So I love zutara with all my heart and plan to write fanfic for it for many years to come, but it should not be canon because the entire ATLA fandom—kataang too—has become obsessed with canon as the sole arbiter of validity. And that’s some toxic bullshit, my pals https://twitter.com/foxcanoes/status/1279112186867130371

I say it because making zutara canon won’t make anyone happy. It’s a demand that may have started out as wishful thinking, but by this point has mutated into a totemic demand that the Creator of the sacred text acknowledge your singular vision of truth and reject all others.

It’s a fundamentally incurious and unimaginative stance that discourages nuanced engagement with text in favour of worshipping a single shining golden calf. It’s a demand steeped in resentment and pettiness that has been pervasive for so long that it’s become inescapable.

Zutara is a very old ship and it has endured because people are compelled by it. Then they get trapped in the same cycle of arguments: was kataang bad? Would zutara have been better? BuT wHaT aBoUt ChEmIsTrY?!1(. And so the ship wars drag on and on and on.

Zutara is a ship with so much charge and potential that has captivated fans old and new for over a decade, and the loudest arguments are still about getting bryke’s blessing and being pissed off? Y’all. C’mon.

We can do so much better than this. Avatar is a better show than this. Zuko’s arc and Katara’s growth are better than this. You can’t get the thing you want and so you spend inordinate time and energy trying to chase it instead of moving on? Uncle Iroh would be disappointed.

I’m Jewish, and I think my views are shaped quite a lot by the way we approach biblical interpretation. For us, the Torah (Old Testament) is not so much the Word of Law is it is a jumping off point. We have thousands of words of extra interpretation by rabbis across millennia.

The source text is the least interesting version of the text. What’s far more interesting, and what forms a lot of our practice, is arguing and hypothesizing and defending new interpretations. That’s how we reconcile using electricity with Sabbath rules from 2000 years ago.

We know we will get no further answers from on high, but along with our sacred text, the Creator gave us this nifty set of critical thinking skills. So we strike out on our own, and view the act of interpreting and reshaping the text is a form of loving devotion to that text.

So seeing people yelling over and over again about whether kataang's endgame was deserved, or whether zutara had better chemistry, or which thing is problematic--it's just kind of sad, to be honest. And that's why I say it demonstrates a lack of imagination.

It is a very evangelical understanding of text: that The Word arrives from on high, and that deviation from that Word is to be shunned as sinful and damaging. It's an expectation of deference and obedience; that your own interpretations are invalid unless The Creator approves.

I love ATLA very deeply, but I am kind of alarmed at the fervor over canon, from both the zutara and the kataang factions. What is it that haunts you so deeply about the fact that your ship isn't canon? Why is Bryke's word more important than your own creative sparks?