To begin with, yes, I know that this is a Non-Indicative Name, but keep reading and you'll understand why I chose the title.
The chapter is another one of those that begin immediately after the preceding one ends, not just the next morning. Of course, morning has come, and Zuko is going to get Aang up for early morning firebending practice. Aang hates them, but Katara is starting to appreciate getting up early, liking the sight of the sunrise. It's interesting that apparently, Aang is the only one besides his instructor who has to get up early for the sake of training.
Aang takes a break, and Zuko gets them all a coconut, among the many he bought the day before, slicing them open with his swords and giving them the juice to drink, which he says is quite hydating and good for firebending training.
Zuko and Aang meditate, which Katara considers less fun to watch but still useful. Katara makes breakfast for the others, and encounters Suki, who has just woken up; her hair is out of order and she isn't much for talking. The smell of bacon wakes Sokka up.
Zuko, while "helping" Katara cook by picking at certain things, says that it's Katara's turn to teach Aang waterbending healing. Katara realizes that she's been neglecting Aang since the intermission; I notice that Katara, in the broader fic, has not been spending as much time with Aang as her brother and other friends, mainly only spending time with him when training him. Sokka, realizing this, proposes that Katara give Aang a day off if she's not up for it, but says that if Katara is up for it, it would be good to get them back to their level of friendliness.
Katara agrees, deciding that Aang needs to learn healing even if they are having issues. She decides to be friendly, but somewhat distant, so that nothing she says or does can be misconstrued as romantic overtures.
Suki asks Toph to teach her how to lockpick, since Toph has promised Suki a set of lockpicks for her birthday, the seventh day of Oxdog (it's not clear how far in the future this is, though). As for the other two, Zuko and Sokka go to talk about the Fire Nation military, but Zuko oddly keeps glancing at Katara. So Aang and Katara are alone while practicing, once again.
A word about how the groups work. At this point in the show, Aang is a natural with airbending, quite comfortable with waterbending, still struggling with earthbending and fairly new at firebending. So let's go over how things usually play out.
- When Aang and Zuko are practicing together in Firebending, Katara often likes watching them, but can often spend time with the others. Sokka and Suki tend to spend time as boyfriend and girlfriend, though, so that leaves either spending time with Toph, watching Zuko, or doing her own thing.
- When Aang and Toph are practicing together in Earthbending, this is the prime time for Zuko and Katara to spend time together, while Sokka and Suki also spend quality time with each other.
- When Aang and Katara are practicing, there's also Sokka and Suki, and Zuko and Toph. The latter pair's activities aren't usually shown in as much detail.
- For when no one's practicing with each other, anything goes, really. Katara tends to spend the most time with Zuko, followed by Sokka, then Toph, then Suki, then Aang.
The training session begins with awkward silence, and not in a good way, while elsewhere, Suki struggles with the locks, in spite of Toph being a better teacher than Katara is (if in a different subject). But then Katara starts her lesson on chi flow, Aang starts listening, and the awkwardness ebbs away, with Katara somewhat pleaseed to realize that Aang hasn't changed.
Katara moves on to blood flow, but it's harder for Aang to picture something solid flowing (which is odd, since it would seem easier to picture something real flowing). Katara decides to get a study aid, but since water's not the correct consistency, she settles for coconut juice, and goes to get some.
On her way back, Katara overhears Zuko trying to read LATD to Toph, but often getting distracted and talking about how smart Sokka is, as if it's a surprise to him. Katara agrees, noting that while Sokka acts like a goofball most of the time, she's impressed by his intelligence, as is Zuko.
Toph is listening with an affectionate expression, but tells him that while his "man crush" on Sokka is fine, he should get back to reading. Zuko denies it, and Toph notes that she knows he's hopelessly in love with Katara, causing Zuko to fall out of the hammock and quickly deny it. Toph notes that Zuko sighs longingly after Katara, something Toph does for Sokka. Toph gives him a punch for pointing that out, and they get back to reading.
Katara gets "all aflutter" after hearing that, but gets herself together and to focus on her lesson with Aang. But her lesson passes in "a gentle daydream," of weddings between her and Zuko, Sokka and Suki, and perhaps Aang and Toph, including the latter because she doesn't see why reality should interfere.
She imagines Toph being dressed up (again, I can't help but think of How I Became Yours and how Toph made this part of her everyday attire, but I do think Toph would get dressed up for a wedding), and impressing her parents. Katara imagines Aang being happy and forgetting his crush on her. Katara also imagines Sokka and Suki making terrible jokes at their wedding. She finally imagines having three kids with Zuko- a girl named Kya (who, as it turns out, is the name of Katara's daughter in The Legend of Korra, even if her father is not the person the author had in mind), a girl named Yue, and a boy whom Zuko can name (possibly Iroh, who's Zuko's son in Legend Of Korra), with Ember Island as their yearly vacation destination.
But Katara forces herself to snap out of it, and decides that the heat is making her head fuzzy. She says Aang is doing well, and they should swim to practice combat forms. After clearing her head, Katara passes Aang off to Toph, while she goes to "have a nap," or rather, sort through her thoughts.
While sorting through her thoughts, Katara concludes that Zuko doesn't like her that way, and she needs to focus on fighting the war, although I have noticed that, for all her belief in its importanc, she hasn't spent all that much time preparing herself for it.
But if Zuko did have feelings for her, he seems like the kind who would come out and say it. Katara believes that if he hasn't said anything, it thus follows that he's happy with things as they are now, and she should be as well.
I find Katara's assumption to be fairly faulty, even ignoring how Zutara is the fic's chosen pairing. Not talking about something can mean a variety of things; Katara hopes that avoiding the issue of Aang's crush will make it go away, indicating that she's not content with how things are, but hopes to change them through inaction. There are many different interpretations one could make about Zuko's silence in her perspective, and it's unfortunate that she chose one of the more pessimistic ones.
In any case, it's clear that while there's no evidence that Zuko feels anything for Katara beyond friendship, there's also no evidence that it will necessarily remain that way.
But in any case, Katara realizes that Zuko is her closest friend, and the first person she confides in, even considering how grumpy and pessimistic he is, as he somehow knows what to say to make her feel better. She, in particular, says he makes her feel better about her Team Mom role- a role she adopts because she doesn't know any other way, especially after her actual mom died, but she doesn't see as very fun. She appreciates being on "equal footing" around Zuko, an implicit reference to her mothering Aang.
Speaking of Aang, the awkwardness resulting from his unrequited crush on her is one reason why she fears confessing to Zuko, since she values her friendship too much to do it. This is an interesting point, although I have to wonder how much she truly values Aang's friendship. Katara thus vows to not say anything to make things weird, but if Zuko does that, she'll be all over it.
An author's note follows, thanking the readers and apologizing for two things; 1)Zuko and Katara being Just Friends and 2)the shortness of the chapter, caused by the author going on vacation in Vietnam, and by shifting the serious parts of this chapter to the next one.
The author points out that coconuts serve as a last resort for "intravenous hydration fluid" for Australian soldiers in World War II.
The author suggests that in spite of Aang and Katara's efforts to get back to normal after the intermission from BITI, they have "a giant communication fail" and sweeping it under the rug.
The author suggests that Sozin's Comet is coming in one or two weeks, on top of all the time that they spent in Ember Island, so it seems like an unreasonably long amount of time passed between Day of the Black Sun and Sozin's Comet.
The author says she decided to Hand Wave away the communication failure by having Aang decide to wait the night before the invasion. She concludes that the Gaang usually communicate well for the most part, and decided that Aang (Why is it always him? Sokka's the planner and leader) seemed to be the only one who would keep that a secret. Because Sokka is "emphatic" about striking before the comet, Ozai's plan never comes up.
This reminds me of the "simunition" issue from Boys Und Sensha-do, and an all too common problem in fanfics; authors see some plot hole in canon that they feel the need to fix, and decide to use the equivalent of scotch tape on it, which leads to various inconsistencies. In that case, the shells weren't at all like they were in the show. In this case, the Gaang, having lost their best opportunity to attack the Fire Nation, decide to wait until the enemy has also exhausted their best chance to strike back. It's less than optimal, but it's the least worst option after the previous plan's failure, until Zuko tells them why it's not possible.
The author says that Zuko and Sokka have a nice bromance but are only friends, even if Zuko gushes over Sokka's intelligence. It should have been clear to Zuko by now, but Toph's teasing him about that was originally going to take place after "The Southern Raiders", so perhaps that's why it's been delayed so much.
Of course, that's not the main point of the scene, so this is forgivable. The point is that Zuko is "head over heels and ass-backwards in love with Katara", and everyone except Katara seems to know. In response, Zuko teases Toph about her crush on Sokka, which Toph has (permanently) put aside for the sake of her friendship with Sokka and Suki.
Katara's daydreams indicate the possibility of Toph and Aang getting together, and it seems as though the author is seriously considering it as well.
The author proposes Toph and Aang getting together, but only when they're much older than they are at the moment. The author says that Aang needs grounding (although it's described in the same way that kids need to go to school, as something that's good for him even if he doesn't want it), while Toph needs freedom (as in something that's good for her and that she wants).
As you can see, this comes off as a less than balanced pairing, with Toph being the one to moderate Aang's desires (what happened to the idea of not wanting the lover to change, that the author used to argue against Maiko?) But in any case, it's better than How I Became Yours, when Toph turns into a shy, nervous girl whose heroics were all just an act to seem confident in herself, and it should be pointed out that Aang is, to a lesser degree, also a far cry from his canon self.
The author points out that the Avatar is the kind of person her parents would approve of. But even if you don't go the Maligned Mixed Marriage route (Toph's parents are as conservative and traditional as they come), you may recall that when Toph asked to go with the Avatar, her father decided to redouble his efforts to keep her in the house, and sent bounty hunters after the Gaang. It seems clear that the Avatar doesn't get all that much credit in Lao's eyes, at least as far as his daughter is concerned.
The author points out that Toph would balance out Aang, supporting him but not indulging him. I can't help but feel as though she repeatedly emphasizes how he needs someone to keep him in line, as if she views him as nothing more than an immature child who happened to be the Avatar.
The author points out that Bryke went with ships she finds to be very unseaworthy. If I had to compare this fic's Zutara to a ship, I'd say its hull is made out of Zuko and Katara's compatibility, fastened together with alternate interpretations and fanon. The sail is composed of a plot that enables Zuko and Katara to frequently interact, and the winds that push it forward are the author's own interpretation of the events and belief in how they would get together. To sum it up, the materials are good, but if you start looking closer, the ship only works in the context of the fic, and doesn't go anywhere without the author expanding on and reinterpreting canon events. Last Second Hookup is the best possible outcome for Zutara in canon, given that the two were only on speaking terms two episodes before the Grand Finale, so it's essentially like having a crew sail their ship out of the shipyard.
Again, I can't help but wish that the author had at least some respect for the victorious ship, much like the losers in a Love Triangle should give their best wishes to the victors. To a certain degree, these authors' notes complaining about Kataang do come off as sour grapes on the author's part.
The author points out that she does see Taang in the future, and sees opposing elements balancing each other out. This does remind me more than a little of How I Became Yours, which had two Fire-Water pairings (Sokka isn't a bender, but he's from the Water Tribe) and one Air-Earth pairing.
The author asks readers not to hate her for having Katara try to be Just Friends with Zuko until he decides to make a move.
Unfortunately, Katara will be waiting a long time, because Zuko is also waiting for her, because of his justifiable fear of rejection. And Katara has some idea of how unrequited love can make friendship awkward, like it did with Aang. She doesn't want to risk what she has with Zuko for the chance of getting something more. This is a good point, although I do have to wonder why her friendship with Zuko is so much deeper than her other friendships.
But the status quo likely won't hold. You see, the title refers to When Harry Met Sally..., a film that essentially states that men and women cannot be Just Friends. To some extent, that's true here; of the three boys in the Gaang, one is Katara's brother, one has an unrequited crush on her, and one has feelings for her, which will more or less inevitably be reciprocated given that this is a Zutara fanfic. Zuko and Katara's status as Just Friends is likely to be as permanent as a candle burning.
Of course, there are dramatic issues coming up, some of which are as relevant for Kataang as they are for Zutara. Katara will find out about Zuko's scar, Zuko will find out about Aang's inability to access the Avatar State, Aang will have to make some hard decisions, and the other people will have things go on as usual.
What I liked
- Toph teasing Zuko, while having come to terms with Sokka and Suki's relationship.
What I didn't like
- The Hand Wave for not talking about Sozin's Comet
- The unrealistically long timeframe between Day of the Black Sun and Sozin's Comet.
- Katara's assuming that she and Zuko won't fall in love.
- The author suggesting that Aang is the only one in need of improvement.
