Warning: This installment will contain quite a bit of ranting. If you're familiar with ATLA shipping, you probably know why.
The characters return to their seats, and we're now up to Book 2. Fic!Toph is eagerly looking forward to her character's debut, and is apparently the only one; the others are making out (Fic!Sokka&Suki), distracting themselves (Fic!Zuko) or indignant (Fic!Aang) Of course, if you've seen the episode, you know what happens. Stage!Toph is a buff guy, and while Regular!Katara hopes Regular!Toph will know how she feels, Regular!Toph is thrilled to see Stage!Toph
Fic!Katara continues recapping the play, noting that she has come to consider it So Bad, It's Good. Fic!Zuko, on the other hand, can't bring himself to ignore it, so he and Katara heckle it.
Fic!Katara learns that her stage counterpart isn't the only "floozy," as Stage!Zuko is one as well, and he's having threesomes with Earth Kingdom Women. Apparently, Regular!Zuko can never live down going on a quasi-date with Jin once. Stage!Katara tries to get him not to take it so personally.
Fic!Zuko also doesn't like his uncle's portrayal, because of his obsession with cake. Fic!Zuko is also guilty when he's reminded of how he stole Song's ostrich horse, and Fic!Katara notices that "the guilty dance" is beginning again.
Stage!Azula takes the stage, and Fic!Katara notes that she's fairly like her actual version, with a flair for the dramatic that is associated with most villains, save for the fact that she's being portrayed as a hero. Meanwhile, Stage!Katara is still useless, as is Stage!Aang to a lesser extent. Stage!Mai and Stage!Ty Lee show up, with the former being more gloomy than Zuko believed, and the latter being a "floozy" for using kisses to paralyze her enemies.
By the time the play gets to "The Drill", (one of a few episodes that Katara didn't reference at any point), and Fic!Katara's nodding off. However, she vehemently denies that she healed "the terra team" in order to see them with their shirts off.
Stage!Katara canoodles with not only Stage!Jet but also Stage!Longshot. Then comes the part where the former is brainwashed and apparently killed, and the Gaang points out that it's "unclear" whether he died (although he's badly wounded, in the middle of an enemy base, and the one person who claims he's alright, is lying).
Next comes the scene in the crystal catacombs. Fic!Katara knows that there's only one way a scene with two "strumpets" of like her Zuko's stage counterparts can turn out, and she does not like it. The romantic moment between the two feels so awkward that Fic!Katara and Fic!Zuko edge away from each other.
Then Stage!Katara declares that she sees Stage!Aang as a brother, and nothing more (although "son" is probably closer for Fic!Katara- although this only means that Stage!Aang is the only one Stage!Katara won't make out with), and makes out with Stage!Zuko. Fic!Katara considers covering Fic!Aang's ears and eyes, but Fic!Zuko reveals that Fic!Aang went to get fireflakes for Fic!Sokka (It's been a while since they were mentioned with regards to Fic!Zuko).
Fic!Katara concludes that they got one thing about her right; "I don't really see Aang in a romantic way. I don't know if I ever will."
Some say that the Zutara parts of BITI are a Take That! to Zutara shippers ( as I said before, this is the only episode between when Canon!Katara forgives Canon!Zuko and the Grand Finale, there was no chance of Zutara becoming canon). Here, it comes across as the least reliable people making an apparently accurate prediction of Zuko and Katara's relationship. And while Canon!Katara is unable to make a decision at the moment, Fic!Katara seems to reject Aang without having the heart to tell him.
Fic!Katara is mortified by seeing her secret fantasies acted out on stage, and wishes for death, especially given what comments Fic!Sokka would think of. She's thus glad to see Stage!Zuko betray them and end the scene, although Regular!Zuko does not share this sentiment, ashamed of being reminded of his misdeeds. (Tags are off) Zuko is depressed, and Katara leaves him to his own devices; I would say that this is a nice way of letting someone other than Katara have a meaningful talk with Zuko in this fic, but Toph canonically talks with Zuko. Suki talks with Sokka about how the Gaang barely made it out alive most of the time, and gets offended when he mentions that she got captured by Azula. Katara, worried about Aang, goes to find him.
You may notice that, for the most part, the fic is repeating what we've seen in canon, with Katara's play by play commentary. This is a somewhat unfortunate side effect of the fic repeating much of what happened in canon; perhaps showing what Katara does when the others aren't around may be preferable to this.
Of course, in reality, "The Boy in the Iceberg" seems to be something of a sideshow for the fic in this arc, for now we get to the main event in this arc, the scene that has become a rallying cry among Zutarians. Behold- THE REJECTED KISS SCENE!
To begin with, here's a transcript of the canon dialogue, for reference.
- Aang: Katara, did you really mean what you said in there?Katara: In where? What are you talking about?Aang: Onstage, when you said I was just like a brother to you and that you didn't have feelings for me...Katara: I didn't say that! An actor said that.Aang: But it's true, isn't it. (sadly) We kissed at the invasion... and I thought we were gonna be together... but we're not.Katara: Aang... I don't know.Aang: Why don't you know?Katara: Because, we're in the middle of a war and we have other things to worry about. This isn't the right time.Aang: (impatiently) Well, when is the right time?Katara: Aang, I'm sorry, but right now, I'm just a little confused. (Aang leans in and kisses Katara, who backs away furiously) I just said I was confused! ...I'm going inside. (runs away)Aang: (hits his head and groans) Aaargh, I'm such an idiot!
To be fair, I think that Aang canonically puts too much stock in what a group of actors say, especially considering 1)they have an obvious pro-Fire Nation bias, 2) it's implied that they have some dubious sources of information, like the cabbage merchant, meaning that even a good faith effort would likely be riddled with errors, and 3)other characters are highly inaccurately portrayed, as mere caricatures of themselves. I have to wonder how Aang would react to reading How I Became Yours, in which his feelings for Katara are not even mentioned (by contrast, Sokka gets an offscreen breakup with Suki, and let's not even get started on what happens to Mai); it also has the obvious bias and inaccurate portrayals of characters.
It seems plausible (at least as much so as the author's theories) that Aang canonically has a great deal of anxiety about how the coming battle will go. Maybe this would have been his last chance to talk to Katara, and he didn't want to leave things unresolved. Of course, it's also understandable that Katara is undecided, and that she doesn't want to make a decision she'll regret, with important things on the horizon.
But, whatever Aang's canonical intentions are, the result is obviously not what he desired or intended, and he's clearly kicking himself once he's done. Perhaps he's also realized that he won't get an answer, much less one that he likes, until things are resolved. He does get a good answer in the end, but not at this moment.
So that's where Aang is at the moment. The overall experience caused his standing with Katara to take a slight hit, but no coupling is without a bit of angst. Let's describe it with the scoring method used in Aang's festival (which is another good metaphor for how Katara view's Aang in this fic; tolerating him and his ill-fated attempts to woo her with varying degrees of reluctance). It's Day 6, and Team Kataang lost a few points, but still retain the lead with a positive balance. Team Zutara dropped into negative points after "Crossroads of Destiny", and remained there until "The Southern Raiders", now barely into positive points. As for Team Jet/Katara, it fell into negative points on Day 2, and disappeared after Day 4.
So, in short, it will take a lot more than this scene to sink Kataang while establishing Zutara.
And now for how the fic went about doing it.
Katara finds Aang out on the balcony, and is briefly distracted by thoughts of Yue and the crowd that attended the last show, wondering if it ended well (considering that they're Fire Nation people, it probably didn't end well for the good guys).
Katara notices that Aang is not his cheerful self, and wonders if he's exaggerating when he says that he would enter the Avatar State if not for his chakra being blocked. Katara insists to herself that Aang's portrayal wasn't as bad as hers, and he shouldn't take it so personally. Perhaps she's right that her portrayal was more Out of Character, and perhaps she's right that he shouldn't take it personally, but she seems to be wrong about why he's upset.
The quoted exchange above then begins. After Aang's second line, Katara gets defensive about it being a play, but Aang's third line sets her off.
Katara reveals that she has no desire to talk about her relationship with Aang, especially not in the intermission of a stupid play. This is in spite of the fact that she does have time to stalk Zuko, read a book she knows is a Guilty Pleasure, eavesdrop on various other conversations, and so forth. She has an abundance of free time before Sozin's Comet arrives in this fic, thanks to the magic of Adaptation Expansion, so it seems like she's just dodging the issue, instead of legitimately having too much on her plate.
Of course, that could be intentional, since Katara hoped that Aang would grow out of his crush on her, since Katara believes that crushes you develop when you're 12 don't last your entire lifetime, disregarding the Childhood Friend Romance trope (I wonder if the author sees this as a point against Maiko). She also suggests that she had a crush on Bato, one of her father's friends, when she was 12 (a mere two years ago), but grew out of it, and wishes Aang could as well. Are we honestly supposed to compae a 12-year old boy crushing on a girl two years his senior with a girl crushing on a man possibly two decades her senior, and possibly married at that? I'm honestly glad Katara got over her crush on Bato, for reasons apart from supporting Kataang, but she should be less dismissive of Aang's feelings.
Katara doesn't know what she can say to make Aang understand, so she settles for not hurting him, and Katara Line 3 and Aang Line 4 follow. She then points out that Aang is quite emotional, and they cannot afford to have him getting upset on them. Katara then notes that she sees him "as a brother" and is "maternal" toward him. It looks like I was half-right; Katara sees herself as Aang's mother and his sister
Not only is the author playing the old "maternal feelings" card, but there's another troubling part of this. This seems to confirm what I've suspected all along; that the Gaang- Katara in particular- are largely humoring Aang to keep him in a good enough mood to fight and kill the Fire Lord (they won't accept anything short of killing, not even if the threat of Ozai is neutralized, but that's another story that I'll get to when I get up to that point). It does sometimes come across as them stringing him along and treating him as more of a strategic asset than a person. I also feel sorry for Aang; the one thing worse in terms of romance than unrequited love, is unrequited love through the eyes of the person who doesn't return the lover's feelings, making it clear how little their lover's feelings mean to them.
Katara's fourth line follows. I agree that it's a fair point (albeit that Aang's desire for some answers on that front is understandable as well) but Katara, in the fic, feels the need to drive it home with an emphatic "THIS IS TRUE!" and narrates the rest of her reaction with barely suppressed anger, rather than her sense of conflict and doubt that she had in canon.
Katara then gets huffy, and accuses Aang of putting more focus on "a stupid play and a stupid crush" than the fate of the world. The former is understandable, although she doesn' t seem to chastise the other Gaang members about their complaints. The latter is far too dismissive.
On a side note, the author previously suggested a lack of action on Aang's part in the time between "Day of the Black Sun" and "Ember Island Players" as yet another point against Kataang. After reading this, I have come to the conclusion that canonically, Aang was, in fact, trying to put his feelings aside and trying not to dwell on it too much, but seeing Katara in the play, combined with his other stress, pushed him over the edge and drove him to ask about it.
Aang's fifth line follows, and Katara wonders if Aang wants her to give an exact time, but feels quite strongly that this isn't a good time, and there may never be a good time.
Aang's kiss then follows, and Katara is enraged, something she's unused to feeling with regards to Aang, and storms off. I have to wonder. Does an unwanted kiss count as an unforgivable sin! Is the author trying to drive it home by having Katara end all her questions with exclamation points! Don't you see how odd sentences look when they don't have the right punctuation!
And who should Katara seek out but Zuko!(ok, last one.) Toph asks to feel Zuko's scar, and he accepts, but warns her he doesn't want to talk about it. Katara, having missed a fairly touching conversation between Zuko and Toph regarding Iroh, doesn't understand how things progressed to this point, although she gets a hint when Toph references the kid who says Zuko's scar is on the wrong side.
Zuko notices Katara and waves her over, getting concerned when he sees her face. He recaps the "scar is on the wrong side" part, and Sokka giving hints to his actor, in hopes of making the evening funnier. Katara, however, is unconvinced that no amount of humor could make up for the evening (and considering it's Sokka's brand of humor, she's on to something). Zuko asks if Katara's ok, and she offers to talk with him later. Toph asks where Aang is, and Katara, likely not wanting to go get Aang, says he'll be over.
An author's note follows, and it's going to be a doozy.
The author starts on a relatively easy topic- a reviewer who discusses religion in the Fire Nation. The author suggests that during Sozin's rule the Fire Nation shifted to monotheistic rule of a god named Agni(another bit of Fanon; from the Avatar wiki, "Agni" is a sanskrit word for fire, and is found in the term "Agni Kai), a process started by Sozin for self-serving reasons not unlike Henry VIII's establishment of the Church of England. The author admits to not being sure about how Agnism works, but suggests that it involves a lot of patriotism. As such, Zuko's faith has lapsed, as bad things have happened to him, he's seen the power of spirits and he's seen other cultures, but he still has enough of it in him to say "Agni rest his spirit" regarding Zhao".
Then the author mentions the anti-Zutara video at Comic Con, saying that Zutara supporters have doomed love lives, and she, understandably, calls it "a very immature and dumb thing to do," and hopes that they took the "JK Route" and said they're glad the fans cared so much (I'm not all that familiar with Harry Potter, but I suspect Harry/Hermione had more of a chance than Zutara did, since it's not as though Hermione spent the first six books as a Death Eater).
Granted, I'm not completely fond of the remark, but let's see things from the perspective of Bryke. From the very beginning of the show, you're setting up the hero and the female lead to get together, a somewhat standard romance, although romance isn't a large part of ATLA's story. But then a large portion of the fans don't take to this, and ship the female lead with one of the villains (who, admittedly, has some sympathetic qualities and who does eventually do a Heel-Face Turn, but they don't know that), with some of the more militant supporters of this ship expecting it to become canon. Obviously, you're going to have to crush those fans' hopes somehow, and I think you could be forgiven for throwing caution, tact and subtlety to the wind.
The author of this fanfic, however, doesn't think much of the canon ships that preclude Zutara (which comes off as vaguely hypocritical), making it clear that they're not second place to Zutara, or even ones she likes very much, calling both Kataang and Maiko "exceptionally dysfunctional" and is less than pleased with the idea that Bryke sees them as ideal relationships, but she decides to Agree to Disagree with them while ignoring whatever she pleases. She then decides to get to that when she writes the Sozin's Comet arc, which, given the nature of the fic, isn't for several chapters.
The author's note gets back to the fic, and points out that Zuko being the "fandom bike" results in his status as someone who, like Katara, Really Gets Around on stage, enabling the two to join in "inaccurately portrayed floozy solidarity," and act like the heckling muppets from The Muppet Show.
The author points out that Zuko and Katara take things in stride, with Katara being the most level-headed about her character, although she suggests that she had the most right to be upset. Of course, this only comes into play for the parts of the play that aren't true, meaning that Katara gets embarrassed when she looks at the shirtless terra team members, and Zuko's deeply ashamed to be reminded of his misdeeds, especially with regards to Iroh, since Zuko hasn't had a chance to make peace with him.
The author then gets to the scene in the crystal catacombs, "a giant awkward sandwich" as a result of the personalities for Zuko and Katara's stage incarnations. The author points out that some people think that this is proof that there's nothing going on between them, but she disagrees, using the same "they don't mind if it's not true," defense. Since their relationship hasn't progressed to that point yet, they're obviously uncomfortable with this; they're in an "awkward mutual crush", in which nothing is happening, but things are happening on the stage, in front of Sokka, who will tease them about it.
As for me, I think people disagree with unwanted assumptions made about them, regardless of whether they're true. If, for example, I accused the author of hating Aang, she would more than likely take umbrage with my doing so, particularly for having the gall to make assumptions about her motives. As such, this scene could be used either way. If Zuko and Katara have something between each other, they're uncomfortable about it being shown openly. If they don't, they're unhappy about people assuming that they do, considering that Zuko canonically feels something for Mai, and Katara has feelings for Aang.
The author notes that Katara, feeling "maternal," wants to see if everyone's alright, but with Zuko in moping mode, she goes to see to Aang, who apparently thinks the play is real. The author questions whether Aang's reaction to BITI that Aang is unable to distinguish fiction from reality, and that in any case, his reaction is understandable, but immature.
As usual, I have an alternative take on it. Going back to my point that statements that you don't like aren't pleasant to hear, regardless of whether they're true or false, I'd say that Aang doesn't like the idea of being nothing more than Like Brother and Sister, and as things stand now, there's enough room for doubt for him to conclude that's how things are between him and Katara.
Then the author gets to Aang's scene with Katara on the balcony, which she says is like watching "someone on fire", and she wanted to roll Aang up in a safety blanket. She points out that Katara was giving repeated "no" signals, and that she thought she was witnessing "the death knell of Kataang" saying that if Katara felt even a little of what Aang felt toward her, she wouldn't have reacted that way.
I tend to disagree. Most fictional relationships run into trouble at some point, particularly when one or both of the couple doubts how the other feels about them, and/or how they feel about each other. Perhaps this could have been played out more, but it was nice to see a little bit of conflict here.
The author mentions the lack of resolution to this, and how there aren't any more Kataang scenes. I concede that the ending could have been longer, and possibly shown Aang joyfully reuniting with Katara, with them accepting their love for each other. I even think there should have been an entire episode devoted to the events after Ozai's defeat.
But this fic is not canon, nor is it even much of an Original Flavor fic, and I doubt any animator would have spent the time or the episode slots to write a story arc that lasts at least a season about relatively mundane events. And, for the most part, ATLA has more foreshadowing and buildup, so if they were going for Zutara, they'd have had more time to build it up, and more time for Katara and Zuko to be together after Katara forgave him. All this underscores how necessary the author's added scenes and reinterpretations are to Zutara getting together, and why Zutara had so little chance of happening in canon.
The author says that this scene is what gives her so many issues with Kataang, and says she'll deal with Katara's side another chapter, but will deal with Aang's side here. She claims she's not judging him, before making some fairly judgmental statements.
The author compares Aang's (12) crush on Katara (14) to Toph's (12) crush on Sokka (15), but says the difference is that Toph never forces herself on Sokka or makes things awkward for Sokka. One has to wonder why, given Toph's more aggressive personality, she's relatively reserved and almost shy about her crush on Sokka- the author doesn't know. But it's difficult to say that Aang is "forcing himself" on Katara.
The author complains about an "immature 12 year old end(ing) up with and(sic) exceptionally mature 14 year old"- so what kind of 16 year old is Zuko? The author says age differences are significant among teenagers, and there is a maturity gap. Perhaps this is somewhat more nuanced than the usual, tired age gap argument against Kataang, but it still comes off as an attempt to rationalize seeing an imbalance in Kataang while denying that there's one in Zutara.
The author says it's not Aang's fault, but he's too young for Katara in all senses of the word. The author concludes that no one ends with the person they have feelings for when they're 12, just like how Katara grew out of her feelings for Bato (a completely non-canon crush that comes across as the straw-man equivalent of Aang's crush).
The author mentions that Katara hopes that Aang will grow out of his crush, and she agrees with her, saying that as someone like Aang is adventurous and tries many new things, she hopes he'll have a few lovers before settling down- if he does, with him being a nomad.
I can't argue with the interpretation that Aang likes trying new things. Of course, by all indications, in The Legend of Korra, Aang settled down in Republic City and had three kids with Katara, one of whom took up residence on Air Nomad Isle. This, as the Avatar section of Die for Our Ship says, proves that Aang's attraction to Katara went beyond the teenage hormone phase, and it's overly dismissive to describe his coming closer to the girl he's been with since emerging from the iceberg, and with whom he adventured throughout the world and fought alongside to stop a war, as anything close to Katara's crush on an attractive older man.
The author finally praises Aang, saying that it's "delightful" that he likes playing with new animals wherever he goes. But then she turns this into an argument against Kataang, and suggests that Bryke is making Aang go against his character (or rather, the author's own preconceived notion of Air Nomad culture). The author points out that Katara wants stability, something she would not get from Aang, and she would get from the "more steadfast" Zuko.
But she then says that this is all about bashing Kataang, and points out the kiss is inexcusable, even considering Aang's upbringing, with Katara's body language expressing refusal, and Aang focused only on his own desires. Again, I can't exactly say that the kiss is Aang's proudest moment (that would be defeating Ozai and taking away his bending without killing him, although the author seems to disagree with me on that), but he's not as selfish as the author imagines him to be (he understandably wants to know where he and Katara stand), and it's not as much of a transgression as the author makes it out to be.
The author says that militant Zutarians call the kiss "face-rape" (On a side note, I'm hesitant to use the word "rape" in any non-literal context, unless it's an official term, such as the Rape of Nanking, which involved a lot of actual rape, since I've heard that using "rape" in such contexts reduces how meaningful the term is). The author, however, doesn't go that far.
The author points out that Aang is not a bad kid, but he is Just a Kid, and "a self-centered and impatient" to boot, and he lacks respect but doesn't mean any harm; he just doesn't know how to show affection to Katara without forcing it on her. As much as the author claims to like Aang, she can't say good things about him without using them as arguments against Kataang and/or adding in criticisms of him.
Continuing on this, the author says that Kataang is "messed up" now and will only get worse as time goes on. She says Katara and Aang are "good people" (but doesn't elaborate much on how Aang is good), but they do not belong together. She then suggests that she wanted them to be happy, and wrote the fic to "to make the ending more palatable" to herself and the readers, ending this rant.
I've mostly said my piece in response to the author's arguments. But to sum up my position, Zutara is a possibly viable pairing, albeit one that had next to no chance of canonically happening. It was developed well in this fic, but it doesn't require or justify Aang being portrayed as a selfish and immature boy, and his feelings for Katara being portrayed as a superficial crush he has yet to outgrow. Aang is more than just romantic competition for Zuko, but the boy who saved the world, and it would be nice for him to be portrayed in a more sympathetic light, and have more of a chance at Katara's heart.
The author then suggests that the kid who said Zuko's scar on the wrong side is the first time Toph's ever heard of the scar, and that Zuko would be fairly accommodating to her request to touch it, just like he was with Katara. Of course, he still doesn't want to talk about it, and so Toph makes a ojke to clear the tension. The next chapter will conclude the BITI arc, and have another Zuko and Katara talk.
What I liked
- I'm drawing a blank for this chapter, unfortunately. Unlike the author, I won't claim to like it when I don't have anything good to say about it.
What I didn't like regarding Katara and Aang
- Katara's refusal to tell Aang how she feels.
- Katara pitying Aang and seemingly doing everything she does to humor him.
- Katara taking Aang's actions much more personally than in canon.
- Katara seeing Aang's crush as a thing he'll grow out of.
- The fic being overly dismissive of and unsympathetic to Aang in general.
Everything else I didn't like
- A fair amount of retreading canon events without much added to them.
- The fanon theories about Agni.
- The author taking things personally regarding Zutara and overestimating its chances of happening.
