Katara feels sick after hearing the general's story, and goes to the bathroom, wanting to vomit. She doesn't, but splashes her face with water.
Katara goes looking for the others. Suki is teaching an even larger group of girls. Rei and Long Tongue are playing with a lantern. Chan and Rena are drunkenly making out. Sokka is impressing Ron Jian's dad with a made up story.
Since Sokka's the easiest to approach, Katara tells him that she's going home. Sokka isn't quite ready, having gotten the generals to eat out of his hand, and is reluctant to let Katara go off on her own. Suki also doesn't want to leave.
Katara doesn't exactly remember the walk home, save for taking her sandals off at one point, since it's easier to walk barefoot. Before long, she reaches the beach house, and finds Zuko reading Avatar Kyoshi's biography. Zuko's mildly, and somewhat pleasantly surprised that Katara's back early, and picks a weed out of her hair, asking if she's been for a swim. Katara mentions the part about the baby, and Zuko says only she saves babies at parties, before offering her tea.
Zuko asks where Sokka and Suki are, and Katara says that they're still at the party. With Zuko acting so normally, Katara finds it difficult to broach the subject. As Zuko tells her about putting Aang and Toph to bed, he realizes that something's off about Katara, and asks her about it. Katara wants to comfort him, feeding him his favorite food, but can't when he's acting normally.
So she gives him a hug. burying her face into his chest. He tries to console her. Katara gets to the point and says she knows how he got his scar, causing him to recoil, as he wonders how she found out. Katara explains that it's an accident, and it was brought up as an example of how terrible his father's reign was.
Zuko's expression, "lost and sad and scared" instantly cues Katara in to the fact that this will not be an easy conversation, possibly worse than she thought. He refuses to talk about it and rejects Katara's hug, which upsets her. As Zuko tries to downplay what he's feeling, Katara insists that she can help, and that he should stop pretending to be fine. At this point, Zuko causes the stove to flare up that causes the kettle to boil over as Zuko and Katara are locked in eye contact. Katara looks away first as the kettle boils over and Zuko makes a break for it. Katara notices that Zuko is sneaky, but blieves the same goes for her, and after seeing to the kettle, decides to follow him, even if he doesn't want to be found. Perhaps he's angry at her for bringing it up, but she doesn't want to give up on him.
She catches him on the beach, and trips him with waterbending. Zuko falls down, and Katara catches up to him. He says she presumably wants to have "a big stupid talk" with him, but she insists that she's here to help. After some back and forth debating whether Zuko's fine, Zuko insists that Katara doesn't really know him, because if she did, she'd know that he never talks about it. Katara, offended by the idea that she doesn't know him, says that he needs only open up to her. Zuko, similarly offended, says he just did, more so than he's done with anyone else.
Katara fears that she's opened old wounds, and knows that this isn't what she had in mind. She'd envisioned something like the talk before the Southern Raiders, where they open up to and comfort each other. Katara, realizing that she's not in the best frame of mind for this, calms down. Zuko, trying to calm down (emphasis on "trying") pointedly asks what Katara wants from him, and Katara thinks that she simply wants to do something for him when he's hurting, and since he won't let her in, she's helpless to deal with the deeper scars within him.
So Katara gets to the point, saying that she wants him to talk to her so that she can listen and he can stop bottling up all his feelings. She says that she did the same thing herself until the revenge mission, but letting her emotions out did not kill her.
Zuko, however, is still stubborn, and refuses to talk, especially not to Katara, saying that he doesn't want to feel weird around her, although he's saying that in a placating, rather than angry tone. Katara insists that she won't, but Zuko is all too used to hearing that promise. Katara then switches tack and insists that he's strong, not in terms of physical strength or battle prowess, but because he's been living with this for all this time.
Zuko doesn't want her to patronize him, though, and begins walking off again, with her following after him. She says it's not his fault that Ozai is horrible, and suggests that Ozai is "damaged goods," an oddly pitying description of him that paints him as more a victim than a villain. Zuko says the same goes for him, but Katara refuses to believe it. Katara gets Zuko to stop, and gets close to him, but without hugging him this time. She says that he's wounded, not damaged, and that the scar doesn't diminish his value as a person. Zuko finally invites Katara closer and allows her to hug him. He blinks back tears, and tells her that he can't say what she wants him to say.
Katara apologizes, first to offer condolences, then to express contrition for making it about her, by forcing Zuko to talk (she mentions that she often pries with Sokka) rather than considering whether he was ready. She keeps on apologizing over and over again.
Katara asks Zuko what she can do for him, and he says he doesn't want her to act weird around him; she's already doing so. He recalls when his uncle told the rest of his crew about his scar without his permission (I noticed this happens a lot as far as people's exposition goes), and he found it hard to accept that his crew were "super-nice" to him afterward. He says that in the same sense, Katara is being "weird nice," and he doesn't like that, although he doesn't think she needs to whack him with the commonsense stick.
Their faces are close, and Katara considers kissing him, but realizes it would be considered a "pity kiss," and she doesn't want to do that to him. She believes treating him the same is best, but realizes that it's difficult when she's learning new things about him all the time. She has some idea what she wants out of him, but considers it "very inappropriate."
Katara thus decides that if being treated the same is what he wants, then that's what she will do, as long as he doesn't get huffy about her being nice to him. She then vocalizes it out loud, saying that if she's nicer than normal to him, it's because he's her best friend.
Zuko says "okay," an acceptance that seems too easy for Katara to accept, and that can be said for simple yes or no answers. That answer leaves Katara little to respond to, and she asks if it's really OK, but Zuko says it's an improvement over her trying to "sneak-attack hug" him.
Zuko's surprised that Katara considers him her best friend. Of course, Sokka's Zuko's best friend by now, and they get into a discussion about guy and girl friends, with Katara saying that he can have multiple best friends, and she can be his girl friend. Katara hastily backtracks and clarifies while not going so far as to deny wanting to be Zuko's girlfriend, much to Zuko's confusion, although he decides that Katara is his best friend who is a girl. On Zuko's request, they finally share a long hug, albeit an awkward one, and Katara offers to be there for Zuko.
Zuko asks for Katara to promise not to tell the others, and she agrees, but he remains unconvinced. Katara finally suggests a "spit shake" (which seems highly unsanitary; one children's book I read had a girl refusing to seal a promise with another girl she was helping on those grounds, until the other girl proposed sealing it in blood as an alternative). Zuko, for his part, finds it highly undignified, until Katara suggests that the spit is "liquid trust." Zuko reluctantly agrees, is grossed out all the while, and wipes his hand on Katara's dress, while she responds by wiping her hand on his shirt. On the bright side, they're convinced that they'll never tell anyone, and Zuko's been stirred out of his "sad panda funk."
Katara, wanting to get back to their normal teasing banter, teases Zuko about choosing Sokka as his bestie, and Zuko says that Sokka asked first. Katara complains about Sokka stealing his fireflakes, while Zuko has to remind her that she stole them all the time (back in "Stalking Zuko").
Katara, remembering what he had once told her, proposes playing the shape game with him, as Lu Ten did. After a little while, they bend dragons, with Katara letting Zuko win, and realizing that he's smiling again.
Zuko is honestly grateful, and while she believes she only upset him, he's grateful that she's there, and she pledges to always be there, knowing that it isn't about her.
The author thanks us for making it to the end again, and hopes we weren't too mad at her for not having Zuko and Katara's relationship progress further, with this revelation as the catalyst, but the author says she's going a different way. I can respect that, although I'm of two minds regarding the pacing. It's somewhat pleasant that the author isn't rushing things, but the relationship's pace is still fairly slow.
The author says that Zuko isn't ready to deal with the emotional subject of his scar, especially since his desire for Ozai's respect in the first two seasons caused him to be in denial about Ozai as a parent. As cathartic as his speech to Ozai in Day of the Black Sun was, it doesn't solve all his issues or heal all his traumas, not when he's trying to focus on winning the war, and be a lighter person with the Gaang. Unfortunately, this doesn't change the reality that Zuko is suffering, nor does it change the fact that he'll have to deal with this at some point.
The author points out that Katara has the natural instinct to help people, but the author notes that she does what she thinks is best, and this tendency will lead to problems. The author believes that she hasn't had to address that problem yet; it caused trouble in The Painted Lady, but things worked out in the end.
Essentially, because of this tendency, and because of Katara's assumption that Zuko feels the same way about emotional release that she does, she initiates the conversation here, which causes the conflict. The author concludes that it will be necessary for Zuko in the long term, but in the end, he'll have to heal himself by forgiving himself and not Ozai. The author concludes that it's not something suited to Katara's hero complex, and one emotional conversation will not be enough to heal it.
The author says that Zuko's default reaction in cases like this is to push people away, although in Katara's case, it's complicated by the fact that he "adores" her, and doesn't want to hurt her feelings, even if he finds it painful that he is reliving the darkest days of his life because of her. The author then goes into how she believes Zuko wouldn't have liked Iroh going behind his back in "The Storm."
The author concludes that Zuko, while proud, has poor self esteem, having been rejected by Ozai, lost Ursa, and being fairly sure that Iroh hates him.
The author mentions that the "damaged goods" part came from Castle, which, not unlike Avatar, is lighthearted.
The author says Zuko considers Katara "the ultimate optimist," and thus unsuited to understand his problems, so any conversation about this subject should be instigated by Zuko himself. Katara can, however offer him emotional support. The author concludes, based on Zuko's decision to let Aang sort things out on his own on the eve of Sozin's Comet, that they had a conversation. It honestly seems like a stretch to imagine an actual conversation like that taking place offscreen.
The author believes that Zuko makes "baby steps" progress wise, but in any case, he's opening up to Katara in ways that he never did with Iroh and certainly not Mai (the author describes the entire relationship as a big communications failure), as he did in the crystal caves. The author thus concludes that Zuko will open up to Katara, but not for a while.
The author says that it's not especially romantic, but it does deepen the trust between Zuko and Katara, with the author contrasting Mai and Zuko's relationship by saying that Mai gives Zuko emotional validation.
The author then suggests that she alluded to one of the few Mai and Zuko arguments that she considers valid (it's already overly dismissive), that Mai and Zuko were each other's firsts, and Zuko would want to stick with someone he's been with for a while, which explains his loyalty to his father. It seems like the author might be willing to make a concession in favor of Maiko... but then the author points out that the fact that they've been together for a long time is the main basis of their relationship. And, of course, by this point, Zuko and Katara have achieved "best friend" status with each other.
I'm of two minds regarding this. On the one hand, there is a lot of evidence for the author's position, and I am of the opinion that it's nice to take things at a realistic pace. On the other hand, some of this does drag things out as far as Zutara's development goes, and it does degrade the importance of other people in Zuko's life, particularly Mai (who, it bears repeating, is a romantic rival to Zuko, who has known him for far longer than Katara has).
To illustrate my feelings about the author's lack of respect for Aang and Mai, let us take a look at Naruto shipping. Naruto/Hinata is my favorite couple, so I was quite glad when it became the Official Couple. But what about Sakura, the object of Naruto's unrequited affections for the majority of the series? While I don't think she necessarily has understood him as well as Hinata has, she's a close friend and comrade of his over the course of the series, and that bond will remain even if it doesn't become a romantic one. She thus deserves respect from those fans who prefer Naruto to get together with Hinata, respect I believe has been denied to Aang and Mai.
But that's enough of that for now. The next chapter will deal with Aang's inability to enter the Avatar State, among other things.
What I liked
- Dealing with the scar issue.
- Katara and Zuko's conclusion.
- Interesting analysis of Zuko's issues about his scar
What I didn't like
- Zuko is a bit stubborn, seemingly for the sake of drama at times.
- Chapter is colored by the author's biases and shipping preferences.
- The author repeatedly bashes Maiko without even considering the points in favor of it.
