AFS: MaybeWeCouldKiss
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This page was last updated: May 14th, 2007
This page is linked from: The Aang/Katara Portal
Behind the cuts: Discussion of the Aang/Katara romance in The Cave of Two Lovers.
Did Katara actually want to kiss Aang?
debacul, writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny" in this essay: Then there is The Cave of Two Lovers. In which they potentially kiss (oh Mike and Bryan, you are such teases). Katara seems just as flustered and embarrassed about the idea as Aang, which I guess you could discard as being a teenager who is Awkward About Kissing. However, at the end of the episode, Aang and Katara play the glance-at-each-other-without-seeing-the-other-stare game. Yes, Aang and Katara. She participates. With her own blush and awkward expression. I am quite sure she isn't just hoping Aang didn't think she sucked at kissing. And really, why would she care if she was completely certain they were Just Friends?
And after this point, they've been a little bit busy with getting Aang an earthbend and political intrigue to worry too much about crushes and romance. There was the way Aang's respect in Bitter Work made her get the Sparkley Anime Eyes of Love, or how she shed tears when Aang figured it out in The Serpent's Pass, or just about everything in Crossroads of Destiny. I'm not saying these are inherently romantic moments, I'm just saying that the argument that there was absolutely no follow up on the kiss is a little silly because immediately after that they were thrust into the Omashu situation, and then they found Toph, and the action just exploded. There are moments that I appreciate a hundred times more than anything oozing with romance; moments that show how completely deep and true and beyond the Aang/Katara bond is.
A Zutarian suggests: Aang paused and reflected upon the kiss. Katara didn't hesitate for a moment and ran for the exit. I am not convinced she has romantic feeling back for him at this point. She suggested the kiss to get out of the tunnel.
Rawles replies, writing after "City of Walls and Secrets:" I once wrote meta about The Cave of Two Lovers issue and people's insistence on projecting false ambiguity onto a not particularly ambiguous situation. I'm going to quote it here:
"People get so caught up in fandom and the Ways of Fandom that they fall into the trap of projecting false ambiguity everywhere.
The Cave of Two Lovers is not the story of how Aang and Katara got trapped in a cave and, in The Most Desperate Straits of Her Life, Katara decided that she would BITE THE BULLET and propose kissing Aang as it was THE ONLY LOGICAL WAY to get out of the cave. And maybe perhaps in some small part of her mind she was vaguely curious. You know, in the way that someone is vaguely curious about what some WEIRD UNIDENTIFIABLE THING SITTING IN THE BACK OF THEIR FRIDGE MIGHT TASTE LIKE BUT HEY THEY'RE NOT GOING TO JUST EAT IT 99.9999% OF THE TIME BECAUSE REALLY IT'S JUST MORBID CURIOSITY and how even though she completely got over that curiosity when Aang WAS A JERK, later it was still THE MOST REASONABLE AND OBVIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD-PROVEN WAY of trying to get out of the cave. So she decided to try it and the lights went out HIDING THIS KISS (OR TO HIDE THAT THEY DIDN'T!!!1) BECAUSE IT IS A NARRATIVE INDICATION THAT OMG IT IS NOT RIGHT AND SHE IS REALLY MEANT FOR ANOTHER. Then afterwards Katara RAN, RAN, RAN AWAY because it was awful and then blushed at the love song the hippies were singing because it reminded her of the WOEFUL AWFULNESS OF THE WORST KISS EVAR.
Dudes...seriously. It's not that deep. When you have to sit and explain away really obvious actions with overly-involved and convoluted motivations it's generally a sign that you're trying to find ambiguity where there isn't any and you're trying to justify a POV that is in grave danger of being proven wrong. Most of the time when the answer you're trying to offer contradicts what's actually being shown, you can assume that you're probably not on the right track.
Katara blushes, beats around the bush, and suggests kissing Aang because she's young and nervous. She got the idea from the story and in The Fortuneteller she realized that her BFF who she loves a lot is ACTUALLY A BOY and, also, she wants to. Then she gets sad and she gets insulted by what she takes as rejection. Then later they both get caught up in the moment when they think This Is The End as signified by the explicit statement that their time is running out and the music and the long close-ups and the slow leaning in. Then the lights go off because it's pretty cinematography, and the crystals of LOVE light up ANVILICIOUSLY, and we get a pseudo-sciencey explanation (that half of the children in the demographic neither remembered or noted) because they're not quite ready to completely bash our brains out yet. And Katara blushes at the song about not being able to lose the love because it's in her heart because SHE KNOWS THIS TO BE TRUE AND SHE JUST KISSED AANG.
It's meant to make you squee and shriek and squeal and go OMG WHY DIDN'T WE SEEE?! It's a tease. Like so many other things. It's not a tease about whether it'll ever actually happen, but a tease about when it's going to happen, when they're going to be ready to face it whilst not in a life or death situation, and how much we'll actually see when they do."
I'm not even saying that Katara is currently consciously in love with Aang. I don't think she is, but I confess to being confused about why we're still arguing whether she reciprocates his feelings at all since various parts of season two have very obviously demonstrated that she does. I mean, she's not to the point where she's going to be swooning over Aang, but that's because her relationship with Aang is deeper than that and it's coming from a different place than something like her immediate visceral attraction to Jet. But it's extremely clear that Katara doesn't just think of Aang as a little brother. You don't try to make out with your brother in secret love caves.
Or at least I hope you don't.
A Zutarian writes: Yes we know for sure that Aang likes Katara but there isn't actual proof that she likes him.
Rawles replies, writing after "The Desert:" Except for her wanting to kiss him.
Seriously, guys. When things are so heavily implied do we actually need them to be explicitly stated before we admit that they're authorial intent?
The Zutarian replies: However, I don't think she necessarily wanted to kiss him - it was more of a mix of curiosity and desperation to get out of the cave.
Rawles replies: There's nothing I can say to convince you that Katara suggested kissing Aang in large part because she wanted to kiss him if the episode itself (which contained Katara beating around the bush, then looking hurt when Aang hesistates, then playing it off, and then getting defensive, and eventually getting caught up in a moment and going for it) couldn't convince you of that so...you know.
The Zutarian replies: I do believe that she wanted to kiss him of her own desire, at least a little bit, but I also think that curiosity and the situation they were in played major role in her suggesting, too. I do think that she wanted to out of her own feelings. But I, personally, don't think it was 100% "OMG I WANT TO KISS YOU AND NOW WOULD BE THE MOST OPPORTUNE TIME TO DO IT." There was more than one factor playing into it.
Rawles replies: I was taking issue with the downplaying of her desire to kiss him in comparison to other impetus she may have had. I think that, narratively, the entire point of that scene was Katara Wants To Kiss Aang not Katara Wants To Get Out of the Cave and Is Maybe A Little Curious But Mostly She's Desperate Caveat Caveat Addendum.
The Zutarian replies: I've never assumed that kids are dumb. I think that they're perfectly capable of picking up the same hints that older people pick up. I don't think that they are in any way incapable of interpreting what's going on.
Rawles replies: You say that, and yet you keep insisting that things don't count as canon on Avatar because its demographic requires that things be explicitly stated.
Yes, some shows may assume that children are dumb and need to be hammered over the head with things. What I'm arguing is that Avatar is not one of them. Though I'll often find some things on the show very anvilicious, in some instances a lot of the show is quite understated. And I still think that the majority of the children in the show's demographic have long since picked up on Aang/Katara; so, my point is, if that's your criteria for it being canonical, then it's already been met.
What it comes down to is that I feel like you could show any random eight-year-old The Cave of Two Lovers and their assumption would be, without caveat, that Katara likes Aang. Not, she's starting to, not she's traveling down the road to realization, but just, simply, that she's into him.
The people that need flashy over-the-top explicitly stated I Love Yous are generally ones outside of the demographic who have reason (i.e. shipping something else) to project false ambiguity onto very clear situations.
Bottom Line: Various things on the show, but most especially Aang/Katara are deeply obvious and so heavily implied as to be kind of ridiculous. The actual demographic of the show has probably been assuming Aang/Katara for absurdly long time. The people who are arguing about these things are, generally, not the demographic of the show and are saying there's ambiguity where there really isn't much, if any.
The Zutarian replies: And you know, sometimes things do have to be said straight-up before they considered valid - mostly because of the younger demographic
Rawles repiles: And I must agree with everyone else who's posted before me. It's not the 9-11 year olds who are having trouble seeing Aang/Katara. Don't assume that kids are dumb. This isn't about people not seeing things; it's about projecting false ambiguity onto the text, which is a skill that older people refine. Kids see things pretty clearly and take them at face value.
The Zutarian replies: If you were trapped in a cave with your best friend who happened to be the opposite gender, and fairly attractive, wouldn't you have suggested it?
Rawles replies: No, because if my feelings for my best friend were entirely platonic I would have no logical reason to think that we could activate/affect something that reacts to romantic love.
The Zutarian replies: I love their friendship, and frankly wouldn't want to see it changed with them becoming romantically involved.
Rawles replies: Which would be very valid if not for the fact that Aang has been in love with Katara since like the moment he met her, so, strictly-speaking, their relationship has never been wholly platonic.
Rawles, writing after "The Desert:" I don't think Katara is consciously aware that she's like IN LOVE with Aang. She knows that she loves him as a friend and that he's really important to her, but she's not quite all the way there yet. (In contrast, to Aang being very aware that he's totally Eros-type IN love with Katara.) My statement was mostly combatting the widespread ignoring of the whole thing in the Fortuneteller where she has her Moment of Realization regarding Aang being, you know, a BOY boy and not equivalent to a lemur, which is followed up in The Cave of Two Lovers with the MAYBEWESHOULDKISS OH? YOU'RE NOT JUMPING ALL OVER IT! THIS IS EMBARASSING! *PLAYS IT OFF*.
Rawles, writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny:" I've argued about Aang/Katara in The Cave of Two Lovers so many times at this point that the very thought makes my head hurt, so, I won't. Suffice it to say, I've never seen an argument against Katara obviously having some romantic feelings for Aang as presented in that episode that wasn't a spurious rationalization based on faux ambiguity and I don't think I ever will.
Did they actually kiss?
Jag, writing after "The Cave of Two Lovers:" Unless someone shows me a screenshot of their shadows kissing in the dark, we don't know for sure if they did or not. But the evidence is as follows.
At first, I thought that it was totally ambiguous. But watching it a second time on my DVD player, here's why I think they kissed, off the top of my head:
Oma and Shu//Aang and Katara
Rawles: writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny": Full disclosure: I really, really, really, really hate the entire Zuko and Katara Are Oma and Shu Reincarnated theory. Not because I dislike Zuko/Katara (though I do) but because it was created with such disregard for the clear implications the show was going for in a desperate attempt to salvage some dignity or ostensible validity for the ship in the face of such an Aang/Katara heavy episode.
All of the arguments for the idea range from extremely tenuous to utterly ridiculous. Completely ignoring the fact that Aang/Katara is pretty clearly The Romance of the series and as such it would make zero sense to create a legend intended to romantically connect Katara with someone else, someone with whom she rarely interacts and has no real relationship of any sort with, there's just not a particularly reasonable argument to be made about that legend having anything to do with Zuko/Katara.
It's a clear evokation of Romeo and Juliet's Lovers from Rival Sides trope which is possibly the only argument that could remotely stand, if not for the fact that Zuko and Katara are amongst the prime combatants in the conflict separating them and have specifically faced off against each other on multiple occasions. They are not a particularly good analogue for Romeo and Juliet (and Oma and Shu) as both of those stories are majorly about two people swept up in a conflict more or less against their will, a conflict that they are willing to disregard to be together because they have no ideological investment in it (particularly because in both instances it is explicit or heavily implicit that the conflict itself is petty and as such has no ideals fueling it).
After that, it doesn't stand up thematically in any other way that people try to make it either. Like I've seen talk of how it's carrying on the theme of opposing elements = yin yang = troo lurve except...Oma and Shu were both earthbenders; they created a bending art in concert with each other thus indicating that they were spiritually, at least, very similar people. Their clothes are red and blue = Zuko and Katara is lame on so many levels not least that their clothes change colors throughout and also...red and blue are primary and opposite colors so they're kind of...universally used in art that way. Of course, the people making this argument are usually the same ones who think that anything in the entire universe featuring red and blue is support for Zuko/Katara. (Foreshadowing does not exist outside of the text, kids.)
Then the biggest issue I have with it all is that it's Aang and Katara who are clearly juxtaposed with the two lovers throughout the entire affair. Because the theme the show was working on was not re: Romeo and Juliet, it was about the strength of love and trusting in it. Yet somehow people completely reject the fact that in an episode called The Cave of Two Lovers, Aang and Katara conveniently get trapped alone in the titular cave, fumble around with their romantic feelings in selfsame cave, mimic the actions of the lovers by kissing in the love cave, and then ruminate on those actions to love songs.
Rawles, writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny:" There are a lot of people out in the wilds of the internet who insist that the music from the depiction of Oma and Shu's tale (and during Aang and Katara's kiss in CotL) is the same as the music used in the scene in the crystal catacombs with Zuko and Katara.
I initially doubted it, just becase well I'm a skeptical person and I know that people's desire to believe something can override a lot of things and heavily affect perception. But after I kept seeing it repeated as fact, I finally had to go and listen myself.
And, like, the only vague similarity is that in the instance of Aang and Katara's kiss the music from Oma and Shu's tale is accompanied by swelling tones and in the crystal catacombs when Katara is about to heal Zuko's scar there are also swelling tones.
But it's just generic rising music and it's not even the same sample of generic rising music as it's done on different instruments. I would also bet money that that generic rising music has been used at numerous other dramatic moments in the series. The actual melody from Oma and Shu's tale (which is like all plucky strings and harp that's by itself during the story and then overlays the generic rising music during the kiss in CotL) is not at all present in CoD, but people insist that the use of generic rising music in two different dramatic scenes is an attempt to connect Zuko and Katara to Oma and Shu. Which let me reiterate, the actual Oma and Shu melody is a different thing entirely from the generic rising music.
So basically:
Oma and Shu tale = plucky strings and harp melody
Aang/Katara CotL kiss = generic rising music + plucky strings and harp melody
Zuko/Katara near scar healing = generic rising music orchestral version
Why would they show Sokka and Suki's Kiss and not Aang and Katara's?
Someone asks: Granted, Sokka and Suki are different characters and a different pair than Aang and Katara, but why relish in Sokka and Suki's first kiss, two characters arguably not quite as important as either Aang or Katara, but shroud Aang/Katara in darkness?
Rawles replies, writing after "City of Walls and Secrets:" You answered your own quetion. It's because they're the main characters. It's a tease. And they're probably going to keep on teasing Aang/Katara until the last episode. It doesn't mean it's not happening, it just means that this is television and the creators know how to build anticipation.
This page was last updated: May 14th, 2007
This page is linked from: The Aang/Katara Portal
Behind the cuts: Discussion of the Aang/Katara romance in The Cave of Two Lovers.
Did Katara actually want to kiss Aang?
debacul, writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny" in this essay: Then there is The Cave of Two Lovers. In which they potentially kiss (oh Mike and Bryan, you are such teases). Katara seems just as flustered and embarrassed about the idea as Aang, which I guess you could discard as being a teenager who is Awkward About Kissing. However, at the end of the episode, Aang and Katara play the glance-at-each-other-without-seeing-the-other-stare game. Yes, Aang and Katara. She participates. With her own blush and awkward expression. I am quite sure she isn't just hoping Aang didn't think she sucked at kissing. And really, why would she care if she was completely certain they were Just Friends?
And after this point, they've been a little bit busy with getting Aang an earthbend and political intrigue to worry too much about crushes and romance. There was the way Aang's respect in Bitter Work made her get the Sparkley Anime Eyes of Love, or how she shed tears when Aang figured it out in The Serpent's Pass, or just about everything in Crossroads of Destiny. I'm not saying these are inherently romantic moments, I'm just saying that the argument that there was absolutely no follow up on the kiss is a little silly because immediately after that they were thrust into the Omashu situation, and then they found Toph, and the action just exploded. There are moments that I appreciate a hundred times more than anything oozing with romance; moments that show how completely deep and true and beyond the Aang/Katara bond is.
A Zutarian suggests: Aang paused and reflected upon the kiss. Katara didn't hesitate for a moment and ran for the exit. I am not convinced she has romantic feeling back for him at this point. She suggested the kiss to get out of the tunnel.
Rawles replies, writing after "City of Walls and Secrets:" I once wrote meta about The Cave of Two Lovers issue and people's insistence on projecting false ambiguity onto a not particularly ambiguous situation. I'm going to quote it here:
"People get so caught up in fandom and the Ways of Fandom that they fall into the trap of projecting false ambiguity everywhere.
The Cave of Two Lovers is not the story of how Aang and Katara got trapped in a cave and, in The Most Desperate Straits of Her Life, Katara decided that she would BITE THE BULLET and propose kissing Aang as it was THE ONLY LOGICAL WAY to get out of the cave. And maybe perhaps in some small part of her mind she was vaguely curious. You know, in the way that someone is vaguely curious about what some WEIRD UNIDENTIFIABLE THING SITTING IN THE BACK OF THEIR FRIDGE MIGHT TASTE LIKE BUT HEY THEY'RE NOT GOING TO JUST EAT IT 99.9999% OF THE TIME BECAUSE REALLY IT'S JUST MORBID CURIOSITY and how even though she completely got over that curiosity when Aang WAS A JERK, later it was still THE MOST REASONABLE AND OBVIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD-PROVEN WAY of trying to get out of the cave. So she decided to try it and the lights went out HIDING THIS KISS (OR TO HIDE THAT THEY DIDN'T!!!1) BECAUSE IT IS A NARRATIVE INDICATION THAT OMG IT IS NOT RIGHT AND SHE IS REALLY MEANT FOR ANOTHER. Then afterwards Katara RAN, RAN, RAN AWAY because it was awful and then blushed at the love song the hippies were singing because it reminded her of the WOEFUL AWFULNESS OF THE WORST KISS EVAR.
Dudes...seriously. It's not that deep. When you have to sit and explain away really obvious actions with overly-involved and convoluted motivations it's generally a sign that you're trying to find ambiguity where there isn't any and you're trying to justify a POV that is in grave danger of being proven wrong. Most of the time when the answer you're trying to offer contradicts what's actually being shown, you can assume that you're probably not on the right track.
Katara blushes, beats around the bush, and suggests kissing Aang because she's young and nervous. She got the idea from the story and in The Fortuneteller she realized that her BFF who she loves a lot is ACTUALLY A BOY and, also, she wants to. Then she gets sad and she gets insulted by what she takes as rejection. Then later they both get caught up in the moment when they think This Is The End as signified by the explicit statement that their time is running out and the music and the long close-ups and the slow leaning in. Then the lights go off because it's pretty cinematography, and the crystals of LOVE light up ANVILICIOUSLY, and we get a pseudo-sciencey explanation (that half of the children in the demographic neither remembered or noted) because they're not quite ready to completely bash our brains out yet. And Katara blushes at the song about not being able to lose the love because it's in her heart because SHE KNOWS THIS TO BE TRUE AND SHE JUST KISSED AANG.
It's meant to make you squee and shriek and squeal and go OMG WHY DIDN'T WE SEEE?! It's a tease. Like so many other things. It's not a tease about whether it'll ever actually happen, but a tease about when it's going to happen, when they're going to be ready to face it whilst not in a life or death situation, and how much we'll actually see when they do."
I'm not even saying that Katara is currently consciously in love with Aang. I don't think she is, but I confess to being confused about why we're still arguing whether she reciprocates his feelings at all since various parts of season two have very obviously demonstrated that she does. I mean, she's not to the point where she's going to be swooning over Aang, but that's because her relationship with Aang is deeper than that and it's coming from a different place than something like her immediate visceral attraction to Jet. But it's extremely clear that Katara doesn't just think of Aang as a little brother. You don't try to make out with your brother in secret love caves.
Or at least I hope you don't.
A Zutarian writes: Yes we know for sure that Aang likes Katara but there isn't actual proof that she likes him.
Rawles replies, writing after "The Desert:" Except for her wanting to kiss him.
Seriously, guys. When things are so heavily implied do we actually need them to be explicitly stated before we admit that they're authorial intent?
The Zutarian replies: However, I don't think she necessarily wanted to kiss him - it was more of a mix of curiosity and desperation to get out of the cave.
Rawles replies: There's nothing I can say to convince you that Katara suggested kissing Aang in large part because she wanted to kiss him if the episode itself (which contained Katara beating around the bush, then looking hurt when Aang hesistates, then playing it off, and then getting defensive, and eventually getting caught up in a moment and going for it) couldn't convince you of that so...you know.
The Zutarian replies: I do believe that she wanted to kiss him of her own desire, at least a little bit, but I also think that curiosity and the situation they were in played major role in her suggesting, too. I do think that she wanted to out of her own feelings. But I, personally, don't think it was 100% "OMG I WANT TO KISS YOU AND NOW WOULD BE THE MOST OPPORTUNE TIME TO DO IT." There was more than one factor playing into it.
Rawles replies: I was taking issue with the downplaying of her desire to kiss him in comparison to other impetus she may have had. I think that, narratively, the entire point of that scene was Katara Wants To Kiss Aang not Katara Wants To Get Out of the Cave and Is Maybe A Little Curious But Mostly She's Desperate Caveat Caveat Addendum.
The Zutarian replies: I've never assumed that kids are dumb. I think that they're perfectly capable of picking up the same hints that older people pick up. I don't think that they are in any way incapable of interpreting what's going on.
Rawles replies: You say that, and yet you keep insisting that things don't count as canon on Avatar because its demographic requires that things be explicitly stated.
Yes, some shows may assume that children are dumb and need to be hammered over the head with things. What I'm arguing is that Avatar is not one of them. Though I'll often find some things on the show very anvilicious, in some instances a lot of the show is quite understated. And I still think that the majority of the children in the show's demographic have long since picked up on Aang/Katara; so, my point is, if that's your criteria for it being canonical, then it's already been met.
What it comes down to is that I feel like you could show any random eight-year-old The Cave of Two Lovers and their assumption would be, without caveat, that Katara likes Aang. Not, she's starting to, not she's traveling down the road to realization, but just, simply, that she's into him.
The people that need flashy over-the-top explicitly stated I Love Yous are generally ones outside of the demographic who have reason (i.e. shipping something else) to project false ambiguity onto very clear situations.
Bottom Line: Various things on the show, but most especially Aang/Katara are deeply obvious and so heavily implied as to be kind of ridiculous. The actual demographic of the show has probably been assuming Aang/Katara for absurdly long time. The people who are arguing about these things are, generally, not the demographic of the show and are saying there's ambiguity where there really isn't much, if any.
The Zutarian replies: And you know, sometimes things do have to be said straight-up before they considered valid - mostly because of the younger demographic
Rawles repiles: And I must agree with everyone else who's posted before me. It's not the 9-11 year olds who are having trouble seeing Aang/Katara. Don't assume that kids are dumb. This isn't about people not seeing things; it's about projecting false ambiguity onto the text, which is a skill that older people refine. Kids see things pretty clearly and take them at face value.
The Zutarian replies: If you were trapped in a cave with your best friend who happened to be the opposite gender, and fairly attractive, wouldn't you have suggested it?
Rawles replies: No, because if my feelings for my best friend were entirely platonic I would have no logical reason to think that we could activate/affect something that reacts to romantic love.
The Zutarian replies: I love their friendship, and frankly wouldn't want to see it changed with them becoming romantically involved.
Rawles replies: Which would be very valid if not for the fact that Aang has been in love with Katara since like the moment he met her, so, strictly-speaking, their relationship has never been wholly platonic.
Rawles, writing after "The Desert:" I don't think Katara is consciously aware that she's like IN LOVE with Aang. She knows that she loves him as a friend and that he's really important to her, but she's not quite all the way there yet. (In contrast, to Aang being very aware that he's totally Eros-type IN love with Katara.) My statement was mostly combatting the widespread ignoring of the whole thing in the Fortuneteller where she has her Moment of Realization regarding Aang being, you know, a BOY boy and not equivalent to a lemur, which is followed up in The Cave of Two Lovers with the MAYBEWESHOULDKISS OH? YOU'RE NOT JUMPING ALL OVER IT! THIS IS EMBARASSING! *PLAYS IT OFF*.
Rawles, writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny:" I've argued about Aang/Katara in The Cave of Two Lovers so many times at this point that the very thought makes my head hurt, so, I won't. Suffice it to say, I've never seen an argument against Katara obviously having some romantic feelings for Aang as presented in that episode that wasn't a spurious rationalization based on faux ambiguity and I don't think I ever will.
Did they actually kiss?
Jag, writing after "The Cave of Two Lovers:" Unless someone shows me a screenshot of their shadows kissing in the dark, we don't know for sure if they did or not. But the evidence is as follows.
At first, I thought that it was totally ambiguous. But watching it a second time on my DVD player, here's why I think they kissed, off the top of my head:
- Within the context of the episode, either the magic lights are triggered by the Dark by itself, or they are triggered by a Kiss (most likely a kiss in the dark). Let's suppose someone got lost in the caves. Suppose they didn't get eaten by the wolf bats or badger moles. Suppose their lights went out. Here's what would happen:
- If the magic lights are triggered by Darkness but not a kiss (or love), then the guiding lights would appear as soon as the lights go out. The person escapes from the cave scott free.
- If the magic lights are triggered by Darkness AND a Kiss, than the lights don't appear, and the person doesn't find their way out of the shifting walls of the labyrinth.
- The kissers' eyes WERE CLOSED and they were inches away from the kiss. The lights appeared too slowly and dimly . . . it wouldn't be bright/quick enough to interrupt them from kissing. I repeat, their EYES WERE CLOSED.
- Following up on the previous points, the lights began to appear after the point at which they would have begun the kiss.
- The "ambiguity" of the kiss taking place in the dark can be refuted for a number of reasons. For example, one reason the kiss was unseen is probably becasue the first on-screen kiss is being saved for later in the show. It's because of dramatic reasons especially that the kiss is delayed.
- The magic lights appear specifically from where Aang and Katara are. It is a guide for them just as it was a guide for the two lovers of old.
- Aang's "So . . ." right before Katara rushes off is relaxed and . . . confirmatory about what they had just done. His reaction appears to reflect that they had just kissed.
- The animation draws out a dramatic explanation point with Aang's facial expression as she runs off. His pointed "rearrangement of his face" to that kind of smile reinforces that they had just kissed.
- Aang tells Sokka rather giddily that they trusted in love.
- Again, the animators remind us of what just happened by having Aang throw a bit of a CONTENTED sidelong glance at Katara, and then she looks off to the side and SHE BLUSHES, as the hippies sing about how even when you're lost you can't loose the love because it's in your heart.
- Lastly, the beginning of the episode emphasized Katara and Aang's ever-growing bond/chemistry.
Oma and Shu//Aang and Katara
Rawles: writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny": Full disclosure: I really, really, really, really hate the entire Zuko and Katara Are Oma and Shu Reincarnated theory. Not because I dislike Zuko/Katara (though I do) but because it was created with such disregard for the clear implications the show was going for in a desperate attempt to salvage some dignity or ostensible validity for the ship in the face of such an Aang/Katara heavy episode.
All of the arguments for the idea range from extremely tenuous to utterly ridiculous. Completely ignoring the fact that Aang/Katara is pretty clearly The Romance of the series and as such it would make zero sense to create a legend intended to romantically connect Katara with someone else, someone with whom she rarely interacts and has no real relationship of any sort with, there's just not a particularly reasonable argument to be made about that legend having anything to do with Zuko/Katara.
It's a clear evokation of Romeo and Juliet's Lovers from Rival Sides trope which is possibly the only argument that could remotely stand, if not for the fact that Zuko and Katara are amongst the prime combatants in the conflict separating them and have specifically faced off against each other on multiple occasions. They are not a particularly good analogue for Romeo and Juliet (and Oma and Shu) as both of those stories are majorly about two people swept up in a conflict more or less against their will, a conflict that they are willing to disregard to be together because they have no ideological investment in it (particularly because in both instances it is explicit or heavily implicit that the conflict itself is petty and as such has no ideals fueling it).
After that, it doesn't stand up thematically in any other way that people try to make it either. Like I've seen talk of how it's carrying on the theme of opposing elements = yin yang = troo lurve except...Oma and Shu were both earthbenders; they created a bending art in concert with each other thus indicating that they were spiritually, at least, very similar people. Their clothes are red and blue = Zuko and Katara is lame on so many levels not least that their clothes change colors throughout and also...red and blue are primary and opposite colors so they're kind of...universally used in art that way. Of course, the people making this argument are usually the same ones who think that anything in the entire universe featuring red and blue is support for Zuko/Katara. (Foreshadowing does not exist outside of the text, kids.)
Then the biggest issue I have with it all is that it's Aang and Katara who are clearly juxtaposed with the two lovers throughout the entire affair. Because the theme the show was working on was not re: Romeo and Juliet, it was about the strength of love and trusting in it. Yet somehow people completely reject the fact that in an episode called The Cave of Two Lovers, Aang and Katara conveniently get trapped alone in the titular cave, fumble around with their romantic feelings in selfsame cave, mimic the actions of the lovers by kissing in the love cave, and then ruminate on those actions to love songs.
Rawles, writing after "The Crossroads of Destiny:" There are a lot of people out in the wilds of the internet who insist that the music from the depiction of Oma and Shu's tale (and during Aang and Katara's kiss in CotL) is the same as the music used in the scene in the crystal catacombs with Zuko and Katara.
I initially doubted it, just becase well I'm a skeptical person and I know that people's desire to believe something can override a lot of things and heavily affect perception. But after I kept seeing it repeated as fact, I finally had to go and listen myself.
And, like, the only vague similarity is that in the instance of Aang and Katara's kiss the music from Oma and Shu's tale is accompanied by swelling tones and in the crystal catacombs when Katara is about to heal Zuko's scar there are also swelling tones.
But it's just generic rising music and it's not even the same sample of generic rising music as it's done on different instruments. I would also bet money that that generic rising music has been used at numerous other dramatic moments in the series. The actual melody from Oma and Shu's tale (which is like all plucky strings and harp that's by itself during the story and then overlays the generic rising music during the kiss in CotL) is not at all present in CoD, but people insist that the use of generic rising music in two different dramatic scenes is an attempt to connect Zuko and Katara to Oma and Shu. Which let me reiterate, the actual Oma and Shu melody is a different thing entirely from the generic rising music.
So basically:
Oma and Shu tale = plucky strings and harp melody
Aang/Katara CotL kiss = generic rising music + plucky strings and harp melody
Zuko/Katara near scar healing = generic rising music orchestral version
Why would they show Sokka and Suki's Kiss and not Aang and Katara's?
Someone asks: Granted, Sokka and Suki are different characters and a different pair than Aang and Katara, but why relish in Sokka and Suki's first kiss, two characters arguably not quite as important as either Aang or Katara, but shroud Aang/Katara in darkness?
Rawles replies, writing after "City of Walls and Secrets:" You answered your own quetion. It's because they're the main characters. It's a tease. And they're probably going to keep on teasing Aang/Katara until the last episode. It doesn't mean it's not happening, it just means that this is television and the creators know how to build anticipation.