It is absolutely insane to me that Bryke, who apparently wanted Ktaang to be endgame from jump, gave the emotional linchpin moment to their NoTP. At the point that the finale aired, they knew that a ton of fans shipped Zutara, Nick knew the fans wanted Zutara, key players in both the writers room and the art team shipped Zutara. They knew they were pouring gas on the fire, there was no way they didn't know. My question is, if they wanted everyone onboard with Kataang, why would they go so hard on establishing Katara and Zuko's connection.
I know there's the whole will they/won't they nonsense that gets trotted out as the reason, but at no point did anyone who wanted Kataang to happen compare the development of their "friendship" to Katara and Zuko's development and say, "Hey...pretty much every scene Katara and Zuko have together is pivotal to their development both separately and as friends, and that seems to be getting them a lot of support as a romantic pair. Maybe we should throw one or two of those into Katara and Aang's dynamic?" Because there is no moment of mutual understanding between Katara and Aang. Katara is Aang's emotional support, yes, but you never get the sense that he gets her. And Aang doesn't even get to the point of being Katara's emotional support. Moments that should have been pivotal moments just proved how little Aang understood Katara as a person. That entire ship is built on the fact that Aang thinks Katara is pretty and Katara takes care of Aang. This is how I know that whatever women actually made it to the ATLA writers room weren't given a voice, because I can't imagine any grown woman with any relationship experience would look at the Kataang dynamic and think that's a dream ship.
