#zutar

[starlight-bread-blog]

The Fortune in The Fortune Teller

This is an isolated look into this specific episode.

The Fortune Teller is the 14th episode of book 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is famous for supposedly developping the show's romantic subplot between Katara and A\ang. The episode does two things: A\ang attempts to flirt with Katara, and Katara is finally willing to consider him as more than just a friend.

However, I believe that this episode could have masterfully foreshadowed the pair not getting together in the end. In this essay I will detail how each step the episode takes towards a Kat@ang endgame is actually foreshadowing the opposite.

1. Katara and the Nature of Destiny

In the beginning, the Gaang meets a person getting attacked by a bear. He is acting incredibly passive, simply dodging the bear's attemps at his life. Then, A\ang and Appa interfere to help the man. When the Gaang questions him on why he was so passive, he says it's because the Fortune Teller told him he'd have a safe journey. They then have the following exchange:

The man's logic is obviously flawed. If the Gaang didn't interfere, if the man continued to passivaly dodge, the bear would have attacked him. Fortune and destiny come from agency – from actively shaping them.

However, Katara is delaited at the prospect of seeing the future. Her and the Gaang go to meet the Fortune Teller, Aunt Wu. Aunt Wu tells her she'll marry a very powerful bender. Later, she comes back asking more details about her future husband. Remember her excitment, fantacising about her future husband:

After that, Katara becomes somewhat reliant on Aunt Wu's prophecies. She goes as far as to ask her what she should eat.

And she obeys her "prophecy", despite not wanting to. She became like the man from the beginning. She knowingly follows the fortune even though it doesn't make sense. She had given up on forging her own destiny.

Although by the end of the episode, she is no longer in this state of reliance, she still believes in the prophecies. Then, Sokka says that A\ang is a very powerful bender. This reminds her of what Aunt Wu said about her future husband. I don't want to cherry pick, so I took 4 different pictures of her face when she realizes A\ang might be the powerful bender she is to marry:

With the look in her eyes, with her mouth tilted down and with the ominous music, this could easily be read as disappointment. Especially when remembering how she fantacized about the powerful bender earlier in the episode. She doesn't smile, but looks concerned. As if she doesn't want this. Earlier in the episode, she says this:

A\ang is like the papaya. The fortune says he's right for her, but Katara doesn't want him. Now, she isn't like the man, passively dodging the bear attacking her. She shouldn't sit and wait for the prophecy to come true point blank. She has the agency to shape her own destiny and not to choose A\ang as her future husband.

2. A\ang, Meng, and First Crushes

In this episode we're introduced to a girl named Meng. Aunt Wu told her she'd end up with someone like A\ang, and so she developped a one sided crush on him. Throughout the episode she attempts to talk to him, all to no avail. Because A\ang is not interested in her.

Interestingly, her one sided crush is directly paralleled to A\ang's crush on Katara.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Please note that in exhibits B and C in particular, there is an emphasis on the other party not reciprocating their feelings.

In this parallel the show draws, A\ang is Meng, the younger, shorter one the one who is in love; and Katara is A\ang, the older, taller one who... *checks notes*... doesn't reciprocate.

But in the end, A\ang and Meng have a heart-to-heart.

Sometimes you'll like someone, and they aren't going to feel the same way, and even though it's hard, it's okay. They're young, just kids having a crush. A\ang responds to this with "I know what you mean". Because he, just like the audience that watched the parallels, knows that Katara likely doesn't return his feelings.

———————

In conclusion, The Fortuneteller could have been brilliant foreshadowing to Kata\ang not being the endgame couple, and it would have done so through beautiful, mature lessons about first loves and destiny. Thank you for reading.

#anti kataang #zutara #atla critical #anti anti zutara #pro zutara #zutara analysis #zutara evidence #zutara forever #zutara meta #zutara nation #zutara should have been canon #zutar #zutara supremacy #zuko x katara #katara x zuko #katara #meng

[the-badger-mole]

do you think it’s odd that at the end of the southern raiders, zuko acknowledges that aang was right about forgiveness? it felt forced and inconsistent. because katara explicitly said that she didn’t forgive yon rha, so no aang was not right. but i feel like they had zuko say that to push the narrative that everything aang says/believes is right or inherently good.

I think it's very inconsistent, but I'm also not surprised they had him say that. It was just like earlier in the episode when Sokka, completely against his character, sided with Aang against Katara. I could see Sokka objecting because it was too dangerous, or time was too short, but to agree with Aang? Yeah, no. The problem is, though, that Bryke didn't know how to write Aang actually being wise, so instead, they had people say he was wise, or powerful, or "tH3 r3@LL h3r0ooO". Aang wasn't right. Katara said he wasn't, and it's very OOC for Zuko , who has so far been the only one Katara has been able to express anything more negative than mild annoyance to, to not take her at her word, but also, Bryke has a history of not caring about Katara's thoughts and feelings. They just wanted to push their ultimate agenda and give Aang everything he wanted. And that's what happens when a writer decides their self-insert character is already perfect and doesn't need any pushback on their views.

#atla #anti aang #anti kataang #zutar

[lifblogs]

Rinezha is reverse Zutara elements-wise.

#the poppy war #atla #zutars #rinezha

[buckttommy]

Zukaang is huge lol

🫢 girl why...........

#zutars is literally right there

[sokkastyles]

EIP have some nice zutara moments but I feel really bad for Katara in that one. Also I really don't understand what that person was saying about your post, is it because you were simply discussing the episode? I was the one who sent the ask and I'm not from a "first world country", my country has been a colony. I don't think there was anything wrong with your post or my ask?

It was hard for me to understand what their argument even was because they cherry-picked the post to death so much, but it seemed like they were saying I was trying to claim that "fire nation propaganda" is a meta commentary and feminist critique of kataang or something. When what I actually said was that the things depicted in the play can't all be chalked up to Fire Nation propaganda because the episode is also meant to be a meta commentary on the series itself. Ember Island Players, as an episode, is largely the writers parodying themselves, and it's debatable how much of it is actually supposed to be an intentional critique of Fire Nation propaganda since the episode itself does not question the worst statements they make about Katara in particular, but rather uses them at her expense to get the audience to worry that she won't reciprocate Aang's feelings.

That's also why reading the episode making fun of zutara as the writers making an antiracist or anti-imperialist statement is ridiculous. A lot of the zutara parts are directly addressing both the fandom and the way the writers themselves have teased zutara. If showing Katara getting close to Zuko in the caves is racist propaganda, then the writers wouldn't have written that part of the show with the heavy dose of ship-teasing that is already there. If the episode slut-shaming Katara was meant to be only fire nation propaganda, then why is Katara shown to flirt with every guy EXCEPT Aang, even guys who the FN would see as unworthy, like Jet, and why does the episode as a whole punish her for it? An actual critique of racist propaganda about savage slutty brown women would be to acknowledge that actually, Katara can say yes or no to whoever she wants, and having Aang learn a lesson about that and Katara getting to voice why the depiction makes her upset without Aang telling her that she actually is like that. You can't just say that something is only there to critique racism but then not have the actual critique part present.

I also said in that post that the writers' attempts to criticize zutars in this episode don't actually make zutara bad, because the real Zuko and Katara actually grow closer in the episode over not liking their depictions in the play.

Even the claim that the play is depicting zutara as a "colonizer/colonized" relationship doesn't stick as an actual critique of zutara, because Zuko and Katara are completely unfazed by this except to have a moment of being grossed out by the idea of them as a couple in general. But if, as some antis have suggested, zutara is somehow inherently oppressive, you would think Katara would have more of an uncomfortable reaction to seeing herself act as the "colonized" woman, the way her reaction to being portrayed as a whiny, flighty crybaby is something that makes her viscerally upset and bleeds into her relationship with Aang.

This also lays false the common claim that Katara would always be uncomfortable with Zuko and associate him with her oppressors, because even when shown that onscreen, she shows no signs of actually seeing Zuko that way. And Zuko shows no signs of wanting to see himself being portrayed as some kind of macho colonizer who can win Katara's love, so there is no reason to think he would actually act like that if he did ever want to pursue Katara. In contrast, Aang does nod along when the play has Zuko say that he is "the Avatar's girl" and this does make Katara uncomfortable when he acts on those feelings of ownership over her. This would be an interesting critique of how racism can destroy relationships IF the show ever readdressed this instead of making it about how Katara just "wasn't ready."

So like, even if you read EIP as a critique of racist propaganda, which I'm not entirely sure we can give the writers that much credit for to begin with, KA as a relationship is portrayed as more damaged by racism than zutara is, because the depictions of zutara in the play are so silly and so easily dismissed, and Zuko and Katara only grow closer with each other as a result of them.

So no, it's not bad to enjoy the zutara moments in this episode. The way Katara is portrayed with Zuko is actually more akin to a bodice ripper fanfic than anything, and the show writers have said that they were making fun of zutara fandom. This is very different from a critique of actual imperialism, because one is aiming at institutions and the other is aiming at teenage girls. Not that teenage girls can't be racist, but that isn't where you start if you are making a real, honest critique, especially since those teenage girls writing capture fic were riffing off how the show itself used those tropes and fed off them in promotional materials.

#zutara #antikataang #ember island players #katara #the discourse

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I've noticed that Dante basco is a lot more chill than other zutara shippers they should take a page out of that book, as he seems chill with Maiko and his reaction to ZUCEST was priceless plus in a podcost he talked about how important appa was to the gaang and all zuts do is call aang a big baby for mourning appas kidnapping. some people give him heat for what he said in 2008 about mai but that ws over 15 years ago and just like with bryke insulting zutaras i could care less about what a celebrity said 15 years ago im viewing em as the years go by and dante is a chill dude .. i think if you get hung up over what people said 15 so years ago you got issues . zutars really need to let what bryke said go. i ship azulaang and i could care less about brykes thoughts on it

Gonna be real, I have no idea what exactly it was he said about Mai 15 years ago. I only ever heard him say he liked the character, her relationship with Zuko, and that he'd probably try to flirt with her if she were a real person.

#anti zutara

[bluewithpurplepolkadots]

Zutar@ is kind of odd in that it is one of the very few of the so called popular bad boy/good girl fandom ships that I could see happening and even be potentially interesting. Unlike a lot of their equivalents in other big fandoms.

I don’t see it lasting for various reasons: but that’s not really important in a main story which spans only nine months in total. It’s usually more important in a story if something is interesting more then anything else. Maiko and Kataang are also interesting to watch in of themselves, zk is just, if they had planned it from the start, a potential writing choice.

But the fandom makes it still the same dry boring ass shit every single bad boy/good girl ship in other fandoms is that I’ve seen. The terrible fanfics have them all desperately beaten and shaped to fit common fanfic plots rather than have the characters themselves guide the story in interesting directions. They clearly have no idea who these characters are. Who the fuck are these people in the Atla tag. It isn’t them.

And like it could even be interesting? Even keep them in character. But the ship fandom seems determined to make it anything but.

It even warps and twists characters beyond recognition outside the ship like some black hole from which no character can escape. They either become mindless cheerleaders and are far too invested in their romance to the point it seems deranged (poor, poor Toph) or become warped to be less desirable or even evil for daring to get in the way in canon. (We all know which two characters).

Oddly if it had been canon and developed as such I’m not sure the fandom surrounding the ship would have liked it as much. It wouldn’t really fit the deeply shallow fantasies they have about it. You could have substance but they have none and don’t seem to want it either in this fandom.

#Antizutara #polka blabs #more anti the fandom because I do think an interesting story could be there #the fandom just isn’t interested in anything but things which are somehow both deeply bland and offensive at the same time #Granted I say this as someone who really likes Taang a lot so unfortunately when I go looking for content I’m faced with bad bad bad zk #About the only zk I’ll tolerate is when it’s in the heavy bg these days with Aang and or Mai being the main stars #Zk fandom is straight fandom defined #It’s like those shitty Persephone and Hades takes in the Greek mythology fandom

[burst-of-iridescent]

Hi! I want to admit to share that I admire your blog and specifically the analysis of all seven books of the dissertation on Zutar and so on. I have read everything with pleasure and agree with every word. You have done a titanic job. It's good to know that I'm not the only one completely terrified of Maiko and Kataang. I like May and Aang separately, but not with Katara and Zuko, this is literally nonsense (incompatible personalities cannot build functional relationships, which ironically was confirmed in the so-called canonical continuation-completely stupid relationships in the family of Aang and Katara, the situation with May is also unclear, except for one thing-she could not to be close to such an emotional person and left him or he left her (history is silent, apparently it does not matter at all). It seemed that she was included in the final series by mistake (about her relevance in Uncle Iroh's tea room is a separate story). I still remember the bewilderment and disappointment from watching the last series, and after more than 10 years my opinion has not changed-Zutara had all the rights to exist, otherwise why all these hints (direct and indirect?). Why work out the mutual relations of Katara and Zuko, bringing them to such a personal level, because it was possible to do as with, for example, Toph or Suki? Do I need to repeat that the chemistry between them surpasses all the declared romantic couples, looks mature and viable? I don't know who to thank for this outrage, but this is a real spit in the soul of fans (especially when I recently learned that the 17th series was created solely for the purpose of trolling fans), as well as the humiliation of my own work. Thank you for the essay, it means a lot to me (I think there are a lot of us))) grow up for my English, it's not my native language.

hi, thank you so much for your kind words!! it makes me really happy to know that you like my blog and my dissertation! 

i couldn't agree more with everything you said. the show almost went out of its way to prove over nearly three seasons that mai and aang were incompatible with zuko and katara, and then suddenly expected us to jump on the mai.ko and kat.aang train in the last ten minutes? especially when zutara were right there and had everything - intimacy, compatibility, understanding, chemistry, narrative and thematic importance - going for them?? like be so fucking for real lmao, we all know zutara should have been canon.

i totally understand your bitterness (i will be bitter to my dying day) but if it helps, just know that the wonderful zutara community here on tumblr treats zutara so much better than bryke could have ever dreamed of. we don't need to bother with canon when fanon gives us everything we could ever need and more.

i hope you're doing well and that you have a great day/night! <33

#zutara #zutara asks #also your english is totally fine no worries! <3

[ask-zaukodar]

Baldur's Gate 3 Multiplayer: Part 1

For those who have the opportunity to play Baldur's Gate 3 multiplayer: it is the most chaotically entertaining mayhem one could have fun with. Spoilers below linebreak.

My party consists of four OCs: myself (paladin), my friend Zutar (bard), and his friends Loperdos (warlock) and Klease (ranger). They play like the game is a looter shooter: grab the loot and shoot anything in the way of the loot.

Klease is very easily bored: he wants to fight fight fight and gets annoyed when we "diplomacy" our way out of situations. So he starts fights.

Zutar and Loperdos both like shiny things, so they favor picking pockets and taking stuff. Including all the stuff that's highlighted red. Even when it's in the presence of quest-essential NPCs (like Nettie). So they start fights.

We all play late at night on Sunday when they've been drinking, so things go downhill very quickly. In spite of this they keep looking to me for guidance, even as we're struggling to keep our shit afloat because of the interesting choices being made.

Tonight's game-defining event: Zutar klepped the Idol of Sylvanus, which apparently sparks a civil war inside the entire druid/tiefling camp and leads to all of the tieflings and druids to kill each other. This broke like three quests all at once.

Coming in second: they killed the fucking dog guarding his master's body, which caused me to lose my Paladin oath and led me to becoming an Oathbreaker.

Don't get me wrong, these guys are nuts, but it's fun to see just how much we can break the game on a weekly basis. Sometimes you need to play an RPG with people who hate the RP aspect of the game and just want to be assholes.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #multiplayer #spoilers #i could technically rewind the clock if i wanted #but at this point we're picking up steam so what the heck #we definitely put the murder in murder-hobos #as well as the homocide in homocide-tourists

[starlight-bread-blog]

Update

I have metas planned, especially for Zutara month, but they're probably aren't going to be ready by the end of May. I've been diagnosed with mild depression and everything seems incredibly hard. But I try to write as much as I can. Hope you can undetstand.

#announcement #tw depression #depression #zutara #zutars month #zutara month 2024

[zutar134]

~my fluffy boi~

#furry #furryart #art #digitalart #viral #justlike #UwU #furryfandom #fursona #zutar

[cattaralol]

AY! zutara dance :))

i did the lineart and shading and @pidgeonlol did the coloring

personally i believe they are dancing to Just What I Needed by The Cars but it could be whatever u want :)

#the window is crookt because i did it on paper and she uploaded it lmao #zutara #zuko #katara #ZUTAR DANCE!1!1! #atla #poggers #tap for better quality

[losergrl25]

I was trying to read through the anti zutara tag just cause I like seeing other's opinions and was wondering if there were any valid arguments out there (one person said why would katara want to wake up in a palace to be triggered by red & fire nation flags everywhere & i said hm fair point but it made my zutara fogged brain want to read a fic where Zuko comforts her through that haha) and there was maybe 1 or 2 actual anti zutara metas under the tag and the rest were zutara metas and content.

The crazy part is none of them were tagged incorrectly or purposely tagged anti zutara they were just misplaced I guess?? There was dead ass 7 zutara posts in a row under the anti zutara tag, weirdest thing ever like it's like the tumblr algorithm is trolling the antis. It's no wonder they wander over into our realm pissy and ready to pick fights I'd be mad too if I scrolled through the anti kat/aang tag and found kat/aang love instead😂

#it's like tumblr said hmm ant* zutar*? cannot compute here's some stuff on why it's a great ship #zutara #atla #zutara fandom #anti kataang #avatar the last airbender

[kyuriart]

Zutara month 2020 day 4

Don't hurt him

#zutara au #zuko x katara #fire lord zuko #zutara #prince zuko #zuko #katara #zutara month #zutar month 2020 #firebender #waterbender #firebending #waterbending #fire nation #water tribe #sabrinart19

[iceyrukia]

Sooooo after all these years of seeing Avatar being hyped up and talked about I finally decided to come around and watch it ( atla that is ) and woooo where has this show been all my life , still trying to process it since i watched it within a span of like four(?) days but I’m glad I finally watched it

#rambles #also glad aang defeated the firelord by just raking his powers he stayed true to his roots and beleifs #which was nice to see #and as a sidenote i thought for some reason i was gonna be a zuta*ra shipper #because id seem some stuff on my dash and from my knowledge kataang was canon #so i naturally thought it leave this impression on me and because it was such a supported ship #amd i guess id seen some commentary on how aang x katara werent suitible because hes childish+ #why would afourteen year old girl pick aang over emo firelord prince etc etc yadda yadda #but after actually watching it ( as an adult that has never watched it as a teen/child...i actually really like the canon aang x katara #pairing which is a surprise *shrugs* because i got the impression that zuta*ra was gonna be overwhelmingly ‘better’ but #ughhhh it wasnt (??) #like i cant help but feel like if i was a teen i wouldve liked the zutar*a pairing because of the whole idea of it a d projection of liking #katara with zuko cuz hes the ‘ angsty prince antaganist’ whom you cant help but pair up with the good compassionate girl trope #and they look good together but as an adult im unfazed and they just didnt seem as romantic as some fans mace them out to be #and im just emphasizing tbe adult part because im not gonna have the hots for zuko and possibly project or ~feel more becuz his looks #and i gotta say i peaked into some atla tags and boooy am i glad i wasnt around the time the fandom was at its peak because man people will #twist things just to fit their narrative on why ship x is actually bad or character x is an asshole etc just for their own ship #man i forgot how obnoxious and persistant shippers can be amd in this case damn people really hate an aang #because he got in the way of zutara its so transparent he doesnt deserve this #i got a headache damn looking at some discourse and reaches slandering and nitpicking aang + aangs and kataras relationship #if im annoyed now i cant imagine how i would have felt when atla was airing :/ #anyways im gonna try to maybee watch lok but ive read that it butchered some characters from atla and i really like them *sighs* #but not right now maybee some other time #also damn autocorrect and the tags cutting out letters ...why???

[waterbenderkat]

Calling All Zutara Nation!

Fire and Water: A Zutara Podcast officially has a website! Come join the community ♥️.

You can also check out the show on Anchor below, and we’re on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Podcasts as well!

We love recording this show so much, and all support, reblogs, and listens are appreciated to keep the community growing!

Zutara fans, this show and community is definitely for you! However, all fans of any ships who are interested in listening are welcome! Kataang, Zukka, etc.— you are all welcome and loved here.

If you want to let us know what you think of the show or have any feedback/ ideas for future episodes, send an email our way at [email protected], or DM @firebenderfrankie or I! Come say hi, we want this to be a fun and interactive community where we can discuss this show that we love.

#zutara #zutara nation #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #avatar #a:tla #atla #zuko #katara #zuko x katara #katara x zuko #waterbenderkat