#commentary: katara

[linootte]

Experimenting. Toph and Sokka are hanging out & chilling somewhere else

[tategaminu]

You were right, he even outgrew you

[chaoticly-shy-dragon]

so I am working - dragging my feet - through natla (1 episode left) and I thought I would share some of my thoughts and commentary:

Iroh: You must use your tact, your empathy-

Season 1 Zuko: [looks back at him]

*

Canon s1 ep3 Zuko: You... are working with Zhao. Willingly.

Show s1 ep3 Zuko: Yes? What's the problem? He is annoying but that's mostly it.

Canon!Zuko: UNCLE! DID YOU PUT SPIRIT MUSHROOMS IN MY TEA AGAIN?! I'M HAVING LUCID NIGHTMARES!!

Other random thoughts:

[Suki proceeds to defy gravity with her fan to impress Sokka]

Me, exasperation incarnate: Suki, I didn't know you were an airbender!

and

[Previous incarnation avatar bashing sesh]

Me: [...] But I love Zuko-Iroh interactions

[The one scene. Zuko is shouting how they can't just ask around. Iroh is offering advice until he gets distracted by street food.]

Me: The fact Zuko stood there for a few seconds trying to figure what this proverb means before he realizes its very much not a proverb - cackling

Second-hand long-suffering friend, who is at the end of her wits after hearing me talk about the butchering of Kyoshi's character for 20 minutes: XDDDD He legit thought rice had sth to do with it XD

there is more but it's more of

Oh no, he is hot.

And oh no he is also hot

Why is every extremist hot?!

Bumi is very bitter. Very.... Jaded.

Aang has no situational awareness: He did not just ask Zhao (Zuko too) to let him go so he can go save other enemies of the Fire Nation. He didn't.

Also. Why the firebender this, firebender that. Are the Fire Nation non-benders saints or something??

Mai casually says Ozai sucks for not thinking Azula is perfect <- Me: I mean she is absolutely right but she would not say that.

Azula's whole. Thing. I felt the narrative was trying very desperately to make her seem competent and clever but the fact that Iroh's thoughts insinuated the frontal attack on the Northern Water Tribe was her idea left me in stitches

But yeah. They nerfed Azula

Zuko - feral, bloodthirsty, a loser. <- Me: Oh my god they captured his essence! Minus the honor thing!

ZUKO NOT SAYING HONOR

THE TRAVESTY OF SOKKA NOT WEARING A DRESS

I WANT SOKKA IN KYOSHI WARRIOR UNIFORM

Katara not having any emotions ::: Aang walks all over her saying he can't support her in her fight against the patriarchy that is actually just Pakku and Yugoda or whatever was happening in the 7th episode: Katara doesn't blow up at him. Sokka calling her a little girl and never actually apologizing about the whole Jet accusation especially when he did the same with the Mechanist. : Katara doesn't blow up at him

Me: sounds fake but okay

At this point when Toph comes along Katara will let her not be a part of the Team (no Gaang just Team Avatar) and not contribute and not bond and NO FOUND FAMILY TROPE

Aang teaching Katara waterbending, Aang not goofing off, No Kataraang (not even a smidge) - something in me shriveled up and died.

Why is Azula soft??????

And why is Ty Lee assertive and forthcoming??? Just?? Why????

And finally, my second favorite:

Azula, trying very hard not to mention Zuko's ludicrous tenacity: Commander Zhao is a great asset... Maybe he needs better resources to showcase his true potential.

Zhao who barely passed his exams according to Jee the gossip queen: Yes, I do need the best resources. Give me all the 'sources.

[natlacentral]

I'm not gonna post my full write-up, but this was a really enlightening listen and clocks in at about 20 minutes if you want to give it a whirl. Here are a few of my favourite tidbits from Albert Kim and Jabbar Raisani's commentary on the official trailer.

They try to visit lots of locations because Avatar is a road show and they want to show the expansiveness of the world

Kim loved the eco message of the original and wants to convey it in the adaption as well

Raisani says Appa is a core member of the team who they wanted to bring to life as much as any of the humans

"Katara is the character who really recognises Aang for who he is, and that is a symbol of hope. And the return of the Avatar for her means that hope has returned to a world that essentially has lost hope for the last hundred years. She's the first one to see that, and over the course of the season, we're gonna see that message of hope spread throughout the world."

The juxtaposition of Katara's POV and Sokka's POV and their clashing opinions is an important dynamic especially in the beginning of the season and informs who they are as brother and sister and their journey coming together to support Aang.

They chose to choreograph and shoot the first Agni Kai, which they describe as the defining moment of Zuko's life, because you understand a lot more of Zuko's character when you see it in real life.

The Agni Kai goes to the core of Zuko's story. "What did his father really want? Does he want him to succeed and find the Avatar and come back? Is he using him against his sister? What is really required of him or desired of him by his father, and then is he going to do that or is he going to do what he thinks is right?"

Momo is a digital creature. They use a puppet so the actors know what they're doing.

It was important to them that Sokka not just be the butt of the joke but have his own humour

"Despite the burden that all these characters are facing and the fact that the fate of the world rests in their hands, they are just kids, y'know? Aang's a goofy twelve-year-old and Katara and Sokka aren't much older and we wanted to make sure that we conveyed that, because that's a really important part of not just the characters but of the story. And if they are gonna be these harbingers of hope, as we said, they needed to express that through their kind of childlike sense of optimism."

Commander Zhao is one of the main villains of the first season and primary antagonist for our heroes. Ken Leung brought humanity and ambition to the character. We see his ego swell over the course of the season as he gets more and more power and comes closer and closer to capturing the Avatar.

Suki will talk about how when you're not a bender, you have to be better than the benders. The Kyoshi Warriors have refined their combat to the point that they can more than hold their own against firebenders.

Sokka and Suki will have a "beautiful journey" in finding commonality in not being benders and what it means within this world.

While Kyoshi can exist in the real world, Omashu can only exist in fantasy, so they built it from scratch. Kim and Raisani would have conversations about the colour of the rooftops and mechanics of the delivery system. They want Omashu to be a city that even new audiences will look at and think, "Wow, that somewhere I want to go to. That's a place I want to visit."

They tried to do practical wherever possible. They'd start with actors and everything around them, build out as far as they possibly can, then extend from there. For the shot of Aang flying over Omashu they started with actors on rigs, filmed on green screen, then did a full digital shot.

They call the sequence, "The Joy of Flight." Like the animated series, they have scenes that are just fun. Aang and Teo could fly from Point A to Point B but they want to make things engaging and fun to watch.

All actors doing bending had to go through extensive training before shooting. The core cast did a six week bootcamp where they had to learn all four bending techniques.

Utkarsh Ambudar (King Bumi) was eager to do everything himself. While they did use stunt performers for parts, he was always down to do another take despite being exhausted.

The Avatar State is the ultimate power, to be treated seriously, so they don't have Aang going into it as much as the original first season so it felt special and communicated that Aang could only access it in specific circumstances. They've tweaked the rules for when and how he can access Avatar State.

"There are certain things we are going to modify, going to change, and hopefully fans will see that it's all for the good of the story as a whole and in dimension-alizing the story and bringing it from one medium to the other."

[shipcestuous]

on sokka/katara, it’s such a compelling setup! they’ve grown up very isolated in a small tribe, without anyone else around their age except each other. they both had a limited view of the opposite sex, with really only one another for reference, beyond distant memories of their parents. their father abandoned them at a very young age so sokka has to become the “man of the house, a father-like role, and takes very seriously his responsibility to protect their tribe, especially katara. their mother died at a very young age so katara takes on the role of mother, so much so that sokka can only see katara’s face when he tries to remember their mother. If aang had never come into the picture, it’s unclear if either one of them would ever have considered leaving their small tribe, so what that would’ve meant for marriage in the future is also very interesting.

i wish sokka/katara was more popular because there is so much potential there! especially with the new live action series unintentionally giving us so much more to work with lol. sokka’s role as protector of the tribe is given more emphasis and taken more seriously. katara helping sokka with his armor, sokka teasing katara, their interactions in general- the tone is less like siblings than in the animated series. also sokka and katara being the ones to go in the cave of LOVERS instead of aang and katara is a very VERY bold decision, and there is so much to explore there!

YES! I love to see enthusiasm for Sokka and Katara.

It's very interesting to consider what might have happened if they had never left their tribe.

I love the two of them stepping into their parents' roles, both in the tribe and with each other.

I bet a really good fic could turn a lot of people into shippers because there's so much good stuff here.

[damnedance]

do you ever think about bumi always wearing plain sand-ish coloured clothes when he’s not using a uniform instead of traditional water tribe or air nomad clothes/colours bc is just one of the many ways he externalises without saying it that he never felt like he belonged, to either of them (water tribe and air nomad cultures)?? cause i do, i think about it a lot.

[vifetoile]

my only comment (because this is a great analysis) is that in The Southern Raiders, Aang does eventually come around and gives Katara his blessing; he says that facing her mother's killer is something she has to do.

now we can argue over whether Aang is genuinely making room for Katara's justified wrath, or if he's expecting that Katara will come around to his point of view and forgive. Katara does not forgive, even if she does leave Yon Rha alive (imo, she picked up enough to know that letting Yon Rha live as a failure is in fact the worst fate she could inflict on him). Still, in Avatar, especially in really deep episodes like the Southern Raiders, every line stands for a lot of character work, and I want to give Aang his due.

Still, excellent analysis of the show and of fandom

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 a 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.

[the-badger-mole]

It's so funny to me when people say I only ship Zutara because I want to be Katara in that scenario. No, stupid! I don't want to be Katara. I want to be the character sitting on the side and watching this messy romance unfold while I provide color commentary. I want to gossip with Iroh about Zuko's awkward crush on Katara. I want to be the older sister figure Katara turns to for life advice who sometimes teases her about the hottie who respects her as a fighter and helps with camp parent duties. I want to be the one who tells Zuko to stop being a coward and tell Katara how he feels already. I absolutely self insert into the Zutara dynamic, but I'm not picturing myself as Katara...I'm picturing myself as Jun.

[sirenalpha]

I'm seeing so much commentary on people reacting to the live action atla toning down Sokka's misogyny

and I'm over here like this is a total non-issue because in my own rewrite of the show I already did that exact thing, it makes complete sense to do it and they should do it because it's a weaker aspect of the original show

Sokka's early misogyny is utterly cartoonish in comparison to the set up of the rest of the SWT, it doesn't feel realistic for the only teenaged boy in a dying culture surrounded by adult women with a grandmother who left a more out and out misogynist society to act the way he does

how Sokka "resolves" his misogyny is equally cartoonish, I never liked how in The Warriors of Kyoshi literally episode 4 of the show makes a teen girl compromise her own culture with a female only fighting tradition teach a boy who is supremely rude and disrespectful to her and then still be attracted to him afterwards, it's more misogyny to fix misogyny and is very obviously men writing about how to fix misogyny especially as they have Aang make a joke about Sokka wearing a dress after going through how meaningful the fighting costume is and how a lot of Asian clothing with hanfu influences like atla borrows from would have men in what to western eyes would be dresses, Aang has already seen multiple male authority figures in robes, the joke makes no sense

I also wouldn't consider Sokka's misogyny genuinely resolved after this, consider how the show deals with his romantic relationships with both Yue and Suki and how both can be seen as extensions of how Kataang is treated in the show, rewards for the hero, especially with how Sokka interacts aggressively with Hahn instead of respecting Yue's wishes whatever her reasons for them, I think an argument can be made that Yue's death is a fridging for Sokka's storyline rather than or in combination with being a consequence of Aang's failure as an avatar or the culmination of her own storyline where she fulfills her duties as a leader to protect her own people

Beyond his romantic relationships, while Sokka drops a lot of his more misogynistic language with Katara, he doesn't support her when she faces off with the NWT leaders to learn waterbending, and he still leaves the caretaking and food preparation and grocery shopping to her which is more common than him going out to hunt or gather in order to provide for the group while he takes a leadership role like determining their travel schedule and routes, it is not an even division of labor and falls along traditional sex stereotypes

In addition to his typical duties to the group, Sokka also remains invested in the trappings of masculinity after ep4, he's concerned about what's manly and how he compares to Jet for example, there's no investigation or interrogation in his interest in meat and hunting and how they relate to masculinity and his misogyny, in the episode with Piando, his insecurity as a non-bender is resolved by giving him a new male mentor and a new martial skill, sword fighting, which is masculine in both western and Asian cultures rather than assuaging his self esteem issues in any less stereotypically masculine ways, I also think it was done so he could compare more favorably to Zuko, another male character, and even his interest in engineering and mechanics comes with a male mentor and is a traditionally masculine pursuit

the show's poor handling of misogyny also extends beyond Sokka, with the NWT, the show acts as if Pakku is the only reason the tribe is misogynistic and the only consequences to that misogyny is that women can't waterbend and there are arranged marriages, and that both the NWT and Pakku's misogyny is resolved by allowing only Katara to learn to waterbend which she doesn't even earn on her own merits, she gets the opportunity because Pakku likes her grandmother

none of this is realistic, misogyny is not because of one bad apple, Pakku doesn't make Yue's arranged marriage, Chief Arnook does, he picked Hahn for her, and the show acts as if Arnook has no authority to compel Pakku to teach Katara or any ability to persuade him in order to reduce his culpability in the NWT's misogyny as its leader to make him a more respectable character so it's not uncomfortable when Aang and Sokka follow his orders in the battle later on, but women not being able to bend and forced into arranged marriages is still status quo when the gaang leaves, Yue's just dead

I'm not even convinced the show runners understand what's wrong with arranged marriage, the issue is not Yue can't be with Sokka who she likes and at most has a slight crush on cuz she's only known him for like two days, it's that she's being treated as male property, a broodmare, and a vehicle to ensure Hahn receives the throne because her father has no male heir and picked some guy to succeed him instead, like it's not explicit in the show but that is the implication based on the historical reality of princesses in arranged marriages, and the show has her get out of it only through death idc that she ascends to being a spirit, it's still a teen girl that dies

There's also no discussion by the show of the Earth Kingdom's misogyny when it has the exact same shit going on, Toph is the only female earthbender in the show not including avatars, there might have been a female earthbender in the background when Katara broke them out of prison, but I'm not really counting that, the entire army and Dai Li are all made up of men, the EK might even be worse because the show doesn't demonstrate that women and girls even have the capacity to earthbend aside from Toph and avatars and Toph doesn't even learn from a human, she has to learn from animals, the show treats this as commentary on her disability but the show has no compelling reason why it can't also be commentary on her sex, Toph was also originally supposed to be a boy so this could have ended up so much worse there literally would have been no female earthbenders aside from avatars at all, I'm not counting Oma as she might just be a mythological figure not a real person that once lived

The Fire Nation kinda barely avoids the same issue, Azula is the only named female firebender aside from avatars in the show but she has two female sidekicks who despite being non-benders show martial skill and there are clearly female soldiers and guards in the FN military so there are much stronger implications of female firebenders existing and being completely allowed to train their abilities and that Azula isn't exceptional in that respect like Toph is, only for being a prodigy with blue fire

Azula was also originally supposed to have an arranged marriage in s3 and they dropped it in favor of showing that royal and noble girls could casually date in the FN which has wild implications for women's empowerment in the country more so than but especially in combination with the fact women can train and join the military (which is why I say the FN is not fascist it's literally the least misogynistic country aside from Kyoshi and by like a country mile so it's literally not misogynistic enough) not that the show does anything more than minor teen drama with it

again, the vast majority of this misogyny is completely unremarked upon by the show especially after s1 when they leave the NWT, it is clearly a fictional world made by men with no true understanding of misogyny just a vague awareness that misogyny is bad and what the really obvious and outdated examples of it are, this is a narrative inconsistency in the show to have the examples and commentary on misogyny be so cartoonish in the beginning and then disappear after s1

your options to resolve this inconsistency is to either go all in with more realistic misogyny and provide commentary on all of it but this takes effort and will be divisive, or take the easier route and ease off the cartoonish-ness of it and comment less on it to avoid drawing attention to all instances of misogyny in the show

obviously Netflix was gonna do the latter

(not me tho, I'm making it less cartoony and dealing with it in my rewrite)

[natlacentral]

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A post shared by Allure Magazine (@allure)

allure If you ask us, #Katara started the “I’m Cold” makeup trend 💙 Watch as actress #Kiawentiio walks us through some of Katara’s beauty looks from #Netflix’s new series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” 🌊

Images courtesy of Netflix

[shipcestuous]

in ATLA, I don't think the Southern Water Tribe had been *so small* for quite long enough for there to be a lot of inbreeding, but there was probably at least a bit. (plus, imagine if it'd gone on longer?) I imagine they'd probably have to become a bit more lax re: the incest taboo. which I'm mostly bringing up for the purposes of Katara/Sokka, how *they* might feel about it, and how others might react to them if they got together

That's really interesting speculation that I can't remember considering or seeing discussed before. Given the climate of where they live, I'm sure they're rather isolated. And that they have to subsist in smaller populations with less selection for mates.

[theweeklydiscourse]

Zutarians when Katara isn’t used as a prize for Zuko’s redemption arc and doesn’t fall to her knees and suck Zuko’s dick the second he isn’t a racist cunt toward her and instead actually loves Aang, someone who is her best friend and a fellow genocide survivor who understands her trauma and treats her with utmost respect

This is so exciting…my first deranged anon! I’m glad that my humble Zutara discourse could reach you and stir such strong emotions in your heart.

This ask serves as a reminder of the disingenuous nature of antis when it comes to discussing the politics of ATLA. Look closely at the provocative language anon uses as well as their hyperbole, notice how extreme of a characterization it is. See how much of the show they need to rewrite and omit to give their argument a leg to stand on. Notice how they invoke “genocide” and “racism”, not to make any sort of coherent commentary on the show, but to bolster their ship and make their claims seem less outrageous.

According to this anon, we should abandon our tastes in fictional ships and instead *checks notes* be morally obliged ship the two characters on the basis of shared trauma…what a compelling reason lol. Also, the “treats her with utmost respect” is not lost on me, apparently in anon’s mind “utmost respect” includes kissing someone without their consent and dismissing their trauma because their response to it doesn’t align with your values.

[longing-for-rain]

Ember Island Players…Racist Caricatures or Meta Commentary?

This episode was supposed to be a fun filler episode to recap the events of the show in a silly way before the series finale, but it’s managed to become arguably one of the most controversial episodes in the fandom. Over the years, Aang’s possessive behavior towards Katara has been rightfully criticized, but there are always people who attempt to justify everything Aang does.

Apparently, the latest iteration of this is the claim that—wait for it—we should be sympathetic towards Aang and give him a pass in The Ember Island Players because he felt “emasculated” due to the supposed “feminization” of his culture.

I’ve been called racist for saying this is a reach, but it’s more than a reach. It’s an entire acrobatics routine; a level of media illiteracy that shows a lack of understanding of the point of that episode.

Yes, Aang’s character is portrayed in a silly, mocking way. So are all of the other characters. That’s the point; the episode was a filler, a gimmick, and the underlying comedy is the fact that all of the characters are reacting to exaggerated, one-dimensional versions of their own personalities.

For example:

Katara is portrayed as an “overemotional crybaby” in her own words, and is constantly giving motivational speeches and crying

Sokka’s “comedic relief” archetype is played up to the point his lines are just corny one-liners

Zuko is portrayed as an angsty, whiny pretty-boy who acts like a bratty asshole at all times

Toph is a huge buff guy (although in this case, it’s a play on how her character was originally going to be a “jock” type male character)

As for Aang? He’s portrayed as unserious, goofy, and childish. Which—just like all the others—is a jokey exaggeration of his childish demeanor and nature. He’s not even alone in taking offense to his portrayal. All of the characters aside from Toph hate their characters for largely the same reason. They’re being confronted with aspects of themselves that make them insecure. For Aang, it’s his immaturity—and specifically his fears that he’ll be rejected by Katara.

As for why Aang is played by a woman? Well, we don’t actually have to wonder about that, because the creators themselves answer this question in the episode commentary.

Bryan: “It's sort of a self-referential joke. Whenever you do a animated show, they usually want to cast, uh, women...who are, like, in their thirties to play boys, because you never know how long the show is gonna go on, and, you know, as Jack mentioned earlier, boys' voices start cracking.” (source)

Wow, imagine that! An inside joke about the cartoon industry in a show’s meta-episode dedicated to making fun of itself? Impossible!

I’m serious though. The episode transcript is right here. Point me to where exactly there is even the slightest hint of anyone bringing up Aang’s culture and tying his childish behavior to it.

That’s right; it isn’t there. Because that wasn’t the point. Aang’s anger did stem from feeling emasculated, but it had nothing to do with culture and everything to do with his own misogynistic attitudes. He was offended at his portrayal on an individual level. I’m not denying that the issue of oppressive nations using femininity as an insult against men of colonized nations is a very real issue, but that was never a theme present in this episode. We don’t see Aang expressing anger towards the Fire Nation, nor do we see him mention anything about culture. What we see is Aang, individually, feeling insulting that his actor is female and Aang being angry at Katara, individually, because the play suggested she felt more attracted to Zuko than him.

Trying to downplay Aang’s behavior and suggest we coddle him despite his atrocious treatment of Katara is a disingenuous reading of the episode.

Why are you reaching to make an excuse for Aang when if you’re really taking the “the point of the episode is that the play is racially demeaning the characters” angle…and why are you not bringing up Sokka? He’s portrayed as a dumb oaf who is always talking about eating meat. There is a much stronger argument to be made there about caricatures, but Sokka isn’t threatening anyone’s ship so apparently nobody cares.

And while we’re talking about caricatures, how about this crap?

Sorry, Aang stans, but this show and Aang’s character aren’t the enlightened portrayals of anti-colonialism and groundbreaking activism you think they are. It’s pretty clear from the context and the episode itself what the intention here was. It is poorly aged comedy from the early 2000s written by white Americans. And we will continue to critique that, thanks.

[coolest-of-the-beans]

You know in all fairness to that one episode where she her humor was labelled "no-fun" or whatever, her jokes are usually spontaneous and situational. It's opportunistic humor, not curated. Of course she couldn't be funny on command, she's funny when the time is right for it. A well timed dry response. I get that, considering it's my style too.

I think what happens a lot with that kind of humor though is it can be taken at face value or as if the person saying it doesn't know how funny it was. Like, it's humorous in a way that feels unintentional. Which doesn't mean that it is, it's just the consequence of pulling it off in a natural unforced way.

"Katara has no sense of humor."

Katara, ironically, has a dry sense of humor. Just because it gets overshadowed by Sokka's funny antics and Toph's witty one liners doesn't mean she doesn't have one at all. Throughout the whole first season, she is constantly teasing and making fun of Sokka in a light hearted and loving way. In fact, one of the funniest lines in the show (in my opinion) comes from Katara when they were first visiting Omashu.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka trying to figure out Bumi's name. Sokka: I got it! Aang: Yeah? Sokka: He's an earthbender, right? Rocky! [man coughs] Sokka: You know, because of all the rocks Katara: We're gonna keep trying, but that is a good backup.

That line never fails to get a full belly laugh from me. Mae Whitman's delivery of that line is just sheer perfection lol

And when Zuko joins the group, he becomes the target for her teasing.

After Zuko utterly fails at telling Uncle Iroh's tea joke. Zuko: Well, it's funnier when Uncle tells it. Katara: Right. Maybe because he remembers the whole thing. [Everyone laughs]

Katara does have a sense of humor. It's just a little dry. So can we as a fandom stop pretending that she doesn't?

P.S. I don't care that her supposed "lack of humor" was lampshaded in 'Sokka's Master,' that was one episode, and it was wrong anyway. God as much as I like Book 3 I also hate it.

[sokkastyles]

Thinking again about how Katara is portrayed in "Ember Island Players" and how a lot of her objections to the play have to do with how it portrays her as an overly emotional damsel who needs Aang to save her from her wretched existence, and the disrespect of her entire culture and people that is used to portray her as someone who needs a man to rescue her.

Which on one level you can interpret as Fire Nation propaganda, but it's also a meta commentary on the series itself, because Katara does rely on Aang as a savior figure and there are certain scenes that are specifically designed to damsel her so that Aang can be a hero.

It's interesting that the show chose to portray Katara watching herself in that position and specifically show that she doesn't like it, in the same episode that they have the real Aang act like them getting together is a foregone conclusion.

In contrast, although the play changes Katara's relationship to Zuko into something romantic and lurid, they do get one thing right about it.

And that's that Katara is the one making the choices.

Of course they also ramp up the sexuality in a way that is gross, especially considering the context of this being a FN play meant to disparage the other nations, but on a meta level it's also meant to make us, the audience, feel disgusted by a woman who makes overt sexual overtures.

I've seen people (who are anti zutara) say that the play is showing Katara as the colonized woman who falls for the colonizer, but that's not what's happening here. Zuko is not portrayed as dominant by the play, and it wouldn't make sense for the FN to portray him that way, either, since one of the purposes of the play is to portray him as a weak and ridiculous traitor who is ultimately defeated. So the joke, both in-story and the one Bryke want to make at a meta level, seems to be about Katara being more dominant than Zuko. In the play, Katara says that she felt attracted to Zuko from the moment he captured her, yet Zuko is shown shrinking from her overtures. And I just have to find it interesting that this is the joke the show wants to make in an episode where the major conflict is Aang making a pushy overture towards Katara and her rejecting it.

Zutarians frequently talk about how zutara focuses on Katara's agency. I have to agree, and I don't know what the conversations about this were at the time, but I do find it suspect that the show seems to recognize this, but decided to make fun of it at the same time. The episode posits the threat that Katara might choose someone other than Aang as a major conflict in the story, shows us a Katara who feels trapped by her role as Aang's damsel, and then makes fun of her for it and expects us to root for her and Aang to get together.

Meanwhile, we also see the real Katara and Zuko get closer in a way that feels real and organic, we see them exchange banter, we see Katara confident and able to best Zuko verbally but also able to comfort him over his fears about the play, which again focuses on her as the main actor in the relationship. Although Zuko and Katara do have that one scene of them moving away from each other in reaction to being portrayed as a couple by the play, overall their relationship remains unplagued by the insecurity that the play brings out in Katara and Aang, which seems to indicate that the problems in their relationship go beyond the play's parodies and that there is actually some truth there, that Katara really does feel like she has less choice in her relationship with Aang and that Aang seems to fear her choices.

It's really not hard to see why zutara becomes appealing in that context.

[spirantization]

I'm surprised at the hate that Sokka's character arc from NATLA is receiving. To me, Sokka's development and characterization was one of the strongest adaptations the series made.

In the original ATLA, Sokka's character arc revolves around him unlearning his own misogyny. He makes pointedly sexist comments throughout the early episodes like "Leave it to a girl to screw things up!", "There's no way a bunch of girls took us down!", etc.

Sokka's comments have a strong narrative purpose: they give a platform for women in the show (Katara & Suki mostly) to refute his attitude. Katara emphasizes traditional "women's work" (cleaning, cooking, sewing, etc), which forces Sokka to confront its inherent value. Suki is able to prove to him that women can fight too and he learns to respect female warriors. It's a great character arc and it's well-executed.

It's also characterization that is in direct response to the culture and feminism of the 90s and early 00s. The representation of women in the media at that time was...oof. It was not great. One-dimensional love interests whose only purpose is being saved by the male protagonist, mostly. Female protagonists were not as common, and certainly not ones who were depicted as being able to fight, and certainly not in cartoons. Female protagonists in animation were almost exclusively princesses.

ATLA was progressive in this regard. Katara was a complex female character in a time when there were not a lot of them, in media in general but especially in animation and kid's shows. (I grew up in the 90s; there were no characters like Katara in animation on screen for me.) ATLA incorporated the zeitgeist directly into the story, which is why we have Sokka learning to overcome his sexism in his interactions with Strong Female Characters.

If you go back and watch the original cartoon now, Sokka's sexism feels a bit dated. It's a very 90s, Girl Power, "girls can fight too" style of social commentary. It doesn't match with the media landscape of today. We've got 20 years of media with female superheroes behind us. If your message is "girls can fight too!" the response for the most part is going to be "yes, we know that. And?"

So imagine you're adapting the original ATLA for a live-action remake. You want to keep Sokka's character arc intact, but you want to update it for the 2020s. So what do you do? You look at the conversations that are happening today.

The 90s were about "girls can do everything boys can do", but the 20s are over that. The conversation is more about gender: gender expression, gender roles, gender dynamics. What does is mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a man?

Sokka's character arc in NATLA is focused on this question: What does it mean to be a man? At the beginning of the series, it's his identity as a warrior that defines him. He needs to be the warrior, the protector, the leader. He's constantly trying to reaffirm this part of his identity, and it's completely tied up in his perception of his value as a man. Instead of his interactions with Suki being about "how could girls possibly be warriors", it shifts to Sokka saying "I'm ALSO a warrior" and trying to justify that to Suki (and mostly himself).

His arc over the series is about him accepting other aspects of himself and relearning how to define his masculinity. He can still have value as man without being the greatest warrior. He can still have value as a man by using his skills as an engineer. He can still have value as a man by offering compassion and kindness to others, like the little girl with the doll & Yue in her final moments. Instead of rigidly defining himself by a specific set of gender roles & expectations, he learns how to define himself through his own strengths and qualities.

I know there are a lot of people who are upset at this change to Sokka's characterization, and the most common thing I see is that it results in changes to Katara's character and her anger in response to Sokka's comments. I think there are valid criticisms to be made about how the show handled the adaptation of Katara's character, but I won't go there with this. In terms of Sokka and his characterization, it was well-done and thematically consistent with the original. It's not an exact port, and it never needed to be. It's still a feminist arc that centres on unlearning harmful misogynistic worldviews, but the focus has shifted from external (roles of women) to internal (his role as a man). And his journey is one that people would benefit from seeing represented.