ppl love to forget that katara: 1. has her own taste, 2. developed around aang, he needed her for his development and vice versa, 3. ZUTARA IS SHIP BETWEEN AN OPPRESOR X OPPRESSED!!! Ignoring all of the development they had with their respective partners and the trauma Zuko caused Katara!!
In the infamous words of one Luke Skywalker: amazing. every word of what you just said was wrong.
Itâs actually kind of ironic that you bring up Kataraâs taste, since, throughout the show, we have examples of the guys she likes, to greater or lesser extents in canon--Jet (explicit romantic feelings on her part, word of god that jet was her first kiss--a kiss that would have been consensual, incidentally, something you should keep in mind for later) and Haru (she denies the crush, but that could just as easily have been because of the abomination heâd been growing on his lip rather than denying those feelings ever existed), both of whom have much more in common (in terms of both emotional and physical maturity, and physical appearance) with Zuko than either of them has with Aang.
Zukoâs book 3 hairstyle is almost exactly reminiscent of Jetâs, even, if not quite as floofy.
(This is probably in part because of Jetâs function as a foil of Zuko within the narrative, particularly given their book 2 encounters, which I think just further solidifies my point that, were it not for extenuating circumstances [like the fact that Zuko was introduced as an enemy and they had significant obstacles to hurdle before they could be friends], Zuko would have been exactly Kataraâs type. Had they met under different circumstances, she could have been the girl he went on a date with in Ba Sing Se. Just something to think about.)
So, yes, weâve established that Katara has her own taste. Her tastes seem to be boys with great hair who are taller than her, the same age or older, and of a similar maturity level.
Aang falls short (heh, short) on all counts. So it isnât Kataraâs taste in boys that led her to be interested in him. Hm!
Next, you claim that Katara âdeveloped around Aangâ--that she was necessary for his development, and that he was necessary for hers.
Letâs take a moment to examine that, shall we?
I will absolutely grant you that Katara was necessary for Aangâs development--only to a point, of course, but weâll get to that later--but was he really necessary for Kataraâs growth? I suppose I could grant you this on a generous technicality--he did, after all, provide her with the means to finally leave the South Pole and find a waterbending master to teach her (although she wound up largely self-taught anyway). But that had nothing to do with his relationship to Katara and everything to do with the structure of the plot--Katara and Sokka find Aang (and he never would have gotten out of that iceberg without Kataraâs own righteous anger, so even that leads back to her own power), and then they go on a quest to find teachers for the Chosen One and save the world.
The story could not have begun without first finding Aang and then providing means for the other main characters to travel with him (or, in Zukoâs case, chase him), but this has nothing at all to do with Aangâs relationship to Katara. Aang was not a mover in Kataraâs developmental arc--if anything, he acted as an obstacle more often than not, his actions ranging from innocent but obnoxious (playing and flirting with girls rather than helping with chores like picking up vital supplies, leaving Katara to do all of the quite literal heavy lifting and keeping her stuck in the role of caretaker that sheâd been thrust into following the death of her mother), to deliberate and harmful (hiding the map to Katara and Sokkaâs father, a truly selfish action, regardless of his lack of malicious intent, and one for which he never actually apologized), to somewhere in between (âshe didnât really mean thatâ he says to the man refusing to train Katara because sheâs a girl, when yes, she very much did mean that, and Aang was no help in finally getting the old codger to eat his words--Katara had to shove them down his throat her own damn self).
While Kataraâs overall arc wasnât exactly big and dynamic (like Zukoâs redemption arc), or in-your-face (like Sokka getting force-fed Respect Women Juice and his eventual growth into a tactician and leader), it was very much present and woven into her character--and Aang had almost no part in it. He provided her with the means to get to the North Pole, but left Katara alone to fight the patriarchy herself. He messed around while Katara took it on herself to do the chores and keep the Gaang alive, but he did almost nothing to decrease that burden so she could grow out of the caretaker role. (Contrary to popular shipper claims, Aang didnât actually teach Katara to have fun. She already knew how to have fun. But she couldnât indulge, because she had a responsibility to her family and her tribe, and later to her brother and Aang and Toph, and Aang goofing off and trying to get her to do the same only added to her burdens rather than subtracting from them.) He provided Katara with the necessary motive to learn to heal herself, but he certainly didnât seem to learn from the experience of accidentally burning her, preferring instead to claim he was never going to firebend again, despite already knowing, at that point, that he was going to need to master fire along with the other elements to become a fully realized Avatar and defeat the Firelord.
He didnât help Katara keep them alive during The Desert. (In fact, he ran off, leaving her to desperately try to keep Sokka and Toph from succumbing to the heat while worrying for his safety.) In The Painted Lady, Katara makes the decision to stall the Gaang and do what she can to help the Fire Nation villagers on her own--Aang agrees to help her when he finds out, but he wasnât actually instrumental in her making that choice. The Puppetmaster was, again, Katara finding a master of her own, and having to deal with the fallout from that. And in The Southern Raiders, Aang was--perhaps unknowingly, if Iâm being generous, because he is a child and could not reasonably be expected to fully understand the implications of what he was asking her to do or why it was impossible--actively impeding Kataraâs development! She desperately needed closure, something he could not understand and actively belittled and dismissed. The only reason he relented in the end (but not without a condescending âI forgive you! Does that give you any ideas???â parting shot lmao) was because Katara was planning to take Appa anyway, and letting her go (and hoping sheâd just magically wind up doing things his way) was easier than trying to fight her on it.
While Aangâs existence was necessary for Katara to start down her own path, she needed neither his guidance nor his approval to follow it--and absolutely nothing would change about Kataraâs arc if you removed their romantic relationship entirely.
Possibly because the only changes needed to do so would be to remove the two times Aang kissed Katara without her consent (which, hopefully, no one would actually miss), and the epilogue kiss (which was awkward and unnecessary to begin with, since ending the entire show on a romantic kiss as the final shot kind of missed the point of the story to begin with, but thatâs another discussion). None of these kisses (which are the only moments in which Kataraâs feelings for Aang are so much as addressed; do note that addressing them, or hinting that they needed to be, is not the same as saying she exhibited any sign of reciprocating them) altered anything about Kataraâs behavior, her personal arc, or (and perhaps most critically) her relationship with Aang.
Itâs that last point that is really damning, as far as âKatara obviously had feelings for Aang, she kissed him in the finale!â goes. Because she didnât âobviouslyâ have feelings for him. And the fact that he kissed her before the invasion and then she forgot about it (she literally had no idea what he was talking about during the playâs intermission until he reminded her that heâd kissed her) is pretty clear evidence that she didnât actually have feelings for him. Not the kind he had for her.
Iâve been a teenage girl. I know what itâs like to be surprise!kissed by your crush. And I absolutely for a full fact know that I had not completely forgotten about that kiss three months later and had, in fact, spent most of my waking hours thinking about it and remembering it and trying to talk to him about it. Now, granted, I was not in the middle of a war, but even if I had been, I doubt I would have needed reminding about the fact that the boy Iâve supposedly been developing feelings for had kissed me and showed clearly that he had those feelings for me too.
At the very least, if Katara was harboring feelings that she was worried about approaching until after the war, her relationship dynamic with Aang should have shifted. But it didnât. She acted the exact same way with him after the Day of Black Sun as she did before it--that is, as a mother figure and a caretaker, responsible for his wellbeing. (And itâs clear she never took him down off the pedestal she needed him to occupy, either--let it not be said that the unhealthy aspects of their relationship only went one way.)
And book 3 is, incidentally, where Katara went from being vital to Aangâs development to being detrimental to it--or, rather, Aangâs refusal to let go of his attachment to her (despite ostensibly having done as much at the end of book 2) was. Because despite having been told by, perhaps, the greatest authority left in the world on Air Nomad culture (even more than Aang, who had left his temple with a childâs understanding of his culture that was never able to mature because he got stuck in the ice berg while his people were wiped out) that he had to let go of his possessive attachment to this girl who never even expressed the possibility that she might harbor romantic feelings for him to begin with, after Azula killed him and Katara brought him back, he went right back into the mindset of Katara is mine, itâs just a matter of time.
And the narrative validated him for it.
Notice how, during Ember Island Players, Aang says the following (emphasis mine):
âWe kissed at the invasion, and I thought we were gonna be together. But weâre not.â
First of all, if you go back and watch the scene, itâs clear it wasnât a mutual kiss. Aang sprang a surprise kiss on Katara, which left her shocked and unhappy after he flew off. (The decision to have her looking away and frowning was a deliberate one on the part of Bryke, who wanted Kataraâs feelings kept ambiguous. Heaven forbid you allow the animators to make it clear that this fourteen-year-old girl who was just kissed without her consent by someone sheâd never once demonstrated romantic feelings toward might actually have some. Heaven forbid she have a little agency in her own romantic narrative. But whatever.)
Second, he says he thought they were gonna be together.
He never once even asked Katara what she thought--or even how she felt. He just assumes. He assumes that if he kisses her, sheâll kiss him back and theyâll get together. He assumes that she must have feelings for him, even though her body language is closed off and she told him with her words that she did not want to talk or think about this right now, and kisses her regardless of those signals, upsetting her and leading her to storm off.
And the narrative rewards him, because despite the fact that they donât have a single significant scene together after that second disastrous kiss, Katara just decides off-screen that she Does Love Him Really and walks onto the balcony to make out with him.
The upshot of all this being that, while Katara was indeed instrumental to a lot of Aangâs early growth and development, Aang was not necessary for her own arc, and their romantic relationship (such as it was) actively hampered Aangâs development in book 3, while removing it would change absolutely nothing for Katara (except saving her from some painfully embarrassing memories).
As far as your third point, Iâm simply not going to get baited into explaining how reducing Zutara to an âoppressor/oppressedâ relationship is not only insulting to interracial couples irl (not to mention any other couple with a potentially unbalanced dynamic of societal power, since there are many more axis of oppression than just racial), but demeaning to Zuko and Katara, their personal arcs as well as their relationship development together.
However, I will point out that Zuko was not responsible for any of Kataraâs trauma. She did not find violence and fighting in bending battles to be traumatic--in fact, she reveled in it. She enjoyed fighting against Zuko at multiple points (especially noticeable in their battle at the end of book 1), because she wanted to fight--she always had--and once she had the ability, she was ready to throw down with anyone who gave her the slightest reason. (Including, by the way, her own potential waterbending master.) Aangâs death at the end of book 2 was Azulaâs doing, and while I think that contributed to Kataraâs extreme reaction to Zuko joining the gaang, it was not something for which she actively blamed him, and it wasnât something she believed would be repeated--she let him go off alone on a journey to find the original firebending masters with Aang well before she chose to forgive him. So she already trusted Zukoâs intentions and that Aang would be safe with him.
Finally, because this has gotten long enough already, I hope you now understand that Zuko and Katara getting together would not require ignoring any of their development with their canonical romantic partners. Weâve already established that Kataraâs arc wouldnât change in the slightest if all of Aangâs romantic advances were removed, and I havenât even gotten into how Mai meant nothing in the grand scheme of Zukoâs development because Iâm pretty sure thatâs just self-evident. I mean, the video compilation put together by Nick showcasing Zukoâs journey throughout the series doesnât include a single scene with Mai, though it does include several with Katara, and even Jin makes an appearance--because Katara, and even Jin, played key roles in Zukoâs personal journey, while his relationship with Mai happened entirely off-screen and her only real function was to showcase just how unhealthy trying to force himself back into the role of the Crown Prince was for him.
What development, exactly, is there between them to even ignore?
At any rate, Iâve gone on long enough--I hope you enjoy the fact that you activated my wordvomit trap card right when i was about to go to bed, anon, because I just spent two hours writing this instead. In case youâre interested in the TL;DR: at the end of the day, there was no meaningful, mutual development in Kataangâs romantic relationship, and those romantic feelings that did exist were largely one-sided and ultimately detrimental to Aangâs development in the final third of his overall arc. Meanwhile, Mai meant nothing to Zukoâs journey--rather like Aangâs romantic overtures, she could be removed from the show completely and nothing about his story would change--while Zuko and Katara were both vital to each otherâs overall storylines, arcs and development. This, coupled with the fact that Zuko never actually traumatized Katara and, in fact, helped her achieve closure from the biggest source of her own trauma, means that Zuko and Katara have better and more believable build up that could potentially lead to a romantic relationship than either of them have with their canon romantic partners.
So no, anon, I didnât forget anything--I think you may have, though. Perhaps a rewatch is in order? Make sure not to close your eyes for the back half of book 3 this time.
