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sarioux

get to know me meme - favourite books (3/5) : the harry potter series by j.k rowling

#harry potter

asoiafdaenerysdaily-archive

@pscentral event 08: dynamics ↳ Daenerys and her non-Targaryen Westerosi Ancestors

#game of thrones #a song of ice and feels

mirandahamilton

#barbarians

cheapcakeripper

Barbarians Season 2 Teaser

#barbarians

manikas-whims

Kanej

Wesper

Helnik

#six of crows

1273934849-deactivated20230521

Did you know ZuTara is losing on the ATLA ship twitter polls? 🤡

1) a lot of zk stans are on tumblr. that's probably why.

2) it's twitter, a tumor on the face of the internet. who cares? lol.

virhaenyra

Zutara stans doesnt care about poll ship, they keep making positive environment by creating fics and arts lol. How can ship poll effect zutara lmao they're so bitter, it's nauseating

#zutara

DANAE KESTRELL CARROW

@bloodandbonesrpg

chrrispine

Harry Styles and Chris Pine at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival

hoziersong

oh 2022 we're really in it now

fantastic-nonsense

this came to me in a dream

thepersonalquotes

““Life is short. Focus on what really matters most. You have to change your priorities over time.” - Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart”

—

#quotes

burst-of-iridescent

the official zutara dissertation (p.1)

or: i yell about zutara for 16k words straight, because i have nothing else to do with my life.

This essay will explore the canonical dynamics of Prince Zuko and Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, the subtext and foreshadowing in the narrative, and the themes of the show. It will argue that Zutara becoming canon would have developed and completed Zuko and Katara’s character arcs and exemplified the themes and narratives of ATLA. It will also show that Zuko and Katara’s canon relationships did a disservice to their characters and those of their canon partners, were poorly developed, and ran contrary to the messages and themes of the show itself. For these reasons, this essay will prove that Zutara should have been the endgame ship of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

(Includes bonus frustrated commentary.)

BOOK 1: WHY ZUKO AND KATARA ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER

1. Zuko and Katara share the same fundamental moral compass and core values.

They are both empathetic and compassionate people who are angered by the injustices of the world and want to right them. While all the members of Team Avatar are good-hearted individuals, none of them share Zuko and Katara’s need to help, even at their own expense. Sokka and Toph are pragmatists who focus on the big picture (ending the war), while Aang’s desire to help is inextricably tied to his duties as the Avatar, rather than just Aang himself as an individual.

Zuko and Katara, however, are fundamentally different from the rest of Team Avatar in this regard. Their need to help, no matter what the cost, forms the basis of their personalities and character arcs. Katara’s empathy and compassion are demonstrated multiple times throughout the series, such as when she willingly lets herself be captured in order to save imprisoned Earthbenders (Book 1: Imprisoned) and refuses to abandon a suffering Fire Nation village even when it puts them behind time for the invasion (Book 3: The Painted Lady).

In both of these instances, Katara’s motivations are at odds with those of her friends. They want to move on; she cannot leave people in need. They want to do the safe thing; Katara insists on doing the right thing. Katara’s drive and desire to help is unmatched by the rest of Team Avatar, who only follow her lead because she cannot be swayed from her decision. Katara’s entire character can be summed up with “I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!” (Book 3: The Painted Lady) because that is the kind of person she is – someone who will never abide injustice or suffering if she can do something about it.

Similarly, Zuko’s entire character arc is kickstarted by his compassion, when he speaks out against sacrificing soldiers when even seasoned generals did not (Book 1: The Storm). It is this decision that led to Zuko’s banishment, and it is a direct result of Zuko’s kindness – a quality that Zuko tries to bury to earn his father’s love, and which he ultimately realizes is a strength, not a weakness.

Even in his time as an antagonist, there are plenty of hints at Zuko’s true empathetic nature, one that resurfaces even when he tries to stifle it: Zuko putting his own life in danger to rescue his helmsman (Book 1: The Storm), sparing Admiral Zhao in the Agni Kai although he knew Zhao would never have returned the favour (Book 1: The Southern Air Temple) and attempting to save him even though Zhao had tried to kill him (Book 1: The Siege of the North Part 2), exposing his true identity and risking his safety to protect an Earth Kingdom village (Book 2: Zuko Alone), reaching out to Katara with genuine kindness though she was still his enemy at this point, and had been yelling at him just moments before (Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny).

This is a non-exhaustive list of Zuko’s moments of compassion, but they indicate who he is at his core – someone very similar to Katara, someone who cannot leave others in a state of need with an easy conscience. Neither Zuko nor Katara have an obligation to help, the way that Aang does as the Avatar, but they both choose to do so anyway because that is who they are. Zuko and Katara would work well together because they share core qualities, ones that shape their personalities and desires, and can thus understand and support one another’s motivations and decisions. This would have made them perfect rulers for the Fire Nation and great world leaders overall, as they would fight for those who needed their help and would never abandon any of their people to fend for themselves.

2. It is with each other, and only each other, that Zuko and Katara can be fully and completely themselves.

Katara’s role in much of the show is a motherly one, putting her needs and feelings second to take care of those around her. With Zuko, however, this dynamic is reversed. This is not to say that Katara does not care for or support Zuko – she does. For the first time, however, this support is returned to her. Zuko sees her at her most vulnerable in the Crystal Catacombs (Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny) and turns to comfort her, to tell her that she is not alone. This is the first time someone reaches out to help Katara, the first time she is in a position where she is receiving emotional support instead of providing it, and it is telling that it is with Zuko – someone who, due to their history as enemies, Katara does not feel the need to coddle, and can meet on an even keel.

After he joins the Gaang, Zuko consistently puts Katara’s needs first – accepting that her anger at him is justified, asking her what he can do to make it up to her, trying to earn her forgiveness. He makes the effort to get to the root of Katara’s hurt and anger, even when she’s not giving him much to work with, and gives her all the agency in the situation, never putting his need to earn her forgiveness over her needs. We don’t ever see any other member of the Gaang give this much thought or consideration to Katara’s feelings. On their hunt for Yon Rha, Zuko supports Katara absolutely and unconditionally. He sees the full depths of her rage and grief, the lengths she is willing to go to for vengeance, her willingness to use bloodbending – and instead of condemning or judging her, he accepts all of it without question.

Katara does not suppress her needs for Zuko’s sake, the way she does with the rest of the Gaang, and is not shoehorned into the position of his caretaker or mother. She is allowed to break out of the role of emotional backbone, a role she often assumes to her own detriment, as the person who gives and never receives. With Zuko, Katara can be herself in all her aspects – the grieving daughter, the fierce warrior, the caring friend – and is a far more multi-faceted and complex individual because of it.

In return, Zuko finds in Katara someone who has seen him at his absolute highest and lowest. All of Team Avatar have seen (and fought) Zuko as their enemy, but it was Katara who witnessed the true depths of his feelings about his scar and Katara who was betrayed by Zuko, an integral part of the worst mistake he ever made. Out of all of Team Avatar, only Katara truly witnessed Zuko at his lowest point, his decision to side with Azula, and still chose to forgive and befriend him.

Furthermore, Zuko does not need to hide who he truly is with Katara, or become someone he is not, as he is forced to in the Fire Nation. He can open up to her without fear of being manipulated (like Azula) or shut down (like Mai), and she validates and soothes his worries without coddling him. Katara sees Zuko in his entirety – at his best and worst, his strongest and most vulnerable – and accepts and supports him through all of it. Zuko and Katara are thus able to be themselves in all their aspects with one another, creating a relationship based on mutual understanding, acceptance, and trust.

3. Zuko and Katara have the deepest and most intimate non‐familial relationship out of all of Team Avatar.

Apart from sharing character traits and motivations, Zuko and Katara are both marked by similar foundational events that sent them along parallel arcs – the loss of their mothers – and this enables them to understand one another on a far deeper and more intimate level that no one else can hope to achieve.

But Sokka lost his mother too! Aang lost his people!

Yes, those are both horrible, traumatic losses. But they are not Katara’s loss. Losing Kya marked a turning point in Katara’s life as the moment she was forced into the role of mother in her family, a role she should never have been burdened with. Not only did she take on this role, however, she did it so efficiently that Sokka admits to no longer remembering his mother’s face, because Katara is the only motherly figure he can picture (Book 3: The Runaway). Katara, a traumatized child, had to deal with the grief of losing her mother and, at the same time, assume that position to keep her family together, at the expense of her own childhood and well-being. Neither Sokka nor Aang had to deal with these deeper layers of trauma because both of them were looked after, and looked after well, by Katara – and for that reason, they will never understand her pain.

If her own brother and canonical love interest don’t understand, how could Zuko? Because, just like Katara, Zuko’s loss marked a turning point in his life and changed him fundamentally. Just like Katara, Zuko’s loss of his mother meant the end of his childhood, leaving him exposed to the cruelty of his father and sister. Ursa’s disappearance signified the start of Zuko’s path to becoming someone he didn’t want to be and should never have been, just as Kya’s death pushed Katara into a role she should never have been forced to take on. Ursa sacrificed herself to protect Zuko just as Kya sacrificed herself to protect Katara. Zuko and Katara’s losses, both significant aspects of their characters and foundational events of their childhood, parallel one another and give them a unique understanding of each other. It is significant that Zuko is the only person Katara ever fully opens up to about her mother’s death and the pain it has caused her because it is a loss that mirrors Zuko’s own, and thus enables them to connect with one another.

Zuko and Katara’s interaction in the Crystal Catacombs is the perfect illustration of this, because it is their shared loss that leads them to see each other for the first time as people instead of enemies. Their mutual pain allows them to become deeply vulnerable and intimate with each other as they have never been with anyone else. Katara is the only person Zuko opens up to about his conflict over his destiny and the first person he allows to touch his scar. In return, Katara offers her precious spirit water to heal him – her staunch enemy – with no hesitation and is the first one to genuinely believe in Zuko’s capacity to change, which is why his betrayal later affects her so deeply (although Aang is the first person to reach out to Zuko in Book 1, he is also utterly unsurprised when Zuko tries to capture him in return, in contrast to Katara’s genuine shock and hurt at Zuko’s betrayal – indicating that she’d trusted him where Aang had not). As Zuko is the only member of the Gaang to truly empathize with Katara’s trauma, it is thus fitting that he is the one to help her find closure from it.

The Southern Raiders tackles the deepest trauma of Katara’s life, and it is not with Sokka, her brother or Aang, her canonical love interest – but Zuko. While there are some issues with the writing, it’s unsurprising that Zuko takes Katara’s side rather than Sokka and Aang’s, because the lingering effects of Katara’s trauma and her desperate need for closure to the event that has haunted her all her life reflects his own, and so he can empathize with her in a way they never can. Zuko, who did confront the man responsible for the loss of his mother and made peace with his trauma, understands better than the rest of Team Avatar why it is necessary for Katara to do the same, as he knows first-hand how cathartic it can be.

Zuko and Katara’s arc in the Southern Raiders is based on the intimacy that already existed between them from the Crossroads of Destiny, but within the episode itself, this intimacy only grows deeper. Zuko sees the “darkest” side of Katara and accepts her regardless, while Katara separates Zuko once and for all from the title of enemy and sees him once more as just Zuko, a boy like her, someone worthy of her affection and friendship. It is the episode of their reconciliation because they both break out of their defining roles for good in one another’s eyes and embrace each other for who they truly are, having seen each other at their best and worst in a way no one else ever has.

After this, Zuko and Katara’s relationship just gets more intimate, natural and comfortable. They spend the final episodes of the series together, often positioned right next to or parallel to one another. They adopt co-parental positions in the Gaang (Zuko has Peak Tired Dad energy), comfort one another, offer support, and have complete trust in each other. Katara looks to Zuko to take the lead when Aang goes missing (Book 3: Sozin’s Comet, Part 2), and Zuko turns to Katara for reassurance right before he goes to ask his uncle for forgiveness. Zuko has no hesitation in asking Katara to accompany him to the final Agni Kai and she in turn completely trusts his judgement in choosing to fight Azula on his own (Book 3: Sozin’s Comet, Part 3). They fight together in beautiful harmony, protecting each other and working side-by-side with seamless efficiency (Book 3: The Southern Raiders, Book 3: Sozin’s Comet, Part 1). We never see Katara fighting with any other individual in such perfect, wordless synchronicity, and the only other person who has this sort of bond with Zuko is Iroh, the person he loves most.

(Also, the parallel between Zuko waiting outside Katara’s tent and Zuko waiting by Iroh’s bed for both of them to wake up??? This boy’s love language is clearly I-will-stay-up-all-night-to-earn-your-forgiveness-because-you matter-the-most-to-me-in-the-world.)

Book 3 brings Zutara closer just as it separates them from their canon pairings, culminating in the final deepest layer of connection and intimacy in the finale as Zuko literally sacrifices himself to save Katara – and then does a heel-face turn and shoves them back with their canon partners (seriously, what the fuck). While their canon pairings would never have worked without some serious rewriting, making them endgame at the very moment where Zuko had never been more distant from Mai and Katara from Aang, while Zutara had hit their peak in terms of intimacy, understanding, trust and emotional connection, only drove home all the more why Zutara should have been endgame instead.

#zutara

burst-of-iridescent

the official zutara dissertation (p.4)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

So far, we have discussed why Zuko and Katara would have been a good couple, how the narrative set them up for a romance through symbolism, narrative arcs and theme, and rebutted the most frequent arguments for why they wouldn’t work.

Now we turn to the last aspect of the show that, ironically, proves how great Zutara is as a ship: the canon romances. In this section, we will dissect the reasons that Katara and Aang do not work in canon, and how this helps to enhance the perfection of Zutara.

BOOK 4: THE TRAGEDY OF KATAANG

1. Kataang is fundamentally imbalanced.

There is no give-and-take between Katara and Aang. Katara is always the one giving emotional support while Aang is always the one taking without providing anywhere close to the same effort in return.

Katara pulls Aang out of the Avatar State when he is filled with rage and grief over the loss of his people (Book 1: The Southern Air Temple), and again when he is devastated about losing Appa (Book 2: The Desert). Katara encourages Aang when he thinks he cannot master earthbending (Book 2: Bitter Work), soothes his guilt over running away (Book 1: The Storm), and comforts him when he is worried about Bumi (Book 2: Return to Omashu), when he is hurting over Appa’s loss (Book 2: Journey to Ba Sing Se), and when he feels like he has failed after the fall of Ba Sing Se (Book 3: The Awakening).

These are just the notable scenes I could find, excluding the dozens of small moments Katara looks after Aang. In return, there are, at best, three moments where Aang gives her emotional support: briefly standing in solidarity with her against Pakku, as well as resting a hand on her shoulder after Jet dies, and when she breaks down after her fight with Hama. The third one, however, also has Sokka with an arm around her, so it can’t even be considered a moment where Aang is the only one to comfort her, as compared to every moment listed above where Katara is the only one to comfort Aang.

In fact, Aang is the only love interest Katara has in the show that never expresses sympathy for her loss of her mother. Every other male character Katara is romantically linked to in some way (Haru, Jet, Zuko) – has a moment of bonding with Katara over the deepest trauma of her life. But Aang, her canonical love interest, doesn’t even give Katara so much as an “I’m sorry” when he hears about her loss.

When the opportunity arises for Aang to actually support Katara in the Southern Raiders for once, he is instead preachy and judgemental (“What exactly do you think this will accomplish?” “Katara, you sound like Jet!” “You do have a choice. Forgiveness” “The monks used to say revenge is like a two-headed rat viper”) and makes it all about him (“How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they took Appa?”)

It is particularly insulting for Aang to compare Katara’s loss to his, not just because comparing grief is, frankly, insensitive, but also because Aang’s temporary loss of his animal companion is in no way comparable to Katara’s permanent loss of her mother. Comparing Katara to Jet, who Aang is fully aware manipulated her and broke her trust, is also an extremely hurtful and frankly inaccurate comparison to make. Instead of offering compassion and understanding to the girl he supposedly loves, Aang only makes things more difficult for her by deepening her hurt and anger.

What makes this worse is the fact that Katara has never once treated Aang this way, offering him unconditional love and acceptance even when he goes into the Avatar State or yells at her (Book 2: The Desert), while Aang presumes to dictate to Katara how to handle her grief and her trauma. Katara gets no help from Aang in this entire episode, at her lowest moment, when she is most in need of it.

This is, in fact a pattern that lies at the core of Kataang. It is primarily slanted in Aang’s favour, allowing him to benefit far more from the relationship than Katara does. The two established canon benefits Aang provides Katara are that he is a means for her to achieve her dreams (since he enables her to travel) and that he gives her hope. That’s great, but it’s in no way exclusive to Katara.

As the Avatar, Aang provides hope to everyone in the world who wants to defeat the Fire Nation. The fact that he helps her to travel and learn waterbending is great, but it is a benefit she receives from his role as the Avatar and his flying bison, not Aang himself as a person. There is nothing that Aang as a character gives Katara that she cannot get from someone else, and in fact she frequently gets more from other characters.

There was clearly an attempt at the start to establish that Aang helps Katara have fun and allows her to regain some of her lost childhood. This could have worked if it had actually been sustained, but it isn’t. Apart from one penguin sledding scene and one dance scene (which we’ll get into in the following section), Aang is just another person for Katara to look after, support and help, to her own detriment.

Kataang does not work because the emotional labour of the relationship falls primarily and heavily on Katara, a character who is already burdened with being the caretaker for everyone else, and who has assumed this role since she was eight years old. The imbalance in this relationship is particularly damning given that it runs contrary to the show’s key theme of balance and harmony, especially when one partner is supposed to be the embodiment of balance and is the literal protagonist.

2. Katara and Aang are unable to see and accept each other for who they truly are.

Aang’s idealization of Katara is fairly explicit, with multiple shots from his perspective where she is literally presented in slow motion and rose-tinted vision. This is a fairly common method of indicating romantic attraction in kids’ shows so I can let that slide, but the real problem is that Aang cannot, or will not, see and accept all of Katara. In fact, he tends to dismiss her anger and her darker side on multiple occasions:

When Katara challenges Pakku to a fight (Book 1: The Waterbending Master), Aang tries to deter Katara by saying “Katara, you don’t have to do this for me!” He instantly assumes that the only reason Katara would indulge in such violent pursuits is for him, rather than her own rightful anger at the sexism she is facing, thus reframing the situation around his needs instead of hers. Furthermore, the fact that his instinctive response is to dissuade instead of supporting Katara, despite knowing that she has already tried the diplomatic route, proves how Aang is more focused on dismissing Katara’s anger than understanding that why it might be justified and even necessary. He only supports her when she makes it clear that she will not be deterred (a rather frequent pattern in their dynamic).

When Katara is irritated at Toph for refusing to be a part of the group, and yells at her (Book 2: The Chase) Aang’s response is to go “No, she didn’t mean that!” (to which Katara actually says “Yes, I did!”). Instead of trying to validate Katara’s feelings to find a solution, Aang’s first response is to downplay or even erase her anger to play peacemaker.

Aang notices that Katara is upset with her father (Book 3: The Awakening), yet never bothers to get to the bottom of it or helps her deal with it after she says she’s fine (even though she is clearly not fine). In contrast, when Katara notices that Aang isn’t acting like his usual self on the way to Ba Sing Se, she makes it a point to get to the root of the matter and tries to solve it.

Aang says “You did the right thing. Forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing” when Katara says that she did not kill Yon Rha (Book 3: The Southern Raiders), to which she frowns and tells him that she didn’t, and will never, forgive him. Aang still cannot see that his own beliefs are not what is best for Katara, that they take different views of anger and justice, and hers are just as valid as his.

Aang is in love with a shallow version of Katara, with the kind, gentle girl who takes care of him. He cannot reconcile his view of her with the Katara that can also be vengeful, furious and merciless. Aang sees Katara’s rage and Katara’s softness as separate, when in reality one cannot exist without the other. Katara’s kindness and compassion is driven by her anger and righteousness, and vice versa. It is what compels her to challenge the sexism of the Northern Water Tribe, to stand up for the imprisoned earthbenders, to help the Fire Nation village. Katara’s anger is an intrinsic part of who she is, and while Aang usually helps her with the actions she takes as a result of that anger (since it does benefit people), he is never shown to understand it as a part of Katara. Instead, he mitigates, downplays, or when all else fails, ignores it entirely.

Let it not be said, however, that Aang shoulders all the blame.

Katara also falls victim to idealization, unable to separate Aang from the Avatar, the person she has pinned all her hopes of ending the war on. Katara’s unwavering faith in Aang blinds her to his faults – running away from his problems instead of confronting them, being too playful and careless when he needs to be serious, being selfish and self-centred at times. Every other major character has taken Aang to task for these flaws, either scolding him for his mistakes or challenging him, except Katara.

When Aang burns Katara with his firebending due to his carelessness (Book 1: The Deserter), Sokka is the one to hold him to task for it. Katara, the one who was actually injured, and would have been permanently scarred, by his actions, brushes away his apology and tells him it’s okay. She does not scold him, or even express displeasure with him, despite the fact that she only got hurt because he blatantly refused to listen to her concerns or her advice.

When Toph criticizes the way Aang is approaching earthbending (Book 2: Bitter Work), Katara is the one who tries to persuade Toph to adopt a softer teaching method. She coddles and comforts Aang when he is upset about his lack of success at earthbending, both refusing to push him and attempting to dissuade Toph from doing so as well.

When Zuko scolds Aang for taking his training too lightly and challenges him (Book 3: Sozin’s Comet Part 1) Katara immediately leaps to Aang’s defense. Despite knowing Aang is nowhere near ready, and that the comet is approaching dangerously soon, Katara still excuses Aang instead of helping him to grow and do better.

Even when Aang is actively in conflict with her decisions, Katara still refrains from attacking his and telling him why he is wrong. She only defends herself, and her own choices. The one and only time Katara ever calls Aang out on his flaws is when he refuses to kill the Fire Lord, a matter of global importance where the lives of thousands hang in the balance. Even then, however, her indomitable faith is unshaken, and she never once doubts he will return, despite his track record of fleeing from difficult tasks (which it looks like he has just done once again).

Katara is never able to meaningfully challenge or confront Aang, usually enabling him when he actually needs to be pushed. This makes it impossible for Katara and Aang to meet each other as equals, which spells disaster not only for their interpersonal relationship but also for their future roles. As the Avatar, Aang needs a partner who can disagree with his decisions when necessary, who is capable of balancing out his worst qualities instead of enabling them, and can tell him when he is doing something wrong. Katara, at least in the show, is rarely (if ever) able to do this, and from whatever the comics and LOK tell us of their relationship… it seems clear that she never learned how to.

The sad thing is that Kataang could have worked. They are both idealists and optimists, sometimes to the point of naivete. They are both the last of their respective bending disciplines. Katara could have helped Aang to grow and heal from his trauma, while Aang could have helped her rediscover some of the childish playfulness she lost with the death of her mother and take the weight off the world off her shoulders.

Instead, the show created an imbalanced relationship that forced a teenage girl to play caregiver with no reciprocation, one where both parties saw the other through rose-tinted glasses instead of understanding and accepting them for who they really were.

Ironically, therefore, Katara’s canonical romance only serves to improve Zutara, as the imbalance and shallowness of Kataang perfectly juxtaposes and highlights the beautiful harmony, intimacy and depth that Zuko and Katara have in comparison.

#zutara