My only guess is that Mike and Bryan really want to spite the Zutara crowd or something by rubbing this in their faces.
If that's true, then it's backfiring tremendously and just making fans think Kataang is such a badly written couple that Zutara would've been better.
But I thought that they did put a temporary stop to the titular "promise" issue by the end of this volume and will be trying to work things about the Return to Harmony movement out with Zuko and Kuei in the next book. It's only if Zuko gets really out of hand (which Ozai is bound to make certain happens) that Aang will have to struggle with fulfilling the promise again.
And this story still needs Azula and Iroh. Wonder when they'll be showing up?
I agree with you in just one matter.
It is really painful to watch Katara and Aang's relationship now, but I think it is actually just a case of Shipping Bed Death. What makes a shipping interesting to watch is the sexual tension it creates and sometimes a love triangle to spice the relationship to the audience. Since Katara and Aang confessed their love for each other, the rival shipping lost the war and the sexual tension is done for there are nothing more to make them interesting to the audience again. So, if the characters are not in action, the only interaction they will have are hugs, kissings and "I love you" speeches. I don't know if it is just Bryke trying to spite the Zutarians again, but Avatar is not a romance novel, so...
Despite this it is still a well written comic. Zuko's new duties are starting to create conflict between him and the heroes, the harmony movement and Aang's visions about equilibrium are actually threating to tear a multicultural setting apart and there's also the racism of the freedom fighters and radical measures they are about to make. Katara and Aang's relationship is not taking over the story, despite being dull it actually shows a somewhat hypocrital side of Aang who says the four nations must be separateed, but is in a multiracial relationship himself.
Different ethnic groups maintaining sovereignty over their own lands and multiracial marriages are two entirely different things, you know. Aang is not being a hypocrite in this respect.
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...
True, Aang is right about the sovereignty of the Fire Nation over Yu Dao and its citizens being unfair. I never said he was completely wrong, he has a point. It is just his way to solve the problems without taking into account the current setting that is not very nice.
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Enough Ookie already, get with the Story!
The book opens with the opening narration of The Last Airbender we all know, but it's ineffective for the medium of a comic book, so instead of fulfilling the role of getting you excited about the upcoming story it comes across as pointless filler. Paying homage to the cartoon is fine, but it lacked impact.
Then there's the Kataang mushiness that crowds the story. The whole love angle in The Last Airbender was only fun when it was a source of tension and drama. Aang and Katara are now boring. It's no longer a story because the conflict is resolved, so why are they putting so much emphasis on it? I know that Bryke understands how to write a good couple - just look at Sokka and Suki, they work just fine as an Official Couple and provide the audience with some witty banter, but Aang and Katara are dull, with such awful lines like "trying to see what we mean to each other" and Katara bitching at Sokka just because he keeps stumbling in on their very public makeout sessions. My only guess is that Mike and Bryan really want to spite the Zutara crowd or something by rubbing this in their faces. Sokka even Hangs A Lampshade on it, so we know that making Aang and Katara all "ookie" is being done intentionally.
The story does have its good moments, though. I actually like that Zuko is becoming his father, is aware of it, yet cannot help it anyway because he is too invested in the welfare of his people. That's called tension, and it should be the focus of the story, and for the most part it is. Sokka's still providing the occasional comic relief, and Toph is still Toph, so that's good. But the Kataang thing has got to get out of the way of the real story, and Aang has to stop rehashing the same inner turmoil he already faced in Book 3. We get that Aang hates violence even if it appears necessary, why are we still going on about this? I guess my issue is that the story seems to be focusing so much on a promise Aang made to Zuko to end Zuko if he should ever go back to being evil, when it should be focusing on the fact that fire nation colonials don't like the plan to ship them back to the fire nation. Aang harps so much on how he might have to kill Zuko he can't seem to realize that the real problem is that the Return to Harmony movement is a disaster. Its a stupid way to drag out the conflict in my eyes.