Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Katara is a fictional character and hero voiced by Mae Whitman on the 2005 animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The fourteen-year-old Katara is a waterbender of the South Pole's Southern Water Tribe, who, along with her older brother, Sokka, discovered Aang, the long-lost Avatar, and accompanies him on his quest to bring peace to the warring nations.
Wise beyond her years, Katara was the sole waterbender left in the Southern Water Tribe, the men of the village (her father among them) having gone off to war two years prior. Some time before, her mother had been killed in a Fire Nation raid, leaving only her elder brother Sokka, and her grandmother, "Gran-Gran" to take care of a young girl pining for instruction in her art.
While on a fishing expedition, Katara and Sokka found Aang in suspended animation in an iceberg. When she freed him using her bending, Katara was ecstatic to discover that Aang was an Airbender, and remained hopeful that he might instruct her somehow. Upon discovering that he was the Avatar, master of all the elements, Katara realized that, like her, Aang needed instruction in waterbending. Though she initially decided to accompany Aang to the North Pole purely in search of waterbending instruction, Katara quickly became determined to help Aang save the world.
In her quest to master waterbending, Katara has recently learned that she has a rarer waterbending talent, the ability to use waterbending to heal wounds. Upon her arrival at the Northern Water Tribe, Katara was turned away by Master Pakku, the waterbending master, because custom dictated that women were forbidden from waterbending except to heal. Grudgingly, Katara accepted her fate, and began healing instruction from Yugoda, who offered several revelations along with her teachings. From her, Katara learned that her necklace, a gift from her mother, had initially belonged to her "Gran-Gran," Kanna, with whom Yugoda had been friends sixty years before. The necklace was a mark of betrothal, carved by a young waterbender to whom Kanna was arranged to be married. Kanna left the Northern Water tribe to escape the prospect of a loveless marriage.
After hearing this, Katara devised a scheme to have Aang instruct her nightly after he learned sets from Master Pakku. Unfortunately Pakku caught them, and barred Aang from instruction until Katara apologized for her cultural disrespect. Instead Katara challenged Pakku to a fight. Though she fought valiantly, she lost. But when Pakku recognized Katara's necklace as the one he carved for the love of his life, Pakku relented and finally began to teach Katara waterbending. In short time, Pakku was praising Katara as the fastest learner he ever taught. Her improved skill was illustrated while protecting an incapacitated Aang from Prince Zuko. Now a worthy opponent of the firebender, she used her bending to freeze him in an ice pillar. But Zuko's powers strengthened with the sunrise, and she was overwhelmed by a barrage of fire blasts. She later defeated him handily, her powers strenghtened by the light of the moon. According to Pakku, Katara is now a master waterbender in her own right, and must teach the slower-learning Aang when they leave the North Pole.
Katara loves to tease her brother Sokka, and they frequently trade jabs, he being the more quick-witted, but also the more prideful of the pair. In spite of their bickering, they love each other deeply, and Sokka feels an instinctual obligation to protect his baby sister.
In regards to Aang, Katara is, for the most part, genuinely oblivious to the twelve-year-old's deep and abiding crush on her, thinking of him as a dear friend. But a recent fortune told by Aunt Wu, to the effect that she will "marry a powerful bender" may change her opinion of him somewhat.
Although Prince Zuko's and Katara's interactions in-show have so far been exclusively antagonistic, there exists a contingent of shippers who speculate on the possibility of a future relationship between the two.
See also
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