Warning: The Author Tract against Aang seemingly reaches its climax in this part, and so does my ranting against it.
Zuko and Katara head back to the comfy chairs only to find that Toph has taken Katara's seat, and while Zuko wants to give Katara his seat, Katara won't let him. Sokka tells the story about how they destroyed the fleet, and makes note of Toph's "badass skills." Katara's on the edge of her seat while hearing it, even if she knows they all survived, and Sokka's a bit blase after telling it so many times.
Lenka arrives, as Iroh sent a hawk to let her know to tell everyone else of their arrival. Sokka wants to greet the warriors, while Zuko, who's more tired and less open to meeting new people, stays behind, and Toph stays with him. Sokka and Katara head out to meet everyone ten minutes before their arrival.
Sokka sees a large number of people in prison uniforms, save for those who came to get them, and a "snuggly tribal reunion ensues," with everyone glad to see Sokka nad Katara, noting how long it's been since they last saw them.
Suki tells Sokka that she has to see to her warriors, giving Sokka a kiss before she goes. She sees them, including the two sick warriors, and gives them a speech that ends with her telling them to follow her (I have to wonder if "speech" is a bit of a misnomer, since it seems a bit grandiloquent for this occasion), and seeing her off with a blown kiss to Sokka.
The Water Tribe men notice Sokka has a Kyoshi warrior girlfriend, getting some "mature" teasing about it and Sokka being "whipped," which he takes in stride.
The Henpecked Husband trope mentions how this is insulting to both Suki (for calling her overbearing) and Sokka (for calling him spineless), and that's an interesting look at how neither gender comes off well under this trope (which is why I'm glad that it's largely a Discredited Trope nowadays).
The men want to know about Sokka's heroics, and how much he resembles his father, but aren't at al interested in Katara. To his credit, Sokka tries to bring up Katara's achievements, only to have someone change the subject back to him, but Katara appreciates the effort.
Katara's group is the last to reach the square. Iroh's talking with Hakoda, and Bato's talking with "a lady guard. The eartbenders and swampbenders follow Suki to their dwellings, since she seems like a leader.
Katara's pleased to see the reunions between Teo and his father, Haru and his father (the latter of whom is impressed with Teo's spoon bending), and Pipsqueak and The Duke (the former of whom carries the latter on his shoulder). Hakoda and Iroh finish talking, and Hakoda asks everyone to follow him to their place. Bato's a bit out of it, since he obviously has a crush on the guard, but Hakoda snaps him out of it.
Aang, who'd been playing with the people from the Earth Kingdom tries to talk with Katara, who's busy talking with Luka(one of Katara's father's friends). Aang feels left out, but Katara ignores him, since while she wants to give him a big rant, she can't do it in front of her tribe, as she did in Aunt Wu's village- a tactic that makes Katara feel cowardly, but feels effective. It's interesting that Katara seems to acknowledge that she's not treating Aang very well, but it sounds somewhat off-hand. In any case, it's not Katara's conscience that gets her to stop, but Luka introducing himself to Aang, which causes Katara to act as though she'd just noticed Aang.
Katara goes to the water tribe villa, and the prisoners are overjoyed to have a luxurious living space, at least compared to the prison, running around as they claim beds and their own personal effects. They resume fawning over Sokka's heroics, but switch to Aang when Sokka points out that Aang made this all possible, as Aang looks a little left out (Finally, someone acknowledges Aang's role in all this, even if it seems to be out of pity). Aang cheers up and tells them about his heroics.
Some guy named Kuba asks Katara to fix a rip in his under tunic, asking her in a way that "wasn't really asking." He drops it in her hands and Sorrak and Hasa follow suit. Katara notes that he thinks of it as a woman's job, to the point where he believes he doesn't have to say it (Values Dissonance aside, I find it a bit odd to suddenly thrust clothes into a girl's hands without knowing whether she can repair them, much less whether she wants to). Not even Hakoda steps in, because Katara remembers that's just how things are with their tribe.
Katara laments that the warriors still see her as the same girl when she left, when she's come to consider herself their equal (unfortunately, as is often the case, it clearly isn't reciprocated; it's always somewhat depressing when Alice thinks of herself as equal to Bob with good reason, but Bob doesn't feel the same way), as a a warrior, a Bad Ass, and more than someone who mends socks. Katara realizes that they don't even give her the grudging respect afforded to the Kyoshi warriors , and expect her to do the mending. Katara wants to rant about the unfairness of it all and how she fought as well as Sokka and Aang, in addition to being better at waterbending than Aang, but can't find her voice, and stands there about to cry as both Sokka and Aang are treated as heroes and she's treated as the serving girl. She runs off to the garden for a breath of fresh air and Hasa (a.k.a. Water Tribe Guy #3), asks "what's with her?" as she leaves.
I have to wonder why, too. Consider when Master Pakku told her that women can't learn combat waterbending; Katara vocally rejected that tradition, and Pakku's condescending offer to have Yugoda teach her healing. ("Well, your rules stink!"- a succinct if not eloquent argument) The only explanation I can come up with is that no longer having a sense of purpose saps her of her will to fight back, and she's despairing with the thought of returning to her own tribe, but the idea that she'll have to live with this should be enough motivation for her to do something about it. Katara's inability to address this issue comes off as uncharacteristically timid and almost cowardly.
Katara, once outside, realizes that she took the clothes with her, and drops them on the ground, noting she'll probably have to wash them, too. Katara wonders if she's being ridiculous, but notes that half an hour ago, she felt like a warrior, and now, she feels like a little girl (Statements like this tend to be the hallmark of self-aware sufferers of Chickification. Toph from Ho WI Became Yours puts it quite nicely here
).
Katara wonders if she had accepted it in the past, but realized that she hadn't; she'd ranted about finding it unfair (which makes me wonder why she didn't do so now), and Sokka was the only guy after her father left, so Katara didn't think she should obey him, noting that she acts like his mother most of the time. She notes that he was sexist and "blustery about girl-jobs" back then, but took her fishing and hunting, and Suki has broken him of his sexism, making Katara feel like his equal.
Katara kicks the pile of clothes a few times and goes off to waterbend as an outlet for her feelings. She hears a fountain and goes toward it, but stops when she hears a man and a woman giggling. Katara gives in to temptation to indulge her curiosity, and finds out that it's Bato and the lady guard. After the laughter dies down, they share a tender moment, with the lady guard saying she'll miss Bato's bad jokes, and Bato saying he'll miss her smuggling him pickles. They kiss, and after an apology, continue doing so. Katara, feeling "pervy," runs off, apparently undetected.
Katara returns to the clothes, which she hates even looking at, but does the mending anyway out of a sense of duty and the knowledge that the men can't do it themselves. She can't find thread that matches the blue cloth, and so goes about the mending in a somewhat perfunctory manner.
Aang finds her doing this, having no idea of how angry she is with him (since she isn't in canon, it's hard to tell whether Aang, based on all his past interactions with her could have expected this), or about having the tailoring foisted on her (Since Katara has the most conversations that involve worldbending- or in general- with Zuko, Aang doesn't know much about Water Tribe sexism apart from the dispute with Pakku). So when Aang says hi, Katara warns him that now is not a good time, and when he asks why, Katara, treating him like an idiot for wanting to know more about her feelings, tersely says she has mending to do, not saying anything about the situation. Aang then asks if Katara can fix his clothes, which were damaged in his fight with Ozai. She then gives him an "Incredulous And Angry Look" (yes, this is both bolded and capitalized in the fic). Aang then asks why Katara's so mad.
Katara seemed to expect Aang to read between the lines, assuming that he knew everything that's going on inside his head. Here's how the conversation might have gone
- Katara: Now is not a good time, Aang.Aang: Why not?Katara: The author wanted to go into Water Tribe sexism, so all the men staying here palmed off their mending work on me because I'm the only girl around.Aang: Really? I was going to ask if you could fix my clothes, but I guess it wouldn't be a good time, would it?Katara: Not at all. I fought alongside you guys as an equal, doing my part to win the war, and now these warriors, who were released because you and I beat Ozai and Azula, treat me like a servant?Aang: Wow, this is like Master Pakku all over again, only worse. Why don't you tell them what you just told me?Katara: I couldn't bring myself to do so before, since my confidence was drained for some reason. But I'll give it a shot. Thanks, Aang.
But that doesn't happen, and instead, Aang unwittingly pushes Katara's buttons until she explodes. Katara doesn't even know where to begin, and had intended on giving a planned out speech to him, that's stern but convincing, like Dr. Yang. She also had wanted to do it in private, not with everyone acting as though Aang's a big hero, with her implying that it's not true (he defeated the enemy leader and played the greatest role in ending a 100-year long war, allowing them to leave prison and go home, so this is natural), around to hear it, so she implies that him approaching her while they're alone is convenient. She wants Aang to know how what he did was "dreadful and horrible and unacceptable" (yes, this is in bold), which is language more suited to describing moments like...
- ...betraying your best friend and leaving him to die in order to conquer the world.
- ...challenging your son to an Agni Kai in order to burn his face and teach him a lesson.
- ...ordering your son to kill his own son.
- ...actually planning on going through with said order.
- ...killing the spirit of the Moon itself in order to win your war of aggression.
- ...kidnapping innocent civilians who belong to an enemy nation.
- ...using superpowered firebending to wipe out an entire nation.(Ozai gets a lot of these, although it's also Sozin's moment)
- ...becoming host to what is essentially the God of Evil, which intends to destroy the world.
- ...attempting to poison the Avatar to end the Avatar cycle once and for all.
- ...trying to kill your fiance along with everyone else who took him prisoner.
In any case, Katara doesn't know where to begin, but is upset enough to begin talking without caring about how emotional she comes off as. She begins by asking where Aang was, and gets angry when he doesn't seem to notice "the ice" in her voice, and starts explaining about the lion turtle again, convinced she'll understand if no one else does. Given Aang's previous track record and the kind of fic this is, the chances of that are one in a million, but he can be forgiven for not knowing that.
Katara says that lion turtles are extinct as though it's a fact, in spite of how Zuko and Aang thought the same thing about the dragons until they found them. But Aang then mentions how everyone though the Air Nomads were extinct until Katara found him, and now he found a lion turtle; while the comeback isn't as strong as it could be, it's stronger than Katara or the author gives it credit for. Katara tries to continue stitching as Aang tries to explain about the turtle kidnapping him and teaching him energybending, but it seems Katara's somewhat more successful than Aang.
Aang suggests that Katara doesn't need to be mad at him, and when Katara slowly but deliberately asks why, he says that it's not his fault and things worked out anyway. It's a bit presumptuous of him to say things like that, but again, it's not as weak of a comeback as the author wants it to sound like. On a basic level, Aang is correct; he was taken against his will, and with his new power, defeated Ozai and saved the world while staying true to his beliefs.
I know I pothole Crowning Moment of Awesome to Aang's victory over Ozai a lot, but that's what it is. Aang defeated the greatest threat to the world, saved countless lives, and did so without even ending Ozai's life. The fact that he had seemingly no choice other than to compromise his beliefs on killing (which is a far more serious matter than the author and those like her think) or letting Ozai win, but instead formed a new solution, is a large part of why it is awesome, and why it's more fitting to the spirit of ATLA than having Katara berate Aang and go off with someone of the author's choosing.
Katara, however, loses her cool and gets shouty at Aang assuming she'll always agree with him, noting that she doesn't believe his lion turtle story and if she did, it wouldn't make any difference. On the contrary, if Katara did believe Aang, she would accept that he did not disappear on his own volition, realize how he got energybending , and conect the dots to realize that it was yet another fortuitous event that enabled their victory. Katara once again unleashes hyperbole, saying that lion turtles are imaginary (she just said extinct- just because something doesn't exist anymore doesn't mean it never did), but what Aang did is "horrible and heartbreaking and real"(yes, the individual adjectives are italicized, but the "ands" are not) . Katara dismissively notes that everything worked out well only because of dumb luck, meaning that the author has thereby written off Aang's only Crowning Moment of Awesome in the events of this fic.
Katara asks Aang if everything worked out so well, and Aang says yes, leading to Katara pointing out that Zuko and Toph nearly died and Sokka's leg is broken as though they're Aang's fault (the injuries, I should point out, are not directly the results of Aang's actions; the Plan A mentioned in this fic did not exist in canon, and seemed based on assumptions), and that even if everything worked out well, it doesn't justify what Aang did.
I'm a bit tired of repeating that 1)Aang didn't leave on his own free will, or 2)he came back and won, so I'll share the following theory. If this was Star Wars, and Katara was Luke and Aang was Han, Katara would probably have given Aang the same lecture after he saved her from Ozai/Hakoda/whoever you want Darth Vader to be.
Aang points out that the turtle "kidnapped" him again, and Katara sarcastically suggests that it's his friend, since he enjoyed his outing. Of course, Katara makes something of a fallacy in saying this; the fact that Aang enjoys it doesn't mean that he can leave, or that he doesn't want to. Aang says he didn't mean it like that, and makes more of what Katara dismisses as excuses.
Aang tries to reason with Katara, in a way that makes Katara feel as though Aang imagines himself to be wise and Katara to be unreasonable, while seemingly playing the victim card. Katara's indignation at this would be an utterly hilarious case of Hypocritical Humor, but for the fact that the author is clearly on her side. Katara continues, saying Aang enjoys the perks of being Avatar but doesn't do his duty. Aang says that he'd been "training his arrow off" before the comet, and asks what Katara wants him to do, so she spells it out- kill Ozai.
The noise attracts Hakoda, Sokka (in spite of the leg), Bato and most of the other warriors. Hakoda asks if everything's alright, but Katara, in spite of her hesitation to do this in front of an audience, knows that things are not, so she makes a weak attempt at saying so. Obviously, Hakoda sees through it, having overheard Katara shouting about wanting Ozai dead, and asks about that. Aang, as might be expected, says no, since he decided as Avatar to let Ozai live in prison. Again, he says something that's arrogant but not necessarily wrong.
Of course, Katara disagrees, complaining about Aang's lack of regard for the consequences of his decisions on others, refusal to listen to what he doesn't want to hear and primarily uses his status as the Avatar to win arguments. That may be true for this fic, but in canon, Aang can do a better job of thinking of arguments in his favor. Katara then builds off of that, saying that Aang leaving Ozai alive will jeopardize the stability of the Fire Nation and make things difficult for Iroh and Zuko, but sardonically notes that it doesn't matter to him because he's the Avatar, and he doesn't see the Fire Nation as his problem.
Aang begins crying and Katara feels on the verge of tears herself. Bato asks Katara to stop, since she's upsetting Aang; if that's the most he can say in Aang's defense, it says a great deal about this. Katara doesn't stop, since she can't stop, and says that he should be upset, if that disabuses him of the notion that the world is great, and that he can do what he wants and get his way all the time. Katara then drives it home by saying that Aang let her down so badly she doesn't know if she can trust him again.
Let's take a moment to look at that last statement in depth. Throughout this fic and in canon, the Gaang have been portrayed as a close-knit group, and now, Katara is prepared to essentially cast Aang out of that group. I had always noticed that Katara mainly seemed to tolerate Aang at best, but this is something else. The Reality Ensues entry for this fic notes that Aang's decision cost him the respect of his friends as though he was getting his just desserts, in a tone that sounds as though it was written by Zutarians disgruntled with the canon outcome. I, as a Kataanger who doesn't believe that canon should bend over backwards for my favorite ship, hope it doesn't end this way. There's few things more depressing when one member of a group of friends is subject to Ron the Death Eater and/or Die for Our Ship for the sake of enabling a pairing, and that's what's happening to Aang here.
Aang stares at Katara in shock, at hearing this from Katara, the first person he's seen after 100 years frozen in the iceberg , his longest companion (along with Sokka), his canonical lover and eventual wife, and begins to cry. Katara regrets it for a moment, but sullenly notes that he made her cry first, and she returned the favor through Brutal Honesty.
Hakoda and Bato look at Katara, who shrugs off an attempt by Sokka to comfort her, thereby hurting his feelings, adding him to the list of people she offended today (and probably the first on the list of people she believes didn't deserve to be). With a sob she can't quite suppress, Katara runs off, and Hakoda tells Aang to give her some space.
It seems as though I've gotten through Katara letting off steam at Aang's so-called "abandonment," so perhaps the worst of the Author Tract against Aang is behind us. As unpleasant as it can be to slog through an author tract in prose form, I gain pleasure in shooting down the author's arguments against Aang letting Ozai live, which is one enjoyable part of doing this liveblog.
What I liked
- Good look at Sokka's Character Development regarding his sexism
- Some acknowledgment of Aang's heroics, if only out of pity and sexism.
What I didn't like
- Heavy-handed look at sexism that weakens Katara.
- Katara comes off as avoiding the problems until she's forced to talk, and resents those who don't understand her.
- EVERYTHING about Katara's rant at Aang. Enough said.
