it’s so funny to me antis pulling out this new (is it really?) angle of “aang choosing cosmic energy over katara isn’t romantic because if she knew… [insert anti feelings and pretend it would be katara’s feelings even though it doesn’t align with the source material here]”
and like first of all, she doesn’t know and she would never know. because aang would never burden her with that kind of knowledge in the first place. just like aang would never know that his running away triggered katara into confronting her father. or how much anguish she felt when he didn’t wake up for weeks after ba sing se. or that she threatened to murder zuko if he only *looked* at aang the wrong way.
truly some of the best aspects of kataang are all of the things they leave unsaid to each other, especially the things that reveal to us - the audience - how intense their feelings for each other are and how much headspace they occupy in each other’s minds. not only is this romantic AF but the not telling each other part is also what makes it complex and, um, realistic.
the concept of your partner telling you about every time they put you over the greater good or what’s good for them and this not being emotionally manipulative afffff. i’ve seen this play out irl a few times and these confessions usually have an ulterior agenda alongside them aka leverage aka unhappy couples
