#zutara is still my all-time atla ship

[lady-iskra]

This on-and-off game between Maiko doesn’t do both characters any justice. If the new A:TLA comic were about how Zuko and Jin run into each other in Ba Sing Se—instead of the new Maiko one—with a premise hinting at a Jinko endgame, I would directly buy that thing as soon as it’s available for pre-order. They both really deserve a chance, as they had a load of chemistry in the few minutes they shared together on-screen. That’s of course while hoping they all stay in character, and it won’t be another one of Bryke’s so beloved relationship dramas.

[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.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Ka/taang: friends-to-lovers or the Friend Zone?

It’s almost axiomatic, in any ATLA shipping discussion, that Ka/taang is the friends-to-lovers ship while Zutara is the enemies-to-lovers ship, and that differences in shipping tastes can be boiled down to whether you prefer FTL or ETL.

My first ship was Percabeth. My biggest ship was Klaine. It took me until Mockingjay to let go of my Gale-and-Katniss-are-childhood-friends rose-tinted goggles and start liking Everlark. I started dabbling in ETL because of Zutara, but I’m incredibly picky about it (do not ask me how many Dramione fanfics made me irrationally, disproportionately mad).

All this to say: as a longtime friends-to-lovers enthusiast, I should theoretically love Ka/taang. But…

My difficulty with Ka/taang as a friends-to-lovers ship boils down to this: Aang and Katara’s friendship was always narratively framed as insufficient, because Aang liked her from the start and always wanted a romantic relationship. And imo that dynamic really colours their entire friendship.

I like to think Aang would’ve been a ride-or-die friend — the type to give up the Avatar State to rescue her, the type to commit ecoterrorism and help her get arrested, the type to make her a flower necklace to cheer her up — even if he didn’t have a crush on her, but I will never know that. We never got to see the pure friendship part of friends-to-lovers, because the spectre of the romantic relationship was always there. Before the last five minutes of the show, Katara’s feelings for Aang range from “plausibly interested” (The Headband, Cave of Two Lovers) to “doesn’t hate it” (Day of the Black Sun, The Fortuneteller) to “no” (Ember Island Players). Yet Katara’s eventual capitulation to reciprocation of Aang’s feelings was always depicted as inevitable, starting from s1 when the prisoners during Avatar Day reassured him that she’d “come around” because he’s a catch. It’s as if friendship, even one full of devotion and mutual love like the one they share, is not enough.

And that’s just totally antithetical to what I love about a friends-to-lovers dynamic. I love romances where characters value each other outside of attraction, when they see each other for who they are (this goes double for pretty characters like Katara, whose complexity and imperfections are just as important as her beauty and her care for others). I love the idiots in love sub-trope, where they’re obviously into each other, yet do a bunch of mental gymnastics to remain in comfortable denial (we got a little bit of this earlier in the series, but by s3 we were firmly in Aang-pines-and-Katara-deflects territory). In every friends-to-lovers story I’m simply obsessed with the confess-and-kiss scene, but the version we got in ATLA was ruined by the lack of reciprocation, twice.

Over time, because Aang was written as so insistent about his affections, Ka/taang went from a friends-to-lovers story to a Nice Guy Friend Zone “why doesn’t she like me” story. I mentioned Everlark earlier: I got the same ick for Gale in Mockingjay as I did for Aang in s3, where the woman is not interested yet he still badgers her about it. (And considering Gale is canonically hot, I don’t think the relative attractiveness of Aang is the issue here). But Gale’s insistence was presented as his problem, his lack of empathy, his self-righteousness; Aang’s insistence was just a part of his quest to get the girl.

A lot of people say Zutara is a female fantasy, whether they mean it in a positive or pejorative way. Nobody says the same about Ka/taang, even though women definitely have friends-to-lovers fantasies too. A good friends-to-lovers story reminds me of all the times when I was an idiot before getting together with a friend I was actually head-over-heels for. Ka/taang reminds me of all the times when I was not interested in a friend and they didn’t respect my preference. Friends-to-lovers is a delicate balance, maintained only by unerring mutual respect and unconditional care for each other, and it can veer into Nice Guyism if the writers aren’t thoughtful about why this dynamic is so appealing. Which is exactly what happened with Ka/taang.

[rifari2037]

I found this thread on Twitter and it's so refreshing to know that Zutara fandom actually has strong allies.

Zuko - (my captain) Dante Basco

Katara - Mae Whitman

Sokka - Jack de Sena

Toph - Michaela Jill Murphy

Azula - Grey DeLisle

Uncle Iroh - Greg Baldwin

(even) Cabbage Man - James Sie

It's funny because this fact made me suddenly create a headcanon :

Of course Zuko and Katara shipping themselves, they fell in love with each other.

Then almost all the members of the Gaang except Aang (we don't know for sure about Suki) also ship Zutara because they know Zuko and Katara are secretly making out, while Aang denies it because well, you know why…

Sokka as Katara's brother approve their relationship!

Then Uncle Iroh, he must've ship Zutara since stubborn Zuko asked Katara to help him defeat Azula.

Uncle Iroh as father figure for Zuko definitely approve their relationship!

Azula shipped Zutara? She must've known that Katara meant a lot to Zuko, otherwise why would she direct the lightning at her? She know that either Katara would lose or Zuko would sacrifice himself for her.

I can say, that's the way Azula as Zuko's sister approve their relationship!

And the Cabbage Man. This time I didn't expect it. Maybe he really is a Zutara shipper. Maybe he was the one who told the Ember Island player director that the two of them had a special relationship? (I'm making things up this time) 😂😂

Okay, back to Zutara fandom who has strong allies from the ATLA writers too.

John O'Brian (the one who confirming that they talked about Zutara endgame in writing room)

Joshua Hamilton (the one who fight alongside John O'Brian to make Zutara endgame)

I'm sure the list won't end there

I also wont forget that Zutara fandom has great writers and artists with fanarts, fanfics, video edits, meta and analysis, etc., which makes Zutara never boring. Thanks to y'all 💙❤️

They did get canon, but I can still enjoy the victory!

[kataraslove]

as someone who has recently read the reckoning of roku, it’s really not the anti fire nation propaganda that a certain subsection of fandom is making it out to be. yes, gyatso says those words to roku, but he’s angry - at both the world and at himself for the death of his sister. he later apologizes to roku. the book does not paint gyatso out to be in the right, and neither does it paint all fire nation citizens to be in the wrong. the narrative even makes a distinction between the good fire nation citizens (ta min and roku) and prejudicial fire nation citizens (sozin, primarily), and some morally ambiguous ones like dalisay, but they’re more or less abolished from any accountability for partnering with sozin.

avatar the last airbender does not do a good job at displaying much of the context associated with the crimes of the fire nation, aka the climate and perspectives that justified sozin eradicating the air nomads and many of the benders in the southern water tribe. we know from avatar that sozin wanted to conquer the rest of the world for fire nation domination and expansion, but we’re not given much insight into the causal factors that allowed him to conduct genocide and colonialism, beyond “he was able to do it all in one day with the power of the comet,” and “he was a very bad man.”

the reckoning of roku provides the context for all of that, the factors that contributed to sozin’s blood-thirst. which means seeing sentiment from sozin that view the air nomads - and their pacifist ways of life - as inferior and below human. the novel doesn’t particularly attempt to humanize sozin, not in the way that other medias do when exploring the backstory of their villain. at the end, the takeaway from the novel is that sozin is on the road to becoming the ultimate fascist we all know him for, but this time we’re provided more context into how he became that fascist, and why roku hesitated to kill him.

is it more critical of the fire nation than most of the franchise? yes, i would say so, and having a filipino author be the one to offer that commentary is an excellent decision by avatar studios. but the extent of the critique is still more or less along the lines of “this one guy was truly the operations behind it,” which is still consistent with what we’ve seen in atla. there’s nothing too radical introduced in terms of colonial theory, unlike what parts of the fandom are saying.

which leads me to my final point: if this is how badly a subsection of fandom (aka fire nation worshippers and zutara shippers [not mutually exclusive]) are reacting to the simple notion exploring how sozin committed genocide, then they’ve hit further rock bottom than i can imagine. not only that, but this type of reactionary behaviour risks alienating other parts of the fandom; for instance, fans of the avatar novels who otherwise would have given the ship and the shippers grace.

in other words, many of these hardcore shippers “criticizing” the roku novel have no one to blame but themselves if their behaviour leads to the alienation of regular fans. this loud subsection of fandom is so caught up in their one-sided, imaginary fantasy where everything in the franchise somehow revolves around aang/kataang vs zuko/zutara, that the Evil Bryke are always targeting them, to the point that they’ll fail to realize that the fire nation and fire nation characters are often absolved from accountability across the IP, and the fire nation is explored much more than the other nations are.

[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.

[firelxdykatara]

I too ship Zutara and think they should have been canon. Although for me it's important to know how such a rewrite would go down. I tried to think, and I'm lost.

After Mai betrayed Azula for him, will he just go "sorry, not interested"? He isn't obligated to date her because of this, but her redemption hinges on Zuko and I don't see it being satisfying if he ends up rejecting her after this.

I thought the solution would be to rewrite her arc in boiling rock to make her have a moral realization, but then the problem with Maiko is practically solved. Their relationship wasn't salvaged by her redemption because last time they talked, Mai still didn't understand what's wrong with the Fire Nation and only changed because she loved Zuko. So how do you make it both satisfying & logical?

With Kataang the problem is the Chakras. The problem with the original (in my opinion) is that after he opened his chakra, letting go of his attachment to Katara, he's still attached (forcing a kiss on eip). Should TCoD get rewritten so that Azula shoots him before he opens it? Then why wouldn't he just open it later? Maybe the chakra would be locked so he feels as though he doesn't need to overcome his attachment just yet. In that situation, how would his chakra even unlock? The stone thing felt like nonsense, so how would I do it?

So yeah I have no idea how to approach this. How would you? (Thanks)

I've been rotating this ask in the back of my head like a rotisserie chicken for a few days--it's interesting because I don't generally stop to think like, how would I write them out of these relationships, I either ignore the relationships completely (which isn't hard, they were barely footnotes in the cartoon) or play a little bit with jealous exes or something. Thinking about like, In A Perfect World where Bryke wasn't in charge of ATLA post-canon (because if zutara had been canon, you can be sure they would've made us regret it) is interesting, and I do have thoughts on how I'd handle their relationships in a rewrite.

(this got long, so the rest is beneath the cut)

Assuming you mostly want to keep canon intact, I think maiko would be the easiest to work around, given how little relevance their relationship has in canon. The problem with maiko as an endgame ship is that it was not set up that way--if it had been, it would not have begun entirely off-screen and their whole relationship would not have been a study in misery and utter inability to connect emotionally. His relationship with Mai was there to showcase just how much he had changed and how little he fit into the life he had been so sure he wanted more than anything since his banishment. It worked very well to highlight Zuko's growth--how that contrasted to Mai's lack of it and why she could not understand him even at his most open and vulnerable--and did not work nearly so well when she was shoved back with him in the epilogue, after he'd quite literally forgotten her existence (he never mentions her again after Boiling Rock, not even to say a word of mourning, considering he'd have every reason to believe she was killed for defying his sister).

I don't think you can fix this by giving Mai some moral realization, because there simply is no room for it. As @araeph says in the essay I linked:

As a character, Mai is very useful to the story during Zuko’s return, because she represents everything that Zuko gains by sticking by his father. A girl who cares about him; the ability to indulge her; the authority he has over others at the palace; we see it all in his interactions with Mai. But this makes Mai a tether to a life he has long outgrown. Her function is not to advance Zuko’s character development, but to obstruct it, which also unfortunately means that Mai gaining a full understanding of Zuko’s trials would be disadvantageous to the story. If she knew everything about him and still wanted him to stay, it would give Zuko more cause than he should have to remain in the Fire Nation, but if she knew and encouraged him to leave and join the Avatar, it would rob Zuko of the triumph of making this decision on his own. In other words, there are good narrative reasons for keeping Mai in the dark; it just doesn’t make their relationship any stronger.

The seeds of a genuine redemption arc (one that includes some sort of moral realization and change to her moral framework) for Mai would have to have been planted far earlier than five episodes from the end of the series, but doing so would have of necessity detracted from Zuko's own character arc and the realizations that he makes despite his attachment to Mai (or more specifically to their relationship, which I feel like he was clinging to more out of a sense of abject loneliness he couldn't shake rather than genuine feelings and emotional connection).

So, in my mind, since we're tackling this with an eye towards getting rid of maiko with the fewest ripples to the overall story anyway, the easiest way to do this would be make one slight change to the end of the Boiling Rock two-parter--have Ty Lee (who had always been the least gung-ho of the trio about bowing to Azula's whims and had to be textually threatened into joining her in the first place) save Zuko's life, and then have Mai (who showed the most genuine affection for Ty Lee anyway) save Ty Lee. I love Zuko more than I fear you always fell flat for me as some epic declaration of love, anyway, since a) Zuko is not around to hear it, and b) unlike Ty Lee, she never showed much fear of Azula to begin with, so it wasn't a very high bar to clear. It was a cool line that was entirely unearned, and I don't think it would be missed, there would be some cute mailee crumbs this way, and a throwaway line of getting them released from the prison after the war ended could wrap up their presence in the story pretty nicely.

Now, kataang is a little trickier, if only because the last leg of Aang's character arc is almost completely derailed by his refusal to let go of his possessive attachment to Katara, to the point where he never naturally reopens his chakras, he has to have the Rock of Destiny hit him in just the right place, and the deus ex lionturtle there to give him a way out of having to make a hard moral choice. (I've maintained for years that if you work the final act of your main character's overall arc in such a way that it could have been solved by one good session with a chiropractor, something got fucked along the way.)

The thing about Aang's chakras is that, narratively, his whole thing with Guru Pathik and leaving his training early to save his friends was basically his version of Luke running away from his training with Yoda on Degobah because of his Force vision, only to find out that his friends were in the process of rescuing themselves and then losing his hand because he hadn't completed the most crucial part of his training. What's missing, therefore, from the last act of Aang's character arc, is the return.

See, in Star Wars, Luke pretty explicitly makes the wrong choice when he chooses to prioritize saving his friends over attaining enlightenment and fully mastering the Force. It was the only choice he could have made, but it was still the wrong one--because, like Aang, his friends did not actually need him to save them, he actually almost makes it harder for them to get away by requiring them to save him because, like Aang, he loses a battle in a very critical way. This was a lesson he desperately needed to learn, and it is clear he has learned it by the time he makes it back to Degobah and witnesses the end of Yoda's life, his own enlightenment having already been reached.

But Aang never goes back to the Guru.

And the text refuses to allow us to sit with the fact that he made the wrong choice in prioritizing his attachment to Katara over his ability to master the Avatar State. He is actually narratively vindicated about it, because the plot bends itself into a pretzel so that he doesn't have to spend any time during the last book trying to reopen his chakras and regain access to the Avatar State, handed both in the final battle with no excess effort on his part, and handed the girl into the bargain. (The girl who never even wanted him, so far as we can tell from all the lack of cues she gave him that she actually returned his feelings.)

And I think this could have been solved with a few scattered scenes. Let Katara actually have some agency in her own romantic relationship (or lack thereof), insofar as noticing Aang's advances and clueing the audience in to how she actually feels. Let Aang struggle with the fact that he can't reach the Avatar State, that his mastery of the elements is in limbo because he can't access his full power, rather than ignoring all of this until the end of the show. If we're trying to keep the shape of the last season roughly the same, let Katara confront Aang about the invasion kiss.

This would have been the perfect time to establish that Katara actually does feel some type of way about Aang prior to the epilogue, and it could have saved us from the exceedingly cringey EIP kiss that Aang never apologized for. How it comes across now, of course, is that Katara basically pretends it never even happened, to the point where she doesn't even know what Aang is talking about during EIP until he reminds her--the death knell for any shot their relationship had at looking requited, because I can tell you, as someone who's been a teenage girl, if someone I had conflicted but burgeoning romantic feelings for had kissed me, I would not have completely forgotten about it only a few weeks later--and we never get any indication as to what she actually felt about the kiss (which was not mutual, despite what Aang's dialogue in the EIP scene implies) except for the fact that she looked away and frowned afterwards. (A change mandated by Bryke, who wanted to leave her feelings completely ambiguous; the original storyboards had her smiling to herself.)

So, with an eye towards wrapping up Aang's puppy love crush and establishing Katara's distinct lack of romantic feelings for him, have her talk to him about the kiss. A good frame of reference for this would be Meng's conversation with Aang in "The Fortuneteller", where she finally realizes that he doesn't like her in the same way she likes him. Katara and Aang's conversation about the invasion kiss could be a callback to this, with Aang having some important realizations--that just because Katara doesn't share his feelings doesn't mean she loves him any less, and just because he can't have her the way he wanted doesn't mean he has to love her any less, that she doesn't belong to him but that's ok, because she's still his family and they'll always have each other's backs. Which could have functioned well in helping him take another step towards unblocking his chakras. Going back to the Guru directly may not have worked, since by this point in the story we're hurtling towards the final confrontation and Sozin's Comet, but let Aang reflect on what the Guru told him with new understanding granted him by his experiences throughout the first half of the season.

To keep the stakes high and up the suspense, obviously, he shouldn't have fully unlocked his chakras and the AS before the final fight, but the seeds could be planted--little moments like a talk with Katara about the invasion kiss, maybe a little more empathy and understanding from him about why Katara needs closure in TSR, etc--and then, during the final fight, rather than hand him all the answers on a silver platter, have him almost lose. He still can't go full Avatar, he's out of time, he still doesn't know exactly what to do about Ozai given his own pacifism and desire to preserve that part of his culture--he tries to fight but he's pretty quickly overpowered. Idk how I would've animated this, and maybe it wouldn't have looked as cool for the final fight, but the true climax of the finale was the Zuko and Azula agni kai anyway, so it hardly matters--I'm picturing him doing the rock-shield thing and going into a brief meditative state, where he finally achieves the enlightenment necessary to unlock the AS on his own, no rock of chiropracty necessary. And at this point, I'd give Ozai a Disney Death, since leaving him alive causes more problems than it solves and it's not necessary for Aang to kill him for him to die--they're fighting on a mountain ffs--but if you don't want to change that part then him figuring out energy bending as part of becoming a fully realized Avatar would at least feel more earned than the lionturtle just handing it to him. (And that could've been foreshadowed better by seeding the idea for it earlier in the season.)

After all of that, particularly if you up the emotions during the agni kai and have Zuko and Katara kiss there (or something less explicitly romantic but still tender, like a brief forehead touch), it'd feel pretty natural to have a just friends ending for Aang and Katara. Maybe a brief, slightly awkward but ultimately amiable conversation if Zuko and Katara had a ~thing at their final fight, and then the final shot of the series could be the gaang all together, maybe zutara holding hands or Katara resting her head on his shoulder or something, but since they already kissed there wouldn't feel like a need to end the whole show on romance, something which I've always felt missed the point of the series.

And then, y'know, after that, the world's your oyster! This is how I'd do it if I were trying to keep the bulk of the final season intact. Of course, breaking it all down to its component pieces and rebuilding from the ground up is also an option, but that'd probably be a longer post lol.

[longing-for-rain]

I don’t even understand the character Sokka stans are stanning. It’s not even Sokka. It is like they are taking the big strong tough guy Sokka thinks he is and acting like that is his actual character when it isn’t. I know not all of them are z*kkas but it does seem like atla renaissance and z*kka popularity added to this trend of taking Katara traits and giving them to Sokka instead

Me neither? I honestly don’t dislike Sokka as a character. I never particularly related to him like I do with other characters, but what frustrates me is how the fandom treats him in relation to other characters, especially Katara.

I definitely agree with you that there was a noticeable shift with the ATLA renaissance in 2020. I was in the fandom long before then and the biggest shift I saw was character bashing taking a faux-progressive spin. For example, Mai bashing used to involve calling her ugly and abusive, but shifted into shoving her into sapphic side ships for the aesthetic instead (while still making jabs at her appearance and demeanor, of course, because people can’t be normal about lesbians). As for Katara, it’s even worse. I’ll get into that.

I remember that historically, Katara has been one of the most bashed and hated on characters in the fandom. People would call her bossy and self important, say she was too emotional, that she was too rude, that she didn’t care about other people’s problems, etc. It was blatant back then, but I honestly see the same trends now, just more covertly. People acting like Katara is not as mature as Sokka, not “mom friend,” or otherwise downplaying the responsibilities she had to take on, fundamentally, are operating on the same logic. They do it in a very jokey way a lot of the time or even act like they’re “letting her be a kid” but really it’s just erasing the nuance of her character in the same way overtly misogynistic fans once did.

Because here’s the thing. We can all recognize Katara was forced into a parental role at an early age and that wasn’t fair to her. But acting like that was something that randomly happened on its own is not addressing the problem. But these fans refuse to address the problem by answering the question of why Katara constantly has to take this role…because that would require them to hold Sokka and Aang accountable for their actions and these people will not do that.

I really do think this is tied in with zukka too. I will say that I’m not a zukka anti. I actually really enjoy some zukka content because it can give a refreshing perspective. But I do see a lot of characterizations that are deeply annoying because they really seem like they’re trying to replace Katara. They want the Zutara dynamic but want slash. And I know these characterizations are no longer unique to zukka, but I would agree they were popularized by it.

Just off the top of my head:

The character who is the first of the group to trust Zuko? That was Katara. Sokka was the one in favor of leaving him to die whereas Katara trusted him twice during Book 2.

The character who emotionally connects with Zuko? That’s Katara.

The character who Zuko feels safest letting his guard down around? That’s Katara.

The character who helps Zuko heal from his trauma? That’s Katara.

The character known for showing the most compassion to others? That’s Katara.

The character who primarily bears the burden of having to step up into a parental role? That’s Katara.

The character who represses their emotions to be strong for others? That’s Katara.

And yet, for some reason, there is this new wave of fans who take all of these traits central to Katara and give them to Sokka instead. It’s just frustrating. Sokka is his own character. He’s different. I really just think this is a new brand of misogyny where we take traits like these for granted in female characters but overemphasize them in male characters.

[katarasmomsnecklace]

My thoughts on the ATLA trailer

THEYRE SO BABY seriously I think we tend to forget how young the ATLA kids are. Sure we're reminded of their ages but since the animation can make them look older or the fact some are voiced by adults can makes us blind to them being all under the age of 18

SUKI SUKI SUKI SUKI SUKI SUKI SUKI SUKI her and the warriors look awesome, but I think they're fans are fabric and not metal so I'm not sure if they'd actually work in combat

Zukos scar looks terrible and not in a "omg your face what happened" terrible I mean it looks like he got rug burn or maybe was in a bar fight not brutally fucking disabled. His ear isn't even burnt which is insane. His scar is all one color too, the different colors in the animated show were to convey just how deep the scar is at the point of impact.

Katara and Aang are adorable. I'm a kataang shipper but seeing actual kids this young being in a romantic relationship just kinda weirds me out (I felt the same way with stranger things) I like zutara but I don't want them to push for a ship just because kataang seems too young.

I feel meh about Sokka which is how I felt about season 1 Sokka the first time I watched the show so I guess not all bad

Momo lowkey scares me but in a cute way, and I like how Appa looks. I dont know how much I like the shots of the kids sitting on Appa but otherwise the animals look good

All their clothes look brand new which I know is a weird critique but seriously Katara's fit looks fresh off a PartyCity rack and not the south pole barely has any resources so this is probably a hand me down.

I'm shocked at how good it looks. I'm still scared they'll fuck it up but cautiously optimistic

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I really appreciate your blog! It helps me articulate a lot of thoughts I have about Zutara.

I finished watching ATLA for the first time this year, as an adult. When I finished, I thought the canon romances were cute enough. I also thought it was pretty clear that Zuko and Aang's relationship (platonic or romantic) was the centre of the show.

Imagine my surprise when I went to A03 and found that the most popular ships were ZUKKA and ZUTARA. It had never even crossed my mind since the characters barely interacted. Intrigued, I started reading fics for both to see what the fuss was about.

I read Zukka, and though both characters seemed OOC to me, it was a fun dynamic and I could understand why people liked it. Ofc Mai and Suki were absent, but most fics I saw described them as having amicable breakups and living a great life. In a lot of fics, Mai and Zuko were still super close, and Sokka and Suki were best friends despite the break-up.

But Zutara. First fic I read? Aang bashing. 2nd? Katara cheating on Aang. 3rd? Katara talking about how unappreciated she felt as the "Mother" of the group who had to do the emotional labour. 4th? Katara being kept locked up against her will as a bartering chip. It just went on and on.

I genuinely don't care what people ship, or what they fantasise about. Shipping is just wish fulfillment after all, it's wanting 2 pretty dolls to kiss.

Zutara as a popular fanon ship even makes sense, because they had a genuinely compelling dynamic! But the fics I read made me so uncomfortable. They felt vicious, like totally against the themes of friendship, balance, and forgiveness in the show.

It's a very subjective opinion, but the Zukka and Zutara fics felt totally different to me. Zukka felt lighthearted, like "wouldn't it be fun to make these 2 cute boys kiss". Whereas Zutara felt like the author was trying to PROVE Zutara should be canon, that their ship was better and deeper and more sophisticated than anyone else's.

Then I read some Zutara metas, and a lot of the fics made sense to me. They seemed so vindictive against Aang and Mai, so bitter because they were "robbed". No wonder it translated into fics.

Reading those metas actually made me outraged. So despite not even really shipping Kataang or Maiko at the beginning, now I have began to appreciate them both!

Especially Kataang, because I love Katara and Aang as characters and it just seems so crazy to me that she'd even CONSIDER Zuko, the racist imperialist prince that chased her for 2 seasons. Even if Kataang broke up for whatever reason, Katara would rather be single than ever date Zuko.

So, thanks for the blog. You really highlight everything I dislike about Zutara.

If I got a dollar each time someone told me that they used to not mind Zutara but grew to dislike it and appreciate the canons ships more after seeing how unhinged the fandom is, I'd have enough money to buy the rights to the franchise.

[the-badger-mole]

1. Have you always hated Aang? If you can remember, what specific scene really sparked your hatred for his character?

2. Do you ever regret joining the atla fandom and having to fight tooth and nail for a ship? What’s kept you going all this time?

I've never liked Aang, but my hatred didn't start until the post series canon when I saw how for some inexplicable reason Bryke decided to go ahead and continue making Aang the worst main character and punish Katara and the others for it. The fact that they wasted all of that Zutara potential for a relationship that was somehow AS bland as it was toxic is what made me actively hate Kataang. Even though I never shipped it, I could have just ignored it, and lived happily in my fanfic bubble until I saw what they did to my girl. The fact that they stripped Katara in particular of everything that made her so awesome in order to make her and Aang's relationship believable and then unironically defended Aang for being a negligent parent, was what drove me all the way into the Aang is a Villain, Actually camp.

I don't regret joining the ATLA fandom. I have had, and am still having a great time. I'm also not fighting tooth and nail for my ship. I have my opinions and people can take them or leave them. If people get upset, that's got nothing to do with me. That's not my business. My only problem is when they bring their issues to me directly. If they deliberately tag incorrectly, or they jump into my asks, or reblog me, or leave hate comments on my fic, they can get the business until I'm bored with them. And then they can get blocked. I deliberately don't give them any serious answers, too. I don't argue with stupid anymore. I'm also not here to change anyone's minds on Zutara, Aang, or any other thing I mention.

[darklinaforever]

That’s crazy. I'm making a post to explain the horrible character treatment of Katara in the comics following the ATLA series and as well as the TLOK series :

And I get a comment like this :

It shows the level of mentality of these people (anti Zutara and pro Kataang). Because at no point did I mention the Zutara relationship in this post. They provoke on ships when there is literally no reason to do so. It seems as if it's them who are trying to summarize Katara in terms of her romantic relationships.

Like I said, even married to Aang, Katara could still be a strong character, but the creators obviously didn't let that happen because they're bad writers. Either way, they ruined all the characters in the comics. But in TLOK that we add, the fact is that the treatment of Katara in particular is obvious compared to the other members of the Gaang.

Also, the nerve to tell me it's time to "Move On" on Zutara in 2024 ?

But as far as we're concerned, yes, I think Katara would have been better off with Zuko, both for her as a character in her development (and so it's just as valid for Zuko), as well as on the relationship level romantically speaking. 😇

So... the antis :

[atlafan]

being a fan of a show that's almost 20 years old is so wild, but avatar the last airbender made me who I am today. I wouldn't be immersed in fandom, I wouldn't be a fic writer, I wouldn't have the creativity and love for world building if it weren't for avatar

this show is a cultural phenomenon. The "not as big of a jerk as you could have been" prize? Yeah, that was atla. Cactus juice? atla. TO THE LIBRARY! atla. excessive ship wars that are still being fought to this very day? ATLA! Not to mention all of the fanart and fics and amv's. I remember coming home from school and watching compiled zutara slideshows on YouTube while Cascada's "Be My Bad Boy" played in the background

I am cautiously optimistic about the live action series. Live action didn't work he who shall not be named attempted it, and it was literally the worst thing I had ever seen in my entire life. At least with a serious, they can take their time. I'm curious to see what they've kept and what they've gotten rid of and what exactly they're going to change. Grateful that Jeremy Zuckerman still did the music. We needed his zuckussy on this, and the trailer for the new series made me cry because the music is that powerful. I would really love to know how they're going to spin any chemistry between this Katara and Aang. I can see Aang still having a crush on her, but there's no way this girl is going to have feelings for him by the end. If Netflix doesn't fucking cancel the series before book 3, I want to know how they're gonna tell me she's choosing book 3 Aang over book 3 Zuko. I know that's not what the entire show is about, but it also kind of is.

February 22, watch your back, cause I'm coming for you

[rifari2037]

What’s . , your Opinion On Katara. And Aang relationship, with each other.?

Short answer :

In my opinion, Katara and Aang's relationship would more beautiful and healthy as very good friends, because they support each other way better in friendship-relationship.

Long answer :

Kat/ang as couple wasn't build up with a good storyline even from the start. Their relationship felt and looked like siblings, Katara even acted motherly to him - many proof for that and the writers said so.

So, there's no reason for me to see them as lovers in the future but just supportive good friends with a crush. But a crush - even in real life - isn't a deep feeling and it's very easy to fade away. A strong feeling needs bond, chemistry, sometimes needs twist and turns to understand each other better and strengthen the foundation of their relationship.

Katara and Aang didn't have much chemistry, just physical contact (kisses on the cheek and hugs) and blushing. But for me, chemistry is not just about physical contact, chemistry and bond is about relationship development - it's Maiko problem as well.

Actually, the writers had so many opportunities to make Katara and Aang's relationship well-written - especially since the writers worship this ship - but instead they built up the conflicts between Aang and Katara in the last few episodes.

Well, at least, Aang and Katara's conflicts was resolved in season 1, but I can say that they were forced to end up together, even though their conflict wasn't resolved in season 3.

Conflict 1 : Aang kissed Katara without consent, then Katara acted like nothing happened in the next episode.

Conflict 2 : Aang yelled at Katara, even though she wasn't mocking him like the others, and she just wanted to help him, then they separated and there wasn't even a single conversation at all until they kissed in the end of the story.

Yes, the kiss was canon, but only because the writers forced it, not because Aang and Katara - both of them - deserved it.

The writers tried hard to keep Kat/ang as the winners in post ATLA. But, the more the writers fix Kat/ang the more the writers failed to make them better in their relationship, in fact the writers even ruined some of the characters - especially my lovely Katara, whose role was increasingly decreasing.

That would happen if two characters are forced to become lovers without being built with a good storyline and the writers don't care about female characters.

I don't read the comic and I don't want to read it. But I read quite a lot of criticism about it, especially how Katara's role was nothing more than just the Avatar's girlfriend.

Also, writing them calling each other 'sweetie' all the time is so cringe. I mean, look at Suki and Sokka, most people said they were the best canon pairing, I said the same. They never called each other 'sweetie', they called each other by name and they were still romantic.

Do you know what I felt when I saw this?

Katara sat alone in the corner, looked sad watching her boyfriend having fun with his fans. I could almost feel what Katara was feeling. Katara was angry, of course, but Aang couldn't understand her feelings. In the end, Katara was the one who understood Aang and let it go. Why is it always Katara who understands Aang? She deserved an apology!

Once again, the writers tried hard to keep Kat/ang as the winners in TLOK by writing them as a married couple with three children. Avatar's girlfriend changed to avatar's wife, but the writers still failed to convince people that Kat/ang was a healthy and happy couple.

Instead, Aang was written as a bad father who only favours his air bending child, while Katara had no role, no statue to honour her, and even her grandchildren didn't recognise her.

Actually, even though I am Zutara shipper, but sometimes I'm glad that they weren't canon. I mean, the writers worship Kat/ang but they failed to convince a lot of fans how good this pair - except the shipper only.

I can't imagine Zutara was canon while the writers hated it, the would ruin Zutara badly!

And since the writers are on board in The Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie next year, I'm guessing they'll try to win Kat/ang over (again) and I wouldn't be surprised if it fails (again).

That's why I'm not waiting for the movie.

Katara and Aang don't need to be lovers to be great characters, they can have a sweet relationship as friends and family. All the crush scenes between them could be removed and it wouldn't change the storyline one bit - maybe just annoy the shippers.

NATLA proved that. Aang and Katara had a family-relationship and it was very very sweet. NATLA removed all the scenes of Aang having a crush on Katara, even the Cave of the Two Lovers scene was replaced with Sokka and Katara. Did the main storyline changed? Not at all.

I once read an opinion from a Zutara shipper. The point is, when Aang and Katara are together, Katara has to stay away from Zuko (because their chemistry is stronger). It happened in TLOK, when Katara didn't show up to her granddaughter's coronation because Zuko was there.

Meanwhile, if Zuko and Katara are together, while Aang mature enough to accept his destiny, they will be forever great friends. He also will be a very very very sweet uncle and steam babies' favourite person. It happened in Zutara fanfics and fanart.

I agree 1000000%!!

[dreamchasernina]

People keep finding your posts because you're bad at tagging. They keep showing up in the anti Kataang tag even though they're tagged anti Zutara. You're technically not tagging them wrong, but not well enough that they won't show up in our tags. I've seen like three of your posts in a row in the past few days

But I don’t even tag them anti Zutara! So how are they showing up in your tag?? I only tag them Kataang. If they show up in the anti-Kataang tag just block the tag then. Like what am I supposed to do? Not tag Kataang just so I don’t piss off people who spend all their day in the anti tag? Genuinely, how am I bad at tagging when I only tag Kataang, Aang, Katara and atla??

The Kataang tag is filled with anti so I just filtered that tag…what else is there to do? Some don’t even tag anti Kataang so I still see their stupid takes in the Kataang tag, but I still never engage with them? Cause what’s the point?

Also, I’m not offending anyone’s ship or favorite character, I’m defending MY ship, so why do ZKs feel the need to insert themselves when I’m only talking about Kataang?? I’m not even saying a word about their ship??? So they all come off like “HOW DARE YOU ENJOY YOUR SHIP AND DEFEND YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER?”. That’s how y’all sound, but act like you’re the victims in this fandom??

Also…how much time does one even spend in the anti anything tag…like…

[firelxdykatara]

lol you just know all those "well zutara is bad cause colonization or something" arguments are all bad faith cause like 50% of the time u take a look at the blog that is saying that and they wholeheartely shipping zukka, like i guess the colonization argument doesnt apply if its sokka then.

There's so much 'it's ok if it it's gay' hypocrisy going on in that side of the fandom and it's just so funny to me. Especially when it's coupled with trying to give z/s all the zutara moments and dynamics rather than leaning into Zuko and Sokka's canon dynamic, cause at that point what it tells me is that they really do wanna just ship zutara but they're allergic to m/f ships and don't wanna admit it

So they make up reasons why zutara is bad and problematic, ignore the fact that all of those reasons apply just as much to z/ukka because 'it's ok if it's gay' and then pretend they 'solved' the ship war (by removing the girl the war centered around from the equation). But it's really just hypocrisy all the way down and also probably more than a little jealousy, so at this point I just have to laugh.

And even the people who ostensibly apply the same argument to z/ukka won't say boo about ships like jetko or jinko and I think that's ultimately because neither of those ships are very popular so they aren't a 'threat' to the canon ships the way zutara is for some reason. (I will never understand why k/ataang shippers are so damn insecure. Like even if on the remotest chance the endgame ships in the netflix adaptation are different, it won't affect canon in any way, so WHY do so many of them have such a bug up their ass about zutara being so popular?)

Anyway, I maintain that jetko is the m/m ship that actually deserved to have the massive surge in popularity during the renaissance that z/s got and I'm still bitter about it cause jetko actually has the sauce. (And allows for my favorite atla ot3 without a whole lot of contortion hehe)