“Katara constantly is all over Aang and taking care of him and being affectionate, she’s coddling him and is basically his mommy”
Have you considered that physical touch is an established way Katara shows love and that she’s got her hands all over Aang and is acting like that toward him because she has romantic feelings for him? Because that’s literally just how she treats someone she is in love with. Have you tried not to project weird stuff onto a 14 year old girl that likes her best friend?
It’s canonical fact that Aang never asked her to do any of that for him. Ever. It’s straight up depicted on screen that he actually struggles to accept her behavior toward him, numerous times. They devoted actual screen time to show that for Aang, receiving such a high level of affection and love from Katara is difficult for him to allow himself to accept because it’s not something he is used to. And he explicitly thanks her for it, and repeatedly acknowledges all she does for him. He’s incredibly grateful to her, at the end of the day. It’s very much not the norm for the male character to treat the female character like this in romantic storylines, especially ones written in the early 2000’s… Aang never asked for any of this from Katara but she willingly gives it because she loves him, and he is incredibly thankful to her. And while Aang isn’t as physically affectionate, he shows an equal level of love to Katara in acts of service and words of affirmation, something Katara clearly appreciates and is thankful for as well. I will never understand what there is to hate about this. They’re a happy couple who work well together. The horror!!
