#and isn't great how wlw ships have become more popular and liked over the years?

[asongofhopeandjoy]

Mai and Ty Lee for bingo! Or Zutara if no one has asked that yet 💖

MAILEE!!!

This ship has a lot of nostalgia for me because they were my first femmeslash ship the moment Ty Lee leapt to hug Mai at Ba Sing Se. 🥺

I had never really shipped two female characters before because I was quite young, ATLA was my first real fandom and back then femmeslash shipping wasn't as common as it is now due to heteronormativity, lack of exposure to wlw content and two female characters not getting that much screen time together in kids TV in general (it was the 2000s after all), but I couldn't help thinking "these two are so soft for one another!"

So imagine how delighted I was when Ty Lee risked her life to save Mai's at The Boiling Rock, when it's been established that Ty Lee is deathly afraid of Azula and would do anything to avoid her wrath. I was screaming at the screen guys!

And now... for my feelings about Zutara...

Anyone who follows me knows that I love this ship, but what you might not know is that this was my first serious OTP. Like, reading and writing fanfiction for OTP and hoping that they get to kiss on screen OTP. Because when I saw them on screen together my kid brain was like: "They should kiss. 😍" and would hang out on fanfiction.net to sate that need. I remember those days fondly. <3

During season 1 I shipped Zutara because I thought "these two look cute together" and I enjoyed all the potential drama that could arise from their relationship, but then season 2 happened and I saw the writers developing Zuko and Katara's characters and my kid brain was like "Oh wow... Zuko and Katara sure have a lot in common... I bet if they got to talk about their mums and other stuff in their life these two would get along and maybe get to comfort one another because I'm soft for that shit!"

Boy did my brain explode when the trailer for the Crossroads of Destiny dropped. 😫 I not only got a scene of Katara touching Zuko's scar (THE TRUST! THE INTIMACY!), but of Zuko and Katara being vulnerable and emotionally intimate with each other when they talked about how the war impacted both of them negatively! And to this day I still think that scene is *chef's kiss*.

I will not talk about how disappointed I was when Zuko went back to the Fire Nation because I'm keeping this post a positive one and boy did we get a feast in season three to make up for it!!!

There's so much I like about their season three interactions that I won't list them all here because I don't want this post getting too long (but let's think about the fact Katara took Zuko's betrayal so personally, how she teases him in the Ember Island players, the fact I KNOW Zuko would have supported whatever decision Katara made in TSR, THE FACT THAT ZUKO AND KATARA RISKED THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT AND SAVE EACH OTHER IN THE FINAL AGNI KAI-), but I'll just say I love it. All of it.

This ship confirmed to me that I don't need a pairing to be "canon" to like it because sometimes I find personal, thoughtful and selfless acts of devotion (whether you think that devotion was meant to be platonic or not) more romantic than what Hollywood tries to sell us and I think that's neat. <3

I've also made a life-long friend from this ship who I wouldn't trade for the world and it ignited a passion for writing and literary analysis that helped me get a English Literature degree, which is an achievement I'm really proud of considering I have a learning disability which used to effect me so bad even my parents wondered if I'd be able to go to a mainstream high school.

So uh... yeah. Zutara as a ship means a lot to me.

#atla #mailee #zutara #mai #ty lee #zuko #katara #asongofhopeandjoy #speaking into the void #watch some idiot zutara anti come to this post and say ha! I knew zutaras only liked zutara for shallow reasons #completely ignoring how my appreciation for the ship became more complex #just watch #because they don't have any reading comprehension #lol #anyways #long post #hope you enjoyed my rambling #and isn't great how wlw ships have become more popular and liked over the years?