Zukki Is Such A Fucking Funny Ship. Really That Kinda Ship Were Character A Is Oblivious And Characters

ok hear me out - when Zuko and Toph got to like 21 and 17 respectively they started being each other’s dates to fancy events they had to attend

Which of course the newly emerging media was taking to like fish to water, publishing all sorts of rumours and musings about whether the Fire Lord and heir to the Beifong fortune were being matched (which definitely would be an advantageous one)

And naturally Zuko and Toph both love it. Zuko because his advisors aren’t badgering him about marriage (whilst he continues to pine after Mai), and Toph because her parents think she’s months away from being the Fire Lady and so aren’t trying to set her up with suitors. So they basically encourage it, always walking into parties arm in arm, both looking hot af, playing up to the crowd

But the rest of the gaang (namely Aang, Katara and Sokka) HATE it because Zuko and Toph won’t actually admit they’re faking it. So even though they all keeping rolling their eyes and saying “we know you’re just messing with us” internally each one of them is like “zuko and toph afksrgkhjrh!!!!!”

Sokka keeps trying to get Toph away from Zuko because he’s like “no you’re too old this is inappropriate” and so is always trying to drag her away and interrupt dances but this just leads to the media thinking that the fire lord and the next chief of the southern water tribe are fighting over the same girl and they LOVE it

Aang is getting really cheesed off because every time he tries to do a press conference he keeps getting asked if he’s Team Zuko or Team Sokka

Suki 100% is living for the chaos

Katara proudly shows off her Team Sokka shirt in the clinic odd days

if I had a nickle for every time the goth cinnamon roll was hopelessly inlove with the deadly sunshine character, I would be fucking loaded

rando: how much do you stalk peers online?

me: yes

sokka doesnt just like meat. he NEEDS meat. the water tribes are based off the inuit people, who primarily ate meat. you know why? cause they live in the poles. where it's extremely hard to grow plants. so to survive, they eat meat. sokka's so shocked that aang's vegetarian because he wouldn't survive in the south not eating meat. sokka's love of meat is probably more than most people but hey at least he has a reason for it

Sokka & Zuko- The Invisible Winner of the Kataang/Zutara Debate.

Please don't take this as "Shipping War Bait", I'm doing a character analysis of ATLA about my opinion on which close Zuko relationship makes the most sense!

I feel like fandom treated Zuko/ Sokka as a crack ship but like?? That's never made sense to me.

Firstly I personally think that Aang will always remember how the fire nation destroyed his people. No matter how much he consciously says he forgives Zuko (& the fire nation) I would BET that unconsciously there's still something deeply hurt in Aang that can never truly be healed about that. As a result, Aang would not be able to LOVE Zuko as close as his other relationships. It's one of those hard to swallow pills but it's just how I interpret the characters. Aang's body has that bias, the deepest parts of his mind won't ever forget the horrific fact that his people are dead because of Ozai, and Zuko is Ozai's firstborn.

I know Aang's whole thing is that he preaches forgiveness, but here's the thing... We aren't always aware of how deeply our trauma affects us. Sometimes you don't hold a conscious bias against people... You hold an Unconscious bias. And to me, Aang holding an unconscious bias against Zuko, and not being as close to him, makes sense.

Toph could honestly work with Zuko, I think she's also a good contender for closest relationship. Though I see it in either a platonic or romantic sense (depends on the vibe). I think there could be a bit of 'fandom implicit bias' there in having Zuko and Toph constantly presented as platonic only. Like, Toph is disabled, she's blind... Do we ever question that maybe we don't like putting her with people romantically because she's disabled? Is Katara the one people ship Zuko with romantically- because Katara is more traditionally attractive? Toph is short, stocky, has short hair, is brash, and blind... Like, there's a chance she doesn't get the same treatment as Katara because she's not traditionally attractive in the way Katara is.... Something to think about.

-All that being said, I like Toph and Zuko as having a close bond either romantically or platonically. I think it's funny that they're both born rich kids, I think it's funny that they only have one fully functioning eye between them (and the comedy and hijinks that leads to). And they do work really well together throughout the show, Toph forgives Zuko when he accidentally burns her feet. And Zuko clearly appreciates how chill Toph is- she doesn't have PERSONAL bias towards Zuko as the son of the Fire Lord, in the way that the other three do.

Moving on to Katara, I have a similar sort of feeling there. It's made obvious that Katara SAW her mother die at the hands of the fire nation. It was traumatic, it was horrific, and because she was a child watching it- that is likely a DEEP core memory. In the context of the show, Zuko helps Katara find the man who killed her mother, because it's sort of a levelling of the scales. It doesn't even make Katara LIKE Zuko, it makes her neutral towards him. He helped her to basically right a wrong (that's her perspective). So yeah- for the same reasons, I've just never been convinced that Zuko and Katara could have a strong and intimate relationship because of the deepness of Katara's trauma. It takes a significant amount of time in terms of the show for her to even start talking and trusting Zuko at all. Doesn't FEEL like good romantic potential to me.

But Sokka, Sokka is the best fit of them so far. The thing is, Zuko and Sokka have a lot of different experiences- but shared values. Consider the things they've had to deal with, Sokka had to handle a huge level of grief & pressure as he quickly became responsible for his family and community at a noticeably young age. Then consider how that parallels (it is not THE SAME, but there is a PARALLEL) to Zuko's abuse & exile. They're both young men, they're both conditioned to think they should be a certain way (Sokka a warrior, Zuko a tyrant). Sokka is creative & inventive, which mirrors how Zuko has to create a new emotional source for his fire bending- once again, these are parallel elements of their characters, and demonstrate how they could relate to each other.

Sokka as a character is also slightly more separated from the association between the fire nation and the death of his mother- compared to Katara. Once again, she saw it happen right in front of her as a small child, Sokka was slightly older when the event happened, and didn't see it first hand.

There are some more generic elements of their characters that might suggest gay subtext; such as Sokka's hypermasculinity being a masking behaviour so no-one would think he's attracted to men. (Most people understand why that is; but if you don't know- leaning into very masculine things as a man, can make it feel like people won't question your assumed "straightness").

But I think what I've touched on is more relevant because it's very much tied to THESE specific characters, and how they interact, and how they could relate to each other.

TLDR; Zuko and Sokka work as a ship cos they have less things stopping them (barriers to intimacy & trauma to heal from). And they have probably the highest relatability to each other's lives, allowing them to trust each other and open up, compared to the other characters.

wait what. what. literally what. neither of them look white???? iroh's bad actions are never explicitly shown and none of us are smart enough to think about it too hard??? yes i kinda agree with the zuko one cause we just glossed over and focused on the redemption arc but still. i also think that we dont give aang enough shit about yelling at toph (the library thingy) and non-consensually kissing katara (still adore kataang dw). i dont think that toph gets enough shit for being so blatantly rude all the time. and i think we truly dont remember sokkas misogyn (yes it is fixed but still) they all committed bad actions and all of them have their bad actions glossed over by everyone but their haters but i dont think it has anything to do with race because NONE OF THEM ARE WHITE and i'd argue that neither of them are really that masculine. at least i don't view them as such. sokka, hakoda, jet, ozai, zhao and honestly kinda toph are arguably more masculine. yes i do think that their wrongdoings are not focused on enough but i don't think it's because of their skin colour or masculinity

Crazy how the only 2 major characters in ATLA that don't get ridiculously scrutinised for all of their wrongdoings are both the lightest skinned and most traditionally masculine characters in the show (zuko and iroh). Probs just a coincidence tho

percy would NOT be jealous/possessive of anyone having a crush on annabeth because 1) she's so possessive that he knows she would never cheat on him and 2) he thinks she is so smart and pretty and cool and awesome that he's just like "hell yes. my girlfriend is sooo awesome thank you for noticing!"

yessssss

Since you guys seemed to really dig the first bunch, here are a few more studies of the kids :>

★ patreon || website || twitter ★

YESSSS i think it was knobbly knees or smth. and YES harry is tall and has his growth spurt late in life 100%. also ik its not daniel radcliffe making him ugly cause the third movie was peak harry in cinema

pls no one come for me on this but i feel like james is just so white boy coded. like he exudes british white boy energy. he just. i respect all those who hc him as poc but hes like (in my brain) the definition of a white boy. like in my head him and lily are the most annoyingly cute white straight couple that everyone still loves. anyways thanks for coming to my ted talk.