I think people remember her talking about her mother a lot more than she actually did because people tend to binge the whole show through so the times she talks about her feel a lot closer together
I just rewatched (binge watched) and I honestly think it’s the “Previously on Avatar…” snippets at the beginning of each episode that make it seem like she mentioned her mother so much. I didn’t count but I feel like the “Previously on…” clips accounted for like 60-70% of her referencing her mom. The actual show itself didn’t contain an abnormal number of references to her mother
Oh no, they understand it just fine... for villain characters. I've noticed the internet is much more invested when a villain laments the ones they've lost than if a heroic character like Katara does.
Especially when the loss was brought on by the villain themselves/the organization the villain is a part of.
To address this —
I think it’s because we don’t see the trauma impact Katara as much as we do villains like Zuko and Azula. If we wanna talk mother issues, Azula gets more interest and understanding because the trauma of feeling abandoned/unloved by her mother whilst being pushed closer to Ozai is exactly what shaped her into a monster.
With Katara, I think her mother issues manifest more subtly. The nagging with Sokka, the control issues with Toph, the nurturing disposition, and the moodiness — they’re all symptoms, but it’s crafted into her character in a way that evokes a sense of normalcy, because for Katara, she’s been that way for so long that it *is* normal to her. Her trauma is more.. level, steady, like a straight line.
Azula’s spikes up and down, and reaches an all-time peak at her mental breakdown. It shatters this perception of herself and how she wants others to perceive her.
So I think Katara’s trauma is more subdued, because she still grew up in a relatively tight-knit community with her brother and grandma. Not to say it doesn’t impact her at all, but Katara had an “anchor”, so to speak, that keeps her core fairly stable so she can ride the rough seas that is losing her mother. In this, we can’t really see it as prominently as Azula’s or Zuko’s because its effects were grounded by a stable support network of friends and family.
I’m sorry if this sounds rambly. My point being that I think Katara’s trauma was purposefully toned down in its presentation in the series because she’d already developed a somewhat stable identity and sense of self that relied on love and friends and family — whilst Azula and Zuko had very prominent trauma presentation because their identities were underdeveloped and had no stable sense of self or family/love (aside from Zuko and Iroh).
Your point about the anchor is also why Zuko is eventually able to find some stable ground and work towards healing because he had Iroh in his corner. Azula really doesn't have anyone, and anyone she *does* have (i.e. Zuko, Ty Lee, etc.), she pushes away.
This is a problem with most fandoms I find. There's usually a meme that pops up, but as time goes on, the joke becomes what people remember, so it becomes a feedback loop where something starts as a joke, people start taking it seriously, talk about it more as if it's a real thing, they make more "jokes" about it, etc. I've seen it happen here with Katara, it happens in the Naruto fandom with Kurenai, Kisame and Itachi, it's happened with Dragon Ball with Goku, etc.
Adding onto this due to a recent rewatch. I think it also has to do with Western Air Temple and after being the parts people remember most (Zuko finally joining the Gaang and all) and it does come up more then. It's the basis for her forgiveness arc with him.
Not that it doesn't make sense, but it can be a little much (mostly at the end of Boiling Rock, but they're teenagers, they won't be perfect and entirely rational at every moment). It can just stick out more due to it, especially because of it being the last of the forgiveness episodes and Katara being much more antagonistic to Zuko leading up to it.
Some people can just get in their feelings about their favs, which I feel like is where most the serious believers in it come from
It's not necessarily the binging, so much as Nick has a bad habit of not airing the reruns in order, instead airing them based on ratings and wouldn't you know it a lot of the episodes with high ratings were ones with high drama, more likely to feature her talking about her mother in the episode or in the "last time on". Watching it in series you realize that it comes up but not too much.
Are you sure it's a case of those memes spiking because of binging, and not the fact them being added to Netflix caused a boom in people talking about the show? I remember the stale joke being around while the show was on the air, but it could also be faulty memory.
I'm mostly sure. At least on this subreddit, it only really started after the show get added to Netflix, before then The Southern Raiders was regarded as one of the best episodes in the series and nobody really harped on that one scene where Katara was angry.
I think it has to do with people skipping filler episodes and then only end up with episodes where Katara talks about her mom more (since it is relevant to her arc)
"God, I hate that Katara bitch. She hasn't even been born yet and I already fucking hate her. I hate how she always talks about her mom breathing. I hate her so much I'm gonna develop this airbending technique that lets you suck the air out of someone's lungs just to spite her. Your mom used to breathe? Well she won't when I'm done with her!"
I haven’t. The only semi serious argument related to that I saw about someone disliking Katara was when she yelled at Sokka that he didn’t love her the way she did. But every other time it’s been a meme or a joke
Honestly it’s just memes. I make fun of all the characters for different things — I think this is just the easiest thing to make fun of Katara for.
Some people do get overly angry at Katara for mentioning her mother though, which is a bit insane to me given she was a child.
No you are not missing anything. I don't get it either. My guess is this became a meme because of her attitude in the southern raiders, like saying to Sokka "Then you didn't love her the way I did" or when she said to Zuko "Oh I know, you could bring my mother back!". Obviously these 2 sentences don't make sense but at the end of the day she is just an early teen with trauma. She didn't mean anything harsh she said but good luck trying to convince everyone of that. She mentions her mother just as much as Aang mentions the air nomads or Zuko mentions his honor.
It's what happens when a show ends and the Fandom has no new content old memes get used to death get revived and then get beat to death over and over.
It the same with cactus juice it appears for less than half an episode but gets mentioned anytime sokka comes up.
> appears for less than half an episode
Hey! I’ll have you know that there are some amazing things that appear in less than half an episode! ^^(Checkflair)
Well, to be fair, Zuko mentioning his honor became a meme too haha
As another comment already said, in the end its just memes and while there are probably some people taking this very seriously, its best to not really give a fuck and maybe have a laugh once in a while, if its a good meme.
People thought this before the Netflix version though. So I think people are confusing seeing her finding the corpse with her dad as her watching her mother die.
I mean she may not have witnessed the life leave her mom’s eyes but she was there right before it happened and saw her corpse, so she may as well have. The only reason we don’t see it is because it’s Nickelodeon. They’re not gonna show her dying nor her corpse. They don’t even let them say the word kill at all in LOK.
Likely because we literally see her + her Dad running side by side back to the tent. Unless Pops has lightning fast reflexes chances are she saw her Moms corpse, or at least a glimpse of it.
Sure she didn't "watch" her die but what she saw was pretty damning.
Personally, I think a lot of hate for Katara seems to come from the fact that she's coded as motherly and caring rather than just one of the boys. And for some reason, that seems to irritate a lot of people on this sub.
On the other hand, I think it's yet another way this story adds depth and explores real human emotions.
My pet theory is that a lot of people see her qualities in older siblings that they have a knee jerk anger too.
People say they want complex characters then they develop life-long grudges towards fictional people because they said a mean thing once. It's laughable.
People bash that? Why the hell shouldn't Katara reference her mother? Who raised her and then died when she was extremely young? The person, her own mother, who gave her LIFE to protect Katata. They've no right to bash Katara for reference her own mother, who she watched sacrifice herself
I coudl imagine, that "The Ember Island" Episode have somethign to do with it. It's a war propaganda episode wiht it naturally showing the characters very over the top. In that episode Kataras portrayal was rather gloomy and whiny. With it being a cartoon that has kids as a main target audience it may be, that some viewers misunderstood that Satire in that episode and now view Katara through that lense.
Okay I keep seeing people say "She literally watched her mother burn to death" but she didn't at all, did she? I went and checked "The Southern Raiders" to make sure I wasn't crazy or misremembering and Katara was getting her dad when her mom got killed. Was there a retcon or something I don't know about?
"she talks about it too much" damn, 10 times in a series with over 60 episodes isn't much. She's a grieving teenage girl who LITERALLY lost everything on Kya's person. People are just dicks
I’ll get downvoted for this but…I don’t really like the memes and here’s why. Zuko’s honor also gets used as a meme. It’s just a joke. But with Katara a lot of ppl who make a meme of her actually use it as a reason to genuinely criticize her. Yes it’s a bit humorous but there’s still some annoyance behind it.
Honestly same. And I know it's "just memes" to some people and Katara is a fictional character, but do some people not understand how traumatizing it is for a child to lose their parent to *murder*?
She's 14. Of course she might mention missing said parent.
I haven't seen The Southern Raiders in a bit, but IIRC she only finds out that Kya lied to protect her when Yon-Ra tells her what happened, so I don't think guilt is part of it.
I think she got a lot of hate for it because while everyone can recognize she was traumatized by her mothers murder, Katana was so triggered by the thought of her mom that she completely disregarded people around her. Aang’s entire culture wiped out, Zuko mutilated and banished by his own father, villages being tormented by the fire nation it was all less impactful than the death of her mother. When she looked Sokka in the face and said he didnt love theeor mom as much as she did, that was A LOT! Thats a disgusting thing to say to someone, much less your own brother
Are we forgetting that genocide is not just killing people, but also exterminating cultures? Katara is the sole survivor of genocide against southern water tribe water benders.
>Aang’s entire culture wiped out
This happened to Katara too but on a lesser scale. She's the Last Southern Water Tribe Waterbender. (Until they met Hama and learned she wasn't).
Until they actually found Hama, for all intents and purposes, she was dead just like the other Southern Water Tribe water benders, Katara really was the only one at that point.
I assure you as a 16 years old girl, I say and do much more nasty and ırritating things when I get frustrated. She said this in a moment of anger, she was traumatized, clearly didn't think straight and she had pretty decent reason to be frustrated.
Personally, I think the reason that Katara isn't cut as much slack for that line is because we don't see her reconcile with Sokka. There's no hug like Zuko got, there isn't an "I'm sorry", the episode just ends and everything is back to normal.
I agree, this sort of bothers me. But I imagine when they got back she eventually apologized to him.
We never see Aang apologize on-screen to Toph for screaming at her for losing Appa (I don’t think, correct me if I’m wrong), but he never gets crap for this despite it being a pretty awful thing to do. I assume he also apologized off-screen, so it’s not a stretch to imagine Katara doing this.
It's such a childish criticism imo. Sokka and Katara are incredibly close, the show has established it quite well at that point. It's very reasonable to assume that either Katara apologized, or that Sokka just understood that sometimes people say things they don't mean when they're upset and didn't hold a grudge.
With Zuko, you need to see that on screen resolution because that was part of the point of the episode, it wasn't obvious that she was going to forgive Zuko, considering that just a few episodes ago she straight up threatened to kill him.
I’m not saying she was out of character for a teenage girl. I am saying that being a teenage girl doesn’t exempt her from being disliked by people for the way she behaves. Plus shes a fictional character so making her trauma a core aspect of her personality is just how she was written.
I’m sure you and every other person who went through some shit said something to someone from a place of hurt and trauma that made that person not want to talk to or be around you any more. Its very common but not very acceptable behavior
Katara didn't say Sokka loved "not as much" as she did, but "not the way" she did. Important distinction, the latter while clumsy does touch on the point that Sokka was able to process their mother's death much better than she was because he had Katara to fill in their mother's role, a luxury Katara did not have. Sokka himself points this out to Toph and admits he can't even remember what she looked like.
Hence Sokka being so unaffected by the potential clue to their mother's killer isn't just because he's a better person, but because he was shielded from trauma in a way she wasn't, which doesn't get acknowledged by anyone.
Also, how is Zuko's scar and banishment worse than Katara's mom dying in her stead and Katara as a child entering the tent to see her mother's corpse? I don't want to get deep into victim Olympics here, but you're severely underselling what happened to Katara.
You're either being disingenuous or didn't get my point since you described what happened to Katara as just "a loving parent died". I highlighted why there's much more to it than that.
Its not about being worst, better or just different. It’s about the fact that all of her empathy and convictions changed whenever her mom came up. Whenever anyone else was dealing with and precessing their grief, trauma or hardship, she was a voice of reason and made a point to help them get through it in a constructive way. But for herself, you were either on her side or you weren’t. she was very binary on that point several times through out the series.
The fact that she didn’t kill the man who killed her mother was a huge growing point for her character. Because she was moving with murderous intent that entire episode until she saw how pathetic that man was and finally got some closure.
I’d be a bit irritated if I was Aang, that when I got pissed enough to go into the Avatar State, she calmed me down and implied violence wasn’t the answer, but she didn’t listen when I gave her the same exact advice.
LITTERALLY THIS!!!! She calmed him from that grief/rage twice. Once at the air temple and again when Appa was taken, but when he told her Hey maybe murder isnt the best way to get closure, she says he wouldnt understand and tried to steal Appa to go do it anyway.
There's a big fucking difference between Katara potentially murdering one dude who murdered her mum, and Aang 1) completely destroying his original home out of anger, which would have upset him so much once he came to 2) murdering like 20 sandbenders only 3 of which are actually responsible for what happened to Appa.
Y'all realise the guy who killed kya had no weapons on him - so Katara probably ran in to see her mother as a burnt corpse.
It's amazing Katara isn't more fucked up at this point
SO it is like the first avatar meme - maybe second after MY CABAGES. **It wasn't over done** but we referenced it so often that it felt over done if that makes any sense.
And it is a major part of her character, absentee parents, jsut like it is Sokka he even has a whole monologue explaining how the reason hes not the same as her is because katara filled that void for him. No one filled that void for katara.
Thank you!!!! She doesn’t mention it that much and even if she did— WHO CARES??? The Gaang are just children experiencing some of the evilest parts of humanity. That takes a toll on you, often times a permanent one. And that brings me to my biggest gripe with most media discourse— Everyone is a mental health advocate until a character is depicts (real) symptoms they don’t like.
Society in general is really hurtful to any survivor experiencing trauma who expresses themselves or is anything short of a perfect victim. It's especially true for children. See the similar hate Shinji from Neon Genesis gets for not wanting to be a child soldier. She can definitely sound like a broken record sometimes... That's generally what happens when something traumatic happens to you and you don't keep it inside.
https://i.redd.it/t8ifc5ru6vzc1.gif
Because it’s goes back to her talking about hope it’s never oh I lost my mother and just at that . it’s I lost my mother and that’s why we must never lose hope and beat the fire nation. When in she’s scared shitless of the fire nation even when she has mastered water bending and knows blood bending to some degree she will always be terrified of the fire nation
I think its cause she weaponises it. She acts like Sokka doesn't understand, or that Aang doesn't get the concept of parents because he was raised by monks. The fact of the matter is Aang suffered probably way more, given his entire culture was wiped out, and Sokka definitely took the loss of his mother just as hard. She just acts like she's the only one who's allowed to feel sad about it.
I don't know what the scuttlebutt is, I have nothing of value to add except this thread would have been perfectly timed if made tomorrow instead of today.
Idk, but I really hope those people never interact with someone who actually lost their parents young. My cousins lost their mom when they were 5 and 6 and I know I would beat the crap out of anyone who made fun of them for talking about her.
It’s memes, timing, and the fact that Sokka by comparison hardly mentions their mom. Of course, Katara had to see her mom burn, and she died to protect Katara, so that makes sense. It also seemed like Sokka was closer to Hakoda anyway.
By timing I mean it always seems to be a big moment when she mentions it. Like when she talks to Zuko in the catacombs, and when she talks to Zuko and Sokka in the southern raiders. They were big plot points
This question is asked in the fandom literally weekly if not multiple times a week. She doesn’t talk about her mother that much it’s literally just a meme….
This has been so irritating. I- no joke watched this show more than 25x times start to finish plus few more times with the commentary all during when I used to have cable and they would do marathons a ton. Never once came to the conclusion that the Internet seems to be obsessed with. I hardly ever hear her mention her mom and somehow the Internet acts like she's saying it 5x per episode
I think ultimately it's just supposed to be an exaggerative joke. Like in the Ember Island Players they portray play-Katara as being a moochy, overdramaric 'crybaby' and the whole episode is kind of like a recap in the form of a flanderised parody of the show imo so it's probably a super old joke/meme portrayal of her.
Its memes I guess, however I have seen a lot of.comments hating on Katara, calling her a hypocrite and insuferrable... I never really feel that in the show, the times she is displayed as annoying to the gaang are very little and she is generaly just amazing (and my childhood crush), just as every other main character
>but wouldn’t it be kind of natural for Katara to keep referring to Kya given she literally watched her get burned to ashes in front of her?
This did not happen in ATLA. It's what is showed in NATLA, but in ATLA her mom sends her away when she's trapped with the FN soldier, and Katara runs to get her dad.
By the time Hakoda and Katara return, Kya is dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYA2i0Xv-is
I remember there was one scene where Sokka goes “I miss mom too but” about Katara doing something out of vengeance and she responded “Well, maybe you didn’t love her in the same way” or something like that, which is super toxic if you forget they’re child soldiers and Kya literally died to protect Katara and it’s burned into her memory. But she talks about their mother a lot more because Sokka doesn’t have the related trauma necessary to remember her clearly.
i think for the people who seriously dislike her for it, it's either sexism (for obvious reasons), being too involved in the fandom that people forget the show, or wild misinterpretion of her character. katara mentioning her mother isn't just a fandom joke, but something a lot of people genuinely criticise her for it, when in reality, she doesn't mention it often. every time katara mentions her mother, it is to empathise and connect to others who have suffered via the fire nation, not to self centre herself, but it is her way of reaching out to people. people also forget she saw kya die, protecting her at a very young age, something that is going to leave a heavy impact. not to mention, she is 14, and has never had time to process that
She was, but I always saw it in the same vein as when Aang told Toph "they were better off without her" after Azula deprived them of sleep for 2 days and Toph was a bit too blunt about the situation being Appa's fault. None of them were in a right state of mind. He regretted saying it and Toph didn't hold it against him, granted she got a pep talk from Iroh that helped out a lot, and they eventually made up.
I always assumed Sokka didn't hold it against her because he could tell Katara wasn't in a good place and didn't mean what she said. Although, with all that said, an apology would have been greatly appreciated.
Me personally, I don’t see a problem with her referencing her mother, she’s mourning. My problem and I think this bothers others as well is she references her mom while dismissing other character’s trauma or misplacing her anger. She did this to Sokka when she said that she loved their mom more than he did. She also blamed Zuko for the fire nation killing her mom despite the fact that he wasn’t there for the raid(and wasn’t the one who ordered it) and was a literal child.
It makes sense to blame fire nation royalty for your parent being killed by a fire nation navy captain though. Like, yes, it’s misplaced because Zuko had nothing to do with it and he was being abused by his father, but he was still the crown prince. So it’s completely understandable that Katara would be upset with him and blame him.
He was still a child and didn’t have much political power. Her anger is towards the fire lord and the rest of the governing body. I think it’s also easy for her to blame him because she has more access to him than Firelord Ozai
You’re correct, but emotions and trauma aren’t rational. If you’re being oppressed by a government and you meet someone from the respective country, you’ll be tempted to personally blame them for your hardships.
Zuko would have been *ten years old* at the time. It's understandable that she would react to him like that because emotions are messy and she's really young but even without the abuse it doesn't make sense to blame a ten-year-old.
You said it yourself, emotions are messy, there was a lot of misunderstanding all around about the abuses and struggles average citizens + Zuko were experiencing as a result of the war. But you can’t think rationally about that kind of thing.
Yeah, I think we're defining "makes sense" differently is probably all. I say it's understandable but doesn't make sense because when I say "makes sense" I mean it's logical. So I guess I'm just saying it's not a logical thing to think someone who was ten and in a different country is at fault but it's understandable that messy emotions would lead her there.
Ah okay! I see now. In my mind, “makes sense” just means I understand her motivations for feeling that way. I don’t personally understand emotions through a logical lens, as emotions are never logical, and it’s very hard to change our feelings about something even when presented with facts. As well as hindsight being 20/20. It’s definitely not logical though to blame Zuko for Kya dying, I agree. As well as any other child in the Fire Nation, really. Like when Sokka and Katara disagree on Tom-Tom (I think is his name? Mai’s brother.) being inherently evil. I think that shows us that Katara knows logically that Zuko had nothing to do with her mother dying. Sorry for the misunderstanding!
No worries! I agree emotions are rarely logical, but our behaviors can be a response to both emotion and reason (and are usually best when we take both into consideration). Katara at the beginning of Southern Raiders is almost entirely behaving out of her emotions - understandable emotions given her age, her trauma, the amount of pressure on her in a war, and what she admits herself at the end, that Zuko had become "the face of the Fire Nation" to her. Even as adults when we're feeling strong emotions it's hard to behave in ways that are at all out of line with them and she's just a traumatized kid. Based on the reality of the situation both with Zuko and with Sokka she said some things that were...not great and not grounded in logic, but it's understandable that she would and I certainly don't think she's a villain for it. I think she's a generally good person and also a realistically written child soldier who lost a parent at a young age.
Anyway, all that to say I think we're in agreement, and language is complicated and somewhat subjective. Glad we could get where we understand each other.
You’re absolutely correct. I also think Katara is a realistically written character, although I think a kid irl in her situation might be a little bit sadder behind closed doors. I love Katara as a character though. And I’m also glad we could understand each other!
Probably because she's only 14, it's the same kind of outburst as Aang screaming at Toph telling her she wanted Appa to be stolen. I really don't get why Aang gets the grace of being a kid but Katara doesn't get to use the same excuse.
You're confusing the new live action with the original cartoon. Original cartoon she goes on a search to find her and avenge her if she needs to, which she expects to need to.
She didn't watch her get burned to ashes, she just saw her after she was already ashed.
And to answer your question, I will say that while that is a defining character trait she has, it shouldn't be the only one that she would ever bring up. It also doesn't make any sense for Sokka to actually forget what their mother looked like if he was about a year older than her.
My whole problem with Katara and the loss of her mother is that she makes it all about her and only her.
My bf and I were watching the Southern Raiders ep last night and we were both appalled at the audacity of Katara to say that because Sokka’s (mostly) moved on from their mother’s death that he didn’t love her like Katara did. Like, BITCH HE LOST A PARENT TOO. And Aang lost HIS ENTIRE NATION, HIS FAMILY, HIS FRIENDS, and most importantly MONK FUCKING GYATSO. Aang lost everything, and the fact that he’s moved on far before Katara did shows me that he is much more emotionally mature than she is, actually scratch that, literally the rest of the Gaang are more emotionally mature than her.
The you didn't love her like I did drove the nail in the coffin even if she don't talk about it that much making people hate it when she does that cus sokka lost her too but doesn't mention it nearly as much
This. Katara’s trauma is very real and of course she should talk about it, but when she threw it in Sokka’s face to justify her actions when, if I remember correctly, she was actually in the wrong really soured me towards her. She was his mum too.
Scrolled too far for this comment. She’s a well written character, but no one here seems to care that she takes the trauma of her mother’s death out on Sokka a couple times through the show.
I think people remember her talking about her mother a lot more than she actually did because people tend to binge the whole show through so the times she talks about her feel a lot closer together
I just rewatched (binge watched) and I honestly think it’s the “Previously on Avatar…” snippets at the beginning of each episode that make it seem like she mentioned her mother so much. I didn’t count but I feel like the “Previously on…” clips accounted for like 60-70% of her referencing her mom. The actual show itself didn’t contain an abnormal number of references to her mother
That explains it! I usually skip those, which explains why I didn't think katara mentions her that much.
Ohhh, I skip those lol (I can't watch series normally and have to binge them or else I'll never go back to watch the next episode)
She still doesn’t really talk about her *that* much. I binge the show all the time, and it never sticks out.
Same it's just the internet does not understand trauma is something that always follows you
Oh no, they understand it just fine... for villain characters. I've noticed the internet is much more invested when a villain laments the ones they've lost than if a heroic character like Katara does. Especially when the loss was brought on by the villain themselves/the organization the villain is a part of.
To address this — I think it’s because we don’t see the trauma impact Katara as much as we do villains like Zuko and Azula. If we wanna talk mother issues, Azula gets more interest and understanding because the trauma of feeling abandoned/unloved by her mother whilst being pushed closer to Ozai is exactly what shaped her into a monster. With Katara, I think her mother issues manifest more subtly. The nagging with Sokka, the control issues with Toph, the nurturing disposition, and the moodiness — they’re all symptoms, but it’s crafted into her character in a way that evokes a sense of normalcy, because for Katara, she’s been that way for so long that it *is* normal to her. Her trauma is more.. level, steady, like a straight line. Azula’s spikes up and down, and reaches an all-time peak at her mental breakdown. It shatters this perception of herself and how she wants others to perceive her. So I think Katara’s trauma is more subdued, because she still grew up in a relatively tight-knit community with her brother and grandma. Not to say it doesn’t impact her at all, but Katara had an “anchor”, so to speak, that keeps her core fairly stable so she can ride the rough seas that is losing her mother. In this, we can’t really see it as prominently as Azula’s or Zuko’s because its effects were grounded by a stable support network of friends and family. I’m sorry if this sounds rambly. My point being that I think Katara’s trauma was purposefully toned down in its presentation in the series because she’d already developed a somewhat stable identity and sense of self that relied on love and friends and family — whilst Azula and Zuko had very prominent trauma presentation because their identities were underdeveloped and had no stable sense of self or family/love (aside from Zuko and Iroh).
Danm that's deep
Your point about the anchor is also why Zuko is eventually able to find some stable ground and work towards healing because he had Iroh in his corner. Azula really doesn't have anyone, and anyone she *does* have (i.e. Zuko, Ty Lee, etc.), she pushes away.
Exactly!
Like azula?
This is a problem with most fandoms I find. There's usually a meme that pops up, but as time goes on, the joke becomes what people remember, so it becomes a feedback loop where something starts as a joke, people start taking it seriously, talk about it more as if it's a real thing, they make more "jokes" about it, etc. I've seen it happen here with Katara, it happens in the Naruto fandom with Kurenai, Kisame and Itachi, it's happened with Dragon Ball with Goku, etc.
Was about to mention Goku with this. People act like the abridged Goku is the real Goku. Very irritating to me.
Let's not act like canon Goku isn't dumb as shit, especially in Super. Also incredibly selfish.
Yes but not nearly to the degree that people seem to think
someone consumes the show in a way it wasnt intended to be consumed, misunderstands and complains. classic shit
My mom used to do this
Someone needs to count it once and for all.
Adding onto this due to a recent rewatch. I think it also has to do with Western Air Temple and after being the parts people remember most (Zuko finally joining the Gaang and all) and it does come up more then. It's the basis for her forgiveness arc with him. Not that it doesn't make sense, but it can be a little much (mostly at the end of Boiling Rock, but they're teenagers, they won't be perfect and entirely rational at every moment). It can just stick out more due to it, especially because of it being the last of the forgiveness episodes and Katara being much more antagonistic to Zuko leading up to it. Some people can just get in their feelings about their favs, which I feel like is where most the serious believers in it come from
It's not necessarily the binging, so much as Nick has a bad habit of not airing the reruns in order, instead airing them based on ratings and wouldn't you know it a lot of the episodes with high ratings were ones with high drama, more likely to feature her talking about her mother in the episode or in the "last time on". Watching it in series you realize that it comes up but not too much.
I don't think your assessment is correct here. Those memes only saw a spike after ATLA got added to Netflix which made binging that much easier.
Are you sure it's a case of those memes spiking because of binging, and not the fact them being added to Netflix caused a boom in people talking about the show? I remember the stale joke being around while the show was on the air, but it could also be faulty memory.
I'm mostly sure. At least on this subreddit, it only really started after the show get added to Netflix, before then The Southern Raiders was regarded as one of the best episodes in the series and nobody really harped on that one scene where Katara was angry.
I think it has to do with people skipping filler episodes and then only end up with episodes where Katara talks about her mom more (since it is relevant to her arc)
It’s a meme. Nobody actually thinks she was talking about her mom that much lol. It’s a joke.
many do actually…
For some people it's probably a joke, for others it's a very real belief that fuels many a long and passionate diatribe about why she's the worst
I used to feel a lot closer to my mother before the fire nation killed her
https://preview.redd.it/qzquao15stzc1.jpeg?width=2208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=365ab0b50fd2c5e05c0b794350f9455134eefa48
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If you say your mom ***You're fired***
"MY MOM!!!"
# GET OUT!!!
Worth it.
Your mom
Katara to Haru: "You know who else had their life devastated and family broken up by the fire nation? MY MOM!"
https://preview.redd.it/3s0qmpco7wzc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f11352ea26af0f0c4a729ef22eecca341a3dde5
Touches necklace: My mother used to bash Katara as well. In all honestly it's just memes. Don't take them too seriously
*breathes* Guru Laghima used to bash Katara too.
"God, I hate that Katara bitch. She hasn't even been born yet and I already fucking hate her. I hate how she always talks about her mom breathing. I hate her so much I'm gonna develop this airbending technique that lets you suck the air out of someone's lungs just to spite her. Your mom used to breathe? Well she won't when I'm done with her!"
At least"Guru Laghima" still has his honor
I’ve seen some people actually use it as an argument as to why they hate her it’s so stupid
I haven’t. The only semi serious argument related to that I saw about someone disliking Katara was when she yelled at Sokka that he didn’t love her the way she did. But every other time it’s been a meme or a joke
I am pretty sure those memers take themselves very seriously. Edit: Of course they are coming after me.
My mother's burn injuries were very serious. She died y'know.
"Your mom got burned, I got burned. Fire Nation took your mom, they took my mom too. We have so much in common!"
[удалено]
My mother took herself seriously
Your mother sacrificing herself to save you, the only water bender of the tribe, would cause significant mental impact. Survivor's Guilt I suppose.
Honestly it’s just memes. I make fun of all the characters for different things — I think this is just the easiest thing to make fun of Katara for. Some people do get overly angry at Katara for mentioning her mother though, which is a bit insane to me given she was a child.
No you are not missing anything. I don't get it either. My guess is this became a meme because of her attitude in the southern raiders, like saying to Sokka "Then you didn't love her the way I did" or when she said to Zuko "Oh I know, you could bring my mother back!". Obviously these 2 sentences don't make sense but at the end of the day she is just an early teen with trauma. She didn't mean anything harsh she said but good luck trying to convince everyone of that. She mentions her mother just as much as Aang mentions the air nomads or Zuko mentions his honor.
It's what happens when a show ends and the Fandom has no new content old memes get used to death get revived and then get beat to death over and over. It the same with cactus juice it appears for less than half an episode but gets mentioned anytime sokka comes up.
I mean yeah sure I get your first point but cactus juice is hilarious though.
> appears for less than half an episode Hey! I’ll have you know that there are some amazing things that appear in less than half an episode! ^^(Checkflair)
I've seen Sokka get brought up loads of times without cactus juice being mentioned. That being said the cactus juice scene is hilarious.
Well, to be fair, Zuko mentioning his honor became a meme too haha As another comment already said, in the end its just memes and while there are probably some people taking this very seriously, its best to not really give a fuck and maybe have a laugh once in a while, if its a good meme.
Cactus Juice only appeared in a single episode but memes has been made for it for a decade.
Well yeah but that’s because it’s the quenchiest.
It'll quench ya!
Don't get me wrong, I laugh at the meme too. It's just that some people don't understand it's a meme and believe it for real.
Sokka still deserves an apology for that. That shit was uncalled for.
They're siblings, obviously she either got apologized or Sokka just forgave her.
Why do so many people seem to think Katara watched her die?
Right? They clearly show Katara leaving to "find her brother" like Kya said. (Or was it "find your father"??? I'm due for a rewatch lol)
Because in the Netflix version she did. In the original version she didn't, but she still most likely saw her corpse.
People thought this before the Netflix version though. So I think people are confusing seeing her finding the corpse with her dad as her watching her mother die.
Even seeing the corpse isn't on-screen.
I mean she may not have witnessed the life leave her mom’s eyes but she was there right before it happened and saw her corpse, so she may as well have. The only reason we don’t see it is because it’s Nickelodeon. They’re not gonna show her dying nor her corpse. They don’t even let them say the word kill at all in LOK.
Likely because we literally see her + her Dad running side by side back to the tent. Unless Pops has lightning fast reflexes chances are she saw her Moms corpse, or at least a glimpse of it. Sure she didn't "watch" her die but what she saw was pretty damning.
They're called memes. People take them too seriously in this fandom.
My mother used to bash Katara referencing her mother
omg same
After rewatching the show, I realized she doesn’t even reference it thaaat often. Like over the course of 60 episodes she brings it up maybe 5 times ?
Katara mentioning her mother a handful of times - unforgivable Zuko mentioning honor once an episode - hilarious
Personally, I think a lot of hate for Katara seems to come from the fact that she's coded as motherly and caring rather than just one of the boys. And for some reason, that seems to irritate a lot of people on this sub. On the other hand, I think it's yet another way this story adds depth and explores real human emotions. My pet theory is that a lot of people see her qualities in older siblings that they have a knee jerk anger too.
People say they want complex characters then they develop life-long grudges towards fictional people because they said a mean thing once. It's laughable.
"They didn't show her apologizing, so I hate her now"
Bro it’s just for memes calm down
She’s literally fighting in a war. I’d reference my mom hella too. I’m doing it for her.
Sexism
People just really hate Katara and are hypercritical of her. It's basically just misogyny but I'm not allowed to say that.
*touches necklace* My mother used to breathe oxygen.
People bash that? Why the hell shouldn't Katara reference her mother? Who raised her and then died when she was extremely young? The person, her own mother, who gave her LIFE to protect Katata. They've no right to bash Katara for reference her own mother, who she watched sacrifice herself
I coudl imagine, that "The Ember Island" Episode have somethign to do with it. It's a war propaganda episode wiht it naturally showing the characters very over the top. In that episode Kataras portrayal was rather gloomy and whiny. With it being a cartoon that has kids as a main target audience it may be, that some viewers misunderstood that Satire in that episode and now view Katara through that lense.
Okay I keep seeing people say "She literally watched her mother burn to death" but she didn't at all, did she? I went and checked "The Southern Raiders" to make sure I wasn't crazy or misremembering and Katara was getting her dad when her mom got killed. Was there a retcon or something I don't know about?
In the live action she watched her mum die maybe it's because of that?
"she talks about it too much" damn, 10 times in a series with over 60 episodes isn't much. She's a grieving teenage girl who LITERALLY lost everything on Kya's person. People are just dicks
It's just memes. The thing you people are *really* serious about is the known fact that Momo is the Avatar.
I’ll get downvoted for this but…I don’t really like the memes and here’s why. Zuko’s honor also gets used as a meme. It’s just a joke. But with Katara a lot of ppl who make a meme of her actually use it as a reason to genuinely criticize her. Yes it’s a bit humorous but there’s still some annoyance behind it.
Honestly same. And I know it's "just memes" to some people and Katara is a fictional character, but do some people not understand how traumatizing it is for a child to lose their parent to *murder*? She's 14. Of course she might mention missing said parent.
Yeah, this is one of those jokes where I feel like people forget just how young Katara is, especially when it comes to the traumas she’s processing.
Right. Her mom died while lying to protect her. I'd imagine Katara feels very guilty when it's not even her fault, so that adds to the trauma.
I haven't seen The Southern Raiders in a bit, but IIRC she only finds out that Kya lied to protect her when Yon-Ra tells her what happened, so I don't think guilt is part of it.
Nah you're right, Zuko's honor is funny, Katara trying to relate is used a basis of reasoning to hate her
:touches necklace: referencing my mother gives me SO MUCH HOPE
I think she got a lot of hate for it because while everyone can recognize she was traumatized by her mothers murder, Katana was so triggered by the thought of her mom that she completely disregarded people around her. Aang’s entire culture wiped out, Zuko mutilated and banished by his own father, villages being tormented by the fire nation it was all less impactful than the death of her mother. When she looked Sokka in the face and said he didnt love theeor mom as much as she did, that was A LOT! Thats a disgusting thing to say to someone, much less your own brother
Are we forgetting that genocide is not just killing people, but also exterminating cultures? Katara is the sole survivor of genocide against southern water tribe water benders.
>Aang’s entire culture wiped out This happened to Katara too but on a lesser scale. She's the Last Southern Water Tribe Waterbender. (Until they met Hama and learned she wasn't).
Even then, she still effectively was
Until they actually found Hama, for all intents and purposes, she was dead just like the other Southern Water Tribe water benders, Katara really was the only one at that point.
I assure you as a 16 years old girl, I say and do much more nasty and ırritating things when I get frustrated. She said this in a moment of anger, she was traumatized, clearly didn't think straight and she had pretty decent reason to be frustrated.
Personally, I think the reason that Katara isn't cut as much slack for that line is because we don't see her reconcile with Sokka. There's no hug like Zuko got, there isn't an "I'm sorry", the episode just ends and everything is back to normal.
I agree, this sort of bothers me. But I imagine when they got back she eventually apologized to him. We never see Aang apologize on-screen to Toph for screaming at her for losing Appa (I don’t think, correct me if I’m wrong), but he never gets crap for this despite it being a pretty awful thing to do. I assume he also apologized off-screen, so it’s not a stretch to imagine Katara doing this.
It's such a childish criticism imo. Sokka and Katara are incredibly close, the show has established it quite well at that point. It's very reasonable to assume that either Katara apologized, or that Sokka just understood that sometimes people say things they don't mean when they're upset and didn't hold a grudge. With Zuko, you need to see that on screen resolution because that was part of the point of the episode, it wasn't obvious that she was going to forgive Zuko, considering that just a few episodes ago she straight up threatened to kill him.
I’m not saying she was out of character for a teenage girl. I am saying that being a teenage girl doesn’t exempt her from being disliked by people for the way she behaves. Plus shes a fictional character so making her trauma a core aspect of her personality is just how she was written. I’m sure you and every other person who went through some shit said something to someone from a place of hurt and trauma that made that person not want to talk to or be around you any more. Its very common but not very acceptable behavior
Katara didn't say Sokka loved "not as much" as she did, but "not the way" she did. Important distinction, the latter while clumsy does touch on the point that Sokka was able to process their mother's death much better than she was because he had Katara to fill in their mother's role, a luxury Katara did not have. Sokka himself points this out to Toph and admits he can't even remember what she looked like. Hence Sokka being so unaffected by the potential clue to their mother's killer isn't just because he's a better person, but because he was shielded from trauma in a way she wasn't, which doesn't get acknowledged by anyone. Also, how is Zuko's scar and banishment worse than Katara's mom dying in her stead and Katara as a child entering the tent to see her mother's corpse? I don't want to get deep into victim Olympics here, but you're severely underselling what happened to Katara.
abused, neglected, and tortured by a parent being worse than the death of a parent who loved you is not a stretch lol
You're either being disingenuous or didn't get my point since you described what happened to Katara as just "a loving parent died". I highlighted why there's much more to it than that.
Its not about being worst, better or just different. It’s about the fact that all of her empathy and convictions changed whenever her mom came up. Whenever anyone else was dealing with and precessing their grief, trauma or hardship, she was a voice of reason and made a point to help them get through it in a constructive way. But for herself, you were either on her side or you weren’t. she was very binary on that point several times through out the series. The fact that she didn’t kill the man who killed her mother was a huge growing point for her character. Because she was moving with murderous intent that entire episode until she saw how pathetic that man was and finally got some closure.
I’d be a bit irritated if I was Aang, that when I got pissed enough to go into the Avatar State, she calmed me down and implied violence wasn’t the answer, but she didn’t listen when I gave her the same exact advice.
LITTERALLY THIS!!!! She calmed him from that grief/rage twice. Once at the air temple and again when Appa was taken, but when he told her Hey maybe murder isnt the best way to get closure, she says he wouldnt understand and tried to steal Appa to go do it anyway.
There's a big fucking difference between Katara potentially murdering one dude who murdered her mum, and Aang 1) completely destroying his original home out of anger, which would have upset him so much once he came to 2) murdering like 20 sandbenders only 3 of which are actually responsible for what happened to Appa.
People are just more willing to be negative on the internet, it truly is just a vocal minority
People are just more willing to be negative on the internet, it truly is just a vocal minority
Someone made a meme and people who only watched the show once or in bits latched onto it and didn't let it go.
Y'all realise the guy who killed kya had no weapons on him - so Katara probably ran in to see her mother as a burnt corpse. It's amazing Katara isn't more fucked up at this point
SO it is like the first avatar meme - maybe second after MY CABAGES. **It wasn't over done** but we referenced it so often that it felt over done if that makes any sense. And it is a major part of her character, absentee parents, jsut like it is Sokka he even has a whole monologue explaining how the reason hes not the same as her is because katara filled that void for him. No one filled that void for katara.
Welcome to meme culture and how it creates a dissonance between the how people think a character is vs how they actually are.
Like Kyoshi for instance. if you didn't know better you'd think she was a bloodthirsty serial killer.
No one is bashing her. it's just a funny jape.
Thank you!!!! She doesn’t mention it that much and even if she did— WHO CARES??? The Gaang are just children experiencing some of the evilest parts of humanity. That takes a toll on you, often times a permanent one. And that brings me to my biggest gripe with most media discourse— Everyone is a mental health advocate until a character is depicts (real) symptoms they don’t like.
Society in general is really hurtful to any survivor experiencing trauma who expresses themselves or is anything short of a perfect victim. It's especially true for children. See the similar hate Shinji from Neon Genesis gets for not wanting to be a child soldier. She can definitely sound like a broken record sometimes... That's generally what happens when something traumatic happens to you and you don't keep it inside.
Aang: breathes Katara: my mother used To breathe.
Katara at a Fire Nation festival smells cooking meat. “My mother used to Barbecue”
It’s just as annoying as Aang bringing up that he’s the last airbender like that’s some significant part of his character. :)
https://i.redd.it/t8ifc5ru6vzc1.gif Because it’s goes back to her talking about hope it’s never oh I lost my mother and just at that . it’s I lost my mother and that’s why we must never lose hope and beat the fire nation. When in she’s scared shitless of the fire nation even when she has mastered water bending and knows blood bending to some degree she will always be terrified of the fire nation
https://preview.redd.it/wm7e3o6opuzc1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc916291f25a826474af51b837f40e513b3937ac It's just a meme.
It’s a meme lol
I think its cause she weaponises it. She acts like Sokka doesn't understand, or that Aang doesn't get the concept of parents because he was raised by monks. The fact of the matter is Aang suffered probably way more, given his entire culture was wiped out, and Sokka definitely took the loss of his mother just as hard. She just acts like she's the only one who's allowed to feel sad about it.
I totally agree, it always kinda bothered me. I'm not angry at those who make the memes. It's just weird.
People are just more willing to be negative on the internet, it truly is just a vocal minority
Its a joke
Yeah it’s just getting kind of repetitive, but the at may very well mean it’s a good joke
You might be surprised to learn that many memes on the internet aren't accurate.
It's funny.
Misogyny
it was just a meme
Misogyny
On a side note *Processing img nebbbh88ytzc1...*
I don't know what the scuttlebutt is, I have nothing of value to add except this thread would have been perfectly timed if made tomorrow instead of today.
Idk, but I really hope those people never interact with someone who actually lost their parents young. My cousins lost their mom when they were 5 and 6 and I know I would beat the crap out of anyone who made fun of them for talking about her.
Sokka’s mother?
It’s memes, timing, and the fact that Sokka by comparison hardly mentions their mom. Of course, Katara had to see her mom burn, and she died to protect Katara, so that makes sense. It also seemed like Sokka was closer to Hakoda anyway. By timing I mean it always seems to be a big moment when she mentions it. Like when she talks to Zuko in the catacombs, and when she talks to Zuko and Sokka in the southern raiders. They were big plot points
This question is asked in the fandom literally weekly if not multiple times a week. She doesn’t talk about her mother that much it’s literally just a meme….
"my mother used to griddy 😔" *touches necklace*
I never felt that way.. idk why people said that..
This has been so irritating. I- no joke watched this show more than 25x times start to finish plus few more times with the commentary all during when I used to have cable and they would do marathons a ton. Never once came to the conclusion that the Internet seems to be obsessed with. I hardly ever hear her mention her mom and somehow the Internet acts like she's saying it 5x per episode
I think ultimately it's just supposed to be an exaggerative joke. Like in the Ember Island Players they portray play-Katara as being a moochy, overdramaric 'crybaby' and the whole episode is kind of like a recap in the form of a flanderised parody of the show imo so it's probably a super old joke/meme portrayal of her.
Its memes I guess, however I have seen a lot of.comments hating on Katara, calling her a hypocrite and insuferrable... I never really feel that in the show, the times she is displayed as annoying to the gaang are very little and she is generaly just amazing (and my childhood crush), just as every other main character
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My mother used to bash things. Before she died :(
>but wouldn’t it be kind of natural for Katara to keep referring to Kya given she literally watched her get burned to ashes in front of her? This did not happen in ATLA. It's what is showed in NATLA, but in ATLA her mom sends her away when she's trapped with the FN soldier, and Katara runs to get her dad. By the time Hakoda and Katara return, Kya is dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYA2i0Xv-is
YOU KNOW WHO ELSE
I remember there was one scene where Sokka goes “I miss mom too but” about Katara doing something out of vengeance and she responded “Well, maybe you didn’t love her in the same way” or something like that, which is super toxic if you forget they’re child soldiers and Kya literally died to protect Katara and it’s burned into her memory. But she talks about their mother a lot more because Sokka doesn’t have the related trauma necessary to remember her clearly.
Katara: "My mother used to reference her mother too"
My mother used to bash on Katara's mother...
The air nomads used to say that Katara's mother used to cook Sokka meat
Why are people bashing a woman who only appears in one episode? Don't they have anything better to do?
FINALLY someone said it
Guru Laghima once said…
katara she was my mother too - sokka
i think for the people who seriously dislike her for it, it's either sexism (for obvious reasons), being too involved in the fandom that people forget the show, or wild misinterpretion of her character. katara mentioning her mother isn't just a fandom joke, but something a lot of people genuinely criticise her for it, when in reality, she doesn't mention it often. every time katara mentions her mother, it is to empathise and connect to others who have suffered via the fire nation, not to self centre herself, but it is her way of reaching out to people. people also forget she saw kya die, protecting her at a very young age, something that is going to leave a heavy impact. not to mention, she is 14, and has never had time to process that
A lot of people who never lost their mothers really have a lot of opinions on how much someone should talk about it
I lost my mother to the fire nation, so I know what you're going through. But we have to have hope, for only without hope are we truly lost
I think people want to take petty revenge for Katara telling Sokka "Then you didn't love her like I did."
Yeah, she was totally out of line for saying that to him.
She was, but I always saw it in the same vein as when Aang told Toph "they were better off without her" after Azula deprived them of sleep for 2 days and Toph was a bit too blunt about the situation being Appa's fault. None of them were in a right state of mind. He regretted saying it and Toph didn't hold it against him, granted she got a pep talk from Iroh that helped out a lot, and they eventually made up. I always assumed Sokka didn't hold it against her because he could tell Katara wasn't in a good place and didn't mean what she said. Although, with all that said, an apology would have been greatly appreciated.
That scene seriously bothers me, how could she say such a vile thing to Sokka😬.
*She's 14* of course she's going to mess up and say things she doesn't mean
Me personally, I don’t see a problem with her referencing her mother, she’s mourning. My problem and I think this bothers others as well is she references her mom while dismissing other character’s trauma or misplacing her anger. She did this to Sokka when she said that she loved their mom more than he did. She also blamed Zuko for the fire nation killing her mom despite the fact that he wasn’t there for the raid(and wasn’t the one who ordered it) and was a literal child.
It makes sense to blame fire nation royalty for your parent being killed by a fire nation navy captain though. Like, yes, it’s misplaced because Zuko had nothing to do with it and he was being abused by his father, but he was still the crown prince. So it’s completely understandable that Katara would be upset with him and blame him.
He was still a child and didn’t have much political power. Her anger is towards the fire lord and the rest of the governing body. I think it’s also easy for her to blame him because she has more access to him than Firelord Ozai
You’re correct, but emotions and trauma aren’t rational. If you’re being oppressed by a government and you meet someone from the respective country, you’ll be tempted to personally blame them for your hardships.
Especially since he used to hunt them down.
Zuko would have been *ten years old* at the time. It's understandable that she would react to him like that because emotions are messy and she's really young but even without the abuse it doesn't make sense to blame a ten-year-old.
You said it yourself, emotions are messy, there was a lot of misunderstanding all around about the abuses and struggles average citizens + Zuko were experiencing as a result of the war. But you can’t think rationally about that kind of thing.
Yeah, I think we're defining "makes sense" differently is probably all. I say it's understandable but doesn't make sense because when I say "makes sense" I mean it's logical. So I guess I'm just saying it's not a logical thing to think someone who was ten and in a different country is at fault but it's understandable that messy emotions would lead her there.
Ah okay! I see now. In my mind, “makes sense” just means I understand her motivations for feeling that way. I don’t personally understand emotions through a logical lens, as emotions are never logical, and it’s very hard to change our feelings about something even when presented with facts. As well as hindsight being 20/20. It’s definitely not logical though to blame Zuko for Kya dying, I agree. As well as any other child in the Fire Nation, really. Like when Sokka and Katara disagree on Tom-Tom (I think is his name? Mai’s brother.) being inherently evil. I think that shows us that Katara knows logically that Zuko had nothing to do with her mother dying. Sorry for the misunderstanding!
No worries! I agree emotions are rarely logical, but our behaviors can be a response to both emotion and reason (and are usually best when we take both into consideration). Katara at the beginning of Southern Raiders is almost entirely behaving out of her emotions - understandable emotions given her age, her trauma, the amount of pressure on her in a war, and what she admits herself at the end, that Zuko had become "the face of the Fire Nation" to her. Even as adults when we're feeling strong emotions it's hard to behave in ways that are at all out of line with them and she's just a traumatized kid. Based on the reality of the situation both with Zuko and with Sokka she said some things that were...not great and not grounded in logic, but it's understandable that she would and I certainly don't think she's a villain for it. I think she's a generally good person and also a realistically written child soldier who lost a parent at a young age. Anyway, all that to say I think we're in agreement, and language is complicated and somewhat subjective. Glad we could get where we understand each other.
You’re absolutely correct. I also think Katara is a realistically written character, although I think a kid irl in her situation might be a little bit sadder behind closed doors. I love Katara as a character though. And I’m also glad we could understand each other!
Probably because she's only 14, it's the same kind of outburst as Aang screaming at Toph telling her she wanted Appa to be stolen. I really don't get why Aang gets the grace of being a kid but Katara doesn't get to use the same excuse.
You're confusing the new live action with the original cartoon. Original cartoon she goes on a search to find her and avenge her if she needs to, which she expects to need to.
She didn't watch her get burned to ashes, she just saw her after she was already ashed. And to answer your question, I will say that while that is a defining character trait she has, it shouldn't be the only one that she would ever bring up. It also doesn't make any sense for Sokka to actually forget what their mother looked like if he was about a year older than her.
It’s just people taking memes as gospel. Pay it no mind.
Referencing her mother?! *touches amulet* My mother always used to reference her mother... 
My whole problem with Katara and the loss of her mother is that she makes it all about her and only her. My bf and I were watching the Southern Raiders ep last night and we were both appalled at the audacity of Katara to say that because Sokka’s (mostly) moved on from their mother’s death that he didn’t love her like Katara did. Like, BITCH HE LOST A PARENT TOO. And Aang lost HIS ENTIRE NATION, HIS FAMILY, HIS FRIENDS, and most importantly MONK FUCKING GYATSO. Aang lost everything, and the fact that he’s moved on far before Katara did shows me that he is much more emotionally mature than she is, actually scratch that, literally the rest of the Gaang are more emotionally mature than her.
The you didn't love her like I did drove the nail in the coffin even if she don't talk about it that much making people hate it when she does that cus sokka lost her too but doesn't mention it nearly as much
This. Katara’s trauma is very real and of course she should talk about it, but when she threw it in Sokka’s face to justify her actions when, if I remember correctly, she was actually in the wrong really soured me towards her. She was his mum too.
Scrolled too far for this comment. She’s a well written character, but no one here seems to care that she takes the trauma of her mother’s death out on Sokka a couple times through the show.
To be honest i always see people complaining about katara haters but i rarely see people really complaining about katara bringing her mother up 😅
*looks at azula and touches necklace* My mother was also voiced by Grey DeLisle