#zutara angst

[teapotteakettle]

hc: zuko has a few more scars than Katara realized, and somehow everything starts to make a horrible amount of sense

[pink-concorde]

And although I’ll be out of sight, dear Know I'll be right here Right here forever, ever, ever, ever

When you look to the night skies Don’t think of goodbyes Think how I’m right here ever, ever, ever

Come

No, you can't come with me Stay

I wish I could -“The Goodybye Song” from Smash

…so this is angst (Aangst) and the closest I’ll probably ever get to canon compliant. The sad tale of Fire Lord Zuko and Master Katara; forever pining after each other while they put the greater good first.

[kukos-satellite]

Little self inserting with Zutara. . .

Zuko would be that kid who is always confused in class and Katara would be the kid that the teacher assigns to him to help him with assignments or the one who calls him dumb all the time. She ends up being both, calling him dumb and helping him, she doesn't like him because he’s popular and already has a girlfriend. She was a little in love with him, but she never told him that she was. They’ve gone their separate ways after that.

Psst down here!! Hii, how are you?? Anyway, I'm tempted to add more moments of my life into the fanfics of the ships I enjoy, such as the High School AU for Keith and Lance. I was definitely the quiet kid in high school and there was a popular boy who was a wrestler for the school district. Should I add random moments so that you can see how I am as a person? It's a random way for you guys to get to know me behind the scenes.

[miss-sweetea-pie]

Me and my husband by Mitski just makes me think of of Katara being married to Aang Ft. zutara angst.

Literally, the song opens up with a sigh!!

Like this just makes me think of how she was just sort of forgotten in Lok. Katara did a lot during the war and after and no one even bothered to give her a statue.

But hey at least she is married to the avatar right?

“It’s always just been me and him together” like literally they where 12/13 and 14/15 when they got together.

From a small glimpse we get in Lok we can tell the kids have some resentment for how Aang treated them. I can definitely imagine this caused some fighting and problems in the marriage. also, from what we saw in the comics, we could assume that the air acolytes  may have been a sore subject as well but it’s always Katara’s job to just get over it “me and my husband are doing better”

Okay now let’s get into some zutara angst. I imagine katara at a summit or something and she was pushed aside. Everyone just loves the Avatar, they are here for Aang. I imagine a lot of people keep referring to her as the avatar’s wife, even though they are right it still bothers her.

“But went he walks in I am loved, I am loved”

I imagine that the “he” is Zuko. he walks over to her and they talk and joke like they haven’t been separated for years. It’s so easy and natural, and it always has been. And in that moments Katara realizes but it’s too late she is married with kids and so is he. So she swallows it down and we go back into that chorus.

After all the avatar and his wife need to appear like a happy married couple in this new time of peace. “At least in this life time we are sticking together”🥲

[ellakomskaikru]

Is there a scene that made you waver on shipping Zutara if there is one which is it?

I admit that it was when Zuko betrayed Katara in Ba Sing Se. That was the only time I wavered. When I first watched it and had no idea how the series would end, I just couldn’t imagine how Katara and Zuko would be able to get past that hurdle. It broke my heart to see how hurt Katara was at his betrayal.

Katara: “I thought you had changed!“

Zuko: “I have changed.”

However, as soon as Zuko showed up at the Western Air Temple, my wavering ceased. Keep in mind I never literally stopped shipping Zutara, but there was a period of time where I was unsure. After Zuko showed up however, i was no longer unsure. On rewatches, I just see the betrayal as an angsty moment and watching Katara forgive Zuko and become friends with him just makes me love Zutara even more.

[depressedshipper]

zutara angst is , thinking about old man zuko still on tthe throne ,after Katara's passing, getting more and more depressed by the day, neglecting his duties thus causing disorder in the Fire Nation, stoping taking care of himself and refusing help from the royal waterbending healers so his heart condition worsens.

[yourhighness6]

Ugh I will always love the concept of Katara using blood bending to revive Zuko after the last agni kai, mostly because it makes no sense to me that Zuko was able to bounce back so easily after being struck by lightning, but also because the way the show treats bloodbending is just odd to me. It was a defense mechanism created by a traumatized victim of some of the most devastating parts of colonization, and although I understand that Hama was supposed to symbolize the "bad parts" of waterbending and was important for Katara's growth in realizing that the world isn't entirely black and white, its still disappointing to me that the show never explored the gray areas of blood bending, especially since that episode was, as I stated above, about understanding the gray areas of the war. Katara using blood bending to revive Zuko would add so much to the last agni kai in demonstrating that she has truly realized that "good" and "evil" are relative concepts, and Zuko being saved by both a defense mechanism of a survivor of colonialism and a type of bending used to terrorize his people would have even added to his arc, as the narrative required him to save and subsequently be saved by the physical embodiment of everything his family sought to annihilate.

[teapotteakettle]

quick zutara squeeze

[linkspooky]

I'm excited to post this commission by @ oakyvii of a future scene in my Azula redemption / Azulaang fanfic. It's are moment of Zuko and Azula getting along as they wander the palace grounds.

if you're interested please check out my fic here on AO3.

[kukos-satellite]

The Zutara fanfic has approximately 1.1k words, just felt the need to update you and we are no where near the place I want to be at. 🙂

[beanaroony]

When I said “or two” it was for real. 

[bblackthing]

You feel like a lightning

I'm ready to die by...

-Fire & Water by The Stranger Artist

[sokkastyles]

Katara felt exilhirated, her hands catching the cool night air as it whipped past. Bright flashes of colorful light popped on either side of her, accompanied by the huge crackle-boom of what she had learned were called fireworks.

At first, she'd been hesitant to the idea of explosions during a festival, but over time, she'd become more used to the Fire Nation's idea of fun. She had even found it beautiful. Aang laughed, leading Appa to race through the colored smoke while Sokka and Suki screamed in delight, and Katara screamed, too, holding up her arms and feeling free.

Until she looked over at Zuko, whose face seemed to be turning a shade halfway between ghost-white and bogwater green.

She tried to edge closer to him in the wide saddle, but it was impossible to move with how fast Appa was flying. Zuko's eyes met her gaze, and she asked "are you alright?" Her words were swallowed by the wind, and Zuko hadn't heard her, his eyes far away. There was another reverberating boom as an explosion of color went off on her other side.

"You want to know what fireworks are like for me?" Toph said to Sokka as Appa landed, a mischievous grin plastered on her face. She had not been enjoying the festivities any more than Zuko had.

Katara winced as Sokka closed his eyes at Toph's bidding, then watched her brother yelp as Toph screamed "BOOM!" into his ear.

Sokka wasn't the only one to jump. Zuko was still clinging to the side of Appa's saddle, even after they had stopped.

"Hey," Katara said, holding out her hand to him. "You alright?" she asked again, now that she could hear herself talk.

Zuko stood up without taking the offered hand, and climbed out of the saddle only a little shakily.

"I'm fine," he said, and walked off.

She found him later sitting on the edge of a fountain ringed by lantern light.

"I used to love fireworks when I was a kid," he said as she approached, his gaze on the bright reflections in the water. "Now it's just...I...I can't see as well, when Appa goes so fast, and it's hard to hear anything."

Katara remembered how noisy it had been when they were in the air. She remembered her first Fire Nation festival, back before the war had ended, and how afraid she had been of the fire. Now, fear was part of the thrill. Experiencing something like that in a way that was safe and fun, knowing it couldn't really hurt you. It was the kind of fun that Zuko must have grown up with. He must have always known that the fire couldn't really hurt him. Until it had.

"It took me a long time to be able to bend again, after," he said, looking up at her, finally, and Katara didn't have to ask him what he meant.

"Maybe someday I'll be okay with fireworks again," he said.

"It's okay," she said. "Even if it's never the same as it was."

It would never be the same, of course. Sometimes, a part of her wondered when she had become so desensitized. It had to be the opposite for Zuko, now. She saw the way he looked sometimes, when people made references to his past, the way he cringed when he spoke about it, how angry he grew on behalf of the Earth Kingdom citizens he had once considered beneath him. It was funny how time changed the way you looked at things. She wondered if it changed the way Zuko looked at her, the way it had for her. Sometimes it seemed to her that they were always just missing each other. Maybe they would never be able to see each other face the face, but for that one moment long ago, under Ba Sing Se. There would always be a part of her that remembered the feeling of being seen, of being known and having been known, by an enemy who was no longer an enemy, but something else entirely.

Together, they sat on the edge of the fountain, just the two of them. They stayed beneath the lantern lights, while everyone celebrated around them, and remembered what it felt like, to burn.

[cyanorhis]

In terms of “canon-compliant” zutara, I think often about how Zuko’s development is both his redemption and his doom.

Because how come the obsessive go-getter of the show does not fight harder against fate (bryke’s annoying ass) to save his beloved from putting herself into a rewardless martyr-like situation in the form of a marriage that serves as repopulation program? (Which I always thought was ridiculous).

He learns bit by bit to acknowledge and make up for his mistakes. He respects Katara above all else. He fights fair. He does not guilt-trip her nor treat her like a reward. He loves her. He gave his life for her. He would not have survived had she not been the exceptional person she is. He supports her decisions no matter what. He listens to her.

So when she tells him about her ridiculously good and selfish intentions of pandering (once again) to a non-celibate Monk who wishes to have her mother his children for the sake of airbending and his supposed affection that was born out of the self-insert of narrators who give way too much importance to childhood crushes for one’s babysitter, he might argue but he can’t help but love her and respect her decision, both horrified by the cruelty of fate (aka bryke) and filled with admiration for the person she has always been.

If Orpheus loved Eurydice too much not to turn back when she tripped behind him, then Zuko loved Katara way too much not to validate and support her terribly selfless decisions. Because how dare him be selfish and want her for himself. And how dare him tell her what to do after years of war.

It is terribly tragic because on the other side, a part of her wishes he had fought harder.

A “villain” turned “hero” sometimes can mean the upholding of ideals made by two men who enjoy shaming young girls for their choice of love interest. Sometimes, the lack of a “villain” to whisk away the princess from the “hero’s” hands means said princess will remain unacknowledged and forgotten in a narrative that turns it into something of her own volition, a narrative that ignores everything a beloved female character represented for the people she was made to represent (by their own words, must I say). It leaves the realm of picking the love interest (which honestly could simply not ever happened in any form and would still be better than this) and enters the realm of once again giving a poor treatment to a female main character who quite literally Drives the story from its beginning.

And just like Orpheus and Eurydice are doomed by fate, Katara and Zuko are doomed by Bryke. And surprisingly, Katara gets the worse of it.

[lovisus]

dont go

Genuinely forgot all about Zutara month and I would like to reward you all with angst in apology because I am evil.

[the-badger-mole]

I wonder what Zuko-had-a-crush-on-Katara-from-season-1 Zuko would have done in the Crossroads of Destiny 🤔

Depends on my mood the story. Honestly, if it was just him having a crush on her, he would absolutely still side with Azula. At that point, he still hadn't grappled with the wrongness of the FN's stance on the war is. He's still trying to regain his daddy's love his honor in the only way he thinks he can. He's not going to "betray" his family and country because he has a crush on Katara.

Now, in a story where he comes to terms with the horrifying effects of the war and he has a crush on Katara, yeah, absolutely he switches sides. But Katara wouldn't be the reason. Spending time with her would be a bonus, but not his main reason.