| Avatar: The Last Airbender character | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Katara | |
| Nationality | Water Tribe (Southern Tribe) |
| Aliases | The Painted Lady |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Age | 14 |
| Position | Waterbending Master |
| First appearance | "The Boy in the Iceberg" |
| Voiced by | Mae Whitman |
Katara (name changed from Kya, as featured in the unaired pilot episode) is a fictional character and heroine voiced by Mae Whitman on the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Fourteen-year-old Katara is a Waterbending master from the South Pole's Southern Water Tribe who, along with her older brother, Sokka, discovers Aang, the long-lost Avatar, and accompanies him on his quest to defeat the Fire Nation and bring peace to the war-torn nations.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] History
Katara is a 14 year old Master Waterbender, who is the younger sister of Sokka, the friend of Toph, and the love interest of Aang. Katara grew up as the mature, motherly figure of her family and tribe. When Katara was eight years old, her mother was killed in a Fire Nation raid. Because of this, Katara adopted the responsibilities left by her deceased mother. Though her interests lie in developing her waterbending skills, she resigned herself to cooking and cleaning duties while her brother, Sokka, trained to become a warrior.
At the age of twelve, Katara saw the departure of her father, Hakoda, and the other tribesmen to the Earth Kingdom to participate in the war effort against the Fire Nation. This left her, alongside her brother and grandmother, Kanna ("Gran Gran"), to look after the tribe. In "The Serpent's Pass," a refugee goes into labor and Katara delivers the baby, claiming she did it lots of times, proving how much responsibility she had in her former home. Not only does she have experience delivering human babies, Katara claims to have delivered baby seals as well.
The events of Avatar: The Last Airbender begin at this point where, during a spearfishing expedition, Katara and Sokka find Aang in suspended animation inside an iceberg. The siblings free him and discover that Aang is the Avatar, whose destiny revolves around mastering the four elements of air, water, earth, and fire. With a common goal of mastering Waterbending, Katara, along with her brother, joins Aang in hopes of visiting the Northern Water Tribe to find a Waterbending master willing to teach them.
Throughout Book Two, Katara journeys through the Earth Kingdom in hopes of finding an Earthbending teacher for Aang. Her travels take her to Ba Sing Se, where Aang and his friends assist the Earth King in devising strategies against an invasion of the Fire Nation.
[edit] Name
According to the unaired pilot episode included on the Avatar Complete Book 1 Collection DVD set, Katara's name was originally Kya, but was changed before the start of the series proper. In "The Tales of Ba Sing Se," Katara's name was written as 卡 塔 拉. Kǎ (卡) means to check, block, or card; Tǎ (塔) means pagoda; and Lā (拉) means to pull. The character Lā is the same La as the Ocean Spirit's name from the season one's finale, while the character for Kǎ also appears in Sokka's name.
In "The King of Omashu," Katara pretended to be Aang's granddaughter, under the alias "June Pippinpadelopsocopolis," in order to gain entry into the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu.
In "City of Walls and Secrets," Katara and Toph used false names to gain entrance to a party being held by the Earth King. Her name was Kuā Měi (姱 美), which translates to 'fascinating beauty.'
[edit] Waterbending progress
[edit] Book One
To Katara, waterbending is a unique skill that she dearly wanted to master. With no other Waterbenders to instruct her, Katara initially taught herself. Able to do feats ranging from maneuvering a fish-filled water globule to freezing water at will, she displayed much potential. However, she lacked a fine sense of control, unable to aim some of her larger attacks. After meeting Aang, she and Sokka set off on a journey to their sister tribe in the north, on a quest to find a waterbending master to instruct them.
Katara continued to practice waterbending diligently while journeying with Aang and Sokka, acquiring new skills. Passing through a port town, Katara stole a waterbending scroll from pirates. Following the scroll's forms, Katara and Aang learned the "water whip," a maneuver that lashes a target with a whip-shaped formation of water. Later, while being fooled by Jet, she learned to bend underground water, as she and Aang pulled water up through geysers and into a river.
After Aang accidentally burned her hands while learning firebending, Katara learned that she has a rare waterbending talent: the vitakinetic ability to heal wounds, using water as the catalyst.
When they finally arrive at the North Pole, Katara and Aang met Master Pakku, a waterbending master. She hoped to learn waterbending from him, but Pakku rebuffed her, explaining that tribal custom forbids women from learning waterbending to fight. Instead, women with the gift are trained formally as Healers.
While Aang learns from Pakku, Katara is sent to the healing huts for Yagoda's lessons. After her lesson, she learned that her grandmother, Kanna, had been good friends with Yagoda as a young girl. However, she had fled to the Southern Tribe to escape an arranged marriage to a young Waterbender.
Filled with newfound contempt for Northern customs, Katara schemed to learn from Aang at night. Pakku quickly discovered them and banned Aang from further instruction until Katara apologizes. Rather than submit to Pakku's sour chauvinism, Katara challenged Pakku to a duel. She acquitted herself remarkably, but Pakku still did not consent to teach her, and he finally defeated her.
When he discovered Katara's heirloom choker, he recognized it as the betrothal necklace he had carved sixty years ago for his young fiancée, Kanna. Realizing that his stubborn adherence to custom had cost him a wife, Pakku consented to teach Aang and Katara. When Katara rose to mastery faster than any of his students, Pakku tasked her with instructing the slower-learning Aang and deemed her a master Waterbender.
[edit] Book Two
At the beginning of Book Two, the group is given by Master Pakku a box of waterbending scrolls and an amulet full of water (with special properties) from the spirit oasis.
Master Pakku deems Katara a master Waterbender so she could officially teach Aang.
In "The Cave of Two Lovers", Katara teaches Aang the Octopus form, though he has not mastered this technique yet. In "Return to Omashu," Katara is able to defeat Mai temporarily before Ty Lee comes up behind her and blocks her flow of chi, temporarily preventing her from waterbending.
In "The Swamp," Katara shows a great deal of skill and power against the swamp creature. She demonstrates her mastery of water's cutting ability as she sends continuous blades of water to hack the creature down. It is unknown if Katara can manipulate the water in plants like some members of the Foggy Swamp Tribe can. Even though this "plantbending" is derived from waterbending, it appears to be a highly specialized form, as only one member of the Swamp Tribe is seen performing it.
Katara saves the waterbending scrolls in "Avatar Day" from a large Fire Nation man and, soon after, is able to put out fires on the parade floats with little available water. She uses the water from her water skin numerous times to cut through certain objects such as leather straps or wooden beams.
She was able to defeat two earthbending students with almost no effort at all by pinning them between two walls with ice in "The Blind Bandit." In "The Chase," she shares her fear of losing her waterbending ability while she and Aang are shown washing Appa. She fares well against Ty Lee in a short confrontation by dodging her attacks, but Mai is able to defeat her by pinning her arms to a tree with shurikens; Katara, however, is saved by Appa in that scenario. When Azula tries to hurt Aang, she is prevented from doing so as her hand is grabbed by Katara's water whip. Katara offers to heal Iroh after his injury but is unable to proceed when Zuko refuses. In "The Library," Katara gives a waterbending scroll to Wan Shi Tong, the guardian spirit. From its illustrations, the scroll appears to be the same one she stole from pirates in The Waterbending Scroll.
Katara has been shown able to create larger water whips, large whirlpools (with some help from Aang), and even small tidal waves. Her mastery over freezing water has also increased, ranging from small ice spikes, to small ice bridges, to surfing freely on water using an ice platform for support in The Serpent's Pass." She is also shown capable of rapidly condensing steam into ice in "The Drill." In the episode "The Earth King," she displays further mastery of waterbending, being able to defeat many royal guards using a single aerial water whip kick after jumping over a moat. Furthermore, she can condense the water onto her arms (similar to when Aang collected rocks onto his arm against Azula in "The Drill") and use it as a limb extension in order to throw guards down into the moat.
Her advancing skills were further shown at the end of the second season finale "The Crossroads of Destiny" when she fought Azula in single combat and not only held her ground, but managed to drive Azula back. Despite Azula's powerful firebending abilities, Katara was able to deflect the force of her attacks by covering her entire body except her head with water and then using the water on her arms as two enormous water whips, which she then uses to grab Azula's arm and leg to prevent her from firebending. Azula's dire position was only relieved by timely aid from Zuko. The fact that she was able to best Azula signifies the extent of her combat powers.
At the end of the episode, she was able to create and ride a small tidal wave, knocking over Prince Zuko and the Dai Li agents at once and catch Aang. This action was timely due to Aang having just been injured by Azula while possibly in the Avatar State. He received a wound on his back due to Azula's well-calculated shot and fell from the air, heading for the ground. After catching Aang, Katara was then able to lift herself and Aang by creating a water spout and riding a waterfall upwards. As they leave the city on Appa's back, she attempts to heal the fatal wound on Aang's back with the water from the Spirit Oasis and, though the wound remains present, Aang does awaken soon thereafter.
[edit] Book Three
When Aang awakens from his near fatal injury, Katara takes him inside to have a healing session and, using her healing, she helps Aang see what happened to him in Old Ba Sing Se. While on the ship the group is attacked by another Fire Nation ship that discovered they had captured it, and a fight breaks out. Katara uses her Waterbending to separate the two ships, using a huge wave, and when she realizes they need to get away, she creates a huge steam barrier between them for cover, which was the first time she has manipulated steam, in the sense of directly creating it. 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 episode 42, The Headband, Katara creates a fountain out of ice for beverages as well as the glasses they use to drink them for the dance party Aang throws for his uptight Fire Nation classmates. Also, in order to disguise Appa and the gang as they fly to the main land Fire Nation, she and Aang uses a combination of waterbending & airbending to surround the flying beast in a very "convincing" cloud.
In the third episode of the season, The Painted Lady, Katara surreptitiously disguises herself as the river spirit, The Painted Lady, in order to help a helpless, polluted fishing village. She uses her Waterbending to run on water, shrouding herself in eerie mist, flitting about nightly, stealing food from the enemy and giving it to the village and healing the sick. With crashing waves and precise missiles of water, as well as a little help from Aang, who discovers her ploy, she goes on to destroy a huge factory, the source of pollution in the river. Later, as she invoked the wrath of the Fire Nation army encamped in the factory, she and the gang put on a tremendous display to scare off the antagonists. Katara, after creating a huge cloud of steam, dramatically destroys one of their river crafts by blasting it into the air on a mucky geyser and then shooting it into a nearby cliff. Also throughout the episode the benders of the gang use their cumulative Earth and Waterbending abilities to purify the heavily polluted river water.
In Book Three's episode 4, Sokka's Master, Katara does her part in putting out a huge fire, created by a huge, newly earth-bound meteorite. Using her Waterbending, and mounted on the back of Appa, she transports a huge bubble of water from a nearby creek to the fire. She then sprays it over the fire, putting out a large part of it. Katara returns to the creek to retrieve a second mass of water, which she sends to Aang, who then creates a freezing dome of water that expands from the center of the dying flames and explodes, bursting in a flurry of snowflakes, and finishing off the fire.
In the fifth episode of the season, The Beach, Katara helps Aang defend himself from the Combustion Man, who 'blows things up with his mind' and also helps him escape.
[edit] Personality
Mature and kind, Katara is dedicated to her friends, family, and duties. Resentful of the traditionally passive gender roles her tribe ascribes her, Katara's fondest dream was to become a waterbending master and fight to save her tribe. But she can also be bossy and controlling, always believing her ways and beliefs are the in the right and refusing to relent on her views (rarely being shown in a bad light, unlike many others). Passionate and dedicated to her goal, she taught herself an array of novice moves before receiving any formal instruction. Katara's sense of justice is so strong that she will rush headlong into dangerous situations to aid those she feels have been wronged, or if there is any injustice. Once, Katara rallied a group of imprisoned Earthbenders to overpower their captors. Although she is devoted to and can be very patient with friends and family, Katara has a rather short temper and possesses a ferocious amount of power, especially when angered. On rare occasions when Katara becomes truly angry, her outbursts are accompanied by involuntary waterbending strong enough to shatter icebergs (as seen in "The Boy in the Iceberg"). Katara's kind heart sometimes makes her care for others before herself. In "The Desert," she gives Sokka, Toph, and Momo water without taking any for herself. Katara also has an extraordinary capacity to forgive. In "The Crossroads of Destiny," she offers to heal Zuko of his facial scar, despite their long and complicated history of conflict.
[edit] Family
[edit] Mother
Before she was killed in a Fire Nation attack, Katara's mother (name unknown) gave her a navy blue necklace with a blue stone pendant that bears the waterbending symbol as a last memento and gift. Katara can almost always be seen wearing this necklace. Carved by Pakku as a betrothal necklace for Katara's grandmother, it was handed down to Katara's mother (possibly as a wedding present), then passed to Katara. It appears that Katara was very close to her mother, as in "The Swamp" she has a vision of her lost mother and breaks down crying when the mirage disappears. She later breaks down in "The Crossroads of Destiny" when mentioning her mother's death.
[edit] Hakoda
Katara also dearly misses her father, not having seen him in the two years since he went off to war. Though she does not idolize him as her brother does, she once seriously considered leaving Aang behind in order to meet him at a military rendezvous point, briefly acting on this desire during an argument with him. However, her loyalty to Aang and his quest won out. In "Bato of the Water Tribe," there is mention that Hakoda is heading to Ba Sing Se. In "The Earth King," it is confirmed that Hakoda is near the great city at Chameleon Bay. Katara allows Sokka to travel with Aang to meet their father while she remains with the Earth King to plan for an invasion of the Fire Nation during a solar eclipse. However, in "The Awakening", after Ba Sing Se fell, Katara was finally reunited with her father as they rode on a captured Fire Nation ship in order to sneak into the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, she constantly shunned him away and spoke bitterly to him because she had hard feelings about him leaving home to fight in the war. After she suffered an emotional breakdown, Hakoda comforted her and told her that he couldn't bear being away from her and Sokka since he left, and he and Katara reconciled.
[edit] Gran Gran Kana
Katara initially seems to have little in common with her grandmother Kana, (affectionately known as "Gran Gran"), who tells Katara the stories of Avatar lore she holds so dear. Initially jaded and pessimistic in the face of Katara's hopes for herself and Aang, she later blesses Katara and Sokka's departure. If Yugoda's claims of a "spitting image" resemblance and a similar rebelliousness are to be believed, perhaps Katara is more like Kana than she knows. Kana was to be married with Katara's and Aang's former waterbending master, Pakku, before she ran away to the South.
[edit] Sokka
Katara loves to tease her older brother Sokka, and they frequently trade jabs and argue, he being the more quick-witted, but also the more prideful of the pair. She also resents his (now somewhat tempered) sexist streak and tendency to belittle her waterbending as bothersome "magic." Sokka feels an instinctual obligation to protect his sister, though often this makes him over-protective, to Katara's dismay. Still, the siblings love each other dearly.
[edit] Relationships
[edit] Aang
In regards to Aang, Katara has a great deal of faith in the young Avatar's ability to save the world, and cares for him as a close friend. She is, for the most part, genuinely oblivious of the fact that he loves her. It is possible that Aang and Katara kiss during the events of "The Cave of Two Lovers," but the show leaves this ambiguous. Katara is the person that suggested they kiss in hopes it would help them escape the maze-like cave. However, Katara has kissed Aang three times, though on the cheek: once when Aang delivered her mother's necklace back to her, towards the end of "The Earth King," when Aang and Sokka depart, and during "The Headband" as they depart from the cave.
Aang connects to Katara more than any other person he has interacted within the show. As of the events in "The Desert," Katara remains the only person able to calm Aang down from the Avatar State. Also, as seen in "The Serpent's Pass," Katara is able to renew emotions and beliefs in Aang where others were unable. While others had tried to renew Aang's optimism and hope, only Katara was successful, further demonstrating how meaningful she is to Aang.
Katara encourages Toph, Aang's Earthbending teacher, to use positive reinforcement as a teaching method. Aang responds well to this method, most likely due to the free spirited and gentle nature of Airbenders.
In "The Headband", Aang holds a dance party and Aang dances with a girl he met at school. Sokka walks over to Katara and says that they look good together and it is obvious that Katara is a bit resentful. When she and Aang dance she blushes at first, but then they fall in rhythm and perform a captivating Fire Nation dance. When they are flying away, Katara kisses Aang on the cheek.
[edit] Toph
Katara has shown great sympathy for Toph over her restricted life under her parents. Like Aang and Sokka, Katara gladly welcomes Toph when she joins their group. The two were at odds with each other in "The Chase" when Toph refused to help set up their campsites (Katara going so far as to use Toph's blindness to insult her), but they have since come to better terms. After spending a day together getting makeovers in Ba Sing Se, Toph and Katara bonded and showed signs that they were getting close. After being taunted by a troupe of pompous girls, Katara gets a rare view of the vulnerable, self-conscious side of Toph, who feels insecure about her looks as a result of the insult. Though she tries to hide it, Toph can't help displaying tears before Katara, who offers reassurance and comfort to the earthbender. She admires that Toph is "confident and self-assured" and assures the blind girl that she is "really pretty".[1] Cheered up, Toph offers to return the compliment, had she any idea of what Katara looked like, and rewards her with a genuine "thank you" and a friendly (but hard) punch on the shoulder. This interaction demonstrates that, despite their previous differences, both of them have come a long way in their journey and are becoming close friends. Katara and Toph have generally opposing personalities, with Katara being generally kind and encouraging, and Toph being tougher and more authoritative.
[edit] Prince Zuko
As Aang's close friend and staunch defender, Katara is, by association, an enemy of Zuko. At the end of "Imprisoned," the only trace of the Avatar and his companions that Zuko finds on an Earthbender prison rig that they helped to liberate is Katara's tribal necklace, lost in the commotion. In "The Waterbending Scroll," after capturing Katara with the assistance of a band of pirates, Zuko attempts to use the necklace as a bribe to get Katara to reveal Aang's whereabouts, but she stoutly refuses. Then, in "Bato of the Water Tribe," Zuko employs a bounty hunter, June, and her Shirshu, a tracking beast with a hypersensitive olfactory system, and uses the necklace to track Katara, thus tracking Aang by proxy. However, when he does find Aang, Aang reclaims the necklace and returns it to Katara.
In "The Siege of the North," after Zuko has made his way into the Spirit Oasis of the Northern Water Tribe, Katara is the only obstacle in his plan to abduct Aang, who is in a meditative state as he tries to enter the Spirit World. Katara subdues Zuko at first, having trained with Master Pakku while at the North Pole and receiving a power boost due to Waterbending's lunar sympathy with the nearly full moon. But as the sun rises, her abilities weaken while those of Zuko and the attacking Fire Navy increase. Zuko catches Katara offguard with a powerful fire blast, knocking her out, and escapes with Aang. Later, with the moon again on her side, she defeats Zuko in one strike to rescue Aang. In "The Chase," Katara, along with Toph and Aang, attacks Azula in unison with Zuko. Once Azula has disappeared, Katara tries to tell Zuko that she could assist the injured Iroh with her healing abilities, but she instead accepts Zuko's violent demands that they leave him and Iroh alone. In the Season II Finale, Katara and Zuko learn that they both lost their mothers to the Fire Nation. Katara offers to heal his scar, but never gets the chance to, as Aang and Iroh arrive on the scene, later followed by Azula and members of the Dai Li. The resulting battle pits Katara and Aang against Azula and Zuko, and the trust that Katara had recently developed in Zuko is erased, and likely will make her even more bitter towards him in later episodes.
[edit] Master Pakku
The greatest Waterbender of the Northern Water Tribe, Master Pakku denies Katara Waterbending training on the basis that she is female. Enraged, Katara battles the Waterbending master in an effort to prove her worth. Although Katara fights very well, Pakku defeats her. In the battle, her mother's necklace falls off and is later retrieved by Pakku. Upon inspection, Pakku realizes that it is the necklace he carved as a gift for his fiancé decades before- Katara's grandmother, Kanna. However, she ran away before they could be married. After realizing that the sexist attitudes of his culture caused him to lose his bride and love, Master Pakku has a change of heart, and agrees to teach Katara waterbending. At the end of Book 1, Pakku deems her a Waterbending Master. Before they take off, he gives Katara a water amulet from the spirit oasis which contains special healing abilities, and one last hug.
[edit] Jet
Jet is a rebel against the Fire Nation who Katara had an immediate crush on. He, learning of this, used her to unknowingly assist him in a plot to flood a local Fire Nation-occupied village. This ruthless plot would kill the innocent civilians living there. Needless to say, when Katara found out about his plan to flood the village, she was horrified. After a confrontation alongside Aang, Katara froze Jet to a tree and left him. In Lake Laogai, Katara meets up with Jet again, after he is brainwashed. She was the most hesitant to accept his help to find Appa and it was obvious that she was still angry with him. At the end of the episode, when Jet was seriously injured, it was apparent that she was worried, indicating that her trust in him had been restored. Jet was confirmed to have died by the end of the episode Lake Laogai.
[edit] Ty Lee
Katara first met Ty Lee in "Return to Omashu," where Ty Lee, Azula, and Mai were overseeing a prisoner exchange involving King Bumi and Mai's little brother. During the ensuing fight, Ty Lee struck Katara with several precise blows and blocked her flow of chi, negating her waterbending abilities. In the episode "The Chase," Katara reveals that she is frightened of Ty Lee, describing Ty Lee's ability to remove one's bending is "scary," since Bending is Katara's primary fighting ability. Later when she confronted Ty Lee in the same episode, with Sokka fighting Mai, the two switch opponents, since Ty Lee's skills would prove ineffective on Sokka. Eventually, this fear develops into anger. In the episode "The Drill," after trapping Ty Lee within a tunnel of water, Katara taunts Ty Lee by calling her a "circus freak."
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