Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Katara is a female animated character who features in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Biography

Katara (Chinese: 卡塔拉; pinyin: Kǎ Tǎlā) was a female human born to the Southern Water Tribe during a time when the Fire Nation were set to conquer the world with her being the younger sister of Sokka. Born into the diminished Southern Water Tribe capital of Wolf Cove to Hakoda and Kya, Katara faced the reality of her tribe's dwindling strength from an early age. At the time of her birth, fifty years of repeated Fire Nation raids intended to capture and imprison the tribe's waterbenders had left them devoid of benders. While the Southern Water Tribe's defenses would have crumbled under the might of the Fire Nation, the tribe's relative inaccessibility in the frigid South Pole and the Fire Nation's perception that they were a non-threat meant that they were mostly left alone. Katara grew up within a loving, close family and community in her tribe. When she was six years old, she broke a tooth on some seal jerky made by Ashuna. When Katara was 8 years old, the Fire Nation again raided Wolf Cove when charged by Fire Lord Azulon to find and dispose of the last remaining waterbender in the tribe. During the battle, the leader of the raid Yon Rha confronted Katara's mother, who was taking refuge in the family's igloo. Seeking shelter with her mother, Katara ran back to her home and interrupted their exchange. Realizing the intentions of Yon Rha, who had demanded Kya tell him the identity of the waterbender, Kya insisted Katara leave and gave herself up as the last waterbender, lying to protect her daughter. Katara ran to fetch her father, but by the time they returned, Yon Rha had left and her mother had been killed. The death of their mother had a profound impact on both Katara and Sokka, and both began to feel deep hatred and resentment toward the Fire Nation as a result. With the absence of a mother figure in the family, Katara soon found herself filling the role left behind by Kya. She began to take on many of the domestic responsibilities expected of women of the Southern Water Tribe, despite her young age. When Katara was around twelve years old, her father, Chief Hakoda, left to fight in the Hundred Year War with the rest of the men of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara and Sokka were left in the care of their grandmother, Kanna. Though Kanna loved the two and cared deeply for them, Katara was left feeling traumatized and alone. Living in a tribe consisting almost completely of women, children, and the elderly, she took care of not only her own family but of the whole Southern Water Tribe as well.

While on a fishing trip for Wolf Cove, Katara and her older brother, Sokka, accidentally steered their canoe into a rip current, where it was crushed between ice floes. The two found themselves stranded on a chunk of ice. After Sokka blamed their situation on Katara, Katara grew so angry that she inadvertently exploded an iceberg behind her with her waterbending. Katara and Sokka discovered a mysterious figure trapped in a large spherical iceberg that rose to the surface. The figure introduced himself as Aang, an airbender, and offered to escort them home on his flying bison, Appa. After her village was attacked by soldiers on a Fire Nation ship commanded by Prince Zuko, Katara learned that Aang was the Avatar. She and her brother set out to save Aang, who had surrendered to Zuko to keep the village from harm. After their successful rescue, and after witnessing Aang's impressive first display of the Avatar State, Katara mused that they might find a waterbending teacher at the North Pole, at which, Aang quickly brightened up and suggested he and Katara could learn together. The three began their journey to the North Pole. Throughout their journey, the group stopped in several locations across the world, mostly in the war-torn Earth Kingdom. Their first stop was the Southern Archipelago, where they first helped a local dojo before arriving at the Southern Air Temple, where Aang had grown up. After Aang came across Monk Gyatso's corpse and reflexively entered the Avatar State, Katara was able to calm him down. The trio stopped on Kyoshi Island, where they were ambushed by Prince Zuko and barely managed to escape.

Following this encounter, the team journeyed to the great Earth Kingdom metropolis of Omashu. On the way, they intervened in the siege of Shen Guan. Upon arriving at Omashu, they were brought before the city's elderly king who treated them as honored guests before promptly imprisoning them. Katara and her brother were given jennamite crystals that nearly covered their whole bodies, before Aang solved all the king's tasks, discovering that he was a childhood friend, Bumi. Before reaching the Northern Water Tribe, the trio had several other adventures while being pursued by multiple firebenders, including Zuko and his uncle Iroh, as well as Zhao of the Fire Nation Navy. Among their missions, the group helped several earthbenders to escape from a Fire Nation prison rig, including Haru and his father Tyro. They helped the people of Senlin Village, who were being attacked by the spirit Hei Bai, before venturing to the Fire Nation where Aang learned about the urgency of defeating the Fire Lord by Avatar Roku. The trio barely escaped the clutches of Zuko and a group of pirates during a confrontation where Katara lost her mother's necklace, a precious keepsake. She also discovered the darker side of the resistance, when they came into contact with Jet and his Freedom Fighters who tried to destroy the village of Gaipan to kill its firebender occupants. The team also helped two warring tribes, the Zhang and the Gan Jin, cross the Great Divide and to make peace, and later encountered Bato, one of Hakoda's friends and a Southern Water Tribe warrior, where they almost departed from Aang before being reunited due to an unexpected shirshu attack. The team met Jeong Jeong later on their journey, who unsuccessfully tried to teach Aang the weight of firebending. During Aang's training, Katara was burned and discovered that she had healing abilities. When the group reached the Northern Air Temple, they defended a group of refugees led by a mechanist from War Minister Qin.

After their long journey, the team reached the Northern Water Tribe, where Sokka and Katara were celebrated as kin from the Southern Tribe, and Aang was honored as a special guest. It was decided that Aang would be taught waterbending by Master Pakku, but Katara was prohibited from learning combative bending on account of her gender. After it was discovered that Aang was secretly teaching Pakku's techniques to Katara at night, the master dismissed Aang as a student. At the palace, Katara pleaded with Chief Arnook for Pakku to take Aang back as his student. The master agreed to do so if Katara apologized, and while she conceded at first, she renounced her apology and challenged the master to a duel after being patronized. Although Katara was defeated, the master picked up her necklace, revealing that he had made it for Kanna sixty years prior, and decided to accept Katara as a student.[38] When the Fire Nation's ships arrived at the Northern Water Tribe, Yue took Katara and Aang to a hidden oasis, where Aang crossed over to the Spirit World. After Zuko unexpectedly arrived, Katara dueled him and was able to restrain him by freezing him in ice, but the prince overpowered her when the sun rose and kidnapped the Avatar.[39] Katara and her allies searched for and found Aang in the frozen landscape outside Agna Qel'a, and on their return, confronted Zhao, before the admiral killed the Moon Spirit, Tui. Failing to revive the dead koi with healing, Princess Yue realized that it was her destiny to give her life to repay the Moon Spirit, and transcended to the Spirit World. Aang won the battle after merging with the Ocean Spirit La and repelled the Fire Navy from the tribe. With the group now ready to move on and find an earthbending teacher for Aang, Pakku assigned Katara as Aang's new waterbending master.

Overview

Personality and attributes

Overall, Katara is often marked by a fierce determination to aid others and herself stated that she would never turn away from people who need her help, even if she had other priorities at the moment. According to Sokka, she was rather optimistic. Placing her whole heart in whatever affairs she had, she was often easily reduced to tears. She was even willing to defend Fire Nation civilians.

Katara was portrayed as the most mature member of the group, rarely taking part in Sokka, Aang, and Toph's goofy pranks, though she did have a sense of humor. She was a bit of a stickler for morality, even to the point of causing Sokka and Aang to faint from shock when she stated she wanted to pull a scam, as she had previously berated Toph for scamming people. Her loss was part of what drove her in her fight against the Fire Nation, although she did not exhibit as much outward prejudice as her brother. Although Sokka told Toph that Katara could be a pain and would get 'involved and in-your-business' with her understanding of other people's privacy, continually scolding her brother for snooping around Hama's inn and rummaging through her personal belongings.

After marrying Aang, she and him came to have three children with these being Bumi, Kya and Tenzin. Bumi was the eldest son who was the only one born without any bending ability. Kya was their second child and only daughter who was born a waterbender. Meanwhile, their youngest child was their son Tenzin who was born an airbender.

Powers and abilities

Katara was born a human who came to be a waterbender allowing her to manipulate water through waterbending.

She also seemed to have been knowledgeable on yoga. In later years, Katara was versed in physiotherapy, as evidenced when she guided Korra to walk again

She rapidly developed her skill at the art, as her fierce resolve to master the element helped her become one of the most powerful waterbending masters in her era. Katara was identified as a waterbender when she was a small child after she cracked some ice when her brother teased her. She kept practicing even though she did not have a teacher as her father could not find any, learning whatever little she could with great ambition. Over the course of her childhood, she taught herself basic waterbending techniques and managed to master some simple waterbending forms.

Originally, she had a talent for waterbending but was untrained leading to her wanting to seek a master from the Northern Water Tribe. Once there, she came to apprentice herself to a waterbending master named Pakku.

Notes

• Katara was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko with her being voiced by actor Mae Whitman where she featured in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe.

In other media

Films

• In The Last Airbender, Katara appeared in the setting of the 2010 live-action film where she was portrayed by actress Nicola Peltz.

Appearances

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
• The Legend of Korra:

External Links

• Avatar Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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