Hi! Been loving your blog and writing!

I really like your characterization and opinions of A.ang. It’s nice to read fan fic and blogs that just gets it. Down the road and back again was just *chef’s kiss*. (Also uncharted waters I’m loving! I never know what to expect and each chapter is so good)

Anyways I was wondering if you have any head cannon’s of what a K.ataang marriage would look like? For me I imagine it being it being extremely passive aggressive, also A.ang is really selfish so that definitely would hurt their marriage. It’s kind of like the opposite side of the toxic coin with M.aiko being a screaming match and in your face constantly breaking up, K.ataang would be toxic but it’s quite and they would try to save face in public. I don’t know What do you think?

I kind of touched on it in Choices and Consequences, but I picture it being a lot of Katara swallowing her feelings and being a single mother to four children. I don't believe she was ever actually in love with Aang. She may have tried to tell herself she was, but I think the only reason she ended up with Aang is because she felt like she owed him. Kataang was unhealthy on both their parts, and while I do tend to focus on Aang (because he's awful, and I will not ever stop pointing that out), I think Katara was guilty of putting him on a pedestal. She knew the Avatar would save the world, and I think that's why she ignored Aang's flaws. Everyone wanted to end the war, but for her, it was a deeply intense and personal desire, and the Avatar would be the one to deliver that. It's a lot of pressure to put on a 12 year old who grew up slow in a world without war, and she knew that. On some level, Katara was aware of how much pressure Aang was under, which is why I think she was so insistent on everyone being gentle with him, even though they didn't have that kind of time. Then when he actually did end the war (he didn't, at least not alone, but the show refused to give credit where it was due) Katara felt some sort of obligation towards him and called it love.

Katara is a smart, passionate girl, and she would've wanted a partner who would appreciate that and respect her thoughts, feelings and opinions. The glimpses of her relationship with Aang in the early comics show me that she didn't have that with him. Aang didn't respect her feelings over those of his fangirls. He ignored her discomfort, and even thanked her for understanding why he needed to connect with those girls who were being horribly disrespectful because "sharing his culture"🤮. It wasn't their treatment of her that upset him. It was them doing something that offended him personally.

Meanwhile, Katara had to swallow her own feelings and smile through it all. That's how I see their relationship going. I think Katara might have convinced herself that he respected her thoughts and opinions because he relied on her as a caregiver and he took her everywhere, but I think as he grew into his own, he would've expected her to step back and be contented to be a homemaker/broodmare while he did the important Avatar work, which is why I think Katara wasn't present in that scene in LoK where bloodbending was banned, even though she was ostensibly the only other bloodbender in the world, but Aang was front and center. It's also my theory on why when Aang was about to go all in on pushing for anti-miscegenation, instead of her telling him that it would be a bad idea because of the effects it would have on the families and communities Aang would be separating, she appealed to how it would affect him.

I don't think their marriage would be passive aggressive. I think Katara would just make herself as small as possible and do her best to keep the Avatar happy and on track because that's what she owed him. She'd have moments of acknowledging her deep unhappiness and regret, but she wouldn't dwell on it. And she would convince herself she was content to be a devoted wife and mother, and nothing else.

You know, when expecting more from Katara I'd understand where someone would come from in assessing that TLOK presented her horribly. I want her to be doing more too than what seems to a lot of people was mourn and passively await her death to see her husband again and nothing else.

However, to say that was the true consensus in how anyone would see her displayed as is false as there's plenty of evidence showcasing she is much more active than that when regarding the retirement period in her life, and even though I admire the emphasis on her incredible healing abilities, it would've helped a lot of doubters in believing it was the same character they grew to admire by giving her a statue or by involving her more into the narrative on numerous occasions - I agree. It's depressing seeing Katara "reduced" to just another vessel for people to ingest information on her spouse from, but, I really do believe she was more than that even by the slightest bit of nudges the narrative gives us to ponder over as to what went down during the timeskip and during the timeline of TLOK. That meaning a lot to me personally.

Her relationship with Aang had nothing to do with how much she'd accomplish for herself post-ATLA. Being a "baby making machine", nothing more than a "housewife", and a renowned healer was a choice she made herself in being...if she truly was any of those things.

Yet again, I understand you when you say that's disappointing.

And I know reading this, you're thinking that Katara's feelings matter too. It's only more proof that this dynamic is unfulfilling and awful. And yes, her feelings absolutely do matter even with how petty they seem to be, which is why in the next dispute they find themselves in the middle of, it's Katara opening up to Aang about how she feels this time and Aang listens.

On the left page, he was able to accurately guess her feelings and was only fully confirmed it in this specific conversation above, which concluded some pages after, as seen on the right page.

Accurately guessing her feelings, just like she did here for him. Katara trusts him.

And then with that trust and synchronization, they were able to come to similar conclusions with their bringing together of Earth King Kuei and Fire Lord Zuko, while simultaneously being depicted as partners and, you guessed it, equals

In the finale, after Aang himself cools his judgements of the fangirls he's accumulated, he becomes much more accepting of them and their intentions, and instills them further into his life in a way, and Katara goes along, content and at peace with it all.

So as far as that Aang gaslights and invalidates Katara out of context comic strip goes when debating the dreadfully unfair nature of Kataang, it's false news as it's just the beginning of a rather important plot point that was resolved quite effectively on screen (and honestly, it wasn't that serious from that point either, as he never truly did either of those things).

How does this relate to The Legend Of Korra?

Well, I'm trying to prove Katara's agency, which she does have in her relationship with Aang.

The thing is however that I find myself agreeing on with these LOK critiques, is that we should've known more about Katara's happenings outside her relationship with Aang. ATLA does well in effectively building Katara up as an independent woman after all, it's not too much of a stretch to think she'd become a very important and active councilwoman all the way into her old age or even better, a Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe.

It's one of the many ways TLOK didn't live up to the expectations that was placed upon it due to its strong association with its predecessor.