The writers decided to have Aang kiss Katara without her consent, have their next on screen interaction be an argument. Have them not interact again for the rest of the show until the very final scene. And in between this, have Katara show very little care or worry about where Aang is while also having her be on screen the most with someone who she was already heavily shipped with at the time. And then yall wonder why people hate Kataang and were confused about the ending? And no their relationship in the movie does not fix it in fact it arguably makes it’s worse because it comes off like Katara only gained interest once he became taller and older, it also shows that Katara still had to mother him when they were adults.
She doesn't mother him, for God's sake🤦🏻♀️
Aang is an independent 12-year-old boy who has already traveled the world alone (thanks to Gyatso, who raised him).
If by "mother him" you mean :
- Showing affection towards him (hugs, kisses on the cheek) = That's her love language. It's her way of showing him her love. She's only like that with him.
- Comforting him = He's a grieving genocide survivor, and she comforts him because she's a good friend. Several times in the series, we see Aang reject her attempts at comforting him, especially during the Appa arc.
Aang, for his part, is grateful for the kindness and attention she gives him and reciprocates.
He's one of her biggest supporters : always encouraging her, complimenting her, respecting her, admiring her, giving her advice, and comforting her. (If the Katara/Aang relationship were truly a mother-son dynamic, the effort put in would have to be one-sided.)
And regarding the kiss, yes, it would have been nice to see a scene where they discussed it. But after Katara gets annoyed with Aang, we see him call himself an idiot, give Katara space, and never make the same mistake again. It's like with TSR when she says the famous line to Sokka; there was no on-screen discussion between them.
(The reason she doesn't want to start a relationship isn't due to a lack of feelings, but because she's confused by the war and doesn't feel ready to start anything right now.)
In the next episode in question, he doesn't argue specifically with Katara, but with the ENTIRE gaang.
We see that she still has faith in Aang.
None of what you just showed me proves for certain that she liked him or was in interested in him. And the writers kept it that way on purpose. I’ve literally seen the mapping out of the kiss during the invasion (I’m sure you have as well) and the writers literally change her reaction to keep her feelings ambiguous. And something like that, as far as feelings and having crushes/being in love with someone goes you can’t really write it that way (especially when the individual has chemistry with every other character). It’s bad writing and it makes it unclear. And the fact that she has chemistry with every other character except Aang makes it come off as if she’s not interested in him already. Even if we disregard the mothering point and you’re wrong on it btw because yes she does have to mother everyone in the group, it sticks out the most with Aang…it’s still a one sided crush for the entirety of the show and the writers kept it that way which opened the door for Zutara shippers. So blame Bryke for projecting childhood insecurities on to the relationship and blame the writers for writing it with little to no care at all.
Yes after writing Characters A’s feelings for character B to be ambiguous and all over the place the entire show let me have them fight at least twice in the past 4 episodes, give them no resolution at all, and throw in two jokes for another popular ship right after the two characters became friends. Let me also have one of those characters, C who’s also in the popular ship take lightning for character, and have this lead to no where just so I can have character A and B kiss at the end of the show!
