#it's odd because sokka should rightfully be VERY hurt by what she says

[five-flavor-soup]

my toxic trait is thinking that ‘then you didn’t love her like I did’ isn’t a horrible thing of katara to say actually. “she was 14 and angry and grieving that’s why she said it” she canonically saw kya’s body right after the murder. it would’ve been her, had kya not sent her away and lied to yon rha. kya took katara’s place to save her. katara was, to absolutely no fault of her own, the catalyst in kya’s murder.

sokka has a right to say he doesn’t want yon rha murdered in revenge. sokka lost his mum in a horrific way because of the southern raiders. but katara lost her mum in that same horrific way because the southern raiders wanted her dead. the kind of grief they experienced is different. katara’s is smeared with survivor’s guilt: katara took over kya’s role in the tribe to the degree that, in sokka’s memories, kya’s face is replaced with katara’s. katara’s need for revenge, her need to look yon rha in the eyes and tell him that he failed, that he murdered the wrong person—it’s a different kind of need for revenge that sokka might feel.

sokka’s logical nature might allow him to push it down until after the end of the war; katara, faced daily by a boy she connected with briefly about the loss of a mother and was then betrayed by, whose sister just tore apart a recently connected family, who was given a chance to avenge by that boy, would not have been able to. both because of her sense of justice and her more emotion-driven, righteous nature.

‘then you didn’t love her like i did’—then you didn’t experience her death the way i did; then you didn’t feel the same type of guilt i did; then you didn’t feel the same sense of responsibility i did. that’s why she said it. and i really don’t fault her for that at all.