Falou Tudo!

Falou tudo!

Yes, in the caves of Ba Sing Se, Katara shows Zuko a willingness to help him that he never expected from anyone (besides Iroh), least of all from the avatar’s angry, unyielding waterbending master, but that was not the first, last, or largest part of his face turn. 

Zuko fixed himself for himself, okay? He also did it for his uncle, for his mom, for his great grandpa Roku, for the civilians, for justice, but never for Katara. If he changed only for Katara, Zutara couldn’t ever work. Because he wouldn’t be changing for the right reasons, and Katara would never be able to forgive him. To think she would is character assassination.

Zutara works because Zuko did the work himself and proved over and over again that this change was consistent. You think Katara, with how deeply traumatized she is, could be in a relationship with someone who feels unstable? Who she think might leave or betray her at any moment? You think Katara, as smart and moral as she is, would fall for someone who became good for the wrong reasons? You think she thinks that’s what goodness is?

In Southern Raiders, when Zuko goes out of his way to do something for Katara (help her find closure with her mom’s murderer), he is doing it because helping Katara and potentially murdering a genocidal soldier is the right thing to do. And then, when she doesn’t kill Yon Rha, but instead leaves him to wallow in his own misery, he accepts her decision, because her choice matters more than whatever his opinion on vengeance is.

Another writer might have their version of Zuko kill Yon Rha after Katara decides not to in some twisted “romantic” protective gesture, because they think they want a dark gritty dangerous bad boy, and they think that’s what Zuko is.

Other writers have their version of Katara actively trying to fix a willfully evil version of Zuko because they think Zutara has a good girl/bad boy, angel/devil dynamic when it doesn’t. They have their Katara stand-in thinking about the Zuko stand-in’s abs before he is ever remotely apologetic to her. That’s not how this works! That’s not how any of this works! 

Zutara doesn’t work if Zuko had been out there murdering random people just because he’s ~grim~ and ~dangerous~. Not just the ship, but the whole fucking story doesn’t work if Zuko had showed up to the Gaang saying, “I’m sorry, but my dad made me do it. Murder is how I cope. I’m good now because love”.

It’s an egregious misunderstanding of both Zuko and Katara, and I’m so sick of seeing it.