In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katara is one of the most important characters in the group. However, there are certainly times when Katara can easily go from being a fan-favorite to a nuisance for others. In fact, in some instances, Katara can really make the audience dislike her.
From the beginning of the series, Katara establishes herself as a motherly figure to the other characters on the show, which she demonstrates early on when she tries to protect Aang from the truth that the Air Nomads have been wiped out. Throughout the series, she is always trying to protect her friends and family, and keep them on the right path.
10 Katara Gets Jealous On Kyoshi Island
When Team Avatar makes a stop at Kyoshi Island so that Aang can ride the giant elephant koi, he quickly becomes a local celebrity. As the reincarnation of Avatar Kyoshi, the islanders are happy to provide the group with anything they need. Aang lets this newfound power go to his head, which ends up making Katara jealous of him and the attention he is getting, particularly from the village girls.
In reality, Aang just wants Katara to hang out with him, but she instead acts like she doesn’t care about him or what he does to make him feel bad.
9 Katara Harbors Unresolved Anger Toward Her Father
The team regroups after their defeat at the end of the second season, adding new members to Team Avatar, one of whom is Katara and Sokka’s father. However, Katara acts less than pleased to have him around, despite not having seen him in years. She is short with him and snaps even when he asks the most innocent answers.
She seems to not even realize it herself, as Aang asks her outright if she’s mad at her dad, and Katara tells him no, confused as to why he would ask that. Of course, some of her anger towards her father is understandable, as he was absent for the majority of her life, but she takes it a little bit too far.
8 Katara Is Blinded By Revenge
When Zuko offers to help Katara find her mother’s killer, she jumps at the opportunity. Aang and Sokka both try to convince Katara that finding and killing him is not the right thing to do, but she refuses to listen. She and Zuko embark on a manhunt across the Fire Nation, and Katara ends up using Bloodbending, something she had sworn to never do again.
At this point, she is too consumed by the thought of revenge to even think about her own morals. However, in the end, upon seeing the sad life her mother’s killer is living now, Katara changes her mind and leaves him whimpering in the rain.
7 Katara Lies to Her Friends & Disrespects A Local Legend
During the third season, the team stops at a Fire Nation village located in a swamp that has been polluted by a nearby factory for the Fire Nation’s military. Initially, this was meant as a pit stop to resupply before moving on, but Katara is deeply moved by the village’s plight. She decides to take matters into her own hands.
To ensure they can stick around a bit longer, she feeds Appa purple berries to change the color of his tongue and convince the others that he is sick. This buys her time to disguise herself as a local spirit called “The Painted Lady,” and steal food and medicine from the factory for the village. While her goal is selfless, Katara lies to the others about her intentions and impersonates a spirit, both problematic aspects of her plan.
6 Katara Does Not Trust Zuko
Late in Season 3, Zuko joins up with Team Avatar to plan out how to take down the Fire Lord. Aang is open to the idea, as he said previously that he could see them being friends, Toph hasn’t fought against him before and he doesn’t seem too bad to her, and Sokka trusts Zuko. However, Katara is not on board with this idea at all.
She is still hurt from when she confided in him in Ba Sing Se and believed that he might really have changed, only for him to turn on her and Aang during the fight with Azula. Katara agrees to allow him into the group but she doesn’t trust him and essentially tells him that she will not hesitate to kill him if he threatens Aang.
5 Katara Drives Toph Away
From the beginning of their relationship, Katara and Toph were always at odds with one another. Toph’s heavily independent attitude did not mix well with Katara’s desire for everyone to work together and share the workload. However, Katara tries to be nice at first and gently suggests to Toph that she should help out a bit more.
Eventually, the two explode into an argument, and Katara unloads on Toph about how she really feels. This leads to Toph temporarily leaving the group and wandering the wilderness alone. Luckily, after a friendly chat with Iroh, Toph returns and helps the group defeat Azula.
4 Katara Puts A Scroll Before Everyone’s Safety
During the first season, the group comes across a band of pirates selling various collectibles and knickknacks, including a Northern Water Tribe Waterbending scroll. Aang attempts, rather poorly, to haggle with the pirate over the price of the scroll, but is unsuccessful. As a result, Katara decides to steal the scroll instead.
Sokka tries to explain why this is a bad idea but she and Aang decide to use the scroll anyway and teach themselves new techniques. When Aang is able to easily pick up the new techniques, Katara becomes annoyed that he is better than her. She tries to learn the moves on her own, but the group is attacked by the pirates along with Zuko and Iroh.
3 Katara Is Directly Responsible For Zuko’s Capture
In Ba Sing Se, Zuko and Iroh took a new direction in life. Rather than continuing to pursue the Avatar, the two settled down as humble tea shop workers. However, Katara, upon seeing Zuko, rushes to the palace to warn the Earth King, believing that he is only there to capture their group. Unfortunately, Azula has taken over the palace at this point, so she captures Katara and uses this newfound information to her advantage.
Then, after the two are imprisoned together, she lashes out at Zuko, still under the impression that he is evil, despite the fact that he is just as much of a victim of Azula as Katara is.
2 Katara Takes On The Motherly Role
While traveling through the Fire Nation, Toph decides to use her blindness and Earthbending skills to the team’s benefit. Fooling everyone into thinking she is a helpless blind girl, Toph uses her Earthbending to scam street scammers and win huge amounts of money. As Toph’s schemes get more and more out of hand, Katara advises that they all stop this at once.
Toph gets angry at her for acting like the “mother” of the group, which angers Katara. She accuses Toph of acting rebellious because she actually misses her own mother. This feud divides the group until they are eventually forced to reunite to take on Combustion Man, an assassin hired by Zuko.
1 Katara Believes Jet Over Her Own Brother
During their travels in the Earth Kingdom, Team Avatar meets Jet and his band of Freedom Fighters. They rebel against the Fire Nation soldiers that occupy the area, sabotaging their operations and attacking anyone associated with the Fire Nation, including a defenseless elderly man. Katara is smitten with Jet as soon as they meet, and he keeps her on his side even after Sokka voices his concerns about Jet.
Katara doesn’t believe her own brother, refusing to believe that Jet could do wrong. However, she eventually sees the truth for herself when she discovers Jet’s plan to blow up a dam and flood a nearby town being occupied by the Fire Nation.
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