#zk fandom event

[burst-of-iridescent]

Hi, I’m new to the zutara fandom. Why does it seem like every month is a zutara month or every week zutara week? What does it mean?

don’t worry anon, there’s only one actual zutara month and zutara week! but the fandom is so creative and cool that we’re constantly having zutara events of some kind, which is why it can seem like there’s always something going on haha.

but you know, in the immortal words of mae whitman, katara’s voice actress:

[zkmythicalcreaturesweek]

2023 ZKMC Prompts

October 22nd - October 28th

Like last year, we have two prompts per day. The first is a monster/creature prompt and the second is a vibe/style prompt. You can use just one or both!

Thank you to everyone who voted! Prompts also listed below the cut.

Day 1: Magic Mirror --- Ancient

Day 2: Vampires and/or Werewolves --- Revenge

Day 3: Hunter/Monster --- Cure

Day 4: Angels & Demons --- Constellations

Day 5: Living Statues --- Sleep

Day 6: Talking Objects --- Asian Folklore

Day 7: Soul Eaters --- Disguise

[lunaathorne]

I'm very serious when I say that Zutara antis in their blazing fits of righteousness often end up perpetuating far more dangerous and disgusting ideas about colonialism, race and eugenics than the supposed "problematic" ZK fans do. You cannot pick and choose aspects of postcolonial theory when it suits your narrative of Zuko and Katara being a horrible toxic imperialist ship and discard the rest– aka counterarguments that are posited by actual poc and people from marginalized communities (including colonized cultures)– because you have already assumed you have the moral high ground. If you have to criticize ATLA or its fandom, you have to look within your own circles too instead of stirring shit up where you are not welcome (in ZK fanart, fanfic, ship events etc).

And btw making joke assumptions about race, sexuality, political beliefs and "fetishes" for clickbait over cartoon shipping wars will never not be pinnacle immaturity. Get help. See a therapist. Talk to someone. Maybe gardening or crocheting will cause less despair. Weirdos.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Twitter found your posts about Firelady Katara, and they are being really rude about it. It's super annoying, I'm sorry

Anon, I appreciate the heads up & the nice sentiment! In the future though, I’d prefer not to know about how people react to my posts unless they’re being very nice. I don’t want to engage with negativity & smoothbrain takes, but I am VERY easily tempted lmao. My background in competitive debate / academia / leftist politics means I’m extremely argumentative, but I know nothing good comes out of Internet arguments so I need help ignoring antis. 

Anyway it’s helpful for me to remember that I’m in the Zutara fandom because I love to see people inspiring each other to create things. I’ve read so many wonderful metas, feasted my eyes on incredible fan art and edits, laughed at funny posts, foamed at the mouth over epic fics, and generally have been in awe of what this fandom has produced over the years. I mean…we’ve had colouring books! An EP! Animatics where Dante Basco himself lent his voice! This fandom has been around since before I was allowed to use the family computer and it’s so cool to me that it’s still thriving. By contrast, reacting snarkily to content that other people create is like…the opposite of generative and does nothing to better a community — which is why I fundamentally don’t care for antis and don’t want them to be part of my fandom experience. Anyone can make their half-baked opinion known online, but it takes spirit and dedication to create things you like for your ship. Anyway here’s a reminder that ZK Big Bang signups are still open for one more week! I still haven’t decided which role I want to play in this event but I encourage everyone to sign up! 

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Found a funny post. A ZK shipper complained that ZKs are being attacked while there are some much more terrible ships in the fandom – zucest, or Zhao/Zuko, or Ozai/Hakoda, or Zhao/Azula, or Ozai/Kya, or Jee/Zuko, or Ozai/Azula… there were probably more.

I guess you see the pattern. These are small ships (apart of zucest, probably, it seems the most popular in the list). They are nor, like, everywhere. I’ve only ever seen Ozai/Kya mentioned in a ZK fic, lol. And only ever seen Zhao/Azula fanart among the works of a ZK artist.

They do not pretend to be more than they are or to be something entirely different. For example, Hakoda/Ozai content would be either a crack scenario just for fun’s sake or an honest “these two characters are canonically incompatible, there’s absolutely no way they’ll have a sappy happy ending or a healthy relationship at all, so prepare for some serious drama” or “don’t look for a reason here, I just like them because they’re hot” (which is sexualization I guess but at least both characters are adults and not, you know, 14-years-olds). No “fixing the canon” crap here.

They are honest about their problematics too. Ozai/Azula? “This is incest ship, so if it’s not your kink, just don’t read”. Zhao/Zuko? “Here’s some really creepy shit. Yes, it’s extremely unhealthy, that’s the whole point. You were warned. Check the tags again.”. And so on. Not like the fics where Katara falls in love with Zuko after he raped her, you know…

They don’t shit on other characters. I can’t remember Mai being demonized in zucest fics as much (if she ever was) as she is in ZK fics. I’ve actually seen a devoted zucest shipper (hello-nichya-here) who defends Mai and Maiko!

They are just chill, create and enjoy content. Sometimes it’s amazing. One Jee/Zuko fic I’ve read was much more sensual and erotic than all the ZK smut I’ve ever read, combined (and the character dynamics was way more convincing, too).

Their shippers do not make up crazy conspiracies about how they were “robbed”. They do not write a kilometer long metas about how their ship is the actual canon, inserting Watson and Doyle’s names in every paragraph and lying about almost every event from the show. They do not comment “my ship is better!” under fics or arts featuring one character from their ship paired with someone else. They do not force their ship down everyone’s throat. As far as I know they don’t send death threats to people who don’t like their ship. Really, such terrible ships, why people attack the ZKs instead…

They try to use these as exemples of "worse" fandoms because they all have an element people could have issues with - a canonically abusive character like Ozai, a large age gap between an adult and a minor, incest, a controversial/disliked character, etc.

But like you said, these fandoms all mind their business, and anyone who does the same doens't have an issue with them, if they might have an issue with the ships. Meanwhile, Zutarians are hated not because the ship is controversial, but because the SHIPPERS are pushy. It's just going "Don't pay attention to my bad behavior, hate on these guys for having controversial ships!"

Seems it's time for this again: Hello, Nichya here! Unfortunatelly it was not at all uncommon to find Mai-bashing in zucest fics back in the day (honestly, most of the zucest fics back in the day were fucking terrible with both Zuko and Azula being wildly out of character) and it still hasn't disappeared completely. Thankfully that bullshit seems to be on it's way out, and I don't think the fandom ever reached the point of sending hate to Mai/Maiko fans like zutarians did, even if they hated the character for the same stupid reason - aka for "getting in the way."

[atla-confessions]

Block Notice

The Zutara fandom currently has a creative event going on creating an influx of art and fic posts. This can pose a problem to some fans especially those that are not fans of zk.

If this is the case for you and the mere sight of zk content makes you unreasonably enraged, makes you cry, triggers you to write unhinged hate posts, harass authors and artists alike or simply incites uncontrollable toddler temper tantrums, it is encouraged that you to block the following tags now.

zkbb2024 and zkbigbang2024

Stay safe 😛

Thank you very much, you are a good person. Really. Hope you'll have a lot of pleasure during the event!

X

[longing-for-rain]

What incident are you talking about that makes zk mad and have personal beef with you?

Actually now that I’ve done some investigating it’s unclear exactly who is mad at me because there are two cliques mad at me for opposite reasons.

Basically, I hold what I used to think was a very simple and uncontroversial opinion, which is that fiction is a great way to explore dark themes and topics, but at the same time, can spread harmful and insulting messages if these topics aren’t treated respectfully. Too much nuance for tumblr, apparently. Some people called me a terf for saying rape is bad and some people called me a pedo for so much as mentioning sexual themes in my writing. So we’ve got polar opposites here.

As for “incidents” I’ll give a brief overview under a cut because (warning) it involves sexual abuse and suicidal ideation.

To summarize:

I became active in the Zutara fandom during mid-late 2020 as a result of being online due to the pandemic. Just before the pandemic, I suffered a sexual assault and Zutara (ship and community) became a source of escapism and comfort for me

Shortly after becoming active on tumblr, I joined a fandom event and was paired up with a beta reader. This person proceeded to groom and sexually abuse me over the course of about a year. To put it in perspective, this occurred during the height of the pandemic and we were often on discord calls for hours every day. It was a very involved and predatory “friendship”. And I want to make this extremely clear—do not try to find this person. I’ll only answer questions about this in DMs if you legitimately have personal safety concerns. I don’t think they’re even active anymore and I’ve made peace with the fact I’ll never get proper closure or justice and any attempt will only result in more victim blaming and abuse. So please don’t bother. I’ve been over it

I didn’t realize what was happening to me was sexual abuse at the time, only that it hurt and that something was wrong. Due to the sort of culture I’d been sucked into, I wasn’t allowed to properly express my discomfort and had difficulty articulating what was wrong (being autistic doesn’t help there either). So every time I tried voicing discomfort, I was shamed into silence until it reached a breaking point

As I gradually started waking up to the fact I was being abused, I also, as a result, started unpacking some of the harmful ideas that were directly enabling my abuse and questioning them. This made my abuser angry; they felt their control slipping I imagine. I started exploring these ideas through my writing and asking questions about things. That made people angry

My abuser knew what they were doing. They were a self proclaimed “fandom old” and knew how these communities operate much better than I did at the time. So they got a notoriously loud and stupid Zutara stan angry with me, who proceeded to (predictably) write a bunch of unhinged tumblr rants and dogpile on me over discord. As a result, everyone in her clique also decided I was evil and scapegoated some other bullshit (at this point I don’t even remember everything I’ve been accused of) onto me. She also used sexually degrading language (I don’t think she knew this but it was word-for-word things that had been said to me by men who abused me in real life) and this resulted in me being triggered, suicidal, and it was a whole mess. Lots of people were fighting and there was even a rumor (I have no way of confirming this) that anti-Zutara people got in the mix because they enjoyed watching the infighting

I actually did attempt suicide once, and seriously considered it on a few other occasions. These people only used this as further evidence that I was crazy and couldn’t be trusted or believed

Then, as I stated increasingly using writing to vent about what I experienced, people got mad at me for that too. Even called me a pedo. I think that’s the worst part—that the message from all this is that women’s sexual assault and torture is meant for titillation and entertainment, but serious and meaningful exploration of it is forbidden

Currently, people still share out of context pieces of this story and act like I’m some horrible prude and/or pervert. People who don’t even know me spread rumors without asking me a single thing. They’re spineless and believe whatever their respective clique does. So that’s where I’m at

At this point I more or less keep to myself and focus on writing. I do really love writing and Zutara, and despite everything, it still did/does bring me comfort while dealing with the worst few years of my life. I also have received so much positive feedback about my writing—people telling me it helped them, it resonated, it made them see things in a new light. That’s meaningful to me so I continue doing it.

And I try not to take what happened too personally either. Over time I realized I’m not the first person they treated like this and I won’t be the last. That’s just how cliques work, and how people who are different are treated. Tale as old as time: once they’ve decided you’re a witch, they’ll burn you no matter what you say.

[gemgirl28]

How do you make friends in zutara fandom? It’s been really hard for me because I seem to find myself in bigger discords where it feels like everyone is in a clique and it’s hard to connect, and they talk so badly about people they don’t like to the point I’m afraid to say anything because I don’t want them to do that to me too. I don’t know if it’s gotten worse lately or if I’m just looking in the wrong place

Hello anon! First off I'm sorry you've struggled to connect with other people in the fandom. It definitely can be difficult when we are all interacting with each other online, but I hope you do make some genuine connections 🫂

I will say, making fandom friends in 2023 feels VERY different from 2020/2021 when I first got into fandom, and that is very much due to shutdown vs things opening back up. When I started engaging with the zutara fandom in August/September 2020 I was working full time from home doing a job that was often dead (read: I was online during working hours) and a part time job on the weekends that was soooo slow it allowed the brainrot to really sink in as I daydreamed about zk while working. Now I work in office a minimum of 3 days a week and while we are in our slower season, we still have a ton of work to do to prep for our busy season.

And that's just me! I know people who are engaging in other fandoms, have also had work ramp back up, have had family stuff that pulls them offline, etc. It's a different space than it was when I was first making connections with people (and I would be curious to see if anyone who was already online pre-Covid has written a dissertation about the waves of online engagement due to shutdown).

Also, I do struggle to make connections in larger servers, mostly because I get overwhelmed at the nonstop activity and end up muting them. I do think they are great places to keep up with fandom activity, like events, fanart, fanfics, etc, but for initially making friends I find it tough.

So all that to say, here is my personal method for making fandom friends (results may vary):

Engage with the same person over and over. Like their posts, comment on them, reblog with commentary/additional tags, just over and over engage with them.

They slowly start to engage back (liking your posts, responding to comments, reblogging your reblogs, etc.).

Slide into their dms and ask them how they are doing, then tell them what about them made you slide into their dms (I legit messaged someone that their vibes seemed nice and it worked).

Talk about fandom stuff but also about your interests outside of fandom (IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: DON'T SHARE IDENTIFYING INFO. I'm talking about things like fave foods and music, not where you live or your mother's maiden name).

Be friends forever.

Now that I'm reading that back it sort of reads like instructions for getting to know someone on a dating app. But also, if you aren't trying to fall a little in love with all your mutuals, what's the point?

tl;dr: It can be tricky making friends now that real life has ramped back up, but if you give it a little time and effort, you can make some great connections in fandom.

[atlararepairbigbang]

Meet the Mods!

We have an awesome team of mods working together to put on this event, so we figured we'd introduce ourselves as we prepare for sign ups to kick off on the 26th of March!

Sav, aka @badlucksav

Mod Sav here! My favorite ships are Irosami, Makonora, Makorra, YuTen, Zutara, Azutara, and JetLee, but I like any ship that makes my brain sparkle. I’ve been in fandom for almost 3 years, joining during the Renaissance initially as a ZK shipper but branching out into different ships and then into LoK as well. I’m a writer and sometimes artist, and occasional beta. A fun fact about me is that I wrote my longest fic (273k words) in just under six months.

Sooz, aka @it-is-sooz-again

Hi, I’m mod Sooz! I’ve been a part of the Avatar fandom since 2011, but only really started making fanart for it in the last couple of years. I’m a multishipper and rare pair fanatic, and can be sold on just about any ship that passes my way, but I have a soft spot for anything involving Jet or Ty Lee. Unsurprisingly, my favorite ship is JetLee. A fun fact about me is that all my headcanons are depressing 🙂 !

Orange, aka @orangepanic

Hello, I'm mod Orange. I'd never even heard of fandom until summer of 2020 when I suddenly needed a creative outlet to offset the fact I was locked inside my apartment and busted out 60k words of spiteful canon fix-it. My favorite ships are Irosami and complete and utter side character crack like Ursa/The Boulder, Lin Beifong/Lightning Bolt Zolt, June/Col. Mongke, Azula/Joo Dee, Baatar Beifong/Eska, and Viper/Jargala Omo. Fun fact: I've written nearly 25% of the Irosami tag on AO3.

Neva, aka @neva-borne

Hi, I'm mod Neva (pronounced knee-vah). I started writing for the fandom back in 2019, finishing my first fic a year later, though I've been a fan of ATLA since I was a kid. I kind of dove headfirst into fandom and running events. I'm an artist and writer, and I've dabbled in betaing through my event experience. My favorite ships are Zutara and Jursa, and I actually wrote the first ever Jursa fic on Ao3!

Crooked, aka @crookedmouth-mountainbones

Hello, I'm mod Crooked! I joined the ATLA fandom officially with the renaissance of 2020 but was first introduced to it back in college. I am a writer and beta reader in this fandom as well as others, and am your resident villain devotee. Rarepairs and crackships have always been my favourite, though I am -- to no one's surprise at this point -- partial to pairings involving Zhao. As for a fun fact, some of my non-fanfiction work has been published, which is cool, I guess, if you're into poetry.

And that's the team! We hope to see you soon!

[rosealiceroyal]

Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Vampire Knight (Anime & Manga)

Relationships:

Kiryuu Zero/Kuran Kaname Kiryuu Zero & Kuran Kaname

Characters:

Kiryuu Zero Kuran Kaname Shindou Nadeshiko Day Class (Vampire Knight) Night Class (Vampire Knight) Original Characters

Additional Tags:

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Gen or Pre-Slash Rumors Misunderstandings Valentine's Day

Language:

English

Collections:

Challenged Accepted! KZ/ZK

Stats:

Published:2020-05-11Words:1551Chapters:1/1Comments:30Kudos:551Bookmarks:72Hits:3754

Hey, Hey Did You Hear?

decaf and sleep (kohiii)

Summary:

Hey, hey did you hear? The rumor about what really happened when Kiryuu-kun gave Kuran-senpai those chocolates on St. Xocolatl's Day...

written for the Challenge Accepted! K/Z Discord server event.

[badlucksav]

I made this art piece for the @officialzutaraminibang for this fic. Be sure to check it out and all of the other fics in the collection plus the gorgeous fanart!

[Image ID: image shows Zuko, wearing Fire Nation armor with gold trimming and his hair pulled back into a topknot, and Katara, wearing a blue parka with fur trim and a light blue skirt, starting to dance. Katara stands on the left side of the image smiling at Zuko, while he stands on the right side, his scar visible. He holds Katara’s right hand in his left hand with a small smile on his face.

The image background shows a slightly blurred, snow-covered mountain range and a darkening sky full of stars and shooting stars. Zuko and Katara stand in an icy pavilion. End Image ID]

[officialzutaraminibang]

[authorjoydragon]

It is time to annoy you all with my reposts of the mini bang. 😈 This was such an amazing event! All the art and fics look fantastic and I can’t wait to read each one. Congrats everyone we made it 🥳💛

[zkmythicalcreaturesweek]

Zutara Mythical Creatures Week 2.0

It’s that time of the year, folks! We’re hoping to run this amazing event again so we are checking interest! Please fill out the google form below letting us know if you’d be interested in seeing and/or participating in this event! We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTC_MDm_vTRrXGVNqhmvjVTDkLdUfkFDhr3efQWYbSKdeLFA/viewform

—Mods Neva & Sav

[atla-confessions]

Block Notice

The Zutara fandom currently has a creative event going on creating an influx of art and fic posts. This can pose a problem to some fans especially those that are not fans of zk.

If this is the case for you and the mere sight of zk content makes you unreasonably enraged, makes you cry, triggers you to write unhinged hate posts, harass authors and artists alike or simply incites uncontrollable toddler temper tantrums, it is encouraged that you to block the following tags now.

zkbb2024 and zkbigbang2024

Stay safe 😛

X

[zutaracentral]

📢 FANDOM EVENTS 📢

Naughty Zutara Winter Fest 2021 (@naughtyzkwinterfest)

Note: This is a 🔞 event. A safe-for-work version is available for minors and those who prefer non-explicit works. Please heed the rules and tags.

📱 Event FAQs and Rules | Prompts | tumblr

💭 What is Zutara Central? Click here.