Why I love Katara so damn much

[gryphonsegg]

My journal looks distressingly bare of content, so I'm reposting yesterday's LJ post here. Besides, there's no such thing as too much Katara.

Lately I've been running into more anti-Katara stupidity on the internet than usual, so I felt the not-entirely-rational need to post about how much I love a fictional character who just might be my favorite cartoon character of all time. I really like how her character developed throughout the series, and I think the writing behind her got better and better as the series went on. I especially love her in the third season-- there, I said it! Blasphemy, I know.




Katara was amazing in the third season. I don't think her characterization was inconsistent. I think it was complex. She changed and grew as a person, and at different points in the series she revealed different aspects of her personality. (I could go into a rant about how the same kind of writing gets criticized as inconsistency for female characters and hailed as complexity, depth, and personal growth for male characters, but I want this post to be specifically Katara-focused.) She improved her skills throughout the series, and the third season is when she really came into her own as a waterbender.

One of the things I appreciate most about the way the character was handled is that her powers weren't treated as an excuse to have her just point and hope and make things happen; all too often, female characters with magical/supernatural/psychic/etc. powers are treated as if their powers don't require any thought or skill to wield. I love how much of Katara's performance as a bender in the third season depends on her thinking of clever and creative ways to use her powers. My two favorite examples are how she had the idea to use her own sweat to escape from the cell in "The Runaway" and the freeze-then-melt trick she used to defeat Azula in the finale. Katara's victory in the finale is one of the most awesome things I have ever seen in animation. No, I don't think it was anti-feminist that she defeated Azula; I don't accept the idea that Katara is a weak female stereotype or that Azula is the one strong and worthy female character in the series. I also don't think Katara "stole" anything from Zuko by defeating his sister. Katara is a major character too; she was there from the beginning, and there is absolutely no good reason why her moment of glory should have been dropped in favor of giving it to Zuko.

Another thing I really appreciate is that Katara got her own arc about dealing with her memories of her mother and her mother's death. Even in series that are well written, it's still pretty rare for a female character to be given a non-romantic storyline with that kind of depth, especially one that centers her relationship with another female character. Besides, I'm a mama's girl IRL, so fictional mother-daughter angst pulls on my heartstrings hard. I like the way her friendship with Zuko developed in the episode about them seeking the man who killed her mother. I like her utter contempt for the guy when they finally found him and he offered his own mother's life in exchange. I don't have a problem with her willingness to use bloodbending in that episode or think it was inconsistent with the rest of her character-- it was a highly unusual and extreme set of circumstances (of course, it helps that I don't believe Hama is the The Evilest Evil That Ever Eviled). It should go without saying that I don't think Katara's mistrust and anger toward Zuko in the episodes leading up to that were inconsistent with the rest of her characterization or unreasonable given their history.

Oh, and I love Katara's relationship with Hama: how quickly they bonded and what a gut-wrenching twist it was for Katara to find out that Hama had been attacking civilians, so that the person she'd been thinking of as a friend and mentor (and possible mother figure, since her own mother was dead and her grandmother was far away?) turned out to be a mirror of her own potential corruption. No, I don't think this + bloodbending someone Katara (wrongly) believed to have been her mother's killer = Katara will grow up to be just like Hama and torment random civilians. Katara had her revenge arc, as discussed above, and it ends with her choosing not to let her justifiable anger against the Fire Nation turn her into someone who pursues vengeance at all costs. Also, as I said in the previous paragraph, it helps that I don't believe Hama is inherently or irredeemably evil, as some do. I think it was made very clear that Hama was deeply twisted by her years of captivity as a prisoner of war. There's a reasonable explanation for how she got the way she is by the time she meets Katara, and I find it heartbreaking and tragic.



So, yeah, I ADORE Katara, even-- hell, especially as she is written later in the series.

Comments

[fulselden]

Of course, the best possible option would be to keep all the Hama stuff and also have other older female characters whose roles are more positive than Hama's and more active than the roles of the other old women we did get like Kana, Yugoda, and Aunt Wu. I don't consider this opinion to be giving the powers that be a pass on the problematic issues surrounding Hama.

Oh, yes – and apologies if I came across as being snippy at you rather than Avatar itself: I essentially agree with everything you say above wrt Hama.

I’m just incapable of mentioning her without caveat myself, in part for the reasons you run through concerning her role in the series as a whole, but also, now I think about it, because bloodbending was sold as such a distinctly ‘female’ power – woman-taught; dependent on the phases of the moon - that it comes across, to some extent, as a weirdly literal metaphor for menstruation. And, obviously, not exactly one laden with positive associations.

Which I’m not too upset about on its own merits, actually – certainly the last thing I needed when I was a young teenager was another story designed to tell me that growing up was a wonderful, uncomplicated process and that periods were actually super awesome. And Katara does grow up in this episode; she does gain power and understanding, and although it comes with a cost I don’t think we ever doubt she can bear it. But put those implications together with the broader role of Hama in the series, and, yeah, I think it adds up to something questionable.

And while I think the creators were very much aware, when it came to Hama, that they were raising important questions about the cost of war and the nature of evil, and I think they dealt with those sensitively and produced an excellent episode ... I also think that they let the ball drop when it came to the questions their framing of bloodbending raised about femininity and power.

And as you point out, it’s not as if they didn’t have some older women whose roles they could have expanded on. Hmm. I think my other thoughts on the subject might do better in the context of your post on matriarchies and world building up above.

I like 'The Painted Lady' quite a lot, myself-- the issues it raised were severely oversimplified, but I think it did pretty well as a half-hour episode, and I think it added to Katara's characterization.

Well, I wouldn’t say ‘The Painted Lady’ was bad, but it’s certainly my least favourite out of the season – for me, the many details I appreciate about it (that two-headed fish! Aang and Katara blowing up a factory!), its useful world building, and the service it did do for Katara’s character (SHE WILL NEVER GIVE UP ON THE PEOPLE WHO NEED HER), are outweighed by its combination of a rather conventional kid’s cartoon plot (pollution bad), a bit of bagginess structure-wise (when your connecting scenes need a character as annoying and transparently expository as Doc, you’re in trouble), and, well, the fact that I resent that this was Katara’s episode, and I just don’t think it worked as well as Sokka’s or Toph’s or Aang’s. Speaking of which:

At the risk of going off on a tangent, I don't buy into this thing that sometimes comes up in ATLA fandom, in which being featured in one of the less good episodes is treated as a failing that detracts from a character's value.

Yeah. Despite what I say above, this tendency is deeply annoying! (And I hope I’m not falling into it myself). I would say, though, that it’s sometimes a hard line to draw – I mean, ATLA is (thank god) pretty much a closed canon, at least as far as these characters are concerned, so I think it’s not entirely illegitimate to say that being featured in a weak episode does do a real disservice to a character.

I mean, to pick the one episode everyone seems to hate, ‘The Great Divide’, I think the elements it was trying to set up when it came to Aang’s character – his tricksiness, his willingness to lie for the greater good, his leadership qualities – ended up being undersold and overshadowed in part because that episode (though not as omg terrible as some people say) just wasn’t very effective.

But I can see why being used to comics fandom would hone your skills in keeping the faith in characters through thick and thin – poor, poor Birds of Prey characters...

Oh – also: people say ‘The Northern Air Temple’ was a bad episode??? Man. I can take or leave Teo, and the episode wasn’t as stellar as the finale, but I actually find it pretty well structured and really very affecting – that’s Aang’s CULTURE, steampunk guys! Stop with the wrecking balls! Really, ouch.

It just bothers me that a lot people seem to be unwilling to accept that Katara has a personality and a life outside of being somebody's girlfriend.

Sigh. WORD. And yes, while I personally never really bought into Kataang, I thought they did a pretty great job with the other canon pairings – and the Avatar shipping wank is really deeply depressing on just about every level.

Ok, I’ve gone on long enough! And really, I hope this doesn’t come across as piling onto your KATARA = AWESOME thesis, because, well, she is, and I think they did a great job with her overall and in season three in particular. But ... it was a complex job, I guess, and there’s still stuff to pick at.

[gryphonsegg]

On top of everything else, I think the canon problems with Hama are exacerbated by the fandom. Apparently there are people who watched that episode and didn't notice "important questions about the cost of war and the nature of evil"; they just saw "Hama bad, bloodbending bad!" And as more and more of them decided they didn't like where Katara's character was going (not into Zuko's arms), that became support for the argument that Katara is bad and/or will become bad. (This point reminds me of my new post about matriarchies and of one of my old LJ posts about treating female characters as characters vs. treating them as symbols while only the male characters get significant development. Basically, there's this thing going on in lots of fandoms where female characters aren't allowed to be complicated, to have layers, and to change over time the way male characters are expected to. They can only be viewed as flat, uncomplicated good role models or as embodiments of everything that is wrong.)

it’s not as if they didn’t have some older women whose roles they could have expanded on

Just mentioning that they were members of the White Lotus would have done a lot.

'The Northern Air Temple' gets dinged for being too "fillery." Supposedly, it doesn't advance the plot (even though the invasion wouldn't make sense without it) or develop any of the main characters (even though, as you brought up, it does have serious character stuff for Aang-- but I suspect that a lot of the people who complain about episodes that "don't develop the main characters" really mean is that those episodes don't develop Zuko). And I'm the wrong person to challenge that because I like worldbuilding for its own sake, and I get attached to minor characters easily, so I'd probably like it even if the "it's filler" accusation were true. (I have a friend who thinks the accusation is disingenuous anyway. She thinks the fans who make this claim are uncomfortable with Teo because of his disability but they want to write/draw/discuss other characters who don't appear in many episodes and realize it looks Not Right that they use other minor characters but just happen to leave Teo out over and over again.)

[fulselden]

I think the canon problems with Hama are exacerbated by the fandom [...] Basically, there's this thing going on in lots of fandoms where female characters aren't allowed to be complicated, to have layers, and to change over time the way male characters are expected to.

Yeah, absolutely. As a complete newcomer to fandom (a couple of months ago I had no idea what 'shipping' meant), I've been sorta taken aback by the combination of LJ/DW's culture of courtesy and willingness to think really quite seriously and consistently about heteronormativity, feminism, tokenism, etc etc, and, well, the screamingly obvious sexism (for instance) that characterises the treatment of characters like Katara and Mai in some corners of the ATLA fandom (which is really the only one I'm familiar with - yeah, I have no idea quite why I fell so hard for a little flying bison show!).

It's not something I think I have anything particularly cogent to say about at the moment (though ... I have a sinking feeling that probably something about this dynamic has a lot to do with fandom being a female-dominated social space in a patriachal world), but it's been sorta fascinating to experience. For certain values of 'fascinating' that include 'depressing', of course.

'The Northern Air Temple' gets dinged for being too "fillery." [...] it does have serious character stuff for Aang-- but I suspect that a lot of the people who complain about episodes that "don't develop the main characters" really mean is that those episodes don't develop Zuko

Ah. Sigh. Aaaand, YEAH. Hell, I love Zuko, but I think the series did a great job with Aang - he's so refreshingly non-angsty! Which of course is a big drawback in the woobiefication stakes.

I'm the wrong person to challenge that because I like worldbuilding for its own sake

Heh. Ditto. And to be honest, a lot of my investment in 'The Northern Air Temple' does come from my interest in stuff like Reformation iconoclasm and Tibetan history. But given that the series is obviously playing with those kinds of real-world analogues (especially the latter), it's something they really had to address explicitly at some point and I think they did a good job of it, besides answering a lot of practical world building questions (how did the Fire Nation attack the Temples in the first place?) fairly elegantly - and of course setting up the hot air balloons for the third season.

She thinks the fans who make this claim are uncomfortable with Teo because of his disability but they want to write/draw/discuss other characters who don't appear in many episodes and realize it looks Not Right that they use other minor characters but just happen to leave Teo out over and over again.

I wouldn't be surprised, actually. Ouch.

[gryphonsegg]

I've been sorta taken aback by the combination of LJ/DW's culture of courtesy and willingness to think really quite seriously and consistently about heteronormativity, feminism, tokenism, etc etc, and, well, the screamingly obvious sexism (for instance) that characterises the treatment of characters like Katara and Mai in some corners of the ATLA fandom

Yeah, this is pretty much standard operating procedure for journal-centered fandom in general, not just ATLA. Fandom outside LJ/DW tends to have no less sexism in the treatment of characters but a lot less willingness to think about heteronormativity, feminism, and tokenism.

I have no idea quite why I fell so hard for a little flying bison show!

Because flying bison-- how could you not love that? ^_^

[fulselden]

pretty much standard operating procedure for journal-centered fandom in general, not just ATLA

Why does this not surprise me? But then, what I've seen so far on LJ/DW in terms of the willingness to be careful and to call people out when they're being offensive is really impressive - I'm certainly learning a lot.

And TRUFAX wrt flying bison!