Katara seems to be having a fit in this chapter, having hidden Zuko's fire flakes again in a place where neither he nor Toph can find them, and makes a list of reasons she hates Zuko
- Suggesting that because he's from the fire nation, and he uses jerkiness to fuel his firebending.
- Zuko being sullen and moody and temperamental. Clearly, Katara has no idea about how All Girls Want Bad Boys, which seems in part to fuel the Zutara ship.
- Zuko being "stubborn as all hell, and how he should admit it to keep her from writing the list.
- Zuko being prone to bouts of idiocy.
- Poor decision making, even his diet.
- A diet consisting of fireflakes. This turns out to be the only currently relevant issue here.
- Sending the pirates after the Gaang.
- Stealing Katara's mother's necklace and using it to track her down, with the help of a bounty hunter who thinks he's her boyfriend.
- Zuko not only infiltrating the North Pole to capture Aang, but doing so without a plan, supplies or a map.
- Ba Sing Se, which she believes requires no explanation.
Katara is again frustrated after having to heal Zuko after he trains Aang with it fractured, and is tempted to tell him to "bugger off". She then admits that she's somewhat impressed by Zuko's persistence, but finds that his teacher's methods of making him train even while injured so that he doesn't show any vulnerability to the enemy are questionable, to say the least. Zuko defends that practice, and I agree with Katara that it seems unreasonable for him to do so, but it does explain some of his more reckless decisions in the first two seasons. Thankfully, Katara decides to force Zuko to stop if he gets injured.
Katara calms down, but notes that Zuko is stubborn, even when he's injured and especially when it comes to eating fire flakes.
Katara realizes that Zuko is aware that she is watching him while he is training Aang. Katara recalls that she watches Aang's training with Zuko more intently than she did with Toph, partly out of not wanting to distract Aang. Zuko proves he knows when, while trying to show Aang how to do blue fire (it's not clear how Azula does it or what advantages it has over the red fire all the other firebenders use, or how Zuko hopes to teach Aang when he can't do it himself), he says this in the direction of Katara's hiding spot, much to Aang's confusion.
Katara concludes that Zuko knows she's watching him in training (but not the rest of the time), and that he can't lie or teach Aang how to bend blue fire, no matter how hard he tries.
The author mentions that Katara's anger with Zuko was due to an argument over fireflakes, of all things, and it made sense to detail her reaction rather than show it, an interesting pragmatic touch. The author also concludes that Zuko doesn't like to show weakness, and, unlike the more Katara and Sokka, he has layers. The author also uses the acronym "YMMV", showing indications of being a troper.
What I liked
- A look at Zuko's reckless determination.
- Katara's ranting was amusing.
What I didn't like
- The lack of an explanation behind why Zuko thinks blue fire is better, or why he thinks he can teach it to Aang.
