#lok critical

[toaverse]

Couples I wish were written better.

[sokkastyles]

The many times I have seen someone be critical of the way Aang treats Katara and/or their kids and someone in the comments tries to use the Air Nomad genocide as an excuse is waaay too many.

Things along the lines of:

Aang has to marry Katara so they can repopulate the Air Nomads!

Aang has to take Tenzin on trips to train him in his culture (while entirely neglecting his other children and the other side of his family's cultural heritage) because otherwise it completes the Air Nomad genocide!

And um, no. Katara is not a baby-making machine and the responsibility for the Air Nomad genocide does not and should not rest on her and her children.

I even had someone tell me yesterday that if Katara were to say no to Aang taking Tenzin, that it would be "forced assimilation," and no. Tenzin is just as much Katara's child as he is Aang's, and she has a right to not want her child treated that way and she has a right to a voice in how he is raised culturally. Especially since what we know did happen in canon is that Aang completely cut Tenzin off from his Water Tribe heritage and his children didn't even know their grandmother. Defending that in the name of "preserving Air Nomad culture" is actually just misogyny.

Genocide and forced assimilation are, by definition, things that happen on an institutional scale and are done deliberately to destroy a culture. Katara making her own decisions about who she has children with and how those children are raised is not and should not be compared to those things. But it's actually not a new idea for men to use culture as a tool to control women. It's just regular old, run-of-the-mill misogyny tied up in progressive-sounding language.

[prying-pandora666]

I bet you that if we had gotten Book 4: Air, and there had been a time skip, we wouldn’t be seeing so much Aang hate today.

No really. If the show had been able to continue and gave us an older, edgier, more attractive Aang?

He would have fans falling all over themselves for him.

The thing is that ATLA ended when Aang was barely turning 13. A goofy, bald, pacifist, vegetarian 12 year old isn’t attractive and so too many fans discount him. How can he possibly compete with openly tormented and outwardly angry Zuko? Or quietly insecure and naturally hilarious Sokka?

Zuko and Sokka who are 16 and 15 respectively (nearing 17 and 16 by the end), and therefor at an age where romance is more relevant to most, and so are the focus of so much love and affection and especially shipping?

If Aang had been able to grow anywhere between 15 - 18, he’d be right up there with the other two. You’d see metas about his tragic backstory, suddenly more of the fandom would care about the loss of his entire people, about the survivor’s guilt, the intense loneliness, the diaspora, the yearning for common everyday things that now no one else in the world understands.

But we didn’t get that. Instead we got LOK, with an old, bearded, post-bucal fat removal Aang. An Aang who has already had children and has a controversial score on “dad ratings”.

The poor kid never stood a chance.

@book4air

[sapphic-agent]

Trying to argue that Katara just wanted a peaceful life is so wild to me because every chance she got she chose violence

[starlight-bread-blog]

[rightwheretheyleftme]

Bryke: We can’t include Katara in the civil war storyline because featuring a character from ATLA too many times would turn this show into nostalgia bait!

Also Bryke: Hey, let’s bend over backwards to include a character from ATLA who died 40 years before Korra’s time! And let’s have him save our heroes on two separate occasions!

Seriously, in just 2 episodes Iroh has more than half as much screentime as Katara over the course of 4 seasons.

(also the difference in views is absolutely hilarious and proves my point)

And in just 1 episodes he gets to do more than Katara did, again, over the course of 4 seasons.

Siri, what’s the term for when men and women are judged by different standards?

[melu-lis]

where do people get this idea that when someone says that katara was reduced to aang's wife and the mother of his kids in lok, that means that katara had zero achievements? ofc katara had achievements in lok, the problem is that she was rarely involved in politics like the rest of the gaang when she's shown to be very passionate about changing the world in atla and she doesn't get much characterization outside of her relationship to korra, her children, and aang (ffs aang and sokka are dead and they still get more characterization than her in lok). she never gets to be her own person and that's what fans have a problem with.

[theotterpenguin]

Katara's Legacy in LOK: "Healer Wife of the Avatar" (part I)

I only recently finished watching all of The Legend of Korra from start to finish. Based on the analyses I’ve read from the time the show was airing, there seemed to be a decent amount of backlash against how the adult gaang was portrayed - particularly Katara. LOK’s fanbase has grown since then, though, especially during the 2020 renaissance, and I was surprised by how many recent positive comments I’ve seen from fans on Katara’s role.

Because if you paid attention at all to Katara’s characterization compared to Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko, it’s clear just how much Legend of Korra has tarnished her “legacy” or lack thereof.

I will be splitting this analysis of lok!Katara into two parts:

First, I will break down her portrayal in the show compared to the other members of the gaang to demonstrate how Katara received the worst treatment from the writers. Though I did have problems with the other characters’ portrayals as well, I don't have time to discuss them in-depth in this post. Then, I will counter common arguments used in defense of lok!Katara’s portrayal on the grounds that they do not provide an adequate in-universe explanation for her character’s drastic change from ATLA.

For part 1, I decided to examine everything we know about the gaang after the original series only based on the information provided via Legend of Korra (excluding poor Suki, who is never mentioned at all). For each character, I will answer the question “What do we know about [character] based solely on their role in Legend of Korra?”

Sokka

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Sokka based on LOK?

Well-respected for his wisdom and leadership, as he was Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, a councilman in Republic City (Representative of the Southern Water Tribe), and the chairman of the United Republic Council

Played a significant role in Yakone’s bloodbending trial - moderated the Council’s deliberations and announced their decision to find Yakone guilty

Worked together with other political/military leaders - Zuko, Tenzin, and Tonraq - to protect Avatar Korra by designing prisons for Red Lotus members that would be impervious to their bending

Toph mentioned they were friends in their youth, describing a time he was stuck in a hole when she was trying to teach Aang earthbending

Sokka, Toph, and Aang seemed to have remained friends into adulthood as they all worked together to defeat Yakone

Fond of his trusty boomerang, which he claimed to have used to win a fight against a man with combustion abilities

Due to his achievements, has a statue built in his honor in front of the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center in Republic City

Zuko

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Zuko based on LOK?

Former Fire Lord and co-founder of the United Republic, who worked with Avatar Aang after the 100 years war to transform the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations

Zuko and Avatar Aang had a rocky start, as Zuko described a time when he once hired a man with combustion abilities to kill Aang in his youth, but they eventually became close friends

Acted as Aang’s counsel and was described as being the person who knew Aang better than everyone else, leading Korra to turn to him for advice

Good friends with the Southern Water Tribe - worked with Sokka, Tonraq, and Tenzin to imprison Red Lotus members that wanted to kidnap Korra, specifically working with Unalaq and Tonraq to build a prison to hold P’Li

Years later, continued to work against the Red Lotus when they broke out of prison

Investigated the prison break of Ming-Hua, sent word to Lin Beifong to protect Korra, then flew off on his dragon to stop the Red Lotus from breaking P’Li out of prison

Fought Ghazan using his firebending during the Red Lotus break-in

Discussed the Red Lotus situation with Lin, Korra, and the others, before leaving early on Druk (his dragon) to return to the Fire Nation and protect his family

Despite being in “retirement,” remains an active participant in international relations - makes appearances as Prince Wu’s coronation and Jinora’s airbending master ceremony, along with engaging in discussions with President Raiko, Tenzin, and Tonraq about the future of the Red Lotus after Zaheer was imprisoned again

Highly respected and honored for his achievements - Bolin and Mako were impressed to meet him, statue was built in his honor in Republic City

Had a close relationship with his Uncle and his surviving family include his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, and his grandson, General Iroh II

Toph

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Toph based on LOK?

Previous Chief of Police in Republic City, founder of the first metalbending police force, founder of the first metalbending academy

Renowned for inventing metalbending, which is utilized for the development of modern technology and innovation in Republic City and the Earth Kingdom (particularly, Zaofu, is regarded as the safest city in the world due to it being made entirely out of metal)

To honor her metalbending achievements, there are several statues of her in Zaofu

Good friends with Avatar Aang, whom she affectionately named Twinkletoes, and was his earthbending teacher

Worked with Aang to arrest Yakone and was present at Yakone’s trial

Acted as a mentor to Korra, helping Korra face her fears and trained with her

Despite her old age and grumpy personality, Toph remained a strong fighter - easily able to beat Korra during training sessions, take down Kuvira’s sentries, and successfully break into Kuvira’s prison using her earthbending and metalbending abilities

States that her fighting days are over due to her old age, but has no problem fighting to save her family when they are captured by Kuvira (twice)

No interest in involving herself in current political problems in the Earth Kingdom, but will defend her family from political forces that threaten them

Strained relationship with her daughters (Suyin and Lin) because of how busy she was with her job, giving them too much freedom as she didn’t want to be as strict as her own parents

Covered up for Suyin’s crimes to save her reputation, leading her to retire early from guilt

Eventually repairs her relationship with her daughters - admitting she wasn’t a great mother but had great kids

Spent rest of her life living alone in a swamp, mentioning she has previous experiences with the visions it produces

High reputation in Republic City - has a statue of her built in front of police headquarters, Asami is impressed by her, Bolin calls her his hero

Aang

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Aang based on LOK?

Previous Avatar before Korra, negotiated relations between people of all nations to keep peace and balance and served as the bridge between the Spirit World and natural world

Worked with his closest friend Zuko to transform the Fire Nation Colonies into the United Republic of Nations after the war

Lost his entire culture of Air Nomads to genocide during the hundred year war and was devastated - his greatest dream was frequently described as rebuilding the Air Nation and reviving Air Nomad culture

He began to do this by founding the Air Acolytes, who preserved the culture, practices, and teachings of the Air Nomads passed on from Aang

Placed all of his hopes and dreams for the future on Tenzin's shoulders, his only airbender son

Deeply connected to the Spirit World and was an esteemed spiritual leader, hoping his son would one day experience the same

Traveled the world with Tenzin so he could learn as much as possible, but was so focused on doing his duty to the world that he never had time for his other kids, Kya and Bumi, whom he had with his wife, Katara

Kya and Bumi felt like a disappointment to their father for not being airbenders and Bumi never felt connected to his father’s culture until he became an airbender later in life

Aang’s acolytes did not even know Aang had other children besides Tenzin

All of this seems to indicate Aang valued the ability to airbend the most in his children, leading to his waterbending/nonbending kids being neglected

Greatest flaw mentioned as his tendency to cut and run when things get tough

Despite all this, he was highly respected and admired by most characters in the show for all his achievements as Avatar and his wisdom

Assisted in the arrest of Yakone with Toph, a friend of his, and used energybending to remove Yakone’s bending

Gave Korra advice along with restoring her bending and bestowed upon her the ability to energybend

His grandkids (Meelo, Jinora, and Ikki) enjoyed hearing stories about his youth, such as his visit to Wan Shi Tong’s spirit library and his time with Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple

Described as natural leader by Tenzin, sweet-tempered by Lin, and was good friends with Iroh

He built the air temple on Air Temple Island and in his honor, Aang Memorial Island was named after him and a statue of him was built

He’s so well-known and respected that there are even Aang-themed carnival games at the South Pole

Katara

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Katara based on LOK?

Described as the best healer in the world, responsible for teaching Korra how to heal, and mentioned to be a waterbending master

Monitored Korra’s avatar training and spoke to the Order of the White Lotus when Korra was ready to begin airbending training

Declared bloodbending illegal, but was not present for Yakone’s capture or trial

Attempted to restore Korra’s bending after Amon took it, but failed

Failed to heal Jinora when she was trapped in the Spirit World

Tries to guide Korra’s healing process after she is poisoned, but is unable to heal her on her own

Worked to heal the injured after Unalaq’s attack

According to Toph, Katara didn’t get involved in the civil war taking place in her homeland because of her old age

Mentions to Korra she knows what it’s like to go through a traumatic experience but doesn’t elaborate, instead describing Aang’s trauma

Married to Avatar Aang and had three kids - Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi - and three grandchildren - Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo

After Aang and her brother died, she was incredibly lonely, prompting Kya to move to the south pole to be with her. Misses her family that has passed away.

Her kids don’t visit her much, Meelo doesn’t even recognize his grandmother. She cries when Tenzin and his family leave.

Never speaks about her own life, but Jinora asks her once about what happened to Zuko’s mom, indicating they may have known each other.

By reading those summaries, it should be obvious just how differently Katara’s character was treated by the writers compared to the others. Katara’s legacy is reduced to simply being the “healer wife of the Avatar.”

And before anyone tries to twist my words: The problem is not that she is a mother, a wife, and a healer. The problem that is all she is ever allowed to be. Her entire identity revolves around:

Trying to heal people

Being the Avatar’s wife and occasionally offering random pieces of advice about what Aang would do (instead of, you know, giving advice based on her own experiences)

Missing her family

Again, none of these characteristics are inherently negative - the problem is how poorly they are written for Katara’s character. We are told things about her that just don't match up with what is shown in LOK canon. We're told that she’s a world renowned healer, but every time we see her use these abilities, she fails. We’re told that she’s the Avatar’s wife, but he was closest to his friend, Zuko. We’re told that she’s a mother who cares about her family, but we don’t know anything about her relationship with her children (and in fact, we know far more about her children's relationship with Aang).

Katara has no characteristics, no personality outside of her relationship to others - whether she’s acting as a healer, a mother, or a wife (this is some textbook misogynistic writing). She never speaks about herself, never mentions having any friends - only ever speaking about her husband, never describes her life before being a mother or a wife, is never shown to be honored or respected in the way the rest of the gaang is, has no political titles, and has only one post-atla accomplishment to her name. This is in contrast to Aang, Zuko, and Toph - all of whom have children but are never reduced solely to being a parent, all of whom are implied to be close friends, and all of whom have made multiple important contributions to the world of LOK. Even Sokka - who is barely in the show - is shown as having more achievements than Katara. I’m not sure how anyone could see this as doing Katara’s character justice.

I want to end with this excerpt from the book Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy - while not from Legend of Korra, this letter written by Katara to her and Aang's son, Tenzin, is a perfect demonstration of Katara's poor characterization post-ATLA. Despite being written by Katara, this entire letter is about Aang. I'm honestly not sure why the writers didn't just have this letter written by Aang himself because there are no insights that Katara adds to it.

The letter starts with Katara saying that she hopes this letter will help Tenzin "feel the pride of [his] heritage and gain a deeper understanding of who [he is]." And yet this letter never discusses the fact that Tenzin is the son of a waterbender and an airbender, never discusses any of the lessons Katara has learned in her life or the hardships she's overcome, never mentions any part of water tribe culture, never even mentions her own brother or father or mother (family is important to Katara, but apparently the writers only think that her family with Aang matters). The letter is entirely about Aang's struggles and triumphs because post-ATLA Katara doesn't matter outside of her relationship to her husband and kids.

Part 2

[kataraslove]

how do you feel about people saying Katara post the show was just a “house wife” and a “baby maker”? I personally think it’s super stupid and fucked up…while I do understand the criticisms for the comics ESPECIALLY the promise. TLOK criticisms for her character are pretty damn dumb to me…honestly the only thing I can get is the critical for her not being at Jinoras ceremony.

something that the original show does really well is present the dichotomy of katara; she's hot-headed, stubborn, determined, argumentative, protective, a fighter and a warrior. at the same time, however, she's presented as compassionate, kind, caring, nurturing, a healer. atla does an incredible job to avoid caging katara into one facet, unlike other media that tend to restrict their female characters who present feminine personalities into the group's resident healer/mother teresa figure. fighting and healing are core tenets of her identity. she uses both of these aspects of her identity to win the war, to save the lives of her friends and family, and most importantly, connect to and honour her decimated culture.

i don't think tlok makes an attempt to capture the fighter aspect of her identify, hence where the argument that "she was reduced to a healer" comes from. yes, she's incredibly old. yes, she deserves to rest after a lifetime of fighting. however, you could make the argument that toph and zuko are still in active combat mode during their old years. it's an all or nothing scenario; either everyone in the remaining gaang deserves a fight scene or no one gets one. so i can see where that criticism stems from. however, much of the criticism also stems from the fandom's refusal to correlate power with healing; to see how being a healer is an honour in it's own right, especially in the atla world where it's the equivalent to being a doctor (and katara would be the most renowned doctor there is).

katara does not deserve a shoe-horned fight scene where she's going to be tossed down in the snow five seconds later (like zuko) or where she's going to complain about her back problems (like toph). i can go on and on about how toph’s depiction in tlok is another form of sexist writing, but i think this post highlights it perfectly well and captures everything that i wanted to say.

if it were up to me to write tlok katara, i would:

have spent more time exploring her role in the white lotus. how much input did she have on korra’s training during the south, because i doubt caging her up until she’s 17 and delaying her spiritual journey is something that katara necessarily would have agreed with. i imagine that she would have (should have, at least) a lot of sway in the decisions surrounding korra as a world leader and legendary hero [per avatar legends]. if not that, even as korra’s waterbending master, the companion and spouse of the previous avatar, and the mother of the only airbending master in the world, would be enough to earn her decision-making title.

actually have her take part in the council of elders, especially during the civil war in book 2. no bryan konientzko, a tumblr post explaining that you can see her on the council of elders while your show is airing isn’t enough. we should have gotten katara’s perspective on the independence war currently happening with her tribe. particularly, it would have been an excellent opportunity showcasing her leadership abilities that we saw in imprisoned and the painted lady, encouraging her tribe to fight for their justice and independence.

expand upon her relationships with her children and grandchildren. yes, the legend of korra isn’t about katara or any of the former gaang members. but jinora, tenzin, kya, and bumi are all important characters that should be defined by their respective relationships with katara, much like how they’re defined by their relationships with aang. bryan and mike shy away from featuring former members of the gaang to avoid nostalgia bait, but there comes a point when deliberately avoiding the presence that your original characters play on their successors ends up hindering the success of your show. i think katara should be a critical character in the subplot between her and aang’s children, providing her perspectives on her husband’s parenting and relationships with their children.

have her actually leave the southern water tribe. if toph can leave the swamp to stop kuvira, and zuko can leave the fire nation to stop the red lotus, then why was katara constantly portrayed in the southern water tribe? there was an excellent opportunity to have her attend her granddaughter’s air mastering ceremony. i actually disagree with claims that the writers were avoiding having katara and zuko in the same scene specifically because of zutara; i think they didn’t want any of the former gaang in the same place. hence why we don’t ever have zuko and toph meet, or katara and toph (i know toph mentions katara by name, but i truly believe that that was a throwaway line serving as a substitute to appease the audience’s thirst for old gaang interaction. kind of like a, “here you go!! toph mentions her. now shut the fuck up.”)

give her a statue representing her bravery, courage, and determination. this one’s self-explanatory.

she didn’t need to be present at the bloodbending trial if the focus was for the avatar to take away yakone’s bending (and her being a bloodbender, i mean.. there’s NO WAY for anyone else to suspend yakone if she’s there). but i do believe the show should have mentioned something about katara not being able to there last-minute, due to tensions in the south or whatever, and how they cannot delay yakone’s trial even by one week.

i disagree with criticisms that katara became a “baby-making machine” for the air nomads. there’s no substantial support that katara and aang had children solely to repopulate the air nomads. there’s contrary evidence, in fact:

tenzin was the only airbender. if katara’s purpose was to serve simply as a baby maker, aang would have tried to have more children. from a writing standpoint, i think the narrative would have gone out of its way to portray kataang’s family as only having airbenders, or having more airbenders than non-benders or waterbenders.

we would have seen a lot more children in a relatively short time period. bumi, kya, and tenzin have sporadic age gaps, indicating that their conception wasn’t really at an urgent pace, but something that katara and aang took their time with, due to life events and circumstances.

as for whether the show turned katara into a “baby-maker,” by highlighting her family relations over her career prospects, i disagree. i don’t think we’re shown anything about katara in the legend of korra; i think we’re presented with limited information about her on all aspects. from a family perspective, all we know is that she had three children with aang. the narrative goes one step further to even separate her from the family conflict, such that the cloudbabies do not pull her into their grievances with their father and childhoods. kya and bumi’s overall arcs are about embracing their father’s legacy, while tenzin’s arc is about moving away from his shadow. from a career perspective, we know that katara at some point banned bloodbending, became one of the best waterbenders and the greatest healer in the world, then trained korra. in fact, katara’s relationship that is given the most narrative weight is her relationship with korra. i can understand if people’s criticisms are her being reduced to korra’s mentor and a healer, but i will not be able to understand the baby-maker or housewife claims simply because there is no proof.

if we’re examining tlok katara, i think there are many criticisms to be held, many missed opportunities and abandoned threads, but i do not agree with fandom extremes that she was ever presented as a “baby-making housewife turned healer.” i disagree with claims that tlok emphasized katara’s legacy as only having children (particularly her one airbender child). especially because tlok goes out of its way to separate her role in her children’s life, instead emphasizing her role in korra’s life. narratively, we get more exploration of toph’s storyline with her children than we get with katara.

as for the shitty gene yang comics that mischaracterizes just about every member, even momo and appa, i’ve got much to say on that. i think the only comic worth exploring is north and south, and katara’s portrayal in that. rather, there’s a particular criticism of katara’s portrayal in north and south that i want to rebut.

[zukosdualdao]

you know what puzzles me about atla twitter.. seeing the “katara hates zuko” take bc where? by the end of s3 and post-canon/comics/LOK/etc, they are long term close friends??????

yeah, it’s just people who hate the ship and therefore choose to act either like the reconciliation between them didn’t happen or was meaningless/disingenuous. which, i don’t know if they realize how insulting that is to katara? forgiving zuko was an act of her own agency, because she wanted to. and i don’t see her as someone who would ever really pretend to be friends with someone. for as kind as she is, if she hates you, you’ll fucking know it lmao.

i will say, though these people would probably say these things anyway, it doesn’t help that bryke quite vocally resent the ship. they barely interact in the comics, they don’t interact at all in lok (even in situations where it’s really weird for them to not. i haven’t watched but i’ve heard that katara wasn’t at her own granddaughter’s airbending ceremony when zuko was???? which really makes it seem like they just Could Not have them in the same room.) like, the gaang is supposed to be lifelong friends canonically, but we don’t SEE it, and with zutara in particular it feels intentional.

like i said, the antis definitely would have said these things anyway, but it doesn’t help that bryke has been so obvious about their resentment of zutara being such a popular ship, because it means that the antis can point to them sayinh zutara is unhealthy or whatever and feel validated and reasonable.

[firelxdykatara]

to this day it's astounding to me that bryke claimed they liked asami too much to have her be an equalist.

like what was the thought process there?

"we like her too much to do anything fun or interesting with her character! she can just be there to drive and look pretty."

it's like they completely forgot that one of the reasons zuko is far and away the fan favorite character from atla is that he had some astounding character growth that began with him as a villain. it's honestly just further proof of their incompetence, because they had the amazing makings of a redemption arc on their hands and just squandered it.

i might have actually shipped korrasami if it had the sauce some decent e2l framing would've given it, rather than asami being the poor put upon girl constantly framed as the victim of the stupid love triangle shit.

[toaverse]

Bruno Madrigal 🤝 Lin Beifong

Being the scapegoat for their shitty families and having to apologize to said shitty families for leaving them.

[sokkastyles]

I was reading an article about women losing sexual desire for a husband who they see as another kid that they have to take care of, and then I thought of Aang naming his first son after his childhood friend who is characterized as being perpetually childlike into old age, and what that says about the KA family dynamic. I bet Bumi loved having a dad who was like a best friend until he got old enough to realize what was actually going on, and Aang stopped giving him attention in favor of his airbending son.

[atla-confessions]

LoK is badly written, both as a show and especially as a sequel. There's not a single legacy character that was well handled. Except one.

Showing Zhao still wandering aimlessly in a hellish purgatory of the spirit world that he got himself into, so pathetic and hollow that he looks at Aang's son and thinks it's still the last airbender, and rants about how he's still determined to kill him and he'll be nothing. That's the singular properly handled epilogue for an atla character that we got in lok.

X

[sapphic-agent]

"Katara was an old lady! You can't expect her to fight!!"

😐

Do people not understand what Katara being completely non-combative in LOK says about her? Zuko became active again to protect his daughter from the Red Lotus. Toph became active again to save her daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons from Kuvira.

How many times were Katara's children and grandchildren in danger? And she was nowhere to be found, not once. Genuinely, how the fuck do you think that makes her look compared to Zuko and Toph (one of which is older than she is)? Are you going to look me in the eye and tell me there's nothing wrong with that? Are you going to try and tell me that this is Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe?

Nope. Not buying it. That is not the Katara I grew up with. That is not the Katara I looked up to my whole life.

Stop defending her treatment in LOK. There's no excuse for what Bryke did to her. They completely assassinated everything that made Katara who she was. If you think differently, you never understood her character

[starlight-bread-blog]

Some people suggest that Katara became a trophy wife to Aang in TLoK. In my opinion the writing of the Gaang in TLok isn't very good, (and I'll discuss this later), but this critisism is not it. In her introduction, Katara is refered to as "Master Katara", she's a high ranking member of the White Lotus - and her most highlighted relationship is with Korra. She is the one who helps her recover from Zaheer, and she is the one who advises that she should meet Tenzin. Her relationship with Aang is very rarely the focus. Katara is not a trophy wife, nor is she reduced to Aang's partner.

This isn't to say that the writing in TLoK is perfect, I can name 5 issues from the top of my head.

She doesn't have a statue as she deserves.

She wasn't present during the bloodbending trial.

Katara is the only living Gaang member without a fight scene.

She wasn't present during her own grandaughter airbending ceremony.

When her children discussed their flawed childhood, we never heard of Katara's parenting and perspective.

But as you can see, none of these issues can be fixed by Katara not ending up with Aang or ending up with a different character. None of this issues suggest that Katara is living in specifically Aang's shadow.

Heck, even if Katara was a trophy wife (which she isn't), that wouldn't be a problem with Kataang, it would be a problem with TLoK. Compare this (hypothetical) situation to the very not hypothetical situation of the comics. Many if not all of the characters act incredibly out of character (if I remember correctly, but for argument's sake let's say that they are). Aang promises to kill Zuko if he ever becomes like his father. That is out of character. He couldn't kill a genocidal dictator because of his cultural values. It was very powerful in the original. So what, does that mean that Aang has given up on preserving his nearly dead culture, and that we should hold him accountable for it? Of course not. He's being out of character. His promise is a comics problem, not an Aang problem.

This is the same with Kataang in TLoK. It wouldn't be a Kataang problem, it'd be a TLoK problem. Because in A:TLA, Katara is anything but a trophy wife. She is the narrator, the central character of many episodes, a master waterbender, a teacher, a healer - she is the hero alongside Aang. If you cannot link Katara being a trophy wife to A:TLA, you should take no issue with A:TLA. Katara hypothetically being a trophy wife has nothing to do with the original cartoon. Again, it wouldn't be a Kataang problem, it'd be a TLoK problem.

But then again, Katara isn't a trophy wife to begin with.