Katara used to be the fandom punching bag before Korra and used to get a lot of criticism for being annoying or whatever, but I entirely disagree. She is more loved now which is great, (I think it has something to do with the fact there’s a new female character for everyone to hate but whatever 😭)
Her character makes the most sense when it comes to the way she interacts with other characters and builds relationships with those around her. She understands the value of resistance and fighting, while also being an advocate for peace and acceptance; and she does this in a balanced way.
One of the biggest themes in the show is redemption. Zuko and Iroh are fan favourites, despite formerly being apart of the Fire Nation and their attacks on other nations and doing genocide to other groups, they redeemed themselves in their arcs.
When Zuko first approaches Team Avatar, they are all hesitant but eventually give in. Katara is the most hesitant and doesn’t accept him until later. It’s really irritating to see people see this as a character flaw rather than the logical and sensible response. Her mother was murdered by the Fire Nation and she has every right to react that way. When it comes to her and Jet, many people like to point out how naive she was in trusting Jet, but again that’s her understanding his position as a victim and relating to him and his objective to resist and get revenge.
Despite ATLA being one of my favourite shows of all time, my major criticism is with the framing of certain characters. Iroh was a soldier that didn’t realize the full impact of his actions until his son died, he was unable to understand the magnitude of what he was doing until he experienced it himself. Of course he feels guilt and remorse for what he had done, but ultimately he still did those things. I have no problem with him being redeemed but that same concept isn’t applied properly to the victims of the Fire Nation.
Characters like Jet and Tagah are survivors that are trying to seek revenge on those that harmed them, but rather than getting arcs that teach them the right way they’re villains. They are never given a proper arc that shows them getting vindicated in one way or another. Rather than killing the survivors of violence and redeeming the inflicters, there should’ve been more balance between the two and allowing more characters like Jet to have a storyline where they can actually heal and get some sort of peace with their trauma.
Why is it that the perpetrators of violence and trauma can be redeemed but the victims are always on the extreme of being violent revenge seekers. They can be also have arcs that teach them on how to resist without inflicting pain.
Back to Katara, she was the only character that did this in some way. She’s a victim of the Fire Nation and is the only character that was able to empathize with victims and hate the perpetrators in a balanced way.
Her story with freeing the earth benders early in the story really made me love her and she is an example of someone who understands the value of fighting back rather than just accepting redemption without any genuine reason.
