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ATLA meta blog. Main blog @secretlyatargaryen.

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I think the reason Aang did not get involved when Katara was hating on Zuko (despite wanting her to forgive her mother's murderer) was the same reason that Bryke said that Katara would never get over Zuko trying to kill Aang (even though she canonically forgave him), and the same reason Sokka and Toph rely on Katara while also painting her as irrational.

Imagine that after The Southern Raiders, Aang notices Katara making teasing comments towards Zuko. He's all "here we go again lol" until something happens. Suddenly Zuko is laughing and making teasing comments back. Katara isn't picking at Zuko any more, she's laughing with him. And suddenly the person he relies on to always defend him to the point of irrationality is laughing and talking with Zuko instead.

#zutara #antikataang

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I found the culprit. It was Michael Dimartino who pushed the "Zuko's a bad boy" narrative 😐.

I hate how his defense for why Zutara shouldn't happen is not because he betrayed her but because he hired an assassin to kill Aang 🙄. Mind you, Aang isn't even pissed at Zuko for almost killing him numerous times. Why should Katara hold onto a grudge for Aang's sake? If Aang can be Zuko's friend, why can't she date him?

I hate how KAs and Bryke try to make it seem like it would be disrespectful of Katara to date Aang like she owes him some shit.

The thing where Katara is supposed to be insanely and irrationally protective over Aang, to the point where she would still hate Zuko for trying to kill Aang, even though SHE canonically forgave Zuko (and her grudge was more about her own personal hurt than it ever was about Aang) and even though Aang doesn't even hold a grudge goes back to the mom stereotype.

This is what is so frustrating about the way Katara is both derided for mothering everyone (especially Aang) and also criticized for it.

These people don't just want Katara to be crazy overprotective of Aang, they rely on it.

It's the stereotype of "yeah, she's a pain, but what would the men in her life do without her?"

We see Sokka acknowledge how much he relies on Katara to the point of taking advantage of her and it's just never an arc for him.

He should've realized how bad this is for Katara and decided to take on more and let Katara rest. But it's just seen as "that's how she is" and not "that's who she was forced to be."

It's "that's who she is and haha it's such a drag but we need her to still do those things but please don't tell her she doesn't need the validation it might make her uppity."

Ty Lee's humiliation ritual.

Also known as the beach episode!

This is a continuation of the last post I made where I gave examples of how Azula failed Ty Lee as a friend.

Now we're moving on.

Fuck shit happens and now we're at the beach, surrounding a campfire. Zuko is pissed and starts throwing his family's portrait into the campfire flames.

Ty Lee tries to talk Zuko down and Zuko lashes out at her.

I'm annoyed with Zuko being an asshole but I don't particularly mind compared to Azula and Mai because Zuko was never portrayed as being a friend of Ty Lee. He's an ass, yes but his only connection to her is through his now ex-girlfriend and his golden child sister.

It makes sense that Zuko made this assumption about Ty Lee being ditzy (he doesn't say that but that's the jist of it) because he doesn't know Ty Lee. He knows of her.

Mai chides Zuko and tells him to leave Ty Lee alone. On one hand, I felt happy that someone in this damn episode said something on her behalf. On the other hand, it was a pretty weak attempt.

Zuko calls Ty Lee a circus freak and Ty Lee is obviously upset about this. The guy she tried so desperately to reach out to is now shitting on her. Just like at the party where Ty Lee reached out to Azula to vent, only to be slut shamed and victim blamed.

Azula being the ain't shit friend we all know her to be, is laughing at Ty Lee's humiliation.

But the moment Ty Lee tries to open again about her trauma relating to her childhood, Azula responds with exasperation. It isn't fun when the person you're kicking down is actively getting up huh?

Ty Lee breaks down into a tearful confession about her trauma.

And she tries to reclaim the term circus freak as a compliment. But this effort is pretty meaningless since Mai throws this curve ball.

Mai decides now is the perfect time to bring up Ty Lee dating history and slut shames her as well.

Mai is doing the "sexual behavior and history." This isn't coming from a place of empathy or realization, this is pure insensitivity wrapped as "telling it how it is."

When Zuko opens up about his trauma, everyone pays attention. When Mai opens up, Zuko praises her and smiles warmly. When Ty Lee does, she gets her dating history shoved in her face and her trauma ignored so everyone else to get their time to shine. Ty Lee doesn't get validation. Even Azula gets the focus on her from other characters.

Ty Lee reaches out to support her friends? Gets shat on.

Ty Lee reaches out to get support from her friends? Gets shat on.

I think ultimately the narrative does let Ty Lee come out the winner. She claps back at Mai and I think she does come off as the most well-adjusted one here, but yeah, they treat her awfully and I've seen a lot of Azula stans ignore her "here we go" line, which implies that Azula has heard Ty Lee talk about these things before and is ready to dismiss it because it doesn't center her.

I found the culprit. It was Michael Dimartino who pushed the "Zuko's a bad boy" narrative 😐.

I hate how his defense for why Zutara shouldn't happen is not because he betrayed her but because he hired an assassin to kill Aang 🙄. Mind you, Aang isn't even pissed at Zuko for almost killing him numerous times. Why should Katara hold onto a grudge for Aang's sake? If Aang can be Zuko's friend, why can't she date him?

I hate how KAs and Bryke try to make it seem like it would be disrespectful of Katara to date Aang like she owes him some shit.

The thing where Katara is supposed to be insanely and irrationally protective over Aang, to the point where she would still hate Zuko for trying to kill Aang, even though SHE canonically forgave Zuko (and her grudge was more about her own personal hurt than it ever was about Aang) and even though Aang doesn't even hold a grudge goes back to the mom stereotype.

This is what is so frustrating about the way Katara is both derided for mothering everyone (especially Aang) and also criticized for it.

These people don't just want Katara to be crazy overprotective of Aang, they rely on it.

It's the stereotype of "yeah, she's a pain, but what would the men in her life do without her?"

Zuko tells Katara "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" when their baby is crying in the middle of the night. She repeats it back to him when the baby needs to be changed in the early morning.

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hirannethwrites

Ive posted this on KN, but why do you think they made Taaga a male airbender rather a female? I sure have my theories, Bryke. Gotta push that Kataang narrative forward somehow.

In the original script, its been confirmed that katara [at the end of the movie] was gonna tell Aang she was pregnant after all. (Which makes sense why they cut it out, bc then it would remove the importance of the entire plot anyway.) Yikes.

Taga is male for the same reason why people are upset about Aang yelling at Katara. Because only another man can understand Aang's super special man pain. It's the same reason Aang's airbending heir has to male. The same reason Aang can't share his culture with Katara and why the narrative tells us that Katara could never understand Aang the way a strange man he just met can.

The script originally having Katara be pregnant is something I totally believe, because the message at the end of the movie seems to be that Aang needs to learn that the "proper" way to bring back airbenders is the good old fashioned way. I'm also willing to speculate that the original script did more with that flashback with Gyatso (considering how it seems out of place with the finished movie) and emphasizing Aang's need for a male presence who truly understands him, unlike his wife who is such a drag. Someone probably said that they should tone down the misogyny a bit so some of that stuff was removed.

Aang is still not an adult at 25 but Zuko has been running the fire nation since he was 17. get it together bryke!

All the more reason for Katara to go looking for a real man.

No, but remember what I said about the show bending backwards to preserve Aang's innocence while zutara antis paint Zuko, who was never allowed to be a child and kicked out of his home at thirteen, as a violent killer and a "bad boy."

The Aangsexuals want me to feel bad about thinking that Aang should be "over it" at 25. Realistically, I don't think Aang could or should be "over it."

Realistically NONE of the Gaang should be "over" their trauma but let's be real, this has less to do with Bryke wanting to have an actual discussion about Aang's mental health and more to do with the fact that they can't figure out any other plot points for Aang.

Yep.

Aang is still not an adult at 25 but Zuko has been running the fire nation since he was 17. get it together bryke!

All the more reason for Katara to go looking for a real man.

No, but remember what I said about the show bending backwards to preserve Aang's innocence while zutara antis paint Zuko, who was never allowed to be a child and kicked out of his home at thirteen, as a violent killer and a "bad boy."

#zutara #antikataang #legend of aang movie #I've been using that tag but apparently the movie is now being released as Avatar Aang: the Last Airbender #the legend of aang the last Airbender who is also the avatar and the most specialist boy named Aang because this movie is about Aang guys #not Zuko and his abs

snowygracetheriver

We don't talk enough about Aang's answer to Katara during the intermission...

Aang sees Katara as the preachy one?

This is it, the line that made me hate kataang when I watched the show for the first time. I went from thinking about it as a nothingburger ship to outright hating it. I also actively started shipping zutara after The Southern Raiders, and let me tell you, what a wild ride those last six episodes are for a show that wants you to ship Kataang.

I was rewatching the Ember Island Players and I feel like it isn't an accident that Actress-Katara was portrayed as kind of "slutty". Like yes the play itself is a mockery of the character's fanon portrayals at the time to some degree, but the way it coincides with the non-con kataang kiss sits so weird with me. In the play we see that the fake Katara and Zuko have a thing in the Crystal Catacombs, which is played for laughs to make fun of shippers. But beyond that, Katara and Aang's relationship in the play is sibling like, as a way to rub salt in the wound to Katara's rejection of Aang. It's almost like the play is serving as a way to guilt trip Katara into wanting to be with Aang by implying that if she were to end up with Zuko, she would be exactly like Actress-Katara, and would therefore be a "slut", or a "tease" for not returning Aang's affections. Obviously there are other major differences to Actress-Katara and real Katara, but I just feel like it's interesting that the writers are basically saying "this character isn't a slut! ...But she would be if she ended up with that one character you all ship her with tho"

It's almost like the play is serving as a way to guilt trip Katara into wanting to be with Aang by implying that if she were to end up with Zuko, she would be exactly like Actress-Katara, and would therefore be a "slut", or a "tease" for not returning Aang's affections.

Yeah, this is why I can never buy the anti zutara argument that the play is criticizing zutara as a "colonizer fantasy." It's not, it's criticizing female desire. Those scenes play right into Aang's fear that Katara will put out for everyone but him, and we are supposed to sympathize with him over it.

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I know what this is supposed to be implying, but those words paired with a picture of two people who look exactly alike is hilarious.

"The air nomads were accepting of differences. That's why they lived in gender segregated temples and were monks who shaved their heads and dressed alike and practiced asceticism."

Alternatively, they practiced situational homosexuality, which is often the case in gender segregated institutions. Which is not the same thing as being accepting.

I do have a really hard time believing that an order of spirituay detached monks would be accepting of any romantic relationships at all, but it would be kind of funny if they were generally accepting of homosexual relationships, but strictly forbid heterosexual ones outside of necessary procreation.

But maybe I'm just immature.

I'm telling you, situational homosexuality. My new zukaang headcanon is that Aang ends up falling into this dynamic with Zuko because he's his sifu and that's just traditional.

I know what this is supposed to be implying, but those words paired with a picture of two people who look exactly alike is hilarious.

"The air nomads were accepting of differences. That's why they lived in gender segregated temples and were monks who shaved their heads and dressed alike and practiced asceticism."

Alternatively, they practiced situational homosexuality, which is often the case in gender segregated institutions. Which is not the same thing as being accepting.

Why is this literally Zuko

His scar is on the wrong side.

#for the reference not as a criticism

Zuko is so ripped in that movie he looks extremely dehydrated. Katara, help, he is thirsty.

This kind of came up on the Zutara discord, but with the new lines from NATLA on how Firebenders do not normally burn from fire.

When Gaang wants to cook some meat they just put it on Zuko’s abs.

Zuko is hot enough that he can fry an egg on his leg!

Okay, the mental picture I just gathered from this is too powerful.

#okay but the kink potential as well #aang being like this is a vegan household #meanwhile Katara is fantasizing about eating steak off Zuko's abs

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I hate seeing ZukAang be used as a gotcha to Zutara

People want Zuko n Katara to not interact so bad that they use ZukAang as a “Zuko loves Aang more than Katara!”

It’s even gotten to Zutaraang where Aang is the one the two are fighting for only.

It’s just embarrassing as someone who’s loved all three ships during some point in my life :(

Exactly. I like all three ships, but too many people use the other two as a way to neutralize zutara.

storynightlight

Someone is never beating the self insert allegations...

I do not want to hear about Bryan talking about how hot he thinks Aang is.

Also, if Aang is not yet the Avatar he needs to be, and he's dead in LoK, when does he actually become the Avatar? This movie was supposed to be his moment?

Seems to me that Bryke is trying to address Aang’s problematic behavior in ATLA show/comics/LOK by continuing to demonstrate how immature and selfish and inconsiderate he still is at the age of 25… but promising to the fans “don’t worry! Aang will grow up at some point. He’s just going through a lot right now. Go easy on him.” … Kind of like how some women believe that, once they marry that goofy carefree childlike guy, they’ll finally step up and be the mature, calm and emotionally-collected partner who can also raise some kids?

😣

Also, I never really saw Aang as being vain enough to deprive half the world of its tofu supply all for a 12-pack of abs and swimmers’ shoulders… but it seems like Bryke really wanted to emphasize that Katara would’ve never left Aang for a hot guy with definitely-no-chest-scar because nobody is hotter than Aang now. 🤷🏽‍♀️

It also seems like a statement designed to market more content to us. "The story isn't over yet, guys! Promise! We definitely aren't trying to milk the rotten, dried corpse of this franchise!"

precipice between adolescence and adulthood, at 25. You know, we let 18 year olds join the military so they can shoot guns and people and operate million dollar pieces of machinery, and we're not even a society in the middle of an industrial revolution where the concept of a modern teenage wouldn't even exist.

The thing is, as an adult who is older than 25 I do think 25 year olds are grown children, not in the "everything is pedophilia" tumblr way, but in the sense that I was stupid at that age. But the reason Bryke are saying it is so they can market more story to us. Which is funny because they always said that the story was concluded and there were never any plans to continue it when book four was brought up.

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