I hate to shoot you down, but Zutara make no sense whatsoever, whether you'relooking at it from the angle of a writer, viewer, whatever. Political marriage? We saw the makers of Avatar's opinion of that in "The Waterbending Master". Jun admitted that she was just teasing - not to mention I don't think that she's ever even seen Aang and Katara together before (and since when does her opinion make or break ships). Katara's feelings towards Aang are anything but motherly. Actually, they are just a bit, but no more so than they are to the rest of the group. When all is said and done, Zutara is just the idea of a direction that the story could have taken but didn't because it would have been bad writing to do so. Oh, and Avatar has made me love canon shippings.
If you want to fight with me, bring it on! This thread used to be one of the most exciting places on this forum with all the arguing - let's bring that spirit back!