#i wonder what ideas john and joshua had about the zutara relationship....

[xabura]

The ATLA staff talk about their favorite ships on the Avatar: Braving the Elements podcast

John O'Bryan

Janet Varney: John, how do you fare in the world of ships? Do you have a ship that you enjoy? And do you know what we’re talking about when we say that?

John O’Bryan: Oh yeah, yeah, of course. I would have gone Katara-Zuko.

Janet Varney: Zutara!

Dante Basco: Zutara, Zutara, see, that’s what I’m talking about, John.

John O’Bryan: So, I know that we lost that fight, but…

Dante Basco: Yeah, we did. But was it a fight? Was there talks about that in the writer’s room? Inquiring minds want to know.

John O’Bryan: Yeah, yeah, I think definitely that stuff came up a lot. There are, I’m sure there’s some other, there’s some dimension, some alternate dimension though, where they are a thing.

Joshua Hamilton

Janet Varney:  How do you feel about shipping now? Did you have a ship? Again, John O’Bryan was like, I feel like we argued over the Zutara versus the Kataang. Like, you know, you have a sense of where you think you want the story to go. Did you have ships like that, before you even knew what ships were?

Joshua Hamilton: No, I did not. But we did fight! He was right, I do remember arguing about that. Kataang and—I’m Zutara. You know, I’m just an originalist. 

Janet Varney: Oh, there you go! Dante’s so sad he’s not here right now. 

Joshua Hamilton: I read the Bible a long time ago and it said they’re supposed to get together. So yeah, I still think we did it wrong.  *laughs* No, I’m just kidding. 

Janet Varney: Oh, Zutara ship, I hear you loud and clear.

I guess by “Bible”, Hamilton is referring to the I.P. Bible which outlined the initial proposal for the series. Zuko and Katara do not end up together in it because nobody ends up in a relationship. Contrary to the popular belief that "Katara and Aang ending up together was planned from the start".

However, the relationship between Zuko and Katara becomes a major focus in the original Book 3 because Zuko and Katara end up separated from the rest of Team Avatar and have to work together. The reason why Zuko chose Katara to help him fight Azula in the series is because the two were originally imprisoned in a fortress and had to fight Azul (the original male version of Azula) after escaping. Katara is also the first person to trust Zuko in both versions. It’s interesting to see how some of the early concepts they proposed evolved over time.

But oh man, Katara was the only female character! The I.P. Bible's Team Avatar was composed of Aang, Toph (also a male character back then), Sokka, and Zuko. I think I would have shipped Zutara even with their I.P. Bible versions since Zuko develops a strong bond with Katara as a friendship. He is not a part the obnoxious love triangle Katara is stuck in with "nice" guy Aang and jerk jock Toph. Even from early on, you can tell the romance and female representation in the series suffered from painfully male writing.

Giancarlo Volpe

Dante Basco: Giancarlo, what are your favourite ships on the show? Or do you have a favorite ship?

Giancarlo Volpe: Oh man, that’s such a good question...

Janet Varney: We already know he wanted to have that image of Suki looking off at Sokka. 

Dante Basco: He was rooting for Suki early in the game! 

Giancarlo Volpe: Yeah, that was a fun one. I mean, I always thought that Aang and Katara were supposed to end up together. So I think that I sort of just believed that. But my wife always insisted that Zuko and Katara made a better match.

Dante Basco: See, I need to meet your wife. We saw some things! You know, we saw some things.

Janet Varney: Yeah! Zutara! 

Giancarlo Volpe: And it was a little bit, like, I was in denial. I was like, “no, they don’t!”. But now I sorta...see what she means...uhh...so.

Tim Hedrick

Janet Varney: Do you have any ships?

Dante Basco: Give us some ships, give us some ships! Give us some feels, give us some shipping feels here, Tim.

Tim Hedrick: I always enjoyed the romance of Sokka and Suki. And it’s just so, you know, it’s nice. Because I feel like Sokka, you know, he has a rough time when he starts dating the Moon. But he has a relationship that works out for him too. 

Dante Basco: Very rough. Yeah.

Tim Hedrick: Sokka needs some love, you know.

Janet Varney: I love that.

Dante Basco: I like that, I like that. And I love Suki. She’s so powerful.

Tim Hedrick: Yeah, it just works out. You just feel good about it. It’s like, yeah, these two, they’re all right. No drama.

Janet Varney: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

#zutara #sukka #i wonder what ideas john and joshua had about the zutara relationship.... #giancarlo's wife is smarter than he is #the way none of them like m@iko is hilarious ngl #i might do another one for the cast #did you know jennie kwan is a sukitara supporter? queen!! #zach can stfu though #also i guess i will update this post as more podcast eps come out so putting this under a cut #keeping this as a reference for myself