Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't a great series just because of the fight scenes and world building. Okay, it's a great series because of those things as well, but the thing that set this show apart from other shows on TV, even🐲 the ones meant for adults, is the strength of the writing and the character development. The characters on this show are compelling, consistent, and just all around amazing. I'm not even talking about just Aang, either: they developed even the most minor of characters to the point that every character is someone's favorite in this series. However, few characters have had the impact that one character did, and that character is Waterbending master Katara.
Katara wasn't just a great character, she helped set the bar for what it meant to write a strong female character. She's a major inspiration and hero to kids and adults of all generations because she's such a strong character. There are a lot of things that make Katara a wonderful character, and not all of those things have to do with how strong her abilities are. She's a girl with major strengths and major flaws as well, and that's what makes her great to watch. Without he꧒r character and her writing is strong, nobody would really care that she wins most of the fights she's in.
Here aℱre twenty-five things that make Katara one of the most ဣpowerful characters in the Avatar series, both in the story and outside of it.
25 𓆉 She Became A Waterbending Master Within A Year 🉐
Mastering the elements takes a lifetime to do. Notice how everyone in the O📖rder of the White Lotus was an old person? Now, think about how Aang managed to get a good handle on all four elements within a year, give or take a few weeks. However, he just got to the point where he could use the elements and then skipped to the rank of master by learning how to bend energy from the lion turtle. Now think about Katara, the GOAT, who learned how to waterbend and became the youngest master by herself with very little guidance.
24 🍰 She Learned How To Bloodbend Within A Few Days
Putting aside Katara's talent at Waterbending, she also managed to pick up a technique called bloodbending and master it within a few episodes. Keep in mind, for those who are unaware, bloodbending is when you manipulate the water inside a pꦡerson and make the🉐m do what you want. The woman who taught her was old and had decades to hone the skill. Meanwhile, our hero Katara not only mastered the ability, but she also has the strength of will not to abuse it.
23 She Can Bloodbend In The Fir💫st Place
Bloodbending is a lot like being able to bend lightning for Firebenders: it's a special technique that not everyone has the ability to lear🍸n. On top of that, the people we know who can bend lightning and bloodbend are either ღnot the best people (Ozai, Azula), or grew out of being terrible and became awesome instead (General Iroh). Katara is a great person, but she does have her moments of manipulativeness that probably allow her access to that ability, but unlike Azula who never learned, Katara didn't become a terrible person.
22 🍸 ♍ She Didn't End Azula Even Though She Had The Chance
A major theme of the finale was choosing to spare your tormentors and not ending them, instead choosing to be a better person and go for a third option that means everyone gets to l🥂ive. We see this in action when Aang spends the whole finale agonizing over whether to end Ozai and then taking that third option when he realizes that's available. Katara never had that moment of clarity Aang did, t💫hough. She was just in a fight with Azula and chose to spare her rather than end her, or worse, make Zuko end her.
21 ♊ She Was The Last Waterbender 🃏In Her Entire Tribe
The Waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe were wiped out by the Fire Nation thanks to the Fire Nation being jerks. Katara only survived because her mom took the bullet that was meant for her, allowing her to grow up and be𝓀come the awesome person she did. Growing up like that was a huge burden, as we see in the show time and time again as we watch Katara and Sokka deal with what happened to their parents. However, she didn't let that tragedy define her ෴and still managed to grow up well-adjusted, more or less.
20 🔜 She Was Willing To Leave Her Dad To Get Captured
Katara and Sokka have a complicated relationship with their father Hakoda because while he meant well by leaving them with their grandmother so he could fight in the war, they both felt abandoned by him after their mother perished. Katara had a worse time dealing with that and even after she and her father patch♒ed things up, she was strong enough to leave her dad in a dangerous position so she and Sokka could go and help Aang like they had ꦓbeen. Not many people have the emotional resilience to do that.
19 She's Smarter Than Basically๊🐬 Everyone She Comes Across
Let's be real: out of everyone in the main group, Katara is by far the smartest. Sokka gives her a run for her money because he's clever in a different way and in a lot of ways more relatable and even likable in-universe, but when it comes to actual intelligence and cunning, Katara has that in spades. She thinks outside the box when she has to and is willing to do difficult things if it means that the mission gets completed. On top of that, she picks up new skills easily, which is something not everyone in the Avatar world can do.
18 She's Willing To Pla๊y Dirty And Gets Creative 😼
Katara is one of those people who can seriously play very dirty when she has to. She's not above stealing things she wants if it means she can get ahead (remember the waterbending scroll, guys?) and she's willing to literally get d🦄irty enough to generate enough sweat to get herself and Toph out of a bad situation. A lot of people would freeze in a situation like that and Katara comes out with a solution even the bloodbending woman couldn't believe she'd come up with because it was so out of the box.
17 💞 💦She's Ruthless About Doing The Right Thing
When Katara sees a way forward, she's going to take that way forward because she knows that's the right thing. She's ruthless about that in a way that Zuko could only dream of, to be h✱onest. She's a lot like Hermione Granger of the Potterverse in this way because Hermione was that kind of ruthless as well. Katara has done things like chase down her mother's slayer and scare the pants off of him because she fully meant to end him. That's the kind of intense person she is.
16 💝 She Shapes Her Own Dest🅷iny, She Chose To Do Everything
When it comes to being a𝔉 chosen one, most of the time people are born into that fate. Aang was, for example. The rest of the time, circumstances make it so you end up forced into a situation where you become the chosen one, which is more akin to what Zuko had to deal with. Katara, and by extension Sokka and Toph, are different because they chose to be part of the story and became the awesome people they became by taking charge of their fates in a way that Aang and Zuko never got to.