a) It's that fannish insecurity that made me dislike the vocal majority of my fellow Kataang shippers. >:/ If your ship is canon, you should not feel so damned threatened by poor ol' Zuko.

b) I was actually fearing that Katara, being so protective of Aang as she is, would end up taking a bullet for Aang and dying due to Aang's indecisiveness/moral quandary, and that... would have been much much worse.

c) True, though I really doubt that all the Katara/Zuko interaction in the finale was just a massive shiptease.