the official zutara dissertation (p.1)
or: i yell about zutara for 16k words straight, because i have nothing else to do with my life.
This essay will explore the canonical dynamics of Prince Zuko and Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, the subtext and foreshadowing in the narrative, and the themes of the show. It will argue that Zutara becoming canon would have developed and completed Zuko and Katara’s character arcs and exemplified the themes and narratives of ATLA. It will also show that Zuko and Katara’s canon relationships did a disservice to their characters and those of their canon partners, were poorly developed, and ran contrary to the messages and themes of the show itself. For these reasons, this essay will prove that Zutara should have been the endgame ship of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
(Includes bonus frustrated commentary.)
BOOK 1: WHY ZUKO AND KATARA ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER
1. Zuko and Katara share the same fundamental moral compass and core values.
They are both empathetic and compassionate people who are angered by the injustices of the world and want to right them. While all the members of Team Avatar are good-hearted individuals, none of them share Zuko and Katara’s need to help, even at their own expense. Sokka and Toph are pragmatists who focus on the big picture (ending the war), while Aang’s desire to help is inextricably tied to his duties as the Avatar, rather than just Aang himself as an individual.
Zuko and Katara, however, are fundamentally different from the rest of Team Avatar in this regard. Their need to help, no matter what the cost, forms the basis of their personalities and character arcs. Katara’s empathy and compassion are demonstrated multiple times throughout the series, such as when she willingly lets herself be captured in order to save imprisoned Earthbenders (Book 1: Imprisoned) and refuses to abandon a suffering Fire Nation village even when it puts them behind time for the invasion (Book 3: The Painted Lady).
In both of these instances, Katara’s motivations are at odds with those of her friends. They want to move on; she cannot leave people in need. They want to do the safe thing; Katara insists on doing the right thing. Katara’s drive and desire to help is unmatched by the rest of Team Avatar, who only follow her lead because she cannot be swayed from her decision. Katara’s entire character can be summed up with “I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!” (Book 3: The Painted Lady) because that is the kind of person she is – someone who will never abide injustice or suffering if she can do something about it.
Similarly, Zuko’s entire character arc is kickstarted by his compassion, when he speaks out against sacrificing soldiers when even seasoned generals did not (Book 1: The Storm). It is this decision that led to Zuko’s banishment, and it is a direct result of Zuko’s kindness – a quality that Zuko tries to bury to earn his father’s love, and which he ultimately realizes is a strength, not a weakness.
Even in his time as an antagonist, there are plenty of hints at Zuko’s true empathetic nature, one that resurfaces even when he tries to stifle it: Zuko putting his own life in danger to rescue his helmsman (Book 1: The Storm), sparing Admiral Zhao in the Agni Kai although he knew Zhao would never have returned the favour (Book 1: The Southern Air Temple) and attempting to save him even though Zhao had tried to kill him (Book 1: The Siege of the North Part 2), exposing his true identity and risking his safety to protect an Earth Kingdom village (Book 2: Zuko Alone), reaching out to Katara with genuine kindness though she was still his enemy at this point, and had been yelling at him just moments before (Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny).
This is a non-exhaustive list of Zuko’s moments of compassion, but they indicate who he is at his core – someone very similar to Katara, someone who cannot leave others in a state of need with an easy conscience. Neither Zuko nor Katara have an obligation to help, the way that Aang does as the Avatar, but they both choose to do so anyway because that is who they are. Zuko and Katara would work well together because they share core qualities, ones that shape their personalities and desires, and can thus understand and support one another’s motivations and decisions. This would have made them perfect rulers for the Fire Nation and great world leaders overall, as they would fight for those who needed their help and would never abandon any of their people to fend for themselves.
2. It is with each other, and only each other, that Zuko and Katara can be fully and completely themselves.
Katara’s role in much of the show is a motherly one, putting her needs and feelings second to take care of those around her. With Zuko, however, this dynamic is reversed. This is not to say that Katara does not care for or support Zuko – she does. For the first time, however, this support is returned to her. Zuko sees her at her most vulnerable in the Crystal Catacombs (Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny) and turns to comfort her, to tell her that she is not alone. This is the first time someone reaches out to help Katara, the first time she is in a position where she is receiving emotional support instead of providing it, and it is telling that it is with Zuko – someone who, due to their history as enemies, Katara does not feel the need to coddle, and can meet on an even keel.
After he joins the Gaang, Zuko consistently puts Katara’s needs first – accepting that her anger at him is justified, asking her what he can do to make it up to her, trying to earn her forgiveness. He makes the effort to get to the root of Katara’s hurt and anger, even when she’s not giving him much to work with, and gives her all the agency in the situation, never putting his need to earn her forgiveness over her needs. We don’t ever see any other member of the Gaang give this much thought or consideration to Katara’s feelings. On their hunt for Yon Rha, Zuko supports Katara absolutely and unconditionally. He sees the full depths of her rage and grief, the lengths she is willing to go to for vengeance, her willingness to use bloodbending – and instead of condemning or judging her, he accepts all of it without question.
Katara does not suppress her needs for Zuko’s sake, the way she does with the rest of the Gaang, and is not shoehorned into the position of his caretaker or mother. She is allowed to break out of the role of emotional backbone, a role she often assumes to her own detriment, as the person who gives and never receives. With Zuko, Katara can be herself in all her aspects – the grieving daughter, the fierce warrior, the caring friend – and is a far more multi-faceted and complex individual because of it.
In return, Zuko finds in Katara someone who has seen him at his absolute highest and lowest. All of Team Avatar have seen (and fought) Zuko as their enemy, but it was Katara who witnessed the true depths of his feelings about his scar and Katara who was betrayed by Zuko, an integral part of the worst mistake he ever made. Out of all of Team Avatar, only Katara truly witnessed Zuko at his lowest point, his decision to side with Azula, and still chose to forgive and befriend him.
Furthermore, Zuko does not need to hide who he truly is with Katara, or become someone he is not, as he is forced to in the Fire Nation. He can open up to her without fear of being manipulated (like Azula) or shut down (like Mai), and she validates and soothes his worries without coddling him. Katara sees Zuko in his entirety – at his best and worst, his strongest and most vulnerable – and accepts and supports him through all of it. Zuko and Katara are thus able to be themselves in all their aspects with one another, creating a relationship based on mutual understanding, acceptance, and trust.
3. Zuko and Katara have the deepest and most intimate non‐familial relationship out of all of Team Avatar.
Apart from sharing character traits and motivations, Zuko and Katara are both marked by similar foundational events that sent them along parallel arcs – the loss of their mothers – and this enables them to understand one another on a far deeper and more intimate level that no one else can hope to achieve.
But Sokka lost his mother too! Aang lost his people!
Yes, those are both horrible, traumatic losses. But they are not Katara’s loss. Losing Kya marked a turning point in Katara’s life as the moment she was forced into the role of mother in her family, a role she should never have been burdened with. Not only did she take on this role, however, she did it so efficiently that Sokka admits to no longer remembering his mother’s face, because Katara is the only motherly figure he can picture (Book 3: The Runaway). Katara, a traumatized child, had to deal with the grief of losing her mother and, at the same time, assume that position to keep her family together, at the expense of her own childhood and well-being. Neither Sokka nor Aang had to deal with these deeper layers of trauma because both of them were looked after, and looked after well, by Katara – and for that reason, they will never understand her pain.
If her own brother and canonical love interest don’t understand, how could Zuko? Because, just like Katara, Zuko’s loss marked a turning point in his life and changed him fundamentally. Just like Katara, Zuko’s loss of his mother meant the end of his childhood, leaving him exposed to the cruelty of his father and sister. Ursa’s disappearance signified the start of Zuko’s path to becoming someone he didn’t want to be and should never have been, just as Kya’s death pushed Katara into a role she should never have been forced to take on. Ursa sacrificed herself to protect Zuko just as Kya sacrificed herself to protect Katara. Zuko and Katara’s losses, both significant aspects of their characters and foundational events of their childhood, parallel one another and give them a unique understanding of each other. It is significant that Zuko is the only person Katara ever fully opens up to about her mother’s death and the pain it has caused her because it is a loss that mirrors Zuko’s own, and thus enables them to connect with one another.
Zuko and Katara’s interaction in the Crystal Catacombs is the perfect illustration of this, because it is their shared loss that leads them to see each other for the first time as people instead of enemies. Their mutual pain allows them to become deeply vulnerable and intimate with each other as they have never been with anyone else. Katara is the only person Zuko opens up to about his conflict over his destiny and the first person he allows to touch his scar. In return, Katara offers her precious spirit water to heal him – her staunch enemy – with no hesitation and is the first one to genuinely believe in Zuko’s capacity to change, which is why his betrayal later affects her so deeply (although Aang is the first person to reach out to Zuko in Book 1, he is also utterly unsurprised when Zuko tries to capture him in return, in contrast to Katara’s genuine shock and hurt at Zuko’s betrayal – indicating that she’d trusted him where Aang had not). As Zuko is the only member of the Gaang to truly empathize with Katara’s trauma, it is thus fitting that he is the one to help her find closure from it.
The Southern Raiders tackles the deepest trauma of Katara’s life, and it is not with Sokka, her brother or Aang, her canonical love interest – but Zuko. While there are some issues with the writing, it’s unsurprising that Zuko takes Katara’s side rather than Sokka and Aang’s, because the lingering effects of Katara’s trauma and her desperate need for closure to the event that has haunted her all her life reflects his own, and so he can empathize with her in a way they never can. Zuko, who did confront the man responsible for the loss of his mother and made peace with his trauma, understands better than the rest of Team Avatar why it is necessary for Katara to do the same, as he knows first-hand how cathartic it can be.
Zuko and Katara’s arc in the Southern Raiders is based on the intimacy that already existed between them from the Crossroads of Destiny, but within the episode itself, this intimacy only grows deeper. Zuko sees the “darkest” side of Katara and accepts her regardless, while Katara separates Zuko once and for all from the title of enemy and sees him once more as just Zuko, a boy like her, someone worthy of her affection and friendship. It is the episode of their reconciliation because they both break out of their defining roles for good in one another’s eyes and embrace each other for who they truly are, having seen each other at their best and worst in a way no one else ever has.
After this, Zuko and Katara’s relationship just gets more intimate, natural and comfortable. They spend the final episodes of the series together, often positioned right next to or parallel to one another. They adopt co-parental positions in the Gaang (Zuko has Peak Tired Dad energy), comfort one another, offer support, and have complete trust in each other. Katara looks to Zuko to take the lead when Aang goes missing (Book 3: Sozin’s Comet, Part 2), and Zuko turns to Katara for reassurance right before he goes to ask his uncle for forgiveness. Zuko has no hesitation in asking Katara to accompany him to the final Agni Kai and she in turn completely trusts his judgement in choosing to fight Azula on his own (Book 3: Sozin’s Comet, Part 3). They fight together in beautiful harmony, protecting each other and working side-by-side with seamless efficiency (Book 3: The Southern Raiders, Book 3: Sozin’s Comet, Part 1). We never see Katara fighting with any other individual in such perfect, wordless synchronicity, and the only other person who has this sort of bond with Zuko is Iroh, the person he loves most.
(Also, the parallel between Zuko waiting outside Katara’s tent and Zuko waiting by Iroh’s bed for both of them to wake up??? This boy’s love language is clearly I-will-stay-up-all-night-to-earn-your-forgiveness-because-you matter-the-most-to-me-in-the-world.)
Book 3 brings Zutara closer just as it separates them from their canon pairings, culminating in the final deepest layer of connection and intimacy in the finale as Zuko literally sacrifices himself to save Katara – and then does a heel-face turn and shoves them back with their canon partners (seriously, what the fuck). While their canon pairings would never have worked without some serious rewriting, making them endgame at the very moment where Zuko had never been more distant from Mai and Katara from Aang, while Zutara had hit their peak in terms of intimacy, understanding, trust and emotional connection, only drove home all the more why Zutara should have been endgame instead.
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