u/Nikaszko

Generally, it's often said in the fandom that Zutara shippers believe Aang is toxic, so I'll (taking advantage of the fact that it's Wednesday) share my unsolicited opinion on the matter. If we interpret Aang's feelings for Katara as a puppy love, then Aang isn't toxic because he's a child, a child who doesn't understand romantic love, common obligations, reciprocity, or the idea of ​​"let's try to support each other as equally as possible." In fact, at the age of 12, he even has the right not to feel full empathy or consequences. But if their relationship is supposed to be a serious love relationship, then yes, he is toxic. Because he doesn't even try to do the same emotional work, to be the support she needs. Not to mention the fact that he's constantly hitting on or being hit on by other girls and constantly lying to her.

Anyway i'm going now to look for how to adopt ficional character and raise him into finding other methods of copying than abandoning.

I don't want any analyses suggesting Zutara could be considered a canon ship. Assuming it wasn't intended to be, that's even funnier.

A series is being created, and none of the main creators really want Zutara, so they see all the scenes being created and are like, "Yeah, it's very platonic, right. There's nothing romantic here." With a serious face, unfazed by romanticism, they watch the scene where girl walks off into the sunset, and the guy stares at her like a dog at a ball. The series is airing, and this ship (for a long time) has more popularity than other ships in the series. No one in production still wants it, except for about half the VAs, including the VAs playing characters from this ship. There are attempts to silence this ship, which achieve nothing. Ultimately, a ship that no one in production wants becomes important in the fandom's history much more deeply than it seems. It creates the idea of ​​"[ship name] week." Many people are starting to get a taste for the currently most popular romance trope. A book is published, boasting on the first page that it's inspired by this ship. A many others were probably loosely inspired by it. The creator of the series this ship comes from still hates it, still perpetuates the narrative of encouraging bulling and suppressing the ship, and doesn't care that he accidentally created a goose that provides golden eggs and milk. The creator takes away the personality of a character from his own show to silence a ship that could generate a lot of profit. And it's been that way for 20 years.

Am I correct in assuming that Zutara is the original enemies to lovers story, which somewhat pushed the popularity of this trope? Of course, it's not the first enemies to lovers ship, but the first ship of this type was written (or rather told) by our ancestor in a cave.