z + k

Zuko has been manipulated and abused by his family his whole life. He has hardly experienced real affection or love since his mother disappeared. He’s been cast out by his family and shamed for trying to protect innocent people, for doing what he thought was the right thing. No one but his Uncle has seen the good in Zuko and accepted it, praised it. 

Katara has been left behind her whole life, having the people who she loves torn away from her. But she’s been forced to be strong in the face of it and take care of everyone. She has learned to put her needs aside to be the backbone that her family (and found family) needed. Katara is used to being walked away from and not having anyone look after her. 

I love these two together, because they help to fix the damaged parts of the other. 

I’m going to kick off the dissection of Zutara with the Catacombs. 

Katara starts by berating Zuko, which he simply accepts. He knows he’s earned her anger. He’s chased her all over the world and tried to kidnap her friend. But he doesn’t know before then why Katara has been fighting him so hard this whole time. 

But then she tells him, and she breaks down crying. Zuko is the first one to reach out between the two of them. Once they start they never stop. 

Katara didn’t expect this from the Prince of the Fire Nation, who had hunted her and her friends for months. You can see how surprised she is that the Fire Prince himself has lost someone he cares about because of this war. 

The next time we see them, it’s Katara that’s reaching out to Zuko. The connection they have is instinctual. They’ve been fighting on opposite sides for so long, but when they’re put together alone for 5 minutes they connect. 

Zuko opens up to Katara about his scar, talking honestly about it. About how he really feels about it. They talk for a few minutes and all the walls between them are gone. 

Zuko allows someone to touch his scar for the first time in the entire series. Not Uncle Iroh, not Jin or Song. He lets someone who he should have no reason to trust, someone who should hate him, touch his scar. He trusts in Katara so implicitly that he closes his eyes. 

Katara isn’t scared because she’s not looking at Fire Nation royalty anymore, she’s looking at Zuko. The vulnerable, hurt boy who is at war within himself. 

Then Aang and Iroh show up to free them. But Zuko doesn’t jump to trying to capture Aang or anything, he asks why Iroh is with the Avatar. 

And when Iroh is trying to convince Zuko that it’s time to choose, that it’s time to go with the Avatar...Zuko isn’t arguing against it. He’s conflicted, but Katara of all people just showed him kindness. She offered to heal his scar. She understood him. But Zuko can’t finish working out his conflict to make a choice,  because Azula shows up. 

Zuko’s first reaction is to defend Iroh, who just subtly suggested further treason. He’s on Iroh’s side until Azula starts to play mind games. 

She tells Zuko he can come home if he takes her side. That their father will love him. One of the only things he’s ever wanted. 

And Iroh sees through it, but Zuko has just been blindsided with the two paths he could take. He was thrown in a cave and given choices he never expected to be given. And he makes the wrong choice. 

But when they all start fighting Zuko doesn’t go after Katara. He doesn’t strike at her until Katara is about to completely wreck the living shit out of Azula.

This is one of my favorite Zutara moments for some reason had to include it not sorry lol. 

But it’s after this that Katara has lost any faith in Zuko that had been built. She thought that they had connected in the Catacombs, that maybe that would have been enough. She doesn’t know everything about Zuko, though, so she can’t understand why he made the choice that he did. Which is why she’s the most volatile when Zuko shows up, after he realizes he didn’t want what he thought he did. 

And still, Zuko knows that he deserves Katara’s wrath in particular. He’s the most worried about her response when he’s tentatively accepted as Aang’s firebending teacher. 

Zuko isn’t sweating until it’s Katara’s turn to answer whether or not Zuko can join up with them. He’s the most scared of her response. He knows that he should be, because she trusted him. And he trusted her. And he blew it all up and he knows it. 

Which is why he is so fucking excited to see Katara in his doorway. She was the first one to give him a chance, maybe they were going to talk again. Like they did in the Catacombs. 

Look at the hope. This is right before his smile falls and he realizes that the kind, compassionate Katara who offered to heal his scar would also go to any lengths necessary to protect those she loves. He sees another side of her. 

He knows how much he fucked up to get on this girl’s bad side. But he still wants her to accept him again. Zuko is chasing after the connection that they shared from the moment he shows back up. So he reaches out again...(kind of? he literally reaches out and grabs her to save her just go with it)

 Katara isn’t moving...but it’s Zuko’s instinct to protect her. Katara, who takes care of everyone else, needs to be protected too. And Zuko says “I’m on it.”

He even takes the brunt of the fall so Katara is safer from the impact. 

And then Zuko rolls out to fight Azula, and falls off the blimp. 

He’s not expecting anyone to save him. 

But there Katara is, reaching out to him. Appearing to save the day just like he did for her. 

Zuko pushes Katara out of the way, and she pulls him back into the saddle. (You know what I’m getting at here) They answer each other intuitively. Zuko saves Katara, Katara saves Zuko. They don’t think about it, they just act. 

But they’re not cool with each other or anything after this. Nope, Katara is still salty. Katara was the last one to reach out to him, so it’s Zuko’s turn. And he follows her when she leaves the campfire. 

Katara is surprised that anyone came to see what was wrong. She’s the one who takes care of everyone else when they’re upset. 

When Katara tells Zuko why she’s upset with him, why she isn’t welcoming him like everyone else is, he doesn’t try to tell her why she should forgive him. He doesn’t try to convince her that she’s irrational for being so upset with him. 

He asks her how to fix it. 

And when she doesn’t explicitly tell him how to make things right, he finds a way himself. He considers what Katara said, how she was feeling, and looked for a solution. 

The ATTENTIVENESS 

Zuko could take this realization and try to get Sokka to convince Katara of this, but he doesn’t. He’s figuring out a way to actually make amends to Katara. BECAUSE:

Zuko is acutely aware of what a kind person Katara is. He knows that there was a point in time where she thought he might be good and redeemable and he needs to prove it to her again because he can’t have the first person who offered him such undeserved kindness think so little of him. 

*cracks knuckles* now to talk about The Southern Raiders 

Worth noting is that Katara definitely did not expect Zuko to give enough of a crap to keep on trying with her after she yelled at him. And here he is. He doesn’t walk away when Katara yells at him. He stays. He tries to make it right.

Zuko figured out what Katara needs, and he’s here to offer it at her feet. 

And he’s also the only one who truly understands it. 

Correct. But...

Aang is saying he understands, but he isn’t understanding. 

And everyone is shocked that Zuko is the one who is. He’s defending Katara’s feelings, validating them. And I don’t think it’s because he’s trying to take Katara on a murder mission to make her like him again. This is because Zuko understands why Katara feels this way. Why she needs to do this. 

Look at how dismayed Aang is when he hears Katara say that she can’t forgive the man who murdered her mother. The man who was going to murder her. Aang doesn’t comprehend why it would be impossible to forgive anyone. 

But Zuko doesn’t pass any judgement on Katara for feeling this way. He gets it. He backs her up. He knows how much it hurts to have your mother ripped away because of you. 

Aang eventually relents, but he’s still pushing Katara to do something she already told him she wasn’t capable of doing. 

Look at Zuko’s reaction to Aang still pushing the ‘forgiveness’ angle. Zuko understands what the Southern Raiders are and what they’ve done because his father led them. Zuko knows that some people are unforgivable, and that it’s okay for Katara to feel the way she does. He knows how brutal the Fire Nation is and he can guess what happened to Katara and Sokka’s mother. He’s disgusted that their best friend is trying to make Katara forgive the piece of shit who took their mother from them. 

More of Zuko taking care of Katara, just because look at it. He worries about her. 

But I digress. When Katara tells Zuko about the horror of what happened to her mother he says the most right thing he could possibly say to her. 

Now we’re going to get in depth about the Southern Raiders. These two have never fought side by side, just the two of them. And yet, they know exactly what to do. 

Katara blasts the door open

And Zuko rolls in to block the firebending wordlessly. 

And then he sees Katara bloodbend, something he has no idea about and had no idea she could do. Something terrifying and powerful beyond most benders’ wildest imaginations. 

He’s surprised for an instant, but he refocuses in no time. He doesn’t care that Katara is doing something horrifying, because the person she’s doing it to has done worse. 

He’s determined. Katara is bloodbending one of his men (technically) and he’s not concerned at all. He trusts that Katara would never do anything unjustified. 

Zuko isn’t terrified to be on the ground beside a man being controlled like a puppet. He wants answers for Katara. He’s mad for Katara. The kind girl who wanted to heal his scar is also vicious because she deserves to be, because she’s been wronged by his nation. She has every right to be this furious all the time and she still finds a way to be giving and selfless and Zuko is pissed on her behalf. Neither of them deserved the hands they were dealt but at least he can help Katara get some closure. 

When the man on the ground isn’t Yon Rha, Zuko doesn’t give up. 

And Zuko makes sure they get to the man who hurt Katara. 

When Katara doesn’t kill Yon Rha, Zuko looks slightly surprised. He was ready to stand aside and let her do whatever she needed to to feel closure. To bring justice for her mother. I interpret this look as being impressed. Zuko fully believed for a moment that Yon Rha would die, and agreed that he deserved to. But then Katara stopped. She has so much justified rage and pain...and her goodness still overwhelms it. Zuko is surprised because he’s impressed with her restraint and the sheer goodness that Katara possesses. 

He takes care of her after the confrontation too. Zuko knows that Katara wants to be alone, that facing the Gaang right away would be a lot to bear for her. So he takes her to Ember Island first. He drops her off somewhere he has happy memories for her to be safe and alone to process things. He doesn’t push her to go see the group with him, he tends to her first. 

When Aang shows up to talk about things with Katara, he’s still displaying that he never truly understood why Katara needed to go see Yon Rha. And she calls him out on it a little bit

Because Katara wants to make it clear that Aang was not right about needing to forgive Yon Rha. She got what she needed because she did it her way. 

She forgives Zuko because he didn’t tell her that she was wrong. He stood by her side and backed her up because their connection in the Catacombs was real, and he does understand her. He showed her that she was right about him. 

And they only get better from there 

I’m sorry I had to include this look at the look on Aang’s face hahahahaha

oooooh so salty

Katara sees what’s up but she doesn’t do anything to change their seating arrangement...(hmmm one could argue she wanted to sit next to Zuko)

And Zuko wants to sit next to Katara there’s no denying this one 

But I digress (again) 

As soon as these two have made up they’re a dynamic duo of the ultimate proportions. 

When Zuko is scared to talk to Iroh, Katara shows up to give him exactly what he needs. 

And Zuko opens right up to Katara. And she listens, and responds. She hears what’s upsetting him and worrying him and she reassures him (unlike someone else we know) 

I want to point out how when Katara is reminding Zuko that he’s a good person, worthy of forgiveness, she looks at his scarred side. We always see his ‘good’ side framed as the side of Zuko that is good, but I don’t think it’s that simple. Katara sees the scar and the person as a whole. She doesn’t see Zuko as two conflicting halves. She sees the nuances in the good and bad within someone because she’s battled with it herself. 

but anyway, le finale. 

When Iroh says Zuko needs help he thinks of one person right away. 

The Agni Kai, oh the Agni Kai. One of the greatest animated tragedies and swan songs of all time. 

This is what I think when I see Azula choosing to strike Katara. Remember that Azula has spent her life manipulating Zuko. She knows what buttons of his to press, how to make him fall. And here’s the girl who she locked Zuko up with in Ba Sing Se, standing by his side. And she knows that destroying this girl would destroy Zuko. 

But Zuko does what he does wherever Katara is concerned: he protects her. He doesn’t think about his safety, he jumps. 

It’s these two broken children, never expecting anyone to save them. Never expecting someone to be there to protect them

reaching for each other

and saving each other

that really gets me. 

Katara would have someone who sees and respects all aspects of her, without trying to delegitimize her feelings. Someone who values her enough to die in her place. Someone who will fight to make things right between them, who won’t judge her or convince her to see things his way. 

Zuko would have someone who understands him. Someone who has seen all the good and bad he embodies and still sees him as good. Someone who will support him, who listens to him when he needs someone to talk to, who can calm him down. 

I know a lot of people see them as two hotheaded, passionate people who would always be butting heads...but I don’t see it. We see that when they’re fighting on different sides. When they’re on the same side they temper each other perfectly. When Katara is angry, Zuko rationalizes and mellows her. When Zuko is anxious and feeling low, Katara encourages him. When they share a goal they balance each other out without even trying to. They just do it. 

The problems that exist in each of their canon relationships are resolved when they’re paired with each other. 

Also, Zuko is secretly a hugger. 

And Katara encourages it instead of skirting it