Happy Birthday Sakura Haruno! [03.28]

🌸 Happy Birthday Sakura Haruno! [03.28] 🌸

This meme perfectly sums it up

MY OTPs!

Just to start by saying that I'm both anti-maiko and a Jinko shipper (*I would say I'm a #1 hardcore shipper for it)

I will state the things that I agree and disagree with you in your answer:

"I think basing that opinion on his relationship with Mai is selling him short" I totally agree, infact I think it's more worse than people mostly seem to realise is that THE RELATIONSHIP ITSELF IS OOC AND DIDN'T MAKE ANY SENSE therefore they will act ooc and the writers themselves are aware that this relationship makes no sense hence why they write zuko and mai ooc 99% of the time when they're together

and regarding the seashell scene, I think it's dumb and ooc for Zuko and I will explain why, while I do agree with you that Jin will be content and appreciate any simple acts from Zuko (in contrast to Mai who is barely ever interested in anything) but I think the real thing we need to acknowledge in this critical engagement is that Zuko was literally mischaracterized awfully in "the beach" episode (*even the other characters had ooc scenes in the ep but this is for another post) so you can't really use this seashell scene as an example about how Zuko would act because it's already dumb and occ for him

And to explain why it's dumb and ooc I will use the Tale of Zuko as an example on how Zuko's characterization and awkwardness was actually in-character compared to the beach episode

So how did "The Tale of Zuko" portray his awkwardness right?

In the beginning of his date with Jin, Zuko had his hair done by uncle Iroh, since he seems to trust his uncle and always see his wisdom, he believes in his decisions and didn't really bother to pay attention if it's bad or good, and also because Zuko doesn't really have an experience (*and it's his first time) and is also anti-social so he handed it to his uncle and got along with it

In the restaurant is were things start to get nervous, Jin asks him questions and responds calmly then when the waiter came to them and referred to Jin as Zuko's girlfriend, Zuko exclaimed that she's not his girlfriend and pounded his fist on the table, and all the people in restaurant turn their eyes on Zuko and Jin, Zuko then realise he embarrassed Jin (*also a note Jin was described in the script as "nervously" slurping the noodles) Zuko of course wants to somehow cheer her up with a compliment but he doesn't know how or what to say but then said what came to his mind at the moment

PAY ATTENTION TO ZUKO'S BODY LANGUAGE AFTER, he fiddles his thumbs nervously and lowers his head and turns his view to the other side, HE RECOGNISED HIS BLUNDER AND HIS AWKWARDNESS and stayed silent until Jin moved the conversation, and Zuko wanted to respond more smoothly

Jin asks him about where he and his uncle came from, of course Zuko has to lie but he can't clearly think of a convincing lie that's why he seems to pause and talk slowly when he tried to bring up his travelling and circus story, so it's normal in this situation why he would be awkward which was pretty realistic actually when someone doesn't know how to lie

Then the moment Jin asks him to juggle is where things start to change, Zuko started to open up more to her and he doesn't want to disappoint her and refuse her request even tho he doesn't know how to juggle but tried to do it anyway so to not disappoint her but he awkwardly failed to do it

This segment really portrays his awkwardness more realistically within context and in-character for Zuko and doesn't trivialize his awkwardness or his temper (*unlike the beach episode)

At the fountain he gives her a gift which is a coupon- it's a simple yet a proper gift which Jin appreciated and Zuko said it was his uncle's idea, like I said before he trusted his uncle's decisions and since it's Zuko's first time and he doesn't have experience I would assume he didn't think of the idea of giving Jin a gift and he followed his uncle's advice by giving her this gift because Zuko is aware he might not think of a good idea for a gift hence why he followed his uncle's idea

Now let's get to the point on why the seashell scene was dumb and ooc for Zuko

The second he saw a random seashell he immediately gave it to Mai (*He didn't even give it a second thought?) I'm not saying a seashell would necessarily be a bad gift (*it would be a proper gift for someone who has a hobby and interest of collecting seashells) but it's actually trivial if you think about, I mean it makes no sense that Zuko would see it and think this might be a proper gift to give to someone, and out of all the people, he specifically gave it to Mai (who's uninterested and bored by almost everything)??? It's not like Zuko is still getting to know her for the first time, this scene makes him rather dumb and ooc

And the line "Don't girls like stuff like this?" makes it even worse, Why would he even assume that? And where would he get this assumption from? Even tho he also had no experience in his date with Jin but he still didn't display that kind of triviality or ignorance back then

What's really baffling to me is that the "Tale of Zuko" and "The beach" episode are both written by the same writer (Katie Mattila), but how was Zuko's character got right and nailed in the Tale of Zuko yet so awfully mischaracterized in the beach episode?? I will soon post a blog fully explaining the problems with the beach episode

"he'd be shockingly smooth"??? We saw him with Mai, he wasn't smooth. 🫤

I think basing that opinion on his relationship with Mai is selling him short. That relationship was bad because Mai didn't actually like him. She also didn't appreciate or reciprocate his small romantic gestures. That seashell thing? Absolute gold, and something that just came natuarally. But because Mai had a bug up her nose it went over like a lead balloon. That wasn't his fault. Like I said, Zuko in a relationship where his partner actually likes him would be smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy. I'm basing that on how well his date with Jin ended once he got out of his own head. Imagine if they'd been able to go out a couple more times. Jin would've melted over that lil' seashell. And that's exactly why I'm baffled by the amount of people who seem to think canon Maiko was the height of romance. She didn't seem to like the boy, and he felt it. And he acted accordingly. He was dating someone just like his father. Of course he was weird and awkward.

女の子はタフじゃないと生き残れないのよ。

" Girls can't survive unless they're tough ".

Oh no it's totally fine! I think you explained my post more clearly and straight-to-the-point than I did bec op responded about how their maturity gap isn't that big even though my purpose was to explain how it impacted their heights (*I was gonna leave the topic of their maturity gap for another post in a big deep-dive) but he lead me into trying to explain their maturity gap to respond to his comments

I find it hilariously stupid when some K̶a̶t̶a̶a̶n̶g̶ s̶h̶i̶p̶p̶e̶r̶s̶ undermine the maturity gap between Katara and Aang by saying: "Oh I love that Katara is taller than Aang, and Aang is short cuz it breaks societal norms"

IT'S NOT LIKE AANG WAS BORN SHORT AND KATARA IS BORN TALLER,

Aang is shorter than Katara In This PARTICULAR AGE PHASE because He's A 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉, he still hasn't hit puberty yet, meanwhile Katara is already a teen and older

To examplify that, me and my brother who have the same age difference as Katara and Aang respectively, when he was 12/13 I was taller than him, but when he started to hit puberty he drastically changed and even became Taller than me

In fact when Aang grew up, he became Taller than Katara, as seen from the photo of Aang and Katara as adults which destroys the argument that "Aang is short"

The "Shorter dude/Tall gal couple" only applies to Zaheer and P'li because when they're both grown adults (*given also that Zaheer is older) P'li is taller than him

What's even funny is that Zaheer himself is actually tall (he's 6'1) but P'li is just a giraff