When Katara stared at Aang in the fortuneteller, it seemed pretty obvious that she was considering Aang as her "very powerful bender". It is notable that it ws in the episode directly after that (Bato of the Water Tribe) that she kissed Aang on the cheek for the first time (after he had just returned to her the betrothal necklace that was her most prized possession).

For me, the end of the desert has always been one of the best kataang moments in the series. In the moment when everyone else is simply running for it, Katara is the one who sticks by Aang and refuses to leave his side, helping to bring him out of the avatar state. It was the combination of the music, the scene, the plain feel of that moment that made it simply beautiful to watch.

You say that Aang contributes nothing to the relationship, and that he has never helped Katara, but you are only bring up examples where Aang was the one who needed help, not Katara. A couple of examples of Aang helping Katara can be found in:

The Boy in the Iceburg:

We have seen several times over the series that loosening up and having fun is somthing of a problem for Katara. Aang is the person who can help her unbend (no pun intended) and relax every once in a while.

The Waterbending Scroll:

By Katara's own admission she could never have mastered the water whip without Aang. Katara was being just as much of a jerk in this episode as Aang in later episodes, and yet when the time came, he forgave her without a second thought. There can be no doubt that Aang was definitely the one helping Katara in this chapter.

The Fortuneteller/Bato of the Water Tribe:

It is Aang who was able to help Katara with her biggest temporary loss in Season 1 - her mothers necklace. As well as Aang's well meaning attempt to fashion her a replacement in 114, he was later able to recover the original.

The Awakening:

I think that it was in this episode that Katara comes closest to saying why she really needs Aang (though there are hints of it in "The Storm"). Aang is her bedrock, the certainty in her life that she can depend upon. Right from the start it has been made clear that while everybody else abandoned hope, Katara, ever the optimist, was the one who never lost faith, who maintained a belief that some day the Avatar would return to save the world. Aang is that hope made manifest, what Katara sees as the personified object of her hope, trust, belief in what's right - in short, the things that make her Katara. That is why she is so mad at Zuko in WAT; it was his fault that Aang almost got killed, his fault that the basis of everything Katara believes in was almost takan away from her.

I think that another kataang moment that needs to mentioned is the hug at the end of The Siege of the North, part 2. When all is said and done Aang and Katara are two people who have been through hell together, and have come out of it alive by being able to depend on eachother, and it is this that has forged a bond between them that is the basis of Kataang.

Well, I'm back. Before I reply to anything else, I'd like to throw in some fluff that I noticed.

There is no denying that she considered it. However, how happy did she seem by it? Here's a girl who was practically drooling over every last detail about her future husband and family, yet, as soon as it pings that this guy that she knows, the avatar of all people, could be her future husband, she stands there with a rather disappointed look on her face. Don't you think she would have been jumping up and down, doing flips, and hanging on Aang's every word? She was practically doing that for Wu's prediction.

That was a sweet moment to watch. It looked just like a mother, comforting her child when he lost his puppy.

Axrendale wrote:

You say that Aang contributes nothing to the relationship, and that he has never helped Katara, but you are only bring up examples where Aang was the one who needed help, not Katara. A couple of examples of Aang helping Katara can be found in: The Boy in the Iceburg: We have seen several times over the series that loosening up and having fun is somthing of a problem for Katara. Aang is the person who can help her unbend (no pun intended) and relax every once in a while.

Everyone helps Katara do that throughout. Sokka and Toph have had their hand in a few moments. What you are saying is like me saying that only Katara's actions made Zuko change sides.

Axrendale wrote:

The Waterbending Scroll: By Katara's own admission she could never have mastered the water whip without Aang. Katara was being just as much of a jerk in this episode as Aang in later episodes, and yet when the time came, he forgave her without a second thought. There can be no doubt that Aang was definitely the one helping Katara in this chapter.

Wow, a friend helped out another friend with something that the first friend was already good at. Such an uber shipping moment.

Face it, you're stretching it there.

Axrendale wrote:

The Fortuneteller/Bato of the Water Tribe: It is Aang who was able to help Katara with her biggest temporary loss in Season 1 - her mothers necklace. As well as Aang's well meaning attempt to fashion her a replacement in 114, he was later able to recover the original.

That was not a big loss for her. Did you notice how non-chalant she was after the initial shock of losing her necklace passed? And it took less than a minute to pass.

Again, you're reaching here.

Axrendale wrote:

The Awakening: I think that it was in this episode that Katara comes closest to saying why she really needs Aang (though there are hints of it in "The Storm"). Aang is her bedrock, the certainty in her life that she can depend upon. Right from the start it has been made clear that while everybody else abandoned hope, Katara, ever the optimist, was the one who never lost faith, who maintained a belief that some day the Avatar would return to save the world. Aang is that hope made manifest, what Katara sees as the personified object of her hope, trust, belief in what's right - in short, the things that make her Katara. That is why she is so mad at Zuko in WAT; it was his fault that Aang almost got killed, his fault that the basis of everything Katara believes in was almost takan away from her.

See, "The Awakening" for me is why Katara and Aang won't be together for the same reason that CoD is proof that Zuko and Katara won't get together for Kataangers. If it was going to happen, it would have happened there.

Everything was set. The mood from the music and candles, they had just come out of a near-death moment, the romantic and heart-felt emotion that came when Aang said "But you saved me" all said "Katara and Aang will hook-up right now!" Yet, they didn't. If they weren't going to get together during that, they aren't getting together at all.

SotN response is pretty much the same as "The Awakening" response.

EDIT:

ColtsPenguins wrote:

funny daveshan

Thanks

Edited on 07/16/2008 9:23am

The thing is, I think that you hit it staight on about how Katara feels about Aang. He is her hope. But does that mean kataang? no, it means that katara lost so much in the war that she needs the avatar to end her suffering and everyone else's. could her protective nature towards aang truly show her feelings? now that i think about it, yeah, cause protective nature+optimism=katara needs aang to save the world. (sort of jk) katara doesn't need aang to luv her or be there to give her comfort. i just realized that. she can find that comfort from someone else, like zuko (CoD) or her dad. katara needs aang to save the world. she doens't want him to luv her or have an attachment to her to the point that he gives up the world for her. basically katara views aang as her savior and last hope for the world.

Okay, here we go again.

The Fortuneteller:

I disagree with you that Katara was disappointed. Shocked would more like it. The point is that this was the first moment when she considered Aang as a potentially somthing more than a friend. It was by no means immediate, but it was at that point that her behavior towards Aang definitely began to shift. I say it again, I feel there was a reason that Aang's first cheek kiss came in the next episode.

The Desert:

Katara was undoubtably comforting Aang, but motherly? No. Any trace of Katara acting motherly towards Aang was gone by the end of season 1. I view her efforts to comfort Aang from then on not as motherly, but as at the very least a concerned friend. Her attempt in this episode to comfort Aang was no more motherly than was her attempt to heal Zuko in CoD.

The Boy in the Iceburg:

When have either Sokka or Toph managed to get Katara to genuinly lighten up and have fun? Before you say it, the Runaway does not count - Katara was only doing that as an attempt to convince Toph that she knew how to have fun.

The Waterbending Scroll:

Aang helped katar out with somthing she was already good at? I wouldn't exactly describe Katara as "good at waterbending" in this episode. She herself admitted that she could never have done it without him. And his easy forgivness of Katara shows that Aang too knows how to be caring and understanding of other people.

Katara's necklace:

I'm not saying that it was a huge, huge loss for her. But it was a loss, you cannot deny that, and Aang did his best to help her with that loss.

Sure Katara gives Aang a lot more help in his personal life than he gives her, but it is definitely not the one way flow that some people make out, and it's balanced out by the fact that he's probably saved their lives more than she has.

The CoD scene was never going to be the place where Katara got together with Zuko. That's just insanity. She might have forgiven him at that point, but gotten together with him? Nope.

Likewise, I never expected the scene at the end of the Awakening to be the scene Kataang happened. Katara was simply glad to have found Aang again, so glad that all she could do was cry as she held him close to her. Apparently her feelings toward Aang are a lot stronger than Sokka and Toph's. That wasn't the scene I was refering to anyway. The scene I was refering to was her slightly earlier conversation with her father, in which what she was basically saying was simple: She needs Aang. If you couldn't catch that bit of subtext, I don't know what I can say to convince you of it.

What does tl;dr mean?