protect that smile

  Spring (main: springcrafter) | She/Her | 20+ | ATLA Books 1-3 | Fanfiction & meta

[zutarabender]

I’m Spring, and I only watched ATLA in 2020 during lockdown. I fell in love with this ship hard. I can’t even explain it. It almost feels as if I was being directly and personally catered to. Of course, I quickly discovered I’m in excellent company.

I’m probably going to pop my head around mostly for fandom events, to share my stories, and perhaps some meta. If you get a follow from @springcrafter then that’s me.

See you around!

[animentality]

[agathah]

Katara 💙

I love her so much

[tuherrus]

[ID: A digitally drawn comic of Toph and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender talking about Zuko’s scar.

It begins with Toph approaching Zuko, who is sitting near a campfire. “You have a scar?” she asks. Zuko replies,  "Oh! Uh, yeah… You didn’t…?“ Toph cuts him off and says, “Came up in passing with the other guys.” Toph casually makes herself a seat out of rock and sits down next to him. “Must be pretty badass if everyone assumes I know it’s there, too,” she continues. Zuko looks aside awkwardly and says, “… It’s on my face.” “Ah.” Toph replies.

Zuko says, “Maybe you could… feel it?” “Huh?” says Toph. “I guess, if I concentrate hard enough.” Zuko reaches for Toph’s hand. “Uhm, just with your hand, if you want,” he says. “I don’t think I can describe it.” “… Gotcha. Guide my hand then, boss,” Toph says. Zuko does so, and there’s a pause as Toph touches his scar. The fire reflects in her eyes.

As Toph pulls her hand away, Zuko says, “…. You know, my left eye is almost blind, too.” “Seriously?!” Toph exclaims. “Why aren’t we a tag team yet?! The blind bandit and the half-blind dweeb!” “Come on…!” Zuko moans. End ID]

id by @strawberrygiorno , thank you!

i’ve had this comic sketched out for months but only decided to finish it now, it’s based on something i drew a couple years back of toph and zuko….don’t think too hard on when or how this takes place because i don’t really know either! it’s just a concept i’ve always wanted to draw

[animentality]

[folkloristico]

zutara getting together and only later realizing that jet is their shared ex (and also responsible for zuko’s bi awakening) is honestly hilarious and one of my favorite headcanons ever but also. who do you think was their shared female crush and katara’s bi awakening

[zutarabender]

I try not to engage with discourse, but I gotta say something about the discussion in Zutara circles on whether Zuko is "an awkward turtleduck" or confident and self-assured.

I'm sitting here like. Why not both. I love both. Both are good. And both are true.

He's awkward when he's feeling insecure and vulnerable, especially in the face of new or unexpected situations - which is why we see this attitude in Book 3 mostly (and notably, his date with Jin in Book 2). He's been humbled and he's been forced to question a lot of things; it makes sense he doesn't always find his footing. He also had an isolated upbringing so he will often be oblivious to social cues and won't always have the "right" reactions.

He's very self-assured and decisive when he knows what he's up to and knows what is right and what he's got to do. Book 3 Zuko also knows his own mind and is very determined in shaping his own fate. Final Agni Kai Zuko is not awkward. Southern Raiders Zuko is not awkward. The Zuko that confronted Ozai? Very much not awkward.

I think fan creators can take advantage of the possibilities for the same scenario (ie. a Zuko who's made up his mind to kiss Katara, vs. a Zuko who wants it but is unsure if she does) and every preference here is valid, but I'm a bit confused as to how the meta treats it as if it has to be one or the other.

[ash-catz-deactivated20241017]

Thinking ab this pic again… why did they think they could create this image and expect me not to ship them

[growingroses]

every time i feel like being a hater on here (which is not uncommon, ngl) i just think to myself “bitch go put your energy into the things you DO like” and it works every time

[fournationsmeta]

Jetara Analysis

JETARA LET’s GOOO (disclaimer: i am a little soft for this ship ngl) 

So obviously Jet is Katara’s first established ~love interest~ in the series. I know a lot of people don’t like Jet and think he’s a piece of shit (he’s always written as a womanizing douche in fics lol) but I think he sincerely reciprocated Katara’s feelings. 

Let’s take it from the top!! 

This is the very first time they see this guy. Aang is like “oop” and Sokka is just like “damn tf” but Katara is just amazed by him taking down the fire nation soldiers. 

And their first introduction awwww I don’t think I have anything to say here it’s just kind cute okay, Katara is so smitten. 

And here we have Jet telling Aang about the hideout, and Katara creeping up all googly eyed. I know people are like “he was only nice to Katara to manipulate her and use her waterbending!!” which is at least partially true yes but I want y’all to watch the way Jet’s face changes when he sees Katara. 

He just goes totally soft look at how relaxed those crazy eyebrows are. 

And then after he just lets Sokka go flying up to the hideout, he makes sure Katara is shown to the hideout like a mf lady. 

And then the whole flooding the town shebang happens and kinda kills all that buildup 

Katara liked Jet and related to him so much she couldn’t even comprehend that he could be shitty enough to flood a town because Jet might be troubled and a fighter but Katara saw the soft, caring parts of Jet that remained after his village was burned down 

And after Jet admits to what he’s done, he tries to explain. But he doesn’t look angry that Katara isn’t happy about what he’s done, he looks worried and downtrodden. His shoulders are slumped. He let down the girl he likes and he had wanted so badly for her to understand him, but she doesn’t. Jet is an angry character but he doesn’t turn that on Katara immediately like he does with everyone else. 

If Jet just wanted to accomplish his goals and didn’t care about Katara at all he wouldn’t even be trying to explain himself to her or reaching out to her. But he is. He’s gentle with Katara in this moment because he knows he ruined something good in his life 

We don’t see Jet angry towards Katara until she tells him what she thinks of him for believing in what he does

He’s trying to stick to his guns but he kinda knows he fucked up for Katara to think of him as a monster. 

Once Katara finds out Jet didn’t succeed, all of her anger towards him evaporates and she’s just sad 

And then we don’t see Jet for a while!! The NWT is attacked the Gaang traverses a desert and eventually we all wind up in Ba Sing Se. 

(I know Jet’s brainwashed here lol but it’s not about Jet it’s about Katara’s reaction to him)

She’s not angry at first when she hears his voice, she’s surprised.

and THEN it’s almost like she’s trying to look angry BUT LOOK AT THAT BLUSH

After they fight she looks at him like this when he drops his swords at her feet and says he’s changed. Like she wants to believe him. 

Now I’m going to ignore most of Jet’s presence after this point because he was brainwashed and I don’t want to put stock in those moments because he was under Dai Li influence. 

What I want to talk about the crux of my Jet really cared about Katara/Jetara argument

When Jet is fighting Aang and he tells Jet “You’re a Freedom Fighter!” he recalls his memories. His most formative, important memories. 

He sees the Freedom Fighters BUT 

He also remembers

each moment 

he shared with Katara 

to bring him back to reality. 

You wanna tell me he didn’t give a shit about Katara? She’s in more of his most IMPORTANT, BELOVED memories than any of the Freedom Fighters!

When Jet falls, Katara is as shocked and dismayed as the Freedom Fighters

And when they have to leave him to die, Jet reassures Katara 

And the relaxed smile he only ever gave Katara appears again. 

I think Katara was Jet’s first love 100%. She was one of the best things he got to experience in his short life, and that’s what this final smile says to me. He’s finally doing right by Katara by making sure they get out instead of worrying about him. 

basically Jet’s eyebrows are only normal when he looks at Katara 

[ranilla-bean]

@katara-week day 7: free space

i wanted to paint water 💙 so here's our fave waterbender

[ciccerone]

Katara and Zuko by Paulina Klime

[elbereth-gilthoniell-deactivate]

Did a cosplay to appease my 13 year old self, turns out it made my 24 year old self giddy too

Photos by dondolcephotography on IG :)

my IG is Kandikalisto and zukos IG is resinfinch

[kallypsowrites]

Yeah, yeah, Katara is a very motherly person who is often the emotional support of the group and she’s kind and hopeful and all that. But a lot of people forget my girl is straight up FERAL for JUSTICE. She challenged a waterbending master to a duel with barely any training because she thought he sucked and his ideals sucked! She got herself captured and imprisoned just to start a revolution on a prison ship! She came across a small town suffering from polluted water and she blew up a whole factory and then scared the SHIT out of fire nation soldiers with her Painted Lady cosplay! Even outside of the Southern Raider’s episode, my girl will GLADLY come for blood and she deserves recognition for this.

[longing-for-rain]

Southern Water Tribe Zutara 🌊🌙

[makiema]

you’re wrong.

[sokkastyles]

I absolutely think Zuko was drawn to how much Katara cared about her mother because when his own mother went missing, no one cared or wanted to talk about it. Seeing Katara cry for her own mother openly, seeing Katara angry about her mother's murder, hearing her talk about it, accompanying her on that journey, forcing the man responsible to talk about it, must have been so healing for him.

[tuoshpreecq]

The validation he must have felt then, like yes, this is something most people would be angry about, sad about, even after years and all of his father's gaslighting was just that, he is not wrong or melodramatic for wanting to hold him accountable for what he did

[sokkastyles]

Zuko telling the captain of the Southern raiders to "look her in the eye and tell me you don't remember" is like, %100 a response to being gaslit. The way it mirrors Zuko confronting his own father and forcing him to tell the truth after being lied to for so long.