Katara's Revenge: Why It's the Perfect Side Story

in book three of Avatar, The Last Airbender, there is an episode called Southern Raiders that heavily features Katara and Zuko; It's not actually part of the main

story

and if you skipped this episode you would probably still understand what happens over the course of the season, sure there are some things at the beginning that you would miss about why the group had to split up, but that could easily be incorporated into the beginning of the next episode. Most of this episode isn't strictly necessary, but it's still very good and I want it. to talk about why this is because in

story

telling you usually want everything to somehow advance the main plot, it makes a story feel very well put together when everything is going in the same direction, too many

side

stories can make the story drag. lose. their focus, but television shows that are given a set number of episodes per season often have filler episodes to help them fill out the season.

Many of these can make a show frustrating to watch because you feel like they never get to the actual plot, but in limited quantities, they can be a fun little break from the main story and, in some cases, can reveal things about a character. that you would never have learned otherwise. If it doesn't advance the main plot, it can at least provide new insight into why. a character is the way they are, that's what makes the story of Katara's Revenge. Up to this point, we know that her mother died when she was young, but we don't know many details about it, so this episode gives us a look at her. backstory and that can help us better understand their actions, which leads to a more satisfying show overall because we know more and care more about each character, while the main story could be about Aang stopping the Fire Lord, the motivations and desires of the other central character. characters like Katara Sokka and Zuko are equally important to making the show feel substantial and complete.

However, what this show could have done was have the guitars search for her mother's killer as something completely separate from the main story which would have been the easy way out. It doesn't require connecting any pieces to the larger story, but the episode doesn't do that. Instead, the catalyst for Katara wanting to find her mother is her distrust of Zuko, which is absolutely part of the main story from the beginning. Obviously, Zuko was Katara's enemy as he went on his quest to capture the avatar and restore her honor, but at the end of book 2, Katara slowly began to trust him, she thought he had changed, she thought he would help them, but when When the time came, he betrayed them by allowing his Allah to strike Aang with lightning nearly killing him and preventing him from entering the Avatar State after that traumatic betrayal.

Katara developed a strong dislike for Zuko even after he changed his mind and tried to come back and apologize to target. Katara and Sokka It took Aang and Sokka a while to trust Zuko, but they finally did. Aang is something of a master of forgiveness and Sokka wasn't there in person for Zuko's betrayal, but rather Katara for the time she spent with Zuko before. being betrayed, she couldn't forgive him, she had already started to trust him once and he destroyed that trust. It makes sense that she would be wary of trusting him again, but it's also a barrier to achieving the protagonist's main goal of defeating the enemy.

Fire Lord because he has to work with Zuko to help Aang prepare for his big battle, so the show has to address that somehow, which leads

perfect

ly into the Southern Raiders episode. There's already a story behind Katara and Zuko in this episode, which further connects it to the overall plot, but when Katara yells at Zuko and tells him that he should resurrect his mother, it's clear that her anger isn't just about to his betrayal, but to what the Fire Nation has done and still connects Zuko to Fire. Nation because he used to be on their

side

, so Zuko, who wants to be part of the group, decides to fix things by helping Katara get some kind of resolution, they hope to prove that he is no longer on the side of the Fire Nations, of course. yes.

It's not so easy when Katara finds out that he can find the person who kills his mother. You can see something changes in her. She is normally an optimistic and relatively peaceful character. She suddenly becomes serious and looks for blood. We see Katara full of anger for the first time. and I hate it so much in fact that we see her blood bending the last time she blood folded she cried about it hating the fact that she even learned how to do it for her blood bending now in this episode means she has really reached a level of rage that we've never seen before, we see a side of Katara that hasn't been present for most of the series, which gives her another dimension as a character that makes her feel more real, of course the real moral dilemma of the episode is If killing the person who killed her mother is better to take

revenge

or forgive in that sense, the program has an interesting answer that is somewhere in between.

She doesn't dare kill her mother's murderer but she gets very close and has him beg for her. her life, she doesn't fully explain her choice, other than to say that she can't do it, but it seems that the fact that he is no longer a threat plays a role, he is simply relaxing in a small town in the mountains, he is a He's a horrible person, but he doesn't fight back, he doesn't hurt people, he's just a pathetic person and she can't bring herself to kill someone like that and while that's an interesting moral dilemma and the climax of the episode, it's a kind of blip on the radar when As far as the overall story goes, the most important thing in that regard is how it affects your view of Zuko.

Zuko supported her throughout the search for her mother's killer and that seemed to mean something that in the end Katara didn't dare forgive him. she murdered, but when she thought about forgiveness, she found it in her heart to forgive Zuko because she knows it is the right thing to do in the future. This is a really important moment to repair her relationship because how else could Katara forgive Zuko after such a terrible betrayal? She would have to be through him taking high-risk actions to help her and she would have to sit back and contemplate who deserves forgiveness.

This episode ticked both boxes now that they can work together to help train Aang and advance the main story. just that, but Zuko actually connects everything to Aang's journey right at the end, Aang says that violence is never the answer and Zuko poses a very reasonable question: what are you going to do when you face my father? Aang will have to make a similar choice to Katara, except instead of a helpless old man he will be a tyrannical dictator who is trying to take over the world, someone who needs to be stopped, but with anxiety in the realm of forgiveness over violence, It is unclear how he will actually be able to do that and his concern about this is examined throughout later episodes until his actual battle with Ozai.

In this way, the Southern Raiders episode has big implications for the main story and, at the same time, is a standalone story and shows us a new side of Katara. This further clarifies her character and gives us new information about her backstory, such as the fact that her mother fights to save Katara by pretending to be the last waterbender, allows her to make peace with Zuko, and foreshadows what Aang will face. later. The episodes she says are integrated into the overall story like a side story could be and that's what makes it so strong. If you wanted to shorten the season, you could cut it out, have her forgive Zuko slowly over a couple of episodes, and continue with the main story. story, but then you'd be missing a big part of who Katara is, so this episode may not directly drive the main plot, but it's an important story nonetheless, in contrast to this it would be something like Episode Nine From book three, Nightmares and Daydreams In this episode, Aang worries about how he is going to defeat the Fire Lord while Zuko gets a taste of life in the Fire Kingdom.

It's a very important episode for Zuko's character, but almost everything Aang does could be removed without harming the overall story because even though Aang is the main character and worries about how to defeat the main protagonist, this episode doesn't really teach us anything. new about his character nor does it change his situation at all. Before this, he was going to try to defeat the Fire Lord even though he doesn't. I don't know how and after this he will try to defeat the Fire Lord even though he doesn't know how he ends up in the same place without revealing anything new about his character or his backstory, we already knew he was worried about this and having The Dreams about his worries probably didn't need to take up an entire episode, that's not to say the episode is bad, every show will have stronger or weaker episodes, but compared to the Southern Raiders episode, the nightmares and daydreams seem much more of a filler. despite its closeness to the main plot, because the things that drive the story don't have to be just about Aang and the Fire Lord, as long as they can give us enough new information or advance the overall story in some meaningful way if Aang The concern had been about something that happened to him in the past that we didn't know, it could have made the episode more shocking or if he had discovered some method to defeat the Fire Lord that he didn't have at the beginning because he doesn't do that, it feels more as filler, but the story of Katara's

revenge

gives us new information that deepens the relationships between the main characters and puts the said on a better path to defeat the Fire Lord, since her Firebending teacher and her teacher of Waterbending now gets along well.

This is just to say that, while I love this entire series, I think Katara's revenge story is one of the strongest side stories of the three books and I think it's a good example of what makes a side story. feels solid and meaningful anyway. Thank you so much for watching this video, if you enjoyed it I would really appreciate your support on Patreon. I am only able to make these videos thanks to the generosity of my Patreon supporters and your support on Patreon would mean a lot to me and help me. Make me more videos like this in the comments let me know what you thought of the episode of Southern Raiders and what is your favorite episode of the series thanks everyone and see you next time.