I feel NATLA is for those who didn't like how ATLA treated its female characters and give them more autonomy, more agency, more depth. Something the cartoon was severely lacking. I also didn't like Aang much yet in this version I do because he does apologize when he lashes out at others unlike the cartoon version. He doesn't view Katara as a prize. Katara doesn't have to be used to calm him down. I love that the male characters still get grace and empathy and are allowed to be vulnerable. I love the changed they made with Zuko arc, even Jet who was treated like an irredeemable monster wasn't treated like that at all in the show. I love Iroh with the refugees. Such a powerful scene and his scene with his son still made me cry.
Is it fair to even mention Zuko seeing as Katara never had feelings for him?
Honestly, I find it kinda funny that OP is sorta telling on themselves by seemingly primarily viewing Jet's storyline through a shipping lens, a stepping stone for Kataang or Zutara.
But sure, let's go with this narrative.
OP claims that Jetara could be seen a foreshadowing to Zutara, as they say that Zuko ans Jet have some similarities. And I suppose that can be true on a surface level. As OP says: Rugged teenage boys with traumatic back stories. But franky, other than being mildly edgy and also having been through some sort of trauma, there's not much there.
In fact, if you compare Aang and Jet, I think you'll find many deeper similarities than just "bad boy with questionable morals".
Aang and Jet have both experienced great loss at the hands of the Fire Nation. Aang losing his entire people and Jet losing his parents and village, presumably leaving them both alone in the world and with a lovely case of survivor's guilt to boot.
Jet and Aang are both kids who were forced by the war to take up positions of responsibility over their fellow victims. Aang, of course, being the Avatar and being fated to end the war. While Jet takes up a leadership positions, persumably gathering kids orphaned and hurt by the Fire Nation, leading them and keeping them safe, while also fighting back. Let's not forget that the reason Jet decided to flood that city was because the firebenders occupying it were planning to burn the forest Jet and the Freedom Fighters resided in, forcing them out and putting them in danger.
We also see a very sweet parallel of Jet encouraging Katara's confidence in her waterbending skills, which is something Aang does on numerous occasions, showing us exactly what affection Katara values in a potential partner and that both Jet and Aang not only believe in her skills, but also intuit her needs.
This is why Katara fell for Jet and why she fell for Aang. They're both protectors and heroes of the people, they're both victims of the Fire Nation who chose to stand up against it. They're revolutionaries, rebels, downright rabble-rousers. They both value communities, and do their best to uplift and defend their fellow victims, something Katara does as well. And they both connect with Katara over not only encouraging her in her own abilities, but also in their shared trauma, which leads me to my next point.
Aang works so well paralleling Jet, because both Jet and Aang were written and posited to parallel Katara. This aspect of Jetara is one OP completely neglected to mention, I suppose due to the fact that it doesn't hoist up Zutara as a ship.
Katara and Jet connect over their trauma very early in the episode, and I think this is where Katara's interest in Jet due to his role as a Freedom Fighter turns to a genuine connection over shared trauma.
Jet: The Fire Nation killed my parents. I was only eight years old. That day changed me forever.
Katara: Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation.
Jet: I'm so sorry, Katara..
Katara, Jet and Aang share many similarities, which is why I suppose these two boys were Katara's only explicitly confirmed love interests. Just like Aang and Jet, Katara is community oriented, a voice for victims and the marginalised, a fighter for the good of the people.
Seeing these parallels almost makes me wonder if the design team took this into account when making Jet's design colours mainly blue and orange, colours assvociated with Katara and Aang. Though Jet's colour palette is more muted and darker, perhaps signifying the erosion of his morals due to his trauma.
Jet goes astray when he begins to value the fight over the people he is fighting for, something Aang and Katara actively go against, prioritising human life and their moral integrity.
Atla explores the concept of victimhood and how it affects our morality in various ways, especially when it comes to victims of war. The particular focus of this theme is Katara, as we see the writers often connect her to victims who lost that morality, in order to showcase her character. Hama and Jet both serve as excellent foils to show what Katara could've been if she wasn't as kind and compassionate as she is. The crowning jewel of this storyline for her being, of course, the Southern Raiders, which bears callbacks to both Jet and Hama.
But as much as I want this post to be about Katara, OP has other plans, so let's go back to their arguments for Jetara foreshadowing Zutara.
OP makes an argument about how both Zuko and Jet break Katara's trust, testing her charcter, which is a good point, albeit they conveniently omit Hama from the circle of people who connected with Katara over shared trauma and then betrayed her trust.
Can't imagine why. Is it because Hama isn't hot, isnt it? Op doesn't fancy a nice morally compromised gilf, I suppose. 😒 we used to be a proper country.
OP also claims that the show portrays Katara as too trusting, and even claims that the shows message in Jet's case is, in their words: So from a k.ataang lens it leads more towards the lesson that katara need to stop letting these “bad boys” break her heart, “dumb girl your too trusting just give the sweet guy a chance”.
Which is quite the claim, since I actually really enjoy that Katara is never portrayed as being in the wrong, or 'dumb' for trusting Jet, Zuko and Hama. In fact, the three of them are made to look like assholes for taking advantage of her.
The thing about Katara's trust of Jet, Zuko and Hama isn't that it comes from a place of foolishness or naiveté. It comes from empathy and connection. She connects over shared pain ans trauma with these three and she wants to make a connection to alleviate their pain. It just so happens that Zuko is going through his disaster boyfailure era, while Jet and Hama are morally compromised by the horrific events that brutally formed their mentalities.
Anyways, to wrap this point up, can Hama be an honourary bad boy too I think she deserves that
Another argument of OP is that Jet's death could foreshadow Zuko almost dying in the finale and that is could teach, in their words: how we waste time holding grudges and sometimes people don’t have the luxury of apologizing to the people they love.
Now, this is interesting, because Jet's death very clearly connected to Aang's actual death and then ressuraction via Deus ex Katara. However, unlike the theme of pure romance OP proposes in their post, the canon storyline uses these events to feed more into Katara's personal development and stoyline, that of her fear of loss and helplessness, on which I elaborate here:
I think one aspect of Katara's storyline I don't see explored nearly enough the fact that she is terrified of losing others, especially thos
That is not to say that this storyline doesn't affect Katara and Aangs romance, but I like that the main focus is Katara's meantality and trauma. Because the thing with Katara and Aang's storylines and development is that they intertwine and feed into each other but aren't overshadowed by their romance.
OP continues to speculate that the jetara storyline through a kataang lense is that "bad boys" will break Katara's heart and that she should just "give the nice guy a chance".
I find this a gross twisting of the nature of multiple characters, relationships and storylines.
First of all, reducing Jet to a "bad boy" is fucking demeaning and kinda disgusting. He's not an edgy boy who smokes in the school's bathroom and rides a loudass motorcycle. He's a traumatised child soldier, caring for other children and desperately trying to stop the advance of an army that already has like 3 genocides under its belt. His morals getting messed up in the process doesn't make him a bad boy, they make him a realisitic victim. A kid who tried his best but became misguided.
In the same, paragraph, OP also claims that, despite the message of the show being that everyone is capable of good and evil and that everyone deserves a chance, because people are complex, Jet is not afforded that dignity and understanding.
AND LET ME TELL YOU LET ME FUCKING TELL YOU
That was upsetting.
Because Jet's redemption was shown so wonderfully and symbolically, to the point where sometimes it makes me more emotional than Zuko's.
In B2 we see that Jet has left the forest (persumably bcs the firebenders did burn down the forest) and his entourage has shrunk to just Longshot our trans queen Smellerbee 🏳️⚧️. We are told that he is looking for a new life in Ba Sing Se. So far so good.
It seems that the Gaang intervening with his plans has definetly made him rethink his actions. And he's looking to start a new, kinder life. Even going so far as to remove himself from the fight against the Fire Nation, something he had previously been so passionate about, perhaps because he recognised that it brought out his uglier side. Hell yeah we love a king who can recognise his flaws and strives to better himself.
Jet: I've done some things in my past that I'm not proud of, but that's why I'm going to Ba Sing Se: for a new beginning. A second chance.
Despite not being on the frontlines anymore, he's still a hero for the people, straling food for the ferry passengers from the greedy captain. Noice. He immediately takes an interest in Zuko, assuming as many, that Zuko was a victim of the Fire Nation like him, due to Zuko's scar.
Jet: You know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were. You're an outcast, like me. And us outcasts have to stick together. We have to watch each other's backs. Because no one else will.
I find this SO endearing because atla places such emphasis on the connections and solidarity between victims. And Jet is no exception to this, having taken so many children orphaned by the Fire Nation (or just orphaned as seemed to be the case with the Duke) and also connecting over being hurt by the Fire Nation with Katara, the same way he thinks he is connecting with Zuko. (Jetara and Jetko should parallel each other actually instead of Jetara and Zutara)
Now things turn south when Jet realises that Zuko and Iroh are firebenders, which while showcasing that Jet's need for redemption hasn't healed his trauma (not surprising) around the Fire Nation, I can't really blame him. Like, he's seen the worst of what firebenders can do, why on earth would he stand by and let them infiltrate the city that refugees flock to in order to escape the war. And yeah he sounds like a raving lunatic, but he is right. Zuko and Iroh are firebenders.
From then on, Jet is used as a pawn by Long Feng and the Dai Li, but he still does his best to help the Gaang, seemingly holding no grudge against them for ruining his plans of mass murder.
We see a nice lil trauma flashback of Jet's childhood trauma, giving us a tangible illustration of his motivations and pushing us to sympathise with him. We see him and Katara share a sweet moment as she literally alleviates the pain of the memories. This scene can not only be read as romantic but as another example of solidarity and support between victims in atla.
But it's in the bowels of Lake Laogai, as Aang and Jet face off against Long Feng, that we see the symbolic redemption for Jet really come to its crescendo.
Long Feng, compels Jet into fighting Aang, directly paralleling Aang and Jet's previous battle in the Jet episode. Aang is trying to solve the situation peacefully, even while Jet is trying to hurt him.
Aang: Jet, it's me, Aang! You don't have to do this!
Long Feng: I'm afraid he no longer has a choice.
[...]
Aang: Jet, I'm your friend! Look inside your heart!
Long Feng: Do your duty, Jet!
Aang: He can't make you do this! You're a Freedom Fighter!
And I can't not think how the brainwashing pushed Jet into an almost identical situation as his grief and anger did all those years ago. It's a decent comparison, I suppose. Both stem from a painful, stressful situation, influence his actions, pusging him to do things against his usual morals, turning him away from the caring, idealist Freedom fighter he is.
But this time, Jet breaks through the thing clouding his mind. He remembers himself. His trauma, his friendship and care for the freedom fighters and his connection to Katara. He sadly pays the ultimate price for this.
And while I dislike this plot point, because as a rule of thumb I dislike when a character gets a redemption arc and immediately dies or redeems themself by dying, but I can appreciate this scene for how it defined puts a lot of care into showing us the change in Jet, his perception by the gaang and his role in the story.
Katara tries to heal Jet, but is pessimistic(in the commentary of this episode, it's mentioned that there could be a few explanations as to why she didn't use the spirit water.) Here, Jet urges Katara and the Gaang to go find Appa, leaving him to essentially die.
And it's as the Gaang leave, we can compare the ends of the two Jet storylines. In Jet, the last time we look upon Jet's face, it is twisted by anger and rage. In Lake Laogai, he wears a sad, but reassuring smile, and somehow looks at peace.
When Katara first had to leave him in Jet, her expression is one of betrayal and disappointment. In Lake Laogai, she looks to be preparing to grieve, almost as if she were trying to hold back tears. She's conflicted and sad in both scenes, but for different reasons, showing how Jet has redeemed himself in her eyes.
Where in Jet, we leave Jet disgraced and in turmoil, in Lake Laogai we leave him dying, yes, but also a hero, kind and brave, and free. And I like to believe that the second is the real Jet.
Ok this just turned into me gushing over jet, but I think this was important to highlight the significance and uniqueness of Jet and Katara's relationship. Presenting it as "the proto-Zutara" is a disservice to this complex, heartwrenching storyline. And that was kinda gross of OP. Shame on them.
I also think OP is mistaken by labelling Aang as just the "nice guy" whom Katara should "give a chance to". Aang is indeed a nice, kind person and this is something that attracts Katara, because she's also a good person and she values such traits. But this is not the only reason Katara falls for Aang. Like with Jet, she connects with him over shared trauma. He enables her growth, respects her as a teacher, offers her comfort when needed, is her friend and supporter.
Katara is not "giving him a chance" their relation simply progresses very slowly and in a slightly unorthodox manner. We see that Katara has a growing crush on Aang, blushing over him and getting incredibly jealous when other girls try to get with him.
I also like that Aang and Jet are never pitted against each other and Aang is never jealous of Jet. In fact Aang seems almost just as infatuated with Jet as Katara lol (jetaang rights babey).
OP also claims that a lot of people misinterpret TSR as Katara being manipulated by Zuko and "needing Nice Guy Aang to save her". Which is something I've talked about a few times. I don't believe Zuko was consciously manipulating Katara. He was simply trying to build a relationship with her because she was very adamant on hating him. And because he didn't know her that well, he tried to help by projecting his own needs and anger over his mother's loss onto her. Which is very 16 year old boy of him.
And I don't believe Aang was even trying to "save" her. I think he was simply trying to help Katara think through her actions throughly before she did something rash that may haunt her forever.
Aang bringing up Jet also seemed more like a : "hey remember when we saw a guy betray his morals due to his grief pain and trauma despite being a kind and good person with an good goal?" Which I think is a kinda understandable thing since it happened like twice to them already. And remember that Aang has also experienced how destructive his anger can be and he knows Katara's morality and idealism well enough to know that what she is planning is way out of character.
OP tags this post with "I swear zutara gives the show so much more depth" and while I don't want to deride the ship as a whole, the themes and storylines OP gave don't really bring that much depth into the show. It simply repurposes the arcs and storylines that served to either explore Katara, or the concept of victimhood and morality into serving a romance.
Which is... fine, if that's what you consider deep I suppose. I just think it's obvious that OP had clear biases when coming up with their post. And like, biases are fine, we're writing meta about a kid's show not a fucking reseaech paper, I'd be a hypocrite if I called OP out on having preferences.
But it's obvious that OP did their darndest to present Kataang in the least favourable light and didn't even try to consider giving it a shred of anything but a cursory, critical glance.
If I were to talk about their "Jetara foreshadowing Zutara" idea with its "bittersweet lesson how we waste time holding grudges and sometimes people don’t have the luxury of apologizing to the people they love" like they talk about Kataang, I could say (altering OP's text here):
"So from a Zutara lens it leads more towards the lesson that katara need to stop holding a grudge towards these boys who hurt and used her, “dumb girl you need to forgive them quickly cause what if they suddenly die and you realise you love them and regret it“ .
...which sounds like some manner of abuse apologism. I don't think OP had this in mind, but it just shows how easy it is to paint a benign message into something shitty if you're just salty enough.
I think that wraps this up. I can vaguely understand what OP meant, and it's a cute concept for Zutara shippers, I just don't know why Kataang slander had to get dragged in here. Since while OP seems fairly invested in Zuko, they visibly have a little issue giving thought to Katara, Aang and Jet's storylines.
Which is sad, especially in Jet's case, since he doesn't get nearly enough love from the fandom. So here's the little note from the atla cookbook that made me really emotional over Jet lol
I have never publicly said this but : Jet drowning Gaipan and Zuko burning down Kyoshi Island are
1) narrative parallels
2) are widely exaggerated by the fandom as actions taking place in a 100 years war and performed by two teenagers
because yes context does matter. and you CANNOT possibly think that these actions come even close to the atrocities of what the rough rhinos did to Jet’s village or what Ozai intended to do to the Earth Kingdom.
NO THIS IS NOT ME EXCUSING WHAT THEY DID. DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THIS.
all I’m saying is that context, intentions and knowing what is going on in a character’s head are actually important in that case for a better understanding of their actions.
let’s take a look at Jet. he’s an orphan boy, who grew up with this very idea that every thing that went wrong in his life was caused by the FN (which is true) and that the only way for him to survive is to fight the FN (which is, again, true). therefore, the logical conclusion to years of trauma, and impregnated ideas of vengeance and wrath is to loose touch with your sense of morality and ending up doing heinous things because he’s convinced that it is the right thing to do. the ONLY thing to do. to survive and to escape the war. what people like to forget is that Jet didn’t grow up like Sokka and Katara, who even though faced a terrible tragedy after their mother’s death, and had to live in a tribe that had been weakened by the FN, also lived in a sheltered place for most of their lives, with their Gran Gran and father’s love, with a community, a family. Jet grew up in constant solitude, hunger, pain, fear, death and had to become a parent to those around him. and that’s not me trying to compare them. but you cannot seriously think that they grew up in the same conditions. growing up like that you just CANNOT turn out fine. the absence of love and protection coming from an adult actually does that to a kid. as time passes he realises that he, as an orphan boy, has to do what has to be done in order to survive. the question of morality doesn’t even crosses his mind. because fear and anger are the only thing left for him to survive. and all of this leads to him drowning Gaipan, and committing this heinous crime. which well doesn’t really happen because everyone is safe ! everyone survived ! yes the village is destroyed but that’s material loss. that doesn’t come near the loss of actual people.
now for Zuko, his core character trait in season 1 is that he’s very short sighted. he only sees his goal, and never what’s in between that. this shortsightedness comes from years of obsession fuelled by extreme (FN) propaganda, indoctrination, trauma and anxiety in regards of what awaits Zuko if he never gets to catch the Avatar. like Jet, Zuko’s anger and fear brings what’s most ugly in him : his lack of regards for any collateral damage he might provoke while trying to reach his goal. which ultimately leads to Kyoshi Island burning down. however, they are a few things that need to be said here. he never steps a foot on Kyoshi Island with the intention of burning it. that’s actually where it diverges from Jet. Zuko is extremely short sighted and his only goal is to find Aang. nothing. else. which differentiates him from his sister especially. who wanders through the earth kingdom while yes chasing Aang but also never stopping (or at least trying) to expend the FN’s power in the EK. Kyoshi island burning down comes actually from him being shitty at managing his firebending (and his crew) in season 1. it’s quite literally collateral damage and most of the damage on Kyoshi Island actually comes from Zuko’s soldiers (who we never actually see receiving orders that would indicate Zuko wanting to burn the island. he only says “I want the Avatar” before splitting up, and go rewatch the scene if you don’t believe me). we do actually see Zuko shooting a few fireballs at Aang but we see only one of them actually hitting the cabins. so it would be logical to assume that it was Zuko’s crew, while fighting the Kyoshi Warriors that did it. after the gaang left, Katara even says “he would have destroyed the whole place” meaning it wasn’t destroyed. and then Aang eventually saves the village and Zuko and his crew leave.
what I’m trying to say with this is that I cannot keep seeing people actually demonising and adultifying Jet and Zuko’s actions (especially at the very beginning where both of them are clearly villains with the narrative intent of doing heinous things) with using these two specific scenes, where, ultimately, no one got hurt (except Sokka & Aang while fighting Jet and the Kyoshi Warriors while fighting Zuko).
this post isn’t me denying what they did. at the end of the day, Gaipan got destroyed and Kyoshi Island lost a lot of infrastructure and cabins. this post is me explaining why I’m tired of the over exaggerated claims in regards of these two characters.
the problem with this fandom is that people will talk about Jet and Zuko’s actions in episode 10 and episode 4 like they would talk about Long Feng’s actions or Ozai’s actions.
like, no, two indoctrinated traumatised teenage boys in a war cannot be held accountable in the same way that two adults (who funnily actually did kill people !) are held accountable. like, textually by LAW they cannot be held accountable in the same way. because of their age, because of the circumstances, the consequences, etc etc.
and what’s even more important is that both actually do their best to make amends. even though doing this after years of indoctrination is actually hard. jet dies while doing so and Zuko nearly dies at the hand of his father for doing so. (and that’s without even talking about his actions as a Firelord)
you can dislike Jet and Zuko as characters. but the hate these two get will always look ridiculous at the end of the day. because it’s either completely exaggerated or out of context or doesn’t apply to them because they actually did change. and did try to make amends.
again, this is not me saying that they weren’t villains at the beginning of the series. this is also not me saying that these actions are excusable or even remotely okay. no, it’s me begging the fandom to just use their brain for two fucking seconds. it’s me begging the fandom to just understand what the war and it’s consequences does to people, especially children. on all sides of the war. especially war children.
Thinking about how Jet's only crime is lying to Katara and Aang tho he barely does anything in that episode. (Its truly tragic that a genocide survivers hurt was used in such a way, to convey such a message.)
Jet went from getting orphaned at 9-10, seeing how his home and his parents are burned right infront of him AND one of iroh's rough rat cheesing at him the meantime.
He went from that to building a thriving community, where everyone looks out for one another, everyone gets to contribute using their strenghts and turning attacks from the Fire Nation, into getting resources for the FreedomFighters.
There was a whole unit of fn soldiers hunting after them and they likely had their base in the village near by. These are colonizing genocidal people, getting counter attacked is part of the game they signed up for.
Yes Jet is a ridiculed resistance leader in a neolib media, his actions are not ideal because they were written not to be. BUT it was either his ppl, kids who were already hurt by the fn or the colonialists and their family.(the old man deserved it, he can frankly fuck off)
I would also like to mention that in a similar fashion to Mai and Ty Lee, the rest of the Freedom Fighters seem to get away with all of their wrong doings.🤷♂️
In conclusion Katara, who was written to be besties with her opressors 2min after they showed a single bit of humanity is nothing like Jet. Neither is Sokka, Aang or Suki and lets not even mention the ones who wear red.
I AM BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE FUCKING WALL AND ABOUT TO CRY I'M SO FUCKING MAD I HATE ZKS I HATE ZKS I HATE ZKS
okay, now that THAT is out of the way. I hate how zutarians treat Jet. I get aang, as he is katara's canon love interest and the one she ultimately ends up with. Naturally, this would screw with zks' delusions so, yeah, I can see where the hate is coming from, I understand (though by no means do I endorse it)
BUT JET??? WTF DID HE DO?? He was never a "threat" to zk, because katara ditched the barely a day long crush on him the second she learned about his plan. Was it the fact that he (rightfully!!!) calls out iroh and zuko and is antagonistic of them for not just being fn, but for straight up being fucking ROYALS, WHOSE DIRECT ANCESTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR IN THE FIRST PLACE??
It doesn't matter to zks that jetara was obviously never going to be canon. It doesn't matter to zks that jet's anger is justified. It doesn't matter that jet is probably one of the most tragic characters in the whole fucking franchise, who suffers greatly from war, becomes severely traumatized, loses pretty much everything and on top of that has an "honour" to be one of the few characters who DIES ON SCREEN. It doesn't matter to zks that he's just like katara, sokka and aang - a child permanently scarred by the war.
None of this matters!! He's now a sexist (wut) prick who downplays katara's achievements, toxic, cheats on her (wut) and in some cases just straight up abusive. Basically completely takes over what is usually aang's ""role"" in zks' fewer dreams as katara's abusive ex whom zuko saves her from.
WITH MY WHOLE FUCKING HEART - FUCK ZKS. It's one thing if it's projection and something like that for the sake of smut or whatever. I'm proship, I don't give a flying fuck about 99% of the stuff I see. But this is just a disrespect to Jet's whole character. Why can't they just make up a whole new faceless dude for the role of an abusive ex? Why does it have to be one of the characters, especially ones who were never interested in katara to begin with?!?!
1 - Jet has a lot in common with Zuko, but he is still obviously not the same as Zuko - yet Katara had feelings for him, and not for the fandom's favorite moody boy (and she had WAAAAAY better chemistry with Jet than she ever did with Zuko). Can't have that.
2 - Jet HATES the Fire Nation, which is completely fair (even if his actions in his introduction episode were attrocious). And this fandom, for whatever reason, LOVES to pretend "The Fire Nation totally had a bit of a point" and "Sozin was not an evil man, he just wanted to help people, please forget that he chose to use the comet to wipe out an entire race from the face of the Earth." Jet was always going to be controversial because the fandom would take his (incorrect) way of dealing with his trauma as proof he was 100% pure, while excuse Fire Nation characters that did bad things but had a heart/tragic backstory. Double-standards at it's finest.
3 - He antagonized Iroh and Zuko, two fan favorites. This is, apparently, the worst crime one can commit. As an Azula fan, I should know.
4 - The show was not always fair to Jet either. While they redeemed and KILLED him and the Gaang was clearly upset, the only time he is ever brought up again (without it being a joke) was in the Southern Raiders, and it only mentions the awful behavior he came to regret - not his change of heart. Sure, it was not an innacurate comparison at the moment, but it's unfair that the dude DIED to prove he had changed but is never remembered for anything other than his worst action.
5 - Bryke, unfairly, said anyone who ships Zutara is doomed to have awful, failed relationships for liking such a "dark" ship. They did not like that, and thus double-down on making anyone that had any involvement with Katara be the literal devil in their fics. Unlike Aang, Jet actually DID manipulate Katara once and showed he could get violent towards people with no provocation, so they latch onto that to go "See? OUR ship is not the bad one, THIS is!" completely ignoring Jet's regret, growth, and redemption, as well as Katara's forgivenes.
Anyways, Jet isn't even among my favorite Avatar characters, but Jesus, does the fandom love to crucify that boy for things they'd absolutely forgive characters like Zuko and Iroh for.
How would you define Katara's love for Jet and Aang's? Because Katara fell in love with Jet more quickly.
If Jet were alive do you think Katara would have continued with Jet? or would you have become good friends?
Well, I'd say that there's actually a lot of similarity between Katara's infatuation with Jet and her romance with Aang. I've made a long ass post on the paralleles there, which you can read here. I think Jet and Katara's relationship never really got to mature past acquaintances, and a lot of their relationship was overshadowed by Katara's very rightful anger over what happened in Gaipan. So we can only speculate so much.
While a lot of people will say that Jet and Katara's relationship follows a very standard 'girl crushing on a bad boy' storyline, I think that idea ignores the larger storyline of atla and how Katara fits into it.
Katara is enamoured by Jet being a fredom fighter, trying to fight off the invading fire nation. She then later forms a more intimate bond due to them sharing the stories of how the Fire nation affected them personally.
Jet's appeal (at least to Katara) is less about his flair and charisma, though those certainly didn't hurt, and more about him being a kindred soul, someone whose ideals and goals seemingly align with hers.
He's not exactly your average 'bad boy', more a revolutionary who had a lapse in judgement, most likely due to his youth, childhood trauma, the responsibility placed on his shoulders and a desperation to take care of the kids under his care.
[I hate the natla showrunners for what they did to my boy. The actor did his best but they really gave him Jet's evil twin brother to play.]
This is what Katara also sees in Aang, as Aang is also someone who shares her values of community and care for those who cant care for themselves.
Furthermore, Aang and Jet both express their affection for Katara by encouraging her confidence in her abilities and inner strength.
Kataang and Jetara are very similar ships just with different flavour.
I'd say that if it were up to Katara having to choose one of the boys, she would still choose Aang. He and Katara bonded more directly, went through a lot of things together. And while she certainly has it in her to forgive and understand Jet's motivation, his betrayal will still make Katara reconsider trusting him with her heart again.
I think they would become good friends in that case, and they would bully Zuko together.
But actually, the true answer here is that Katara has two hands and Aang and Jet had chemistry too so....
Aang and Katara can fix him. Trust 🤞
[Also he is genuinely putting in a lot of work to fix himself so the three of them are basically a construction crew lol]
