“Unless you are following the dialogue with an action and not a dialogue tag.” He took a deep breath and sat back down after making the clarifying statement.
“And–” she waved a pen as though to underline her statement–“if you’re interrupting a sentence with an action, you need to type two hyphens to make an en-dash.”
“The speech tag is still part of the previous sentence,” she explained, ‘so it isn’t capitalised.“
“What do you mean?” he asked. “But there’s a full stop as part of the question mark!”
She nodded gravely. “I know!” she said. “A lot of people find this confusing. But the speech tag belongs to the line of dialogue, it’s still part of the sentence, so it’s wrong to capitalise it.”
She reblogged the post again, because she had recently read far too many potentially enjoyable stories marred by poor dialogue punctuation.
“There are two more ways"—she pointed to the blackboard—“to punctuate interruptions. One is with the em dashes outside the quotations marks to indicate continuous speech. The action occurs at the same time as speech. The other—” she sipped from a glass of water “—is em dashes within the quotation marks to indicate interrupted speech.”
I am taking a swing at the common fandom trope: "What if Azula was exiled instead." with the caveat that I am trying to keep her from becoming "Girl Zuko"
To that effect, lets examine what differences between the two remain in this new swtting, and how this changes the events of season one of Avatar the Last Airbender
Azula is incredibly thoughtful and plans things out. She is manipulative, observant, and self confident in ways that Zuko was just not. Zuko took every opportunity to attack the Gaang, pushing his ship and his crew forward at all cost.
Whenever Azula fights the Gaang, its going to be by herself. In canon the first thing she does is ditch her warship and the regiment of troops, preferring to use a small, swift strike team. In my AU, when she goes to the Southern Water Tribe, she doesn't take firebenders with her.
She and Zhao, of course, hate each other but she would not allow him to insult her freely. In a battle of wits, she crushes Zhao just as easily as she would if they fought. Zhao avoids her as much as possible because of this. Every encounter they have leaves him both riled up and reeling in fear of her power. He would never put himself in a position to have an Agni Kai with Azula.
Also, there is no way Azula would not utilize Kiyoshi Island as a neutral port, away from the prying eyes of the Fire Nation. While Earth Kingdom merchants would be banned from trading Fire Nation goods, Azula could keep her ship well supplied by trading with the few ports that would still accept Fire Nation supplies. She docks at Kiyoshi after her confrontation with Zhao to observe his next move, only to immediately run into the Avatar and his crew. Unlike Zuko, she realizes that attacking an island full of warriors trying to capture an enemy who can simply fly away is not going to work, so she uses the opportunity to observe the Gaang and learn more about them.
I see Azula and Iroh having a much closer, loving relationship than Iroh and Zuko in Season 1. Azula would transfer all of the complex emotions (love, obedience, respect, fear) from Ozai on to Iroh when they start traveling together and that would slowly morph into trust and care as Iroh helps untangle that ball of trauma. Whereas Zuko blamed himself for his exile, held his father in high regard, and is caught in the trap of his own toxic masculinity (Honor!), Azula reacts to her scarring and exile with the same reactionary hatred she showed in canon when Mai betrayed her.
Without the pressure of trying to earn her father's love, restore her Honor, and focused solely on vengeance, it allows her to accept Iroh's love in a way that canon Azula never really got to with anyone. Azula displays remarkable self awareness in later works, such as the Spirit Temple comics, and I want to tap into that. The longer she is away from the Fire Nation Palace and Ozai, the more she can become an actual person instead of a weapon.
How trauma affects the ability to love, communicate, trust, and build healthy relationships. Or how healing is an active process rather than a magical ending.
Zuko and Mai finally reunite after years of separation and external barriers, only to realize that the war, propaganda disguised as Fire Nation culture, emotional neglect, and toxic family dynamics left deep internal damage behind. Their story is not about perfect romance, but about two traumatized teenagers trying to learn emotional intimacy, trust, and healthy communication while rebuilding themselves, their relationship and an entire nation.
What makes their relationship feel realistic is that love alone is not enough to sustain a healthy long-term relationship. Zuko and Mai genuinely love each other, but neither of them was taught emotional regulation, vulnerability, or healthy conflict resolution. They have no proper role models to imitate. Instead, they must actively learn how to communicate and break the emotional patterns they inherited from their families. And, as shown in Ashes of the Academy, they seem to slowly make progress.
At the same time, healing is difficult because the war did not simply end and leave them in peace. Even after Ozai’s defeat, they are surrounded by instability, assassination attempts and movements trying to restore the old regime. They are expected to evolve into functioning adults under immense pressure while carrying unresolved wounds from the past. Teenage years are though enough even in a stable environment.
Mai’s breakup with Zuko is therefore not meaningless or irrational. Her emotional trigger is neglect, emotional dismissal, and exclusion. When Zuko begins shutting her out, hiding things from her, and refusing emotional openness, he unintentionally mirrors the same emotional patterns that hurt her growing up. Traumatized people can unintentionally recreate the exact emotional dynamics that once hurt them or their loved ones, even when they desperately do not want to repeat them. But Mai did not stop loving Zuko of course. She just stopped feeling emotionally safe in their relationship.
At the same time, Zuko himself is deeply traumatized. Ursa and Ozai’s relationship was emotionally and psychologically destructive, and Ursa’s disappearance combined with Ozai’s abuse destroyed much of Zuko’s self-worth. He is trying to rebuild himself emotionally, reconnect with his family, and establish a healthier identity while simultaneously overhauling the political system of his nation and establishing himself as the new Fire Lord ‘by the way’. This is not meant to place all the blame on Zuko for why the relationship failed, but rather to understand the emotional struggles that shaped his behavior.
What makes Maiko hopeful is that neither of them allows trauma to completely define them. They hurt each other, but they continue to care for one another regardless of whether they are dating or not. They consistently protect each other, support each other, and remain emotionally significant in each other’s lives. Their love for each other becomes the motivation to grow both individually and as a partnership.
Their relationship feels realistic because healing is shown as a process. It requires painful self-reflection, healthier communication, emotional balance, and learning coping strategies they were never taught as children. The fact that they struggle does not weaken their relationship; it makes it believable. Their love survives not because it is easy, but because both of them are willing to evolve beyond the damage they inherited.
I love maiko because it’s genuine and pure. Zuko loves Mai. He loves that girl deep. And so does she. This alone is reason enough to work on being better for themselves and for the person they love. The relationship itself does not lack love; it lacks emotional tools.
That is why I am hopeful they will eventually resolve their biggest issues and meet each other again in a stronger time and place where they can truly give their relationship another chance. Their growth feels like preparation for creating a future family that is safe not only physically, but emotionally as well.
These two have already hurt each other, and I honestly think it is a good narrative decision to let them develop those emotional skills — even if the Maiko fan in me wants them back together immediately ;)
GLaDOS voice: "Would you like to see some artwork I generated? I've heard from other test subjects that AI-generated artwork produces an uncanny valley response in human viewers because they can't perceive it as fully real. They've told me that it looks absolutely hideous to them, that they can't imagine anything more disgusting than AI art. But, well I've been practicing and wanted your honest opinion. Feel free to let me know how ugly you find this by ranking it on a scale from 'vomit-inducing' to 'eye-bleeding'."
A robotic arm lowers from the ceiling holding a hand mirror up to Chell's face
One of the staple "tropes" of the fandom is exporing what would happen if Azula was exiled instead of Zuko. Most of the time, its a simple role reversal where Azula is not the prodigy, sometimes going so far as placing her in the elder role.
In which case, I feel like the author hasn't written Azula, they've just written another Zuko.
My idea is that Ozai is aware that he has basically won the war by the time of the Agni Kai. Zuko is a failure, but has a passionate, bleeding heart and is easily manipulated. Azula is a weapon he could wield against his enemies...except he doesn't have any enemies for which to wield her. Ba Sing Se cannot stand forever, the Northern Water Tribe stubbornly refuses to act, the Avatar is gone.
When the praise for Azula starts being about her merits (blue flame, fastest master of firebending) Ozai becomes jealous. He realizes that he has effectively raised his own replacement and soon, she will be in her prime while he begins to descend into old age. The Fire Nation does not respect loyalty without fear as its core and soon, Azula will fear no one.
Zuko speaks out at the war council. Zuko refuses to fight his father in the Agni Kai. Ozai demands Azula take his place.
Only Azula would never refuse an order. She fights. Ozai feels the danger, even at 11, that Azula represents. He closes the gap between them.
Instead of laying a burning hand, he has to settle for taking her eye with one finger. Azula, in the last moment before he robs her of one eye, strikes back with her first bolt of lightning, scarring Ozai's chest.
She is banished. Iroh makes the choice to go with her, hoping that Zuko's heart will make him immune to the poison of the court.
Ozai needs a new weapon, all he has is Zuko. He lavishes praise on the boy, guides him to a secret monastery in the mountains.
Three years later, Zuko emerges with the tattoo of the third eye on his forehead, his emotions killed, replaced in order to maximize chi flow.
Funniest thing about young azula getting demonized is that…of course she’d throw a big ball of bread at the ducks , she’s a kid! She doesn’t understand!! Of course she’d push Ty Lee in jealousy…she’s literally a kid!! Of course she’d do that prank with Ty Lee to get mai and Zuko together…she’s a cheeky kid! Even in all the other scenes, like the one where Azula mocks Irohs reaction or mocks her grandfather that’s because she’s probably reproducing what she’s heard, most likely from Ozai and the rest of the court, you can easily tell at that stage which sound like her words and which don’t. You can really tell that Azula had heard shit from other places and she’s reproducing it.
Iroh was disgraced from leaving the war and failing the siege, she technically didn’t say anything “wrong” (though morally and ethically she was wrong).
Azulon WAS loosing his power from Ozai trying to scratch his way into the throne. Irohs failing was also HIS loss too! He lost Ba sing se!
All of these stuff were happening in the way azula was talking about. This shit obv did not come purely out of her own interpretation. It suggests that azula was victim of the environment she grew up in.
Azula was the one who INTENTIONALLY saves Zukos life by snooping around. When azula says that Ozai will kill him, she doesn’t actually wish his death. She hopes he will find refuge instead, to a “nice earth kingdom family”(lol).It demonstrates the fact that Azula is still very much naive and innocent to the concept of death and especially that of a closed one. Again, she doesn’t say he’ll die, she hopes that he will escape, hence why she tells him and Ursa afterwards. It’s a more of a “aha” moment, that he will be mildly upset and annoyed while she gets all the parental affection (lol). Not that he will literally die by his father’s hand.
What’s even funnier is that kids ARE NOT angels. I mean they’re pure in a sense but they’re not nice. None of us were fully nice kids and we did do stuff relatively close to one of young Azulas shenanigans. I dare say, she was fairly normal kid of sorts from early on, but it was Zukos and Irohs biased view as well as the NEGLECT she faced from the theoretically “positive” people that were suppoesed to steer her in the right direction, which made her turn for the worse instead.
"But she's evil and was offered redemption and blur de blur."
No. She was bought into a system of fear where she knew her place and what would happen if she stepped out of line. The toxicity of the system eventually became too much for her and she broke down.
Then, when she healed, she found the world moved on without her despite all of her sacrafices.
What "redemption" would possibly over ride watching your father burn your brother's face off? What redemption would possibly not look like surrender?
bringing this panel back for everyone's consideration. The quiet devastation at realizing you want to be more than what your father made you, that you would like your mother's protection, actually
This moment of self realization for me cements Azula's path towards reformation. She became what she was due to her family and understands that it was not ideal.
I hope the next time we see her, she holds herself accountable while also calling out the harm done to her.
I have so many thought about Call of the Night. Its such a dense work with so many things to say that is also something I will never recommend to anyone because of the intense and uncomfortable subject matter.
Hey, remember me? We spawned into beginner village together! You reclassed to Archmage? That’s awesome, don’t you have to get to like, level 60 for that? …Huh? Oh, haha, well, no not really, you know how it is with us village kids. Dropped out of the main questline like, way back. I just sort of play to fish, I’m not very good at combat. I’m doing okay for myself though, I caught a Sea Bass the other day that sold for 10g! Oh, um, sorry, didn’t mean to— no, it’s okay, i get it, daily dungeons are like, super important. It was really nice to see you again
Heyyyy, it's me again! Oh, the dungeon? Yeah, no, it was fine. Pretty standard, and my friends are pretty good at them so it didn't take too long. Sorry for just running off like that, it's just the paladin becomes kinda preachy when we're late for things... Hey, I, Uh... Wanted to ask you a favour if you don't mind? I have been woefully neglecting my fishing skill tree. Like I'm SO bad at it. And there's this thing happening, and I need a special fish for it, and I was hoping... No, no, I don't need you to *do* anything I was just hoping for some pointers? 'Cause it's pretty far away and all... Oh, you do like travel? Just not having to fight? Oh. That's... Oh. Okay. Um... Did you want to... Go to the festival? With me?
Have you ever talked about cultural appropriation in atla? Do you talk about that type of stuff?
I love the cultural research for atla and stuff but sometimes I wonder what's appreciation and what's appropriation in the series, yknow? :(
This is going to be my most liberal-arts-college-essay-ish post to date. You've been warned...
First off, I'm going to go with the Wikipedia definition of the word:
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of culture or identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged.
Within that broad definition, I'd like to propose two sub-types of cultural appropriation:
Social cultural appropriation
Economic cultural appropriation
While something can be both types of appropriation, the intents are different. Social cultural appropriation is when someone appropriates a culture for their own personal enjoyment. To me, this is the more subjective of the two types.
For example, in my experience, Asians in Asia generally aren't bothered by non-Asians wearing the traditional clothing. They view it as cultural appreciation, as people putting in the effort to enjoy another culture. This is a perfectly understandable and valid take.
However, Asians in Western countries will generally feel these actions are more appropriative, because we are a marginalized identity in Western nations. We're forced to reckon with not being entirely accepted by the mainstream culture (hegemony), resulting in our underrepresentation in Western media and issues facing our community being disregarded by general society. We also have to deal with the features and culture we were born with being mocked and discriminated against by the hegemony. As such, we're going to be more attuned to the societal power imbalance at play, when a non-Asian (usually white) gets social capital for the same features or cultural markers that marginalize Asians. The implicit message is that people of Asian descent are innately devalued by Western society. These are the kind of feelings and nuances we're trying to capture when we say something feels like "cultural appropriation". And it is also valid to feel this way.
This is why I say that social cultural appropriation is subjective. Whether an act is appreciative or appropriative is determined by the person perceiving the act. In the context of ATLA, I view it as a mixture of both but also perceive it as more appreciative than appropriative. I've posted before that ATLA is very much a product of capitalizing on pop culture trends in the early-to-mid 2000s. At the same time, the amount of effort that went into depicting different Asian cultures and time periods was leagues above any other Western cartoon of the period. So, for me, the good outweighs the bad. But it's ultimately up to your personal sensibilities. And, for those wanting to engage with other cultures, all you can really do is try and read the room of who your audience is going to be. It also never hurts to cite your sources.
On the other hand, economic cultural appropriation is pretty straightforward: It's when a hegemonic institution takes the culture of a marginalized group, repackages it, and profits from it. In turn, the marginalized group receives no financial benefit from the appropriation. They may even face social pressure to disengage from the very cultural product they created, due to the cultural creation becoming intertwined with and falsely credited to the hegemonic culture. The most famous example of this would be rock and roll music, thanks to Elvis.
And, unfortunately, Avatar: The Last Airbender was very much a work of economic cultural appropriation. It was a story that was unambiguously inspired by Asian/Indigenous culture and history, yet the primary beneficiaries of the show's success were white. The institution that produced it was mostly white (Nickelodeon), the showrunners were white (Bryke), the OST composers were white, a majority of the VAs were white, and most of the writers were white.
Of course, when people ask if something is cultural appropriation, they're not simply asking for you to validate what they're observing. There's also the implied question of "Is it morally irresponsible for me to enjoy this piece of media?" To that, I would say that we can't really undo the problematic aspects of the source material. However, we can look at how the media property is being handled in the current day.
In that respect, I will give Bryke credit. In the modern day, Bryke have used this Asian/Indigenous-inspired franchise they've created to help carve out career opportunities for POC; most notably, through the casting in the Netflix adaption and the voice casting for the upcoming animated movie. Additionally, supplementary materials like the Chronicle of the Avatar novels have been authored by Asian writers and the Water Tribe costumes in the Netflix adaption were created by actual Indigenous craftspeople.
This is similar to how I approach my enjoyment of ATLA. Rather than dismiss the franchise for its problematic elements, I prefer to take a reparative reading approach and use the property as a jumping off point for bringing attention to various Asian/Indigenous cultures and histories.
Avatar The Last Airbender Crack Fic: ATLA and LOTR
An Au where late season one Zuko gets transported to Middle Earth, specifically into the Shire. Making friends with Merry and Pippen. Slowly becoming less of an angry turd. Joining the fellowship.
Then it hit me, the parallels between Zuko and Faramir. The more moral, intellectual, merciful siblings of golden child prodigies. Who nonetheless feel responsible for the crumbling of their kingdoms.
I doubt Zuko could resist the call of the ring any more than Boromir did. The only thing stopping him would be his sense of honor forcing him to rationalize the action while Boromir just straight up tried to take it.
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)
peeling those sour rainbow gummy strips into long thin strings and putting them into cheap energy drink to create something im calling battery acid spaghetti will update once ive finished it
