I don't think I'm overstating when I say that Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most important pieces of kids television ever created. Its beautiful animation inspired by Japanese anime paired wonderfully with its story of a young boy that offered the world hope. But it was the fantastic group of characters that truly sold it.
Aang was sympathetic as a boy who was being forced to put his childhood on hold to save the world. Zuko was heartbreaking in the way he struggled with doing what his powerful family expected of him. Sokka was welcome comic relief, but was layered by caring deeply for his companions. And Katara was the heart that held it all together, helping Aang through each tough moment.
Each of the characters seen on the show had their own strengths and weaknesses, whether they be through battle, strategy, or wit. But one of them seemed to be a bit more gifted than the others. While Zuko and his sister Azula were intimidating fighters thanks to their years of training in the Fire Nation, Aang was powerful because he was the Avatar and also had some training growing up.
Katara, on the other hand, grew up as the only water bender in her village. She hadn't been trained by anyone, yet it didn't take her long to become one of the strongest and most capable warriors on the show. That isn't to say that Katara is a bad character; she is actually my personal favorite.
But when it comes to pure, apparently inherent skill, there is no one who can match her. Here are 25 ways Katara is too overpowered.
25 She Taught Herself
Katara seems to have been born with an amount of skill that many other benders simply weren’t. Because of the Fire Nation, Katara grew up in secret as the only water bender in the South Pole. She therefore had no one to teach her how to bend.
Despite this, Katara was still able to teach herself some basic moves. While these were still incredibly basic, and it would take some time before she could fight, it’s still impressive that she had no one to teach her these steps. Especially since the Earth and Fire Nations have many schools and masters.
24 She Broke Aang Out Of The Iceberg
The first waterbending we see Katara do is catch a fish in a bubble. But the second bit of waterbending we see her do is much more impressive. After Katara and Sokka crash their rowboat due to some rough waters, Katara begins to lose her temper with her brother because of something dumb he says.
Every time Katara loses her temper, she does something inexplicably strong.
In this case, she cracks a giant (and I do mean GIANT) iceberg open, revealing a smaller globe of ice with the Avatar inside. For someone with no training, that’s remarkable.
23 She Froze Jet
Being able to freeze someone may not sound too overpowered given that many waterbenders, including Katara, would do it later in the show. But considering when this took place, it still points to how powerful Katara is.
While defending Aang from the rebel, she beat Jet into submission with multiple blasts of water before freezing him to a tree with her breath. It’s only the tenth episode of the show and she was the first water bender shown to do this, with seemingly no training to do so.
22 She's An Impressive Healer
While Katara is taught some healing at the North Pole, she learns how to do so before the team ever reaches that location. When Aang meets a deserter from the Fire Nation, he convinces him to teach him some moves.
This leads to him accidentally burning Katara’s hands, though she is able to heal herself with some water rather easily.
Katara would later use water from a Spirit Spring to bring Aang back from the the grave and become one of the best healers in the world. She also teaches her skills in The Legend of Korra.
21 She Can Fight Defensively
Another quality that may not sound as impressive as it is. Just like she had no training in traditional bending or healing, Katara has also had no training in fighting.
But that doesn’t stop her from being one of the most intelligent fighters on the show.
There are many fighters we see that just rush in and attack, but Katara usually thinks things through. She knows how to fight defensively, using walls of ice or streams of water to block her opponent’s attacks. This gives her time to study them and make her move.
20 She Develops Her Skills Rapidly
Perhaps the most blunt and obvious way of saying Katara is too overpowered is this one: every skill she learns, it comes on quickly.
It’s true that the first half of the first season sees her as a pretty basic bender, but somewhere along the way she starts to become more talented.
While trying to teach Aang some moves, he learns them much more quickly than she did. But after reaching the North Pole, her abilities seem to increase astronomically. So much so, in fact, that she quickly becomes a much better waterbender than the Avatar.
19 She Almost Beat Master Pakku
Pakku, the Waterbending Master of the North Pole, is a pretty big jerk. He refuses to teach Katara how to fight simply because she’s a girl. In order to prove herself, she challenges him to a fight.
This is another instance of Katara’s temper increasing her skill and focus, as she holds her own against the Master.
Though she doesn’t win, she still pulls off some impressive moves. If they had been the same age and received the same amount of training, she would’ve had him. Later, when he does teach her, she defeats every single student he has.
18 She Can Bend With Her Feet
Many benders are primarily shown using their hands to bend, but there are many others who utilize their gifts by any means necessary.
It’s when benders use their feet in combination with their hands where some of the best fight scenes are produced.
Katara isn’t the only waterbender who can use her feet but, as always, she is the one with the least amount of training. She encases her feet in ice during her fight with Master Pakku. This may have been in her waterbending scroll acquired earlier in the season, but it still means she taught it to herself.
17 She Beat Zuko
There are several examples of Katara’s pure skill based on how well she does against her opponents. There are a few fighters that she ends up besting even though they have had far more training than she has.
One of those fighters is Zuko.
At the end of Season 1, Katara and Zuko face off twice. While protecting Aang, Katara holds her own against Zuko fairly well. That is, until the sun rises and gives him the edge. But when she finds him the next time, she beats him embarrassingly quickly.
16 She Has Excellent Precision
One thing that makes Katara such an outstanding fighter is how accurate her attacks are. Unless they’re blocked, her water or ice usually hits its mark.
One of the finest examples of this is when Jet returns to her life in Season 2. She quickly pulls water from her pouch, turns it into ice knives, and pins him to the wall without hurting him. This would be expected of someone like Mai but takes a surprising amount of precision on Katara’s part.
15 Full Moon Power
It could be argued that waterbending itself is overpowered due to the fact that every time there is a full moon, the power of waterbenders increases significantly. True, there’s only one per month, but during that one night a waterbender has the edge over most other fighters.
Katara has been shown to do some pretty exemplary bending during a full moon, such as when she teamed up with Zuko in Season 3 to take out an entire ship of Fire Nation raiders. She could’ve done it by herself without breaking a sweat.
14 She Held Her Own Against Toph
Another fighter who has had much more training than Katara is Toph, though her training was a bit more unusual than other benders. She was taught by Badgermoles, who are said to be the very first earthbenders.
Although she may be blind, this handicap was shown on multiple occasions to make her a better bender.
Toph won several fighting competitions, so when Katara and Toph came to blows over Aang’s training, it seems like the Blind Bandit should’ve had it in the bag. But Katara was able to hold her own against Toph, and the two were evenly matched.
13 She Defeated The Swamp Monster
While the swamp monster the team came across in Season 2 just turned out to be a bender manipulating the water in the vines to protect his home, his creation was pretty spooky for them at first.
But, as they were in a swamp, there was more than enough water for Katara to do some damage. She created gigantic waves, froze them around the monster, formed large round blades to use as weapons, and blasted a hole straight through it. Bringing it down was a team effort, but Katara was definitely the MVP.
12 She Can Manipulate Clouds
In a Season 1 episode, Katara and Aang had to change the forms of clouds in order to get a skeptical town to flee from an active volcano. This is another way to show how Katara is a powerful enough bender to control water in its many forms.
While she did have Aang’s help, in this case, future episodes would show her use mist expertly for cover. One such instance came in Season 3, when she pulled a massive wall of mist from the ocean to cover the ship her and her allies were traveling on.
11 She Can Repair Ships
Waterbending can be extremely useful in a variety of ways, as Katara shows during the show’s three seasons. She proves she’s a capable fighter and healer many times, but there are other helpful things she uses her skills for.
In Season 3, while trying to escape on a Fire Nation ship they stole, the team gets attacked by actual Fire Nation soldiers. A harpoon goes through the side of their ship, letting water in. But Katara the quick thinker easily plugs it by freezing the water around the hole with her breath and stopping the leak.
10 She Almost Beat Mai
Not every awesome fighter on Avatar is a bender. In Season 2, the dastardly Azula requests the help of her childhood friends who have their own set of incredible skills.
One is Mai, the daughter of a Fire Nation governor who has been trained in fighting all her life. Her weapons of choice are knives and she can through them with pinpoint accuracy. When Katara fought Mai, she was able to deflect every knife that came her way. She probably would have won, if not for the sneaky Ty Lee who blocked her bending.
9 She Uses Her Own Sweat
Over the course of the show, Katara would learn how to think outside the box and find water almost anywhere. One of her most creative moments came when she and Toph were trapped inside a jail cell.
The cell was made of wood, meaning that Toph couldn’t bend them out. But when Katara began to sweat, she realized she had all the water she needed. She started running in place until she generated enough sweat to cut through the wood bars. Another case proving just how intelligent Katara could be.
8 The Painted Lady
One of Katara’s defining personality traits is her compassion. She will often put others ahead of herself and help out any way she can. A perfect example of that is the Season 3 episode, The Painted Lady.
But it is also another key moment to show how powerful she is.
After coming across a river town being terrorized by Fire Nation soldiers, Katara takes up the mantle of the local spirit. In this role, she generates enough mist around the town to hide herself in but also speeds around on the surface of the water with ease.
7 She Trapped A Giant Serpent In A Whirlpool
It isn’t just the Fire Nation you have to be afraid of in the world of Avatar. On several instances, the team comes across a dangerous monster or angry spirit. One of the most frightening comes in the episode The Serpent’s Pass.
While transporting some civilians through the dangerous terrain, the group is attacked by the giant water serpent that lives there. In order to combat it, Aang and Katara trap it in a giant whirlpool. Katara jumps into the water and surfs up to the beast, showing her power as well as her unbreakable bravery.
6 She Defeats Multiple Enemies By Herself
It’s one thing to take out a superior single opponent, but it’s something else entirely to take out waves of trained guards. Katara does this on several occasions, sometimes with the help of the full moon, but sometimes not.
In the Season 2 episode The Earth King, the team infiltrates the home of the ruler of Ba Sing Se so they can talk to him about the war. But in order to do so, they have to get through his guards. This doesn’t take them too long, and Katara takes out many with just a few streams and water whips.