you exist too much.

because the thing is that the painted lady persona that katara takes on is so she can help the villagers without her waterbending being given away. katara, who detests the fire nation for what they’ve done to her and her tribe, takes on the persona of a spirit to help a fire nation town that is being oppressed by the fire nation itself. the blue spirit is a persona that zuko takes on so he can do whatever he wants without being caught or held accountable. it isn’t born out of a strong sense of justice or compassion, and he never uses that persona to help others (except aang and appa) that are in need of help. katara’s painted lady shows you that her compassion and empathy win against any prejudice or hatred she might have, and if she sees someone in need she’ll set her prejudices aside to help them. it makes absolutely zero sense for these two to even interact in those forms, and even if they did, there’s no planet where katara’s painted lady has even an ounce of respect for zuko’s blue spirit. the painted lady in book 2 makes no sense as it is, and if it’s only there to set up some bullshit “parallel” between zuko and katara, you have to erase some of the most central traits katara has for it to even make sense.