How Netflix's live action Avatar failed Katara (aka how to NOT write a female character)

Katara, Suki and even Yue's personalities changed so much for live action Sokka's benefit. Katara is no longer a multi-faceted character who has a lot of unresolved rage toward the fire nation. She's no longer shown to be jealous of Aang's immediate skills with 0 work ethic. She showed in the cartoon that you can become more skillful than a natural talent with a strong work ethic. She was a more unskilled bender than Aang originally but her passion and drive made it so she could become Aang's teacher. (why does Aang not bend water at all in this 😭) Suki no longer opens Sokka's eyes to the world - he opened hers? Whyyy. It completely takes away her relevance to the story. Why was Yue made a water bender? She connected originally to Sokka as a non-bender trying to contribute to the war efforts. Why does she break up her engagement with Hanh before the gang arrives? It just seems to remove her inner struggle and relevance so she can be an immediate Sokka fan girl. In the writers attempt to "fix" Sokka's flaws, they actually became sexist themselves by making all of the female characters one dimensional.

When a "kids" animated show is far more nuanced, mature and subtle than the Netflix adaptation for "adults" you know something went horribly wrong.

Its so ironic that they try to down the sexism in Sokka by actively downing the complexity in one of their main female characters 😭

its kind of ironic that the show would be less sexist if they made sokka more sexist

People have to understand that there's only ONE really good adaptation of Avatar.... The play from ember island

the fact that they took out sokka’s sexism bc they said it would make them misogynistic but then pulled this with katara’s character development is really ironic to me

They took away her flaws. And when a character has no flaws they are never going to work.

First they turn Katara all meek and submissive, THEN they render Azula a petulant child? Can't wait for Toph to be ruined, too.

The cartoon wasn’t even sexist. It never showed Sokka’s sexism in a positive light - rather it was a negative thing about his character that he gradually outgrew. Like wasn’t the whole point of their adventures that they’re seeing and experiencing the world and growing up while doing so? Sokka came from a very traditional culture and society, and over time by experiencing other peoples and cultures he was able to unlearn his narrow minded viewpoints.

In the original show, Katara was outspoken and fiery, not letting anything get in her way. Suddenly, she becomes meek and submissive, especially where Sokka is concerned. Further proof that the show runners haven't seen the source material.

Katara IS THE main character for the first season. It’s her perspective, her journey, her arc, and Aang is her manic pixie dream boy (lol). Bold claim, I know, but at least I’d say Katara is the deuteragonist sharing the spot with aang and zuko. She drives the story as much as they do and to act like she’s a side character is horrible

I honestly really liked how oh Katara was kind yet not a pushover she was allowed to be angry at things/be mean at times, without it 'taking away' her kindness and her desire to help people. She felt really real somehow

Something that really annoyed me about this adaptation was how, unlike her animated counterpart, Netflix Katara completely sucked at waterbending, unable to even form a water bubble, until Aang gave her some vague advice about balance and energy, and then suddenly she was able do it. It's like the narrative was twisted in such a way that Katara needs Aang, as opposed to the show where Katara was the one who taught Aang his first waterbending moves.

The lack of intensity of the katara was what bothered me most about the adaptation. she is a very passionate character, when she loves or hates it is always very extreme and true, she fights, and does everything according to what she believes is right, at the same time that even though she is considered the "mother of the group" she is still a child, so she will throw tantrums, irritate others, be annoying, etc.

Katara was one of the most important characters for me, she not just set a standard for how female characters should be written, but showed me how dark skinned girls could be loving and fiery and compassionate and determined! That was so important for me when I was a kid figuring myself out. "I'll never turn my back on people who need me!" has stayed with me for a decade and it's become part of my own moral code. So glad I never watched this garbage to see what they did to her.

limiting good female characters who were considered ‘annoying’ by the fanbase and turning perfectly fine animated shows/movies live action for the sake of being ‘adult and realistic’ are like my two biggest pet peeves in media right now… and i just finished atla for the first time so this is a perfect storm of a video for me

The reason why Katara can go from hopeful and motherly to angry is because she values trust above everything. Katara will trust anyone once, but if you betray her, then she is out for blood. When she ran into Jet in Ba Sing Se, the guy merely talked to her and she attacked him on sight. Same thing when Zuko joined the Gaang; Katara was the last one to forgive him because he already betrayed her trust once. Just because a character has two personality traits that seemingly contradict each other, it doesn't mean they are inconsistent.

To add on to your criticism of the opening, the world doesn’t know that Roku died until Aang is found. That’s why the original intro says vanished. It’s small but Netflix misunderstood the set up out the gate. Katara literally saved the world by finding him

My theory is that whoever produced this show wanted to hit certain social media talking points, and they were all based off the ATLA resurgence in 2020 where all the discourse online was about how tragic Azula is, how great Zuko and Iroh were, and how underrated/funny Sokka was. And you can tell, because those are the characters that I felt got the most focus on the show (whether or not you like their portrayal, they certainly got more highlight moments). It's how they justified introducing Azula so early. Giving Iroh Leaves From the Vine so early. Making Zuko sympathetic earlier. Giving Sokka scenes he simply never had before. I like the idea of developing certain characters more, who didn't get as much development in the original series, but not at the expense of your MAIN characters. The driving force of the show. And especially when it comes to comedy, this is just my particular gripe: most comedy works bc someone is playing the straight man to your funny. In Sokka's case, or Aang's, it was always Katara, who was more serious, and even at times, impatient, and easy to rile up, that made they're antics hilarious. So without having to tell a joke herself, Katara was also a key part in the comedy of the original. They removed the significance of her role in so many ways she doesn't even get to be part of simple jokes other than standing in the background and laughing like an NPC. It's been talked to death at this point but I will never get over how they ruined her, and honestly, most of the characters in this show. Another disappointing Netflix cash grab for the garbage.

The bar was in hell and somehow they missed it when it came to the character writing, no wonder the original creators left. I would too smh.