Aang could have had amazing character development by calling Katara out (“you can’t protect me from everything, Katara–it’s not fair”) when he realizes the extent to which his inability to control the Avatar state unfairly burdens Katara with the responsibility of making sure he doesn’t hurt the people around him. So he goes to Guru Pathik and lets go of his attachment to Katara. And by this, I mean a nuanced take on “attachment”–it’s not “You can’t ever love Katara” but “My current attachment to you–in fact, our attachment to each other–is codependent and selfish and has been ever since you dug me out of the iceberg… I want better for you, for us, so I’m letting you go. I love you more than I love my attachment to you.”

And this is a much better setup for a poignant, selfless, transcendent romance. It could have actually intertwined their character arcs to grow together instead of the half-assed mother-child-but-you-forcibly-kissed-me-against-my-will-but-I-guess-I’ll-kiss-you–in-the-last-20-seconds dynamic we got in the show. 

(As an aside, the poignant transcendent symbolism, the selflessness, the growing together is why Zutara remains the vastly more popular ship 15 years after the airing of the show despite not being canon).

Imagine if Katara and Aang actually got to be friends on equal footing after they stop idealizing each other.

Imagine if Aang matured enough to provide emotional support to Katara instead of always the other way around, in a “You’ve always taken care of me–let me take care of you for once” sort of way.

Imagine if Aang was secretly pining for her instead of forcing his feelings on her, conflicted between his duty as the Avatar, upholding his Air Nomad philosophy of detachment, and his growing selfless love for her–the real Katara with all her flaws and darkness and not the Katara in his head he idealized. Basically going from “Why aren’t we together yet?!” to “It’s okay you don’t love me yet or ever–I would never expect that from you. I know now that that would be selfish–and I made the mistake of being selfish with you once, and I don’t want to make that mistake again. Love comes in time, in its own way, and it shouldn’t ever be conditional.”

It would have been so great for him as a character. 

Imagine Katara not holding back with Aang, getting angry at him, telling him exactly what he needed to hear (for e.g., when he runs away and how that affects her abandonment issues) instead of accepting/enabling his selfishness with nary a word of reproach.

Imagine Katara realizing that her need to mother him was wrong and came from a place of trauma stemming from her mother’s death and her fear of losing anyone else close to her because she couldn’t protect them.

Imagine Katara letting that go and eventually, down the line, she develops genuine feelings for Aang–not the boy she rescued from the iceberg, simultaneously child and savior, but the man who despite everything has matured into a kind, generous, selfless, non-judgmental, and genuinely wise person who always puts other above himself or his selfish desires.

Imagine a relationship that is less about destiny and “baby, you’re my forever girl” and more about a mutual “I don’t care about destiny–it’s never been about that. It’s been about just you and me, and I hope I mean as much to you as you mean to me. I want you to be my forever person, if you’ll have me, because what we have is something destiny could never predict.”

Because true love is not blind. It sees all and does not mind.

I want all of this emotional tension present in this ship. I want it to be resolved. I want the catharsis. 

THAT is the Kataang I want to see.

Goddamit, now I want fanfiction of this. Someone please write this.

Instead, we get a juvenile fifth grade romance that never moves beyond mutual and toxic idealization and actually regresses further in the comics with anti-feminist physical intimidation (throwing lava at the girl you like, anyone?) and emotional abandonment (Aang cavorting with the new Air acolyte girls while Katara is left abandoned and the comics make Aang out to be right wtf—).

Totographs Contributors

Hello, fellow oui-aboos 😎

We are still alive, and we are excited to present our contributors for Totographs: A Miraculous Humor Zine!

Things are rolling right along with the zine, and we’re still on track for release in mid-January. Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can get hype about our amazing artists and read these excerpts to get a sneak peek of the fics that will be in the zine 👀

(Contributor links under the cut)

Gamer Girl Mari AU! 

Mari runs a youtube channel named Ladybug Plays (LBPlays for short) 

This is now Tikki every time Adrien and Marinette will be in the same room.

I had such a blast animating this, I hope you guys like it :D

They said they were watching the last episode three episodes ago 💀✋🏽.

Ahhh finally!!! ☺️☺️.

Merry Christmas @yimicreatesx I’m your @mlsecretsanta I really hope you like it 😌✨✨.

"It's like you've got super powers"

"Turn my minutes into hours"

"You've got more than 20-20, babe. Made of glass the way you see through me"

"You know me better than I do"

"Can't seem to keep nothing from you"

"How you touch my soul from the outside? Permeate my ego & my pride."

"I wanna love me the way that you love me"

"Oooo for all of my pretty"

"And all of my ugly too"

"I'd love to see me from your point of view"