Zutara headcanons because I received another death threat
The more kataang sends me hate messages and death threats, the more I'm going to go back into the well.
Zuko and Katara felt the romantic tension post TSR. They just didn't do anything about it because ending the war was too important.
When Zuko became Fire Lord, he disbanded the Southern Raiders. Immediately.
Yon Rha died shortly after the war ended. The overwhelming stress and paranoia caused him to have a heart attack.
After the war, Katara wanted nothing more than to return to the SWT. Zuko ordered her to be escorted there in the biggest nicest ship the Fire Nation fleet had.
Zuko and Katara sent letters to each other frequently.
When Katara turned down Aang, he just did what he always did and ran away. At least the war is over now.
Zuko and Mai broke up. Mai left and Zuko...just kept being Fire Lord. He didn't miss her as much as he thought he would.
Zuko is constantly trying to improve his tea making skill. He's no Iroh, but he's getting there.
Sometimes when Zuko is bored or when he needs to think, he'll just sweep up or clean around his room or office. The servants freak the fuck out every time he does.
When Zuko and Katara first start dating for real, Katara wanted them to keep it a secret. It was kinda fun and exciting and even felt a little bit naughty.
Most people figure it out though. Zuko couldn't hide it.
Sokka was the one who found out...and he really wish he didn't.
Aang found out...and he ran away again. Because that's his answer to everything.
As the Fire Lord, Zuko is one of the most powerful people in the world. But he still calls Hakoda "sir" because that's the dad of the girl he likes.
Katara cooks. Zuko cleans.
Katara loves teasing Zuko. And he lets her because he knows better.
Sort of really into the idea of Aang slowly falling for Toph, who is abrasive and blunt and brutally honest but still kind and a good friend, but only after he starts crushing on her does he realize "hey Toph's actually really pretty...." and then yearns for her so hard that it puts Fire Lord Yearner to shame, like standing outside her house in the rain with a boombox blasting I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys level yearning. I love the sound of men groveling on their knees.
I need some good Taang fics thrown my way bci have a hard time seeing them as a couple, but I know they’re a OTP for a lot of people, and I’d like to see the vision…?
For me, the vision is not just "pair up the leftover characters" like I think some people *cough* Zutara antis *cough* think.
On a surface level, it would fit thematically, because earth and air are opposites, like fire and water. They're also the same age and maturity level, so that automatically makes it feel way more appropriate than the canon pairing.
Then there are the little fluffy things that make it appealing to me; she's the one he saw in the swamp, he was her first real friend, he (like his element, air) represented freedom to her, how they're low-key enemies-to-friends (one-sided enemies and only for one episode but still), that scene where they're running through the garden holding hands is cute, and other stuff I'm probably forgetting.
Then on a deeper level, their personalities balance each other in an opposites attract kind of way. Toph is assertive and blunt and stubborn, she's not passive or permissive, she's not an enabler like Katara ends up being (for Aang), she forces him to change for the better so that he'll stand up for himself, she wouldn't coddle him or make herself smaller for him or mother him, she would force him to clean up his own messes. She never idolized him or put him on a pedestal, he was never "the Avatar" to her, he was just her friend, he was Twinkletoes. Aang on the other hand is fun and carefree and playful, and I think it would've been much cuter if Toph was the one he pulled onto the dance floor in The Headband, he could *actually* show her how to have fun and be a kid (like people claim he does for Katara when for the most part the opposite is true and actually his childishness most often forces Katara to take on more responsibility) especially when she was so smothered and didn't get much of a childhood after being locked away and kept secret her whole life.
A lot of the things the writers (*cough cough* Bryke) do to invalidate zutara shippers also negatively impacts the complexity of the rest of the show imho. Like remember all the wonderful fanart of Zuko and Aang with their matching lightning scars? Remember how people thought it was cool that Azula had caused both of those injuries and Katara healed them? Remember when it got people talking about the parallels and narrative symmetry between Aang and Zuko? But no, they just had to remove Zuko's lightning scar in the movie because there can be absolutely no reminders of how crazy romantic the final agni kai scene was.
I think it's important to note that there is no private apology between Aang and Katara after their (rather public) argument.
The only 'resolve' is displayed through a speech that Aang makes to the entire group: "Everyone, I know I've asked a lot of you on this journey. But we're about to accomplish something that will change the world."
Now, the next interaction between Aang and Katara is when she revives him after he dies.
"You're incredible, Katara." He says.
Then the topic immediately shifts to Appa and everyone is there and ready to comfort Aang regarding the bison's disappearance.
It's a damn good thing Katara was able to revive herself and the others. After all, it's very important, apparently, that they continue to shoulder Aang's emotional burdens once more, and not hold him accountable.
("I can't believe I trusted him." - Aang)
Now, at this point, given Aang's history, the supposed 'growth' he's had since the original series, is it a stretch to critique him? To call him naive? To maybe, just a tiny bit, see his relationship with (and reliance on) Katara as something he takes for granted? Calling someone 'incredible' is just words, at the end of the day, especially when you've knowingly placed their lives at risk.
I've always believed that actions speak louder than words, and I think Aang's actions reveal the not-so-healthy underbelly of his and Katara's love story.
I had some people tell me he did apologize, but...is this what they meant? I'm sorry, but most of this movie has slipped out of my thoughts.
The speech to the group is not an apology, it's a justification.
And he can call Katara incredible all he wants, but complimenting her like that for cleaning up his messes after telling her she doesn't understand feels less like an apology and more like, again, a justification, just like when he told Zuko in the finale that if he got struck by lightning he could just count on Katara to heal him. And, interestingly, that does happen to Zuko, and it causes both Zuko and Katara a lot of pain.
Also "I can't believe I trusted him" is funny after Katara TOLD HIM NOT TO.
Katara Ending Up With A.ang Undermines Her Whole Character Arc
Katara's whole arc is about empowerment. She begins as a more-or-less helpless girl, who was powerless to stop her mother from being killed or her father sailing away, who's a waterbender but completely untrained.
And over the course of the story, she becomes a top-tier fighter, a master waterbender, she learns healing and bloodbending, she confronts her abandonment issues with her father, she confronts her mother's killer, she blows up a factory and helps start a prison insurrection. She was powerless to stop her mother's sacrifice before the story started, but by the end she's powerful enough to save Zuko's life after he sacrificed himself for her. She retreads the path of her worst trauma, and comes out the other side victorious this time.
Everything about her arc is her sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, deciding to act, seeing something she wants to accomplish and going for it...she's very active in crafting her destiny.
Except...when it comes to A.ang. Everything about how she ends up with A.ang is her being passively pushed in that direction, whether by the plot or other characters, or worse, A.ang making choices for her.
Them getting stuck in the Cave of Two Lovers? Plot contrivance. They just happen to get separated from the group by that cave-in.
The Fortune Teller episode? Aunt Wu telling her she'll marry a "powerful bender" coupled with Sokka telling her that A.ang is a powerful bender. She doesn't even have the thought of viewing A.ang as a potential romantic interest herself, it's planted in her mind by others.
Plus, in a double-whammy, you have A.ang eavesdropping on her session with Aunt Wu. As an aside, how that doesn't get called out more often I don't know, it seems akin to eavesdropping on someone's therapy session to try and use what they say in private to get with them. Such a huge red flag. But anyway, that's what I mean by A.ang making choices for her. Her decision of who to tell about that prophecy if anyone, and how much of it, has been taken from her and she doesn't even know it. It started well before he ever kissed her without her permission.
Then you have them dancing together in the Headband episode, which is A.ang enticing her to dance with him several times before she finally capitulates. I don't think that really falls under the category of him not taking no for an answer like certain later non-consensual actions of his, but it is an interaction that is all about him pursuing her and her sitting there being pursued. Passively. His courtship is something that is happening to her, not something that she's an equal participant in.
And then you have him kissing her without her permission before the invasion (not great) and him kissing her against her will at the Ember Island Players (super not great). And then out of nowhere they kiss at the end and live happily ever after, I guess </s>
Now, a character whose default mode is "active" having to learn to sit and wait and listen can be a great arc (see: Run Lola Run and frickin' A.ang in his search for Toph!!!) but there's no awareness in the narrative that this is a lesson Katara needs to learn...I don't think there's any awareness at all within the story that Katara's main character arc and A.ang's pursuit of her are in conflict with each other, it's something you only see by taking a 10,000 foot view of the entire show as an audience member. I think it arose on accident.
Plus, the message of "That girl does too much, she needs to calm down and stop playing hard-to-get, she needs to let the boy chase her" is just awful. I don't think it's an intentional message. Unfortunately, it still ends up being an unintentional message.
Who you'll marry, if anyone, is one of the biggest, most important decisions a person makes in their lives. The fact that that choice is, in a lot of ways, made for Katara--both by the plot pushing her at A.ang and A.ang pursuing her with little to no input on her part--hollows out and renders meaningless what we love about Katara as a character who seizes control of her own fate and actively goes after what she wants.
Hakoda's first introduction to Zuko was his son who he loves and respects vouching for him about how much he'd proven himself and how integral he was to breaking into the Boiling Rock for the sole purpose of breaking Hakoda out of prison, Hakoda then witnesses Zuko putting his life on the line numerous times for them all, saving Sokka's life, bringing him home to his kids, then throwing himself straight at danger again so the rest of them can escape, and then after getting separated from them he'd find out that not only did Zuko take Katara to face her mother's/his wife's murderer to mete out whatever justice she saw fit, but that he also sacrificed himself for her and chose her life over his own. He saved Hakoda's baby girl's life!!!! His little girl who he knows he gave abandonment issues to and feels terrible about it!!! He'd love the idea of them together because he'd have such faith in Zuko to take care of her and treat her heart tenderly and to never abandon her. He'd love having Zuko as a son-in-law, the faith he'd have for him to be an amazing husband and father would be astronomical. That is the man his little girl deserves!!!!
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