as a metaphor for a romantic relationship, follows the same tradition of how fanfiction has historically existed as an exploration of romantic and sexual dynamics. Those conversations about consent are actually happening and being explored in fanfiction, even the dark stuff, whereas relationships that are presented as "wholesome" often push us to NOT have those conversations. So when I say shipping isn't morality, what I actually mean is that noncanon shipping and darkfic actually has more of a moral leg to stand on than uncritically engaging with relationships on the grounds that Aang is the hero so his goodness and worthiness to get the girl should just be assumed. Zuko has to work for his right to be in a relationship with Katara because he didn't start out from a place of goodness, and that, on its own, is very female centered because instead of starting out from the perspective of the male hero deserving a relationship by virtue of being the hero, we see the idea that a man has to work to gain a woman's respect and affection.

So it's not so much that I hate KA, but I hate the idea that we should engage in it uncritically. And that would be true even if it really was the most wholesome relationship in the world. The same thing cannot be true of zutara because even the darkest of darkfic are about women centering themselves in the narrative and engaging with power dynamics in ways that are subverting patriarchal norms about relationships by definition.

[the-badger-mole]

I don't particularly care for NATLA, but I think it’s hilarious that the k@taangers are losing their shit over a possibly bait scene for zutara, and that it has even people claiming that if this series canonizes zutara, then Tenzin wouldn't exist and yadda yadda, to the point that my sister who is a non-shipper got sick of it and ranted to me for a whole hour about how sick she is that people believes it really matters, because Katara does so little in LoK, that you could change the mom of Aang's children, and it would hardly make a difference, that all of their characters are defined by them being Aang's children, not Katara's and honestly? It was an eye-opener to me, even Kya, being a waterbender is never that important :/

if this series canonizes zutara, then Tenzin wouldn't exist

I do not care for Tenzin much... But also, I disagree.

Katara does so little in LoK, that you could change the mom of Aang's children, and it would hardly make a difference

I've been saying this for years. Bumi and especially Kya get so little story that they would've benefited from not being Aang's kids. And Tenzin got nothing from his mother. He doesn't look like her, doesn't take after her in any significant way. There's not even a nod to his SWT heritage in his home. The creators went out of their way to make sure Tenzin had almost nothing to do with Katara. He barely interacts with her, and those few interactions are so nondescript that she may as well not be his mother. His kids barely know her! Had his mother not been Katara, nothing about his arc, history, or character design would have to be adjusted. And let's not forget the biggest beneficiary of Kataang not happening would be Katara herself.

I have flirted with the idea of making Tenzin not Katara's son in one or two one shots. It would be so easy to do, too. Maybe he's the son Aang had with an acolyte. Maybe he's an affair baby. Maybe Katara never had to suffer through a marriage with Aang at all. The only child that would be significantly effected by having different parents would be Bumi, and that's only because it would be weird for Katara to name her first son after a man she had only the scantest connection to without Aang's input (why did she agree to that name?).

[survivalove]

debunking lies zutara shippers say about the atla creators & writers

disclaimer: this is in no way an endorsement or defense of bryke or anyone mentioned. literally just debunking false statements i see spread throughout and outside the fandom as it pertains to kataang

1. that bryke made kataang endgame because the nice guy should get the girl

this is something I see often usually linked with this video of a man ⬇️ who they claim to be bryan/mike echoing this sentiment.

this man is in fact john o’bryan, one of the three known zk shippers in the writers’ room (we’ll expand on this in point 5) talking about how he saw aang. not the creators. so of course it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he doesn’t even like kataang in the first place.

2. that bryke made kataang endgame last minute and zutara was the original pairing

bryan and mike (notice how i’m using both of their names separately. this too will be important in the next point) have talked about how kataang was planned since they originally wrote the show.

they have also talked ad nauseam in a video (which I will not share here cuz it made a lot of ppl angry) about why they do not like zutara and its shippers, so this entire point is bogus.

++ the reason why they say zk was the original pairing is because of one of the zk writers (joshua hamilton) wrote this in the atla fun facts that used to run on tv. (we’ll get into him later) those atla fun facts contain a lot of inaccurate/non canon “facts” which you can check and verify on avatar wiki if you know what i’m talking about.

3. that aang is bryke’s self insert (specifically mike)

yeah, here’s where the separation becomes important. bryan (L) and mike (R) are two different men. mike has never said that aang was his self-insert, nor has he directly talked about relating to aang. bryan, however, constantly talks about how much he relates to zuko. even, going as far to say he tries to think like zuko when he writes characters and shows.

the only time mike has come close to saying he relates to aang is when dante said he thinks mike is more like aang while bryan is more like zuko, and they, mostly bryan, agreed. (mike has actually said he relates to korra more than aang but hey) bryan also is the one who drew mike’s beard on adult aang because he considered it a nice reference to his friend. this is the main reason why shippers ran with that self-insert narrative because half the time, they think bryke is actually one person ☠️

++ in fact, aang’s original character design is based off the mixed black-chinese son of sifu kisu

4. that atla was supposed to have a season 4 where katara and zuko got together

this is mostly something that has come out of a fabricated interview by the head writer, aaron ehasz. he was allegedly asked what he would have liked to do if given the chance to write a fourth season of the show and talked about an azula redemption arc among other things. zutaras then made up a whole fake interview including that he wanted to make the two characters endgame.

ehasz then came out to say that most of these “interviews” were faked and that he has never talked about having a preference for any ship. if you go on his twitter, you will see him talking about an azula redemption arc tho.

as for atla having a 4th season at all, it was never intended. the creators, the music composers have all said at various points in time, the show was written and pitched as three seasons, three elements.

5. that most of the other writers shipped zutara and bryke’s authoritarianism shut it down

as I said above, only three writers on the original show have come out to say they preferred zk at some point. atla has had a total of 21 staff writers. 3 out of 21 is not most if you ask me.

as for bryke (yes now i’m using the shorthand cuz i proved my point earlier) being authoritarians, no writer or staff that has worked with them on the show has said this so…? idk where that came from but i’m not here to back them up just mention facts.

6. that all the women who worked on the franchise shipped zutara while only men shipped kataang

atla has very few female staff as it is:

5 writers (elizabeth welch: zk; others: unknown)

1 director (unknown)

5 storyboard/character artists (lauren montgomery: ka; elsa garagarza: ka; angela song mueller: zk; others: unknown)

1 comic writer (faith erin hicks: ka)

2 comic artists (gurihiru: ka)

++ mae whitman (katara’s voice actress) has expressed her like for both ships throughout the years.

so i’m not sure what defines all and only for some ppl but those definitions are not in my dictionary. disclaimer: i’m not declaring anyone here as a shipper in any official sense. this is just based off statements they have made that you can google!

7. that katara is written poorly in post-atla content because of kataang/bryke

I mean the first part isn’t really a lie, more of an opinion which I can agree with to an extent.

why I mention this here is because zks will not only go on a tangent and link the misogyny in the writing to a m/f ship and say the other m/f ship would have been more feminist…

but they also refuse to hold all the men involved accountable. like I said, 3 known atla writers shipped zk and 2 of them (joshua & john) were men (who would’ve thought men could like a ship and it could still be considered feminist 😃). they were also 2 out of only 4 atla writers that came back for legend of korra, outside of the creators. (19 to 4 ☠️ no comment). these shippers very well know this and instead of holding these men accountable for the misogynistic writing, they instead brag about them shipping it and ask them about zk whenever they have the chance.

another example is gene luen yang, a comic writer who again shipped zk (another man GASPPPPP) responsible for the first 5 comic books. everyone knows his comics suck in terms of characterization, particularly katara’s. in fact zutaras have made multiple threads on how poor the writing is. funnily enough, they always fail to mention that gly was the script writer or acknowledge his part in this mischaracterization, while bragging about him shipping zk in other posts. ironic.

meanwhile, bryke have never offered writers’ commentary on any of gly’s comics besides the search - mike (because they were mostly writing legend of korra during his run.)

basically these shippers don’t care about misogyny or holding male writers accountable if they ship zk which is funny because I thought it was… for the female gaze? why are you hyping men shipping it anyway? confusion.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What do you think about Maiko's ship? I think it was a relationship created by the creators to make it clear that the zuthara was not going to happen and that I don't like the zuthara.

I think you're greatly overestimating how much the writers thought about Zutara. No, they didn't like the ship. Yes, it was popular regardless. But neither Bryan nor Mike seemed to be the type to pull a Joss Whedon and practically use the characters to shame the fans for liking the wrong ships (on top of verbally abusing the actors for the crime of doing their job too well). All we ever got from them was:

1 - One episode in which they poke fun at EVERYTHING - the show itself and it's tropes (Katara crying about hope non-stop, Zuko's hair, HONOR, "Did Jet just die?"), the fandom's opinions and fanfics (the characters skiping the great divide, Katara liking bad boys), their original plans (Toph being a guy), industry shit (the episode itself being a recapt episode, Aang being played a girl as reference to lots of little boy characters being voiced by women). So yeah, Zutara gets made fun of in this, but so does everything Avatar-related.

2 - ONE con in which they were being dicks about how "People who like zutara will end up in abusive relationships." One isolated incident SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.

3 - Freaking fanservice. They full on let the other writers in the team throw zutarians some bones every now and then.

Outside of that, they don't even talk about Zutara unless directly asked about it. Almost like... they don't take it that seriously. Almost like... they know that, as showrunners, they don't have to "justify" zutara, or any ship, not happening, they can just... not make it happen.

If their goal was to make Zutara basically a ship that the narrative kind of "forbids" from happening, they wouldn't have made Katara forgive and befriend Zuko. They wouldn't have made him risk his life for her. They would have made it clear that these two genuinely DESPISED one another even after Zuko's redemption.

If they just wanted a last-minute ship to make people "forget" Zutara, they could have always just brough Jin back in the finale since she was popular with fans, even zutarians. If Mai was just a "road-block" to Zutara, they wouldn't have made the audience spend tons of episodes in book 2 just seeing her do her thing without Zuko being involved in any way, nor explained to us her traumas on The Beach.

Mai was a well-written character that would make sense to pair up with Zuko, and thus Bryke and the other writers did exactly that. Maiko was not their attempt to "kill" Zutara - you don't have to kill something that was already dead on arrival.

Kataang/Maiko are only zutara's rival ships in the fandom. In the show zutara was never a possibility, therefore it was never rival of ANYTHING. Something being popular in fanon doesn't mean canon is obligated to bow down to it. Bryke didn't do shit to "deal with" zutara because it was never a threat to them - it was, and still is, completely irrelevant in their eyes.

[longing-for-rain]

I think you're wrong saying that zutara is a ship exclusively by women for women while kataang is only liked by sexist men. There's a lot of support for zutara on site like 4chan of all places. If anything, men prefer to self insert as the "giga Chad" zuko than the "beta male" aang

Meanwhile the vast majority of kataang fanart I've seen where drawn by women, just like zutara.

I never said that it’s exclusively shipped by women, just that women tend to prefer it.

And you’re right, but you’re biased based on where you’re looking. Male dominated sites like 4chan are exactly that…male dominated. Any fandom stuff you find there is almost certain to be created by men. You’ll also find that the way men interact with fandom is either very canon centric or fetishistic. I’ve actually run into some of those “giga Chad Zuko” types and the funny thing about them is, some of them hadn’t even watched the show. It was based on appearances only, and yeah, knowing nothing about the characters, men will often choose to self insert as the manly hot one for their nasty rule34 fantasies. You’ll also just as commonly see kataang (I’ve seen some absolutely disgusting kataang shit), as well as Zuko shipped with every other female character (including his mother and sister) in those types of environments because it’s purely appearance based. It’s just a bunch of creepy men drawing their self insert with their crush.

On the flip side, (non-pornographic) fan art is almost always drawn by women, especially if you’re on a site like tumblr or twitter. That’s true for any ship.

What I have noticed, however, is that on forums like Reddit that are also very male centered, kataang is always most popular. And it’s very easy to see why—Aang as a character was literally designed for young boys to project onto. He represents a character the target demographic of the show in 2005 (young boys) are supposed to relate to. This also results in the (male) writers giving him “relatable” struggles such as not being liked back by a crush. Her feelings aren’t centered because they are not relatable nor important to this target demographic. Then, these men who saw the show as boys grow up and retain that relatability aspect, and feel somehow emasculated by the idea of “the girl” choosing a different man. This is why kataang has historically been criticized as a male centered ship, because the whole dynamic and narrative surrounding it is based around this male fantasy of bothering your crush and being such a NiceGuy that she *has* to like you back eventually. Like I said, it was literally written that way, to be relatable to middle school aged boys.

Female kataang shippers are a whole other can of worms, but let’s just say they’re basically the BoyMoms of fandom. My precious baby can do no wrong, he’s a literal angel, nothing is ever his fault, telling him no is bullying, girls who get upset with him are just lying b*tches trying to destroy his life, etc. etc.

[blackbullet99]

Why (as a Kataang shipper and in general) I don’t like Zutara shippers.

(I promise it’s NOT a Pro-Zutara post and it’s NOT an Anti-Kataang post).

LONG POST INCOMING, but if you have the time, please read. 😁

I’ve been thinking. I don’t hate Zutara.

No, I’m not being held hostage, and I know this kinda goes against my rather vitriolic and brutal response to Zutara shippers, but the ship itself is fine and I’m sure 95% of the shippers are decent people.

I really love Zuko and Katara’s friendship, it’s one of the most interesting unique dynamics of the show. It’s annoying when people say, they’re toxic, or they’re barely friends, or it’s a colonizer ship. Zuko and Katara weren’t toxic by the end of the show, they have a great relationship at the end, they were absolutely close friends, ready to lay down their lives for each other. Zuko WAS a colonizer, but he learned this line of thinking was wrong and actively sought to make the world a better place and save The Earth Kingdom.

That being said, Kataang is definitely indisputably the superior “ship”. We see the two start of a close friends from the get-go, they both have a lot of admiration and respect for one another, they grow to love each other dearly despite their flaws, they support each other constantly. And it’s abundantly clear that not only does Aang love Katara, but Katara loves Aang, some may it’s one-sided, but that’s objectively false, it’s painfully obvious they mean the world to each other, we see their bond get stronger, but they have a strong friendship and bond first and foremost and their romantic feelings comfortably exist within.

When I say Zutara shippers are annoying, entitled, toxic idiots, I’m specifically referring to the very vocal minority of people that seem to dominate ZK shipping discussions on Tumblr.

People like…

the-badger-mole who villainizes Aang and hates a fictional 12 year old to a ridiculous degree. Not to mention has so many objectively wrong takes.

longing-for-rain who villainizes Aang, downplaying his trauma, and is unempathetic to his emotions, but will excuses all of Zuko’s anger and outbursts cuz “muh enemies to lovers”.

eponastory who straight up downplays the very serious effects of genocide and the trauma it causes.

sokkastyles who actually thinks an imperialist play reflects the real Katara, (and yes they think the Zutara means “Zutara should’ve been canon, waah”).

zutarawasrobbed who straight up compared Aang to Ozai.

burst-of-iridescent who invalidates Katara trauma from bloodbending cuz she did it in front of Zuko once, but the evil Aang must’ve forced Katara to stop. 🙄

linnoya-writes who straight up infantizes Aang and adulifies Katara, and then that’s the audacity to put their garbage in the Kataang tag.

miss-sweetea-pie who makes mindless assumptions about people who like Aang, as though people ignore Aang’s faults and he never learns because he’s cute. Which is not only untrue, but completely ignores the fact people ignore and romanticize Zuko’s faults because to them he’s hot.

araeph who not only lies about interviewing Aaron Ehasz, but also says borderline racist stuff like this just to pathetically validate their non-canon ship (this is apparently what Sokka would gain from Zutara becoming a couple).

This idiot who acts like Aang forced Katara to comfort him and Katara apparently never treated Aang as an equal. Not to mention weirdly villainizing Zuko and Mai, because Mai didn’t coddle Zuko (like they claim Katara did to Aang) and Zuko became Fire Lord?

This hateful idiot, who is a straight up genocide denier.

And this racist weirdo who straight up writes slave fanfics about Katara being owned by Zuko. Ew.

It’s these types of people who suck. They’re the most delusional entitled moronic idiots who are fake A:TLA fans with no media-literacy who only care about a middle school ship, so they pathetically mischaracterize Aang, Katara, Zuko and Mai, and whine about Bryke not giving into their desires like the little bitches they are. Screw these guys.

That being said the ship itself isn’t bad, it’s just the vocal minority who ruin it for me. I love Zuko and Katara’s friendship, and I wish the great characters in this great series would stop being mischaracterized.

To anyone who reads this, have a nice day.

[theweeklydiscourse]

White feminism is when white women use it a) to divide POC communities, b) to exclude WOC, or c) performatively. It's not meant to be a tool used to shut down a ship you don't like. Kataang shippers are actually losing their minds.

Tbh, I'd say they're a lot closer to white feminism. They're the definition of performative activists. They're fine with Bryke stripping away Katara's agency as long as she's Aang's perfect girlfriend. But anyone who wants better for her is wrong and a bigot? Oh, and don't forget Zuko's apparently a colonizer so forget all his character development he's the devil as soon as he's shipped with Katara. Nevermind the fact that the people saying this ship him with Sokka.

Kataang was made by white straight men for white straight men. Pretending otherwise is inaccurate

Very true wisened anon. They’re fine with Katara being diminished and relegated to a passive role and they will aggressively defend their stance on the basis that Katara “chose” that path. To them, criticizing the writing decisions that led to such an outcome is akin to misogyny because critics are supposedly “not respecting her choices” and denigrating her feminine qualities. Doesn’t that just say it all? The jokes are writing themselves.

These people couldn’t care less about intersectionality, I’m not fully convinced they understand the meaning of that word either. Their biggest tell is their selective attention to subjects like racism and colonialism, never wanting to have a genuine conversation about the colonial elements/implications of the actual show and opting to only speak of it in conversations about non-canon and fanmade content. This is particularly apparent when you compare the flack Zutara gets for being a “colonizer romance” while no one breathes a WORD when it comes to Zukka.

On your last point, the fact that Katara was written and created by white men is something that every fan should be reminded of. The writers are not the paragons of progressiveness that many fans believe them to be, they had blind spots and biases that become quite apparent when you take a good hard look at the text. Kataang shippers especially want to believe that the writers were infallible and woke so they can continue to entertain their fantasy that their ship is totally wholesome and perfectly constructed.

[nostalgicfortomorrow]

zutara fanfic recs bc absolutely nobody asked

PLEASE REBLOG AND TELL ME IF YOU LIKED MY RECS BTW :)

the art of holding on and letting go - teen and up - by evergreenonthehorizon

genuinely one of the best fics i've ever read. it's aang centric and it's from his pov so zutara isn't as prominent as you would have hoped but it's a modern au where they all go to the same high school and aang learns how to let go of his infatuation with the idea of katara rather than who katara is as a person. deeply underrated, please check it out.

we hold our hearts in silence - general audiences - by psychadelic_sya

it completely follows the canon timeline and it features geriatric and ancient zutara who meet again after many years and when you read this, please listen to last kiss by taylor swift on repeat. that's how you get the full experience. it hurts so so so much.

the colour of the stars - teen and up - by bluenebulae

it's a season 3 rewrite from the day of the black sun onwards where katara and zuko both get captured and they work together to try and find the gaang. it's pretty long but the slow burn is so well done, they absolutely nailed the characterisation and it might be my favourite fic ever. they learn everything about each other and the moments zutara shares makes my heart burn with happiness. cannot recommend this one enough.

figure it out - mature - by clearascountryair (uncompleted but ends in a good spot)

they aged up all the characters by two years and it's basically about ember island and what happened after southern raiders. it's a bit uncomfortable at times for some, because there's quite a lot of sex mentioned and featured and drinking as well but the messages overall and the lessons are really good. and it covers the non consensual kataang kiss and there's so many good takeaways. not finished, but ends up in a good spot.

the chemistry of cooking - mature - by smeditteranea

hear me out, hear me out, HEAR ME OUT, it's another college modern au (yeah, sue me, i love my modern aus) but it's really well done, the characterisation is done right, no hate to any of the characters whatsoever, supremely adorable, there's some smut but just scroll past that. so zuko and katara basically end up being lab partners in a cooking class which ozai seriously frowns upon. ozai runs this really morally bankrupt company and zuko works in it, and basically figures out that ozai is doing illegal dumpings and tries to report it.

BONUS:

i feel something (when i see you now) - teen and up - by glowgal

katara is an up and coming popular actor and is zuko's high school crush. they meet again and it's so adorable.

[atla-confessions]

Zutara shippers are highkey grody as hell to pretty much every shipper that crotradicts their ship(i.e Not just Kataang but also Maiko,Zukka,Katoph,Jetko,Jetara and Azutara)and i wish they'd get over their persecution complex and realize that's why everybody hates them instead of claiming it's because they're women as if they don't act more like incels than any male Kataanger i've ever met or spinning the blame to the microscopick amount of bad non-Z/K Zuko and Katara shippers,as if that would make them the good guys rather than both the bad guys.Kataangers never bashed Mai as a trend for dating Zuko nor does Zukka being canon besties for a few episodes lead to less of a basis for blowing up than Zuko kidnapping and talking down to Katara and stealing Kya's necklace to taunt her leading to Zutara blowing up does and brown4brown Jetara + native sapphic Katara are way more important rep than Katara dating a pasty moc who terrorized her for months✌🏽

X

[kataraslove]

I just stumbled across your acc and I gotta say, I agree with alotta ur takes

Ur sooo well spoken and I really enjoy reading your thoughts and opinions

Katara is one of my favorite characters and it makes me really happy to see someone appreciate her and her writing

Ngl a lot of atla fans r lowkey braindead so ur acc is pretty refreshing

Thanks for posting!! 🩷

thank you! 🩷 your words are too kind. i appreciate it.

i did mention this before, but this blog stemmed kind of entirely out of spite. i was sick and tired of fandom on here telling me that there was only one way to interpret and enjoy my favourite character, dictating who i could or could not ship her with and how much of a stan that made me. it’s not an experience just unique to the atla fandom, of course. it’s becoming something more apparent nowadays especially, the ways in which multiple readings and interpretations of a character is heavily discouraged by fandom in favour of just one.

it’s baffling how, for so many years, there was a strict binaric interpretation of katara’s character, with 0 being non-canon and 1 being completely in favour of all things canon. either you had to vehemently agree with everything that bryke wrote for katara’s within atla and post-canon, to the point where i have seen people defend the lack of statues of her as “oh, she probably didn’t want one anyway,” (NO!!) or you had to have deep-rooted anger and rejection for all things that were done to her story, in the guise of katara deserving better.

katara does deserve better narratively, but NOT in the ways that the tumblr fandom thinks she should have. not in the ways that she should be ambassador to the fire nation, or become firelady (a racist depiction in fanon and nothing but a decorative title in canon) and live out the rest of her life by zuko’s side, serving and prioritizing zuko’s nation.

“but wouldn’t it be empowering if katara sat on the throne of her oppressors and got to dictate - “ no. it’s not. stop advocating for that type of ending for women from oppressed and marganized groups. stop acting like that is the ideal future that katara wanted this whole time, that ruling as part of a foreign monarchy that decimated your people and your culture is the ultimate threshold for liberation.

i’ve seen people who claim to take a doylist perspective for critique of atla (read: kataang)’s writing completely lose all comprehension when it comes to critically assessing post-canon zutara. by that i mean, if we continue with the writing direction that we saw for all of the female atla characters in the sequel series, a zutara endgame would position katara in a worse outcome than she got narratively. but you tell anyone that and it’s an instant “zuko would have given her 10 statues!!”

but most importantly, nothing has radicalized me more over this year than seeing the “katara deserves better (in the form of zuko)” crowd, the same crowd who is currently dreading any form of fixing or retcons from avatar studios in upcoming content, defend the hell out of natla katara’s writing. the very same people who were praising katara’s arc to the stars, stating that it was nearly complete until the two grown men decided to pair her up with aang and ruined all at the end.

well, what about the group of zutara shippers in the natla writer’s room who handed her everything in the narrative, who removed her flaws, her anger, her compassion, who stripped her down to everything except hope, all in the name so that she wouldn’t appear unlikable to audiences. i mean, that tremendously backfired for them, because now the young actress who plays katara is getting hate spewed at her for failing to portray katara interestingly, when the problem has always been the shit writing.

anyway, i appreciate this message! glad i could be of service and it’s nice that you’re a zuko fan who ships kataang! lots of people who love zuko do.

“a lot of atla fans are braindead” LMAO you can say that again!!!

[yikes-kachowski]

I NEED A BACKSTORY ON YOUR AU BUMI !!!

Sure dude! Just remember a few things about this before we start. It's an au, so none of it effects canon. I know this is gonna be a little brutal, but I like every atla character including aang and bumi. This is non kataang. Nothing against kataang, but I feel like this story couldn't work if it was. Keep an open mind, though. This could still be a fun little read.

Character death warning btw

We need to get a few aang details to understand bumi. First of all, air nomads are polyamorous (with women primarily having multiple male partners). Aang is also polyamorous in keeping with his culture. This to say, he gets a lot of partners. He tells them all about his sexuality first so they can completely be informed on having a relationship with him.

Aang works on a lot of things after the war but one of those things is rebuilding villages. That's where he meets kyoke

They fall for each other. Everything's great. He decides at 19ish to have baby with her. It's a little young, but he feels like he doesn't have much time and needs to have kids. At night he gets visions of his ancestors burning and begging for him to give them a chance to come back.

So he has bumi. And he loves him and brings him everywhere and excitedly tells his friends to watch for signs of bumi being an Airbender. They never come.

It's around when bumi is five that aang really starts to give up on bumi being a bender at all. No air nomad has ever had a nonbender before (as far as aang can tell, the records are hard to find now), so he is deeply ashamed. This puts strain on he and bumis relationship.

Now, kyoke loves bumi despite him being a nonbender, and loves aang despite him being around less and less. She knows she shares him with the world, she's okay with that. You know who isn't? Kyokes parents. She's unmarried, so they marry her off to Xohir. He's a nobleman who thought he could gain political clout with the avatar by raising his son.

Xohir is very disappointed that bumi is a nonbender. He thinks having an air bender would be more politically significant. Aang offers to help kyoke get a divorce, but she doesn't want to because she wants to respect her parents wishes.

Bumi sees this as abandonment.

Aang has three other kids. Yelaan, palkyi, and tenzin. They're all benders. Tenzins the air bender. Aang still has this feeling that he doesn't have much time so he's cramming all the knowledge he can into tenzin, which is time consuming. Bumi feels unloved because aang gets to teach the rest bending, but can't think of anything so personal to bond with bumi over.

Bumi bonds with Sokka. As a bitter teen he becomes an equalist. He keeps it secret since the equalist riots are intense, and benders really get offended by this.

Around this time, si Wong wants independence from the earth kingdom. Aang is doing peace talks to try to smooth things over.

The equalists assassinate aang, he is only 37-38ish years old.

Bumi tells tenzin that he was an equalist but he's not anymore. Yet he still feels guilty. Tenzin, who is only 15 years old, tells bumi that he hates him and asks for him to leave before he tells everyone else.

Bumi doesn't return to air temple island.

Things in si Wong boil over without peacetalks and aang. Because of their alliance with the earth kingdom, the United Republic must join.

Aang built a country with very little military presence (on purpose), but they need one for war. There is a draft. And bumi, unable to prove his religious exemption of being an air nomad, is drafted.

He will spend nearly 16 years in that war :)

[the-badger-mole]

Aang has to be one of the least popular protagonist I have seen on ao3. Out of all the main characters who appeared in season 1 and beyond (aamg, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko) aang has the least stories. I have never seen that happen to a main character before. Aang has like 13,000 stories and he is a side character in a majority, so it makes me think, why do so many people argue aang is such a great main character when he seems to be the least liked even by his fans.

This isn't me trying to do some popularity contest, it just seems like even fanfic writers can't do anything interesting with his character, which is sad because he has a lot of potential to be an amazing character.

Child who lost everyone he has ever known to war and time, waking up a hundred years later with the weight of this new world on his shoulders while still grieving his previous life, is such an interesting character, and the show did nothing with that and so neither did the fans.

You know what show did that premise justice? Futurama.

I think Aang's lack of attention comes down to him being ultimately a boring character. Yes, the premise of Aang had potential, but then Bryke turned him into a Gary Stu. And not even a particularly good Gary Stu. I think the lack of fics centering Aang have few explanations. Making Aang a more interesting character would take a lot of work. A lot more than people who aren't his biggest fans are probably willing to put in. It's easier to treat him like a side character, because frankly, that's what he should have been.

Second, fans who do like Aang- like his canon story and his canon ship- probably don't have a ton to add. I think that's not uncommon with a lot of canon ships. Most of my ships have been canon and although I have written for those shows, I'm a lot more prolific with Zutara- my one non-canon ship. I sincerely doubt I'd still be this invested if Zutara were canon. I'd still love them, but the same way I love Usa/Mamo. Content to just let the story be what it is, for the most part, unless inspiration strikes.

I also imagine some of it has to do with not wanting to admit how awful the canon made him seemingly by accident. In order to make an interesting story about Aang, they'd have to add some conflict, and no die hard Aang fans seem to be anymore willing to do that than Bryke were. Take that with a grain of salt, though. This is just my opinion. I don't spend a bunch of time reading Aang fics.

Third, the lack of Aang centered fics may actually be based on his popularity. I don't know. I think there are way fewer Aang fans than there seems to be, it's just that the main Aang fans are so loud. I wouldn't be surprised. After all, he's the most boring of the main cast, his tragic backstory notwithstanding. I only know two or three Aang/Kataang fans in real life, and they are very, very casual fans. Most of the other ATLA fans I know prefer other characters/ ship Zutara. Obviously, online Aang isn't the most popular character either. Oh, sure, there are plenty of polls that put him/his canon ship at the top, but if you look at the actual fan content...well, you can see for yourself.

[punkeropercyjackson]

If Zutara is a feminist ship then it's absolute bottom of the barrel feminism SORRY like it's so downlow💀Katara's a fem girl with parentification trauma and open softness and Zuko's a masc dude who turned into a Team Dad to heal his inner child and break the cycle of abuse and high up walls so they're already a cisheteronormative ship based off that alone but there's also how while Zuko made up for what how he hurt Katara,his attacks and insults to her were racially motivated and that adds a thick layer of racialized misogyny AND directly goes against Katara's wishes to force Zuko onto her because she fought for a loooong time to break the mold of womanhood should only exist in 'what girls are SUPPOSED to be like' and frankly the emphasis on supposed 'realism' when it comes to girls and Zutara said by the shippers so often has transmisogyny underlaying it,if not then at least bioessentialism,with how cis and exclusive of unconventional girlhood it is and it dosen't help their case that they often feminize Toph when she gets older when in CANON she stayed gnc and ruthlessly talk badly of Aang because he's a boy who's feminine and gets hurt when bullied for it in-universe and he has a fucking right to even if he's cis!!!!They're making fun of him for being himself!'Fragile masculinity' my ass,if you saw a stud or a non-fully transitioned transfem you'd hurl and he thinks Katara's punk girl slay is the hottest shit ever and showed hints of crushing on Toph's butch ass too

But back on topic,this is why i can't stand Zutara man,there's nothing for me to relate to!I'm a punk femme woc like Katara and i headcanon her as trans,bi and autistic like me because i relate to her in some very important ways(though i hc her as transfem while i'm transmasc bigender)and this is also a big part of the appeal of Kataang for me because i'm the girl who had a crush on Aang instead of Zuko Zutara shippers always told you don't exist and i loved Taang because i was rowdy tomboy like Toph but i never had a beef with Kataang,i didn't see anything wrong with it!!!I minded my own damn bussiness and let Katara just vibe instead of making her some evil bitch!And while i'm in love with Zuko now thanks to the comics going into the Gaang's adult years,my canon self-insert ship with him is him and Ty Lee because i'm a super bubbly and optimistic pastel girl who's interests are considered 'stupid/silly/lame' by society and is high maintenance but nice to everybody instead of demanding and it turns out that me as a kid and me now are those ways due to autism and transgenderism!!!!

Zutara does nothing for the woc in me because Katara dosen't look like me since i'm black,i love her and Zuko as bickering found siblings,i have older sister/maternal feelings towards Aang like Zuko does older brother/fatherly ones,i see Mai as a comphet (trans) lesbian but love Maiko because she's weirdgirl rep and Zuko's in love with her and there's also black etchnic subgroups in each nation confirmed in Turf Wars so i don't got anything stopping me from making an Atlasona instead of ruining characters and dynamics!!!!!Zutara is such a less than nothing ship if you're 'not a normal girl' and the fandom's make it beyond crystal clear how they feel about us so that's why i hate it so much in addition to what ass is is!The only thing Z/k's were 'robbed' of is the ability to get a grip,a boyfriend,friends who think they're goddesses platonically like mine do to me and me them and media literacy seeing as Atla's title refers to Aang being the sole survivor of a genocide based off an irl one but they will do everything and anything to remove that out of the context in analysing him and the franchise as a whole

And not to diverge topics again but this is why i'm okay with shaming and mocking Zutara re Natla(and no i don't mean harrasing,i mean og posting)by me and anybody else,they deadass SHOWED PART OF THE AIR NOMAD GENOCIDE and ALSO ADDED 'TOKEN GOOD' FIRE NATION SOLDIERS and it's so beyond fucking racist and disturbing that they're trying to do any gotcha or praise of it involving their military war ship.You's grown and Zuko loves Aang the most anyway,you normie losers

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

One thing I noticed is that Kataang fans, even ones who are a bit of bad apples still have much more restraint then most Zoots, despite frequently going on the anti-Zutara tag I’ve never seen any of ‘em try to paint Zuko as the worst person ever, and honestly that’s kinda surprising, don’t get me wrong he’s a complex character with a redemption arc, but it’s still would be significantly easier to bend and bad faith him into being the devil especially compared to best boi Aang

Just goes to show how rare media literacy is in the Zutara fandom

I think it's a combination of Aang being the main character, never having been a villain, and Kataang being not only canon but endgame.

I like a ton of characters like Zuko (used to be evil, is not the protagonist but is the most popular character, has tons of fangirls) and a ton of enemies-to-lovers and villain X hero ships (including non-canon/non-endgame ones), and the fandom ALWAYS goes on and on about how these characters/ships are SO much better than "the ones the writers keep pushing" and it is almost never true.

Zutarians hate Aang because he's what they wished Zuko was - the center of the story, good guy from day one so no one really has any reason to dislike him (in universe or in the fandom), obviously gets the main girl, etc. It's pure envy - hence me, someone who very much likes Zuko the way he is, not liking how they turn him into an OC to compete with their bizarro version of Aang.