#still continuing the atla re-watch! taking me a while cause adulting is getting in my way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cuccoamongdragons · 3 years

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ATLA Long Post

The 1st time I watched ATLA as a young teen, the series left a sour taste in my mouth for one, very unexpected reason: Aang and Katara being endgame. It's the only time I have ever felt so strongly negative and personally about a ship. I decided to re-watch the series because I otherwise loved it and focus in on Katara as a character now that I've had distance.

Katara Season 1 & 2

I honestly think she was abused by her grandmother. After her mother's death, she gets pushed into her mother's adult role in society. We see her grandmother expects this of her, and Sokka says he has little to no memories of Katara not taking on that role. This reads far too much of a child who was made to feel guilty and throws her life into making up that "debt". Especially when we look at how Sokka behaves. He's messy, laid back, and has no difficulty expressing himself. He isn't held to the same standards.

So when Katara meets Aang and he offers her an actual shot at leaving, putting herself first, going after her own personal growth,finally getting to BE a kid? It was enough to make her lose it when she thought it was taken away from her. But then it turns out he's the Avatar, and she's allowed to go, but only because this duty is bigger. We see her struggle with it hard. He doesn't immediately fulfill what he promised, even making fun when she asks. When she puts in the work to start teaching him a little bending and he instantly gets stuff she had to work hard at and the reason she was allowed to leave home, she loses her cool. Her life and aspirations are stuck on the whims of a child who is immediately her equal in her craft.

When we see Aang spiral into avatar state on the Air Island, she connects with him over grief. Grief she tried to talk about with him about and he ignored. This is one of many instances where we see her voluntarily take on emotional labor when she is not given the same in return. Aang spends a lot of time trying to get her attention like a child does, pushing her buttons and demanding attention. When his crush isn't returned, he gets upset. He tries to make her jealous (fangirls), projects (calling her jealous), and invades her personal time and space (the fortune reading) to try to validate his actions. We do see Katara start to consider the possibility of dating after the fortune telling. And then he straight up tries to keep her from seeing her dad.

Despite the red flags, she tests the waters in the Cave of Lovers. I don't think they kissed, because nothing big changed in their behavior together after that. Katara continued to be the emotional backbone of the group. We do see Aang stop pushing romantically quite so hard for a while. But when Appa is stolen, he literally yells at her for days and then when he goes into an avatar rage, she STILL has to put herself on the back burner and take care of him and she looks SO TIRED and resigned. Like she's been here a thousand times where there is no room for her needs. One of the last big things we see is Jett, an ex, someone who betrayed her, getting redemption. We see how hard it is for Katara to let go of resentment even for a worthy cause, and watch her learn to let it go.

Katara spends so much time doing what she's "supposed to". Be mature, keep her cool, heal other's hurt, teach, etc. She seems to automatically take on all this emotional labor because it's rare for someone else to step up or return the favor for her. It really makes me consider her relationships and behaviors with "Is this what she is "supposed" to do? Or is this healthy for her?"

#atla #katara #long post #thoughts while rewatching

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