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Kataang vs Zutara

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Ship War
ShipWar: Kataang vs Zutara
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Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
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Kataang vs Zutara is a Ship War in the fandom of animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, between shippers of two Katara pairings: Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Zutara (Katara/Zuko).

Kataang is generally considered to be the "winner" of the ship war, since it became canon in the series finale and their relationship was further explored in post-canon stories and The Legend of Korra. This has not stopped Zutara's popularity, though, or the fans who still wish or believe it should have been the canon pair. The Zutara fandom is by some considered to be the fan preferred couple, various voice actors have even stated a preference towards Zutara[1]. The popularity of the ship has even spun an event called "Zutara week", which is often considered the first modern fanweek, an annual event that has remained active for decades devoted to the ship.[2]

History

When the show was airing, it was unclear which ship would be canon with growing relationship developments between Katara and Zuko, thanks to the "cave scene" in "Crossroads of Destiny" and the episode "The Southern Raiders". As the show aired on Nickelodeon at the time, most of the fans were likely pre-teen or teenagers who looked up to Bryke as adults and role models.

During the third season, the increased Kataang shiptease (as well as the reveal of Mai as Zuko's love interest) led to outcry among Zutara fans. Zutara and Kataang shippers got into heated debates about which ship would become canon.[3]

ATLA Finale

The finale saw Zuko getting back together with Mai and closed out with a passionate kiss between Aang and Katara, initiated by the latter which caused Zutara shippers to be outraged.

Immediately after the initial run of the show, there were a number of rumors that appeared concerning the canonical validity of Zutara. One suggested that the show would be getting a fourth season, and that this mysterious fourth season would have Zuko and Katara getting together. Another rumor posited that head writer Aaron Ehasz was the one to write this fourth season, and that he had intended for Zutara to happen all along— the evidence for which was an informal interview that was spread by word-of-mouth through the fandom. Eventually, the theory that head writer Aaron Ehasz shipped Zutara was neither truly confirmed nor denied, but that some supposed interviews had never happened.[4]

I would first caution anyone that unfortunately there are some "fake interviews" with me out there that spread some false info

Aaron Ehasz, Reddit AMA [1]

However, there is also a lot of conflicting information surrounding this. While Ehasz has remained quiet on what he ships (only releasing a troll video where he said he shipped Azula and Katara), he did in fact confirm the rumors that he was approached by Nickelodeon about his ideas for a fourth season and that he discussed this issue with co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino to the point where he thought it would end up being produced. He states such plans were eventually scrapped when the co-creators became occupied with assisting M. Night Shyamalan to produce 'The Last Airbender' live action movie as executive producers.[5] The co-creators themselves, however, deny a fourth season was ever discussed or even considered, furthering the confusion.[6]

Other show writers are divided into Kataang and Zutara shippers, with co-creators Bryke (Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino) declaring themselves Kataang shippers.[7]

There were several allusions to Katara being Zuko’s girlfriend throughout Season Three. Aside from Uncle Iroh, she seemed to be the first person to see the potential good in Zuko. Was there ever a spark between the two? Was there ever a point which you thought they would end up together?

Michael Dante DiMartino: Sorry to disappoint the “Zutara” fans out there, but we never intended for Zuko and Katara to get together. Maybe we’re just sentimental, but we always had a soft spot in our hearts for “Kataang”.

Bryan Konietzko: Zuko and Katara might have shared some sparks, but sometimes there are people along your “journey of love” who are there to teach you about yourself and what you really need, but don’t necessarily end up being your partner. Come on, kids! “Zutara” never would have lasted! It was just dark and intriguing.

Bryke, Sozin's Comet The Final Battle (Avatar) Paperback [2]

Eight days after the series ended, Bryke appeared on San Diego Comic Con 2008 and played a video mashup of fanart sent to them over the years from young passionate fans which most likely were pre-teens and teenagers, photomanipulating their art to tell their own story. [8] The video starts with words "Book 4: Forbidden Love" formatted into the Avatar intro and goes on to mock Zutara in YouTube poop style. Bryke manipulates a fanart of Sokka to say "Women who ship Zuko and Katara together will forever have doomed relationships". It ends with crossing out "all" in the sentence "THANKS FOR ALL OF THE FANART THROUGHOUT THE YEARS" to "some" and then "most".

Women who ship Zuko and Katara together will forever have doomed relationships.

Bryke, San Diego Comic Con 2008 [3]

Due to backlash, Bryan Konietzko captioned the video saying it was a joke and included a dictionary definition of the word. However it was too late, as to this date Bryke's actions has opened up the road for people to bully and harass Zutara shippers. [9][10][11] Hence Zutara shippers are bitter about this incident and led to the Kataang vs Zutara ship wars getting out of hand with vile behavior on both sides, rarely having any civil interactions between them. Fans have been bullied and harassed to the point of leaving the fandom.

The Avatar Extras

A Nicktoons event in which episodes were shown along with a series of pop-up "extras" in the form of on-screen text bubbles, which gave facts and humorous comments.

They state "Zuko was originally going to be the love interest for Katara" and "The writers and creators toyed with the idea of Zuko and Katara falling in love". While the co-creators deny that Zutara was ever considered, series writers John O'Bryan and Joshua Hamilton have both gone on record to state that the writer's room fought a lot over whether Katara should end up with Zuko or Aang.[12][13]

Shyamalan has also stated that during the production of Book Three: Fire, the co-creators Mike and Bryan were still undecided, "At that time they hadn't even decided where things were going to end, even like who Katara was going to end up with."[14] The episode, The Southern Raiders, written by Elizabeth Welch, even references the Zutara ship directly in the script and compares them to Mr. & Mrs. Smith.[15][16]

Several members from the main cast was also favorably positioned towards Zutara.[17][18] Including Mae Whitman and Dante Basco, the voice actors of Katara and Zuko respectively.[19] However, Mae Whitman has also said she ships Kataang ("completely torn") [20] while Dante Basco has said that he liked Maiko as well.[21][22]

Dante Basco is very outspoken about Zutara and is often treated as the "Captain" of the ship.[23]

The ship war continues to this day, with debates continuing about the compatibility of both ships.[24][25]

LOK

When The Legend of Korra was announced in 2010, it was revealed that Aang and Katara had stayed together and had three children, one of whom was revealed in the first trailer. This angered Zutara fans who had hoped the canon pair would break up somewhere along the line.

Resurgence

During 2020, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was put on the streaming platform Netflix. This caused the fandom to experience what it has called the ATLA renaissance, a period where an influx of new fans flooded in, reinvigorating old ships and reigniting old tensions.

Due to Zukka becoming one of the most popular ships in the fandom and a rival ship to Zutara but complementary one to Kataang, Zukka shippers developed the headcanon that Zuko and Katara's relationship was written to be like that of siblings as a way to problematize and discredit Zutara in favor of Zukka. Their argument was based on the idea that because Katara had parallels with Azula, this meant that Katara was like Zuko's younger sister, despite multiple characters in the series sharing parallels with each other. This headcanon was rapidly adopted and pushed by Kataang shippers in the Kataang vs Zutara ship war as many detractors of the Kataang relationship even outside of the Zutara shipping fanbase often criticized Katara and Aang's dynamic for feeling too much like siblings, or even mother-son, which made them uncomfortable with the ship. Kataang shippers would reject the notion that Katara ever viewed Aang as a brother or that she was motherly towards him, while stating that Katara actually viewed Zuko as a brother. Thus, this was an attempt by Kataang shippers to try to flip the script by framing their rival, Zutara, as being sibling-like instead.

Ironically, many of these arguments were jossed by the creators themselves years ago. While they never made any comments stating that they wrote Zuko and Katara to be like siblings, they had confirmed numerous times that Katara acted as Aang's babysitter and that she initially viewed him as a little brother. This can be seen in the "Origins of the Avatar" special on the DVD/Blu-ray, where they describe the relationship between Katara and Aang as, "that dynamic of the young kid having a crush on the older girl, and she loves you but like a babysitter, you know, like a little brother or something".[26] The Avatar revised series bible written when Book 1 was being produced, describes their relationship as "the emotional heart of the show", with Katara considering it "her duty to protect and nurture him", and "Katara appreciates Aang’s gestures, but is not interested in romance. She dotes on him more like a kid she baby-sits rather than a potential love interest."[27] The "Women of Avatar" featurette directed by Bryke has the participants refer to Katara as "motherly" and a "big sister".[28] In "The Earth Kingdom Chronicles", Katara is aware that Aang has always had a crush on her but she purposely acts oblivious, and she is about to confess to herself that she loves Aang like a brother before Sokka interrupts her thoughts.[29] Therefore the people who felt that Katara and Aang had a sibling-like relationship were correctly interpreting how their dynamic was intentionally written in the series; and the argument among Kataang shippers that Zutara was invalidated by Katara being like a sister figure to Zuko was a hypocritical one, as Kataang was canonically a sibling-like bond that became a romantic relationship.

Results of the Conflict

Some Zutara shippers would continue to deny Kataang or try to make it look bad, while others apologized for the behavior of their more aggressive counterparts.[30][31][32][33]

Some more extreme Kataang shippers accused Zutara shippers of projecting onto Katara because they want to hook up with Zuko themselves[34][35], which other shippers found misogynistic and uncomfortably close to hateful personal attacks.[36] Some anti-Zutara fans compared it to Reylo, another controversial ship that took a lot of heat in fandom for being "abusive." [37]

In 2020, Netflix began airing the series, re-igniting the shipping war, and made Zukka one of the most popular ships of the fandom, completely outstripping Kataang and being almost on-par with Zutara in terms of fan content.

In 2021, it was announced that Katara in the upcoming live-action adaptation would be aged up to 16 with Aang still being 12,[38] causing Zutara fans to hope their ship would be canon.[39] Though this change was reversed and Katara was back to being 14 while Zuko was aged up by one year to be 17 which made Kataang more likely.

Meta and Further Reading

Links

References

  1. ^ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanPreferredCouple/WesternAnimation
  2. ^ https://zutaraweek.tumblr.com/
  3. ^ Zutara is so stupid
  4. ^ let it be known that 2018 was the year zutara died
  5. ^ https://gizmodo.com/avatar-the-last-airbenders-writer-says-a-possible-seas-1833776084
  6. ^ https://www.polygon.com/animation-cartoons/2020/8/31/21405084/legend-of-korra-netflix-bryan-konietzko-michael-dimartino-interview-avatar
  7. ^ https://www.amazon.com/Sozins-Comet-Final-Battle-Avatar/dp/1416958274
  8. ^ https://www.tumblr.com/bryankonietzko/23328242928/an-oldie-but-goodie-we-made-this-silly-little
  9. ^ https://imgur.com/a/UOsHhQK
  10. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/woyd23/whats_up_with_the_over_hate_of_zutara/
  11. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/gurk4f/whats_with_all_the_zutara_hyper_hate/
  12. ^ https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-avatar-braving-the-elemen-83488502/episode/meet-the-writer-with-john-obryan-85919549/
  13. ^ https://podtail.com/en/podcast/avatar-braving-the-elements/secret-tunnel-with-joshua-hamilton-and-jeremy-zuck/
  14. ^ https://www.lastairbenderfans.com/index.php?start_from=&ucat=8&subaction=showfull&id=1269959997&archive=1272555212&
  15. ^ https://sneezypeasy.tumblr.com/post/697556130407350272/original-script-analysis-part-1-kataang-is
  16. ^ https://sneezypeasy.tumblr.com/post/697895290000277504/original-script-analysis-part-2-the-southern
  17. ^ https://screenrant.com/avatar-last-airbender-jack-de-sena-zukka-ship-response/
  18. ^ https://imgur.com/a/HvhgHX9
  19. ^ https://zutaras-where-its-at.tumblr.com/post/619718788405985280
  20. ^ https://x.com/maebirdwing/status/225335225394270208
  21. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/1ax4uhs/lol_not_dante_basco_the_leader_of_the_zutara/
  22. ^ https://twitter.com/hlodowig/status/333319352352903168
  23. ^ https://shipping.fandom.com/wiki/Zutara
  24. ^ I’ve censored names because I don’t want anyone to be sent hate
  25. ^ And so a lot of Katara hate a la Southern Raiders arises.[dead link]
  26. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gQgZJU4e6E
  27. ^ https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Aang-and-Katara-become-a-couple-Wasnt-Aang-more-of-a-little-brother-to-her/answer/Viv-1113
  28. ^ https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Transcript:The_Women_of_Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender
  29. ^ Teitelbaum, Michael; Spaziante, Patrick (2008). The Earth Kingdom Chronicles: The Tale of Katara. Avatar. Nickelodeon (Television network). New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4169-5062-2.
  30. ^ Exploring Canon
  31. ^ Fandomsecrets Thread
  32. ^ Derogatory Urban Dictionary entry
  33. ^ Fandom Secret
  34. ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/l00irr/zutara_is_only_a_popular_ship_because_young_girls/
  35. ^ just bc zuko was older, had a scar and a “bad boy image” doesn’t mean that katara had to like him[dead link]
  36. ^ https://www.tumblr.com/ellakomskaikru/713085712574054400/dont-you-think-zutara-is-a-shallow-ship-based-on
  37. ^ r*ylo really is just a crap version of z*tara, huh.
  38. ^ Avatar: The Last Airbender Netflix Series Reportedly Lands New Showrunner
  39. ^ ATLA ENDING WITH KATARA AND ZUKO KISSING THIS TIME
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