The Failed Femininity of Netflix's Katara

last year some idiot made a video titled Toth andara strong female characters Don Wright in this atrocious video essay he posited that the female leads of avatar The Last Airbender are two shining examples of how to display femininity through two drastically different yet wonderfully and lovingly crafted characters this believed that their compassion caring patience persistence passion and hopefulness not simply their ability to throw natural elements at bad guys was what made them much needed paradigms of powerful feminine virtue in the modern world of entertainment well thankfully Netflix came along to show that simpleton what a true strong woman should be like all right that's enough of the sarcasm shtick I can't have that be my whole identity it truly is remarkable how Hollywood manages to mangle female characters time and time again oh they get it at least somewhat right every once in a while most recently Mizu from blue-eyed Samurai despite her incredible power is actually done quite well but the majority of major releases featuring a woman of some skill or ability continue to go down the same route writing characters whose Central Arc is that of self-actualization whose struggles are dwarfed by their natural talent and who can win the day by just being themselves and not holding back what's incredibly depressing about many of these stories is not just that they follow the same innan blueprint but also that they manage to mangle the unique carefully constructed Arc of the original character and make her worse in every possible way call me impossibly optimistic but I was beginning to think that maybe we were growing out of this phase that the industry realized that these sorts of character arcs are wildly unpopular with audiences that the writers had finally decided to inject some life into the dull wooden self-fulfilling girl bosses that plagued the late 2010s if any show were to break that mold surely it would be the adaptation of the Masterpiece that is Avatar The Last Airbender surely Netflix would see the Brilliance of the original and Main maintain the depth of its characters who form the very heart of that incredible story well it didn't now qara is hardly the only character to which Netflix did a grave disservice almost every character in the adaptation acts like they're doing a half-hearted job of trying to keep Co from stealing their face and even those actors who managed to rise above the incredibly mediocre script have their characters severely downgraded from their original form but someone had to be first on the chopping block and since I'm a chalous sort of fellow I say ladies first and so we begin with qara OR that is the simulacrum of qara that completely misses the mark set by her animated counterpart the first hint that 2024 qar would lack some key character elements comes at the very beginning with the opening voiceover which lacks the iconic line but I believe Ang can save the world and doesn't actually seem to be given by qara at all and yes I know that the opening monologue in the first episode of the original doesn't have that line but it expresses the same sentiment of hope that is absolutely crucial to qara as a character despite that the First new episode does give us the sense that it understands the importance of qatar's Relentless hopefulness as she tells Saka that's what the Avatar is he's hope and people need that just as much as they do food and shelter this unyielding belief that you can make a difference no matter the odds if you simply try to help people in need is what makes qara qara it enables her to be the Beating Heart of Team Avatar to be the glue that holds them together when they're on the brink of collapse so it was encouraging to hear her Express this sentiment so early on the problem however is that it almost never comes up again in the following six plus hours of runtime the only other time we get any sort of speech about Hope comes in the spirit world episode where Netflix simply copies and pastes qatar's original line about New Life coming out of death beyond that the overly emotional qara who can't help but make weepy speeches about Hope just isn't there a fact which highlights the real issue with Netflix's qara which demonstrates why she is a failure of femininity she just isn't much of anything low resolution qara doesn't just fail in her femininity because she's not as motherly or because her romantic relationship with Ang is nuked from orbit or because she doesn't men Sak's pants after all femininity cannot be constrained to a certain set of behaviors or practices it is simply about living virtuously as a woman so we must ask the question then is carbon copy qara virtuous well no not really that's not to say that she's a bad person or that she's swimming in vices she's a modern heroin of course she isn't but rather that the virtues of compassion affection trust ardor and of course hope which defined qara simply are not present they are Stripped Away almost completely leaving imitation qara Hollow shallow and lacking meaningful character work her failure as a character as a woman is not so much defined by what Netflix did with with her Arc as it is by what they didn't do Kara's relationship with Ang reduced to the level of buddies who do stuff together she's not the one to pull him out of the Avatar state of the Southern air Temple Saka accompanies her through the cave of Two Lovers yeah that's in the first season now there's simply nothing Beyond to them just kind of hanging out and going on their trip together all the fun interpersonal dialogue that takes place in the original is nowhere to be found here the show just assumes that because they're doing things together they care about each other in some vague friend-like way remember how qara gave an incredibly idealistic and overly optimistic speech to the imprisoned earthbenders sure that her words would drive them to fight for their freedom and then when that failed had to temper her Relentless sense of hope with some realism and practicality in order to make things work out yeah that's just not here you know how qara became totally smitten with and completely trusted jet this swaave dashing freedom fighter who is as good with people as he is with his swords and how the discovery that he was in fact quite the monster deeply Disturbed her the Betrayal of her trust left a lasting wound because of her great capacity to care and love nah now she just finds out he's a terrorist snarks him a little bit and goes on her Merry way without a second thought so what does that leave us what remnant of katara's personality is there left to work with well pretty much one thing and one thing only rending Xerox Kara's entire character Arc is just her learning how to be a master water bender but not just that she has to be a fighter of course the original handles this subject as well but we'll get to that comparison later right from the start clone qara proudly proclaims to Ang I'm a warrior this is despite the fact that she literally just told Saka not everything is about preparing to fight but that was for his character Arc not hers so there's obviously no need for her to be consistent and oh you best believe we'll be talking about how they massacred my boy Saka but getting back to teu Katara who is now arguing with Saka about whether or not they should go with a or return to the southern water tribe I refuse to call it wolf Cove her argument that they need to help the Avatar save the world doesn't sway her older brother but you know what does her declaration that it's about more than just helping Ang that is to say it's about her before Ang showed up she couldn't bend with a darn but now thanks to a couple of pointers about energy that he gave her she can do all sorts of water bending I can't go back is her definitive statement and that is how she wins the argument that is why Saka accompanies her on this journey because wish.com Katara needs to be able to water bend naturally qara learning to waterbend is a significant part of her character in book one however learning a skill is not the most interesting character work how they learn that skill is far more compelling the challenges that characters have to overcome and the sacrifices they have to make are the key elements of such a journey such struggles were how qara displayed her growth in virtuous femininity as she fought through her self-doubt and learned to temper her wildly optimistic expectations with practicality remember how Ang was a naturally talented water bender while qara struggled to get the form correctly remember how that deeply frustrated her and remember how she then surpassed Ang in skill because she refused to let that frustration stand in her way and worked far harder than her airheaded counterpart it's hard to forget assuming you've seen the original show it's a pretty crucial character point for both qara and a well to nobody's surprise it's gone here Netflix took that scene and then just gave impressionist qara the natural Talent a even tells her as much you're a natural he says you're a real water bender qara now it's not necessarily a problem for someone to be naturally good at something or even fully self-taught to the level of Mastery in that discipline but if they are and they don't really struggle as qara is now not struggling then there needs to be something else with which they struggle there needs to be other character work happening and for Clarence ale Katara there simply is nothing else going on she's learning to bend that's her en enire character Arc and while becoming proficient at water bending did really matter to qara her journey was given more flavor and depth by the presentation of Ang is naturally skillful a fact that annoyed qara it did not prevent her from ultimately becoming his teacher why cut that out it just takes away from both characters it gives faximile Ang less maturity to gain as he no longer has to overcome the laziness associated with natural talent and it makes knockoff qara far less perseverant because she doesn't have that example of skill toward which she must work however it wouldn't be fair for me to say that she doesn't struggle at all with water bending when trying to figure out the water whip mimic qara can't quite get it right and when Ang tells her to tap into her emotions she flashes back to her mother dying and fails even more spectacularly this comes up again when she's talking with jet who reveals that my mother was the fighter in my family because of course she was and parody qara mentions how the thoughts of the night her mother died have been coming back to her and I think it's been affecting my bending jet tells her that you have to use use everything inside you to help you fight and asks her to remember what Kaa was like before she died upon doing so azat Katara can now whip water with the best of them on the face of it this isn't bad finding healing by remembering how your deceased mother loved you how she found joy in the sunrise and the little things of life makes some passible sense the problem once again lies not so much in what this scene is but rather in what it isn't what did it mean for qara to lose her mother it meant that she despite being younger had to essentially become aka's mother had to raise her older brother that she had to take on duties within their home and their Village far beyond those typical for her age it forced her to mature far faster than normal it caused her to lose much of the Innocence and carefreeness inherent in childhood it drove her to be protective and cautious even to a fault in other words it had a deep and lasting impact on qara shaping the very nature of her personality motivations and fears but for kind of qara her mother's death is really only important because it relates to her bending because her bending and her desire to be a warrior Bender is the only significant consistent character trait present in this poor imitation of our favorite loopy haired heroin in the first episode as mentioned she tells Ang I'm a warrior despite having no training or actual water bending ability at that point in the second episode she reads Grandma Exposition scroll which tells her you are a water bender that's who you have always been in the third episode jet tells her I had a feeling you knew how to handle yourself because fighting prowess is absolutely the first thing that comes to you when looking at the small child in the fourth episode episod qara discovers Jet's terrorist ways and confronts him and then freezes him causing him to say look at the power you have that's because of me but oh no we can't have that be true qara must be selfmade that wasn't you that was me even though she later tells Saka jet he helped me through some things now this could work as an admission that her earlier statement to Jet was in fact just her Pride her not wanting to admit that the boy she now despises could have helped her but it's never built upon Beyond this one line which is a missed opportunity to you know do some actual character work in the fifth episode qara single-handedly sends an entire Squad of firebenders flying without impaling any of them because this is still a kid show and Ang of course notes how she is inventing new moves that's the mark of a skilled bender and then when we flash back to the day kar's mother dies Kaa tells her someday you will show the world just how powerful you are and oh my goodness can we please not I mean you are one iteration from literally just saying I Am Woman Hear Me Roar and look Kara wanting to be a skilled waterbender and wanting to be able to fight to protect her home and her friends is not a bad thing it is in fact a very good thing but it cannot be everything A's entire character Arc is not just learning the three other elements so he can save the world it's also about Freedom maturity responsibility guilt and the importance of one's fastly held beliefs and those elements give his Arc death this show understands that to a degree it didn't do the best job with h and much of what makes him a beloved character has been been Stripped Away but at least there is an attempt to have him work through his guilt and the weight of his duty separate from his training in the bending Arts which this season just doesn't include for some unfathomable reason when the focus of a character is on her power she becomes hardly a character at all she's basically just a weapon team Avatar uses qara it's super effective is that what we want from our heroins that they're just swords to be wielded by the story to cut down bad guys and yes simulation qara is fighting the bad guys is in fact on the right side but her attention is so inward focused that it hardly matters remember how qara just wanted the earthbenders to rise up and fight even if she could hardly bend a bubble at that time remember when qara urged Ang to enter the sanctuary at roku's Temple even though it meant sacrificing her freedom and maybe her life remember when qara defended Ang's honor in the storm only to find out that his story was more complex than she realized but then encouraged him nonetheless assuring Ang that it was meant to be that if he had stayed he would have been killed along with the rest of the Southern air temple side note Netflix gave that line in a lot of guitar's relationship with Ang to monk gatso in case you needed further proof that they intentionally downplayed qara and Ang's relationship they knew Ang needed to be encouraged and consulted but we couldn't have Captain qara doing that because that would distract her from bending all of that to say qara does a lot a lot of important noteworthy impactful stuff without having to waterbend one drop I ask you what is a better example of strong beautiful femininity a heroin who can throw some H2O around or one who can motivate Inspire and build up others while simultaneously learning how to become whole herself the answer of course is someone who can do both yes not Tara ostensively wants to be able to bend to protect those who cannot protect themselves but there's so little relationship building and so much me water bender you see talk that any sense of self- gift or self- sacrifice gets drowned out but let's talk about that both thing because yes of of course the real qar does in fact very much care about being able to water bend she goes to Great Links to acquire the waterbending scroll which is a far more creative and interesting way to show how much qara wants to learn water bending than just having her tell us I'm a warrior and having Grandma Exposition tell her that she has always been a water bender so naturally when paku refuses to train qara upon team Avatar's arrival at the northern water tribee she is mildly perturbed to say the least however you may recall despite her frustrations Within North stagi customs and her personal irritation with Master paku Kara still wants Ang to train under him this is naturally because she recognizes that there are far more important things at stake here than her own ability to master water bending the Avatar learning all four elements is the Paramount mission of Team Avatar and so she encourages a to learn from Baku even if he is a big jerk once again that element of the story is simply not present in the Netflix show as mentioned Ang doesn't water bend ever and buck9 Katara only ever makes one half-hearted attempt to get him to try so Netflix paku isn't for Netflix a he's for Netflix qara because everything in relation to her is for the purpose of getting her to water bend and the writers weren't satisfied with paku merely upholding the tribe's Customs they had to make it personal you're not strong enough women aren't strong enough he tells her yeah um that's a stupid argument and the original show doesn't have him make it for a reason these are basically magical Powers even an old coo like paku would recognize that physical strength has very little to do with the actual ability to fight especially since he is a master of water bending an art defined by using the strength of one's opponent against him you could make all sorts of suggestions as to why the northern water tribe only trains men to fight you could suggest that men are naturally more aggressive or more naturally protective that keeping the women away from the front lines is an honorable thing to do but whether you believe that or not isn't really relevant broad rules like men fight women heal can be generally helpful but exceptions can and should be made when necessary all Benders one might say should have the freedom to do their Duty Kara's Duty in both the original and the knockoff is to protect and train a so yes she is right she should be allowed to train under paku should be allowed to stand against the fire Benders in combat however just because you're right about one thing doesn't sanctify all your other related arguments Hox qara tells Saka all my life I'd held myself back and I'm not going to let someone else do it now which isn't true true you could say that Grandma Exposition held her back by not giving her the water bending scroll but we have seen no evidence that qara herself ever reigned in her bending abilities for any reason whatsoever the first time we see her she is practicing water bending and then she immediately proceeds to argue with Saka about the value of said art there is no reason to inject this line into the story other than to paint qara as a self-made self-actualizing girl boss whose entire character Arc revolves around her ability to do a thing what a waste ah but we still have her duel with paku what will Netflix do will they actually let their qara lose well yes it turns out the writers were smart enough to not change that element of the story realizing that it would probably anger a lot of fans even though they think we somehow wouldn't notice everything else they Stripped Away from Her character however they altered the tone of the fight and its narrative impact significantly all to suit robot katara's so-called character development first after losing she asks paku but you still won let me fight and he affirms that wait hold up fight not train fight not only is this contrary to the narrative given by the original show where qara needed a master to train her it contradicts this show where qara very clearly states her need and desire to train under the masters of the northern water tribe she even goes into detail about what aspects of her bending she thinks need Improvement but I guess we've forgotten about all that because qara is enough for qara second of course everyone just congratulates her for losing impressively so it's basically like she didn't lose at all because we can't really have qara lose third remember how paku after having won the fight sees Kara's necklace and recognizes it as the one he carved for his betroth a woman he loved but one who left for the South Pole in rejection of the North's rigid Customs remember how recalling that painful memory caused him to recognize that his inflexible ways should bend a little and so he agrees to train qara along with h yeah that's not here either okay well why not easy if paku came to that realization about their Customs through the memory of his past lost love that would mean that Katara wasn't the one to change his mind and they needed qara to be the one to change his mind and so on the very brink of battle qara goes to even the odds and then approaches Master paku stating you know we can make a difference and by we she of course means all the women of the tribe that's right Katara has brought to the front line of battle dozens of women whose only ability waterbending wise is healing I don't need to go into detail as to why this is a terrible plan right we all understand that these women are going to be massacred because they have absolutely no idea what to do unless of course they've all just been practicing in secret all these years orar gave a brief PowerPoint presentation based off her scroll that conveniently enabled all the women to instantly learn the martial art side of water bending but who cares about logical consistency this is about qara proving to the big bad man that girls can fight to nothing shall stand in her way again qara is right and paku is wrong this is established in the original show but while that story handled the resolution of this conflict with some tact and added depth to pak's character in the meanwhile the adaptation just has Katara beat him over the head until he yields no surprise there really the show is hamfisted and heavy-handed in practically all its storytelling would you like proof surely you don't need more but in the spirit of hamfisted I'm giving you more remember the iconic line of zuku you little peasant you found a master haven't you well to my unironic delight that line Finds Its way into the adaptation but of course paku didn't actually train simum qara he just let her fight so what will qara say to Zuko's inquiry you're looking at her ladies and gentlemen of the jury I rest my case Netflix qara is a water bender that's it that's all she is that is her entire character oh there are the occasional lines tossed in there to try and give her something else like at the end of the season when she tells Avatar rage monster I need you but those moments just serve to remind us of how underdeveloped her character has been throughout the show does she need Ang why sure in the first episode she proclaimed that the Avatar is Hope and she needs hope but where has that been for the past six plus hours of runtime the sentiment wasn't built upon in the slightest qara spends the majority of most episodes away from Ang she's with jet outside omashu with Saka in the cave of Two Lovers by herself in the spirit world not in masks at all and mostly with paku at the North Pole and the scenes they do have together they're mostly just in them together they have one or two lip service bonding scenes that do very little to actually establish their relationship and practically nothing to suggest that qara needed Ang for anything more than jump starting her waterbending battery this moment isn't a bad one in a vacuum qara should need Ang and Ang should respond to katara's need for him the problem is this moment doesn't exist in a vacuum it occurs within the context of a show that is done next to nothing to Dev the relationship the writers now want you to believe exists because they recognize just how important that relationship is for the narrative despite the fact that they've ignored it entirely for 95% of the show at its core femininity is relational let not to say that masculinity isn't but let's not go down that rabbit hole this is because the virtues necessary for True genuine femininity enable one to relate properly to others qara displays many such virtues some established some still developing throughout the original show compassion passion perseverance selflessness patience understanding and hopefulness are all core parts of who qara is they give her character depth they make her feel real Netflix qara feels like a cookie cutter girl boss from 2019 she has been stripped of those virtues that defined her save for a mild sprinkling here and there and left only with her skill and combat ability as her defining character traits the attainment of said skill as her only character growth and the realization that she is her own Master is the Fulfillment of her character Arc what a waste

Channel: Master Samwise

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Id: JxL4G4bGkaI

Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024