#what if theyre changing the ages to make sokka and azula happen HAHAHHAA

[hello-yue-here]

if anyone else saw the post saying that katara was gonna be 16 and sokka was gonna be 14 in the live action here is my take:

im pissed ab this.

and no, it’s not because its most likely being done so they can make zutara a couple. i dont care about that. i have nothing against zutara. i may not ship it myself but if you ship it good for you. ive seen cute fanart and cute fanfics for zutara that ive really enjoyed. i like zutara. not my favorites but i dont dislike them. just wanted to make that clear. that isnt what im mad about here.

im pissed because its gonna ruin katara and sokka’s characters.

by making katara older there is not a doubt in my mind that they will make her more “motherly” seeing as she will likely be responsible for taking care of sokka and aang. there has already been way too many issues in this fandom with stereotypes of katara being reduced to “just the mom friend” and nothing else. in my opinion many of the mom friend stereotypes that have been pushed onto katara in fanon has led to a lot of sexism towards katara and this will inevitably end up forcing the mother role onto her even more and thats just a no no for me. katara literally fights sexism in the NWT, plz dont force her to be a 16 year old girl forced to care for her brother and the avatar because she is older than them. katara deserves more than being forced into a motherly role for aang and sokka. again this is just my take on what i think will happen if katara is made to be the older sibling. i could be wrong. but i would really hate to see this happen because i know itll result in more sexism towards katara and i would really hate to see that.

and now sokka. a major part of sokkas character comes from the fact that he is an extremely protective older brother. because he is the OLDER brother he feels the need to be the man if the tribe. he is very responsible and very serious. this all stems from the fact that he is OLDER. he even says that he is the leader because of it. sokka pretty much IS the leader because he keeps these younger kids on track as an older brother. his insecurities largely stem from the fact that his little sister is a prodigy bender and he is not. there was literally a whole episode about it. and being an older brother w a prodigy sibling mirrors zuko and azula PERFECTLY and that parrallel is one of the most compelling things about atla!!! that will all be flushed down the drain. sure you can still have sexist sokka getting his butt whooped by suki without him being the older brother, sure sokka would likely still be insecure of his status as a nonbender without being the older brother, but in my opinion it would be much less compelling that way seeing as it stems from his status as. an. older. brother. his status as the older brother is also part of the reason why his relationship with hakoda is so interesting as well. his father left him behind to be the man of the tribe because he was older. he wants to make his father proud by proving that he can be a man. his healthyrelationship woth hakoda also DIRECTLY parrallels to zukos horrible relationship with ozai. WHICH IS ALSO AN EXTREMELY COMPELLING PART OF ATLA. sokka just wants to make his father proud by proving that he CAN protect katara. without this, his protectiveness is gone, leaving his protectiveness over Yue in the northern tribe and his protectiveness of suki at serpents pass and his protectiveness of toph on the airship rooted in nothing. sokka is protective BECAUSE he is the older brother. sokka as the younger sibling will reduce him to nothing more than comedic relief and strip him of much of the traits that make him an amazing three dimensional character.

all in all you dont have to agree with me. im not one of the writers. i cant confirm that mom friend katara and comedic relief sokka are what will result in the live action show due to the age swap. but i am very very very very VERY confident that that is what the characters we know and love will be reduced to should this occur. just my thoughts. just my opinion. (if you disagree thats okay but plz be respectful i tried v hard to be respectful when writing this as well)

tl;dr while it may seem inconsequential to change the ages of sokka and katara their roles and older brother and younger sister help shape their characters and changing that just to make zutara canon (even tho i have nothing against zutara. zutara stans please do not attack me ur ship is cute i swear.) it will also change the dynamic of the show we know and love and i am too attached to their original character arcs to be happy with this change.

have a lovely day everyone. go drink some tea and read a fluffy fic and distract urself from another live action atla disaster.

:)

EDIT: keep in mind the age swap isnt like totally confirmed yet so this could all end up being for nothing but yk still wanted to put my thoughts out there🥰 now if you will excuse me im going to write a college essay and then some fanfic cuz why not

EDIT TWO: pretty sure its fake. im sorry for how long this is. false alarm everyone! i think! i hope!

EDIT THREE: i ship zutara now lol. i still stand by this post tho. not happy ab the character age swaps.