#modern au katara working as a barista for her entire 20s and being addicted to twitter and being a massive jock

[comradekatara]

i never thought of modern au katara being a writer, but that's so fitting and i love it. do you see any parallels between her journey learning waterbending in canon with her gaining confidence as a writer in your au? ex being dismissed bc of all the disrespect the art of writing gets irl, meeting haru and being mutually inspired/ working with jet and having a fallout? i know there's a fine line between narrative parallels in aus and like, contrived shit like katara being the last mcr fan or smth

not the last mcr fan 😭 but yeah!! it feels like the very natural connection between her being the show's narrator and the way storytelling and narrative is such a crucial aspect of her identity, culture, the way she sees the world, and survives. i think her being an investigative journalist who travels and reports on various crises and exposes corruption and inequality, but also writes more personal essays on her own experiences, or even just writing about media and art and fashion and sports and the stuff she enjoys. historical monographs, journalistic exposes, personal essays, poetry, fiction, maybe even like. a children's fantasy series. truly, she can do it all!

however, unlike waterbending, i don't think it's the kind of thing she would aspire to excel at since childhood. i actually think that she wouldn't really try hard in any academic pursuits for most of her childhood/adolescence bc she doesn't feel like she'll ever be good enough anyway, so what's the point. she's like "i only learned how to read when i was five and i don't understand number theory i must be some kind of ignoramus." the prospect of actually being very smart in many ways (including academically) just totally eludes her. because in a mundane world like ours, where bending does not exist and there is no such thing as a chosen one, it is sokka, not katara, who is the shiny, special wunderkind, and katara is the one who compensates by excelling in areas that sokka does not (namely, athletics, activism, and art). so mapping those arcs into this world actually inverts a lot of their dynamics in the sense of what and who is valued.

obviously katara does nonetheless struggle with being valued as a waterbender (by the nwt, by sokka himself, by the fire nation) and has to work incredibly hard to prove herself, so the idea that she's never underestimated or undervalued in the show isn't entirely accurate, but there's definitely a sense, at least within her family and tribe, that she is the world's specialest princess, and although i still think she'd be kanna's favorite and cherished as the baby of the family and beloved by aang in modern au, she isn't deemed inherently worthy and special. because she isn't a waterbender, she's just a normal girl.

sidenote: i do actually think a lot about how katara and sokka both undermine each other out of jealousy, like it's just not sokka calling katara a freak for playing with magic water, katara is constantly dismissing and undermining sokka in a way that's like. hang on. does she think she's....punching up?? like i do think katara probably carries resentments about not being as smart and special as sokka and compensates via her bending in the same way sokka compensates for his lack of bending via his other skills. they are constantly caught in a cycle of trying to be worthy of being the other's sibling, with the ultimate result just being that they are both incredibly gifted and accomplished in their respective areas (azula and zuko also sort of have this going on, but it's less mutual, because azula's skills are valued and zuko's are not, whereas both katara and sokka possess valuable skills that make them special to their community).

anyway. as for katara's journey to becoming a writer, i think she would write for fun as a kid but never show it to anyone, not even aang. and then occasionally she'll hand in an essay for school that she actually put effort into, which is very rare, because she only puts effort in when she's genuinely interested in the subject, but sometimes she'll put in a lot of time and research and effort just to prove the teacher wrong, which is when she truly shines. and some of her teachers can actually see that she has a lot of potential when she actually allows herself to be vulnerable and her passion seeps through the page, but she never really pays attention when they try to tell her that she's talented, because she just assumes that they're only being nice to her because they know that she's sokka's sister and feel an obligation to praise her by association. so it's only when she gets to college, and enters a world where sokka simply does not exist, that she realizes that she has merit of her own as a writer, thinker, and student.

she begins writing essays for various school publications, and after a while starts publishing them online, and then eventually in legitimate journals. it takes her a long time to actually establish herself as a career journalist, because she doesn't have the luxury of just writing full time, but eventually she's established enough that she actually publishes a book of essays, and goes on a book tour, and is invited to speak at various universities and events. and then one day, during a talk at a college, she says, "you know, there's hope for everyone. i only learned how to read at the age of five. but i went at my own pace, and eventually found my calling." and the moderator is just like "uhhh.... that's actually above average??? you're basically just saying you've always been smart." and katara. shuts down for a second while she attempts to process this information before she just goes, "WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"