Katara

"water"

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

Katara is a female Waterbender. She was 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. In need of a Waterbending teacher, the siblings and Aang left the South Pole for the Northern Water Tribe. Katara and Sokka eventually became close friends of Aang, and after their journey to 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 halt the Fire Nation's ambitions of world domination, ending the century-long war, and finally restoring balance to the world.

The capture of Katara's mother, Kya, by the Fire Nation when she was very young, and the later departure of her father, Hakoda, to fight in the War, left her traumatised and alone. 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.

Initially, Katara's Waterbending abilities were very limited. However, after her acquisition of a Waterbending scroll, and formal training at the North Pole, her determination and hard work saw her surpass Aang, and completely master the element. She became Aang's Waterbending instructor after their departure from the Northern Water Tribe, replacing Master Pakku, who had instructed them during their time there. Her mastery of water made her a formidable asset to the group. 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
Born into the fading Southern Water Tribe, Katara, from an early age was forced to face the reality of her tribe's dwindling strength. A century of repeated Fire Nation invasion, intended to capture and imprison all but the last of the tribe's Waterbenders, lead the tribe to its downfall. Without Waterbenders, the tribe's defences would have surely crumbled under the might of the Fire Nation, but due to their relative inaccessibility at the South Pole and perception as a non-threat, for the most part they were left alone. When Katara was a young girl, the Fire Nation once again raided the village on information that a Waterbender yet remained in the tribe. The Waterbender was of course, Katara, though she, nor the rest of the tribe realised it was her that the Fire Nation had come to capture. Similarly, neither did the leader of the raid, Yon Rha, captain of the Southern Raiders, who was yet to uncover the identity of the Waterbender. During the battle, Yon Rha, who evidently chose not to participate in the conflict, came across Katara's mother, Kya, taking refuge in their tent. Katara, in fear had run back to the tent and entered in the middle of their exchange. Realising the intentions of Yon Rha, who had demanded Kya tell him the identity of the Waterbender, and thus the delicacy of the situation, Kya insisted Katara leave, and when she had done so, gave herself up as the last Waterbender, lying to protect both her daughter and her people. Katara ran to fetch her father, Hakoda, but by the time they returned, both Yon Rha and Kya had gone. The disappearance of their mother had a profound impact on both Sokka and Katara, though Katara is alluded to have suffered much greater from their loss.

With the loss of a mother figure in the family, Katara soon found herself filling the role left behind by Kya. As per tradition, Katara began to take on many of the domestic responsibilities expected of women of the Southern Water Tribe, despite her young age. Several years later, her father, Chief Hakoda, left to fight in the war, alongside 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 dearly and cared deeply for them, the death of her mother and loss of her father to unknown fate, left Katara traumatised and alone.

Living in a tribe consisting entirely of women, children and elderly, Katara had to grow up fast. At a young age, taking on the domestic duties expected of women of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara took care of not only her own family, but frequently assisted the other members of the tribe in their own duties. Katara began filling the role left behind by Kya, developing a distinctly protective and motherly personality which she would carry with her for the remainder of her life. Even to her own elder brother, Sokka, she was seen as a paternal figure. In Book 3: Fire, Sokka admits to being unable to picture Kya, whose image had been replaced by Katara's whenever he thought of his mother. Not only deeply caring and fiercely protective of the other members of the group when travelling with Avatar Aang, but the strength she developed in the absence of paternal figures in her youth helped her to keep Aang and his friends together through the toughest of times.

Future
It has been revealed that Katara married Aang and eventually gave birth to an airbender son named 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 ability is her Waterbending. During the series, she rapidly developed her skill at the art, and her fierce resolve to master the element saw her become, by the series' end, not only one of the strongest and most powerful Waterbending masters, but potentially the youngest and quickest to obtain such status in many years.

Katara was identified as a Waterbender when she was a small child, though at exactly what age or how, is unknown. A century of unrelenting Fire Nation invasion and their determination to capture the last of the Waterbenders in the Southern Tribe, saw Katara born into a tribe entirely deprived of Waterbenders. Her father, Hakoda searched across the South Pole for a Waterbender to teach her, but none were to be found, confirming her status as the last Waterbender in the entirety of the South Pole.

Over the course of her childhood, Katara taught herself basic Waterbending technique and managed to master some simple Waterbending forms. A reasonable feat, considering she would have never had the chance to have observed any Waterbending in practice, and probably had only the benefit of second-hand amateur advice from the elders of her tribe and possibly from her grandmother, Kanna, who, though unknown to Katara, grew up in the Northern Water Tribe.



As of the discovery of Aang at the South Pole, Katara was capable of "pushing and pulling" water, streaming small amounts and manipulating it into basic forms and movements, and was beginning to gain some control over the ability to change its physical state, freezing it into ice, as well as making initial attempts at creating sizeable waves of water. What little she knew, she taught to Aang, who quickly mastered all she had to offer. That which had taken her years to achieve, Aang managed to imitate and outdo within mere minutes, much to her envy and frustration.

Her Waterbending remained amateurish at best until she came across a Northern Water Tribe Waterbending scroll depicting several different traditional Waterbending forms, amongst a collection of wares in a pirate-traders ship. Unable to afford the high price on offer by the pirates, yet similarly incapable of passing up such an opportunity to finally have some formal instruction in Waterbending, she deftly stole and eventually made away with the scroll. Katara and Aang first learnt from the scroll, the water-whip, and afterward continued to improve their overall technique. Up until their arrival at the Norther Water Tribe, both Katara and Aang demonstrated considerable improvement, and Katara's confidence in her own abilities increased dramatically.

In the episode, Jet, Katara demonstrated the ability to bend with much greater precision and ease compared to the episode prior in which she stole the scroll. She was able to bend greater quantities of unseen water and greater quantities in general, stream them into powerful blasts and freeze water with much more control than previously shown. In subsequent episodes she developed several of her own techniques, including cloudbending, a hand-held variation on the water-whip technique, and greater manipulation of ice and snow, as well as discovering her ability to heal. In the time between her appropriation of the Waterbending scroll and arrival at the North Pole, Katara's sheer determination and discipline saw her proficiency improve greatly, clearly surpassing that of Aang.

In "The Waterbending Master", Katara's pride, strong-mindedness and sense of justice caused conflict with the traditions of the Northern Water Tribe which, due to her being a girl, forbade her from learning combat focused Waterbending. Katara, furious at having travelled to the opposite end of the Earth, only to be denied instruction by irrational customs, challenged the instructing master of the Northern Water Tribe, Pakku to a duel. Though she was undoubtedly no match for the master, she valiantly held her own, determined not to be beaten. She demonstrated not only new and more advanced techniques than had ever been seen previous, but also a surprising amount of agility and skill in physical combat, and as ever, even greater proficiency at techniques already seen, and with greater amounts of water. She was seen bending with her feet for the first time, employing non-bending hand and foot strikes in combat for the first time, and transforming the physical state of a wave for the first time. Pakku eventually removed her ability to bend by trapping her body and limbs between spikes of ice, and so won the fight without harming her. Though he even stated that she was an exceptionally talented Waterbender, he happily stuck by the laws of his culture and refused to to teach Katara.

At the fight's conclusion, Pakku discovered Katara's betrothal necklace which had broken off during their duel. Recognising the carved pendant, it was revealed that the necklace passed down to Katara from Kanna, her grandmother, had been given to Kanna by Pakku as a symbol of their engagement 60 years prior. After realising Katara was the granddaughter of his ex-fiancee, who had left the Northern Water Tribe to escape their arranged marriage, he decided to instruct Katara in combative Waterbending.

Under the guidance of Master Pakku, Katara's Waterbending abilities advanced quicker than that of any student he had ever trained, which he accredited to her fierce determination, passion and hard-work. In "The Siege of the North, Part 1", she fights and defeats Zuko with the augmented power of the near-full moon. During the fight, she knocked him off his feet, deflects and shielded his attacks, imprisoned 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's character was named Kya. The name Kya was later given to her previously unnamed mother.
 * Katara's original name may have been inspired by the minor character, Kya, sister of Ashitaka, in Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke. From the little seen of her in the film, she seems to be very much like Katara; caring, yet fiercely protective. The creators of the Avatar series have claimed to be fans of the studio's work.
 * 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 should have her third great grandchild before quietly passing away in her sleep. Whether or not this is the case may be revealed in Avatar: Legend of Korra
 * 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 narrates the opening sequence, and therefore is the first person to speak in the series.
 * 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 never to have met Fire Lord Ozai in the series.
 * Katara is the only person to touch Zuko's scar in the series, aside from Zuko himself.
 * Excepting Aang himself, Katara is the only character that has been shown capable of calming Aang out of the Avatar State.
 * 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 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 is possible she continued as her healing improved greatly, to the point where she saved Zuko from nearly fatal wounds after the Comet Enhanced Agni Kai. 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 featured during the show, battling Waterbenders such as Master Pakku, Hama, Aang and various Waterbending students.

Relatives and Relationships

 * Katara's Relationships


 * Kanna (Gran Gran) (Grandmother)
 * Hakoda (Father)
 * Sokka (Elder Brother)
 * Kya (Mother)
 * Pakku (Step-Grandfather)
 * Aang (Husband)
 * Tenzin (Son)