Hey, so I’ve got a question about the Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender movie that began streaming on Paramount+ today: Did it casually just confirm that Zuko is attracted to men?
The Avatar Aang movie is directed by Lauren Montgomery, and written by Tim Hedrick and Christopher Yost, from a story by ATLA co-creators Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, as well as Hedrick, and Kenneth Lin. The story follows a now-adult Aang (voiced by Eric Nam), who discovers a new-new Airbender frozen in ice named Tagah (voiced by Dave Bautista).
Tagah is a big, tall, buff, muscle-y, manly, man. When Toph (voiced by Dionne Quan) asks for confirmation whether this newcomer is attractive or not, it’s obvious the answer is meant to be yes. But I was not expecting Fire Lord Zuko (voiced by Steven Yeun) to be the one to confirm it.
“My sense tell me this guy is pretty attractive,” says Toph, Aang’s earthbender master, who never miss a chance to poke fun at the fact that she’s blind.
“What does attractive even mean,” complains Sokka (voiced by Román Zaragoza).
“Just give me a straight confirmation. Is he attractive?”
This is where Zuko jumps in with a quick and confident: “He’s very attractive.”
And, when his friends look at him in shock, Zuko adds, “What? He is. It’s all in the bone structure.”
The scene was featured in the trailer, and, unsurprisingly, it’s the most played moment of the video. If you know anything about the ATLA fandom, you know fans have been shipping Zuko with pretty much every member of the Gaang for the past 15 years. Yes, there is the obvious Zuko and Katara pairing—Zutara, if you will—with their bad boy and good girl dynamic. But there’s also a very vocal portion of fans who would love to see Zuko have a romantic fling with Sokka. It’s called enemies to lovers, people! And now that everyone is adults, maybe we can admit that Zukaang is clearly meant to be. If this “very attractive” comment means what it seems to mean, we have a canon queer Zuko on our hands. The world is our oyster.
Before you accuse of me and the others who rewatched this part of the trailer over (and over) of being obsessed fan girls with our queer goggles on, hear me out. The prequel series, The Legend of Korra, famously ended with it’s two lead female characters—who everyone shipped together—holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes. Creators Konietzko and DiMartino later confirmed that yes, that moment was explicitly romantic, and yes, Korra and Asami are in a relationship. A gay relationship.
“You can celebrate it, embrace it, accept it, get over it, or whatever you feel the need to do, but there is no denying it,” Konietzko wrote on his Tumblr. “That is the official story.”
Therefore, we already know that Konietzko and DiMartino don’t queer bait—they queer deliver. If Zuko says he’s attracted to big, beefy Tagah, I believe him. Yes, Zuko was very much in love with Mai, his gloomy childhood friend, as a teenager. Ever heard of bisexuality? Or maybe he’s just fluid! Who knows! They probably don’t label things like that in the world of Avatar. The point is, fan-fiction writers, it’s time to open those Google Docs. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
