Ginko has earned a unique place of trust with Katara, starting from the point where he helped her work through one of the hugest problems of her time in Luceti so far: the aftermath of the love experiment, with Zuko. The fact that he listens to her and obviously thinks highly of her - not for her skills, but for her character - was something that was initially hard for Katara to adjust to, especially since as soon as Ginko realized that he was becoming emotionally invested he began to withdraw. As someone who has more than a few abandonment issues, this cut Katara very deeply. Ginko saw this and met to explain, and during that process Katara realized that his life had been one long string of goodbyes, and that being confined in one place with the same people was dangerous to Ginko's emotional survival. For this reason, Katara was able to see beyond her own pain and move to let him go, but not without challenging him to adapt. When he responded... her faith in him was secured. As such, she's told him more about their world than anyone else, is willing to listen to him when he challenges her, and as a result he has been instrumental in helping her through Luceti's many difficulties. Despite Luceti and Ginko's own nature, she holds him very close to her heart.
More recently, he's had a chance to back up the high trust she holds him in with action, with his immediate response when she called for him during the time mushi had infested Luceti. This affirmation was complicated with his death, as when the mushi left Luceti... so did he. Now that he's back, she's determined to treat like the miracle it is. She doesn't feel cheated for her grief, for as much as she knows death to be a natural part of life, she can't help but wish that Ginko wasn't the only person she knew to return from it.
Any significant relationship with an older woman is complicated for Katara, since it is overshadowed with memories of her mother. This doesn't stop Katara from forming relationships with older women - as for two years, that was the main population of her village. But those women who kept wanting her help or tsking at her for her bending attempts that often ended embarrassingly are very different than the relationships she's formed in Luceti and nothing could be farther from the case with this pirate thief.
Nami's very first conversation with Katara is marked with wonder on Katara's part - whoever heard of adventuring pirates? - and something that instinctively pleases the girl, being taken seriously. Their relationship received an instant boost when Katara and Toph responded to Nami's call for help over the journal to aid an injured friend. One of the best ways of getting to know a person is how they respond when kneeling in a pool of blood, and Nami responded to Katara's instructions quickly and calmly. After that, Nami took care to gently check up on Katara, and it was an interest that was eagerly reciprocated. Nami was the one Katara contacted when she figured out who the child!Sanji was, and Nami was the one who took Katara on her first shopping trip in Luceti.
After that... life got more complicated. Nami was kidnapped by Aku, Katara joined in on the rescue mission, and then Katara asked Nami to start giving her lessons with the bo. It's after this time that Nami's most outstanding characteristic occurs - her willingness to go and find Katara, confront her when she's wrong, and remain friends with her regardless of her decisions. That's a loyalty that Katara is not accustomed to finding outside of family members, and the fact that Nami offered it so simply and so consistently is something which stands out in Katara's mind as distinctly precious.
Katara would like to think that she and Sanji would be friends anywhere, but it is truly only the nature of Luceti that's given their relationship some of its more poignant highlights. For example, it isn't anywhere else that one day you're fighting side-by-side with someone and the next you're coaxing their ten-year-old child-self out of a dark forest, and attempting to reassure him that everything will be all right. Walls all fall down in a situation like that, and when Sanji returned to his adult self, Katara initially had a hard time seeing them as the same person, but was determined to keep up the friendship and be as honest with him about what had happened and how he had helped her as a child.
It wasn't long after this that Nami was kidnapped by Aku, and Katara was one of the people Sanji asked to help retrieve her. Fighting at his side again, along with the trust he gave her was enough to cement Sanji as one of her closest friends in Luceti... until he decided to offer Azula cooking lessons. Furious and betrayed, Katara confronted him about his actions, only to be further insulted by his protestations that despite his actions, he was on her side. As someone who has been betrayed multiple times in a short period of time, her response was immediate and perhaps disproportionate - she cut off all contact with him.
But unlike those other incidents, there was more to be considered here than what Katara could immediately see. Nami and Ginko both offered helpful perspective, and it was there insight into Sanji's nature combined with the fact that they had already been friends for months which made Katara determine to seek him out, ask some better questions, and determine whether or not his commitment to gallantry and cooking in the face of what she perceived to be personal loyalty was something that she could accept. She got more than she bargained for. Though her original intention had been to verify what Nami had said and accept this part of Sanji, she did not expect him to open up and reveal his motives for his actions to such an extent. What she got to glimpse was the steel iron core of him, forged in fire and a commitment that was beautiful to her. This provided the necessary perspective to merge her understandings of child and adult Sanji, seamlessly weaving in her instinctive protection of a child, of innocence, with the understanding and respect that she feels for the man.
At this point, Katara feels that her initial impression of Sanji as someone who was a good listener, as someone who is trustworthy, is more than justified. Even though she's learned that Sanji and Sokka have had a friendship-damaging fight, even if his outrageous mannerisms make her raise her eyebrows, he's her friend and she's there to stay.
Talking. Walking. Skeleton. Man. Who her brother didn't warn her about when he walked casually into their home. But they've had a few good conversations since then, but it was still hard for her to get past the occasional shock of seeing bones instead of hands and empty sockets instead of eyes. In the Tease incursion, she and Brook helped to take care of the consequences and the remains of one of the victims, in that moment, she automatically reached to him for comfort. She won't be seeing bones when she looks at him anymore. Recently, Brook and his music have been a strong source of comfort for Katara, and with his continued reaching out to her, she now considers him someone that she can depend on.
Luceti is, in a strange way, returning their relationship to a twisted reflection of what it was before their journey with Aang. Sokka is busy about the village, doing important and visible things, and she is in the background, taking care of him and everyone else in their house. What's changed is the fact that now? She's a master waterbender. And the both of them are used to being able to work together and solving things - Luceti only rarely gives them that chance. They've made very different friends here, and lately Sokka has been keeping secrets from her, learning 'powers,' getting up earlier, befriending unrepentant Fire Nation girls, getting hurt and not telling her how... but the fact remains that there is still no one that she trusts more.
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Ginko
More recently, he's had a chance to back up the high trust she holds him in with action, with his immediate response when she called for him during the time mushi had infested Luceti. This affirmation was complicated with his death, as when the mushi left Luceti... so did he. Now that he's back, she's determined to treat like the miracle it is. She doesn't feel cheated for her grief, for as much as she knows death to be a natural part of life, she can't help but wish that Ginko wasn't the only person she knew to return from it.
Nami
Nami's very first conversation with Katara is marked with wonder on Katara's part - whoever heard of adventuring pirates? - and something that instinctively pleases the girl, being taken seriously. Their relationship received an instant boost when Katara and Toph responded to Nami's call for help over the journal to aid an injured friend. One of the best ways of getting to know a person is how they respond when kneeling in a pool of blood, and Nami responded to Katara's instructions quickly and calmly. After that, Nami took care to gently check up on Katara, and it was an interest that was eagerly reciprocated. Nami was the one Katara contacted when she figured out who the child!Sanji was, and Nami was the one who took Katara on her first shopping trip in Luceti.
After that... life got more complicated. Nami was kidnapped by Aku, Katara joined in on the rescue mission, and then Katara asked Nami to start giving her lessons with the bo. It's after this time that Nami's most outstanding characteristic occurs - her willingness to go and find Katara, confront her when she's wrong, and remain friends with her regardless of her decisions. That's a loyalty that Katara is not accustomed to finding outside of family members, and the fact that Nami offered it so simply and so consistently is something which stands out in Katara's mind as distinctly precious.
Sanji
It wasn't long after this that Nami was kidnapped by Aku, and Katara was one of the people Sanji asked to help retrieve her. Fighting at his side again, along with the trust he gave her was enough to cement Sanji as one of her closest friends in Luceti... until he decided to offer Azula cooking lessons. Furious and betrayed, Katara confronted him about his actions, only to be further insulted by his protestations that despite his actions, he was on her side. As someone who has been betrayed multiple times in a short period of time, her response was immediate and perhaps disproportionate - she cut off all contact with him.
But unlike those other incidents, there was more to be considered here than what Katara could immediately see. Nami and Ginko both offered helpful perspective, and it was there insight into Sanji's nature combined with the fact that they had already been friends for months which made Katara determine to seek him out, ask some better questions, and determine whether or not his commitment to gallantry and cooking in the face of what she perceived to be personal loyalty was something that she could accept. She got more than she bargained for. Though her original intention had been to verify what Nami had said and accept this part of Sanji, she did not expect him to open up and reveal his motives for his actions to such an extent. What she got to glimpse was the steel iron core of him, forged in fire and a commitment that was beautiful to her. This provided the necessary perspective to merge her understandings of child and adult Sanji, seamlessly weaving in her instinctive protection of a child, of innocence, with the understanding and respect that she feels for the man.
At this point, Katara feels that her initial impression of Sanji as someone who was a good listener, as someone who is trustworthy, is more than justified. Even though she's learned that Sanji and Sokka have had a friendship-damaging fight, even if his outrageous mannerisms make her raise her eyebrows, he's her friend and she's there to stay.
Brook
Sokka