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A question for Zutara fic writers (and readers)

There's something that always confuses me whenever I'm reading a Zutara fanfic. Mind you, this is not an attempt to call anyone out but rather an invitation for an amicable exchange of opinions. Many times when Zuko and Katara are having a conversation and Kya's death is brought up Katara mentions that the reason her mom got killed was because she claimed to be the last waterbender of the SWT in an attempt to protect her, which we know DID happen. These moments also happen before the events of the Southern Raiders

The reason I'm confused is because I remember that Katara actually didn't know that Kya was protecting her until she heard Yon Rha recall what happened the day of the raid. In Katara's flashback that we see in the Southern Raiders, she doesn't witness the discussion between Kya and Yon Rha since Kya instructs her to go to Hakoda not long after she enters their home.

Again, I'm not trying to be mean but this is an aspect that does pull me out of the reading inmersion a little so I want to know if having Katara know about Kya's sacrifice is a deliberate choice or if I'm suffering from a weird Mandela effect sort of thing.

perfectlypanda

Given the way that the event is depicted in AtLA, there isn't a way that anyone could have known that the reason Kya was killed was because she pretended to be a waterbender in order to save Katara.

Katara's flashback depicts her running into her home to find her mom and Yon Rha. For the brief time she's in their home, Katara doesn't overhear Yon Rha say anything about looking for a waterbender:

Kya: Just let her go and I'll give you the information you want. Yon Rha: You heard your mother. Get out of here! Katara: Mom, I'm scared. Kya: Go find your dad, sweetie. I'll handle this.

When Katara returns, Yon Rha has left, and her mother is dead: "But we were too late. When we got there, the man was gone. And so was she." Kya couldn't have told anyone about the exchange that happened between her and Yon Rha because in Yon Rha's flashback no one enters between Katara leaving and Yon Rha killing Kya. They were in the middle of a loud and chaotic attack, so it's unlikely that someone could have overheard the conversation from outside the home and told people about it later. The only people who knew that Kya pretended to be the waterbender were Kya and Yon Rha.

Regarding the scene where Katara confronts Yon Rha:

Katara: Oh, you better remember me like your life depends on it! Why don't you take a closer look? Yon Rha: Yes, yes, I remember you now. You're that little Water Tribe girl. [flashback] Katara: She lied to you! She was protecting the last waterbender!

Katara's line "She lied to you! She was protecting the last waterbender!" does not flow from "You're that little Water Tribe girl", so there has to have been dialogue between her and Yon Rha that the audience did not see. Something like this:

Katara: Oh, you better remember me like your life depends on it! Why don't you take a closer look? Yon Rha: Yes, yes, I remember you now. You're that little Water Tribe girl. Yon Rha: [something along the lines of "our orders were to kill the last waterbender. Your mother said she was the waterbender"] Katara: She lied to you! She was protecting the last waterbender!

Katara would have been aware that her mother's actions that day likely saved her life (convincing Yon Rha to let Katara leave when he had Kya cornered). But this scene is when Katara finds out that her mother was killed specifically because Kya claimed that she was the waterbender in order to protect Katara.

(YMMV, but also if they were previously aware that Kya had pretended to be the waterbender to save Katara... why didn't it ever get mentioned before? Why didn't Sokka bring it up when he told Zuko about what happened? Why didn't Katara when she told Zuko what she remembered about that day?)

#southern raiders

tonydestiel67

I'm cooking up something big here. I'll be cursing all the Gods and Spirits to get the colors right, but I hope the result will be worth it 🥹🥹❤️💙

bloomsbury

two lovers, forbidden from one another,

a war divides their people... ⛰️

todosh0

since yall liked it so much last time i brought back the zutara ballet au. eat up >:)

the original!

rraebearr

Progress on the Blue Spirit flirting with the Painted Lady 👀🔥🌊

Don't ask about the ropes, they took way too long 🥲

madeby-meru

idk i just think theyre neat <3

closeups under the cuttt

lost-in-love-maze

south indian wedding zutara

commissioned the lovely NiahtiArt to recreate rashmika and vijay's adorable wedding pics and could not be happier with how they came out.

EDIT: i appreciate all the love on this!! just reiterating that i didn't draw this. i requested this commission from NiahtiArt and received their permission to post here and on twitter. if you want something similar, they take requests on vgen!

addictofreading

This is an updated version of a drawing I made some years ago when I was first getting heavy into Zutara fanart. It was always a favorite, so I wanted to add the print to my shop, but realized I had improved a tad bit since I first drew it and it needed some love.

I always loved how Zuko and Katara switched colors when they were their masked identities! <3

(Also! I am selling some fanart prints in my shop! Right now there is only one size for each print, but if people let me know they want a bigger or smaller option, this could change. I'm almost confident I know what I'm doing!)

pokidokieships

An assortment of zutara sketches from my alt twitter account…. I may have no time for full pieces lately but trust I’ll sketch them 24/7 anyways

ap-kinda-lit

I feel like I’m going crazy

perfectlypanda

Claim: "[Aang] included water tribe symbols painted onto appas saddle".

Status: False

The designs on Appa's saddle are clouds drawn in the style that air nomads use to depict clouds in art. Clouds represented this way can be seen in the air temples during Avatar: The Last Airbender - for example in a mural of clouds and air bison shown in the Western Air Temple (3.13: The Southern Raiders). The clouds on Appa's saddle are also almost identical to the way background clouds were stylized and colored in the Legend of Korra episodes featuring Avatar Wan (2.07 and 2.08). From both an in-universe perspective (how Aang would view them) and from an animator's perspective (how they artistically portrayed them at times), the designs on Appa's saddle are clouds.

Claim: "[Aang's] wristbands ... were made blue in the movie".

Status: False

Aang's wristbands are not blue in the movie. They are blue toned in the picture provided by the OP, but that image has dramatic lighting which is impacting the accuracy of the colors in it. For example, the image has also turned Aang's cape pink and purple (and Zuko's wristbands shades of periwinkle). In the same image with normal lighting, Aang's wristbands are grey. His cape is its standard orange, confirming that these colors are accurate. The additional screencap confirms that the wristbands are grey.

Claim: "[Aang's] ... necklace were made blue in the movie".

Status: True

Aang's necklace does have blue beads in the film. However, the implication that he has added blue beads to reflect Katara is unsubstantiated. The fact that the color of the beads and Aang's arrow are almost identical in screencaps means it is equally, if not more, plausible that the beads on Aang's Air Nomad necklace are meant to reflect airbender tattoo blue.

Claim: "[Aang] has a whole SWT outfit more than likely made from Katara herself on in the movie"

Status: False

Aang's winter outfit is baffling, because, among many other reasons, AtLA establishes that airbenders manipulate the air around themselves to remain warm in cold climates. This is why Aang remains in his regular outfit while in both the North and South Poles in AtLA. This pattern is repeated with Tenzin and his family when they visit the SWT during Legend of Korra. Is there an explanation given in the film for why Aang is now wearing winter gear (I haven't watched it yet)?

That aside, Aang's winter outfit is not Southern Water Tribe. The color palette of Aang's outfit is browns, tans, and oranges. Southern Water Tribe (and Northern) clothing comes in various shades of blue. Female Water Tribe clothing sometimes edges towards periwinkle, and Yue notably wears purple (although she is NWT, so technically beyond the scope of the claim). Aang's color palette is darker shades of Air Nomad colors (although there is some overlap with Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation tones).

The shape and cut of Aang's clothes is also not SWT. SWT outfits are very consistent. Men and women both wear long sleeved parkas with fur lined hoods. Men's parkas hang straight down, usually to around the knee, while women's parkas often are shown with some sort of belt or waist decoration and go past the knee. Aang's outfit doesn't meet this description at all. His outfit consists of multiple layers - a high collared top/ jacket with (what appear to be) quilted forearms, a tunic layer, a one shouldered drape with a wide tied belt, and, in some screencaps, a scarf.

Certain pieces of Aang's look are easy to trace to their sources of inspiration. The high collared top/ jacket is a thicker version of the basic layer that Aang wears throughout AtLA book 1 and 2, and that all other Air Nomads in AtLA are depicted in. The one shoulder drape and tied belt is a modified version of Aang's Air Nomad look from AtLA book 3 and the graphic novels. The colors of these pieces are also consistent with Air Nomad style. His top/ jacket is brown rather than yellow, but the shoulder drape is orange and the belt is red. Neither the SWT nor the NWT wear scarfs (why would they? They have thick, fur lined hoods). However, in the film Toph is also seen wearing a scarf in the same style as Aang's. Theoretically, this would point to it being an Earth Kingdom style, but likely it's a style worn by all nations except the Water Tribes.

Aang's tunic is a mystery. I couldn’t find any good clothing parallels in AtLA (if someone else does, let me know!). It does not help that it is drawn slightly differently in different screencaps. In some screenshots, it appears that the front and back of the straps connect under the arm to form an armhole, but in other shots, the straps do not connect under the arm and instead form a sharp V and seem to cross or meet at Aang's waist. The back mirrors the front and appears to form a V that would meet/ cross at his waist. He then has a skirt that looks like the same material, so the straps are probably connected to it. The skirt part is substantially more full than the lower parts of Water Tribe parkas. If I had to guess, I think that the intention was for this layer to be a sleeveless tunic with armholes and that the other screenshots are errors, but who knows. Regardless, it's not a Water Tribe piece of clothing.

The decision to include what looks like fur on this garment is the one element of the outfit that could possibly be meant to reflect Water Tribe style, but fur is not exclusive to the Water Tribe as fur trim is seen on members of other nations as well (such as Mai in episode 3.02 wearing a fur trimmed cape in the middle of summer in a country that sits on the equator. What an icon). Additionally, Aang's fur trim is not utilized the way that the Water Tribe uses it. The fur trim on Water Tribe parkas mimics the placement of fur trim on real parkas worn by indigenous peoples of the arctic where the fur "ruffs at face, wrist, and edges of coat and trousers further enclose the warm air" (Sinews of Survival: The Living Legacy of Inuit Clothing - Betty Kobayashi Issenman). Aang's tunic does not have arms or a hood for the fur to help insulate (instead it is weirdly open on the chest and upper back?). The Water Tribe also uses fur decoratively - with SWT men often having fur dangles (tails?) on the front of their parka. Aang's outfit does not.

In AtLA, Aang is shown to be a strict vegetarian, and is critical of Water Tribe pelts/ fur (Aang: Yeah, nothing's cozier than dead animal skins. AtLA 1.15). If Aang were to acquiesce to wearing fur, something he feels strongly against, to show support for Katara's culture, why didn't he choose a piece that actually looks SWT? Doubly weird is that Aang would agree to wear fur given that airbenders don't need to wear fur or warm garments for survival, they can just keep themselves warm…

As to the second part of the claim, given that the majority of Aang's outfit is very much Air Nomad style, it's unlikely Katara would have been the one to make it. It's possible that Katara helped specifically with the fur tunic part, but if that's the case, it seems odd that she wouldn't choose to make it in a SWT color or style.

#atla