#i think i love katara even more with this rewatch

[hecksupremechips]

It’s so funny cuz before people started jumping on the 2020 atla bandwagon like not a single soul was out here thinking of zuko x sokka it was always that zutara shit and then all of a sudden people liked the gay ass zuko shit and me, who never considered this romance ever, was just like. Yeah okay cool :)

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zukka #i never liked zutara even as a kid it was too straight for me #like im that guy who thinks aang and katara are JUST PERFECT AS THEY ARE #i did ship toph and sokka a lot though #i still think thats a good ship but well uhm #im a suki stan and a zuko stan #but my verdict on zukka is that its pretty cool #most definitely not at all the intention of the show but when you see it its like hell yeah! #zuko SHOULD have a goofy boyfriend who makes funny plans and draws rainbows #and rewatching the show with this in mind zukos arc ends up accidentally looking like a coming out arc akdjsks #like that whole episode where he goes on a date with that earth kingdom girl hes like I CANT KISS YOU #and just the whole thing where he repressed his true self and was constantly acting different to appease his father #like ‘you have to act more straight for your father to love you again’ #when he does choose his father he spends every minute miserable cuz of who he left behind and how much he hates himself #then he lives his funny gay life and is happy yay!!! #i will not participate in a ‘is zuko gay or bi’ debate because the answer is simply both

[prying-pandora666]

I don’t know how to say this tactfully, but I’ll do my best.

If other fans online have convinced you to see the gentle, optimistic, empathetic, fun loving, whimsical, forgiving, wise beyond his years genocide survivor, as a sexist, racist, xenophobic, abusive, pro-colonization, sexual assault perpetrator who doesn’t care about anyone else and doesn’t understand trauma…

You have been LIED TO.

Please just think for a moment!

ATLA was banned in China from the beginning for a reason. Because they didn’t want anyone empathizing with a character based on Tibetan monks. Why? Because they are an actual oppressed and persecuted minority IRL. Their religious leader lives in exile. Their second most important spiritual figure is the youngest political prisoner ever taken (and to this day no one knows if he’s alive or dead!). China has actual prison and labor camps. Tibetan people get sent there for “re-education”.

Can you please think about what these “fans” are saying when they stomp all over this allegory in TLA and try to frame Aang as the oppressor?

Do you really think it’s appropriate or these people who call Aang all these horrible (and inaccurate) things are being in anyway fair when they call Aang “white coded”???

Even without the real world context, Aang is explicitly the only survivor of a genocide. The last of his people. He has lost more than anyone else in the entire franchise. There’s a reason he clings so hard to Appa.

Do you think it’s fair to compare a 12 year old misreading signals and trying to kiss a girl who already consensually kissed him before, and immediately backing off and giving her space when she says no, to rape?

Tweens and teens miscommunicating and trying to comfort each other with kisses, only to realize that’s not what their friend needed and immediately backing off is the same as having your body violently violated against your will? The same as having your “no” ignored?

How do you think this makes survivors feel? To see people use their experiences as a shield and cudgel for ship discourse? It certainly upsets me as someone who experienced intimate partner violence, let me tell you! And I know I’m not the only one.

And how is it in anyway feminist or pro-Katara to ignore her own agency and deep love she shows for Aang? Yes, that includes her own crush on him! It IS reciprocated!

Lastly, you don’t need to demonize Aang to ship whatever you want to ship. Please understand that the majority of these takes are bad faith and born out of bitterness and insecurity over a friggin FANON SHIP.

And none of it is necessary! You can ship whatever you want! You don’t need permission or excuses. You can just ship them! You can make your case for why you like another pairing better without misrepresenting what happened in the show and what these characters are like, let alone what they represent.

There’s already plenty to work with in the show as it is! Otherwise why bother?

I’m imploring fans taken in by persuasive and manipulative metas to please just think about it. Get off social media and rewatch the show for yourself thoughtfully.

It doesn’t need to be like this.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #Aang #pro aang #anti Aang hate #Kataang

[magnetic-rose]

man as i'm rewatching all of a:tla i really want to make a post about what are (imo at least) common misconceptions about the show and characters.

like a very common one that i see parroted way too often is "katara is too mature/motherly and babies aang," with the implication that her romantic love for him makes no sense.

but i'm more than halfway done with s1 and i think the fandom forgets that katara is a 14 year old girl. she's not a young woman, she's a child. and often times she's mischievous and funny and childish. she's usually right there WITH aang participating in his shenanigans. she even creates her own shenanigans. the show spells it out for the audience in episode one where katara and aang are penguin sliding and she says "i haven't done this since i was a kid" and aang replies "but you are a kid." one of the reasons she was so mad at sokka and gran gran for kicking aang out of the village was because "he brought laughter back."

and that's why they work and that's why she falls for him. he brings levity back to her life. he allows her to be a goofy, silly kid. they often support each other's little games. she cheers on him when he's riding the giant koi fish (until she gets distracted). they play in the river. she wears the necklace he makes her. he wears the goofy hat she makes. he goes along with her fortune-telling obsession.

and if anything, sokka is usually the voice of reason between them, trying to reel aang and katara in. and yet sokka gets the fandom reputation as the chaotic fun guy and katara gets the reputation as the "mom" who's telling people off. she's aang's biggest partner in crime and yet fandom treats her like the exasperated mom friend.

#katara #aang #atla #avatar #it also bothers me that people will talk about katara and treat her as way older than she actually is #and those same people tend to baby the hell out of the male characters #she is only 2 years older than aang she is a kid #kataang #not the point of the post but might as well tag it

[old-people-like-avatar]

Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender S1 - Overall Thoughts [SPOILERS]

I am a longtime fan of Avatar the Last Airbender. I did not watch it in its original 2005 run, but I discovered it in around 2010 after my good friend R.S. recommended it to me. It's been my #1 favorite TV show ever since and I have rewatched it more times than I can count. I was cautiously optimistic about NATLA.

Now, having watched the whole first season of NATLA, and looking at the season as a whole, I think the best word to describe it is uneven. I can't say that I loved it, and I can't say that I hated it. But there were things I really liked about it and things that really did not work for me. Overall, I enjoyed watching it -- if only to dissect what did and did not work about the adaptation -- and would want to watch more.

WHAT WORKED

Everything to do with Zuko and Iroh. I found myself going back through just to rewatch all of the Zuko and Iroh-related scenes. I thought Dallas Liu really nailed Zuko -- from tantrums about his journal being stolen to incredible action sequences to the boyish vulnerability of worrying about the laces on his gauntlets. He took an iconic character and made him his own. NATLA added some incredible scenes and lines to my favorite duo: Lu Ten's funeral (coupled with orchestral version of "Leaves from the Vine"); Zuko's first war council; Iroh choosing to go with Zuko on the boat; the 41st Division; Iroh putting a blanket on Zuko. And I liked that NATLA emphasized that Iroh needed Zuko in the wake of Lu Ten's death as much as Zuko needed Iroh after his mother left.

Daniel Dae Kim's interpretation of Ozai. Ozai in ATLA is kind of one-dimensional. Daniel Dae Kim's Ozai adds a deeper layer to him in that he genuinely seems to think he's doing legitimate parenting -- even going so far as to visit Zuko after burning his face and remarking, glibly, that he'll recover ("but he'll never heal," says Iroh). It adds an even more monstrous angle to his cruelty because Kim's Ozai seems to think he's doing it for his children's own good. This post perfectly encapsulates my feelings about why I thought the agni kai between Ozai and Zuko was an excellent addition to NATLA.

Zuko/Aang. These two bonding over goat hair brushes was the scene I never knew I needed. The way Aang managed to wrest a little smile out of Zuko in that scene before Zuko blew up at him for criticizing the Fire Lord? And the way that tied into the "Compassion is a sign of weakness" scene from the agni kai? Great character work.

WHAT DID NOT WORK

Dialogue. I already observed at length my dissatisfaction with the clunky, exposition-dumping dialogue in my episode-by-episode writeups. It certainly wasn't as bad as the Movie-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but . . . there was no art or subtlety to it, and no trust in the audience. A disappointment.

The GAang did not feel like family. The lack of breathing room in the 8-episode season meant that all of the "filler" episodes that fleshed out the relationships between Aang, Katara, and Sokka were sacrificed. I am not saying NATLA needed to recapture each of the filler episodes. But they needed to build the foundational bonds between the main trio with showing not telling and they really didn't. They separated them for big chunks of 2 episodes. And, really, they just felt like traveling companions. That took all of the emotional heft out of, well, everything related to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. I mean, frankly, the kid actors did a better job establishing the "family" dynamic just by being themselves in their press interviews than the show did with the characters.

Aang did not run away from responsibility. I am not one of those people that's just mad that the show wasn't exactly like the cartoon. No. What I mean is, even putting aside the cartoon, even if you just look at NATLA itself: their own themes were undercut by never showing Aang actually running away from responsibility. Each avatar seemed to be berating Aang for doing something he was never actually shown to be doing.

Katara. I really don't think this one is on the actress. Katara felt like a fundamentally different character from ATLA's Katara. It's not to say an adaption is not allowed to have their own interpretation of a character, but... I just did not understand NATLA Katara. There was no passion, no rage, no overbearing nurturing. She was... I don't know what she was. Traumatized, yes, but nothing grew out of that trauma? Meek, until the plot demanded that she suddenly become a waterbending master without any guidance other than a waterbending scroll? The "younger sister"? More than any of the main characters, I'm not sure what NATLA was trying to say about Katara at all. And, as a result, I'm afraid the word to describe it might be uninteresting. And given that she is the heart and soul of Team Avatar, this one was really tough.

Despite the fact that a lot of NATLA did not work for me, I still enjoyed it because the things that did work for me, well, really worked. So. I'm here for all of the Zuko/Iroh scenes!

#avatar the last airbender #atla #a:tla #avatar: the last airbender #netflix atla #natla #netflix avatar #live action avatar

[juniperhillpatient]

I have such mixed feelings about The Puppetmaster & I have similar mixed feelings about Jet (the episode) though I didn’t talk about that this rewatch because I was too busy being excited to see Jet (the character).

I do love that ATLA’s continued theme is that everyone is complex, even villains & that people can do good things for bad reasons & bad things for good reasons & nothing is black & white. And I’m not totally opposed to the narrative criticism of violence toward civilians in a war particularly because at the end of the day ATLA is a children’s show & it is going to have some simple messages like to be kind - something I think a lot of adult fans forget in our analysis.

However I’m bothered I guess by the way Hama & Jet’s stories…. End? We don’t need to talk about my hatred for Lake Laogai & the way Jet’s death is handled (or not handled) in the aftermath right this second. I have about 8 million posts about that. I want to highlight the way Hama’s story begins & ends.

It really bothers me that Hama’s backstory is fucking BRUTAL. I mean she was the LAST Southern Water Bender. Take that in. Do you ever think of all the water bending moves & forms Katara will never learn or understand the history of fully because that art & knowledge was lost? It was stolen & ripped away along with all those lives. And Hama was tortured in prison for years. And yet. And yet. The story is framed so that what we remember is that blood bending is spooky & evil.

I would have loved if the show just once more showed a situation where bloodbending was necessary & Katara used it to show that this form was important to learn for the story. I would have loved if Hama didn’t have to go back to Fire Nation prison & that’s framed as a good thing.

There are slight modifications to Hama & Jet’s stories that I think would help with the rather insidious message that ends up coming across that victims of colonial violence better be careful so as not to fight back the Wrong Way & be discarded / executed / put away (as they deserve).

#atla rewatch 2024 #Hama #the puppetmaster

[allnewalldifferentwildspider]

So my brother and I are still doing our rewatch of Avatar: the Last Airbender and we thought of something.

In the beginning of the show, Sokka is super sexist. AND Sokka loves his dad. Like, he adores and looks up to his father. BUT he rarely mentions his mom and admits in The Runaway he he doesn't even remember her face. And that's because Sokka is, what, two years older than Katara. So shouldn't he remember her more?

My point is how was Sokka raised by his dad to be this sexist? Did he just see his mom as the lady who cooked his food, did his laundry and fuck his dad?

We've seen Katara speak fondly of both her parents, but Sokka doesn't seem to bring up his mom a lot. Only twice as I can recall. And even then one of them was to say how he replaced her in his mind with Katara.

I'll shit on Aang everyday of the week, but I think I hate Sokka now too.

#anti kataang #zutara #anti bryke #anti sokka

[wilcze-kudly]

I really want to see your post about how Katara is forcefully matured by the fandom, please!

Ok, while I wasn't ready to make that post in earnest, and frankly never might be, here's some of my cursory thoughts on the topic. I'd gladly talk about it in detail more but also ✨️fear✨️

So, let's get the obvious out of the way. Katara is a 14 year old. A child, barely a teen. In fact, the entirety of the gaang is made up of children.

Now, I haven't been fully active in the atla fandom in quite some time, mostly lurking on the peripheries, because the fandom is a shitshow. One of the reasons being the fact that most fans cannot, for the life of them handle the Gaang's inherent childishness.

This isn't just a Katara problem. Other than her, Aang suffers the most for the egregious crime of being a 12 year old survivor of a genocide. Suki is, of course, mainly ignored. The interpretations of Toph can vary wildly, from her being horrifically matured to being dissmissed as a chaotic, rude child. Zuko and Sokka's immature moments are looked at more permissively, being an angsty boi™️ and a goofy goober respectively.

I do find it odd that Aang doesn't get the "boys will be boys" pass, but ok, we'll blame it on him being... bald? a nice boy? not concerned with his own masculinity?

As for Katara, her maturity is treated like... a given. She's the mom of the group, the proverbial love interest, the feminist icon, the badass fighter, the trailblazer filled with feminine rage. The trophy wife to Aang, the (Lore Olympus style) Persephone to Zuko's Hades.

And true, she is, or at least can be, a lot of these things.

However she is, first and foremost, a child. This fact is presented to us on a silver platter in the first episode, when her and Aang are penguin sledding.

Katara : I haven't done this since I was a kid!

Aang: You still are a kid!

Katara is a child forced to mature. Her circumstances forced her to try to fill her mother's place and to fight for those who couldn't do so themselves. The fandom brands her as a mom friend. Sees her purely as an icon of empowerment. Or worse, degrades her character to being a love interest.

(im talking about both sides of the kataang/zutara debate. I have my biases, but I'm sure there are kataangers who treat her like this as well. I simply have encountered very few of them.)

Her story, while yes, has many themes of female empowerment is in huge part, a tragedy. The tragedy of a young girl forced to grow up much too soon.

Sadly, this is rarely spoken about. It's not spoken about directly and therefore a lot of the fandom doesn't see this. (Or simply doesn't want to see it)

This is not to say that Katara's more mature aspects should be dismissed or buried. She displays a lot of maturity for her age, to the point of being able to go toe to toe both intellectually and physically with the (admittedly usually incompetent) adults of the show. Additionally, she evolves as a character through the durtation of the show.

But a huge chunk of her maturity being forced and therefore unhealthy is a key aspect of her character.

I think what upsets me the most is that while the critiquing the idea of Katara being treated as the mom of the group in fanon is becoming more and more common, the treatment of her as something akin to a YA protagonist is on the rise.

Both these interpretations are so insulting to the character of Katara, what is wrong with you people?

I'm currently rewatching atla with a focus on Katara as a character (while also trying to give zutara a chance I am doing my best guys) and her childishness is an integral part of her. It's sad to see her treated as an adult by the fandom. And honestly unsettling, especially with how much of like a child she acts.

I wanna finish my rewatch before I give my full ramble on the topic. I also wanna look more into the many different opinions people in the atla fandom have on Katara's treatment by the show. Though even trying to skim the surfce was like injecting lemon juice directly into my tear ducts. Also I really, really don't wanna get sent death threats again.

I want to give the topic of Katara my full attention. However I don't think I'll ever make this post, actually. The atla fandom is a rabid horrid pack of creatures and I'm not sure if I wanna engage with all that.The post would probably bash a lot of things considered key arguments for Zutara, since, looking at Zutara through a child's doesn't exactly scream 'romance' and do I really want that on my blog?

Katara's role as a child isn't valued as much as her role as a woman and I just don't want to deal with people calling me mean names for talking about a little girl being traumatised.

I'd be glad to have a discussion but I made this blog mainly to have fun and enjoy a piece of media I like. I met some truly amazing people whom I can have really great discussions with, even if we don't agree. I don't want to jeopardise that by being a pretentious dick on a soapbox.

Call this and the last few posts I made on Katara me testing the waters.

#am i still choosing violence and gonna regret this later #probably #pro katara #<this hashtag is ridiculous btw. we are forcefully climbing the mountain of moral highground huh #katara #atla #avatar: the last airbender #the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #avatar #zuko #toph #aang #sokka #suki #pro aang

[oneatlatime]

Journey to Ba Sing Se, Part 1: The Serpent's Pass

Alternate title: Gimme Appa Back, Take Two.

Bit of a mouthful for a title. I will definitely be watching this apparent two parter as two single episodes. There's commentary too, but that'll wait for a rewatch.

The previously on segment seems to point to Suki making an appearance. I didn't like her in her original episode, so this bodes ill.

That was incredibly ominous title card music.

Explain this to someone who's never seen the show. Also, air mattress made of ice is a very efficient way to get hypothermia.

Sokka saying "no more distractions' actually summoned a distraction. He should look into harnessing that power.

This brings up a point I've been thinking about. So the Earth Kingdom are smart enough to house refugee transportation underground, presumably because they've figured out that fire can't dig. So why didn't the entire population of the Earth Kingdom just become mole people at the first sign of fire nation attack?

Get yourself Iroh's brand of chill. It's dearly bought in his case, but he has such a good way of looking at life. Also, half of Zuko's face is like an inch higher than the other half, and that haircut is not doing him any favours.

Oh god it's fuckboy. I'd take a million Sukis over fuckboy. Nice to see that the majority of his posse seems to have come to their senses and deserted him though.

CABBAGE GUY!!! HI CABBAGE GUY!!! I MISSED YOU!!!

She's got a point about destruction of the ecosystem, but unless there was woodworm in that cart, that platypus bear is guilty of needless destruction of cabbage guy's possessions.

I loved this. The double punch of getting stymied by bureaucracy and undermined by cosplayers. There are some wacky ideas in this episode.

Aang! You may have lost Appa but you still have your glider! You don't need a passport or a ticket! Just fly to Ba Sing Se and make puppy dog eyes at the Earth King to make him send a boat to collect your friends!

You know that part in Harry Potter where Ron and Harry miss the train and decide the only logical course of action is to steal a flying car rather than, I don't know, wait for a responsible adult? I have a feeling this show is going to do the same type of thing with the whole Serpent's Pass. And I have to say, it's a brilliantly accurate way to do a plot that involves pre-teens, because they will often reach for the most out-there, illogical course of action no matter their intelligence. Curse those still-developing neural pathways. It also makes perfect sense in a kids' show, where the audience mostly wouldn't be caught dead turning down an adventure in favour of asking a responsible party (or a bureaucracy) for help.

"It is your pleasure" Get wrecked bitch!

I love seeing Toph weaponise that which previously kept her caged. I love to see Toph winning at life. Actually, I love to see Toph.

Get yourself some friends who'll commit to the bit no questions asked like these guys.

Get yourself a man who says your name the way Sokka says SUKI!!!:D Get yourself a girl who's so into you, she'll flirt with you in front of your entire found family.

Momo knows what's up. He's a good judge of character.

It's rare for me to advocate for criminal behaviour on this show, but after that bureaucracy lady denied them any sort of solution for the refugees who got their tickets stolen, I was kind of hoping that Katara would just say 'fuck it' and steal one of those ferries. Or even smuggle people on to them. They've got two waterbenders; they could make ice boats to take them out to the ferry, or even across the whole lake presumably. Plot dictates they go face this serpent thing, because this appears to be a monster of the week episode, but boy did that ferry lady need smacking.

Sokka's acting funky.

Is corniness one of the side effects of pregnancy?

No one in their right minds thinks that a pass called "the SERPENT'S Pass" in a universe like this one is named for its aesthetic qualities. Nice try at misdirection, but there will be a Sneky Boy in that water.

Aang's kind of right about the whole 'hope is a distraction' thing. Hope can too easily go from fuel to crutch.

It didn't occur to anyone to hide from the Fire Nation ship until it passed?

Toph's just saving everyone's bacon today huh?

Am I sensing some post-Yue trauma?

I would love to know the context behind Zuko knowing this very niche skill.

Jet has this fascinating ability to do objectively good deeds in such a sleezy way that you end up siding with the greedy oppressors. Weird.

This makes so much sense. Aang zipped into the Avatar State so hard and fast in the desert that he probably scared himself, so now he's keeping a lid on things so hard that he's scaring everyone else with his newfound apathy. He's 12, and this episode he feels 12. This is probably the first time he's met emotions this big; of course he doesn't quite know what to do with them.

You know, Katara doesn't get paid enough to put up with this.

Suki. Honey. I'm pretty sure there's a girl code about not flirting with a guy in front of his ex.

Has Suki been filled in on the whole moon thing? Or is she just really confused right now?

You know, Smellerbee is just as unusual a name for a girl.

Jet talks the talk, but I don't believe he'll be able to walk the walk, despite second chances being one of the big themes of this show. Something about him still feels off.

Hope you guys can swim!

Katara to the rescue again. I'm liking this new level-headed action-oriented Katara that appeared in The Desert, and I'm glad she wasn't just a one-episode character.

Momo here fulfilling one of my childhood dreams. There was an aquarium room at my local zoo that had a tunnel you could walk through. Seven year old me would have sold my soul to be able to glorp through the glass and swim with the fishes like this.

Once again, Toph saves the day. She's doing a lot of heavy lifting this episode.

Big Sneky Boy has the colour palette of an exercise video from the 80s aerobics phase. Kind of detracts from the terror when he's wearing a leotard.

Number one sign of irresponsible pet ownership: sacrificing your lemur to Cthulhu.

Aang just bitchslapped Big Sneky Boy.

Why didn't they go with a big ice bridge in the first place?

Yeah that's a problem. Could she make rock skate blades and attach them to her feet maybe? Would that help her see?

Guys. Just. Send someone out there for her. The ice doesn't have handrails. Come on.

Suki can swim in like half a tonne of armour. I bet they have swimming with armour on drills on Kyoshi Island.

"You can go ahead and let me drown now." That is EXACTLY my sense of humour.

Unlike goldfish, Big Sneky Boys can be flushed down the toilet.

"Now it's nothing but smooth sailing to Ba Sing Se." *Something immediately goes wrong* Has Sokka thought about harnessing his ability to speak things into existence?

Tragically, it makes perfect sense that Katara knows exactly how to deliver real human things.

"You know, as soon as I saw your scar I knew exactly who you were." Jet's little speech here got the biggest laugh out of me yet. I had to pause so I wouldn't miss dialogue. He's so deliciously wrong.

This episode's Beat Up Sokka quota is fulfilled by a baby that has yet to be born.

"I want our daughter's name to be unique" TAKE COVER FOLKS! UNNECESSARY VOWELS INCOMING!

Didn't you guys just nearly get killled by a pass that told you to abandon Hope? Are you sure about that name?

Ok it isn't pregnancy that makes you corny. It's being a character in this episode. While I'm glad to see the back of Stoic Aang, this is getting to be a bit on the cheesy side.

Hell yeah Katara deserves that cry. And that hug.

I'm watching this at my mom's house and I need to report that when Sokka said "You came along, to protect me?" my mom audibly went "awww!"

On a more serious note, this is exactly what Sokka needs after the Yue situation. A badass girlfriend who not only can and does take care of herself, but who also can and does take care of Sokka. Boy needs some pampering.

That is one hell of a wall.

That is one hell of a Big Sneky Boy.

"Appa's gonna have to wait" hit like a tonne of bricks. Another step in the journey to turn Aang from carefree monk to repsonsible Avatar. Appa having to wait is a genius story beat, but I want Appa NOW.

Final Thoughts

I had to check out my window for flying pigs before I started typing this section, because Zuko was consistently the most reasonable character in the B plot, perhaps in the whole episode. Apparently the 'make Zuko decent' project is finally seeing results. Have we turned over a new leaf? Dare I hope? It helps that he was juxtaposed with one of the single most batshit crazy characters from season one, but still.

I also need to issue a formal apology to Suki and all of her fans. I didn't like her in The Warriors of Kyoshi, and while I'm still not overly fond of that episode, I love what they've done with her character here. A good standalone character with her own strengths, goals, and responsibilities, and a good match for Sokka. I'd go so far as to say she's a better match for Sokka than Yue was, for all that both ladies have a startling amount in common: a position of responsibility, devotion to those who regard them as a leader, good taste in water tribe ass, etc.

I'm also going to hypothesise that Sokka is, in universe, the hottest member of the Gang. He's now had four girls expressing their interest: Suki, then Yue, then Azula's pokey pink friend whose name currently escapes me, and now Toph too! And she can't even see him, so his hotness is more than skin deep.

This episode was another stealth character episode in the style of The Blue Spirit. You think it's an action episode but it's actually character work with some fights for spice. It's got: -payoff for Katara's new-found levelheadedness -the other side of the coin on Aang's desert freakout -Toph doing just ALL the heavy lifting in the absence of Appa (seriously, teach her to fly and you won't need Appa as anything but a friendly couch) -Toph also getting an incredibly logical weakness that she learns she can rely on her friends to surmount -Sokka getting some Yue resolution from a frankly ironic source -Zuko getting what I'm sure is going to turn into a dark mirror

Speaking of fuckboy, there was nothing in this episode that hinted that Jet's turn to good was anything but genuine, but something about him still really makes my teeth itch. So I'm calling it now: based not on any evidence, but entirely on my own feelings, Jet's turn to good isn't going to stick.

There was some corny stuff in this episode, but it's a kids' show. It gets way more allowance for corny than an adult show does. I'll let it slide, so long as it doesn't become a habit.

This was part one of a two part episode, but it certainly didn't feel that way. There was the Big Metal Sneky Boy plot hook at the very end, but other than that it was a self-contained story.

I had predicted last episode that the rest of season two would be spent getting to Ba Sing Se, and they did it in one episode. So I'd like to announce my retirement from predicting the future because I am not good at it. I have no idea where we're going beyond next episode. I guess I'll have fun finding out!

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #the serpent's pass

[aangspocket]

1st thought: NATLA vs ATLA's pacing, plot-line, characterization...

Hello everyone, For my first post, I’d like to start with NATLA & ATLA storytelling format differences which plays a huge part for each counterpart’s story direction. Also, I’m not a native english speaker so apologies in advance for grammatical errors!

I grew up watching the show since I was young and every year I do a re-watch, I’m now working in the entertainment industry and had experiences in script writing for comics. My first impression of the live action show was just okay because I binged it till 4 a.m(never again), after another rewatch I fell in love with the show and came to appreciate it much more. It’s true that the only way to truly enjoy it is to judge the show on its own merit but I also agree it's impossible not to compare with the OG show, being an amazing animated show ever made. The LA show isn’t perfect, but it was very fun and just everything I could ever asked for. I’m so happy I got to watch ATLA again with a fresh mind! I can accept most of the changes they made and even prefer the live action’s version, unfortunately the script and directions for many scenes could be a LOT better. I'm glad that the casts were outstanding and very likeable (in and outside the show), especially for my top 2 favourite characters from the OG show, Aang and Katara.

Gordon Cormier was able to embody such a complex character as Aang, having to act as the main character (in a huge high budget show), a fun-loving demigod with incredible responsibilities, while being the only survivor of a genocide, is not an easy feat especially for a child actor, little dude did his own stunts! He even acted the mocap(motion capture) expressions for his digital double, mind you.. He was 12 years old! 

Kiawentiio is an excellent indigenous actress, Katara characterization in NATLA is different from the OG show, instead of starting off as the sassy-strong willed Katara that we were familiar of, NATLA Katara started kinda timid+wooden, sulky, shy but hopeful, and later on as the story progresses, we can see her becoming more brave, and confident, and even more better.. Her bending ability progression is shown gradually alongside her confidence! To put it simply, NATLA Katara is given an arc to grow. And I found myself rooting for her even more (because I know what she will be in upcoming seasons).  

Unfortunately, NATLA Aang & Katara didn’t get enough praise & love that they deserved, this is due to the changes on their characterization that felt unfamiliar to majority of audiences which are the OG show watchers.

Let’s talk about the main reason why the main GAang (and a lot of other characters, actually) character development plotline ( in season 1) changed in this adaptation; the changing of narrative format, adapting cartoon show to a live action drama.

Many would argue that NATLA has similar total running time with ATLA(the OG animated show) “then why can’t they do the pacing like the OG show?” I think it’s impossible to compare the two (plotline wise) as both have different episodes format and mediums. NATLA has 8 episodes with 1 hour~45 minutes long running time for each episode, whereas ATLA book 1 has 2 episodes with 20 minutes running time for each episode. In ATLA the audiences are given time to breathe for each episode due to short running time, and even shown Katara’s monologue in the beginning of all episodes for a fresh start, therefore episodic format works well for ATLA. In NATLA the show is 45mins~1 hour long with no breaks and no intro monologue (except for episode 1) so the episode runs full stop. And because it's an 1 hour show, the storyline should have a clear purpose & tension to make the audiences emotionally invest with the story. The episode narrative format follows a Three-arc structure(inciting incident->midpoint->climax followed by aftermath) each episode is always high tension, has a main theme + lesson that ties multiple plotlines all together cohesively and continuity with the next episodes, which is why it's hard to show the GAang taking a lot of detours in every episodes as it doesn't help much with the tone and narrative direction of the story. With these two formats in mind, many things could fall flat if they had adapted ATLA’s plotlines 1:1 to NATLA. The biggest aspect is : characterization. Let’s be real, it's live action show.. we're seeing actual children, actual humans emoting, actual 12 years old getting attacked by fire blasts.. It would feel jarring to see Aang riding Elephant koi minutes after he found out his whole family was brutally killed, It would make sense to see him feeling guilty and not letting Katara (and sokka) to fight alongside him in ep 7 after he accidentally brought them to spirit world and almost got them killed in ep 5(but I’m glad Aang comes to terms with it!), also if sokka’s (blatant) sexism is solved within 1 episode (in kiyoshi island which is only the 2nd episode) it wouldn’t feel as rewarding because it's solved too early (also the sexisms wouldn’t land well in live action..could feel too forced or.. cringe).

When people complained that the characters personalities changed, I think many people mistaken it for the tone of the show. NATLA did very well on capturing the horror of a genocide and 100 years of war, the situation feels more dangerous, fire can actually burn you to crisp and not only knocking you back like the OG show portrayed (I understand it’s a show for kids). If the tone of the story changed, of course the many aspects would change as well. It’s kinda sad because the heart of ATLA is these three kids doing side quests with jokes, goofing around while being the hero in the midst of 100 years of war... which unfortunately for the most parts, those moments are taken out in NATLA(glad it's mentioned in the background!). But again, like what i wrote in previous paragraph, due to running time and episode format, this plotline has to change.

Many people feel dissatisfied about the characterization for the GAang, and felt the Fire Nation squad’s development are better written, while I agree that the show felt more favourable towards the FN characters but this is due to the fact that The Fire Nation squad characterization and development are more or less the same as the OG show, they feel more familiar to us and even Azula & Ozai are more fleshed out in NATLA, Whereas our main 3 characters personalities changed quite a lot, cartoon gags won't work well in live action adaptations, the trio mostly shown doing side quests that felt like main quests (less goofing around) and are given their own arcs that’s slightly different than their OG show counterparts. So naturally as an OG show audience(mind you, many of us have watched the show 20x+ probably) watching NATLA’s GAang would feel a bit jarring, like they don’t look familiar, they felt…wrong. But I disagree. Do note that our main 3 character developments are more subtle than the Fire Nation squad, which is why I think they're easily overlooked by the majority of audiences(hence the endless wrong takes people have online). I’d say, the Fire Nation squad(especially Zuko) development is more ‘telling’ than the main GAang in both ATLA and NATLA, it’s more easy to ‘see’ an antagonist turning into a hero whereas the main GAang roles are the same throughout 3 seasons, their developments happened ‘internally’ (psychologically). I wholeheartedly agree that book 1 episodic format is more favourable towards OG GAang dynamics, therefore I can see why the NATLA writing team changed their character development direction. Tl;dr despite its changes, I love the main 3 character arcs in NATLA as we can see their character development clearly;

Aang actually seems very.. very.. guilty and more responsible for being the Avatar although he lacks confidence due to his grief. I love how his ‘running away’ from his duties is basically him asking past avatars to take over his bodies to fight on his behalf, like he keeps saying ‘I’m the avatar, I have to do this’ but when he actually has to face the reality he just stutters and asks for backup from past avatars and even giving away his body to the ocean spirit. And I really like that he feels very guilty of the death of his family to the point that he cannot defend himself and he just accepts everyone's blame for running away (although it’s not true). I also don't see the problem with Aang not running away but instead taking a short walk(or fly) with Appa.. the weight of guilt is still the same, if anything.. it's more depressing because he didn't intend to run away.. he was just trying to mentally prepare himself to take on the role, also Aang grew up in a loving peaceful and supportive environment.. with a mentor like Gyatso, I don't think Aang would take such a daring decision to run away. There are so many details that I really like about his 'new approach' of characterization throughout the season. I'll elaborate more separately in another post (same goes for Katara and Sokka).

Katara is tenacious and hopeful but she’s carrying a huge guilt of her mother’s death which blocks her bending skill from developing and later on able to overcome it. Honestly, seeing her new character arc feels more rewarding! also her bending ability development feels more natural than the OG show, and it’s very nice to see that she’s also very creative at it! imitating other bender movements, that’s a sign of a master. And although many people dislike the idea of her becoming a master despite not having a proper education, I love the fact that she’s able to achieve it by her own effort, and I think the writers intended to do this so Aang can solely practise water bending with Katara, Katara probably will play a huge part in shaping Aang as the Avatar (I’m internally screaming, I will elaborate more in future posts)

Sokka is no longer ‘sexist’, but his ‘sexism’ translates in different form, just not verbally as the OG show. He's a little cocky(and judgemental) in the beginning because he’s carrying this huge responsibilities (that he wasn’t ready to take) he’s trying to look strong (no time to grief unlike Katara, he has to step up as the big brother) and finally learns that sometimes just being present with someone who needs him, physically (not just fighting like how SWT tribe leaders defines leadership value, at least the way he sees it in past memory scene during ep 5) is also as valuable (I’m happy that his main character development isn’t from him being sexist).

Going forward, from the trio last scene in ep 8, I believe we will see the trio that we know of, joyful but wise Avatar Aang, brave and strong but very caring Katara, supportive-charismatic leader Sokka.

Kataang has always been my favourite pair from the OG series. I'm a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, I find this relationship to be very honest and grounding. There's no better lover than your own best friend, your own person. the pacing that the OG series had, helped a lot in building Kataang’s relationship growth(also the whole team), It flows naturally and gradually, the friends-to-lovers trope is explored really well in book 1, which is possible because book 1 episodic format. In NATLA, I am glad to see that Aang didn't fall in love with Katara right after he wakes up, Katara didn't even pull Aang down during avatar state in Southern Air Temple(I’m glad it was Gyatso, makes soo much sense honestly), and many many scenes from the OG show that got removed (Aang showing off his skill and making Katara jealous in Kiyoshi island for instance) nonetheless I was really really happy to see hints here and there and it finally pays off when Katara pull him out from his avatar state in NWT (I will elaborate more in another post) I’m so EXCITED to see slow burn KatAang, I have predictions of what their relationships development could look like in upcoming seasons, i’m hopeful that the writers can elevate their relationship dynamics better than the OG show, and since we’re getting teenager Aang & Katara, I’m very very excited to see more mature approach of their relationship growth.

Closing thoughts, ATLA was amazing but you see.. nothing is perfect in this world, there's always room for improvements, book 1 felt like the creators weren’t sure whether the audiences would like to see more and they were trying to play it safe because they knew how heavy the show would be later on but at the same time it was a NickToons show, fortunately this is NATLA’s advantage over ATLA, since the show runners are aware of the whole storyline, able to raise the rating to PG-13(iirc) + with the episode count and running time, they were able to push back and pull in components from different seasons, for instance they pull in Ozai & Azula (because there might be not enough time to flesh out both of them in later seasons & to enhance the tension because they pull out the comet plotline due to irl actors aging) and push back the trio's characterization by giving them starting arcs to grow as our heroes.

There are so many things that I appreciated about NATLA, it’s so sad to see the a lot of people refusing to accept the changes and rejects the potential. Sure the scripts could be a LOT better, but if you see the nuances and details that they added to strengthen the plot-line you’d be surprised how well thought out the show is.

End of thread, thanks for reading this long ass thread! I’m open to any discussions, suggestions and opinions! See you all in my next post!

P.S i appreciate the follows, reblogs and love! also i cant seem to post a reply, hopefully this issue will be solved soon

#aangspocket yapping #natla positivity #natla appreciation #gordon cormier #aang #avatar aang #kiawentiio #katara #ian ousley #sokka #atla #netflix avatar #avatar netflix #avatar the last airbender #kataang #pro kataang #pro natla

[onyour-right]

I'm gonna have to rewatch this episode a few times cos 'um, excuse me what the actual fuck????

Cate, Catey, Catherine. We're on a break right now. Like, I just can't with her right. I was with her freeing the kids from the woods & telling the security guy to eat his hand, and her point about Marie (and supes) being a product was true; but the whole 'supremacist' speech and then whatever the fuck she was gonna do to Jordan?? Yeaaaa, I'm feeling some kinda way towards her and it's not good, lol.

Although it could be argued that the real fault lies with the adults who were imprisoning, torturing and running experiments on college students, so...

Also the fact that Cate and Sam were the ones who started the whole massacre and yet they're somehow the new guardians of Godolkin ??? Ty-pi-cal. And the fact that the poc were blamed and imprisoned when they were the ones tryna stop the rampage??? One simply has to laugh because otherwise...

Andre's scenes with his father got me. I'm very interested in where they'll take his storyline; the fact that the more he uses his powers the more he's damaging/killing himself. I wish they would have shown more scenes of him struggling after using his powers though, which would explain why he wasn't as useful as others this season.

Emma and Sam. Sam had a bit too much bass in his throat when he was talking to Emma which I didn't like at all. He knows damn well she's been looking out for him when she didnt have to at all. It's giving ill fated lovers - not that one of them necessarily has to die just that I don't think they'll end up together in the long run.

Marie and Jordan. I'm a ride or die for these two; their scenes together were few but impactful. Jordan not stopping Cate/Sam because wifey shook her head?? Love to see it. Marie giving people heart-attacks and blasting off Cate's arm to protect Jordan??? Fucking delightful. Jordan sitting on Marie's hospital bed and waiting for her to wake up? They're married your honour!!! Also can we talk about Jordan dillydallying while walking over to Marie??? It reminded me so much of Rickon in GoT running in a straight line (but at least he fucking ran 🙄) like Jordan????? At least jog a little no?????? Although the way they looked at each other in that scene was fucking cute though. ALSO, Marie did some Katara level blood-bending y'all, I can't wait for her to grow even more into her powers...

I'm not a 'The Boys' watcher so I don't know who that guy at the end was. Is he a good guy, a bad guy??? Either way he feels like someone very important.

Homelander laser beaming Marie and calling her an animal? He needs to die already, he needs to be tortured nice and slow and then die.

#g's thoughts #gen v #marie moreau #jordan li #marie x jordan #limoreau #andre anderson #emma meyer #cate dunlap #sam riordan #i cant believe we're at the end already :( #what am i gonna do with my fridays now????

[dreamchasernina]

What was the moment u started liking kataang and why

Thank you for the question!

I’ve shipped them ever since I can remember honestly, ever since I was 16 and decided to watch the show from beginning to end. There was a phase when I was like 12 that I kinda shipped Zutara but that was before the show even ended and I think it was mostly based on the first season. You could say I started shipping Kataang when I saw their last kiss at the end of the series, I found it so sweet and such an amazing closure to the show. The show starts with Katara and Aang and it ends with Katara and Aang, I always found it beautiful and that moment always brings tears to my eyes. So that was when I was 16.

So fast forward to me 28, I went through a really hard time in my life and I did what I always do to make myself feel better, I watched ATLA again. So when I finished it I was thinking - hey let’s see some cute Kataang fan art on tumblr. So I went into the Kataang tag and I was surprised to see so much hate for 2 of my favorite characters of the show. Rants after rants about how Kataang is toxic and forced and I was shocked…did we watch the same show?

Well you know what I did after that? I decided to rewatch the show yet again and this time to really focus on Kataang to see maybe it wasn’t as natural as thought it was. And you know what I found? That I shipped them even harder than I ever did before!

This time I kinda noticed the little things I didn’t before. Like the way Katara talked to Aang in the avatar state episode, how she practically told him she loved him. And then how she calmed him down in the desert episode (I’m also a sucker for the trope “the man loses his shit and she’s the only one who can calm him down”).

Then I guess on this rewatch what solidified it for me was her reaction to Aang getting shot. I watched that show so many times I lost count, but somehow this time watching it as 28 year old I felt Katara’s heartbreak so deeply, like the expression on her face said it all, how deeply she feels for Aang. And then in the Awekening, like my second favorite Kataang episode of all times, is when I was all like….that girl is so obviously in love with that boy, what is everyone else on? I guess they see what they want to see?

Like, it’s so obvious they’re each other’s person! They’re the ultimate friends to lovers and they just warm my heart so much. And so I finished the show and found myself starved for more Kataang content so I read the comics again, and I was being FED!

So that’s how I went from loving them as a couple to completely obsessed and I will defend them until the day I die!!

Mother/son relationship my ass, watch the damn show again and with your eyes open this time please! And Katara wouldn’t appreciate you adultifying her, she’s fucking 14! Sorry I just saw another anti kataang post and I’m fuming.

#avatar: the last airbender #atla #avatar the last airbender #kataang #aang #avatar #Katara #avatar aang #pro Kataang

[femme-malewife]

I was rewatching the Southern Raiders so I can re-evaluate how I can write Zuko and Katara’s dynamic and honestly, I forgot how angry this episode makes me. I forgot how angry I get when I remember how people genuinely wished harm upon Katara as a character because of her rightful frustration.

Hers and Sokka’s mother was killed, and it’s only Katara who wants closure. Because Sokka, many episodes ago (”The Runaway”), stated that whenever he thinks about his mother, he can’t remember her face, he can only think of Katara’s. This means that he was able to get over her death, because he had someone who was there who took on all of their mother’s responsibilities.

Katara, meanwhile, had no one. She, an 8 year old girl, took on the cooking, cleaning, sewing, acting as a mother to her older brother, and always looked out for everyone in the gaang by the age of 14. And when does she ever get a “thank you” or anything? Hell, in the episode “The Desert”, she’s the only one who focuses on getting everyone out. Aang is sulking (and she’s still supportive of him), Toph can’t “see” properly and is down, and Sokka is drunk off of cactus juice.

Yet Katara was treated like shit in the episode. She not once got onto Aang for taking his frustration out on anyone, yet he screamed at her “What are you doing?!” when he yelled that he was doing his best.

Also, Water Tribes have major gender roles, and it shows us explicitly that Sokka is closer to their dad than Katara is (not to say Katara doesn’t love him of course, but Katara even lets Sokka go see Hakoda while she stayed behind in Ba Sing Se) and Katara was obviously closer with her mother.

So, pray tell, why no one except Zuko supported Katara? Why did Aang compare losing an animal and losing his culture to Katara losing her mother? None of these are the same. For one, Appa was still alive, and two, a mother is something irreplaceable. Katara losing her mother is what shaped her into who she is today, and Aang got over the loss of his culture because the plot needed him to.

For all that Katara has done for the group, one would assume that they would support her. But no- Sokka told her “she was my mother too, but Aang might be right” (which, again, I point out that Sokka was able to process and get over his grief, while Katara never had a true outlet for hers. She was able to talk about it, but that’s not the same as processing grief), and Aang got all preachy, showing he didn’t trust her not to kill him, despite supposedly “loving her” and being her “best friend”.

The lack of empathy and sympathy from Aang and Sokka is honestly infuriating. And the fandom is only worse.

Did yall also forget Katara is literally 14 years old? Can you seriously tell me that you would be emotionally stable if you were 8, lost a parent you were close with, and found out you can get closure by finding that parent’s killer after they literally reshaped your entire childhood? Everyone processes trauma differently, and it’s especially hard on a teenager.

People literally have more sympathy for Sokka losing Yue, a girl he knew for, what, two days max? Than Katara losing her mother.

The Katara lost her mother memes were never funny. And the hatred for Katara specifically for this episode is really old, tiring, and hypocritical.

#zutara #atla salt

[comradekatara]

Hi has your opinion on Prince Wu or any of the characters substantially changed since you’ve first seen the shows?

why is it always prince wu 😭😭 no, not him. i hated that obnoxious little fop from the very first second i laid eyes on him and a decade later my opinion of that twink has not changed. he is a nothing character who only exists to chew the scenery and grate me, personally [<- katara voice]. i doubt he will ever grow on me in any significant capacity. that said, of course my opinions on many characters have changed. for one thing, i don’t think i actually recognized the existence of male characters in fiction until well into my teens (with the exception of iago, because i was a very edgy child). so my love for sokka and aang really developed upon way more recent rewatches. i always liked them, of course, but if you’d asked me as a kid, i would’ve said my favorite male character was iroh without hesitation (and don’t get me wrong, i still love iroh, but i find the way people talk about him as if he’s some irreproachable beacon of wisdom and fatherly love to be really annoying). i also had to really work to love ty lee; i definitely didn’t understand her depth and motivations as a child. haru is also a character i’ve really only come to appreciate fairly recently. conversely, i was obsessed with katara, azula, and toph from the moment each appeared onscreen, and that obsession hasn’t wavered. katara especially is like some kind of parasite to the brain. what can i say she’s an icon a legend she is the moment she is every moment. korra too. as much as i struggled to watch lok back when it was airing because i thought it was such a disappointment (and you know i still think that), i was always obsessed with korra. and of course “korra alone” and korrasami finale literally did change my life. also the herbalist, for some reason, has always been a kind of icon to me. i don’t even really know why, but she imprinted on me at such a young age. i guess she’s just everything i wish to be in life. i hope this answers your question lol

#monarchbutterflysunflower #asks #i literally spent all day trying to think of a second male character i cared about as a kid and literally could not #it was just iago and no one else #not even othello im afraid (i have since come around on othello) #but yeah thinking about how i first felt about these characters as a kid is kind of hilarious #to me it was just the Katara and Azula (and Sometimes Toph) Show #i was also gonna say lok was The Korra Show . but it literally is #(and somehow that still couldn’t save it…………. alas)

[doyouevenshipbr0]

u know what. im in the mood to piss ppl off. heres my ranking of the 10 strongest waterbenders in atla and lok (not including avatars, and im not including anything from kiyoshi or yangchen’s era. i havent read those hehe. sowwy. strictly going off the shows).

now im doing this bc waterbending is by FAR my fav form of bending. and in MY OPINION!!!!!,,, people overlook some pretty important facts and feats and decide based more on who their favs are. this is my opinion anyways so im sure i inevitably did that too! but anyways. here we go.

10 strongest waterbenders:

honorable mentions: kya- listen. she is my GIRL. and also she is very strong, but at the end of the day, shes a healer. she has very little combat experience, and she was up against some real monsters in tlok. and shes known to be a great healer, but we dont even see that much of that. for this reason, she cant be top 10:/. eska and desna- they are GOOD. and their synchronized waterbending is super interesting. unfortunately i just kinda think everyone else in the top 10 is stronger. and i feel like the reason they are so strong is because they’re a unit. if they were separated, i have doubts.

10. tonraq- right off the bat im wondering if im going off biases LOL. but i love him. i love his style of bending. he is arguably my fav waterbender to watch waterbend. but unfortunately, in most of his fights, he’s kindaaaa getting worked (im on s2 of lok rewatch now. so i may be forgetting some stuff. but the big fights that stick out for me are him vs unalaq where he gets worked and him vs zaheer and korra where again, he gets kinda worked.) very clearly strong, but does not have all that much to show for it in the show. but he fights with all the big shots for a reason, and he led the water tribe army or something like that. so. hes good.

9. huu- i honestly don’t remember a whole lot of him, but swamp style of water bending is super interesting, and he clearly does it the best. i know we dont see a whole lot of him, but i cant overlook that he is THEE swamp bender.

8. pakku- obv. hes a member of the white lotus and was the master waterbender of the northern tribe. a slayer for his time but i do think he is outclassed by most waterbenders we see in tlok. cannot deny his strength tho. he was the goat at one time for a reason!

7. hama- as far as we know, she is the first blood bender. aka the strongest aspect of waterbending. she is a LEGEND. but again, i think she was a master for her time, but would have trouble holding her own in modern day bending esp without a fully moon.

6. ming hua- the way she uses waterbending as an extension of herself is clearly masterful. and i feel like we never see anyone utilize waterbending anything like how she does. unfortunately, she cant be any higher bc we dont see any extraordinary sub-water feats (healing… i think???? don’t remember lol. bloodbending, spirit healing). but clearly, she was an insane threat to everyone around her.

5. unalaq- so like. MAYBE he should be 4, but i really hate him lol. but i cannot deny he is an EXCEPTIONAL waterbender and pretty much no other waterbender (that we see in s2) can even TOUCH him. hes got the spirit healing, and hes got the skill. somethin somethin vaatu vaatu. idk. i hate him and i dont rly like this season lol. moving on.

4. katara- ok. she was the best in atla. no ifs and or buts. HOWEVER. she gets outclassed in lok and i think we know why. BUT. she was a complete prodigy as soon as she started training with pakku. there was no extension of waterbending that she could not do. she clearly thrived learning waterbending how she did, in such a fast paced, high pressure, and high stakes situation, and thats not even HER PRIME! she was waterbending for under a year when we see her. and we still got the greatest waterbender of that time. there was no one like her, and no waterbender could hold a candle to her by the end of atla. and once again, was only 14. only waterbending for a year. whos doing it like my sis?!

3. tarrlok- unfortunately for katara, the bloodbending family, without a doubt, outdoes her. bloodbending without a full moon? done and done. sorry! i believe katara COULD bloodbend outside of a full moon given the extensive training tarrlok and noatak were given but unfortunately, we will never know, so i cannot in good conscience put her any higher than 4. tarrlok was a master waterbender in itself and pretty much a master blood bender.

2. yakone- he bloodbent. a whole courtroom. with his mind. we dont see anything else from him, and we really dont need to. sorry. it is what it is.

1. amon- he bloodbends with his mind. and learned to take away someone’s bending ability with blood bending. katara, the best healer in the world, could not restore korras bending. granted, she was probably going about it wrong, but the point is, she couldnt do it. taking away someones bending with bloodbending just takes the cake. that aside, even in a combat setting, when he wasnt even trying he was wooping on all other benders of all kinds bc he was controling their movements w his mind. imagine him openly using waterbending AND having his mind control technique?! he would be unstoppable. im ngl i dont love how lok handles waterbending/bloodbending in general. i kinda think they made it TOO strong with little reasoning). also we do see him do an awesome lil water tornado at the end. so. not that we needed that, but its a cute lil cherry on top to his waterbending. hes the strongest waterbender. sorry!

want to finish this by saying had katara learnt to bloodbend outside of a full moon, she would be number one. and i do believe she could have learned. but she didnt. so she cant be first.

#personal #atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #lok #the legend of korra #legend of korra #tlok #waterbending

[seyaryminamoto]

hello! I really like your meta about Zuko, and I'm so glad that I finally found a person who also thinks that Zuko in book 3 is a much worse person than he was in the book 1. I always thought that something was wrong with me, since literally no one sees this obvious fact for me! But I would like to ask you: What do you think about Katara in book 3? the fact is that she was my favorite character in books 1 and 2, and the way she was written in book 3 upset me a lot. it seems to me that they spoiled her character, but I can't explain why. Please share your thoughts!

Glad you've enjoyed my extensive meta on the fandom's fave, haha. I did write a lot about him, always nice to know my thoughts on the subject are still deemed relevant.

As for Katara... well, I have thoughts on her, too. My experience with her character is quite similar to yours, I'd say, because I too felt a lot better about her character in the first two seasons of the show compared with the third. I don't usually give this a ton of thought, but after your ask, I figured I'd try and figure out what exactly went down with her that made people like us feel so uncomfortable with Katara's portrayal at multiple points of Book 3...

For starters, I'll say I vibed with Katara a lot when I started the show for reasons beyond her being a great character or being written wonderfully: she could very well have been written mediocrely and I would have loved her anyway simply because I ran away from anime to ATLA in an era where anime kept shoehorning incest undertones into every sibling relationship, even in shows that didn't have that as a core subject. It happened at least twice that I can remember, I kept seeing people raving about shows where it WAS the core of it (I still do not understand the Oreimo deal, like, the minute I read that show's title I puked in my mouth and knew I'd never watch it), and I just needed... safety from that concept, I guess?

So when I went into ATLA, and the first sibling relationship you're exposed to is Sokka and Katara, two siblings who very much act like siblings? I was thriving. It was thrilling. I felt so refreshed that I think I didn't care much about the flaws of Book 1, despite my inability to sense direction for most of it, because thank the universe, it was a sibling relationship that made sense to me!

With that as an opening, I'd say that, initially, I thought Katara was fine for most of Book 1. In Book 2? She fell off the radar for me a bit simply because other characters are introduced that just appeal to me so much more than she does. I vibe better with characters like Azula, who tend to be the type of female character I just LOVE, and with characters like Toph, she's a tomboy, I was a tomboy (... was? x'D maybe I shouldn't use past tense...), so I gravitated much more towards those two by no real fault of Katara's core personality traits. Back in Book 1, there aren't as many main characters, so you don't have a lot of variety to choose faves from. It's not that strange, I think, that once the cast broadens, people's interest in certain characters can scatter too.

But then Book 3 happened, and I just couldn't enjoy Katara outside of episodes where she wasn't that important. The Katara-centric episode of Book 3 stand among my least favorite episodes of ATLA altogether, and among the least likely episodes I'd ever want to rewatch. I literally skipped over The Painted Lady in my first rewatches of the show, every bit as much as I skipped The Great Divide or Avatar Day, both of which annoy me a lot in the first two seasons. The Puppetmaster? Not even close to being an episode I could enjoy. Even the Runaway, that's supposed to be Toph-centric, ends up making me count down the minutes for it to end and I'm not even going to get started on The Southern Raiders and the absolute can of worms that episode is...

So, with all this being said, if we peel this particular cabbage open little by little...

After mulling it over, I've grown to suspect that Katara has major inconsistency issues since day one that most people don't particularly like to acknowledge, and that flew over most of our heads from the beginning of the show. She's pretty much portrayed to us as an empath, someone who has so much heart that she can't help but feel everyone's pain and suffer with them all the time. The fandom 100% acts like that's who she is (while also obsessively adultifying her unnecessarily, and forcing her into the mom!friend role, which... we'll talk about that later)

But this is also the same character who, when her brother banished Aang from the Southern Water Tribe as early as in episode 2, protested in a very particular way once Aang was gone. Which one of these statements sound more accurate to Katara's character, and a suitable protest for her to proclaim upon witnessing this injustice against Aang?

"Aang is alone! How could you send him away on his own? He could be in danger, Sokka! He's just a kid!"

"The Air Nomads are gone, Sokka! Where do you think he'll go? He doesn't have a home to go back to and you just sent him away!"

"You happy now? There goes my one chance at becoming a waterbender!"

If you ask the fandom? They'll most likely think that her reaction was either #1 or #2.

Surprise surprise: it was actually #3

I'm not saying she didn't show empathy towards Aang while Sokka was ranting at him, because she did. I'm not saying she wasn't willing to be banished along with Aang until Sokka asks if she'd choose pretty much a total stranger over their family and tribe, because she was. She absolutely did all those things.

... So why would she focus only on how he represented her one chance at becoming a waterbender once Aang is gone?

This feels off to me. I've never particularly liked that line. And you could absolutely say that Katara has every right to be mad at losing her chance to reclaim an aspect of her culture that she cannot connect to, but the way it was framed here? It absolutely makes Katara look more selfish than she actually was. The wording is not good. The show doesn't emphasize, at this point, that bending is such a core and crucial part of their culture and that Katara feels a major responsibility in being the ONLY person in the South Pole that can keep it alive. So it just comes off as a child's tantrum. Sokka's concerns were 100% valid too, even if he went about them while being a jerk (he is, indeed, an older brother...). He wasn't even wrong in the end about how dangerous Aang was to their tribe, since Aang's mishap with Katara on the ship gives away his position to Zuko, and it results in Zuko ramming a huge ship into their home and nearly killing people in the process. But you DON'T see the show fully framing it as though Katara and Aang did something wrong -- it was an honest mistake. We know it was. Sokka is framed as unreasonable for being so paranoid even though later events in the very episode prove he wasn't.

And that's... the crux of the issue with Katara's writing. If you ask me.

There are far too many instances where Katara makes mistakes that she's not held accountable for, that she doesn't apologize for, that run against the core logic and principles of her character and they either get shrugged off or overlooked. There are far too many situations where she acts out, and is a jerk at her jerk of a brother, even unprompted on occasion, and it's supposed to just be funny. One particularly stood out to me when I revisited it a few years ago, I can't really remember what for (maybe when I was writing Jeong Jeong's arc in Gladiator and I had a look at the fishing village...?), but it's the famous flashback episode in Book 1: The Storm.

The scene in question is... humorous. Supposedly. Katara is trying to buy fruit in the market but then realizes they have no money to pay for it. Not only does Katara piss off the vendor, but the vendor actually takes her rage out on Sokka once she realizes these kids won't give her any business: he gets kicked in the rear, as the transcript's description says. No one protests the woman's violent reaction, not even Sokka. Katara most certainly doesn't do it. But that's not all there is to it: Sokka doesn't hold what happened with the fruit vendor against Katara, they have a conversation on how they have no money and no food... and Katara offers him the golden ticket solution to their problems:

"You could get a job, smart guy."

Am I too feminist for thinking it's insane that Katara expects her brother alone to get the job? That she's not saying the THREE of them should get jobs? She and Aang are BENDERS! That's an asset most people aren't likely to find in any would-be employees in the central Earth Kingdom! So... wouldn't it be logical for all of them to do it? But no, instead, Sokka alone has to get the job?

And yes, I know, Sokka is the provider, Sokka is the protector, Sokka would do ANYTHING for his sister and the people he loves: you ask the fandom, though, and that's Katara instead of him. Moments like these simply do not exist in the fandom's eyes and, if they do, they're just excusable because Sokka is boring/weird/annoying/insert-demeaning-nonsense-here and Katara is a queen who can do whatever she wants.

Then, the consequences arrive once Sokka gets a dangerous job on a fishing boat and nearly gets killed in a storm. Aang is the one who shows concern about the potential storm when the fisherman's wife brings it up: from all I can see in the transcript, there's nothing from Katara. Sokka says they told him to get a job, so that's what he's doing, and there's no manifestation of concern from either of them about maybe joining him on this fishing trip to ensure he's safe. Instead, Aang is haunted by his past and Katara goes with him when he leaves, which, yes, is very important for context on the Air Nomads and Aang's life... and yet we don't really NEED for this scene to be Katara and Aang only. It could've included Sokka too. The plot of the second half of the episode would change? Likely. They could've come up with another idea, and not shown us a Katara who doesn't show concern for her brother's safety or any remorse when her unfair demands or expectations from him could result in catastrophic outcomes :') yes, she worries about Sokka's safety once the storm hits, but there's no sign of her feeling responsible for Sokka being out in the storm at all. No apology. Which is ironic, because Zuko apologizes to Iroh in that very same episode, hence, an apology from Katara to her brother could have mirrored that side of the story well, and they REALLY loved doing Zuko-Gaang parallel scenes like that, so it would have fit perfectly! Didn't happen, though.

Point being... Katara's compassion and empathy are not absolute. It's important to keep in mind is that they don't need to be! But precisely because she falters with them in moments where she REALLY shouldn't, with people as important to her as her own brother? It becomes very difficult to believe that she's the empath the fandom is convinced she is, and that the show's narrative tries to push her as.

The real reason why her failure to show compassion to Sokka in "humorous" situations feels so unnerving isn't because she's a typical little sister who takes her brother for granted (which is a perfectly logical/believable behavior!): it's because there are no consequences for it. Maybe at some point or another there were? But I for one can't remember many instances where Katara failed Sokka and it was framed as her fault and her responsibility. Let's look at other Book 1 instances that exemplify what I mean:

She freezes him to the deck of Zuko's ship, which puts Sokka in MAJOR danger, and she just tells him to hurry up as if it weren't her fault that he's frozen in the first place. We don't even see her making efforts to thaw him out of there when she IS the waterbender so it seems logical that she should be able to help with that (and if she's too inexperienced to do it? The least she can do to help her brother out of a dangerous situation is to TRY???). But apparently it's funny that she doesn't help him when it's her fault! So this is fine!

She endangers the entire group over the waterbending scroll, which, of course, the pirates had no right to have anyway and it's reasonable that she'd want it for herself... but she antagonized a group of fully adult, dangerous, potential murderous pirates, against Sokka's constant warnings that they shouldn't pick that particular fight. As far as I can remember? Her apologies on that episode are exclusively about how she hurt Aang's feelings by being jealous over his greater talents as a bender. Basically, nothing for Sokka, no apology for not listening to him about danger, making it worse when the very final moment features Katara proudly telling her brother that she won't steal things... unless it's from pirates. So lesson not learned because it's funny, again, to never acknowledge that Sokka has a point.

She actually cares about Sokka's fate in Jet! But the thing is... the narrative doesn't frame that as Katara's fault. Because it's not. Jet made his choices and he did awful things and he captured Sokka, lied and gaslit everyone, because he had a goal to fulfill and he used Katara to make that happen. As angry and upset as Katara is, it's not exactly shown that Katara is sorry for having trusted Jet when Sokka could have ended up paying a deadly price for it. She's angry at the betrayal, even in Book 2 it's constantly framed as though Katara is upset at him as an ex-girlfriend would be upset at her ex-boyfriend for lying to her rather than, you know, being pissed at him for nearly killing her brother + an entire village. My point is, the narrative framing never holds her responsible for Jet's choices. Which, again, she's not. But she IS responsible for her own choices... and one of those choices was disregarding Sokka's warnings about Jet. THAT was her fault, and her responsibility. She jumped to conclusions and assumed that Sokka was bitter and jealous that Jet was the charming cool leader Sokka could never be. There were no apologies to Sokka over that, either.

I could go on, and on, and on. The truth is, I bring all this up to show with solid evidence that Katara's writing was always a little... unstable. Weird. Disconnected from logic in many regards, I'd say. It's not logical/compatible to tell us that this character has the BIGGEST heart of the entire cast when she fails to show that heart to none other than her own brother, who is inarguably the person who she knows best and with whom she should share the closest relationship, even as her friendship with Aang grows and thrives. That makes no sense, thematically speaking.

Is it meant to be comedic? Yes, every bit as much as Iroh sexually harassing June was done for comedy's sake. That's not an excuse for characters behaving in ways that are thematically contrary to what they're supposed to be portraying... and along with that? No excuse for them facing zero consequences for that behavior. Which is, in fact, my main issue with these flaws from Katara: I have no issue with the writing choices in the scenes I listed just now! I take issue, however, with the lack of follow-up and consequences that you can BET, 100%, would have befallen Sokka if it had been him instead of Katara acting that way. He faced consequences even for things he didn't do, for comedy's sake: he wouldn't have gotten away with disregarding Katara's safety as often as Katara did with him, no chance at all.

Ultimately, these scenes in Book 1 are kind of ignorable in the larger scheme of things (or at least, that's how the fandom has always acted). Not a lot of people take any of this as major proof of characterization for Katara. You won't see a lot of fic writers showing her acting like this. Canon, though, often would go down this route for funsies, and the comics certainly did it plenty too, that I can remember. Part of the issue here is that, as funny as it is, it also makes Katara feel stale as a character, as does the Sokka-Katara dynamic, at large, because there's no progression for it. That's probably my greatest gripe with the Great Divide, believe it or not: it fakes being an episode where Sokka and Katara are going to be confronted over their conflictive tendencies, and the ONLY potential development in that basically-filler episode SHOULD HAVE BEEN Sokka and Katara learning to be a bit more harmonious and respectful of each other? ... And that's just not what happened at all. The status quo remains exactly the same after that episode, and it continues to be like that until the end of the show.

The real reason why Sokka and Katara are deemed the healthy siblings is because, of course, compared with the other main set of siblings in the show, these two appear to get along wonderfully. But the truth is, their relationship is not as dynamic as it deserved to be. And that's part of why Book 3 ends up failing in ways Book 1 might not have, while having similar flaws: Book 1 is when you're still getting to know these kids, and that's why I find its flaws far more forgivable than anything that comes later. When there's basically no development for that connection at all, Book 3 winds up falling flat with characters like Sokka and Katara and the bond between them.

All this being said... I'm not saying that Katara is terrible in Book 1. I still stand by the fact that I really enjoyed her character in many instances of this season, there absolutely are situations where she sasses Sokka that still make me crack a smile, and genuinely humorous situations that don't paint her in a questionable light over her lack of concern for her brother's safety. Her fight to earn the right to be trained as a waterbender is deeeeeply flawed but it's not her fault, it's more the misogyny of the writers/creators that decided that a betrothal necklace from his past would make Pakku unlearn all his sexism and get over his bullshit right after beating up a girl who was fighting tooth and nail to make him acknowledge her. That he only acknowledges her because he wanted to marry her grandmother is... uh... fuckboi behavior even when he's well over 70 years of age? XD

So, yeah, Book 1 still has my favorite Katara of the entire show even though I REALLY wish she wouldn't get away with things that other characters wouldn't get a pass for (... well... other than Zuko...). I can't enjoy her as much as I enjoy other characters because I really don't like it when characters aren't held accountable for serious mistakes they made.

Moving on to Book 2, though, and leaving behind my greatest gripe with Katara's Book 1 writing (lack of direct consequences/self-reflection on her part), Book 2's biggest sin when it comes to Katara is the beginning of the "mothering" trope. I honestly did not feel motherly vibes from Katara towards anyone in Book 1. Sokka is very often the one playing the responsible role, while Aang and Katara are seeing the world, practicing their bending, doing reckless and fun things. The entire thing about Katara being the mom friend started in Book 2 when she suddenly becomes the epitome of responsibility (well... kinda) when Toph joins the group. She still does sketchy stuff with zero consequences (I'll forever complain about how ice is not cold in this show, the kids she froze to the wall may have been dicks, but freezing someone alive that way should have resulted in serious health repercussions, just as ANY case of freezing someone alive should have, ffs, be it Zuko in Book 1's finale or Azula + Katara in Book 3's...), but once Toph is part of the group, she becomes the cool girl who's "one of the boys", and now Katara is "the mom". This dynamic gets forced into the story pretty much right after Toph joins the group. And after that? It doesn't really change for the better often. There are only a handful of instances where Katara wasn't acting wholesome and comforting and kind and compassionate in Book 2 (... particularly with Sokka, ofc), but the point where her dynamics, even with Aang, start to feel motherly is definitely Book 2.

And this adds to the issue, in the end: Katara's appeal as the main girl in the show is suddenly gone because Toph is here, and she's a way more unique character that the writers definitely were having fun working with, probably more fun than they had with Katara. So they had to find a new niche for her, I'd dare guess. Thus, instead of actually building up an awesome and solid friendship between Katara and Toph, they mostly just clash and collide. Toph is basically the ONLY character who gives Katara grief and isn't framed as in the wrong for it, which is its own set of issues (namely, Toph not being challenged enough by the narrative, which stunts her character growth), but among many things, we suddenly get shown that Katara is a girly girl who likes makeup and she ropes Toph into this when nothing we've seen so far suggests that Toph would be comfortable with that. Katara pushes her into doing things because they're the "girls of the group"... and it doesn't often look like Toph's feelings on anything are important when Katara is pushing her around for whatever purpose. I'm not saying Toph hated the spa day, she certainly had fun eventually, but even when the comics made a "Katara and Toph's day out" story, where Toph got to choose what to do for once, the story devolved into Katara's show anyway, and things concluded with Toph deciding they're better off doing girly things together when they want to hang out because Katara is just too intense for the things Toph would like to do.

This isn't even in the show, but it's basically a response to Tales of Ba Sing Se to try and even out Katara and Toph's one-sided dynamic, where Katara calls the shots of their entertainment... and even then, Toph doesn't really get what she's looking for. But Katara does get that out of Toph because all she wants is a girl to do girly things with and Toph provides that in the end, no matter how much of a tomboy she may be. Toph might just want a friend who loves the things she loves, and who knows, Katara could be that person! But the story never leads her in that direction so we never see that happen. And that's why that particular friendship never really... clicked for me. Their dynamics don't really feel enjoyable to me as they were written in the show, even though they very much could have been.

That's one thing I'll always give ATLA: the character potential and synergy they captured with that cast could be absolutely incredible. Team Avatar is so iconic because they really could work well off each other. A lot of teams in other media just aren't this good (... one of my main reasons to not enjoy Voltron and drop it in season 1 was my absolute failure to find any synergy between those characters, it felt like they all hated each other and I honestly did not enjoy their dynamics in the least), but Aang, Katara and Sokka have great synergy due to their different personalities in Book 1. Same when Toph joins them in Book 2. Zuko ABSOLUTELY could have been better in the group than he was if Book 3 hadn't devolved into the Zuko Woobifying Show by the second half, where the only writing priority was making him friends with everyone, and making them all feel sorry for him and have compassion towards him. But, broken down to his core traits, Zuko's personality would have resulted in solid chemistry with everyone else's if they'd gotten off that agenda anyway! So ultimately, ATLA has a big win in this respect that a lot of TV shows would LOVE to recreate but they simply haven't struck the right kind of balance in character traits.

Hence why the way they wrote Toph and Katara's dynamics kind of feels like a betrayal to me. Those two could have been a lot of fun, they have EVERYTHING it takes to be entertaining characters with not a ton of things in common and yet building a solid friendship that hinges on their differences. I've seen a fair few examples of that kind of dynamic in other media, and it absolutely would be possible with Toph and Katara. It's really unfair that they couldn't capture their dynamics in such a way that both characters would SHINE, rather than constantly resorting to conflicts between them that never seemed to truly be resolved.

So: Toph should not be a problem for Katara. She should enhance her character and doesn't because of writing failures. One of the core failures is "mom friend Katara", of course: there's nothing inherently wrong with Katara stepping up and taking care of people she loves, but there's something very wrong with it when she's suddenly portrayed as this motherly figure when she's doing things that Sokka had been doing just fine in Book 1. Main reason why this is the case? Sokka got dumbed down to full-time class clown for whatever reason in Book 2. While he has good moments, a lot of times they went WAY overboard with making him a source of comedy this season and that, too, contributes to mom friend Katara. Since Sokka is being so meh? We even feel relieved that Katara is there to keep things together because nobody can expect the other three to do it, right? But... Sokka was doing it in Book 1. And there's no real development to explain him NOT doing it anymore once Toph joins in besides "Katara is now the mom friend and Sokka is just here to be funny". It's not organic development: it's forcing tropes that just don't fit. And while Katara's mothering doesn't feel as unpleasant as it could here, it ultimately forces a new interpretation and portrayal of her character that honestly isn't all that interesting, most of all when the other characters are constantly portrayed as "more fun" while she's just here to keep them in line.

It just isn't the same Katara we met in Book 1, and it shows in spades. Book 1 Katara would have been hyped to join Aang and Toph in chaos while Sokka screams at them to behave themselves. Book 2 Katara is the one trying to keep the other three in line, and there's genuinely zero development that led things to that stage. It's not organic storytelling. There's no growth that leads to that, and so, it feels off.

But the core problem of all these flaws in Book 1 and Book 2 is that they roll together and snowball into something far greater that then proceeds to just... disrupt everything we thought we knew or understood about Katara. We've been told she's a kind person above all else, someone who cares about people close to her, someone who embodies hope and strength and love...!

... And then Book 3 starts, and we're actually facing a Katara who shifts into a wholly different person with the speed of a whiplash that we're left not knowing who tf this is anymore.

"Mom friend Katara" absolutely comes back in Book 3, why lie? She takes care of people, she tries to provide, she tries to be nice and sweet and then also enforces discipline on Toph (particularly) when she's being irresponsible!

But the reason why The Runaway is such an unpleasant episode is because Katara's behavior is dialed up to a thousand, and the conflict between her and Toph feels WAY too similar to what it was when they were barely getting to know each other in The Chase. Why are they STILL clashing over such things? There are occasional glimpses of friendliness there in The Runaway, sure! But they're not so strong that you actually feel like that friendship supersedes their conflicts and their propensity to bicker and argue and hurt each other. Toph blatantly calls her out on her mothering and fully canonically confirms that Katara is The Mom Friend™. Where Toph is annoyed but eventually complies with doing what Katara wants to do in Tales of Ba Sing Se, this time Katara makes a huuuuuge fuss over Toph's misbehavior and her scamming Fire Nation people. And you could argue that Toph has every right to do it, or that Katara is right to be worried, just like Sokka used to worry about such things in Book 1...

But what we get is a stale dynamic that repeats the same problems we saw in Book 2, as well as Katara coming off as rather hypocritical because she, too, did dangerous shit and picked dangerous fights where she shouldn't have, and ignored everyone who told her not to do it: she gave Toph that kind of grief over things Katara was willing to do back when Toph wasn't in the group (see the pirates thing), and she will try to stop Toph from having fun on her own terms when nobody has ever tried to stop Katara from doing that in hers. Of course, any Katara advocate would read this and go "you're missing the point: Katara was sad and upset that she was being LEFT OUT! That's why she was so mad about this!" Then the irony of the matter is that this argument STILL reflects poorly on Katara. She gave her friend a tough time, called her a wild child and a crazy person, went through her personal belongings because "she could tell Toph was hiding something from her", so she fully disregarded Toph's privacy... all because she couldn't say "Wait, you guys went scamming Fire Nation people? Damn, why didn't you wait for me! I would've gone too!", and there you go, problem solved! Katara's not left out anymore!

Yes, of course, that's not how it WORKS, people can struggle to identify what they feel...!

... And now it's my turn to say that that's not the point.

The point is that Katara said and did hurtful things to her friend. Things she eventually regrets, yes, but that she didn't have to do at all. This is the same person who fed Appa a bunch of food that made it look like he was sick, all be it to keep the group from leaving the Jang Hui river village so she could go out of her way to heal the injured and sick without telling anyone what she was doing. That, too, was a choice she made with no concern regarding how the rest of her team might feel about it: was she doing something nice? Sure! But it's not fundamentally different from Toph doing whatever she wants with zero regard as to Katara's feelings on the matter. Katara KNEW she was stalling their journey and that Sokka wanted them to move on: she didn't care about his feelings or priorities, and the story eventually frames Katara as being in the right for feeling that way. Here, she's in the inverse scenario, only it's with Toph rather than Sokka, and instead of realizing that she, too, has made choices that were irresponsible/dangerous/risky and STILL went all out with them, down to fighting whoever opposed her choices? Katara just doubles down until she, again, breaches boundaries and overhears Toph and Sokka's conversation, WHICH IS ANOTHER CAN OF WORMS DUE TO THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS FOLLOW-UP...

The thing is, Katara as a mom friend is not even a good thing. It's not conducive to fun or interesting storytelling, not in Book 2, not now. It doesn't make Katara a more interesting and dynamic character. The way she's portrayed isn't so she looks tragic for taking this role, it's all about forcing these kids into tropes that don't necessarily add up to who they have been so far. Katara's mom friend status is NOT treated with any compassion. It's not handled as a sore, difficult subject outside of the ONE conversation Sokka has with Toph that Katara overhears. And it's not centered on Katara's tragedy, on how she overcompensates for her mother's absence, it's centered on Sokka accepting her as a motherly person and encouraging Toph to do the same thing. The people who saw further depth in it probably haven't looked at the script itself in a long time: you CAN see more to it, but that's not the point of the scene. That's not where it's going. And the fact that such a tragic situation is what conduces Katara to take up the mom friend role actively makes it look like... she shouldn't have it. Why would she be the mom friend if she's just overcompensating for Kya's death? If she's taking up responsibility by thinking that no one else will (a blatant lie because, again, in Book 1 there's NO SIGN of this behavior and it's Sokka who's in a role of responsibility compared to her), it suggests that EVERYONE ELSE ought to step up and stop "relying" (and Sokka very much uses that word) on Katara being the mom friend. It's not a healthy thing. It's a coping mechanism that seems to be actively damaging Katara: and the story doesn't acknowledge it that way.

So... "mom friend Katara", dialed up to a thousand in Book 3, absolutely has a connection with why her character loses its sheen by this point in the story. There's no attempt to deconstruct this coping mechanism by Katara. No indication from the rest of the team that maybe Katara should get to be a kid just like them and stop being so uptight (even though VERY often she's not that uptight but the show very much tries to pretend she is). It's Katara's initiative to do a scam, it's not Toph or Sokka or Aang who think she needs to join in on the fun, she basically inserts herself in it. So basically, those three take the route of saying "that's what she's like, we just gotta bear with it", instead of actually helping her. If we'd seen that? Mom friend Katara would actually be a fun element to witness deconstructed by the story. And I'm not blaming either Katara or the other three for this:

This is EMINENTLY a writing problem.

Mom friend Katara is not a good trope. It could be if the point was to help her break free from it. It's not. It's simply weak writing that can't handle two girls with proactive, aggressive personalities and a ton of agency, a lack of creativity in realizing how much potential there could be in making Toph and Katara the absolute best of friends. It's seriously a disservice to the two of them that this trope literally blooms over Toph joining the show and then NEVER gets resolved or chased away. And when you have characters like Sokka or Aang kind of joining the bandwagon of "yeah, Katara's a mom!" when the two of them traveled with her in Book 1 and she WASN'T that at all? It makes matters infinitely worse.

So, if you ask me? This is the first thing that makes Katara feel more unpleasant than ever before in Book 3.

The second thing is even worse.

We return to accountability, as well as to illogical flow of thought when it comes to the writing of Katara: in Book 1, we see a hopeful girl who never speaks ill of her father or betrays any manner of displeasure or distrust towards him. No sign of her being conflicted by what Hakoda is doing: the focus is entirely on Sokka's feelings on the matter once it finally comes up in Bato of the Water Tribe, and Katara is a secondary matter, if even that.

This would be fine if Hakoda hadn't come up at all as a subject throughout Books 1 and 2. If Katara had never had the potential opportunity to see her father in any of these instances and had backed out from them for bigger reasons than... plot reasons.

For reference: she's excited, just as Sokka is, when Bato says he can bring the kids to meet their dad again. They're HYPED. We see no sign of Katara being upset at Hakoda for leaving at this point. The only portrayed reason why she and Sokka decide not to go see Hakoda is because they think Aang needs them more and they decide to forgive him for hiding the map. Katara, from the get-go, is not as angry at Aang for hiding the map as Sokka is. Clearly, Sokka wants to see Hakoda far more intensely than Katara does: even so, there's no sign anywhere here that implies that Katara harbors resentment or dissatisfaction towards Hakoda.

Book 2 gives us a similar situation: Katara declines going to see Hakoda and offers to be the one who stays in Ba Sing Se so Sokka can go see Hakoda himself. Sokka is soooo thrilled and thanks her and calls her the best sister ever and Katara very much says she is, indeed, the best. Which she's allowed to, worth noting, I'm not saying her reaction to Sokka's praises was bad, it's actually funny: but what I AM saying is that she knows how much this matters to Sokka and that's why she makes the offer she does. It's also VERY convenient! Because logic dictates that, if Sokka stays behind, he realizes the Kyoshi Warriors aren't themselves far faster than Katara does (even though, to be fair, Katara didn't really have much time to realize it at all), and we wouldn't have Aang suffering over Katara's imprisonment because the one in chains would be Sokka and then Aang might just go "oh okay it's just Sokka, I can go cosmic if it's not Katara"

... yeah I'm being sarcastic I actually don't think Aang wouldn't have saved Sokka, but they very clearly had Katara stay behind first and foremost for this specific purpose...

But Katara's acknowledgement that this is a good thing for her brother makes you REALLY wonder how much of a secret grudge she was supposed to feel towards her father at this stage of the story. The truth, in my opinion? She wasn't actually supposed to resent Hakoda as she did, let alone quite so harshly.

My sister personally told me that she thought Katara's anger at Hakoda was a fine storytelling choice when I told her I didn't like it. She told me Katara herself most likely didn't realize how hurt she had been by her father's leaving, that it wasn't until she was around Hakoda again that she understood she resented him at all, and that she had a lot more pent-up rage and frustrations than she had EVER acknowledged, and they burst out frequently in Book 3. Which, you know, is one possible explanation that tries to make this whole thing more palatable. From a human standpoint? This is valid.

... From a writing point? Not so much.

A Katara who struggles to understand her heart (which... is odd, tbh. As far as they portray her, Katara tends to know exactly what she's feeling, why she's feeling it, and she acts on her emotions rather than brains more often than not) would be portrayed as confused over her own rage at Hakoda. She would not have been written as a snappy teenager who hates her dad. She would have snapped at him and then apologized by reflex, unsure of what's come over her. We would see Sokka trying to mediate between them too, probably asking Katara what's her deal, and she would have no idea how to explain it. Katara would be avoiding Hakoda, knowing she loves him, not knowing why she seems to hate him now, afraid of saying things she shouldn't. Every time she snaps at him, she should worry about what she did, she should fear for Hakoda's feelings, she should reflect on what's going on inside her heart...!

... But that doesn't happen. And that knocks SO HARD on the concept of empath/compassionate Katara that it basically turns her into a whole different person.

As I've said countless times so far: it's not about Katara being perfect. I don't WANT her to be perfect. But I DO want the show to acknowledge that she's not. I want the flaws to REALLY read as flaws. I want other characters to react to those mishaps on Katara's part, and I want HER to reflect on what she's doing and realize she's messing up, just as she does when she hurts Aang's feelings in the Waterbending Scroll, which is most likely the best situation where Katara actually owns up to the exact mistake she made and feels genuine, palpable, obvious remorse for it. But when you feature Katara lashing out at Hakoda, and everyone just staying quiet because "uuuuh, awkwaaaard...", it feels off. Aang asks Katara, outright, what's her problem with her dad! And Katara goes "What? What problem?" She's acting like she's not even aware of the fact that her behavior is out of place, basically gaslighting Aang into pretending that she didn't do anything rude or mean to Hakoda. Aang literally saw it with his own eyes and is the ONLY person to bring it up.

To make matters worse? Katara has been with Hakoda for WEEKS. It's not like they just crossed paths two seconds before Aang opened his eyes. The implication is that she's been behaving like this, or her behavior has been deteriorating towards Hakoda with no one worrying about it or trying to make her reason with it. for that long. Sokka didn't do anything. Hakoda just took the teenage rants and left her alone because that's what she wants. And when the one person brings up that she's not acting like herself? Katara pretends nothing's wrong and acts like everything's fine and she's not acting any differently from herself. Whether she actually is just lying to Aang or ALSO lying to herself is a matter of debate... but what it suggests is she's unwilling to confront the gravity of her choices and how she can be hurting her father with them.

This is NOT to say that Katara has no right to be angry about Hakoda abandoning her in the Tribe. She has every right to be upset and feel forsaken. Their mother died, and Hakoda left with all the men of the tribe, and Sokka was left behind, tasked to protect everyone, and Katara apparently felt responsible for the whole village too: as valid as Hakoda's quest to fight in the war might be, it's not out of this world for Katara to harbor frustrations and resentment over what happened.

What IS out of this world, and particularly, not appropriate to her character, is that her way to convey those feelings was something she gave herself to, completely, only to reason with it once Aang was missing so that the episode would conflagrate her problems with Aang and Hakoda into the same thing.

This is basically a dark expansion of what we've seen in Katara's treatment of Sokka since Book 1: where it was typically "humorous" when she was a jerk to him and paid no price for it, this time it's not humorous. This time, you're supposed to see her being a jerk and then go "aaaaw, poor dear," even if you're not supposed to get mad at Hakoda because he is very much a decent dad. The show was trying to have its cake and eat it too with this situation, because Katara DOESN'T apologize to Hakoda for being unfair to him: HAKODA APOLOGIZES TO HER. Hakoda acknowledges the pain he caused Katara and the damage his leaving has wrought upon his children by apologizing and explaining how much he missed them... but Katara does not acknowledge the pain she inflicted on her father by acting out when he wasn't doing anything wrong. Is this teenager behavior? You could chalk it down to that, but that's precisely why teenagers can be a pain in the ass! And that's very much how Katara is being portrayed if she's unwilling to acknowledge she acted out and hurt someone she loves!

Her problems and resentment towards Hakoda magically go away after that single conversation. After this? She loves him. No hard feelings left. If her problems with Hakoda were this deep and difficult to navigate and work through, either she bottled them up in the rest of the show and stopped them from affecting her father... or she just got over it that quickly. Which would be very unrealistic because Hakoda apologizing for leaving doesn't change the damage Katara suffered through because he was gone. A single apology doesn't fix everything that people read into Katara's deep anguish in this scene and episode. And yet that's very much how the show portrays it: Katara is 100% fine in every single other interaction with Hakoda she gets past the first episode of Book 3. Does that make sense? Is that good writing? No, actually: it's literally digging up a problem, making it up last minute with zero lead-up to it, where the ONLY way to read "lead-up" is to pretend that Katara always had ulterior motives to avoid going to see Hakoda, even though we NEVER were shown that she was hiding anything, something that could be VERY easily shown in the story if they'd always had this in mind. The truth is that they didn't. They made it up for this episode, forced it in there, didn't even write it right because nobody reacts to Katara's behavior reasonably except Aang, and she gets away with it without even having to apologize. That's... not good form for any character, let alone Miss Responsibility and Empathy, is it?

This is why it's such a problem that Katara acted as she did towards her father. It's not because this is an unthinkable flaw: it's because there's very much no lead-up to it, kind of like there's none with Korrasami's big reveal in LOK's finale. It's because there's no follow-up to it either. It's because we don't see Katara living up to her supposed core character traits, where she should have a realization that her choices and actions and behavior have hurt someone else, someone she cares about. None of that happens.

And I will say: it's different when it comes to her clashes with Zuko and her reactions to him in the second half of Book 3. This is basically the MAIN thing the fandom gives her grief for and I hate them for it: she has every right and reason and justification to show no empathy or compassion towards a person who, as far as she could tell, took advantage of her compassion in Ba Sing Se, of Aang's compassion frequently across Book 1, and paid them back for all of it by joining forces with Azula and showing no concern to help Aang when Azula almost killed him. I am no fan of Iroh's... but Iroh jumped in to help Katara and Aang escape, at risk of being captured. Zuko stood beside Azula and did NOTHING to help those two leave. He showed zero concern for Aang's survival. He saw his sister potentially murder someone and had ZERO REACTION. So, no offense but full offense: Katara's unwillingness to trust Zuko is JUSTIFIED. Not only is it justified? It's CORRECT. It's the only writing choice that makes sense. Sokka getting over it relatively quickly feels off to me, no matter if the Boiling Rock adventure isn't as bad as others might be. Aang not holding a grudge for too long kind of fits because it is Aang... but Katara being that mad at Zuko? That's 100% fine. It fits. It works. And anyone pretending that what I said about Hakoda applies to how she treated Zuko is just completely biased in Zuko's favor.

Katara and Zuko do not have a secret magical powerful soulmates bond in canon. Their one instance of bonding comes after multiple instances of the exact opposite thing. Katara and Sokka were 100% down for leaving Zuko to freeze to death in the North Pole, and the ONLY reason why Zuko survives is because Aang can't let that happen to him. It's AANG'S compassion that saved Zuko. Katara felt none, AND SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO FEEL ANY. Let's not forget that!

Moving on to Book 2, Katara actually makes her first offer of kindness to Zuko and Iroh in the Chase when she offers to heal Iroh after Azula's attack. Zuko's reaction is to lash out violently and yell at her to leave: who, exactly, would feel inclined to think this poor beautiful sad boy just needs love when you OFFER HIM kindness and his reaction is, in a manner of speaking "go fuck yourself I'll handle this on my own"? And it's worth bringing it up because it feels like the fandom is hilariously misled into thinking the Gaang magically knows what Zuko is up to and how he's growing and evolving, as if they were part of the audience: they're not. The last time Katara saw Zuko before Ba Sing Se is literally when Zuko refuses her help. We're also talking about Fire Nation people: Katara has every right and every reason to believe that Zuko is refusing her help, not out of personal, internal strife he's dealing with and has no idea how to handle... she very much can read this as "inferior Water Tribe peasant, you will not heal my uncle with your wretched waterbending!" Because... let's be real, that's what Zuko looked like to Katara across Book 1. She has no real reason to think he's any better or different from that until their catacombs scene...

... And he stabs her in the back and joins Azula there. Right after "bonding" with her.

So let's be VERY clear on that respect: Katara has no real reason to forgive Zuko. She has no real reason to feel empathy outside of the show constantly trying to push that she's kind and compassionate with no boundaries, even if she forsakes that kindness and compassion at random whenever the plot requires it. But her death threats to Zuko? They're completely fine by me. I'd be pissed if she had acted any differently, and if anything I hate how easy Zuko had it to befriend everyone but Katara.

... Not to say I'm happy with how he befriended Katara either, but anyway...

As this isn't Zuko meta, we're not going to get into the true core glaring issues in The Southern Raiders, because ultimately, that episode paints Zuko in a disgusting light that his fans are constantly gaslighting themselves about. He was not beinga heroic good dude helping someone he connected profoundly with. His behavior leaves so much to be desired and proves he hasn't unlearned a lot of toxic things he had internalized. He didn't unlearn them in this episode, either. But the GREATEST sin Zuko commits in this episode, without a doubt, is bringing Katara on a journey that ultimately did NOTHING for her. The only person benefitting from it was Zuko himself. I've seen people pretend that Katara finally found closure: she did not do such thing. She learned what kind of scum killed her mother, but she did not forgive him nor did she kill him. Closure would mean peace. Katara did not find peace with the situation. She's shown troubled, sitting at that pier, miserable, when Aang talks with her, she's STILL angry. That's not closure. It never was.

What it was, however, was the journey where Katara thanked Zuko and forgave him because..! Uh... because...

... Why, exactly, did Katara forgive Zuko here?

He brought her to her mother's killer: she found no closure from it. In fact, she learned the VERY disturbing truth that she hadn't realized so far: HER MOTHER DIED SPECIFICALLY TO SAVE HER. Her mother sacrificed herself for Katara's sake. She CANNOT find peace with this reality in a single afternoon because holy shit, who would? Katara KNEW her mother had died. It's not until Yon Rha tells her what happened that she understands what happened in the igloo. Katara herself, her waterbending skills, and the target she painted on her own back because of something 100% out of her control, something that is NOT evil and that the Fire Nation was hellbent on destroying, are the reasons why Kya was murdered. This is DISTURBING SHIT to deal with. And the show completely sidelines this revelation and the dark impact it could have on Katara, which, seriously, is HUGE, way worse than what happened with Hakoda, because it very much could have triggered a profound self-hatred by Katara towards her own skills because how tf could her bending cause her mother's death?! Not to mention the obvious: who was that source? Who told the Southern Raiders that there was a waterbender? Who the hell is responsible, beyond the Fire Nation, for her mother's death?

There's A LOT to unpack here.

And none of it matters because Katara is just supposed to forgive Zuko for exacerbating and worsening her trauma regarding her mother's death :') funny how that works.

This IS the point where Katara should make a display of darker sides of herself that she didn't know or understand. THIS is where Katara turning dark like Aang did after Appa vanished would make PERFECT sense. With this revelation about Kya that's beyond disturbing: not with Hakoda... and certainly not with Sokka.

The cusp of Katara's worst is, by far, her behavior with her brother in the Southern Raiders. I know a million excuses have been made for this moment: my problem is NOT the fact that she lashed out at him as she did and said something DEEPLY hurtful. It's the fact that KNOWING, SEEING HE'S IN PAIN...

... does not matter to her one bit.

Instead of a trite scene with Zuko spouting shit he does NOT mean (aka "violence wasn't the answer... but lol go kill my father okay??"), we deserved a scene with Katara and Sokka talking this out. People pretend it's fine as it is: it's not. Katara has spent the ENTIRE show disregarding her brother's feelings in a myriad of ways: this time, it was way more painful and way more hurtful and SHE KNOWS IT. It's not funny. She's not amused. She's not being a shithead little sister. She's ANGRY. She's UPSET. She has every right to be! What she DOESN'T have a right to do is hurt her brother DELIBERATELY and then escape every consequence from doing that.

There's very much no way to spin that moment into making Katara a decent sister. There's no way she remains true to her core values of being empathetic, kind and wholesome when she will insidiously, vindictively hurt her brother this way. And what I said earlier about her overhearing Toph and Sokka in the Runaway? It actually gets a follow-up in this scene: Katara telling Sokka that he didn't love Kya as she did is basically her WEAPONIZING the information that was NOT meant for her as her alleged evidence that Sokka didn't care about Kya as much as she did. As if his inability to retrieve Kya's memory was NOT a manifestation of trauma, as if it were something he's FINE with! He's not! How guilty must he feel for that? Does that matter to Katara at all? Why... nope. Because all that matters at that point is her own rage, her own feelings, her own fury. Which is, then, entirely against the character we've been told she is.

The lack of apology or follow-up to this horrible moment will never stop being one of the absolute biggest misfires in one of the WORST written episodes of this show. Yes, I said it. The more I ponder The Southern Raiders, the more I realize it's an immensely flawed speedrun to establish a friendship that simply doesn't add up. Katara and Zuko becoming friends after this journey requires some wild, absurd leaps of imagination that, boiled down to basics, don't make any sense. There's no reason for Katara to decide she'll forgive Zuko after she regains enough clarity. Why does she forgive him? Because he proved he'd rather make her happy than defend his nation anymore? Ironically, at no point does Katara show any appreciation of the fact that Zuko is setting aside his firebending supremacist attitude completely for her sake. So maybe that's not it.

Ah... is it because of how he, and he alone, was ready to help her go on this journey of revenge...?! Why, ironically, the only reason why ONLY Zuko goes on this journey is incredibly artificial and fake: this IS intended as Katara's "field trip" with Zuko. None of the field trips make sense, from a logical standpoint, as duo journeys. I've mentioned it to a few people: Sokka and Zuko could have brought Toph with them to the Boiling Rock, a metal location where her abilities would be VERY useful, used her as a false prisoner and turned her in as a captured ally of the Avatar's, who 100% will bait him into coming here to rescue her so that the Fire Nation can get him next! A cover as strong as that one might actually get them further along on that rescue attempt than what they did in canon. But this CANNOT BE... because it was Sokka's field trip with Zuko so nobody else is invited, even if they're very much not doing anything else (as is the case with Toph). Aang? Why didn't everyone join the firebending discovery with Zuko and Aang? They weren't doing ANYTHING in the Western Air Temple at the time. They very much could have gone with them too. But they don't. And that's exactly why Katara's trip works exactly as it does: it's the solo journey with Katara and Zuko, and the ONLY way to make it work is to show Sokka and Aang completely opposed to the concept of finding Yon Rha. I'm not saying I think Sokka and Aang would have been on board if they're allowed to remain IC... but they could have wanted to go on this trip with Katara regardless of not agreeing with what she wanted to do. Hell, as is OBVIOUS: Kya is Sokka's mom too. His opinions, his feelings on this subject, should matter just as much as Katara's do, and fuck anyone who pretends otherwise. These two are NOT supposed to be the well-known unhealthy siblings Zuko and Azula, who each got one parent in their corner and therefore the other parent treated them like they were worthless or a monster. Hakoda and Kya were parents to BOTH their children, and any narrative or interpretation that attempts to say that ONLY Katara's opinion on Kya matters is immediately ruled out, for me, as absolute bullshit spouted by someone not worth listening to. Point blank.

Also, the fact that Zuko USES Sokka to gain this information about the southern raiders, and then doesn't even extend the chance to Sokka to join them? When Sokka is basically his new best buddy? That... does not make sense. It basically portrays Zuko as a disloyal asshole who takes advantage of his friends for his purposes and tosses them aside, disregarding their feelings whenever it suits him.

So Sokka's treatment at the hands of this episode is just deplorable. Both Zuko and Katara are HORRIBLE to him... but Katara is our focus here, she's actively hurts Sokka and then proceeds to not care. Because that's how she has operated so far, and that's how she always will.

Hence: we have a long, long tradition of Katara not treating Sokka fairly all across the show. The reasons why it's not a fair or balanced relationship at all is because Sokka typically pays the price for being a dick to Katara: either she inflicts the punishment herself, such as when he's disrespectful in the Drill and she smacks him with the slurry, or the narrative inflicts some magical punishment instead that CONSTANTLY proves that Sokka is not allowed to be a dick without facing consequences for it. Does he ALWAYS learn the lesson? Sure he doesn't! But the consequences for it NEVER stop. He doesn't get away with being a jerk to his sister. That's forbidden. But Katara? She's allowed to get away with it every single time! And the reason why it gets worse and worse is because we went from relatively silly/comedic things, in which Katara did not apologize because "it's funny that she didn't apologize", to NOT funny things at all, such as this scene in Southern Raiders. Even just a troubled glance at Sokka, or a slight hesitation after seeing how hurt he is, would be enough for me: there's NOTHING. She doubles down and keeps charging ahead. Zero thoughts or concerns given to her brother.

If this isn't why you have issues with Katara, well, I don't know why it might be the case in your case x'D But I absolutely attest that the combination of "mom friend", "selective compassion particularly when it comes to her brother" and "absolute imperviousness to consequences for her mistakes" are the things that fully caused my initial appreciation of her character to shift into ambivalence and then into full blown dislike once I reached Book 3.

Worth noting: THIS IS A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SHOW'S WRITING. Boiled down to basics, written by any more competent hands, I don't think Katara would have acted the way she did often, ESPECIALLY in episodes like The Awakening or The Southern Raiders. I categorically refuse to write Katara in my stories as someone who gets free passes for EVERYTHING she does. I also refuse to portray her as the mom friend, particularly in Gladiator. There's a lot of depth you can give this character! So much you can do, so much worth exploring... and canon just settled for stunting her and then only bringing her out to play in ways that make her unpleasant, not particularly bright and extremely resistant to character development even after allegedly learning lessons (see how her initial behavior around Hama, who shows red flags often, isn't all that different from how it was with Jet? There's only a handful of moments where it looks like Katara MIGHT be wary, and yet they're quickly overcome by her excitement, which Hama manipulates in her favor until she does the bloodbending reveal). So I'm NOT saying Katara had no potential... but I am saying the show itself failed her, big time, because of how she was written. A quick glance through the transcript of the Puppetmaster to confirm my memories that Katara shows no sign of concern over Hama when Sokka finds her suspicious reveals that, after Hama shows them her comb and that she's from the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka, and Sokka alone, apologizes for suspecting her of being sketchy. Nothing from Aang, even though he was part of it too. Nothing from Toph, either. And certainly nothing from Katara. Only Sokka apologizes. As usual.

So... what does this tell you? What does this tell any of us? That Katara's development is... erratic, at best. That it's not linear isn't a bad thing, but that it contradicts itself non-stop, that her core traits come and go willy-nilly as the plot demands it, that her motivations to do things (like forgiving Zuko) don't add up to her experiences or to any lead-up we've witnessed, is most certainly not good.

If I were to rewrite ATLA, the main characters I'd want to rewrite into making a lot more sense than they do, and making their arcs actually logical, are Zuko and Katara. I'd definitely add a few rewrites for Iroh, particularly to make him WAY more accountable for shit than he ever was, and to show he's not universally loved and shouldn't be, since people would have very reasonable grievances with him. I'd also rewrite a handful of things with Aang, too. Toph, full-stop, deserves a growth arc of her own beyond getting stronger and getting used to having friends. Girl has the range. They just never let her explore it. And of course, I'd change a fair few elements of Azula's writing as well. But I feel like no characters would warrant a deeper intervention than Zuko and Katara, precisely because they constantly fail to live up to all the stuff people keep pretending they're flawless exhibits of.

And this is one more issue we've got going on with Katara:

The fandom ABSOLUTELY has been unfair to Katara. A lot of people hate her for no reason. A lot of people who potentially have unexamined racism making their hearts' choices for them and they despise her just because she dared not have fully-white skin. A lot of people pick completely ridiculous things to get angry at her, such as people who HATE HER because she's "rude to Zuko". Just, fuck off. That's about the stupidest reason to hate this character and stupid reasons for that have been heard plenty.

But Katara's fans have become... reactionary. They appear think that any criticism to her character NEEDS to be fought off with "she was right tho" or "she has every reason to act this way" or "she's HUMAN she's allowed to make mistakes you heathen!! That's what a flawed character is like!"

Here's the kicker, though: if you have justifications and excuses for every little unpleasant thing Katara EVER does? You're basically taking a dump on her character yourself and saying she IS flawless.

Flaws in characters are bad things that cannot be justified. They can be funny! They can be annoying. They can be infuriating. But they're things that inconvenience other characters, that hurt them, that show they're not above or beyond doing harmful things! All of what I listed in this crazy long post are Katara's flaws. The reason why I don't like the way these flaws were handled are all the things I already have talked about: no accountability for flaws is basically saying that these flaws don't matter. No follow-up, no lead-up, means Katara is allowed to be as much of an ass as she wants to be and nobody cares: THIS IS NOT FAIR. This is not how ANY character should be written. This is the core reason why I've spent years feuding with Zuko and Iroh: they get away with shit they should NOT get away with, EVER. They're not held accountable for so much they should be. This happens to Katara too. particularly in her dynamcis with her brother. And when people see those flaws and just start listing reasons why it's actually okay? All you're doing is dehumanizing these characters to pretend everything they EVER do is fine.

Also worth noting... character flaws are the way characters grow. If a character is DEEPLY flawed, you know what kind of work you have cut out for you as a writer. If you're writing a story heavily steeped on character development? Then those flaws are VITAL to the work you have to do in order to develop these characters!

But when Zuko is unnecessarily violent and you're told "it's because his culture and family are!", you rightfully assume that as he drifts away from Fire Nation ideology, Zuko WILL grow less violent. Then, you watch how he picks an unnecessary fight with Aang in the finale because everyone's being lazy, an EXTREMELY violent fight at that, and you contrast his earlier behavior with it and... where's the difference, exactly? How did he grow or learn better if violence is STILL his immediate reaction to anything he doesn't like?

Thus, when Katara's flaws get overlooked, ignored, disregarded? What kind of development does Katara get, if none of her flaws are addressed in a way that makes it look like she's genuinely learned any lessons? At least, none of the worst, biggest, glaring flaws were addressed. None of the things that she SHOULD be troubled by and that she shouldn't be happy with herself over, especially after seeing how she hurts people with her actions. This isn't cool. This isn't a fun way to write a character. And it's so glaringly unpleasant when you can so very easily contrast this with the well-known terrible flaw Sokka displays early on: sexism! And then he gets his ass kicked by Suki and he learns to respect the Kyoshi Warriors... and we never see him displaying that particular flaw again. THAT is what growth looks like! What can we point to with Katara that remotely compares to this? That she accepted Zuko? Yeah, no, that sincerely could not count any less. Her personal arc CANNOT be about Zuko. That she got over her mom's death? She didn't. So that's not it either. That she helped Aang save the world? So her personal arc was about Aang and not herself? Was her whole role in the story to play Aang's cheerleader, then? Because if that's it... she was doing that just fine at it since day one. She's the only person who faithfully believed the Avatar would return well before Aang turned up in her life, if the first episode's introduction is to be believed.

So... what, exactly, was Katara's arc? If it's just her waterbending skills, then she's as stunted as Toph, unexplored and underdeveloped and left to just strengthen her fighting skills while Aang and Zuko and Sokka are getting full character arcs, even if very lowkey but very much effective in Sokka's case, where they develop and grow (or they should) into the men they're supposed to be to end the war! Why don't Katara and Toph get similar arcs? Why aren't they challenged on a level that actually provides them with lasting, solid, provable growth, where you can look at them where they started out and see how they ended up and conclude their journey was beautiful?

I insist... writing. Weak writing. Failures to understand/develop characters properly. And of course, lack of accountability in storytelling. I wrote that one focusing mostly on Zuko... but it's very much applicable to every character who fails to own up to the things they should and deserve to face consequences for.

Anyway... this is what I'd say about Katara atm. I'm not 100% sure this is everything because I might have overlooked some stuff that also made Katara's character kind of backfire (while I'm no Kataang hater, I 100% agree that the ship should have been written better too, and after writing them whenever I have, it's honestly kind of ridiculous how such an easy ship could get fucked over so badly by weird writing choices...). Whether you agree with these assessments or not, ultimately, there are valid reasons to feel offput by Katara and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Most of all when you DID appreciate and cherish the character once before, but her fans just jump to the conclusion that you must be a mindless hater to think she's anything but flawless (this, while claiming they love that she's flawed, then they proceed to reveal they have no idea what a flaw is...).

(final note: SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO ANSWER! Super lengthy answer to make up for it, I hope :((( sorry)

#anon #I am not tagging the character directly but I bet this is gonna show up in her tag anyway because Tumblr gonna Tumbl #look #if you're the kind of katara fan who cannot stand a single word against her #just don't read this for your sanity of mind #... but if you go ahead and do it anyway? #don't come back at me with a million arguments to prove your fave is indeed flawless #because you're basically just spitting upwards at that point #and further proving that you do not understand character growth or development in the least #she's not a goddamn religious figure she's a fictional character #every fictional character that's worth something is flawed #and flaws are not always going to be cutesy pretty things #such is the case with Katara #the writing of this show is a mess in many regards #but they fucked up in particular with some characters the fandom adores #and I hate how the fandom acts like that's not the case at all #just to take trips into delululand and absolve them of every single thing they did wrong #and all the very deserved consequences for their worst actions #because the show itself dropped the ball hard enough in that respect for the fandom to do the same #you do you #but no argument will change my mind #and if none will change yours? #... skip past this post :') #it's a free world

[botherkupo]

i think people let nostalgia blind them a little when it comes to atla. don’t get me wrong, it’s great cartoon and i’ve rewatched it countless times but i also recognise it’s fine for the live action to make changes because that’s what happens when you adapt something. the live action is not perfect, but i had fun watching it and it feels like some people are just watching to nitpick and hate

Big agree. There are weak spots in the cartoon and also weak spots in the live action show. Are both enjoyable shows, though? Yes.

And that’s what I feel people can’t grasp. They’re like oooh they cut this, or why did they add that, or this character isn’t the same blah blah — and like yeah it’s not the same. I had zero interest in watching a replica with real people. I’ll just watch the cartoon and enjoy it

Like shows with real people have a lot of limitations, and not just because of budgets. It shouldn’t be news to people that there would be changes and a lot of stuff will get condensed, cut, or adapted in a different way. That was always going to happen.

I’ve seen people complain about Bumi and I’m like you know what I really loved the live action show Bumi. It’s a different take on it — him feeling bitter, showing obvious trauma from the pressure of ruling during a war that’s lasted this long, and being more unhinged rather than all super goofy guy like hey Aang just wait till you realise who I am. It’s different, more serious, and that’s okay. You can still enjoy cartoon Bumi. He ain’t going anywhere

Ppl complain about Katara, and like yeah I get it. She’s not as “fierce” in some aspects. But she suits this version of atla. She suits feeling more like a younger sister instead of a pseudo mum. She suits getting angry when Sokka treats her like a little girl rather than angry he doesn’t wash his own socks. She suits being paralyzed during fights at first because she has major ptsd and has been hiding her bending gif so long. It is realistic and fits the show, just as Cartoon Katara fit the cartoon and is still there. You can enjoy her. Cartoon Katara is not going anywhere

Like please will ppl stop looking for the things to complain about and instead see what we’re being given — an adaptation that is intense, funny, emotional and yes different.

We get Jet and the freedom fighters bombing places in omashu than wanting to flood a fire nation village. That’s not a bad thing. It cut out a whole lot of unnecessary stuff and also gave us an emotional scene with Jet and Katara. Did the part where she freezes him and says goodbye feel less dramatic? Yeah, honestly I would have been down to see her angrier. But I also think part of that is the limitations with special effects and waterbending (which always looks the weakest). the actress playing Katara is also dojng her interpretation of the character. (And can I just Jet was perfectly cast and I couldn’t imagine a better Jet)

So we didn’t get Sokka being with Jet? Who cares. Sokka’s story arc is focusing on different things. I loved how his interactions with Suki went. I love even more the scene where he’s listening in on Hakoda and Bato’s conversation and that line “some people aren’t made to be responsible for others lives” or whatever it was. It was so powerful.

And the cave of two lovers being resolved through family love? YES. I love that so much. Like thank you for giving non-romantic love a moment to shine. Katara and Sokka’s argument in that cave had so much weight and emotional intensity. It’s different from the arguments we get in the cartoon and that’s okay. Their dynamic is slightly different and that’s okay. THE CARTOON IS STILL THERE. YOU CAN ENJOY THE CARTOON OKAY

And honestly I could scream for days about what they’ve been doing with Zuko and Aang. I love them both so much and I love the extra stuff we’ve been getting with them. The Blue spirit stuff and that scene after was sooooooooo good. The little smile, the way they start to connect, and then Aang says t he wrong thing (bringing up Ozai) and Zuko lashes out and it’s just perfect ahhhhh

Also Zuko actually fighting back in the Agni Kai but hesitating to hurt his father was such a good choice. I love the cartoon for having him cry and beg to the end, but I also love the live actuon show for giving us something different. I WANT TO SEE THESE KIND OF CHANGES

And maybe I’m in the minority for that and I really don’t care if ppl think my opinion is rubbish. I love the cartoon. I love tye live action show

I wish ppl would understand that it’s okay they are different

#atla #netflix atla spoilers #atla live action spoilers #wooo this is long #i could keep talking about this as well but I’m hungry