#Antizutara

[dreamchasernina]

Stop using Katara as a tool to uplift male characters!

“Katara should’ve kept her scars, it would teach Aang a lesson and made her bond with Zuko more”

Look deep inside yourself and ask why you want the indigenous female character to be scarred for the rest of her life, reliving a traumatic experience ALL TO BENEFIT A MALE CHARACTER.

“Katara was purposefully drawn more childlike so she could fit Aang better…bigger eyes and flatter chest”

Or…hear me out here…MAYBE ITS BECAUSE SHES a 14 YEAR OLD Girl??? Why do you want her to have a big chest? What the fuck is wrong with you? The show itself points out the way Katara is sexualized in the fandom in the ember island episode? And yet all of that just went over your head and you’re sexualizing her again and again? So she could fit Zuko better than Aang?

I have never ever felt so protective over a fictional female character. She’s a character I grew up with, she’s inspiring to so many people. She is an actually well written female character, with depth and flaws, and a character arc, yet certain shippers cannot stop undermining everything about her just to uplift their dumbass ship! And these are the people who preach feminism to the rest of the fandom. Leave Katara the fuck alone!!! Just admit you want to be with Zuko and SHUT THE FUCK UP!

[thethiefandtheairbender]

popular fandom: Katara does all the chores and emotional labour around camp, no one ever helps her (except Zuko) and she just suffers in silence!!

actual canon:

and most of all, from Katara's actual goddamn mouth:

but yeah Zuko serving the gaang tea two (2) times (which is mostly about his relationship with Iroh obviously, given that both times his connection to Uncle is highlighted in dialogue or in action) clearly disregards all of the above

[kataraslove]

atla fandom please learn to expand your understanding of katara beyond “she’s the mom friend.” and for the love of god, stop viewing every single interaction she has with the gaang as her being motherly. she’s a child too! credit to chiefesskatara on twitter.

[prisi]

"Katara is just a trophy for Aang" and then they say that Zuko deserved Katara because he redeemed himself.

They're not complaining because they think Katara is treated like a trophy (which she's not btw), they're complaining because she's not Zuko's trophy.

[azutara-lover]

When Katara gave birth, Azula left the hospital with 3 things.

-two beautiful daughters

-and a broken hand

[tachiha3]

I don't know why some zutara shippers (heck even non-zutara shippers) make Katara out to be some tsundere type of whatever. That girl is a massive SIMP. If she likes a boy, you bet she's gonna follow him around everywhere, suffocate him with praises, and tell everyone just how great he is.

[survivalove]

debunking lies zutara shippers say about the atla creators & writers

disclaimer: this is in no way an endorsement or defense of bryke or anyone mentioned. literally just debunking false statements i see spread throughout and outside the fandom as it pertains to kataang

1. that bryke made kataang endgame because the nice guy should get the girl

this is something I see often usually linked with this video of a man ⬇️ who they claim to be bryan/mike echoing this sentiment.

this man is in fact john o’bryan, one of the three known zk shippers in the writers’ room (we’ll expand on this in point 5) talking about how he saw aang. not the creators. so of course it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he doesn’t even like kataang in the first place.

2. that bryke made kataang endgame last minute and zutara was the original pairing

bryan and mike (notice how i’m using both of their names separately. this too will be important in the next point) have talked about how kataang was planned since they originally wrote the show.

they have also talked ad nauseam in a video (which I will not share here cuz it made a lot of ppl angry) about why they do not like zutara and its shippers, so this entire point is bogus.

++ the reason why they say zk was the original pairing is because of one of the zk writers (joshua hamilton) wrote this in the atla fun facts that used to run on tv. (we’ll get into him later) those atla fun facts contain a lot of inaccurate/non canon “facts” which you can check and verify on avatar wiki if you know what i’m talking about.

3. that aang is bryke’s self insert (specifically mike)

yeah, here’s where the separation becomes important. bryan (L) and mike (R) are two different men. mike has never said that aang was his self-insert, nor has he directly talked about relating to aang. bryan, however, constantly talks about how much he relates to zuko. even, going as far to say he tries to think like zuko when he writes characters and shows.

the only time mike has come close to saying he relates to aang is when dante said he thinks mike is more like aang while bryan is more like zuko, and they, mostly bryan, agreed. (mike has actually said he relates to korra more than aang but hey) bryan also is the one who drew mike’s beard on adult aang because he considered it a nice reference to his friend. this is the main reason why shippers ran with that self-insert narrative because half the time, they think bryke is actually one person ☠️

++ in fact, aang’s original character design is based off the mixed black-chinese son of sifu kisu

4. that atla was supposed to have a season 4 where katara and zuko got together

this is mostly something that has come out of a fabricated interview by the head writer, aaron ehasz. he was allegedly asked what he would have liked to do if given the chance to write a fourth season of the show and talked about an azula redemption arc among other things. zutaras then made up a whole fake interview including that he wanted to make the two characters endgame.

ehasz then came out to say that most of these “interviews” were faked and that he has never talked about having a preference for any ship. if you go on his twitter, you will see him talking about an azula redemption arc tho.

as for atla having a 4th season at all, it was never intended. the creators, the music composers have all said at various points in time, the show was written and pitched as three seasons, three elements.

5. that most of the other writers shipped zutara and bryke’s authoritarianism shut it down

as I said above, only three writers on the original show have come out to say they preferred zk at some point. atla has had a total of 21 staff writers. 3 out of 21 is not most if you ask me.

as for bryke (yes now i’m using the shorthand cuz i proved my point earlier) being authoritarians, no writer or staff that has worked with them on the show has said this so…? idk where that came from but i’m not here to back them up just mention facts.

6. that all the women who worked on the franchise shipped zutara while only men shipped kataang

atla has very few female staff as it is:

5 writers (elizabeth welch: zk; others: unknown)

1 director (unknown)

5 storyboard/character artists (lauren montgomery: ka; elsa garagarza: ka; angela song mueller: zk; others: unknown)

1 comic writer (faith erin hicks: ka)

2 comic artists (gurihiru: ka)

++ mae whitman (katara’s voice actress) has expressed her like for both ships throughout the years.

so i’m not sure what defines all and only for some ppl but those definitions are not in my dictionary. disclaimer: i’m not declaring anyone here as a shipper in any official sense. this is just based off statements they have made that you can google!

7. that katara is written poorly in post-atla content because of kataang/bryke

I mean the first part isn’t really a lie, more of an opinion which I can agree with to an extent.

why I mention this here is because zks will not only go on a tangent and link the misogyny in the writing to a m/f ship and say the other m/f ship would have been more feminist…

but they also refuse to hold all the men involved accountable. like I said, 3 known atla writers shipped zk and 2 of them (joshua & john) were men (who would’ve thought men could like a ship and it could still be considered feminist 😃). they were also 2 out of only 4 atla writers that came back for legend of korra, outside of the creators. (19 to 4 ☠️ no comment). these shippers very well know this and instead of holding these men accountable for the misogynistic writing, they instead brag about them shipping it and ask them about zk whenever they have the chance.

another example is gene luen yang, a comic writer who again shipped zk (another man GASPPPPP) responsible for the first 5 comic books. everyone knows his comics suck in terms of characterization, particularly katara’s. in fact zutaras have made multiple threads on how poor the writing is. funnily enough, they always fail to mention that gly was the script writer or acknowledge his part in this mischaracterization, while bragging about him shipping zk in other posts. ironic.

meanwhile, bryke have never offered writers’ commentary on any of gly’s comics besides the search - mike (because they were mostly writing legend of korra during his run.)

basically these shippers don’t care about misogyny or holding male writers accountable if they ship zk which is funny because I thought it was… for the female gaze? why are you hyping men shipping it anyway? confusion.

[leantailean]

I almost WANT zutara to become a canon in NATLA. in a show that completely destroyed Katara's character, and turned Zuko, a complex and tragic character, into a pale and boring version of a poor, offended boy. Kataang really has nothing to lose if it is not going to be a canon in this dull school play with bad costumes and makeup, Katara with her real character chose Aang, and nothing will change that (just like the canon well-written Zuko chose Mai). if zutara will happen in NATLA, and the zutarians accept it, it would really finally demonstrate to everyone how they treat the real Zuko and the real Katara and how they actually "respect" their characters

[toph-bi-fong]

Zutaraang but in a Zukaang x Kataang, anti-Z/tar/a sort of way.

[vlackevil]

GOOD NEWS, ONE OF WRITERS OF ATLA CONFRIMS ZUTARA IS TOXIC, ZUKO IS A BAD INFLUENCE FOR KATARA:

There is the writer

And Dante Basco talk about when Katara say Zuko end his life if hurt Aang

HE SAY IT!!!

And Janet and Dante agree that.

[loveontherocks]

clownery transcends decades…

[kataraslove]

something that i’ve noticed when it comes to love triangles - whether canon or born entirely out of fanon - is that the fandom will always berate the girl in love triangles involving her and two other guys for making the “wrong choice” (i.e. not selecting the fandom favourite or the one that fandom has dubbed most suitable for her). however, in love triangles involving a guy and two girls, the guy is almost always exemplified and excused for their “wrong choice.” instead, the misogyny is directed towards one of the girls in the love triangle - particularly the canon love interest that interferes with the fandom’s favourite ship.

take the atla fandom as an example. katara is primarily blamed for choosing the “12 year old prebuscent boy” instead of the “hot angsty prince with a cool scar,” despite the fact that zuko had kissed mai several months before katara had kissed aang (his coronation and the finale of atla take place within the span of a couple of months). on the flip side, zuko is never indicted by fandom for choosing the “wrong girl.” rather, fandom will go through great lengths to blame mai for every problem that zuko has had, accusing her of holding him back from reaching his true potential as the firelord.

fandoms are incredibly misogynistic, even the ones claiming to be feminist spaces who prioritize female characters. both katara and mai experience the wrath of fandom misogyny as a result of a decade old ship war primarily constructed by fandom, all for the simple crime of not choosing the “correct” option or getting in the way of the “correct” option. free them, and every fictional female who has been scorned by fandom for not living up to their preferences.

[thethiefandtheairbender]

media literacy (or a lack thereof) has become a buzzword, but what it generally means is "am i taking every part of this text, even the ones i don't personally like and/or am not totally sold on, and willing to engage with it in good faith?" if you have to ignore a plethora of canon scenes with clear, surface level indications of what the takeaway is supposed to be to bend over backwards to validate your take(s), you're probably not engaging in good media literacy. this is not to say that more critical reads of "this thing didn't work for me" or "we should think critically of who made this piece" is moot, those things are worth interrogating. but often at the expense of, and to the extent of, "this canon [insert thing here] was really poorly crafted (because it doesn't align with my particular singular worldview) and therefore no one on the project's alternative viewpoints are worthwhile at all" that so many people seem to take it as.

if you're going to go radically against the text, you have to first have a good understanding of what the text actually is (often times in good faith), and so many people completely and/or wilfully miss that step, tbh

[azutara-lover]

Azula: Katara...

Katara: Yes Azula, I am going to love you even if you are a man,a cat,a giraffe,a pickle,a spider,a corn,an ant,a piece of earth, a planet, a caterpillar and a worm, NOW LET ME SLEEP

[tachiha3]

"we was robbed" my guy, you never owned anything in the first place 🤣🤣

[survivalove]

I hate to do this but someone reblogged one of my posts and I scrolled down their tl, hoping to mutual, and saw this mess:

Do people actually somehow watch the show and not see every single moment where Katara blushes or plays with her hair around Aang, gets shy at the thought of kissing Aang, is clearly attracted to him in Book 3, gets jealous of any girl that’s also attracted to him.

Or Aang comforting Katara several times: hugging her in the Serpent’s Pass and validating her feelings to the point she cried, comforting her when Jet died and getting the whole group to hug her, telling her how she inspires people and gives them hope, literally tells her she’s a hero??

Aang and Katara literally having several disagreements, Aang’s perception of Katara changing over the three seasons, him agreeing with every single idea she had to flat out rejecting her advice, then wrongly blowing up at her after zuko and the rest were flat out racist to him?? Aang telling her to confront the man that killed her mother after she rejected his advice??

Mind you Katara can barely tell Aang likes her back until season 3 and clearly shows feelings for him way before he starts initiating romantic acts with her after TWO seasons of her touching, kissing him on the cheek and hugging him unprompted 💀 not to mention “forces non-romantic feelings on her” when she is the one that said he was her family after a week of knowing him?? what does that even meannnnn

And I’m supposed to believe that these people actually watched the show, paying attention to… KATARA?

On top of that, to say (not pictured) the only person to ever comfort her was the guy that attacked her several times 💀 and he didn’t even do anything??? used Sokka’s trauma to come up with a plan he didn’t even agree with (nor did he ask him, like you can ask him to retell the most horrible moment of his life, but you can’t ask him if taking his sister to confront the man is a good idea? you can’t even ask him if he wants to go??? that is literally the most horrible writing i’ve ever seen but i digress). on top of that doing it for the most obvious ulterior motive of getting her to forgive him. standing there while she bloodbended and almost killed a man, not knowing she just swore off doing the former weeks ago because all he knows her to be is hostile until that moment. He doesn’t know Katara to be someone that expresses love and kindness until she forgives him but apparently this is how you comfort someone over every single moment of Aang comforting her that I listed above. okayyyyy

Just to contrast for contrast’s sake, Aang:

1. offers to take Katara to the North Pole with zero ulterior motive,

2. gets her mother’s necklace back with zero ulterior move,

3. helps her destroy a factory with zero ulterior motive…

4. helps her get Haru back, stands up for her to Pakku, calls her Sifu when she complains, comes back to save her home and gives himself up, comes back to save her in ba sing se and I’m sure a million things I’m missing, all with literally zero ulterior motives at all.

Meanwhile antagonist does one nice thing for female mc with shady undertones that might as well be overtones and now he’s allegedly better than her friend who helps her several times for no reason other than the fact that its something she wants.

Like am I supposed to believe that these people actually like Katara or are media literate at all? I feel like I’m going insane 😭