How We Quit The Forest

[redbrunja]

So, on atla_unspoiled, there was a poster talking about how, typically, Zutara shippers ship Suki/Sokka, and Kataang shippers ship Toph/Sokka. (Which I think is true, based on my totally unscientific experiences). She then suggested that this was because of the shippers looking for 'viability.' (Which doesn't make sense to me.) I think it's more likely the that similarity in character interactions and relationship dynamics is what makes it more likely for a Zutara shipper to like Suki/Sokka, and for a Kataanger to like Toph/Sokka.

(And of course, there all the various permutations of who ships what as a primary ship, and I KNOW that there are people who like Suki/Sokka and Kataang, and Zutara shippers who like Toph/Sokka, to name just two.)

Your thoughts?

Comments

[scriva.livejournal.com]

regarding Katara/Zuko, I do agree with you:

Those two have a great dynamic, both present and potential-future, just the way they are in canon.

I think for them to come together in canon the story would have to be structured a bit differently, but I'm really looking forward to whatever positive dynamic they can developp, and I can certainly see the potential of the relationship, especially at this point of the story. I'm not so much in the love/hate conception of the pairing, and I have to admit that while I thought that their fight in the Spirit Oasis was pretty intense, I don't see much UST in it. I think the real interesting aspect about their dynamic in canon is that both of them needed to learn to see the other one as a real person. In the past, Zuko has only seen Katara as a means to get to Aang, or as an obstacle, while Katara, as she said, saw him as the "face of the enemy".

[tobu-ishi.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Excellent, you skip the same fanon junk I do. The Spirit Oasis fight had little or nothing to do with UST (and, for that matter, neither did that darned necklace scene where Zuko looks like a lipless fish for the whole thing--I don't know whether to WTF more at the animators for drawing him without teeth, or at the kooky fans for thinking it was sexy).

Katara and Zuko fascinate me for two reasons, mostly; the way they mirror each other in the plot, and their highly compatible personalities (if they could ever get past their false images of each other).

I know fans go oogly about how She Is Water, He Is Fire, and the sun/moon thing, but that's really just the most superficial surface of how they match each other in the plot of Avatar. They've both gone through terrible trauma early in life. The war took both their mothers from them. They both have troubled relationships with fathers who haven't always been what they wanted them to be (though Hakoda's motivations and therefore his character are the polar opposite of Ozai's, bless him). They both left their homes at age fourteen to follow the Avatar, and they've both made him the center of their lives, physically and spiritually. They've both gone through periods of bright idealism, fighting for the underdogs; they've both had that idealism smacked out of them by the harsh realities of war, and while Zuko has begun the climb out of that pit, Katara has only just begun to fall in...

Haha, look at me gabbling on. Cliff Notes: Losing their mothers is only the beginning of what they have in common.

I don't see a simple sun/moon yinyang. I see two fish circling in the Spirit Oasis with the Avatar standing glowing in the middle, traveling parallel life paths in reversed colors around the boy who gives those lives meaning and purpose. Even without the possibility of romance there (which is where their personalities come into play, for me), the dynamic itself is fascinating.

[scriva.livejournal.com]

They both left their homes at age fourteen to follow the Avatar, and they've both made him the center of their lives, physically and spiritually.

YES! That's almost the same thought, I expressed on another forum a little while back, as one of my reactions to the NYCC trailer. The episode that really highlights these parallels is The Storm. Actually, if I ever shipped romantic Zuko/Katara, this would have been one of my starting points.

On the platonic level, I really love that Zuko has some connecting points with all the members of the gaang, which makes his bonding time with them so good, once the preliminary problems are overcome.

[tobu-ishi.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of episodes that highlight the parallel. :) I loved the sequence in The Awakening where Zuko and Katara were both being symbolically taken back under their fathers' wings. They did a magnificent job of contrasting the smothering, superficially civil interplay of submission and control masquerading as paternal affection between Zuko and his dark pater; and the loud, argumentative, confrontational, even teary, but ultimately open and loving reconciliation between Katara and Hakoda.

(And, yes, there's a fragment of Zuko's experience in each of them--Toph's escape from a life of porcelain, protected nobility that drove her crazy; Aang's feelings of failure in the past and determination to strive for honor and the good of the world in the future; Sokka's warrior upbringing. One of the aspects of the general ignoring-the-Gaang-Plus that especially disappointed me was losing the chance to see Zuko interact with Haru, Teo, and the Duke. Father/mother issues and learning to stand on your own two feet...physical scarring and learning to move beyond it...rebellion, repentance, and heck, knowing Jet...they had so much to talk about, but alas, it remains forever in the realm of fill-the-gap fanfic.)