Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Katara
Voiced by	Mae Whitman
In-universe information
Aliases	The Painted Lady
Gender	Female
Position	Main Character
Nationality	Water Tribe (Southern Tribe)

Katara is a fictional character voiced by Mae Whitman in 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.

Creation and conception

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 “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 commentary of the unaired pilot episode, co creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino state that Katara's “hair loopies” used to hang down but was changed because the animators said it would be too hard to animate and suggested that they’d be looped back rather than beaded locks.

Katara also is the owner of her grandmother's betrothal necklace. Her grandmother handed it down to Katara’s mother, who handed it down to Katara. The necklace is a blue choker, with the water tribe insignia carved on the only hanging ornament.

Plot Overview

Katara grew up as the mature, motherly figure of her family and tribe. When Katara was eight years old, her mother gave her life for her during a Fire Nation raid in order to protect her identity as a Waterbender.

Though her interests lie in developing her waterbending skills, she resigns herself to cooking and cleaning duties while her brother, Sokka, trained to become a warrior. At twelve, Katara’s father, Hakoda, and the other tribesmen journey to the Earth Kingdom to participate in the war effort against the Fire Nation. This leaves her, alongside her brother and grandmother, Kanna ("Gran Gran"), to look after the tribe.

The events of Avatar: The Last Airbender begin two years following this, during a spearfishing expedition, when Katara and Sokka find Aang in suspended animation inside an iceberg. Katara frees him and comes to discover that Aang is the Avatar. With a common goal of mastering waterbending, Katara, along with her brother, joins Aang in the journey to the Northern Water Tribe to find a waterbending master to teach them. Upon arrival, Master Pakku refuses her apprenticeship, because she is female. However, after noticing an engagement gift he gave to Katara's grandmother half a century ago, he agrees to teach her. Katara advances so quickly in her art during their stay in the Northern Water Tribe that Pakku formally deems her capable enough to be Aang's waterbending teacher.

The second season opens with Katara leaving the North Pole, and receiving water from the Spirit Oasis. Katara then journeys with Aang to the Earth Kingdom for him to learn earthbending. While at an Earth Kingdom stronghold, General Fong places Katara’s life in danger in an attempt to get Aang to enter the Avatar State. After Toph joins the group to teach Aang, Katara and Toph often end up in fights and disagreements. While in Ba Sing Se, Aang is mortally wounded, but Katara is able to save his life using the water from the Spirit Oasis.

While on the ship that the group obtains to get to the Fire Nation in the third season, they are attacked by another Fire Nation ship that discovered their false identity, Katara aids in their escape. While in a village burdened by the Fire Nation's pollution; Katara surreptitiously disguises herself as the river spirit, The Painted Lady, in order to help the village. While staying with an old woman the group meets in the woods, they find one of the last Southern Waterbenders before Katara, Hama. Hama was kidnapped and thrown in a Fire Nation prison, and discovered a new kind of waterbending while imprisoned. She tries to teach Katara the techniques of the Southern Water Tribe and tries to teach Katara to bloodbend. When Katara refuses to learn this technique, Hama bloodbends Aang and Sokka forcing Katara to use bloodbending herself to save her friends. Katara isn't seen doing very much in the next 3 episodes other than helping heal her father after he's wounded. In "The Western Air Temple", when Zuko offers to join, it is Katara who makes the first move to attack him and send him off. At the end of the episode Katara makes a threat to Zuko that if she so much as thinks he's going to hurt Aang, she will end Zuko's life. However, in "The Southern Raiders", Zuko helps Katara find the man who killed her and Sokka's mother. She sets out with the intent to kill him, but ultimately finds she can't do it.

Waterbending

File:Katara.jpg

Katara waterbends swamp water to save her brother from the Foggy Swamp Monster

Katara's abilities have greatly improved since the very first episode. At the outset, she, at best, waterbent by luck. She had little control over her waterbending and often needed someone else to help her defeat an opponent, though her temper, which would increase her waterbending tenfold, would often get in the way by causing unnecessary destruction. However as time went on, thanks to practicing diligently and studying a waterbending scroll and then studying under Master Pakku, her waterbending rapidly improved, to the point that she was considered a Waterbending Master, surprising Master Pakku as being one of his best students by far.

Katara can use water to cut through objects, can summon lashing waves and whips of varying sizes, cover herself with a sheath of water and manipulate it at will, surf on a surfboard made out of ice, melt and control existing ice, forming it into various shapes, and can freeze water and objects surrounded by water with little effort, create giant walls of mist and steam, transform steam into ice instantly, evaporate large amounts of water. Katara once used the water from her own sweat to break herself out of a wooden jail-cell. She has learned from Hama to use and take the water from the moisture in the air, in plants and underground within the Earth. She also has learned from Hama to manipulate people and animals using the water within their bodies through a rare and sinister form of waterbending called "Bloodbending." She has used bloodbending against Hama to stop her from harming Aang and Sokka, albeit reluctantly, and again on an individual who she had thought had killed her mother, this time without remorse.

Katara has proven herself a very powerful waterbender able to defeat the veteran waterbending witch, Hama, in single combat, bloodbend effectively first time around and hold her own against Sokka, an upcoming swordsman, and Aang, the Avatar. She also has shown to be more skilled than Aang even though he can bend more elements. She was able to hold her own against Zuko, and even turn the tides on Zuko's sister Azula. In the midst of their battle, Master Pakku was so impressed that he, grudgingly, had to admit that she is a powerful waterbender in her own right and deemed her a master waterbender only weeks after she studied under him.

Katara is one of the few waterbenders born with the Waterbending sub-talent to heal using water as a catalyst, manifesting itself when she was burned by a reckless Aang. Her ability to heal has only proven to get better under the tutelage of the Northern Water Tribe's Head Healer, Yugoda. She has used it to relieve sickness, temporarily undo brainwashing, heal seemingly mortal wounds such as burns and bleeding injuries, and even revive the newly dead with the help of the magical water from the Spirit Oasis. Her healing powers do have limits though as she can't cure all sicknesses, can't completely undo brain damage, and can do little for internal injuries and disfigurement like birth defects.

Katara's weaknesses has always been her fear of certain individuals such as Prince Zuko and Ty Lee, depending heavily on the use of her arms to waterbend and her traditional avoidance of close combat, specifically hand-to-hand, but there have been exceptions.

Characteristics

Being another protagonist of the show, Katara also receives a lot of attention from reviewers. She is described as "Smart, capable [she] is almost a generic anime heroine". In addition to these features, she also is "kind, brave, and passionate."

Katara is also very kind and nurturing, acting as den mother for the group. She usually cooks their meals and washes their clothes and personally takes responsibility for her brother, Sokka and then Toph, especially Aang. Her maternal instincts, while with good intentions, can make her overly nagging and bossy.

File:Katara losing it.jpg

Katara loses control over her temper, lashing out angrily at Toph.

In addition to that she is very stubborn, often butting heads with the abrasive, independent and often hygenically challenged, Toph. She is flawed in that she feels that she has to help everybody and is also somewhat naive, leading to Katara getting hurt, usually by other boys, such as Zuko and Jet.

Katara also has a surprisingly short and dangerous temper, holds grudges, is overly sensitive (in that she is easily offended) and is a staunch defender of women's (or girl's) rights. In one instance, she flatly told Zuko that she would kill him if he decided to betray Aang. Katara also has been involved in several bitter (though usually brief) personal conflicts with her friends and relatives, such as her father, Hakoda, Toph, and Sokka. When Katara met Hama, she was amazed by her power, but that soon turned to anger when she realized she was using her powers to hurt innocents. After a duel Katara was forcibly taught the technique Bloodbending. After which she cried as she obviously never wanted to use the power, but that changed when she met the man who she thought killed her mother and used bloodbending on him and didn't seem to regret doing it. The one person Katara has a hatred for is the man who killed her mother.

Appearances in other media

Katara's character has appeared in both THQ's video game for the show, which are Avatar: The Last Airbender (video game) and Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth. Like Aang, Katara also appears on some Avatar T-shirts sold by Nick, as well as in Tokyopop's films comic (sometimes referred to as cine-manga).