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TarelElenar β Because they're Epic
Published: 2009-09-27 02:19:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 4352; Favourites: 98; Downloads: 38
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Description
Felt in a bit of a funk today. Also ran across some rather headache-inducing anti-canon shipping arguments today. How does one counter such tiresome arguments? By pouring one's heart and soul into beautiful fanart/screencap collages of course!SO, this is a visual reminder to myself and any other Kataangers who see this of all the deeper reasons why Aang and Katara's relationship is one of the most SERIOUSLY AWESOME EPIC ROMANCES of all western animation.
Starting from the top left and moving on down we have:
1. The symbolic parallel blocking of The Boy in the Iceberg and Crossroads of Destiny- The full significance of said identical frame by frame blocking is dissected here: [link] but I just love it because OMG SO BEAUTIFUL. It's Mike and Bryan's (not so) subtle way of showing us "THESE TWO ARE EPIC AND ENDGAME YOU GUYS. TTLY DESTINED TO BE SOULMATES HERE."
2. The depth of Aang's love for Katara- Via Katara superimposed over Aang's heart chakra vision of the Air Nomads. Just, you know, to reinforce the point. This, gods I love this so much, this is seriously the only pointer you need to completely destroy the argument that Aang's love for Katara is only puppy love or an immature crush or what have you. (Or vice versa with Katara.) The Guru may be frustratingly vague at times but this part was crystal clear.
"Love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us. The Air Nomads' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love."
This. Is. Seriously. Awesome. I know I've said this a bunch of times but I seriously can't get over how Aang's love for Katara is reborn of the love for an entire extinct nation of people you guys.
When the writers introduce a concept like this to you, they might as well be stamping the screen with big bold letters saying EPIC AND ENDGAME.
3. Their tag-teaming- <3 Nothing much need be said about this besides the fact that it perfectly illustrates Yin/Yang opposites working together in harmony and is seriously awesome.
Top center left:
4. The Pieta pose- A universal symbol of grief, mourning, and suffering. (For those seeking to discredit Kataang as mother/son based upon this parallel, you're only looking at the surface and not thinking metatextually. Everyone uses this pose, and for all kinds of purposes. Besides, a lot of religious-themed Renaissance art also doubles as illustrations of Greek mythology. This one, as I recall, doubles as Aphrodite mourning her LOVER, Adonis.) Katara's pain and sense of great loss is so palpable in this scene. She has lost her Most Important Thing and she no longer cares what happens to her. Absolutely heart-wrenching.
5. The Cooldown Hug- PERHAPS MY MOST FAVORITE KATAANG MOMENT EVER? Seriously. There's nothing about this scene which I haven't already said and spazzed over but I might as well repeat it:
Katara's love for Aang is stronger than the Avatar State. Even in his Darkest Moment.
6. The Day of Black Sun- Examined here: [link]
Love in the midst of war. With the threat of battle hanging over them, Aang and Katara take a moment to be together and let out their feelings for each other, because they might not live to say it later. It's now or never, and like an old war movie, Katara stares off after Aang like the sweetheart of an airplane pilot, watching him fly away to his destiny.
Bottom right:
7. Cave of Two Lovers Parallels- As if having the COTL theme function as Aang and Katara's romance leitmotif wasn't enough (playing during significant Aang/Katara scenes in Cave of Two Lovers, The Earth King, Nightmares and Daydreams, Day of Black Sun, etc.). Mike and Bryan make the connection even more explicit, with Katara unleashing her inner fury and grief in an unstoppable powerful wave of bending upon the death of her beloved and Most Important Person.
Just like Tui the Ocean Spirit at the death of La.
Just like Oma at the death of Shu.
8. Resurrection- It doesn't get any more epic than this. Not even a similar scene in Avatar Aang can touch it. (And it actually serves quite well as a means of showing off Aang and Zuko's parallels.)
Aang is dead. Deader than Dead. Gone. Deceased. The last hope of the world lies lifeless.
And the one singular sole waterbending girl to find him and travel with him, who just so happens to have healing abilities, uses a desperate last resort of spirit water, healing hands, and love to literally bring him back to life.
If that doesn't scream Epic, I don't know what on earth does.
Center:
9. And it all comes down to this. The Chosen One and the Protectoress have done it. They've saved the world. Together. All that's left to do is look out over the world at peace they've helped to bring about, and take solace in the happy ending that they've earned. So they kiss in front of the sunset, fulfilling their destinies and bringing everything full circle.
...
Wow. That was long. Don't know how I ended up writing a mini manifesto but I don't regret it one bit. It needed to be said.
Aang & Katara (c) The impeccable Mike and Bryan
Screenshots courtesy of Iroh.org ([link] )
Fandom manifestos by the fox's den on LiveJournal ([link] )
Other Kataang essays ([link] ) ([link] )
Related content
Comments: 49
Agree with everything. Those anti-canon shippers need to wake up; ZuTara was never meant to be canon. There wasn't even the slightest bit of romantic development between them! Most ZuTarians I see, going on about "how it should have ended", and that ZuTara was the "original canon" and how it was changed at the last minute... andΒ I just wanna say to them "did you even watch the show?". They act like ZuTara is the most important of the story, when in truth it was never even part of the story; just some random crack pairing that they became way too obsessed with.
And as you summarized perfectly here, Katara and Aang's romance was plenty epic and romantic. Avatar ended exactly the way it was supposed to. The big selling point for me was in The Guru, when Guru Pathik says to Aang "Love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us. The Air Nomads' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love."; that scene shows just how important Katara is to Aang. It establishes that Aang's feelings go beyond just a boyhood crush; Katara takes away the pain of losing his entire culture.
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I'm rewatching through the series now, actually, and... yeah, there's no way Zutara was the "original" plan. Β They should have put a LOT more effort into it if that was even remotely the case.
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Try explaining that to the rabid ZuTara crowd. They insist up and down that ZuTara was supposed to be canon and was changed at the last minute, despite all evidence to the contrary. Others entertain this wild conspiracy theory that head writer Aaron Ehasz had this grand plan to make a 4th season in which Zuko and Katara would become a couple...
Turns out Aaron Ehasz made a little joke about making a 4th Season on Twitter back in 2015, which you can see here: twitter.com/aaronehasz/status/β¦
Somehow the rabid ZuTara fanbase took that one-liner and blew it up, inventing this elaborate blueprint for Book 4 on TumblrΒ (sorry, no link) that they claim came straight from Mr. Ehasz himself. Either whoever made that Tumblr post enjoys yanking the ZuTarian's chain, or they are really that desperate for their ship to be canon... I don't know why they don't just let it go.
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The version I heard is that he dished all the details about the "planned for" fourth season (that never got made because Paramount wanted a complete story to sell to M. Night for the live action film so only went with the original three seasons ordered) in a talk about the metaphysics of Avatar at UC Berkeley.
There are no videos or transcripts from said talk proving he said these things, naturally despite it being very well-attended and apparently talked about on UCB's Facebook page.
I literally cannot find a supporting source that is not a Zutara tumblr blog. Β And like half of the details from the "blueprint" were things that Mike and Bryan had already talked about as possible TV specials or spin-offs, not as part of any new season. Β (Finding Zuko's mom, exploring Iroh's Spirit World journey.)
Until they produce a first-person source I'm gonna assume they're full of bullshit.
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You need to read my latest journal entry. I found the source of all this "fourth season" nonsense, and it is laughable:
My fellow KatAangers, the mystery is solved.For the past couple years, Zuko x Katara fans have insisted up and down that Zuko and Katara were meant to be a couple in Avatar's "original canon". Some say Bryke changed it at the last minute because KatAang was more "kid-friendly", but others argue that Head Writer Aaron Ehasz had this grand plan for a 4th season of Avatar where Zuko and Katara would become a couple... and I finally found out where this BS conspiracy theory came from.
Someone on Tumblr said that this rumor originated with an interview with Aaron Ehasz; I looked for it, but found no evidence of it. I decided that the interview didn't exist, and this was just another desperate attempt by the rabid Zuko x Katara fanbase to make their ship canon.
Turns out I was right. But I didn't expect this: http://kataraandzuko.tumblr.com/post/139513727723/conversation-i-had-with-aaron-ehasz-in
I laughed when I saw this. T
If you'd rather I save you some time, I'll give you a brief overview; the person who made this ZuTara blog claims to have met Aaron Ehasz in person, and had a conversation with him in which he described his ideas for a 4th season of Avatar, hinting that he would develop a romance between a "certain couple" that Mike and Bryan don't like.
And... that's all it is. Just this one guy saying he had a chance meeting and a conversation with Aaron Ehasz. This supposedly took place in February 2015- the same day Aaron made that joke on Twitter- but the person making this claim has provided absolutely no proof, and Aaron Ehasz hasn't even acknowledged the existence of this claim in the 2 years it's been up.
This is the original source of the entire "Aaron Ehasz's Book 4" theory that has appeared all over the ZuTara tumblr blogs. It's pretty obvious that this "interview" is fake. I can only assume that the owner of the ZuTara blog is either looking to get attention or trying to fool himself and his fellow ZuTarians into thinking that they were right.
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I was about to ask if it was Aeraph's tumblr but... yeah. Β A tumblr blog called kataraandzuko. Β Clearly not a biased source whatsoever. Β I think I remember someone challenged their claim about interning at Nickelodeon for Avatar and they bitched about their privacy and provided no corroborating evidence to support it.
I also once found a redditor claiming the same thing which naturally only has ever made five posts, three of which are about the Zutara rumors and hasn't posted since. Β This bitch here:Β www.reddit.com/user/Flofau
Dammit, all I want is a transcript or a video from a first person source, not this questionable-ass bullshit.
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Araeph just reblogged it from katarandzuko; I mistook him for the original source too until I read the tags.
I figured someone would've challenged their claim about their supposed internship... and there are other ways they could've provided proof if they actually met Aaron Ehasz. Why didn't theyΒ whip out their smart-phone and snap a few pictures of themselves with Mr. Ehasz if they met him? Why hasn't Aaron Ehasz ever acknowledged the rumor... and why would he share that kind of information with a random stranger he met on the street, and not on his Twitter account or make a blog about it? None of it makes any sense.
There is one other rumor about ZuTara being the original canon from Avatar Extras; but we know that one is fake because it contradicts Mike and Bryan's previous statements, where they clearly stated they never intended for Zuko and Katara to be together. That, and Nickelodeon is known for toying with the ZuTarian's obsession... they made that one trailer of the Season 2 finale with the cave scene, after all. That was clearly intended to bait the ZuTara fandom and get more viewers.
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And how the hell is anonymouse able to intern over at Nick studios in Burbank California and then also bump into Aaron in Philadelphia years down the line? Β Does their job enable them to just follow cartoon writers around? Β Has anyone asked Aaron to confirm their claims? Β 'cause that's about the only way I feel like I can be sure.
Shippers be crazy yo, I wouldn't put it past a fanbase like Zutara's to wholecloth make this shit up.
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Exactly. When I first heard this rumor about an interview with Aaron Ehasz- and couldn't find the actual interview- I assumed they did just make it up. Guess I was right
It's cute that they wrote it up to almost sound like an official interview, but I don't think this person realizes just how many holes in their story there really are.
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Yet regardless, up until the last episode of the show, Katara always viewed Aang as a friend and... THE WORLD'S SAVOIR!
There was more evidence for true romance in Zutara, than just the typical "hero gets the girl" cliche of Kataang.
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HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Are you serious right now? Really? Really? Do you really want to go there, Canonist!Zutarian? Because I can throw down if you really want me to but, honestly, I'd really rather not waste my time.
So let's keep it brief, shall we?
First off, you're being an ass. This is not a competition. We are not in a duel to the death over which ship is more "true" or "romantic" or what-the-hell-ever than the other. Both ships are equally valid and you should be a mature individual and ship and let ship.
Second, you are mistaken, good Sir or Madam, Katara quite clearly showed that her affections for Aang went demonstrably beyond friendship several times during the narrative.
Third, I'm sorry to say, Zutara is not canon. (So your "evidence" is your interpretation and not canon authorial intent.) It never was canon and it was never going to be canon. But you know something? That is okay. It is OKAY that Zutara isn't canon. No really, it is. I promise, no one is coming to take away your shipper card for shipping a non-canon pairing. It's perfectly acceptable to not ship canon. It doesn't mean your pairing is bad or that the other ship is better (because as I said, this is not a competition), it just means that your ship... isn't canon.
And before you bring up the Avatar Pop-Up Extras let me remind you they were not written by Mike and Bryan, or Aaron Ehaz, or any of the official writers of the show (who have directly contradicted the claim that Zutara was ever intended numerous times in official interviews and commentaries ), about half the pop-ups were jokes, bad puns, recaps, or running commentary, and several bubbles were just flat-out factually wrong (as in the case of one that erroneously claimed that Jet was Katara's first kiss ). They cannot be considered a reliable source of information, at the very least not one more reliable than the words of the Avatar writers themselves.
What are you even trying to accomplish here?
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*twitch*
Fine. You can discard my evidence. But Zutara isn't a crack ship. A crack ship is like Pakku/Azula. Two characters that never interacted. Or Haru/Azula.
Zutara had points, there were several moments in the story where it could have turned to Zutara. It's a legit ship that just didn't make canon. That's all. That's all I want YOU to admit.
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...I never said Zutara was a crack ship. I don't know where you're getting that from. I said Zutara wasn't a canon ship. That's... not the same thing as calling it a crack ship?
Moving on:
1. "there were several moments in the story where it could have turned to Zutara".
Sure, if the story had gone a different way in the earlier seasons it would totally have been possible for them to get Zuko and Katara interacting and possibly eventually falling in love.
2. "It's a legit ship"
...Did you fail to see the part where I said both Kataang and Zutara were equally valid, perfectly acceptable ships? I mean, unless by "legit ship" you mean "existed within the canon narrative" which I think I've already covered.
3. "that just didn't make canon"
No arguments here. As I said before, Zutara not being canon does not make it a bad ship. Far from it.
4. "That's all. That's all I want YOU to admit."
Okay, now, this is the part that I'm confused by. Why do you need ME to validate your ship? You want me to say, "If X, Y, and Z had been done differently, Zutara could have been canon!"? Well sure, but by that logic any number of ships could have been canon, so I don't see how that's relevant or how it helps you...? If things had been different then... they would have been different.
Yeah, I'm not seeing how that's in any way encouraging news for you.
Again, what are you even trying to accomplish here?
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I've always noticed something Katara is the only one who could ever get Aang out of the Avatar state.
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True! Shows how strong their bond is.
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And from this angle it always looks like he's kissing her neck anyway it is awesome why is it in scraps?
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'cause it's made out of screencaps. 
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Kataang sorry peoples ^^'
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I love the way you talk about number six.
This is beautiful! You pointed out all the ways that make Kataang what it is right now.
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I'm usually not into romance things because they can be cheesy and cliche (like Zutara), but Kataang is great story telling and narrative. BTW I like theory on number 7.
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oooooooo, epic kataang! as a zutarian, i have to say that these are awesome reasons why kataang is awesome. honestly...i don't LIKE kataang, but i have this weird thing about aang...he just bothers me, haha!. but despite that, this list you made here TOTALLY makes sense to me, and its very well thought out 
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Well I thank you for being so calm and respectful. ^_^ I really appreciate that. And thank you for the fav!
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Yeah, then he dies 50 something years later because he used up some life by being stuck in the AS inside an iceburg for 100 years.
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Shush now, it was 64 years and they had a long and happy life together.
That's a good thing.
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*gasp* THAT'S SOOO COOL!!!! Good Idea to use. Those are all of the best Kataang scences in the backround of our cannon-ness
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Thank you! I tried to squeeze in all the most epic moments of Kataang. I actuall didn't get to fit a few in. There are just so many.
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I know! That's why KATAANG ended up being the cannon Katara ship. There is just so much proof and epic-ness that the writers themselves fell for the ship. Did you know that there is a song called Kataang for the Avatar soundtrack. It's the music from the Tale of 2 Lovers when Katara tells the story of Oma and Shu. I thought that was pretty cool.
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I did indeed know that fun little factoid. (Partly because I'm also a soundtrack nerd.
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I know, it's just so beautiful. I'm glad they named THAT one Kataang.
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I agree COMPLETELY, they are the most epic of epic!!! Kataang will live on forever!!! xDDDDD *fav*
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i agree with you i dont see how zutara is epic, or even exists. they didnt even become FRIENDS until two episodes before the finale. aang and katara both clearly loved each other, it was clearly mutual, it just took katara longer to realize it, and then was too afraid he's die to act on it. And then theirs the whole bringing him back to LIFE thing, zuko jumped in front of the lightning because shes his friend, not because he loves her, he loves mai. Kataang = destiny. now i'm done ranting, instant fave
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Lol, thanks.
Kataang = the Epic True Love of Avatar. Trufax.
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I am so feeling the love in this.
And I especially love what you said about the ending with that kiss.
It also reminded me that, despite Katara spending most of the finale with Zuko, he wound up in the background, and had little to do with her destiny and where her heart was.
While Aang was facing one of the main villains on his own, Katara wound up facing the other on her own just the same. And, disregarding Zuko's mocking of Aang's ideals, Katara also spared her opponent's life in favor of disabling them. Refusing to kill even with the world and her own life at stake, just as Aang did.
He thought he was alone in his moral struggle, but she understood, and searched for the same solution. Even when she and Aang were separated, they still wound up working in unison. It proves they are the perfect team to restore hope, compassion, balance, and peace to the world. (And she's the perfect mate to help him continue the Air Nomad spirit.)
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Yeah, Zuko had his own love interest/romance waiting for closure. He didn't NEED to take anything off of Aang and Katara's relationship or destinies because... he already had something all his own.
OMG YES. Oh thank you for reminding me about that. I'm actually in the middle of giving advice to a friend of mine who's writing a fic about that (he thinks Aang should've killed Ozai) and I should totally point that out.
Ngaaah... your comment puts it into words so well. Thank you!
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Thanks! I'm glad it makes sense. 'Cause I was, like, really tired when I wrote all that.
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Nice how you made all the different colors harmonious.
I would take issue with you using the phrase "poor man's imitation" to describe the Zuko-taking-the-lightning-for-Katara scene, however. I LOVE that bit, it's deep, moving, and so beautiful. But, as I'm sure is your point, it's not romantic, it's something different.
I hope no impolite folks show up. ^^
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I hope so too.
I know, I love that scene to bits too, and I'm totally not trying to diminish it but I've come across the argument way too many times that it was supposedly more epic than anything Kataang ever had and, well... I felt the need to voice a correction.
They're both awesome epic moments but Aang actually dies in his and love brings him back to life. Compared to that Zuko getting injured after jumping in front of a lightning bolt and then Katara healing him just... doesn't seem very impressive.
I'll rephrase that sentence though.
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Mm, they're just entirely different things.
I appreciate that!
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LOVE the pairing, LOVE this picture, and LOVE YOU AND YOUR ANALYSIS.
Lot's of love all around.
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Lol, I feel the love then.
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