Zuko and Aang apparently left to go shopping, and return with seaprunes, food that is difficult to obtain outside the poles, and Katara and Sokka are quite pleased. Zuko doesn't like them, and Katara is pleased, noting that now he'll understand how she feels about fireflakes. Aang, Toph, The Duke and Teo, the non-Water Tribe members of the group, feel similarly.
Zuko, while preparing the seaprunes, wishes they would stop moving,and it amuses Katara to see him having a sense of humor. Zuko tries to help out, but gets kicked out after a seaprune fight breaks out.
The Gaang and their friends eat, with various displeased reactions from those who try the seaprunes, such as trying to drown out the taste or saying it's only slightly better than eating grass. In the end, Katara considers his willingness to try what he doesn't like for the sake of politeness a sign of maturity in spite of being immature in other ways, thinks he's fairly good at cooking, and again mentions his dislike of seaprunes.
Zuko goes to wash the dishes, and infuriates Katara by saying Aang wanted to do something nice for his girlfriend. The idea of being referred to as such infuriates Katara, as 1)she and Aang don't have that kind of relationship, and 2)She does not want to be referred to as someone else's love interest. The former is essentially the author's way of reminding us that this is not a Kataang fic, given that she does it without the same flustered tone that she uses to deny being in love with Zuko. The latter is somewhat understandable; Katara is many things besides Aang's girlfriend(or Zuko's, in this fic), and it's good to see the author not reducing her to that, but all this did come off as a bit gratuitous.
Aang approaches Katara to talk with her, and she ponders the kiss they shared before the invasion. Katara feels quite conflicted about it, and doesn't know whether she really feels the same way about Aang.
Aang then changes the subject to "Gloomy Hairbuns", also known as Mai, marking the debut of the other half of the problem in Step 1. Katara is not at all pleased to hear about Mai, assuming that she and Zuko got together because they are both gloomy and moody individuals.
This right here is a major pitfall for Zutara, a gap that shippers will either have to either bridge or walk around. To provide a brief recap, Katara has known Zuko for almost as long as she has known Aang, but most of her interactions with the former have been while defending the latter from him. The first time Zuko and Katara have a semi-civil conversation is followed by Zuko assisting Azula and causing Aang's near-death. Katara doesn't see Zuko again for half of Book Three, during which time Zuko has rekindled his relationship with Mai, and Aang and Katara have kissed. The author will have to do something about Aang and Mai, but what? Time will tell.
Aang then reveals that he's gotten relationship advice from Zuko, including the importance of honesty (his failure to do so is why his relationship with Mai didn't work out), and to express your feelings, even non-verbally. Katara realizes that Aang is talking about their relationship, but she doesn't want to address the subject.
Katara suggests that Zuko's advice is terrible, and while Zuko isn't the most experienced, his basic advice is sound. Katara storms off, angry with Zuko for putting Aang up to this, in large part because it's easier to be angry with Zuko than Aang. Perhaps that may be true, but it does seem to be slightly rationalizing Katara's issues with Zuko. Katara swears to talk about Zuko's inability to give relationship advice, which she partly blames on Mai, through her relationship with Zuko, giving him the idea that he knows something about it.
Katara wakes up early and confronts Zuko, who is doing sun salutes with his shirt off. An argument ensues, with Katara calling Zuko out on his advice to Aang, but Zuko defends it, with Katara noticing that he's decisive, indicating that he honestly believes he's in the right. Katara concludes that Zuko's emotional volatility is the cause behind his struggles with firebending.
Zuko mentions an offscreen conversation with Aang regarding his feelings for Katara, whom Zuko realizes is the main emotional trigger for Aang (given that she's the one attachment he can't let go of to master the Avatar State, Zuko has a point here), and wanted to help him work through things with Katara. Zuko suggests that Aang will keep wanting to have this conversation, even if Katara doesn't want to, but Katara, feeling upset, runs off. Katara did come off as overly bitchy, to use one of her expressions, and I'm not sure if the author intended that.
Katara ends up avoiding Zuko, until he tracks her down and tells her that she can't avoid problems like this, and apologizes for his advice, albeit using "seaprunes" as a code word for a relationship. Unfortunately, while Katara is fairly understanding, she doesn't reciprocate.
Katara and Zuko then talk about relationships, with Zuko suggesting that he broke up with Mai because she deserved better, and Katara agrees. Katara enjoys the talk, although she notes that Zuko has poor taste in women, and wonders why Mai is the only thing that Zuko would miss about the Fire Nation.
A lengthy author's note follows. The author questions whether seaprunes are like vegetables, because seacumbers are not, and suggests that Aang could eat them without violating his vegetarianism because he wasn't himself at the time. The author then confirms Zuko eats them to keep Katara happy.
The author then goes into relationships, doing a little preliminary work on both halves of Step 1.
Kataang: The author mentions not liking Kataang, even as an alternative to Zutara, because they didn't talk about that kiss, making it less than the "super fantastic love," it was meant to be. This seems to be a fairly weak reason, not to mention the author putting words in the creators' mouths.
The author then suggests that Katara didn't feel the same way about Aang, but didn't want to hurt his feelings by saying it, loving him like a friend or a brother.
The author ships Aang with Ty Lee, saying that they would go well together as a result of being perky (although being perky is hardly Aang's sole defining trait). This makes sense; after all, if Katara and Zuko can get together despite being at odds for all of their scenes prior to the latter half of the last season, so can Aang and Ty Lee.
The author concludes that Aang got Katara in the end as a "reward for being a good boy," which is somewhat infuriating. It's unfortunate that people tend to assume that, with all the Dogged Nice Guy types out there, that any time a Nice Guy does get the girl, it's a reward for being what they are, rather than because they're more compatible. The author writes this to suggest that Aang would have done something between "DoBS" and "EIP" to express his feelings for Katara. That's a possibility, but as Katara says in Ember Island Players, they do have other things to worry about, and this is before they find out that Zuko's father is going to incinerate the Earth Kingdom in a matter of days. In any case, that one kiss, albeit not followed up on, is certainly far more of a display of affection than anything that happened between Katara and Zuko- the most that could be said is that they finally get back to the point at which they could be friends.
The author goes on to Zuko and Aang, noting that if he saw Aang struggling with his firebending, he would realize that there was an emotional root behind it, and asked about it. This is a valid observation, although I do have to question the result. The author goes on to suggest, albeit somewhat dismissively, that this is his attempt to help, even though his main priority is getting Aang ready to fight "the fatherlord".
Last is Zuko and Mai. The author says that Zuko has a lot of love for Mai because she was not a total jerkface toward him, but that the relationship won't work out in the long term because of reasons that will be given later. In spite of that, the author does think that they have affection between each other, which is more than can be said for some people treat her. In any case, even if the worst-case scenario occurs and Mai somehow gets hit with a breakup for plot convenience, at least she won't end up dead on the floor of an oddly European-looking estate with blood pouring out of every orifice after being fatally bloodbended.
So far, Zutara's coming along decently (Step 2), albeit with them getting along better- even at their worst points- than at this point in canon. However, I'm not sold on the author's attempts to steer Katara and Zuko away from Aang or Mai, or her attempts to justify them.
What I liked
- The varying reactions to sea prunes.
What I didn't like
- The author's treatment of Aang's relationship so far.
- The author's explanation about what seaprunes are, which involves a great deal of headcanon, and reinterpreting things to fit her views.
- Katara being portrayed as in the right in the argument.
