Hama's History
Hama was a waterbending master from the Southern Water Tribe. She was the very last to be captured and imprisoned by the Fire Nation during the Southern Water Tribe raids, but she escaped through the use of bloodbending, a waterbending technique she developed while incarcerated. Upon her escape, she fled to a small town in the Fire Nation, where she became an innkeeper. Every full moon, Hama exacted her revenge on the Fire Nation by imprisoning villagers from her town in a mountain cave.
Decades after her escape from the Fire Nation prison, Hama discovered Team Avatar camping in the woods near the village where she lived. She overheard Katara tell a story about Nini, a Southern Water Tribe girl, and made herself known to the team. The innkeeper invited them to stay at her inn, warning them that the woods they were camping in were unsafe because people had been mysteriously disappearing during full moons. The group gratefully accepted her invitation.
The next morning, Hama and the rest of the Team Avatar went to get some supplies in a nearby town; while Katara and Hama got along well, Sokka began to question Hama's strange demeanor. Soon after, Hama found the group snooping around her home, and to tame their suspicions, she showed them a Water Tribe comb, revealing to the group that she was a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe, but that she had been captured during a raid and put in a prison which she eventually escaped from. However, she did not reveal the exact nature of the escape, claiming it to be too painful. She offered to teach Katara everything she knew in order to carry on the tradition of southern waterbending, to which Katara eagerly agreed.
The next day, Hama taught Katara a series of techniques in order to obtain water in places devoid of any obvious water sources. She first demonstrated the ability to pull water out of thin air, and she advised Katara to keep an open mind and realize that there was water in unexpected places. She subsequently led Katara to a field of fire lilies and told her that water could even be drawn from living things, and she demonstrated this by harvesting the water from the flowers around the two and using it to slice through a rock. While Katara was amazed by the demonstration, she regretted that the fire lilies were destroyed in the process. Hama dismissed her concerns quickly by telling her that they were simply flowers, and that a waterbender in a foreign country had to do what they must to survive. Following her demonstration, Hama offered to teach Katara a powerful technique that was only possible during the full moon. When Katara expressed hesitance due to the rumors of disappearances, Hama reassured her that two master waterbenders under a full moon should be able to handle anything.
That night, Hama led Katara into the nearby forest and told her about bloodbending and its ability to control another living organism. Horrified by the idea of controlling another person's body, Katara refused to learn bloodbending. Hama argued with her, stating that it did not matter whether she wanted to learn it or not, because the power to use it existed either way. For trying to wipe out their entire culture, Hama extolled that they must have vengeance upon the Fire Nation. This outburst led Katara to realize that Hama had been causing the villagers to disappear, but the innkeeper angrily said that the people of the Fire Nation deserved the same treatment that they had given to her and the other Southern waterbenders. Hearing this caused Katara to adamantly refuse to learn bloodbending, adding that she would not allow Hama to further terrorize the town.
With her identity exposed, Hama used bloodbending against Katara to temporarily force her into submission. However, Katara quickly regained control of her body after calming down and told Hama that since she was the more powerful waterbender, Hama's bloodbending was useless on her. The two began to battle, each drawing water from the grass, the trees, and the air. While Katara was poised to win the duel, Aang and Sokka arrived, having discovered Hama's true identity. Hama used bloodbending to force them to attack Katara and, after Katara managed to evade their attacks, forced Sokka to raise his sword to stab Aang. Before she could pit the two against each other, Katara used bloodbending to subdue Hama in order to protect her friend. Toph Beifong arrived with the villagers she had freed from Hama's mountain prison, who handcuffed Hama and took her away, vowing to imprison her forever. Hama did not resist her arrest and remarked that her work was done, as Katara had already used bloodbending. She laughed maniacally as she was dragged off, leaving Katara in tears.
