#comparing kataang to freela

[the-badger-mole]

How It Could Have Ended

Picture this: a story of a guy frozen in ice being woken up in a world he no longer recognizes. On waking, he meets a girl who is stubborn, strong and caring who takes him under her wing as he adjusts to this strange new world. The boy turns out to be the literal savior of the world, and with the help of the girl, he fulfills his destiny. There are some twists and turns, but in the end they fall in love, and it's a very sweet and satistfying ending, despite the fact that behind the scenes production drama made the last part of the series hit or miss.

Don't worry, I'm not being held at gun point and this is not a cry for help. I'm just talking about Futurama.

It's no big secret that I don't like Kataang as a ship, and I've spent a lot of words on all the ways it was a terrible ending for Katara and for the entire series. Here's something you may not know, though: I don't hate the dynamic that Kataang was built on. The lovable dopey boy and the competent, strong girl falling for each other is a Friends to Lovers trope that works really well if done correctly, and while I hate how ATLA did it, Futurama is one of my favorite examples of this ship dynamic in all of media and fandom.

The biggest reason that Fry and Leela's relationship development succeeds where Katara and Aang's failed is that the creators of the show seemed to actually care about Leela and her story. Fry and Leela's relationship develops in a way that takes them both into consideration. We get why Fry likes Leela, but we also see why Leela likes Fry. Leela's feelings matter. Leela is shown thorughout the series to have an attraction to Fry, but resists because Fry isn't mature enough to move their romantic relationship forward for most of the series run. Leela isn't made out to be the problem because of it. Despite the fact that Fry is a genuinely good guy, it's made very clear that Leela isn't wrong about him. Their relationship advances only as Fry becomes more mature, and Fry isn't maturing so that Leela will like him. Yes, she has the effect of making him want to be better, but there is never a point where Fry throws his development in Leela's face and expects to be rewarded with her affection. He hopes she'll like him back, but he doesn't demand it (also note that by "becoming more mature", Fry didn't have to stop being Fry. He was just more aware of how his actions affected others and acted accordingly).

Let's compare that to ATLA, where Katara's participation (such as it is) in her romantic development is very passive. When she rebuffs Aang's advances, our sympathy is supposed to be with Aang. Even in the end, where she initiates the kiss, that moment isn't preceeded by any discussion of her feelings or why she's decided she wants Aang. There are two moments in the show before the end where she could be argued to be showing any sort of romantic interest in Aang, in the end of the Fortunteller, and in the dance, and in both cases, it's not clear that Katara actually feels anything romantic for Aang. Her feelings are also never followed up on in either case. It doesn't need to be because Katara's feelings in this relationship don't really matter to either the writers or to Aang. She ends up with Aang in the end because that's what the script demands, rather than a natural progression of their friendship.

How the hero views his love interest is also handled very differently in ATLA and Futuram. It's very clear from the beginning that Aang likes Katara. What's made equally clear is that he likes her because she's pretty. Really think about all the moments where he's shown a romantic interest in Katara. It's all framed around her beauty, not who she actually is. Even though Aang should absolutely have understood a lot of what Katara was going though, it never comes into play in how he veiws her as a person, even when it really should. Katara and Aang have a very surfacy relationship. Katara takes care of Aang and she is a good friend to him, but she is either seeing Aang the child in her care, or Aang the Avatar. He is never Aang, the person she turns to when she needs help. In turn Aang sees Katara, the beautiful girl he has a crush on, and when she deviates from that view, he gets uncomfortable (i.e. his reaction to Katara challenging Pakku's sexism, or her wanting to go after Yon Rah). Aang doesn't understand Katara's pain, or her desperation to see the war ended. These are two characters who on paper should actually have a lot to connect on, but they don't make that connection, and the result is a very lopsided relationship where Aang persues Katara as a prize, and Katara gives in because he's the Avatar. Katara's wants are irrelevant.

Fry and Leela, on the other hand, share a deep connection that isn't just based on physical attraction. From the first episode, their bond is based on the way they relate to one another's struggles. While, yes, it is clear that Fry thinks Leela is attractive, they connect over a sense of feeling out of place and lonely in the world they find themselves in. Leela is an orphan who (she believes) comes from a whole different planet. Fry is 1000 years away from the world he knows and everyone he has ever loved is dead. They understand each other in ways the rest of the world doesn't, and they help each other carve their own path. One of the most poingnant episodes of thier relationship is X-Mas Story when Fry spends part of the episode feeling sorry for himself because he is lonely and misses Christmas with his family. Then it's pointed out that Leela is feeling even worse because while Christmas is a reminder of what Fry doesn't have anymore, for Leela, it's a reminder of what she's never had and she expects never will. Fry goes out of his way to make Leela feel better, not because he hope she'll fall for him (at this point, I don't think Fry is even that serious about liking Leela romantically yet). He did it because she's his friend, and he can empathize with her lonliness.

There's never a moment where he demands Leela's affection in exchange for the things he does. Fry saves the world, several times, over the course of the series, but he never makes that transactional. He doesn't try to leverage the fact that he is the only person in the universe who could have done what he did to even get a date with Leela. Although he does plead with Leela several times to give him a chance, Fry is also willing to back off when he's rebuffed...It's really messed up that we live in a world where that's a rare and attractive trait in a man, but here we are.

At the end of the day, Fry respects Leela. He has feelings for her and would like those feelings to be reciprocated, but had Leela refused him, he would have let her go. And we get a few opportunities to see that he would let her go. Leela has a few love interests over the course of the series, and while Fry doesn't necessarily like it, he steps aside and let's Leela do as she pleases, even if it means he might not ever get to be with her himself. Aang, on the otherhand, was ready to go into the Avatar State over the mere suggestion that Katara wanted someone else. Rather than give Katara the space she specifically asked for, he pressured her for the response he wanted, and physically forced himself on her. Aang wouldn't step aside like Fry and let Katara have every chance to be happy, even if it wasn't with him.

By the time Fry and Leela get together, they have a deep understanding of each other, both the good and bad. Fry has worked on himself so he could be the partner Leela needed without any expectation that she had to pick him if he did the things he was supposed to do anyway. Leela in turn was able to let her guards down and trust Fry would see her vulnerability for the gift it was and handle her with care. In contrast, by the time Katara and Aang get together, Aang has proven his feelings matter more to him than hers. He's proven that Katara can't trust him with her vulnerabilites, and he's disrespected her culture several times (remember the time Fry literally threw himself into a toxic lake and got "mutated" so he could support Leela after she called him out for being insensitive?). Aang is the king of "girl, lower your standards!" Mike and Bryan could stand to learn a thing or 15 about building a romance from Futurama.

#atla #anti kataang #futurama #fry and leela #freela? #comparing kataang to freela #fry and leela are what kataang could have been #if katara's feelings mattered and bryke could admit that aang wasn't perfect #there's no version of kataang i would ship over zutara #but there's a version of that ship that i would have at least accepted #kataang sucks because aang isn't a good character and katara doesn't get anything out of it #that is all