1. I don't think that about the lion-turtle. I think it was a creative way to solve the problem. 2. I agree. It was stunning.
3. No, Zuko took the hit from Katara. There was no time to redirect it, and he knew that. He just flew in between Katara and the lightening. And I believe he redirected some of it. There was a brief scene of lightening in the sky.
5. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Aang is his own person. He basically follows the religious path of Buddhists and other things related to that. He is not lame. He has a clear cut vision of what he wants, it just takes him a while to figure out how to get there. He's funny, careless (at times) yet VERY caring, loving, young, and innocent. He's very relatable and I think that makes him a top notch character.