“I’ll take care of you." / "It’s rotten work." / "Not to me. Not if it’s you.” - Anne Carson (Fire Noodle #15)

Had a hard time with this one and others, been in an art slump.

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i've gotta admit, it confuses me how some people who are so against zutara and insist that firelady katara is an inherently problematic headcanon don't seem to understand that katara becoming fire lady literally does not mean she has to give up all of her water tribe culture and just stay permanently glued to the fire nation after marrying zuko, like?? would you automatically give up all of your cultural traditions if you moved to another country from your birthplace that you loved and felt deeply connected to, or would you not carry those traditions, and that culture and history with you, and share them with the friends you make and with your children if you have them? would you willingly just stay in the other country forever and ever, or would you not visit your original home as often as you had the means and desire to? let your children visit, let them know the other half of their own heritage? would your heart, and your family, not belong to both places as much as possible?

and then they act like they don't understand why firelady katara is such a popular trope and (sometimes) say zutara is okay as long as you don't hc it, when like... it's literally just because it's the single most logical and realistic progression of canon, that zuko is going to become firelord and whoever marries him will be his consort. that's why zutara shippers want katara to be firelady and like to write headcanons and fics about her grappling with her love of and canonical--watch the painted lady!--desire to help a nation whose people hurt hers so badly, and with the thought of holding such a position while remaining in touch with her water tribe culture. because it's what would be most likely to happen if zutara were canon. some people don't even call her fire lady, or if they do they make it clear that she is also master katara of the southern water tribe. i've seen a lot of people simply call her the princess/queen consort or even have the title "lady of the moon" invented just for her, which i'm not sure who originally came up with that but it is absolutely lovely. i kinda think that if you believe "firelady katara" = "katara stripped of all of her water tribe heritage and culture" you are really not being imaginative enough, though i'm also not saying nobody has ever written it that way before. i just know i've seen countless fanworks where it isn't.

also tbh lately i'm starting to wonder if people with other zuko/person-from-another-nation ships tend to headcanon that he never marries, spends his entire life somehow juggling being firelord and hiding a secret relationship with the other person in the ship, and ends the royal line by being unable to openly provide an heir to the throne. or if they headcanon that he abdicates the throne to iroh and moves to their nation in order to be with them. i've never cared strongly enough about other zuko ships to know what their popular tropes and headcanons are, but if not then i can't imagine why it's only zutara that gets hate for this lol.

It's Katara loving hours

Zutara/Azulaang - life as an ambassador

Azula: “So new sister, how’s it going with being the ambassador of the fire nation?”

Katara: “Overwhelming and unorthodox but it’s got a lot of perks. Some of the fire nation people like me, some don’t, some of my tribe people, including Sokka, approve of my position, some don’t. Regardless, with this amount of resources Zuko and I can do a lot of good and in time, both of our nations will come to more peaceful terms.”

Azula: “Spunky.”

Katara: “How about yourself, what’s it like traveling with Aang as a freelance hero and the first firebending nomad?”

Azula: “More fun then what my father lead me to believe. With my chakras cleared I have more life choices then I could possibly handle. Unlike the air nomads from years ago, Aang and I are doing hero work for the people of all nations, working wherever there is corruption and discord to restore balance and peace and use them to dominate the earth and we get most of the glory. We try checking in on Zuzu every now and then and see if he didn’t destroy the palace or he didn’t end up getting assassinate.”

Katara: “Great. It’s good that Aang found someone he can share his life with. Even if it’s someone everyone least expects.”

Azula: “Right back at you.”

Katara and Azula pick up cups of Jin Se tea.

Azula: “Here’s to our unusual but enjoyable new lives.”

Katara: “And our determination to change the world for the better.”

Cheers. They drink.

ZKMonth22 Day 1: Fire Lady Katara

“If by some horrible series of events you were to become Fire Lord,” Katara asked one evening when they were having a private dinner, “what would I be called?”

Zuko paused, considering this. His uncle’s wife, Tasheng, was called “Fire Lady” colloquially but her official Fire Nation title was “Queen Consort.” She was from the Earth Kingdom, too, so she’d been given an additional title: “Lady of the Earth.”

“I suppose,” he said, setting down his chopsticks, “you’d be a Queen Consort, like Aunt Tasheng is. That’s her official title, but the people refer to her as Fire Lady because it’s a natural counterpoint to Fire Lord. As she is from the Earth Kingdom as well, her full title is: Queen Consort Tasheng, Lady of the Earth.”

Katara hummed, stirring her food absentmindedly, one hand propping up her head, elbow on the table. She forewent any sense of decorum when it was just the two of them. It’d be too exhausting to maintain otherwise.

“So, Queen Consort Katara,” she said thoughtfully. “But I’m from the Southern Water Tribe, so I’d get another title too.”

Zuko nodded. “Something to do with Water Tribe culture.”

“Lady of the Moon? I am a master bender, after all.”

“That’s probably what they’d go with, then. If Yue were to become Queen Consort, it would probably be something different because 1. she isn’t a bender and 2. she’s from the North.”

“Lady of the Ocean?”

“Potentially.”

She nodded and sat up so she could finish her meal.

“While I don’t want anything to happen to our family, of course, ‘Queen Consort Katara: Lady of the Moon’ has a nice ring to it. Much nicer than ‘Fire Lady Katara.’”

Zuko’s chest grew warm at her admission that she thought of his family as hers, and nodded in agreement. She would make a wonderful Queen Consort, if given the chance.

@zutaramonth​ Day 1: Fire Lady Katara 

---

 "Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, Queen Consort of the Fire Nation"

Katara's head spun. She was never going to get used to being called by her full title, or to being announced into the Fire Lord's throne room. It was the first time after the wedding that she was asked to join a state meeting, and as the doors to the room opened for her, her heart sped up so violently that she could've sworn it reverberated against the high ceilings and glass windows that were coming within sight.

That wouldn't do. It wouldn't be right to sweat into the furs she'd insisted on wearing, or for her step to be anything but steady. She stood in the doorway for a second, composing herself, taking it in. The midday sun washed it bright, revealing the most important men in the Fire Nation, all bowing down to her. All but one. Fire Lord Zuko, her Zuko, was resting on his throne as if he'd been sculpted on it, beaming at her with stars in his eyes.

She squared her shoulders and returned his smile, walking in slowly with a powerful step. Now that she could get used to.

I haven't posted anything for a while so get ready for many rants!!!

Most times I see posts that claim “katara would never be firelady and Mai would be a better firelady" they come off as very dispecpectful to both Katara and Mai.

In a lot of them I see them describe Katara as being too opinionated to be fire lady and it annoys be so much. Why wouldn’t the fire lady be opinionated, their literal job is to run a country!!! If the fire lord or lady are indecisive then the country would be screwed!! The leaders of a country have to be intelligent, compassionate, understanding, strong, have leadership skills, be able to make tough decisions. If you think that, that doesn’t describe Katara then you and I have interpreted the characters very differently and this discussion would be very hard to have without a lot of prologue. Another thing that annoys me is that another one of the major reasons is that Katara is from the southern water tribe. Now if you feel uncomfortable with Katara being the leader of a country that has hurt her people then I understand that, we don’t share the same views but I would not want you to be uncomfortable so if that is your reasoning then that is fine. My problem comes when people say that making Katara fire lady, would bring too much change and it would lead to unrest. First off all, then end of a show signified the end of a hundred year war, there would be unrest no matter who the fire lady is. And yes having Katara as fire lady would bring change and it would be mostly a good thing. The fire nation hurt all the other nation greatly, Sozin committed a genocide and then lords after him hurt thousands of people. Change is a good thing, we don’t want the fire nation to stay the same. Now I’m not talking about their culture, I’m talking about their imperialism and their supremacist ideas, what could show a change in believes better then having a water bender as their Fire lady. (Also I know I’m using fire lady but her title would actually be Master bender Katara Queen consort of the fire nation)

Moving on to Mai, the way she is described in these posts pisses me of so much. They always bring up how she isn’t that outspoken or that opinionated so she would be perfect. One that tells me that, you think the best role for a woman in leadership is that they should basically sit still and look pretty. If that is what you think then leave my page, like I don’t care just scroll because we will not see eye to eye. Now Mai is not an overtly opinionated character, which is fine, her aloof/uncaring attitude for most things is something that I really like and relate to about her. But what people don’t understand is that, her attitude steps partly from her parents pressuring her. Her parents forced her to be the perfect daughter that sits still, doesn’t speak up, and is the “perfect daughter”. I think that a character that has been forced to fit into such a box with so many expectations placed on her would never want to lead the country. I’m not saying she wouldn’t be a good fire lady, I’m saying she wouldn’t want to be.

Sorry if the spelling/wording is bad I wrote this in a car and I didn’t read it over.

Azula is sick of Zuko letting his "peasant friends" ("yes I'm aware that that's your loving wife Waterbending Master Katara, Southern Water Tribe Ambassador and Queen Consort to Firelord Zuko of the Fire Nation and yes I'm also aware that that's the Avatar, but they'll always be your peasant friends to me") into the palace so she starts inviting Mai and Ty Lee over for dinner as well in retaliation so now you've got Zuko, Katara, Aang, Sokka, Toph, Suki, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai plus all of their children having dinner at the Fire Nation Royal Palace and it's a beautiful disaster.

Lmao yes the FAMILY CHAOS! Azula says peasants (affectionate)

You should write this fic I would read it!! All the gaang feels 💛

Zutara Month 2023 Day 26: How I Met Your Mother

Sneaking into Zutara Month at the last minute like what. I may go back and change the ending of this sometime, I’m not thrilled with it but wanted to finish it before Zutara Month was over.

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Every time (Fire Noodle #14, Zutara)

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Zutara Week Day 5: Respite

These were actually meant to be part of a larger piece for the day 1 theme "Home", but... art was refusing to art (I have so many sketches and half finished pieces I started for ZK Week, but things were just not working). So instead, we'll use there peaceful family moments in the South Pole for "respite"!

Kya pops up the most in my art, but Kallik makes an appearance here! He's Zuko and Katara's second child, and only son.

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But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm If your cascade ocean wave blues come Peace/ Taylor Swift

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Their Royal Majesties, Fire Lord Zuko and Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, Queen Consort of the Fire Nation

In my feels again about Katara and Zuko finding a partner in each other who supports them through good and bad. And about their marriage making Katara the most politically powerful woman in the world as she damn well should be.

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edit: Tumblr it’s been 24 hours why is this still not showing up in the Zutara tag

The Dragon and the Fenghuang

I’m so excited to finally share the colored version of the piece I did for the @zutaracoloringbook! Definitely go check out all the amazing art that was contributed to the project, and see if anything inspires you to get coloring!

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When visiting the many islands that comprise the Fire Nation, it was not uncommon for their royal majesties Fire Lord Zuko and Master Katara to don the traditional dress of the host island.

Almost as soon as I had finished working on the art piece I did with Zuko and Katara in Thai inspired outfits, I knew I wanted to do something similar but with outfits inspired by the Philippines (or outfit, sorry Zuko I find women's fashion more interesting than men's).

Before jumping into the commentary, I'll stress that this design is fantasy inspired by the Philippines. Although I did research, it is not an accurate representation of Filipino national costume, nor is it meant to be.

This was more challenging in some ways than the Thai piece, because even though the Thai piece required a ton of detail work, I was creating a design much closer to its real world inspiration. In this case there wasn't a specific "look" I was trying to recreate, instead I wanted to create a design inspired by the traditional fashion of the Philippines. However, 1). pre-colonial fashions were very different from the Spanish inspired styles that arose during colonialization and that have since evolved into modern traditional Filipino attire, and 2). the Philippines is home to many different indigenous groups, each of whom have their own traditional costumes.

Originally, I wanted to exclusively look to the pre-colonial period for inspiration, but when I looked only at pre-colonial designs, I found I missed the iconic silhouettes seen in modern Filipino dresses. So I widened my research scope to see how I could combine pre-colonial with elements of modern fashion.

For pre-colonial styles, the best historical resource is the Boxer Codex. Karakoa Productions was also a helpful resource to see how pre-colonial looks were being interpreted from historical illustrations and descriptions into real world garments. I looked at modern designers from the Philippines to see how they were playing with the design of terno (which often feature the iconic butterfly sleeves I wanted to include). One design I was really inspired by was a look worn by Filipina actress Kathryn Bernardo.

Both written and illustrated accounts of the pre-colonial era in the Philippines emphasize the prevalence of golden jewelry, so Katara has a gold necklace, bracelets, hair beads, and belt. Katara's belt is inspired by two main sources. The first is an extant kandit (royal belt) woven from gold wires in the Museo ng Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas's pre-colonial gold collection. The dangles on it are loosely inspired by the beaded belts made by the T'Boli people.

With Katara's skirt, I tried to blend the longer style of skirts seen in the Boxer Codex, with a striped pattern inspired by the numerous woven designs I found in traditional indigenous attire. The specific photo I used as inspiration was labeled as being from Kalinga, but I found similar weavings from other groups as well.

The flowers in Katara's hair are flowers found in the Philippines - sampaguita, waling-waling orchids, plumeria, hibiscious, and santan. She also wears her dual moon-flame tiara.

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