#pro zukaang

[earfgoddesss]

i have to say that if an in-character GAY Zuko was to be romantically interested in any other boy in the show, it would certainly be Aang.

He seems to be mostly annoyed by Sokka, but they still have a great friendship. In fact, friendship between them started because they both share a feeling of inherent duty to those around them, and a need to regain their honor when they felt they've lost it. In the movie, this pattern follows. Zuko seems annoyed with Sokka most of the time, but still likes him a lot. There's even a joke about Zuko telling Sokka he needs to "accept his death with honor", because they're about to go into battle and Sokka is afraid. If anything, Zuko and Sokka have a the brotherly relationship, where Zuko is a gives advice and is a male role model for Sokka. I could also get into the fact that I think Sokka would not be equipped to deal with the emotional support Zuko needs, but this is more my own speculation and not entirely based in canon.

As for Jet, Zuko was down to help him when he saw the injustice regarding their meals on the boat to Ba Sing Se, but when Jet asks Zuko to join the freedom fighters, Zuko refuses. To be quite honest, Zuko is entirely uninterested in Jet as a person. He doesn't care for him at all, while Jet projects himself and his past onto Zuko. Jet, to me, has this "lone wolf" complex, and Zuko suffers from that, but he just completed an entire arc in Book 2 where he rejects help from Iroh and then realizes he needs Iroh's help. I see the appeal of "toxic Jetko" I guess, but Jetko only comes off as one-sided to me, and I don't really like stories where Zuko never heals or gets better personally (it completely defeats the purpose of his character to me).

AFAIK he never interacts with any other boy else his age. If we're counting the movie, he might have had the hots for Tagah before getting BTFOd by him.

now i don't ship them as they are in the show, but here is a bunch of propaganda for the foundation of what could be when they're adults, or in an au where they're aged together.

BUT AANG

1.) Starts the series obsessively chasing after him (yes, for nonromantic reasons, but the irony if they end up a couple as adults)

2.) A couple Freudian slips here and there "Back of Azula, he's mine" and when June asks if he's tracking down his girlfriend, he responds "it's not her i'm after, it's the bald monk she's travelling with" (IRONY!!!)

3.) In the same episode as above, excessive focus on Zuko and Aang dancing together while fighting, to parallel when they actually do the dragon dance together later in the series.

4.) After realizing Ozai will never love or accept the real him, he goes to find and help Aang learn Firebending.

5.) When rejected by the rest of the gaang, "Why aren't you saying anything. You said you thought we could be friends 🥺😢"

6.) "Where's that upbeat attitude you were talking about 😉"

7.) Zuko still has a lot pride and reservations, but he still dances when Aang asks him to TWICE. Clearly the idea of dancing makes him uncomfortable, because when they show it, and Sokka points out that they're dancing, he gets angry at him.

Shoutout to loungefly for this also:

8.) After the dragon dance, he tells Aang that the source of his new powered up Firebending is helping him, and to restore balance.

9.) "I couuuuld, uh, chase you around a while and try to capture you. 😏"

10.) this

11.) smiling when aang shows up in the ember island play.

12.) Zuko spends the entire first half of the finale deeply worried for aang because he has to face and kill Ozai, the man who abused and disfigured him. </3

13.) doesn't even gaf about toph's venting to him he's too worried about Aang 😭

14.) "And now..." "And now we're friends" Zuko looks away all bashfully "yeah, we are friends"

15.) when confronting Ozai: "we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness" but when standing right next to Aang at his coronation: "but, together, we can build a new era of love and peace"

16.) "There's only one person important enough to interrupt the Firelord's council" and then he immediately goes to help Aang.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

The funniest thing about zks ignoring Zuko and Aang's relationship (and I don't even mean it in a ship way cause I'm a kataang girlie) is that they try so hard to push the Fire/Water dynamic to the point of pushing aside the canon Fire related dynamic: Air. Fire/Water has the cool moon vs sun thing, but Fire is depicted as being reliant on Air to even exist. Fire comes from the breath (and this comes up SO MUCH), dragons are aerial creatures, etc. Fire and Water are antagonistic, not complementary, even in ZK fics. Which is cool cause enemies ships are hot, but even they have a hard time making it, like, romantic romantic. But sure, Water and Fire dynamics being a popular trope makes ZK an OBVIOUSLY better ship than Water and Air KA

Even outside the element stuff, ALL the tropes Zutarians insist on pretending apply to their ship were actually only ever used for Zukaang in the show.

We have entire episodes that scream "THERE'S PARALLELS BETWEEN THESE BOYS" (The Storm being the most notorious), Zuko canonically spent months unable to forget that Aang asked if they could have been friends, Aang saved Zuko's life twice despite everything, Zuko is so obsessed with capturing Aang that it affects his firebending and makes him have a dream in which he BECOMES AANG, Aang believes fate is what made Zuko his firebending teacher, there's parallels between them and previous generations but with a happy ending instead of a sad one, and they unlocked a power up by DANCING WITH EACH OTHER.

It would be ridiculously easy to make this dynamic go from platonic to romantic.

[violetiessss]

I hate seeing ZukAang be used as a gotcha to Zutara

People want Zuko n Katara to not interact so bad that they use ZukAang as a “Zuko loves Aang more than Katara!”

It’s even gotten to Zutaraang where Aang is the one the two are fighting for only.

It’s just embarrassing as someone who’s loved all three ships during some point in my life :(

[derangedwriterwrites]

Ykw fuck this

KATAANG AND ZUTARA ARE BOTH AMAZING SHIPS STFU WITH THE SHIPPING WARS ALL THREE OF THEM SHOULD KISS

Both sides of the shipping wars are toxic AF like why are we fighting 😭

[dukeofdelirium]

You are a man. A moid. A 30 year old moid who plays mummy to Aang and acts like an incel to women who don't suck his dick like you do. Incel and a boy mom is an insane combo and you are both.

You are exactly the demography Bryke made Kataang for. I can imagine you seething over girls unabashedly shipping Zutara while you cried to sleep over how noone saw *how good and kind and perfect and moral and right Aang (read:you) are* And please hate on Zuko like a proper dedicated Zutara anti, do not drag him in that rancid zukaang mess

My honest fucking reaction reading this shit lmfao

Do y’all think there will ever come a day where the zutara shippers realize I am a homosexual and don’t give a fuck about women sexually 😭🙏🏻 why do they keep accusing me of being straight and wanting to fuck women, my god free me from this hell

Anon, define the word incel for me. Quickly, now 🎤

Also, what the fuck does this person even mean by “please hate on Zuko like a proper zutara anti” ??? I love Zuko, he’s one of my favorite characters in ATLA. That doesn’t mean I have to ship him with Katara. Cope loser 🗿🍷 him and Aang should make out sloppy

You idiots wonder why everyone in this fandom fucking hates you guys and yet you send anon hate like this for literally what lmfao it’s so juvenile. This isn’t kindergarten, quit drinking the radfem koolaid and being the bully on the playground and learn the loving touch of another human 💔💔💔💔

[ididgettomeetyou]

People really be threatened by zukaang yall just jealous that it has symbolism and better enemies to lovers as of all the ships

Talking Realism in a world where 16 year Olds rule nations and get married and bend elements ridiculous.

[earfgoddesss]

It is frustrating how many anti-zukaang people assume we exclusively ship them as 12 and 16. Almost every artist and writer for the zukaang fandom writes them as adults, or ages them 1-2 years apart. Very sure all of them would agree that 12 and 16 makes them uncomfortable too. I really wish more of them would pay attention to what we're actually doing in our fanworks.

on my blog, they're in a relationship as adults, OR in an AU both 16 (with zuko being like 2 months older).

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I've started exploring multishipping lately and in diving a little bit into zukaang I have made a few observations.

*looks at the zutara matching scars trope* -> *looks at Zuko and Aang's scars*

*looks at the ambassador Katara trope* -> *looks at Aang's canon job and also republic city*

*looks at zutara shippers writing Zuko thinking and being motivated by the moment in the cave* -> *looks at Zuko directly referencing The Blue Spirit*

*looks at zutara shippers saying Katara was the first to give Zuko a chance* -> *looks at the blue spirit*

*looks at zutara shippers applying constant yin and yang symbolism and tropes* -> *looks at zuko and aang in general*

Is this coincidental? Like, I doubt the fandom would be specifically lifting ideas from another much less known ship, but the amount of things that apply to canon Zuko and Aang that they then made a trope of in their zutara works is weirdly high, right? How is it specifically Zuko and Aang stuff that somehow ends up in popular zutara circulation? Why?

I know I'm reading too much into this, but I just kept running into zutara esque stuff with zukaang and at first thought it was weird that zukaang shippers were copying zutara before realizing this was all just stuff that was explicitly shown in the canon Zuko and Aang friendship, but not the Zuko and Katara one (ig an argument could be made on the yin and yang thing but I don't see it beyond the fire/water thing. Not like the dragon scene and also the themes of the entire show.)

Idk, doesn't make sense to be on purpose, but feels too connected to be coincidental.

Here's the thing: zutarians love pretending that the show was "secretly pointing to zutara all along, in everything." But because it obviously wasn't, they gotta make shit up. And the easiest way to do it is to get something that actually happened in the show and just remove all the context to pretend it is about zutara.

And because Aang is easily one of THE most important figures in both Katara and Zuko's life (on top of being the protagonist, so stuff with him is important in general), that means they constantly steal from both Kataang and Zukaang.

Plus, when it comes to bullshit like "Katara should have kept her scars!" that's also their attempt at demonizing Aang by trying to force a parallel with Ozai - one that wouldn't have worked regardless because there's a big fucking difference between "I accidentally burned my friend, I'm never firebending again" and "I deliberately disfigured my own child to remind him, and everyone else, to never ever challenge me, even indirectly"