Toph and Katara

Toph's proclamation of being the most powerful earthbender in the world was supported by her talented displays of earthbending from a young age. Although blind, Toph's training under the original earthbenders, the badgermoles, allowed her to use their unique ability of seismic sense: she used earthbending to "feel" even the most minute vibrations in the earth, including the march of ants several meters away and the presence of trees and buildings. Through this heightened seismic sense, Toph could visualize where people were, their relative distance to her, and their physical build, but was unable to visualize faces. This sense provided her with a distinct advantage when facing other earthbenders in combat because she could predict attacks as they began and quickly react. Her knowledge of the art also allowed her to teach it to others like Aang. Her speed and agility were also greatly beneficial in combat.

Her earthbending style was unique and thus unpredictable, as her training was unconventional and more deeply rooted in the nature of earthbending rather than just pure fighting. This style differed greatly from the rigid training and fighting style that earthbenders like the Dai Li implemented. Toph's style was often proven superior to the Dai Li, as she was able to take on a number of them and defend her friends at the same time. This is likely because while the Dai Li just manipulated the earth, Toph had established a tremendously deep connection to it at the very outset of her self-tutelage in earthbending (although both styles have an overdependence on something, i.e., the Dai Li and their earth gloves and Toph and her feet).

However, because Toph was dependent on vibrations in the earth, she was vulnerable to air-based attacks, as shown in her fight with Aang in Earth Rumble VI. Later, Toph was completely surprised by Sokka dropping a large belt on her head. Her success rate in intercepting non-earth projectiles was also tied to her sensing of vibrations, being able to feel an opponent's movement when they jump off the ground, and proceeding accordingly. By her own admission, she could not aim properly at opponents while they were airborne. Despite this, her connection with earthbending was seemingly good enough that she was able to feel the earth even if it was not connected to the ground

Terrain that impaired Toph's ability to sense vibrations also hindered her abilities, as shown when Toph had some difficulty with sand, describing the vibrations in the earth as "fuzzy". She was able to compress sand into solid rock to gain some temporary footing, but she was still unable to accurately aim attacks under those conditions. However, she seemed to have ultimately gained some mastery of sandbending, as she mentioned working on it during Team Avatar's beach party and was able to create a miniature version of the upper ring of Ba Sing Se in rich detail. Apparently, her ability to sense vibrations had improved, which may be how she was able to produce the very fine details of the city and did not show the same helplessness she had shown when previously walking on sand when the gang stepped onto the beach. By 174 AG, Toph attained a state of enlightenment similar to Huu, being able to use the connections of the swamp she lived in with her seismic sense to survey the world and observe everyone, being able to "see" areas as far as Zaofu and Republic City.

Despite her substantial prowess on land, Toph did not perform well in water and on ice. She seemed incapable of seeing where she was going on ice, was not able to swim, and became nauseous when she needed to travel by submarine in the invasion of the Fire Nation.

In Ba Sing Se, Toph demonstrated an ability to sense even slight vibrations, informing a man they met that she could feel him shaking. Toph was also able to sense when a person was lying by the vibrations of his/her heartbeat and breathing patterns. However, Toph's ability to detect lies was not absolute, as Azula demonstrated when she was easily able to lie without even the slightest physical reaction. However, very few people have the ability to lie while manipulating their breathing and pulse in this way.

Toph also expressed an aversion to flying and submarine travel, as she could not sense her surroundings without her feet on solid ground. Also, as a result of her closeness or affinity with earth, Toph could rest or sleep comfortably on solid rock without any sleeping bag or blanket and could walk on any kind of terrain in bare feet, a standard trait for earthbenders. Toph relied on direct contact between her feet and the ground for "sight", as well as for her earthbending. Toph was very reluctant to allow anyone else to touch her feet, probably because insensitive handling there would make her deaf to other vibrations and thereby render her helpless (they were also far more sensitive than other people's feet).

Toph's earthbending style was based on Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis, a style that was apparently unique to her; the style of earthbending used by other earthbenders is rooted in the Hung Gar style of Kung Fu. She was the only bender known to use a style based on a different root martial art than the standard for their bending art. This may be because she was self-taught rather than trained in the traditional earthbending form. Toph came to develop her unique style by observing the movements of the also blind earthbending badgermoles that could be found in the caves around her hometown. By 174 AG, Toph's fighting style evolved to incorporate more fluid and evasive maneuvers, bending mud more akin to waterbending.

Because sand is loose and ultimately always changing with the winds of the desert, Toph found it hard to navigate through and control. To compensate somewhat, she could condense the sand together to give her a better footing. However, when she tried to attack one of the sandbenders with a small wave of sand during their ambush of her and Appa, she missed, her lack of precision on the sand aggravated by her hurry to save both Appa and the others.

After the events in the Si Wong Desert had shown her inability to see effectively while walking on sand, Toph practiced her sandbending, eventually achieving a mastery over it that allowed her to create an extremely detailed sand version of Ba Sing Se during her time relaxing at Ember Island.

Toph discovered the ability to bend metal in the spring of 100 AG. Metal is derived from ore, which is found in the earth. Guru Pathik explained to Aang that "metal is just a part of earth that has been purified and refined". Because of Toph's ability to feel the vibrations in earth, she was able to locate the impurities (the small fragments of earth) still found in most metals and manipulate them to "bend" the metal portion. By acquiring these metalbending abilities, Toph showed herself to be one of the most powerful and ingenious earthbenders in the world, being the only known earthbender to ever bend metal during the Hundred Year War, a feat that even the Avatar had been unable to perform since the origin of earthbending.

When Sokka finished his training as a swordmaster, he gave Toph a small piece of meteorite, which, being composed of earth and metal, she could easily mold into a myriad of shapes, subsequently transforming it into an arm bracelet which she would wear.

She originally used an underdeveloped form of metalbending and usually needed direct contact with the element to manipulate it at all, let alone skillfully. However, she continued to practice her metalbending and started to display a dexterous control over metal.

In Wulong Forest, when she was breaking into a Fire Nation airship, it was shown that her metalbending had improved greatly, as she created metal armor and manipulated the metallic structure of the room with far more ease than before, moving metal more fluidly. She was also able to crawl along the metal ceiling while completely covered in metal. Additionally, Toph could metalbend outside of her metal armor, even though she was already bending the armor in the first place.

Katara's most notable ability was her waterbending. She rapidly developed her skill at the art, as her fierce resolve to master the element helped her become one of the most powerful waterbending masters in her era. Katara was identified as a waterbender when she was a small child after she cracked some ice when her brother teased her. She kept practicing even though she did not have a teacher, as her father could not find one, learning whatever little she could with great ambition. Over the course of her childhood, she taught herself basic waterbending techniques and managed to master some simple forms. This was a difficult feat, considering she had almost no opportunity to observe waterbending in practice. As of the discovery of Aang at the South Pole, Katara was capable of "pushing and pulling" water, streaming small amounts and manipulating it into basic forms and movements, and was beginning to gain some control over the ability to change its physical state, freezing it into ice, as well as attempting to create sizable waves of water. What little she knew, she taught to Aang, who quickly mastered all she had to offer. That which had taken her years to achieve, Aang managed to imitate and outperform her within mere minutes, much to her envy and frustration.

Katara's waterbending remained amateurish until she came across a Northern Water Tribe waterbending scroll in a pirate-traders ship depicting several different traditional waterbending forms. Incapable of passing up such an opportunity to have formal instruction, she eventually made away with the scroll and first learned the water whip technique with Aang and afterward continued to improve their overall technique. Up until their arrival at the Northern Water Tribe, the two showed considerable improvement and Katara's confidence in her own abilities increased dramatically. She demonstrated the ability to bend with much greater precision and ease compared to when she first stole the scroll, was able to draw unseen water out of different sources and bend greater quantities in general, streaming them into powerful blasts and freezing water with much more control than before. She later developed several of her own techniques, including cloud manipulation with Aang's help, and a hand-held variation on the water-whip technique. She also demonstrated greater manipulation of ice and snow.[38] In the time between her acquisition of the waterbending scroll and arrival at the North Pole, her sheer determination and discipline saw her proficiency improve greatly, clearly surpassing Aang's. Later, Katara challenged the master waterbending instructor of the Northern Water Tribe, Pakku, to a duel. Though she was undoubtedly no match for the master, she was determined to not be beaten. She demonstrated more advanced techniques than she ever had previously and greater proficiency in basic waterbending techniques she had previously learned. For the first time, she was seen bending with her feet and transforming the physical state of a wave. Pakku eventually removed her ability to bend by trapping her body and limbs between spikes of ice and so won the fight without harming her, though he admitted that she was an exceptionally talented waterbender.

Under the guidance of Master Pakku, Katara's waterbending abilities advanced quicker than that of any student he had ever trained, which he accredited to her fierce passion and hard-work. She fought and defeated Zuko with the augmented power of the near-full moon. During the fight, she knocked him off his feet, deflected his attacks, imprisoned him in a dome of solid ice, and later a wave of solid ice. Though she was defeated by Zuko after the sun rose, she fought him again with the full moon and defeated him easily.

Following the Siege of the North, Pakku declared Katara a full-fledged waterbending master in the short time that she was at the North Pole. She continued to hone her skills, regularly demonstrating her waterbending mastery in battle. In Omashu, she blocked a flurry of Mai's knives by waterbending wooden boards into the air as shields in front of herself, managed to block arrows with a wall of ice, and retaliated by freezing Mai's arm in ice, only being defeated when Ty Lee snuck behind her and blocked her chi, preventing her from waterbending.[44] While in the swamp with Aang and Sokka, Katara used the stores in her pouch and caused enough pressure to the water in order to cut apart the vines, create large waves in the swamp water, freeze a part of Huu's "swamp monster", and create a coil of water to blast a hole into the monster. She then created large, round, razor-sharp blades out of the water to slice through the vines completely. Later, she easily defeated two earthbending students by freezing them in solid ice. When facing Ty Lee a second time, she fought using the water in her pouch to fend off her chi-blocking attacks, forcing Ty Lee to cartwheel away from disks of razor-sharp water. She also stopped Azula from killing Aang by catching her hand in a water whip.

While crossing the Serpent's Pass, Katara made a bridge of ice for the group to travel across, worked with Aang to support an underwater bubble for the group to travel in, surfed around on a surfboard of ice, and formed a massive whirlpool with Aang to defeat the serpent.

Katara rapidly condensed water vapor into ice to defeat her foes. When assaulting Jet upon re-encountering him, she used ice spikes, similar to Mai's daggers, to pin Jet to the wall in an alley. While fighting off the Royal Earthbender Guards, she defeated dozens of them with whips and streams of water. In the Crystal Catacombs, Katara and Aang fought against Zuko and Azula, whom she managed to cut one hair bangs and created two enormous whips of water, which she used to briefly trap her. Later, these whips were able to match Zuko's enormous fire whips. When she was finally surrounded by Dai Li agents, she defended herself with the octopus form and rode on an enormous wave which knocked down these agents as well as Zuko. She proceeded to escape on a rising stream of water, carrying Aang to safety.

Katara's waterbending later became even more advanced and destructive. During a fight with a Fire Nation ship, she lifted a huge wave to separate the two ships and formed a huge steam barrier between them for cover. Once their ship was hit by a harpoon, she used her frosty breath of waterbending to freeze the hole in the ship's hull, thus repairing it. When Aang held a dance for some of his Fire Nation school friends, she created a fountain out of solid ice for beverages and the glasses they used to drink from. At the Jang Hui River, Katara created a cover of steam and sped herself atop the water's surface. Assisted by Aang, she formed crashing waves and precise missiles of water to destroy a Fire Nation Army factory. She also blasted a Fire Nation river craft into the air and against a cliff, as well as transported a huge bubble of water from a nearby creek to extinguish a fire.

When Combustion Man locked her and Toph in jail, Katara adapted to her environment, using her own sweat as a catalyst to form a water knife which broke out of a wooden prison cell. During her time hiding within the Fire Nation, Katara met Hama, an elderly, yet powerful fellow waterbending master from the Southern Water Tribe. After learning this, Hama began training her in Southern Style waterbending. Among many techniques and combat tactics, she became able to condense moisture in the air to create her own water source for her bending and could remove water from plant life. Alternatively, with the latter skill she could bend the plants by controlling the water inside them. During their duel, Katara stood her ground against Hama's blast of water instead of redirecting it, which shocked the old bender into silence and allowed Katara to temporarily gain the upper hand.

On the Day of Black Sun, Katara fought against the Fire Nation guards at the capital, destroying several guard towers with Sokka and defeating many soldiers. At the Western Air Temple, she rained ice spikes onto Combustion Man. While tracking down her mother's killer, Katara used the enhanced power of the full moon to nearly take down a whole Fire Nation ship of the Southern Raiders single-handedly. During her encounter with Yon Rha, she created a large wide dome of water by gathering rain drops and created ice spikes from it, nearly killing him. Katara's prowess was formidable enough to fight against such prodigious master benders like Azula. Finally, during Sozin's Comet, she froze herself and Azula into a block of solid ice, thawed the center of it, and chained Azula to a water grate.

Katara's innate aptitude toward waterbending abilities made her a rare case to naturally have access to the incredible ability to heal by manipulating the chi paths in a person's body, including herself. She inadvertently discovered this ability after Aang accidentally burned her hands and subsequently used this power again to heal Aang's own burn after his face-off with Admiral Zhao. Once she reached the Northern Water Tribe, she further developed this ability by training with Yagoda. By the time the gang met the General Fong, she healed several of his injured earthbending troops. However, Katara unsuccessfully attempted to heal Jet after he was fatally wounded by Long Feng.

With the aid of a small vial of spirit water, which held special properties, from the Spirit Oasis, Katara's healing abilities were enhanced. Though she was going to use the spirit water in an attempt to heal Zuko's scar, she instead used it to bring Aang back to life after he had been struck in the back by Azula's lightning. Even though she used up the spirit water, Katara's healing was enough to allow her father Hakoda to walk again after he was injured while taking out a Fire Nation ballista tower during the invasion. During Azula and Zuko's Agni Kai, Azula generated lightning and aimed it at Katara rather than Zuko; but he jumped in front of Katara and let the lightning shock him instead, sparing her from near death. Her healing had been successful enough that he could rise to his feet just moments after she had begun.

After learning all of Hama's Southern Style skills, Hama decided to teach Katara bloodbending, an advanced ability to manipulate the water within the body of all living beings, controlling them like puppets. When Katara refused to learn such a technique due to viewing it as dark and immoral, Hama decided to silence her with the said technique. Despite only just hearing about the skill, Katara showed an innate talent for the art, quickly becoming the first known person to break the effects of a bloodbender's grip and free herself. Ultimately however, Hama tricked her into utilizing bloodbending to save Sokka and Aang, leaving her greatly distressed.

man who killed her mother, Katara alone took out nearly all the Southern Raiders under the full moon. After she discovered where the captain was, she let her anger take over and used bloodbending on him, which stunned Zuko. When she discovered that he was not the man she searched, she released him, shocked and dismayed that she had just used bloodbending on an innocent person. She is the only bloodbender who was never known to have had someone else break free of her grip, though she rarely used the skill. Though this was the last known time she used the technique, Katara came to greatly understand its workings.

Katara's knowledge of healing extended outside the waterbending subskill: She was versed in midwifery, as she had helped her grandmother deliver many babies in the Southern Water Tribe and delivered Than and Ying's baby, Hope. She also seemed to have been knowledgeable on yoga.

Although she mostly lacked skill in hand-to-hand combat compared to her allies, Katara showed a surprising amount of agility and employing hand and foot strikes in combat in her fight against Pakku. Later, she exhibited remarkable agility and acrobatic skill, as evidenced when she performed a complicated dance with Aang.

Toph was born in 88 AG as the only child of the wealthy Beifong family from Gaoling. Born blind, she was sheltered by her parents, who believed her blindness made her fragile and incapable of looking after herself. They went to extreme measures to protect her, including hiding her existence from the rest of the world, which resulted in very few people knowing that the Beifong family even had a daughter. Her parents expected their daughter to be well-mannered and proper due to their noble status in Earth Kingdom society, something with which Toph secretly disagreed, which caused her to resent her parents' treatment.

One day when she was five years old, Toph ran away from home and hid in a cave inhabited by badgermoles. Badgermoles were the first earthbenders, and Toph felt that she and the creatures understood each other, as they were both blind. She learned earthbending by imitating their movements. In this way, she learned to "see" through the use of her earthbending, detecting people and other objects through their vibrations, which she sensed through the ground via her bare feet.[8] Her blindness and patience helped her to develop a keen sense of hearing. Toph would sporadically run away from home to find refuge in the Foggy Swamp due to its close proximity to her hometown.

Lao Beifong later hired the earthbender teacher Master Yu to instruct her. Acting upon the orders of Toph's father, he did not teach her anything other than beginner's moves, unaware that she had already achieved mastery in the art. She became such a formidable bender that she secretly entered underground earthbending tournaments as the Blind Bandit, and was successful to the point where she became the champion of Earth Rumble more than once. After meeting Aang when she was 12 years old, Toph soon ran away in order to teach him earthbending, but also to escape her parents, who never granted her any real freedom.

After joining Team Avatar, Toph quarreled with Katara over her participation in the team, which, along with the additional stress of being chased by Azula and her team, led to Toph leaving the group. However, after talking to Iroh, Toph changed her mind and rejoined her friends in Tu Zin. After the encounter, Toph began her earthbending lessons with Aang. Although Aang initially struggled with Toph's training methods, he learned to adopt an earthbender-like approach to battle situations and started to bend the element.[27] Soon after, Team Avatar was split up during a Fire Nation ambush. Toph, Aang, and Sokka captured a Fire Nation soldier while searching for Katara, and were eventually reunited with her through the aid of Jiang's pirates.

As Aang continued his bending training with Toph and Katara, the group ventured into the middle of the Si Wong Desert with Professor Zei in the hope of learning information to use against the Fire Nation. Although they managed to find Wan Shi Tong's library, Toph chose to stay outside, as she could not read. When the structure began to sink, Toph chose to hold up the library even as Si Wong tribesmen arrived on the scene and kidnapped Appa. After making their way out of the desert, Team Avatar's new goal was to inform the Earth King about an eclipse in the Fire Nation that Sokka had discovered in the library. The team chose to make their way to Ba Sing Se via the dangerous Serpent's Pass, which the group successfully managed to do in spite of numerous setbacks.

Although they arrived at the walls of the capital, Toph and the team first helped thwart an invasion plan by destroying the Fire Nation drill. The group found it difficult to meet with King Kuei once settling in the city, but Toph helped the rest of the team sneak into a party at the palace, where they were discovered and dismissed by Long Feng. As the team continued their search for Appa and waited to meet with the government, they managed to rest for a while, though eventually found that Appa was in the clutches of the Dai Li. Team Avatar managed to subdue the Dai Li and convinced the Earth King to regain power and imprison Long Feng, beginning their plans to invade the Fire Nation with the help of the Council of Five. With things looking better for the team, Toph received a letter claiming that her mother was in the city and that she finally understood her daughter, but when she went to meet her, Toph was kidnapped by Xin Fu and Master Yu, who began to take her back to Gaoling in a metal cage pulled by an ostrich horse-drawn cart.

After some time in her cage, Toph began to bash her hands against the metal walls using seismic sense. The vibrations allowed her to see the fragments of earth within metal. Reaching out for the fragments and widening her stance, Toph bent metal for the first time in the history of earthbending. After freeing herself from the cage, she trapped Xin Fu and Yu inside and hurried back to Ba Sing Se on a wave of earth, until she was picked up by Aang and Sokka on Appa. Returning to the palace, Toph and the group were caught off-guard by Azula and her team, who had masqueraded as Kyoshi Warriors and begun to orchestrate a palace coup with the aid of the Dai Li. Toph easily broke herself, Sokka, and King Kuei free from imprisonment with metalbending, but escaped Ba Sing Se with a grievously wounded Aang on Appa after the city fell to the Fire Nation.

After fleeing Ba Sing Se, Team Avatar commandeered a Fire Nation ship, sailing toward the Fire Nation as Aang slumbered. Shortly after he awoke, they met another Fire Nation ship, and Toph aided in the ensuing battle with her metalbending. Team Avatar split from their allies and went undercover as Fire Nation citizens in order to prepare for the invasion. Eventually, the team was pursued by a mysterious assassin with the ability to combustionbend.

As the team's resources began to run low, Toph decided to earn money for the group by cheating at carnival games in Fire Fountain City using earthbending and metalbending. Toph began to earn a reputation as a scam artist called "The Runaway." This caused a rift to grow between Toph and Katara again, but the two soon made up, with Katara proposing that they run an even bigger scam by turning in Toph, collecting the bounty, and her metalbending herself out of jail. However, this was a trap set by Combustion Man and both of them were imprisoned. Katara freed the pair from the prison by bending her own sweat to cut the wooden cell, and the group fled the city after stunning Combustion Man. Toph also admitted feeling guilty about her parents and sent a message to them using Hawky.

When the Day of Black Sun arrived, Toph served as an earthbending soldier during the invasion. Toph battled against Fire Nation soldiers in the harbor until Aang told them that Caldera City was abandoned. Toph sensed an underground bunker beneath the capital and searched for the Fire Lord with Aang and Sokka, but the group only found Azula, who taunted Sokka. With the eclipse having passed, the invasion force retreated, with Team Avatar and their younger allies heading to the Western Air Temple.

Soon after settling at the temple, Toph sensed that Zuko had arrived. The prince told them that he had changed and now wished to teach Aang firebending. All but Toph rejected him, as she could sense his sincerity with her truth-seeing. When Toph approached Zuko at his camp alone, he accidentally burned her feet, and she spent the rest of the night traveling back to the temple. Though the group seemed to be further turned against Zuko, they welcomed him to the team after he proved himself by helping to defeat Combustion Man. Toph provided useful advice to Aang and Zuko as they tried to find the dragons to learn firebending, though she along with the rest of the group fled the temple after it was attacked by Azula following Hakoda and Suki's rescue from the Boiling Rock.

The group settled on Ember Island following the attack, where Toph expressed admiration for a bizarre portrayal of herself in a play retelling their adventures. However, the group's anticipated chance to recuperate was interrupted when Zuko informed them of the necessity to attack the Fire Nation before it had a chance to burn the Earth Kingdom to ash during Sozin's Comet. Toph helped the team prepare for the assault on Ozai in a mock battle where she played the Fire Lord, but the preparations were halted when Aang mysteriously disappeared the following night. Unable to find Aang, the group traveled to the Earth Kingdom so June could locate the Avatar, but to no avail. Instead, June brought the group to Iroh and the rest of the Order of the White Lotus. As part of the battle plans, Toph, Sokka, and Suki went to intercept the Fire Nation fleet of airships. Toph propelled them all aboard the ships with earthbending just as they took off, and promptly used metalbending to incapacitate the soldiers and captain. Sokka steered their ship into the others, but their own ship began to break apart and they were separated from Suki.

Just as Toph and Sokka were about to fall from the ship, they were saved by Suki who was piloting another. As the comet departed, the group met up with Aang, who had stripped Ozai of his bending powers, congratulating him and taunting the former Fire Lord. After Zuko's coronation, Toph joined the rest of their team and their allies at the Jasmine Dragon in Ba Sing Se, where they celebrated their hard-won victory.

Born into the diminished Southern Water Tribe capital of Wolf Cove to Chief Hakoda and his wife Kya, Katara faced the reality of her tribe's dwindling strength from an early age. At the time of her birth, fifty years of repeated Fire Nation raids intended to capture and imprison the tribe's waterbenders had left them devoid of benders. While the Southern Water Tribe's defenses would have crumbled under the might of the Fire Nation, the tribe's relative inaccessibility in the frigid South Pole and the Fire Nation's perception that they were a non-threat meant that they were mostly left alone. Katara grew up within a loving, close family and community in her tribe. When she was six years old, she broke a tooth on a piece of seal jerky made by Ashuna.

However, when Katara was eight, the Fire Nation again raided Wolf Cove when charged by Fire Lord Azulon to find and dispose of the last remaining waterbender in the tribe. During the battle, the leader of the raid Yon Rha confronted Katara's mother, who was taking refuge in the family's igloo. Seeking shelter with her mother, Katara ran back to her home and interrupted their exchange. Realizing the intentions of Yon Rha, who had demanded Kya tell him the identity of the waterbender, Kya insisted Katara leave and gave herself up as the last waterbender, lying to protect her daughter. Katara ran to fetch her father, but by the time they returned, Yon Rha had left and her mother had been killed. The death of their mother had a profound impact on both Katara and Sokka, and both began to feel deep hatred and resentment toward the Fire Nation as a result.

In the absence of a mother figure in the family, Katara soon found herself filling the role left behind by Kya. She began to take on many of the domestic responsibilities expected of women of the Southern Water Tribe, despite her young age. When Katara was around twelve years old, her father, Chief Hakoda, left to fight in the Hundred Year War with the other men of the Southern Water Tribe.[18] Katara and Sokka were left in the care of their grandmother, Kanna. Though Kanna loved the two and cared deeply for them, Katara was left feeling traumatized and alone. Living in a tribe consisting almost completely of women, children, and the elderly, she took care of not only her own family but of the whole Southern Water Tribe as well.

While on a fishing trip for Wolf Cove, Katara and her older brother, Sokka, accidentally steered their canoe into a rip current, and it was crushed between ice floes. The two found themselves stranded on a chunk of ice. After Sokka blamed their situation on her, Katara grew so angry that she inadvertently exploded an iceberg behind her with her waterbending. Katara and Sokka discovered a mysterious figure trapped in a large spherical iceberg that rose to the surface. The figure introduced himself as Aang, an airbender, and offered to escort them home on his flying bison, Appa. After her village was attacked by soldiers on a Fire Nation ship commanded by Prince Zuko, Katara learned that Aang was the Avatar. She and her brother set out to save Aang, who had surrendered to Zuko to keep the village from harm. After their successful rescue, and after witnessing Aang's impressive first display of the Avatar State, Katara mused that they might find a waterbending teacher at the North Pole, at which, Aang quickly brightened up and suggested he and Katara could learn together.

The three began their journey to the North Pole. Throughout their journey, the group stopped in several locations across the world, mostly in the war-torn Earth Kingdom. Their first stop was the Southern Archipelago, where they first helped a local dojo before arriving at the Southern Air Temple, where Aang had grown up. After Aang came across Monk Gyatso's corpse and reflexively entered the Avatar State, Katara was able to calm him down. The trio stopped on Kyoshi Island, where they were ambushed by Prince Zuko and barely managed to escape.

Following this encounter, the team journeyed to the great Earth Kingdom metropolis of Omashu. On the way, they intervened in the siege of Shen Guan. Upon arriving at Omashu, they were brought before the city's elderly king who treated them as honored guests before promptly imprisoning them. Katara and her brother were given jennamite crystals that nearly covered their whole bodies, before Aang solved all the king's tasks, discovering that he was a childhood friend, Bumi. Before reaching the Northern Water Tribe, the trio had several other adventures while being pursued by multiple firebenders, including Zuko and his uncle Iroh, as well as Zhao of the Fire Nation Navy. Among their missions, the group helped several earthbenders to escape from a Fire Nation prison rig, including Haru and his father Tyro. They helped the people of Senlin Village, who were being attacked by the spirit Hei Bai, before venturing to the Fire Nation where Aang learned about the urgency of defeating the Fire Lord by Avatar Roku. The trio barely escaped the clutches of Zuko and a group of pirates during a confrontation where Katara lost her mother's necklace, a precious keepsake. She also discovered the darker side of the resistance, when they came into contact with Jet and his Freedom Fighters who tried to destroy the village of Gaipan to kill its firebender occupants.

The team also helped two warring tribes, the Zhang and the Gan Jin, cross the Great Divide and to make peace, and later encountered Bato, one of Hakoda's friends and a Southern Water Tribe warrior, where they almost departed from Aang before being reunited due to an unexpected shirshu attack. The team met Jeong Jeong later on their journey, who unsuccessfully tried to teach Aang the weight of firebending. During Aang's training, Katara was burned and discovered that she had healing abilities. When the group reached the Northern Air Temple, they defended a group of refugees led by a mechanist from War Minister Qin.

After their long journey, the team reached the Northern Water Tribe, where Sokka and Katara were celebrated as kin from the Southern Tribe, and Aang was honored as a special guest. It was decided that Aang would be taught waterbending by Master Pakku, but Katara was prohibited from learning combative bending on account of her gender. After it was discovered that Aang was secretly teaching Pakku's techniques to Katara at night, the master dismissed Aang as a student. At the palace, Katara pleaded with Chief Arnook for Pakku to take Aang back as his student. The master agreed to do so if Katara apologized, and while she conceded at first, she renounced her apology and challenged the master to a duel after being patronized. Although Katara was defeated, the master picked up her necklace, revealing that he had made it for Kanna sixty years prior, and decided to accept Katara as a student. When the Fire Nation's ships arrived at the Northern Water Tribe, Yue took Katara and Aang to a hidden oasis, where Aang crossed over to the Spirit World. After Zuko unexpectedly arrived, Katara dueled him and was able to restrain him by freezing him in ice, but the prince overpowered her when the sun rose and kidnapped the Avatar.

Katara and her allies searched for and found Aang in the frozen landscape outside Agna Qel'a, and on their return, confronted Zhao, before the admiral killed the Moon Spirit, Tui. Failing to revive the dead koi with healing, Princess Yue realized that it was her destiny to give her life to repay the Moon Spirit, and transcended to the Spirit World. Aang won the battle after merging with the Ocean Spirit La and repelled the Fire Navy from the tribe. With the group now ready to move on and find an earthbending teacher for Aang, Pakku assigned Katara as Aang's new waterbending master.

Katara and the others sailed back to the southern Earth Kingdom so Aang could learn from King Bumi. While they stayed at an Earth Kingdom stronghold to be escorted to the city, General Fong placed Katara's life in danger to induce Aang's Avatar State, but only succeeded in destroying his own fort. During their journey to Omashu, Team Avatar met with Chong, Lily, and Moku, and with their help passed through a labyrinth and reached the city, only to find that it had fallen to the Fire Nation. In the city, it was revealed that King Bumi had intentionally been captured, and Katara and the rest of the team barely managed to escape Princess Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. The team was later stuck together in the Foggy Swamp, experiencing hallucinations; Katara's own vision was one of her late mother. Following their escape, the team visited Chin Village, where Aang was placed under for one of Avatar Kyoshi's crimes, and it fell upon the siblings to prove Aang's innocence. Although unsuccessful, they were pardoned after saving the village from the Rough Rhinos.

After the earthbender Toph Beifong joined the group in Gaoling to teach Aang, Katara initially quarreled with the new member of the group, but after being pursued by Azula, they began to trust each other more and became close friends. Soon after Toph started teaching Aang earthbending, they were attacked by Fire Army troops and Katara was separated from the rest of the team. She ended up in a small Earth Kingdom town where she encountered and befriended the pirate leader Jiang and her crew after helping them with a smuggling mission. She was reunited with the rest of Team Avatar the same day and parted ways with the pirates. Along with the others and Professor Zei of Ba Sing Se University, Katara visited Wan Shi Tong's library, where they learned that an eclipse would leave the Fire Nation vulnerable to invasion. Katara proved vital in Team Avatar's escape from the Si Wong Desert after Appa's kidnapping by Si Wong tribesmen, and helped a family of refugees cross the Serpent's Pass.

After reaching the Earth Kingdom's capital, Katara first helped to thwart another of Qin's plans, by helping destroy the Fire Nation Drill, before being welcomed into the city. Though they wished to inform the Earth King about the invasion plans, they were turned away, and found that a government conspiracy was taking place in the city. After the team recuperated while waiting to meet with the king, they resumed their search for Appa and eventually found him in the captivity of the Dai Li, a secret police force under the leadership of Long Feng, who had complete control over the city and controlled Earth King Kuei as a puppet. Team Avatar managed to subdue the Dai Li and began to plan an invasion of the Fire Nation in cooperation with the Council of Five, but a coup led by Azula hindered their plans. In the Crystal Catacombs below the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace, Katara encountered both Prince Zuko and his sister Azula, battling them both even after a brief moment of understanding.

battle ensued where Aang was mortally wounded by Azula's lightning, before he and Katara managed to escape. With the city fallen to the Fire Nation, Team Avatar fled Ba Sing Se with the Earth King.

battle ensued where Aang was mortally wounded by Azula's lightning, before he and Katara managed to escape. With the city fallen to the Fire Nation, Team Avatar fled Ba Sing Se with the Earth King.

After the fall of Ba Sing Se, Katara spent her time trying to heal an unconscious Aang aboard a stolen Fire Nation ship with the rest of Team Avatar and several other allies, including her father. Eventually, Katara and the rest of her small team traveled through the Fire Nation disguised as civilians. Among several adventures, Katara helped clean the Jang Hui River from pollution after disguising herself as the Painted Lady, and bettered her relationship with Toph, when she saved both of them from Combustion Man in Fire Fountain City. In one village, Katara met a Southern waterbender named Hama and began to learn the Southern style of bending from her, but turned on the woman after she revealed that she was a bloodbender. Katara was forced to use the art against Hama in order to save Aang and Sokka from harm. When the day of the invasion arrived, Katara and the rest of the team met with the rest of the invasion force and started to stealthily advance toward the capital via waterbending-powered submarines designed by the Northern Air Temple's mechanist. During the eclipse, the invasion advanced steadily toward Caldera City, while Aang reached the Fire Nation Royal Palace. It was quickly revealed that the invasion had been anticipated and the Fire Nation's counterattack with airships destroyed much of the invasion force, with only Team Avatar and a few younger allies managing to escape.

After the failed invasion, Katara and her friends retreated to the Western Air Temple, where they started searching for a new firebending master to teach Aang, and unexpectedly found one in Zuko, who introduced himself as an ally. The relationship between Zuko and Katara was at first intense and troublesome, with Katara determined to never forgive Zuko for his betrayal in Ba Sing Se. Eventually, Katara forgave Zuko for his actions after he helped to find Yon Rha, the man who killed her mother. Although she did confront the man, she hesitated from ending his life, but was able to move past her grief, and her grudge against Zuko. Right before the final battle between Team Avatar and the Fire Nation, Katara and the rest of the team retreated to Ember Island. The team watched a play performed by the Ember Island Players, with Katara growing embarrassed and annoyed while viewing an exaggerated caricature of herself. Although the team had wished to only battle Ozai after Sozin's Comet, they were made to act against the Fire Lord as soon as possible after Zuko revealed the plan to annihilate the Earth Kingdom. After Aang's unexpected disappearance, the team traveled to the Earth Kingdom before going separate ways, with Katara and Zuko heading to the Fire Nation to confront Azula. After the pair interrupted Azula's coronation as Fire Lord, a fierce Comet-Enhanced Agni Kai was fought between the two siblings, and Katara was saved from an unexpected lightning blast by Zuko, who redirected the attack.[66] Katara eventually managed to goad Azula into walking directly over a grate of water. While freezing her opponent in ice, Katara was able to chain the princess to the grate before rushing to Zuko and healing him. She was present at Zuko's coronation after the team's successful victory in the century-long war. team's successful victory in the century-long war.

team's successful victory in the century-long war. Later, Katara traveled to the Jasmine Dragon with Team Avatar, celebrating their hard-won victory. She followed Aang outside the tea shop and embraced him. The pair subsequently looked at each other lovingly before she instigated a romantic kiss, beginning the couple's formal relationship

Due to her blindness, Toph was often pampered by her overprotective parents. Her freedom was limited to the point where her own existence was not known to most people in her hometown, much to her chagrin, thus straining her relationship with her parents. As a result, she greatly craved to interact with the rest of the world, albeit independently. It was not until she learned earthbending from the badgermoles that her confidence tremendously increased. As a result, she secretly participated in Earth Rumble tournaments without her parents' knowledge.

Upon joining Team Avatar, Toph brought a completely new personality to the group. Unlike the nurturing Katara, flighty Aang, or gruff but goofy Sokka, Toph was fiercely independent, sarcastic, direct, stubborn, and confrontational. She appeared to have the same carefree and adventurous personality as Aang and was very tomboyish in the way she acted and dressed, in contrast to the delicate doll her parents saw her as being. Toph loved battling and took great pride in her earthbending skills. She appeared eager to prove that she was as strong as anyone who could see and once claimed that she was "the greatest earthbender in the world". This attitude was most prominently shown when she was teaching Aang earthbending, as she taught him to face his enemies and problems head-on.

Toph's eagerness to prove that she could be independent led to some initial difficulties with Aang and his friends. Toph insisted that she could "carry her own weight" and often mistook a simple friendly gesture as an act of pity for her blindness. Her encounter with Iroh, however, taught her that Aang, Katara, and Sokka cared for her because they were friends, not because her blindness made them feel obligated to do so.

Toph was often brutally honest when criticizing others, especially her friends. She was vocal about her opinions on others regardless of status (the Avatar, Aang) or age (Iroh). Her occasional attitude or aloofness was likely related to her being the only child of one of the richest families in the Earth Kingdom. Due to her time as a competitor and champion of earthbending tournaments, she was an expert in verbally taunting and insulting her opponents and, on occasion, her friends, particularly Sokka. She revealed to Katara that, being unable to see what she looks like, she did not feel the need to fuss over her appearance. However, despite her many quirks, Toph showed that she was a quick learner, and her courage and loyalty to her new friends seemed very stable.

Toph and Katara seemed to be polar opposites; while Katara was kind, welcoming and supportive, Toph was rough, unyielding and steadfast. These differences in personality extended to the way both girls taught Aang; however, Toph eventually showed a bit of compromise in order to help Aang through his initial difficulty with earthbending. Despite occasional clashes or spats, Toph and Katara generally got along.

One of Toph's most notable traits involved personal hygiene. She was accustomed to lying on the ground and walking everywhere barefoot leaving her soles soiled, a habit common among the earthbenders. Also, she had been seen belching loudly, picking her nose or toes, spitting, and was usually covered in dirt or, as she called it, "a healthy coating of earth".

Toph was well-educated in the manners and bearings of high society but deliberately chose to ignore them. However, she made an exception when the group needed to go to an exclusive party to see the Earth King in order to give news of the solar eclipse. To this end, she and Katara dressed and acted formally to evade suspicion.

Toph did not let her blindness hurt her self-confidence. She had high self-esteem in regard to many of her abilities and was more than determined to show that she would not let her blindness deter her from living freely and fighting like everyone else. However, sometimes this acted as a ruse to hide personal insecurities. After getting a makeover with Katara in Ba Sing Se, some residents of the city mocked Toph for it (who retaliated with a prank). She told Katara that "one of the good things about being blind [was] that [she did] not have to waste [her] time worrying about appearances" and was not looking for anyone's approval. Katara voiced that it was something she admired in Toph but could tell that she had been hurt by the insult and added that though it did not matter, she was in fact pretty, which visibly cheered up the blind girl.

An ongoing joke concerning Toph's blindness was her lack of ability to discern anything that had been written or drawn. In Ba Sing Se, Toph became angry when Sokka suggested that she needed help distributing fliers. She angrily slapped up a poster herself, only to inadvertently place it backward and say, "It's upside-down, isn't it?" Also, she sarcastically complimented Sokka on his drawings of Appa despite the obvious fact that she could not see them. Later, in the Fire Nation, after being presented with the same wanted poster twice, Toph vocally expressed her annoyance with the constant oversight. Toph was comfortable enough, however, with the group's absent-mindedness on the subject of her blindness to even joke about it herself at times. For example, while searching for Wan Shi Tong's Library, Toph, while flying on Appa, claimed that she saw it, before remarking, "That's what it'll sound like when one of you spots it", and waving a hand in front of her eyes with a nonchalant smile.

While hijacking an airship, Toph mistook Sokka's comment about taking the wheel, thinking he was referring to her. By the smile on her face, it was pretty clear that she was gleeful about getting another chance to correct him. However, it turned out that Sokka was talking to Suki, and Toph managed to subsequently cover up her original intention pretty well. At the reunion in the Jasmine Dragon after the passing of Sozin's Comet, she made a joke about Sokka's drawing, saying that she thought everyone looked perfect.

Because of the restrictions placed upon her by her parents and the fact that their servants waited upon her hand and foot lest she hurt herself, Toph often seemed to want to take on the responsibilities and obtain the freedoms of adulthood. This caused problems for herself and her friends, most notably during their visit to Fire Fountain City, as she did not always take into account how this might endanger her or aggravate others. No matter how she acted, though, others realized that she was still a vulnerable child underneath everything else she pretended to be.

When she went on to teach her unique talent of metalbending, she realized how her dogged pursuit of her own dreams of becoming the world's first metalbending teacher disrespected who her students were. She found parallels between how she was treating them as people by restricting them simply so they could meet her vision of them with how her parents had treated her back when she still lived with them. She subsequently decided to give up her metalbending academy so that she would not use it as an outlet for the pain she felt from her relationship with her parents onto her students. Luckily for her, her students happened to have overheard her conversation with Sokka about this subject, and responded to it by overcoming the limits the rest of the world saw as defining them in an attempt to live up to the vision Toph had had for them, and were finally able to metalbend.

Katara had a very compassionate and caring personality and often acted as a motherly figure to the group, something that both irritated and warmed the rebellious Toph. She displayed deep affection for those she traveled with, and was fiercely protective whenever their safety was threatened. Her inner strength kept Aang and their friends together through their most difficult experiences, even in the absence of parental figures. While the team traveled through the Si Wong Desert, she was able to hold the group together during its most desperate moments. She had a soft spot for children, giving a portion of her food to a little boy in Jang Hui and went as far to defend Tom-Tom, despite the fact that he was from the Fire Nation and that everyone else, with the exception of Aang, was distrustful of him for it. This was because when Katara was a young girl, her beloved mother was killed in a Fire Nation raid, an event which had a tremendous impact on her life and arguably shaped her into the person she became. According to Sokka, she largely prevented their family from falling apart and took on many responsibilities to the point where she filled the void left by their mother, so much that he pictured her in place of their mother.

Overall, Katara was often marked by a fierce determination to aid others and herself stated that she would never turn away from people who need her help, even if she had other priorities at the moment. According to Sokka, she was rather optimistic. Placing her whole heart in whatever affairs she had, she was often easily reduced to tears. She was even willing to defend Fire Nation civilians, such as when she helped the village of Jang Hui, and fought her former teacher Hama, who also was from the Southern Water Tribe, to defend the Fire Nation village she was living in. This strong desire often frustrated yet inspired others, particularly Sokka.

Katara was marked by a fierce desire to learn waterbending, viewing it as a part of her identity and her culture that needed to be expressed. She viewed it as a hope for rebuilding her tribe and saw her mother's sacrifice not only to save a daughter but what she represented, their own bending style. Her enthusiasm for waterbending caused her to constantly train herself in the art, despite originally not having a teacher, and she learned whatever little she could with great ambition, ignoring Sokka's criticism. Her pride and strong mind caused conflict with the traditions of the Northern Water Tribe, which forbade women from learning combat focused waterbending. She became overjoyed when she finally broke those rules and found a master to teach her formally. Like the rest of her family, Katara was resourceful and very capable to adapt to her environment. Having quickly and exemplary advanced under the tutelage of Master Pakku, he stated that she accomplished this due to her fierce determination, passion and hard work.

Katara was portrayed as the most mature member of the group, rarely taking part in Sokka, Aang, and Toph's goofy pranks, though she did have a sense of humor. She was a bit of a stickler for morality, even to the point of causing Sokka and Aang to faint from shock when she stated she wanted to pull a scam, as she had previously berated Toph for scamming people. Her loss was part of what drove her in her fight against the Fire Nation, although she did not show as much outward hatred as her brother. Although Sokka told Toph that Katara could be a pain and would get "involved and in-your-business", she is understanding of other people's privacy, continually scolding her brother for snooping around Hama's inn and rummaging through her personal belongings.

On the other hand, Katara could be overly domineering, for better and worse. For all her kindness, she was sometimes self-righteous, had a nasty temper, and could be fierce when provoked. With lack of sleep, this side of her could quickly become more apparent. She was also set in her ideals and frequently refused to relent on her views in the face of opposition. Combined with her strong sense of compassion, this gave Katara a strong sense of justice and she would run headlong into often dangerous situations to help others, which was best illustrated when she faked to be an earthbender to mix with innocent earthbenders in the prison rig when she was not a proper fighter yet, challenged the greatest waterbending instructor in the Northern Tribe for forbidding women from learning combat-focused waterbending, and destroying factories for their culpability in the severe contamination at Jang Hui while she infiltrated the Fire Nation. Her short temper led to somewhat frequent, petty clashes with others, as she showed open, but short-lived, jealousy of Aang's talent, and was frequently perturbed by Toph's confrontational and rebellious nature.

On the other hand, Katara could be overly domineering, for better and worse. For all her kindness, she was sometimes self-righteous, had a nasty temper, and could be fierce when provoked. With lack of sleep, this side of her could quickly become more apparent. She was also set in her ideals and frequently refused to relent on her views in the face of opposition. Combined with her strong sense of compassion, this gave Katara a strong sense of justice and she would run headlong into often dangerous situations to help others, which was best illustrated when she faked to be an earthbender to mix with innocent earthbenders in the prison rig when she was not a proper fighter yet, challenged the greatest waterbending instructor in the Northern Tribe for forbidding women from learning combat-focused waterbending, and destroying factories for their culpability in the severe contamination at Jang Hui while she infiltrated the Fire Nation. Her short temper led to somewhat frequent, petty clashes with others, as she showed open, but short-lived, jealousy of Aang's talent, and was frequently perturbed by Toph's confrontational and rebellious nature.

Despite being one of the more compassionate members of the group, Katara was one of the least willing to let go of a grudge, especially against those she felt had betrayed her trust. She held a considerable grudge against anyone who had threatened Aang or done things she considered morally wrong. Upon her re-encounter with Jet, Katara reacted hostilely at the mere sight of him. For a while, she was argumentative with her father because she felt that he had abandoned her and Sokka when he left to fight in the War. At the Western Air Temple, she showed outright hostility toward Zuko and threatened to kill him if he slipped back to his old ways, being harsh toward Zuko even long after he had joined Team Avatar and gained the trust of everyone else. However, this could be because Zuko's betrayal of her at Ba Sing Se was far more personal than his betrayal of anyone else. However, Katara was sometimes willing to give people second chances. With much reluctance, she allowed Jet to guide Team Avatar to Appa, and appeared to be saddened by his death. Also, she offered to try and heal Zuko's scar when they were enemies. Eventually, even after his betrayal, she decided to forgive him and embraced him as a friend after he helped her find the man who killed her mother.

The loss of her mother at the hands of the Fire Nation caused Katara to strongly express her emotions about that day to her teammates, bringing up the topic in situations that tested the feelings of both her friends and herself, often positively reinforcing her loving relationship with her late mother, albeit indirectly. Occasionally, this fervor blinded her from the fact that the people around her had also suffered from similar experiences and events that equally impacted them. An example of this was when Katara described her mother as just hers and without giving a second thought that she was Sokka's as well, or when she told her brother that he did not love their mother the way she did after Sokka tried to stop Katara from tracking Kya's murderer, upsetting him. When she got the chance to exert her revenge against the commander she believed was the killer, she was willing to use bloodbending against him. She regretted her actions after realizing she had bloodbent the wrong man, although she was not above planning to kill the murderer, only for her self-conscience to stop her from almost executing him.

Motherly and feminine as she was, Katara was not afraid to go beyond her feminine looks and way of being to achieve what she wanted. When she and Toph were denied entrance to a rowdy pub because the both of them were girls, they dressed up as boys. Katara, in particular, showed her more eccentric side when wanting to ride the pub's mechanized bull; being even willing to start an all-out brawl with some of the men there who mocked her ability to stay on the bull. The whole thing ended with Toph dragging Katara away before things came to a head. The two later went to a spa, with Toph reflecting on how being a girl was not so bad at all.

Katara has light brown skin and long-brown hair that is kept in a braid and her two hair loopiess are miniature braids, tucked behind her ears. Her loopies are held by two small white bindings However, her hair was briefly down when she fought Pakku. She wears short light blue dress with darker blue, knee-lengthen dress robe draped over it. The dress robes are split on the side so she has better movements for her waterbending. Her dress and dark blue pants are held together by dark brown belt, brown fur boots and brown purse. Her dress's flaps are buttoned onto her shoulder and dark blue, white wavy patterns accented in her collar and her overdress' short-sleeved hems. She wears a dark blue choker with the white metal that has the Water Tribe's insignia on the front.

Due to the harsh, cold temperatures Katara and her people live in, she often wears a blue winter coat over her dress.

She has light skin, black hair, and pale-green eyes that are glazed over. Because she uses seismic sense to "see" via earth vibrations, she is always barefoot, with her feet and ankles typically coated in dirt.

Top: A pale green sleeveless tunic with darker green trim, worn over a yellow undershirt.Bottoms: Dark green pants and a matching dark green skirt/waist sash.Accessories: Dark green wristbands and a high-collared light green headband with a decorative gold buckle.