#pro tlok

[wilcze-kudly]

People will go on about how "Katara's story is a tragedy" because she... ended up marrying the guy she loves, having children and grandchildren which she was always excited about and literally becoming a master waterbender and rising to the top of her field as a healer.

Yes, Katara's story has tragic aspects to it. And there are certainly flaws in how she is written in tlok (Though I will argue that there are actually more issues with how Toph and Zuko are just plopped in there for no reason in later seasons). And her storylines aren't perfect, for example her resolving her trauma around the murder of her mother being more used to prop up Zuko than her own internal turmoil. (Most of TSR is from Zuko's perspective and I hate that actually)

"Katara's story is a tragedy" Why do you have such a hard on for this woman's misery? Let her be happy, man.

You know what gaang girlie's life is an actual onscreen tragedy?

Toph's!

People will fucking downplay Toph's childhood abuse because she wasn't physically hurt, but her childhood was a never ending carousel of abelism, misogyny, neglect and isolation. The way Toph describes her parent's treatment of her as "pressure and pain" is heartbreaking.

Toph's only escape was Earth Rumble and earthbending, but despite her skills, she remained the perfect little lady her parents always wanted her to be. She's never known a different life, and she was only able to be her real self in secret.

And when Toph finally opens up to her parents, when she finally lays her real self bare in front of the people who are supposed to love and care for her?

She is met with what may be, in my opinion, the cruellest rejection in the show.

Despite this, even when Toph runs away, she still cares for her parents' approval. Hell, she's even lured into a trap due to her getting a forged letter from her mom and getting excited because it looked like her mom was finally accepting her.

It's also important to note how determined to be self sufficient and to prove herself Toph is. We can especially see this right after she joins the Gaang, where she refuses to participate in splitting with the rest of the group, insisting on "pulling her own weight". This isn't Toph being a brat, or spoilt, this is her wanting to prove that she can handle herself because people have handled and understimated her her entire life.

Eventually, Toph starts to learn to trust the members of the Gaang and this is a step in the right direction. She's literally making friends for the first time in her life I'm so proud of her.

However, I was genuinely upset when Toph's life changing field trip with Zuko didn't work out. When Toph was trying to connect with Zuko and he blew her off (I'm not blaming him tho they had shit to do), I couldn't help but remember the rejection Toph suffered from Lao.

Post canon, Toph continues to try and prove herself, starting a metalbending school and training new metalbenders.

She also reconciles with her father. Not before Lao disowns he rmultiple times and calls her a rude, ungrateful thing. And while he eventually comes to understand Toph and cherish her, that type of trauma sticks with you.

So it's no wonder really that Toph, someone who went her entire childhood seemingly without even speaking to someone her age, would have trouble forming connections. She has children with two different men, neither of which seem to stick around.

Toph tries to do right by her daughters and gives them the freedom she never got. Sadly, the pendulum swung too far to the other side, since it seems that she started to neglect her daughters, which led to them developing a sleugh of issues of their own.

Toph becomes the cheif of police, which kind of makes sense. Republic City was only slowly emerging as an actual metropolis. Toph took on a role as a protector, and probably as a way to prove herself. But as Republic City grew, Toph probably realised that she became something she hated. A cog in the machine, and started to despise her job.

Searching for a semblance of the freedom and happiness her travels afforded her in her childhood, Toph leaves the city and takes up the life of a hermit in a swamp. She managed to fix her relationship with Suyin to some extent, but still seems reluctant or simply unable to connect with her daughter or grandchildren. Since she apparently hasn't seen Opal, a grown 20 year old woman since she was a little girl.

On the surface old Toph doesn't seem terribly dissimilar to young Toph, still tough and spunky. But she is more jaded, depressed and pessimistic. She comes out to save Suyin from immediate harm and manages to somewhat reconcile with Lin, but then she fucks right back off to the swamp where she seems to literally hide until Wu and Korra straight up force her to come with them.

Toph's story began with her alone and it seems to end with her alone as well. It's a story of a girl who grew up isolated and handled by others, and was woefully unprepared for the real world, which only jaded her further. She lives with the guilt of fucking up her daughters' lives and a belief in the pointlessness of life.

Toph started off longing to experience the world and ended up willingly isolating herself from it.

If that isn't a tragedy, I'm not sure what is.

Mind you, this is not the trauma olympics. I'm not saying that Toph has suffered more than Katara or that Katara's trauma is not as valid as Toph's. Katara and Toph's experiences are completely different, Katara being a victim of genocide and war, Toph being a victim of child abuse. I'm just saying that, objectively, Katara had a happier 'ending' than Toph.

[darklinaforever]

When people try to justify Katara in TLOK by saying she's old I want to pull my hair out ! In this case, why is this not the case for other former members of the gaang who are active despite their old age ? Why does Katara have 0 statues in the town ? Why out of everything she could do, she's just kept as a great healer when that's not what she wanted in the original ? Why, if she is such a great healer, does she almost never manage to heal anyone ? Why does she never go anywhere unlike other gaang members who are so old ? Like the bloodbending trial ?! Since it was she who banned it (a very stupid thing, by the way). Like, his granddaughter's own ceremony ? Why isn't she there but Zuko is ?! How come Katara doesn't see her family often ?! She doesn't even try to see them ?! We're talking about Katara ! She would never do that ! Why do we learn more about Aang's role than Katara's about parent-child relationships ?! Stop trying to defend Katara's crappy writing from old age. Old age doesn't stop you from doing badass things in the Atla universe. Everyone forgot Bumi ?! I am so angry ! The simple truth is that Bryke, as in the comics, specifically erased Katara to reduce her to Aang's wife. That's all. Why am I making this rant ? Because I'm tired, once again, of seeing people defend Katara's writing in TLOK under the pretext that she's old, and especially seeing people say that the writing of strong women is even better in TLOK. Can we just talk about the horrible treatment of Korra herself in this ?! Not forgetting the worst thing I have ever seen ! To say that the treatment of Katara in TLOK is better than in the netlfix remake of Atla... How angry all this can make me !

[marigoliad]

"Wu personally asked Raiko. He says he doesn't know what to do without you." A little Wuko fanart bc why not

[leantailean]

The spring sun

Katara🩵

[rightwheretheyleftme]

One of the main messages of Avatar: Kissing girls without their consent is fine!

Because even if the boys who violated their consents never learn their lesson

They can still be heroes

And get the girl as a reward for their bravery!

Reminder: These storylines were written by 2 grown men

[sjbattleangel]

Me whenever hacks like Lily Orchard go after Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, The Legend Of Korra, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Moon Girl, Star Wars, Dungeon Meshi, ect.

(P.S: I am a massive fan of the media mentioned above) (P.S: Yes. I will fight to the end defending Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, Utena, Evangelion, Sailor Moon and The Last Jedi.)

[high-on-cactus-juice]

Somewhat unpopular shipping opinion but I truly believe jinko should have been endgame. Like these two were way too cute together for Jin to end up being a one episode character!!

Also I do really love Mai but I just don’t believe the MaixZuko pairing is the best one out there, considering that they started dating as a result of being two depressed teens. I’m a sucker for grumpy/sunshine dynamics.

[blackflash9]

Hey, remember that time Suyin saved the Avatar Cycle?

Suyin's handling of the metallic poison situation is among some of the pettier things that fault-finding fanatics within the ATLA/LOK fandom tend to hurl at Suyin, which genuinely baffles me. Maybe I am overreacting, but it often feels less rooted in any genuine criticism of her character rather than an avenue to use some thinly veiled microaggressions to excuse their issues with her at best or exercise flat-out hate towards her at worst.

"Smh she didn't even get it all it out"

"Lin would've got it all out"

"Toph just crapped on her"

General comments like these often carry a negative connotation, focusing more on Su's failure to fully "heal" Korra. Something that I feel is missing out on the deeper intricacies of the matter, which I'll get to in a moment. There's also this very peculiar sentiment that the poison was all that held Korra back when it was actually a combination of factors such as the brutality of the fight itself and the lingering PTSD that stemmed from her overarching doubt and fears over her role as the Avatar. All of these factors, along with even inhibiting the poison within her bloodstream in the first place, is what crippled Korra for years. Not having it all out or not, seeing as how Korra still had issues even after removing it all in Book 4.

Speaking of bloodstreams:

Let's discuss Suyin's prowess as a metalbender. Firstly, it was a miracle that she was even able to get out as much as she did, despite Zaheer deliberately prolonging the fight with Korra so that the poison could be further entrenched in Korra's body and her bloodstream. Who knows, maybe if Suyin had gotten to Korra immediately, she would've likely gotten it all out, which is something I hardly see get mentioned.

The complicated nature surrounding the poison itself is another issue: Not only was the poison fluid in nature, but with it being metallic, Suyin had to actually perform the double duty of carefully finding the traces of earth within a liquid substance within someone's bloodstream in a very quick and precise amount of time because Korra could very well die at any moment. That is A LOT to consider, and she still managed to do a good enough job to save Korra's life and, you know, the Avatar cycle itself. It's also neat that Suyin uses techniques similar to waterbenders to navigate the poison out. This highlights the level of her precision with the element and the sheer amount of elegance that Suyin has with metal bending.

It exemplifies an understated quality to her character in how she's spent much time exploring the more intricate and creative ways to apply her bending that isn't just combative. And you all better thank her every day for being that way!

[madeby-meru]

Every single time I get a tiktok on my tl of that TLOK scene where Bumi and Kya basically tell Tenzin that Aang was not a good father to them theres hundreds of comments of people trying to justify Aang's parenting in every way possible and every argument just seems so absurd and completely unncessary.

He didn't have to be a bad father to be a good airbending master to Tenzin and he didn't have to be a bad father to keep the Air Nomad culture alive. But he was. He was negletful and absent to 2/3 children and very clearly favorited Tenzin over Bumi and Kya. I don't think there's any possible way to justify his behaviour (I'm not gonna talk about Katara at all cause we all know she is completely mistreated as a character post ATLA) and honestly? It's ok. Characters don't have to be perfect, characters can and should have flaws, and Aang being a bad father fits pretty well with his character imo.

There's no need to do all these mental gymnastics to justify him and somehow portray him as a wonderful father, specially when you're being explicitly told by the show that he was not.

[lovegrowsart]

what do you think of the take that katara not having a statue is in line with her character because she’s not someone who would boast about her achievements, but instead would be humble about them?

firstly, i think framing the idea of having a statue in recognition of one's achievements as "boasting" a little flawed, considering aang, zuko, sokka, and toph all have one or more statues in tlok - does that mean they were boasting about their achievements? toph, maybe, but zuko? the guy can't take praise if you paid him to.

but more importantly, no, i don't think katara hypothetically refusing a statue because she'd be "humble about her achievements" to be in line with her character presented in atla much at all.

exhibit a) book 1, ep 15: katara when she's recognised with the mark of the brave.

exhibit b) book 1, ep 19: katara after kicking the ass of every other one of pakku's students and being told she has "advanced more quickly than any student he's ever trained."

exhibit c) book 2, ep 1: katara when she's called the "mighty katara" by general fong.

in the avatar wiki transcript, it says:

Katara: (Pleased) Mighty Katara? I like that.

exhibit d) book 3, ep 3: katara when the jang hui village put up a literal statue of the painted lady (who katara is acting as!).

she is, in fact, the only one of the gaang to show a positive reaction like this to the idea of having an actual statue of herself in recognition of her achievements, which makes her lack of one post-canon even more egregiously baffling.

it's also not a bad thing or a flaw if katara did want a statue of herself to recognise her achievements, especially if it's not treated as a flaw for the rest of the gaang to have them. aang has a literal statue of liberty style statue!

she worked hard to master waterbending when there were incredible odds against her. she doesn't often get a lot of explicit gratitude and recognition for her hard work and how much she helps people. in fact, at the start of the show, sokka is explicitly ungrateful and sexist about how hard she works because the work she was going then was "women's work". she helped end the war by defeating azula, a prodigy firebender superpowered by a comet, and saving zuko, the future fire lord's, life. and that's just all that she does in the show, let alone all she could've achieved afterwards, so fuck yeah she deserved a statue, probably more than one, and she would've been absolutely in character and within in her right to enjoy having one.

[wilcze-kudly]

Avatar Fandom!

Tell me your thoughts surrounding Katara and her parentification, how the fandom treats her as a character much older than she actually is.

[darklinaforever]

But apparently Zutara is self-insert...

[myxhul]

One thing that bugs me every time i rewatch tlok is that one scene in book 3 where tenzin tells korra about the time when she was little, explaining how the red lotus tried to kidnap her. So, he, korra's father, sokka, and zuko went to rescue her and stopped the attack, locking the red lotus in their respective prisons.

Although my little zukka brain thrives with the fact that zuko is supposedly just there, chilling in the south pole post-retirement or whatever, i really think it would have been much better if insted of him, it was katara the one fighting alogside the others. It would have made so much more sence because one- she is one of the most powerful waterbenders on earth therefore totally has the power and skills to stand againts the red lotus, and two- yes, you can argue that she might still be greeving over her husband's passing but i think if sokka, zuko and tenzin were able to be there and help in the battle it wouldn't be much of problem for katara to be with them too. Aang is best friend and a family to both sokka and zuko and tenzin's literal father. If they were ready and willing to fight, so could she.

And isn't trying to protect korra also trying to protect her family in some sort of way? Katara was clearly very enthusiastic about teaching korra waterbending as a child, why won't she stand up against the red lotus for her, too?

It's disheartening to see how both the comics and tlok seem to sideline katara's character as if her contributions were not significant. Like she just isn't that important in the first place. It’s just awfully depressing tbh.

[leantailean]

Love seeing their happy family

[rifari2037]

6. Do you consider the comics/LoK canon?

I prefer to pretend that comics and TLOK aren't canon.

ATLA is enough for me, even though the love story isn't good written. It's weird and rushed except for Sokka and Suki. I'm a Zutara shipper, but I wouldn't expect them to end up together either if the better story is ended with friendship.

Why I don't consider comics as canon?

I probably can't give to much criticism because I don't read the comics yet and I'm not interested to do so because I've read many criticisms about it before, this is one of them that I found recently.

There are other criticisms about it, most of them about the plot and how is Katara's role reduce, from Katara we all know to not more than Avatar's girlfriend. Those makes me less interested, though.

Plus, I probably can't stand reading Aang and Katara calling each other 'Sweetie' all the time. It wasn't romantic but cheesy to me.

Why I don't consider TLOK as canon?

Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed TLOK since Bolin exist, but I don't think it's as well written as ATLA. The conflicts, the arcs, the complexity. I have a lot of thoughts on some aspects that make TLOK no more special than ATLA, but I will only explain the most disappointing for me - and a lot of fans - here, which is how Katara is written.

Bryke always tells fans that Kat/Ang are perfect pairing. Since they became canon in ATLA, Bryke has many chances in TLOK to convince fans (especially Zutara stand) of what Bryke said.

But what we get are – Katara's role simply as the wife and mother of the Avatar's children. Like, having 3 kids doesn't make them perfect couple. And if Katara's role replaced by another character, would the main story change? No, not at all.

Zuko still the one who knew Aang more than anyone else, not Katara.

It doesn't matter if Katara only end up being a healer in her old age even though she wanted to fight when she was young. I mean, Toph also lives in the swamp and Zuko chooses to retire as Fire Lord.

But where was she when she was young? Where was she when Sokka was a leader, Toph was a police chief, Zuko was a Fire Lord, and Aang was the avatar? Where is her statue, while even cabbage man has it?

Not only that, Bryke also thought it's a brilliant idea to make Aang as a bad father. Unbelievable!

Bryke ignores all the opportunities of Zutara. But seeing how Bryke's favourite pairing is written, it's better that Zutara don't end up together. I'm afraid Bryke would destroy Zutara more than Kat/Ang.

[mesapies]

I wish ppl could acknowledge that tlok katara was done dirty without reducing her down to being a "housewife" or "baby maker".

Like, yes, she should've done more than she did but there was still no indication that she just stayed home and was constantly pregnant.

Their trying to fight the misogynistic writing by calling her misogynistic things. I hate that most of the "pro katara" and "katara deserved better" tags talk more about what man she should've or shouldn't of ended up with instead of her actual character. Post atla katara writing is not because she ended up with aang over zuko, it's because of the sexist writers. She'd be treated very similarly if she did end up with zuko or anyone else for that matter because tlok writers didn't care about her or rlly any atla girls. I mean they full on forgot suki even existed.