#hype her when she was a natural waterbender and picked it up fast

[cuccoamongdragons]

"Villifying" huh? Aang was a 12 year old with god powers and trauma. He's not evil, or a terrible awful person. He did make some terrible choices though in how he treated others and I do think Katara got a large brunt of that.

As for "twisting canon"...

Book 1 Ep. 4 - "The Warriors of Kiyoshi"

Sokka tells the group they've taken too many detours and need to keep moving to make it to the North Pole (where Katara can find a Waterbending Master). Aang makes a new detour to attempt to show off. Then delays even longer to show off even more when he gets fangirls, and turns down helping to prepare supplies for the trip. Leaving Katara to do a shared responsibility by herself. Then he actively projects his feelings of jealousy over her attention by calling her jealous. (He does apologize for that last part later.)

Book 1 Ep. 14 - "The Fortune Teller"

Aang invades Katara's privacy when she has her fortune read. Same episode Meng (a younger girl) follows him around the same way he's doing to Katara and Aang is shown what it looks like to bow out gracefully when someone isn't into you.

Book 1 Ep. 15 - "Bato of the Water Tribe"

Aang hides the message about Katara & Sokka's dad so they won't leave him and go see him even though he knows that is their only living parent and there may not be another chance.

Book 1 Ep. 18 - "The Waterbending Master"

While Aang does stick up for Katara, and helps her. He's also a lil sour about her picking up waterbending faster than him. (Normal kid thing, but also not a good thing for their friendship/relationship.)

Book 2 (Ep. 15 or 16, could be a little off here) "Tales of Ba Sing Se" / "Appa's Lost Days"

After Appa is kidnapped, Aang spends days trashing everybody, especially Katara, who's the most vocal about making decisions that give them the best odds of finding him. After days of this, he goes avatar mode and Katara, the person who has routinely not had her own needs and wants met from the moment her mom died, is the one to comfort him and bring him down. (Did Aang ask her to? No. Is it narratively kinda messed up? Yea.) I could be wrong, but I don't recall him apologizing for how awful he was to them.

Book 3 Ep. 10 "Day of the Black Sun" pt.1

Aang kisses her without consent. (He thinks he might die which is rough, still doesn't make that okay.)

Book 3 Ep. 16 "The Southern Raiders"

Zuko tries to give Katara a chance at closure by telling her where her Mother's murderer is. Aang asks her what she expects to accomplish then compares her mother's murder to Appa's kidnapping and tells her she should forgive. He prods again saying he forgives her for taking Appa then gives her advice on how to manage her feelings.

.

While he is right, I really don't think he set himself up to be someone she feels heard and respected by in how he approached initially and a lot of his past behavior. It just feels hypocritical that he gets to lose control and rage and put his feelings on others, but when she wants to, he says she should forgive and let go. He says I get it, you're angry. Your mother's murder is just like my emotional support animal's kidnapping. He's not evil, he means well, but that is the last thing I could imagine taking well from the kid who I've had to put my feelings aside for on a regular basis. Katara absolutely has agency, but she is regularly expected to be the bigger person by Aang and Sokka in ways other characters aren't pushed.

ATLA fandom: Aang tried to force his ideals on Katara and stop her from confronting her mother’s killer.

ATLA episode transcript:  Katara: Don’t try to stop us. Aang: I wasn’t planning to. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man. But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.