#zutara fandom critical

[melu-lis]

i've seen a lot of zutara shippers argue that if zutara was cannon, some of the problems in the promise would've been solved, but i have to strongly disagree because the core problem with the comics go beyond ship wars. while i understand why bryke would want to humanize fn settlers, they fail to recognize how settlers are complicit in the oppression of indigenous people, especially when ozai explicitly said he wanted to put an end to the earth kingdom; with that context, the presence of fn settlers needs to be interrogated. no settler lives on stolen land peacefully, and the fn settlers are not an exception.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Zutara, romance novels, and the female gaze

Okay so I’ve been thinking about the female gaze a LOT so I checked out a subreddit about romance novels, despite never having read one. I came across this meme (which was initially a Tumblr post and then got posted to Instagram and then to Reddit and I’m now bringing back to Tumblr — Internet telephone, pls never change):

And…what is The Southern Raiders, if not a platonic grovel? Katara’s pain is central to the episode. It’s central to Zuko. Zuko asks Katara what he can do to make up for his betrayal; she demands the impossible. He reads between the lines, cockblocks her brother to get the necessary information, and then waits outside her door overnight (which he also did for Iroh, the one person we know for sure he loves). He basically makes himself a receptacle for her rage, and he holds space for her by coming with her on her revenge quest and carrying their bags and not saying a damn thing about what she should and should not do beyond like…asking her to rest. And obviously the grovel works! She forgives him and then they’re thick as thieves, bantering and fighting and saving each other’s lives, etc.

On a different note, I’ve been told that enemies to lovers is one of the biggest tropes in romance novels, similar to YA lit and fanfic. Here’s something else I found in the romance novel discourse:

And…yeah. In TSR, Katara really does show Zuko her worst self, because she doesn’t feel the need to perform for him. She doesn’t feel the need to perform moral perfection OR cold blooded vengeance. She bloodbends in front of him and he just goes with it. She doesn’t kill Yon Rha and he just goes with it. He doesn’t treat her any differently afterwards. Maybe they talk about it off screen, but I kind of like the idea that they don’t, because Katara doesn’t need to explain anything. And it’s so interesting, because some people in the ATLA fandom have a totally different read on TSR. They think Zuko was encouraging Katara to get revenge (by what, keeping his mouth shut?), and that Aang is the one who acts as her moral compass. I believe that either Bryan or Mike said in the DVD commentary that Aang is the angel on her shoulder the entire time. And this interpretation does make sense if you see it from the male gaze, where Katara as an object of affection is acting in an angry, irrational, threatening way. But if you see it from the female gaze, you recognize that actually it’s probably the most emotionally taxing experience Katara has to go through, and she doesn’t owe it to be nice or perfect to anybody. Katara’s formative trauma literally comes to a head, and she has to make a decision — no, a discovery — about who she is in relation to the tragedy that defines her life and even her identity (as a waterbender, as a parentified child who becomes the mom friend, as a genocide victim), and she’s accompanied by someone who trusts her judgement and validates her feelings.

I’m not saying TSR is explicitly romantically coded, but when it conforms so well to romance novel tropes…is it any wonder that so many people thought “yes this is her man?” And then he takes lightning in the heart for her and reaches for her when he’s literally dying, I will never be normal about that either

[broadwaybalogna]

This is so interesting to me because it’s technically canon that Katara was reduced to being “the avatars wife”. Like, A@ng was always the breadwinner while Katara just watched from the sidelines.

Also, Zutarians will more commonly say that Katara being fire lady gives her the same kind of political power as Zuko, or he would give her such. So it would be a relationship where both are important figures and neither are living in the others shadow.

[mal3vol3nt]

list of aang’s crimes according to tumblr

vegetarian

pacifist

short (he’s 12)

he’s 12

being the avatar

having a crush

his crush liking him back

bald (his culture)

his culture

being a genocide survivor

expressing his grief

not expressing his grief

getting angry

not getting angry

allowing his friends to comfort him

not allowing his friends to comfort him

getting married

being 2 years younger than his gf/wife

growing facial hair when he’s older

having too many children

not having enough children

having children in general

breathing

[burst-of-iridescent]

are canon shippers physically incapable of shutting up about zutara because why is it that if some poor bastard on tiktok/instagram/reddit even mildly in any way, shape or form dares to imply that zuko and katara are cute together, you’ll get a thousand clowns crawling out of the woodwork to whine about how “mai.ko is canon!” “zutara is toxic!” “zutara shippers are delusional” “but katara chose aang!” like i’m sorry when did i order this fucking yappaccino? do you think the existence of zutara is contingent on your unwarranted, unwanted opinions?

zk fandom, always remember you will never love zutara anywhere near as much as random anti #5 on twitter patting themselves on the back for their superior media literacy! we should all be fortunate to learn from such professionals 🥰

[theweeklydiscourse]

It’s really funny how much people misremember certain aspects of ATLA and then proclaim to the internet stuff that either never happened or is extremely distorted with absolute certainty. For example, today I saw a person claiming that whole point of Katara’s character arc was unlearning the parentified behaviours she developed in wake of her mother’s death. That a huge part of Katara’s arc was a confrontation of how that trauma fundamentally shaped her maternal tendencies.

The thing is though…WE the audience, can recognize that the parentification Katara experienced was something that was really straining for her, but the TEXT doesn’t. The audience (or at least certain parts of the audience) can identify that her maternal tendencies were indicative of a responsibility that she took on far too young and subjected her to unnecessary pressure and stress. There are flashes of recognition maybe, but for the most part, the show doesn’t actually confront the negative impact that Katara’s maternal role had on her.

Katara never truly unlearns the maternal behaviours that put so much pressure on her because the text doesn’t see it as a bad thing. Arguably, the text doesn’t see much of a problem with the emotional labour Katara takes on and how that labour goes unreciprocated for the most part (particularly from her canon love interest). We see some reflections, but it’s not enough to support a reading of the text where that element is actually extremely obvious and a prominent point in her character arc.

We’re not the ones “watching the show with our eyes closed”, I think you’re just misremembering the canon progression of Katara’s arc to avoid confronting a real issue in the text.

[sad-endings-suck]

some of you are too angry at fictional children

[xwonderlandresidentx]

I feel like I've been seeing a lot more posts about how both the Kat//ng and Zutara fandoms should stop fighting and tolerate each other more, and while I understand, and to an extent, agree with the sentiment, it bothers me a little because these posts tend to make it out like both fandoms are equally as toxic, when in my experience, that simply isn't true.

I am a multishipper, and even though I mostly just participate in the fandoms for my absolute favorites, I still enjoy lots of different ships, including ships that "contradict" each other.

In AtLA, even though Zutara is my favorite now, I also used to ship Kat//ng. Kat//ng used to be my favorite, and only ship for the series that I actively engaged with. I saw the appeal of Zutara (and others), but for a long time my opinion on it was "it's not canon, so why bother?" and I mostly just ignored it.

But one of the biggest reason I stopped enjoying interacting with the KA side of the fandom was because I saw a vastly disproportionate amount of other KA shippers going out of their way to harass Zutara shippers. And I don't mean simply talking badly about the ship itself, or the characters involved, but personal attacks against the real life people who ship Zutara.

Have I seen Zutara shippers harass Kat//ngers? Yes, of course. But not nearly as much as the other way around. Literally not even half as much. And not just here on Tumblr, but Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Deviantart. All across the internet, I saw KA shippers constantly badmouthing Zutara and Zutara shippers, even in the comments of Kat//ng art and fics, completely unprompted.

It bummed me out, and while it isn't the reason I stopped liking the ship itself, it did make me feel uncomfortable interacting with it's fandom. Kat//ng shippers are, ironically, a big part of the reason I started actively shipping Zutara. Because after seeing the way they went on about it and it's fandom, I thought "Surely, Zutara and the people who like it can't be that bad." So I took a deeper look at the ship and it's fandom, and.... I was right. They weren't as bad as other Kat//ngers had told me they were. Not even close.

[zukosdualdao]

“this isn’t fair! everyone else seems to trust me now. what is it with you?”

i hate how this line gets treated by zuko/zutara antis as evidence of zuko acting entitled to her forgiveness and him being in the wrong for the whole epiosde.

for one thing: zuko doesn’t even ask for her forgiveness here, let alone demand it. he sees the issue as being one of trust, and he is genuinely trying to figure out why she, specifically, doesn’t seem to trust him when he’s that’s the biggest reason he imagines for her reacting the way she is, and the rest of the gaang does. it’s only when she brings up ba sing se that he realizes how badly he hurt her on an emotional level, how she wanted to trust him then.

do i think he wants her forgiveness? well, yeah! he cares about what she thinks of him, he literally says it. but he doesn’t demand it of her; he is genuinely trying to figure out how to resolve this conflict.

and hey, i’m willing to own up to the fact that “this isn’t fair” isn’t a great opening line on that front, and that there’s a level of immaturity to it. katara’s behavior toward him was extremely understandable. but people act like zuko spends the entire episode acting that way when, upon katara’s response, he grows visibly remorseful, asks what he can do to make it up to her, and spends the rest of the episode trying to help her.

i’m also just a little defensive of zuko’s right to be immature, i guess. i feel like an unfair expectation gets put on him, by his detractors, that if he shows he’s still at all flawed in some way or another, that nullifies his redemption. and that’s just not how it works? he’s still a teenager, and a traumatized one, at that. he’s still learning, still working through a lot, and he’s certainly not always going to know the right thing to say or do. it does matter that he’s trying, even if he doesn’t always get it exactly right.

[longing-for-rain]

what exactly is Aang's toxic masculinity that you're talking about? there are no examples of such behavior on his part in the show. he is not an ideal person, he is a child who sometimes behaved incorrectly, just like all the other children in the show (Katara, Toph, Sokka), and this is normal.

in addition, we see how he regrets some of his wrong actions and gets better, while Zuko does not regret his toxic behavior, doesn't apologize and doesn't face the consequences of his behavior (racist jokes about Aang, demands that Katara forgive him as if he has the right to her forgiveness, an attack on Aang to "teach him a lesson" and many other things).

Hi anon, thanks for the ask! This is a very good illustration of what I was talking about in this post when I mentioned that I feel toxic men are overlooked more often for appearing “nice” than they are for being conventionally attractive.

No examples of toxic behavior in the show? What do you call this then?

I know what I (and the law) call it:

But you see, he’s “nice” right? This is just a misbehaved child, as you put it? Yah, no. He knew better and still did it because he was possessive; this whole interaction started because he was jealous that an actress playing Katara was interested in men other than him. And the show proceeded to frame the situation in a way that made Aang sympathetic, despite being the aggressor and the one behaving irrationally. How much more “toxically masculine” can you get than that? But he put on a flower crown once so we’re supposed to think he’s a soft uwu feminine boi (even though he was absolutely enraged that a female actress played him).

I also find it very interesting that you describe Katara and Sokka as “children” while Zuko is omitted from that list despite being the same age. Are you admitting you agree he’s more mature, or are you admitting that you hold him to different standards?

But, anyways. You asked about toxic behavior on Aang’s part, which I’ll get further into now that the most egregious example is out of the way.

Let’s break down what you consider unforgivably toxic behavior on Zuko’s part and compare it to Aang’s behavior in similar situations.

1. “Racist” jokes

I’m guessing this is made with reference to the “Air Temple preschool” comment. How exactly is this racist? In context, Aang is the one trying to force his beliefs on others, and Zuko makes this comment to a) tell him to back off and b) point out that Aang is, in fact, a child who doesn’t have any business telling Katara how to feel.

This point is particularly interesting to me, because it implies that the simple fact that Zuko doesn’t agree with the philosophy of Aang’s culture makes him racist. By this logic, Aang is also racist against Katara’s culture, because he clearly disagrees with her philosophy and is openly telling her that his culture is morally virtuous over hers. And well. That’s even more believable considering Aang’s previous reactions to Water Tribe culture.

Ah, yes. Playing with a cultural artifact like it’s a toy because you were upset about not being the center of attention for once, and telling everyone how disgusting you think cultural food is, what great ways to show the supposed love of your life how much you respect her culture!

I know your response to this point would be something like “uwu but he’s a kid he didn’t knowww” ok well. The same logic can be applied to any alleged “racism” on Zuko’s part.

2. “Demanding” forgiveness

Zuko: What can I do to make it up to you?

Ah, yes. How demanding of him. He’s clearly so self-centered and only thinking about his own values and agenda here.

It’s not like he…

…told his friend how she’s allowed to process her grief and try to impose his own morals…

…or demanded to know if his crush liked him back, wouldn’t accept “no” as an answer, and forced a kiss on her…

…or told an abuse victim he was wrong to want to kill his abusive father for trying to commit a genocide…

…oh, um. Yeah. Sorry, but after actually watching the show it’s very clear to me which character doesn’t seem to regret or see the flaws in any of his actions at the end of the show, which is when all of these examples took place.

3. Training in the finale

“Attacking Aang to teach him a lesson” … wow, that’s a very dishonest way of phrasing that situation. I’m impressed, I have to say. I’ve seen lots of dumb takes from Aang stans over the years but this is a new one.

Well, luckily I actually watched the scene in context, so my reaction was the same as all the other characters’ reactions in canon when they learned the context behind this “attack”:

They agree with him. Yeah. Obviously, when nobody is taking training seriously when the world is about to literally go up in flames, you might need to do something to get their attention.

“But it was dangerous!” you might argue. Well… yeah. When magic and bending is in the equation, training in the Avatar universe has been shown to be somewhat dangerous at times. As an example, from this very same episode, Toph very nearly smashed Sokka with a giant flaming rock. That was way closer to hurting someone than Zuko was in this incident. If you’re going to fault characters for making their training exercises too dangerous, I guess Toph is mega cancelled.

Now back to Aang. What was his reaction in this situation? How did he react to the end of the world being days away? He ran away with absolutely no plan. Just like he did at the very beginning of the show.

I mean, think about it. This is a critical flaw (and toxic trait) in Aang that is literally never addressed, because he starts and ends the show the exact same way: he’s faced with a problem, he runs away from it, then he’s saved by an in-universe equivalent of an Act of God. Wowie, such great character development. Not fixing your core flaw and having a mythical plot device materialize into existence to solve your problems for you. Aang’s whole arc is a big blah, because the writing fails to address any of his flaws or have him meaningfully question any of his values.

Meanwhile, Zuko has consistently been a fan favorite because he’s the opposite. His flaws are meaningfully addressed, he does admit he’s wrong and fix his flaws, and his character shows a critically acclaimed change throughout the show. His arc is written so well that despite being a cartoon character, Zuko is widely considered the poster child for a good redemption arc across all forms of media.

So anyways, miss me with the double standards… there is a reason why Zuko is the fan favorite, and it’s not just his abs 🔥

[starlight-bread-blog]

It's always "No I don't hate A@ng or Ma! I just want to criticize how their characters were handled", and never "They're fictional and you're offended on the behalf of literal nothing".

Ps: Zks say what you gotta say to avoid harassment. I don't hate them either. It's just absurd that hating a fictional character that doesn't exist is something to be denounced in order to be taken seriously.

[melu-lis]

a pet peeve i have with a lot of zutara fanfics is when the hatred between katara and zuko is one-sided and katara hates him solely for the fact that he's the prince of the fire nation because it misunderstands why katara hated him. katara's problem wasn't that she thought he was as his family but that he proved to her that he was as bad as his family. he may not have been as bloodthirsty as azula or ozai, but he still was a willing agent of imperialism by attempting to capture aang and siding with azula in tcod. if zuko was against the war at the beginning, would katara not trust him at first? sure, but she wouldn't outright hate him (jeong jeong was against the war but katara didn't hate him). what i really hate about this characterization is that it makes katara's anger towards zuko irrational and unjustified when she had very justifiable reasons for hating him in canon. i firmly believe that this characterization soley exists bc writers are afraid of zuko seeming unlikable even though enemies-to-lovers stories starts with the love interest being a straight-up asshole but the protagonist and the audience gradually love them over time and zuko was an asshole for most of the series, but he is still well-loved by fans. plus, can you really call it enemies to lovers if one character hates the other for an attribute that they can't control and gets over it by less than 25% of the story? tl;dr: i want more enemies to lovers fics where zuko is a jerk at the beginning of the story.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

“I think Zuko and Katara would’ve made a cute couple”

normal person irl: oh yeah, now that you mention it I can see it

ATLA fan online: Zutara fans are DELUSIONAL and so ANNOYING. There is NOTHING in the entire show that indicates anything romantic whatsoever. EVERYONE hates Zutara. Katara would never get with her colonizer and Zuko loves MAI. Katara and Aang are SOULMATES. You just like Zutara because they look good together. Well joke’s on you because Aang got Katara pregnant THREE TIMES —

[broadwaybalogna]

“God! Why do people ship Zutara!? WTF???”

Here’s a response you’ve probably not heard before:

Why not?

[azulas-daddy-kink]

[redwiccanrobin]

Okay, someone on TikTok said that the only reason that Zutara shippers get shit is because we won’t shut up about it. And, no, I’m gonna rebuttal that.

You want to know why the bullying and harassment of Zutara shippers came to be? Bryke. Bryke made a petty little video back in 2008/2009 in which they used (uncredited) fanart. Most of which were Zutara fanart. In that video, they claimed that girls (made no mention of the boys who liked Zutara) who shipped it would be doomed to end up in a toxic relationship for liking Zutara. And, since then, they have always been condescending and rude to anyone who interrupts their art differently from how they intended. People who hated Zutara then lapped that shit up and followed suit. That’s why Zutara shippers get harassed on the daily.