The Love Triangle in LOK Was A Contradiction of Mako's Characterization
To all the Mako haters: Yes, I like Mako. Yes, I ship Makorra, at least in terms of both the 1st season and how it could have been written as a whole. I'm also not defending that Mako, in effect, did cheat on Asami. I may dislike Asami, but I will acknowledge that what Mako did was wrong.
But that brings me to my point. Because sure, a love triangle adds all this dramatic potential and such, especially since LOK was like the last time outside of Wolf King (please check it out, it's wonderful!) to do the original "two girls fighting for a guy" love triangle.
However, as the love triangle stands in LOK, there is one glaring problem.
Mako's main, overarching and core trait is his loyalty.
Mako is established to be intensely loyal to Bolin. Yes, he's his baby brother and needs to be protected, but Mako could've easily left him behind at any point before they became pro-benders. The fact that he didn't shows how much he cares for Bolin, and how he'll stay by his brother's side no matter what.
This loyalty is then extended to Korra in the third episode. Despite their quasi bonding moment in episode two, their bond only really solidifies in 3 when they go looking for Bolin. Korra's willingness to help him in spite of her cushy upbringing is what Mako respects and admires about her, and it's clear (both by his protective actions and the way they awkwardly dive away from each other upon waking up in the park - side note, in that time period, such a scene would have been seen as borderline scandalous) that Korra has earned Mako's respect and loyalty by the end.
So him suddenly swooning over Asami in episode 4 and having her back on everything....really stands against that, especially since Mako should be wondering why she's throwing money at him so readily. What makes it worse is that, if you "justify it" as Mako desperate for money, then that either makes him a gold digger (which he is not, as evidenced by how he doesn't even push Korra for money from the White Lotus, the Airbenders, or whomever else) or a leech. Mako is far from both, as he's shown to work hard to get himself and Bolin the money to keep their bellies full and the roof over their head, and there's no real benefit from hanging around the Avatar beyond star power in the ring that he clearly isn't interested in.
All of this is to say that the love triangle was not even well thought out, as the execution was just that - an execution.
If you hate Mako, that's fine. If you don't like Makorra, that's fine.
I just wanted to spell out why the love triangle didn't work, and how it actually broke Mako's established characterization in favor of drama.
So please, don't do what Book 1 did with a potential love triangle, and if you want to hate Mako, I hope I at least gave you something to think about for one aspect of him to not hate.
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