Avatar Shipping: Zutara

Remember how I said I would be starting a "series" on Avatar shipping?  Well here it is!  As I said before, I'm starting with Zutara.  I'm going to do this by dividing the post into different sections: my opinion on Zutara, why people ship it, why some believed it would be canon, and fan works.

My Opinion

I do not ship Zutara.  It never appealed to me.  Actually, it never even occured to me until I found Zutara shippers online.  From the very first episode I thought Katara and Aang were meant for each other (but that's for another post/video), and Katara and Zuko even being possible never crossed my mind.  After discovering Zutara, I still didn't see it in the show.  I guess I can kind of see what others like about the pairing, but I don't like it.  I've never really been someone who likes the bad guy turns good and gets the girl storyline.  It doesn't interest me.

Why do people ship Zutara?

Obviously, I can't directly answer this since I don't fully understand it myself, but I did "research" for this post and have heard tons of reasons over the years.  If you're a Zutara shipper and disagree with anything I say here, just let me know, and I'll change it.  I'll also add anyone's opinion in here if they want.  Oh, and I can't forget: opposites attract.

I think Zutara is mainly appealing to people because Zuko starts as a villian, but it's clear he's not really a bad guy.  As every Avatar fan now knows, Zuko does end up switching sides before the end of the series.  It has the whole bad boy thing, and I think that appeals to a lot of people.  Some just find that kind of pairing to be interesting.

Why did some believe Zutara would be canon?

Before I even start, I want everyone to know that I realize not every Zutara shipper thought Zutara would be canon, but this section is focused on why some believed it would be.  I've seen quite a lot of "evidence" for Zutara over the years, and this section definitely won't include all of it.  I'm trying to include the evidence that I could actually see as being evidence.

I think a lot of canon Zutara shippers thought the opposites attract thing was valid evidence for the ship.

Do all of the Avatar fans reading this remember when the trailer for the second half of season three aired at Comic Con?  (I still love that trailer.)  Remember when Zuko and Katara hugged?  I definitely do.  I can still remember the screams from the Comic Con video.  I think that definitely gave a lot of canon Zutara shippers hope.  (I still think that was a slightly mean thing to do actually...)

I couldn't come up with much evidence that made sense, so that's all I'm going to go into here.  (I'm not saying there isn't anymore, but as a Kataanger, I'm not entirely aware of canon Zutara arguments.)  I will, however, leave you with this Zutara manifesto.  I didn't read all of it, but it seems very well written and in-depth from what I skimmed.  They also have the view points of multiple Zutarians.

Fan Works

I tried to find good Zutara fanfiction, fanart, and fan videos.  I haven't read or watched all of these, but I only put them here if they seemed to be of good quality.  If you want to recommend your favorite (or some you've written or made yourself) fan works just let me know, and I'll add it here.

Fanfiction

I'm going to list this Zutara community on fanfiction.net.  According to their description the community was made in 2005.  That would mean they've been collecting Zutara fanfiction since Zutara fanfiction was being written.  I'm sure you'll be able to find some good Zutara fanfiction on there.

Fanart

This link should lead you to a search for the most popular Zutara fanart of all time on deviantArt.  They all look extremely well drawn.  There are so many beautiful ones.

Fan Videos

This link will take you to a Zutara search on Youtube.  There are tons of Zutara videos on Youtube, and while I've never watched many Zutara videos, most of the Avatar videos I've watched in the past have been really well done.

I'd love to add more fan works here, but it would be helpful to get actual recommendations from Zutarians.  If you'd have anything you'd like me to add to this post, just let me know in a comment below

Avatar Shipping: Introduction

This is going to be a sort of introduction post to something new I'm going to be doing both here on the blog and over on my Youtube channel.  I'm going to be writing a series of blog posts and filming a series of videos on Avatar: The Last Airbender ships.  If you don't know what ships are, ship is short of relationship.  A ship is a couple, and shipping is wanting that couple to be together.

Each blog post or video is going to center around a different Avatar ship.  Some of them will be canon, some fanon, and some crack ships.  (Canon happened in the show.  Fanon didn't happen on the show, but people wish it did and some probably believed it would happen.  And crack ships are ships that are just odd and completely unbelievable, even compared to fanon ships.)  Sometimes I may even throw two random characters together and just talk about what they would be like as a couple.

I may also mention some fanfiction, fanart, or fan videos that I like that feature the couple.  There are several problems with this though.  1. I only read fanfiction for couples I ship, so I don't really have any for any other couples.  2. I've looked through fanart some, but not much.  I don't really have any to show for any couple.  3.  I used to watch fan videos but haven't in a while.  The ones I do know of her kind of old.  This means I'll need to search for stuff in order to show you guys.  That may take a while, so I'm not sure if I'll do this part or not.  If I do, it probably won't be for every ship.

I will probably do this for other fandoms in the future as well, but I'm just sticking with Avatar for the moment.  If you have any Avatar ships you want me to talk about, just let me know, and I'll add them to the list if they aren't already there.  Feel free to let me know of your favorite shipping related fanfic, fanart, or fan videos as well because I'll probably use it later.

As I said, some of these will be posted here on the blog, and some I'll make Youtube videos for.  I'm not sure how often I'll do these.  I think I'll do the first in a week or so.

I'll go ahead and tell you that I'm doing Zutara first.  (Yes, I am a die-hard Kataang shipper.  I randomly selected one and Zutara one out of all the ships on my list.  I'm still slightly bitter about it.)  So, let me know of any Zutara fan-made content you'd like me to mention.  And definitely throw out some couples I may not have thought about.  Even ships that seem strange since they could probably be even funner to talk about.

Edited:

I just thought of something fun.  Since I don't ship Zutara, getting a Zutara shippers point of view would be fun.  If you ship Zutara, and want to write something up, I could post it as part of the blog post or, if I make a video, read it in the video.  If you want to film a video, I could even edit that in.  I doubt anyone will take me up on the offer, but I thought it was a cool idea...

Completed Posts/Videos

Zutara (blog post)
Kataang (blog post)
Tokka (blog post)
Teoph (blog post)
Ty Lokka (blog post)
Sukka (blog post)
Yuokka (blog post)
Jinko (video)
Taang (video)
Maiko (video)

Twilight Shipping

I posted a video about Harry Potter shipping about a week ago and a blog post about Hunger Games shipping four days ago.

When it comes to Twilight, I only have one really strong shipping preference:  Leah and Embry.  (Yeah, random couple.  I know.)  Still, I'm way more likely to read fanfiction where one or both of them is with someone else than I am couples in other other fandoms.  I'm not really sure how I started shipping Leah and Embry.  I used to ship Jacob and Leah, and I think I found a Leah and Embry fanfiction that was written by an author would also written a Jacob and Leah fanfic.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I really liked them together.  They've also become my two favorite characters.

Other than that I really only ship canon characters, and I'm using the word ship losely there.  I don't really seek out fanfiction about that many couples.  Most of the fanfiction I read has one, some, or all of the members of Jacob's pack as the main character(s).  Other than Leah/Embry, I'd probably just consider myself a big fan of Jacob/Nessie and Quil/Claire.  I like Jared/Kim, Paul/Rachel, Sam/Emily, and Alice/Jasper as well, but I really only read fanfiction about them if I happen to stumble upon it.  I am reading a pretty awesome Paul/Rachel fanfic at the moment.

If you're a Twilight fan, what are your favorite couples?