Katara

"water"

- You're looking at the only Waterbender in the whole South Pole.

Katara is a young Waterbender, born and raised in the Southern Water Tribe by her grandmother, Kanna, alongside her older brother Sokka. Katara was the last Waterbender in her tribe and led a normal teenage life for a Southern Water Tribe girl until she and her brother discovered the young Air Nomad Avatar, Aang encased for a 100 years within a sphere of ice. Both in need of finding a Waterbending teacher, with Sokka, Katara and Aang left the South Pole for the Northern Water Tribe, hoping to find a Waterbending Master. Katara and Sokka inevitably became close friends and allies of Aang, and after their journey to and time at the North Pole, continued to travel with him across the world as he mastered the remaining elements, Earth and Fire. The siblings' assistance helped Aang put a stop to the Fire Nation's ambitions of world domination, ending the century-long war, finally restoring balance to the world.

The capture of Katara's mother, Kya, by the Fire Nation when she was a small girl, and the later departure of her father, Hakoda, along with the other men of the Southern Water Tribe, to fight in the War, left her traumatised and alone, and though she was cared for by her grandmother, Kanna, she invariably found herself filling the mother role left behind by Kya, even to her own brother. As was the custom of the Water Tribe for women to see to domestic duties, Katara soon took on many of the responsibilities expected of someone much her senior and quickly became ardently independent and strong willed. Morally and emotionally driven, she developed a great sense of justice and compassion for others, becoming fiercely protective of others in need, when stirred.

Though initially Katara's Waterbending abilities were very limited, after her acquisition of the Waterbending scroll in The Waterbending Scroll and her formal training at the North Pole, her determination and hard-work saw her surpass Aang, and completely master the element. She became Aang's official Waterbending teacher after their departure from the Northern Water Tribe, replacing the previous teacher of them both, Master Pakku. Her mastery over water made her a formidable asset to the group, and she became a close friend and mentor to Aang. After the War ended, Katara and Aang began a close romantic relationship, and the two eventually married, going on to raise a family, including an Airbender son, Tenzin.

Background
Being fourteen years old and the only Waterbender left in the South Pole, Katara had to grow up rather quickly. A strong, brave girl who speaks and stands up for what she believes in. She has suffered through much sadness in her life, but still manages to hold on to hope. Her mother, Kya, was killed in an attack by the Southern Raiders when she was 7 years old and all that was left was Kya's necklace. Her father Hakoda left to fight in the war when she was 12. She felt abandoned and betrayed by him leaving even though Gran Gran was there for her. Raised in the small Southern Water Tribe with her older brother Sokka, they were mostly taken care of by their grandmother, Gran Gran. While Sokka was off "playing soldier," Katara was cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry. She is very motherly and protective of Sokka, even though she doesn't like to admit it. Things haven't been easy, but she never lost hope that it would get better and that the Avatar would return. Katara also narrates the show's opening sequence.

During "The Southern Raiders", it is revealed that the Fire Nation attacked Katara's tribe in an attempt to kill her, the last Waterbender of the South Pole. Kya sacrificed herself to save Katara's life by claiming that she was the last Waterbender and was in turn killed by the raiders. Katara would not discover this truth for years, but she was devastated by Kya's death.

Future
It has been revealed that Katara married Aang and eventually gave birth to Tenzin.

Personality
When she was a young girl, Katara's mother was killed in a Fire Nation raid. This event is shown to have a tremendous impact on Katara's life and personality and has arguably shaped her into the person she is now. This tragedy has made her very emotionally driven, as she is often reduced to tears. According to Sokka, Katara largely prevented their family from falling apart and took on many responsibilities to the point where she largely filled the void left by their mother (so much that he pictures her in place of his mother). As such, Katara has a very maternal personality and often acts as a motherly figure to the group, something that constantly irritates the rebellious Toph. Her loss is also part of what drives her in her fight against the Fire Nation, although she does not exhibit as much outward prejudice as her brother. She is also a bit of a stickler for morality (to the point of causing Sokka and Aang to faint from shock when she states she wants to pull a scam), as she berates Toph for scamming people.

She is also shown to have a soft spot for children. In the "The Serpent's Pass", she states that she helped Kanna deliver many babies in their tribe and in "The Painted Lady", she gives a portion of her food to a little boy. She even went as far as to care for and defend Mai's little brother, despite the fact that he was from the Fire Nation and that everyone else but Aang hated him for it.



Katara is portrayed the most mature member of the group, rarely taking part in Sokka and Aang's goofy pranks and Toph's less crazy ones, though she does have a sense of humor. She is very kind and caring, just like a mother. Katara has been described as being very motherly by Toph and Sokka. In "The Desert," it was Katara who held the group together in its most desperate moments. Katara is extremely faithful and was one of the few people who held out hope of the Avatar returning to save the world.

On the other hand, Katara can be overly domineering at times. For all her kindness and compassion, she is sometimes very self-righteous, has a rather nasty temper, and can be extremely fierce when provoked. She also is very set in her ideals and frequently refuses to relent on her views in the face of opposition. Combined with her strong sense of compassion, this gives her a very strong sense of justice and she will run headlong into often dangerous situations to help others, which is best illustrated in "Imprisoned" and "The Painted Lady". Her short temper has frequently clashed with others; she showed open (but short lived) jealousy of Aang's talent in "The Waterbending Scroll", is frequently perturbed by Toph's confrontational and rebellious nature, such as in "The Chase" and "The Runaway", and holds a considerable grudge against those who have threatened Aang, as Zuko has, or done things she considers morally wrong, like Jet. In "The Western Air Temple" she shows open outright hostility to Zuko and even threatens to kill him if he slips back to his old ways. Despite being one of the more compassionate members of the group, Katara is one of the least willing to let go of a grudge, especially against those who she feels have betrayed her trust. She was hostile to Jet in "Lake Laogai" and Zuko in "The Southern Raiders" long after they had joined the group and gained the trust of everyone else. However, this could be because their betrayal of her was far more personal than their betrayal of anyone else. Katara was obviously, at least slightly, willing to give people second chances, for she had lingering feelings for Jet and had offered to try and heal Zuko's scar. She also remained argumentative with her father because she felt that he had abandoned them when he left to fight in the war.

Throughout season one, Katara was marked by a fierce desire to learn Waterbending, viewing it as a part of her and her culture that needed to be expressed. She also may have viewed it as a hope for rebuilding her tribe. Her enthusiasm for Waterbending has caused her to constantly train herself in this art and she is overjoyed when she finally finds a master to teach her formally. She easily grows to becoming a Waterbending master extremely quickly and Master Pakku states that it is because of her enthusiasm and passion for the art.

As shown in "The Chase", Katara gets extremely irritable with lack of sleep.

Motherly and feminine as she might be, an in-canon comic strip in the Nickelodean magazine shows that Katara isn't afraid to to go beyond her feminine looks and way of being to achieve what she wants. When she and Toph were denied entrance to a rowdy pub because of the both of them being girls, they dressed up as boys. Katara in particular showed her masculine side when wanting to ride a mechanized bull and actually showing herself to be willing to start an all out brawl with some of the guys there who mocked her ability to stay on the bull. The whole thing ended with Toph dragging Katara away before things came to a head.

Later, Katara and Toph are seen in a spa reflecting on how being a girl isn't so bad at all.

Waterbending
Katara's most notable skill is her Waterbending. Over the course of the series, she has gone from a beginner to one of the strongest and most powerful Waterbending masters ever seen.

Katara was identified as a Waterbender when she was a small child. Her father searched all around the South Pole for a Waterbender to teach her, but there were none to be found. So, for many years, Katara taught herself a few basic Waterbending moves.



Since the beginning of the first season, Katara was able to push and pull water, pull some of it out of a source and control and manipulate it to the point where she was able to catch a fish in a small orb of pure water, and freeze water into ice. However, she had very little control over her natural Waterbending abilities and could occasionally lose control of the water around her when she became enraged. Her Waterbending was amateurish until the episode "The Waterbending Scroll", when she stole a scroll of highly advanced Waterbending moves and taught herself the single water whip. After this, she begins demonstrating more advanced Waterbending and uses it skillfully in battle. In the episode"Jet", she fights off a few Fire Nation soldiers and streams of amazingly strong and powerful blasts of water to knock Jet against a tree and freeze him there. She also learns how to draw water from underground geysers.

In "Bato of the Water Tribe", she bends a massive wave of water strong and powerful enough to hold up a ship over rocks and bends a wave of perfume into the air and dumps it onto Nyla, a Shirshu that was hunting Aang from payment of Zuko. In "The Northern Air Temple", she uses water from snow to freeze several Fire Nation tanks.

In "The Waterbending Master", Katara fights against the seasoned Waterbending Master, Pakku. Although Pakku holds the upper hand throughout the fight, Katara demonstrates her raw talent. Drawing on the power of her rage and resentment,she uses water aggressively in streams and whips with lethal accuracy and is able to deflect most of Pakku's attacks, and demonstrates unusually strong and powerful ice-based attacks. Pakku even calls her an excellent Waterbender as he is fighting her. Master Pakku allows her to be his student after discovering Katara's Gran Gran was his lost fiancee.

Katara's Waterbending abilities advances more quickly than any student Pakku has ever trained. In "The Siege of the North, Part 1", she fights and defeats Zuko with the added power of the near-full moon. During the fight, she knocks him off his feet, deflects his attacks, imprisons him in a dome of solid ice, and later, a wave of solid ice. Though she is defeated by Zuko after the sun rises, she fights him again (in "The Siege of the North, Part 2") with the full moon and defeats him easily.

At the end of the first season, Pakku declares Katara a full-fledged Waterbending master.



In the second season, Katara has honed in her Waterbending potential,changing it from raw energy to seasoned ability and would regularly demonstrate her Waterbending mastery in battle. In "Return to Omashu", she manages to block Mai's hand arrows with ice and freezes her hand in ice before Ty Lee blocks her chi, preventing her from Waterbending. Before that, she blocks a flurry of Mai's knives by Waterbending boards as shields in front of herself. In "The Swamp", Katara cuts apart the vines holding her with the water stored in her pouch. In the battle where she, Aang and Sokka fought against Huu, Katara creates large waves in the swamp water, froze a part of the swamp monster, and creates a coil of water that she uses to blast a hole into the monster. She also creates large round blades out of the water and uses them to cut up Huu's monster, defeating him. In "The Blind Bandit", she easily defeats two Earthbending students by freezing them in solid ice.

In "The Chase", Katara fights Ty Lee, using the water in her pouch to fend off her chi blocking attacks, and forces her to cartwheel away with disks of razor-sharp water. She also stops Azula from killing Aang by catching her hand in a water whip. In "The Serpent's Pass", she and Aang make an underwater bubble for the group to travel in and makes a bridge of ice. She also surfs around on a surfboard of ice and, together with Aang, creates a massive whirlpool to defeat the Serpent.

In "The Drill", she rapidly condenses water vapor into ice to defeat her foes. In "Lake Laogai", she uses ice spikes, similar to Mai's shuriken, to pin Jet to the wall in an alley. In "The Earth King", Katara and the others fight off the Royal Earthbender Guards. Katara defeats dozens of them with whips and streams of water. In "The Crossroads of Destiny", Katara and Aang fight against Zuko and Azula. Katara manages to cut Azula's hair with a water blade, and creates two enormous whips of water, which she uses to briefly trap Azula. These whips are able to match Zuko's enormous fire whips later. When Azula is freed, she used lightning to zap Aang in the spine. Finally, when Katara is surrounded by Dai Li agents, she defends herself with the octopus form, and rides on an enormous wave which knocks down these agents and Zuko. Then, she escapes on a stream water, carrying Aang to safety.



Katara's Waterbending becomes even more advanced and destructive to much higher levels in the third season. During a fight with a Fire Nation ship, Katara uses a huge wave to separate the two ships and creates a huge steam barrier between them for cover. Then, when they get hit by a harpoon, Katara uses her frosty breath of Waterbending to freeze the hole in the ship's hull, thus repairing it. In "The Headband", Katara creates a fountain out of solid ice for beverages as well as the glasses they use to drink them. In "The Painted Lady", Katara creates a cover of steam and runs on water. She uses crashing waves and precise missiles of water to destroy a Fire Nation factory (along with Aang). She also blasts a Fire Nation river craft into the air and against a cliff. In "Sokka's Master", Katara transports a huge bubble of water from a nearby creek to put out a fire. In the episode "The Runaway", Katara uses her own sweat as a water knife to break out of a wooden prison cell.

In "The Puppetmaster", Katara learns new Waterbending moves from the old Waterbender Hama of the Southern Water Tribe. She learns how to pull water out of thin air and out of plants. She also learns Bloodbending, the dark and sinister ability to manipulate the water within the body of all living beings, controlling them like a puppet. In the Day of Black Sun, Katara fights against the Fire Nation guards at the capital, destroying several guard towers with Sokka and defeating many soldiers. In "The Western Air Temple", she rains ice spikes onto Combustion Man. During "The Southern Raiders", Katara creates a large wide dome of water by gathering rainwater and creates ice spikes to almost kill Yon Rha. During the full moon that night, when her Waterbending powers were at their zenith, she nearly took down the whole Fire Nation ship of the Southern Raiders single-handedly. Finally, in "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang", she freezes herself and Azula into a block of solid, ice thaws the center of it and chains Azula to a grate.

Healing
Katara's innate Waterbending abilities also give her the incredible ability to heal by manipulating the chi paths in a person's body. She accidentally discovered this ability in "The Deserter", after Aang accidentally burned her hands. She used this power at the end of the episode to heal Aang's own burn after his face-off with General Zhao. She developed this ability more by training with Yugoda.

In "The Avatar State", she is given a small vial of water from the Spirit Oasis, which has special properties. Katara was going to use the spiritual water from Spirit Oasis to heal Zuko's scar, but Aang and Iroh burst in, making Zuko angry at Iroh for allying with the Avatar. Instead she uses the spirit water to save Aang from near death after he is shot in the back with lightning by Azula in "The Crossroads of Destiny". In "Lake Laogai", Katara unsuccessfully attempts to heal Jet after being fatally wounded by Long Feng. During the invasion, Katara's father Hakoda was injured while taking out a fire blaster tower. She healed him to the point where he could walk again. In the four-part series finale "Sozin's Comet" Azula and Zuko have an Agni Kai. Azula generates lightning and aims it at Katara rather than Zuko instead. But luckily Zuko jumped in front of Katara and let the lightning shock him, sparing her from near death. She successfully healed him after chaining Azula to the water grate.

Other Abilities
Katara has little combat skills apart from her bending, which often leads to her defeat. Like all Waterbenders, Katara is rendered helpless when her arms are restrained, or are affected in a way that would prevent her from bending. This is different from the other benders as they have combat skills to a certain degree, such as Zuko, who has extensive knowledge on the art of sword fighting. However, despite being unable to fight in close combat, Katara exhibits remarkable agility and acrobatic skill, such as in "The Headband", when she performed a dance with Aang. Furthermore, Katara is very resourceful and has a remarkable ability to adapt to her environment, reflecting on the fundamentals of her element, being that of change. Katara's dedication and drive to succeed allowed her to quickly master Waterbending and all of its forms, with only little support from instructors who supplied her with the technique necessary. Despite being cut off from the rest of the world, Katara possesses a healthy knowledge of spirituality and is one of the few to posess a deep respect for spiritual and cultural matters. Katara is also versed in mid-wifery, demonstrated in her crucial role in delivering an unexpected baby. As exaggerated in "The Ember Island Players", Katara places heavy value on hope.

Trivia



 * In the Avatar Series Pilot, Katara is named Kya. The name Kya was later given to her previously unnamed mother.
 * Other than in the opening sequence, Katara is the first person to bend in the series.
 * In "The Fortuneteller", Katara states that she hates the papaya fruit.
 * According to Aunt Wu, Katara will have her third great grandchild before quietly passing away in her sleep.
 * In "The Avatar State" with "Avatar Extras" bonus commentary, it was confirmed that Katara mastered Waterbending in the short time that she was at the North Pole, making her the first female student of Master Pakku, and, possibly, the quickest person to ever master Waterbending.
 * Katara is the first person to be heard in the series, which is during the opening sequence.
 * Katara is the first person in the series to reveal the ability to heal.
 * In some comics, her name is misspelled Takara instead of Katara. Coincidentally, takara is a Japanese word meaning treasure.
 * Katara's voice actor, Mae Whitman, has previously worked with Dante Basco, Zuko's voice actor, when they provided the voices for Rose and Jake respectively in American Dragon: Jake Long. In that show, Rose served as Jake's love interest.
 * Katara's name bears resemblance to catarata, which in both Portuguese and Spanish is translated as waterfall.
 * Katara is the only member of Team Avatar who never met Fire Lord Ozai in the series.
 * Katara is the only person to touch Zuko's scar in the series, aside from Zuko himself.
 * Katara, along with her brother, Sokka, has the longest list of love interests in the show: Jet and Aang both had her eye. And although nothing ever happened, Toph once assumed Katara and Haru "had a thing". Unlike her brother, she has had no love interests from the Water Tribes or the Fire Nation, though it was previously debated whether the character Zuko was a potential love interest.
 * Katara and Aang eventually marry, as announced by the creators, and eventually have a son named Tenzin, who will serve as the Airbending teacher for Avatar Korra in the upcoming series, Avatar: Legend of Korra.
 * It is unknown if Katara continued taking healing classes at the Northern Water Tribe after she became one of Master Pakku's students. It's possible she continued as her healing improved greatly, to the point where she saved Aang from death in Ba Sing Se. However, she may have developed her abilities without a master to guide her, as she is naturally gifted in the art of Waterbending and shows tremendous improvement in a short amount of time.
 * Katara is the only person who has participated in all the Water Duels that were featured during the show, battling Waterbenders such as Master Pakku, Hama, Aang and various Waterbending students.

Relationships

 * Katara's Relationships

Relatives

 * Gran Gran Kanna (grandmother)
 * Hakoda (father)
 * Sokka (elder brother)
 * Kya (mother)
 * Pakku (step-grandfather)
 * Aang (husband)
 * Tenzin (son)