Learn It!

I was talking to a fellow ZK on Tumblr and told them that the miserable Twitter KAs will try to start shit with us because Sunday will be ZK week.

And would you look at that! I was right once again!

And of course, they had to use the oldest trick in the book. The good ole “Waaah! The ebil Zutara swippers don't draw Zuko in SWT attire (a lie)!”

Say admit it. You never bothered to look at Zuko SWT art.

Oh and this is the same person btw!

Yeah, here's why.

Cause:

(No, I'm not saying this individual singlehandedly caused this. But they contributed.)

Effect:

Another Effect: Embolding White KAs to use their arguments and weaponize them against POC Zutarians.

Another Cause: Publicly announcing that your respect for an entire class of people hinges off of whether or not they ship what's appropriate. Which isn't true ally behavior.

I have never seen this with another ship. Even in other fandoms, people may not like a ship but they can still SEE it. Like, yeah, I don’t ship it, but I can UNDERSTAND why someone else would! These characters interact, influence each other, and are interesting together; I can SEE how this would inspire shippers, fanart, fanfic, etc.

…Zutara though? People act like we’re fucking hallucinating. We’re all collectively high. Like we just fully pulled it out of our ass.

Because if they were honest with themselves, they would have to admit that Zutara makes a hell of a LOT of sense, actually. But they just can’t do it. Because of pride. Or canon purism. Or the 20-year hate train tradition that’s been churning along against Zutata. Who knows.

Either way, it’s insulting. Not only to their own intelligence and ours, but also to that of the writers who worked their asses off to make these thematic parallels between Zuko and Katara STICK even 20+ years later.

Out of allllllllllllllllllllllll the CANON (look! Yalls favorite thing!) similarities and themes between Zuko and Katara, are yall deadass when yall ask why people prefer it over K*taang? Like…yall are serious? 😳

Gee, I wonder why people like Zutara. It really just baffles me. Could it be…..

Water and fire

Blue and red

Cold and warmth

“You rise with the Moon; I rise with the Sun.”

Chief’s daughter and crowned Prince

From opposite sides of a war

Dead mother and banished mother

Supportive sibling Sokka and competitive sibling Azula

Dad issues for both, Hakoda and Ozai both made their children feel neglected, intentional or not

Gran-gran and Uncle Iroh as their elders and guides in the absence of their actual parents

Disguises as each other’s cultural spirits, the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady

No, she’s not my girlfriend, I’m just tracking the bald monk she’s with. Here use her scent from her mother’s betrothal necklace that she wears constantly

“I see why she left. She’s far too pretty for you.”

Holding up said betrothal necklace to her neck as if proposing

Zuko and Aang fighting over said betrothal necklace

Gets necklace back: “Give Zuko a kiss for me.”

Romantic underground cave with glowing crystals, awfully similar to Oma and Shu

“We both lost our mothers to the Fire Nation. That’s something we have in common.”

I can heal your scar with the special magic water I’ve been saving for something important

Let me just save you from these falling rocks real quick and grab you by the waist, taking the brunt of the damage as my back hits the ground instead of yours

I will gladly help your brother rescue your father from a Fire Nation prison

Let me sit outside your tent all night to apologize immediately when you wake up

I can help you find your mother’s killer

Oh wow, you can bloodbend. I will not shame you for it in your grief. Revenge or not, your choice is yours. I won’t lecture you like the others did.

Thank you for helping me face my mother’s killer. “I am ready to forgive you.”

Why do the Ember Island actors think we’re dating?

Yes, I can help with chores so you’re not the only one cleaning and cooking in camp

Wow, look at that, I match your maturity. You don’t have to babysit me. I also look the closest to Jet, a boy you had a canon interest in, your type clearly is not bald, high-pitched, and prepubescent

I will gladly help you face your sister in an Agni Kai, the most culturally significant duel among your people

Let me just jump in front of my sister’s deadly lightning with no intention of redirecting it back to her, I just need to prevent it from hitting you, oh, and let’s add romantic music, close zoom-ins on your wide eyes, and slow motion effects that would be really weird narratively if it happened with any other charactes

BUT YALL ““DON’T KNOW”” WHY PEOPLE SHIP IT???????!!

lol ok

Had Azula formed healthy relationships with her family, it’s possible that she might have chosen a happier, healthier path, just as Zuko did, but instead, she chose to look down on the other people in her family who could have helped her.

A lot of people have this really victim-blaming mindset when it comes to abuse. Like I've seen so many people say that Iroh or Ursa must have done something to "make" Azula reject them and turn to Ozai, because otherwise they can't reconcile the vision they have of the character as super smart and badass falling for Ozai's manipulation. Even though that's not how it works. I honestly think that's behind a lot of the Azula apologism I see, this need for Azula to be a victim but unwillingness to reconcile with what that actually means, because then she can't be the smartest and the most perfect.

Like, one of the things that made Zuko's redemption hard is that not only did he have to reconcile with his abuse, but also that he'd been lied to and that he was wrong about so many things. Azula stans don't want her to be wrong, they want everyone ELSE to be wrong, and that is no redemption.

That's ultimately what trips up a lot of hardcore Azula stans. They like that Ozai allows Azula to be a shitheel with impunity, so her ending up the way she is has to be everyone else's fault but Ozai's. They can't or don't want to see that Ozai not caring about Azula beyond her usefulness to him and his enabling of her bad behavior are two sides of the same coin. Someone who actually gives a shit about Azula would not encourage her to torpedo her relationships like this.

As for the comparison with Ozai and Iroh, from what we can gather their relationship and their circumstances were very different from Zuko and Azula. For one, Iroh and Ozai seem very far apart in age. Just going off their designs, Ozai looks 40-ish while Iroh looks 60-ish. Sure, grief probably aged Iroh faster, but I don't think that's the case; he looks 50-ish in the flashbacks. That's a huge difference. Iroh was an adult by the time Ozai was born, and that completely alters the dynamic. Ozai was probably closer in age to Lu Ten than to Iroh.

For another thing, it's a consistent thing in the show that Ozai's relationships, even with his own family, are so distant as to basically not exist. When he's making his bid for the crown, Ozai doesn't really try to appeal to his filial connection with Azulon. He emphasizes that for his children, but not himself. Instead, he goes "I am your humble servant", and straight-up says "Use me." Yeesh.

Then there's Ursa. When Azula is talking shit about her uncle and grandpa, Ursa's response is to wonder to herself, "What is wrong with that child?" My sister in Agni, your husband is wrong with that child. Like, Ursa isn't stupid. If she knew what Ozai was truly like, she would've immediately put two and two together and realized just who was putting those thoughts in Azula's head. So we're left to assume Ozai's own wife knows basically fuck all about him, which is also reflected in the fact that throughout the flashbacks they only ever interact with the children, never each other. They're practically strangers in the same house. And it's not hard to see why when you remember that Ursa is the descendant of a known traitor and married to the out-of-favor second prince. Her status at court is precarious at best, so it's only natural that she'd try to protect herself and her children by staying in Iroh and Azulon's good graces, even if that ends up alienating Ozai. And I think Azulon was definitely counting on that to prevent them from uniting against him.

I think Ursa does know what Ozai is like, but I don't think her "what is wrong with that child" line should be read as her not knowing that Ozai is influencing her. I think people tend to make that line do a lot of heavy lifting that was never intended, and I think doing that is also trying to place blame on Ursa for what she "should" know. When you live in a household with an abuser, even if you aren't the primary target, you don't always see things clearly. And Ozai has a lot of influence over Ursa's life.

I'm also not sure, and don't think we can ever answer, the question of whether Azula became the way she is due to Ozai's influence, or whether she showed something from an early age that made Ozai latch onto her vs him deciding that Zuko was too weak to be his golden child. I tend to think that it was a combination of both.

I agree that Ozai and Iroh's relationship is different due in large part to the age gap, but I don't think Iroh's "if he didn't care, he wouldn't banish you" is supposed to indicate that he does not know what Ozai is like. The things he says about Ozai before that make it clear that he knows very well what Ozai's relationship with Zuko is like and does not want Zuko to go back to Ozai. I think that line is more of a one-off joke and Iroh trying to cheer Zuko up in the moment because he doesn't know how else to get through to him.

me: “Okay but did you notice how Aang still relies on her for emotional stability and healing— instead of having shown some self-sufficiency like learning to heal himself (which could come handy from all that traveling he does alone)…

how he made this executive decision that they go on this immediate quest together via a written letter in the middle of the night while she’s still asleep (not even waiting til the morning to talk to her about it and how this might affect her busy CouncilWoman agenda…) and just kissed her Bye and expected her to gather the Gaang on his behalf…

how he practically spat on her face by ignoring her war trauma and dismissing the safety of their friends just to prioritize his pain (and got them all killed because of it…) …

and how, even after all of that… he never fully thanked her for hastily saving everyone’s lives, or fully turned to the group and humbled himself and apologized for his selfish behavior, or even affirmed to them that, as an Avatar who believed that All Life Is Sacred… he would no longer walk into situations recklessly disregarding other people’s lives? …

… particularly the lives of his longterm girlfriend and childhood friends?”

😒

This might come as a shock to some folks… but when fans talk about “giving Katara more agency” in a relationship, it’s not just giving her leadership and a freedom of career choices.

It’s about the relationship demonstrating mutual respect, accountability, consideration and willingness to compromise.

Katara judging LGBTQ people??? The one with the lesbian daughter??? The one who instigated prison outbreaks??? MY Katara?!

This is propaganda I'm definitely not falling for. Her ass is 100% homophobic. This isn't even shade towards Mai but she literally lives in a country that banned gay marriage lol.

Not homophobic but says slurs? Definitely not a contradiction.....

Aang is canonically pro LGBTQ+ so this is appropriate.

I agree that Mai would be homophobic, though.

Yeah, lol, we know why.