I happened to come across another blog post advocating for Kataang with an argument that goes something like, “Fire/water bad boy/good girl is so overdone!!” Maybe that is true, except that Zuko was never actually a bad person, he was a victim of an extremely abusive family. (Uncle) Iroh was telling him (Zuko) from the very beginning of the series that he was not a bad person and that he had choices about what he wanted to do with his own life.
All of the flashbacks from his childhood underline that he was not a bad/evil child (not to say that people don’t change as they grow older, but that Zuko has been consistently not evil and struggling with his demons aka his raggedy, abusive family). Zuko was born into a set of very unfortunate circumstances that included having a father and a grandfather who were both, for lack of a better term, super villains. Every bad thing he ever did was because he was under extreme pressure to be the perfectly evil son that any evil Fire Lord could ask for.
The Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady. Both of them go undercover to do some good. Zuko saves Aang from imprisonment and Katara provides medicine and food to a dying water port and provokes her friends into helping clean the river while also scaring away the fire nation soldiers who were bullying the townspeople. Zuko’s actual motives for rescuing Aang are just a tad suspicious given that during the time that Aang was captured, Zuko was also still trying to capture Aang for himself, but if his intention was to get Aang for himself, I highly doubt he wouldn’t have, at the very least, enlisted his Uncle Iroh to help him. Having Uncle Iroh’s help would have increased his chances of success.
I conclude that the Blue Spirit was representative of Zuko’s inner good fighting to be itself as he could not be “good” as himself because of the circumstances thrust upon him by his father and his position as Prince of the Fire Nation. There is room to continue arguing that Zuko only rescued Aang so that he himself could take him back to the Fire Nation and have “his honor restored”, using the disguise so that Aang’s captors would not recognize him. The problem with that theory is…if Zuko had returned to the Fire Nation promptly after stealing Aang from his other captor, then those captors would’ve been made aware that Zuko stole the Avatar from them.
Those these are just thoughts and theories from repeated watchings of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I do not truly believe that Zuko’s intention at the time of snatching Aang from being imprisoned included turning him over to the Fire Nation at that time. Which would show that Zuko’s true nature, the child in the flashbacks who always defended and protected other people, was showing itself in the Blue Spirit.
This point underlines that despite his own, heavy circumstances, Zuko is a good person who, when he feels free to choose, chooses to do good. Making him a viable option for a love interest of Katara.
But have you seen the fucking fan art? They’re fucking adorable together. Let me talk about why I love this meditation art so much. Now, Zuko comes from a broken, very abusive ass home where people were always nitpicking and criticizing him. Okay, every fan of Avatar knows that Katara is kind of a butthole with a mothering complex and is very detail oriented, a hard worker, and supportive. Besides his Uncle Iroh (and his mother who has been long gone at this point), Zuko has never had someone who was working on making him better without tearing him down in the process. That sounds like love to me. Katara also thrives in her role as teacher and caretaker and has a very great capacity for giving. This would make her an excellent mate for the fire lord and a wonderful mother to raise the next generation of royal children.
To give some balance and opposition to my own opinion (cackles), I will add that Mai does call out Zuko’s bullshit too with her no nonsense, dry, sarcastic, yet honest personality, but to me, their personalities are too similar to make a balanced relationship. This does not account for any emotional growth that Mai might have in the future, but even still, that would not change the foundation of their relationship, which we do not get to see a lot of as Mai is not a main character. Her feelings for Zuko have been strong and steady, but all potential love matches (Mai, Katara, Toph, and possibly even the girl from Ba Sing Se whose name I clearly do not remember that had a huge crush on Zuko) have a core of being steady and dependable.
Those Beauty and the Beast vibes. Zuko, a royal from a broken home who behaves as a monster although he is filled with conflict holds a peasant girl with an unconquerable spirit and big dreams prisoner. In the end, the ugliness melts away and reveals the loving Fire Lord beneath who wants peace in his nation and in the world. To complete the comparison, Katara must end up with Zuko. It’s only right. I repeat, Katara would be an amazing queen or Fire Lordesse or whatever it’d be called. The point is she is highly respected, intelligent, and has excellent leadership qualities to help Zuko clean up the fire nation and help rebuild the world.
From: https://mandy-mo.deviantart.com/art/The-End-Comic-212342619
Given how obsessed I’ve been about shipping Zuko and Katara, I’m sure to come up with more examples soon. (skips away cackling)
I will say that Katara does have a special way of calming Aang when his anger or upset causes him to go into the Avatar state, and no one else is capable of reaching him in this out-of-control state when this happens. This does present a special connection that Aang does not share with anyone else, but I’d be willing to bet that he could find another match who has the power to calm him when he is at his most agitated. Also, I’d like to think that as Aang got older, he learned to control the Avatar state, more specifically becoming so angry that he goes into the Avatar state in a destructive way, on his own, as he is not even a teenager during his time in the Last Airbender series.
So I don’t think that is enough of a reason to ship Aang and Katara.
Katara is a healer and after all of the fucking abuse, the nightmares, the stress, losing his mother, having a literal psychopath for a sister, and living 16 or so years beneath the thumb of an arrogant lunatic, Zuko needs some emotional healing. This is not to say that Katara should’ve felt obligated to help heal Zuko, but I believe after Zuko helped her find peace with her mother’s death by agreeing to do things Katara’s way (hunting down the man that murdered her mother), that they have a very innate understanding of each other in a very specific way that Katara and Aang do not share. They both have looked darkness in its face and made choices to not be as horrible as the people who harmed them.
Obviously, since the entire Air Nomad nation was wiped out during Aang’s extended hibernation in his iceberg, he has definitely experienced heavy losses too. But the specific “field trip” of Zuko and Katara hunting down her mother’s killer served as a bonding moment for them, I feel because Zuko supported her desperate desire to look her mother’s killer in the face while not judging her for harboring hate and violence nor for wanting revenge.
Although Katara does eventually “choose Aang’s way” of forgiving the man who murdered her mother, he did not support the way she processed her feelings of hate and the want for revenge and sought to deny her what thought she wanted by standing in the way. In this way, Zuko exhibits an ability to recognize and acknowledge the whole of Katara’s grieving and healing process that she needed to go through, against Aang’s advice, in order to find her own peace with the violent loss of her mother.
I understand the appeal of zutara katara and aang were built up to be soulmates and they are but everyone’s entitled to there opnion also I think zutara would be rly toxic more hot but toxic kataang is rly cute um kataang 4 evr
😂😂😂 why do people keep saying Zutara is toxic as if Kataang never got into any disagreements or did things that others didn’t necessarily agree with? Zuko and Katara have a LOT in common despite their differences, and I think that would work well in a relationship dynamic because there is a good balance between them.
Ummm…but they are toxic?? Kataang did have disagreements but people aren’ t talking about that there talking Zutara and how toxic they are so… And what’s wrong with disagreeing? This is a free country we can speak our minds?
* this is a free county, we can speak our minds right?
I ship and will always ship Kataang
I ship and will always ship Kataang.
I’m sorry for your loss.🥺🥺
These points are so untrue and one-sided. For one Zuko NEVER helped Katara find peace…. let me repeat that..ZUKO NEVER HELPED KATARA FIND PEACE. It was Aang. Aang was the one who told Katara to forgive and look for peace within herself and the killer. All Zuko did was instigate Katara’s bad idea which was to kill the killer. Zuko just wanted Katara to forgive him that’s why he followed along with her idea and left it at that. He didn’t do it for the purpose of being genuinely comforting, he did it for his own good. Second Aang and Katara had plenty of understanding for each other.For all Katara knew about Zuko was that He was a hot headed, mean, hunter. What understanding are you talking about? I understand the “famous zutara’ scene where they were in the cave and they both had a ‘connection’ about….. losing their mothers and blah blah but it was never a true deep understanding of one of another. Also your opinion on “Katara is perfect for Zuko because she will heal him ” Is exactly why the bf/gf relationship wouldn’t work. Relationships are all about give and take…and what I’m seeing with your reasoning is that all Katara is doing is giving and giving and giving without receiving. All Zuko needs is Iroh to make him some Tea and calm him down and everything will be peachy. To add on Katara being a Fire lady Pfft….I just can’t see it. Katara despised the Fire nation for so long why in the hell would she want to be.. the queen of the fire nation….when her mom was literally was sent there to DIE. This is hella Stockholm syndrome vibes like Beauty and the beast which you compared it to XD. One more thing fan art is the dumbest reason for a ship to be canon. The fan art can be beautiful and delightful to look at but some fan art completley avoids the concept/plot of a show/movie/whatever *cough* zutara. That’s why fan art shouldn’t be the decider of it all.You wasted a whole page just to say some bullshit. Phew I’m done with this correcting this. Keep the bullshit coming.
You haven’t “corrected” a damn thing. Imagine coming on a public forum to be wrong AND an asshole. All Zuko did was HUMOR Katara in her own idea to revenge for her mother’s murder. Because he UNDERSTOOD that Katara would go with or without his help and she’d be safer and more successful with his help. My argument is clearly one-sided because I’m a ZUTARA shipper, but I guess that wasn’t obvious enough to you either. ZUKO recognized the same anger he’d held onto all his life in Katara. The same anger that his uncle tried for YEARS to talk out of him. Did that work? Hell the fuck no, it didn’t. Zuko needed to go through the anger to finally ARRIVE at peace. And so did Katara. Which Zuko understood. Just because you have a childish and rudimentary understanding of character development, doesn’t make me wrong. Also, according to you, Aang preached forgiveness into Katara so it shouldn’t matter about all the bad shit the Fire Nation did because, again, according to you, she should just forgive them and do whatever is best. Stupid.
That was literally what I just said….I know.he did HUMOR Katara but he didn’t do it GENUINLEY which was the point I was trying to get at. To add on We know the talk didn’t work because that’s ZUKO. Zuko is DIFFERENT FROM KATARA. Just because Zuko let out his anger one way doesn’t mean Katara had to let it out that same way. Do you understand were I’m coming from? Zuko doesn’t really know Katara THAT well. So that’s why he stuck with ‘maybe she will release her anger how I did’. Aang knows her so that’s he led her into the right direction. And I digress you are right about the forgiving thing but she still wouldn’t make a good fire lady.
He was GENUINE in the fact that he recognized that Katara needed to look in the face of the man who murdered her mother. Zuko knew Katara was a good person and probably believed that she wouldn’t actually kill that vile man, while also recognizing the anger that pushed her to confront her mother’s murderer. You’re saying Zuko thought she’d release her anger the same way he did but yet you disagree with what I’m saying. Like I said, Zuko had to go through the darkness to find out that that path wasn’t for him which is what he guided Katara to do. Aang ain’t tell Katara to forgive the man, and then she sat down, thought about it and said, “Golly gee. Aang is right. I forgive him!!” No. She needed to go the Zuko-way to arrive at forgiveness, which, Aang cautioned her AGAINST.
OMG…I am tired of arguing with a fucking WALL.. Forget it! I disagree with you because you think this TOXIC relationship should be canon. Zutara based off the series..is a fire that will eventually burn out. Can Zutara become something maybe so.. but If ‘s and butt’s and coconuts won’t make a difference. If Zutara was meant to have a deeper then a friend connection and the 2 protagonist didn’t fall in love with each other…..I would probably be a Zutarian. Zutara is just a wattpad fantasy so just deal with the reality. Writing a whole page on why Zutara should be canon won’t change anything. The writers won’t go back and be like “OH LET ME GO BACK AND CHANGE THE WHOLE PLOT JUST FOR ZUTARIANS.” Zutara has no built up love. Kataang has all 3 seasons and yet you still manage to ignore the fact that there is a real connection in your face! Well good-bye entitled zutarian.
Look here DUMBASS. YOU are the one who is toxic. I didn’t ask the writers to go back and change SHIT. Just because you’re too blind to see that Zuko worked VERY hard to fix his toxic traits and become a good person, doesn’t mean that Zutarians are the stupid ones. You Kataang shippers are obnoxiously violent in defending a CANON FICTIONAL relationship. How do you win and STILL are a sore ass crybaby? The most toxic thing about Zutara is people like YOU. Have the day you deserve. 🙃🙃🙃
Also… no one invited you here to start an argument. Like you said, I’m allowed to have an opinion. Just like you’re allowed to shut the hell up and continue having your own TOXIC opinion. 🤮🤮🤮
you are a horrible and stupid person
😂😂😂😂 have the day you deserve. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Wtf look at yourself you are the toxic one here. Go die in a fire with your ship that will never be canon. Enjoy yourself 🤡🤡🤡
Hell is waiting for you. 🧡🧡🧡
What?? I’m the toxic one? I make Zutara toxic even though i’m not a zutara shipper? Okay..whatever you say Lovely Peaches.. I don’t really care at this point anymore. I don’t care what
oh fck that it’s totally biased.
As biased as you are for iT’S cAnoN. 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃
Kataang is canon so that’s all that matter…
I’m a zutarian but honestly you didn’t need to write this……Your just making people more angry by writting some points that just aren’t simply true, well I don’t think some of them are true. We all know who won so there’s no need for explaining anymore. It’s useless to keep wasting our breath.
Too bad kataang won so……