#like Zuko is not some enlightened feminist

[shadelorde]

Why do so many people unironically think the Fire Nation is the misogyny-less “girlboss” nation. What the fuck.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

https://www.tumblr.com/irresistible-revolution/633688280720916480/fanon-ships-and-the-alpha-male-x-cinderella

thoughts?

I personally would not go that far, at least on most cases. I'd say that the trend of women insisting the Bad Boy type is actually far kinder and more respectful towards the Main Girl than the Good Guy is a combination of two things:

1 - The sexist belief that women who like the "wrong" kind of romance are too stupid to know that some things should be fantasy only and not a model for real life relationships.

2 - The annoying trend of the past decades of people having to pretend nothing about the things they personally like can be kinky, or even genuinely problematic, otherwise they'd be admiting to being bad people.

It's purity culture. It's the assumption of "I am capable of crytical thinking, you are not." Plain and simple.

Some people just get horny for villains/morally dubious characters, are aware that they will be judged for it - and instead of just going "Fuck you, you don't have the right to judge me because of a goddamn fantasy" they try to argue "Actually, YOUR fantasy is the one that is actually problematic, sexist, racist, elitist, heteronormative and panders to the EVIL Male Gaze, while MY fantasy is secretly empowering and subversive and designed to be enjoyed by enlightened girlbosses because it is made with the Wholesome Female Gaze in mind."

Zutarians, for all their talk of wanting a complicated, mature, adult romance for their ship, are actually fucking terrified of the more messy aspects of their own fantasies, and instead of getting over that complex (or removing them through AUs) and having their fun, they defend themselves from bad faith criticism by attacking people first.

That's why they deem Aang a rapist for the Ember Island kiss and call Kataang fans abuse apologists for it, but constantly sexualize the scene of Zuko tying Katara to a tree. That's why they complain that Katara was reduced to "Aang's trophy-wife and airbender breeder" but write AUs where Katara is literally Zuko's sex slave. Why they complain about the supposed "power imbalance" due to Kataang's two year age gap, but don't say a word about Zutara's two year age gap. Why they insist that Kataang fans are all males projecting onto Aang (because projecting onto a guy is inherently bad) while Zutara fans are all women "connecting" with Katara (because projecting onto a girl is inherently good). Why they label Aang as intolerant of Katara's culture for not liking the food, but will throw a fit if people point out that Zuko, and his entire family and nation, legit wanted wanted Katara dead, or at least subjugated, because of her race.

It's a CLASSIC cope and pure proejction. I like tons of Villain X Hero ships, and I see that bullshit all the time. People feel some kind of guilt or shame over being into a character that is a "bad person", even though that is a morally neutral thing, so they twist the narrative until it fits into a pseudo-feminist idea of an "empowering" fantasy for women.

Zutarians claiming that their ship, that only exists because of rape fics, is actually NOT based on highly kinky shit (namely Male Domination/Female Submission with bonus of dubcon/noncon and race play) but rather just on the vague/nonsensical concept of the "Female Gaze" is no different than a bunch of Game of Thrones/HOTD fans, and even the excutives and writers, pretending that 50% the rapes and 90% of the age-inappropriate and/or incestuous relationships aren't just George R.R. Martin (and themselves) having fetishes.

Both are morally neutral and should just be honest about when they are genuinely exploring a dark topic and when they're just getting off on a kinky fantasy. But being honest about it doesn't give zutarians an excuse to act morally superior, so they just stick to their double-standard and purity policing.

[populationtyre]

i've never understood what people saw in zutara. seems bland and they did that one field trip? that's kind of it as far as i remember. plus now that i've been enlightened about zukka, zuko went on a just as much intimate bonding trip with sokka too. thanks for the fic recs i'm gonna indulge when i get in bed before sleeping

Zukka are definitely much more exciting than Zutara, 100%.

but while we’re here, i feel like it’s worth mentioning that, to an extent, Zuko and Katara do have chemistry, and they have some quite a few moments that could be read as a shiptease

like, the necklace scene from like early season 1 gave me goosebumps and i was like oh shiiiiiiit son here we go let’s DO THIS (even tho my feminist brain is like “mean creepy cruel boys are gross and should not be romanticised” but then my fan girl heart is like “enemies-to-lovers slow burn 140k 🥵”)

then we’ve got scenes from season 2 with Katara just trying to help Zuko because she’s a wonderful warm and kind and loving and caring soul who just wants to help people. and my feminist brain is like “women are not men’s rehabilitation centres or therapists!!!!! women need to stop trying to fix men!! men should fix themselves!!!”

but again, my fan girl heart is like “hell yeah baby girl nurse him back to health and teach him how to be a decent human being because you’re special and you can heal his heart 🥺”

and in season 3 of course we have the Lifechanging Field Trip where she is charmed enough by this badboy to forgive him and give him another chance (the whole tome my feminist brain is screaming “turn and run girl!!! he’s a scary guy and you owe him nothing!!!”)

and then also in season 3 when he saves her and they work together to defeat Azula and everything, and my fangirl heart has been trained to view this as romantic foreplay and a sign that Zuko must have ~special feelings for Katara~

when really we all know it’s just FRIENDS doing what friends do for eachother by looking out for eachother

Anyway so what i’m saying is that, when you look at them through the lens that most of us have been groomed with thanks to romcoms and young adult novels, (aka male/female relationships can’t just be platonic, male/female can’t be enemies without there actually being sexual tension, the good girl manages to convince the bad boy to stop being a jerk and fall in love with her, toxic men are sexy, etc and all those dumb patriarchal tropes), it’s easy to see Zutara.

However, i’m really glad that the writers had them be Just Friends, because that’s actually HUGE PROGRESS because it’s so rare that we can just allow characters to have individual arcs and bring them together as friends without any need to shove them into a relationship together.

that said i’m still quietly into Zutara. but am VERY LOUDLY into Zukka they’re so fucking cute together holy shit

but yeah i know that at least for myself i ship Zutara and Zukka probably for the same reason i ship Kurtbastian and Dramione — because i have an unhealthy soft spot for ships where the two characters can each hold their own against the other, and they challenge eachother and inspire eachother while teasing eachother and uhhhhhhhh probably plenty of reasons to do with my attachment styles and messed up conceptualisation of romance that i should definitely dig into with my therapist lmao