AH, YES, it’s time to analyze mai and zuko’s relationship, but i can’t cover ALL of it in this one post, so there’ll be other parts, but in this one we’re gonna talk about how mai and zuko when they WEREN’T together.
❝ but i have to be honest . . . i miss you, mai. ❞
❝ UGH ! why would you say something like that ?! ❞
❝ because it’s true ! ❞
honestly, throughout this whole little scene, mai got fired up real quick. right when zuko said he missed her, mai just spat. zuko, if you saw his face in the comics, wasn’t really ‘angry,’ he just seemed a bit taken aback, but he still stood his ground. and i love how people are like ‘ mai’s the calm one !!! zuko’s the fiery one !!! perfect !!! ‘ and i can’t COMPLETELY disagree with that, they both have things that immediately set them off, but it’s clear here that mai jumps way too fast into a fight. even when she broke up with zuko over his ‘secret’ she didn’t even stop to consider how many things zuko was juggling now that he was the fire lord.
i thought about this a lot actually, but the way she broke up with him was almost wrong. say that to her and she’ll deny it ( at least in her younger years ), but she and zuko have been barely talking it seems. again, the comics don’t show us EVERY PART of their lives, but we can assume with zuko running around, he doesn’t much time to spend with mai. i still don’t think it’s just zuko’s fault, i just can’t tell you how bad i felt when he said ‘ i know im screwing up, but i love you mai. ‘ he was TRYING, and mai was not flexible enough. she didn’t compromise. and she still does have the right to be angry, i’m not saying she doesn’t, but maybe talking out would have been better. of course, the reason mai was so quick to break things off because she probably felt the distance between them and that made her SAD. mai doesn’t like feeling sad, she doesn’t want to let someone have THAT much power over her. and zuko secretly speaking to his father was the straw that broke the camel’s back ( god i hate that saying, but for the lack of a better comparison……. ). ANYWAYS.
❝ look, zuko ! you and i, we HAD our chance ! it’s time for BOTH of us to move on ! ❞
OKAY, LOOK !!!! look at the way she’s using ‘ you and i ‘ and ‘ our ‘ and ‘ both of US. ‘ she’s not blaming HIM, here she acknowledges that BOTH HER AND HIM are just not cut out for each other. of course, that’s the way she sees it at that point. she just can’t get over the fact that she loves zuko so so much and it’s not that he doesn’t return the feelings, it’s that there’s just so much that could and IS keeping them apart. it could be their own personalities, their duties, their friends/family, whatever it might be. and mai can’t take that, she doesn’t want there to be any rifts, she wants HAPPINESS. but as a person who doesn’t deal with people well, mai doesn’t know how to achieve that happiness with zuko. and she knows zuko doesn’t either. THAT’S another reason she broke up with him. she thinks since they can’t find happiness, they aren’t meant to be together. she thinks they tried EVERYTHING they could, and she’s frustrated, my dudes.
❝ i’m not arguing with that ! all i’m saying is . . . i don’t know what i’m saying. ❞
!!!!! this just reinforces my point above that zuko probably, also, acknowledges that they both think they tried everything in the god damn book to stay together and find true happiness in each other. but AGAIN . . . he misses her. she misses him. they don’t understand . . . if they really can’t be happy together then why do they still LONG for each other?? of course, their break up was relatively fresh but still.
❝ tell me, do you feel about him THE SAME WAY you used to feel about me ? ❞
zuko says ‘ USED TO, ‘ the guy thinks mai really moved on. and i wouldn’t be surprised, mai literally has a new boyfriend and she just snapped at him to move on. BUT HE WRONG, SO WRONG.
❝ just answer the question. ❞
❝ you broke my heart, zuko ! twice ! and the stupid thing is, i let you ! like a COMPLETE moron, i let you. kei lo likes me. a lot. probably more than i like him. and that’s exactly how i need it to be, because i won’t EVER let myself get hurt like that again. ❞
GNAWS ON MY OWN HAIR……………………………. there’s just so much here !! mai clearly lays out for us that she DOES also blame herself for letting herself get hurt. and the thing is, when she says ‘ you broke my heart ‘ i just don’t think she’s fully blaming him. like she’s not saying zuko has malicious intent, but just that he and THEIR relationship broke her heart in general. and i’m not gonna delve too much into this because i already did so above but yeah !!
and MY DUDES, let’s talk about how she literally says that she rather have the guy like her more because then she won’t get hurt like THAT !!! AGAIN !!! she’s not saying she won’t get hurt, period, she just doesn’t want to get hurt like THAT. like the way she could almost feel her heart cracking when she walked away from zuko while he literally ordered to come back because he didn’t know what else to do ( also he’s like ‘ why would i say that?? ‘ right after and i fucking DIED ). the way mai hurt was DIFFERENT than anything else she had experienced and she HATES it, thus leading to her saying and doing what she did.
god, i cannot stress enough how much mai, and probably zuko, is afraid of LOSING her/his shit and balance because of her/their relationship. she doesn’t know what to do !! and they both don’t even confide in another person about their relationship, they just keep so much bottled in and then combined with that stress and then the stress of their duties and then this drama shit, they’re just LOST. and remember………………….. they’re not even adults, not even in their twenties, they’re literal teenagers tryna find their way, so that’s a BIG part of it. they’re literally young and in love, the Hipster™ dream…………