Why Zutara Isn't A Colonizer/ Colonized Ship
I know this is a touchy subject but I see this argument a lot, and since I feel like it is very wrong for a lot of reasons and I haven't seen a post before listing out those reasons, I decided to have a go at it. Full disclosure, I'm a white woman, I've never been a victim of racism or colonialism or imperialism, so if I get something wrong or say something offensive, let me know. I just think that the amount that this argument is bandied around by antis has always come across to me personally as somewhat insensitive because imho it uses a serious topic as a gotcha in unserious or unrelated situations.
The Water Tribe Was Not Colonized
One thing I think it's important to point out at the start of this discussion is there is a difference between colonization and imperialism. The Water Tribe (and Katara) was a victim of cultural genocide, a symptom of imperialism, but not colonization.
Cultural genocide is the systematic removal of important elements of a culture, such as the waterbending scroll that we see in the Pirates episode, for example. Waterbending itself was also an important part of Southern Water Tribe culture that was wiped out through targeted killings and imprisonment of waterbenders. The Fire Nation's idea was to take away the SWT's bending in order to weaken it and establish themselves as "superior" by removing a way for the SWT to fight back against their dominant position in the world. That is not to say that Katara and the SWT wasn't deeply hurt by the Fire Nation. It's just important to educate ourselves on these terms before we start throwing them around over fictional ships.
Colonization is actually the establishment of colonies and is different from cultural genocide. An example of colonization within the avatar universe is the establishment of Fire Nation colonies on conquered Earth Kingdom territory. Another example is the takeovers of Ba Sing Se and Omashu, where the cities were placed under imperial rule similar to the colonial system, although the cities themselves weren't established by the Fire Nation. Which brings me to my next point:
Song can be seen as a victim of colonization. Although her town in the Earth Kingdom wasn't colonized, she was a refugee from the war and states in her episode, the Cave of Two Lovers, that she had to flee when her home was taken over (and likely colonized) by the Fire Nation. But many people bring up that her and Zuko had some romantic coding in their episode and that Song probably had a bit of a crush on him. She shows him her burn scars, assuming that Zuko also received his as a refugee from the Fire Nation (the story him and Iroh tell her and her mother) in one of their attacks, tells him specifically not to lose hope in the war effort (again assuming he's on the side of the Earth Kingdom), and chooses not to try to stop him or rat him out when he steals her family's ostrich horse. Her confiding in him about her burn is pivotal to Zuko's character because hers is the first specific story he has heard about the way the Fire Nation hurts people, and a story he can relate to, having obviously suffered a burn himself.
Jin was also a victim of colonization. She lived in Ba Sing Se, which was colonized by the Fire Nation. And yet, when people bring up Jinko as a possible ship, like Zuko and Song, even though he lied to both girls about his identity and they didn't know the effect him and his nation had on their lives, these ships don't receive nearly the amount of vitriol as zutara due to the "colonizer/ colonized" argument. To make matters worse, Zuko was personally involved in the colonization of Ba Sing Se. He didn't create the plan to infiltrate the city like Azula, or carry it out like Ty Lee and Mai, but his involvement in the battle between him and Azula and Aang and Katara is implied to have tipped the scales in Azula's favor. In other words, Azula probably could not have colonized Ba Sing Se if it weren't for him.
Sokka was also a victim of cultural genocide in the same way that Katara was, but again, the zukka ship does not get nearly as many accusations as being colonizer/ colonized as zutara. The main reason for this might be a fandom phenomenon I have seen where people claim it is somehow worse to ship zutara than zukka because Sokka isn't a waterbender, and in their minds that makes him less of a victim, but that is not the case. Sokka was also a victim of cultural genocide. Sokka is literally Katara's sister. They are in the same family. If he were to have a child, they could be a waterbender. Waterbending is an integral part of Southern Water Tribe culture, and therefore Sokka's culture, that the Fire Nation tried to destroy. Sokka isn't less Water Tribe because he isn't a waterbender. Beyond that, much of the Southern Water Tribe, not just waterbending, was destroyed in Fire Nation raids. Nonbenders (like Kya, Sokka's literal mother) are implied to have lost their lives in those raids. Zutara isn't a "worse" ship because Katara is a waterbender and Sokka isn't.
And I'm not trying to say that people shouldn't ship Zukka or Jinko or Jetko or any other Zuko ship I didn't specifically mention. I actually don't really have a problem with any of the ships I listed and I've read fic for at least two of them. I'm just pointing out that for whatever reason Zuko's impact on the colonization (or other kind of imperialism) of those character's homes isn't brought up nearly as much as an anti argument against them. People just have a problem with Zuko being a "colonizer" when it comes to zutara.
Context of Character Arcs and Why They Matter
And the reason I don't have a problem with those ships despite Zuko being responsible or complicit in a lot of the horrible things that happen to those characters is because within the narrative, he is not viewed as a colonizer. His entire point within the story is a representation of the Fire Nation atoning for its mistakes. He realizes the error of his ways, makes up for them, becomes the leader of his country, and goes on to broker peace between nations. He personally makes up for his mistakes, then teaches his country to do the same. He is representative symbolically of what the Fire Nation (and real world imperialist nations) need to do in order for power structures to be rebalanced.
In fact, in a way, because Zuko and Katara's relationship is pivotal to Zuko's arc and therefore to the rebalancing of the world (since Zuko is fire lord and the symbolic representation of his entire nation), zutara is a way to further Zuko's arc or even the natural conclusion of his arc. This is seen most prominently in the last agni kai, the fight scene between Zuko, Katara, and Azula, which is their final fight in the whole series. The final act of Zuko's arc, and of his redemption, is to save Katara's life. The story chooses to acknowledge that he has hurt her and his people have hurt her people by making his service to her his last step in making up for his past mistakes. The narrative is telling us that Zuko would not be redeemed without selflessly putting his throne, his country, his future, and his life on the line for Katara. To examine that further, Azula is named after Azulon, the Fire Lord who ordered the raids on Katara's people. Azula is also representative of the cost of imperialism to the imperialist country's own citizens, and is a foil to Zuko by showing the difference between a path dictated by possessiveness and power and one dictated by genuine connection and humility. Katara in this scene is also the last Southern waterbender, the physical representation of both the memory of her culture and the loss of it. And if she were hit by Azula's lightning, she would die, and a large part of that culture would die with her. Symbolically, by taking the lightning for Katara, Zuko is not only redeeming himself, but also saving all that Katara represents: an entire culture, one that his family and nation have wronged for generations. Katara and Zuko's relationship isn't one that is meant textually to represent the horrors of imperialism, but the healing from imperialism, and what can happen when someone who has power within an imperialist system uses it to protect those that system victimizes instead of using it to benefit himself.
Beyond that, it is worth examining whether the show and what the narrative of the show is telling us about these characters is outdated. Because Zuko represents the Fire Nation making up for its mistakes, he is the meter stick by which we have to judge how atla handled atonement for imperialism as a concept. So did Zuko do enough to be redeemed in order to be viewed as a good guy at the end and become Fire Lord, or is atla itself a relic of its time and no longer appropriate to represent imperialism and its consequences to today's children? Since I think my opinion on that matter is already pretty clear, I will leave that up to the interpretation of the people reading this post, because if antis genuinely want to argue with me that even in the last scene of the show, Zuko did not do enough to be redeemed, then what they are saying is that atla itself doesn't handle the issue of imperialism correctly. If you are saying that because Zuko is viewed as redeemed even when he shouldn't be, you are also saying that atla does not properly examine the themes of imperialism it sets out to examine. And to be clear, I do think that there are problems with this show. We have twenty years of hindsight now and just because you find flaws with it does not mean it is inherently a bad or "racist" show, but I am saying that antis can't have it both ways. If saving Katara and Katara herself are so important to Zuko's arc, important enough to be the last step to his redemption, as I have spelled out above, then why is it not appropriate for them to be paired romantically? Either Zuko is not redeemed by the final agni kai, or zutara is perfectly fine and this entire colonizer/colonized argument has always been performative. It quite literally can't be both.
Zuko's Actions Towards Katara In Season One
The final problem antis seem to have with canon zutara (aka the situations that the show itself puts these two characters in, not the situations the fandom puts them in) is how Zuko's actions in season one towards Katara are "racist" or imperialistic. And yes, they are, but let's explore why his specific actions leave room for redemption.
When Zuko first comes to Katara's village in The Avatar Returns, Zuko is undoubtedly using his status as a prince from an imperialist nation to benefit himself. There's no getting around that his actions can be seen as an in-universe expression of racism and benefitting from racist systems. However, Zuko's intentions aren't to in any way progress the cultural genocide that has already occurred in the Southern Water Tribe. He just wants the avatar. He is using his imperial power to procure the avatar, yes, but he leaves the village alone the moment Aang gives himself over. He doesn't indiscriminately start burning down people's homes or take cultural artifacts or try to arrest Katara as the last southern waterbender. In fact, he doesn't do anything to Katara. He manhandles her grandmother, yes, but all of his actions in this scene can be chalked up to general cartoonish kids show villainy, not cultural genocide. Again, he leaves the moment he has Aang.
And as for the whole "I'll save you from the pirates" debacle, I think the main problem antis have with this is that when you really squint at it the scene has sort of rapey undertones, but I think that's where people need to take a step back for a moment because there is absolutely no way that it was the creators' intention to create those undertones or that implication. Again, it's a kids show. No typical eight-year-old is going to have anything weird to say about that scene. The villain tied up one of the protagonists and questioned her as a way to progress the storyline. It's really not as deep as antis try to make it seem. Genre and audience do matter when discussing things like this.
And in the end, Katara chooses to forgive Zuko herself. She decides that while she can never truly forgive the man who killed her mother, she can forgive someone who is trying as hard as he possibly can to make up for his mistakes. She remembers all of his past actions and feels betrayed by him, but recognizes herself that he has changed.
Fire Lady Katara and Ambassador Katara Headcanons
Finally, let's examine fanon a little bit here because I have seen people claim that it isn't necessarily the show that makes zutara problematic, its the shippers, specifically in the implication that if Katara married Zuko she would be Fire Lady.
One anti argument is that shippers are in some way making Katara responsible for the welfare of the Fire Nation and the people that have hurt her and her culture. It isn't the intention of zutara shippers with the fire lady headcanon to imply that it is somehow Katara's duty to help Fire Nation people, but that she would likely want to be involved somehow on the world stage and this is a way for her to achieve that. It is in character for Katara, who has always wanted to have a positive affect on the world and is conscious of her ability to do so, to want to be on the world stage after the war is over. She's a fighter, she says in canon that she wants to fight, so why would she not want to continue fighting politically after the war is over? As for the idea that she wouldn't want to help Fire Nation people specifically, a large part of Katara's arc is realizing that no type of bending, and by extension no nation of people, are entirely good or entirely bad. She has to come to terms with this in her fight with Hama to save the Fire Nation people she kidnapped and through her discovery of bloodbending, which the narrative uses as a representation of the "bad" parts of waterbending. Katara is also not a person who has a problem with general citizens of the Fire Nation. She plays with Mai's little brother during his "kidnapping" in Return to Omashu, helps save the people Jet is targeting in Jet, offers to heal Iroh when Azula hits him with lightning in The Chase, and is one of the first people to believe that Zuko has the possibility to change in Crossroads of Destiny. She also canonically helps Fire Nation people as the painted lady because she wants to save the citizens from the military industrial complex of the Fire Nation. She canonically wants to make changes to the way the Fire Nation government is run to help its citizens. In a hypothetical world where she was in a relationship with Zuko, why would she not want to be Fire Lady?
Another anti argument is that Katara would have to abandon her culture to become Fire Lady, which again is not the intention of shippers who have this headcanon and is also logistically false. If Katara were to become Fire Lady, she would have power over the country that once hurt her people as the second most powerful rank in that nation (and I have also seen people headcanon that she and Zuko would rule jointly, so simply one of the most powerful people in the FN, in that case) and mother of the future fire lord. She would be able to personally oversee reparations and relations between the Southern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation. She would be able to shape the country into something better and thereby help her people preserve their culture.
Now, that's not to say that if zutara were to become canon, the writers behind that wouldn't have to tread carefully in order to make sure their relationship never veered into problematic territory. But since it isn't canon, it isn't worth thinking about that hypothetical. If zutara were canon and something problematic that made the ship seem like it had a power imbalance or was feeding off of in-universe structural imbalances in any way, then that would be an entirely different argument. But like I said, it isn't canon. Fire Lady Katara isn't in atla, she is a figment of shippers imaginations, and, for the most part, that headcanon is handled delicately by the fandom.
And yes, there are some zutara fanfics or fandom posts I have personally stumbled across that I find problematic, but those opinions, tropes, and shippers are not the majority in the fandom. Every fandom has "bad apples" and other ship fandoms within the avatar fandom are not exempt from that. Racism, believe it or not, is not a problem that is exclusive to the zutara fandom.
All of that being said, I do think this is important to talk about and I hope we continue talking about it (albeit in an educated, intelligent, and understanding way) going forward. I think it's important to take a look at media, especially media from twenty years ago, along with the fandom that goes with it, and reexamine it from time to time just to make sure that it is up to our current moral standard in society as we continue to learn more about the affects of and educate ourselves on serious topics like imperialism and colonialism. But by those standards, zutara is not colonizer/ colonized. It doesn't even come close to problematic when you consider some of the popular E2L ships out there.
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