#me: hey if ur gonna hypefocus on something could u try fitness or schoolwork

[hanadoesstuffwrong]

Tonight on, I should definitely be sleeping but feel a senseless need to write this instead:

Surprise Kissing!!

So I'm very anti-kat/@ang for personal reasons, and back when I hyper fixated on avatar for a bit, I read a lot of really awesome metas about why it was badly executed... And I might've written a couple of sub-par ones myself....

But I noticed how one critisicm that kept coming up was A@ng's habit of kissing Katara without asking permission.

At first I just kinda blatantly agreed, but then I remembered that many of my favourite ships don't verbally request permission before kissing, and I never had a problem with those scenes.

Now, on a surface level I can see why requesting permission to kiss someone makes a lot of sense and is a pretty good thing to put in shows (especially for pre/teen audiences).

But, honestly, it can be a bit of a moment killer, from an entertainment/aesthetic standpoint and often, surprise kisses make u jump up and down squealing as u watch...

So why does kat@ang doing it gross me out so much?

(Now, the fact that I don't like the pairing could have something to do with it, but honestly... Replace A@ng with Zuko and I would still get uncomfortable watching these scenes play out this way.)

To answer this question, allow me to present another canon ship:

Rayllum

Ah yes, the OTP that can literally do no wrong!

However! Their first two kisses are both surprise kisses...

JUST LIKE KATA@NG!!!

I am going to analyse them now because it is only 01:29 right now and sleep is for the weak!

(All the Rayllum gifs I've used here were created by @ jlassijlali , just so u know)

So!

1. Blinking..... Matters?

Here's one of kata@ng's kisses:

And now rayllum's:

Watch the girls' eyes!!

Neither girl is expecting to be kissed in these moments (whether because of deep-seated self-loathing or literally being in a warzone). Rayla's are open wide and take a moment to fully close. Similarly, Katara's are wide, but then they continue to be wide until she shuts them, after blinking twice. (Note, u can't see this in the gif because I suck at making gifs)

Rayla relaxes into the kiss.

Katara does not.

Rayla kisses him back.

Katara kinda just lets it happen.

These girls are supposed to be feeling the same way: The guy they have been pining after for the majority of their time together is finally returning their feelings. If Katara has been wanting this for almost a year, why isn't she reacting in a similar way to Rayla, who has only been wanting this for at most two weeks?

It looks like they were going for shock and surprise, however, keeping this expression going for too long into the kiss turns it into something else: Discomfort and confusion. She looks a bit too surprised. As if she never saw this coming. As if she wasn't secretly hoping this would happen at some point. As if she never saw the person kissing her as a romantic interest and therefore wouldn't expect this from him.

And don't give me that "they're in the middle of a war! So she's very confused about her feelings!" She can be confused about her feelings, sure, but if she had really been in love with- and wanting to kiss- A@ng since season 2, as the creators claim, I think she might give in to those feelings a little more... Maybe by smiling, or revealing even the slightest sign of being happy about this development!

Which brings me on to my next point:

2. Reaction & context

But after all, maybe I'm misjudging, maybe these two characters just react differently while being kissed. That's valid. In that case, I'll compare what happens after the surprise kiss in each show, since that will tell me how they felt about it more explicitly and reveal whether or not the surprise kiss was well-received.

So let's see Katara's giddy expression, the light in her eyes and joy slowly giving way to confusion or regret because of their situation. Show me Katara's elation at-

-And she looks like she wants to die...

Okay then!

I think Rayla's reaction speaks for itself:

[◇okay! I have slept and will now continue◇]

So this bit is less about kata@ng and more about when surprise kissing works. Imma look at rayllum again:

Okay, first kiss:

See how close they're standing? See the expressions?! This adorable boy has been pouring his heart out over how amazing he thinks Rayla is, calling her beautiful and smart and strong! I would kiss him for that!!

Kiss number two again:

Again, close proximity, serene expressions, and again, this boy has just finished singing her praises AGAIN!!

Nobody points out these surprise kisses as points against rayllum being well executed because the creators utilised them well. Nobody is interrupting the other, there's no grabbing, the moment is romantically framed from the get go, and once they're over, their reactions fall in line with a romantic narrative:

This is Callum's reaction to the first kiss. Now u might say,"that's exactly the same as Katara's!"

However... Context:

Callum: That's not what I was expecting.

Rayla: You were saying all those things, so I thought-

Callum: No, I was- I- I wasn't saying all those things so you would [gestures]

He explains his reaction

In the context of the scene, her kissing him and him reacting in this way make perfect sense! She's veeeeery emotionally vulnerable atm, and he explains that he wasn't trying to get her to kiss him, he wasn't manipulating her. And that's why he reacted in that way to the kiss.

They COMMUNICATE

Now, Kat@ang...

Since dude immediately flies away, and then they seemingly forget the kiss happened for a fat number of episodes, the only time we hear Katara explain why she reacted in that way is way later:

Katara: A@ng, I'm sorry, but right now I'm just a little confused.

A@ng:

You don't see it so much in the gif but FROWNING, ARMS CROSSED OVER HERSELF, PLAYING WITH HER HAIR, NOT LOOKING AT HIM, EYEs FREAKIN SHUT!!!! THEY'VE FRAMED THIS TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THE LAST THING KATARA WANTS TO BE DOING IS KISSING THIS BOY!!!

Do they want me to want these two together?!?!?! What was the thought process when making this scene?!!?!

3. Equality

Rayllum's SEVEN kisses:

Rayla surprise kisses Callum

Callum surprise kisses Rayla

Rayla kisses Callum back

Mutual kiss •Relationship begins•

Mutual kiss

Mutual kiss

Veeeeery mutual kiss post rescue and dramatic love confessions

They get ONE surprise kiss each, and then the rest are mutual or reciprocations (I hope that's an actual word)

Kat@ang's three kisses [because we don't count kiss-or-die, cheek kisses or dream kisses in this house, thank you very much!]:

A@ng surprise kisses Katara

A@ng surprise kisses Katara

Mutual kiss with zero dialogue or meaningful romantic interaction since the last kiss •Relationship begins???•

See the issue???

Conclusion.......

Rayllum's surprise kisses do not kill their romantic story because they are animated to clearly display their emotions; they work well within narrative context and they each do it, demonstrating equal interest in the relationship.

Kat@ang does none of this by having these kisses be forgotten about rapidly and shoe-horned pointlessly into scenes with zero romantic framing. A@ng always being the one to do the surprise kissing simply makes it seem like Katara isn't really into it, and just kinda accepts it by the end in spite of having no romantic build up over prior episodes.

That's why it grosses me out when avatar does it, and not when Dragon Prince does.

..................

Anyway, none if this probably needed to be said, but this is my void, let me be. I just get annoyed when the only times I see these ships compared they're always saying how "Rayllum reminds me of kata@ng"

I watched Avatar way after watching Dragon Prince, so I hav no nostalgic connection to it at all. In fact- unpopular opinion- I would say that Dragon Prince is better than Avatar in many ways! Most specifically the romances!

#why is this longer than any a-level essay i've ever written #me: hey if ur gonna hypefocus on something could u try fitness or schoolwork #my adhd: No i don't think i will #my posts #im sorry #salt #miraculous and avatar are just in my bad books because they are so popular and beloved and i am not #i am mwrely a bitter fish #atla #anti kataang #kataang salt #meta #anti-kataang meta #rayllum #rayllum meta