Zutara Week

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Challenge
Name: Allisaac Week
Date(s): July 7 - July 13, 2008
annually recurring (definitely in 2020, 2021, 2022)
Moderator(s): various
Lyndezart, 2012-present[1]
Founder:
Type: gif sets, manips, aesthetic edits
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
URL: linktree
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Zutara Week is an annual fanweek for the ship Zutara. It is recognized as the first modern fanweek.

History

DeviantArt users GreenifyME and trishna87 introduced Zutara Week in early 2008.[2] The first event happened in July 2008[3] and all subsequent Zutara Weeks have been held during the Northern Hemisphere's summertime to maintain this tradition. A deviantART group was created for it in 2010.[4] The idea of "Ship Weeks" spread to other ships within the Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom such as Suki/Sokka, Toph/Sokka and Toph/Aang with many of Zutara Week's participants joining in. The spread generated some controversy when shippers of Aang/Katara, Zutara's rival, adopted the practice, because some Kataang shippers had engaged in active harassment against Zutara shippers who participated in Zutara Week - this had led to safety warnings being issued to Zutara Week participants in the 2009 event.

The weeks originally focused on romantic relationships, but soon became more general with celebration of friendships or certain characters. The popularity of the fanweeks within the Avatar fandom eventually spread outside of it, with Naruto and Bleach fandoms joining in first. This was in large part due to many fans of Avatar also being fans of these other series, due to Avatar being associated with anime. By 2010 many of these participants began to post their works on Tumblr, which was becoming the preferred platform to DeviantArt. This led to the gradual shift of Tumblr overtaking DeviantArt as the main host of fanweeks, though many older users still preferred DeviantArt.

The official Avatar: The Last Airbender YouTube channel acknowledged Zutara Week in 2020 and uploaded a video celebrating the relationship development between Zuko and Katara.[5]

By Year

Example Fanworks

Resources and Links

References