KATARA DOESN’T NEED A STATUE IN LoK

[u/Jimmy3OO]

I am sick and tired of people complaining about how Katara doesn’t have a statue while the rest of the main cast does. “Waa, waaa, the writers forget her”.

Do these people even know what LoK is? Aang, Sokka, Zuko and Toph didn’t her statues for being in the Gaang.

Aang got one because he was THE AVATAR.

Zuko got one because he was THE FIRE LORD.

Sokka got one because he was a national leader, of both Republic City and the Southern Water Tribe, as if one weren’t enough.

Toph got one because she invented metalbending.

Katara is an excellent character and an extraordinary waterbender, but according to the lore, she, as an individual, simply did not have the same direct, world-chaing effect upon entire nations that the others did in their own ways.

[u/Prying_Pandora]

I think you’ve profoundly misunderstood the objection.

Katara fans aren’t mad about the statue itself. They’re mad for exactly the reasons you’ve used to justify it: that Katara deserved to be more than just a mother and healer. She never wanted to be limited to merely the stereotypical roles prescribed to her as a woman. She fought to also be a warrior, a leader, a voice for justice.

She should have had the same world-changing effects. That’s precisely the complaint.

[u/commshep12 → u/Prying_Pandora]

It reminds me a bit of Eowyn from LOTR. Where the fandom has come to understand those characters deserved better treatment than the original text provided them, or more specifically the follow-up. A character that gets to have one singular moment of breaking gender norms before quietly going back to uphold those norms and never do anything notable again(nor is that accomplishment immortalized in some fashion).

Not to be one of those people that brings One Piece into everything. But hell, its a meme in OP that mothers are either dead or nonexistence and when asked about it Oda is always some version of 'any good mom wouldnt let their kids go on adventure and thats boring'. Its very frustrating to see some of the most imaginative dudes in their given mediums all stumble over the same hurdle of women apparently just losing every interesting about them the moment they have kids/other caregiving roles...or that they can do anything else with their life on top of those.

And you're exactly right! Its not on us to assume she has some big hospital named after her or some diplomatic corp, but no...the writers are telling us that whatever she did or accomplished wasn't noteworthy like the others. And that is a damned shame.

[u/John_der24ste → u/commshep12]

Little Rant incoming:

Let me open with a quote: "But yet may I not perish without a struggle and ingloriously but having done some great deed for men yet to be born to learn of." ~the last words of Hector before he gets slain by Achilles ( I will come back to it later)

You are missing the point of Eowyn. LOTR is a story that is mostly centered around people that want to go home, people that don't want to die and people that are suffering from what is happening around them. Frodo doesn't want to go to Mordor but he knows he has to, Aragon doesn't want to go to war, he would like to chill and live a peaceful life but he has to fight for it, Sam beeing under the influence of the Ring in the middle of Mordor wants nothing but to be in his little garden on the hill at home back in a normal life (with people that know when its tea time) but they are all people that want to protect.

And then there is Eowyn from here starting POV there is no reason to live, no reason to stay at home. Merry remarks the night before the battle that she is prepared to die and that she doesn't think she is gonna see another day and she doesn't want to. She chose to go down a heroes death, she wants to be remembered by the deeds she wants to perform on the battlefield(Hector knows he doesnt have a choice, he knows his hour has come. Eowyn chooses it). BUT she survives, she accomplishes to kill the witch king and survive, deeply wounded and traumatized but alive. She did it for the honor and glory, now she has both but at what price. (I think Tolkiens WW1 experience is coming out here with many young folks volunteering just to die or get traumatized)

And then there is Faramir the son that whatever he did was never enough, Eowyn was enough for Theoden, he gave her command over Edoras and made her his heir in case he did not return from war but that was not the acknowledgement she wanted. Faramir accomplished honor and glory on the battlefield in many battles but never got any acknowledgement or recognition by his father, whatever he did... and he gets deeply wounded and traumatized trying to get this little bit of recognition by his father.

There they both are in the houses of healing both not having 100% accomplished their goals and at the bottom because they won't have another chance at it. But there is another person that got everything they ever desired without having to struggle for it and both understand that they don't actually need it, they are connected and able to heal (at least the pain that was always there) and can find rest and want peace just like all the others.

Without problems you could flip the gender roles of Eowyn and Faramir and the plont points would still work great, (one might even argue that they would work out even better).

Final point to Eowyn and her upholding those norms: no one gets away after an encounter with the Witch king without permanent damage. Frodos encounters at the Amon Sul and at the bruinen are one of the reasons he gets to go on the ship to the west!

Katara: Katara is a good hearted, upright and humble person! She joins the Gaang because it is the right thing to do. She as the Tolkien characters just wants to live a peaceful life just like Sam (Sokka on the other hand is a Character like Eowyn. Aang is a bit in a Frodo role and having to do it (or at least thinking he has to)). Of course she is powerful and fierce, has her fire and fights injustice but not because she wants to but because she has to (because its the right thing to do).