Avatar: The Last Airbender 17+18 ♡Uncut Reaction &Review ♡

I think one of the reason Pakku is so tied to his custom is because they are litteraly threatened. They are facing a war of extermination as you said. Push by a nation persuaded to have the superior people/culture. It probably make people extremely stressed about their identity. So yeah, they will react agressively if someone come and tell them "your custom sucks, let's do it my way", even if it's objectively true. Also you pointed why Katara is one of my favorite F characters. Usually when they want to do some "girl power", they do a miss marvel "so she's super strong and super brave and perfect and kick ass". Katara is not super strong. She sucks at the start (as expected from a self taught teenager). She just keep fighting and training and learning until she come out top.

I disagree with Pakku's view that women can't fight. But there is a valid reason for it. Living on the North Pole is hard. You can't grow much food. So hunting is important but hunting can also be dangerous. And because a woman caring for children for 9 months if you want to make sure you're tribe survives it's important to protect women. Because if a lot of men would die you can impregnate a lot of women with only a view of men. But if you have a lot of men and only a few women that would be a huge problem for the survivability of the tribe. And the cold makes the chance of death greater. So especially for the water tribe, it's really important to make sure they have enough children to replace everyone who dies. So there is some logic in making women responsible for healing instead of fighting. Not because they want to restrict the rights of women. But to make sure that the women are safe. There is also the aspect that a man who knows his woman is safe will fight harder than someone who worries a lot about the safety of his family.

The reason why Master Pakku changed his mind and decided to teach Katara is that he realized his fiancée left him because of the way women were treated in the tribe, with arranged marriages and them not being allowed to learn how to use their power for fighting.

The Avatar is not bound to any gender. The depth of this story only grows. Glad you’re enjoying season 1 - it only gets better!