Thread:Scabbard17/@comment-39991522-20190826230533/@comment-26364383-20190829023204

"She's dependent on herself, dude. She always has been, and she always will be." I remember  show Katara being very capable and self-reliant but comics and Korra Katara are different beasts entirely.

Katara was a focal point in N&S but Hakoda was the one kidnapped for his importance in politics, he had a love interest who was tied to the villain who even got a fake-out death (what a lame plot point), and (if I remember correctly) the comic also focuses on him talking about wanting to love again and how Katara needs to/should accept the woman (even though she has perfectly valid reasons to not accept her entirely outside of her working with the North). It was just another comic about Katara's opinion and feelings being in the wrong and her being forced to prioritize someone else's feelings over her own without her own feelings being given enough consideration. Which happens a lot in the comics. I can think of one time where Katara was able to fight on her own without being damselled and without bringing up Aang as her boyfriend at the same time which was in the best comic- The Rift.

It's part of Katara's character that she doesn't lean on others, they lean on her- except Aang. It's in the intro, it's in the first and second episodes, it's there in nearly every dramatic scene between the two. She relies on Aang to give her hope but when she needs him ("The Desert", "The Awakening", "The Southern Raiders", "Sozin's Comet" (which isn't really his fault buthe still stormed off) he's not there in return. But he still expects her to return his feelings. And to be fair, he puts in the effort to express how he feels, there's no mistake about that. But the show only bothers once to show her romantic feelings towards Aang in detail ("The Headband") outside of a single-once-per-episode scene, usually at the end of the episode or occurring right before an event that leaves no time to follow up on her feelings ("The Fortuneteller", "The Cave of Two Lovers", "Day of Black Sun"). To be clear, I blame the show for this, not Aang. Little dude tried multiple times to confess his feelings only for the show to lamely stop him or move Katara away. It's so soap opera. AtLA deserved better.