Miss Hot Mess Express

On the last episode of season 2 of NATLA, and the writers have the chance to correct one of the worst romantic endings in TV history (outside of Ross Geller and Rachel Greene in FRIENDS) if they decide to ditch Kataang and go full Zutara after the PaintedSpirit content this season.

Is this show less developed than ATLA? Yes. It's 2026 and we have officially leaned fully into making show plots as simple as possible because it's no longer acceptable to shame people for being too stupid to follow along with good media. Some of the lines made me physically cringe and as much as I love these kids the acting in some scenes makes Katara some characters seem really whiney when I can tell by the lines I'm hearing it was probably supposed to sound angry.

Do I prefer the slightly more mature aspect of it? Also yes. I love the on screen deaths and violence, I love that they leaned further into abuser Ozai, I love that Azula's motivation for her cruelty is VERY CLEARLY that Ozai makes her feel powerless so she has to assert dominance over others.

I also LOVE how sassy a lot of characters are, especially Zuko!! Dallas Liu is doing him some really good justice, I fucking cackled when Fei told Zuko he had "skilled hands" and he looked at her like "Excuse me???" I still don't forgive the writers for "What would Lu Ten think if he saw you now" however someone is definitely using their pussy juice as ink in that writers room and I love it.