#jetxkatara

[comradekatara]

wait. if haru is katara’s suki (her ek counterpart who is in a similar position, complements and tempers her personality, they first meet in book 1 but don’t have the time to start a real relationship, but then reunite during the western air temple arc and properly get together) does that make…. jet katara’s yue (her “first love” who died in her arms). yue sweetie i am so sorry………

[comradekatara]

If you're still doing the ship opinions, could you do jet/katara?

I think they’ve grown on me bc when I was a kid I was just like “katara can do so much better 😤” (and that’s true!) but I also think what he means to katara (whether or not he truly lives up to her image of him in her mind) is really interesting. like something that I think is really crucial to understand about their relationship is the fact that the reason she feels betrayed by him isn’t because he’s “a bad revolutionary” but because he treated her like a naive child and lied to her face about his methods, manipulated her into trusting him by exploiting her tendency to dismiss sokka, tried to kill her brother (which is something she immediately understands judging by the way her eyes well with tears as she asks “where’s sokka”), and played her for a fool. “I trusted you, you’re sick and I trusted you.” yes she takes issue with his methods, but she mostly hates that she trusted someone who didn’t deserve it and didn’t truly respect her.

she hates putting her faith in someone and being taken advantage of, especially because it’s one of the points that sokka is especially condescending towards her about, and she always wants to be proven right in their arguments (which is natural, who doesn’t), so the fact that sokka is usually right when it comes to reading people is particularly infuriating. and it’s especially egregious in this circumstance, because katara’s trust in jet over sokka is what directly led to jet killing sokka (or at least, the attempt to). in her pursuit of winning the lifelong argument against her brother, she nearly got her brother killed. so jet is interesting insofar as he informs katara and sokka’s dynamic, and also as he reflects a major part of katara’s psychology as someone who genuinely wants to form connections with others over shared trauma, which is an incredibly noble and beautiful tendency of hers.

I think the way he sweeps her off her feet (literally) is kind of adorable, not because he’s a likable love interest (imo), but because her reaction is nonetheless very cute. the ugly ass hat she makes him after they kissed (offscreen, but canonically) is soo precious to me I think about that all the time (and the fact that aang is also the one who ends up wearing it…. my heart). and her reaction when they reunite later is fascinating, because even though it’s in such a different context and jet is literally brainwashed, katara acts like a scorned lover while sokka (number one jet hater in the world) approaches the situation in a more detached and logical way. it’s clear that her feelings for jet were incredibly strong, and the terror and guilt she felt over nearly letting sokka die at his hands has stayed with her and impacted in a very profound way, whereas sokka never actually felt like he jet had his life in his hands because he always knew that jet was a con artist who doesn’t really pose a threat to him.

but katara actually held a lot of respect for him, and he betrayed that trust and shattered her admiration irreparably. and then, of course, he nearly redeems himself, helps her in a major way, and dies in her arms. she cannot save him, and suddenly whatever could have been is gone not because he failed her, but because she failed him. and it’s subtle, and hardly mentioned, but I do think the trauma of that, in both instances, really informs katara’s perspective in many key ways, if not consciously, then subconsciously. it informs how she reacts to aang’s death only a few weeks later, and it informs her anger at zuko when he betrays her. jet is a key player in katara’s life and how she approaches her relationships going forward, and for that, he cannot be discounted.

[comradekatara]

Hi! I’ve been working my way thru the modern au tag for a while and I’ve been wondering what haru’s place in the au is. All I’ve seen of him is something about a moped.

wait this is a great question. i actually have a draft of a comic ive never finished (many such cases) that involves him (set in the modern au). i may never actually finish it (because i have SO many drafts you don’t even know), but i will say this: katara dates aang briefly in middle school, it’s the realization of their childhood crushes on each other, they both get bored after the initial high of being together kinda quickly, and realize they’re better as friends; katara dates jet her freshman year of high school, she’s deeply infatuated with him because he’s really tall, has messy hair, and is a purported anarchist, but she quickly realizes that his politics are kinda wack actually, his soundcloud music is very cringe, and also he asked katara if it was true that her brother murdered that girl in their grade who just died??? (by which he meant yue) at which point she dumped him on the spot; haru is katara’s boyfriend in her later years of high school, and he’s very cool and chill and shows up to all her sports games (of which she has multiple a week), goes to protests with her, and gets along with all her friends, but his one flaw is that he’s kind of boring, and also at one point he tries to grow a mustache and it doesn’t look great, so sokka and zuko are always talking shit about him because they maintain that he isn’t good enough for katara. but he is though. he’s a good boyfriend and she likes him a lot and he shaves the mustache like a month later and even reads that book sokka and zuko were making fun of him for never having read (à la recherche du temps perdu). sure, he didn’t understand it, but at least he made an effort! unfortunately he moves across the country after graduation, but he and katara still keep in touch, and maybe one day (in katara’s secret hopes, at least) he’ll move back home and they’ll get back together.

[comradekatara]

Hi, do you have any thoughts on canon jet? I always love your takes! I'm studying the poem The Patriot by Robert Browning rn and it instantly reminded me of him. The confident leader sentenced to death and all

“canon jet” as opposed to....? [thinks about everything fans have done with/to this guy] oh.... right.

so my thing about jet is that ever since i was little, he has been my least favorite character in atla. like, to be clear, i don’t think he’s the most evil (certainly not), but he is the most boring. what could be such an interesting and dynamic and morally grey character (like hama!!! I LOVE hama) is just reduced, at least to me, to bad vibes. rancid vibes. his aura has fruit flies. he sort of reminds me of humphrey bogart in the maltese falcon or casablanca; like, i should be enjoying this, this should be good....... but i do not like this painting charlie its smug aura mocks me. over the years i’ve come to appreciate jet more. i think the tragedy of his character is effective, if only because of how his death affects katara (esp the parallel of jet dying in katara’s arms and yue dying in sokka’s arms, that’s very beautiful to me). i think he’s a good foil to sokka. i like longshot, smellerbee, pipsqueak, the duke. i like his awesome tree houses, the color of the leaves in his forest. basically i like everything about jet except jet himself. because of his vibes. his smug aura.

i realize that this opinion is incredibly subjective and divisive, and a lot of people may and do disagree with me. i know a lot of people ship jet with zuko (which is crazy to me, sorry) or generally find him sympathetic. and like, i find his motivations sympathetic, i find his backstory sympathetic, i find his trauma sympathetic, i find his ideals sympathetic, i find his death noble and moving in its tragic irony. but sokka’s vibe detector is never wrong, and that kid’s aura is the equivalent of when a cartoon villain puts poison in a teacup and a little skull and crossbones appears in the air. (he sort of reminds me of the guy i sat next to on a flight once who vaped in my face from his disgusting bubblegum flavored juul for most of the flight and then hit on me relentlessly for the last hour. like jet just feels spiritually aligned with that man, to me.)

anyway, to your point, he wasn’t really “sentenced to death” as much as he was tragically killed by long feng’s callousness. his death was heroic, but only in the sense that he lied to katara to protect her (although i do think she knows that he’s dead; she didn’t even try to use her spirit water on him, so he was clearly beyond saving). in the end, he wasn’t even the one to help them get appa back; zuko was (the irony of that is so delicious, like i may not ship them but their dynamic as foils is excellent). but his intentions were good, and that’s what mattered. and for what it’s worth, i do think he cared about katara. he definitely did use her and make her complicit and try to have her brother killed, but he did like her! (even if he refused to wear that ugly lil hat she made for him, which was so rude of him btw.) and in his final moments, he comforted her. he didn’t go out in a blaze of glory fighting the fire nation, like i imagine he’d always assumed he would. but he did die trying to help the avatar, telling katara that it would be all right. and i imagine he’s proud of that, too.