WAR is OVER

- eclipses are weirdly central to the plot and thematics. Day of Black Sun, obviously, but in siege of the north, the fire nation killing the moon is stylized as a lunar eclipse.

- color symbolism is crucial in animation, especially ATLA. Fire and Water in the show exchange each other’s colors constantly. Azula’s blue firebending, Hama’s red blood bending. Needless to say, the existence of PaintedSpirit. Now that I think about it, Zuko wears blue and Katara wears red more than they need to …

- I’ve never seen it outright stated, but everyone knows this: Zuko is obviously associated with gold, but I swear Katara is canonically a silver girly. Gold / Silver aesthetic ships are such an underrated red / blue variation. I’ve forced this onto so many of my OCs

- Zuko is weirdly drawn to water. He’s a fantastic swimmer. He mimics waterbending techniques and can bend underwater. He’s even a sailor. The Sailor/Mermaid ZK trope exists for a reason.

Update Courtesy @Sruthi9018 :

I mean, it's points that OP brings up like how Zuko spends most of his exile on a ship surrounded by water, how the happiest memories of his childhood involve either the ocean or garden pond/s (feeding turtleducks and spending time with his mom), his swimming skills etc. like he is placed in conjunction with forms of water near consantly to serve his path to character growth and change (him yelling at the sky to strike him down in the rain during one of his most challenging periods of growth for ex)

- I’ll take “the healing potential of fire bending, and destructive potential of waterbending” and raise you “lightning bending and bloodbending both have the capacity to be used in medicine”

- Katara would become as much a theatre kid as Zuko if given the opportunity.

- Zuko is the only MC that matches Katara’s passion for humanitarian work and vigilante justice. He *canonically* reminds her of Jet.

Bonus Taang:

Their personalities compliment each other in such a way they never have with anyone else.

Once you drop the armor and the titles, they are just a boy and a girl with fire and water abilities trying to live in a world decided for them the day they were born.

They effortlessly open up to one another whether they mean to or not.

Katara can start venting and ranting about something because she's scared or anxious and Zuko calmly talks her through it.

That's how they are.

Katara has tells Zuko can see when she is trying to suppress how she feels and he'll annoy her until she finally lets it out.

It's push and pull at it's best description.

So when antis use the "They are just close friends" thing, that's not the clap back they think it is.

Friendship has levels and Zuko and Katara reached the highest levels within MONTHS of knowing each other as TEENAGERS.

By the time Zuko and Katara would have developed feelings for each other, especially in the Live Action, they were already allies. They bonded DEEPLY in that cave. That’s why the betrayal hit so hard.

I love how the live action adds that it was physically difficult to separate them during that first encounter in the catacombs. Beautiful foreshadowing of them becoming inseparable after southern raiders, arguably more than they were with their partners. Actually, no, canonically…

I'm sorry????

To which Kiawentiio answered: “I wanna say gold, but hold”.

She then said “gold” in agreement with everyone when the interviewer asked the same question about Kataang.

Why?

Because, just as Dallas said “I don’t know if I’m allowed to have an opinion on this, as I play Zuko”, if Kiawentiio were to say her actual thoughts on Zutara, they risk spoiling S3 or upsetting the Kataang viewers.

As Kataang was the OG endgame, they have to verbally support this no matter what, otherwise it makes people think they don’t respect the source material.

Gordon said he sees the Zutara potential in the OG, Miyako said she likes Blue Spirit x Painted Lady.

And then we have Dallas saying in an interview that Agni Kai S3 is going to be “chef’s kiss” special, but he is all cryptic about why.

His favourite scene in S2 was also Zuko and Katara’s Catacombs scene, which made him “leave with a big ole smile on his face before grabbing a T-bone steak, and calling it a night”. Bro ships Zutara 100%.

I also find it funny how Lizzy shares no opinion most of the time on it. I feel like they’ve all been trained to deflect as much as possible.

Also, that look Kiawentiio gave Dallas in that one recent interview about Zutara that had them laughing and Dallas asking “why are you looking at me?” can be read in a few ways like:

- awkwardness that they know what the audience doesn’t

- the fact that they find it funny that they’re friends IRL and Zutara implies something more than that which makes it awkward for them (or they could be dating. Who knows. None of our business. But not improbable. And, no, I don’t ship the actors, because it’s not fair to them unless it were officialised).

- Or, yes, it could be that they find Zutara disagreeable. But I highly doubt the latter, as Kiawentiio has already said she finds Zutara to be fun and sees why it’s popular.

I’m trying to be realistic: we may not get a canon end-game, but my Spidey-senses are tingling about an almost. I get the impression we are going to bawl over Zutara in the Agni Kai.