Yeah, you have clearly never had to take care of a baby.
I'm not saying that tending babies makes you weak. I'm saying that Katara is being painted with an old stereotype brush. Do you think the happy and smiling homemaker from the 1950's - the good wife who always has her husband's dinner ready for him when he gets home - is a strong character? I'm saying that the way Katara is being portrayed is still very old-fashioned.
Her irrationality makes her frail, so she needs a strong man to make sure she doesn't get hurt. That's Katara in a nutshell, and that's the oldest stereotype of women you'll find.
And also, when was she helpless?
Maybe "helpless" isn't the right word. Katara is not a scale-tipping force in the show. She can resist. She can hold out. But she almost never wins. Look back at her major conflicts; with the exception of the Northern Water Tribe, Katara can't finish a fight on her own.
The way that she's weak is that she is not independent. Yes, the show emphasizes that we all need each other at times, but Katara is more needy than the rest of the cast.
I'm probably the last person to imagine sexism and misogyny where it doesn't really exist; while Katara's character has her strong moments, her overall character is still one that needs to have another, stronger character around in order to succeed, and I really dislike that message. Remember, this is the female lead; she's the one with which young girls are supposed to identify.
Well, I disagree with your interpretation, and I guess that's just how it's going to be. She might look weak to you through a male lens, but I don't think you're seeing the whole picture.
Maybe "helpless" isn't the right word. Katara is not a scale-tipping force in the show. She can resist. She can hold out. But she almost neverwins. Look back at her major conflicts; with the exception of the Northern Water Tribe, Katara can't finish a fight on her own.
I actually like that. It's realistic to have a character that's not riding the furthest edge of the bell curve. (Remember, if every character is the strongest man on Earth, you wind up with Dragonball Z.) Given that she's not, as I recall, a trained fighter, and that she's still pretty young, it would be unrealistic to expect her to win every fight she gets into, especially since a lot of them are against people who are trained fighters, and/or over the age of 13. And it's been a while so I could be misremembering, but I seem to recall that she lost her fight with the guy from the Northern Water Tribe as well, and ended up convincing him through other means, which emphasizes that while she's not afraid to get into a fight, fighting is not a defining point of her character.
And as to this being a misogynist message, I don't buy it. Typically, it's Aang that ends up saving Katara, and he's hardly a symbol of "male power." He's actually pretty androgynous. And, honestly, you could change Aang's gender and about the only part of the story that would change at all is that the Aang/Katara romantic subplot would take on an entirely different tone, and probably be removed altogether to keep the bible-bangers quiet. (Hell, about the closest any of the protagonists come to a symbol of masculinity is Sokka, and he usually needs saving just as much as Katara does. If they're trying to get a misogynist emssage across, they're doing a piss-poor job of it.)
But I could be dead wrong on all of this, I don't have a lot of practice with critical analysis. I was always more focused on enjoying stories than taking them apart. ^_^
I still never liked Azula as a character or a force of nature. Her craziness got more entertaining, but I still feel as though her character explanation was weaksauce.
I really wanted her to be redeemed in some way. She was so crazy, but you felt that it was totally her upbringing that did that to her. I really dislike the whole "character is just a bad seed" type of deal. Also, I really disliked the end of the show. It really fely like a deus ex machina what happened. I felt that the ending should have carried more weight, and there should have been more sacrifice on the part of the characters involved. [spoilers]It basically involved the firelord being spiritually lobotomized. I felt that if Aang could somehow have tapped into the small bit of goodness that is in him, cleansed him, and made him remember love, or his childhood. Every bad guy has a motive, and I feel that people may be evil and do evil things, but often it is their trauma experiences or mental illness that causes this. If Aang could have healed the fire lord, and then sent him off to live as a hermit in the mountains, that would have been a more satisfying ending. Either that, or Aang could have sacrificed himself in some way.[spoilers]
[semi-spoilers]The problem with this stems from the fact that this was not aimed at us, it was aimed a kid demographic; sure they added an amazing amount of depth and did a lot of research to create the world they presented to us (the end result was a beautiful world); it's still aimed at kids. [semi-spoilers]
On a slightly unrelated note, I've been re-watching the show and realized last night that people in the Avatar world people live a really really long time. For instance Fire Lord Sozen, he was probably in his 60's or 70's when Roku dies/Aang is born (if not older.) There are then another 12 years before Aang disappears/the war starts, so then around 70-80. Now his son, Azulan, who succeed him as Fire Lord served for 23 years, then Ozai for about 8 before the show starts/Aang awakens after 100 years. That means during that 100 years Sozen was Fire Lord for about 69 years, which makes him about 140 to 150 when he finally dies.
What about King Boomi? Not only is he over 100 years old but he is ripped!
I may have misheard. I'll have to watch Zuko Alone again, but I thought I heard them say during his funeral that he had been Fire Lord for 23 years. Maybe they had said since he was 20, or something like that.
At the time, no, they have no plans for book 4, the creators say that the story of the Avatar gang is over, and they don't plan on telling any more stories from that world.
At the time, no, they have no plans for book 4, the creators say that the story of the Avatar gang is over, and they don't plan on telling any more stories from that world.
Actually that's not true. It seems that they have started pre-production on a new Avatar show. Apparently titled Avatar: the Legend of Korra, that is set to take place 100 years after the events of A:tLA.
At the time, no, they have no plans for book 4, the creators say that the story of the Avatar gang is over, and they don't plan on telling any more stories from that world.
Actually that's not true. It seems that they have started pre-production on a new Avatar show. Apparently titledAvatar: the Legend of Korra, that is set to take place 100 years after the events of A:tLA.
Oh...Well...Interesting. I was completely unaware of this. Thanks for the info!
At the time, no, they have no plans for book 4, the creators say that the story of the Avatar gang is over, and they don't plan on telling any more stories from that world.
Actually that's not true. It seems that they have started pre-production on a new Avatar show. Apparently titledAvatar: the Legend of Korra, that is set to take place 100 years after the events of A:tLA.
Oh snap! The rumored project has been announced! I will be very interested in seeing where this will go.
I feel the same way...I have no expectations of this movie at this point, other than what is possibly poor acting on the part of some of the child actors, so I'm hoping I won't be too disappointed.
I doubt it much the way that there will never be an Ender's game movie and if there is it will suck, the main characters are way to young to be realistically portrayed in live action to the level that people will be happy with them. Either the children will be horrible actors or they will have to reduce a lot of what makes the work special to make it work in live action.
yeh a little disappointed, although not surprised, to hear that the movie is bad.
on the topic of feminism in AtLA, i mostly agree with pete. the way that the female characters were portrayed left a bad taste with me -- granted, i think the show handled it a lot (imagines an appa-alot) better than most shows, especially american kids shows (ahem, disney channel).
Girl Next Door / Drama Queen / Controlling, Protective, Nurturing Mother / Neglected lover / Victim -- Katara bending-capable, but not the bestest evar waterbender. she's into aang, in the 'always there for him' kind of way, despite the fact that when aang loses control and lashes out, she gets the brunt of it. she expresses her caring via controlling behaviors, which go unappreciated and are resented by the rest.
Tomboy / Nerd Girl / Makeover Girl / Waif Fu -- Toph bad-ass bender, 'one of the guys' and not interested in appearances (until she gets a makeover!)
Chief's daughter / Girl next door -- Yue
Girl next door / The Feminist -- Suki noticeably less powerful than Azula
Girl Triad: Dark Action Girl / Ice Queen / Dragon Lady / Daddy's Little Villain / Hysterical Woman / The Libby -- Azula bending-unstoppable, but power and the quest for power has broken her mind.
Edit: Like Ro, I too will continue to take these reviews with a grain of salt. Only until I see a full fledged review from an Avatar fan, will I make the ultimate decision on whether or not I'll see or pass on this.
I'm just going to wait until someone on the forum goes to see it (or when it's free for me to see it) to see what they say. The reviews are making me really not want to see it. I don't really like M. Night Shyamalamadingdong anyway, so it wouldn't be any skin off my nose to see another one of his movies.
Edit: Like Ro, I too will continue to take these reviews with a grain of salt. Only until I see a full fledged review from an Avatar fan, will I make the ultimate decision on whether or not I'll see or pass on this.
You know I like Avatar:TLA. And I walked out halfway through. I would rather have a catheter roughly inserted and then rapidly removed that waste my time on this dreck again.
Comments
Her irrationality makes her frail, so she needs a strong man to make sure she doesn't get hurt. That's Katara in a nutshell, and that's the oldest stereotype of women you'll find. Maybe "helpless" isn't the right word. Katara is not a scale-tipping force in the show. She can resist. She can hold out. But she almost never wins. Look back at her major conflicts; with the exception of the Northern Water Tribe, Katara can't finish a fight on her own.
The way that she's weak is that she is not independent. Yes, the show emphasizes that we all need each other at times, but Katara is more needy than the rest of the cast.
I'm probably the last person to imagine sexism and misogyny where it doesn't really exist; while Katara's character has her strong moments, her overall character is still one that needs to have another, stronger character around in order to succeed, and I really dislike that message. Remember, this is the female lead; she's the one with which young girls are supposed to identify.
I did wind up liking Mai and Ty Lee, Mai moreso, as she had more interaction. Also, the action at the end of the show got freaking epic. I loved it.
And as to this being a misogynist message, I don't buy it. Typically, it's Aang that ends up saving Katara, and he's hardly a symbol of "male power." He's actually pretty androgynous. And, honestly, you could change Aang's gender and about the only part of the story that would change at all is that the Aang/Katara romantic subplot would take on an entirely different tone, and probably be removed altogether to keep the bible-bangers quiet. (Hell, about the closest any of the protagonists come to a symbol of masculinity is Sokka, and he usually needs saving just as much as Katara does. If they're trying to get a misogynist emssage across, they're doing a piss-poor job of it.)
But I could be dead wrong on all of this, I don't have a lot of practice with critical analysis. I was always more focused on enjoying stories than taking them apart. ^_^
Momo appearance! Also lol@Sokka. He's also the guy who plays Jasper in the Twilight movies. I think he makes a good Sokka.
That's unfortunate, however I will watch the movie for myself and make my own judgments.
on the topic of feminism in AtLA, i mostly agree with pete. the way that the female characters were portrayed left a bad taste with me -- granted, i think the show handled it a lot (imagines an appa-alot) better than most shows, especially american kids shows (ahem, disney channel).
Girl Next Door / Drama Queen / Controlling, Protective, Nurturing Mother / Neglected lover / Victim -- Katara
bending-capable, but not the bestest evar waterbender. she's into aang, in the 'always there for him' kind of way, despite the fact that when aang loses control and lashes out, she gets the brunt of it. she expresses her caring via controlling behaviors, which go unappreciated and are resented by the rest.
Tomboy / Nerd Girl / Makeover Girl / Waif Fu -- Toph
bad-ass bender, 'one of the guys' and not interested in appearances (until she gets a makeover!)
Chief's daughter / Girl next door -- Yue
Girl next door / The Feminist -- Suki
noticeably less powerful than Azula
Girl Triad:
Dark Action Girl / Ice Queen / Dragon Lady / Daddy's Little Villain / Hysterical Woman / The Libby -- Azula
bending-unstoppable, but power and the quest for power has broken her mind.
Grotesque Cute / Girly Girl -- Tai li
Goth Girl -- Mai
Other Girl Triad / Female competition -- snobby girls in makeover episode
Evil Witch -- bloodbender
Sacrificial Mother -- Katara's mother, Zuko's mother
Femme Fatale -- hunter chick
Over-Forward Feminist -- zuko's date
not to say that the males aren't subject to similar archetypes, but i think they get the benefit of more complexity.
Edit: Like Ro, I too will continue to take these reviews with a grain of salt. Only until I see a full fledged review from an Avatar fan, will I make the ultimate decision on whether or not I'll see or pass on this.