Zutara - from an Aang fangirl's point of view

I've recently come across a lot of Zutara-related stuff around the internet, and lots of it annoys me. I felt like writing a bit about why.

For those who don't know, "Zutara" is a couple nickname for the characters Zuko and Katara, both characters from the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sort of like Brangelina.

In the show, it's Aang and Katara who had the romance. But many people seemed to think that Zuko would be a better match for her, and so Zutara was born. Even though they never showed any feelings of that kind towards each other in the actual show. 

Many fans of the show are divided into fans of Katara and Aang as a couple (Kataang) and fans of Zutara.

I am first of all a fan of Aang. He's so sweet and upbeat, and my number one favourite in the show. And because of that, I want him to have a happy ending and get what he wants. Since this is a kid's show there was no chance whatsoever that Katara would suddenly dump Aang in the finale without reason. But if she would, I'm sure she would have a perfectly good reason, and that everyone would still end up happy.

There seems to be three kinds of Zutarians:

1. The ones who dislike Aang, and make stories or art where Katara dumps him in the most insensitive ways, and then runs off to make "steam babies" with Zuko.
2. The ones who kind of ignore Aang, and just make Zutara-stories without him.
3. The ones who also pair Aang up with someone else, mostly Toph (nicknamed "Taang").

The first two kinds I don't like much, but I can maybe, just a bit, accept number three. Because then they don't hate and/or ignore Aang, and that's my biggest problem with the whole situation. But still, then they have to like "Taang" as well, not use it as an excuse for Zutara to happen.

And that brings me to another point. If we were to start clean, with no established feelings, no cute little moments between Aang and Katara, just a story and cool characters, then I totally see why Zutara exists. If someone presented these characters for me, with their background, age, etc and asked me which one do you think would work together? Then I think I would have gone for Katara and Zuko, Aang and Toph.

So I see why Zutara exists in the fandom. I can't believe that anyone actually would believe that they were actually going to end up together in the show though? The closest they got to romance was a hug. And did they really think that the creators of a children's show would suddenly discard everything they established and make Katara choose Zuko instead? I know she never really seemed happy when Aang kissed her before the finale, but that's not a sign that she really loves Zuko. They were in the middle of a war, and that she was, like she said, confused. Afraid to loose focus during the war, afraid of falling in love, and maybe never see Aang again.

Aang is awesome, all of the characters are! But I cant help that Aang is my favourite, and he loves Katara, and "Zutara" isn't a very nice fandom when it comes to him, and that's why I usually get a bad taste in my mouth when I come over anything like that.