I agree, its bad, but I don't think its quite as bad as you are making it out to be. I think that a significant portion of Katara's apparent character derailment is coming from stress. They just came out of Ba-Sing-Se, where no one would listen to her, and she wasn't allowed to do anything. Now that they've left and met up with her father, it still seems as if no one is really listening to her, they've barely made any progress on dealing with the preparations for the eclipse, and she is being forced to work with the person she has thought of as one of her worst enemies to heal Aang. Contrast that to canon, where after leaving Ba-Sing-Se, they met up with her father, captured a Fire Nation ship, and set out towards the Fire Nation in preparation for the invasion. What will make or break this for me is what Vathara does with Katara next, now that Zuko has left.
On the subject of the element power ups, Air and (presumably) Earth got them as well. In his AU, some airbenders had some sort of mind reading/truth discerning ability, and earthbenders were implied, somewhere along the way IIRC, to have some sort of mental fortitude thing. All of these metal powers seem to depend on the mindset of those involved, so, for example, the Dai Li were vulnerable to Azula because they lacked the 'wait for the right moment' earthbending philosophy, and instead had a philosophy that was more along the lines of 'attack first'. This philosophy was close enough to the standard firebending philosophy that Azula could take advantage. Also, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that a waterbender from the Foggy Swamp would be resistant or immune to Katara's emotional control, due to the lack of shared cultures, while people from either polar Water Tribe would be particularly vulnerable, because of the shared cultural background.
But yeah, it really depends on what the author does next.
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Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
On the subject of the element power ups, Air and (presumably) Earth got them as well. In his AU, some airbenders had some sort of mind reading/truth discerning ability, and earthbenders were implied, somewhere along the way IIRC, to have some sort of mental fortitude thing. All of these metal powers seem to depend on the mindset of those involved, so, for example, the Dai Li were vulnerable to Azula because they lacked the 'wait for the right moment' earthbending philosophy, and instead had a philosophy that was more along the lines of 'attack first'. This philosophy was close enough to the standard firebending philosophy that Azula could take advantage. Also, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that a waterbender from the Foggy Swamp would be resistant or immune to Katara's emotional control, due to the lack of shared cultures, while people from either polar Water Tribe would be particularly vulnerable, because of the shared cultural background.
But yeah, it really depends on what the author does next.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.