zauncomeon

[zauncomeon]

Saying it in a taunting way bitch pls

Maybe the reason Azula is often a jerk to Zuko isn't just because Ozai trying to divide the Fire Siblings. Maybe it's also because Zuko is often a jerk to her and never does anything kind for her.

[zauncomeon]

Cuz that justifies telling him his father is going to kill him

anti zuko stans have suffered some specific ass trauma that resulted in them becoming media illiterate

Maybe the reason Azula is often a jerk to Zuko isn't just because Ozai trying to divide the Fire Siblings. Maybe it's also because Zuko is often a jerk to her and never does anything kind for her.

[zauncomeon]

I don’t know…there’s nothing to really indicate she did that cut off the deal because she felt like she had to. I feel like this is a little bit of a reach

as many criticisms i have of mai as a character, i really disagree with the idea that her “just letting” azula stop the trade for tom tom shows that she doesn’t care about him or that she’s not afraid of azula. i actually find this to be the moment i feel the most sympathy for mai in the entire series.

don’t get me wrong—i don’t think she originally joined azula out of fear; i think she was more or less being honest when she said she would do anything to get out of omashu because she was bored.

but when azula halts the exchange and compromises tom tom’s safety, something shifts. the music becomes really tense. mai’s expression doesn’t change, but she takes a beat too long to answer, she looks to where sokka is holding tom tom, and then she agrees with azula anyway.

it wasn’t enough for azula for mai to join her because she wanted to—azula wanted mai to join her on her terms and to know that she held all the cards, that she could decide a trade for mai’s brother wasn’t worth giving up bumi as a prisoner and mai couldn’t say anything about it without risking treason.

and this is the moment i think is supposed to show that mai now understands the danger she actually is in, similar to the close-up of ty lee’s face at the circus as azula insists the net be set on fire and wild animals set loose.

ty lee says no originally, but then tries to protect herself by backtracking and claiming it’s the universe who wants her to join the mission. mai protects herself by never saying no at all, displaying a mask of apathy, and (though this is conjecture) maybe even hoping if she shows enough loyalty by not disagreeing, azula will reward her by changing her mind and help her get her brother back later.

[zauncomeon]

Nope I hate Mai. Hope that helps

Me, screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE MAI I JUST FEEL LIKE SHE NEEDED MORE DEVELOPMENT OUTSIDE OF ZUKO AND HER ARC SHOULDN'T REVOLVE AROUND HER LOVE INTEREST

Also me, still screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE AANG I JUST QUESTION WHETHER HIS ROMANTIC INTEREST IN KATARA BRINGS OUT THE BEST SIDES OF HIM AND FEEL AS THOUGH HE AND HIS DEVELOPMENT IS NOT ABOVE NECESSARY CRITICISM

[zauncomeon]

The whole scene was so romantically coded, so I’m just gonna go with that they love each other

It's not that I think Zuko took lightning for Katara because he loved her, or that she healed him because she loved him, but I do think that it's only after the adrenaline fades that they truly realize what it means to care about someone so much that you do the impossible for them. I think they will always have this between them, this understanding that transcends whatever other relationships they may have, romantic or not. Katara's hands still remember what it felt like to hold Zuko's heartbeat between them, and if everything she touches still carries a bit of that heartbeat, bleeding out from her fingertips, she doesn't show it to anyone, but the firelord somehow knows, somehow always finds her hands, catching her fingertips in his warm ones briefly in passing. And if Zuko is always seeing shadows in the thunderstorm, a torrent of memory in the split second before lightning strikes, he is soothed by the silent eyes of the Water Tribe ambassador, watching him from across a crowded room.

[zauncomeon]

Let’s get one thing very straight. Genocide will always be horrible, impactful, and damaging. To minimize it or act like it has no effect would be obtuse, and I’m not here to debate on whether colonization or genocide is worse than the other, especially since often those things intertwine, but even alone, they are evil.

All that being said, the Water Tribes were never colonized. Genocide was definitely enacted by the fire nation onto them, but colonization never happened. Genocide alone still impacted the water tribes heavily, and you can see for yourself when you look at how the Southern Water Tribe looked before the genocides have taken place. Not only that, genocide leaves damaging effects psychologically, as evidenced by how the people at the SWT seem so visibly emotionally exhausted, and a bit hopeless. But of course losing family members due to it only makes it more difficult and heartbreaking

I’m going to say now, even if the fire nation colonized the water tribes, I’d still ship zutara. So this isn’t a defense of any kind, but this is only an answer to seeing fellow zutarians misuse the word, and I think it’s important to know the difference so we can talk about it properly

#had to delete the other post because I don’t think it expressed how genocide was still bad #and also I don’t care about these ship wars in regards to this topic #I’m not bothered by people who claim zutara is colonizer/colonized #zutara #zutara discourse #atla critical #atla criticism #anti atla #atla zuko #atla katara #zuko #katara #atla zutara #anti kataang #anti maiko

[zauncomeon]

sigh @theweeklydiscourse

the only last thing I’m gonna say is this:

“How in good faith, with all that is going on in the world, are you defending through critical analysis the Fire Nation civilians who chose to occupy indigenous land and build settlements over there? You're playing logistics, you know exactly what sort of civilians these are, because you know exactly what is going on in the real world.” -papenathys

it’s very interesting that a lot of the criticism of the zuko/katara dynamic in the southern raiders is, actually, more applicable to, and likely drawn from, the jet/katara dynamic in jet. 

the common anti-zutara arguments i see regarding this episode is that zuko “brought out katara’s darker side”/ “encouraged her worst impulses”/ “pushed her to kill”. aside from being objectively untrue (the only thing zuko did was check in on katara at every turn and let her take the lead every step of the way, stepping in only to protect her), these arguments actually fit the way jet treated katara, not zuko. 

jet absolutely tries to bring out katara’s “darker” side. jet attempts to encourage her “worst impulses”. jet lies, manipulates and betrays katara’s trust to try and make her into someone she’s not - a killer. and in jet, because the people at risk are innocents, katara does not comply. in the southern raiders, however, had it been jet accompanying katara instead of zuko, i can absolutely see a scenario in which jet encouraged katara to murder yon rha, and where he might even have  become angry if she refused. after all, if he considered katara a traitor for not killing innocents, if he could not let go of his rage toward two firebenders who, by all accounts, were refugees fleeing the war, what would he think of her sparing the man who murdered her mother and countless others? who willingly participated in the atrocities of the fire nation military? 

because jet and zuko are so closely paralleled, from their weapons to their looks to their personalities, i think a lot of people believe zuko would have the same influence on katara as jet tried to. but this defeats the entire purpose of making jet and zuko foils in the first place: that jet represented the person zuko could have become, if he didn’t learn to temper his blind rage. 

jet/ara (at least within show canon) would have been toxic for all the reasons antis claim zutara would be. but the fundamental point of foiling zuko with jet is to show that zuko is not, and will never, be jet. zuko does what jet, sadly, does not; he learns to control his rage rather than letting it control him, to grow beyond his trauma and look to the future instead of obsessing over the past. 

and that’s why a relationship between zuko and katara would have worked where jet and katara failed: because zuko was able to learn and grow in all the ways that jet, in his biggest tragedy, could not. 

[zauncomeon]

The “people at risk” weren’t innocent in any way, shape, or form. They were all a part of a settler town, and the people in it basically pushed earth nation citizens out. Jet said they invaded that town ten years prior; it wasn’t that long ago.

Jetara was “wrong” because they go about things differently. I don’t care if Jet wants to kill any person in that town honestly, but Katara is allowed to feel personally uncomfortable in regards to what he was doing.

Saying he was killing “innocents” is just falling for anti-resistance propaganda

Also saw in the tags you said jet had so much “rage and hatred”. Yeah…..that’s what happens when you were are pushed out of a town by other people and your parents were killed by the same nation those people are from.

Saying jet is who zuko could’ve been if he never “tempered his rage” just makes me want to scream. One had rage whilst having grown up in a family that oppressed other nations and was raised to think his nation is superior. The other had rage BECAUSE he was oppressed.

it’s very interesting that a lot of the criticism of the zuko/katara dynamic in the southern raiders is, actually, more applicable to, and likely drawn from, the jet/katara dynamic in jet. 

the common anti-zutara arguments i see regarding this episode is that zuko “brought out katara’s darker side”/ “encouraged her worst impulses”/ “pushed her to kill”. aside from being objectively untrue (the only thing zuko did was check in on katara at every turn and let her take the lead every step of the way, stepping in only to protect her), these arguments actually fit the way jet treated katara, not zuko. 

jet absolutely tries to bring out katara’s “darker” side. jet attempts to encourage her “worst impulses”. jet lies, manipulates and betrays katara’s trust to try and make her into someone she’s not - a killer. and in jet, because the people at risk are innocents, katara does not comply. in the southern raiders, however, had it been jet accompanying katara instead of zuko, i can absolutely see a scenario in which jet encouraged katara to murder yon rha, and where he might even have  become angry if she refused. after all, if he considered katara a traitor for not killing innocents, if he could not let go of his rage toward two firebenders who, by all accounts, were refugees fleeing the war, what would he think of her sparing the man who murdered her mother and countless others? who willingly participated in the atrocities of the fire nation military? 

because jet and zuko are so closely paralleled, from their weapons to their looks to their personalities, i think a lot of people believe zuko would have the same influence on katara as jet tried to. but this defeats the entire purpose of making jet and zuko foils in the first place: that jet represented the person zuko could have become, if he didn’t learn to temper his blind rage. 

jet/ara (at least within show canon) would have been toxic for all the reasons antis claim zutara would be. but the fundamental point of foiling zuko with jet is to show that zuko is not, and will never, be jet. zuko does what jet, sadly, does not; he learns to control his rage rather than letting it control him, to grow beyond his trauma and look to the future instead of obsessing over the past. 

and that’s why a relationship between zuko and katara would have worked where jet and katara failed: because zuko was able to learn and grow in all the ways that jet, in his biggest tragedy, could not. 

#zutara #zutara discourse #atla critical #anti atla #katara #zuko #jet atla #atla katara #atla zuko #atla zutara #anti kataang

[zauncomeon]

I’m done writing meta on why I ship it, so please don’t add meta to my artwork. I figure all the work’s already been done, now all we need are some visuals. Untitled “This Is Why I Ship It” art, with artistic liberty. Click on the source to see the full thing on DeviantArt.

#zutara

[zauncomeon]

We don’t talk enough about the two identical old women who just hang around Azula saying ominous shit in unison. What’s their deal. Is there a comic about them. Are they paid for their services

[zauncomeon]

This is really important. The person is implying that COCSA isn’t a thing. Yes, kids can inappropriately touch other kids without permission. It’s very much a thing, and I’m so tired of ignorant ass statements that imply it’s not. So what are you gonna say to a kid who got kissed by another kid without asking. Are you gonna say no SA was committed and invalidate their feelings, all because it was another kid?

God I hate people

Like it truly isn’t even that serious to bring up COCSA, but the person here is heavily implying it doesn’t exist, and that concerns me

Literally saw someone say that aang didn’t only accept the digestible parts of Katara and to “leave my baby alone!”

I think in this discourse we forget, besides the literal SA (because yes kissing people without consent especially doing it TWICE is SA), Aang is a kid. A child. Aang as a person is over idealistic….it only makes sense he would go about having crushes the same way. And that’s the only flaw of his I don’t “hate” him for. So yes, he does accept only the digestible parts of Katara, because he’s an overly idealistic child who runs away whenever he has to confront something. That is why it’s a such a shame he never let go of his attachment to Katara. Like he NEEDED that, especially to grow. I don’t think that baby needed a relationship at all, and even if he was in one, I’d wish for it to be with someone of the same maturity level (just to clarify I’m in no way saying he is mature just had to say this unless it comes off confusing).

The fact that the conflict of “letting go of attachments” was dropped in favour of Aang just…getting what he always wanted anyways is a big problem with his character arc. His attachment (and dependence) on Katara was holding him back, yet the narrative never truly reckons with that character flaw in him. With that in mind, we can then understand why people still feel somewhat uncomfortable with shipping him with Katara when he hasn’t truly matured.

Some will claim that Aang matured a great deal by the end, but I don’t agree. I think that he changed (slightly) but in truth, he is absolved of making the difficult decisions and gets to pick the comfortable option at the expense of his character growth. He’s idealistic when it comes to Katara, something that makes sense for a childish schoolboy crush, but does not make sense as the foundation of a relationship. He can’t let go of that romanticized view, and because of that, he wasn’t able to connect with her on a level that Zuko was. Romantic or platonic, Zuko saw Katara’s overt rage and pain and was receptive to it (which Aang wasn’t able to do).

Yet so many people don’t see why that is such a gaping hole in their relationship. People can revise history as much as they want, but the facts speak for themselves. Aang never meaningfully digested the uglier and more complex facts of Katara, which is…not great for the endgame couple. Aang’s young, but he’s not a clueless baby. He should’ve learned why his idealized image of Katara was bad.

[zauncomeon]

I really hate how orientalist at it’s core the show is. Yes I don’t think anyone should feel bad for liking the show, obviously, but seeing people project their very western takes and opinions onto a show which’s world is a result of two white dude’s picking and choosing aspects from various Asian and indigenous cultures….is just so weird. It’s just a weird thing to see.

#it really is just so sad #people see these cultures as a joke fr fr #anti atla #atla critical #atla criticism #anti kataang #anti bryke #anti natla