#atla analysis

[friedpicklefishbonk]

I am going to talk about Mai and why her NOT going back with Zuko in comics (as we are aware) is actually one of the most powerful things in the whole atla universe.

Mai loved Zuko, genuinely in her own way which was not loud but very obvious and she proved it at the boiling rock when she chose him over Azula knowing full well what meant, and even after Zuko left her via a LETTER.

I understand that Zuko did not wanted to bring her into his choice and affect her but he should have still communicated with her, and put more trust in her… but they did had a relatively toxic relationship (mosty bc of Zuko)

Now here where it gets interesting, Zuko does grow. Once in the show and the second time in the comics after he betrayed Mai again by keeping secrets from her. He becomes more honest, emotionally present, calmer and content (after he finds his mother). But Mai still says NO and I think that is one of the most self love decision any character in this franchise make.

This show that someone becoming better does not automatically mean you owe them another chance. Growth is not a debt that the person you hurt gets to collect on. He became a better person, she recognise and still knows that she cannot go back and rebuild trust in someone that broke it twice.

Mai is just a woman who looked at what she needed and chose it over what she used to want and that is genuinely rare and hard to do. She knew her worth and I love her for that.

I believe this portrayal should be more embracing is stories to encourage young girl to stop running for men’s approval

[m1grat0ry]

i don’t know how risky of a move it will turn out, it being the writing of a probably controversial fandom opinion when my blog isn’t even a thimble years old. i’ll try to be good about it in the tags so people outside Intended Audience don’t find it, although... ironic, that. i think the people i’ll be trying to keep out are the ones who need to hear all this.

whatever, i’ll not muck about. i’m writing this for my own peace of mind, and because i am consistently tired of illiterate discourse--especially from people who live in countries that can very well afford good education.

zutara is a problem upon Avatar: The Last Airbender. or, rather, the way some fans engage with this dynamic is quite a problem.

k, let’s unpack this bitch.

ever since becoming more politically engaged, i have resented invoking Identity Politics frequently or flippantly, seeing as arguments must stand on their own legs no matter who argues them. in this particular instance, however, my identity as an indigenous person could prove useful. we are not a monolith, of course, but there is this thing i’d like to call the unprocessed colonised mindset. i’m sure qualified folks have done research on that, and officially it must be called something much better. i’m bringing this up because i used to be a zutara fan myself, and that Mindset is my theory as to why.

to colonise is to subjugate an indigenous population to a metropole’s will, with metropole being the coloniser country, otherwise known as the imperial core (for any of you possibly american zutaras already seething at my post--america is an imperial core. shut the fuck up). means of colonisation range from outwardly violent, especially in the settler variety of colonialism that necessitates the full extinction of the native population, to something cosmetically peaceful and thus more covertly sinister, like welcoming a subjugated group into the imperial economic structures with the purpose of neutering resistance. example: black people, or any minority of colour, in the us who serve in their country’s military in order to chew off their government-given privileges on that basis, all the while killing/aiding the killing of brown individuals overseas.

those not on board with these concepts and definitions, go read a book. moving on.

psychological warfare is an essential component of oppression. the ash makers (yup, i’m calling them an anti-coloniser slur because Role-playing is Fun) in the ATLA narrative bent to their will these countries and peoples:

the earth kingdom via attempts at siege and the eventual seizing of power by azula;

the water tribes via constant raids and the heinous history of bender extermination (more so the southern tribe, since their northern sister is a little more well-protected, yet nonetheless affected by terror and anxiety).

of course, the air nomad population was fully annihilated bar one individual. there was no populace to bend.

to the point. i mentioned the Colonised Mindset because it is a direct consequence of historical pillaging and the above-described psychological warfare. subjugated, raped, dispossessed groups begin to adapt to their circumstances by becoming a little bit (or very deeply) blind to the realities of imperialism. which is why i--and perhaps many others amongst my indigenous brothers and sisters both in the past and present--was completely shut off from material analysis as recently as three or four years ago. there is no shame in this admission, and thus no compensatory ego right now in my writing this post. it is a scary reality to recognise and deal with, and so the road to realising one’s position in this colonial world (i ain’t calling it post-colonial, not a chance) is difficult. that much is self-evident.

of course, it is extremely easy, and to a point understandable, to divorce zutara from heavy consideration and the sort of scrutiny that accounts for the historical context in ATLA itself. oh!!! enemy-lover!! red-blue!! wow!! oma and shu?????? WOW!!!!!!! (the comparisons between zutara and oma&shu are quite lobotomised, to be honest, but i will not be discussing that at length.)

my question would be, though, what for would anyone engage in a piece of media that portrays the reality of genocide in its very first few episodes, only then to transform the obvious, and narratively important, circumstances into something palatable? what is ever the point of diluting the tangible complexities of zutara? to be unproductive and defensive, to harp on about how zutara is the true canon and absolutely not a Coloniser Ship Situation?

by standing on defence like brainless jock dudebros, part of the zutara fandom rob themselves of meaningful analysis and deep interaction with the source material. you cannot possibly ship the Crown Prince of a murderous imperial power and the Daughter of the current indigenous Chief, and not address/admit the tensions that are simply there on the surface.

what happens instead is internet slap-fighting between uneducated five-year-olds who are willing to turn off critical thinking for the sake of a ship, to protect it against the sort of analysis ATLA as a show blatantly encourages and at times facilitates, though with fluctuating degrees of accuracy. ( to clarify, when i say encourage/facilitate, i mean the inclusion of poignant subject matter in specific episodes, like Appa Alone or Zuko Alone (which, respectively, deal with 1. the devastation and loneliness appa experiences as the last of his kind -> directly a lament upon colonisation and genocide; 2. the self-reflection zuko must begin in order to atone for what has been done under his nation’s flag -> an attempt at an ego-less admission of his origins and customs, what he has been taught as part of ash maker brainwashing) )

is the central argument here that one must not ship zutara? no. i’m not brain-dead, and i vastly do not give a shite. the argument is: if one does ship it, let one use one’s intelligence as ordained. analyse material. allow yourself the sad pondering about zuko’s stolen childhood, while very much saying that he grew up a privileged weapon of the regime. a weapon bent and broken, but a weapon nonetheless.

with that in mind, just to get everyone up to speed. a crown-adorned soldier prince does dubious things in serving a Genocidal Fatherland before redeeming himself fundamentally, and then... goes on to date--sometimes marry--a waterbender woman whose mother was tactically annihilated by that ash maker Fatherland, and part of the zutara fanbase will die on the hill of ‘not colonial suck a dick!!!!!’?

i began writing all this while enraged, but now i’m left with uncharitable mocking in my mind. described step-by-step, the behaviour is nothing if not childish.

to be clear, i have not constructed a straw man. i need not even go that deeply into tumblr to find the echo chamber filled not only with uncritical, bland zutara praise, but also with vehement vitriol for kataang. this, again, comes back to Defence Mode. what are y’all compensating for? what are you fighting? in fact, position a mirror where you will always see it. you prefer a Crown Prince of Genocide Central to a heroic survivor of crimes against humanity. in itself, that ain’t my business. it becomes an object of attention when coupled with shouting that zuko’s roots aren’t fundamentally evil and colonial and imperial, and do not, in someone’s uninformed opinion, deserve to be processed as such within the confines of his character. he would not give himself this sort of leeway, but i constantly see some zutaras shoot themselves in the brains and never reflect on their thinking patterns.

i can sympathise if there are victims of colonialism in this part of the fanbase who live out the futile fantasy of being considered human by the Shadowy Oppressor, to the point of becoming shutters-on uncritical, but unto mayonnaise bottles turned homo sapiens i say... do fuck off.

on the topic of zuko as the face of ash maker legacy. let us proceed.

i am a sincerely passionate fan of his character, and especially of his redemption arc. the brightest, most quintessential reason lies in his own words to his genocidal father in the Day of the Black Sun:

The world hates us! And we deserve it!

it is understood by zuko himself within the narrative that he is part of a system that benefits from genocide (both physical and cultural) and constant subjugation.

it is then a baffling development that some fans of the ship ardently try to peddle a whitewashed version of what happened to zuko and how/why his redemption was such a roaring success. it was so because he admitted the material reality and gave no excuses, no caveats. his family’s legacy very much defines him as a person, it very much does dictate his actions; to be different from the fire lords who came before, he needs to realise how and why they were wrong, as well as his own responsibility as a direct descendant of genocidal maniacs. to presume that his final point of redemption is a very naive ‘oh this doesn’t matter, he's a good person!!’ is extremely... lacking, i’d say, and also gives fans/shippers an excuse to ignore anything a nail’s breath complex about zuko’s journey.

he is--at end of ATLA, and in its beginning was born to be--at the top of a violent, pillaging machine. he represents that machine, which is something he has clearly made peace with in the narrative, evidenced by his readiness to try and change ash makers as a nation. whom is this whitewashing for? the softening of it?

16 or not, (this said 14 before redaction! fellow user corrected me!) boy or not, we all do remember he ordered a raid upon katara’s home in s1. these are the actions of a coloniser, of a terrorising entity; he was a child, so his level of independent decision-making needs to be evaluated accordingly, but he was a child taught by figures of authority to enact the same carnage that had been enacted years before. when he dared fight against, quite nobly so, he got a scar for his trouble. in s1, then, he tried very hard to model himself after the sort of behaviour that would earn his father’s approval, which really means the empire’s approval. that can only be gained if a person raised in the oppressor group exhibits everything this group deems standard issue, from casual violence and threatening (s1 raid) to destroying everything that belongs to the Other, the Orient (s2 crossroads where he had to choose what to do with a chained appa--he chose well, but it was nonetheless a real choice in his mind because he’s a product of colonial philosophy).

the least zutaras can do is accept that zutara is the colonised x redeemed coloniser dynamic. which... sure. to each their own.

a very special place in this discussion is reserved for the concept of katara as zuko’s consort/fire lady. oh the gods of old.

a descendant of hitler decides to put a stop to the holocaust/its legacy, to reform the german society, and we over here romanticise a romani/slavic/jewish person whose family have died in that genocide, going as far as to appoint that survivor as second leader to a people who carried out that genocide? are we sure?

is this not asinine? is this not utter disrespect to katara, whose culture is heavily inspired, by the way, by the quite real inuit cultures? a slav/inuit or brit/inuit enemies-to-lovers arc when, folks?

now, why does any of this matter?

i’m not a lily-livered bulshitter, do with your dolls whatever you will, but extend to me--and to other indigenous people--the basic courtesy of not sitting on an illusory fucking high horse that only, and i mean only, serves to protect your nervous systems from ever analysing any material on a level deeper than the kindergarten requirements.

this point matters, this point should be talked about honestly, whether at the expense of people’s Colonial Feelings or not, because katara’s tribe takes from real civilisations for a fucking reason. a substantial one, at that. to ignore this complex aspect of zutara, if you do choose to ship it upon having had a concussion, is to spit in the faces of indigenous folks; not because i think ATLA is end-all-be-all of media activism, that would be laughable, but because the way people consume said media tends very much to bleed into how they think about us--the dispossessed, the forever raped and killed.

if part of a population feels justified enough to die on the hill of ‘Crown Prince of KKK Industries isn’t ever connected to the activities of the KKK!!!’, simply for the sake of shipping their dolls without being uwu uncomfy, how can we ever begin any conversation that centres indigenous voices? some of you cannot stand the most genteel form of critical analysis from us, and we all the Folks Who Walked Before deserve fucking more than that.

much more than that. we are owed much more than we have been given, and i, for one, will not be polite when demanding the respect i am due within political discourse, wherever it happens. neither should my fellow first nations folks.

as you witness it, this post is about zutara, yes.

but not really. not fundamentally.

_________________

correction courtesy of @0bscvr1ty thank you for pointing out my factual slip-up :)

[baalzebubuu]

[baalzebubuu]

I love avatar the last airbender and its contributions to western animation and it aged like fine wine but with that being said I only have small Takes I wanted to speak about because I don’t hear people talk about it

I really love Hakoda (sokka and katara’s father) but I feel like the series didn’t put enough time or attention to him as a character because he has a potential storyline they have overlooked ( not their fault bc Nickelodeon is a bitch let’s be fr)

Such as how he was dealing with the grief of his wife’s murder, and how he potentially has a very specific hatred for the fire nation beyond just what we see from Katara and sokka,

The series does put alot of good emphasis on katara’s grief being a child that lost her mother to a bullshit war, but we don’t get to see how Hakoda’s generation dealt with the repercussions of the war especially with the potential implication hakoda might have also lost a bunch of his own family members who were water benders and maybe even grew up with constant fear of raids happening in the southern water tribe.

So with him growing up with his trauma it could be a great commentary the generational gap between older and younger people dealing with trauma and struggles with their nations in constant danger, and maybe even Hakoda having a specific bias or dislike for the northern water tribe and their lacking support for the raids and attacks happening during the hundred year war.

I also believe there’s an overlooked opportunity to talk about the topic of men’s mental health and how Hakoda even dealt with all the pressure and grief of leaving his kids behind and losing his wife

Especially because sokka and katara always talk about their dad in a positive light and make him larger than life

[jasmine-green-t]

This is a really interesting take on ATLA’s view of gender, thought I’d put it here for y’all

[jana-137]

Zuko And Katara In The Southern Raiders: A Catholic Analysis On Justice And Healing

Fandom Discourse

The Southern Raiders, written by Elizabeth Welch, is popularly viewed as one of the best episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is also arguably the most debated episode of the show. Justice vs revenge, forgiveness, closure, healing are only some of the topics that have been brought up in regards to this episode. However, one of the biggest arguments I have seen is whether Zuko was a bad influence on Katara. Let's take a look.

Katara's Condition Before Zuko's Intervention

Katara starts this episode acting not much like herself. The Fire Nation separates her from her father for the third time, triggering her. While the other members of Team Avatar are all talking, laughing, and having a great time, Katara is quiet, withdrawn, seething, and bitter(highly unlike her usual self). She makes a mean-spirited remark about Zuko, thus dampening the lighthearted atmosphere and gets up to isolate herself from the group. It's clear that the only thing poisoning Katara is harboring anger over the fire nation for breaking up her family, most especially her mother's murder(as evidenced by her confrontation with Zuko)

Zuko: What can I do to make it up to you? Katara: You really want to know? Hmm, maybe you could reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King. Or, I know! You could bring my mother back!

If she had just been left alone, chances are she would have grown more and more bitter, seeing as no one else tried to talk to her and figure out what was going on and she herself didn't seek out anyone to talk to.

Justice And Anger As A Moral Emotion

In a murder case, the most you can do for the victim's relatives is to provide them with justice and emotional closure as it would not be possible to naturally bring the victim back to life. This part of Zuko's mindset makes sense. He recognizes that Katara is still bitter about her mother's death after all these years and decides that they should do something about it (Action is Zuko's established way of dealing with issues).

Katara's anger in this episode, by all Catholic standards is justifiable, understandable and a result of an unprocessed emotional and psychological wound. Yon Rha murdered Katara's mother and got away with no consequences and no repercussions, this is an unjust situation. Although killing him would not be the right choice(primarily because Katara is not an official judge), going after Yon Rha, confronting him and making him face the reality of his crime was a completely just pursuit and very much a good idea.

Zuko didn't see going after Yon Rha as being wrong; he saw it as justice, and he was mostly right.

Zuko: She needs this, Aang. This is about getting closure and justice.

Katara's desire to not let Yon Rha get away with his crime is in fact a righteous desire not a vengeful one. Neither Katara nor Zuko suggest that they're going to kill Yon Rha, Aang is the first to suggest this by calling the whole ordeal revenge(this was also risky because it had the potential of planting the idea in her head, simply asking her would've been the wiser choice), Katara then doesn't deny it nor does she confirm it, she says maybe.

Katara: [Angrily.] Fine, maybe it is! Maybe that's what I need! Maybe that's what he deserves!

Katara's lines indicate;

A sense of moral duty

Katara: Now that I know he's out there ... now that I know we can find him, I feel like I have no choice. Katara: Maybe that's what he deserves!

And a desire for emotional release

Katara: Maybe that's what I need!

Showing that her intentions at this point in time are mix of righteous anger and vengeful anger

The Forgiveness Dilemma

Aang's stance on this issue is that Katara should forgive Yon Rha. This ideal is morally sound but poorly applied in Katara's situation. Telling Katara to forgive while the emotional wound is unprocessed and untreated poses many risks. It puts the burden of reconciliation on the victim; which is wrong, it leads to coerced false forgiveness, fragile peace, and is an injustice in and of itself because it seeks to forget the victim.

Forgiveness without some form of justice is what we call hollow forgiveness. It downplays the seriousness of the crime and the impact on the victim. We see this in how God deals with humanity; this principle specifically reflects the Christian understanding of why Jesus' death on the cross was a necessary occurrence. God chose not to just forgive humanity because forgiving humanity without anyone paying for the sins downplays its seriousness and is unjust to the victims that have suffered at the hands of sin. The only issue is that we as humans are unable to completely pay for our guilt, meaning we'd spend all eternity doing so.

God decides that He will absorb all the eternal justice that humanity is due, hence the cross and Christ's passion. Now that all humanity's eternal justice has been meted out, God's forgiveness can flow in abundance to anyone who wants it until their last breath or the end of the age(Basically Jn.3:16).

Contrary to Aang's statement, especially in a case like Katara's, where her pain stems from loss and injustice, forgiveness is not the first step towards healing; it's the last. A person's ability to forgive without coercion is a sign of completed healing, not the first step to it.

Accompaniment Over Correction: Why Zuko's Approach Works

When dealing with an emotionally and psychologically wounded soul, Catholic moral theology emphasizes something called accompaniment over correction.

Accompaniment is the act of walking alongside someone in their emotional or moral journey—providing presence, support, and validation—without imposing immediate solutions or judgments. It provides psychological safety to process trauma, empowers moral agency, and prevents premature moralizing. Accompaniment is what Jesus demonstrates with His disciples on the road to Emmaus(Luke 24:13–35) and what Zuko near perfectly does in this episode.

“Jesus himself came near and went with them.” (Lk 24:15)

In the story, Jesus;

Draws near and walks with His disciples

Listens to their story

Acknowledges their grief and takes their state of mind seriously'

Teaches them scripture and gives them instruction, once He's dealt with their grief.

The fourth point is the only thing Zuko doesn't do, and I'll explain why this was a better choice, writing-wise, for Katara's character growth.

Practical And Emotional Support: How Zuko Helps Katara

Katara wasn't blinded by rage in this episode, she definitely felt rage but it didn't chaotically dominate her actions. She shows a notable amount of restraint throughout and isn't shown regretting any of her actions by the end of the episode(an indication that she knew what she was doing). However, Katara could've easily become blinded by rage, and a large part of the reason this didn't happen was Zuko's accompaniment.

Zuko vocally acknowledges the injustice of Katara's situation. This helps to affirm Katara that what happened to her wasn't her fault and that her anger is justified.

His presence keeps Katara from isolation

He takes care of all technical responsibilities concerning the trip(packing, planning, locating the place, flying Appa, getting the right information and pulling his weight in combat). This is important because it relieves Katara of all responsibility, thus allowing her to focus on herself, how she feels and what she'll do once she gets there.

He checks on her and looks after her well-being when she forgets/ignores it(Telling her to get some sleep and checking to see if she still wants to do this by asking if she's ready)

He provides a listening and attentive ear when she narrates the tragedy. This allows her to air out the memory, get it off her chest and process it better.

He makes a sympathetic and comforting remark about her mother. ("Your mother was a brave woman")

He backs her up physically and is protective of her without her being portrayed as a damsel in distress.

He shows anger, intimidation and a menacing attitude towards the man who they thought killed her mother, he accuses him of doing a horrible thing and shoves the reality of the crime in his face.

Zuko: You don't remember her? You will soon, trust me.

Zuko glaring at the captain of the Southern Raiders

Zuko: [Bending down closer to the commander.] Don't lie! You look her in the eye and you tell me you don't remember what you did.

This is especially important for Katara to see. When someone defends you and shows passionate anger towards someone who has deeply hurt and wronged you, this validates the way you feel, it lets you know you're not crazy or ridiculous for feeling the way you feel, it lets you know that you're seen, understood, supported and not to blame for the way you feel.

He doesn't coerce her to spare Yon Rha. Katara being able to face the perpetrator, name his crime to his face, have all the power to kill him but choosing mercy based off of her own moral judgement and perception built true virtue within her. If she had spared him out of force or out of obedience to a human despite not wanting to, it would no longer be considered true virtue.

He took her to Ember Island, allowing her to be alone and reflect on the most emotional journey of her life.

He fills the others in on what happened thus, keeping her from being bombarded with questions.

Aang's Approach: Ethically Admirable But Psychologically Limited

Aang wanting Katara to forgive and not wanting her to kill are morally sound ideals and are consistent with his air nomadic view of inner peace and pacificism and it's good that he eventually conceded to let Katara go. His main issue however is how he approaches the situation. Aang prioritized correction and moralization over accompaniment.

Aang: Um ... and what exactly do you think this will accomplish? Aang: Katara, you sound like Jet. Aang: The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're being poisoned yourself. Aang: Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.

This approach, while well meaning, is psychologically ineffective. Trying to do correction(though still very important) before the emotional work of validation, comfort and sympathy serves the effect of coming across as insensitive and uncaring and leads to hardening the heart to guidance rather than softening it.

Going on a quiet trip for days with a companion who spends the whole trip being supportive, looking after your well-being, taking care of all technical responsibilities, providing a listening ear, providing sympathy and validating your justified feelings is far more conducive to remaining grounded, unblinded by rage and having a clear enough mental space to make the right choice.

Even with Aang's instruction, if Katara had gone alone to face Yon Rha, her chances of killing him would've been much higher because she'd be isolated, unsupported, uncared for and have no one to talk to.

Mercy Without Coercion: Katara's Genuine virtue

In catholic and Aristotelian ethics,

virtue is not just doing the right thing, but becoming the kind of person who chooses the good willingly and knowingly.

Katara's decision to spare Yon Rha constitutes genuine virtue because she faces the evil head on, had all the power to kill him in his already pathetic state but chooses mercy because of her own internal convictions, moral judgements and assessments. If she had spared him because she was obeying someone else's moral authority, out of fear or any other external influence, it would no longer be genuine virtue but rather moral compliance(which isn't bad but not as valuable long-term).

Katara's achievement of genuine virtue ties back into accompaniment, because Zuko's accompaniment created the space for Katara to feel everything, think clearly and choose freely. Zuko may have believed that Yon Rha's justice should've come in the form of a death penalty but he didn't try to coerce or influence Katara into doing what he thought. The writing choice of having Zuko not be the one to convince Katara to spare Yon Rha, allowed all the credit for the decision to go to her, thus enabling the development of genuine virtue.

The Aftermath

The episode ends with Katara having no regrets in regards to anything about the trip, still morally conflicted about sparing Yon Rha, but smiling at, forgiving and hugging Zuko.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the episode doesn't present Zuko as a poor/toxic influence but rather uses him to demonstrate the importance of accompaniment in dealing with emotional trauma and allows Katara to achieve true virtue of her own agency without external coercion.

Analytical Note:

This essay draws on Catholic moral theology, Aristotelian virtue ethics, and contemporary trauma psychology in its analysis of character development and moral agency in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[goatlilly]

An Insanely Long Essay on ATLA’s Most Underrated Couple.

Zuko/Mai is one of the most underrated ships of all time, and I mean, I get it? It doesn’t really get tons of screen time, it’s pretty low-key, most of what we do get involves cringy and somewhat shallow professions of emo love and annoying couple spats—I get why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But I wanna talk a bit about why I love it, and why it’s actually good.

So, let’s start with the narrative: The story of Avatar as a whole is about moving past hurt, and about how we don’t have to sacrifice who we are and what we care about in order to make the world better; rather, it’s because of what we care about and who we are that we have to power to change the world, and we do more good by embracing those things than we do by repressing them. This is shown through Ang’s decision not to kill the Fire Lord, through Karara learning to be a kid again, through Sokka utilizing his ability to strategize or through Toph using her blindness as a means of becoming a stronger bender—and it is also illustrated through Mai and Zuko’s relationship. When Zuko arrives back home, he is faced with the world he always wanted. A world where he’s welcomed home as a hero, loved by his family, and, in essence, a world where he matters to his nation. However, that world proves to be shallow and meaningless, not because what he wants is wrong, but because he’s grown enough as a person to see the lie in what he’s presented. This lie is characterized through his relationship with Mai, as the two of them hide their true affection for one another beneath shallow, cynical flirtation. Zuko knows what he has in the Fire nation isn’t real, so his relationship with Mai reflects that. After the episode “The Beach,” where they all talk about their feelings and reveal the truth beneath the lies they’ve been telling, we see that relationship collapse and reform as something stronger—showing the beginnings of healing and change as Zuko confronts the conflict inside him. After this their relationship is a lot lighter and happier. We see the two of them spending time together and joking in a way that seems more hopeful and genuine, having moved past the shallow cynicism that characterized it before. At this point in the story, Zuko has begun to accept himself, and let go of the anger he’s held against himself for so long. However, his arc isn’t complete, as he still hasn’t faced his father, avoiding responsibility. This is metaphorically represented, yet again, through his relationship with Mai, as the two are closer than ever but dance around any topic that matters. It’s a better lie, but still a lie, and Zuko needs to leave it behind. So he does, breaking up with Mai and cutting all ties with his nation. This hurts Mai, however, and in a way, through Mai’s hurt, we see through a window into the way the fire nation is hurting in Zuko’s absence, as the fire nation begins to fall apart. And eventually Mai follows in his footsteps, gaining the courage to confront her own abuser—Azula—from Zuko’s example, showing how Zuko has become a stronger leader to his nation by fighting against it. His love for his nation personified through his love for Mei is what helps him take down his sister and reclaim the Fire nation. 

Beyond that—beyond story, I mean—I think there are still other reasons why these two are an awesome ship, and one of those is chemistry. I mean, I get it if you don’t agree, but these two are just a vibe together. Mai is gloomy and dispassionate, while Zuko is optimistic and self-righteous. I know Zuko comes off as being a pessimist when compared with most of team Avatar, and I think we tend to view him as one because he takes on the role of the realist, but in general Zuko has always seen the best in people and looked towards his own future with hope, misguided or not. Zuko and Mai have a fun dynamic, with Mei being the ash that trails after his fire in a sense. She’s a sort of reality check for him, the person that stops him from taking things too far. For her, Zuko is light in her life, the one who brings out her passion and pushes her to burn a little brighter herself. 

And then in the show we just see them being good for each other. Yes, they fight a lot—they’re both badly scared from trauma, they’re both teenagers, and they’re both still figuring things out. But when Zuko needs a reality check at the beach, Mai is the first to give it to him, telling him he’s been acting badly, “blowing up over every little thing,” and that he needs to figure himself out. When Zuko is trying to figure out who he is in Nightmares and Daydreams, Mai is there to support him, talk to him, validate his feelings and to listen. She diffuses his anger at not being invited to the war meeting by trying to cheer him up or encouraging him to brush it off—“who wants to go to a stupid war meeting anyway”—and tends to joke and laugh with him frequently, helping him regulate his emotions and offering a new way to look at the world. In a similar way, Zuko refuses to let Mai play the same game with him that she does with everyone else, constantly forcing her to confront her emotions that she prefers to keep buried. He doesn’t accept her answer when he asks her what she thinks of one of the guys in the beach episode, “what do you think of him?” and she tells him she doesn’t have any opinion about him. Instead he tries to push her into a more elaborate response, by saying “you like him, don’t you?” This scene can be read as Zuko being insecure, but it seems clear with the context of other scenes in mind that he wants Mai to express herself more. When she does express how she feels, he immediately supports her and validates those feelings, like when they were making out pre-beach, Zuko told her “I love it when you hate the world,” after she criticized the color of the sunset, or later in the episode Nightmares and daydreams. During a date where the two of them are spending time together, he asks her “if you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?” Or something to that effect, and when she responds, telling him she wants a fruit tart, he immediately gets it for her. Zuko’s trauma has caused him to lash out, while Mai’s has led her to repress her emotions and keep herself hidden. Zuko sees the world as black and white, while Mai sees everything as a shade of the same gray. But these opposite responses and world views allow them to support each other in the ways they need it the most.

Something else I personally love about this ship is seeing how much these two characters grow because of each other. Zuko confronts how his temper can hurt others because Mai confronts him about it. Mai is able to face Azula because Zuko was strong enough to face Ozai first. Mei starts the show hating the world, and ends by loving Zuko. Zuko returns to the Fire Nation the first time unsettled by the contradictions he’s discovered in himself, and in part thanks to Mai returns the second time embracing those contradictions as a part of who he is. 

Perhaps the most important aspect of their relationship, though, is how Mei represents the best parts of Zuko’s life. Zuko returns to the Fire Nation at the end of the story, but his heart never left. Mai symbolized his love for the Fire nation, giving him purpose by helping him stabilize his view of himself. She reminds him to care, to think of others and put their needs first. Her turning against Azula was part of what lead to her downfall, meaning she played a large part in helping Zuko become the Fire Lord. In general, while Mai is a far less important character to the broader narrative, her story is one of bravery and authenticity as much as Zuko’s, and the two characters make a great couple! 

So there. I think they’re great. And they’re my favorite Avatar ship.

[eggimal]

Controversial take but

I think we should, at the very least, rethink the whole "every avatar created problems for their successor/their mistakes affect their successor" as a thematic analysis.

I get why it's used but the examples within usually tend to be reductive of the issue (Yangchen&Kuruk), presumptuous with little evidence (Szeto), or relying on ignoring larger problems (Kyoshi and the Dai Li).

Like I get the whole blaming Roku for not killing Sozin, but I feel like it all connects to a larger issue of ignoring the fact that many of these issues are less about the Avatar and more just human conflict/flaw.

The Avatar isn't an "organic" existence, as in, the avatar didn't "naturally evolve" into that position. It was an error Wan made and tried to rectify, then took on as a duty, reincarnating as said duty. The Avatar is not an inherent social leader for humans, they're just culturally constructed that way by their means of power. In the most reductive sense, they're a human merged with a powerful spirit.

Of the Avatars we have met, we know they're expected to handle human and spirit matters, and the world operates with this in mind. It means criminals (on all scales) operate with the Avatar as a known variable. Crime goes up during the first 16 years of an Avatar's life. We saw this with the Earth King who committed a Sage massacre when Roku was a child, the White Lotus facilitating the 'Platinum Affair' when Yangchen was 8, and the literal hell that broke loose when Kuruk died.

These are world leaders, the white lotus, etc up to absolute shenanigans or ignoring bubbling issues in their own nations, they too have a responsibility in managing this. Often, they made things worse lmao. It's the natural tide of life, Avatars aren't omnipotent nor omniscient.

We have no actual proof that the 3 nations suffered during Szeto's era. He was a highly revered Avatar until Kyoshi's era by the 4 nations. What we do know is that the Fire Nation was an absolute disaster and that Szeto spent much of his time there, enough that other nations can comment on it, but unless it's mentioned in the TTRPGs, we don't have any proof that the 3 other nations suffered in his era. The conflict Yangchen faces at 17 is a system that was created after Szeto died, not one born of desperation on the other nations' ends, but opportunity.

Yangchen's deal with the spirits is much of a human problem than it was her own neglect. The problem (as far as we have seen) was that humans ignored the boundaries set by Spirits, were attacked, called Yangchen, then disregarded the boundaries she put in place as a response. She created sacred spaces for air nomads to maintain to keep spirits content, which created difficulties for the human refugees who had to vacate those spaces. So many disregarded the boundary. Or the case of the Saowon clan, who just ignored her. Yes, Yangchen blames herself, but the responsibility can't lie solely on her feet, she can't dictate and control people, she can't erase and create new borders, or force people into other countries. When she sets a boundary, it's also humanity's responsibility to listen. And they consistently did not.

It's honestly weird to see Kuruk used as an example when textually, we're told that his companions did actually handle conflicts just fine when he was alive. The issue was that people used the fact that he was dead to go on their little murder sprees and raids. His companions tried, but Kuruk dying early didn't cause this, this would've happened either way. The structure of the 4 nations made this possible. Nobody was interested in aiding the Southern Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom.....moving on. Corruption is what caused that, mass poverty is what caused that. The 4 nations did have the means to handle this, very often it was just financially beneficial to not.

I mean, 🤧 in all seriousness, no, Kyoshi, the third-party militaristic force was not a good idea in any capacity. Keeping things as Watsonian as possible, in my babygirl's defense, I don't think she was anticipating anyone slaughtering all the Sages she put in place, that could've been a counter-measure against the Dai Li.

In general, I think the framing of the lens doesn't really allow for the exploration of anything, especially not the avatar as a socio-political construct. It's, in essence, a normal person burdened with immense power and responsibility, expected to wield knowledge and strength against world problems. But what happens when world leaders are the problems? Nobles? The fuckass white lotus? We've seen on several occasions the way the Avatar can be/is used as a political tool, how easily they can be groomed and manipulated, they're still human, at the end of the day. We can interpret Kyoshi in her later life as becoming "more spirit-like", until we get more concrete evidence of what her perspective was during those years. Aang and Yangchen show us how culture impacts their decision making and philosophy.

I get the thematic analysis, and I get the intent, but when you have to twist events to make it fit, I feel like the analytical lens just doesn't work. It's grimey to me, to disregard the fact of humanity's hand in this. They're not mindless and they sure as hell weren't powerless, a lot of them were just dicks that made things harder for everyone. And like, the Avatar as a concept in-universe is a step away from torture lmao. It's not to say they weren't flawed, ofc they were. They made plenty of mistakes, but I keep seeing that sentiment and those specific examples and I feel like it does a poor job of actually engaging with what made certain eras the way they were. It's a myriad of shit. I don't think Kyoshi would've made the Dai Li if she knew the earth kingdom had mind control technology 😔 I'm sure she was too busy trying to figure out how to get them to break down those walls in Ba Sing Se without getting "authoritarian" allegations thrown at her.

Anyway, I wrote all of this to say please stop saying Szeto let the other 3 nations just burn to the ground. At least until some new media says he did, it seems generally unlikely given that he's still highly respected outside of the Fire Nation, and the Fire Nation and Water Tribes were still doing well enough to start funding coups.