Shortly after Zuko's first visit to the South Pole after the war, he'd started seeing visions of a young woman dressed in blue with a striking resemblance to Sokka and Katara. At first, Zuko was wary of the spirit, knowing how she had been a victim of his people in life. How could a motherless child of fire possibly not feel shame upon being confronted with such a vision?
Soon, Zuko began to see the woman not just at the South Pole, but at the Fire Nation palace, out of the corner of his eye, or standing in drafty, empty rooms.
He'd woken at night with his mother's name on his lips, dreaming of a memory of being shaken from sleep, and when he'd opened his eyes, she was there standing by his bedside.
This was the only and final time that the spirit would speak to him. The words "take care of her," barely a whisper, or perhaps no more than a thought in his head.
Zuko never told a soul about the vision, nor did he ever see her again after that, but sometimes he got the impression that Katara knew about it anyway, the way she would talk. The women in the South Pole spoke about Kya's blessing upon her daughter's marriage as if it had already been given, and perhaps, Zuko thought, that it had.
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I just know that if zuko and kataraâs scenes were zuko and anyone else, antis would be shipping TF out of it. Like imagine if it was suki or sokka that zuko jumped in front of lightning for, or tenderly touched zukoâs scar or got the bf gf teasing (and these are just a few of the zutara scenes), they would undeniably claim they are romantically coded moments. But zuko and katara have a sibling dynamicâŚrighttt
All you have is sun and moon symbolism and fire and water symbolism and yin and yang and the forbidden love trope and the intentional oma and shu parallels and support from the voice actors for both characters and support from the main writers for both characters and support from some of the lead animators including one who made official art and undeniable primary source evidence that they were being set up as love interests and each being the epitome of what the other expresses wanting in a partner and parallel mother loss and parallel daddy issues and parallel sibling relationships and angst with a happy ending and insane chemistry and a romantic song named after them on the official album and both having a spirit persona from the other's culture and everything about the Final Agni Kai and the fact that they look amazing together. Which is basically nothing.
Actually Zutara shippers are delusional and media illiterate because obviously the real reason Katara cries after reviving Zuko during the Final Agni Kai was not because they were close friends who cared for each other deeply, those weren't tears of joy, it was that she hated him so much that she was sad when he didn't die. She actually put such little effort into her healing that his survival was entirely thanks to the placebo effect.
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Strongly inspired by the zutara au made by this amazing artist pineapple-frenzy and Pursuit of Jade (specifically ep4) đ¤đâ¤ď¸
đŹ 45  đ 3446  â¤ď¸ 13941 ¡ Book 2 au with Zuko and Katara Lee and Huamei
Katara is separated from her friends, and so she's left to travel th
i know a lot of people take the implication in the first episode that for the past two (and a third-ish) years zuko has been chasing down any remotely spiritual phenomena as a sign of the avatar as a comical one, but i just...can't. iroh's face, man.
how many times have they been "down this road before"? How many times has zuko gotten "too excited over nothing"? when was the first time? did he have to listen to zuko chattering about how his banishment was nearly over, how he would be going home before even his fourteenth birthday? how many times has he had to piece zuko back together after yet another disappointment? how many times has he wanted to grab zuko by his shoulders and shake him? how many times has he bitten his tongue? he does not love you, but i love you. he does not want you home, but this could be a home. he does not deserve you...and maybe neither do i, if i can't bring myself to tell you these things.
You think fics that turn Aang into a r*pist is "not brushing off his canon actions"?
First off, don't censor yourself, this isn't tiktok. It's rape. If you're going to try to use rape as a gatcha moment in a ship war, you can at least say it with your chest. I'm an adult, I know what that word means.
Now, I honestly don't even know what fics you're referring. I have read a LLOOOOOTTTT of zutara fanfic over the years and I cannot remember reading a single one where they made a/ng a rapist. (But maybe that's because if I don't want to read something, I just don't click on it.) But I have read some where he sexually assaults Katara.
This isn't ooc, most of the time it's a fic about where he canonically sexually assaults Katara when he kisses her without her consent on Ember Island. Despite what you may think, that is sexual assault. I also don't think it's that big of a deal for writers to explore a dark concept in fic, as long as its tagged correctly, especially when it's rooted in something he does in canon. I personally think that for many writers it's a logical jump considering he has kissed Katara without her consent twice and has uncontrollable anger issues that he requires Katara to manage.
The majority of the Zutara fandom doesn't think that a/ng is a rapist. They say he sexually assaults Katara, which he does. He kissed her without her consent during a fight where she said she was not interested in perusing a relationship. That's what I mean when I say that most zks aren't actually vilifying a/ng, they're pointing out the problems with the writing, as this is never actually addressed in canon.
The thing is, I'm sure there's plenty of things that kas and antis write that I don't agree with or I would say vilifies Katara or Zuko, but I wouldn't know, because I don't interact with it. If you don't want to see depictions of a/ng as a rapist, don't read them. Again, it's not even a majority of zks that write stuff like that.
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Zutara antis got soooooo mad when they were called conservative, but in the past week I've been seeing a rise in "if you don't love everything about the show you should stop watching it and engaging with the fandom," and, well. This is conservative logic, my friends.
The Fire Prince is different than she remembers, barely an echo of himself. He moves as though he's treading deep waters. Sometimes, Katara feels like she's watching him through a fog.
After being exiled from the North for bloodbending an abuserâbefore facing Zhao and being thrown to the seas for Zuko to findâshe'd heard the stories. Prince Zuko died as the Long Night began, caught in the explosion of the Yuurei. And yet, here he was, offering Katara passage to Omashu so she can reunite with her friends.
(Breathing in time with the fires of a ghost ship.)
.
Reverse AU:
âYears ago, a spirit showed me a reality in which I was meant to be the Avatar,â Zuko's airbending Master said. âKyoshi died a century earlier and the Tribes didn't join forces to make the world their hunting ground. The Cycle itself was different, tooâelemental opposites didn't succeed one another. It was so marvelous, yet so strange. However, this is our reality, and you're the Avatar.â
Placing a tile on the board, Aang continued, âPerhaps if water wasn't the next element in our Cycle you'd get a free pass, but we're not so lucky. Everyone's out to kill you so the next Avatar will be born in the Water Tribes. If that happens, the world is doomed. So you better get this exercise right, Zuko, or Princess Creepy-Yet-Pretty's going to catch you. And this time, I don't think she'll hold back."
"Guys, totally don't harass them, they deserve it and here's exactly when their week is and their social security number, but don't send them hate, pwease!!!!" đ˘đ˘đ˘đ˘
The reason why those âwhy ship zutara when you have [ship name]â posts (or any variant of those posts) that are meant to be âfunnyâ or ânot anti-zutaraâ donât bode with me well at all is because they donât address any problem. Itâs just âdonât bother with that shit, do this insteadâ. Itâs like wanting to erase zutara instead of trying to understand why zutara gets a lot of hate. And you can and go on and on about how âitâs just a jokeâ âthey donât actually mean itâ. WellâŚTHERE WILL ALWAYS BE UNDERLYING ANIMOSITY AND HATRED. But most of the time, like what weâre used to and what we always see, itâs not underlying, quite the opposite actually - overt.
(Just circling back to what I said âdoesnât address any problemâ, of course I know the intentions of those types of posts arenât to solve any problem, I just decided to be more blunt and direct)
Not all people who post stuff like that are the feral anti-zutara types we see go on a rampage. They can be âsubtleâ about it. They can be the type of fans who relatively stick to what they like and zutara just happens to be something that they donât like or agree with. Their dislike for zutara will ALWAYS SHOW NO MATTER WHAT. (Just pointing this out cuz it kinda goes hand in hand with the underlying hatred part)
And Iâm not only talking about intentionally disguising your words as something else but also like unconsciously doing it. lol does that even make any sense idk anymore đ
And fine, you can say that they genuinely donât mean anything badâŚfine ffs letâs just put it at that that đ âŚitâs still adding fuel to the fire if you ask me. Because you know what??? THEY COULDâVE POSTED ANYTHING WITHOUT DRAGGING ZUTARA INTO IT. So they know what theyâre doing. Itâs not going to fool me.
Thatâs why Iâm not buying any âoh itâs not hate, just kinda joking aroundâ. Iâm not gonna feel bad for them if ZKs do clock them for it.
Donât use the zutara tag at least if you have any decency because we all know nobodyâs gonna stop you from putting zutara down.
I do think that a lot of these people do it unconsciously because they are used to the fandom talking bad about zutara shippers and are genuinely surprised that zutara shippers respond negatively to being talked about in dehumanizing ways and will call them out on their behavior. But that does not make the behavior better. It's really very appalling the amount of times people will say the rudest things and then be like "I didn't knooooowwww! Don't me do meaaaaaaannn." You knew. What happened was you thought people would clap you on the back and no one would call you out.
This is also the same reason we end up with people making racist jokes and expecting to be congratulated for it.
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I'd question whether zutara shippers are attacking the character of shippers vs pointing out misogyny, but even so, it's telling that they say nothing of kataang shippers attacking the character of shippers for pointing out misogyny.
On the Broken Parallels Between Zuko and A.ang, Pt. 2
Part 1
Let me tell you about another ATLA fan I know. He was a friend of a friend who participated in my friend group's little rewatch recently. I wasn't excited about him being there, because we've gotten into several heated arguments in the past. You could even say we were...enemies.
Then, during the course of the rewatch, much like Katara and Zuko in the Crystal Catacombs, we very unexpectedly found common ground: he ships Zutara too!
And then I brought up this detail I noticed and, much like Zuko betrayed Katara, he turned on me and said there's no way this has any meaning. He was actually defending Zuko's honor (ha), saying that Zuko would never make emotionally-driven decisions like that. (But also, I'm right and yes Zuko totally would lmao)
TBD if we fight an Agni Kai together, I'll keep you updated.
The detail is:
A.ang here has come fresh from the Guru, where he was told he had to give up his attachment to Katara to master the Avatar state. He had the vision of Katara chained up and left to save her, instead.
That part on its own is fascinating enough. To him and the audience that vision appeared literal, since the preceding scene was Katara getting captured, but it's revealed later that she's not being detained like that at all. She's just chilling with Zuko. So in retrospect was it some clever narrative sleight-of-hand, making us (and A.ang) think it was literal when it should have been read as more metaphorical, about how A.ang is holding on to her? Was she yelling "Let me go!" to her captors, or to A.ang as he was confronting his desire to hold on to his attachment to her?
But I digress. A.ang (and the audience) has just been told that his attachment to Katara might be a problem that'll get in the way of his responsibilities as Avatar. This glare is the first moment in the story that we really see him start to get jealous and possessive over Katara.
And, crucially, Zuko clocks the impressive stinkeye. Then, there's a very interesting missed look back from Katara.
That means that the very next time we see Zuko make eye contact with any of our heroes, he's looking between A.ang and Azula...and he chooses to attack A.ang.
And just as importantly in that moment, Katara's right there, Zuko just had an interesting moment with her, why is his big moment of internal deliberation between A.ang and Azula instead?
They didn't have to animate A.ang glaring at Zuko like that. A.ang has previously tried to offer friendship to Zuko. Why would they waste frames introducing this animosity here? It's obvious that both Katara and Zuko were prisoners when Iroh and A.ang bust them out, and more importantly, they weren't fighting each other. They were staring into each other's eyes with Katara touching his face. A.ang wasn't jealous like this when Katara paid attention to Jet or Haru, so why is he suddenly so out of character?
I think those few frames, where A.ang silently makes sure Zuko knows he will be unwelcome if he defects and joins Team Avatar, is the key to it all.
Because if that's the feather that tips the scale for Zuko, then A.ang's first moment of jealousy over Katara (hot off the heels of being told his attachment to Katara is a problem) is starting to have real consequences. In a way it sets off the catastrophes that are about to unfold in the finale, so his attachment has already started to get in the way of his duties as the Avatar.
This is all perfectly on track still, from a storytelling perspective. This is the end of Act II of a three-act story, so this is the part with a downer ending where all hope seems lost before our heroes' ultimate triumph in the Act III finale.
And, the seeds of Zuko's eventual triumph at the end (fighting with Katara against Azula) are planted here in his biggest failure (fighting with Azula against Katara after a surprising moment of rapprochement with Katara).
The breakdown in the Zuko/A.ang parallel is, there are very clear seeds of a plotline for A.ang's ultimate triumph planted here in his failure as well (choosing his attachment to Katara over properly mastering the Avatar state, and his possessiveness over her immediately causes problems) that never get fulfilled. His chakra ending up blocked has no serious consequences, and he just accesses the Avatar state in the finale thanks to...a rock.
Zuko makes the worst choices he'll make in the entire story here, but A.ang also does. Because of his choices, because he resisted the Guru's guidance, prioritized his crush on Katara, and didn't take an extra few minutes to truly master the Avatar state when he had his vision (which by the way may have been interpreted as what he wanted to hear instead of what it was actually telling him), he briefly dies and Ba Sing Se falls.
The parallel between the two of them isn't broken yet. That happens when Zuko's choices are treated like they matter and they have real consequences that he has to face throughout S3.
A.ang's choices, on the other hand, get fixed for him by plot contrivance.
Because, let me be frank, A.ang makes the villain choice here and he gets away with it.
I don't just mean him lying to Toph and Sokka about mastering the Avatar state and no one ever finding out about that lie...though I do think that shows we were originally supposed to read A.ang's actions in this finale as bad, selfish choices and mistakes all around.
What I mean by him making the villain choice is, it's a quote that has floated around for ages that "a hero will sacrifice the person they love to save the world, but a villain will sacrifice the world to save the person they love." A.ang unambiguously chooses the second option in the S2 finale. That's the textbook villain choice.
Just like with Zuko this doesn't mean he's evil or irredeemable, but he made the villain choice and he needs to dig himself out of that hole. We need to see him redeem his actions here (and we never do).
And to dig in to that quote, choosing the girl over saving the world is the selfish, unheroic option: it's about what's best for you, what you want. But the girl lives in the world, and if you truly care about the girl you'll want what's best for her, and what's best for her is for the world to be saved even if you don't end up with her. What's best for Katara is mastering the Avatar state and ending the war as quickly as possible considering her life is at stake as long as it continues. Ultimately A.ang didn't give up god mode for Katara, he did that for himself--and that's what makes it the villain choice.
Now, again, this doesn't make him a villain, we just have to see him work to fix what he broke (which we don't). But you can look at the S2 finale, the way A.ang and Zuko are both paralleled in their terrible choices at the Crossroads of Destiny, and how the story still makes Zuko redeem his terrible choice throughout S3 (and it's one of the best redemption arcs in recent memory!) but not A.ang...and we can reverse engineer what that might have looked like if the parallels between A.ang and Zuko held.
You can see in the Crossroads of Destiny episode itself that Zuko makes his terrible choice and it sets him up to get everything he ever thought he wanted...and it's all wrong.
It wouldn't be too unbelievable for the original rough outline to have A.ang going through a similar journey--getting increased attention from Katara as he heals in S3, a romantic relationship with her seeming more possible than it ever has before (mostly because she feels guilty about him almost dying), and A.ang slowly realizing that it's tainted because her affection is built on lies and half-truths.
Hey, doesn't this sound like the Bato of the Water Tribe episode is foreshadowing this internal crisis for A.ang, now?
Just like Zuko, we could have seen him getting everything he thought he wanted and realizing that it was all wrong. We could have seen him do some soul-searching, confronting his mistakes, realizing that his attachment to Katara is getting in the way of his duty to end the war and he needs to come clean and work to earn the Avatar state properly if he truly, selflessly cares about Katara.
And, as a side note, this is another root cause of why many people prefer Zutara over kata.ang: we see onscreen that Zuko radically and selflessly sacrifices himself for Katara because it's what's best for her, and we see onscreen that A.ang chooses his crush on Katara even though that's not in Katara's best interest--he does what's best for himself.
I think Bryke were afraid that holding A.ang accountable for his actions would drive a wedge between Katara and A.ang--and it would, for a time, but they could have reconciled and ended up with a stronger relationship--but what we got instead is even worse for their desired outcome: Zuko being very selfless towards Katara, and A.ang being very selfish.
This is the exact point where A.ang and Zuko's parallels most directly intersect, and it's also the last point like that in the series before the parallel between them starts to really break down, never to be fully restored (much to the detriment of A.ang's journey as a character).
The way we could have had A.ang influencing Zuko's worst choice and Zuko influencing A.ang's worst choice at the same time if they had been willing to draw out that parallel...We could have seen Zuko and A.ang simultaneously wrestling with the consequences of their worst mistakes, two sides of the same coin, destined to meet in the middle. We could have had a double redemption arc, we could have had all the parallels and narrative interplay and polyvalent storytelling...
And instead we get a dance party and whatever the heck Nightmares and Daydreams was, all in service of making sure Katara never finds out about A.ang's villain choice so kata.ang can happen.
(And I'm not even going to touch whatever was going on with A.ang appearing to meditate into the Avatar state right before he got hit by lightning. Did he have to let go of Katara to achieve that or was he trying to access the uncontrolled Avatar state without letting go of her properly? Was he saying "I'm sorry" to Katara because he was meditating himself into letting go of his attachment to her, or was he saying it because he promised her at the start of the season she wouldn't have to see him like that again? ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ We don't know! It's literally never addressed! We never hear about what exactly was going on in A.ang's head there! We're told by the Guru that he had to let got of Katara if he wanted to access the Avatar state again, and yet there appear to be no consequences to this in S3. His attachment to Katara seems as strong and unhealthy as ever by the end of the show, so what do we even do with that?)
