#to be clear I don't dislike Mai I just dislike her and Zuko together romantically

[perfectlypanda]

Zutara Week 2021 Day 7: Stories

In my mind there is a very clear connection between the prompt “stories” and my attempt at rewriting part of the AtLA ending, however I’m having a terrible time verbalizing it (sort of “stories belong to their readers” ala John Green vibes?). Instead you get this snippet from a meta I wrote months ago (which I guess I’ll need to post now to have this make sense):

So if someone asks me if a romantic Zutara relationship is “canon” within the context of AtLA, then no it isn’t. But for me, that’s literally the only place where Zuko and Katara aren’t deeply in love and living their best lives together. AtLA is a work of fiction, and fictional characters are just as fictional when a fan thinks about them as when the character’s creator thinks about them. A story is only as real as you make it. And for me? Zutara is real.

Sorry, no kiss, but as I’ve said a few scattered times - my preferred show ending would have had no canon romances except Sukka (although I certainly wouldn’t have been upset if there had been a Zutara ending...). 

♥ Please do not repost. If you like it and want to show people, share a link to this page instead. Thank you!

Transcript under the read more.

Katara: Didn’t I tell you to wait for me so you didn’t hurt yourself?

Zuko: Katara! You look great!

Katara: Thanks Zuko! It’s a big day, how do you feel?

Zuko: Sore, but alive, all thanks to you.

Katara: Only because you saved me first.

Zuko: We make a good team. 

Katara: Yeah, we do. So when you go find out what happened to your mom, I’m coming too.

[theowritesfiction]

hm okay, I'm gonna try to send some rare pairs & pairs we haven't really talked about or that I don't know how you feel about your way for fun now :)

azula/mai, katara/ty lee, zuko/mai, zuko/katara, azula/jet, yue/zuko, azula/suki, sokka/mai

Maizula

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

I get more of a friends vibe from these two. It doesn't really help that Mai is the one lady from the show I tend to see and write as straight. I think that they have quite complex feelings for each other that would be interesting to explore, I just don't see them as romantic.

Katara/Ty Lee

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

I have read exactly one fic with them as a couple and it was kind of cute. I haven't really thought about them too much, and at first I'm struggling to find something meaningful for them to bond over. I could see them having a bit of a fling, a cute friends with benefits thing, though.

Maiko

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

When I started writing in ATLA fandom, I made the common Zutara writer mistake by being way too dismissive of Mai and her relationship with Zuko, which I have since come to reconsider completely. I think it's clear that Mai and Zuko care a lot for each other, but I also think that their relationship is bound to be a rocky one. But that's also what makes them interesting as a couple. I want to actually write them together in a future fic, I haven't really done that.

Zutara

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

The ship I started out with (cringe at the lack of originality there), and I still think they have a good dynamic as a couple and could work together well, but I'm just no longer interested in them since I'm done with Katara in F/M ships. If you were to put a gun to my head and told me to ship Katara with one of the boys, I'd go with Zuko.

Jetzula

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

Just don't like Azula in F/M ships, same as with Katara. Azutara has ruined that for me. <3 I think Azula and Jet have an amazing dynamic, and I really love the way you write their friendship, which is exactly what I prefer, a rather volatile friendship. Again, if you were to put a gun to my head and told me to ship Azula with one of the boys, I'd actually choose Jet. It's why I chose Jet as her attempt at heteronormativity in WLG, and I will probably use Jet as Azula's 'phase' in the future.

Yue/Zuko

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

I actually like this pairing a lot. I think if you were to take all the reasons why people believe that Zutara works and applied them to Yue/Zuko, those reasons would apply and work even better there. I feel like Yue could handle Zuko's tantrums better than most. The ship would also allow to explore some interesting political alliance angles, the whole arranged marriage turning into something real trope would literally write itself for these two.

Azula/Suki

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

I can see this being a very explosive relationship. Honestly, I chose love it! because my mind immediately went to 'oh god just imagine the crazy hate sex these two would have'. I think that if I spent more time thinking about these two, I might come up with other things for them to bond over. They kind of give me that Fuffy vibe. <3

Sokka/Mai

OTP | love it! | it's ok | not a fan | very much dislike | thinking about it makes me feel rage

I have no idea how to rank this, I have literally never thought about it for some reason. I'm struggling to see how they would function as a couple, they both bottle everything up so much. But I'll also say that all the potential disastrous issues they would face, also makes me kind of fascinated with them as a couple. I might need to think about these two some more. :)

[comradekatara]

Hey I'm new to your blog and I love it!! I'm just confused though... Who exactly do you ship from atla? I've been looking through your posts off and on today and there are some posts for example where it seems like you do like kataang and then older posts make it seem like you don't? Also I have no clue what Litara is?? Thanks 😊

so i have mixed feelings on katara/aang. i know there are people who dislike it because katara is like “a mom” to aang, but that simply isn’t true. they are both kids, and that’s the reason why they’re initially drawn to each other (see: going penguin sledding). to say that katara treats aang like a son is some bullshit, and a fundamental misinterpretation of katara’s character. they are the most important person in each other’s lives, and they are best friends. what i dislike about the way their dynamic is portrayed, though, is the episodes which explore their romance (not all of them! just some of them). these episodes feel cliched and tired, employing lazy shorthand to indicate that they’re “meant for each other.” 

romance was never one of atla’s strongsuits. i would even go as far as to say it’s their weakest link, writing-wise. in a show that otherwise excels in writing three-dimensional characters, where romance is concerned, the writing falls flat. i think sokka and suki work really well together, but even then, suki obviously isn’t explored to the same degree as the rest of the gaang. i love sokka and yue’s tragic romance (because even i can be a little bitchbaby sometimes), but their buildup is definitely underdeveloped. mai and zuko getting back together at the end of the show is completely nonsensical, because zuko has done nothing to prove that he won’t continue to be a shitty boyfriend to mai, and mai deserves better. (and don’t even get me started on that lok love triangle.) 

we talk a lot about how atla (and lok!!!) is a show created by two whites, and the intense insensitivity of its portrayal of the tibetan genocide, the way in which its lore draws so heavily on hindu theology & philosophy and yet their one south asian character is a caricature, the way sandbenders are a racist caricature of mena ppl, using the name lake laogai, mispronouncing/misspelling asian names, i could go on... but i just remembered that’s not the point of this post. lmao. anyway. atla is also a show created by two men. and while i genuinely believe that katara is one of, if not the best, teenage girl characters ever portrayed on tv, there are definite flaws, as well as assumptions made, where romance is concerned. 

for example, the fact that people thought katara was in a “love triangle” with aang and zuko is absurd. i mean, i can see why people thought that. i’ve read the powerpoints about why zuko and katara should have “ended up together” because they’re like romeo & juliet or whatever (you know, how romeo terrorized juliet for most of the play and juliet hated him? we all remember that, right??), and i get why there’s an appeal. but it’s not a love triangle, because zuko was never a contender. but people still wanted to treat katara as if she was a prize to be won, and let the best man win. which is deeply sexist, plain n simple. 

audiences are romance-obsessed due to society & the media’s constant insistence that romance is the only way for a woman to find personal fulfillment (watch crazy ex girlfriend all seasons streaming now on netflix). i reject the idea that katara had to “end up” with someone by the end of the show, and not only “end up,” but “stay with together forever, marry, and have three kids with.” katara is fourteen. aang is twelve. yes they have crushes on each other, and love each other deeply, but they are kids. romance isn’t necessary. 

the love katara and aang have for each other is a fundamental pillar of the show, and their love for each other is deep and poignant. up until the moment lazy shorthand is employed to indicate that their feelings are romantic. they’re still cute, but these moments are cliched as all hell, and the thing about romance cliches is that romantic cliches promote sexism. whoops! 

the original character of li (invented by me, chell, julie klausner, and inspired by my friend’s ex-boyfriend who is the most amenable and polite man i have probably ever met) is, in essence, a thought experiment in which we provide katara the perfect man whose entire life revolves around happily attending to her needs. if she wants to spend all her time in the south pole because that is where her family and her tribe is and also she is chief which is kind of a hands-on job, actually, he will gladly move there for her. one of his side hobbies is that he is a masterclass chef, and so he cooks every meal for her. whenever katara has to deal with a bunch of particularly stubborn idiots that day, he just sits there and listens to her rant, never interjecting with his own opinions. his baggage never gets in the way of her baggage, because he is his therapist’s best patient. it’s heterosexual rights! 

at risk of explaining the joke, basically, he is what bryke (and gene yang–ugh) think katara would be for aang......which obviously isn’t in line with what aang as a character would want for katara, but she was never confirmed to be the chief of the swt either, and that’s fucked up! katara is a character with so much agency, but to make her the love interest for the protagonist, regardless of how wonderful said protagonist is, and how much he adores and supports her (which, to be clear, he absolutely does!), strips her of some of that agency by virtue of being a female character written by men. i love katara and aang, and i love the love they have for each other. but ideally, to me at least, the show would have ended on their hug, not their kiss. a romance between them can be implied, but it would have been more open-ended. because romance isn’t necessary, not when you’re in middle school, and frankly, not ever.