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tarisilmarwen · 5 years

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Tari’s Top Twenty OTPs - #2

OTP: Aang/Katara

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Aang: The titular Avatar and last airbender, who can bend all four of the natural elements. Despite having an overwhelming amount of tragedy and loss in his past—in the form of losing his people to genocide, and running away from home only to go missing for one hundred years and wake to a world at war—Aang is a very happy and loving kid. He’s sweet, and gentle, and able to have fun even in the face of danger. Sometimes the pressures of his life and station as the Avatar catch up to him and he longs to be normal and free of the burden of facing the Fire Lord and saving the world. But he is also extremely self-sacrificing. He feels responsible for abandoning the world for a hundred years and will do his darndest to make things right again, and restore balance and peace to the world.

Katara: Forced to grow up quickly after losing her mother in a Fire Nation raid, Katara matures into a very responsible, protective young lady. She is a study of oxymorons: kind and passionate, selfless and brash, brave and yet desperately afraid of losing the people she cares about. She has a hot temper and is impulsive and irrational at times, but she is always ready with a comforting hug or gentle words of encouragement. Katara has a strong sense of justice and generally tries to do what’s right. She has tremendous faith and hope in the Avatar and was one of the only ones who still believed he would return.

Together: Aang and Katara become fast friends quickly, and grow very fond of and attached to each other in a very short amount of time, willing to risk and sacrifice for each other right off the bat. They relate to each other very well, always bolstering and encouraging each other and demonstrating mutual care and concern for each other. Katara is very defensive of his safety and his honor, and one of Aang’s major Avatar State triggers is putting her in danger. Aang is the first to start crushing on her, unconsciously at first but it grows stronger with each episode, but Katara is not far behind. The two are very comfortable with and affectionate towards each other.

How I Got Into The Fandom: Back when Fandom Wank was still active, I came across a few Avatar-related posts. Avatar had been crossing my path in other ways as well, via crossover fanfics and my sister watching the show and telling me a little about it. So I checked it out, watching scattered Season Two episodes first and then going back to the very beginning to start from there. This was in the hiatus between Season Two and Season Three. I fell into the fandom soon after that.

When I Started Shipping Them: “Cave of Two Lovers” was actually one of the first episodes I watched. I thought they were very adorable in it. This feeling grew stronger with the rewatch from the beginning, wherein they were already so adoring and affectionate of each other right after meeting. By the middle of Season Two I knew they were Epic Destined OTP and I was all over their relationship.

Why I Love Them: They are Epic with a capital E. They start off with normal adorable crushing and blushing and cute fluffy moments and then they kill you with the sweepingly large epic scope of their relationship. They were destined to meet, and destined to fall in love, and destined to save the world together. Once again, they were pretty formative of a lot of things that I really like in ships. And it was awesome.

Three Favorite Moments:

1. The finale kiss.

Hands down, Aang and Katara’s kiss in the series finale of the show. I am not exaggerating when I say that it is animated perfection in every way.

Aang quietly excuses himself from the room with all their friends, to stand on the balcony and look out over the city of Ba Sing Se under a gorgeous sunset. A slow camera pan reveals Katara coming to join him. There are no words, just music and beautiful animation as they look at each other with SO MUCH LOVE in their eyes.

They embrace tenderly, both looking utterly content. They turn for a moment to gaze out at the world at peace, the world they saved together, and then they turn to each other and their romance theme pipes in and then swells to epic volume as their lips meet.

The kiss deepens, we pan up to a beautiful sky, and the words “The End” appear to close us out.

2. The Cooldown Hug in “The Desert”.

Aang has been teetering on the edge of control the whole episode, devastated by the loss of his beloved pet Appa. Upon confronting the Sandbenders that stole him, he loses his cool completely and is triggered into the Avatar State, a self-protective sort of God Mode wherein all the power and energies of the Avatar’s past lives are channeled through him. Sand blows in all directions and everyone else hotfoots it out of there.

But Katara just stands there looking at him sadly a moment. She hates seeing Aang in the throes of rage and pain. She runs up to him, completely unafraid, and grabs hold of his arm. And then she pulls him down into a hug.

While he’s still in the Avatar State.

And she holds him and cries with him and the storm rages around them until he finally calms down.

3. Katara brings Aang back to life.

The two-part season two finale of Avatar was full of epic shippy material for Aang and Katara. We learned his love for her was reborn of his love for the entire lost Air Nomad nation. We saw him struggle between giving up his earthly attachment to her and gaining the cosmic power of a controlled Avatar State. We saw her devastated when he was struck down and killed by Azula’s lightning. It all culminated at the end with Katara using her bit of spirit water in a desperate attempt to heal him. At first nothing seems to happen. But then he stirs. The glow returns to him. He opens his eyes, reawakened, brought back from the dead, and he loves her all over again. And overjoyed, she embraces him. It doesn’t get much more epic than that.

#kataang #aang #katara #avatar: the last airbender #shipping #meta rambling #talking bout ships #tari's top twenty otps

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