Katara

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Avatar: The Last Airbender character
Katara
Nationality	Water Tribe (Southern Tribe)
Notable Aliases	The Painted Lady (alter ego), Kua Mei, Sapphire Fire
Gender	Female
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Blue
Age	14
First appearance	"The Boy in the Iceberg"
Voiced by	Mae Whitman

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.

Contents 1 Creation and conception 2 Plot Overview 3 Personality 4 Abilities 5 Character reception 6 Appearances in other media 7 References

[edit] Creation and conception

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2008)

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[1]

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.

[edit] Plot Overview

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. (More information about her mother's death is heard to be later revealed in the upcoming 16th chapter episode: Southern Raiders, from Book 3: Fire, in July 2008.)

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, Kana ("Gran Gran"), to look after the tribe.^[3]

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.^[4] Upon arrival, Master Pakku refuses her apprenticeship, because she is female.^[5] However, after proving her worth in a battle against him, he agrees to teach her.^[5] 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. ^[6]

The second season opens with Katara leaving the North Pole, and receiving water from the Spirit Oasis.^[7] Katara then journeys with Aang to the Earth Kingdom for him to learn earthbending.^[7] 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.^[7] While in Ba Sing Se, Aang is mortally wounded, but Katara is able to save his life using the water from the Spirit Oasis.^[8]

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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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. Hama discovers a new kind of waterbending while in the prison. She tries to teach Katara the techniques of the Southern Water Tribe. Hama reveals that she can bend human blood in a technique called bloodbending. When Katara refuses to learn this technique, Hama bloodbends Aang and Sokka forcing Katara to use bloodbending herself to save her friends.^[11]

[edit] Personality

Katara is a study in contrasts. On one hand, she is mature and kind,^[12] Katara is the one who took on the motherly roles in her tribe after her mother died. She also swears never to leave people who she cares for in their time of need and cares for people she trusts. ^[4] As the last remaining waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe in the show, Katara reveals in the first episode of the show that her fondest dream is to become a waterbending master.^[4] In some episodes, such as "Imprisoned," Katara asserts herself to persuade people to do what she thinks is right.^[13] However, with the features described, Katara is sometimes described as being jealous to the point of stealing and lying, and overly idealistic in her constant attempts to change a society that she does not like, as well as bossy and controlling.^[14] She's also very sensitive, easily angered over real or perceived insults. In addition, there are occasions, such as in the very beginning of the first episode, when her temper lets out; her outbursts are accompanied by involuntary, augmented waterbending that she does not realize she is doing. She also dislikes and distrusts those who have betrayed her.^[4]

[edit] Abilities

Katara's abilities has greatly improved since the very first episode. At the outset, she at best waterbended by luck. She had little control over her waterbending and often needed someone else to help her defeat an opponent. However as time went on, thanks to first studying a waterbending scroll, then studying under Master Pakku, her waterbending rapidly improved. Katara became such a great waterbender that she became Aang's waterbender teacher, who at one point in the show was a better waterbender than she was. Katara improved to the point of defeating Zuko two out of three times at the end of season one (although when she did win she had the greatest waterbending advantage; the full moon. Also, her first victory took place right after Zuko emerged from freezing waters and her second victory took place after Zuko was found wandering aimlessly with Aang through a fierce storm.) Katara earlier in that season feared Zuko, even attempting to run away from him in one episode.

Katara can use water to cut through objects, can summon waves of varying sizes and can freeze water (and whatever is in the water) with little effort. As stated earlier, she also has learned to manipulate people through a rare form of waterbending called "bloodbending". She also has a special ability to heal individuals, at one point using this ability to heal Aang at the end of season two. Katara's one possible weakness is that she tends to avoid non-bending, hand-to-hand combat, though this is debatable.

[edit] Character reception

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2008)

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".^[15] In addition to these features, she also is "kind, brave, and passionate."^[12]

[edit] Appearances in other media

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Katara's character has appeared in both THQ's video game for the show, which are Avatar: The Last Airbender (video game)^[16] and Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth.^[17][18] Like Aang, Katara also appears on some Avatar T-shirts sold by Nick,^[19] as well as in Tokyopop's films comic (sometimes referred to as cine-manga).^[20]

[edit] References

v • d • e Avatar: The Last Airbender Characters Aang · Katara · Sokka · Toph · Appa · Zuko · Iroh · Azula Universe Water Tribe · Earth Kingdom · Fire Nation · Air Nomads · Spirit World Waterbending · Earthbending · Firebending · Airbending Franchise Trading cards · Avatar: The Last Airbender (video game) · The Burning Earth · Into the Inferno Episodes Season 1 · Season 2 · Season 3