A:TLA—How Zutara Wouldn't Change a Thing

Everyone that has watched Avatar: The Last Airbender can immediately agree on two things: M. Night Shyamalan is dead to us after what he did, and the Zutara v Kataang shipwar will never end.

We have recently found out that A:TLA will once again be hitting the screens in a Netflix live action that is set to be released at some point in 2020. We have yet to see any information regarding casting, but do know that the original producers will be in charge of the live action. This news has brought excitement to all the fans out there, including myself. This also raised the question of what the source material will consist of.

According to different sources, the Netflix live action will simply be a retelling of the show we know and love. I have no complaints about this, seeing as A:TLA is a masterpiece in it's own right, and any changes to the show would have resulted in catastrophic fan uproars. Yet there was one nagging thought that kept intruding.

What if the producers made Zutara a thing this time instead of Kataang?

I am currently torn between seeing one of my favorite ships become canon, and having the producers stay loyal to the show we all know and love. The more I thought about it the more indecisive I became, and obviously the only solution to this problem was popping out my Blu-ray boxed set that Target told me I had to have. I set the first disc into my play-station two (yes, I know, really old.), and off I went. As I re-watched I kept in mind this idea that at the end it would be Zuko and Katara together, and NOT Katara and Aang. Here's what I found.

As the show progresses the chemistry between Aang and Katara is forced at best, cringe at worst. Katara doesn't view Aang as a love interest throughout the entire show! The moments that had any romance value to them were forced by Aang, and not reciprocated by Katara. They kissed twice, and both times Aang was rebuffed by Katara!

Now, as this god awful train wreck of a wooing was going on (Aang, I love you, but stop.), the writers unwittingly created undeniable chemistry between Katara and Zuko. Sure, Zuko did man handle Katara's gran-gran, knocked Soka in the head, chased Aang all over the world, and use the necklace Katara kept from her mother to track her, but he makes up for that!

As the show goes on we Katara and Zuko bond in the caves underneath the city of Ba Sing Se. The hurt that Katara feels when Zuko betrays them screams, "Hey, you! She liked you and you ruined it!" not to mention the trip they take together to attack the Southern Raiders, which were responsible for the death of Katara's mother.

By the end of the show the writers have written in so many Zutara scenes that it makes no sense to put Aang and Katara together! In the final episodes it is perfectly set up for Zuko and Katara to become a power couple. Zuko broke it off with Mai during the Boiling Rock Part II, and the ending to that relationship was amazing and bittersweet. They didn't need to end up together, the break-up was so perfect it was almost an insult. Zuko and Katara are also together for the final moments in the show. Together they fight off Azula, and the way that Zuko saves Katara is just another perfect set up for the start of the relationship.

If the live action were to put Katara and Zuko together nothing would change. The only thing that would truly change is the end scene between Katara and Aang, and even then not by much. All they would have to do is end the hug scene right before the kiss scene that follows, because throughout the entire show that's really the only reciprocation Katara shows towards Aang's affection. Take that out, add in Katara helping Zuko into his robe instead of Mai, and literally everything else stays the same!

In conclusion to this dragged out rant, Zutara is possible, and it should become a thing in the live action the universe has graced us with.