Fighting

Katsa is very physical, so much so that Po tells her, "even your emotions seem physical sometimes" (17.53), and fighting is a big part of what she does. For Randa, for the Council, and in training practices each and every day for the last ten years. And yet it is not until she encounters Po that Raffin remarks, "You look like you've been in a fight […] for the first time in your life" (9.57).

Which means… what, exactly?

Well, when Grandfather Tealiff sees Po's condition after Katsa and Po's first fight, Po laughs and says, "I've met my match, Grandfather," to which Tealiff replies, "More than your match […] it looks to me" (9.38-39). Are you getting anything yet? Let's take a look at one more.

Katsa didn't know how long they'd been grappling when she realized he was laughing. She understood his joy, understood it completely. She'd never had such a fight, she'd never had such an opponent. (8.53)

And that's exactly it. Po + Katsa = A fair match. In fighting and… in their relationship. When they begin training together, Katsa finds that he is a "marvelous opponent" (10.1). This is in part because of his superior strength, but Po isn't the first person she's fought who's had superior strength. It's more that until Po, "no one had ever gotten close enough to her for [her lesser strength] to matter" (10.2).

So from the very beginning, Katsa's fighting matches with Po are directly representative of their relationship, and instead of love at first sight, it's love at first fight. As Katsa notes, "It would be a thrill, a pure thrill, to fight Po again. To fight him regularly, a dream" (9.115). And it looks like Katsa's dream has come true.