Katara is a rare kind of character

Moral fervor and femininity

In my view, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a correctly rated show. It’s a beloved classic with a large and devoted adult fanbase, and it deserves to be. I first binged the DVD box set with my dad when I was eleven or twelve, and since then I’ve rewatched all 61 episodes every few years with different friend groups and romantic partners, and it holds up.

One of the many things I appreciate about this show is how it constructs the character of its female lead, Katara.

Katara is empathetic and maternal. She’s kind of bossy and judgmental. She has a simple, reflexive altruism; she’s moved to action by seeing suffering in front of her. She’s headstrong and proud, and insecure and always trying to prove herself.

Katara’s always the one who cooks the food and remembers to restock supplies and mends everyone’s clothes, and she kind of resents this but also it’s her way of feeling useful and showing love (and besides, the others would do a bad job). She’s a very talented young waterbender who works extremely hard at her craft, and resents her carefree genius male best friend for being so much better than her while spending a fraction of the effort. She likes doing spa days and wearing fancy dresses and wishes she got to do that kind of thing more.

She is extremely competent and has a lot of initiative, but ultimately it feels more natural to put her faith in someone else’s leadership — the Avatar, her father, her big brother, a dashing vigilante with a righteous cause.

Katara has a font of sappy idealism inside her. She’s prone to waxing poetic about Goodness and Hope and Light. And she has a quivering, hot rage at injustice. She does not have the serene, Buddhist pacifism of our main character. She dreams of wiping evil people off the face of the planet. But then, she’s also capable of seeing the light of goodness in a lot of people who have done bad things, and is drawn to the idea of redemption.

In other words, Katara is…very familiar. I actually struggle to think of another character in film or television that I relate to as much as I relate to this tween from a twenty year old children’s cartoon. Most popular media seems to shy away from portraying this kind of authentic femininity or sincere moral conviction. It’s a bit of a risk — indeed, one of the first things I learned when I engaged with the online ATLA fandom is that there’s a loud contingent of fans complaining about how “shrill” and “annoying” Katara is.

It would have been easy to smooth her over, to make her more chill, less self-righteous, more of a girlboss. But I’m glad I got to grow up with Katara instead.