Absolutely It Was Not Wrong For Katara To Feel Betrayed By Zuko's Actions! My Main Quibble Is With The

Absolutely it was not wrong for Katara to feel betrayed by Zuko's actions! My main quibble is with the idea that valid feelings must be based on accurate logic.

As another example - Zuko felt betrayed by his crew when Zhao commandeered them for his attack on the North Pole in Season 1, and they all left. I wrote in another meta about why Zuko's feeling of betrayal is valid, from his point of view.

However, I would not actually say that the crew betrayed him in that episode. The crew was following a more highly ranked naval officer who had the right, according to Fire Nation law, to overrule Zuko's command and order them elsewhere. It also doesn't seem like Zuko had made many attempts to integrate into his crew during his banishment (quite the opposite, though who deserves blame for that would be a different post that isn't the subject of this meta). He had stopped putting them directly in danger during his attempts to capture Aang after The Storm, but even that hadn't necessarily been made clear to the crew and wouldn't have obligated their loyalty beyond what was demanded of them by Fire Nation law anyway.

While the situation between Katara and Zuko in CoD is different in most details, there is a similarity in that Katara's feelings of betrayal were based on her own assumptions and the hurt she felt over having tried to do right by someone she did have to help, only to see him not choose her when it came down to a question of picking sides. (Likely, those feelings of betrayal were heavily exacerbated by Aang's near-death at Azula's hand, too.)

Just like I would not say that Zuko's crew actually betrayed him when they were commandeered by Zhao, though, I would also not say that Zuko betrayed Katara in CoD.

Feelings can be valid, even when the logic behind them is flawed.

I do wish the show had allowed Zuko to engage in mutual conversations with the Gaang in Season 3, including with Katara. Relevant to this meta, Katara (and the intended audience of kids, who often benefit from more blunt/straightforward messaging in their media) could have benefited from a conversation with Zuko, post Southern Raiders, about misplaced anger. There are a lot of parallels between her anger with Zuko in S3, and Zuko's behavior in S1.

In S1 (and S2/first half of S3 to a lesser extent), Zuko is angry because he knows at some level that the way his father burned and banished him was cruel and unjust. However, he directs his anger at Iroh, his crew, and later at the Gaang, because he does not feel like he is allowed to be angry at his father, especially when his father is also the Fire Lord. S3 Katara does a similar thing with her anger over her mother's death. Katara has held onto that anger for years, but she directs it at more convenient targets, such as Zuko or the Fire Nation at large, because she doesn't have access to the person who actually killed her mother.

Thus, while Katara has many valid reasons to be angry with and suspicious of Zuko when he finally switches sides, the anger she is really holding onto and the excuse she gives Zuko for it, that she was the first person to give him a chance (also not true, that was Aang in S1, arguably twice if we're going to count "showing him compassion" as "giving him a chance") and that he betrayed her under Ba Sing Se, is actually misdirected anger over her mother's death - an event that Zuko had nothing to do with.

Zuko didn't actually betray Katara, but it's easier for her to hold onto that excuse and that anger, especially when Zuko's choice to side with Azula in CoD helped her almost kill Aang, because the narrative she has built up about Zuko's betrayal gives Katara a sense of control and agency that she lacks in the memories of her mother's death.

I think you brought up some great points in your last paragraph, though! I've already rambled on a lot and don't have much to add there, but I like that perspective!

I keep struggling to write up Zuko meta around the Crossroads of Destiny and after, mainly because I don't want to start up a bunch of arguments about Katara vs. Zuko and who was more wrong. And I still very much don't want that. (I love a good faith debate about fictional stories, but those good faith and fictional stories bits are key.)

There is one piece I need to toss out into the void to get it out of my head, though, because I see it all the time and disagree with it so completely.

Zuko didn't betray Katara in Ba Sing Se.

Betrayal is a violation of someone's trust, and yes Katara had started to trust Zuko. However! Zuko never promised Katara anything. Her tentative trust was based on her own lack of understanding of Zuko's situation.

Katara yells at Zuko and accuses him of working with Azula. She tells him that he's the Fire Lord's son, so "spreading violence and hatred is in [his] blood." Zuko tells her that she doesn't know what she's talking about, to which she responds by telling him that the Fire Nation had taken her mother. Zuko reaches out to Katara and shares how he lost his mother, too.

Katara apologizes to him for yelling, and then talks about how she used to picture his face as the face of the enemy. Zuko assumes that she's talking about his scar, to which she clarifies that's not what she meant. Even so, Zuko shares with her that for a long time he viewed his scar as, "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."

Some important things here, from Zuko's side. This is Zuko saying that he's growing to accept his scar, and to accept that it doesn't control him. He has not said that he's chosen a new side in the war, or even that he knows what destiny he will choose now that he feels free to choose.

At this point, Katara still doesn't know the whole story of Zuko's scar. What she does know, is that he saw it as the mark that cursed him to chase Aang forever. Zuko is already realizing that his scar doesn't have to control him, but it does still weigh on him. So Katara offers to heal it, thus "freeing" him of the destiny of chasing Aang.

And Zuko doesn't take her up on it immediately. He is clearly considering it, but he hasn't agreed or promised Katara anything when they are interrupted by Aang and Iroh's arrival. When Aang shows up, the moment between Katara and Zuko is shattered and Katara runs over to hug Aang in relief, while Aang glares at Zuko in distrust over her shoulder.

Katara may have thought that she was, "giving Zuko a chance," and that he betrayed her trust, but Zuko has already lampshaded the truth for us with his first line to Katara - she doesn't know him, she doesn't know the full context of his situation or motivations, and she doesn't get to tell him who he is or how he feels about the world. She has made a lot of assumptions, some kind and some less so, but the first genuine question she asks is what Zuko would do if she healed his scar. That is a question Zuko never gets to answer before they're interrupted, and thus Katara only had her assumption of what his answer would have been and what it would have meant.

(Which is in character for Katara! She's a young girl who has very strong opinions and morals and is willing to stand up for what she believes is right, but who is still in many ways lacking experience with the wider world (yes, she's traveled a lot with Aang, now, but S3 shows us that she still has things to learn, especially about the Fire Nation, and about herself and the kind of person she wants to be when she has the power to choose). She is also very compassionate, and she clearly wants people she feels any kind of sympathy for to be on her side. The flip side of those things is that she also tends to assume things about other people without confirming the truth, and then act as though her assumptions are facts.)

Katara's assumptions being wrong, however, does not constitute a betrayal on Zuko's part.

taika’s reaction when the interviewer mentions ofmd 🥺

A Vulcan named Stork works at the Terran adoption agency. Parents always request that he be the one to deliver their child to them.

one of my favorite fucking feelings in the world is when you’re having a discussion with somebody about literature and themes and storytelling and etc or even just like, your feelings, and as you’re rambling on about the interpretation of something-or-the-other you have this lightbulb moment where two ideas connect in your head all of a sudden and you couldn’t have done it without the context of another person there and you both get so excited about this new theory you’re developing

like. collaboration. trust. complexity. awakenings. this shit isn’t just analysis, it’s art.

i don’t know how to tell people that deriving pleasure - sexual pleasure included! - from art* is good actually, and that creating specific kind of art “just” because you find it hot or whatever is just as good a reason as any, and you don’t actually need some “deep and meaningful” reason to create art about things. pleasure - sexual pleasure included - is not the devil, it is not Bad and shameful, and it’s not any less valid of a reason to create something than because you want to, idk, explore the depths of the human consciousness or something

* art here includes writing

I keep struggling to write up Zuko meta around the Crossroads of Destiny and after, mainly because I don't want to start up a bunch of arguments about Katara vs. Zuko and who was more wrong. And I still very much don't want that. (I love a good faith debate about fictional stories, but those good faith and fictional stories bits are key.)

There is one piece I need to toss out into the void to get it out of my head, though, because I see it all the time and disagree with it so completely.

Zuko didn't betray Katara in Ba Sing Se.

Betrayal is a violation of someone's trust, and yes Katara had started to trust Zuko. However! Zuko never promised Katara anything. Her tentative trust was based on her own lack of understanding of Zuko's situation.

Katara yells at Zuko and accuses him of working with Azula. She tells him that he's the Fire Lord's son, so "spreading violence and hatred is in [his] blood." Zuko tells her that she doesn't know what she's talking about, to which she responds by telling him that the Fire Nation had taken her mother. Zuko reaches out to Katara and shares how he lost his mother, too.

Katara apologizes to him for yelling, and then talks about how she used to picture his face as the face of the enemy. Zuko assumes that she's talking about his scar, to which she clarifies that's not what she meant. Even so, Zuko shares with her that for a long time he viewed his scar as, "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."

Some important things here, from Zuko's side. This is Zuko saying that he's growing to accept his scar, and to accept that it doesn't control him. He has not said that he's chosen a new side in the war, or even that he knows what destiny he will choose now that he feels free to choose.

At this point, Katara still doesn't know the whole story of Zuko's scar. What she does know, is that he saw it as the mark that cursed him to chase Aang forever. Zuko is already realizing that his scar doesn't have to control him, but it does still weigh on him. So Katara offers to heal it, thus "freeing" him of the destiny of chasing Aang.

And Zuko doesn't take her up on it immediately. He is clearly considering it, but he hasn't agreed or promised Katara anything when they are interrupted by Aang and Iroh's arrival. When Aang shows up, the moment between Katara and Zuko is shattered and Katara runs over to hug Aang in relief, while Aang glares at Zuko in distrust over her shoulder.

Katara may have thought that she was, "giving Zuko a chance," and that he betrayed her trust, but Zuko has already lampshaded the truth for us with his first line to Katara - she doesn't know him, she doesn't know the full context of his situation or motivations, and she doesn't get to tell him who he is or how he feels about the world. She has made a lot of assumptions, some kind and some less so, but the first genuine question she asks is what Zuko would do if she healed his scar. That is a question Zuko never gets to answer before they're interrupted, and thus Katara only had her assumption of what his answer would have been and what it would have meant.

(Which is in character for Katara! She's a young girl who has very strong opinions and morals and is willing to stand up for what she believes is right, but who is still in many ways lacking experience with the wider world (yes, she's traveled a lot with Aang, now, but S3 shows us that she still has things to learn, especially about the Fire Nation, and about herself and the kind of person she wants to be when she has the power to choose). She is also very compassionate, and she clearly wants people she feels any kind of sympathy for to be on her side. The flip side of those things is that she also tends to assume things about other people without confirming the truth, and then act as though her assumptions are facts.)

Katara's assumptions being wrong, however, does not constitute a betrayal on Zuko's part.