hey i saw ur post abt just finishing the atla series so i was just wondering if u have any thoughts about the canon/fan made relationships in ATLA (kataang,zutara,maiko, sukka/zukka etc)??i see alot of good and weak points from their shippers and wanted to know ur opinion too since ive been following u for long n see that most of ur takes on the books u read r quite cool and make good sense ! feel free to ignore this is u dont want to answer/dont have any opinion ik how the shippers can be like
Honestly one of the main reason i didnt wanted to/and lowkey still dont want to get much deeper into the atla fandom was bc of the ship wars so when i started watching the show i was wondering as to how amazingly the characters’ dynamics between each other would be written/depicted for so many people in the fandom to have such strong opinions about the ships, but now that i’ve finished the series i really dont think any particular canon or potential relationship left any strong impression on me since they all had mediocre writing and build up
I dont think there was a single relationship which made me go “omg their dynamic is so amazing they are so perfect for each other” .Every single relationship followed the “boy and girl meet,talk and hang out for a little while and then kiss and start going out” timeline most straight couples follow in fiction.Of course katara and aang were friends for months before they started to date but there really isnt much you can write for a romance between a 12 and a 14 year old to make it look spectacular and appealing so i guess the writers did their best but it wasnt enough .They could have made the series span duration of some years instead of months to show them maturing more before they dated but they didnt so i found it cute but not convincing.
I can say that zuko and mai’s relationship was the most realistic (not best but most sensical n realistic) out of all the others because they are exactly how you’d expect two 16 year olds with emotion issues and trauma to behave in their relationship.The fact that they broke up one year after the war because zuko was having a hard time balancing his relationship with being the fire lord of a country which was going through after effects of a 100 year war , reunited 3 years later and got married was realistic made sense.
I do wish we had more info about the foundation of their relationship bc we just see mai having a crush on zuko when they were kids and the next thing you know they are kissing while they are returning to the fire nation so like what happened?? were they dating before zuko’s banishment and decided to give a break till zuko was back or??
As for zuko and katara,,, well i can see why people might ship them but honestly there really wasnt much groundwork done for them for me to see the potential since katara only starts to trust zuko like 2 episodes before the finale and all of zuko’s interactions with katara are as platonic as his interactions with the other members of aang’s group.Also if katara ended up with zuko i really cant imagine her living with zuko in the palace and surroundings which were mostly responsible or serve as a reminder of her mother’s death by the fire nation army.
Like my main problem with the concept of katara and zuko is just that its basically between a girl who has 12 years worth of trauma associated with the colonization and genocide of her people and family carried out by the fire nation AND a boy whose family and army were responsible for said colonization and genocide.Just because zuko ended up redeeming himself doesnt mean katara’s trauma can go away in a poof yk? But as i said, they could have been a good couple if there was more foundation for it n things were somewhat diff.
As for the other ships, well sokka and suki are cute but their relationship still was quite rushed and left more room for exploration. I wont say much abt zuko and sokka but i wish we had more material for it and zuko joined their group much earlier. In conclusion, ATLA has a very very good writing and dynamics when it comes to friendships and falls short in terms of relationships. but then again, the target audience was kids and teens so i dont think they could focus much on romance anyways