#and is pretty unforgiving if they ‘mess up’ despite herself not being a perfect beacon of compassion

[comradekatara]

katara’s fatal flaw when it comes to politics and also just general communication is that she cannot fathom why anyone would wish to act in a cruel manner and knowingly harm others, whereas sokka’s is that he does not understand how people can be willfully ignorant or even just plain dumb. it’s why sokka is always having to point out to katara that someone is a malicious actor who is taking advantage of her compassion and idealism (jet, hama, aunt wu, etc) because he knows that not everyone has pure, altruistic intentions, but he also doesn’t understand that king kuei isn’t just sheltered, he is also straight up an idiot (or that hahn isn’t just arrogant, he is also incompetent, etc etc) until it’s too late.

#katara assumes that everyone knows they ought to conduct themselves compassionately #whereas sokka assumes that everyone knows they ought to conduct themselves rationally #like in their minds (respectively) that it what is in everyone’s best interest at all times #and sokka’s ‘rationality’ is compassionate in nature #but he also acknowledges that other people mind find it in their best interest to be selfish #and conduct themselves accordingly #while katara always just sees the best in people #and is pretty unforgiving if they ‘mess up’ despite herself not being a perfect beacon of compassion #(she can be selfish myopic etc) #same goes for sokka perceiving himself as rational but also just. having a huge blind spot when it comes to his self esteem & daddy issues #(family issues in general tbh) #which can cause him to act irrationally #and then zuko and azula have the same thing (where zuko believes in compassion and azula believes in reason) but also like. far more cynical #just because they were raised to believe in their natural superiority and it fucks with their perception of themselves and others #but zuko does have a very similar fundamental worldview to katara & azula to sokka #anyway. im off topic now #katara #sokka #katara&sokka #analysis #ish