just a place to dump my shipping thoughts, TBH

[xkatara]

PARALLELS: BOOK 2 CHAPTER 20 ◆ BOOK 3 CHAPTER 21

[irohiii]

Aang: Avatar Kiyoshi! What a surprise—

Kiyoshi: Put Toph on the phone.

[irohiii]

In The Swamp, maybe Sokka was so reluctant to believe in the magic of the swamp because he was still traumatized from losing Yue? Like processing the existence of supernatural events would mean confronting his recent supernatural loss.

[vomara]

people in the atla fandom really forget about aang's anger, huh. they reduce his personality to careless joy, and they reduce his choices to pure pacifism and naiveté, when his behavior is not so two dimensional. aang has a bit of anger near his core, a product of grief, and his choices and behavior are all made despite this anger. he chooses to liberate himself from it. he chooses to be joyful, he chooses to be a pacifist. he chooses kindness and he does so even when he knows that the world will not approve, and it takes incredible internal strength to do so.

[irohiii]

This particular brand of character dismissal by fandom happens frequently. A joyful, bright character gets dismissed because they're reduced to supposedly vapid, positive personality traits. In reality—with a three-dimensional character like Aang—these positive personality traits are thoroughly mixed and complicated by angst, trauma, and insecurity. I say this as someone who loves a character like Zuko: Aang's joy lives alongside his genocidal trauma and shame, just as Zuko's sorrow is inextricable from his ability to love and be loyal to others. If you're one to dismiss these sort of bright, happy characters, and you're wondering how they can appeal to so many people—consider granting that character agency. Perhaps their happiness isn't innate. Rather, it is a choice in the face of the darkness that haunts them.

[avatar-aang]

avatar: the last airbender + scenery (requested by @rcmxslupxn)

[avatarparallels]

He doesn’t want any makeovers anymore.

[artsywitchling]

I drew Boleska :D Eska has a strange way to show affection…

[shadow-walker108]

These two man when they kissed I legit though Bolin was just acting at first but he really meant it. But in the end his love interest had to go away T_T. Also I think after this I kind of understood and liked her more even if she had a weird personality. He will always be her little turtle duck T_T

[visit-ba-sing-se]

Okay I know that the technically the same language is spoken across all nations but you can’t tell me that while working at the tea shop Zuko did not frequently struggle with costumers using heavy earth kingdom slang/ having a thick earth kingdom accent

[visit-ba-sing-se]

Also flip side: curious customers asking Zuko which part of the earth kingdom is from because of his interesting/funny accent they never heard before

[strawbebehmod]

As a person with chinese as a second language i would like to add these thoughts:

There are different characters used in different areas of china. The writing system doesn’t change but ceritan words might throwing zuko off when he tries to read cause they exclusively use those words and not the ones hes used too.

Earth kingdom might use different forms of kanji scripts, with some using the simplified version more and others using the traditional script more. Zuko, being firenation and thus his society is based on japan, probaby can’t read simplified script well. There may be some areas where hes thought to be a half literate idiot.

Aang only being able to read traditional script cause he’s missed 100 years of cultural progress.

The words for asking for steamed dumpling in some areas where they speak manderin and asking to have a one night stand are suprizingly similar. Aka someone asks poor zuko for an order of dumplings and he just stands there in the tea shop blushing.

[jeans-ong-ong]

When Zuko finally does something right I want to be remembered for this when I die. This is the original: Kirin J Callinan - Big Enough ft. Alex Cameron, Molly Lewis, Jimmy Barnes

[irohiii]

this is truly the stupidest thing on earth

[androidethics]

What she says: I’m fine What she means: WHY was it canon that Aang and Katara were horrible parents? Aang grew up with loving father figures who he then lost and Katara lost her mother at a young age but was shown to be a very nurturing and mothering person in general. It makes no sense for their kids to talk about how they were neglectful because you know damn well that individually Aang and Katara were loving people who would never want a child to feel unloved, let alone their own.

[noneofyourbuisness1107]

Legend of Korra really did not understand ATLA’s characters and Sokka’s nonexistent presence in the series really shows this. (Maybe Sokka is in the comics but I wouldn’t know)They basically cut Sokka’s character out of ATLA, likely because they didn’t think we’d care about him or that his story was unimportant, despite the fact Sokka was integral to ATLA and was the strategist and morale of the team, on top of keeping plans together and being able to alter them with ease.

[irohiii]

Aang and Katara being anything but loving is out of character. I can imagine them fumbling parental responsibility at *worst*, but them not loving and guiding their kids? Not canon in my book.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

Anyway whatever you do just don’t think about how even though the loss of his people is a recent thing for Aang, it is a historical event for everyone else. Before he ever got to mourn, the whole world already moved on. To most people his friends are already nothing more then the nameless and faceless victims of a war crime, while he still dreams of their faces and screams their names when he wakes up. His present is everyone else’s past. His pain is everyone else’s history lesson.

[limit-list]

This is a really good point. I never really think about this, cause he has Katara and Sokka and he never talks about his old friends. But how many times did he think of a joke to tell one of his old friends, only to remember that he wouldn’t be able to tell it? How many times did he start to think of a story from his childhood, only to remember that the people there when it happened don’t exist anymore? I dunno, maybe it’s not as big of a thing with the Air Nomads whole “disconnect yourself from the world” thing, but I think Aang still would have been upset. We’re only shown his grief in that one episode at the very beginning, but grief isn’t a one and done sort of thing.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

Exactly! I also feel like it would be a lot of stuff that is lying in the little things. Like for example that time where none of his friends know what a guru is. Or when they meet that professor from Ba Sing Se who kind of treats him and Appa like some historical objects. Or when Katara tells him that he would not understand what the death of her mother meant to her. And it is never that people are actively trying to be rude or dismissive, they just have a perception/ perspective that is fundamentally different to his 

[589ish]

So when Aang was angry at his friends for not understanding his dilemma about killing Ozai at the finale, it really hammers yeah they don’t.

[terulakimban]

There are a few other times where the series really hammers that home -the Northern Air Temple -and no one getting why Aang’s so upset- and the fall of Omashu when Katara and Sokka both want to move on. In other words, where Aang has to personally witness another destruction of his people’s history (and by someone working for the fire nation -that was...) and when he’s told to abandon possibly the last person on earth who shared any part of his childhood. Personal depressing headcanon: we know that Aang is good at compartmentalizing until he can’t. Aang is with his handful of friends in the Western Air Temple when it’s attacked by first Combustion Man and then Azula and her troops -both of whom damage buildings and are actively destroying the place. And Aang doesn’t react about the damage to the temple in the moment, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s right after that that he gets as freaked out as he does about Katara seeking revenge -he didn’t react like that to Jet or in the Great Divide. He just lived through something that was, fundamentally, incredibly similar to how his people were wiped out 1) he had to send friends out by another way with no idea when or if he’d see them again -and it was a way out the airbenders wouldn’t have had and 2) by that point, he’s now seen all four temples empty and proof of the desecration of them. He’s clinging to Air Nomad philosophy out of desperation -and the sudden, pressing awareness that anything he forgets, anything he doesn’t do, any piece of Air Nomad culture and beliefs he lets slide is now gone forever. That’s where he comes to the realization that he can’t, psychologically, kill Ozai. Had the eclipse invasion plan work, he would have tried. 

[e-e-e-s-the-avatar]

SUPER interesting take on why Aang killing Ozai became a huge issue relatively late in the show.

(quick shout-out to Zach Tyler Eisen and his voice acting. The scene in The Blue Spirit where Aang talks about how much fun he and Kuzon had never fails to just gently stab me in the heart.)

[wildpokemon]

AtLA: The evolution of Zuko and Appa’s friendship

semi-inspired by @avatarkorrras ‘s post (kind of lol, I got a little side tracked after I made the licking gif)

[yuujinchos-remade-blog]

[irohiii]

My aang brainworms ONLY care about his cartoon-windup and dash. I LOVE stanning the main character.

[jack-calico-rackham]

I’m just one kid.

[irohiii]

Aang is so fucking cool.

[iiroh]

aang crying before he thanks everyone for participating during the invasion fucking wrecks me every time bc this kid is so haunted by his own failure. first when he saw monk gyatso’s corpse and the realization that the rest of the air nomads were wiped out, then when he felt like he couldn’t take down a fleet of fire nation ships during the siege of the north bc “he’s just one kid” and when he said “no, it’s not over” before becoming a huge koi spirit, and when he couldn’t save katara and was nearly killed in the avatar state, thus blocking his chakras, and when he tried to leave everyone shortly after coming out of his coma so no one else has to get hurt like your honor this child needs a break !!!

[thethiefandtheairbender]

One thing I’ve noticed is that quite a few Kataang fans go to port for Zukaang as at least their 2nd fave. In some serious ship battles some shippers can’t seem to deal with ships which conflict but I don’t see Kataang shippers as a general rule having this problem. (Though I’m sure they exist). Any (serious or otherwise) theories as to why this seems to be the case?

I think it’s because people who ship Kataang look at Katara, Aang, and Zuko’s characters in fundamentally different ways than Zu.tara shippers do (at least from what I’ve seen) - and in ways that tend to be more generally, objectively supported in canon. The only real ship war I’ve seen in the ATLA fandom is Kataang vs Zu.tara and if you look back at the history of it, it’s very clear to see who (*coughs* rabid zk stans *coughs*) have routinely and persistently started shit, which made it go from a “ship I don’t personally see but it’s whatever” to a notp I dislike.

But I digress.

Zuko and Katara are very similar characters particularly when it comes to their flaws, to the point of Katara in TSR acting like Book 1 Zuko in a lot of ways, which I’ve talked about before. However, these two characters are sometimes held up as the “most mature” or “mom and dad” of the gaang. Not only is the idea of anyone in the gaang being strictly speaking parent-esque to any of the others sort of ridiculous, nor is that dynamic not directly canonly chafed against in “The Runaway,” but Zuko and Katara are almost laughably immature. 

I’ve talked about it before, but Katara (and Sokka) as do the rest of the Gaang in the series before they meet Aang project a false sense of maturity. For Katara, that means setting her dreams aside and being more motherly. For Sokka, that means being stoic and “a man” to be a good leader. Over time Katara makes peace with her more motherly tendencies, achieves her goals, and balances out being more of a peer. Sokka learns to express himself more clearly, lets go of sexist ideals, and does become a genuinely great leader. 

But while Aang matures in some ways, he is insanely emotionally mature from the very start in a way that none of the other members of his friend group are (except like, maybe Suki, lol). He refuses to come between Katara and Sokka when both are behaving childishly in “The Avatar Returns”; he tries to communicate more openly with Katara in “The Warriors of Kyoshi” than she does with him. More than that, the only time we ever see Aang project onto other people is arguably in “Ember Island Players” and even that is to give a way out: 

“On stage, when you said I was just like a ... brother to you, and you didn't have feelings for me [...] But it's true, isn't it?”

Like, when Aang is better at waterbending than Katara, because she’s wanted it her whole life, it grates on her nerves and she explodes at him. When Katara is better at a waterbending than Aang, even though he needs to be good at it to save the whole freaking world and has been struggling with it all day, this is his reaction. 

When Sokka loses someone to death, he understandably struggles to cope with the loss. (Aang does too, at the Southern Air Temple.) To the point where Sokka almost misses out on a new relationship after talking about his grief. When Aang lays all his grief out in front of him, this is how he personally frames it (with guiding from Guru Pathik). 

Lay all your grief out in front of you. You have indeed felt a great loss. But love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us. The Air Nomads' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside of your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love.

[Aang is starting to cry tears of joy.]

When Zuko joins the Gaang, Katara both rightfully threatens and wrongfully projects onto him: “I think she’s connected her anger about [her mother’s death] to her anger at me.” Given that two of Katara’s real previous interactions with Zuko were him taunting and manipulating her with her mother’s necklace, and then learning how much the loss of a loved one hurt her, he then turns around and replicates that trauma by helping Azula murder Aang. Meanwhile, Aang actively doesn’t project onto either Zuko or the Fire Nation despite the harm that they’ve directly caused him. 

Zuko gets jealous repeatedly based off nothing but Mai interacting with a boy he thinks is objectively attractive isn’t bad, per se. But then he throws the guy out of the way, into a vase, and completely loses his temper? Aang gets jealous... and promptly leaves the scene that’s making him upset in the first place. And although he’s upset, he never takes it out on Katara. And when Mai and Katara call the boys out for making a mistake, here’s how they respond.

Mai: Zuko, what is wrong with you? Zuko: What's wrong with me? 

Katara: I just said I was confused! I’m going inside. Aang: I’m such an idiot!

Aang doesn’t lose his crap on Toph until she insults Appa. Toph routinely thinks she has to do things on her own, another similarity with Zuko: “You sound like my nephew, always thinking you need to do things on your own, without anyone's support.” 

Aang routinely tries to de-escalate the group’s conflicts between Katara and Sokka, and Katara and Toph. He knows his friends are his greatest source of strength even if he sometimes doesn’t lean on him. Him thinking he has to do things on his own in “The Winter Solstice Part II” and especially in “The Awakening” is not his usual behaviour and the latter of which is born out of deep trauma and loss. He never says that killing Ozai is wrong, just that it’s wrong for him. 

Which is more than Zuko “This isn’t Air Temple preschool, it’s the real world” and Sokka “What’s wrong with you?” (when Aang fails to kill melon-Ozai) can say. 

Basically, all of this is to say that most Kataang shippers know that Aang is one of the most mature members of the Gaang, if not the most mature, with Katara and Zuko in terms of actually healthily dealing with their emotions very close to the bottom. 

But Katara does mature a lot more and can both support and receive support from Aang: “I know sometimes it hurts more to hope and it hurts more to care, but you have to promise me you won’t stop caring.” Comforting her after Jet and bloodbending. Able to disagree while still giving the other the freedom to choose. Aang reflecting Katara’s friendliness and cheerful nature while also bringing out her more fun loving side. Laughing at each other’s jokes and supporting one another as benders. 

Most Zukaang shippers, or at least the ones I’ve seen, ship it based on the potential the two have throughout the series, but only years after the show’s end. This is for two reasons:

1) The age gap. Four years does matter a lot in your teens and adolescence and while personalities can mesh later in life in a variety of ways, there’s no actual romance between Zuko and Aang for good reason. At least not until they’re both in their 20s.

2) Zuko has a lot more work to do on himself.

Zuko can be thoughtless when he’s stressed or impatient and some of his cruelest remarks to Aang, specifically regarding Air Nomad culture, come in the last few episodes of the show and finale. He needs to work on removing any residual Fire Nation superiority propaganda and indoctrination. He was calling Katara and Sokka peasants like six months ago. Stuff like that doesn’t go away overnight or even just over a series of months.

He chooses to attack Aang rather than just have a conversation about his training. He needs to work on more freely expressing his feelings first and foremost and creating dialogue that isn’t just about his problems (ie. Zuko’s able to open up to Katara in “Crossroads of Destiny” and about Iroh to various characters because it’s about his pain or hits a sympathetic nerve). 

An episode ago he was still asking Katara things like, “Everyone else trusts me now, what is it with you?” as though he’s entitled to Katara’s forgiveness/trust just because he’s changed and everyone else has given it. Part of changing yourself to be a better person is to do so because it’s the right thing to do and to atone whether or not it gives you someone’s compassion or forgiveness. And by and large Zuko does that! 

But he still stumbles and while I think Mai is a wonderful Fire Lady for him, because she understands the political world and tempers him. It’s not like Mai is perfect either, but she’s still (ironically) more healthily open with her emotions than he is. Mai also knows Zuko incredibly well because they grew up together, loving him before, during, and after his banishment and his redemption arc. But any other partner wouldn’t have that insight and it would take a lot of work, for more reasons that one.

The main one being what I said before, which is that Zuko has a lot to learn about sustaining measured, supportive, longterm relationships and friendships, particularly with peers and partners, where he gives and takes in equal measures. This is not his fault nor a fault of him; he was a deeply abused child growing up and didn’t get the proper support and love in so, so many ways. But it’s still his responsibility to learn and unlearn, particularly when it comes to Fire Nation ideals and indoctrination. 

And only once Zuko has done that to the absolute best of his ability in a year long process, only once talking and opening up is closer to his first instinct, only when he is more balanced with himself within his nation than he is at the end of the show and has come to fully respect other cultures and philosophies, do I want him to be with Aang and be further challenged and inspired.

Because for most of the characters, the end of the show is their ending; their peaceful happy ever after. For Zuko, in so many ways, it is only his beginning. But that’s okay, because he’ll have help in friendship, too.

There’s also a lot of parallels between Kataang and Zukaang in their dynamic with Aang and they’re easily Aang’s two most important narrative dynamics (even if my favourite relationship in the show is him and Sokka’s friendship).

This view of Zuko’s long road ahead and of Aang’s maturity is shared by people who don’t usually ship Zu.tara, with Zukaang and Kataang the most popular subsequent ships. Kataang is cute and canon (like, so canon it can’t be sunk; they spent their entire lives together; that’s Fact, so anything else is obviously very fun fanon), Zukaang lets Aang balance his partner out in a similar way to Kataang, and in both cases, Aang is properly cherished. Everybody wins. 

TLDR: We have taste.