Tempest in a Teacup

I'm still having a pretty good time, to be honest. I am quick to block, so I really only see the takes I want to see. But if you're asking if antis have always been this obnoxious? Yeah, pretty much. Bryke declared open season on Zutara shippers, and their flying monkeys just ran with it. It's really sad when you think about it. It seems like the antis don't have enough going on on their side of the fandom, so they have to bug us. Only I block them when I see them, so I'm not sure how much engagement they actually get. You have to feel for them, though. Without the Zutara shippers, ATLA would've faded into obscurity, and they probably resent owing us that much.

Why, oh why, does the need to "defend" a ship remain in fashion? Like, seriously: why? If I like A Thing, and doing so causes no real life harm to another, why must the liking of A Thing be explained - repeatedly - to randos leaving weird a$$ "hey I just wanted to say blah blah stop doing what you're doing because I don't want to remember it exists blah but no offence" drive-by's in my inbox.

(Also, how the hell are you, Random Anti, even finding this blog? How am I on your radar, Passing Hater? The people who actually read my fic actually thought I was dead for a few years. )

You know, what I really like? Chocolate chip cookies and tomato juice. Love 'em. I think it's delicious. Do I serve it to guests, neighbors, hapless geriatrics or unattended children? No. Because it's what I like, and nobody else is under any obligation to like it. Or even try it. I buy the juice, I buy the cookies, I consume both and am happy. Nobody gets hurt by this. Nobody is even affected by this. There is 0.00 need for me to explain this preference, or to argue over whether tomato is a fruit or vegetable, or if chocolate chips have moral high ground over Oreos. I simply like this combination. It doesn't need a defence.

So.

Drink your juice. Eat your cookies. Enjoy whatever combination your like. Don't PM Zutara authors with passive aggressive nonsense. Happy Friday.

Reluctant Allies

Diary/Journal

Meet Ugly/Cute

Ashes

Katara kept her scars

Sun Warrior Zuko

Divine Intervention

Actors AU

“You’re Married?!”

Secret

“Mom & Dad are fighting again”

Kiss at Midnight

Breakup/Exes

Exposed

Scarf

Injury Recovery

Reality TV AU

Alter-egos

Rumors

Accidental Kissing

Wrong Blind Dates

Disaster

No War AU

“I wanted to, but…”

First Responders AU

Drunk

“Shall we?”

Rival School Teachers AU

Brightest in the Dark

Time Loop/Time Travel

Reincarnation

Due to the high number of similar prompts that were voted for and for the sake of variety, some prompts have been modified to be more inclusive.

Hi, so I never use Tumblr but I have so many thoughts about this topic and it’s starting to get ridiculous and I’ve decided to solve my problem by ranting on the internet. Okay, so for some context on my point of view as a viewer, I am a multiracial woman. One side of my ancestors was from India and was colonized and brought to the Caribbean as indentured labourers by the British, my grandparents later immigrated to Canada. The other side of my family was settlers from Newfoundland that were forced to move after the mines closed. To sum that up, I’m part white, part brown, with a shit load of colonization in my history.

With the context of that cultural lens, please understand how much strong badass characters like Katara mean to me. Not only does she have strong morals and is super courageous, BUT HOLY SHIT SHE’S BROWN???!!! AND HER FIGHT IS PUSHING AGAINST COLONIZATION AND IMPERIALISM???!!! Katara is very close to my heart as the woman of color representation I’ve always wanted to see (Which is why I’m also pissed about what happened to her in LOK but let’s not worry about that right now).

I think that Katara can easily be generalized as “the good girl” in the ATLA fandom, especially in comparison to other female characters on the show like Toph, and Azula. Yes, she was extremely motherly, and taking care of others was her main goal, but Katara was never afraid to get into a fight. Let’s not forget, this is the girl that started an earth bender slave riot that ended in liberation, she stole an invaluable scroll from pirates, fought a Master water bender with limited training, fought both of the fire nation royal siblings, destroyed a fire nation factory in the name of environmental justice, mastered blood bending in one night, was part of the invasion during the eclipse, enacted revenge on her mother’s killer, and holy shit how do so many people forget that she defeated Princess Azula, to name a few examples. Katara is not a passive person, she is incredibly passionate regarding her beliefs and protecting her family.  

Katara very clearly cares about protecting and honoring her culture. She is also not afraid to call out her culture on its own shortcomings, especially regarding sexism. But she also values and cares about protecting other cultures, which can be seen in how she starts earth bender riots and how she dresses as the painted lady to save a poor fire nation village.

I believe Katara would have been an incredible world leader and It’s really disappointing to see that the rest of the Gaang was recognized after the war as great heroes and world leaders but Katara never got the recognition she deserved. (And don’t give me that “it’s because she’s still alive” bullshit cause guess what, so is Zuko and Toph so that’s a really stupid excuse)

In my ideal world, Zuko and Katara would have been the most badass royal couple that works to create change throughout the four nations. This is another reason why Zutara would have been amazing. There is so much in the show that shows Zuko and Katara build an amazing relationship and I think them perusing a romance would not be OOC at all. But HOLY SHIT CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS OF THIS COUPLE???

Zuko becoming the Fire Lord means that any relationship he pursues is inevitably going to have some political consequences. Really, on top of the poorly executed relationship between Mai and Zuko, Mai being put in that role of power doesn’t really make any huge changes, she’s from nobility and the members of the Fire Nation that supported Ozai would most likely be in support of Zuko marrying Mai. Mai also never comes to the realization that what Fire Nation was doing was wrong. Yes, she did switch sides, but her only motivation for switching was her relationship with Zuko, not her own view shifting on what the Fire Nation was doing in the war. Throughout the show, Mai is shown to be passive, dismissive, and unfeeling. Her idea to cheer up Zuko is to order around servants and she doesn’t show any signs of discomfort when Azula decides to stop negotiating for the return of her baby brother. I don’t think that Mai is a bad person, I just don’t think it would make sense for Zuko to want to put her in a position of power.

However, putting Katara in that place of power definitely is going to change some things. Over the past century, the Fire Nation had built an image of their superiority and right to rule, having Katara as part of their monarchy shatters this idea. Part of what Iroh teaches Zuko is that the four nations rely on each other in order to maintain balance, Zuko and Katara’s relationship would be the embodiment of this idea. Both the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes have things they can learn from each other, the Fire Nation is far beyond the Water Tribes in terms of gender equality, with women even being in the army and nobody really has a problem with the idea of Azula becoming the Fire Lord. However, the Water Tribes’ sense of community and lack of a hierarchy is something that both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom could implement more into how they run.

Also Zuko and Katara having mixed-race kids quite literally blends two nations together. One of the things that as a mixed person, I found strange in LOK was how Aang and Katara’s kids didn’t seem to have mixed identities, Tenzin fully embraced his Air Nomad identity while completely disregarding his Water Tribe heritage, Kya embraced her Water Tribe identity and tried to embrace being an Air Nomad but was looked over in favor of Tenzin and Bumi seems to have rejected his roots altogether. Personally, I didn’t find it to be a great representation of multiracial people or the difficulty of trying to understand and embrace conflicting identities.

With the knowledge that Zuko is inevitably going to need an heir, it’s definitely going to raise some discussion on who is eligible to take the throne. I believe that Zuko and Katara would all raise their kids to value wisdom and knowledge from different sources because it would seem OOC for either of them not to. Imagine how others would react if they had a water-bending daughter, how would water-bending Fire Lord change the Fire Nation’s image?

I also want to make it clear that Katara and Zuko’s relationship only works because it depends on Katara having agency and independence in her decisions and Zuko striving for change and reparations. In TSR, when Zuko and Katara go to find her mother’s killer, you can see through Zuko’s expressions how he also is angry and disgusted by what the people of his nation have done, even holding on to a shot of him looking at Yon Rah with disgust after Katara has already turned away and left. Zuko striving to create an era of peace and hold the Fire Nation accountable can greatly be supported by Katara being involved. Also, Zuko and Katara getting married and running the Fire Nation is just a great big middle finger to everyone who wanted to keep Ozai in power.

PSA: Final dates for this year's @zutaraweek have been announced on twitter. The event will be held from September 18 to September 24! Prompts to be announced soon.

Avatar World Tour: The Southern Water Tribe

Starting a new post series in which I highlight some of the best background art and establishing shots in the show by location. The top row features the SWT at different points in time:

1. Hama’s youth, roughly ~60 years prior to the story

2. The day Sokka and Katara lost their mother, 6 years prior to the story

3. The day Aang awakened

The original mod for @zutaraweek​ has resurfaced on Twitter to confirm that they are running the even this year! Yay!

I had shared the dates and prompts we have come up with them, but I have no idea if they’ll want to adopt them or not. If you had started planning based on them, I’d suggest pausing (unless you just want to continue just because you were inspired by a prompt, then go for it!). I’ll be adding a disclaimer to those posts to make sure people are aware that they’re no longer official. 

Zutara Week 2022 Dates: August 1 - August 7, 2022

Prompts:

Day 1: Celebration

Day 2: Confessions

Day 3: Rain

Day 4: Legends

Day 5: Water lilies/ fire lilies

Day 6: Up all night

Day 7: Destiny

We’re still in the process of getting in contact with the original mod of @zutaraweek​, but in the meantime people seemed to respond positively to the suggested dates and prompts, so here’s the official* list! Big thank you to @hayleynwong​ for letting us use her art, it’s adorable.

Everything else is still being figured out so if you have questions I probably don’t know the answers yet.

People responded positively to the idea of wanting to make sure that Zutara Week continued this year, so to keep things moving along I propose the following dates and prompts:

*If the original moderator for @zutaraweek​ decides they are interested in running it again this year, then we can just disregard these dates and prompts and use the ones they create instead.*

Date: August 1 - August 7 (These dates keep the event in line with previous years, and gives everyone a month to prepare. Plus, as a bonus, August 1 is a Monday so it’ll be easy to remember which day each prompt is).

Prompts: Since we are short on time if we want to be able to hold this event when it’s traditionally held, I made a prompt list instead of trying to poll everyone for suggestions. I pulled all the words from lists 2008 - 2021 so I could avoid repeats, and tried to choose prompts that were general enough to let everyone be creative.

Day 1 - celebration

Day 2 - confessions

day 3 - rain

day 4 - legends

day 5 - water lilies/ fire lilies

day 6 - up all night

day 7 - destiny

i would genuinely suggest not mentioning the fact its abandoned at all. instead, just leave the most effusive comment you can. tell the author specifically what you liked. if they are in a position they might continue it, you might remind them what they liked about the story, and thus maybe revive it.