Regarding the discourse on @wonurbae 's post about Zutara hate in the fandom:
There were those antis explaining it’s because of the shippers. That Zutarians have an attitude and claim their ship should’ve been canon. I was certain they were talking about rude shippers who enter K@taang or M@iko spaces to harass them. One commenter claimed that they haven’t seen this attitude coming from other non-canon shippers. When I contributed that it’s not only Zutara shippers, and made examples, they just replied "yes, only Zutara" and ignored those examples.
As the conversation with the other anti (who talked to other ZK shippers, not me) went on, I realized: They weren’t talking about harassment but analyses. Perfectly constructive and respectful analyses that are properly tagged here on Tumblr or that you can just ignore if you stumble across a video on YT or TikTok titled "Why I think Zutara should’ve been Canon", for example.
Analyses that other K@taang or M@iko or whatever shippers watched/read to understand where Zutara shippers are coming from, even if they still don’t ship them afterwards—they were even thanking the creator in the comments and disagreed respectfully with their view on the canon ships, so I fail to see where the bad attitude those antis are talking about is coming from. They wouldn’t thank them and start a respectful conversation if the creators had bashed the canon ships and demonized Aang or Mai.
And, even if some analyses contain bashing and demonizing: again, this comes from EVERY side of the ship war. I can’t count how many times I came across a post claiming Zuko is such a manipulator in The Southern Raiders and poor, angelic Katara fell for this manipulation, but luckily listened to Aang in the end—I came across one of those BS takes just yesterday. 🤦🏻♀️
Those analyses exist for K@taang and M@iko as well. Not to mention that those aren’t only done by the shippers themselves but well-known ATLA YouTubers like Sarcastic Chorus or Hello Future Me, some of which even tend to be more of the canon shippers.
So, even if Zutarians were the only non-canon shippers claiming their ship should’ve been endgame—which they aren’t, this is just a wrong and ignorant take—so what? How is this an attitude? It‘s a damn opinion and absolutely normal, because this is what happens when you release a TV show, a movie, or a book: not everyone agrees with the canon material, because people are different, that’s it.
I stopped shipping Edward x Bella from Twilight eventually, but back when, you think I cared when they became endgame and Jacob x Bella shippers still claimed that their ship is better? No, and why should I? It’s an opinion that doesn’t change just because the other pairing became canon, this should go without saying.
Same thing with Geralt x Yennefer from The Witcher. Those two are so freakin toxic, but I don’t care, I love and ship them together, anyway (yes, they are toxic, I’m perfectly fine admitting it. That’s why I always have to laugh when people claim the same about Zutara, but whatever…). Those two are canon. But you think I care when people consider the dynamic between Geralt and Triss, Shani, or whatever other woman he’s banging, or between him and Dandelion, better and get respectfully vocal about it? No, again, why should I? Media preference, totally normal thing.
As someone who usually ships canon pairings, it is beyond me why people hate shippers just because they think their non-canon ship should’ve been endgame and analyze it. Constructive analyses are completely fine, and people can just disagree with them or ignore them. So, no, we are not the ones with the attitude. Anyway, I had to get this off my chest and will never participate in those energy-draining conversations with antis ever again. Up to better things.
