Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered in Feb. 2005 on Nickelodeon. The story takes place in an Asian-inspired world where people have the ability to manipulate one of the four basic elements, which is known as bending. However, one person has the ability to control all four and is known as the Avatar. The Avatar is meant to bring harmony across the nations but mysteriously disappears just as war ensues.
The first episode introduces some of the series’ main characters: Aang, a 12-year-old who is revealed to be the Avatar, Katara and Sokka, siblings from the Southern Water Tribe who become Aang’s greatest allies, and Zuko, the banished prince of the Fire Nation whose only mission is to capture the Avatar. With many thoughtfully written characters, the fandom has found the capability to ship characters with each other and reveal how these ships could impact individual characters. One character that has faced lots of shipping is Zuko, and fans have come to identify why ships work or don’t work well.
Why Zuko’s Canon Relationship With Mai May Not Be the Best Choice
The first romantic relationship that viewers see Zuko pursue is in the second season. After Zuko and his uncle Iroh are banished from the Fire Nation, they go into hiding and start a tea shop in the Earth Kingdom capital, Ba Sing Se. Zuko notices one of their customers staring at him and immediately assumes that the customer knows Zuko and Iroh’s real identities. It isn’t until Iroh points out to Zuko that the customer has a crush on him that he lets his guard down. Soon, Zuko is on a date with the customer, Jin, but in the end, they don’t work out. Jin falls for the identity Zuko is pretending to be and not his true self. Once realizing just how complicated the relationship could be for them if they continued to pursue it, Zuko breaks it off.
Zuko’s next canonical relationship is with his childhood friend, Mai. While Mai had feelings for Zuko since she was a kid, she didn’t act on them until Zuko was allowed to return home to the Fire Nation. The two began dating and broke up multiple times due to disagreements and differing opinions. While their relationship was messy from the start, the two were able to learn more about themselves and each other. This results in Zuko leaving to assist Aang in bringing peace to the world and Mai fighting her friend and Zuko’s sister, Azula, in order to protect Zuko. At the end of the animated series, the two get back together, but it is later revealed in the comics that they split up because Zuko was keeping secrets. While the two obviously love each other, they are simply not meant to be.
Zutara and Zukka Are Some of Avatar’s Most Popular Ships
While Zuko and Katara never seem to have romantic feelings for each other, they have still been one of the series’ most popular ships. With over 15,500 works on Archive of Our Own, Zutara — the name of Zuko and Katara’s ship — is the most-written about Avatar: The Last Airbender pairing on AO3. One reason why Zutara has gained so much attention and love from fans is the famous enemies-to-lovers trope. They also fit the “opposites attract” trope in almost every sense, including their bending abilities. Even though the two don’t end up in a romantic relationship, fans have picked up on the potential that one could have. Many fans were disappointed to learn that Aang and Katara ended up getting married and having children together, which was revealed in the spin-off animated series Legend of Korra. Nonetheless, fans had hope after learning that Katara and Zuko were still alive and hoped that the two would eventually get together in their old age.
The second most popular ship in Avatar: The Last Airbender — according to AO3 — is Zuko and Sokka. There are currently over 14,000 fanfiction pieces written about the pair on the popular fan media site. The ship shot up to a fan favorite for many reasons, including combating the Zutara and Kataang shipping war by choosing an uninvolved side. Once the series was added to Netflix in 2020, fans of the show increased and caught on to the potential of Zukka. Viewers have spotted many similarities between the two boys as well as the differences that make them compatible. Zuko and Sokka’s personalities are on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Fire Nation Prince keeps to himself and has a harsh personality at the start of the series. Sokka, on the other hand, is extroverted and has a love for comedy.
Why Sokka Is Zuko’s Perfect Match
Even though Sokka and Zuko have contrasting personalities, there is still a lot that the two have in common. They have both faced the difficulties of trying to live up to the successes and strengths of their respective fathers. As firstborn sons of leaders of their two nations, Sokka and Zuko must try to show that they’re capable of taking their fathers’ place once they inherit the leadership. The two also happen to have younger sisters who are both considered better fighters, especially since Sokka is a non-bender. In the last season, Zuko and Sokka have the chance to truly bond and grow together as they run off on a mission to a high-security Fire Nation prison to rescue Sokka’s dad. Their mission reveals their chemistry and how well they work together as equals.
In the end, fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender don’t know who Zuko ends up with past his breakup with Mai, although throughout much of the series and its spin-offs, Sokka and Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, are together. While Zuko and Sokka never end up together canonically, there is a lot that fans can take from their friendship to see how great a possible romance between them would be. If there ever was a thought for the two to end up together, it’s likely that it wasn’t executed due to the exploration of LGBTQ+ sexuality — which is quite possibly one of the reasons why Legend of Korra was taken off the air.
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