and another thing about the zutara justification thing and why i think it’s irrelevant and like not super rooted in the shows/its logic? uhh fire and water are not presented as opposite elements in nature. like like like ok i hear you yeah water fire wtv but also, fire bending is something the show treats as what should be fluid but is instead very strict and limited by years of totalitarian regime, we see this in the episode where zuko and aang learn the dragon dance which significantly improved their fire bending abilities, as well as all the times iroh adapted fire bending to the techniques of other tribes. like u dont understand fire bending is supposed to be adaptable, according to the dragons aka literally the first ones to do it. aND OMG water benders had gotten significantly less fluid too due to war i feel? like ok minus katara ill talk abt her in a sec, when we get to the northern water tribe they’re using ice for combat and have specific moves which sort of formulaically structure their bending which isnt inherently bad but it seemed like, in the short time we knew what’s his face, northern water bender master misogynist guy, that he wasn’t super willing to be fluid with his bending or teaching of it, hence his being stuck in his old traditions and not letting literally half their water benders fight. listen listen listen both the fire nation and water tribes have limited their bending by removing the element of adaptability and fluidity which can be found in self taught benders like katara and those who followed the oldest ways of bending/learning it like the sun warrior guys. and i hate to mention zutara cuz im a big fan of live and let live but i just feel like people use the water and fire thing to justify their parallels and like the whole enemies to lovers arch they’re fond of but that’s like not super supported by the text? like that but specifically abt how water and fire are naturally opposing forces like no? none of the elements are opposing, what? i could make the same argument about why fucking air and earth are super similar extremely easily, even though earth was something aang struggled with due to his air nomad background, and how it was actually the way his culture developed and clashed with the earth kingdom ways which led the audience to assume air and earth are opposites just like water and fire
