#dynamic: zutara

[daeneryssansa]

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

#atlaedit #airbendersource #atlasource #zutaraedit #kataraedit #zukoedit #show: atla #mine: avatar #dynamic: zutara #daensarah

[pineapple-frenzy]

Book 2 au with Zuko and Katara Lee and Huamei

Katara is separated from her friends, and so she's left to travel the earth kingdom on her own. She stumbles across Zuko, who is similarly travelling on his own. They decide that pairing up and travelling together would be best

#zutara #zuko #katara #atla #my art #book 2 au #book 2 aus have been done before but i wanted to try my own take with tropes i personally enjoy akdjslkdks #also had the urge to draw zutara arguing and just not getting along in general qldjkakslsk #i recently finished natla and also just rewatched book 1 so zutara book 1 dynamic where they're quite hostile with each other is on my mind #they decide to travel together but obviously they don't get along at all at the start #they find each other annoying but that annoyance slowly turns into affection #also alsooo #short hair zuko enjoyers hello #i have switched over to the side of short hair zuko ajrskakdlksjd #also thinking about how to put short hair katara into this akdjaljdlskf #i just think short hair zutara neat :>>

[theotterpenguin]

the performative accusation that shipping zutara (and occasionally this criticism is levied at jinko/zukka) is colonialist apologism has been addressed in some excellent posts, explaining the inaccuracies and problematic implications of this logic far better than i ever could - like this post and this one and this one and this one and this one.

and i know this topic has been talked about to death, but if you could indulge my contribution for a moment, i just find it interesting how this sentiment results from the cognitive dissonance of atla fans being unable to reconcile with the idea of their favorite show's political beliefs not lining up with their own.

atla is a largely philosophical children's show that at its core deals with themes of love, redemption, and destiny vs. free-will. atla examines these themes through an anti-colonalist, anti-imperalist lens that deconstructs the idea of racial divisiveness and the idea that people of different ethnicities are inherently different. this is message is pretty explicitly stated by guru pathik:

Guru Pathik: "The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same." Aang: "Like the four nations?" Guru Pathik: "Yes. We are all one people. But we live as if divided."

and also by uncle iroh:

"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements and the other nations will help you become whole."

this theme is developed across three full seasons, with the crux of this message culminating in zuko's friendships with the gaang - despite coming from different nationalities and different backgrounds, they have all had their own experiences being hurt by the fire nation and work together to take down the oppressive fire nation government. the question of destiny vs. free will is also explored through zuko's character - despite starting off as an antagonist, he develops into a symbolic representation of how the fire nation's oppression hurts its own citizens. he unlearns the fire nation's imperialist propaganda while simultaneously unlearning his father's abuse. rather than following misguided beliefs of what he thought his destiny was as the heir to the throne, instead he forges his own path.

thus, to claim that zuko can never form a deep and meaningful relationship with any of the gaang because of his nationality goes unequivocally against the themes of the show. and a major part of this is because these are fictional characters being used to analyze different theoretical questions within the show and in some cases, are used as symbolic representations of different philosophical ideas - their friendships and their character arcs serve a purpose within the text that cannot be easily transcribed onto real-life dynamics between people.

it's illogical to criticize fans who are choosing to understand atla at the level of the themes that are presented by the text - who are interested in exploring similar philosophical questions brought up by the show through the context of relationships.

if you don't like the themes of forgiveness and redemption that atla explores, your criticism should be aimed at the writing of the show itself rather than other fans. because you are giving far more thought to the "implications" of a close friendship or romantic relationship between someone from an imperalist nation and someone from an oppressed nation than the writers ever did. (and if you fall in this camp of people, i would hope you wouldn't be reblogging fanart of zuko and the gaang together while simultaneously claiming zuko could can never escape the sins of his ancestors and can never form a deep relationship based on trust and intimacy with katara or sokka or jin - because that would just be hypocritical).

and as a side note, people seem to apply this flawed logic to zutara far more than other ships solely because the show spends the most time exploring the complicated nature of fire nation imperalism in the interactions between zuko and katara in the latter half of b3. this is because they've been juxtapositioned against each other and paralleled with aang since the beginning of the show in ways that toph, sokka, and suki are not, who have mostly been used to examine different themes. there simply isn't enough time to explore these complicated themes with all the other characters, even if they theoretically exist in zuko’s dynamics with these characters, so the writers focus the most on zuko's relationships with katara and aang, and these relationships are given far more narrative weight, so have more content to criticize. but zuko and katara also canonically become friends by the end of the show. if you want to discount the existence of their friendship, claiming that it will always be tainted by the fire nation's oppression regardless of what is shown in the text, then you also have to discount zuko's friendships with aang, suki, toph, and sokka - because even if this isn't shown as a permanent barrier to their friendships in the show, it’s also not shown as a permanent barrier to his friendship with katara. if your logic is solely based on the idea that a person's identity in a relationship as a colonizer or a victim is fixed and unchanging regardless of character development, this would apply to zuko's friendships with everyone else as well.

#zuko #katara #zutara #i have seen people say that the zutara dynamic makes them personally uncomfortable and that's fine - to each their own! #but it's hypocritical to only dislike zuko's relationship with katara while simultaneously exalting his friendships w aang or toph or sokka #just because the show doesn’t take as much time to explore these issues with other characters doesn’t mean the same dynamic doesn’t apply #my post #my meta

[theweeklydiscourse]

It’s just interesting to observe the differences in how people treat Zukka vs how they treat Zutara. Because I searched Zutara on TikTok to look for some edits and the comments were filled to the brim with people saying “But Katara belonged with Aang 🥺” or “How can you ship Zuko with her after Mai said such a romantic line?” Or perhaps the most insufferable of all “Maturing is realizing that Zuko would’ve thrown himself in from of lightning for ANYONE” as if that’s some revolutionary reading of the text. It’s so irritating how this kind of behaviour is…accepted by the fandom.

But you don’t get that with Zukka, instead you see people gushing over how sweet they are together, hailing it as a wholesome and unproblematic ship, praising artworks of it with positivity and appreciation. It’s difficult to find much negativity under Zukka posts, you won’t see people saying “But Sokka belongs with Suki 🥺” or boldly going on a tangent about how another ship is SO much better. I saw one person praise Zukka as the most unproblematic ATLA ship because of how little conflict there was about it, that you wouldn’t see the same hostility among that fandom as you might with Zutara.

But there’s a reason for that which has less to do with Zutara shippers themselves, and more to do with the harassment and hostility they face on all sides of the fandom. Fans will go out of their way to antagonize Zutara shippers, they’ll feel brazen enough to leave backhanded or outright hostile comments under Zutara posts and art, they’ll interject their shipping opinions in spaces where nobody asked and condescend Zutara shippers by framing them as shallow or delusional for shipping it.

I think Zukka is admittedly cute, and they definitely have their haters, but the difference between it and Zutara is astounding. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch this phenomenon play out, especially when these shippers carry themselves with a kind of false moral superiority that can only be found in shipping discourse.

#especially ESPECIALLY when Zutara is constantly being hit with the old *colonizer x colonized* accusations #But somehow Zukka manages to avoid that same criticism despite Sokka being from the same tribe as Katara #Frustrating as a poc zutara shipper to constantly be accused of being a white person romanticizing a supposedly *colonizer romance* dynamic #katara #Zuko #pro zutara #atla discourse #atla fandom #atla fandom salt #atla fandom critical #shipping discourse #enemies to lovers #anti Zukka #anti maiko #avatar the last airbender

[mswyrr]

After twenty years, the thing I still don't get is that everything cruel that can be said and has been said against Zutara romance can also be said against their friendship--and Zuko's friendships with the other characters!--and yet somehow friendship is always good and pure but romance would immediately make their healthy friendship dynamic bad and abusive???

But that's not how relationships work. If they can have a healthy friendship, then they could have a healthy romance. If any romance is inherently unhealthy, then the friendship must be inherently unhealthy too.

You've got the original writers saying women who think that Katara and Zuko should be together will forever have "failed relationships"... and then, at the same time, those same writers are like yay let's write them bonding and building a friendship.

People calling a brutally abused child who went on a redemption arc and turned against his father's ways a "colo/nizer" when it's a romance, but when it's friendship it's all good somehow. If lips never touch, it's not possible for a relationship to be toxic??? But if lips DO touch, then a healthy friendship based on mutual respect immediately becomes a Lifetime movie about toxic boyfriends...

The only way this logic works is if you think romantic love immediately "corrupts" or "taints" in a way friend love doesn't. And that's an incredibly ugly, sad idea to push.

#zutara #atla meta #i'm actively hoping that if the live action does k/a they do it better #and in a way where K is treated more like a heroine #falling in love #than an object of desire for K #but... at the same time #i can't believe the stuff people say about z/k #i get my ship isn't going to be canon but i don't think it needs to be to be a good interesting dynamic nonetheless #and people just say the wildest most asinine things

[jaabeyjaa]

my biggest problem with the katara/aang ship is that soon after the war ended, in the post - cannon, katara's role has been diminished to just a support for aang. katara, the girl whose fiery temper discovered aang, the parentified child who grew up too soon, needed to relax and utilise all her talents, that she discovered and play a more important role in the post war world rather than just being a wife and mother to aang's kids. it's as if she suddenly lost all her importance and was never freed from the 'mother' role that she played ever since she was a little girl.

maybe the relationship should have been slowly developed rather than quickly forced from the beginning, but tbh their love initially seems like a puppy love phase, not something that would benefit katara - master waterbender from the southern water tribe, in the long run

#just a thought #atla #zuko #katara #zutara #the dynamic seems forced in the live action

[ecoterrorist-katara]

I kind of love how Zutara has two distinct ship dynamics

dynamic 1: “I will save you from the pirates,” enemies-to-lovers, Zuko is dangerous but sexy, bad boy x good girl, morally grey antihero, Dramione vibes etc

dynamic 2: Zuko is an awkward turtleduck, idiots-to-lovers, pining for your best friend, having each other’s backs, thinking she’s the coolest thing since sliced bread, Percabeth vibes etc

We can argue about which is the correct interpretation until the cows come home, but I love that the possibilities exist in the first place. From s1 to post-series headcanons there are such distinct stages in their relationship, and you can basically pick whichever point that appeals to you and run with it. There’s something for everyone. Yet another reason why they’re the best ship y’all

#In general I think women are shamed for liking the enemies to lovers dynamic bc toxic or whatever #And what I like about ZK is you don’t have to feel guilty for liking the bad boy x good girl because they get way healthier later on #but the belligerent romantic tension remains and that opens up a lot of possibilities for fan interpretation #Not that women should feel guilty for liking what they like in the first place esp in fiction #But fiction that allows you to reconcile what you should like vs what you actually like can be very cathartic #And ofc the fact that Bryke talk about ZK as if only dynamic 1 exists is baffling #I should embrace my destiny as a Bryke anti because really it’s getting out of hand #Zutara #Enemies to lovers #My meta #technically?

[andaniellight]

I don’t know about you but i know i’m seriously fucked when i see characters interacting and they hit jackpot of almost every, if not all, kinds of dynamics where:

“i have strong feelings toward you but i know once i am able to touch and hold you i won’t know what i should do with these hands when you’re away”

the sun and the moon

the moon and the sea

the sun and the well-loved, dying sunflower

“i’d do anything for you” | “then live for me / live with me”

“i’d kill/die for you. say the word and i’ll do it in a heartbeat” | “no”

“i don’t know where else to go to” | (visibly angry) “who did this to you?”

[in life or death situation] “are you okay? are you hurt?” | “i should be the one asking you that! you’re the one who took the fall for me / who’s bleeding to protect me!”

Basically the all-powerful and capable, and their absolute weakness (still in denial sometimes)

the “what you did is very wrong but everyone deserves a second chance” and the “you’re lucky i took an oath to them (specifically) to not end you / make your life a living nightmare”

“please hesitate” | “i won’t hesitate ever”

the "i am not asking for your permission, don’t come with me” self-sacrificing and reckless dumbass, and their “someone has to watch your back while you’re being stupid. someone more clever and probably in the brink of having a heart attack the moment you take step out there: me”

“everyone looks up to them” | “hard not to when they’re that tall/big tbh”

the brat and the brat-tamer who probably has stiff joints and is grumpy or calmer than the brat most the time

#hmmm let's see #nanago #gonana #fratt #dinluke #zutara #zukka #erasermight #steddie #otp #fanfic tropes #shipping stuff #ship dynamics #lawlu #kakairu #kakayama #SuperBat #Lawful Husbands #ChangShin #marclayla #laylamarc #who else i can't recall #oh well

[artsymephy]

Sun and Moon

#atla #katara #zuko #zutara #zuko x katara #ArtsyMephy #this ship is honestly so special #I want to make more content of them #their dynamic is what I look for in many of my new ships #but it’s never quite the same lol #OMG 100 NOTES THANKS YALL #zutara month 2023

[zukosdualdao]

i will never understand when people act like zutara shippers are reaching when we say the crystal catacombs scene is intensely romantically coded because like... ignoring literally all other context (which does have other hallmarks of romantic coding, but literally pretend you don't know anything about the show or scene for a second)... what would you think happened in this picture?

would it .... would it maybe be an interrupted almost-kiss

#zutara #even ignoring all other context (such as katara gently touching his scar with her THUMB on his LIPS?? the soft glowy lighting and the music #look at that moment outside of the context and tell me that's not what you would think #i think part of the sentiment comes from people thinking romance coding inherently means the two characters are written as canonically #having feelings for each other #and that's not necessarily true. #it's about the narrative framework the dynamic is presented in consistently using tropes and imagery that are commonly used in romance #stories #atla #zuko #katara #anyway. i am so normal about this #the crossroads of destiny #i was gonna wait to post until i got here in my rewatch but. i changed my mind

[person25]

i keep seeing people talk abt atla again, specifically zutara. Thought i’d share my opinions bc i can ig

When i first started atla back in like 2020 i think? i looooved katara and aang, honestly would murder for them😭 anytime i saw her being shipped with zuko my blood would genuinely start to boil

while my opinions aren’t as strong now and i’m more open to things i still don’t see the appeal🤷‍♀️ i get enemies to lovers, trust me. I just don’t see it with them tbh

#on the other hand #zukka #jk #maybe #idk #im a multi shipper #pls try to get me on your side #zutara #ill actually here you out this nowadays #kataang #atla #avatar the last airbender #the older i get the less set in stone my opinions on ships are #i just think i’d rather see them as platonic buddies than romantic partners #it’s probably just bc i love the family dynamic that they have going on #the gaang

[eternally-sunkissed]

Hear me out guys...

...okay time to go on why this makes sense to me. Here's what I can think of while doing the dishes. (not spoiler free!!!) Comparison between Zuko and Manolo

Zuko and Manolo break the toxic cycle of their family (Zuko not being an assh*le and Manolo not killing a bull)

Zuko and Manolo lost their mom and have a strict dad who raised them in an environment they eventually wanted to leave from (Zuko's mom is alive yes but he and everyone else believed she was gone for years)

Their moms helped them shape into the man they are today

Both willing to sacrifice their life for the one/people they care for (Zuko taking the lightning shot and Manolo trapping himself with Chakal with the giant bell) Now for Katara and Maria

Strong sense of justice even at a young age

Raised by a single dad who they had a somewhat strained relationship at the beginning of the story

Would not hesitate to throw a punch (literally and figuratively) when needed

Voice of inspiration (Katara pushing the team to get better and Maria inspiring the townsfolk to fight with her)

Both will not hesitate to do anything to help their people/people in need

And remember Zuko's quote? "You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun"

Well...Maria and Manolo are canonically reincarnations of their past lives, Maya and Zatz (from Maya and the Three, made by the same creator :DD)

Spoilers for Maya and the Three beyond!!!

And coincidentally enough, when Maya and Zatz die, they become the world's sun and moon...possibly the same sun and moon in The Book of Life timeline. Zatz and Katara rise with the moon, Maya and Zuko rise with the sun.

Another similar thing both pairs had is that they were both, in a way, royalty or rather from a very important family.

Zatz, like Zuko, sacrificed himself to help/aid in the battle/fight, leaving both Maya and Katara to finish off the enemy one way or another.

That's all I can think of for the meantime but yeah your honor that's all I got.

#maya and the three #book of life #avatar the last airbender #fan theory #zutara #atla zuko #katara #no you dont get it i love this #sun and moon dynamic #my otp #my babies #my baby #my babbling #please please please

[theotterpenguin]

the way that (usually male) k//ataang shippers obsess over aang’s height… why are you so concerned about zutara shippers supposedly self-inserting like please the call is coming from inside the house

#today i encountered three different posts talking about how they can’t wait for aang’s actor to grow taller than katara 💀 #zutara #anti kataang #atla fandom critical #“zk shippers would ship k/ataang if he was taller” I assure you none of us care about his height because he’s 12… which is the actual issue #my post #not to mention that all shipping involves some degree of self insertion since there’s something about the dynamic that you personally enjoy #so moralizing yourself as “above” self inserting while being a hardcore shipper yourself is just hypocritical

[demaparbat-hp]

It's interesting that in ATLA we don't meet any mixed characters until the comics when one tries to assassinate Firelord Zuko. With the war going on, I'm sure nationalism was at an all time high. The only ones who seemed to venture out were soldiers, mainly men. (Fire Nation men. I'm sure the SWT navy wasn't that big) Also, the only people we've seen not wear national colors were those outside society like the river pirates, hippies, and Freedom Fighters.

Halfblood AU makes me wonder how an orphan girl with Water Tribe features would have been treated in a small EK village canon wise.

I know, right? The potential for storytelling is huge.

War Children are a reality, and they have always been. It would have been so interesting to explore what being a half-blooded child would mean in a world like ATLA's, where nationality is so important, especially in the middle of a war. I absolutely adore fics where Zuko is mistaken as a War Child while he's travelling through the Earth Kingdom, and he's forced to deal with the reality that such things happen the way they do.

I tend to use this idea in most of my AUs. War Children (Fire half-children especially) is such a complex social dynamic to explore. How would their treatment change depending on whether they were born in the colonies or in the rest of the struggling Earth Kingdom? What about the Southern Water Tribe, after the raids? How much worse would being an ashmaker make things?

This is a world in war, and it's easy to forget someone is a child when they have the same face as your enemy.

Maybe my fics speak better than I ever could.

Song had met enough War Children during her travels to be able to recognize them easily. They all shared the same amber eyes, black hair and pale skin. Sometimes, if they were unfortunate enough, they were even born ashmakers.

She had heard stories of the pale demons—proud sons and daughters of Agni within the colonies, but worth less than dust in the rest of the Kingdom. Murdered by their own unwilling mothers, treated as pests because, to most people, that's exactly what they were.

But Song had seen toddlers with amber eyes and sunken cheeks perish from dehydration and famine. She knew better.

[Katara] heard the screams of her Tribe’s women during the raids, the high pitch of the newborns’ throats as they were drowned in freezing water, for there was no place for ashmakers in the South Pole, no place at all.

And it makes you think, what about the other nations? What about Water half-children?

It's easier to blend in with the crowd when you pretend there's nothing different about you in the first place. And though they may not have it as rough as the Fire children, they're still less than second class citizens. Neither Earth nor Water. Never enough, no matter where they go.

There are so many different, complex dynamics to explore with this concept. What do you think about it?

#dema answers #atla #halfblood au #katara #zuko #zutara #atla meta #Sorry I made this so long #I don't know if I get my point across. I'm not the best at writing media analysis lol #I'd love for someone who knows what they're doing to step in and explore this concept #It really is a gold mine #And such a deep and complicated dynamic

[randombook4idk]

when you want to write about a ship, but you have no clue how to write their dynamic (if they even have one), so you're left like this:

#you could show me years worth of material showing me their dynamic and i still would have no clue how to write them #shikimura #shindeku #zutara #azulaang #sokkla #tyluko #zuki #monochako #dekujirou #shinchako #serochako #sasharcy #lingal #fueriza #roymaria #havocai #sukitara #saisaku #suiten #alwin #winphonse #songko #yueko #lingwin #shipping problems #fandom shipping #feel free to add more

[stupidlyqueer]

I think it's funny that the few Zutara fics I've tried to give a chance to 1) were just dark romance* but with characters of a children's show and 2) treated Azula, Aang and Mai as the worse people to ever live.

meanwhile Azutara basically 1) makes Azula the most adorable little baby I've ever seen and 2) makes Zuko the cutest oblivious character ever.

* I really, really, really hate dark romance and its subtypes. and I literally write dead dove for fun.

#azutara #anti zutara #not explicitly but just to be safe #aang is often pretty chill and friendly in those #really the fire hazard siblings have the best dynamic in most fics #they actually use Azula's awkwardness and I fucking love it