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starlight-bread-blog · 8 months

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Katara is More Patient Then We Give Her Credit for

Katara has been getting a lot of flak for supposedly being hot headed and getting angry at very minor things. Even those who love Katara seem to accept this as the truth. But it's not. In reality, Katara is simply a female character who owns her rage. And I feel like there are two main components that debunk this notion.

Warning: Long, long post.

1. In the instances where Katara is angry it's either justified or makes sense in context.

The Waterbending Scroll

Katara stole, wouldn't you know it, a waterbending scroll. She practices before giving it to Aang, and fails hard. Then Aang who she's supposed to be teaching, gets it right and explains how to do it. Katara has an outburst.

Katara: Will you please shut your air-hole! Believe it or not your infunite wisdom gets a little old sometimes. Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted!

Why is Katara that mad here? Why did she have an outburst? Because she was carrying the burden of being the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe her whole life. Because her waterbending is the reason Kya died. Because she have been independently studying waterbending her whole life. And now her student is having it all easy and is trying to teach her.

And wouldn't you know it, she realized what she did immediatly. Literally, a second later.

Katara: Oh my gosh Aang. I am so sorry. I don't know what came over me. But you know what, it won't happen again. Here [the scroll] is yours. I don't wanna have anything to do with it anymore.

She even apologized to Momo. Katara had an isecurity rooted in trauma and pressure. When Aang try to teach her she hit a breaking point and lashed out. And not one second later she's already apologizing.

The Waterbending Master

Katara and Aang are going to see Pakku, the waterbending master. But when Pakku sees she's a girl, he says he won't teach her. This is why Katara gets angry. She flew across seas just to get rejected due Pakku is being a sexist freak. I think we can all agree that being denied something because of sexism is a good reason to get angry. And when Katara realized Pakku won't teach Aang if she'll keep insisting, she drops it abd tells Aang to drop it too.

However, that doesn't mean she won't study in secret. She deserved to learn waterbending and she knew it. She took the consequences into consideration and decided to not make a fuss.

But of course, they both get caught. Pakku says he will no longer teach Aang, the Avatar who absolutly needs to study and still refuses to teach Katara because he's still sexist. Only then Katara challenges him to a duel. Only when they have nothing to lose. She challenged a sexist prick to a duel, one who shamelessly denied her oppretunity because of her gender.

The Chase

At the start of the episode Katara gently hints Toph to help unpack a camp for the night. This is when she's not tired yet, and shows patience.

Katara: So Toph, usually when setting up camp, we try to divide up the work.

Toph: Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go.

Katara (still calmly): Well, actually, what I'm trying to say is, some of us might fetch water while someone else might set up the fire pit or put up the tent. *smiles* Even Momo does his fair share.

Toph (slightly irritated): Katara, I'm fine. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire. I've already collected my own food. And look. *earth bends a tent* My tent's all set up.

Katara: Well, that's great for you but we still need to finish-

Toph (loudly): I don't understand. What's the problem here??

Katara: Never mind.

Katara then goes to apologize. While also attempting to make sure her and Toph are on good terms by having her acknoledge that she wasn't 100 absolutly in the right.

Katara: Hey Toph, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I think we're all just a little tired and getting on each other's nerves.

Toph: Yeah, you do seem pretty tired.

Katara (slightly irrutated): I meant all of us.

Toph: Well, good night.

Katara: Good night.

By all means, Toph is in the wrong for the sheer refusal for communication. At first Katara calmly explained to her what was needed without even spelling it out. Toph was being passive, so she dropped it. And then she apologizes after doing nothing wrong just so they could be on good terms. Toph was the one being passive agressive. And Katara pretty much let it slide.

This is Katara. The patience she showed right here is her natural, normal self. The rest of the episode is under the context of sleep deprivation and how it's making them all hostile to each other. Including the pacifist Aang. Who's outburst leads Toph to leave. After she does, both Aang and Katara express remorse.

(Side note: I heard people take issue with the line "The stars sure are beautiful tonight, too bad you can't see them, Toph". It's been interpreted as Katara making fun of Toph for being blind, but it's just another instance in the recurring joke of the Gaang forgetting Toph is blind, and listed as such in the official A:TLA Youtube channel).

The Runaway

Update: This section, especially, is majorly outdated.

The episode has a silly opening where Aang is trained by Toph and Katara. Toph misses and accidently hits Katara with a big rock. After Toph doesn't apologize, it leads into a fight which is absolutly not to be taken seriously, that ends with Aang pointing out that it was supposed to be training.

It doesn't work as an exapmle for supposed hot-headedness because the reason this whole thing started because Toph hit Katara with a rock and refused to apologize.

But moving on to the real conflict of these episode, Toph scammed someone and Katara makes it clear that they shouldn't do it again, it'll draw attention to them. Aang promises her it won't happen again but.. um.. you know what happened.

Katara, being responsible, told them to quit because they'd potentially get exposed. Toph didn't reach well, telling her to lighten up. Katara rightfully gets angry, because they really might get exposed and Toph is dismissing her like her concerns are nothing. They have a short argument and Toph storms out.

This is why Katara was angry this episode. Her reasoning for being upset is the Gaang potentially exposing themselves for easy money. That's the conflict.

The Painted Lady

In this episode Katara sees a starving Fire Nation village but Sokka won't allow them to stay due to time limits. So she faked a disease for Appa so they could. Sokka confronts her. At first, she gives up and packs to leave. But since she destroyed the factory that's been polluting the villages water and taking their medicine, the people in charge assumed it was the civilians, and were coming to attack. Sokka and Katara get into a small but intense argument. Important to note, that she doesn't react intensively until Sokka does.

Katara: Well, what was I supposed to do?

Sokka: Leave! Do nothing.

Katara: No! I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me.

Her anger here doesn't highlight hot-headedness, it highlights compassion. Compassion is one of Katara's core traits. She's angry because she's being angrily demanded to see people suffer and stand by. And she will not tolerate it. She will never, ever turn her back on people who need her.

2. In reality, Katara is defined by her patience and compassion.

What I did here was listing off times where Katara did get angry. But Katara is generally a caring, kind person. Rather if it's cheering up Sokka, going shopping with him after he admitted to feeling useless; if it's pulling Aang out of the Avatar state, putting herself at risk when he's out of control; if it's helping deliver a baby of a stranger; or if it's freeing prisoners of the Fire Nation. She demonstrates impressive patience throughout the show.

The Deserter

In this episode Aang was asked to just control fire. Aang gets irrutated himself at this, but Katara assured him that it's probably for a good reaso. But when his master left, he firebent. He was being extremely careless with his new found Fire Bending and burned Katara's hands.

Did she...

A. splashed some water at him.

B. Yelled at him.

C. Ran away crying.

Yeah, she didn't express anger at all. Sokka was who's angry at Aang.

The Desert

The sand benders stole Appa and the Gaang is suck in a desert. Katara demonstrates her patience a lot this episode.

Toph and Aang are arguing about Toph not stopping them.

Aang: You just didn't care! You never liked Appa! You wanted him gone.

Katara: Aang, stop it. You know Toph did all she could. She saved our lives.

Sokka: Who's gonna save our lives now? We'll never make itout of here.

Aang: That's all any of you guys care about, yourselves. You don't care whether Appa is okay or not.

Katara: We're all concerned, but we can't afford to be fighting now.

Aang accused the Gaang of something horrible. Katara told him to stop, but still understood his anger and calmly explained to him that it's important not to fight in a life threatening situation.

Aang then storms out to look for Appa. Katara's response?

Katara: We'd better start walking. We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get that information to Ba Sing Se.

She didn't get angry, she was rational and thought about the greater good.

After Aang comes back, Katara suggest they should try sleeping, gives the Gaang all of her bending water without drinking herself. And then finds a way to get to Ba Sing Se using the locations of star systems.

The Gaang spots a cloud and mistakes it for Appa. But Katara realizes the potential in a cloud. She tells Aang to fly and bend the water from the cloud so they could drink.

Katara (disappoibted): Wow, there's hardly any in here.

Aang (intensively): I'm sorry, okay? It's a desert cloud, I did all I could. What's anyone else doing? *Points at Katara* What are you doing?

After dealing with everyone's tireness, Sokka's high nonsense and Aang's attitude, carrying everyone, thinking of possible solutions to ensure they'd all survive, how did she react to Aang accusing her of not doing enough?

Katara: Trying to keep everyone together. Let's just get moving. We need to head this direction.

And after everything she did for everyone, she pulls Aang out of the Avatar state when he's raging, out of control.

Katara is not so hot headed.

She's sweet, nurturing and caring. She demonstrated incredible patience and perhaps even saved the Gang's life in The Desert with her resilience. Katara's compassion is her defining trait.

But that doesn't mean she's not a human being – she's allowed to be flawed, and in the moments where she does, she's very remorseful. And in the moments where she doesn't, people will still hold her accoutable for simply feeling a justified emotion.

Does it make you oh-so-hot headed to stand up to a sexist denying her opportunity? To make sure your friends don't destroy your chances to win a war? To not tolerate being told to see people in need and do nothing in a middle if an argument she didn't start? Of course it doesn't.

And other characters are allowed to express anger, to be flawed, in ways that are way worse than Katara without being labelled annoying hot headed by the fandom.

Katara is widly known to be irrational, letting her anger get the better of her, but it's simply not true.

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yourhighness6 · 3 months

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I thank my lucky stars daily for the existence of screencaps like these. I've seen people argue that yukka was some sort of plot device the writers used as a way to solidify yue's character, basically to show how desperate she was to rebel in any way she could that she fell in love with the first water tribe peasant to walk by (in my mind peasant is the atla equivalent of everyday joe, but that's not really relevant).

I feel like that's a stupid take for many reasons, but I'm only choosing to get into one because there are just so many. Sokka obviously did have that little love at first sight moment, but it's clear from their first interaction (as seen in the screencaps above) that they were mutually attracted to each other. There's something about their little awkward moment where they can't think of anything to say to each other, like teenagers with crushes do (people say Zuko is a awkward turtle duck and they're absolutely right but Yue and Sokka in this scene were the awkward turtle ducks supreme). There's something about the way they lean towards her, and the way Yue looks at Sokka with such open curiosity, like she's intrigued by this new cute boy and genuinely interested in what he's saying. Even Katara sort of senses the vibes and immediately sets about embarrassing her brother in front of his crush. The whole thing is really right there but some people just refuse to see it /:

#sokka trying to be sauve #yue's eyes widening with interest #the whole thing is right in front of you #atla #avatar last airbender #yue #sokka #princess yue #yuekka #yukka #the waterbending master #atla screencaps #crumbs #yukka crumbs #atla crumbs #otp #top tier romance I'm telling you

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nco05 · 18 days

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KATARA KNEW SHE WOULDN'T WIN? AND SHE STILL FOUGHT A WATERBENDING MASTER THE WAY SHE DID?

KATARA IS SUCH A LEGEND!

Aang knows it! He's cheering her on!

#katara #legend of aang #book 1: water #the waterbending master #ATLA rewatch #lb #aang #i'd tag their shipname #but this is more about her than them

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zukosdualdao · 12 days

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actually having a lot of feelings about sokka warily remarking that katara does mean it when she says she wants to fight in the waterbending master and how actually worried he seems during the fight, and katara's surprised "sokka!" when sokka volunteers for battle right after being told how dangerous it is.

#sobbing they love and want to protect each other. unfortunately circumstances are Preventing that #atla rewatch ‘24 #sokka #katara #sokka & katara #the waterbending master #the siege of the north part one

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oneatlatime · 9 months

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The Waterbending Master

Finally! Only took the whole season to find one.

This one apparently also has commentary. I'll leave it off for now.

After countless episodes without, we finally have another hybrid animal. Behold:

A koala Sea-otter? That makes noises like a Raven. Alright.

Sokka saying "I'm not one to complain" is a) pretty damning evidence of his amount of self-awareness b) self-deprecating sarcasm c) a funny line that I'm reading too deeply into

Why is Appa flying so low anyway?

Subtle signs that these guys are way too used to relying on bending: -no railings -no alternate propulsion source (seriously, not even an oar?) -no emergency supplies in case a trip runs long (I don't even see an emergency sandwich, and come on guys, it's not like waterbending controls the weather)

Random pinball bumper style ice stabbies does seem like a good defense though.

Not so subtle exposition dump from Zhao the asshole. Avatar writers are usually better at integrating catch-up dialogue. Looks like Aang will be arriving just in time to defend the Water tribe from the invasion that, ironically, he summoned. Talk about self-inflicted problems. Do you think if Aang had found a waterbending teacher somewhere else, the Fire Nation would have left the water tribe alone for another hundred years? Aang's been learning on the run; they could have picked up a single waterbender and hightailed it back to some cave in the earth kingdom to learn there. Or the water tribe could have sent a waterbender out to find the gaang as soon as rumours of the avatar reached them. See? This was avoidable.

Always love me some sea-bison.

They have bending doors like Omashu. Actually is this a door or a lock? I think the water level is changing.

Is this a hybrid animal? The yak thing, not the two legger.

Last time you got a hero's welcome, Suki's village burnt down. Foreshadowing?

How often does this lady see sea-bisons? She just passed by one and didn't even bat an eye. Is there a secret sea-bison colony that's spent the last 100 years hiding from the fire nation in the north pole?

Music Night! Need a better lyricist.

What's going on here? Did they roast a giant turtle thing and now they're cooling it to serve by dunking it in water? Did they feel the need for a steam effect for the guy's speech so they heated up a giant thingy and dunked it in water? Is it a weird boat thing? It looks like it has a face. I bet it's a ritual object.

Are these pot stacks the water tribe version of Totem Poles?

Oh nuh uh. Nope. 16 is way too young to marry.

This girl is so into him I can feel it through the screen, the dvd player, and the 15+ years since this aired.

Even the head guy's like "yeah, he's an asshole, What can you do?" Let's put this asshole and Zhao the asshole in a room together. They can out-asshole each other. Should be fun.

Remember back in episode three when I said that Zuko needed to learn how to lie? This is why.

Nevermind, we don't need to put Zhao and Paku in a room together to out-asshole each other. Paku wins. As far as I've seen, bending is not gender specific, either in who gets it or how it's taught/used. What kind of idiot would tell someone born with the ability to wield an incredible weapon that, actually, they aren't allowed to? How did this attitude get instilled in the first place? Why didn't the first guy who ever said this get slashed to death by ice stabbies thrown by the ten nearest female benders? Are these northern water tribe people so unbothered by the war that they can afford to sideline 50% of their forces? More than sideline, render incapable of defending themselves or others? Obviously this tribe is far too privileged if they can afford this attitude. And also far too bored. I guess hiding behind that giant ice wall for 100 years left them so understimulated that they turned on themselves.

Bad attitude? Fucking bad attitude!?! There's only one guy in this episode with a bad attitude and it isn't Katara. Zhao looks downright pleasant compared to this Paku guy.

Question for Paku: why would the Northern Water Tribe's rules apply to a Southern Water Tribe member?

My god these two are so cute. Sokka could propose they disembowel whale carcasses for their activity and the princess would say yes.

So the parrot lizard did survive the fall over the waterfall.

They're little tiny children. Katara, who has spent her whole life wanting to learn to bend to fight, has literally been shoved back into the igloo with a bunch of babies to learn lady-bending (no offence to the babies). How how HOW is she so calm right now? If I were in her situation, I think I'd be so angry I'd be ugly crying. And also plotting how to murder that Paku guy.

WHAT.

Paku the asshole is apparently a proponent of the tell don't show philosophy of teaching. The Tell-while-doing-unspeakable-things-to-my-lunch don't show philosophy.

Unexpected backstory. This lady must have been pretty close to Gran Gran if she recognises a carving she presumably wore for maybe a few months about 50 years ago or more. Also this lady is shockingly dumb if she can't see why Gran Gran left this misogynistic hellhole, but I guess it can be hard to see it while you're in it.

Nitpick time: How does the teacher recognise this? Isn't this just the water tribe symbol? Probably the most common symbol in the whole north pole?

Nosferatu Zuko. Nosferzuko. Zukoratu? Iroh's pause here was so long that I checked in case I had muted by accident. And how does your crew being taken by Zhao the asshole make your crew traitors Zuko? Orders are orders.

So we're adding asassinating royals to our list of reasons Zhao is an asshole. I think he's won the title back from Paku.

Fuck this port I guess.

Zuko's dead. Huh. Bye then. Gotta say I don't get why he's so big in the fandom.

This princess sure does send some mixed messages. At least she didn't ghost him.

"Master Poophead." My God. It's perfect. Why didn't I think of that?

Aang passing on what he learns to Katara. Why didn't I think of that either? My plan was to get Katara to launch unprovoked attacks on Paku's students and study how they defend themselves until she can copy / surpass them. Mostly so I could watch Katara beat the crap out of sexists.

Die mad about it you troglodyte. Disrespect? How nice it must be to have enough of your culture left that it can be disrespected. And you're going to deny the avatar training, thus dooming the whole world to death via fire nation, because you're butthurt? Freakin manbaby.

YES! YES! BEAT HIS ASS! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!!!!!!

"I know. I don't care." + "I'm not doing it for you." = I'm officially in love with Katara. I took a while to warm up to her, I admit the first few episodes were a little rough, but this seals the deal.

This screenshot sparks joy. Last episode Aang bitchslapped a fire nation guy with air. This episode it's Katara's turn with water. The Firelord Uber-Bitchslapped Zuko with fire a few years ago. All I need is an earth bitchslap and my collection will be complete. Avatar: master of all four bitchslaps. Also this wouldn't have worked to goad Paku into fighting if he was half as mature as he thinks he is. Although he gets points for being harder to goad than Zhao in the Deserter.

In an episode where the A plot is Katara, the B plot is Aang, the C plot is Zuko, and the D plot is Sokka's love life, the writers still manage to fulfill the Beat up Sokka quota. Good job guys.

If only she'd aimed a couple of inches to the left. This show already includes a kid getting his face burned off. Surely a Poophead being separated from his nose is ok?

That's twice now she's lost her necklace. If the carving has lasted 50+ years, surely it's earned a metal chain rather than a hair ribbon?

Gran Gran! Bullet dodged! Excellent call!

That's a lot less beat up than I was expecting. And Iroh has never once given the impression that he isn't quietly ride or die for Zuko, so why would Zuko not expect Iroh to help him? Because Zuko isn't terribly perceptive? Because the writers needed a way to deliver yet more exposition?

I did notice that the healing lady specified that Gran gran was in an arranged marriage but Poophead was talking about love. Again, why was Gran Gran leaving a mystery?

Underrated moment of wisdom from Aang here. He gets why the princess is upset and he's twelve! But I'd bet good money that the idiot on the right has no clue what's going on.

Princess ran so far away that it's night time now. This episode is not subtle anywhere, so I figured that the princess being engaged was the cause of this whole blowing hot and cold thing. Despite being 16 and fictional, Sokka handles mixed signals and rejection with 10000% more maturity and kindness than many unfortunately non-fictional grown men I've met. Kudos to Sokka for being honest and respectful.

Even redeemed, Poophead is still an asshole.

Well that's a problem.

Fire Nation ships would be a lot more intimidating if they didn't look like shoes.

Final Thoughts

This episode was a lot of exposition, a lot of set up, and even some catch up. And it was not done as gracefully as this show usually does it. More than once the dialogue between characters felt like two actors lecturing the audience rather than the characters we know.

This episode also had twice the concentration of assholes. A Zhao episode I can deal with. An episode with a one shot asshole where Zhao doesn't appear? I could also deal with. But TWO grade A assholes in ONE episode? No. Too much.

My whole-hearted congratulations to Gran Gran for seeing Poophead for what he was, and refusing to put up with it. Leaving his ass didn't make him get the message. 50+ years alone didn't make him get the message. The granddaughter that ought to have been his being so disgusted by his conduct that she attempts to cut his face off didn't make him get the message. There was no way that this idiot was going to change. So congrats to Gran Gran for making an excellent call, leaving his ass to freeze, and getting two most excellent grandchildren instead.

I also have to applaud Sokka and Katara for not being bitter about the Northern Water Tribe. I can't help but notice the spectacular architecture, complete with embellishments and unnecessary non-structural doodads. Let's do a quick comparison (ignore the ship):

Left has one waterbender. Right has all the waterbenders. We know that Northerners can travel south thanks to Gran Gran. The North couldn't have sent one sneaky waterbender to at least make the south a ship-proof wall? That chief guy has some audacity calling Katara and Sokka their brother and sister or whatever when they've evidently left the south to rot for a century. And I know the Fire Nation, the War, bla bla, but you guys are so bored behind your walls that you're cannibalising your own capabilities based on gender just for fun.

RANT INCOMING

Since I'm on the topic, can we talk about how STOOOPID it is to separate your combatants from your medics? Here's a secret about combat medics: they're both. They learn the basics of combat, and they learn the basics of emergency medicine (And a LOT of other stuff besides). Basic training includes basic first aid for EVERYONE.

Because here's the thing. People who get hurt beating the shit out of other people are usually hurt in an environment where beating the shit out of people occurs. If they are injured enough that they can't get themselves out of the 'beating the shit out of other people' zone, then unless they can treat themselves on the spot or their fellow soldiers can administer first aid or get them out, they die.

Alternatively, if they can't get themselves out of the 'beating the shit out of other people' zone, then medics have to be sent in. A medic who doesn't know how to fight who gets sent into the zone will - guess what? - get the shit beaten out of them. Now you're two men down at present, and who knows how many more you're going to lose over the next few days because you're down a medic. So unless every single waterbending fighter in the Northern water tribe is going to go into combat with a waterbending healer literally attached to them, there will be mountains of unnecessary losses and avoidable injuries.

Now let's look at this from the other angle. What happens if the enemy breaches your defences (because all your defenders are merrily bleeding out from wounds their bending could heal if only they'd learned how) and then makes their way to your combat hospitals? Which are full of soldiers who are too injured to fight and healers who don't know how to defend themselves? Apart from the whole living surrounded by their element thing, waterbenders' greatest advantage in a fight appears (to me) be to be their miraculous healing powers. Katara completely healed her burnt hands to the point where there wasn't even scar tissue and she had no training at all. A skill that can erase burns (the thing firebenders give you) negates the fire nation's greatest weapon - their fire. Any fire nation general who's not an idiot would therefore target waterbending healers, maybe even over waterbending fighters. So any fire nation commander would absolutely put 'capture field hospitals' as one of their top priorities. This is a kids' cartoon, so let's ignore historical precedent as to what happens to nurses caught in field hospitals behind enemy lines and say that the fire nation would defeat the waterbending healers.

Let's paint a quick picture here: in the background, a field full of waterbending fighters sidelined by treatable injury. In the middle ground, an inexorably advancing wall of firebenders. In the foreground, a field hospital full of defenseless waterbending healers. Just peachy isn't it?

How fucking UNSTOPPABLE would a bender able to shrug off a fireball to the face then turn around and take out a firebending platoon be? Get one hundred - no fifty - benders who can both heal and fight, have them advance in two rows: Front row fights, switches with back row when they're injured, gets healed up, rotates back up to front row as a replacement. Functionally unstoppable barring the need to eat and sleep (so long as they bring their own water). The Northern Water Tribe had decades to develop that. Unlike the south, they had the time, the resources, and apparently so little going on that they took up sexism to pass the time. The wasted opportunity here burns. See kids? Sexism hurts the sexists too.

This northern attitude is just dumb. It's illogical. It's stupid. I'd call it a ham-fisted unsubtle after school special of a plotline if it weren't a fictionalised version of something that's literally baked into to many cultures worldwide, past and present.

RANT CONCLUDED

What else can I say about this episode? Aang and Sokka had like three lines each, but they were very in character. Sokka and the princess are cute together. Zuko and Iroh had a good dynamic when they weren't acting in service to exposition. This whole episode really feels like part one of a two parter.

I think something might have been off with the narrative weighting of this episode. There was an honest to god assassination attempt and I forgot.

While the shot of Paku looking put out that the ice disk landed so close to his face was funny, I would have preferred it if Katara had gotten in one hit beyond her bitchslap. Just one. His ego needed the beating which it got via the necklace thing, but I would have liked to see actual beating too.

If I had seen this episode as a child I absolutely would have lost my mind over Katara getting to beat up a sexist. I'd bet good money that this episode did lots of good for the self-esteem of little girls who saw it.

Katara's plot line is like the plot of the Waterbending Scroll episode, but in a positive light. In that episode her selfishness regarding bending got them in trouble; in this one it helped. Seen in that light, the fact that it's the necklace rather than Katara's skill that gets through to Paku is a bit undermining, but if "magical girl has such impressive skills that the sexist dinosaur throws away decades of sexism for the chance to be her teacher" had been the plot instead, I'd probably be complaining about cliches instead.

All in all, a bit clunky, a lot of set up, and too many assholes and frustrating idiocy for it to go on my rewatch list. Feminist beat downs are good for the soul, but I'm not sure they outweigh Poopheads.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the waterbending master #avatar the last airbender

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ididgettomeetyou · 1 year

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#katara #aang #kataang #atla #gifs #the waterbending master

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bestepisode · 2 months

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Vote on more episodes here!

Find the full list of round 2 polls here.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla best episode #atla best episode 2 #the waterbending master #the southern raiders #sokka #zuko

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depressedshipper · 10 months

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What hellish revisionism is this!

Because I remember the episode going like this

Sokka: Are you crazy, Katara? You're not going to win this fight.

Katara: I know! I don't care!

Aang: You don't have to do this for me. I can find another teacher.

Katara: I'M NOT DOING THIS FOR YOU! Someone needs to slap some sense into that guy!

It's funny how Bryan once said that Katara is supposed to be the POV character of the series and the story is being told through her eyes. But apparently everything she ever did in her life has to revolve around Aang. Then again Bryan is also the asshat that said this in TSR-> I love that even though Aang is sort of not in this story very much, to me, he's-his presence is in all of these scenes 'cause you know he's like the little angel on her shoulder, you know, that she's ignoring at this time, and so, I-to me, it's really-it is a story about Aang because it's, like, it's just about, you know, about him trying to have influence over her actions from afar, just by not telling her what she has to do, but just by gently suggesting, you know, what she-what she try to achieve with this journey.

#katara #the waterbending master

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ljf613 · 10 months

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9 and 13, your pick of thing and its fandom

Let's go with ATLA.

9. worst part of canon This week I've been thinking a lot about the episode "The Waterbending Master" (S1:E18) and some of things that have always bothered me about it. My issues are rooted in the scene where Pakku tells Katara that he won't teach her:

First of all, he says it's forbidden for women to learn waterbending, but then he says that women learn healing. The phrasing here is kind of bizarre-- he seems to be saying that healing and waterbending are two completely different things that have nothing to do with each other, which is absurd; healing is one kind of waterbending, and fighting is another. (It bothers me in general whenever characters act like fighting is the only real kind of bending, because we literally see so many different applications of bending in the show beyond fighting, and acting like people who use their bending for building or art or healing or anything other than battle aren't real benders is absurd. Not all benders are soldiers, nor should they be!) Second, I dislike the false dichotomy presented here. Katara claims that she wants to fight, not heal, implying that it's one or the other. Not only does this suggest that she must choose between the two (and that she's chosen fighting over healing), it doesn't match what we see both before and after this arc: throughout the show, Katara uses her waterbending for both healing and fighting, sometimes in the same scene, and aside from this one episode, the narrative never treats this as anomalous. (Jeong Jeong even told her a couple of episodes back that healing was something done by "great waterbenders" and envied her for it, but now that's being retconned and we're told that it's a sex distinction and not even real waterbending?) Finally, I have a general problem with the difference between how modern society tends to treat traditionally feminine roles and skills compared to those that are traditionally masculine: things and behaviors that are generally viewed as masculine (in this case, fighting) are worthy of envy and emulation and everyone should be able and allowed to do regardless of sex, while those that are feminine (in this case, healing) are viewed as inherently degrading and pathetic (not to mention often unnatural and wrong) and only done by sad and unfortunate women who have no other options and are pressured into it. I find this entire mindset to be extremely sexist and, frankly, rather insulting to every woman in history. Imagine if the episode had been about Aang wanting to learn healing and being told only women got to do that, while boys should just stick with fighting. Now that might have been an interesting episode that would actually be perfectly in-character for Aang, as opposed to Katara "saves her friends' lives multiple times using her healing abilities" acting like learning to heal is a waste of time. (Ever notice that while we see several female waterbending fighters throught the franchise, there's not a single instance of a male waterbending healer? Is that because guys are incapable of healing, or are girls the only ones allowed to diversify their skillsets?) And none of this is to say that Katara was wrong for wanting to learn to fight or anything like that-- I just dislike the way the whole situation was framed.

13. worst blorboficiation The easy answer, obviously, is Zuko. I don't think I need to elaborate any more on that-- plenty of people have gone into this in the past, I don't think I have anything new to add there. (Although maybe that's more "woobification" than "blorbofication," if we're getting specific.) The one I find more personally grating is actually Kyoshi. I don't hate her, but I do hate the way people idolize her and act like she was the most amazing and wonderful Avatar ever-- usually while contrasting her with Roku, who gets such undeserved hate for... *checks notes* not wanting to kill his best friend.

Send me an ask that may incite violence.

#avatar the last airbender #thoughts #ask me stuff #choose violence #katara #pakku #the waterbending master #fandom critical #anti kyoshi #the portrayal of kyoshi that i found most compelling was actually in vathara's embers #(not to spoil it for those of you who haven't read it but she's shown as having been a complex character who made some very costly mistakes #some of which led to the chain of events that began the 100 years war AND incited the fire nation's enimity towards the avatar and the ek)#which i know makes me persona non grata in this fandom #but i haven't exactly kept my deep and abiding love for that fic a secret so why start now #fic rec #embers #vathara #thanks for the ask!#all queued up

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juniperhillpatient · 1 year

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The Waterbending Master Re-Watch

This is one of those episodes that's really good but also just about every aspect of it is stressful - the A plot, B plot & C plot each just leave me so upset. For the A plot, we have Katara & Aang attempting to convince misogynist old Pakku to teach Katara water-bending. For the B plot, we have Zhao plotting to assassinate a teenager. And of course, the C plot, Yue's tragically doomed romance with Sokka.

I can't be clear enough about this: I am not a Pakku apologist. Fuck that guy, & not in the fun way. I don't care if he has a moment of nostalgia because Kanna left his crusty ass years ago, he's still a sexist & honestly just an unpleasant jerk. I loved Aang standing up to him & threatening to leave, & I loved Katara telling Aang not to sacrifice his lessons for her. There are a lot of wholesome Katara & Aang moments in this episode. I'm glad to say that this re-watch reminds me how much I actually enjoy their friendship.

Sokka & Yue's interactions are adorkable. I always forget how much of a mess Sokka is when he's trying to flirt. "Would you like to do an activity together?" is just such an endearing but funny thing to say. I need to incorporate this embarrassingly awkward & cute aspect of the Yuekka dynamic more into my future fanfics involving them.

Zhao continues to be disgusting but at least we get Iroh & Zuko sneaking around behind his back out of it? Also, I loved the glimpse of music night among Zuko's crew, & hearing Iroh sing. I gotta say though, they let the audience believe Zuko was dead for far too long. I wish I had never gotten any spoilers the first time I watched this show because I would have been freaking out!

Also, @theowritesfiction pointed out that there's a lot of vagueness surrounding how much of Zhao's intentions Ozai is aware of. I have to say, I think Iroh's line about how Ozai will be upset when he learns who's behind the assassination attempt & Zhao's momentary nervousness shows that Zhao knows Ozai wouldn't like Zhao murdering the prince, even if Ozai isn't Zuko's personal biggest fan. I do think - & this is fully speculative - Ozai probably knew about Zhao's plans to commandeer Zuko's crew. The reason I think this is that Ozai chose to promote Zhao to Admiral, & clearly has little to no faith in Zuko's abilities - he put Zhao in charge of hunting the Avatar as soon as he realized there was a real chance of cap

Yue tearing up as Pakku is talking about arranged marriages is just heartbreaking.

I don't normally become super attached to couples where the whole deal is pretty much "we can't be together" because they tend to rely on that drama rather than real chemistry between the characters (or maybe I just think I hate this trope because I'm not a fan of David Boreanaz's acting abilities) but Sokka & Yue have undeniable chemistry & they're just so cute. So, it hurts knowing what's coming.

The absolute BEST part of this episode for me though was Katara fighting Pakku & specifically the line "you can't knock me down!" Have I mentioned lately how much I fucking love Katara? Anyway. That is all for now.

Also, two more sidenotes about water-bending in this episode: 1. The infrastructure of the North Pole is absolutely stunning, & it's amazing to see the way they use ice-bending in a way that's almost similar to earth-bending. 2. I think this is the first time we see two water-benders fight, & it's definitely an exciting fight scene.

#the waterbending master #atla #atla book 1 #atla re watch

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