Hey so I am a die hard Percabeth and Zutara shipper. For anyone who doesn't know, Percabeth is the ship between Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson and the Olympians and all of its sequel series.
Something I have noticed is that many Percabeth shippers are also Kataang shippers. Now on the surface level, I can see the similarities. They are both friends to lovers, they meet at a young age and stick by each other's sides through countless obstacles and horrors and ultimately save the world, following which they finally start dating.
However, while I adore Percabeth (it is my favourite ship of all time), I despise Kataang. It always leaves me feeling uncomfortable and icky. That's not to say I hate Aang or his friendship with Katara. Given that he is a 12 year old boy who had been frozen for 100 years before being dumped straight into the middle of a vicious ongoing war where everyone is looking at him to save them, not to mention the time crunch he is on, a lot of his actions and behaviours make complete sense. They are expected even. Neither is there anything wrong with latching onto and forming deep emotional bonds with the first people he connects with since waking up, especially after finding out he is the last of his kind.
What bothers me is that he is always on the receiving end of all the comforts and solidarity that comes with any bond. A one sided relationship is bad enough when the bond is purely friendship. It becomes infinitely worse when it's a romantic relationship. I mean, yes during the beginning I can see him being more on the receiving end while he still adjusts to his new reality and incredibly dire situation. However, eventually he must grow and learn to provide others with that same kind of trust and support and do his best to understand their perspectives and thoughts. Instead, whenever something doesn't go his way or maybe is at odds with his air nomad culture, he either shows a superior attitude, shows disrespect, runs away or explodes.
Katara is always the one making up for his shortcomings and picking up the pieces. There is no equality in any sense of the word in that relationship. Katara has her own trauma and baggage and sometimes desperately needs a shoulder to lean on. Aang never gives her that.
Even the scene where Aang doesnt want cosmic powers over Katara ( which usually is a pretty popular romantic trope where the hero would rather abandoned the greater good to keep his love interest safe) fails to evoke the butterfly giddy feelings within me. It reads more as Aang once again trying to run from responsibility. Similarly, the Katara getting hurt causing Aang to go all Avatar state scenes also fail to land any meaningful hit.
Percy and Annabeth also butt heads more often than not in the beginning, but their shared adventures over the years have taught them to read each other like open books. When one is down, the other shoulders them both. They may often quarrel, have miscommunication, call each other out on things or fail to see where the other is coming from, but at the end of the day they are a team and will always stick by each other. Their relationship is not one sided at all and that is what makes their development and relationship progression so beautiful.
Percy is also the type of character who goes kinda crazy when Annabeth is in danger like in the Titans Curse when Annabeth fell off a cliff and was missing for most of the book. Likewise, Annabeth also becomes single track minded with a short fuse when Percy was kidnapped in the Lost Hero, running on fumes and determination to scour every possible place in search of him. Infact Percy's fatal flaw is personal loyalty which means to save a friend he is capable of sacrificing the world. And his utmost dedication and loyalty lies with Annabeth. So when such scenes happen where Annabeth kinda has to pull Percy from the edge, it makes complete sense why they are acting that way. They are each other's impulse controls, like puzzle pieces fitting together. They have seen each other at their best and worst moments.
In my opinion, Zutara, despite being an enemies to lovers ship to begin with, has much of the same dynamic as Percabeth. They complement and challenge each other, they are the only one who understands and is capable of handling and soothing the other's burdens and trauma. They save each other from certain death and essentially become ride or die besties with insane chemistry.
Yeah so all of that rambling was to basically say that Percabeth and Zutara are the same ships in different fonts. What do you guys think?