An Analysis of Katara's Moral Duality
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- Опубліковано 15 лис 2024
- Eternally underrated, Katara is one of the most interesting characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Her moral struggle to contain the darkness within herself is moving. Let's see why.
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Here you will find thoughtful analyses of video games. Gaming is an art form alongside and equal to cinema and literature, but analysis of it has not lived up to that truth. If you've ever thought way too hard about the themes and elements in Zelda, Final Fantasy, Pokémon, and more, this is your channel!
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I don't care if I'm gonna get crucified for this: Katara is the single most underrated Gaang character. Her arc is is really well done, and shows that some traumas cut you so deep that you never truly get over them. And that's ok. I also really like that she doesn't end up forgiving the man that killed her mother in the end. Because sometimes forgiveness simply isn't possible. But she does show mercy. She honestly had so much inner strength and mental toughness it's astounding.
You are right, she is really underrated.
Yea. And another reason why katara didn't killed him is because he is now living a miserable life with his mean old mother who treats him like trash. And honestly, that's a much better punishment than death. Just like Raiden from mortal kombat once said: there are fates worse than death.
She's the one who made the gaang.. the gaang, a family.
This is very well done! I always loved Katara as a character but didn't know why others didn't see how amazing she really is (not to undermine other characters)
I think it's because she comes off as a do gooder mom but I still love her as much as the other characters
Manny K ikr! She is strong and badass while being kind and feminine.
Excellent points were made! I've been saying this for years but Zuko and Katara are basically two sides of the same coin. Both are just as dark and just as light--meaning that Katara could've been just as "villainous" as Zuko.
I love this Katara is so much more then people have made her out to be.
So many people have widdle her down and reduced her to no more then an annoying trope and it really pisses me off.
I love Katara! She is extremely badass and powerful, while being compassionate and feminine at the same time. Her mother was murdered, her dad would leave her and her brother, behind, she became a leader of her tribe at a young age, and she grew up in a dystopia. Despite all of that she remained kind and was not bitter. That shows a lot of mental toughness on her part. She grew as a character, practiced bending, and became even more mentally stronger and became a more powerful water bender. Because of that she was my favorite character and I always thought she was cool even though she was an idealist and sentimental. Especially in the Painted Lady. Her character was complex and it was subtle, which made it nuanced. She was flawed and had many different sides and that made her feel real to me. I would love to see more videos on her because everyone talks about Toph and Azula, but nobody talks about Katara even though she is arguably the most badass character on the show (besides Zuko.). She is personally my favorite character and definitely one of the best female characters in all of television. Katara, Toph, and every character on the show felt organic, and had realistic personalities. Katana and Toph are great examples of people who rise above how they are raised and choose to be strong and try to have a good life.
I do not understand why Katara is not as beloved as Sokka and Toph (in fact, I do, but I think it's wrong)
A big part of why Sokka and Toph are so beloved is their great sarcastic humor, quotable lines, and overall coolness factor for different reasons. Toph, being a blind little girl who is a terrific and confident earthbender and person instantly demands the viewer's attention. Sokka is the non-bender relatable to the viewer who is rational, pragmatic, smart and values science and strategy, slowly discovering these atributes as his greatest qualities.
Katara is not like them. She does not have their witty remarks or "coolness factor" in her personality. In fact, some of her greatest qualities tend to, unfairly, even be seen as kitschy by some fans, such as satirized in the episode The Ember Island Players. She is overall optimistic, kind and wants to help everyone around as well as she can. I feel that qualities such as these are undervalued today. While Cinderella is a VERY different character compared to Katara in countless ways, Cinderella is a more extreme example of how people do not rate these qualities, and a few others such as calmness, as well as they should (check video essay in UA-cam called Cinderella stop blaming the victim). And Katara has a drive and determination that maker her even more admirable. Episodes such as The Desert should make everyone have mad respect for her. Yet, I even see fans criticizing her for hugging and calming Aang at the end, saying that she should have let him kill those sandbenders! Such line of thinking is ridiculous in so many ways.
Still, Katara is not flawless. She has depth and flaws. She can be driven too much by her darkness when she is betrayed by someone that she trusts. Her drive to help can be unpractical sometimes and she can be bossy to her friends, but these are normal flaws and she is very well intentioned. Sokka and Toph's conversation in The Runaway shows wonderfully why she is so admirable.
Besides, all members of the Gaang have crucial and different flaws in the level of Katara's, that is why they are great characters and compliment each other so well. Sokka, though this was quickly dropped, was an annoying sexist at the start. If the creators did not correct this so early in the series, he would be so unbearable. But this is not his only flaw. He also has bossing tendencies like Katara, and can be really arrogant. In fact, throughout Books 1 and 2, mainly Book 1, he is often criticized and mocked for wanting to be the leader and give everyone's orders. The 10th episode of Book 1, Jet, deals with this and has great development for Sokka's character. When it comes to the level depth and great character development throughout the series, I see Sokka and Katara as closely equal. If I had to choose between the two of them, Katara probably has the superior, more intense and dramatical beats in her arc and depth. The highs of her character arc are higher and more compelling than Sokka's in my opinion, specially Sokka's arc is flatter and more homogenous. Specially how she must fight her darkest instincts and how her drive to help people and trust the others can not only backfire on her, but also hurt her more deeply than anyone else. Zuko is a perfect example of this. She was the first to forgive him, and he betrayed her. And later she became the last person to forgive him.
Another aspect of her darkest instincts is how she can say terrible things to close people when under great emotional pressure. Or feel hurt by them. You have Katara giving Hakoda, her father, a cold treatment in The Awakening. You have Katara saying to Toph, after being extremely angered by her, that the stars are beautiful and it was a pity that Toph could not see them. Or when Katara said to Sokka that he did not love their mother as much as she did. Do not get me wrong, these are VERY low things to say. But she was extremely full of anger and consumed by her darkness, specially in the moment with Sokka. We all can say terrible things when fueled by such drive of anger and/or hate, specially when it comes to her obssession in getting revenge with the men that killed her mother. Katara's arc is to find balance inside her.
Also, Katara definitely has more depth and development than Toph. I love Toph, but Katara is even better developed throughout the series and her arc is concluded in the show, while Toph's big arc, her relationship with her parents, was only concluded, and still not totally because she is still yet to reconcile with her mother, in the comics. Though it needs to be said that Toph has a lot more character development and arc during the show that many people realize.
Toph also has flaws of being too stubborn and arrogant, like Sokka. But because they are so cool and funny, it seems that they get a lot more good will, when it comes to their flaws, from the fans than Katara. Katara is either too perfect, because she cares about helping everyone, or a hypocrite, because she has flaws when she takes some of her qualities, such as her determination and drive, too far, to annoying, angry or unpractical levels. It is a no-win scenario in which Katara is criticized regardless of what she does inside of her personality, everything by her is vulnerable to criticism. But her flaws are normal. Some fans do not understand that and are way too harsh when she shows her flaws while easily overlooking Sokka and Toph's ones because they are cool, badass and full of quotable lines and humor. The fact is that Katara has at least as much development and depth as them both or even more. Her greatest qualities, such as in the episode The Desert, should be goals to everyone. Overall, she is a great, admirable and likable person with the added plus as a character of having depth, flaws and traumas. At her best, a person who worries and fights for the best of everyone while generally not being kitschy, unlike her portrayal in the play of the episode The Ember Island Players.
Also, many fans seem to implicate and be unable to forgive Katara because we did not see her apologize to Sokka for what she said to him in The Southern Raiders. First: we do not know if she did not. Second: it is never brought up again or even hinted at in any point of the series after and the comics too. Katara and Sokka's relationship is as good as ever. It is obvious that Katara in her right mind would never say something like that and she does not really think. And Sokka realizes this too and understands the context that made Katara say that. He often gets angered at small things, but he never sounds remotely angry with her for what she said in this case and he does not ask for an apology. He has no resentment and loves her as much as ever and Katara clearly feels the same towards him too.
I will say again, I think that other characters' flaws and mistakes as bad as Katara's worst ones are too overlooked in comparison with her worst mistakes for no reason that I can identify besides the fact that she is not as naturally cool as them or does not say cracking, fun lines such as them. She has charisma, I freaking love her overall look and design (such as her hair loopies and big, bright, optimistic and irresistible blue eyes with charming and innocent and childlike joy and cheerfulness that only Aang surpasses) and how she acts overall, but she does not have the same kind of charisma that Toph and Sokka, and their kind of charisma is more easily seen as cool and badass, while Katara's may even seem kitschy.
One of Sokka's worst mistakes in the whole series is falling for Azula's bait during the Fire Nation invasion and putting it in total jeopardy. It was not as emotionally bad as Katara saying to him in The Southern Raiders, but it is still terrible because so many people who had lives at stake were captured because of his mistake. Sokka knows that and feels guilty, leading to his final and decisive character development in The Boiling Rock. But I do not see fans implicating with Sokka for this terrible, and even selfish (since he prioritized Suki in a way that neglected so many other people who counted on him) mistake, during the day of invasion.
These were all my toughts. Sorry for the clunky, wordy and repetitive writing, but I needed to write this rambling and rant to finally feel at peace.
Matheus Bezerra de Lima I completely agree. Katara is one of the most tough, strong, kind, complex, and well developed characters I've ever seen. She is kind hearted, but has a lot of rage, a dark side, which makes sense since she was raised in a dystopia with a dead mother and had to help lead her tribe at a young age. Nobody gives her any credit. I think the complexity makes her more real and relatable. It could be because she is so feminine that people look past her badass side and since her complexity is more subtle than the others. She is and will always be my favorite member of Team Avatar. I love her waaaayyyy more than Toph. Toph was not as complex and didn't have as much character development.
My guy wrote a whole essay
Potato for real
God Mother yeah for real it’s a WHOLE essay
One thing I don't understand here is why is Katara criticized for her kind personality when Talim from Soul Calibur is a fan favorite for the same reasons? Both girls are my favorite female characters from both series because I prefer kind-hearted girls.
I've never gotten into the show, but Katara was brought up in a comment on a video about Hollywood butchering 'strong female characters' as a contrast to what a good example actually looks like. After wanting to look into that, you did not disappoint, and for that, I thank you. 👍
You should watch the show. Its almost perfect
i mean really it's bryke's fault, they're the "hollywood" that makes katara so uninteresting when they write her. the biggest, known contributors to katara's amazing character and progression are aaron and elizabeth ehasz.
She’s my favorite character.
Same Here
The idea of Katara becoming a “Korra”-type villain is such a fascinating idea. You can see how her driving sense of righteousness could lead to her becoming a fearsome antagonist, relentlessly pursuing what she thinks is right regardless of the consequences. I wouldn’t want to get in her way!
I think Katara would become a punisher like figure. After the war the fire kingdom mostly did not suffer any consequences. It would be interesting to see Katara hunting down fire benders especially on the full moon.
then she would eventually become hama. 😕
She spared her mother's killer, not from warm kindness, but from icy contempt. She did not have to kill him to be done with him.
Katara has always been my fav character
Finallyyyy, this is the video I’ve been looking for, Katara is always judged way too quickly
O.M.G this video is perfect. Thank you so much! I recognise myself in her!
Katara is the best ik gaang She always care and she saved the whole avatar cycle. Perikd
I LOVE Katara! I really see myself in her and your video perfectly speaks to why and HOW I see myself in her.
Thank you ❤
Man the side by side picture when you look in the eyes its eerie. People who are acting off pure rage and hatred sometimes look like a completely different person in the process. Those eyes show that completely
the southern raiders is really ironic when you remember that aang has the highest body count in the show from the s1 finale alone, and it only grows if you count the rest of the series.
I always felt like a lot of the hatred directed towards Katara was due to racialized misogyny
What an ignorant and low hanging fruit comment to make.
What she got was not justice, or revenge. What she got, with Zuko's help, was the restoration of her honor.
Hi there, I watch this video over and over and I love it. When you are talking about Katara, feels like talking about me. Especially when you are saying that when you destroy the darkside, you would destroy everything, driven by passion and that everything is coming from out one impulse. Is there a name or term for everything I just described. I would like to know more about myself and your video about Katara is my beginning. Grateful! ( Sorry for my bad English btw )
Well done Josh!!
I think you make the point i admire in people. It is not what your reasons are, but making it happen for the better that makes you admirable
Except your opinion on Aang being the least interesting one of the group, I couldn’t agree more. Well done!
Thank you! It's awesome. Great Analysis! Congrats!
I love Tauf and Katara. 😌
AMAZING!!!!
Katara is a strong and optimistic character but like anyone else in the show, she has flaws. But the way she addresses her flaws is her problem. For example when she told sokka about how he didn't love her mum as much as she did, she NEVER said sorry . She always got her way, that's why when toph opposed her it was such a big deal. Sokka had problems and he became humble and fixed them.
I do not understand why Katara is not as beloved as Sokka and Toph (in fact, I do, but I think it's wrong)
A big part of why Sokka and Toph are so beloved is their great sarcastic humor, quotable lines, and overall coolness factor for different reasons. Toph, being a blind little girl who is a terrific and confident earthbender and person instantly demands the viewer's attention. Sokka is the non-bender relatable to the viewer who is rational, pragmatic, smart and values science and strategy, slowly discovering these atributes as his greatest qualities.
Katara is not like them. She does not have their witty remarks or "coolness factor" in her personality. In fact, some of her greatest qualities tend to, unfairly, even be seen as kitschy by some fans, such as satirized in the episode The Ember Island Players. She is overall optimistic, kind and wants to help everyone around as well as she can. I feel that qualities such as these are undervalued today. While Cinderella is a VERY different character compared to Katara in countless ways, Cinderella is a more extreme example of how people do not rate these qualities, and a few others such as calmness, as well as they should (check video essay in UA-cam called Cinderella stop blaming the victim). And Katara has a drive and determination that maker her even more admirable. Episodes such as The Desert should make everyone have mad respect for her. Yet, I even see fans criticizing her for hugging and calming Aang at the end, saying that she should have let him kill those sandbenders! Such line of thinking is ridiculous in so many ways.
Still, Katara is not flawless. She has depth and flaws. She can be driven too much by her darkness when she is betrayed by someone that she trusts. Her drive to help can be unpractical sometimes and she can be bossy to her friends, but these are normal flaws and she is very well intentioned. Sokka and Toph's conversation in The Runaway shows wonderfully why she is so admirable.
Besides, all members of the Gaang have crucial and different flaws in the level of Katara's, that is why they are great characters and compliment each other so well. Sokka, though this was quickly dropped, was an annoying sexist at the start. If the creators did not correct this so early in the series, he would be so unbearable. But this is not his only flaw. He also has bossing tendencies like Katara, and can be really arrogant. In fact, throughout Books 1 and 2, mainly Book 1, he is often criticized and mocked for wanting to be the leader and give everyone's orders. The 10th episode of Book 1, Jet, deals with this and has great development for Sokka's character. When it comes to the level depth and great character development throughout the series, I see Sokka and Katara as closely equal. If I had to choose between the two of them, Katara probably has the superior, more intense and dramatical beats in her arc and depth. The highs of her character arc are higher and more compelling than Sokka's in my opinion, specially Sokka's arc is flatter and more homogenous. Specially how she must fight her darkest instincts and how her drive to help people and trust the others can not only backfire on her, but also hurt her more deeply than anyone else. Zuko is a perfect example of this. She was the first to forgive him, and he betrayed her. And later she became the last person to forgive him.
Another aspect of her darkest instincts is how she can say terrible things to close people when under great emotional pressure. Or feel hurt by them. You have Katara giving Hakoda, her father, a cold treatment in The Awakening. You have Katara saying to Toph, after being extremely angered by her, that the stars are beautiful and it was a pity that Toph could not see them. Or when Katara said to Sokka that he did not love their mother as much as she did. Do not get me wrong, these are VERY low things to say. But she was extremely full of anger and consumed by her darkness, specially in the moment with Sokka. We all can say terrible things when fueled by such drive of anger and/or hate, specially when it comes to her obssession in getting revenge with the men that killed her mother. Katara's arc is to find balance inside her.
Also, Katara definitely has more depth and development than Toph. I love Toph, but Katara is even better developed throughout the series and her arc is concluded in the show, while Toph's big arc, her relationship with her parents, was only concluded, and still not totally because she is still yet to reconcile with her mother, in the comics. Though it needs to be said that Toph has a lot more character development and arc during the show that many people realize.
Toph also has flaws of being too stubborn and arrogant, like Sokka. But because they are so cool and funny, it seems that they get a lot more good will, when it comes to their flaws, from the fans than Katara. Katara is either too perfect, because she cares about helping everyone, or a hypocrite, because she has flaws when she takes some of her qualities, such as her determination and drive, too far, to annoying, angry or unpractical levels. It is a no-win scenario in which Katara is criticized regardless of what she does inside of her personality, everything by her is vulnerable to criticism. But her flaws are normal. Some fans do not understand that and are way too harsh when she shows her flaws while easily overlooking Sokka and Toph's ones because they are cool, badass and full of quotable lines and humor. The fact is that Katara has at least as much development and depth as them both or even more. Her greatest qualities, such as in the episode The Desert, should be goals to everyone. Overall, she is a great, admirable and likable person with the added plus as a character of having depth, flaws and traumas. At her best, a person who worries and fights for the best of everyone while generally not being kitschy, unlike her portrayal in the play of the episode The Ember Island Players.
Also, many fans seem to implicate and be unable to forgive Katara because we did not see her apologize to Sokka for what she said to him in The Southern Raiders. First: we do not know if she did not. Second: it is never brought up again or even hinted at in any point of the series after and the comics too. Katara and Sokka's relationship is as good as ever. It is obvious that Katara in her right mind would never say something like that and she does not really think. And Sokka realizes this too and understands the context that made Katara say that. He often gets angered at small things, but he never sounds remotely angry with her for what she said in this case and he does not ask for an apology. He has no resentment and loves her as much as ever and Katara clearly feels the same towards him too.
I will say again, I think that other characters' flaws and mistakes as bad as Katara's worst ones are too overlooked in comparison with her worst mistakes for no reason that I can identify besides the fact that she is not as naturally cool as them or does not say cracking, fun lines such as them. She has charisma, I freaking love her overall look and design (such as her hair loopies and big, bright, optimistic and irresistible blue eyes with charming and innocent and childlike joy and cheerfulness that only Aang surpasses) and how she acts overall, but she does not have the same kind of charisma that Toph and Sokka, and their kind of charisma is more easily seen as cool and badass, while Katara's may even seem kitschy.
One of Sokka's worst mistakes in the whole series is falling for Azula's bait during the Fire Nation invasion and putting it in total jeopardy. It was not as emotionally bad as Katara saying to him in The Southern Raiders, but it is still terrible because so many people who had lives at stake were captured because of his mistake. Sokka knows that and feels guilty, leading to his final and decisive character development in The Boiling Rock. But I do not see fans implicating with Sokka for this terrible, and even selfish (since he prioritized Suki in a way that neglected so many other people who counted on him) mistake, during the day of invasion.
These were all my toughts. Sorry for the clunky, wordy and repetitive writing, but I needed to write this rambling and rant to finally feel at peace.
john davies 😂 this is the dumbest comment ever. You sir are extremely stupid.
Who gives a damn if she never says sorry, she said what she said in the moment, oh well. She fought with Toph? Boo fucking hoo.
Getting in the way? She stood strong while fighting against Zuko and Azula while Aang was struggling. She’s the reason he knows waterbending, why they were able to get out of the desert.
john davies it is implied that she said sorry. Knowing Katara as a character she did apologize, but it was off camera.
Lorenzo Nelson didn’t she also almost get zuko killed while fighting Azula , and she was the literal first water bender he met, and if she didn’t choose to go to the palms oasis the would of never lost appa and been stuck in the desert . His statement stand pretty firm she goes about things poorly and is depicted as annoying and that’s why people don’t like her as much as the other characters
@@babe6835 well if there is tension and someone shoots 'in the moment' then that person shouldn't go to jail. I have changed my perspective a bit but calling me stupid is just immature and childish.
Crossing the line would not make her a villain. She would just begin killing firebenders.
Not that I wouldn’t stop Katara from going after her killer but if she wants she can get it herself that means getting there with your own strength. Which mean no taking Appa
The problem with her is that she is blinded by the fact that she’s only a kid. She thinks that she has to be responsible and like a caring mother, but in reality, she doesn’t have to be. She should be more like sokka, who acts his age. He is a bit immature, but also smart and witty.
she COULDNT. that was the problem. after her mom died, she did everything she could to fill in her role and never found closure until that episode with zuko.
And the writing did nothing to get her to that point of realizing she's not every one's mom, she's not everyone's shoulder to rely on. It only pushed her further into that role. Forcing her to take on not only Aang's emotional burdens but the rest of the gaang. Then the comics cursed her to that role for the rest of her life.
Sages rain .....
One of the reasons why I liked Zuko over Katara is his desire to fulfill his goal no matter what why does she not always have this its his ambition no matter what. However glad he went to the good side but why do you keeping saying Zuko betrayed her? I feel Zuko owed her nothing born in the firenation raised in the firenation how do you expect him to betray that betray his family and Azula even if Oazi is the worse.
Bad upbringing is not an excuse for murder lol. That’s just like common sense.
Katara gave Zuko an olive branch in "Crossroads of Destiny" after bonding with him about their mother's and listening to his existential crisis. She was going to give Zuko the man hunting them a chance and offered to use her precious oasis water to heal his scar. Zuko then spits on her and her goodwill by siding with Azula . A series of events that would lead to Aang dying had Katara not saved him. Do you think Katara is wrong to feel betrayed after giving him a chance? That she hasnt considered how fucked everything would have been had she wasted the water on Zuko ? That she has forgotten the moment she she exclaimed "I thought you had changed!" and he replied "I HAVE changed" . Guy betrayed his own uncle and took advantage, so yeah he was scummy for what he did and deserved her wrath.
Also Katara has ambition. She literally challenged a waterbending master after he refused to teach her, her enduring strength saved them during the desert where Sokka was high, Aang was grieving over Appa and Toph could not see.
Katara is kind and is strong in both her will power and water bending. However, she was a weak character and there are only a few moments where she is actually important and she wasn't a character that was incredibly amazing or a character that developed. The only time when her character actually develops is during "The Southern Raiders". Not even the romance between Katara and Aang was interesting. (Zuko and Katara would have made a much better couple, but that is not what this is about.) And why do you think think that Katara was the leader? Sokka made as many leadership decisions as she did, but Aang was the one who called the shots. As a final point, I think that Aang and Katara's relationship was like Iroh and Zuko's. One was a character on a mission that had a lot to grow. The other was the wise mature mentor who assisted them. However, in Aang's case, he was fairly mature and in Katara's case, she wasn't a seasoned teacher like Iroh. That is why Katara didn't impress me.
With katara I think her whole purpose is to just be the emotional center. Whenever the group falls apart she tries to keep in together and becomes aggressive when an outsider shows them harm. I think her character development is fine. Book 1 was about her mastering water bending and becoming more mature. In Book 2 and 3 she has done those two previous goals and her new purpose is to assist the other members and help them out emotionally such as with aang when appa is stolen. There isnt really nothing to change about her character until zuko joins the group which challenges her view that people cant change
Sleath Jagger this comment was everywhere and a sad attempt to downplay Katara.
i kind of dislikw her becuase have of the people she meets are bad and then she says they are good and gets the gang into trouble she ven sent sokkas hawk away rip hawky
The only person who fits that description is Jet, and it's understandable since that's the first guy who was her age and cool she met. Being too trusting is also a character flaw.
So you're basically saying sending Hawkie away to help Toph with closure with her parents is bad and somehow her fault? If you're going to give reasons to dislike her, at least let it be credible.
Katara's story isn't that well executed in the show and I still find it hard to really like her. But the idea behind the character is an extremely strong one.
How so?
Other characters had worse flaws also, so I do not get what you are saying and I never will
@joel prince Ridiculous. I do not understand why Katara is not as beloved as Sokka and Toph (in fact, I do, but I think it's wrong)
A big part of why Sokka and Toph are so beloved is their great sarcastic humor, quotable lines, and overall coolness factor for different reasons. Toph, being a blind little girl who is a terrific and confident earthbender and person instantly demands the viewer's attention. Sokka is the non-bender relatable to the viewer who is rational, pragmatic, smart and values science and strategy, slowly discovering these atributes as his greatest qualities.
Katara is not like them. She does not have their witty remarks or "coolness factor" in her personality. In fact, some of her greatest qualities tend to, unfairly, even be seen as kitschy by some fans, such as satirized in the episode The Ember Island Players. She is overall optimistic, kind and wants to help everyone around as well as she can. I feel that qualities such as these are undervalued today. While Cinderella is a VERY different character compared to Katara in countless ways, Cinderella is a more extreme example of how people do not rate these qualities, and a few others such as calmness, as well as they should (check video essay in UA-cam called Cinderella stop blaming the victim). And Katara has a drive and determination that maker her even more admirable. Episodes such as The Desert should make everyone have mad respect for her. Yet, I even see fans criticizing her for hugging and calming Aang at the end, saying that she should have let him kill those sandbenders! Such line of thinking is ridiculous in so many ways.
Still, Katara is not flawless. She has depth and flaws. She can be driven too much by her darkness when she is betrayed by someone that she trusts. Her drive to help can be unpractical sometimes and she can be bossy to her friends, but these are normal flaws and she is very well intentioned. Sokka and Toph's conversation in The Runaway shows wonderfully why she is so admirable.
Besides, all members of the Gaang have crucial and different flaws in the level of Katara's, that is why they are great characters and compliment each other so well. Sokka, though this was quickly dropped, was an annoying sexist at the start. If the creators did not correct this so early in the series, he would be so unbearable. But this is not his only flaw. He also has bossing tendencies like Katara, and can be really arrogant. In fact, throughout Books 1 and 2, mainly Book 1, he is often criticized and mocked for wanting to be the leader and give everyone's orders. The 10th episode of Book 1, Jet, deals with this and has great development for Sokka's character. When it comes to the level depth and great character development throughout the series, I see Sokka and Katara as closely equal. If I had to choose between the two of them, Katara probably has the superior, more intense and dramatical beats in her arc and depth. The highs of her character arc are higher and more compelling than Sokka's in my opinion, specially Sokka's arc is flatter and more homogenous. Specially how she must fight her darkest instincts and how her drive to help people and trust the others can not only backfire on her, but also hurt her more deeply than anyone else. Zuko is a perfect example of this. She was the first to forgive him, and he betrayed her. And later she became the last person to forgive him.
Another aspect of her darkest instincts is how she can say terrible things to close people when under great emotional pressure. Or feel hurt by them. You have Katara giving Hakoda, her father, a cold treatment in The Awakening. You have Katara saying to Toph, after being extremely angered by her, that the stars are beautiful and it was a pity that Toph could not see them. Or when Katara said to Sokka that he did not love their mother as much as she did. Do not get me wrong, these are VERY low things to say. But she was extremely full of anger and consumed by her darkness, specially in the moment with Sokka. We all can say terrible things when fueled by such drive of anger and/or hate, specially when it comes to her obssession in getting revenge with the men that killed her mother. Katara's arc is to find balance inside her.
Also, Katara definitely has more depth and development than Toph. I love Toph, but Katara is even better developed throughout the series and her arc is concluded in the show, while Toph's big arc, her relationship with her parents, was only concluded, and still not totally because she is still yet to reconcile with her mother, in the comics. Though it needs to be said that Toph has a lot more character development and arc during the show that many people realize.
Toph also has flaws of being too stubborn and arrogant, like Sokka. But because they are so cool and funny, it seems that they get a lot more good will, when it comes to their flaws, from the fans than Katara. Katara is either too perfect, because she cares about helping everyone, or a hypocrite, because she has flaws when she takes some of her qualities, such as her determination and drive, too far, to annoying, angry or unpractical levels. It is a no-win scenario in which Katara is criticized regardless of what she does inside of her personality, everything by her is vulnerable to criticism. But her flaws are normal. Some fans do not understand that and are way too harsh when she shows her flaws while easily overlooking Sokka and Toph's ones because they are cool, badass and full of quotable lines and humor. The fact is that Katara has at least as much development and depth as them both or even more. Her greatest qualities, such as in the episode The Desert, should be goals to everyone. Overall, she is a great, admirable and likable person with the added plus as a character of having depth, flaws and traumas. At her best, a person who worries and fights for the best of everyone while generally not being kitschy, unlike her portrayal in the play of the episode The Ember Island Players.
Also, many fans seem to implicate and be unable to forgive Katara because we did not see her apologize to Sokka for what she said to him in The Southern Raiders. First: we do not know if she did not. Second: it is never brought up again or even hinted at in any point of the series after and the comics too. Katara and Sokka's relationship is as good as ever. It is obvious that Katara in her right mind would never say something like that and she does not really think. And Sokka realizes this too and understands the context that made Katara say that. He often gets angered at small things, but he never sounds remotely angry with her for what she said in this case and he does not ask for an apology. He has no resentment and loves her as much as ever and Katara clearly feels the same towards him too.
I will say again, I think that other characters' flaws and mistakes as bad as Katara's worst ones are too overlooked in comparison with her worst mistakes for no reason that I can identify besides the fact that she is not as naturally cool as them or does not say cracking, fun lines such as them. She has charisma, I freaking love her overall look and design (such as her hair loopies and big, bright, optimistic and irresistible blue eyes with charming and innocent and childlike joy and cheerfulness that only Aang surpasses) and how she acts overall, but she does not have the same kind of charisma that Toph and Sokka, and their kind of charisma is more easily seen as cool and badass, while Katara's may even seem kitschy.
One of Sokka's worst mistakes in the whole series is falling for Azula's bait during the Fire Nation invasion and putting it in total jeopardy. It was not as emotionally bad as Katara saying to him in The Southern Raiders, but it is still terrible because so many people who had lives at stake were captured because of his mistake. Sokka knows that and feels guilty, leading to his final and decisive character development in The Boiling Rock. But I do not see fans implicating with Sokka for this terrible, and even selfish (since he prioritized Suki in a way that neglected so many other people who counted on him) mistake, during the day of invasion.
These were all my toughts. Sorry for the clunky, wordy and repetitive writing, but I needed to write this rambling and rant to finally feel at peace.
@joel prince Sorry if I minimized Sokka. I love him
joel prince um, shut up. You just minimized Katara.