The one thing I really hate about this fandom is how much the ship wars take away from the characters and their relationships. Like even if people don’t ship Kataang, Katara and aang have a very deep and close bond that is strengthened throughout the show. The fact that he brought her on his journey so she could learn waterbending and subsequently teach him is integral to the show for both characters and their development. Zuko going through trials and tribulations with all the gaang members in order to earn their trust is why his arc is so impactful especially with Katara who he betrayed in ba sing se. By reducing all of these relationships to romantic ships we lose a core part of the show which is found family and friendship.
i left a comment under a post saying but i felt like that wasn’t enough to get this out of my chest so i’m repeat it now: those men do NOT give a fuck about women, let alone indigenous women.
no, them fighting for kataang to be endgame over zutara (what people love to deny even though the writers had talked about that many times) has NOTHING to do with them making an statement on indigenous people not getting paired with their oppressors or to frame this beautiful love story between these two genocide survivors or whatever the lies this fandom likes to spread to pretend bryan and mike are better people than they actually are.
they have reiterated with the new movie they do not care about katara being a genocide survivor, i dare to say they don’t even perceive her as such; in lok and the comics there this big emphasis on rebuilding of the air nomads but zero attention to the southern water tribe because — i can’t stress enough — they do not care about katara, they do not care about survivors and they do not care about indigenous culture or people.
yue, another one of the few indigenous women on the og cartoon wasn’t even on the original plans and she’s killed off just after being introduced.
hama, another survivor of the swt genocide is completely demonized by the writing, there’s no deeper discussions about the times she endured pushing her to creating bloodbending or the possible usages of a technique like that but nooo, she’s just evil.
ozai, the main villain on the cartoon is treated with more grace than her, even mai and ty lee are never showed regretting and reflecting on their acts, they just suddenly with good guys and that’s it (and before someone says “oh they’re just teenagers” well, so was zuko), iroh (who’s a war criminal btw, i like him, everyone likes him but he is) is already redeemed by the beginning of the story, zuko’s arc is all about redemption but none of this grace for hama though, yet i’m suppose to believe these two white men in mid 2000s had this deeply understanding about being a genocide survivor and their opposition of zutara was motivated by that.
the thing is, bryan and mike are very open about why they prefer kataang and dislike zutara, the reason being: because kataang fits their fantasy.
this is literally what they had to say about katara and aang’s dynamic:
the older and more mature girl who finally comes to see the hero not only as a hero, but as a grown up like her, her love being the validation for his maturity (usually without presenting real development), her interest on him being the confirmation he grew from a boy to a man.
them saying they wanted the """nice guy""" to get the girl over the """bad boy""" has nothing to do with morals and everything to do with the incel rhetoric women go for men who treat them badly, their literally claimed on that stupid and immature video zutara shippers (mostly kids and tweens at the time may i add) will end up in disfuncional relationships, this is their vision on women.
katara for them is a prompt, she serves to set a message about aang and when he’s out of the picture, she doesn’t serve them anymore, that wouldn’t be the case if they really cared about indigenous women like people on the internet try to pretend they do, they wouldn’t dismiss her feelings about her mother’s death and act like aang was tHe aNgEl oN sHoUlDeR or whatever that bullshit was, they wouldn’t have aang scream to her face she doesn’t understand what is to be on his position in the new movie if they cared about genocide survivors.
stop using indigenous women as token, especially if you’re going to turn around and attack women of color you’re pretending to care about oven an orientalist kids cartoon you swear is the pinnacle of writing.
Erasing Katara and Zuko’s friendship just because of Ka/taang is so lame and says something about Ka/taang.
If their relationship is so good, then it should be able to withstand Katara being close friends with Zuko or guy friends at all for that matter.
This behavior is the same logic of a man feeling so insecure about himself and believing that he’s not good enough as a partner that he has to isolate/ban his wife from having any guy friends and sometimes girl friends as well.
Is Ka/taang such an inferior relationship that Katara’s friendships literally have to be wiped from existence in order for the ship to actually have any ground?
And the fact that they had to basically sabotage every other canon option for it to be believable that she would pick Aang. Killing off Jet, making Haru look like a grown man and then erasing her relationship with Zuko.
It says the most about Bryke, how little they value friendships between married people, how paranoid and insecure they are about fandom perceiving or rooting for something they don't like and how utterly petty and pathetic they are to still have this mindset 20 years later.
the atla movie is literally just bryke and the writers' way of desperately and stubbornly trying to prove they made the right choice with the romantic endgame and failing badly because 1) aang is still childish and insecure, didn't care about katara's safety and wouldn't listen to her and chose to trust a random guy instead of her; 2) zuko and katara standing next to each other woke the entire fandom up like a sleeper agent. the writers' childish stubbornness is proven by how they don't even bother to keep zuko's chest scar when it would make sense that azula's spiteful lightning would leave a scar as a parallel to the face scar from his father, all because it's connected to zutara.
it's also proof they don't care about the gaang outside of aang and their relations to him, because nobody exists otherwise. seriously bryke should retire after this slop
Hold up are u telling me bryke are actually allowing katara and zuko to be besties and support each other in vulnerable moments in the new film? Am I tweaking?
I finished watching the movie and these are some of the improvements that they made and my opinions overall:
Katara's opening scene starts with her giving a speech as the council representative of the Republic City for the anniversary of the city and the opening of the Unity Tower. In the script her opening scene has her playing around with some kids. They also mention a few times throughout the movie that her and Aang worked together on the city.
Katara doesn't have the all "This isn't you " speech to stop Aang from being corrupted by the staff. What helps Aang is the reminder that the air nomads are still with or a part of him no matter what which I think makes more sense.
The movie doesn't end with Katara being pregnant. Instead it ends with the gaang and the air acolytes going to search for more air nomad relics and on their way they discover surviving air bisos.
Suki appears for a few seconds almost at the end of the movie and twice in the end credits. Iroh appears once in the end credits as well.
The animation was really beautiful, but the story definitely got carried by the visuals. I still find the plot boring. The movie was really fast-paced and sometimes I had a hard time trying to keep up with what was going on.
The voice acting is fine. You get used to it the more you keep watching.
For the curious Zutara fans out there, Zuko and Katara don't exchange one word with each other the entire movie. There is no fighting scene with just them alone and no scene with Katara giving Zuko orders. We literally got 3 milliseconds of screen time with them.
just as the title says. i skimmed the full 110pg script. don't ask me where to find it (it's easy if u have a brain), but if you want general impressions i'm willing to share if i have time.
DISCLAIMER: THIS VERSION OF THE SCRIPT IS NOT FINAL & CHANGED IN THE FINAL PRODUCT.
needless to say, zuko & katara's interactions are extremely scarce/inconsequential in this film so don't come in expecting anything. but i will say that fan editors should definitely be able to make something out of these crumbs in the future.
#1
their first real psuedo-conversation is talking about taga (the new airbender oc from the past) who is getting really chummy with aang as they fly together (yes, fly) outside of zuko's airship. taga is leading the Gaang to a place unknown and zuko is having suspicions about him. katara reassures him that he needs time.
#2
this is more of a gaang teamup scene with toph, where they try to fix a hole in the air balloon.
#3
their first real 1 to 1 interaction in this movie tbh. this happens in the final act of the film. katara orders zuko to cover her as they head over to protect the children in republic city from taga's airbender spirit army.
#4
they team up on said playground afterwards; katara against the lieutentant and zuko against the huge airbender.
#5
another gaang teamup helping civilians with toph
#6
Potentially the scene that will go viral if it's animated well enough. zuko "jetpacks" katara over so they can all save aang as he falls out the sky. this implies some sort of physical contact? definitely edit worthy
aaand that's it, as you see, there was no significant interactions between them in this script and even the couple joke did not exist in this version. my hypothesis? i think paramount told them to revise the script in order to create more moments that would be viral-friendly, which is why that cheap zutara joke exists in the newer script. i wouldn't be surprised if there are more either.
if anything else comes out, i'll update accordingly.
i think the funniest tweet i saw today was someone saying "why ship zutara when zukka is right there" and like you don't even have to ship zutara but uh. it was a real hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby moment to me. like yeah... why ship the two characters with a 3-season long enemies to friends arc.... when the two guys who barely interacted are right there...
In the endless debate as to whether the position of a Fire Lady would empower or stifle Katara, I offer you a very "it depends" kind of answer that will offend every performer of the black-and-white mentality out there.
Simply put, it could go either way. In more complicated terms, which I hope you take interest in: It solely depends on how you write it and why. You could write Katara as thriving in the position of a Fire Lady because she finally got a way to enforce change through direct action. This is what most Zutarians imagine, and there's a narrative reason for it beyond ship wars; it is rather about rewarding the arc of a character who went against many conventions and fought many injustices both to fulfill one's own goals and to bring positive change to others. In giving Katara a position of immense political significance, her narrative of a ceaselessly hopeful individual fighting for change would come to a satisfying finish, and her being a foreigner in that position would only help to cement that, since her mere existence in said position would be a symbol of change. This is what is usually behind the Fire Lady Katara fantasy, which is to say: the authorial intent is to reward Katara's fighting spirit, portray her as a successful reformist (and continue some overarching themes of ATLA, but this is a topic for another day).
This is not the point where we argue about whether Fire Lady is a position with power at all: you can write it either way. Your authorial intent might be to display the struggles, toxicity, and stifling nature of upper-class life. You might be interested in portraying a world where all well-meant intentions wither in a world of backstabbing schemes, personal gains, and disregard for long-term positive change. You might want to display a Katara entering the role of a Fire Lady expecting all described in the previous paragraph but finding how powerless the powerful can be. Neither is better than the other. These are just two vastly different stories with vastly different intentions. Which one you prefer depends on so many things aside from ship preference, including personal experience, genre preference, even your mental state, etc.
You can be a Zutarian, or an anti-Zutara kind of person and write either of these, I assure you. Let me give you a few examples for the more uncommon combinations:
(No Zutara, and a Fire Lady Katara). Imagine a scenario, in which the Gaang decides that they will accomplish more if they have Katara in a position of power. You can construe it as a political marriage between the Fire Nation and the Southern Water Tribe, securing a strong alliance between two nations, and giving Katara a political playing field across the world. Zuko and Katara are political partners, but nothing more; Zuko takes concubines to secure the line (typical for, say, ancient China), and no one bats an eye. There are rumors that the Fire Lady has an affair with the Avatar, but both she, the Fire Lord, and the Avatar all deny it. The heirs will be pure Fire Nation, so the nobility doesn't act up as much as it could. Katara navigates the playing field in a deadly play of political chess and becomes a feared adversary with way too many powerful connections but a position that is strangely both visible, coveted, and not that important in the grand scheme of things - which offers her an unexpected level of protection. There have been many examples throughout history where women managed to make the most out of positions that did not imply any real power at all. You could write it this way.
(Zutara, but no Fire Lady Katara). Either because they fear assassination attempts, or other unsavory political repercussions, Zuko and Katara never marry. In time, Katara becomes the Southern Water Tribe chief, and as such, a world leader just as Zuko in her own right. What follows is a decades-long long distance relationship. Zuko takes a wife, or concubines, that will produce politically beneficial matches. Everyone and their mother knows that the two world leaders are in a relationship, but no one can prove it, or do anything about it. This story would be focused on the feeling of longing, missed chances, the space between fulfillment and the emptiness of wishes that never came true.
(Zutara, with Fire Lady Katara but it sucks) You could write a story where the two of them marry and have kids and what not, but it is the Worst Ending because Katara ends up in a housewife kind of position she never wanted, unable to escape the traps of upper-class Fire Nation society. Write a tragedy. Write how there was love, and it mattered, but it was not enough. How the world, with its injustices, was in the end stronger than the strongest of wills. They tried, and they failed, and the world did not care.
Do you see my point? If written well, I would read all of these stories. I might have my preferences, but who doesn't? What matters is: none of these stories is inherently better or more correct than the other. It all depends on what message you want to convey, and whether you manage to convey it coherently. And that's all there is to it.
I've always felt the same lol. The concept isn't bad, but the execution can be - as with most shit. Zutara is a hypothetical ship that didn't happen so you can't say what would or wouldn't occur with any definite attitude.
It's the one aspect of post-ATLA content I cannot ever forgive Bryke for because the only reason their friendship was erased was because they were paranoid at the thought of people seeing their interactions as shippy content. It's why we didn't get a Gaang reunion in LoK too. They are so unnecessarily petty over dumb shipwars (and they encouraged, mind you) even decades after it was formerly ended and it just makes their characters and story look worse. Zero respect for it.
I don't expect those two to share a word together in that movie.
I have to say, perhaps my biggest gripe with Aang is how painfully shallow all of his relationships are. You don't necessarily notice it at first because he gets along with everyone in the Gaang so well, but tell me: what sort of deep connection has he actually managed to foster with Sokka? Toph? Gods, even Katara?
Sharing his grief over being the last genocide survivor with Katara and connecting with her through shared pain was such a low hanging fruit, and yet they've never talked about it.
And Zuko? They are supposedly friends by the time ATLA ends, but did we actually see it? They got along, and they had their dance, but where is the emotional connection? Where are the meaningful conversations?
In a handful of episodes Zuko had managed to form deeper bonds with the Gaang than Aang in three seasons.
Sokka: That whole time I was in that hole, not knowing if I would live or die, it makes a man think about what's really important. I realized-
Aang: Hey, Katara, look what I can do!
Aang hardly gives the time nor space for Sokka and Katara to open up and be vulnerable. His dynamic with the water tribe siblings is very much like a child/parent relationship, the child showing off to their mom the cool new trick they can do.
With Zuko, however, Sokka and Katara were able to be vulnerable with him. He asked about their mother whereas Aang never did. Aang doesn't know the details of how their mother died.
But I think he gives Toph the time and space to be open and vulnerable with him. This makes their dynamic more balanced.
Aang cuts Sokka off the moment he goes into self-reflection, and as soon as the mood is on the verge of tipping. That is his whole personality in a nutshell, in my opinion. Aang is chronically avoidant, especially when it comes to his own feelings. I will say this: for a boy who'd lost everyone he'd ever loved, had his culture and home destroyed... he has too good of a mood. Your opinion may vary, but I'd say he is just repressing his feelings with an over-exuberant good mood, but this kind of defense mechanism is so paper-thin that he may have to cut Sokka off as soon the topic steers into more serious territory, lest he starts to think about himself too. I have to wonder when exactly this strategy will inevitably come to bite him. Personally, I'd imagine that he would start breaking down around age 20 (at least that's what I am going for in my fic)
Actually, you could reasonably assume that Aang's utter inability to accept Katara's anger has something to do with his own anger, too. Maybe accepting it in Katara would bring him too close to his own grief, so he shuts it down.
As to Toph... I am actually not sure what scenes you are refering to, maybe you can clarify.
While I don't agree completely, I definitely get it. It's a writing problem that stems from Aang only ever emotionally extending himself to Katara. If you were to ask me who Aang was the closest to in the Gaang, it would undoubtedly be Appa and Katara just by how emotionally connected he is to them. I would've really loved more individual bonding between him and Sokka/Toph and I think the Runaway was an amazing missed opportunity. There was no reason why Aang couldn't have been apart of Sokka's confession to Toph about his mother or Toph spilling her true feelings about her parents. It feels like Aang is deliberately omitted from these vulnerable discussions and it's odd for a main protagonist of his status.
I also think that relative what the narrative was going for, Zuko/Aang's relationship was severely under-cooked.
I genuinely don't understand the intense hate and anger towards zutara. It is literally the tamest ship to ever exist. It's straight, it's enemies to lovers, and fulfills a million other tropes. Not to mention that at one point they were literally set up to be canon. Elizabeth Welch, the writer behind some of Kataras most powerful scenes and Aaron, the head writer, both shipped zutara.
Like it was an actual ship designed to be canon... until it was not. There's so much substance to it that you can't even deny. It did not come out of nowhere. Even if you don't ship it, where is all this hate coming from and why??
I'm new to the fandom (not to the show) — so I just want to understand. I don't think I've ever seen this much resistance over a straight ship. It's everywhere, on TikTok, Twitter, you literally can't escape it.
I'm not even 'anti-kataang' tbh. They're both cute but zutara (imo!) just stands out and works better. It's the mature ship in my eyes
It's a dead rival ship of the two canon ones, which means it will always be the fandom's punching bag by default of being contrarian of the established canon. And fandoms love their canon, as much as they say they don't revolve around it.
It's also heavily mischaracterized and misinterpreted both by the creators, antis and shippers alike and those takes get spread and stick around. It's why people unironically believe Zutara was "toxic" despite being one of the most vanilla enemies to friends dynamics possibly ever conceived. Just perpetual viral dogshit takes being spread and unchallenged, some by the literal creators themselves.
It's important to note that alot of Zutara's animosity started inhouse (because the creators themselves took the shipping in this show too seriously, no matter how holler than thou they tried to be about it), and became disrespectful towards the fandom - which has only given fandom more ammo to dogpile Zutara as well.
I know this critique of Ka/taang has probably been talked about to death but I just want to throw my hat into the ring.
A.ang And Katara: Narrative Imbalance
One of the most common critiques of Ka/taang is that it was one-sided and Ka/taang shippers usually attempt to counter this by citing instances in which Katara blushed and such. However, the one-sidedness of Ka/taang isn’t due to a complete lack of surface-level material, but rather a problem with the narrative structure, framing and prioritizing in their romance plot.
On A.ang’s side of romantic Ka/taang, almost the entire side plot is framed through A.ang’s POV, we get to see his rose-tinted view of Katara at least four times, we watch him have conversations with multiple characters such as Sokka, Roku, the prisoners and Guru Pathik about his romantic feelings for Katara, we watch him spend an entire episode working up the courage to tell Katara how he feels, we watch him dream about Katara reciprocating his romantic interest, we watch him initiate romantic interactions with Katara without external pressure such as in The Headband, Day Of The Black Sun and Ember Island Players and we even have him explicitly confess his feelings for Katara saying “Since I got you here, uh, there's something I want to tell you. I like you, but more than normal.“ (even though Katara doesn’t hear it) in The Fortune Teller.
Overall, we the audience get to watch A.ang consistently share his thoughts and feelings about Katara and their relationship to both Katara and other characters, and drive the romance without external pressure pushing him to do so.
But what does Katara get?…..Blush marks drawn on her face like what?…twice? And a brief look in The Headband dance? You should know that two of these three instances are still shown to the audience through Aang’s POV. She gets no conversations about what she thinks and feels, no rose-tinted views of Aang, no working up the courage to tell Aang how she feels, no dreams, no nothing.
Katara’s Passivity In Ka/taang
Katara is almost completely passive and reactive in Kataang’s romance. She never gets to share her feelings, thoughts, opinions and perspective with A.ang or other characters on A.ang romantically, their relationship or key moments such as in The Fortune Teller, The Cave Of Two Lovers or The Headband, as every key romantic Kataang moment gets forgotten about by both the narrative and the characters once the moment is over (this is also why you can just cut out all the key Ka/taang moments from the show and nothing would change).
Katara also does not initiate a single romantic interaction or drive the plot romantically and the few times she does, there’s external pressure making her do so.
In The Fortune Teller, instead of having Katara independently start viewing A.ang as a potential romantic option, the show concocts a whole prophecy that marrying A.ang is her destiny, and then rather than have her consider A.ang on her own, they have A.ang never cross Katara’s mind until Sokka unknowingly has to tell Katara that A.ang is a romantic option.
The Cave Of Two Lovers contrives a life or death situation in which gigantic monuments tell Katara that the only way to escape the cave might be for her and A.ang to kiss, rather than just having a scene where the two characters kiss without external pressure.
The Day Of The Black Sun, The Headband and Ember Island Players are all driven by A.ang with Katara merely reacting to it. EIP is the only time Katara gets to talk about what she thinks about their relationship, A.ang is still the one who pressures her to do so, she gives vague answers that leave A.ang confused and insecure and spends the entire time trying to shut the conversation down.
This is basically all Katara gets in terms of narrative weight with regards to Kataang’s romance. She never drives the romance, things just happen to her and she goes along with it, she’s either reacting to the plot’s pressure/coercion or she’s reacting to Aang’s initiative, but never independently driving anything herself. Ka/taang’s romance was happening to her rather than she happening to the romance.
What this imbalance does is that it tells the audience that what Katara thinks, feels or wants simply isn’t that important. This encourages the audience to immerse ourselves in Aang’s experience, want what Aang wants, route for Aang to get the girl and see Katara the way Aang sees her and their relationship the way Aang sees it. And since this is structural, all this is what a large amount of the audience, whether consciously or subconsciously is going to do.
Zuko And Katara: Narrative Balance
In Zuko and Katara’s relationship arc however, balanced narrative weight is given to both Katara and Zuko. At every step in Katara and Zuko’s relationship development Katara gets to express her thoughts, feelings and perspective on Zuko, their relationship and one of their most key moments, the crystal catacombs scene to Zuko and other characters in clear language with no room for misinterpretation or confusion.
We watch Katara tell Zuko that she used to see him as the face of the Fire Nation
Katara: It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face.
We watch her talk to other characters about how she genuinely empathized with Zuko and saw him as a real person and why she thinks they can’t trust him
Katara: The thing is, it worked. I did feel sorry for him. I felt like he was really confused and hurt, but obviously, when the time came, he made his choice, and we paid the price. We can't trust him.
We watch her tell Zuko that she doesn’t believe his transformation
Katara: You might have everyone else here buying your ... transformation, but you and I both know you've struggled with doing the right thing in the past.
We watch her tell Zuko that she did trust him but he betrayed her
Katara: [Turns around furiously.] Oh, everyone trusts you now?! I was the first person to trust you! [Places her left hand on her heart.] Remember, back in Ba Sing Se. [Points to the ocean.] And you turned around and betrayed me, betrayed all of us!
And then we watch her tell Zuko that she forgives him
Katara: But I am ready to forgive you.
Overall, the story consistently has Katara talk about what she thinks and feels regarding her and Zuko’s relationship and has her drive their relationship plot without external pressure making her.
Of course, we also have Zuko drive their relationship plot as well with how he extends an olive branch to her first in the crystal catacombs
Zuko: [He turns around to face Katara.] I'm sorry. [Pauses. Katara is now sobbing.] That's something we have in common.
opens up to her without her even asking
Zuko: It's okay. I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark.
initiates a confrontation with her when she remains angry,
Zuko: This isn’t fair, everyone seems to trust me now. What is it with you?
talks to Sokka about the state of his and Katara’s relationship
Sokka: What’s on your mind buddy? Zuko: Your sister. She hates me! And I don’t know why, but I do care what she thinks of me.
and spends an entire episode trying to make it up to her for his mistake despite not needing to for any reason other than personal desire and care.
The point is, the show has both Katara and Zuko talk to each other and other characters about their thoughts and feelings on their relationship and has them make multiple decisions and take multiple actions of their own initiative i.e without external pressures, influences or coercion to drive their relationship arc. This is why you then get so many people saying Ka/taang felt one-sided while Zutara felt balanced before they’re even able to articulate why.
The Effect: Two Kataras
This post by @whyohwhydoris talks about how it’s almost as though the show wrote two Kataras and the more holistic Katara comes out more in contexts interacting with Zuko than in contexts interacting with Aang, and I agree with this.
You see, by sidelining Katara’s perspective and keeping her mainly passive/reactive in the context of Kataang’s romance, they applied a flat character writing structure onto a main character. This is not how you write the love story of two main characters, this is how you write the love story of a main character and their one-dimensional love interest.
This then creates two Kataras in the show, you have Katara the main character and then Katara the one-dimensional love interest to the protagonist, or as I’ll be calling her for the remainder of this post, The Avatar’s Girl.
The Avatar’s Girl
People have said that the comics and LOK ruined Kataang (that is, the people who are honest enough to not defend Katara’s portrayal in the comics and LOK), but I disagree with that. Kataang’s romance was crafted by the very act of over-prioritizing Aang’s character whilst sidelining Katara’s perspective and undermining her agency.
In Kataang’s romance, Katara’s character was written like a one dimensional love interest even though she was a main character. She wasn’t playing Katara, she was filling a role in A.ang’s story, which is the role of “unattainable older pretty girl”. This treatment of her character just wasn’t that noticeable because romantic Ka/taang is the only context in which Katara The Avatar’s Girl was in play, as romantic Kataang was the only context in which Katara’s character was given one dimensional writing treatment, while in every other possible contexts Katara’s character was placed in you had Katara The Main Character in play.
But as soon as whoever the writers were that favored Katara The Main Character left the scene, all that was left was Katara The Avatar’s Girl in the comics and LOK. In the comics and LOK, Katara is first and foremost characterized as The Avatar’s Girl, then shards and fragments of Katara The Main Character were somewhat added onto her later on in I believe comics like Imbalance (at least from what I hear, I’ve never read the comic) when the audience complained about her characterization.
Unlike the rest of the characters’ mishandling that takes place in the comics and LOK, Katara The Avatar’s Girl has always existed in the show but it wasn’t noticeable at the time, since she only existed in the context of romantic Ka/taang.
Ka/taang was a story about Aang while Katara just served a function in it. Whereas Zutara and every other context Katara’s character was placed in, had her written like the main character she was, her perspective was prioritized and she was given real agency.
Zutara’s relationship was crafted by prioritizing both characters perspectives and giving both characters real agency which is why to say that Katara should’ve ended up with Zuko is not just an opinion on the relationship itself but also a preference for the writing. It’s a representation of writing Katara as The Avatar’s Girl vs writing her as Katara The Main Character.
Because of the way Zutara was written, I never once believed that Katara and Zuko should end up together in Book 3 but rather continue to prioritize both of their characters independent journeys and develop their relationship as a mere side plot (I detail this in this post)
I’ve seen people make the complaint that Zutara shippers would write posts where they talk about Zutara and then make one of the tags pro Katara, but of course we do that. Zutara posts being pro Katara is an inevitability because Zutara’s relationship execution in canon was fundamentally, narratively and structurally pro Katara’s thoughts, opinions, feelings, character agency and independence so much so that the main subject of Zuko and Katara’s conflict in Book 3 was Katara’s feelings. The balance is so much that the moment we get Zuko’s POV of Katara, we get Katara’s POV of Zuko immediately after
I believe that the poor treatment of Katara’s character in subsequent works after the show is directly tied to her relationship with Aang and Bryke’s view of her as The Avatar’s Girl. I believe that had Bryke let go of this attachment to The Avatar’s Girl over Katara The Main Character whether she ended up with Zuko or not (doesn’t matter), her character’s legacy would’ve been much better and her mischaracterization would be on the same level as the rest of Team Avatar’s, instead of being the worst.
Though all the characters were mischaracterized to an extent in the Comics and LOK, they were all ultimately still treated like independent characters with amazing legacies after the show ended. Whereas, Katara barely does anything outside of The Avatar’s Girl role once the show ends, her Master status was something she achieved in the show before she permanently became The Avatar’s Girl, same with taking down Azula and helping stop the war. Training Korra is something she does as an elderly woman, so what did she do in her prime? the 70 years between ATLA and LOK?
She bans bloodbending but somehow isn’t politically relevant enough to attend Yakone’s trial and she’s known as the greatest healer in the world, which isn’t bad in and of itself…..But in 70 years? That’s all? You can’t deny that this is the most lackluster legacy out of every member of the team and incredibly insufficient for Katara who along with Zuko is arguably the most instinctually heroic character of the entire Team Avatar.
I don’t believe that writing Katara’s character independently organically leads to a romantic relationship with Aang, I believe that no matter what they try to do, Katara’s character will always have a sense of hollowness and a shell-of-her-former-self feel to her provided she continues to be The Avatar’s Girl. Maybe they can improve her characterization in the upcoming movie a little, but I believe they’ll always be that feeling that her character could be so much better than what she’s getting.
Because the problem isn’t whether the relationship of Zutara is better than that of Kataang, but that Ka/taang was made canon by undermining Katara’s character, thus making it the worst option they could’ve gone with. Even if Katara doesn’t ultimately end up with Zuko, the way the Zutara arc respected her character’s agency and perspective is what she should’ve been written with in subsequent installments.
Whereas Ka/taang’s story was a story about A.ang and The Avatar’s Girl, Zutara’s story was a story about Katara and Zuko and this is the moment that Katara The Main Character seized to be dominant and The Avatar’s Girl took over once and for all.
(For any literature students or experts that might see this, pls give me your take on this post)
how one of Zuko's final reasons for wanting to do the Agni Kai (instead of teaming up with Katara) was that he didn't want her getting hurt.
I'm convinced that if he phrased it less subtly, like "And this way, you won't have to get hurt" instead of "no one else" - this would be a iconic quote for edits lol. Afterall that "no one else" can only be referring to Katara in this context anyway.
I like how we see Katara's reaction after understanding what he means too.
It's interesting because Katara chose to be there to fight Azula. Zuko asked her to be there. She's prepared to fight, but she seems to understand something here which makes her want to honor Zuko's choice.
It's a nice callback to the crossroads of destiny, when Katara got hurt because she expected Zuko to be her ally and he chose Azula instead.
The unspoken thing he's saying is, "I know you're here to help but I'm not going to drag you into it this time."
Katara's expression seems to say "I trust you, but I'll be here if you need me."
I feel like it's also a callback to Katara's previous inability to let things be. Katara who can never turn her back on people in need. Katara recognizes that Zuko is trying to protect her, specifically, and she feels like she can put her trust in him without feeling like he's doubting her abilities because they've built up that trust.
It's definitely an exchange that indicates the trust between them by this point. Respecting his sporadic decision but also understanding that it doesn't come from a place of being self-centered (like in the past) -- you can always feel glimpses of development in these two.
how one of Zuko's final reasons for wanting to do the Agni Kai (instead of teaming up with Katara) was that he didn't want her getting hurt.
I'm convinced that if he phrased it less subtly, like "And this way, you won't have to get hurt" instead of "no one else" - this would be a iconic quote for edits lol. Afterall that "no one else" can only be referring to Katara in this context anyway.
I like how we see Katara's reaction after understanding what he means too.
the thing that gets me the most is that it would've been so easy to write katara liking a/ang back but they didn't. they could've written her to visibly slowly fall in love with a/ang and have moments in the show where its not one sided (like the dance scene in the cave.) they could've done that ALL ALONG and they STILL wrote katara to be unsure/not wanting a relationship until the final episode.
it's honestly just baffling to me bc why would you write it like that? shouldn't you want your main couple to obviously be into each other?
it's because bryke believes tension, conflict and suspense is more important for a romance than slow and natural development. they believe in the rollercoaster writing approach. well ATLA is a kids show so that ended up being extremely stupid
