Interesting! If Zutara is largely based on visual appeal, I think that explains one of my problems with it. Katara does not read 'hot' or 'beautiful' to me. She reads 'pretty' or 'cute.' I think this is probably one reason I keep reading her younger than Zutara shippers seem to, though behavior issues are also a factor there.
If Aang's crush had faded over season 1, I would probably have seen it as a passing thing to get over, but it is being shown as something lasting, and Katara has occasional moments of, "...say, what if...?" sort of thoughts (in "The Fortune Teller" and "The Cave of Two Lovers") so she's not totally non-receptive, so it looks to me like a relationship thread that is actually going somewhere, not dying out. Also, my basic reaction to both Aang and Katara is "They are so cute!" whereas my reaction to Zuko is more "He is so hot" (and I want to hug all of them to pieces, because whatever their physical attractiveness, they are all completely adorable), so Aang and Katara fit together better in my head than Zuko and Katara. Clearly this is not the reaction of vast swathes of fandom!
As I said to ladylisse, I think I may have been conflating Zutara fans and H/Hr fans because of the similarities in their meta argument styles: the reliance on coded symbolism; the insistence that obviously their ship was superior and on a higher plane, which is why it wasn't coarsely obvious like the opposing ship (R/Hr or Kataang); the deep reading into fairly straightforward storylines; and so on.
Yeah, I know Zuko and Draco are nothing alike in their respective canons; I was just making rough comparisons. (And fannon!Draco has a lot more similarities to Zuko than canon!Draco does. Which is also mostly Cassandra Claire's fault, I think... at least at first. *grin*)
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If Aang's crush had faded over season 1, I would probably have seen it as a passing thing to get over, but it is being shown as something lasting, and Katara has occasional moments of, "...say, what if...?" sort of thoughts (in "The Fortune Teller" and "The Cave of Two Lovers") so she's not totally non-receptive, so it looks to me like a relationship thread that is actually going somewhere, not dying out. Also, my basic reaction to both Aang and Katara is "They are so cute!" whereas my reaction to Zuko is more "He is so hot" (and I want to hug all of them to pieces, because whatever their physical attractiveness, they are all completely adorable), so Aang and Katara fit together better in my head than Zuko and Katara. Clearly this is not the reaction of vast swathes of fandom!
As I said to
Yeah, I know Zuko and Draco are nothing alike in their respective canons; I was just making rough comparisons. (And fannon!Draco has a lot more similarities to Zuko than canon!Draco does. Which is also mostly Cassandra Claire's fault, I think... at least at first. *grin*)