No, you know what, I'm not done. I'm so sick of how canon treats Katara. Mild spoilers for Legend of Aang under the cut. In this movie:
She's the one in Republic City at the start doing all the work of building the new era of peace while the others are off doing whatever in different parts of the world (Zuko is running a country so he gets a pass) and yet still no statue of her? It would have been super easy to add one in as part of an establishing shot outside a Water Tribe building, but no, that's apparently too much effort. She's doing all the hard graft and gets none of the credit? Where have I heard that one before...
Then there's her first set of scenes with Aang. All he does his show up to be healed and then leave without even having the decency to wait until the morning or wake her up to say goodbye again in person. No asking her how her time has been spent, or how she is, it's all about his pain. Granted, he's had an awful day and they could have discussed her life offscreen, but it's the optics of the thing - even the concept that Katara might have an internal life beyond what Aang wants seems alien, it's like she just switched on when he showed up
Not once in this movie does her own pain as a survivor of genocide get a chance to be aired when it's super fucking relevant to the discussion, actually. Not once is it ever considered that she might have wanted to go back to her own people to rebuild Southern waterbending traditions, not once does Aang voice gratitude for what she's given up to follow his dream
She confronts Aang about being reckless and oblivious to the people around him, again; he doesn't listen to her, again; she is forced to compromise to go along with what he wants, again, without any acknowledgement of her concerns, and it gets the entire Gaang in trouble. They're meant to be adults now, why does it feel like I'm watching Book One again?
And then of course there's me finding it icky how thoroughly she defers to Aang and sets aside her own goals to align with his vision for the future. Where's the girl who stole from pirates and overmastered the creator of bloodbending and told Master Pakku where to shove it? Doesn't she get to have a legacy?
It really says something that not even Bryke could let their super special canon ship have a dramatic ghibli kiss without Sokka interrupting to call it cringe. Like, yes, Bryke, that was awkward and uncomfortable for everyone. Almost as if they couldn't help but admit in the first fifteen minutes of the movie that Ka/taang is bad for both Katara and Aang
Also telling that they were too cowardly to let Katara and Zuko interact at all and even removed Zuko's lightning scar - even standing next to each other they had a ridiculous amount of chemistry
