I found it. The worst Katara take.

https://www.tumblr.com/illycanary/748146862907867136/kataras-entire-arc-was-about-her-becoming-someone?source=share

Her entire arc was about becoming someone who could lead the Fire Nation!? The nation that GENOCIDED her people!?

Please… please I need to hear your take on this. It hurts my soul. Give me peace.

Zutarians: It's so disgusting how Kataang completely reduces Katara to just "The Avatar's girl."

Also zutarians: Katara's entire arc, trauma and struggles are not actually about herself, but about her Totally Real romance with Zuko and how she'll be great for his nation.

And she used to hate said nation because it was an elusive concept to project her insecurities onto. It was totally not because said nation had in place a socio-political AND military system that was hostile to her, her loved ones, and her culture by design.

It wasn't Zuko and the Fire Nation that had to understand that everyone else in the world was as human as they were, oh no. It was actually Katara and the rest of the world that had to understand that the Fire Nation ain't as bad as they thought - even though they WERE doing all the horrible things they thought they were doing, and ruining their lives by taking away everything and everyone they loved.

#UnhingedZutariansShutTheFuckUpChallenge

Also, can the fandom as a whole stop it with the bullshit "Characters like Jet and Hama existed to teach Katara and Sokka not to be racist against the Fire Nation"?

They were NEVER okay with killing, or even mistreating, someone just because they happened to be born in the Fire Nation or were under their control. Everyone they hated had done something to earn said hate: killed someone they loved, attacked their tribe, chased them around the world, held people prisoner and forced them into slave labor, etc.

You might think it was wrong of Katara and Sokka to do something like try to convince Aang to leave Zuko to die in the North Pole (and the show was very clearly saying that was the case) but you cannot act like that was based on some unearned hostility to anyone vaguely associated with a nation they "didn't understand" and not on, like Sokka said, not giving the guy that was trying to kill them a chance to try again and maybe succeed - hell, Katara gave Zuko a chance in Ba Sing Se, and look what fucking happened. Her best friend died right in front of her because Zuko jsut had to go help Azula take control of the city, and then he sent an assassin after them.

No one is fully good or evil - but people CHOOSE to do bad things, even if they have sympathetic reasons, and a political system CAN be inherently cruel, unfair and EVIL. And the Fire Nation under Sozin, Azulon and Ozai's rule very much was. And since Zuko went out of his way to keep that political system in place, he was doing something evil, and thus the people that were being victimized by him had every right to hate his guts for it.

Once again, let's hear it from Zuko himself:

"Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."

The Fire Nation screwed up. Zuko screwed up. They need to get their shit together (and Zuko did), and the responsibility to do so is on THEM, not on the people that are quite literally fighting for their lives because the Fire Nation gave them no choice.

It's not Katara's job to make Zuko, and an entire country, see reason. And her arc was about HER journey, HER struggles, HER accomplishments, HER life, HER culture, and HER loved ones - just because Zuko would eventually be part of the last category, that doesn't mean that it secretly all about him the whole time.

And Zuko knows all this. That's why his arc, and his friendship with Katara, works. The show already gave you the perfect scenario to turn that friendship into a romance in fanfics and headcanons, you don't need to pretend the Fire Nation wasn't the obvious bad guy in the war THEY chose to start.

You can respect the beautiful arcs both Katara and Zuko went through, or you can make excuses for the Fire Nation's choice to commit genocide by saying "Well, EVERYONE had something to learn from it." You cannot possibly do both, because their arcs are all about showing this "both sides" thing is NOT TRUE.

When people try to justify Katara in TLOK by saying she's old I want to pull my hair out ! In this case, why is this not the case for other former members of the gaang who are active despite their old age ? Why does Katara have 0 statues in the town ? Why out of everything she could do, she's just kept as a great healer when that's not what she wanted in the original ? Why, if she is such a great healer, does she almost never manage to heal anyone ? Why does she never go anywhere unlike other gaang members who are so old ? Like the bloodbending trial ?! Since it was she who banned it (a very stupid thing, by the way). Like, his granddaughter's own ceremony ? Why isn't she there but Zuko is ?! How come Katara doesn't see her family often ?! She doesn't even try to see them ?! We're talking about Katara ! She would never do that ! Why do we learn more about Aang's role than Katara's about parent-child relationships ?! Stop trying to defend Katara's crappy writing from old age. Old age doesn't stop you from doing badass things in the Atla universe. Everyone forgot Bumi ?! I am so angry ! The simple truth is that Bryke, as in the comics, specifically erased Katara to reduce her to Aang's wife. That's all. Why am I making this rant ? Because I'm tired, once again, of seeing people defend Katara's writing in TLOK under the pretext that she's old, and especially seeing people say that the writing of strong women is even better in TLOK. Can we just talk about the horrible treatment of Korra herself in this ?! Not forgetting the worst thing I have ever seen ! To say that the treatment of Katara in TLOK is better than in the netlfix remake of Atla... How angry all this can make me !

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.

The Avatar fandom is always saying that if we get a continuation after Korra they hope we get to see more complex and flawed characters because atla and lok lacked them

Well I don't want that because y'all can't even handle the ones you were already given

This is mostly a Zutara shippers problem(ofc it is,they're the root of everything wrong with the fandom and it's been like this since the 2000s)but i've seen it happen often enough with other shippers and it is replacing Aang's place in Zuko's life with whoever they ship him with.I want you to read this and internalize it:I don't care who you think Zuko is in love with because it dosen't matter no matter what-AANG is his best friend.Not Katara,not Sokka,not Jet,AANG.He's the one who saved him from his own inner darkness and Ozai's clutches,he's the one he looks out for the most,he's the one he has the most positive opinion on,he's the one he has the most fun with,he's the one he trusts the most and he's the one he'd choose over anyone else if it came down to it.Not a single one of these things is romantic for them and that's the point.Zuko's number one is Aang and not because he's his s/o but his brother and you have no right to erase his healing journey that's one of the best in all of western media so you can make it about his dating life instead,as if abuse victims can only get better if they 'settle down'.Fuck outta here with your amatonormative and lowkey ableist too bullshit

the most beautiful couple🖤

I hate when people say(*writers*) when zuko is an emo bad boy. When zuko acts "emo" and "badboy" as they say it's him reacting to his trauma and abuse as a kid(most of time. Zuko is still badass. But badboy no). Is it an excuse? No. But when zuko is acting that way in canon, his obsession with honor, his yelling, his moodiness, his short temper. That is the product of having his empathy literally beaten/burned out of him by his father(and mocked and emotionally abused by Azula). The reason Zuko is doing this whole thing is because he wants to please his father. Become someone he's not. His struggle of who his father wants to be with who he is. It's because of the abuse of his father and his family. As the series goes on you get more and more flashes of the person Zuko was and the person he can become. By the end of the series it's such a great contrast and Zuko is much more happier because he's with the gaang. His family. He got out of that abusive situation he was in and finally became himself. A dorky, empathetic, caring, skilled swords men, a balanced person. Does he still have moments of anger? Yes. But over all Zuko becomes a fully balanced person.

gasp! but if we don't call zuko a bad boy, however will we make sure people don't get any ideas about shipping him with katara?

jokes aside, you're absolutely right and i roll my eyes so hard when people point to bad things zuko did, or his behaviour pre-redemption as indisputable proof of the kind of person he'd be post-redemption. like you said, a lot of zuko's actions and mannerisms before day of black sun is a direct result of the trauma he suffered, and though that doesn't excuse him - and neither does the show allow it to - discounting it entirely is to erase the abuse zuko endured and how that shaped him.

using the first half of book 3 as evidence of zuko being a supposed bad boy irks me in particular because a) the narrative makes it pretty clear that this is zuko as the worst version of himself, the opposite of everything he actually is and could be, and b) he is stuck in an abusive household at the mercy of his abusers, in an actively life-threatening situation.

zuko knows that he is in a situation where he has no real agency, freedom or control. he knows that aang is alive, that azula has turned him into a scapegoat and that his life will be forfeit if his father finds out the truth. that is an incredibly terrifying and stressful situation to be put in and it's worsened by the fact that he can't even admit it - not just because doing so would mean accepting that he gave up everything that actually mattered in the catacombs to gain nothing in return, but also because no one around him will allow him to do so.

his girlfriend can't understand his experiences or his turmoil and doesn't seem to particularly want to, brushing off his anxieties and encouraging him to stay the course. he is manipulated by his father and gaslighted by his sister, aware deep down that he is entirely under their control and that they have a vested interest in keeping him helpless, yet forced to pretend as though nothing is wrong. he is isolated from the one person who could help - his uncle - physically and emotionally, both because visiting iroh puts zuko in danger, and because zuko's choices have created a rift in their relationship.

all of this compounds the psychological stress zuko is experiencing, forcing him into a constant state of fight-or-flight, and this context is vital to understanding many of the decisions he makes and how he behaves in the first half of book 3.

(this is why i don't agree with the take that hiring combustion man is an ooc moment for zuko because even though i think the idea of combustion man himself is stupid - not to mention disrespectful to the hindu origins it's pulling from - it's a fundamentally desperate move, and zuko at this point is more desperate than he's ever been.)

that's why it's unlikely that zuko post-redemption would behave similarly since many of the factors that contributed to his anger, hostility and moodiness would no longer exist! judging zuko's future behaviour based on a time when he was constantly abused, gaslighted and threatened is just not an accurate or fair means of measurement, especially since we know what he's like at his best. the zuko we see with the gaang still has a bit of a short fuse, sure, but he's also sincere, honest, awkward, shy and far happier than he's ever been. because shocker, people tend not to act the same way in healthy, supportive environments as they do in abusive, traumatic ones. who would've thought?

people who make this argument also usually tend to compare zuko to aang, especially to glorify how aang remains cheerful and peaceful despite his trauma, and... no. just no. first of all, the show barely gives a fuck about developing aang's trauma the way it does zuko's so of course it seems to affect him less, and secondly, there's something to be said about how trauma responses like aang's are a lot more palatable and comfortable for audiences than responses like zuko's, or even katara's in the southern raiders.

anger or moodiness, or wanting to punish the people who hurt you, are not inherently wrong ways to react when you've been wronged and traumatized. praising aang for remaining cheerful and forgiving while calling zuko a bad boy for being angry and moody implies a sense of moral superiority that comes with reacting to trauma in the "right" way, which is both inaccurate and insensitive.

zuko will never be aang, and that's fine. he doesn't have to be. he ends the show reclaiming everything his abusers tried to take from him, having found himself and his destiny, in a place of healing that is all his own. that is an incredibly meaningful and powerful narrative, and the last thing zuko deserves is to have all of his complexity and development stripped just to be reduced to the tired trope of a "bad boy" when he was never one in the first place.

It is so crazy that Kataang fans go on about how Zuko had the greatest redemption arc ever until someone brings up that they wanted him to get with Katara. Then they just ignore his redemption and character growth in order to say it would be toxic because of what Zuko was like in Season 1 when they were on different sides of the main conflict. I even saw someone really try to say that Zuko and Katara’s interactions after Katara forgave him were still toxic without providing proof aside from basically saying trust me bro. Another person tried to say their relationship would be bad because of how bad his relationship with Mai was bad, but Maiko was still better because they supposedly cared about each other. So Zuko has the greatest redemption arc ever even if he got with Katara or you just don’t find his redemption arc that genuine, you can’t say his redemption arc is great unless he gets with Katara because it isn’t all that genuine of an argument.

I don't ship Zutara that much but M*!k0 shippers who call it "colonizer x colonized" actually annoy me so badly 💀they literally undermine Zuko's whole ass arc and growth just bc they dislike Zutara then reduce him to some idiot colonizer as if he never had literally the best growth in the series. His whole arc is about NOT BECOMING a colonizer. How tf are you going to say that just bc you dislike Zutara when his whole arc is about becoming the opposite of a colonizer and even getting full on episodes of him getting Katara's forgiveness. You're literally taking away all of Zuko's growth, suffering, and development. 💀M*!k0 shippers are actually so dumb like why are you even defending that badly written ship lmao

A big reason why i hate Zutaras is that you see,i'm a multishipper yeah?So i have no problem with noncanon ships.I think they're super fun and interesting actually!But the problem is Zutaras are always stealing the dynamics of other noncanon ships and passing it off as their own's. Katara isn't the water tribe character that's close friends with Zuko to the point where you'd think they're a bickering couple instead,that's Sokka.Zuko isn't the cool slightly older bad boy that Katara immediately had a huge crush on and who she bonded over being hurt by the Fire Nation's colonization's with,that's Jet.Katara isn't the soft uwu ray of sunshine pastel girl who's also a huge badass that Zuko had a wasted potetional romantic dynamic with,that's Ty Lee.Zuko isn't the black haired rich kid that Katara butted heads with at first over their opposite personalities but quickly became loving but vitriolic besties with,that's Toph.And i wouldn't be surprised if there are even more examples than the ones i listed.Like can't they just ship things that have those relathionships *in canon* instead of acting like obvious two found siblings who never showed interest in eachother that way not being eachother's twu wuv is oppression or whatever(Sadly:The awnser it no)

“katara and zuko would be toxic”

okay cause m@ikö and k@t@ang aren’t

like m@i and zuko are literally bad for each other and @@ng never stopped idealizing katara and i do feel she never stopped idealizing him

like zuko and katara aren’t perfect their teens but to say that’s they’d be toxic is such a stretch. they’re both very passionate people and care a lot. also the moment she forgives him after the Southern Raiders they’re literally attached at the hip half the time

I saw a thread on twitter (X?) talking about the relation between Zuko's scar and Mai and while it was really interesting to read it, I have some thoughts about it

First and foremost, yeh, the scar OBVIOUSLY holds some symbolism in the storytelling but for me, does not hold the way op talks about.

In the "crossroads of destiny" ep, we see that Katara acknowledges his pain regarding his scar and reaches out to him through it. It was because of that interaction that he begins to really change and see what was wrong and what was right (even tho he doesnt do what's right)

She touches his face so gently....

I really believe that his scar can also symbolize his empathy and desire to do the right thing, because that was the reason he got it in the first place, he spoke up because of an injustice.

Katara could have ended up with Haru, and Zuko could have ended up with Jin, which I would have been happier with than canon Kataang and Maiko. The added irony that Zuko and Katara both flirted with people from the Earth Kingdom.

No hate, but every time I see the take that Katara would have to give up her culture as Fire Lady, I just picture Katara's tying up her hair loopies in a Fire Nation castle, and then the meme "FBI OPEN UP"! starts with Zuko's face badly inserted there.

so glad the atla renaissance is over. zutara fans were in the mf trenches in 2020. good riddance to all those mfs who became fans when netflix picked up atla and decided it was now woke to bully anyone who liked zutara, as if they were being activists by harassing people who enjoy a harmless fictional pairing.

and that’s not even touching on the misogyny directed at katara, or their reactions when you, god forbid, had ANY criticism about aang and how the narrative treated him.

they thought they were so goddamn enlightened and progressive but refused to acknowledge how katara was mistreated in the show or how aang never had to take accountability or better himself and was still consistently rewarded by the narrative. in fact they didn’t just not acknowledge all of that, they perpetuated it.

FUCK renaissance fans FUCK their misogyny FUCK their performative activism FUCK their inability to interpret media critically and FUCK their inability to think critically at all.

Zuko stans hating Aang makes them posers because REAL Zuko understanders know if anybody talks shit about Aang,Zuko's reaction would be to maim them like an insane cat