How do you think Katara and Sokka would have been different if Kya lived? Would Hakoda have still left? The village was bigger in the flashback so what happened since then?
If Kya had lived, Katara and Sokka would have been less psychologically vulnerable in specific areas of their personalities. Katara, while she still would probably have been a mother figure, wouldn’t have been so driven to over-mothering, especially in Aang’s case, as she was with her mother gone. Sokka wouldn’t be so touchy about his masculinity, because he’d have Kya to help him through adolescence even with Hakoda absent. Yes, Hakoda would still have left for war even if Kya had lived. In fact, with her to look after their children, he might have even left sooner. Hakoda didn’t go to war out of revenge for his wife; he saw that the Fire Nation was on the cusp of taking over the entire world, and realized he had to try to prevent it however he could. In Katara’s opening monologue, she says: “A hundred years have passed and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the War,” a reality Hakoda would be all too aware of. Let’s say Hakoda had been nearby when Katara ran out of the tent, and he was able to kill Yon Rha. Kya would have then been able to tell him that the reason for the raid was that they were looking for Katara. Faced with the prospect of his young daughter being taken away like all the other benders, he would have resisted the Fire Nation conquest ferociously.
I do think the village’s obvious decline post-Kya is a testament to how much she kept everyone together. Had Kya lived, she would have had an important role to play: keeping their hopes alive, rebuilding after the raid, and rooting out the traitor who dared to endanger her daughter. And I highly doubt she would show the same mercy to them that Katara did to Yon Rha.
This is the perfect time and place to post my Chief Kya theory. 😈
Chief Kya:
I know chief Kya is a popular headcanon amongst a fraction of the Zutara community and probably the atla community. But I have yet to see a post talking about the evidence of this idea being a reality. sooooo I’m going to do it!
Preface:
Exhibit A: Background
Kya is introduced in season 3, episode 16, The Southern Raiders. And by introduce, I mean established as a person with a personality and a face. We have had her referenced throughout the series, but this is the first time we officially meet her. It’s a short scene but powerful and purposeful. We did not meet her until this moment, meaning that she had a purpose, and it wasn’t just a face, she had lines, and that is what I want to focus on. This episode was about Katara getting closure, but we see more than just the flashback of Katara’s saw, but what came after was what Yon Rha saw. This was on purpose and gave more context to Why Kya did what she did and who she was as a person as well.
Exhibit B: Questions
1) Why did Yon Rha, the fleet’s leader, go to Kya Specifically?
2) Why is she so calm yet fearless in the face of a threat?
3) who was his source?
Disclaimer: These are questions I plan to address; however, only 2/3 of these questions have definite answers in the context of my claim. The last one is simply speculation of possibilities with some evidence to back it up based on the information we have been given throughout the show. That being said, Let’s begin…
Question one: Why did Yon Rha, the fleet’s leader, go to Kya Specifically?
The answer to this is simple; Kya is the chief. Who else would know better about her tribe than the leader? However, I want to break this down a bit first.
Counter argument: “They could’ve been questioning other people too.” That is true, and for all we know, they were. However, that brings me back to the original question. Why did Yon Rha, the fleet’s leader, go to Kya Specifically? He didn’t talk down to her, and we know the Fire Nation has no problem doing that. Therefore, she must have been held in some respect. And he knows he has all the power, but it looked as though they were in the middle of a negotiation. Which means she holds power in some respect.
This is proven because he listens to her plea, which means he’s confident that Kya does know the information. What would lead him to believe that with certainty? The rumor of the close-knit community? Sure that’s one way to look at it, but her defiance against him without fear is not someone who is a civilian, she holds herself with power and status.
She’s calm
But she’s also angry.
This leads me to question two:
Question two: Why is she so calm yet fearless in the face of a threat?
People can argue that Kya was putting on a brave face for her daughter, but that fierceness does not leave her face after Katara is gone. It returns tenfold.
She isn’t scared, she’s angry. She’s protective and will not back down in the face of an enemy.
However, things do change. They change when it’s revealed there is a source. And we will get to that part later. However, I first want to focus on her words following that information
Yon Rha: You’re lying. My source says there’s one waterbender left in the southern water tribe. We’re not leaving until we find the waterbender.
The response to this is the source of my claim
“If I tell you, will you leave the rest of the village alone?”
Now… We know Kya sacrificed herself to save Katara. She immediately lays her life down for Katara. That’s not a question. She did all this to save her daughter. But they also added the part of her tribe, and they could’ve had her say anything like, “if I tell you, will you leave my family alone?” She said, village specifically. The way she said it seemed like she was determined to keep her tribe safe
Yon Rha Agrees, her response is fearless, but her face shows us that she knows her fate is most likely not a matter of capture.
Aftermath:
As Araeph said, there was a decline in the south after Kya’s death, which could be supported by Hakoda being the chief and his grief. But I still don’t think it would be this drastic. We know Hakoda is a great strategist and strong warrior, but his strong suit was not likely that of management.
Final Question: Who was the source?
I’m going to be blunt and say, I have no real solid answer, but my best guess is that it was someone from the North. It is no secret that the North and the south do not get along. The state of difference in both tribe’s infrastructure is already telling of who holds more power. The fire nation and the North seem to have an amicable relationship, and the North did nothing to help the south in the original raids. The main question I have to ask is, why? Not just why the North would snitch on the south, but why is there no support from them at all? This is something we had never answered, and I hoped the comics North and South would explain it, but instead, we got the Sh*tfest of the North colonizing the south.
Furthermore, I would say there are many reasons the North and the South don’t get along, and one of the main things is most likely the sexism and lack thereof in the South. In “the puppetmaster,” we see a flashback from Hama’s point of view where the women are on the front lines of the battle, and the men are there too, but it leads me to believe that women were more powerful benders than the men.
We see further proof of this when we see just how many fire nation soldiers surround Hama.
We also get an easter egg in the form of a young Kanna talking to Hama, which implies the equality and female empowerment Kanna strived to find in the South was ultimately found.
What does this have to do with Kya being chief? It proves that women were not just equal but revered, meaning that a female chief was probably not only accepted but hoped for.
Side note: This also explains Katara’s righteous anger and the need to help people. And a strong sense of responsibility. She got that from her mom. Not just her motherly traits, but her selfless leadership too.
Conclusion:
Overall, this is simply an analysis of a scene that is about a minute, but in that minute, there is a lot to unpack and to analyze, which adds much room for speculation. However, Kya being Chief does answer some of the unanswered questions and adds more in regards to the lore of the Southern Water Tribe. And why Kanna left the North for the south. Because the South was more equal in regards to female empowerment.