One of my issues with the abusive Aang takes in Zutara fandom (behind the ooc Aang bashing) is how generic that take is. I have seen multiple fandoms, usually fandoms geared towards younger audiences, where shippers of popular fanon ships turn whichever half of the canon ship they don't ship into an abuser so they person they do ship with the other half can swoop in and save them.
I have seen this with both Inuyasha and Harry Potter. With Inuyasha, replace Katara with Kagome, Aang with Inuyasha, and Zuko with Sesshomaru. With Harry potter you could do either Hermione for Katara, Ron for Aang, and the choice of Harry, Draco, or Snape for Zuko; or yopu could do Ginny for Katara, Harry for Aang, and Draco for Zuko. The settings are different but the story plot beats are exactly the same.
Having Aang and Katara either never get together or a mutual breakup that is either no one's fault or both of their faults would lead to fanon and fanfiction that is more likely to be based on Zuko and Katara and not interchangeable characters.
Sorry to completely fucking derrail the point of your ask, but I'm not gonna lie, as someone who was once obsessed with Inuyasha as a kid (and can't remember nearly anything about it beyond "I like the main characters and the opening is awesome") the thought of Inuyasha and Kagome being shipped with anyone but each other (or at least Inuyashe being with Kikyo 'cause I very much Have A Type) immediately makes my brain go "DO NOT SPEAK THAT EVIL INTO THE WORLD." These motherfuckers didn't spend the entire anime SCREAMING each other's name into the wind only to not end up together.
Damn straight. InuKag is one of my ride-or-die ships. Pairing them up with anyone else is bloody heresy.

















