Hee, yeah. Aang's grown up a bit over the series, and improved a lot on the stepping-up-to-responsibility front, but he's still a young kid. A really young kid. And Katara, despite her flaws, comes across as much older than him, to the point where romance between them at this point simply does not fly for me, independent of other romantic possibilities.

Joined at the hip, yeah. There's a bond between them that is deep and enduring and so much in the forefront of the show that it doesn't demand extra attention for dramatic catharsis. It would if they'd been neglecting it--that's a common complaint in other shows, neglecting core emotional relationships as the writers lose focus--but they've always given it its due. It's one of the things I think I've really enjoyed about Avatar, how they've always remembered to pay attention to the deep emotional structures, both the reciprocal relationships and the unbalanced ones. (ex. Reciprocal: Zuko and Iroh. Unbalanced: Zuko and Ozai. I don't know where Zuko and Aang are on that scale--sliding along, perhaps?--but that's another really important one that went back to as many times as was needed to complete the arc.) And now I'm just babbling.