hex-girl-spell - Tumblr blog

[hex-girl-spell]

she should've said it but she's too nice

[hex-girl-spell]

Water Half-Child

[hex-girl-spell]

Aww you guys are such a cute couple! Which one of you is the red one and which one of you is the blue one?

[hex-girl-spell]

Happiest of early birthdays to you! ❤️ can I please request a zutara drawing? In your post, you said that you drew ATLA but didn’t mention any ships, so pls forgive me and no worries if this is one you won’t draw!

Everything you draw is amazing and I’ve been a huge fan for a while! Thank you for taking the time to use your talents here! ✨

manifesting this scene 🙏

[hex-girl-spell]

Different pov🤷‍♀️

[hex-girl-spell]

Zutara Week 2023 | Day 1: Home

🎵Dito ka sa piling ko

O dito ka lang, dito ka lang

Bumabagal ang ikot ng mundo

Kapag ika'y nariyan

O aking tahanan🎵

-Tahanan by Adie

[hex-girl-spell]

zuko and katara’s narrative symmetry drives me insane every time i think about it, actually. you rise with the moon, i rise with the sun; her power waning as his grows, and vice versa. zuko becoming disillusioned with the fire nation as katara learns the truth about the evil that exists within the other nations. how they both orbit around the avatar, the emblem of all their hopes; katara pulling aang forward to his destiny while zuko pursues on the other end, driving him onwards. the way their parallel lines intersect at the end of every season before diverging once more, each one only able to rise when the other falls. circling one another, so close yet so far, until they finally come together in the agni kai, two halves becoming whole at the crux of their individual arcs and their journey together — balance forged in sacrifice, an eternal push and pull finally brought to stillness. and all of this beautifully personifying the show’s most fundamental themes in the process. how the fuck were they not canon.

[hex-girl-spell]

This is very personally about Zutara for me

[hex-girl-spell]

Ugh I will always love the concept of Katara using blood bending to revive Zuko after the last agni kai, mostly because it makes no sense to me that Zuko was able to bounce back so easily after being struck by lightning, but also because the way the show treats bloodbending is just odd to me. It was a defense mechanism created by a traumatized victim of some of the most devastating parts of colonization, and although I understand that Hama was supposed to symbolize the "bad parts" of waterbending and was important for Katara's growth in realizing that the world isn't entirely black and white, its still disappointing to me that the show never explored the gray areas of blood bending, especially since that episode was, as I stated above, about understanding the gray areas of the war. Katara using blood bending to revive Zuko would add so much to the last agni kai in demonstrating that she has truly realized that "good" and "evil" are relative concepts, and Zuko being saved by both a defense mechanism of a survivor of colonialism and a type of bending used to terrorize his people would have even added to his arc, as the narrative required him to save and subsequently be saved by the physical embodiment of everything his family sought to annihilate.

[hex-girl-spell]

[hex-girl-spell]

I just watched Avatar for the first time all the way through, and yeah, it’s great, but the one thing that surprised me was how different Katara was compared to the fandom interpretation I’d seen and internalized before watching.

Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.

Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.

Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.

Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.

The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.

[hex-girl-spell]

1. Have you always hated Aang? If you can remember, what specific scene really sparked your hatred for his character?

2. Do you ever regret joining the atla fandom and having to fight tooth and nail for a ship? What’s kept you going all this time?

I've never liked Aang, but my hatred didn't start until the post series canon when I saw how for some inexplicable reason Bryke decided to go ahead and continue making Aang the worst main character and punish Katara and the others for it. The fact that they wasted all of that Zutara potential for a relationship that was somehow AS bland as it was toxic is what made me actively hate Kataang. Even though I never shipped it, I could have just ignored it, and lived happily in my fanfic bubble until I saw what they did to my girl. The fact that they stripped Katara in particular of everything that made her so awesome in order to make her and Aang's relationship believable and then unironically defended Aang for being a negligent parent, was what drove me all the way into the Aang is a Villain, Actually camp.

I don't regret joining the ATLA fandom. I have had, and am still having a great time. I'm also not fighting tooth and nail for my ship. I have my opinions and people can take them or leave them. If people get upset, that's got nothing to do with me. That's not my business. My only problem is when they bring their issues to me directly. If they deliberately tag incorrectly, or they jump into my asks, or reblog me, or leave hate comments on my fic, they can get the business until I'm bored with them. And then they can get blocked. I deliberately don't give them any serious answers, too. I don't argue with stupid anymore. I'm also not here to change anyone's minds on Zutara, Aang, or any other thing I mention.

[hex-girl-spell]

does anyone have a zutara fic recommendation with slow burn. Like extreme slow burn to the point that they don’t even hold hands till the end

[hex-girl-spell]

[hex-girl-spell]

Zuko: *holding a sign with ‘PROM?’ written on it outside Katara’s window*

Sokka: OH my god!! YES!

Zuko, yelling up: No!! Tell Katara!!

Sokka, yelling to the other room: Katara! I’m going to prom with your boyfriend!

[hex-girl-spell]

Zuko: Katara, why are you crying?

Katara: This book is so sad!

Zuko, picking it up: But this is my diary-

[hex-girl-spell]

Dear canon shippers

Just because you can't appreciate subtext and beautiful narrative themes, it does not make fanon shippers delusional. It just makes you blind. And probably boring too if you think shipping should be solely based on canon. Some of us don't kiss the creator's backside and want better than the terrible canon ships shoved in our faces.