A second anti-Kataang vent, but a little more coherent and organised this time.
Have you ever stopped to think about how toxic Kataang actually is?
1. It’s forced from the first episode.
Here’s a kid who wakes up after being in a coma for a hundred years, sees the first girl ever, and goes “I'mma make her mine for the rest of her life.” Seriously?
2. It’s not 100% consensual.
Aang repeatedly forces himself on Katara, physically and emotionally. She’s never asked about her feelings or what she wants; it’s all about his feelings and what he wants, to the point where he actively disrespects her when she heavily implies she doesn’t want a relationship.
3. The obsessive attachment is unreal.
Throughout the entire show, Aang is overly fixated on her, to the point of being possessive (as in “Jet” and “Crosssroads of Destiny”) and putting the world at risk because of his attachment to her. He was willing to sacrifice his destiny, and the world’s health, because he refused to let go of his unhealthy obsession with her.
4. Katara alone inherits the love and grief of his people.
“The Guru” flat-out said that this poor girl was the object of Aang’s trauma, the manifestation of his lost culture. That’s an incredible burden, unfair for a young girl who has enough troubles of her own.
5. After the war, she loses her independence.
She seems to become just an extension of Aang. Everything she is and does now is dependent on him. She’s his sidekick, his source of support, his second banana. She isn’t herself anymore.
Relationships are supposed to allow each party to grow through the other. Aang sure grows through Katara, but as for her part? She ultimately goes from a passionate, restless warrior to a homebody, from an amazingly powerful, independent young woman to the mother of Aang’s children. The Gaang all have achievements to speak of…except her. She’s just the Avatar’s wife. No more “Master Katara” or “Sifu Katara.” She’s “Mrs. Avatar.”
7. The kiss is all that mattered.
The show about children rising above adversity, coming into their own, finding and redeeming themselves, & ending a century-long war that a world of adults couldn’t end…
This amazing story of strength and valour ends with "the hero gets the girl,” as if that’s all that really mattered. Who cares about all the lives they’ve saved? The new course they’ve charted for the world? The winner gets his trophy. That’s the moral of the story.
8. Their relationship wasn’t founded on healthy means.
Bryke seriously looked at two traumatised children and thought it would be a good idea to couple them for the rest of their lives.
They can’t naturally have a romantic love in their circumstances. Their love is emotional. After everything they’ve been through, independently and together, they’ve become attached to each other. They (or at least Aang) have mistaken their severe emotional dependence upon each other for romantic love. Do they honestly desire each other? Or are they just terrified of losing each other, like they’ve lost so many others in their lives?
So you still want Kataang to happen. Okay, at least give it a couple years. They need a lot of time to heal and get their heads together. They need time to grow independently. They need space–physically, mentally, and emotionally. They’re still children. They’ve been through more hell than most adults. Forcing them into a relationship that they weren’t in the right space to have is unconscionable.