#Conventionally girly things were Toph is so masculine and Tom boy

[creativealmonds]

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!

Katara is hot-headed, stubborn, will throw down when, sticks to her guns. When her mother died, Katara ran outside to get her dad when their village was being actively attacked and ran back inside their house to see her mother’s burnt corpse in their home. It’s not shown, obviously, but heavily implied. Then, she, being the only girl between 5 and 25, is tasked by her father, the chief, when he and the men go to war, for her and Sokka to take care of the village and for Sokka to protect Katara.

And without context, this is kind of patronizing and misogynistic but Katara is the LAST water bender in the entirety of the South Pole. In one of the comics, Hakoda goes all over looking for a teacher for her but can’t find one. The reason the Fire Nation attacked their village was to kill the last waterbender. Hakoda’s wife was killed and Katara and Sokka’s mother was killed because of her abilities.

And since Katara wasn’t allowed to grief, because she took over in place of her mother, cooking, sewing their clothes, washing their clothes, taking care of children, helping her grandmother deliver babies and because she was the shoulder to cry on for her brother, the grief, the anger, the self hatred that it was her abilities that got her mother killed, got shoved down.

So when she is telling Zuko to watch himself or she will kill him or lashing out at Sokka, it isn’t from a place of malice. The gang is her family, a family that has always been threatened by the Fire Nation. Zuko spurned her friendship at Ba Sing Se and Aang was killed, for a moment.

She is kind and protective, stubborn and empathetic, brash and loving. She is hurt and scarred and scared and fucking angry. She is sad and lost and alone.

She will give you to clothes off her back if you need them but if you cross her or her family she will cut. you. down.

(Quick aside: I hate it when people portray Katara as giving Zuko less food while they were at the the WAT or being overly cruel. Yes, WE have seen Zuko go through the Redemption Arc of the Century but Katara hasn’t. Last she saw was him trying to capture her and Aang, again the same thing he has been going since he met her. Like, Katara helped a Fire Nation town, she tries to heal Iroh when Azula shot him with fire. As the series goes on she, along with Sokka, learn to see Fire Nation people as PEOPLE. She is not cruel to Zuko, she is wary with good reason to be. But she is not cruel.)

I just watched Avatar for the first time all the way through, and yeah, it’s great, but the one thing that surprised me was how different Katara was compared to the fandom interpretation I’d seen and internalized before watching.

Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.

Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.

Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.

Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.

The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.