is anyone going to tell the kat@angers that it's not feminist activism to argue Katara's arc in LOK is fine on the grounds that "some women want to be homemakers and that's okay!!"

Like you're not helping real women that way. In fact, most antis for the cannon ship ARE women. Many are homemakers themselves.

Katara is not a real woman. She is a fictional woman written by men.

Can the sensibilities and wishes of a girl change by the time she is a adult? Yes!

But as this is a textual character who, as per the text, rejects the societal structure of her fictional world (which mirrors our own) that women are and can only ever be docile homemakers (i.e. I don't want to heal, I want to fight; I will never turn my back on people who need me; let's start a prison riot; let's engage in vigilante ecoterrorism; let's pitch an absolute fit because the boys are not pulling their fair weight in the homemaking; let's confront my mother's killer at the absolute rejection and condemnation of the male figures whom I am to respect; etc) it is perfectly reasonable to argue that this end was not a natural course for her character.

Fictional characters are not real people. This means that they do not change their mind off screen. That is not an acceptable argument. That is called a "plot hole", which is a nonsensical change made at the convenience and contrivance of the writer(s), who in this case are men exhibited to not care for women or girls all that much. It is within THEIR character to write this way.

Regardless of who, if anyone, Katara ended up with, Katara tolerating disrespect, neglect, abuse of her children, giving up all of her former aspirations to live in the shadow of men, and dying as a mere footnote in history (and being alright with it!!) is not surprising given the absolute vitriol Bryke has shown toward female fans of their "creation". It was supposed to be a "boy" show. It was always supposed to be a "boy" show. The creators of Supernatural and Game of Thrones did the same thing. ATLA just did it first.

Arguing "not all women" is not activism in the face of what is really happening in this discourse. Sending death threats to real, actual women with feelings in defense of a fake pretend woman's fake pretend autonomy is performative activism, and worse, hypocritical.

Not all women agree with you. Not all women feel represented and find the outcome of Katara's story satisfactory. If y'all care about feminism and respecting women's choices so much, lay off the real life women you're so fond of harassing. Our views and opinions, while opposing your own, don't affect you.

Not only does she recognize it, but she recognizes it as the way her father treats Zuko, and specifically says he can't treat her that way.

I think that Azula sees people in terms of those who are strong, which include her and her father, and those who are not, who exist to be controlled by the former. She just didn't count on her father controlling her, too. That's part of the tragedy, and I don't think people acknowledge how similar Ozai and Azula actually are in that way. They see Ozai's treatment of Azula in the end as Azula finally being confronted with the fact that Ozai never really cared about her, when really, she's being treated in the same way that she treats the people she supposedly cares about. A lot of people like make distinctions between Azula and Ozai by citing Azula caring about Mai or Ty Lee or Zuko, but we know Ozai cared about Ursa and mourned her loss, even while he is the cause of it and blamed her for it. We know he cares about Azula at least to some degree, but I think that he can't help but have a psychological need to control especially the people he cares about and I think Azula learned that from him.

as many criticisms i have of mai as a character, i really disagree with the idea that her “just letting” azula stop the trade for tom tom shows that she doesn’t care about him or that she’s not afraid of azula. i actually find this to be the moment i feel the most sympathy for mai in the entire series.

don’t get me wrong—i don’t think she originally joined azula out of fear; i think she was more or less being honest when she said she would do anything to get out of omashu because she was bored.

but when azula halts the exchange and compromises tom tom’s safety, something shifts. the music becomes really tense. mai’s expression doesn’t change, but she takes a beat too long to answer, she looks to where sokka is holding tom tom, and then she agrees with azula anyway.

it wasn’t enough for azula for mai to join her because she wanted to—azula wanted mai to join her on her terms and to know that she held all the cards, that she could decide a trade for mai’s brother wasn’t worth giving up bumi as a prisoner and mai couldn’t say anything about it without risking treason.

and this is the moment i think is supposed to show that mai now understands the danger she actually is in, similar to the close-up of ty lee’s face at the circus as azula insists the net be set on fire and wild animals set loose.

ty lee says no originally, but then tries to protect herself by backtracking and claiming it’s the universe who wants her to join the mission. mai protects herself by never saying no at all, displaying a mask of apathy, and (though this is conjecture) maybe even hoping if she shows enough loyalty by not disagreeing, azula will reward her by changing her mind and help her get her brother back later.

I really like the nuanced take about Zutara and why it makes some people uncomfortable and I can see both sides of it. I ship Zutara now but at first I didn’t and it made me really uncomfortable but I think it was just because of certain fan content I was coming across. Some people do portray Zutara in an extremely fetishized & creepy Stockholm syndrome way that makes Katara come off like some helpless damsel stereotype. It made me feel really gross thinking about as a young WOC but rewatching the show and seeing the true dynamic of these characters made me fall in love with them again. So I guess my feeling is that in canon i really love the dynamic but I hate the way *certain fans* twist it and refuse to acknowledge the racism & misogyny in what they’re doing

this is a complicated topic with many layers to it but first - i am sorry if you have ever felt unwelcome in the zutara fandom due to experiences with racism/misogyny.

it would be ignorant to claim that the zutara fandom is somehow uniquely unaffected by systemic racism or sexism, but it would also be disingenuous to claim that these issues only exist in certain parts of the atla fandom. racism, sexism, and general bigotry exist in every fandom due to institutionalized inequality in social structures. and to make it clear, i'm not directing this criticism towards you, anon, you are entitled to your own personal experiences, but i have seen a broader trend of people attempting to use fandom racism to moralize their position in ship wars, which is diminishing from the actual problem - the focus should be on acknowledging the existence of fandom racism/sexism, combatting implicit biases, and creating spaces that can uplift marginalized voices, rather than focusing only on optics in an attempt to gain moral high ground in a silly *fictional* ship war.

however, given all this, the reason that i am still in the zutara fandom is because i appreciate how many people in the fandom are dedicated to unpacking issues of racism and sexism and cultural insensitivity in atla's source material, which i personally haven't seen in many other sides of the fandom (that often sanitize what actually happened in the text to avoid acknowledging these issues in their favorite show). of course this is a broad generalization, but that's generally why i stick with the non-canon shipping side of the fandom because fans that are willing to stray away from canon are often less afraid to engage in critical analysis.

i also do think the zutara fandom has come a long way from the early 2000s when the show first aired. for example, when i first joined the fandom i had mixed feelings on fire lady katara, but i have since read some fanfics that have done an excellent job deconstructing some of the problematic ways that this trope could be interpreted and balancing respect for katara's cultural heritage and autonomy with the political and personal difficulties of being involved with an imperialist/colonialist nation. the fire lady katara trope, capture!fic, and other complicated topics/tropes are almost never inherently racist/sexist, but rather, their execution is what matters. and all this is not to say that issues of systemic racism/sexism do not still exist in this fandom, but it personally has not significantly negatively impacted my experience in the zutara fandom due to the wonderful content that so many other fantastic people produce, though everyone's mileage may differ with what they are comfortable with. anon, i hope that you are able to find a place in the zutara fandom for you! but i also know many people that have stepped back from other fandoms due to experiences with racism/misogyny, so i understand that decision as well.

on a final note, i think it's important to acknowledge that fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum and broader issues of racism and sexism are rooted in the media, the entertainment industry, and mainstream societal norms. while i do sometimes focus on fandom dynamics/discourse in my criticisms, i think it is equally as important to acknowledge how issues of prejudice and inequality are perpetuated through larger social structures, which is why it frustrates me when the atla fandom refuses to acknowledge the flaws of the original show, which has far more influence and social power over the general public than discourse over fandom tropes ever will. personally, i don't understand the phenomenon of holding fan-made material to a higher standard than mainstream media.

Reading this, I'm also reminded of Azula lying to Ozai about Zuko killing the Avatar, because it's another situation where Azula does something she didn't actually need to do just to make sure that she holds all the cards and everyone around her knows it. A large part of her motivation for lying about Zuko killing Aang is making sure she has Zuko under control, and she's doing the same thing here with Mai.

It's also an extension of the theme in Azula's story of her continually choosing control over real relationships. Even when Mai and Zuko are on her side, she has to make sure they have no other choices.

as many criticisms i have of mai as a character, i really disagree with the idea that her “just letting” azula stop the trade for tom tom shows that she doesn’t care about him or that she’s not afraid of azula. i actually find this to be the moment i feel the most sympathy for mai in the entire series.

don’t get me wrong—i don’t think she originally joined azula out of fear; i think she was more or less being honest when she said she would do anything to get out of omashu because she was bored.

but when azula halts the exchange and compromises tom tom’s safety, something shifts. the music becomes really tense. mai’s expression doesn’t change, but she takes a beat too long to answer, she looks to where sokka is holding tom tom, and then she agrees with azula anyway.

it wasn’t enough for azula for mai to join her because she wanted to—azula wanted mai to join her on her terms and to know that she held all the cards, that she could decide a trade for mai’s brother wasn’t worth giving up bumi as a prisoner and mai couldn’t say anything about it without risking treason.

and this is the moment i think is supposed to show that mai now understands the danger she actually is in, similar to the close-up of ty lee’s face at the circus as azula insists the net be set on fire and wild animals set loose.

ty lee says no originally, but then tries to protect herself by backtracking and claiming it’s the universe who wants her to join the mission. mai protects herself by never saying no at all, displaying a mask of apathy, and (though this is conjecture) maybe even hoping if she shows enough loyalty by not disagreeing, azula will reward her by changing her mind and help her get her brother back later.

something that gets to me a lot when people suggest iroh was wrong for not intervening during the agni kai is like... can we just think through what would have happened if he'd tried?

before i say this, i want to also say that intervening in abuse in real life is also a difficult, complicated, and often inaccessible process. that doesn't mean people shouldn't try or that i think it's right things are that way - but there are legal parameters to what one is allowed to do in a situation where they witness or suspect abuse, particularly for things that are not universally recognized as inappropriate and abusive behaviors.

with that in mind:

the agni kai is a culturally sanctioned, violent, ritualistic duel. that doesn't make what ozai does right, of course, but it does make intervening that much harder. ozai was pretty obviously breaking the acceptable terms of an agni kai (because we may not know all the rules, but even if it's not an official standard, attacking a surrendering opponent is pretty much universally recognized as bad form. evidence that this is also true in-universe is that azula deliberately uses this cultural value to her advantage by faking her surrender when fighting iroh, zuko, and the gaang so that they'll stop attacking and she can strike iroh in bitter work.) therefore, one could argue that someone (such as iroh) would have been in the bounds of their rights to step in during the agni kai. and i agree! he absolutely would have been, at least morally. but legally, he is living under the imperalist rule of his brother, so... acting like it's so simple ignores the power imbalance not just between zuko and ozai, but iroh and ozai at this stage of their lives.

sure, iroh was once next in line to be firelord, but that hasn't been true in a few years by this point, and ozai is now the absolute monarch of their nation. iroh can't appeal to a higher authority or report the danger zuko is in because ozai is the highest authority in their nation, and he's the one posing a danger to zuko.

some might argue, then, that iroh should have physically intervened, but again, i think it's important we consider context. because again - ozai is the absolute authority of the fire nation at this point. defying him in this way would be treason, and ozai has plenty of guards and other military officers under his rule that could fight iroh for him, even if ozai didn't deign to do it himself.

iroh is a powerful bender and a good fighter, but he's one man and unlikely to be able to gain the upper hand in a fight where he's so clearly outnumbered by people loyal to the regime, which ozai currently leads. the most likely results of iroh's potential intervention, in my opinion, would have been his getting arrested or killed, and zuko still getting burned and banished, only now without iroh coming along to look out for him. if he had tried to physically intervene, it would have been on the frankly very slim chance that he could have somehow managed to fight off ozai/guards/military officers, remove zuko from the situation, and safely get himself and zuko out of the palace...

and, in the wise words of iroh himself, then what? they wouldn't have the (already somewhat meager, compared to zhao's or azula's) resources they have in book one, yet they absolutely could not stay on fire nation soil at that point. maybe they could have figured something out??? like, i don't know how. (the part of my brain that likes thinking up aus and then never writing them imagines maybe he contacted the white lotus and hid out until they came, but i digress.)

but again, there's nothing iroh could have done in this situation that wouldn't have been risking not only his own, but zuko's safety. zuko's safety was already compromised in the agni kai, of course, but iroh maintaining his own safety meant he would be available to try and protect zuko in the long-term.

none of this means that i don't think iroh felt ashamed and guilty about his inaction (he quite obviously did, based on the way he recounts the story and how he "looked away" in the storm.) and i also don't think it would be totally unsympathetic or wrong for zuko to have some amount of resentment for it, either (i think this is less based in canon, but i've seen it in fics - where they otherwise clearly have a largely positive relationship - and i think it can be done well and add to the dynamic in an interesting and meaningful way.) it's obviously awful that this was done to zuko. but the nature of abuse is that it can often leave people, both the victims and the witnesses, with very few, if any, good choices. and that's tragic, but the onus of that tragedy will always be on the abuser - in this case, on ozai.

The main problem with the way the show treats this with Katara also is a big problem in her relationship with Aang, and that's both why it's not resolved and why KA shippers are so invested in denying it.

When I talk about the madonna/whore complex in KA I mean that Katara is both expected to mother Aang (which she canonically does and which is textually lampshaded several times) and blamed for being that way towards him because that is the double standard that many women are forced into. They're expected to mother their man, but also expected to be available for sex when he wants. Obviously ATLA is portraying the G-rated version of this, but that's where this trope comes from. Which is why when Katara shields Aang from emotional hardships or takes care of his needs it is portrayed as good, but when she sees him as too young to be her romantic partner it's bad, and the show makes fun of her for it. That's also why EIP simultaneously portrays her as hypersexed towards other guys while also ramping up the "I only see him as a little brother" towards Aang.

Pretending like this was invented by zutara shippers is completely daft, but I think a lot of KA shippers know that if they admit this, it doesn't make their ship look good.

Is Katara "Motherly"? - The Discourse

The whole "is Katara motherly" discourse is a little annoying to me because for one thing its impossible to deny that in canon she acted motherly towards Aang, Sokka, and Toph, with Sokka even saying at one point when he thought of his mother Katara's was the face that came to mind.

But the other problem is that this fits into the shows themes so perfectly of children being thrust into adulthood and enormous amounts of responsibility too easily because of war and the subsequent (or end goals of) genocide, cultural genocide, and colonization. Katara's motherly characteristics are of the show's own making, they're right there in the text and their there for a reason, and although they weren't given enough attention as they should have been, there is no doubt that this is treated as, not exactly a tragedy, but as something bad and debilitating to Katara and her teenagerlike need to goof around with her friends.

But for whatever reason, the fandom seems to think that this characterization is fan made. Katara is supposedly forced into a motherly role by the fandom, particularly the zutara fandom, when in reality it is the show that does this to her. And the whole idea of momtara and dadko is that Katara doesn't have to be the mom anymore. She doesn't have to be the one solely responsible for the chores and the cooking and the emotional labor. She has a partner, and equal, who is willing to put forth the time and energy to assist her in what she feels obligated to do, and to tell her to go sit down sometimes before she burns herself out.

Could the other kids besides Zuko do this? Of course. But as we've already established, everyone in the gaang besides Suki shoves Katara into a motherlike role. Is this their fault? It's hard to say. Toph at least has a heart-to-heart with Katara about it, and Sokka's idea of her as a mother largely stems from trauma.

But my significant problem with Katara's motherly traits comes with the fact that there is no real closure to that arc in the "Runaway". Toph and Katara talk mostly about Toph's parents, and Toph tells Katara that she thinks she is capable of having fun. But other than that, there's nothing. The boys don't have to come to terms with the fact that Katara does not want to be seen (solely) as motherly or put in that position. Instead, the show gives us a few colorful explosions and subtlety implies that it is a little bit Katara's fault that she is seen that way. But again, that's not the fault of the zutara fandom or a reason the trope of momtara and dadko is problematic. It seeks to acknowledge these character traits in Katara, which a lot of kat@angers refuse to do, and give her a way to work past the trauma that caused them and help her adjust to a more healthy amount of stress and pressure on herself for a kid her age.

how is oma and shu a parallel to kataang?

the war doesn’t keep them separated. the war isn’t the thing that’s preventing them from having a relationship.

i have the barest of memory of oma and shu’s story, but i do remember never relating it to kataang despite the episode being kataang-centric.

I had to look up what the KA theme even was. I guess it's that piece with the kalimba, and it's honestly a forgettable track among an otherwise phenomenal soundtrack. And it ain't what plays over the Oma and Shu story.

And yeah, the main difference between KA and the Omashu story is also what makes zutara a healthier relationship, and it's ironically something that is highlighted in this episode.

The Oma and Shu story parallels zutara because it's a relationship where the characters are kept apart by outside forces. Once they are on the same side, Zuko and Katara are as thick as thieves. I've also said this about what makes Sokka and Suki a healthy and compelling relationship. What's keeping them apart is primarily distance, and once they are together they actually just like each other, like real people in a real relationship.

Whereas with KA, there's no reason why they can't be together except that the show wants it to be ambiguous to keep up the will-they-or-won't-they. So the relationship itself becomes the conflict keeping them apart.

Why can't Aang and Katara be together despite kissing in the cave? Well, because Aang puts his foot in his mouth and is too scared of rejection to actually let Katara know how he feels, even when she shows willingness in this episode, and ends up hurting her feelings.

It's actually quite an insult to the memory of Oma and Shu, who were brave enough to follow their hearts and overcome social prejudice to be together, to compare them to the way Aang flounces around with Katara the entire series and then gets mad at her for not automatically becoming his girlfriend, without ever once telling her how he feels.

Hi,

Hope you are doing well. Thank you for the response on TSR.

I was reading some of your older metas on "The Ember Island Players" episodes, and a few things got me thinking.

I know out of universe, the writers were parodying Zutara, but the way the play wrote Zuko and Katara, it makes me wonder, were there people shipping the two in-universe? There has to be some reason, other than just inaccurate storytelling of the Gaang's adventures.

Second, when Aang and Katara talk, this one is also partly influenced by @araeph's metas, the fact that Katara has probable romantic thoughts on her relationship with Aang was introduced way too late, I feel. This should have been discussed way earlier, I think.

I would like your thoughts on this.

What I think is funny about the way zutara is portrayed in "Ember Island Players" is that by parodying fan interpretations of zutara in-universe, they end up having the characters acknowledge that there's some truth to it. The plot of that episode centering around Aang's insecurity that Katara may not like him back, which is very much being fueled by zutara, makes this even funnier. If Bryke wanted to convince us there was nothing to zutara, this is like, the opposite of how to do that.

And yeah, many people have spoken about how the show should have told us more about how Katara feels about Aang, and the reason they don't is because the romance is written to keep up the suspense, so that the audience identifies with Aang and worries whether Katara will reciprocate his feelings. The zutara moments in EIP are also used in service of this conflict. Can anyone really blame the audience for thinking that Katara might actually prefer Zuko instead?

Hi! I am currently dabbling in fanfic writing, mostly for myself, but I was wondering if you’d be okay with someone using one of your posts as inspo for a fic. I haven’t started writing anything, but if I end up really liking the prompt, I’d imagine that I’d like to post it here or on AO3 (with proper credits, of course).

Of course! If I post an idea it's usually because I know I won't write it myself, but I would love to see what you create if you end up being inspired by one of my posts! Please link me the fic when you post it!

Zuko does everyone's FN topknots after he joins the gaang because they're Doing It Wrong.

you know, i always see fanfics etc. being like “zuko can do hairstyles because his mother/sister taught him/made him learn” but never “zuko can do hairstyles because he had long hair himself”

like

that’s some long hair babes!

even in his bald ponytail era!

like, i know he had servants but come on! the potential!

Finally a post about Azula that isn’t painting her as the Devil incarnate or Zuko’s real abuser (funny enough, I never posts about Ozai’s abuse towards Zuko), I’m proud of you for taking such a big step!!

That's a lie, sweetie, we all know you don't think :)

I am begging you to find a screenshot of a post I made where I said Azula was the devil incarnate or Zuko's "real" abuser (rather than one of his abusers.) Begging you. Have fun! I know you have nothing better to do with your life than to troll through my blog getting fake outraged (must be bad for your blood pressure) so have at it.

I'm also surprised that you haven't seen any of the posts I've made about Ozai's abuse of Zuko, since you love stalking my blog so much. But we know you can't read, so. What I'm more surprised by is that you didn't find some way to tell me I was demonizing Azula in that post you screenshotted. Something like:

"dark academia is inherently sexualizing and adultifying underage girls! How dare you suggest that Azula was not the perfect student and had misadventures! How dare you suggest Azula be portrayed in a comic, since the comic writers are awful and hate her!"

There, I fixed that for you. Have fun being mad over stupid shit.

There's a difference though between the way people idealize Otaku culture in America and the sentiments that still very much exist in the cultural conscious because of Pearl Harbor. There is a reason that when the American creators were constructing the villains for their show, they reached for parallels to Japan/China/Vietnam/Korea. When I got that comment about the Haruki Murakami book, it was in the early 2000s when atla was airing on TV. I was also in anime club at my college at the time.

So you can read Katara's mind now?

Sorry about the big blue dot, but I had to fit all of this in one screen.

Let's start off with the fact that this person completely disregards the entire character arc of both Zuko and Katara to put this point across.

From what it looks like, Katara is actually okay with being in the Fire Nation. Otherwise, she wouldn't be very comfortable at the BEACH HOUSE at Ember Island, where OZAI laid his head, too. But yeah, let's just glance over that. She even goes to the same theater where the Royal Family frequented when Zuko was a small child and had no issues with it up until the last act of the play. I mean, she had problems with her portrayal, but that was the play. Not the place. She even has fun in the Fire Nation.

Why? Because the Fire Nation is not all bad people. There are a lot of innocent people in the Fire Nation. That's like condemning all Japanese for the bombing of Pearl Harbor... oh wait... that happened. Yeah, Japanese Americans were treated like traitors after Pearl Harbor, even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some were forced to live in 10x10 horse stalls. But I digress. You realize what I'm getting at here don't you?

Probably not because you are naive.

I agree that Fire Lady is an irrelevant title. She wouldn't take it anyway, but instead, because she is very good in politics and loves her culture, she'd likely take on a more political role. Ambassador Katara is overused. But I do know that she is a guiding voice for Zuko (this is in the show btw) so maybe his right-hand advisor who gets shit done could work. Remember, they work incredibly well as a team. Plus he's the damn Fire Lord. He'd find a position for her that she could do some good. (I know this is kinda my headcanon, but it's based on information gathered from various source material from the franchise) hell, even a health coordinator would be in the cards.

Anyway, it seems you don't really understand her arc given that she is very good at politics post-war and has the capacity to FORGIVE Zuko and put all of that behind her. I mean... the way you guys make it sound is that she hates everybody. And that isn't true.

Something that just occurred to me is that Zuko when he says this also does not understand how people really view his family. Another place where we see people say that Azula is adored by everyone is when Azula says she's used to being worshipped in "The Beach," and Ty Lee affirms that everyone worships her. Yet we see how the group is treated when nobody knows who they are. Zuko is talking from the perspective of how he thinks a royal should be treated, but will come to learn through the series how people really view his family.

It actually would have been interesting in the beach episode to have Zuko and Azula actually be confronted with what people really think about them, like maybe someone remarks that Azula looks like the Fire Nation princess "but not as mean" or something.

“she’s a firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her.”

while zuko definitely does not have the most unbiased perspective (since we will come to understand how she treats he; friends, crew, and servants and how at least some of them probably do not, in fact, adore her) i do find this moment really interesting (especially because he doesn’t just say their father adores her, but everyone) and it makes a lot of sense from zuko’s perspective. because… in zuko alone, he just straight up does not seem to have any friends of his own in the fire nation. we don’t know how much of this is like, a natural inclination toward introversion, but i think it’s clear it weighs on him (as evidenced by the fact that he holds onto what aang says about wondering whether they could have been friends and brings it back up in book three.) with that in mind, i think it’s at least conceivable that this was partially because he doesn’t have his father’s favor—and people know it. he also grew up somewhat sheltered and isolated due to palaecs life, and while azula reacted to that by finding friends she could (eventually) use her status to control, zuko seems to stayed pretty isolated, especially after ursa’s disappearance.

i think the disrespect fire nation officers feel entitled to show zuko in the series is like, ramped up to 11, but again—i don’t think ozai’s disdain for him was a particularly hidden thing, and i wonder how that affected him when he was still at court before being banished.

once again thinking about this:

the absolute devastation this panel from "The Search" brings me is genuinely immeasurable.

there's just something about the way azula came here to confront her mother and to finally, finally be proven right. she wants her mother to tell her how much she hates her, how much she fears her, how she always hated her and preferred zuko because azula was a monster.

but when she actually gets the chance to confront her, she's faced not with her mother, but with a woman who has no recollection of her at all.

and even still, when she's attacking and threatening her, her mother, despite not knowing anything about azula or who she is, only states that she's sorry she didn't love azula more.

and the look of disbelief in azula's eyes; after being molded into the prodigy firebender, the weapon, her father wanted her be, she can't believe that her mother's telling the truth.

it's the way she wants to scream and challenge her mother, wants to tell her that she's wrong and that she's lying and she should just admit the fact that she hates azula already.

but that's not true. and azula genuinely can't wrap her head around it.

There should be comics about Azula, Mai and Ty Lee's (mis)adventures at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls.

I'd also love for these people to try and explain (without playing oppression olympics) why Katara can't sleep in Sozin's room but it's okay for Zuko to sleep in his abuser's room.

But since we're dealing in headcanon territory anyway, whose to say the firelady does not have her own chambers? Whose to say the palace isn't big enough for Zuko and Katara to have their own space in it?

Nobody can actually make any statements about what the firelady does, because it's all headcanon. What these antis are is just uncreative.

But, while we're at, how I imagine Katara sleeps in Sozin's bed knowing that he's dead and gone, his legacy a torn down faulire:

I've mentioned this before, but for an example of a woman in a similar situation, I would look at Michelle Obama's speech about what it meant to "wake up every morning in a house built by slaves." It's a good speech, the antis should check it out.

And yeah, one of the problems with people acting like the fire nation is America is that 90% of Americans don't look at people with Japanese clothing and culture and say "this is us." They would say "these are the people that bombed pearl harbor."

One of the reasons it was necessary to rehabilitate the fire nation is because the American creators very much needed to avoid the connotation of America's cultural history of anti-Japanese hysteria. Not to mention the ways the fire nation is made to resemble American fears about communist China.

Some of the people who interact with this show have never had the experience of being called unpatriotic for reading a Haruki Murakami book on the bus, and it shows.

So you can read Katara's mind now?

Sorry about the big blue dot, but I had to fit all of this in one screen.

Let's start off with the fact that this person completely disregards the entire character arc of both Zuko and Katara to put this point across.

From what it looks like, Katara is actually okay with being in the Fire Nation. Otherwise, she wouldn't be very comfortable at the BEACH HOUSE at Ember Island, where OZAI laid his head, too. But yeah, let's just glance over that. She even goes to the same theater where the Royal Family frequented when Zuko was a small child and had no issues with it up until the last act of the play. I mean, she had problems with her portrayal, but that was the play. Not the place. She even has fun in the Fire Nation.

Why? Because the Fire Nation is not all bad people. There are a lot of innocent people in the Fire Nation. That's like condemning all Japanese for the bombing of Pearl Harbor... oh wait... that happened. Yeah, Japanese Americans were treated like traitors after Pearl Harbor, even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some were forced to live in 10x10 horse stalls. But I digress. You realize what I'm getting at here don't you?

Probably not because you are naive.

I agree that Fire Lady is an irrelevant title. She wouldn't take it anyway, but instead, because she is very good in politics and loves her culture, she'd likely take on a more political role. Ambassador Katara is overused. But I do know that she is a guiding voice for Zuko (this is in the show btw) so maybe his right-hand advisor who gets shit done could work. Remember, they work incredibly well as a team. Plus he's the damn Fire Lord. He'd find a position for her that she could do some good. (I know this is kinda my headcanon, but it's based on information gathered from various source material from the franchise) hell, even a health coordinator would be in the cards.

Anyway, it seems you don't really understand her arc given that she is very good at politics post-war and has the capacity to FORGIVE Zuko and put all of that behind her. I mean... the way you guys make it sound is that she hates everybody. And that isn't true.