one hundred years

I mean, we never saw Aang as angry as he was in The Desert, but no one complains that he was OOC there. We all understand that loosing Appa was one of the worst things that happened to Aang, and that it most probably also triggered his trauma of being the last of his people.

Even though we don’t approve of his actions, or how he treats the other characters in that episode (especially Katara), we understand and empathize with him. It is a unique situation that has expertly touched on a wound that hasn’t healed, and no one demonizes or expects Aang to act rationally here.

What Taga says is an insult, as he says that "the skies are no place for a water child," and Katara has an insulted reaction. I am sure that this is supposed to be another example of how Taga represents division vs unity, and how he doesn't trust benders of other elements.

But a couple of problems. One is the ongoing problem of Aang having no reaction whatsoever to Taga saying racist things about his friends, and especially Katara.

The second problem is that this particular insult is particularly offensive, considering that Katara and her people are indigenous coded. "Water child" not only is a diminutive to Katara, who is not a child in the movie, but it also implies that waterbenders in general are child-like, which is historically a common stereotype about indigenous peoples, used as both a backhanded insult (the idea that they are closer to the earth) and to justify oppressing them.

And like I said, Taga is the bad guy, but the problem is that Aang never comments on it. This should be a red flag for Aang, and indeed, seems to be one for the audience. But Aang will later side with Taga against Katara, eventually yelling at her when she calls him out for driving them into the storm. Which is also funny because Taga says the skies are no place for her, but without her control of water, they definitely would have died.

What Taga says is an insult, as he says that "the skies are no place for a water child," and Katara has an insulted reaction. I am sure that this is supposed to be another example of how Taga represents division vs unity, and how he doesn't trust benders of other elements.

But a couple of problems. One is the ongoing problem of Aang having no reaction whatsoever to Taga saying racist things about his friends, and especially Katara.

The second problem is that this particular insult is particularly offensive, considering that Katara and her people are indigenous coded. "Water child" not only is a diminutive to Katara, who is not a child in the movie, but it also implies that waterbenders in general are child-like, which is historically a common stereotype about indigenous peoples, used as both a backhanded insult (the idea that they are closer to the earth) and to justify oppressing them.

And like I said, Taga is the bad guy, but the problem is that Aang never comments on it. This should be a red flag for Aang, and indeed, seems to be one for the audience. But Aang will later side with Taga against Katara, eventually yelling at her when she calls him out for driving them into the storm. Which is also funny because Taga says the skies are no place for her, but without her control of water, they definitely would have died.

To Surrender (Zutara fanart)

Surrender all the pain we've endured until now Surrender, all the hope that I lost, it was found Surrender yourself to me

-Billy Talent, Surrender

ATLA Fanart for Zutara Month 2025 (@zutaramonth)

Like they see how many girls and women look at Ka/taa/n/g and say "she would not fucking do that" and it breaks their fantasy because it's a bunch of girls the same age as the girls they got rejected by reminding them that they're delusional and that 14 year old girls are not attracted to prepubescent 12 year old boys who force kisses on them?

And every time they have to think about the popularity of Zutara it is another gut punch to their inner 12 year old boy who is still not over their unrequited childhood crush? Like it just keeps reminding them that in no situation would 14 year old Stacy from next door have wanted to date a 12 year old them no matter how mature she realized they had become? And that she'd still be picking Brad the 16 year old emo boy every time? Even if they had superpowers?

Yes, in reality, a 14-year-old girl would prefer to choose a 16-year-old! Not a 12-year-old! That's what most people say! Seriously, screw you. This is the same guy who claims Aang is different from classic male characters, which he isn't.

@sokkastyles

Zuko is the Captain of his own damn ship!

Oh captain our (hot)captain! 😭

1) katara was looking at zuko's lips (!!!)

2) and then looked up for the eye contact

3) and then as she was leaving kept maintaining the eye contact

my girl katara was flirting and zuko was eating that! shit! up!

I've seen a lot of takes about this recently going over how Katara is super serious and Aang being silly and goofy allows her to relax and be a kid again, when it's quite literally the exact opposite. She is forced into a more serious, maternal role prematurely because she feels she has no choice but to take care of Aang because he is irresponsible in a situation where him being irresponsible has disastrous and fatal consequences attached.

(I also have a problem with a lot of takes I've seen blaming both Katara and the audience for parentifying her: nope, that's intentionally included in the text. It was woven into the very foundation of the Kataang relationship. See beneath the cut.)

Katara stepped up in the absence of her mother and took on all sorts of adult roles for the other children both in the Southern Water Tribe and in the group. And people blame her for this, as if it's her fault for taking on these responsibilities, saying she could stop at any time and that no one is asking her to do these things. But if she stops, it doesn't get done and the stakes for things not getting done include the world ending and more people dying.

They will go without clothes, without food, without shelter, without emotional support (which for Aang means remaining in the Avatar state and actively endangering people!). She keeps the group moving forward, keeps them on track. Literally if she stops, the world ends because she's the one primarily concerned with Aang's training while he wants to play. It was a constant struggle for her to get him to do even the bare minimum of his responsibilities; he remains resisting training even until the very end of the show. Who knows how quickly he would have stopped if she wasn't there the entire time pushing him along?

That isn't him letting her have fun and act like a kid, that is him burdening her with more responsibilities because HE wants to act like a kid in a situation where they don't have the space to. Katara doesn't need to shirk responsibility and mess around, she needs HELP. She needs someone to take some of these necessary chores off her back. She needs freedom from being the one who is just assumed to take all these things on.

Yes, she is a kid. She shouldn't have to deal with this. But because she's responsible and moral, she won't just stop and let everyone suffer because of it. Every time she blows off chores to "be a kid" having fun with Aang, she has more work to do afterwards because no one else will have done the work in her absence. That isn't freeing, it's stressful.

It's also why him putting her on a pedestal and doing meaningless displays for her affections are not signs of real love. Real love is not distracting someone from work you put on their back in a way that makes their life harder, it's finding out what actually would make their life easier and doing that. Which for Katara would be helping her with work that was his to begin with: doing it without being asked, without expecting praise, without needing her to hold his hand through it. Doing it because it is his responsibility to begin with.

People often bring up that he was willing to give up the Avatar state for her. But I submit to you: that wasn't for her, it was for him. He doesn't want responsibility, he wants Katara. And he's willing to subject her to living in a world he no longer can save (a world where her loved ones will suffer and die) to hold onto his one-sided infatuation/attachment to her. Again, this wasn't a gesture of love, it was selfish. He didn't consider how it would affect or negatively impact Katara or if it's even something she'd want (it's not!), just how it would affect him. Just like he doesn't consider how she feels about him back and only worries about how he will feel if she doesn't like him back as if it's the only important factor in their relationship.

Aang doesn't give her back her childhood. He takes it away. She has to be the adult so that he doesn't have to. He gets to be a kid because she's taking care of everything else for him like a mother. Katara was forced to marry a guy she'd always have to be carrying in terms of both domestic labor and emotional labor because that's the dynamic they intentionally wrote. Carrying the weight of a whole other person in a relationship and having to fix all their problems like that is not sustainable and is an abusive dynamic. Love is selfless; it isn't benefitting from the toil of your partner nor doing whatever you want to their detriment.

That's why Zuko joining the group having learned the value behind this kind of labor is so important. He is the only other character shown to take up some of these responsibilities consistently: without being told, without expecting praise, without having his hand held. He packs, serves food, is strict and disciplined about enforcing training onto Aang. He is also the only one who allows Katara to process her negative emotions, another burden that she lifts from others but only Zuko helps her heal from. Katara acts way more like a teenager in front of him than she ever did around the others, teasing him and coming across way lighter. Because with him picking up the slack, she actually has the room and freedom to relax because she has less to worry about.

(How the relationship was characterized and the problems with it under the cut:)

But there's always a hater who denies what is literally right in front of their eyes:

But I love the discussion here:

And the things is, I really think they wanted to incorporate the philosophy all the way, but it was scrapped because of Ka/taang. For instance, Zuko had something called a Kundalini awakening in Book 2 (that fever dream thing) and in Book 3, after The Awakening he doesn’t really act like it.

Or the stuff about chakras and attachment being completely contradicted and ruined. And here’s the thing, I don’t personally believe in any of this spirituality and most of the philosophy, but I like it when a show I like is consistent in its metaphysics and lore.

You can’t choose to use a system (in ATLA’s case Hindu and Buddhist philosophy) for your show’s lore, metaphysics and logic and then contradict, butcher and or abandon it, which is what ATLA’s writers did, as Book 3 pretty much threw away all the philosophy the show was using.

I’ve said before that there’s a reason why ATLA isn’t actually popular in the places that the cultures are gotten from, and this is why, they can tell when their own philosophy is being butchered.