ATLA Book One: Water
Chapter Eighteen: The Waterbending Master
In which Sokka and Yue
do an activity, Paku eats some squid, and Zuko sulks in his cabin.
Just as “The Northern Air Temple” is a story about the opposing nature of its titular setting to its southern counterpart, “The Waterbending Master” immediately explores the oppositions between the Northern Water Tribe and the Southern Water Tribe. The first opposition apparent is in material wealth: where the southern water tribe was an impoverished, crippled culture, reduced to a village of twenty or thirty people, most of whom are women, the Northern Tribe is immediately presented as a spectacular place of richness and grandeur. This persists on a military level, too: where the Southern Water Tribe was left helpless at the hands of a single ship led by a teenage boy, Zhao has to spend the episode amassing a vast fleet before he can even begin an attack on the Northern tribe. Most significantly for the plot of this episode, unlike the South Pole, where Katara grew up with no one to teach her, the Northern Tribe is filled with waterbenders, some opening the gates to the city, some capturing the Gaang, some being students, and others being masters. These oppositions re-emphasise the way The Last Airbender is a narrative told through the eyes of the most marginalised people in its world: although Katara and Sokka are returning to the Water Nation, they are in a place that is completely different to the home they grew up in.
As well as being opposites in terms of material wealth, the two water tribes, at least as we see them, are complete opposites in terms of their approach to gender. The Southern tribe is a largely female dominated space, although this is because all the men have gone off to war, leaving the women in the domestic space, with the tribe being run, at least in part, by the then incredibly sexist Sokka, whereas the Northern Tribe is a deeply male, patriarchal space. The tensions between the gender politics of the two tribes, and the gulf in their comparative wealth are reflected on a human level in the romance between Sokka and Yue, the southern peasant and the northern princess. As a side note, their romance has a particularly nice subtle link to Zuko’s plot, with the theme for Iroh’s “Four Seasons, Four Loves” song being used as as the incidental music for their final scene in the episode. But the ultimate reveal of that scene is that the obstacle to Yue and Sokka’s potential relationship is not the poverty of the South that he represents, but the patriarchal culture of the south Yue’s betrothal represents.
While the main plot for this episode reflects the fact that we are in the closing stages of Book one, the sub plot with Zhao, Zuko and the Pirates represents the beginning of the set up for Book Two. Zuko losing the crew to Zhao’s fleet represents the start of the show repositioning his role for Book two, as he loses the little power over people he has left, and stops being the character pursuing Aang in a fleet over the world. He will continue chasing Aang until the end of Book One, coming as close as he has before now to actually catching Aang but he starts to move towards the “Refugee Survivor” role that becomes his default status for much of Book Two, where he has a negligible amount of contact with Aang, and makes no attempt to capture him until the finale.
To move back to the main plot, however, it is worth focussing on the titular waterbending master. The episode continues the pattern established in “The Deserter”, with Aang initially being set up to learn from a traditional mentor figure, before one of his peers instead takes on that role. But unlike with Jeong Jeong, Aang actually learns a little from Pakku, spending a reasonable amount of time learning from the man who is probably the most privileged of his masters. This is a storytelling move that highlights the traditional nature of Aang’s initial mentors, and allows for a greater contrast with the unusual teachers he later learns from. Once again, Aang’s impatience in spite of his natural talent is in evidence here, an impatience seen with his repeated frustration every time he hits a block with the moves Pakku is teaching him.
But the central conflict in the episode comes not through Aang’s methods clashing with Pakku, but through Pakku’s refusal to teach Katara, only allowing her to learn to be a healer. The episode’s approach to gender issues forms an interesting contrast to “The Warriors of Kyoshi”, where the commentary on sexism was presented through a male lens, with the discussion surrounding the formation of toxic masculinity, and the ways that vision for masculinity can be deconstructed through the act of listening to and respecting women. Here, the focus on gender comes through a female lens, as we are shown through Katara’s experiences what it means to have to live with misogyny.
Katara lives with Pakku’s behaviour for as long as she can,
recognising how important it is for Aang to train. She even accepts the way in
which the Northern attitudes she hates are an intrinsic part of that tribe’s
culture, treating Yugoda and the girls in the healing hut with respect, and
even accepting that she must learn what she can from Yugoda. However, we also
see how heartbreaking it is for a girl who we’ve seen teach herself
waterbending to the point she can freeze fire nation tanks and break them apart
be told she cannot learn from a master to gain full understanding of her powers,
and instead has to learn basic healing in a hut with girls who are at most half
her age. She is even prepared to apologise for learning second hand from her
friend, until Paku has to rub his privilege in her face and belittle her as she
tries to do so. That’s the moment where she finally snaps.
And this moment is where we see the development of Katara’s waterbending over the season, which I discussed back in the post on “The Waterbending Scroll”, finally become explicit. She has progressed from a place where she has struggled catching a fish to a place where she is capable of taking on a waterbending master in a duel, and putting up a good fight, even catching him off guard on a couple of occasions. Importantly, it is a steady development that shows the series utilising its visual storytelling: dialogue is never used to make her developing skills explicit, but we see her bending get increasingly more complex from the moment she gets the waterbending scroll: she bends the clouds into the symbol of volcanic doom in “The Fortuneteller”, bends perfume in “Bato of the Water Tribe”, and creates ice which she uses to take out multiple Fire Nation tanks in “The Northern Air Temple”: the show has steadily built up her skill level to the point where her challenge to Pakku isn’t nearly as audacious as it first seems.
Yet for all that the fight with Pakku is a kick-ass moment where Katara begins to show her potential by living with a waterbending master, it is not played unrealistically or straightforwardly. Katara knows she cannot win against someone with vast amounts of experience and training, no matter how good she can and will be. Instead, she just wants to do something that forces Pakku into the action of changing his attitudes and ways. And when the fight begins, it is clear that Pakku is generally in control, barely breaking a sweat as Katara pushes herself to the limit, having to briefly pause for breath on several occasions. Pakku is also never being rushed to make a move, and is generally being on the offensive save for the moment where one of Katara’s (destructo discs) ice discs almost slices off his beard, his alarmed reflection highlighting the fact that she has him on the back foot just for that moment. It is a moment where he recognises Katara’s potential and power, even congratulating her on her skill. But in spite of that recognition, the fight alone is not what convinces him to teach Katara.
Instead, the solution lies in a seemingly insignificant necklace. In spite of its apparent lack of consequence, the necklace is significant to three key characters in this story. It is a necklace that holds a huge amount of significance for Katara, who holds onto it as reminder of her connection to her mother and grandmother. The scene with Yugoda shows the different meaning the necklace has for her, as she sees it as the signifier of a romantic relationship, something gifted by a man to his betrothed, but Katara’s description of it as a link to the other women in her life makes Yugoda realise it is an object linked to her former best friend, Katara’s grandmother. And to Pakku, it is a symbol of his lost love, a reminder that, along with Katara’s understanding of her grandmother’s motives, pushes him to reform his ways, and accept Katara as his student.
A seemingly inconsequential necklace has proven to be hugely significant to Book One, forming a subplot that deepens Katara’s bond to her mother, and providing the resolution to one of the Primary plots of the season. Finally, Katara has reached the North Pole and found her waterbending master.
End of Part Seventeen.
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