In retrospect, one thing I kinda like in ATLA is how Zuko never tells the gaang how he got his scar.
It would have been cool to see their reactions to Zuko's story and see how their perspective on Zuko changed. And I have no doubt that he tells them about it at some point. But this way, it doesn't come off as emotional blackmail, with him trying to paint his actions as 'Yes, I hunted you across the world, but I actually had a really good reason."
If he did, he might have had a better chance of joining the Gaang, but he doesn't. In traditional Zuko fashion, he takes the most challenging route possible.
Zuko takes full accountability for his actions, even though they came from a place where he felt he had no choice. Because at the end of the day, he realized that even though his father put him on his avatar's path, he was the one who zealously attacked them at every opportunity. He isn't letting himself off the hook for anything.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
- eclipses are weirdly central to the plot and thematics. Day of Black Sun, obviously, but in siege of the north, the fire nation killing the moon is stylized as a lunar eclipse.
- color symbolism is crucial in animation, especially ATLA. Fire and Water in the show exchange each other’s colors constantly. Azula’s blue firebending, Hama’s red blood bending. Needless to say, the existence of PaintedSpirit. Now that I think about it, Zuko wears blue and Katara wears red more than they need to …
- I’ve never seen it outright stated, but everyone knows this: Zuko is obviously associated with gold, but I swear Katara is canonically a silver girly. Gold / Silver aesthetic ships are such an underrated red / blue variation. I’ve forced this onto so many of my OCs
- Zuko is weirdly drawn to water. He’s a fantastic swimmer. He mimics waterbending techniques and can bend underwater. He’s even a sailor. The Sailor/Mermaid ZK trope exists for a reason.
Update Courtesy @Sruthi9018 :
I mean, it's points that OP brings up like how Zuko spends most of his exile on a ship surrounded by water, how the happiest memories of his childhood involve either the ocean or garden pond/s (feeding turtleducks and spending time with his mom), his swimming skills etc. like he is placed in conjunction with forms of water near consantly to serve his path to character growth and change (him yelling at the sky to strike him down in the rain during one of his most challenging periods of growth for ex)
- I’ll take “the healing potential of fire bending, and destructive potential of waterbending” and raise you “lightning bending and bloodbending both have the capacity to be used in medicine”
- Katara would become as much a theatre kid as Zuko if given the opportunity.
- Zuko is the only MC that matches Katara’s passion for humanitarian work and vigilante justice. He *canonically* reminds her of Jet.
Bonus Taang:
- the amount of parallels between Toph and Aang do not stop at earth/air. They’re both “trapped” before finding their agency. She is blind and he opens his third eye. She humbles him - he sets her free
I've seen people scoff at the idea that Zuko became the most mature member of the gaang when he joined and I gotta wonder if they haven't watched the show for a while or just aren't using their analytical skills, because he absolutely was, and its not just his age because Katara was second most mature compared to him and she's younger than Sokka.
No, it's cause he's a prince who has led people before, who has been shown even in the first season as a villain to have boundaries he will not cross and to put the lives and safety of those under his command before anything else.
He's also the only one of them to have had an actual adult imposing wisdom and guidance on him that he is basing his behavior on, the rest of them are pretty much self-taught. Toph was coddled and suffocated by her parents, Katara and Sokka had an absent father and were raised by their grandmother who did her best but they also raised themselves and each other, Aang had Gyatso and the other monks but he was also only 12 and was very immature (non-derogatory). By the time Zuko joins the gaang he has fully embraced Iroh's lessons, he's abandoned any attempt at being the son his father wanted and is choosing to live by the lessons Iroh taught him. He's emulating a strong adult role model that the rest of them didn't have the same access to.
Immediately upon joining them he's taking initiative and taking care of the other kids, we see him being the one trying to keep everyone on track, the one putting his body on the line to protect everyone else, he's being very observant of the other kids' thoughts and feelings and anticipating their next moves or their needs. He's staying awake to catch Sokka before he can do something stupid like flying Appa to Fire Nation Alcatraz alone. He's staying up all night outside Katara's tent just cause he wants to help her get closure for her grief.
He's babysitting them like Katara would except he's got official leadership skills and has commanded actual soldiers whereas Katara, bless her, was parentified and self-taught in her leadership skills, which is also one of the reasons that Zuko joining gave Katara a reprieve from being the one holding everyone together, and brought out her angst and unaddressed grief, not just because she was holding onto her anger at Zuko's betrayal but also because him becoming the responsible one took a burden off her shoulders. Even though she was still mad at him, having him there and taking charge meant that she had more time to look inward and stew in her darker emotions, because she no longer needed to put everyone else first for the sake of the group.
He's the one they all turn to when they're not sure how to proceed. He asks "Why are you all looking at me?" after Aang disappears and they say something about how he's basically the expert on tracking down Aang (lol) but it's more than that. Since joining he's become the guy who comes up with all the major schemes. He helped them accomplish things they wouldn't have been able to do without his help, he is a good planner and a good leader because unlike the rest of them he has actual official leadership skills, he knows how to be authoritative and boss them around, in a good way. They trust him to lead them.
He's acting like Aang's drill sergeant, picking him up by the scruff of his tunic like an unruly kitten and dragging him back to training.
He's crashing out big time over the fact he's sending an underprepared pacifistic child to face his (Zuko's) abuser, the guy who melted half of his own son's face off. Even when on his way to face Azula, it's not himself he's worried about, it's Aang. When he sees the chance to face Azula alone without having to endanger Katara, he takes it.
The moment Zuko joins them, he puts the others first, prioritizes their needs over his own, goes out of his way to help and protect them at the cost of his own safety and wellbeing. He literally almost dies for Katara and is still only concerned with protecting her while he's on the ground convulsing and clinging to life after being electrocuted.
Zuko is without question the most mature member of the gaang when he joins them. He is the older brother. When he joined them he became a teen dad to three adopted kids, got divorced to Katara and started co-parenting them all with her until they made up and became friends again, which again was a conflict that he took the initiative to solve without expecting anything from her.
I love how despite not being a bender, Sokka is the biggest embodiment of everything the Water Tribe values in the show, both good and bad.
Change. Sokka who humbled himself when the Kyoshi warriors proved him wrong and took their teachings to heart. Sokka who always had a plan, a few hundred backup plans, and could still get out of a sticky situation on the fly. Sokka whose friends became bored and aimless without his quick wit and initiative.
Kindness. Sokka who went to save Aang before Katara even had to ask him to. Sokka who saw the humanity in an old man from the fire nation. Sokka who gave Jet a second chance despite being the first one to be suspicious of him. Sokka who showed Zuko to his room and held no resentment against him. Sokka who shielded Toph from falling debris with his body.
Ingenuity. Sokka who invented airships and submarines. Sokka who took down the drill. Sokka who broke into a Fire Nation prison rig and out of the highest security prison in the country. Sokka who levelled Ozai’s entire sky fleet in one tactical manoeuvre.
Love. Sokka who couldn’t remember his mother’s face but carries the grief of her death so deeply that he protects every woman he meets with the same unhealthy hypervigilance. Sokka who instinctually jumps to defend his sister despite their constant bickering.
Community. Sokka who gave up his childhood to become the sole protector of his village and dedicated his time to training the younger boys in combat. Sokka who learned to let go of his hypervigilance and put his trust in the people he’a afraid of losing so they can protect him like he protects them. Sokka who stood alone guarding the gates of his home as Zuko’s ship towered over them.
[S1EP10 Jet] on the left, where he's attacking Fire Nation soldiers.
[S2EP17 Lake Laogai] on the right, where he's under Long Feng's control and trying to attack Aang.
**The second image left and third image left are swapped. In the episode [S1EP10 Jet] those two appear in the opposite order.
Short explanation of further parallels beyond the basic composition choices:
Themetic parallels:
1) Attack manuever.
2) The threat in the foreground and the victim in front of them.
3) Side view showing both with defensive stances.
4) Jet realizing there's an enemy behind him.
•A red, lively forest VS A green, cold catacomb.
•Fighting for freedom VS Fighting out of someone else's control.
Colors:
•Red represents passion and love but also anger and hatred.
•Universally used to signal stop, danger, fire, and blood.
•Red often symbolizes revolution or sacrifice.
•Green, unlike the "growth" aspect, which it's more commonly associated with, it can sometimes represent stagnation or being "stuck" in a rut.
•In horror and folklore, green light or skin often signifies monsters, poison, or malevolent magic.
•Green can also be symbolism of rural resistance or fighting for one's homeland. Additionally it sometimes represents perseverance, particularly within nature.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
The Exhausting Labor of Fandom Feminism: Why Zutara is Intersectional Disrespect Personified
Let’s pull up a chair and unpack something that has been festering in the media literacy ether for over a decade. I am constantly inundated with these two incredibly reductive, profoundly uncritical takes regarding Avatar: The Last Airbender:
"Most people who like Kataang are men/'nice guys' who have never been in a romantic relationship with a beautiful girl."
"People who like Zutara are girls and especially women who are 'feminists' and believe that Katara 'deserves better'."
As an intersectional feminist, a neurodivergent (ADHD, Bipolar, Anxiety, and RSD) Black and Indigenous-Blackfoot woman in my early 20s, raised by a fiercely independent single mother in the South Suburbs of Chicago, I look at these statements and see a complete and total failure of common sense.
Let's keep it profoundly real: the narrative that Zutara is the "feminist" choice while Kataang is a "nice guy consolation prize" is not only canonically bankrupt, but it is also intersectional disrespect personified.
The Fallacy of the "Feminist" Bad Boy
First, let’s dismantle this faux-feminist obsession with Zuko and Katara. The argument that Katara "deserves better" than Aang usually translates to a deeply patriarchal, Eurocentric standard of desire. It prioritizes the aesthetic of the brooding, edgy, sharp-jawed prince over actual emotional reciprocity. What these "feminist" shippers are actually advocating for is the infinite, unpaid emotional labor of women of color. Let’s look at the actual chronological events of the canon:
1. Book 1 (The Southern Air Temple to The Siege of the North): Zuko spent months actively hunting, terrorizing, and attacking Katara and her family. His nation is directly responsible for the systematic genocide of Aang’s people and the literal murder of Katara’s mother, Kya.
2. Book 2 (The Crossroads of Destiny): In the Ba Sing Se catacombs, Katara shows immense empathy. She offers her highly precious Spirit Oasis water to heal Zuko's physical and emotional scars. How does Zuko repay this Indigenous woman's vulnerability? He immediately betrays her, joins Azula, and assists in the literal downing of the Avatar. That is a profound violation of trust.
3. Book 3 (The Southern Raiders): Even during Zuko's redemption arc, the narrative explicitly forces Katara to carry the burden of forgiveness.
To demand that Katara romantically couple with the literal face of the empire that colonized her people is not progressive. It forces an Indigenous woman into the exhausting, historical trope of the "mammy" or the "sacrificial matriarch"; a woman whose only utility is to serve as a rehabilitation center for a broken, violent man. Katara is a teenager who has spent her entire life carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. She is not a emotional dumpster or a therapist for Fire Nation royalty.
The Radical Radicalism of a "Green Flag" Relationship.
Now let’s look at Kataang (Katara x Aang) , a relationship that internet culture lazily writes off as a "Nice Guy" fantasy. This take is embarrassing. Aang never treats Katara like a prize to be won. From the moment she breaks him out of the iceberg, their relationship is a masterclass in emotional safety, mutual grief processing, and deep, soulful friendship.
Aang consistently validates Katara’s anger (such as in The Southern Raiders, where he doesn't force forgiveness on her, unlike others).
He steps back and lets her lead.
He views her as a master, an equal, and a sanctuary.
For a neurodivergent person navigating Anxiety and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), Kataang is the ultimate psychological blueprint of health. It is a slow-burn, sweet, predictable, and simple love. It lacks the toxic, volatile adrenaline highs and lows of Zutara because it is rooted in absolute safety.
Choosing a partner who values your peace, protects your softest parts, and listens to your boundaries isn't "settling." It is the highest form of self-love. Katara choosing Aang isn't a reward for Aang being "nice"; it is Katara exerting her ultimate agency to choose a life of joy and healing over a life of generational trauma-bonding.
Fandom, Gaslighting, and Conclusion.
The Zutara fandom’s absolute vitriol toward canon is rooted in a refusal to see Katara as a complete human being. They see her as a trophy to validate Zuko's redemption arc. They reduce Aang, a survivor of a literal genocide who maintains a gentle soul, to an unworthy "beta" male.
I heavily dislike Zutara. Its toxic fandom, and the entire socio-cultural framework that props it up. It is exhausting to watch online spaces mask patriarchal, harmful romance tropes as "empowerment" while throwing a genuinely healthy, green-flag canonical romance in the trash.
Katara didn't need to change a bad boy to be powerful. She was already powerful. And she deserved the soft, sweet, unyielding devotion that only Aang could give her. Period.
i don’t know how risky of a move it will turn out, it being the writing of a probably controversial fandom opinion when my blog isn’t even a thimble years old. i’ll try to be good about it in the tags so people outside Intended Audience don’t find it, although... ironic, that. i think the people i’ll be trying to keep out are the ones who need to hear all this.
whatever, i’ll not muck about. i’m writing this for my own peace of mind, and because i am consistently tired of illiterate discourse--especially from people who live in countries that can very well afford good education.
zutara is a problem upon Avatar: The Last Airbender. or, rather, the way some fans engage with this dynamic is quite a problem.
k, let’s unpack this bitch.
ever since becoming more politically engaged, i have resented invoking Identity Politics frequently or flippantly, seeing as arguments must stand on their own legs no matter who argues them. in this particular instance, however, my identity as an indigenous person could prove useful. we are not a monolith, of course, but there is this thing i’d like to call the unprocessed colonised mindset. i’m sure qualified folks have done research on that, and officially it must be called something much better. i’m bringing this up because i used to be a zutara fan myself, and that Mindset is my theory as to why.
to colonise is to subjugate an indigenous population to a metropole’s will, with metropole being the coloniser country, otherwise known as the imperial core (for any of you possibly american zutaras already seething at my post--america is an imperial core. shut the fuck up). means of colonisation range from outwardly violent, especially in the settler variety of colonialism that necessitates the full extinction of the native population, to something cosmetically peaceful and thus more covertly sinister, like welcoming a subjugated group into the imperial economic structures with the purpose of neutering resistance. example: black people, or any minority of colour, in the us who serve in their country’s military in order to chew off their government-given privileges on that basis, all the while killing/aiding the killing of brown individuals overseas.
those not on board with these concepts and definitions, go read a book. moving on.
psychological warfare is an essential component of oppression. the ash makers (yup, i’m calling them an anti-coloniser slur because Role-playing is Fun) in the ATLA narrative bent to their will these countries and peoples:
the earth kingdom via attempts at siege and the eventual seizing of power by azula;
the water tribes via constant raids and the heinous history of bender extermination (more so the southern tribe, since their northern sister is a little more well-protected, yet nonetheless affected by terror and anxiety).
of course, the air nomad population was fully annihilated bar one individual. there was no populace to bend.
to the point. i mentioned the Colonised Mindset because it is a direct consequence of historical pillaging and the above-described psychological warfare. subjugated, raped, dispossessed groups begin to adapt to their circumstances by becoming a little bit (or very deeply) blind to the realities of imperialism. which is why i--and perhaps many others amongst my indigenous brothers and sisters both in the past and present--was completely shut off from material analysis as recently as three or four years ago. there is no shame in this admission, and thus no compensatory ego right now in my writing this post. it is a scary reality to recognise and deal with, and so the road to realising one’s position in this colonial world (i ain’t calling it post-colonial, not a chance) is difficult. that much is self-evident.
of course, it is extremely easy, and to a point understandable, to divorce zutara from heavy consideration and the sort of scrutiny that accounts for the historical context in ATLA itself. oh!!! enemy-lover!! red-blue!! wow!! oma and shu?????? WOW!!!!!!! (the comparisons between zutara and oma&shu are quite lobotomised, to be honest, but i will not be discussing that at length.)
my question would be, though, what for would anyone engage in a piece of media that portrays the reality of genocide in its very first few episodes, only then to transform the obvious, and narratively important, circumstances into something palatable? what is ever the point of diluting the tangible complexities of zutara? to be unproductive and defensive, to harp on about how zutara is the true canon and absolutely not a Coloniser Ship Situation?
by standing on defence like brainless jock dudebros, part of the zutara fandom rob themselves of meaningful analysis and deep interaction with the source material. you cannot possibly ship the Crown Prince of a murderous imperial power and the Daughter of the current indigenous Chief, and not address/admit the tensions that are simply there on the surface.
what happens instead is internet slap-fighting between uneducated five-year-olds who are willing to turn off critical thinking for the sake of a ship, to protect it against the sort of analysis ATLA as a show blatantly encourages and at times facilitates, though with fluctuating degrees of accuracy. ( to clarify, when i say encourage/facilitate, i mean the inclusion of poignant subject matter in specific episodes, like Appa Alone or Zuko Alone (which, respectively, deal with 1. the devastation and loneliness appa experiences as the last of his kind -> directly a lament upon colonisation and genocide; 2. the self-reflection zuko must begin in order to atone for what has been done under his nation’s flag -> an attempt at an ego-less admission of his origins and customs, what he has been taught as part of ash maker brainwashing) )
is the central argument here that one must not ship zutara? no. i’m not brain-dead, and i vastly do not give a shite. the argument is: if one does ship it, let one use one’s intelligence as ordained. analyse material. allow yourself the sad pondering about zuko’s stolen childhood, while very much saying that he grew up a privileged weapon of the regime. a weapon bent and broken, but a weapon nonetheless.
with that in mind, just to get everyone up to speed. a crown-adorned soldier prince does dubious things in serving a Genocidal Fatherland before redeeming himself fundamentally, and then... goes on to date--sometimes marry--a waterbender woman whose mother was tactically annihilated by that ash maker Fatherland, and part of the zutara fanbase will die on the hill of ‘not colonial suck a dick!!!!!’?
i began writing all this while enraged, but now i’m left with uncharitable mocking in my mind. described step-by-step, the behaviour is nothing if not childish.
to be clear, i have not constructed a straw man. i need not even go that deeply into tumblr to find the echo chamber filled not only with uncritical, bland zutara praise, but also with vehement vitriol for kataang. this, again, comes back to Defence Mode. what are y’all compensating for? what are you fighting? in fact, position a mirror where you will always see it. you prefer a Crown Prince of Genocide Central to a heroic survivor of crimes against humanity. in itself, that ain’t my business. it becomes an object of attention when coupled with shouting that zuko’s roots aren’t fundamentally evil and colonial and imperial, and do not, in someone’s uninformed opinion, deserve to be processed as such within the confines of his character. he would not give himself this sort of leeway, but i constantly see some zutaras shoot themselves in the brains and never reflect on their thinking patterns.
i can sympathise if there are victims of colonialism in this part of the fanbase who live out the futile fantasy of being considered human by the Shadowy Oppressor, to the point of becoming shutters-on uncritical, but unto mayonnaise bottles turned homo sapiens i say... do fuck off.
on the topic of zuko as the face of ash maker legacy. let us proceed.
i am a sincerely passionate fan of his character, and especially of his redemption arc. the brightest, most quintessential reason lies in his own words to his genocidal father in the Day of the Black Sun:
The world hates us! And we deserve it!
it is understood by zuko himself within the narrative that he is part of a system that benefits from genocide (both physical and cultural) and constant subjugation.
it is then a baffling development that some fans of the ship ardently try to peddle a whitewashed version of what happened to zuko and how/why his redemption was such a roaring success. it was so because he admitted the material reality and gave no excuses, no caveats. his family’s legacy very much defines him as a person, it very much does dictate his actions; to be different from the fire lords who came before, he needs to realise how and why they were wrong, as well as his own responsibility as a direct descendant of genocidal maniacs. to presume that his final point of redemption is a very naive ‘oh this doesn’t matter, he's a good person!!’ is extremely... lacking, i’d say, and also gives fans/shippers an excuse to ignore anything a nail’s breath complex about zuko’s journey.
he is--at end of ATLA, and in its beginning was born to be--at the top of a violent, pillaging machine. he represents that machine, which is something he has clearly made peace with in the narrative, evidenced by his readiness to try and change ash makers as a nation. whom is this whitewashing for? the softening of it?
16 or not, (this said 14 before redaction! fellow user corrected me!) boy or not, we all do remember he ordered a raid upon katara’s home in s1. these are the actions of a coloniser, of a terrorising entity; he was a child, so his level of independent decision-making needs to be evaluated accordingly, but he was a child taught by figures of authority to enact the same carnage that had been enacted years before. when he dared fight against, quite nobly so, he got a scar for his trouble. in s1, then, he tried very hard to model himself after the sort of behaviour that would earn his father’s approval, which really means the empire’s approval. that can only be gained if a person raised in the oppressor group exhibits everything this group deems standard issue, from casual violence and threatening (s1 raid) to destroying everything that belongs to the Other, the Orient (s2 crossroads where he had to choose what to do with a chained appa--he chose well, but it was nonetheless a real choice in his mind because he’s a product of colonial philosophy).
the least zutaras can do is accept that zutara is the colonised x redeemed coloniser dynamic. which... sure. to each their own.
a very special place in this discussion is reserved for the concept of katara as zuko’s consort/fire lady. oh the gods of old.
a descendant of hitler decides to put a stop to the holocaust/its legacy, to reform the german society, and we over here romanticise a romani/slavic/jewish person whose family have died in that genocide, going as far as to appoint that survivor as second leader to a people who carried out that genocide? are we sure?
is this not asinine? is this not utter disrespect to katara, whose culture is heavily inspired, by the way, by the quite real inuit cultures? a slav/inuit or brit/inuit enemies-to-lovers arc when, folks?
now, why does any of this matter?
i’m not a lily-livered bulshitter, do with your dolls whatever you will, but extend to me--and to other indigenous people--the basic courtesy of not sitting on an illusory fucking high horse that only, and i mean only, serves to protect your nervous systems from ever analysing any material on a level deeper than the kindergarten requirements.
this point matters, this point should be talked about honestly, whether at the expense of people’s Colonial Feelings or not, because katara’s tribe takes from real civilisations for a fucking reason. a substantial one, at that. to ignore this complex aspect of zutara, if you do choose to ship it upon having had a concussion, is to spit in the faces of indigenous folks; not because i think ATLA is end-all-be-all of media activism, that would be laughable, but because the way people consume said media tends very much to bleed into how they think about us--the dispossessed, the forever raped and killed.
if part of a population feels justified enough to die on the hill of ‘Crown Prince of KKK Industries isn’t ever connected to the activities of the KKK!!!’, simply for the sake of shipping their dolls without being uwu uncomfy, how can we ever begin any conversation that centres indigenous voices? some of you cannot stand the most genteel form of critical analysis from us, and we all the Folks Who Walked Before deserve fucking more than that.
much more than that.
we are owed much more than we have been given, and i, for one, will not be polite when demanding the respect i am due within political discourse, wherever it happens. neither should my fellow first nations folks.
as you witness it, this post is about zutara, yes.
but not really. not fundamentally.
_________________
correction courtesy of @0bscvr1ty
thank you for pointing out my factual slip-up :)
I know a lot of people dislike Katara saying to Sokka “you didn't love her as much as I did.” considering that both of them lost their mom and she wasn’t the only one feeling the pain of it. But I, for one, see that situation a little differently.
First of all, Sokka and Katara had different experiences after their mother’s death, even though they're siblings. When their mother died, Sokka got a new mom, a.k.a Katara. He had the role of caretaker be fulfilled by her. She was the one taking care of him emotionally, the one cleaning his clothes and cooking his meals. She filled that space so well that when he pictures his mother, Katara is the one that comes to mind. He got a new mom, therefore he didn't have to feel this terrible feeling of lacking someone that takes care of him. (that doesn’t mean that he didn’t miss his mother terribly and wished for her care.) Sokka had someone to rely on; Katara, however, didn’t have that.
After her mother’s death, Katara became the maternal figure of their family, only having her father to take care of her. The same father that went to war when they were kids, causing her to take on responsibilities traditionally held by an adult, as a young girl. She cared for everybody around her, but herself, making sure they were all well, taking their burdens and ignoring her own (a habit she continues to have with the Gaang).
The point I’m trying to make is that Katara didn’t get a new mom, or an adult to take care of her and make sure she got to be a kid. She had to be the adult and the space that her mother had in her life was never fulfilled by anyone else, unlike Sokka. So I understand her feelings in the “Southern Raiders”. Her and Sokka’s reality were different. There was always someone on his corner taking care of him, while Katara hasn’t gotten anyone on hers since her childhood. Yes, what she says to him is mean, but she’s still mourning the empty space where a mother is supposed to be.
