'Of 'ships and shoes and sealing wax...
As most of you who read my journal know, I have a bad habit of digging around on FF.net for badfic. It usually entertains me for a while, and occasionally I'll even find gems inamongst the general dross.
Lately I've been looking through the Avatar section and noticing a huge upswing in certain types of fics; namely, rewrites of the finale to edit out Katara and Aang's relationship and insert Katara and Zuko.
That's what fanfic is really for, in a way -- wish fulfillment. There just comes a point where it all becomes a little ridiculous.
To be clear: I'm on neither side of this particular little ship war.
On the Kataang side, people are frothing at the mouth due to the Ember Island Players episode and the non-answer Katara gave Aang there ("I can't believe she couldn't just tell him there! How dare she?!" and "Why did Katara go with Zuko in the Finale?! Geeze, she should've stayed and waited for Aang to help him fight Ozai!!" and, finally, "I was really disappointed that they dropped the ball on that conversation -- it was such a let-down when the series dealt with issues like that so well before, and it sucks." being some of the complaints) as well as some other things that I might have initially agreed with.
The problem with fanfic is that people so often don't take into account certain things about the characters. In this particular case, many of the writers have forgotten (or never knew) what it was like to be fourteen and afraid of admitting that you're in love with someone, much less doing so in a time of war. The characters in Avatar are astonishingly mature kids, but they're kids nonetheless. People forget (or refuse) to think about how things may play out in future, and that rose-tinted ship would be BORING if there weren't conflict or trouble; nothing worth having is easy.
On the Zutara side, rewriting the finale to suit your ship is no bad thing. However, when you're screaming that the creators of the show shouldn't have laughed at your favored 'ship, that they've no idea how to write the series, etc., etc.... there's an issue there.
Too many writers skip over resolving things -- Mai's feelings, Aang's feelings, and other things like that -- in favor of schmoopy Zuko-goes-gaga-over-Katara moments, or they briefly have someone go 'Woe is me, I cannot love Aang for my heart belongs to the Fire Nation Prince...' but two paragraphs later, all is fluffy and happy again.
Uh, no. See above: it's never that easy, and people forget the age thing yet again.
In both cases, on both sides of the ship wars, people forget that most of these characters are barely into their teens (Zuko excepted, and he's still quite obviously growing up). Even in the Avatar world, they're young. In spite of this, so many authors tend to go, "They'll be 2getha 4eva!" and assume that all is fluffy bunnies and sparkles and rainbows from there on out (oh, maybe Azula will crash the party, but that's not Zuko-Katara-Aang-Toph-whoever's fault!!).
Aang's what, twelve or thirteen? Katara's fourteenish? Zuko's sixteen or so? Yeah, I can see the interest there, but I'm getting a little tired of people going, 'But they LOVE EACH OTHER so they HAVE TO GET MARRIED AND HAVE KIDS OMG.'
I state this again: I like reading fanfiction. I like reading fics of practically any 'ship. However, I like the ships to have some explanation, either canonically or through the fic itself: a well-developed plot with good characterization will make it possible for me to read anything.
But please, for the love of whatever god you follow, consider the ramifications of what you're writing.