Red and Blue make Purple

Anonymous asked:

do you find the southern raiders episode to make zutara an unhealthy ship?

seapruncs answered:

(sorry about the lengthy post but I really didn’t want to include anything under a cut because these receipts are serious)

Actually, I think it demonstrates the exact opposite of an unhealthy ship. And here are the reasons why ;

Firstly, in the beginning of the episode I would like to start with Zuko running and grabbing Katara and rolling her out of the way of falling rocks. That’s evidence that he not only cares for Katara’s life, but would risk his to save hers. (little did they know, that wouldn’t be the last time he’d risk his life for her in this episode.)

Secondly, There’s the short scene where Katara pulls him into Appa’s saddle as he falls from the air after his battle with Azula. And although I believe she would do that for anybody, I also believe that it shows her beginning to accept him as a part of their group. Well, until this next part.

Thirdly, we get a scene with Katara storming off after Zuko says “I’m touched, I don’t deserve this,” when the gaang is giving a toast to Zuko for basically saving them all that day. And then she responds with, “No, you don’t,” and storms off. Now, you’d think that all tings given and Zuko’s tendency to let jabs like that slip (aka any interaction/conversation with Mai) that he’d let this slip and move on. But he doesn’t. And you know why? Because he cares. He cares about her and wants to understand why she would make a remark like that and what he can to do fix it. And not just for himself, but for the good of the group because he knows that if they can’t get along, then there’s no way they can win a war fighting together but as enemies.

So he follows her, clearly upset, and confronts her about what’s been happening. See here with their conversation:

“This isn’t fair. Everyone here seems to trust me now. What is it with you?”
“Oh, everyone seems to trust you now? I want the first person to trust you, remember? Back in Ba Sing Se and you turned around and betrayed me! Betrayed all of us!”

And instead of yelling back, instead of coming up for some excuse as to why he did what he did, he reaches out and asks her:

“What can I do to make it up to you?” to which she responds with:
“You really wanna know? Maybe you can reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King. Or, I know, you can bring my mother back.” And then proceeds to shove him and walk away from the conversation.

Then, because he isn’t satisfied, he goes to her brother and asks him to tell him what happened to their mother. And in the middle of the conversation he stops and asks if he can remember anything about the ship that raided their village where Sokka proceeds to tell him that he remembers Sea Ravens on the flags. “The symbol of the Southern Raiders. Thanks Sokka.”

I hope you’re still paying attention because this is where it gets good.

He then goes and sits outside of Katara’s tent all night and waits for her to wake up. He had to have been just so distraught with knowing who possibly killed her mother that he couldn’t sleep and therefore camped out in front of her tent all night.

“You look terrible.”
“I waited out here all night.”
“What do you want?”
“I know who killed your mother, and I’m going to help you find him.”

Well all holy hell! Look at him, putting not only time and effort into finding out what was wrong with Katara, but also finding a reason as to why she hated him so, went to find answers, found them and is now trying to help her resolve said problems. MOVING ON!!

Moving on to where Katara states that she needs to borrow Appa.

Katara: “I need to borrow Appa.”
Aang: “Why? Is it your turn to take a little field trip with Zuko?”
K: “Yes, it is.”
A: “Oh, what’s going on?”
“K: “We’re going to find that man that took my mother from me.”
Zuko: “Sokka told me the story of what happened. I know who did it, and i know how to find him.”
A: “Umm, and what exactly do you think this will accomplish?”
K: “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
A: “Wait, stop, I do understand. You’re feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sand benders when they stole Appa?”

Can we just stop a moment and think about how Aang literally fucking compared his pet to Katara’s fucking mother? HER MOTHER. And I realize that Aang lost his parents, obviously, but he didn’t know them, didn’t grow up with them and therefore had absolutely no emotional attachment to them as Katara did to her mother. So, that’s another strike on the Aang board.

Zuko: “She needs this, Aang. This is about getting closure, and justice.”
Aang: “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”
Katara: “Fine! Maybe it is. Maybe it’s what I need. Maybe it’s what he deserves.”
Aang: “Katara, you’re starting to sound like Jet.”
Katara: “This isn’t the same. Jet attacked the innocent. This man, he’s a monster.”
Sokka: “Katara, she was my mother too. But, I think Aang might be right.”
Katara: “Then you didn’t love her the way I did!

Then, after Aang gives his speech about revenge (and forgiveness, which comes into play at the end of the episode), they all go their separate ways- (where Zuko follows Katara after she walks off, presumably to discuss plans on how to go about leaving without the others knowing) (wouldn’t be the first time they met in private to do things without the other knowing, but that’s none of my business) -until later that night when Zuko and Katara appear in their “ninja” outfits, getting ready to leave on Appa when Aang confronts them about leaving anyways.

This entire scene is so important because it shows just how much Zuko has come to change, and to care about those around him, now. Zuko trusts her to make her own journey to finding her mothers’ killer. He trusts her because he knows what it’s like to stumble, what it’s like to make right decisions, to make wrong decisions on his way to the right choices. Aang expected Katara to automatically choose peace and forgiveness just because it’s what he believed was the right decision. Zuko understands that, in reality, that doesn’t happen. He respects Katara enough to let her have her own path to closure.

Moving on:

Okay, quick summary of the rest of the episode until my next point. Zuko and Katara eventaully make it to the Southern Raiders fleet. But not before Zuko stating that Katara’s mother was a brave woman.

Then, there’s the journey to the Southern Raiders HQ, which is basically all battle strategy stuff so we won’t get into that.

Moving on to the bloodbending aspect of this episode.

This is where we see Katara’s patience be tested. When the man they both confront doesn’t know what either of them are talking about, Katara reaches into the depths of herself and bloodbends the man into looking her in the eyes. (but not before Zuko gets down on his knees and demand he looks her in the eyes and tell her what he did).

We also witness here: Zuko allowing Katara to do what she needs to do in order to get the information she needs. We all obviously knew she wasn’t going to kill the man, and so did Zuko and that’s why he didn’t try to stop her. Instead, he allowed her to let it out, to do her own thing and just be there to support her if she needed it instead of shoving his useless opinions down her throat. He was allowing HER to be in control because this was about HER.

Then, when she doesn’t get an answer and realizes that he’s not the man they’re looking for, she walks away. Then Zuko runs over to him and basically holds him by the throat and says, “If you’re not the man we’re looking for, then who is?” And when the man tells him who, he and Katara go to the mans’ village (Yon Rah) (spelling???) and follows him to the market and then to a street where they ambush him.

There, Katara confronts him.

K: “Do you know who I am?”
YR: “No…I’m not sure.”
K: “Why don’t you take a closer look.” and she takes her mask down where we see the man come to the realization as to who she is.
YR: “Yes, yes I remember you now. You’re the little water tribe girl.”
*flashback sequence of the convo between YR and Katara’s mother and now back to the present*
K: “She lied to you. She was protecting the last water bender.”
YR: “Who?”
K: “Me!”

And then we see Katara angry to the point that she was prepared to kill this man. Forget everything we thought of Katara before, she was distraught and angry and mourning her mother and she was prepared to kill this man for what he’d done.

And Zuko, who stood there, he let her bloodbend and watched as the scene unfolded in front of him did nothing to stop her. And some of you may think “oh well he should have stopped her because if he was really changed then he wouldn’t condone killing someone” which is completely untrue because:

Later, he is prepared to kill not only his sister, but his father. He challenges his own sister to an Agni Kai, which if you didn’t already know, is a fight to the death. They weren’t just fighting for the throne for dramatic effect. Zuko was literally prepared to kill his own sister for the good of his country, for the good of the world and I think that is a very strong, very respectable and dramatic change to his character that I think helped his character arc immensely.

What was so important in this scene was he was there. He was there for Katara, whether she killed the man or not, he was there, ready to support her or let her cry or whatever she needed to do because he knew that that’s what she needed. That she needed to help herself and he was there letting her do just that. He wasn’t there shoving his opinions down her throat about how or why she shouldn’t kill the man because frankly, that man deserved to die that episode and if it wouldn’t have been a kids show I know damn well he would have. Maybe not by the hands of Katara, but possibly in another way.

Zuko was SO supportive of her and I wholeheartedly believe that if she had ended up killing that man, he would have been there to support her, and help her deal with the consequences. Whether it be telling the rest of the group what she did, or keeping it as a secret of their own. He would have done anything to make sure she felt as if she was being cared for.

— And then we have the ending where we see these two characters, Zuko and Katara, come full circle from where they were at the beginning of the episode. From the beginning of the series. And I think it’s honestly one of the most important scenes/lessons in the entire she and here’s why:

She forgives him. She forgives Zuko.

After everything he’s done to her, to their group, she forgives him. It’s the entire lesson throughout the entire episode: FORGIVENESS.

I think it’s so important to forgive those who have done you wrong, and Katara was able to set aside off of her problems, all of her hatred and anger towards Zuko and forgive him. And I just think that’s really beautiful.

It’s hard to forgive someone, especially someone who has caused so much destruction in his wake.

I think this episode was so, so so so incredibly important in so many different ways. It taught self control, it taught the value of life and how no one two people are the same. It taught forgiveness, and overall loving someone who was once your enemy. In canon, Katara may not have loved Zuko in a romantic way, but she loved him as a friend and thatis good enough for me.