Some handy statistics to have around:
Sokka mentions his father exactly thirty one times throughout the course of Avatar: The Last Airbender. By contrast, Katara also mentions her mother thirty one times over the course of the series. The real kicker, though, is that Zuko mentions his father thirty seven times throughout the series.
Why, then, is Katara so often criticized for mentioning her mother so often? Let’s look at the times Katara mentions her mother, Sokka mentions his father, and when Zuko mentions his father.
Katara mentions her mother as a commonality – for example, when Jet mentions he lost his parents in a Fire Nation raid, she mentions she lost her mother in a Fire Nation raid. When Haru mentions that his father was taken by the Fire Nation, she mentions that her mother was killed by the Fire Nation. One of the only times she doesn’t do this is in The Crossroads of Destiny, when she’s talking to Zuko and again in The Southern Raiders. She only does this with Zuko and no one else in the Gaang or anyone else throughout the series, most likely because Zuko also lost his mother through direct actions of the Fire Nation’s leader, his father, and so he can understand how she’s feeling (You could make a case that Sokka also knows how Katara feels but only to a certain extent. Sokka admits in The Runaway that he can barely remember his mother’s face, and when he thinks of his mother, he sees Katara).
The reason why Katara is known for mentioning her mother so often is because she does it in emotionally charged moments. You’re much more likely to remember someone mentioning their mother while crying and touching the only thing they have left of her (betrothal necklace) as opposed to someone swapping stories about their father in casual conversation (as Sokka does). Zuko, when talking about his father, tends to pair it with the idea that he has to capture the Avatar to regain his honor and then his father will let him back home. His father also comes up when talking to Azula. You don’t see anyone criticizing Zuko for mentioning his father, it has just become a joke in the fandom.
Katara mentioning her mother has also become a joke in the fandom but people are criticizing her for it. People have been reducing her character to a few descriptive characteristics, being that she is annoying, she isn’t a good character, and that the only thing she ever does is cry over her mother, which aren’t even remotely close to how Katara was written as a character.
Check your privilege. Stop making Katara’s only personality trait to be her crying over her mother or a “whiny bitch”. That’s misogynistic patriarchal bullshit. Here’s some things that could be used to describe Katara instead:
She is an incredible healer. She heals herself after Aang burns her when he first tries to learn to firebend, uses the Spirit Water to heal Aang after Azula strikes him with lightning and heals Zuko after Azula strikes him with lightning. She heals Toph’s feet after Zuko accidentally burns her. Sokka, for some bizarre reason, never gets hurt in the series (until the finale) but I’m sure if he did in the seasons and episodes before the finale, Katara would heal him too.
She is the most powerful waterbender. This girl went up against Pakku (he sucks) and threw everything she had at him despite having no formal waterbending training previously. She held her own against him and came very close to defeating Pakku. She froze Azula and successfully captured her using her waterbending (and quick thinking). She held her own against Zuko, Azula, and an army of Dai Li agents. In fact, before Zuko stepped in to fight Katara in The Crossroads of Destiny, Katara was damn close to defeating Azula all by herself. Katara was Aang’s waterbending teacher and we all know that Aang wouldn’t have been able to defeat Ozai if Katara hadn’t taught him waterbending. When they left the Northern Water Tribe, she was deemed a master waterbender.
She allows herself to be emotional. She tells off Sokka after one sexist statement. She is visibly shown crying throughout the entire series. She opens up to Zuko about her mother in a way she’s never had a chance to. She shows her anger at the Gaang committing fraud, not just because she is the “caretaker” of the group but because she realizes how dangerous it could be if word of their exploits reach the Fire Nation capital and the Fire Lord & Co. realize that Aang is actually alive.
She is daring. She stole the waterbending scroll (which had its consequences) but that took guts, especially considering she stole the scroll from pirates. She dressed up as the Painted Lady and helped the village, while also taking out a huge Fire Nation factory. She went on a quest to find her mother’s killer and decided not to kill him which must have taken (I don’t want to keep saying “guts” but I am) guts to make that decision. She got herself arrested to free one earthbender and ended up breaking all of the earthbenders out of prison, not mention the fact that when Aang and Sokka tried to get her to go, she refused to leave the people in prison.
Katara is her own person and should be allowed to be her own person instead of reduced to a “whiny, annoying bitch” because she is still grieving for her mother. Which, in it’s own right, is nothing to be mocked. The grief process is a very real thing and those who haven’t experienced anything remotely similar to what Katara has gone through shouldn’t get to make fun of her for it while also reducing her character to something that isn’t true.
Tl;dr: Respect Katara and drink your respect women juice daily!
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