The student protests for Palestine have been an amazing show of solidarity and support and seeing thr way that so many young people are willing to stand up for their values is admirable when so many others stay silent. But this is all to say that we are entering a pattern of glorifying these white “martyrs” from the global west to put all of this effort and resources and media coverage into instead of the actual cause they are fighting for.

I saw the same thing happen with Aaron Bushnell, when his self immolation was being talked about more than the actual genocide in Gaza (which went against everything he said he was self immolating for in the first place).

And again this happened with the prisoner from the US who worked 136 hours just to be able to donate his $17 check to Palestine aid efforts. In response to this, people wanted to help him and ended up raising over $100,000 in a gofundme for him. This feels almost satirical, as every gofundme to help Gazans evacuate Palestine and get to safety has a goal of less than $100,000 and most of them are not even close to reaching it.

And now, there are more and more posts on how to get aid to the college student encampments, and the “urgency” of getting enough bail funds for the students who have been arrested during them. Talking about Palestine itself and getting resources to Palestine has almost been put on the back burner in favour of making all Palestine related news about college students in the United States.

It think it is valuable to recognise the selflessness and importance of these protests, and getting these students resources but what is MORE important, and what these people are truly fighting for, and protesting, and make a statement about is PALESTINE. We have unsurprisingly reached the point where there are people who care much more about the white people fighting for the cause from the comfort of living in the global west than they care about the Palestinians undergoing a genocide in Gaza. It’s become almost blatant racism, the way people begin to drop everything the second a white/usamerican person does something in regards to helping Palestine, but will not put the same effort into a Palestinian IN Gaza who is telling their story or asking for help. I respect anyone who has done absolutely anything to help Palestine, but I hope people are starting to see the pattern of how the media gravitates towards the “white saviour/perfect martyr” instead of the first hand accounts coming from those in Gaza.

Anyway FIND A GOFUNDME AND DONATE TO HELP FAMILIES IN GAZA ESCAPE GENOCIDE

A disappointing aspect of girlhood is realizing that your brother is not, in tact, a better human/father/man then your dad but rather that he is simply making different mistakes. It’s disheartening

After dinner I noticed a cold sore pop up that hadn’t been there earlier in the day which would have been fine if I hadn’t kissed my 11-week old nephew(on his wrist/arm) earlier in the day 😰 almost cried about it earlier, there’s nothing to do other then wear a mask around him and hope for the best

White in-laws are exhausting. Like tell me why me and my parents have to lie to my sister-in-laws family about staying over to help out with the baby. Why are these people offended by my parents helping out their son and his wife in this new time in their life, when their side never even offered to do so? Like what?

I guess it’s just a reminder that Latinos do truly come in every shade under the sun, including white.

You know pretty much everyone is afraid of having an overbearing Mother-in-law but my SIL is annoyed with my father and you know what- she’s not always wrong about it

the thing about the ember island play is that though it is certainly inaccurate, it is distorted - not false.

the whole point of the play is that the gaang do recognize aspects of themselves - their mistakes and desires and choices - in it! aang is cheerful and traditionally non-masculine, katara is intrinsically hopeful, toph is strong and doesn't conform to social norms of femininity, sokka is comedic, and zuko was obsessed with regaining his honour.

the reason it affects them at all is because it does hold a kernel of truth - because, though exaggerated, it draws upon traits, actions and relationships that genuinely exist. and so having katara call aang her brother and implying real romantic feelings between zuko and katara in this episode where every supposed exaggeration is underscored by reality only lends credence to those implications instead of dismissing them.

after all, if the play was meant to spoof zutara... it can only be because there was indeed something real to spoof in the first place.

Katara's other canon love interests give her agency, and her pov.

And gets a moment where the two connect over similar losses.

Except Aang.

Kataang is framed entirely from Aang's point of view.

Even when he violates her boundries.

And is unable to handle Katara's grief.

But Zutara?

We get Katara's pov, and give her agency.

He saw her at her very worst, and wasn't at all hostile.

And Katara opened up to Zuko in the most significant way.

Zutara, romance novels, and the female gaze

Okay so I’ve been thinking about the female gaze a LOT so I checked out a subreddit about romance novels, despite never having read one. I came across this meme (which was initially a Tumblr post and then got posted to Instagram and then to Reddit and I’m now bringing back to Tumblr — Internet telephone, pls never change):

And…what is The Southern Raiders, if not a platonic grovel? Katara’s pain is central to the episode. It’s central to Zuko. Zuko asks Katara what he can do to make up for his betrayal; she demands the impossible. He reads between the lines, cockblocks her brother to get the necessary information, and then waits outside her door overnight (which he also did for Iroh, the one person we know for sure he loves). He basically makes himself a receptacle for her rage, and he holds space for her by coming with her on her revenge quest and carrying their bags and not saying a damn thing about what she should and should not do beyond like…asking her to rest. And obviously the grovel works! She forgives him and then they’re thick as thieves, bantering and fighting and saving each other’s lives, etc.

On a different note, I’ve been told that enemies to lovers is one of the biggest tropes in romance novels, similar to YA lit and fanfic. Here’s something else I found in the romance novel discourse:

And…yeah. In TSR, Katara really does show Zuko her worst self, because she doesn’t feel the need to perform for him. She doesn’t feel the need to perform moral perfection OR cold blooded vengeance. She bloodbends in front of him and he just goes with it. She doesn’t kill Yon Rha and he just goes with it. He doesn’t treat her any differently afterwards. Maybe they talk about it off screen, but I kind of like the idea that they don’t, because Katara doesn’t need to explain anything. And it’s so interesting, because some people in the ATLA fandom have a totally different read on TSR. They think Zuko was encouraging Katara to get revenge (by what, keeping his mouth shut?), and that Aang is the one who acts as her moral compass. I believe that either Bryan or Mike said in the DVD commentary that Aang is the angel on her shoulder the entire time. And this interpretation does make sense if you see it from the male gaze, where Katara as an object of affection is acting in an angry, irrational, threatening way. But if you see it from the female gaze, you recognize that actually it’s probably the most emotionally taxing experience Katara has to go through, and she doesn’t owe it to be nice or perfect to anybody. Katara’s formative trauma literally comes to a head, and she has to make a decision — no, a discovery — about who she is in relation to the tragedy that defines her life and even her identity (as a waterbender, as a parentified child who becomes the mom friend, as a genocide victim), and she’s accompanied by someone who trusts her judgement and validates her feelings.

I’m not saying TSR is explicitly romantically coded, but when it conforms so well to romance novel tropes…is it any wonder that so many people thought “yes this is her man?” And then he takes lightning in the heart for her and reaches for her when he’s literally dying, I will never be normal about that either

Something that I think ppl who ship both sukka and zutara don't acknowledge enough is the fact that poor Hakoda met both his kids' future spouses on the same day, in the same place and that place just happened to be prison.

It's them.

When I say that my favourite atla ship is Zutara people assume that I dislike Aang. But that couldn't more further than truth. I love all the kids in team avatar.

I really like Aang, I just don't find his relationship with Katara romantically interesting and therefore I don't ship them.

So if you like both zutara and Aang please like or reblog this post. I want to see how many of us share this mentality.

I’m sorry, but the Netflix showrunner referring to Kataang as an “issue to tackle” in the future is some of the funniest shit I’ve ever read/heard.

Good ships, to me, are about characters who make for interesting dynamics. Canon doesn't have to go there for the dynamics to still be rich and worthwhile. In fact, most canons cannot possibly explore all potential interesting romantic dynamics. There's simply not enough space in most stories, unless they have sprawling multiverse narratives going on. The writers have to choose one direction and not others, which is where transformative works can come in.

In particular, with atla shipping, the characters are so young that there's a lot of room to explore going forward. They all have a good 50-70 years of adulthood in front of them - there's so many possibilities in all those eras of their lives! And I like all kinds of concepts.

For example, I genuinely ship widowed Katara and widower Zuko finding the joy of love again in the twilight of their lives - quietly understanding each other's losses as well as cherishing their joy together.

I like all kinds of love stories, including ones that touch on those themes of mortality and loving again in the face of loss. And I genuinely believe their characters and dynamic can take many powerful and interesting forms.

Even if we hew very closely to the canon of the two shows, the ship still has lovely angles to explore! Through transformative works all things are possible. Zutara ship vibes are impeccable to me. I've shipped it for two decades and I'm sure I'll still ship it when I am as old as Katara and Zuko above (if I'm lucky enough to reach my 80s!).

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But it was Katara that he chose to invite.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But Azula knew to aim at Katara.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But the scene was romamtically coded.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But Katara needed to get to heal him.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But it was Katara who was with him in season finales.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But he needed to choose Katara over Azula.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But Shu needed to survive in this life.

"Zuko would take a lightning for anyone–"

But the writers deliberately chose Katara.

Inspired by @captain-konami-code 's "They were enemies"

Shit

Here we go again

Katara never lost herself, she wanted to see her mother's killer, she never even said what she would do to him, it was Aang who started whining about what she shouldn't do and how she should feel. He compared her mother's death to losing a bison for a couple of days! While Zuko was by her side all the time and let her decide for herself, for God's sake, start using more than two brain cells.