Anti Zutara - Tumblr Posts

Am I the only one who is happy Zutara did not happen?

Like I get where it's coming from. Katara is a complex female lead, and Zuko is also a complex character with the greatest redemption ark.

But these are exactly what makes me not understand it.

Zuko was a prince born to the fire nation, who had waged war on the rest of the world and literally wiped out an entire people. He was fully ready to continue that war, but he was banished. Even in exile, he continued to follow the fire nation's beliefs and chasing the avatar, the only person who could stop them.

Now I don't expect him to wake up one day and turn his world view around for no reason, and I understand that he is a teen. But he was not alone in that journey. He had uncle Iroh, who tried guiding him through that time to help him grow.

And eventually, he did. He managed to see behind the propaganda that he was fed as a child. He managed to see the pain his country had inflicted on people. He managed to understand he was wrong. So, he got his amazing redemption.

But none of these things can undo the damage he had caused. And that becomes crystal clear in the scene in which he meets Suki in prison. She reminds he that she knows him cause he burned down her village. And he is just awkward because he knows he can't deny it, he can't fix it, he can't do anything to make it better. Even breaking her out of prison would not be an equivalent exchange.

Another person that the actions of the fire nation greatly impacted is Katara. She lost her mother to the war. She saw her mother give herself up, and she knew she did it to protect her. She grew up without a parent and without a bending master because of the fire nation. Yes, he did help her "avenge" her mother. But that was the least he could do after his people took her and countless others away.

Also, keep in mind that Katara offered to try to heal Zuko's scar with the water from the oasis, which later literally revived Aang, in Ba Sing Se. And right after, he betrayed them to follow Azula.

So apart from hunting them the entire show, he also betrayed them and was the only reason they lost that fight, because Katara was cooking Azula, and as long as she had won, Aang would have been alright.

Also, yes, I understand that people can change, but the fact that he is the decendant of three generations of war criminals and was clearly planning to do the same is not helping his case.

All the said, I do not expect the complex female lead to fall head over heels and trauma bond with the first hot enemy that appears on screen.

anti kataangs be like “Aang is so horrible and abusive toward Katara he basically forced her to be with him and he doesn’t even care about her and she’s his defenseless little housewife that cowers in the corner in fear of him beating her”

and then this is canon kataang where he hand-weaves her jewelry and calls her pretty all the time and always thanks her for everything she does for him and shows her love in the way she wants

oh no what a nightmare! someone save Katara from this healthy happy relationship!!

Aang: *literally sacrifices his ability to access the avatar state because of his love for Katara*

Zutarians: smh Aang is so selfish he didn’t do anything for Katara unlike Zuko

Why Katara chose Aang over Zuko.

Katara chose Aang because he was her best friend, because she knew him well, trusted him, cared for him more than anyone else. It wasn’t a choice she made lightly; as evidenced first in the episode “The Fortuneteller” and several episodes after that such as The Cave of Two Lovers, City of Walls and Secrets, The Earth King, The Headband, The Invasion, and The Ember Island Players, this was something that Katara thought about for a long time before she decided to start her relationship with Aang at the end of the series.

“But no 14-year old girl would ever want to date a 12-year old, especially when she could have Zuko who is taller and more attractive with a wicked scar!” The problem with that argument is that it is based on the assumption that Katara is a normal teenage girl… and she is not.

First of all, let me point of that by the time Katara was ready to forgive Zuko, she’d already learned the hard way to NOT judge a boy by looks alone through her experience with Jet… her only other canon love interest in the entire series. Moreover, Katara is much more mature than the average teenage girl IRL; with Aang, she is able to look past the surface and see that he is mature and wise beyond his years, and that he has genuine feelings of love and affection for her. Katara says it herself in “The Invasion”:

“We’ve been through a lot together, and I’ve seen you grow up so much. You’re not that goofy kid I found in the iceberg anymore”. In this, we see Katara affirming Aang as her peer; she does not see him as a little brother, she does not consider herself a mother figure to Aang, she sees him as an equal.

Katara also grew up in a radically different environment from our modern world, and also lives in a very different culture. Dating a 12-year old at the age of 14 may seem strange to girls IRL, but to Katara it may not seem so unusual. Look at the Northern Water Tribe; in their culture, a woman can be married at the age of 16, something we would consider unacceptable in the modern world.

As for Zuko… for 55 episodes, Zuko was Katara’s enemy. He kidnapped her, tried to blackmail her, attacked her and her friends on several occasions… but most importantly, the one time Katara chose to give him the benefit of the doubt, he betrayed her in the worst possible way. He nearly got her best friend KILLED. Zutarians fail to recognize how traumatic an experience this was for Katara. It permanently damaged Katara’s relationship with Zuko, and opened her eyes to Zuko’s greatest flaw: As Iroh once said, good and evil are always at war inside him, something that carries forward into the comics even after Zuko helps end the war.

Katara says it herself when she threatens Zuko: “You and I both know you’ve struggled with doing the right thing in the past”. Because of this, Katara never even considers Zuko as a potential partner. In the end, it was not a choice between Aang and Zuko… it was a choice of whether or not she wanted to be with Aang, contemplating her feelings for him, and deciding what Aang meant to her. Zuko was not even a factor.

“Kataang would erase Katara’s culture!”

well that’s funny because between z.utara and kataang, only one ship has someone look down upon her tribe, call katara a peasant, only one makes her feel like she has no choice in an episode that is centric to her, only one would have her dressed in red, and it sure ain’t kataang lmao

UNDERRATED KATAANG MOMENTS [FEATURING KATARA]

1. S2E4 “The Swamp”

Katara sees Aang get knocked back by the monster and goes full Kyoshi with quick succession waterbending slices.

SHE’S ANGRY, FOLKS. THAT’S HER FUTURE HUSBAND.

— — — — —

2. S2E5 “Avatar Day”

Katara stares at Aang longer than usual with a mixture of admiration and love.

NOTICE THAT SOKKA DOESN’T LOOK AT HIM LIKE THAT. NOR DOES SHE LOOK AT SOKKA THE SAME WAY.

— — — — —

3. S3E1 “The Awakening”

The gang enters Aang’s room on the Fire Nation ship, asking him if he wants to come with them to go get dinner in town. Katara smiles in a ~particular way~ upon seeing him.

SHE FLASHES HIM A VERY SWEET SMILE IN THIS SCENE 🙂. THIS SEASON KEPT US WELL-FED WITH KATAANG. THEY SHOULD HAVE NAMED IT BOOK 3: KATAANG.

— — — — —

Bonus: S3E21, Final Scene

Not underrated but definitely the best❣️

You were right about what Katara needed. 

People who take characters who ship kataang and act like they would ship z.utara is so hilarious because they just wouldn’t?

“Iroh is a z.utara shipper!” Oh because he complimented their friendship once or…? Iroh is anything but a z.utara shipper. He creates a whole new tea in honour of Katara and Aang. Is shown to be a very close personally friend to their family, and I’m not even a zukka shipper, but what Iroh said about them in legacy of the fire nation “but was that all that you and sokka were, or were to one another? no, I think not.” had me questioning what was going on (and if iroh had said that about katara and zuko’s relationship you know they would take it romantically coded).

“Hakoda is a z.utara shipper!” The same hakoda who knows aang would do anything to protect both of his children and they would too, seeing how much he means to them, how much he means to Katara? The same hakoda who smiles as he watches his daughter run to aang? The hakoda who we never see interact with Zuko once but is honoured to meet aang and is nothing but welcoming of him into their family?

“Sokka is a z.utara shipper!” This is the funniest because sokka is the first and biggest kataang shipper in the show and that is just a given

my man woke up and decided to put us in our place

the most popular ships in atla be like:

fujos who think they're woke (zukka) vs delulu bait takers (zutara) vs the most obnoxiously insecure canon shippers of all time (kataang)

“Katara and Aang are like siblings”

“Katara is like Aang’s mom”

mhm.. and was this before or after they were kissing?

“she’s his mommyyyyy reeeee” uhhhhhh yeah so anyway, I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this…

"Aang is a static character and he doesn't change since season 1"

Oh ok

Yeah he's exactly like season 1. No difference. No growth. No character arc.

Mind you, he’s a "static character" because he never changed his ideals. The audacity...

This is one of the many reasons why I consider Maiko to be badly-written (even though I'm a big fan). This is a truly baffling way to write any ship, but especially one you intend to make endgame. You can't blame the audience for not getting invested in Mai and Zuko's relationship when you're basically telling them that it's disposable. If they replaced the stupid EIP kiss scene with one where Zuko worries about Mai, the romance in this show would have been a lot better. But it boggles my mind when Zutara shippers use this as a gotcha. Zuko not caring about Mai post-TBR doesn't make Maiko look bad, it makes Zuko look like a piece of shit. Why would you want Katara with a man who, in your opinion, didn't care about the life of his childhood friend/lover?

°•° dreams: at western air temple °•°

They way certain people here want Katara to be a woman with no agency over her life and marriage, miserable, unhappy, abused and used as an incubator by the evil monk Aang....so sad.

She's a hero, powerful, the master of water bending, in love and happy :) And she’s loved and respected by Aang

If she was unhappy with Aang, she would have dropped his ass in 0.5 seconds. Yes the real Katara can do that, unlike your cinderella self insert

You all reducing one of the strongest, most interesting, and dynamically written characters in the show to misogynistic tropes and theories just because you don't like the boy she ended up with. You are literally making up things to be mad about. This is hilarious

Well you can stay mad forever lol

Excellent speech and facts.

I think the reason I'm a bit iffy about most zutara shippers who call themesleves "pro Katara" (and lets be honest the tags pro katara/katara deserved better are mainly people building themselves a moral highground of "if you disagree with me, you clearly dilslike Katara and want her to suffer") is just the hypocrisy of it all.

Katara's consent was violated by Aang, yes. But Zuko threatening her and being a fucking creep in the "I'll save you from the pirates" scene was sexy and not at all the nightmare of any sane woman.

Katara's role as a healer is treated as her acting subservient and her loosing her feminist icon status. Unless she's healing/offering to heal Zuko.

Aang is immature and childish. But we will handily ignore Zuko, a whole ass 16 year old who's heir to a country throwing a temper tantrum because his girlfriend dared to speak to another man. [Frankly, in my opinion, Zuko isn't really ready for a serious romantic relationship, but yall arent ready for that conversation]

Aang is supposedly misogynistic, but Zuko's many instances of actual misogyny are swept under the rug. Aang is shown in canon to be incredibly supportive of Katara defying the patriarchy.

Supposedly Aang makes Katara do all the housework. Despite there being evidence to the contrary. Zuko has just recently learnt to brew tea.

Katara being the Avatar's wife is supposedly degrading. But if she were Zuko's wife, I'm sure she wouldn't be just a baby maker. (What a horribke thing to call a woman btw. Tall call your own mothers baby makers too???) Despite the fact that Izumi's mother hasn't even been mentioned by name in tlok. But yeah. She'd be afforded the respect she deserves I'm certain.

Aang is, on most accounts, supportive and respectful of Katara's opinions, even when he disagrees with them. Zuko openly mocks people who oppose him. I am going to make a longer post on the Southern Raiders episodes and how all of you watched that episode blindfolded or smth.

Aang comparing Appa being kidnapped (his last connection to his genocided people, the last vestige of his happy past) to Katara's anger over her mother is bad. But Zuko comparing mommy leaving his ass to Katara's mother getting brutally slaughtered in front of her ? Silence.

Aang supposedly needs Katara to mother him and that's a bad thing. But Azula, Mai and Ty Lee having to gentle parent Zuko almost everytime they interact is never talked about, despite the uncalled for verbal abuse that trio goes through from him.

Aang and Katara's 2 year age gap is creepy. But Zuko and Katara's 2 year age gap is fine. My bigest gripe with Zutara lovers is them completely erasing Katara's childishness and immaturity, in order for her and Zuko to have this mature, sexy relationship. She's 14, guys. 14.

This post really isn't meant to decry Zutara. I just want people who ship Zutara to get off their high horse of feminism and to accept that they're no better than the rest of us ship loving freaks. Wanting the main girl to bump uglies with the broody emo twink doesn't make you a modern day suffragette. Disliking a main canon pairing isn't a measure of your love for a female character.

Grow up.

Enjoy your ship like a normal person.

sksksksks ok but y'all know I don't ship zutara right