im-a-hoping-beetch - Tumblr blog

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Antis : Zutara just delusional! It was never meant to be canon.

Meanwhile John O'Bryan as ATLA writer :

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

My name is HAMDI AHMED, and I'm a disabled Palestine queer. Tragically, my family's evacuation plans from Gaza were thwarted by the loss of my father, our breadwinner, during the genocide. Recently, my mother fell victim to an airstrike in Deir Al-Balah, leaving me without a home. With no income and relying on the kindness of friends, I urgently need to evacuate to Egypt for safety. Any donation, no matter how small, would make a world of difference. Thank you for your support.

Here is the link to donate what you can and please share

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Why I feel like Ka/taang is one-sided, despite textual evidence 

ATLA does try to convince us that Katara has romantic feelings for Aang. For example: she seems thoughtful when she realizes that Aang is a powerful bender; she’s offended that he didn’t want to kiss her in the Cave of Two Lovers; she gets jealous when Sokka says On Ji and Aang look good together.

So…what’s wrong with anti-Kataangers? Do we just lack media comprehension? 

To be clear, on their own, these gestures can indicate romantic interest. But at the same time, we have stuff like “Aang is a sweet little guy, like Momo.” We have her ambivalent facial expression after he kisses her before the eclipse, and her hedging during Ember Island Players, and her anger when he kisses her anyway. In the context of these conflicting cues, Katara’s possibly romantic reactions can absolutely be interpreted in a different way, because: 

Acknowledging a friend as a potential romantic interest is not the same as actually being romantically interested in them. (Imo this is something young women struggle with, due to a combination of romance-centrism and heteronormativity that make women feel like they should be in romantic relationships, and that boys and girls who share intimate and deep feelings for one another must be romantically into each other) 

Wanting someone to find you desirable is not the same as desiring that person. (Which is something a lot of women, especially young women, struggle with. Remember all the discourse around Cat Person back in 2017?) 

Being jealous when someone flirts with your friend is not the same as wanting to be with your friend. (Especially when you see your friends as family, or if you’re accustomed to a specific type of devotion from that friend. It is jealousy, and it is possessiveness, but it doesn’t always arise from romantic feelings) 

Growing up in a patriarchal society means that your desires are always filtered through what men want from you, sometimes in an abstract male gaze-y way, and sometimes in a very visceral and interpersonal way when a boy wants you specifically. And Katara’s reactions are just that — reactions. Reactions to what other people — including Aunt Wu, Sokka, Aang himself — have insinuated about her and Aang. She’s not really proactive in her interest in Aang: we don’t really see Aang, romantically, from Katara’s POV. Under the framework of “Katara is reacting to a romantic prospect she’s kind of uncertain about,” it is completely plausible — and indeed likely — that she would sometimes act in ways that indicate romantic interest, in addition to moments where she indicates the opposite. 

Ka/taang shippers often bring up other evidence, like Katara’s despair when Azula hits Aang with lightning, or how protective she is of him when Zuko joins the Gaang. The thing is, these pieces of evidence aren’t necessarily indicative of romantic love. The fact that Katara genuinely loves Aang makes the whole thing more complicated, not less, because — especially at that age, especially when Aang is twelve years old and grew up in a sex-segregated society of monks — it is really difficult to tell the difference between platonic love and romantic love. Their mutual devotion is layered and complex yet straightforward in its sincerity. What was not straightforward, until the last five minutes of the show, is whether this devotion on Katara’s end is romantic. The romantic arc for Katara and Aang is not really an arc, as Sneezy discusses in this classic ZK video. Katara actually becomes more conflicted over time and we never see an event that clarifies her feelings. She seems more interested in him in The Headband than on the Day of the Black Sun, and she has never been more hostile to his romantic overtures than in the penultimate episode. 

And in light of this, it’s pretty easy for fans to fill in the blanks with a different interpretation: maybe Katara’s weird expression after their kiss at the invasion means she didn’t enjoy it; maybe the kiss made her realize that she doesn’t actually feel that way about Aang; maybe against her will and her better judgement, she’s developing feelings for another person, a person who hurt her and whom she fervently tried to hate until he pulled off what is in my opinion the greatest grovel of all time in the form of a life-changing field trip. Maybe. Am I saying that Zutara has more romantic interactions than Ka/taang? Of course not. But ironically, the lack of romantic interactions means that it’s not inherently one-sided, the way Ka/taang became in the latter half of season 3.

I’m not arguing that Katara’s unequivocally not into Aang. Obviously the text declares that she is, because they get married and have kids. But I am saying that there’s a very good reason that so many people, especially women, see Katara’s interest in Aang as ambiguous. It’s not because we can’t pick up “subtle” hints of growing affection. It’s because we know not all affection is romantic, and it’s really easy for someone else’s insistent romantic intentions to muddle what you want.

P.S. I first started thinking about these topics (platonic vs romantic love, desiring someone vs wanting to be desired, etc) in the context of compulsory heterosexuality, a term describing how queer women contort themselves into relationships with men even if they’re not really into men. I saw a post a few days ago joking about why so many queer women seem to be into Zutara. I wonder if part of the reason is because as queer women, we are very sensitive to the ways in which we can talk ourselves into wanting things we don’t actually want, and Katara’s romantic interest in Aang can be easily seen that way. 

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Wait… you are onto something.

Gawd, if I was Albert Kim, seeing that those two jerks abandoned me, I would change the ending to zutara just to be petty 😅… @netflix

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

a little sketch of zutara because I love them and the live action hit hard with the scarf scene

katara is a little small but she is one of my headcannon for this couple

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

post-meeting discussions with ambassador katara and firelord zuko :)

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

I can’t stand them just get together already

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

I’ll gladly give a first request ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Zuko and Katara trying each others cultural foods!!

Ding dong, your package has arrived

Hope you like it and thanks for the first request (୨୧ ❛ᴗ❛)✧

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Just remember guys they're fucking kids.

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Atla memes (pt.4):

No context and yet so much of it

This scarf will forever be tattooed in my brain. That’s it. That’s the post folks.

part 1 part 2 part 3

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Y'know, I find it really funny how much people point to Bryke leaving the live-action ATLA and releasing letter about how "it's not the show [we] intended to make" as some sort of damning fact.

Meanwhile, these are the same guys who stayed on as producers for the M Night movie, lmao. Did casting 3 white people as the leads not go against their creative vision?

Then there's far more objective stuff about the course they took the main continuity on, from LOK to the comics, which IMO shows that their creative vision kinda blows, and I'm glad that we won't be seeing their re-do of ATLA. (For instance, Zuko and Katara weren't allowed to be on screen together in LOK, and barely allowed to be in the same panel in the comics. Would they have interacted at all in Bryke's live action?)

Anyway, despite what one might think from this, I actually don't have super high hopes for the live action, only because live action adaptations are incredibly tricky and prone to failure. I don't really think it will be bad either, though, I think it's going to be just fine. But I am very interested to see the changes they might make, as that is far more interesting than a 1:1 recreation. And if it is bad, it's not going to be because the two guys who decided that Aang would be more willing to kill Zuko than Ozai left the project.

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Many atrocities were filmed and shared, and many more couldn't be.

English translation:

"An infant was used as a booby trap and got thrown at his family"

This is one of the events that happened and didn't get spread [on social media/news outlets]. And it was one of the events that the occupation were elated to do. It was also one of the events where everyone involved would've been martyred, but one person survived with severe injuries and reported on the event.

May God have mercy on them, and may they live in paradise.

End of translation

Keep talking about Palestine🇵🇸

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Never let them forget that the reason why y’all’s favourite show is so good, is certainly NOT because of these two white men.

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Girl, I’ve been asking myself the same question for years now. I genuinely don’t know how???

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.

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

I think Kyoshi Warrior Zuko and Painted Lady Katara should kiss

They should.

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

alongside my respect for the Palestinian American woman, this is one of the single most uncomfortable videos ive ever seen not only because of how immediately those white karens were like "no you cannot talk about your family dying here you have to leave this is not important right now so shut up and leave" but also the cultish chanting by all the white people in the room?!?!!!! im done. i hate this. i hate yall. im so done.

from Rosy Pirani, 19/Jan/2024:

Caption: I am so proud of this Palestinian-American woman for calling out governorabbott - I am a Texan and this man does not represent us.