I don’t think there is a single Avatard online who hasn’t already been spoiled by “Sozin’s Comet,” but I’m putting a spoiler warning on this anyway. Thou hast been warned.

A Taang Essay by Leila-Dinthalion

Note: This first section is a more personal response to… everything. Skip down a couple of paragraphs to reach my actual essay. There is another note when it starts.

Ok, I hadn’t planned on writing any essays or releasing any overly angsty journals in response or in reaction to Sozin’s Comet. I’m the kind of person who usually prefers to keep my grief, issues, and general feelings private, just sharing them with my close friends on dA or in response to someone else’s ansty journal/artwork. Yet here I am, because plans, like rules, are meant to be mucked up and broken into pieces.

I already posted a visual response of sorts, ‘A Message to Zutarians.’ ₁ That was geared towards and meant to be my reply to the general outbreak of emoness (no offense meant to Mai ₂) among Zutarians after the release of the Sozin’s Comet spoilers. Reading the journals of prominent Zutarians, leaders in the online Avatar community, such as GreenifyMe, gave me much food for thought. Some of it was poisonous.

The night I saw the scans and read the spoilers was one of the worst nights I’ve had in a while. I sat there, on my dad’s laptop in the kitchen (supposedly doing my homework. My expression of extreme grief fit the occasion well) and wondered if the world had ended. All around me, my family ₃ laughed and talked about politics with my visiting cousin. I was in my own little world in front of the screen, a world that was crashing in around me.

Avatar has come to mean a lot to many of us. It has inspired us to become better artists and writers, it has created a fandom like no other, and it has shaped many of us into who we are today in some aspects. It wasn’t until I read the spoilers, viewed the scans, saw the kiss, that I realized just how much it meant to me. I was unable to sleep that night for several hours. When I did finally get to sleep, I had nightmares and woke up several times during the night. All of them involved Avatar characters, and one of them involved my dad’s cell phone voice mail box. *shudder*

I’m going off on tangents now, so I’ll stop the personal aspect of this deviation and start on the essay that I promised I’d write.

Note: Here starts the actual essay that you wanted to read in the first place. :P

There are certain rivalries among the Avatar ships that are greater than others. The Kataang-Zutara rivalry, for instance, generally has more butting of heads than the Maiko-Zutara rivalry. Zutara’s two main rivals are Maiko and Kataang, Kataang getting preference. Kataang’s two main rivals are Zutara and Taang, Zutara getting the ‘biggest opponent’ title. Taang’s two main rivals are Kataang and Tokka, and Tokka is generally Taang’s rival. ₄

I am a Taang shipper first and foremost. Pure and simple. I have been in debates, posted fanart and fanfiction, and typed, ‘Taang’ in the search box every day since I joined the online fandom. I understand the rivalries between ships, mine in particular. Tokka shippers generally consider Taang to be their biggest rival. Taang shippers generally consider Tokka to be their biggest rival. Tokka is a bigger ship, but not by much. Taang is stuck between Kataang and Tokka, both bigger ships. We’ve had it rough. ₅

As a Taang shipper, there are certain things that are generally true. Most Taang shippers are also Zutara shippers. ₆ Most Taang shippers think that Toph is theShit. ₇ And most Taang shippers look for our Taang moments like they’re each a holy grail.

Taang shippers have worked hard to get to where we are. We don’t have the ‘obvious’ quality of either of our biggest rivals, Kataang and Tokka. In fact, at this time in canon, both Toph and Aang have one-sided crushes on other people. ₈

There are many ‘Taang Shippers’ who just ship Taang “on the side” and only like it because it “gets Aang out of Zuko’s way.” It saddens me to think that there are those out there who claim/ed to ship Taang and, when Sozin’s Comet came out, grieved only for Zutara… I am not one of them. When I saw the scan, the Kataang kiss, the writing straight out of a bad, bad fanfic, The first thoughts that entered my head were not for Zutara, but for Taang. Because Taang has always come first for me. Always has. Always will.

We Taangers who take Taang seriously have had to struggle. We, like Zutarians, have had to search for our proof, our evidence, and we found it. Taang has Toph’s bond with Aang’s glider staff. We have “Zutara + Sukka = Taang” theories. We have some of the best (some of the best goddamn it) fanfiction on the market. We have art, and we have passionate artists and writers who will continue to create Taang long after the show has ended. We have affectionate nicknames and innocence. Toph and Aang are actually the same age, unlike every other mainstream pairing. We have Momo on our side (‘cause Momo is totally a Taang shipper.) Something else has also defined a significant portion of Taang theorism: Kummi₉, Koh, and ‘The Swamp.’

If you haven’t heard/read a dedicated Taanger go on a Kummi/Taang theory rant… consider yourself both deprived and lucky. (If you want to hear one, just ask RiaKitsuneYoukai₁₀ or myself. We’d be happy to oblige you.) We (Taangers) have wrung out the Kummi-Taang parallelisms for all they are worth. We have combed over ‘The Swamp’ episode a hundred hundred times. We have examined every known aspect of Koh and Kuruk’s escapades. We have squeeed over the last part of ‘The Avatar and the Firelord.’ In here, we found our canon.

Zutarians have combed through every possible moment of the show for their canon and so have we. Throughout the storm of Kataang and Tokka moments that have besieged us during season 3, we Taangers have stood strong and persevered.

Then, quite recently, came the ultimate blow, and it wasn’t from Tokkians or Kataangers.

This is an excerpt from marianlibrarian’s Sozin’s Comet summary on LJ: “Kuruk tells Aang to "Shape his own destiny", and not to let Katara's face get ripped off by a spirit, 'cause, you know, that's no fun.”

Kummi, Avatar Kuruk, and Koh have always been the property of Taang. Never have I seen a single Kataanger acknowledge their existence as anything except filler or a minimal story role. Never has any ship but Taang seen what we Taangers saw.

Never were there any parallelisms between Kataang and Kummi. Never. Kataang already had its canon. Why did it have to go and steal ours?

We have researched and toiled over our little corner of canon. Kummi. Avatar Kuruk. Ummi. Koh. The Swamp. The Avatar and the Firelord.

The Swamp:
“In the swamp we see visions of people we’ve lost, people we loved…”

   Sokka saw Yue, his first real love. Katara saw her mother, who was slain by the Fire Nation when she was young.

“ …folks we think are gone. But the swamp tells us they’re not. We’re still connected to’em. Time is an illusion and so is death.”

   Death cannot stop love. Neither can time. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the show.

“But what about my vision?  It was someone I had never met.”

   Aang’s vision was of Toph. He had yet to meet her at the time. There was much speculation about who she was when the episode first aired.

“ You’re the Avatar. You tell me.”

   Well, if Aang can’t figure this out on his own, the Fire Nation deserves to kill them all…

“…Time is an illusion… so, it’s…  someone I will meet”

   Well said, Aang, but you forgot the other part of what Hue told you. … see visions of people we’ve lost, people we loved…

   Time is an illusion, so Aang’s vision was of someone he will meet, will love, and will lose…

   Toph Bei Fong.

This was a fairly tame blow by blow of the Taangist analysis of ‘The Swamp.’ This is our canon.

“They can't take that away from us. They can't take away what should be the truth. What we KNOW to be the truth. ~RiaKitsuneYoukai FTQ

--

Canon moments came and will come easy to Kataangers. Its always been easy for them. They can just go and grab one of their cheek-peck screenshots or the DoBS kiss in the blink of an eye. Tokkians can go and hold up Toph’s (blaringly obvious) crush on Sokka, and bring up a number of their own canon moments. Taang has always been stuck between two ships that had their canon moments come easy to them. They never had to struggle.₁₁

But guess what. We’ve always had to struggle and fight and that's made us strong. It's made us who we are.₁₂ We are Taangers. We are persevering and stubborn to the last. We are understanding and daring to a man. We are Taangers. Even if its never canon, guess what? We will stand by our ship nevertheless. We may not have the numbers that the Zutarians have, but let me tell you something. We have the same spirit and passion for our ship as they do for theirs. Take it from someone who ships both.

We are Ardent
We are Steadfast
We are Pertinacious
We are Taang.

~Leila-Dinthalion

Footnotes: _{because some things needed some clarification that I didn’t want to clutter the actual text.}
1 - link to deviation in artist’s comments
2 - because I like Mai, even though I’m a Zutarian. So there. JetMai FTW
3 - not the Avatarded half of my family, for those who know that my Mom’s side all watch Avatar too. My parents are divorced, yada yada…
4 - Toko is not included here not because I don’t like it (I do, really) but because it isn’t as popular and the circle works better this way. :P
5 - Though I must admit, not as rough as Maiko in some respects.
6 – Disclaimer: I said MOST I know that some Taangers ship Maiko and the like. I’m making general statements based on my experience. So STFU before you go off on me about it. Kay?
7 – ‘cause she is, damn it.
8 – At this time in canon. For me, this means The Boiling Rock part 2. Yes, I’ve seen Sozin’s comet. THAT’S WHAT THIS IS ABOUT!
9 – Kummi – the ship for Avatar Kuruk and Ummi. Go watch ‘Escape from the Spirit World’ for more info.
10 – RiaKitsuneYoukai – A wonderful artist and author, a dedicated Taanger and friend, and a great Taang theorizer
11 – Ok, they have. Kataang has had to deal with the NYCC trailer and the generally Zutarian population and Tokka had to deal with overwhelmingly canon Sukka. They just didn’t have to struggle in the same ways or as hard.
12 – That’s an adapted Zuko quote BTW… Siege of the North, part 2