zutara fandom is such a fucking hypocrite. you all call a native woman who loves her husband, who lives happily with him a trophy wife and a breeding machine, simply because you don't like kataang, despite the fact that in the canon she is still a respected matriarch of the tribe, a healer and trained avatar and has outlawed blood bending. you came up with the trophy wife yourself, but blame it all on bryke. didnt you have a popular headcanon where she has 5 children, abandons her nation to live as the "water tribe ambassador" in the fire nation. yknow because erasing her culture sounds cool i guess

Literally what are you talking about?

Pointing out that Katara is treated, post-atla canon, as Aang’s trophy is not ‘calling a native woman who loves her husband a trophy wife’ because like, I’ve got a newsflash for you, Katara does not exist. And criticizing the way the white men who created her chose to destroy her character in post-canon materials and the sequel show is not the equivalent of being racist or misogynistic--it’s actually calling out the racism and misogyny inherent in her treatment by the show’s creators!

Secondly, I’ve written extensively before about how Katara’s ‘achievements’ post-canon actually aren’t. The show pays minor lipservice to what Katara accomplished, but doesn’t actually show that she did anything worthwhile with her life other than have the Avatar’s children. She ‘outlawed bloodbending’? Sure she did, that’s why she was present at the trial for the most infamous bloodbender in history, right alongside her husband, brother, and friend..... oh wait. She ‘is still a respected matriarch of her tribe’? Sure she is, that’s why she was able to talk sense into her people when they were on the brink of civil war, that’s why people listened when she raised her voice and told them to stop being idiots, that’s why... oh, wait, none of that happened because she stayed in the healing huts the whole time. Oh, but she was ‘a healer’--not just that, but one of the greatest healers who ever lived? Sure! That’s why she was able to heal Korra’s bloodbending related injuries- hm, no, but I’m sure that’s why she was able to heal everyone else when their injuries were revealed to have been caused by bloodbending- no, wait, but I’m POSITIVE it’s why she was able to heal Korra’s injuries when she was recovering from mercury poisoning- wait, she didn’t do that either!

It’s encapsulated pretty neatly by this paragraph:

 [The problem is] that virtually none of these accomplishments matter in the context of LoK. Very little that Katara did during or after the war is so much as referenced, and even the things that are referenced matter very little. Katara never talks about her life except as it pertains to Aang, or her children. She doesn’t get to do anything during the series either, despite there being multiple things that–were it not for her entire personality being vacuumed out with almost surgical precision–she should have done if she were being kept true to character, or if she, like, cared about her family and people at all. (Things like, oh, attending her own granddaughter’s Air Master ceremony, or lifting finger one to save her family when they were in danger, or lifting finger one to step in when her people were getting thrown into a whole ass civil war...... ...)

@araeph‘s Consumed By Destiny series is also relevant here, because it goes into far greater detail about Katara’s utter lack of a character in LoK and the comics, especially as compared with her character in the original show.

As for my ‘popular headcanon’, I do indeed headcanon Zuko and Katara as having five children (though my conceptualization of their family will be different from others, everyone has their own hcs about the steam family and that’s so sexy of us), which should probably be the point where you realize that Katara having three kids with Aang is not what I have a problem with lmfao. But where the hell do you get ‘abandons her nation’ and ‘erasing her culture’ from ‘Water Tribe ambassador’???? Literally where????? The entire point of Katara being ambassador to the Fire Nation is to represent her culture in global matters of state. It’s so that she can be the voice for her people on the world stage, ensuring that their wants and needs are heard and fulfilled as the world moves forward and the nations grow together. It’s literally the complete opposite of ‘abandoning’ her nation, her people, or her culture, because everything about who they are and who she is will be everpresent in her life (and her husband’s life) because she’s thinking about them and acting for them in everything she does politically.

Just say that you hate people headcanoning Katara as having more agency in her own life and influencing global politics than canon allowed for her and go, honestly. Stop pretending you give a shit about Katara when you hold so much hatred for people envisioning something more for her than just being ‘the Avatar’s girl’ for the rest of her life.