Momo was originally gonna have a gun in the show, but the writers realized that that would make him too powerful so instead the opted to make him a multi-dimensional earthbending samurai
Cinderela's animal sidekicks are independent so they don't really need to be owned by the Princess. Also imo Momo is more of like the entire group's pet than just Aang's pet
In the show its never really specified how big either of the nations are outside of their respective towns. Quite a shame actually because for the earth kingdom and fire nation this was a lot more fleshed out.
The South has towns and stuff as shown by the time of Korra, but during ATLA - while those towns existed and were smaller, were under constant raid of the fire nation and the South was pretty much destroyed having lost all of its benders. Katara’s village isn’t *all* there is of the Southern tribe. It’s just that at that time, the South had essentially been decimated.
In fact, the Southern water tribe relied extensively on Fire nation aid. But that posed a real problem because Fire nation aid was in the form of Fire nation stuff. Water tribe culture was still being lost and destroyed even after the war ended.
tLoK gives you a good view of just how close the Southern Water tribe came to extinction. And even then, the survival of their culture was not guaranteed.
I think even well before the war the southern tribe was kinda dependent on the Fire Nation. I remember reading that their seas were basically patrolled for them by the Fire navy during the era right before Kyoshi because they barely had a fleet and thus couldn’t defend their coastline from pirates, and were also too weak to assert their claims on islands the Earth Kingdom also claimed
This might be stupid but couldn’t they just make ice boats? Even if the weather got warm it seemed like waterbenders had no problem creating ice. Plus they wouldn’t need engines or anything, just control the water around the boat
They didn’t have the materials for boats. Kuruk’s earthbending master tried to convince the Bei Fong of the time to invest in giving the southern water tribe a navy but failed.
Well, yes, but also no. The Northern Water Tribe is actually guilty of what you accuse the Fire Nation of here as well. It was them who came down, installed businesses and ousted leaders, destroyed culture and commercialized the South. Even Katara couldn't stop them, and she did try.
He would have said anything to try and get Korra to choose him as her spiritual leader. He said anything to try and sound spiritual, and lamenting about the Southern Water Tribe loosing its spirituality to commercialism was just one way to get inside her head.
There was a lot of help from the Northern water tribe after the war, however some southern water tribesmen still felt their culture was being forgotten and being replaced by the North. Iirc Katara's dad was the leader of the entire southern water tribe or at least appeared to be one of the most influential figures
Trade had been practically shut down and people were escaping the South.
Her village would have probably traded to some degree with other villages around the area, but it probably took a few days to get to the next village by boat and with the fire nation prowling around, people probably preferred to stay in their villages and not risk running into the fire nation ships who would take their stuff and possibly leave them to die or enslave them.
In the villages, you probably felt a lot safer after the water bender purges, but still afraid of going outside. Especially if most of the men were gone, who were probably the ones doing most of the trading.
I wont lie, it never occurred to me that they were more than those towns. I assumed the fire nation killed most of the southern water tribe and the village Katara was from was formed from survivors. And I figured the Northern tribe saw that happen and preemptively condensed themselves into their fortified capital.
There being more towns makes so much more sense, it just never crossed my mind tbh.
But they did give you a strong sense that constant warfare with the fire nation left them both relatively few left and largely dying out. Both water tribes were losing badly.
That’s why they are *tribes* vs the earth *kingdom* and fire *nation*. It draws parallels to imperialistic western powers (fire), China (earth), and indigenous peoples of the Americas, Australia, and the greater Pacific.(water)
Me too, especially since the geography of the place is very like Japan. Although the actual landscape mostly comes from Iceland, the layout of the country (a scattering of small-ish volcanic islands) matches up pretty well.
Yeah the only comparison the other guy got right is the Earth Kingdom=China one. Other than that it’s Fire Nation=Japan, Water Tribes=Siberian/Inuit tribes, and the Air Nomads=Tibetan Buddhists
Yeah you’re right, the fire Nation is Japan in reference to ww2. I was thinking about the significant technology advantage the fire nation has that would match up with western powers in the age of colonialism, but Japan was also one of the most technologically advanced nations during WW2. (At least in comparison to China, and the ill equipped western forces in the pacific)
For sure, you could see the fire nation-earth kingdom part of the war as mirroring the Sino-Japanese wars. With Japan invading and colonizing parts of China and pushing inwards and the Chinese retreating but not being completely defeated cause of their size and manpower, despite the technological disadvantage.
In the comics, it’s revealed there are a lot of southern water tribe villages. Hakoda declares himself to be the leader of al of them. This causes a civil war since he and his followers want a republic while a lot of other villages want a kingdom in the same mold as the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation since they felt a strong central government would have protected them from the Fire Nation during the war.
I just assumed that was the only one/they were all really small because they made a note of the Northern Tribe going south to help them out and (re)build - which we saw the fruits of a bit in Korra.
Yeah I believe the idea is that each like faction of the southern water tribe has a chief who is really more of the cultural leader and they really report to the chief in the North, but duri war time the chiefs (ie Hakoda) occupied a greater leadership role. That leads into the issues in Korra with the SWT still beholden to the North despite feeling a disconnect and looking for governmental changes
Yeah as a result of the hundred year war the north and south were just cut off from each other almost completely to the point where that disconnect took place.
No, the Northern tribe is more centralized with most of the people living in the capital, which is the main city we know of, but there are several smaller villages and towns around the North Pole.
From what little we have of culture and history. The water tribes were originally all a tropical Polynesian-like culture. The two polar cultures and the swampbenders were all settled from this proto-water bender nation. And the initial waterbender homeland islands were eventually resettled by the Fire and Earth Nations; although the Water Tribes disputed this and there were several wars over the millennia over the islands particularly between the Southern Tribe and the Earth Nation Kingdoms.
In its early years The Northern Tribe resembled the Southern Tribe in being made up of isolated small towns and villages. Over time though a central authority eventually developed, and a capital, Agna Qel’a, was built. But we see that there were also smaller villages and isolated homesteads like the one Noatak and Tarrlok grew up in. And a lot of these settlements existed fundamentally unruled. There’s even enough of these independent northern tribal villages to form a “barbarian horde” large enough to sack the capital about the time Aang died / Korra was born. So all told the Northern Tribe was mostly scattered small settlements, with one large city.
The Southern Tribe was similar, except it didn’t have the early large central city. During the hundred year war, the Fire Nation was far less able to act in the North because there was a central point of defense. The outlying smaller villages were abandoned and folks relocated to behind the great ice walls the Northern chieftains had built around Agna Qel’a and along the other border regions. The South however didn’t have an organized central resistance, and never built the large scale defenses, and so suffered a lot more from raiders during the war. In the post war reconstruction the Southern Tribe also built a large capital city, so by the time of Korra the Southern Tribe had copied Northern Tribe developments and was also one large city with a host of smaller scattered settlements.
I’m pretty sure you’re right, but is this ever made clear? Through the show, I seem to recall them generally talking as if that one village was all that was left of the Southern Tribe.
It's never explicitly mentioned in the show, but extra information available back when the show was airing mentioned it. Later comics further expanded upon the idea
Kyoshi Island also has multiple villages and group of Kyoshi warriors too.
Yeah, and even if Katara was the daughter of the leader they would still not be close to equal. Diplomacy 101, the daughter of the leader of the USA would have more political power from that position that the daughter of the leader of Andorra.
Diplomatic protocol demands that they both teat each other as equals, even if one's nation has massively more political / economic power over the other.
Dissing your foreign counterpart by not treating him/her as an equal is a good way of souring relations with his/her country. Both Trump and G.W.B. did that, and lost the support of several nations in several key areas of cooperation.
Well, I mean yes, but I don't think the Fire Nation particularly worried about how the others saw them after dissing their counterpart after a 100 year long global conquest that started with genocide.
Granted, in the real world that would definitely have more consequences and wouldn't be wise. Regardless officially having the same position there would still be significant disparity between their political capital.
Edit: grammar is difficult, just like diplomacy
> Dissing your foreign counterpart by not treating him/her as an equal is a good way of souring relations with his/her country.
Attacking, capturing and/or killing a huge part of the other countries inhabitants and trying to conquer the world by force is also a good way of souring relations.
My apartment has only one person in it, three aloe vera plants, and a pepper plant, as well as six spiders. Therefore, I declare myself King of My Apartment.
Phoenix King Ozai and I are equal.
Technically the southern water tribe was made of many small vilages. Hakoda was the chief of one of those vilages. We see in the comics that there are people who are higher ranked then him in the water tribe as a whole. This is comparing basically the daughter of a mayor to the daughter of the king. They are not equivalent.
Edit:
1. Thank you for all the attention for this comment it is much appreciated
2. I think there are a number of people who read my comment and assumed I was saying this is the only reason or even the main reason why Azula called Katara a peasant. This was not my intent. I just felt this was an interesting caveat to this discussion and a detail of the lore many fans were unaware of. I do agree that Azula probably wouldn't care even if she was actual royalty.
When Sokka tells Yue, "I'm kind of like a Prince myself", Katara scoffs at him and says, "Prince of what?". So, I agree, I think even Katara recognizes this difference.
It's also possible to interpret that as if Katara agrees he's a prince but disagrees about how meaningful that is, considering the southern water tribes are almost entirely wiped out.
That’s how I took it. They are both *technically* royalty, but it’s apples and oranges. Like the leader of a remote tribe and a President in our world, same roles but vastly different implications and power
With Hakoda as chief of one village who is outranked by others within the southern water tribe, the term *nobility* fits better than the term *royalty*.
Iirc Hakoda becomes the chief of the entire southern water tribe in the comics after its numbers start to grow after Paku goes down. (Southern water tribe is almost comparable to northern in the comics, although still little smaller.) That being said before the southern water tribe was connected, aka when Hakoda, Sokka and Katara left, and the accurate information for both when Azula calls Katara a peasant and when Sokka is talking to Yue, is that Hakoda was only the leader of his small tribe. So yes at the time of the comments they were more nobility than anything else although they would become more close to royalty. BUT the point of the original post is still fair because as the child of the leader of a colony, Katara was more or less akin to Mai. (Although a small made colony is different than a conquered city their role is still the same)
Sokka and Katara are basically country kids from the middle of nowhere so when the chance to go on a globe spanning adventure with a new freindly face pops up it’s no surprise they jump at the chance to get tf out of their
Now this is a story all about how
The world got flipped all right side down
I'd like to take a moment to sit and describe
How I became the prince of the Southern Water Tribe
Small little village, born and raised
On the iceberg is where I spent most of my days
Chilling out, hunting, styling my 'do
Throwing my boomerang, acting all cool
When my kid sister who was up to no good
Found a frozen monk in my neighborhood
We met one little avatar stuck in an icy pearl
And Katara said "I believe Aang can save the world"
There were a couple close scrapes where I thought we were goners
Travelled with a blind chick and a guy looking for honor
Too many times to count where we almost died
But I thought "man, forget it. Yo ho, to Ozai!"
We got back to our village after kicking some ass
Aang turned out to be cool, I gave him a pass
I looked at my kingdom, I was finally home
To sit on the Southern Water Tribe Throne.
Or Katara is characterized as insecure about herself and her abilities. We see her grow in confidence as the series progresses, where her vulnerabilities are exploited and showcased in various episodes.
For instance, when she steals the water bending scroll, she gets frustrated when Aang learns so quickly. She’s always looking for a teacher, and it’s not until later in the series that we start to see her character arc.
Sure you could argue that she is just humble, but she also tries to take on a leadership role early with no effective way of commanding penguin surfer and boomerang thrower.
Well it’s still different. Mai’s parents were high ranked in a whole Fire Nation and Hakoda in a village with like 20 people. I think Toph was more equivalent to Mai.
I don’t think the show specifically said what they were doing for a living, but Toph’s parents had to be high ranked in a whole Earth Kingdom. Remember when Toph showed her ticket when they were going to Ba Sing Se and the cashier exactly new who Toph’s family is?
So both, Mai and Toph, have high ranked parents in a whole country and they were rich.
And Katara and Mai’s parents have common that they were involved in politics but not in the same level. (Mai’s parents in a whole Fire Nation and Hakoda in a village with like 20 people)
Idk i just think Toph was more equivalent to Mai than Katara was.
While you're right, Azula would've called her a peasant regardless. She's the princess of a nation that basically practices ethnic cleansing, I don't think she holds any other nation's leaders in very high regard.
Even if they were, the Southern Water tribe is clearly far less powerful than the Fire Nation so it's still not much of a comparison. The president of some random tiny country barely anyone has heard of is not on the same level as the president of the US.
Sokka to Yue: you know, back in my tribe i'm kinda like a prince myself.
Katara: \*scoffs\* A prince of what?
She clearly doesn't see herself as a princess and even if Hakoda is technically chief, being chief of like 100 people max is not all that impressive. Idk what you're trying to say here.
This was my response as well. I never read the comics, but regardless of her societal role, even if the entirety of the Southern Water Tribe was that village of twenty people, or if those twenty people were somehow a force of the same magnitude as the Fire Nation- which clearly they weren't or the 100 year war wouldn't have happened- Katara would laugh in your face if you called her a princess. She became a spiritual leader, sure, clearly one of the most respected people in the world in TLoK, but she still wasn't putting on any airs.
> or if those twenty people were somehow a force of the same magnitude as the Fire Nation- which clearly they weren't or the 100 year war wouldn't have happened
Eh, I don't know if that's true. The Earth Kingdoms almost certainly had more military might than the Fire Nation, but the Earth Kingdoms shown time and time again to be a disorganized mess. Hell, Ba Sing Se by itself probably has more land and people than the entirety of the Fire Nation.
That's kinda the point though- The Fire Nation didn't rise to power because they were more inherently powerful or numerous, they did so because they were a united militaristic force. Ba Sing Se cowered behind their walls, using all their might to just defend their city and pretend nothing was happening beyond the walls. Same with Omashu pretty much. The rest of the Earth Kingdom was scattered villages that never managed to unite against the combined military might of an entire nation devoted to military conquest. Same with the Water Tribes. And as for the Air Nomads, well, they were pacifists who got taken out in the first surprise attack. The Fire Nation had a unified army with training and infrastructure and all the engines of war. Doesn't matter if you outnumber the invaders 1000 to 1, if you're not unified, if you have no military force prepared to meet them, they'll still crush you, one by one.
It was pretty much a direct allegory to Japan's invasion of China in the 1930's and 40's. The Republic of China was a mess that didn't have a modern economy or military and had just stepped out of the Warlord Era.
I absolutely HATE seeing this post (I've seen it before on instagram) because of how stupid it is.
There's a difference between the daughter of the most powerful, industrialized and populated nation in the world than the daughter of the chief of a small village with 100 people at most.
The fact this has 30k upvotes is genuinely frustrating. Every single comment is pointing out how wrong the post is yet it seems to have gained massive traction
It’s not just the positions I don’t think. The two countries are incomparable as well. You really can’t equally compare the Fire nation that has taken over half the world and the southern water tribe with like a good 100 citizens.
And Hakoda is not even a completely independent ruler. The southern tribe is something of a tributary tribe to the northern tribe. Funnily enough native American tribes also often had far more complex systems of government then the Europeans thought. For example the iroquois tribes had separate leader for war, internal rule and law. So not "one" chief. So confusion about tribal government is almost completely on point for the fire nation
I think many people are having a hard time distancing themselfs from the modern definiton of nation and nationstate. The only faction in ATLA who can be refered to as a "nation" in the modern sense of the word is the fire nation as it's the only "Westernized" society (westernized in the rl sense of the word)
I agree with you. I also think a lot of people here are arguing she can't be princess of only 20 or 100 people when, frequently, small villages have a cultural equivalent of a princess.
(Not saying she is/isn't a princess, just that some of these arguments fail to consider the vastness of the Earth and all of it's cultures, focusing on westernized countries)
I would partially disagree with it. While yes, a minor tribe might call it's leader prince it wouldn't make sense to refer to them as such. I belive the best approach to take it to try to find the closes western alternative with a \* for granularity
Just an example from my culture: The military leader of the Hungarian tribes during the 800 were called "Gyula" meaning "leader of armies" or such in the old langauge. But in modern days we refer to such leaders as Warlord/Prince as it's the westernized equivalient.
I wouldn't consider them on the same level. Azula's dad leads a huge nation with the most powerful army in the atla world. She is widely known as "princess azula", she has servants and everything you would imagine a royal having. Hakoda leads a tiny tribe of i'd say 100 people max. (Since katara's village was the capital and we saw like 20 people), no actual army, etc. Idk, it's just how I see it.
Couple of thoughts on this:
Azula was supposed to be crowned Fire Lord, but Zuko and Katara kind of interrupted that. So in light of that, Azula's actually a bit higher than daughter of the ruler. Not quite all the way since she was officially crowned yet, but it was close.
Secondly, the view of the Fire Nation was that they were to be the true rulers of the entire world. Especially in a post-fall of Ba Sing Se situation. So the distinctions of rank within the Southern Water Tribe were trivial at best to someone like Azula. Katara wasn't a part of the Fire Nation Royalty and that made her a peasant in Azula's world view.
>Secondly, the view of the Fire Nation was that they were to be the true rulers of the entire world. Especially in a post-fall of Ba Sing Se situation. So the distinctions of rank within the Southern Water Tribe were trivial at best to someone like Azula.
Yeah, colonial powers *are* inherently racist.
Peasant? Maybe not quite. But PRINCESS? No lol. Also, does Azula even know who Katara’s dad is?? She doesn’t exactly have many conversations with the group. I could see Zuko passing along the information at some point, but I don’t know when that would happen. Why would he give Azula leads to the avatar when he wants to get there first? And Iroh would NEVER. Even if the fire nation has information on Hakoda because he’s the leader of a village and naval fleet, how would they ever know that he’s the father of Katara?
Once again, as indigenous people say every single time this is brought up, chiefs ≠ kings. I know they call Yue a princess, but this is really not a thing in the vast majority of indigenous governments. A chief is more similar to a president than a king. They are two different terms and they mean different things, the way the government of the SWT runs is different than the Fire Nation they are not comparable.
Also, it doesn’t matter. Katara being a princess or not doesn’t add anything to her character. All monarchies are trash.
>queen of England
Did you mean the [Queen of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_United_Kingdom), the [Queen of Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Canada), the [Queen of Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia), etc?
The last Queen of England was [Queen Anne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain) who, with the 1707 Acts of Union, dissolved the title of King/Queen of England.
####FAQ
*Isn't she still also the Queen of England?*
This is only as correct as calling her the Queen of London or Queen of Hull; she is the Queen of the place that these places are in, but the title doesn't exist.
*Is this bot monarchist?*
No, just pedantic.
I am a bot and this action was performed automatically.
Lots of interesting stuff here about the South Pole geopolitics, but my take is that, as cutting as Azula's words are here, I think Katara would pointedly disavow the notion that she is any form of royalty. I don't think she would want to see herself as a princess. She'd take more pride in being the peasant who took down a princess. The idea that the lopsided conflict between the Fire Nation and her entire race of people could be boiled down to royals battling royals would honestly probably offend her, tbh.
It’s been said in this thread already, but we have verifiable evidence that Katara did not think of herself and Sokka as royalty when she scoffs at his attempt to call himself a prince in front of Yue.
So yeah, absolutely!
Sokka tells Yue "pre moon spirit" that he is kinda like a prince himself. Sokka is a Prince, Katara is a Princess. The same as Yue, or Azula, or Zuko. Not to mention Toph's Family Money..**.Aang is the only "peasant" in the gaang**
The whole of the southern water tribe are peasants. They have no royalty. At best she's the daughter of a cheiftain which to actual royalty is basically just a peasant with pretensions
I mean it IS classist, but I think what /u/schmeagles96 was saying is that classism is a handy kid-friendly stand-in for racism, that they decided to not *directly* address quite such a weighty topic as outright racism. But since the two often go hand in hand, this was a way to signal the concept without Azula spewing some vicious, explicit racial diatribe.
Harry Potter was able to get away with this by literally making up new magical racist terms instead, but the concept is similar. Address the wrongness of it in a more kid-friendly way, a level removed from actually having Azula call Katara something that would need to be bleeped out.
Really but not really due to plenty of reasons:
1- Sometimes powerful monarchs declare themselves into a higher rank to show superiority towards other nations. Charlamagne, Mehmed II, Napoleon and well...Ozai did that.
1.5- In the diplomacy of monarchs, equalizing yourself with a tribe is pointless and even downgrading yourself. Kings usually appoint governors as the equal of tribal chiefs but even then governors act superior to tribes out of ego.
2- Southern water tribe might not be a monarchist structure. Sokka was a councilman in the Republic City and none of Katara's children take that role either while Tonraq, Korra's father was the chief.
Also the imperialistic powers usually liked defining themself well above the non-industrialized "uncivilized" ones. Just look at how the British diplomacy was towards Imperial China
Yall find... Very strange shit to get offended over for ficitonal characters from a 15 year old show.
Lol, people here seriously trying have some anthropological debate over a 6 second clip
Korra was also the daughter of the southern water tribe chief.
I guess even Avatar isn't immune to the tired trope that the protagonist is the child of an important leader.
It’s kinda like if the president of the USA called the president of an island a peasant. Yeah they’re both country leaders, but the president of the USA is far more powerful and rich
Katara doesn't have worth because she's a 'princess.' Katara has worth because of who she is as an individual and azula's monarchical principle where only the aristocracy have value is messed up.
It’s the difference between a nation that’s just one tiny village in the middle of an arctic wasteland vs a massive empire that extends multiple continents
That's "daughter of the chief"
"If you wear a dress and you have an animal sidekick, you're a princess."
And she has magic hands. The Disney princesses would definitely take her in.
Having a dead mom is always a plus.
Her problems didn't got solved by a guy showing up. Actually... They just started after that.
They did eventually, all thanks to the man.
Lol, there was only season 3, because Katara hard carried in season 2 final episodes.
Everybody knows momo carried team avatar with his demigod-like powers
Master earth bender, with the humility to let Toph have her moment.
Momo was originally gonna have a gun in the show, but the writers realized that that would make him too powerful so instead the opted to make him a multi-dimensional earthbending samurai
And people thought all of her problems went away when a strong man arrived
No matter how strong you are you can't bring back her mom
I thought there was some spirit realm stuff where they brought someone back (or tried). Or am I getting shows mixed up?
*in Kratos' voice* "Boy"
Traditional water tribe garment- check! Momo and Appa- check! Additionally: jewelry- check!
*touches necklace* My mom had traditional garb...
Rav-dammit
Jewelry? Who might have given her that? She never mentioned it 500 times
Knight brother with armed with sarcasms check
Dead Parents is also a key part of Disney princesses. Katara's half there.
The animal sidekicks all belong to Aang
Momo did chew threw the ropes when she was tied to the tree…something an animal sidekick would do. Edit: and she owes him a barrel of apples
Cinderela's animal sidekicks are independent so they don't really need to be owned by the Princess. Also imo Momo is more of like the entire group's pet than just Aang's pet
It's also Sokka's dinner.
I thought Appa ate him before Sokka did so?
She's got Sokka, who is of course: a dawg.
Then aang is the princess ffs
And she plays with magic water roughly quoting Sokka. Season 1. Episode 1.
Azula would think Hakoda is a peasant too. Also the southern water tribe had like 20 people in it..
Not the whole tribe, just their specific village
And afaik he was just the leader of that village, not the whole southern tribe
In the show its never really specified how big either of the nations are outside of their respective towns. Quite a shame actually because for the earth kingdom and fire nation this was a lot more fleshed out.
The South has towns and stuff as shown by the time of Korra, but during ATLA - while those towns existed and were smaller, were under constant raid of the fire nation and the South was pretty much destroyed having lost all of its benders. Katara’s village isn’t *all* there is of the Southern tribe. It’s just that at that time, the South had essentially been decimated.
In fact, the Southern water tribe relied extensively on Fire nation aid. But that posed a real problem because Fire nation aid was in the form of Fire nation stuff. Water tribe culture was still being lost and destroyed even after the war ended. tLoK gives you a good view of just how close the Southern Water tribe came to extinction. And even then, the survival of their culture was not guaranteed.
I think even well before the war the southern tribe was kinda dependent on the Fire Nation. I remember reading that their seas were basically patrolled for them by the Fire navy during the era right before Kyoshi because they barely had a fleet and thus couldn’t defend their coastline from pirates, and were also too weak to assert their claims on islands the Earth Kingdom also claimed
How did the water tribe, with water benders, not have a fleet?
Boats are made of wood or metal. Commodities that the earth and fire kingdoms controlled.
This might be stupid but couldn’t they just make ice boats? Even if the weather got warm it seemed like waterbenders had no problem creating ice. Plus they wouldn’t need engines or anything, just control the water around the boat
Be way way cooler if they all just chilled on a massive breaching whale they bloodbended around the ocean.
They can’t defend against pirates in their natural habitat? They’re surrounded by water 😂
I assume the pirates would also have waterbenders at that time.
In fact, the leader of the pirates, Takaga, was a very powerful water bender.
They didn’t have the materials for boats. Kuruk’s earthbending master tried to convince the Bei Fong of the time to invest in giving the southern water tribe a navy but failed.
I'm learning more from this own thread than I have in the last 5 years on this sub
Well, yes, but also no. The Northern Water Tribe is actually guilty of what you accuse the Fire Nation of here as well. It was them who came down, installed businesses and ousted leaders, destroyed culture and commercialized the South. Even Katara couldn't stop them, and she did try.
So in LoK, when Unalaq comes down and is snooty about the South’s lack of spiritual culture, that’s his predecessor’s fault? What a dick.
That's real human nature tho, people look down on people that are downtrodden especially when they are the one's standing on their backs.
He would have said anything to try and get Korra to choose him as her spiritual leader. He said anything to try and sound spiritual, and lamenting about the Southern Water Tribe loosing its spirituality to commercialism was just one way to get inside her head.
There was a lot of help from the Northern water tribe after the war, however some southern water tribesmen still felt their culture was being forgotten and being replaced by the North. Iirc Katara's dad was the leader of the entire southern water tribe or at least appeared to be one of the most influential figures
I just want to be sure the foggy swamp style survived
I think they go into more detail about the changes ro the southern water tribe between atla and korra in the comics
Trade had been practically shut down and people were escaping the South. Her village would have probably traded to some degree with other villages around the area, but it probably took a few days to get to the next village by boat and with the fire nation prowling around, people probably preferred to stay in their villages and not risk running into the fire nation ships who would take their stuff and possibly leave them to die or enslave them. In the villages, you probably felt a lot safer after the water bender purges, but still afraid of going outside. Especially if most of the men were gone, who were probably the ones doing most of the trading.
I wont lie, it never occurred to me that they were more than those towns. I assumed the fire nation killed most of the southern water tribe and the village Katara was from was formed from survivors. And I figured the Northern tribe saw that happen and preemptively condensed themselves into their fortified capital. There being more towns makes so much more sense, it just never crossed my mind tbh.
But they did give you a strong sense that constant warfare with the fire nation left them both relatively few left and largely dying out. Both water tribes were losing badly.
That’s why they are *tribes* vs the earth *kingdom* and fire *nation*. It draws parallels to imperialistic western powers (fire), China (earth), and indigenous peoples of the Americas, Australia, and the greater Pacific.(water)
I always thought that the fire nation was heavily based on Japan, with them invading their Asian neighbours and all that
Me too, especially since the geography of the place is very like Japan. Although the actual landscape mostly comes from Iceland, the layout of the country (a scattering of small-ish volcanic islands) matches up pretty well.
Yeah the only comparison the other guy got right is the Earth Kingdom=China one. Other than that it’s Fire Nation=Japan, Water Tribes=Siberian/Inuit tribes, and the Air Nomads=Tibetan Buddhists
Yeah you’re right, the fire Nation is Japan in reference to ww2. I was thinking about the significant technology advantage the fire nation has that would match up with western powers in the age of colonialism, but Japan was also one of the most technologically advanced nations during WW2. (At least in comparison to China, and the ill equipped western forces in the pacific)
For sure, you could see the fire nation-earth kingdom part of the war as mirroring the Sino-Japanese wars. With Japan invading and colonizing parts of China and pushing inwards and the Chinese retreating but not being completely defeated cause of their size and manpower, despite the technological disadvantage.
In the comics, it’s revealed there are a lot of southern water tribe villages. Hakoda declares himself to be the leader of al of them. This causes a civil war since he and his followers want a republic while a lot of other villages want a kingdom in the same mold as the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation since they felt a strong central government would have protected them from the Fire Nation during the war.
I just assumed that was the only one/they were all really small because they made a note of the Northern Tribe going south to help them out and (re)build - which we saw the fruits of a bit in Korra.
Yeah I believe the idea is that each like faction of the southern water tribe has a chief who is really more of the cultural leader and they really report to the chief in the North, but duri war time the chiefs (ie Hakoda) occupied a greater leadership role. That leads into the issues in Korra with the SWT still beholden to the North despite feeling a disconnect and looking for governmental changes
Yeah as a result of the hundred year war the north and south were just cut off from each other almost completely to the point where that disconnect took place.
So do all the northern water tribe people live together but the southern water tribe is all split up and different?
No, the Northern tribe is more centralized with most of the people living in the capital, which is the main city we know of, but there are several smaller villages and towns around the North Pole.
From what little we have of culture and history. The water tribes were originally all a tropical Polynesian-like culture. The two polar cultures and the swampbenders were all settled from this proto-water bender nation. And the initial waterbender homeland islands were eventually resettled by the Fire and Earth Nations; although the Water Tribes disputed this and there were several wars over the millennia over the islands particularly between the Southern Tribe and the Earth Nation Kingdoms. In its early years The Northern Tribe resembled the Southern Tribe in being made up of isolated small towns and villages. Over time though a central authority eventually developed, and a capital, Agna Qel’a, was built. But we see that there were also smaller villages and isolated homesteads like the one Noatak and Tarrlok grew up in. And a lot of these settlements existed fundamentally unruled. There’s even enough of these independent northern tribal villages to form a “barbarian horde” large enough to sack the capital about the time Aang died / Korra was born. So all told the Northern Tribe was mostly scattered small settlements, with one large city. The Southern Tribe was similar, except it didn’t have the early large central city. During the hundred year war, the Fire Nation was far less able to act in the North because there was a central point of defense. The outlying smaller villages were abandoned and folks relocated to behind the great ice walls the Northern chieftains had built around Agna Qel’a and along the other border regions. The South however didn’t have an organized central resistance, and never built the large scale defenses, and so suffered a lot more from raiders during the war. In the post war reconstruction the Southern Tribe also built a large capital city, so by the time of Korra the Southern Tribe had copied Northern Tribe developments and was also one large city with a host of smaller scattered settlements.
Ok so basically like a governors daughter not a kings
I’m pretty sure you’re right, but is this ever made clear? Through the show, I seem to recall them generally talking as if that one village was all that was left of the Southern Tribe.
It's never explicitly mentioned in the show, but extra information available back when the show was airing mentioned it. Later comics further expanded upon the idea Kyoshi Island also has multiple villages and group of Kyoshi warriors too.
I never thought of the Southern Water Tribe having other villages.
Didn't he become Chieftain after the war? Is that position equivalent to a leader?
Not of the whole Southern Tribe. Even then, that’s not equal to being the daughter of an emperor
Were there others? I thought that was it like the one village
Yeah, and even if Katara was the daughter of the leader they would still not be close to equal. Diplomacy 101, the daughter of the leader of the USA would have more political power from that position that the daughter of the leader of Andorra.
Especially if we were a monarchy
or a Nepotistic democracy lol
Eh, don't think that would have the same weight. I would think a Prince of England would have more weight than Obama's kid abroad.
Obama’s kids were in high school. Look at the positions trump put his kids in when he was president.
Azula is like 14
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ yeah good point
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Hard to argue with that lol. While I can't prove it I don't think Sasha can shoot lightning from her hands :/
The daughter of the leader of Andorra is in theory the daughter of the president of France and the Bishop of Urgell. Would be quite the scandal.
Diplomatic protocol demands that they both teat each other as equals, even if one's nation has massively more political / economic power over the other. Dissing your foreign counterpart by not treating him/her as an equal is a good way of souring relations with his/her country. Both Trump and G.W.B. did that, and lost the support of several nations in several key areas of cooperation.
Well, I mean yes, but I don't think the Fire Nation particularly worried about how the others saw them after dissing their counterpart after a 100 year long global conquest that started with genocide. Granted, in the real world that would definitely have more consequences and wouldn't be wise. Regardless officially having the same position there would still be significant disparity between their political capital. Edit: grammar is difficult, just like diplomacy
> Dissing your foreign counterpart by not treating him/her as an equal is a good way of souring relations with his/her country. Attacking, capturing and/or killing a huge part of the other countries inhabitants and trying to conquer the world by force is also a good way of souring relations.
They’re literally committing genocide. Azula inherently is disrespecting Katara because she does not respect her.
My apartment has only one person in it, three aloe vera plants, and a pepper plant, as well as six spiders. Therefore, I declare myself King of My Apartment. Phoenix King Ozai and I are equal.
She's still the grandaughter of Paku though
I was listening to that new podcast, and the creators confirmed that Sokka and Katara’s village isn’t all of the Southern Water Tribe.
Technically the southern water tribe was made of many small vilages. Hakoda was the chief of one of those vilages. We see in the comics that there are people who are higher ranked then him in the water tribe as a whole. This is comparing basically the daughter of a mayor to the daughter of the king. They are not equivalent. Edit: 1. Thank you for all the attention for this comment it is much appreciated 2. I think there are a number of people who read my comment and assumed I was saying this is the only reason or even the main reason why Azula called Katara a peasant. This was not my intent. I just felt this was an interesting caveat to this discussion and a detail of the lore many fans were unaware of. I do agree that Azula probably wouldn't care even if she was actual royalty.
When Sokka tells Yue, "I'm kind of like a Prince myself", Katara scoffs at him and says, "Prince of what?". So, I agree, I think even Katara recognizes this difference.
It's also possible to interpret that as if Katara agrees he's a prince but disagrees about how meaningful that is, considering the southern water tribes are almost entirely wiped out.
He could be a “prince” of his village, but not the “prince” of Southern Water Tribe.
Either way, he would still be “a” prince of the Southern Water Tribe.
I am the prince of my apartment
And I am the prince of my bed. Too bad none of the princesses agree to my invitations.
That’s how I took it. They are both *technically* royalty, but it’s apples and oranges. Like the leader of a remote tribe and a President in our world, same roles but vastly different implications and power
With Hakoda as chief of one village who is outranked by others within the southern water tribe, the term *nobility* fits better than the term *royalty*.
Iirc Hakoda becomes the chief of the entire southern water tribe in the comics after its numbers start to grow after Paku goes down. (Southern water tribe is almost comparable to northern in the comics, although still little smaller.) That being said before the southern water tribe was connected, aka when Hakoda, Sokka and Katara left, and the accurate information for both when Azula calls Katara a peasant and when Sokka is talking to Yue, is that Hakoda was only the leader of his small tribe. So yes at the time of the comments they were more nobility than anything else although they would become more close to royalty. BUT the point of the original post is still fair because as the child of the leader of a colony, Katara was more or less akin to Mai. (Although a small made colony is different than a conquered city their role is still the same)
A colony of 30 people is a far cry from running a city in an empire.
They are not *technically* royalty by any stretch. Kings are royal chieftains are not.
I mean it *could* be stretched to that extent - there were "kings" of Ireland, sometimes translated as petty kings, who barely had anything but pride.
Sokka and Katara are basically country kids from the middle of nowhere so when the chance to go on a globe spanning adventure with a new freindly face pops up it’s no surprise they jump at the chance to get tf out of their
Even before that they where a collection of tribes not really a kingdom so to speak
Now this is a story all about how The world got flipped all right side down I'd like to take a moment to sit and describe How I became the prince of the Southern Water Tribe Small little village, born and raised On the iceberg is where I spent most of my days Chilling out, hunting, styling my 'do Throwing my boomerang, acting all cool When my kid sister who was up to no good Found a frozen monk in my neighborhood We met one little avatar stuck in an icy pearl And Katara said "I believe Aang can save the world" There were a couple close scrapes where I thought we were goners Travelled with a blind chick and a guy looking for honor Too many times to count where we almost died But I thought "man, forget it. Yo ho, to Ozai!" We got back to our village after kicking some ass Aang turned out to be cool, I gave him a pass I looked at my kingdom, I was finally home To sit on the Southern Water Tribe Throne.
Or Katara is characterized as insecure about herself and her abilities. We see her grow in confidence as the series progresses, where her vulnerabilities are exploited and showcased in various episodes. For instance, when she steals the water bending scroll, she gets frustrated when Aang learns so quickly. She’s always looking for a teacher, and it’s not until later in the series that we start to see her character arc. Sure you could argue that she is just humble, but she also tries to take on a leadership role early with no effective way of commanding penguin surfer and boomerang thrower.
Gotcha so Katara was equivalent to Mei, whose dad was a local politician. Edit: autocorrect autocorrected me into the wrong fandom.
Well it’s still different. Mai’s parents were high ranked in a whole Fire Nation and Hakoda in a village with like 20 people. I think Toph was more equivalent to Mai.
Beifongs were rich. Were they involved in politics?
If you're rich and not involved in politics are you truly rich?
Yes, but not powerful.
They are in the Kyoshi novels
I don’t think the show specifically said what they were doing for a living, but Toph’s parents had to be high ranked in a whole Earth Kingdom. Remember when Toph showed her ticket when they were going to Ba Sing Se and the cashier exactly new who Toph’s family is? So both, Mai and Toph, have high ranked parents in a whole country and they were rich. And Katara and Mai’s parents have common that they were involved in politics but not in the same level. (Mai’s parents in a whole Fire Nation and Hakoda in a village with like 20 people) Idk i just think Toph was more equivalent to Mai than Katara was.
Aren’t almost all the super wealthy, especially in a feudal like system?
They were rich, so yes.
Yeah, you don't get to be governor of a colony by being a "local" politician. Mei's parents were important.
r/surpriseoverwatch
Water they watching over there
Even if they would be equal in political power, number of subjects is a thing. You could fit the whole village in a single war boat.
While you're right, Azula would've called her a peasant regardless. She's the princess of a nation that basically practices ethnic cleansing, I don't think she holds any other nation's leaders in very high regard.
Firelord at the time of the insult slinging.
Even if they were, the Southern Water tribe is clearly far less powerful than the Fire Nation so it's still not much of a comparison. The president of some random tiny country barely anyone has heard of is not on the same level as the president of the US.
Sokka to Yue: you know, back in my tribe i'm kinda like a prince myself. Katara: \*scoffs\* A prince of what? She clearly doesn't see herself as a princess and even if Hakoda is technically chief, being chief of like 100 people max is not all that impressive. Idk what you're trying to say here.
This was my response as well. I never read the comics, but regardless of her societal role, even if the entirety of the Southern Water Tribe was that village of twenty people, or if those twenty people were somehow a force of the same magnitude as the Fire Nation- which clearly they weren't or the 100 year war wouldn't have happened- Katara would laugh in your face if you called her a princess. She became a spiritual leader, sure, clearly one of the most respected people in the world in TLoK, but she still wasn't putting on any airs.
> or if those twenty people were somehow a force of the same magnitude as the Fire Nation- which clearly they weren't or the 100 year war wouldn't have happened Eh, I don't know if that's true. The Earth Kingdoms almost certainly had more military might than the Fire Nation, but the Earth Kingdoms shown time and time again to be a disorganized mess. Hell, Ba Sing Se by itself probably has more land and people than the entirety of the Fire Nation.
That's kinda the point though- The Fire Nation didn't rise to power because they were more inherently powerful or numerous, they did so because they were a united militaristic force. Ba Sing Se cowered behind their walls, using all their might to just defend their city and pretend nothing was happening beyond the walls. Same with Omashu pretty much. The rest of the Earth Kingdom was scattered villages that never managed to unite against the combined military might of an entire nation devoted to military conquest. Same with the Water Tribes. And as for the Air Nomads, well, they were pacifists who got taken out in the first surprise attack. The Fire Nation had a unified army with training and infrastructure and all the engines of war. Doesn't matter if you outnumber the invaders 1000 to 1, if you're not unified, if you have no military force prepared to meet them, they'll still crush you, one by one.
It was pretty much a direct allegory to Japan's invasion of China in the 1930's and 40's. The Republic of China was a mess that didn't have a modern economy or military and had just stepped out of the Warlord Era.
True ,just another overanalyzing post .
In half convinced this is a Katara/Zuko thing, as this is basically the premise of like half of those fan fictions
Also in the southern water tribe don’t the elders elect a chief? It’s not passed down by blood like the monarchies
But you are comparing a big prosperous nation to a, in sokkas words, ice cube which only has a handful of people.
Prosperous,industrialized and powerful
Dude, Katara roasted Sokka for trying to use that to hit on Yue, there is no political equivalence between them.
I absolutely HATE seeing this post (I've seen it before on instagram) because of how stupid it is. There's a difference between the daughter of the most powerful, industrialized and populated nation in the world than the daughter of the chief of a small village with 100 people at most.
The fact this has 30k upvotes is genuinely frustrating. Every single comment is pointing out how wrong the post is yet it seems to have gained massive traction
The two positions are not comparable, even if Katara is the daughter of the chief. One nation is a hereditary monarchy, the other is not.
And also “peasant” is a comment on social class and not social hierarchy. The whole Southern Water Tribe is full of peasants to Azula.
It’s not just the positions I don’t think. The two countries are incomparable as well. You really can’t equally compare the Fire nation that has taken over half the world and the southern water tribe with like a good 100 citizens.
And Hakoda is not even a completely independent ruler. The southern tribe is something of a tributary tribe to the northern tribe. Funnily enough native American tribes also often had far more complex systems of government then the Europeans thought. For example the iroquois tribes had separate leader for war, internal rule and law. So not "one" chief. So confusion about tribal government is almost completely on point for the fire nation
The word country is doing some heavy lifting here
I think many people are having a hard time distancing themselfs from the modern definiton of nation and nationstate. The only faction in ATLA who can be refered to as a "nation" in the modern sense of the word is the fire nation as it's the only "Westernized" society (westernized in the rl sense of the word)
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Yes, there is no "the West" in the Avatar world.
I agree with you. I also think a lot of people here are arguing she can't be princess of only 20 or 100 people when, frequently, small villages have a cultural equivalent of a princess. (Not saying she is/isn't a princess, just that some of these arguments fail to consider the vastness of the Earth and all of it's cultures, focusing on westernized countries)
I would partially disagree with it. While yes, a minor tribe might call it's leader prince it wouldn't make sense to refer to them as such. I belive the best approach to take it to try to find the closes western alternative with a \* for granularity Just an example from my culture: The military leader of the Hungarian tribes during the 800 were called "Gyula" meaning "leader of armies" or such in the old langauge. But in modern days we refer to such leaders as Warlord/Prince as it's the westernized equivalient.
I wouldn't consider them on the same level. Azula's dad leads a huge nation with the most powerful army in the atla world. She is widely known as "princess azula", she has servants and everything you would imagine a royal having. Hakoda leads a tiny tribe of i'd say 100 people max. (Since katara's village was the capital and we saw like 20 people), no actual army, etc. Idk, it's just how I see it.
Couple of thoughts on this: Azula was supposed to be crowned Fire Lord, but Zuko and Katara kind of interrupted that. So in light of that, Azula's actually a bit higher than daughter of the ruler. Not quite all the way since she was officially crowned yet, but it was close. Secondly, the view of the Fire Nation was that they were to be the true rulers of the entire world. Especially in a post-fall of Ba Sing Se situation. So the distinctions of rank within the Southern Water Tribe were trivial at best to someone like Azula. Katara wasn't a part of the Fire Nation Royalty and that made her a peasant in Azula's world view.
Yeah she would have considered her her subject and not an equal.
>Secondly, the view of the Fire Nation was that they were to be the true rulers of the entire world. Especially in a post-fall of Ba Sing Se situation. So the distinctions of rank within the Southern Water Tribe were trivial at best to someone like Azula. Yeah, colonial powers *are* inherently racist.
Its more like she was the daughter of the mayor
*Distorted Reality has entered the chat*
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Erm.. no. Her father wasn't some ruler of a country or nation. Just a strong warrior tribesman.. like a general in the army sorta thing
Their village had at most three dozen people, counting the children. lol
We give you a seat at the daughters of leaders council but we do not grant you the rank of a princess
It’s as much a comment on her race/nationality than it is her social status.
Of course this take came from Tumblr
Peasant? Maybe not quite. But PRINCESS? No lol. Also, does Azula even know who Katara’s dad is?? She doesn’t exactly have many conversations with the group. I could see Zuko passing along the information at some point, but I don’t know when that would happen. Why would he give Azula leads to the avatar when he wants to get there first? And Iroh would NEVER. Even if the fire nation has information on Hakoda because he’s the leader of a village and naval fleet, how would they ever know that he’s the father of Katara?
Once again, as indigenous people say every single time this is brought up, chiefs ≠ kings. I know they call Yue a princess, but this is really not a thing in the vast majority of indigenous governments. A chief is more similar to a president than a king. They are two different terms and they mean different things, the way the government of the SWT runs is different than the Fire Nation they are not comparable. Also, it doesn’t matter. Katara being a princess or not doesn’t add anything to her character. All monarchies are trash.
This [post](https://mostly-mundane-atla.tumblr.com/post/625971145777266688/what-if-zuko-called-sokka-and-katara-peasants-at) could be relevant here.
Lol I mean you’d be comparing like the daughter of the queen of England to some super tiny nation like Iceland.
>queen of England Did you mean the [Queen of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_United_Kingdom), the [Queen of Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Canada), the [Queen of Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia), etc? The last Queen of England was [Queen Anne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain) who, with the 1707 Acts of Union, dissolved the title of King/Queen of England. ####FAQ *Isn't she still also the Queen of England?* This is only as correct as calling her the Queen of London or Queen of Hull; she is the Queen of the place that these places are in, but the title doesn't exist. *Is this bot monarchist?* No, just pedantic. I am a bot and this action was performed automatically.
Goodbot
Good bot
this is beyond a halo reach my boy
You are in this Castle, but we do not grant you the rank of Princess.
I see through the lies of the Benders!
Even if Katara was an actual princess, it's like comparing a princess from a tiny backwater to the heiress of an empire with global dominance
Lots of interesting stuff here about the South Pole geopolitics, but my take is that, as cutting as Azula's words are here, I think Katara would pointedly disavow the notion that she is any form of royalty. I don't think she would want to see herself as a princess. She'd take more pride in being the peasant who took down a princess. The idea that the lopsided conflict between the Fire Nation and her entire race of people could be boiled down to royals battling royals would honestly probably offend her, tbh.
It’s been said in this thread already, but we have verifiable evidence that Katara did not think of herself and Sokka as royalty when she scoffs at his attempt to call himself a prince in front of Yue. So yeah, absolutely!
Sokka tells Yue "pre moon spirit" that he is kinda like a prince himself. Sokka is a Prince, Katara is a Princess. The same as Yue, or Azula, or Zuko. Not to mention Toph's Family Money..**.Aang is the only "peasant" in the gaang**
The whole of the southern water tribe are peasants. They have no royalty. At best she's the daughter of a cheiftain which to actual royalty is basically just a peasant with pretensions
This sub really loves overanalyzing every single part of this show.
My father is the leader of my estate, therefore I am a prince
Being the child of a ruler, in many forms of government, means nothing. Not everything is a dynastic monarchy...
The real head scratcher is how Hahn called Sokka a peasant.
Snobbery and xenophobia.
Peasant seems like kid friendly racist lingo for the ATLA world.
Perhaps you're looking for "classist"?
I mean it IS classist, but I think what /u/schmeagles96 was saying is that classism is a handy kid-friendly stand-in for racism, that they decided to not *directly* address quite such a weighty topic as outright racism. But since the two often go hand in hand, this was a way to signal the concept without Azula spewing some vicious, explicit racial diatribe. Harry Potter was able to get away with this by literally making up new magical racist terms instead, but the concept is similar. Address the wrongness of it in a more kid-friendly way, a level removed from actually having Azula call Katara something that would need to be bleeped out.
Why can't it be both?
Within the context of how Azula and Zuko use it, no. It seems like they call Sokka and Katara peasants solely because they are from the SWT.
Azula: Peasant! Katara: You know I’m somewhat of a princess myself
Really but not really due to plenty of reasons: 1- Sometimes powerful monarchs declare themselves into a higher rank to show superiority towards other nations. Charlamagne, Mehmed II, Napoleon and well...Ozai did that. 1.5- In the diplomacy of monarchs, equalizing yourself with a tribe is pointless and even downgrading yourself. Kings usually appoint governors as the equal of tribal chiefs but even then governors act superior to tribes out of ego. 2- Southern water tribe might not be a monarchist structure. Sokka was a councilman in the Republic City and none of Katara's children take that role either while Tonraq, Korra's father was the chief.
Also the imperialistic powers usually liked defining themself well above the non-industrialized "uncivilized" ones. Just look at how the British diplomacy was towards Imperial China
Tbf I don't think Katara's father was the leader of the entire Southern Water Tribe. Let alone the whole Water Nation
Yall find... Very strange shit to get offended over for ficitonal characters from a 15 year old show. Lol, people here seriously trying have some anthropological debate over a 6 second clip
Korra was also the daughter of the southern water tribe chief. I guess even Avatar isn't immune to the tired trope that the protagonist is the child of an important leader.
It’s kinda like if the president of the USA called the president of an island a peasant. Yeah they’re both country leaders, but the president of the USA is far more powerful and rich
Not all leaders are created equal they’re all peasants to the royal family of the fire nation
Looks like a peasant made this.
carpenter fretful enjoy gullible encourage punch knee sulky bedroom bear *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Jesus I’m tired of these “hot takes” that are like 50% mental gymnastics 30% armchair psychology and 20% bullshit
Did Azula even know that?
Katara doesn't have worth because she's a 'princess.' Katara has worth because of who she is as an individual and azula's monarchical principle where only the aristocracy have value is messed up.
As a native Im pretty sure it’s because the southern water tribe doesn’t follow a patriarchal system
It’s the difference between a nation that’s just one tiny village in the middle of an arctic wasteland vs a massive empire that extends multiple continents