Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but it genuinely upsets me when I see people who hate zutara dismiss it by claiming that it's a ship "mainly liked by little girls," for a variety of reasons:
1. What's wrong with something having a largely female audience? Criticize whatever you want, but don't act like the gender or age of a fanbase is a legitimate critique. If something is "bad," it's because of its own flaws, not because girls like it
2. The young girls who shipped zutara when Avatar was airing are now adults. They grew up, gained life experience, developed their understanding of storytelling, and revisited the show with more mature eyes. And guess what? Many of them still love zutara. If the ship really was just childish, girly nonsense, its staying power wouldn't be this strong. You can dislike the ship, but acting as if it's a childhood phase is just wrong at this point
3. The stereotype that women ship zutara only because they're attracted to Zuko is reductive and false. In my experience, most women who enjoy zutara love it because of Katara. They love her character and want to see her be unconditionally valued, supported, and understood
People are free to dislike zutara for their own reasons, but dismissing it through sexist stereotypes and assumptions about its fanbase is just insulting
This argument is so meta, too, because like, if these people despise young girls and what they like so much, what does this say about how they view Katara?
I mean, the way these people expect that zutara is something girls should grow out of mirrors the expectation that Katara should grow to love Aang because he wants her to.
It's misogyny and nothing but misogyny.
I had a point with this and then it got super long and super lost whoops lol. I just watched the show for the first time and it's been a bummer how people constantly dismiss Zutara as something you'd only see because you're hot for enemies to lovers (their way of implying it's shallow and illegitimate)... but the whole reason I like it is because it's such a sweet friendship built on earned trust and mutual emotional understanding. It honestly feels like I watched a different show than everyone else because I thought it was so clear in all the writing/framing.
It specifically drives me so crazy seeing people dismiss it as a misogynistic bad boy trope
Which in itself is misogynistic and reductive: "women only like it cause it's hot" or w/e rather than like... all the specific intimate scenes they get together seeing a reflection of themself in the other... and being there for each other during super personal moments/life events that no one else saw. But yeah, make it shallow and weird??
It also negates all of the complexity of Katara's character and Zuko's arc.
The whole point of Zuko was that he wasn't a bad boy character (he's cringe fail- he literally has negative charisma) but that you can immediately tell he's trying to be someone he's not and can only be at peace once he reorients himself to see that he was honorable all along when he did the right thing.
She "Just Hates Him" rather than him being a safe target for her to be mad at for what's actually bothering her more- which is stated explicitly in the episode where she forgives him- because she has all this unintegrated anger and pain that she has never gotten to deal with and because of his betrayal is allowing herself to see him as the Face of all her suffering again. It's very human and relatable. She'd hate him if he was Just Evil, but she placed her faith in him because she knew he was capable of more and he chose wrong. He earns her forgiveness when he chooses to prove her initial faith right and show up for her without expecting to be forgiven.
They have this whole intimate connection of seeing each other's pain beneath the surface first in the cave episode coming back up in The Southern Raiders where he is the only one to respect her decision and trust her to make the right choice rather than feel the need to make it for her. Zuko is also the only one who understands her anger/lashing out (for obvious reasons) and doesn't tell her how to feel but takes her feelings seriously and provides her a way of dealing with it.
Like whoever thinks she just Hates Him (and therefore the ship Must be something shallow) either didn't watch the show, doesn't understand her character, or doesn't think Zuko was actually redeemed. All of this shows that he prioritizes her as a person, not seeing some idealized version of her but showing up for her in the way she needs and expresses even when it's ugly. What is misogynistic about someone... deeply respecting her and her feelings? It's so backwards!
MEANWHILE the same people will be ride or die for the Nice Guy propaganda ship, which supports the antiquated notion that solely because someone is nice, likes her, and has been her friend for a while that it would be a good relationship, conveniently ignoring the fact that
1) She was never shown to like Aang back and actually let him down easy.
2) She always took care of everyone, but whenever she was angry or in pain no one knew how to handle it except Zuko who immediately sought a solution and respected how she wanted to go about it and backed her up the whole time (this was such a payoff, too, on behalf of Katara, finally someone on her side in that way). Someone knowing how to be there for you when/how you need it is so important, and lacking that part of a relationship is lonely and exhausting
One sided vs reciprocal.
And it's fine if you wanna ship it and headcanon something else- but if you're gonna die on the hill of canon to deny Zutara, then the flaws of the others in canon are fair game, too!
BUT I guess it makes sense that people who don't see the importance in someone respecting your choice and autonomy (the crux of the Zuko/Katara ship) would prefer having Katara be with someone she actively turned down of her own autonomy before they shoehorned in that end scene in complete incongruence with how her character was portrayed throughout the rest of the show.
#like while you're dismissing an entire point of view why not give a specific example of why it's a misogynistic ship perchance #but it's not about discussing or understanding it's about shutting down different opinions #it's annoying cause i'm not even a fan of love/hate stuff #nor enemies to lovers #nor the bad boy trope #but you know what i love #reciprocity #mutual understanding and respect #taking care of EACH OTHER and not only one person doing the emotional labor
