Question for you. I know you are a zutara shipper, but I’m curious as to your opinion an kataang as a ship if not personally what you like. Do you not like it because of how it is portrayed in the show or cause of how young they are? Or is it just not a ship that makes sense to you?
Also I’m really sorry if this comes across as mean or judgy. I really am just 100% curious as to your opinion, and I REALLY love your art
Hello, and thanks for asking!
Admittedly, I wasn't too invested in ships when I first watched ATLA. My main was Maiko, and that's because Mai was someone I admired and wished to emulate at the time for personal reasons. Time passed, I delved deeper into ATLA's narrative as a whole, found Zutara...and never looked back.
I never really had any issue with Kataang. It's such a sweet and comfortable ship, and I understand why people love it. It's just not for me (past experiences have shoved me into Katara's place in that kind of dynamic, and opened my eyes to a thing or two).
But other than that, it makes me sad that the writing didn't explore their potential. I say this as someone whose favorite ships are always, and I mean always, Partners (the person who understands you the most, the one who's at your side without question, always) to Lovers.
KA was that, for the longest time. But I feel like their dynamic, pure and genuine as it was, turned stagnant because—in-writing—the will-they-won't-they dynamic became an endless cycle up until the very end. The problem isn't the pairing itself, I think, but the way it was written during the final season.
It's the unresolved conflict of letting go, which would've been so deep and meaningful to see on screen.
Personally, I think of Kataang as a pure-hearted ship. But I don't think that getting in a relationship with each other would be the best resolution in-story, in-character.
And maybe I'm just projecting, but Aang growing to accept that Katara's platonic love for him is all he really wants and needs; and Katara learning to put her own needs and wants before everything else (flimsy predictions, her sense of responsibility to Aang)—I don't know, I think that's beautiful in its own way.
Aang deserves to be with someone who challenges him, who pushes him forward, who doesn't coddle him or put him in a pedestal for fear of doing him harm.
Katara deserves to be with someone she can lean on (as she so wished in canon), someone who would never abandon her or run away, who doesn't put her in a pedestal because they see only a side of her.
Both Aang and Katara deserve to be each other's person, each other's best friend—even if they're not each other's love.
That's the way I interpret their relationship, and the way I would like to see it develop. It doesn't necessarily means it has to be that way, or that you have to agree with me.
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