#zutara podcast

[juune-moon]

Previously on: Braving the Elements

In the latest episode of the official Avatar-verse podcast, hosted by Janet Varney (va for Korra), we heard from Elsa Garagarza and Angela Song Mueller, both of whom worked on the show. Bryan Konietzko was also present and this exchange happened when asked about ships:

JV: Ships! Any ships that you like, that you lean into, in the course of Avatar?

ASM: Elsa? Do you have a-? [laughing]

EG: You know what? I was very shallow so I always liked the zutara ship [laughing] because they were both tall and handsome, so I always shipped them together, but that was so shallow. But no, my favorite ship will always be k@t@@ng, so [he] ended up being quite a handsome man.

ASM: Yeah!

JV: That’s very true.

EG: I just go with the classics.

ASM: Yeah, I—Zutara for me. I don’t know, there’s something about the 12 year old or 11 year old falling in love I felt was a little like…mmmm, you know? Seeing my kids around that age right now too, it’s just a little like, I’m not ready for them falling in love [laughs].

JV: I hear ya, it’s been a large topic, I mean for being quote-unquote shallow, it’s been a real topic of conversation on Braving the Elements because a lot of people feel that way, a lot of people feel like— A@ng really feels— of course he goes through something as well, but it’s true, it can be hard for us to overcome his first moment of seeing Katara and us kind of going: Aww! Versus…

ASM: Yeah

JV: …you know, the energy between Katara and Zuko, but uh—

BK: Bad boy doesn’t always win y’all!

[laughing]

JV: He’s not that bad!

BK: I’m filling the roll of Dante right now—

ASM: I love this

[more laughing]

JV: He’s not that bad. [doing her best impression of Dante Basco] Bad boy doesn’t always win.

BL: He hired an assassin to kill Aang!

ASM: I mean…

BK: Is she just supposed to look over that on their date? You know?

JV [as Dante]: This guy…

BK: Like, “remember that time you hired an assassin?”

JV [still as Dante]: Listen, his—he had a dad that was not cool, umm. [Bryan laughing] His dad was very bad, he had to overcome that.

Regular JV: I mean listen, I could do that forever, I’m not gonna put you all, or Dante through my impression of him forever.

[all giggling]

End of topic.

I just found some things interesting. First of all, I was squirming in my seat knowing that Bryan was there, just waiting for his response! And he did what I expected which was to completely disregard Zuko’s entire arc lol!

Zuko≠bad boy!!! #zukoisaturtleduck

And zutara as ‘shallow’? But @@ng grows up to be handsome! That’s not shallow?? That argument never made any sense to me since it’s the other way around!

I do commend Janet, ever the diplomatic avatar, still fighting that zutara fight! Incidentally, she has stated on the show that she also ships zutara (and I just love her). It’s always interesting to me to hear from the people who worked on the show, especially around br¥k£.

Thoughts? Does anyone else listen to this podcast? Will I be able to sleep tonight? Find out next time on: struggling through life!

#let me know if I tagged this wrong #I don’t know all the rules!! #zutara #anti bryke #anti kataang #atla #braving the elements #podcast #zuko #katara #avatar the last airbender #avatar #long post

[creativedifferencespodcast]

If we had a nickel for every time Demi said “I don’t normally like enemies to lovers, but…”, we’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

#creative differences #podcast #top 5 tuesday #enemies to lovers #Reylo #Zutara #rey skywalker #kylo ren #zuko #katara #star wars #avatar: the last airbender

[waterbenderkat]

will we ever get another podcast episode?

We just posted one yesterday! All about the live action first look ❤️. We’ll just be covering the Netflix live- action from now on.

#zutara #podcast #avatar #a:tla #waterbenderkat #waterbender asks

[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

[the-shipping-forecasters]

Everything Changed when the Zutara Shippers Attacked

This week, the forecasters are flying across the world to master all four elements, and on the way we'll be taking a look at what fics we can find in the Avatar fandom.

Join us, as Nick learns something new about himself, Grace finds the one thing that can improve Zutara for her (its Zukka), and James does his best to justify simping for Kuvira.

If that sounds your thing, have a listen here (and all the other podcast places too):

Spotify

YouTube

Travel to Ember Island, and see a group of people who look a little bit like us perform the show (they won't get it right)

Stitcher

And join us next time, when we review our favourites. And join us Friday, when we read about the time Thanos had sex with sentient corn.

#ao3 #fanfiction #podcast #avatar #avatar fanfiction #avatar fandom #zutara #zukka #Would you love Zuko if he was a moth? #A little bit of Dragon Prince in here too #Spotify #Youtube

[soopersara]

In honor of a milestone that matters to absolutely no one aside from myself (I finished editing 70/80 podfic chapters for I&S, which means that I have a posting buffer for that project until early May and ~44 hours of finished audio of the fic🎉), I thought I'd finally share a thing that I did in May of last year:

I started a youtube channel! It's basically just another place for my podfics to live, with the addition of some (in my biased opinion) pretty visuals to look at. The channel is currently up to date with my I&S podfic and nearly all of my true drabbles, and all of my other completed podfics (and remastered versions of the ones I originally recorded on a REALLY awful microphone) will be going up over the next few months. So if audio versions of fanfic but on youtube sounds appealing to anyone, feel free to check it out! Everything is in order in the playlists for the sake of convenience if you want to binge.

And because I had too much fun designing the visuals for all my youtube podfics, both current and upcoming, here's a taste of the thumbnails you'll get to see:

Some are obviously MUCH closer to posting than others, but it's been a really fun project to put these together!

#zutara #zutara fanfiction #zutara podfic #video podfic #I guess that would be the term for these? #I'm not really sure #but I figured that I spend A LOT of time on youtube #and listen to a lot of podcasts there #as in... ALL of the podcasts I listen to are on youtube #so at the very least #these are available for me to listen to when I need background noise at work and I'm not in the mood for my usual podcasts

[fieldtripswith-zuko]

i've been listening to the braving the elements podcast, and whenever they bring on some of the original creators of the show, it is so crazy to hear how young they were when they were making the show. I can't imagine working on something at my age, and then 20 years later, it's still one of the most beloved shows. And I was essentially just screwing around with my friends, Just being like "hey let's just fuck around and find out."

#I recommend the podcast #It is worth it to hear Dante swoon over zutara #And hearing his New York accent and imagining it over a zuko animation #And Janet is so sweet #Braving the elements #fieldtripswith-zuko

[nono-bunny]

During yet another con recording, Janet and Dante basically admit they're afraid of stepping of Bryke's toes too much by criticizing the show and their decisions, so they don't think about it too hard and??? Oh god that's... Kinda really sad tbh, I don't know how to put it into words exactly but. Hearing them be so casual about saying it felt really weird when it's something that's been very clear to me for a while- they're the ambassadors of the Avatarverse and that means they have to present it in the best light possible... Even when it's deserving of heavy criticism.

Legit the most controversial they got was expressing interest in the possibility of an Azula redemption, but the thing they made a big deal about was The Great Divide because that's the "Bryke Approved" thing to hate on, and even then they still didn't really- they had to defend Aang by calling him a trickster! Imo it's an unambiguous bad episode for him but they can't just say shit like that because of Bryke's ever watchful eye and... Bryke being incapable of taking criticism means that the podcast has very little of it, unfortunately, which makes it really unpalatable at times- it's still mostly fun but! It feels like the big issues the fandom is divided over won't ever really get discussed or explored because of the way Bryke got so stubborn and petty about them and made everything worse.

Also this whole thing kinda goes to show just how powerful and right Zutara is that it overrides this for BOTH of them!

#avatar the last airbender #atla #braving the elements #zutara #anti bryke

[kataraslove]

Do you know anything about where i can find people talking about the fake zk interviews, or how "zutara was originally gonna be endgame" was fake news? conversions haha 😅😅

as it stands, some of the writers on the writing team (joshua hamilton and john o’bryan specifically) wanted zutara. they confirmed this on braving the elements, the atla podcast hosted by dante and janet. one of them mentioned that there was an original pilot that initially had a zutara endgame. i’ve yet to find any evidence of this, and the actual series bible posted on Reddit mentions no ships, so who knows if this was something legitimate or false.

the popular rumour is that aaron ehasz was adamantly pro-zutara and devised a whole season 4 in which they became endgame, in addition to an azula redemption arc. this rumour came from a fake interview from a zutara blog who claimed to be an intern working at nickelodeon. aaron ehasz on video confirmed that the interview was fake, and also stated that he did not personally ship anything in his writing because rooting for a particular ship would lead to contrived plot points. rather, he went with the “natural flow of things” by listening to his characters and their needs. bryan later echoed the same sentiments on the braving the elements podcast, that fandom could ship what they want but ultimately they would make their writing decisions based on the direction of the story and the characters’ wants and needs, whether those decisions ended up finalizing platonic or romantic relationships.

on top of that, aaron ehasz also:

said that the only thing he would change in atla was a composition shot of azula and the gaang in the chase in the same interview that he denied wanting zutara as endgame

loved mai and maiko (him and his ex wife first introduced maiko in zuko alone)

confirmed parallels between kataang and rayllum

expressed his interest in reading kataang-rayllum parallel meta (i can’t find the tweet, but it was an interaction regarding @raayllum’s meta).

requested, alongside mike dimartino, the tale of oma and shu to be created as a way to develop katara and aang’s romantic relationship in the cave of two lovers (as confirmed by the writer joshua hamilton himself)

#kataang #maiko #antizutara

[ok-boomerang]

fanfiction as textual analysis

a friend shared an episode of the harry potter podcast "witch please" that was all about fanfiction. from the episode:

"Fanfiction demonstrates not only readers' responses to [the] canon text, but their analysis of it. I don't just mean analysis in terms of fan essays, although there are many. I mean, the way in which fanfiction itself, like most fan works, often offers an implicit analysis of the texts and genres to which it responds." (Witch Please podcast, Book 5, Episode 4)

I love this because it's certainly true, maybe even obvious, though we wouldn't usually describe fanfic as "implicit textual analysis" whereas metas and essays are explicit.

Thinking of Zutara as an example, many of the popular ZK conventions serve to critique the show's canon relationships and often its politics too. Three of these conventions that come to mind:

Ambassador Katara -- this is common because in the canon world, we have to get Katara near Zuko. But that's not it, because if that was it Katara could just break all the bones in her body near the Fire Nation and need to recuperate there or something. "Ambassador Katara" ALSO gives Katara an important political role, which is an analysis of Katara's canon future, a critique of her being sidelined. Fire Lady Katara does the same thing!

Bloodbending as healing -- Instead of forcing Katara to abandon her "dark side," Zutara fanfiction often has her accept and reinterpret it, transforming what was considered her "darkness" into something that heals. That's a critique of Katara seen as the paragon of goodness, especially by Aang.

Painted Lady/Blue Spirit -- Of course it's fun and symbolic that Zuko and Katara both had alter egos, but turning them into vigilantes working together highlights some parts of the canon show that work well and that could have developed more: how well Zuko and Katara work together as a team, their empathy for people in need, and their perseverance to do pretty much anything once they set their minds to it.

I'm sure there's a lot more. But tl;dr: Fic writers are doing literary criticism.

#zutara #zutara fanfiction #fanfiction #atla meta #atla critical #anti kataang #everyone's a critic #a literary critic

[burst-of-iridescent]

at the moment, 5.7k people are following the kataang tag, not 2.9k, as you said, why would you lie? in addition, even on Tumblr (which remained almost the last popular zk place among all fan platforms), Zukka is ahead of Zutara in popularity, and a lot of talented and popular creators of fan art and fan fiction are now concentrated in the Zukka and Maiko fandom. It is fundamentally a mistake to focus on the popularity of the ship, because shipping should be for personal pleasure, but this only shows that most people are ATLA fans (namely fans, not casual viewers) they actively love ATLA and did not see zutara in the canon. In addition, can you give evidence of your words that «almost all of the main cast and most of the writers» love zutara? From the cast, only Dante actively confessed his love for zutara, but he also spoke about his love for zukka, Mae Whitman not against Zutara and joked about it, but she also said in podcast that she also loves kataang, the rest of the actors did not speak at all about their preferences in shipping (except Grey DeLisle who prefers zucest).

none of the screenwriters has ever confessed his love for Zutara, on the contrary, Ehasz has said several times that he loves Maiko, he also wrote almost all the most significant maiko and kataang episodes. The only one of the 13 main writers of ATLA who spoke about sympathy for Zutara is John O'Bryan. Zutara never featured in any of the original scripts, and in ATLA's "bible," the only love triangle that was originally planned was Aang-Katara-Toph (who was a boy in the original script). In a recent interview, Ehaz also answered the question of how he feels about zutara vs kataang, that he, as a professional screenwriter, "follows his characters" and their final canonical choice of love interest is the choice of the character himself, not the writers.

.

i wrote 2.9k the first time around by mistake. the original post has since been amended to reflect the actual numbers of the kat.aang tag, though frankly the disparity between the two tags is still so large that i don’t even think it matters. anyway, my bad. thanks for letting me know.

many cast members and former writers on the official atla podcast, braving the elements, have talked about shipping zutara — including, but not limited to, dante basco, jack de sena, michaela murphy, joshua hamilton, and john o’bryan. grey delisle, mae whitman & greg baldwin have also spoken about being zutara shippers. i’m not sure why them liking or showing support for other ships somehow means they don’t ship zutara, because people don’t need to ship only a single couple to prove they’re “real” shippers lmao. i like azutara, sukitara, ty luko & even book 1 kat.aang myself; that doesn’t make me any less of a zutara shipper.

i’m also not sure why you expect me to do the work of providing evidence for you when, given the fact that you’re here, i’m certain you have just as much access to google as i do. this information is freely available online. feel free to fact check me.

and let me say this again, in case it was not clear enough: i truly do not care about zutara’s popularity. even if none of the cast and writers shipped it, even if the tag only had 10 people, even if every single wonderfully talented writer & artist & AMV editor & GIF maker in this fandom left, i would still ship it. because it’s a better story, because it is more thematically and narratively cohesive, and because it makes me happy.

and if you disagree with that, that’s fine by me. but somehow trying to “prove” to me that zutara is unpopular and no one likes it is not only a) factually false it’s also b) not going to do a damn thing to change my mind lmao. the opinions of other people have never been a reason for me to ship zutara, and they never will be.

#zutara

[vlackevil]

Dante Basco describe the jealousy of Katara seeing Aang dancing another girl and the Kataango in the Podcast Braving Element.

Dante Basco: “We’re going back to the party, and Aang finally gets the kids to start dancing. And by the way, Katara doesn’t seem to love Aang dancing with Onjin too much.” (she is jealous 🎶)

Dante Basco: “And finally Aang ask Katara to dance, and make a wonderful dance. That is kind martial art.”

The captain of zutara admitted the Kataango is WONDERFUL.

#kataang #aang and katara #katara and aang #atla #avatar the last airbender #otp #avatar #aang x katara #pro kataang #dante basco #braving the elements #headband #atla kataang

[waterbenderkat]

i’m gonna binge all your zutara podcast while i’m at work! keep up the amazing work we need more zutara/avatar centric blogs like you guys around here! ❤️ i can’t wait till you guys cover the show as well!!!!

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry I missed this when you sent it. THANK YOU SO MUCH, you are too kind!

#avatar #zutara #a:tla #podcast #waterbenderkat #waterbender asks

[avrelia]

Braving the Elements season 3

The new season of the podcast Braving the Elements concerning the book 3 of the Avatar the Last Airbender started, predictably with the appearance of Mike and Bryan. They talked a little about how busy they are with “something” and a bit more about book 3 “Fire”. There was a lot of mutual admiration and general excitement, but we got some information as well.

- It’s been 20 years, and they don’t remember every detail of their thought process

- they remember some stuff, and are always happy to talk about their inspirations. Like Bryan talking about his trip to Iceland, his admiration for its natural beauty made by volcanic activity, and how Iceland photos became Fire Nation landscapes.

- or Mike telling about his trip to Bhutan and his awe at the Tiger’s Nest temple that became an inspiration for the Western Air Temple.

- they talked about how Ozai’s face reveal – that he is just a regular guy who looks like older Zuko whole we don’t see until Zuko meets him face to face – was initially thought to mean one thing, then it started to mean a slightly different thing, and it is fine.

- Dante was super excited to meet Mark Hamill when recording voices for Zuko and Ozai. (who wouldn’t)

- they talked about inspiration for the lion turtle they found in Korea, and that it really was meant to me there in the story from the beginning, and they tried to hide it while giving away glimpses.

- 99.9% of Air Nomads were airbenders. Because that’s how they invented that world, that’s why.

- Aang was never going to kill Ozai. Never ever. He is a monk and has monk ethics no matter what everyone was telling him.

- animating the scene where Aang and Ozai’s souls are fighting for the dominance during the energybending moment was rather challenging.

- In Bryan’s mind, Iroh is ten years older than Ozai. It is not a confirmed canon, more like idea. Iroh looks much older because of the life he lived, while Ozai has an amazing skincare routine.

- they don’t know any other Fire lords’ names. But you know, those names appear and will appear in various materials – novels, RPG, etc.

- Mike and Bryan love canon relationships – surprise!

- Dante admitted that while he ships Zutara, he started vibing with Zuko/Mai’s relationship as well as he was actually watching the show. Which is fine, and only serves to show his general attitude to shipping: it is a fun activity that keeps the interest going and in the long term helps him to earn money.

- Yes, Dante, there are good people in the Fire Nation, as you’ve been saying all the previous episodes. This time everyone agreed, since we are finally arriving to the Fire Nation.

- I probably forgot something, but you may listen to it – or, for the first time – also watch it on the Avatar the last Airbender official Youtube channel. At first I thought why? And then after I listened to the podcast I couldn’t remember what said Bryan and what said Mike. Not to imply that they are the same – they are very much not- but I have a trouble distinguishing voices I don’t know well. So I watched a bit – and really liked it. Whoever edited the video did a great job of adding some visual jokes and visual illustrations to whatever Janet, Dante, Mike and Bryan were saying. So we can see how Bryan’s photos of Iceland became the Fire Nation, and how Tiger’s Nest looks like.

And it is so easy to remember who was saying what! Mike is the one who looks like Aang, Bryan is the one who looks like Zuko, Dante is the one who sounds like Zuko. And occasionally talks as if he is Zuko.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #zuko #aang #ozai #braving the elements #bryan konietzko #mike dimartino #dante basco #janet varney

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Bryke was in the Podcasts Braving Element book fire, and one the most interesting in that conversation was Bryke say Kataang relationship in Book fire was their favorite and Basco he is vibing for Maiko, but he say the headband episode is technically filler, it means is not canon that episode? What you think?

"Filler" was an anime term, about episodes that existed solely to give the manga they were adapting extra time to get more content for them to adapt. The filler episodes are canon (to the anime versions at least), but they don't move the plot forward, so if you skip them you don't miss anything important.

Eventually the term stopped being used solely for anime - and some idiots started using it to mean "bad episode", but the actual meaning is still the same: the episode can be skipped without the audience being confused. Only now these episodes exist not to catch up with a source material (in Avatar's case there wasn't one in the first place since it was an original series, not an adaptation) but rather as a "breather" episode, that can be more light-hearted, or character-driven instead of plot-driven.

To give an Avatar exemple: "Tales of Ba Sing Se" is filler, but it's still canon. It does not, in any way, further the Dai Li plot the previous episode had established - but we get focus on the characters, their personalities, dynamics, and THE tear-jerker that is Iroh singing to both honor his son and express his grief over his death. We already knew Lu Ten was dead and Iroh was grieving, but this episode gives it further depth.

Even if "The Headband" was filler, it'd still be canon - and so would be the dance with Katara clearly being into Aang.

And I personally do NOT consider "The Headband" filler. It furthers the whole theme of the season and the series ("How do you rebuild a world consumed by war? Through kindness"), we (and more importantly, the protagonist) get a deeper look into the indoctrination the people of the Fire Nation are subjected to, and more importantly, it is the episode in which we are introduced to Combustion man - ya know, the assassin that will try to kill the Gaang? The secondary villain of half the season? The one that is Zuko's attempt to resolve the problem of "The Avatar is supposed to be dead" that the previous episode introduced? Aka it is connected both to the aftermath of the Ba Sing Se plot and the "Zuko goes from villain to ally of the good guys" plot?

You CAN'T skip this episode without being confused as to who the fuck is that guy chasing the Gaang and who sent him after them. You'd have to wait until his last appearance, in which Zuko confronts him, for you to realize what the villain's deal was, meaning that PLOT would only become coherent after it was basically resolved.

It furthers the plot, therefore it isn't filler. It's just not ALL about the plot. By that logic, nearly every episode of season one is filler. The Beach is filler. Well over half the fucking show is filler if we're only counting episodes that have BIG, plot-twisting events as "important" episodes. Bryke need to stop parroting fandom nonsense to gain points.

As for Dante Basco being all excited about Maiko despite being a big zutara fan, that does not surprise me. He has ALWAYS said he liked their romance, and that Mai is the kind of girl he'd try getting with in real life.

Once again, the epic "power struggle" between Zutara fans and the evil dark lords Bryan and Mike is only in the fandom's weird minds. They weren't always kind to shippers, but the simple fact that they're so chill with Dante, and lots of other people, including writersn who went on his podcast and said everything from "I don't really care for Zutara, but I think could have worked" to "It's one of my OTPs" shows that this "Bryke VS Zutara" war is VERY one-sided and exists solely because people can't accept that, no, the writers are not throwing away their entire plan just to please you.

#anti zutara #pro kataang #the headband

[yourhighness6]

So I Was Just Listening to Braving the Elements, And...

[People already know this if they've listened to the podcast, obviously, but I've seen this nowhere so I have to share for those who haven't]

I'm listening to a meet the writer's episode with John O'Bryan and they were asking about ships and THIS CONVERSATION HAPPENED:

Janet: 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: Oh, yeah, of course! Um, I would have gone Katara/ Zuko.

Janet: Zutara!

Dante: That's what I'm talking about, John!

John: So, I know we're on the- I know we lost that fight, but...

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

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

!!!

I'm just, like, wow!! I immediately got out my computer because I had to share. this is a momentous occasion [or it was, two years ago]. I really need to catch up on episodes but I'm so glad I listened to it. The next time a Kata.anger says it wasn't considered, direct them to this episode, please.

#zutara #avatar the last airbender #atla #dante basco #janet varney #braving the elements #I'm so excited #atla writers