So now in 2026, at the age of twenty something (sorry i forgot exactly how old you are) what do you think of the century old debate...
It has always been kataang, man, circa 2005.
And it's not even that I don't get where zutara is coming from, okay, I have eyes I get it. Fire boy water girl, red blue, sun moon, she touches his scar, whatever! Whatever! I get it. It's like a hetero ship bear trap.
But there are a few things that fundamentally irk me about it and forbid me from doing more than occasionally dipping my toes in its potential, starting with how, if Zuko and Katara ended up in a relationship, then it would have put romantic undertones in his redemption arc, therefore stripping them both of some of their agency.
Romantic feelings are infamous for how they cannot be helped at times, and it's so important for Zuko's arc that Katara makes a very conscious choice to forgive him and place trust in his hands a second time. It's even more important that Zuko wants to be part of their group with the purest intentions of helping them restore the world's balance, and not because of some red string of faith and inexplicable pull he feels toward any of them. The fact that he finds friendship and genuine platonic love among them hits so much deeper because of how unexpected it is from his perspective. Everything about Book 3 is just so much more meaningful and moving when Zuko tries to win the group's trust and not their affection. Trust in him as someone who wants to finally do Good, just for the sake of it being Good.
To everyone, but especially Sokka and Katara, Zuko is the face of oppression. He wears the colors of the soldiers who killed their mother. He wields the power of the people who wish to burn the world to crisps and rule over the ashes.
And yet they forgive him. They choose to believe that he has changed, that he is not his father or his sister, and perhaps he never was. They chose to put him on the throne. To give him the means to be someone exactly like his father and sister, and trust that he won't be. This is a story about redemption, forgiveness, and love as an active choice. But if Katara has romantic feelings for Zuko, it borders on colonizer-colonized romance. And that's just....egh.
But now I'm just making arguments against Zutara and not for Kataang so;
The most common point I see is that Katara is supposedly a mother figure to the whole of the gaang, and Aang, at this point, is too immature to treat her as an equal. But that's literally rebuked in the show, multiple times. Yes, Aang is childish and carefree because he is a child. They all are, but unlike Aang, the rest have been awake for long enough to be war-torn, whereas Aang has to grow up on speedrun and learn to shoulder the burden of the entire world.
As the show goes on, you see that the gap in maturity closes in-- and there are points where Aang appears to be more mature than Katara altogether. Like when he grasps the basics of waterbending easier than her and she gets prissy while he's trying to help. Or when he saves Zuko at the end of season 1, despite him just having tried to kill them all. Or at the Southern Raiders episode--- which is another Zutara stronghold, on the basis that Aang is trying to force his philosophy on Katara, whereas Zuko understands her need for revenge effortlessly.
The thing is, though, that Aang wants to share his philosophy with Katara because he cares about her, and wants her to experience the level of peace that he does,, not in a "i'm holier than thou" attitude. His lack of understanding of her hatred has nothing to do with his age and everything to do with the way he was raised. And Katara, as is shown throughout their earlier adventures, needs someone who functions as an anchor in her life, someone who reminds her that she's a child too, and someone who adds water to her fire (ha!), not someone who accidentally fuels all her worst traits. And she does the same for him, numerous times. She's shown to be the only one who can get Aang out of the Avatar state--- fuck that, she literally brings him back to life at some point. Aang is Katara's proof of everything good that the world has yet to offer, and Katara is Aang's...well. everything. period.
While funny in its delivery, the line "Why would I choose cosmic energy over Katara?" is world-shattering for someone like Aang to say. He is a monk and an airbender and the avatar; all his life, he has been taught not to tie himself to worldly attachments. For the love of Katara, Aang casts away his entire worldview and cultural values-- the only thing he has left of his nation. He is consumed by violence when she is in danger; he loves her to the point of being unable to unlock his full potential and save the world, and he never once blames her for this. It is a perfectly conscious choice, and a choice that he stands 10 toes down on, till the end of the show.
And it's not even that the Guru tells him Katara has to die or something, it's that maybe he should chill with now much he loves her, and Aang's like???? no???? the fuck???? why would i ever????? What's world-ending power next to how my affection for this girl drives my every move???? What's a peaceful world without me getting to love Katara in it?????
And I think that's just pretty dope.
But hey. Zutara was the main inspiration behind the poppy war's Rin and Nezha, so...I vibe with the opposition on occasion. We break bread. I'm a multishipper at heart, and love love so. Yeah.
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