Alright, @baby-turtleduck, I shall.
For those of you who don't know, this is a reply to a post where I mentioned that Zuko has feminine coding and has a Heroine's Journey rather than a traditional Hero's Journey like Aang. (x)
Before I get into the weeds, no, I'm NOT saying that Zuko is canonically a girl in either NATLA or ATLA. That's clearly not the case. He's a cis guy, and there's no denying that.
All coding means is that a character, place and whatnot in a story has traits or features that are associated with a group of people, intentional or not. Kinda like how Scar, Ursula, and Jafar are all queer-coded, despite none of those stories having any hard "evidence" that's actually the case (like them kissing a person of the same gender, being trans, etc).
In Zuko's case, for one, he just has more traditionally feminine qualities compared to say Sokka or Aang. He's quite emotional, compassionate, kind hearted, and empathetic, much like Katara in some sense. He openly cries. He had panic attacks. He struggles with his mental health.
While, yes, Sokka and Aang have some of these traits, too, obviously, Zuko's feminine traits are far pronounced and out in the open. Hell, in the animated series, one key part of Sokka's arc is getting over his toxic masculinity due to his trauma. Aang has unaddressed toxic masculinity issues himself only regarding his weird, obsessive crush on Katara, and that making him feel entitled to her, even if the show never admits it.
Zuko also is also put in the "damsel in distress" role a few times in the series as well. There are plenty of occasions where Aang, Katara or others rescued him. While that happened with Aang, Sokka and other male characters in the series as well, it happened more often with Zuko.
As for the Heroine's Journey bit, Maureen Murdock, a Jungian psychotherapist, was once a student of Joseph Campbell (the guy behind the Hero's Journey that everyone should be aware of if you know anything about writing). Supposedly, she asked him, "What about women? Do they get to go on adventures of their own?"
He replied, "Women don't need to make the journey. They are only there to be prizes to be won."
This set her off so much that she created an alternative called the Heroine's Journey. Which is this:
I don't really like Murdoch's model. It's way too convoluted and confusing. And more importantly, this was only intended to be used in a self-help book for women, not as a blueprint for narrative structure.
There is an alternative by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, a screenwriter and author with a doctorate in psychology, that I like far more, which is this:
Fairytales and folktales use this setup more than the Hero's Journey, especially animal bride groom ones. Though, some myths use this setup like Hades & Persephone along with Cupid & Psyche. Older female-lead novels like Little Women and Pride & Prejudice are as well. More modern female-lead ones do as well like all Disney Princess movies minus Aladdin (thanks to that having a dude as the protagonist rather than a girl like the others, which also leads to it being a male-centric story compared to the others, but that's a whole other discussion completely), Labyrinth, Spirited Away, Legally Blonde, The Hunger Games, etc.
The whole set up is quite similar to the traditional Hero's Journey at the start. The point where they diverge is after the "Road of Trials" stage. In the Hero's Journey, that's where things end with them had saved the day and whatnot. In the Heroine's Journey? Nah, it still keeps going.
The following steps are basically that the main character regresses a bit and gets what they were fighting for, but realizes it doesn't fulfill them. They gave away too many parts of who they were. They have a realization or sometimes descent to another place where they find out what they truly must do. They go back, setting things right. They come back to the ordinary world at least briefly, achieving their goal and a more fulfilled person. Since the journey is cyclical, it can keep going on forever, but it can just end there.
That describes Zuko's arc to a tee.
When he was a young boy, he was much more carefree and naive. This shattered when his father burnt his face as punishment for having the audacity to care about others, and cast him out of the Fire Nation. The only way he could regain his honour is by capturing the Avatar.
As a side note, while "adult orders the heroine to go on hyper-specific, pointless trials" isn't explicitly mentioned as part of the Heroine's Journey structure, I can definitely see that. Ozai casting his son out and forcing him to do meaningless tasks that he never expects him to ever achieve matches myths like Cupid & Psyche where Aphrodite forces Psyche to do the same after she burnt her son. (Greek and Roman gods in myths tended to be larger than life and had extremely over the top reactions all the time. They also match folklore about the fae in that regard as well. But, again, that's another topic completely, so leaving it at that.)
Zuko sets out on his journey, heading out into the unknown with only a bunch of crewmen, Iroh and Zhao. He gather allies and has many adventures along the way.
By season 2, he seemingly settles down in the Earth Kingdom with his uncle, helping him with his tea shop. Since he has unfinished business, this is short lived.
During Crossroads of Destiny, Azula convinces him to come back to the Fire Nation. She claims that if he did, he would regain his "honour" and be with his family like he always wanted. Zuko casts everything he gained so far aside, and joins Azula, stabbing the Gaang in the back in the process.
Once he gets back, he feels empty. Sure, he has technically achieved his goal, but something is missing.
He goes to prison to talk to his uncle a few times. They eventually have a heart to heart where Zuko realizes that he made a mistake. Iroh forgives him.
Zuko sets out on his journey again. He eventually sets things right and earns the Gaang's forgiveness. He fights alongside them, eventually defeating his father and becoming Fire Lord.
Overall, it's a solid arc. There's a reason why his arc is often allotted as one of the best redemption arcs, not in just western animation, but in general. Part of it is thanks to being a more traditionally "female" arc rather than the usual Hero's Journey, because it makes it stand out, especially at the time when the original came out.
Having written all of this, if the original series was made in the modern day, especially if it was headed by marginalized people instead of two straight white guys, I can see not only Zutara potentially becoming canon, but Zuko being a girl, having it be a queer main ship. All of the coding is there. Nothing would've changed much about his arc or character, since he has a lot of the tells already.
I can also see Zuko remaining a guy and Zutara being a straight ship as well in such a hypothetical series as well. Showing a guy with feminine traits without it being demonized is progressive, too.
Granted, we'll never know for sure. But, if the original never existed, I can see a F|F zutara canon ship being at least a possibility a new modern series, especially since it was progressive for its time.
