#zutara

[cyanorhis]

All these colors fade for you only…

[demaparbat-hp]

Thoughts on bi4bi zutara? My personal favorite headcanon for them is that they both dated jet in every au its SOO funny

Oh! I love ZK having Jet as a mutual ex! It's always such a fun concept to see in fics. So terribly funny indeed!

ZK is my endgame OTP. Beyond Mutual Ex Jet, I can also see him having a huge crush on both Zuko and Katara at the same time. As a matter of fact, this is precisely what happens in my Lee & Kya AU—Jet has a massive crush on the couple.

...and he's also a terrible flirt.

[yukswl0v3]

[melu-lis]

it's very telling that zutara, a ship that isn't even canon, gets so much heat for being "problematic" but there isn't the same amount of criticism for how flawed the atla comics were in tackling settler colonialism, bloodbending, a subform created by a genocide survivor, is the only banned form of bending when firebending was used to eliminate an entire race of people, or how uncle iroh lives scot-free in the city he laid siege to.

[sokkastyles]

Btw the like, ten year old post that antis are suddenly fake outraged over about zutara shippers "sexualizing" Katara is actually about how she is drawn to look younger in KA, not just less developed but also with rounder eyes, a smaller nose, etc. Which, in addition to making her look younger, alters her poc features to make her look more appealing to a white audience. But I'm sure all that is just a coincidence and zutara shippers are racist for pointing it out.

[oceanview15]

Zuko: WHOEVER BROKE THIS IS GOING TO-

Katara: It was me...

Zuko: ...Is going to be forgiven because everyone deserves a second chance.

[mysi101]

The Southern Raiders: so, demon Zuko brought out the worst in poor, innocent Katara…

What did Zuko do to deserve this accusation coming from some people among the fanbase? I rewatched The Southern Raiders the other day and spend close attention to catch up on what they could possibly mean.

So, what does Zuko do to Katara after the Gaang flees from Azula?

He looks after her and is holding an appropriate distance while asking her, calmly, why she still can’t trust him.

After her response he realizes: Oh yeah, I wronged her the most. Followed by asking how he can make it up to her and understanding what she needs, even though she is giving sarcastic answers.

He offers Katara a chance to face the killer of her mother, so she will be finally able to receive closure and begin the process of healing. This is an exact parallel of Zuko facing Ozai on The day of the black sun. He could’ve just left and join the Gaang, but instead he chose to face his father first: because he needed this.

(Furthermore, he spared Ozai, the same way he spared Zhao even back in S1; that goes against the frequently used argument that he definitely expected Katara to kill Yon Rha coming from some people.)

As I mentioned before, I paid close attention during my rewatch

At no point is Zuko pushing Katara to do anything she doesn’t want, nor does he do anything else to release her dark side.

Am I the only one picturing an incubus-like Zuko whispering in Katara’s ear, every time someone claims that?

On the opposite: He is listening to her and is offering support while facing her biggest trauma. The same goes for the actual field trip: he is nothing but supportive, doesn’t push her to do anything and is standing aside, so that Katara can receive closure under her own conditions—which she did, and she forgave Zuko because of it. Not only that, she even gives him a tight hug out of deep gratitude. Would a person act like this towards somebody who brought out the worst in them? I highly doubt it.

But then why is Katara showing a dark side, some might even say, she is OOC?

I genuinely don’t get the OOC-part... She is very in-character, and her dark side has nothing to do with Zuko. It’s Katara being presented as an actual human being with feelings. Imagine that...

Why is Aang allowed to show a dark side? I never heard anyone complain about him in those specific situations. But Katara, despite raising her voice before and showing her rage in many situations during the show, is suddenly acting OOC when it comes to The Southern Raiders.

She is about to face her trauma and to meet her mother’s killer, of course she won’t be the happiest person in the world, more nervous and angry, lashing out if someone tries to stop her. Yeah, and even going as far as to use bloodbending when finally meeting the (wrong) man.

Doesn’t mean her feelings aren’t justified, and it wasn’t Zuko who brought them up, but the situation alone.

That’s all this is

A person facing her trauma, thus showing very natural darker feelings in this situation, after suppressing them for years. Of course, it was hard for Katara, but she agreed on this trip because she knew she needed it. It was the right thing for her to do—and Zuko is the one who gave her a chance on this, nothing more, nothing less.

[zutaranation]

we can't even ship zutara anymore. because of woke

[nerdylizj]

“I have a secret,” Azula says as a Dai Li agent drags a chair in front of Katara. When the princess sits down, she does so as if the chair is a throne in a palace instead of an uneven wooden chair in an underground, moldy room. She raises an impatient eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you like to know what it is?” “You’ll regret this,” Katara spits out, straining against the stone cuffs that block her bending and the coarse rope that ties her to a chair. Despite the restraints, anger courses through her veins, white and hot. “I’ll make sure of it.” A promise.  Moments stretch in silence, the ochre light of the sconce flickering across the princess’ face. Katara does not tear her eyes away from Azula’s critical gaze.  “You don’t know the meaning of regret.” Azula finally dismisses, waving her hand languidly with an eye roll before she meets Katara’s gaze again and her face flickers like the firelight. For a breath of a moment, fear. The princess only smiles, dark and masking, and says, “But you will.” A promise.

read chapter eleven or start chapter one

[becasart]

Same info! Same prices! Updated artwork 🤗

[demaparbat-hp]

Hey, @geothewriter, was it necessary to break my heart?

A little thing for Vermillion Seas, Cardinal Skies, a truly magnificent fic that has left yours truly rolling on the ground more than once. I'll post the entire artwork once it's finished! For now, you get a little sneak peek.

Start reading the fic here. You can find Chapter 19 (from which this scene comes from) here!

[atla-confessions]

Ursa loves Katara and Sokka as a daughter/son in law.

While there is no replacing Kya, both Sokka and Katara have learned to lean on Ursa when they need mom advice.

X

[longing-for-rain]

A Good Wife — Final Chapter

Zutara, angst, tragedy, rated T

Every time she sees them, Katara feels like she knows them less and less. She loves her grandchildren. She loves how clearly she can see Aang in them. But sometimes…sometimes it’s as if they hardly recognize her. Sometimes she wishes to see herself in them, too.

Katara’s home will never be their home. They don’t like it here. They don’t want to eat her food, wear her clothes, or fashion their hair the way she and Mom and Gran Gran wore theirs.

Every time she watches them leave, she can’t help but shed a few tears, wondering how different they’ll be when she next sees them…if she ever sees them again.

Read on AO3

[sokkastyles]

I'm sorry, I'm just really morbidly curious about how Zucest shippers have beef with Zutara shippers? What's the lore?

Sure, the ships share a character but they're wildly different in everything. I would never guess a little ship war would break out here.

There is a group of Azula stans (small, but with a lot of free time) that also ship KA, whether due to hating Zuko and thus also hating zutara on principle, or due to the fact that Aang feeds their victim complex in the same way that Azula does, because of a perception of being wrongfully hated in the fandom, or a combination of both, I don't know. My guess is that these ideas feed off of each other, but I absolutely think these people only really like Aang/KA because of how it feeds into their Azula stanning. Their hatred for zutara isn't so much about a ship war as it is that zutara makes Zuko look good, because it's one of the relationships that most highlights his growth in the series. And because Azula's downfall serves as a foil to highlight Zuko's growth, this group of Azula stans can't have that.

You see, it isn't so much that they ship Zuko with his sister, it's the way they do it. All their ideologies are about making Azula look better, and feeding that sweet sweet victim complex. The way they do this is by headcanoning Zuko as an incestuous rapist. Either to demonize him or to make him seem "just as bad" as Azula, it varies, but both come from the same place.

Even though (or more likely because) in canon, it's actually Azula who abuses Zuko. Not sexually, but she does try to use his relationship with Mai to control him in a way that's pretty skeevy, and is emotionally abusive and manipulative towards him. So a lot of this is just basic DARVO behavior.

Although I do think some of them have been drinking their own kool-aid so long that they genuinely think that Zuko is an abuser, which explains why they think zutara would be abusive, if you tilt your head sideways and chug a gallon of whiskey.

I also think there's some fascinating misogyny at work in the belief that Zuko raping Azula is hot whereas poor Katara must be protected from the bad man even looking in her direction.

[oceanview15]

Katara: *makes Zuko a cup of tea but puts salt in it*

Zuko: *sips tea*

Katara:

Zuko: *finishes tea*

Katara: Didn't it taste bad?

Zuko: Yeah, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings so I drank it all.

Katara, tearing up: Oh, okay.

[cobraonthecob]

'zk writers write katara and/or zuko so ooc - ' okay and? the writers wrote nonsensical endings for the characters in their post-canon series (i'm sorry, but rule breaking toph and activist katara becoming cop toph and voiceless katara will forever chap my ass). go outside. enjoy your characterizations of the characters. i'm popping out of my cozy zone (rude, i was busy writing an f1 au and a few other fics that are scratching the salty parts of my brain) to yell at y'all because we all have different interpretations of characters!

ALSO!!!! 'they hate each other and y'all like that' it's because we like enemies to friends to lovers (or enemies to lovers, if we really feel like speedrunning), so i sure hope so they hate each other at the start lmfao. i want there to be knives at each other's necks and the need to rip each other's organs out, actually, but kid's show and we got to tone it down lol