Red and Blue make Purple

Anonymous asked:

When Zuko saves Katara from the rocks in TSR, her reaction for me was rather like she felt frustrated not bc a (former) enemy saved her, but a guy unexpectedly (w/o "permission") grab her, roll on floor w her & then still "on" her... :3 The intimacy of the situation was uncomfortable for her. But I still think that scene was the most sexiest in the show. Sorry not sorry!! :P -klt

peacockarehot-deactivated201707 answered:

Katara:What are you doing?
Zuko: Keeping rocks from crushing you.
Katara: Okay, I’m not crushed. You can get off me now!

LOL! I agree that it wasn’t just that a former enemy saved her. She felt frustrated because the physical closeness was awkward. That scene was really weird and cringeworthy to me. It seemed like Katara thought Zuko was being creepy. Bryke probably tried to make that scene look kind of, I dunno…rape-y.

Zuko: I’ll take that as a thank you.

He did save her life, and her bad attitude was starting to get really old. It was seriously getting on my nerves. But I also thought that Zuko’s flippant attitude was annoying. He felt entitled to her trust and forgiveness and it made him seem arrogant and obnoxious. He had a lot more humility when he talked to her in the cave.

theadamantdaughter

What was intimate about this situation?

Zuko doesn’t even touch her, not in any way that could be categorized as intimate, and certainly not in a way that Katara could misconstrue as rape-y.

Exhibit A: His arms are wrapped around her waist, yes, but he’s grabbing his wrist. He’s not grabbing her stomach at all, which would be intimate.

Exhibit B: They tumble to a halt, both slightly dazed as they settle. Zuko’s hand still isn’t touching her. If this was meant to be intimate, his hand would be on her stomach. And you can’t exactly blame the positioning of their bodies either, they literally just came to a stop.

Exhibit C:

Katara: [Angrily.] What are you doing?
Zuko: [Calmly.] Keeping rocks from crushing you.
Katara: Okay, I’m not crushed. You can get off me now!
Katara rushes out from under Zuko and exits off screen.

Katara is annoyed that Zuko saved her, not that he’s on top of her or next to her. Zuko is confused by her anger. He did just save her. He expected, at the most, silence and her darting away. His hand is even positioned perfectly for her to do just that. His arm is relaxed and his weight is leaning away from her.

[a tiny gif (not mine) to demonstrate a bit more]

He looks up as soon as they settle, she says ‘What are you doing?’ at the very same moment. His hand moves even further from her and his weight shifts away from her.

Then, when she’s gone, after he calmly says he was just trying to save her, Zuko says sarcastically:

That’s not Zuko being flippant or rude or entitled to her forgiveness, that’s just a teenager reacting to another inexplicably angry teenager like ‘wut.’

Now that we’ve settled the intimacies of saving lives… Katara doesn’t really show an issue with phyical closeness to Zuko at any other point:

[ all up in his grill, saying she’s gonna ‘end’ him. yikes Katara yikes ]

[ dang, Kat, chill. no need to get within four inches of his nose ]

[ she still hates him here. she’s like a foot from him. ]

[ and here, too. shoulder to shoulder ]

And damn, she sure turns her back to him a lot, a trusting, intimate gesture in and of itself. Ask the animal kingdom.

What does it mean when your dog turns his back on you?
It’s a sign of friendliness and showing peaceful intentions.

My cat often sits on my lap with its back facing toward me. Is my pet just looking out, or is there some other reason why it does this?Johnson-Bennett [animal behavioralist] explains that cats sitting in this manner are revealing that they fully trust you. No cat in its right mind would sit that way if it thought you had ill intentions. The position represents the near ultimate faith that you won’t attack.

So, no, Katara’s problem here wasn’t that Zuko was close to her or that Zuko touched her. The problem was that Zuko saved her.

She hates him, right? She wants a thousand reasons to hate him. She’s clinging to them. Later in the episode, she lists a bunch of reasons to him: chasing them all over the world, Ba Sing Se, her mother…

The hard thing is, the group has forgiven him.

He helped Sokka save Hakoda and Suki. He’s helping Aang learn, bettering their chances at winning. He gets along well and fits in. They genuinely like him. And all this does is make Katara resent him and every kindness by him and her friends because she’s realizing her continued hatred is more and more unfounded. That’s her problem when he saves her. She doesn’t want one more thing proving her hatred wrong.

And finally:

Written by
Elizabeth Welch Ehasz
Directed by
Joaquim Dos Santos

I really don’t think Bryke were making the rock saving scene rape-y.

araeph

That’s a very good point about Katara’s acceptance of Zuko being physically close, even when she’s really angry at him. On another tangent, this is yet anothe reason why I don’t understand antis who think of the relationship as “dark” or threatening somehow on Zuko’s part. Zuko never intimidated Katara. Not once. Even when he was still the enemy, she never shied away from him.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Red and Blue make Purple

In 60 years