Kanna


 * This article is about the character in the series. For the character in the film, see .

"water"

- It's been so long since I've had hope, but you brought it back to life, my little waterbender.

Kanna, also known as Gran Gran, was Katara and Sokka's caring paternal grandmother and the oldest person in the Southern Water Tribe. She was not a waterbender. Although she had her doubts about Aang at first, when it was revealed that he was indeed the Avatar, she regained hope, something she said she had not felt for a long time.

History
Kanna was actually born in the Northern Water Tribe, and when she was around sixteen years of age, it was arranged that she would marry Pakku, a young waterbender. Following the tribe's engagement tradition, Pakku carved a betrothal necklace for her. Though he loved her very much and thought highly of their future together, he adhered strongly to the Northern Water Tribe's chauvinistic social standards, resulting in Kanna's despair and search for a way out of the marriage. Sometime before their wedding, Kanna ran away and headed for the Southern Water Tribe. While she left without notice, she did take the necklace with her, and later bore a son, Hakoda, in Southern Water Tribe. The necklace was eventually passed down to her daughter-in-law, Kya, who in turn passed it down to Katara. Kanna never told her grandchildren the history of that necklace, nor of her past life in the Northern Water Tribe. Her old friend Yugoda claimed that Katara looked just like Kanna.



Kanna soon became good friends with Hama, one of the Southern Water Tribe's most skilled waterbenders. They were present when the Southern Water Tribe was first attacked by the Fire Nation. The waterbenders attempted to fight them off, but were greatly outnumbered. Hama was soon the last waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe until she was captured as well. When she was taken onto the Fire Nation vessel, Kanna was the last face of her friends Hama saw before she was locked away when she was still a young woman.

The years passed, yet the Hundred Year War did not seem to ease, making Kanna somewhat bitter and cynical. Her son later became the Tribal Chief and married a woman named Kya, who eventually bore Kanna's grandchildren, Sokka and Katara. Katara would later be revealed to be a waterbender, the first to be born in the Southern Tribe for many years.

In the year prior to the return of Sozin's Comet, Kanna's grandchildren discovered a frozen airbender, Aang. They later brought him back to their village, though like her grandson, Kanna did not trust the stranger, and eventually viewed him as a threat, as he had accidentally triggered a Fire Nation warning system. She was among the people who asked for Aang to leave, and persuaded her granddaughter to stay with them, despite Aang being Katara's only chance to go to the North Pole and learn from a true waterbending master.

Nevertheless, the village was attacked by the Fire Nation and Kanna was directly threatened by Zuko, the banished Crown Prince. However, they were saved by Aang, who was then revealed to be the Avatar. When Aang later surrendered to protect the villagers, and Katara and Sokka decided to go save him, Kanna allowed them to leave, having finally regained hope with the return of the Avatar. She was never directly seen again.

Furthermore, in the "Serpent's Pass", when a couple was conceiving their first child, Katara reassured them and Sokka telling him that she carried experience when assisting her Gran Gran deliver babies.

After the Siege of the North, Kanna reunited with Master Pakku, whom had ventured south to provide assistance in rebuilding the Southern Tribe. Pakku later carved Kanna a new betrothal necklace and the two were subsequently married.

Name origin

 * Kanna's name is similar to the Japanese word Kan, meaning cold. It also means "carry" in Finnish and is Inuit for "down there", "the one below", "downriver" or "in the direction of the sea".
 * Kanna can mean "river fish" and there is a river and lake by the name of Kanna.
 * "Cana", pronounced the same way, means "white hair" in Spanish.
 * In Telugu, an Indian language, Kanna means "dear" or "child".
 * In northern India, Krishna, the Hindu deity, worshipped as an avatar (incarnation) of the preserver-god, Vishnu, is commonly called Kanha.

Trivia

 * Kanna's nickname in the Spanish version of Avatar is "Gran Gran Abuela", which translates to great-great grandmother. In the French version her nickname is "Mabouba".
 * Kanna was portrayed by in .
 * Kanna (Gran Gran) was voiced by Melendy Britt, the voice actress who played She-Ra in the popular "Princess of Power" cartoon series from the 80s.
 * Kanna seemed to have kept the same hairstyle, hair loopies, her whole life.
 * Kanna looked very much like Katara when she was younger, as Yugoda suggested.
 * Originally, Katara's name was to be Kya. However, when Nickelodeon vetoed the choice of name, the creators renamed her Kanna, which stuck for a few weeks before they decided to name her Katara. Kya became the name of Katara's mother, while Kanna became Gran Gran's name.
 * Kanna strongly resembled the wise elder women found in many of the works of Hayao Miyazaki – most notably, the Wise Woman who starts Prince Ashitaka on his quest in Princess Mononoke. The series' creators have professed their fandom of Hayao Miyazaki in many interviews.