Hi everyone… It’s been awhile since I active on here. Actually, I feel like my hyper-fixation on Maiko is kinda fading away. But I always love them dearly, always feel so grateful meeting you all and making friends here, making fanfics about them also giving me sparks in life at that time. You guys are so nice and the fandom feels like home to me. Thank you so much!💕
I feel like everyone might be on Rest or on Hiatus right now, but I wish our path could cross each other again. I might be inactive on here since I made this Tumblr only for Maiko, but if you still want to be friends with me you can hit me up on Twitter/X Pixieydvst I talk about everything randomly there in English and Bahasa Indonesia.
In the future I still want to talk about Maiko and Write about them, but for now I just wanna share this with you. And I’m sorry If I haven’t answered some messages cuz Idk, why the message in the inbox didn’t show up. Is it because I’m too late to check it?
After all, Take care everyone… See you when I see you!🥹♥️
just wanted to say thank u for finishing ur fic off and not leaving us hanging! any thoughts on when the bonus chapter will come out??
Hi! I know I’m late but thank you so much for reading my fanfics and reaching out here. It’s meant a lot💕
I really want to continue to write the bonus chapter since it’s been too long on my draft but I can’t give you empty promises. I wish I could post the bonus chapter asap but it hasn’t done yet. I’m sorry, but once again… Thank you!🥹
There are only 6 works in Mai/Zuko tag on Ao3 that I filtered with Vampire AU. And I only read 2 that I was interested in and that was so good. I want moreee!!! I know I should contribute to it. But lately, I kinda lost my touch.
I am definetly in the minority here, but I was always so deeply touched by Mai's confession during that scene.
There's just something about Mai's confession that makes me feel so unbearably sad. I think the first thing that hits me is just how... empty she seems in this situation compared to the rest of the Firesome Foursome. Zuko is angry™️ and lashing out, Ty Lee is sad and concerned and Azula is posturing. But Mai is just so devoid of even sadness around her chidlhood trauma.
It's sort of like she shut down emotionally to some extent, (even more than usual) especially after her fight with Zuko.
This is quite a common reaction to arguments from someone who was raised to be obedient and non-confrontational, so I'm not surprised she was acting like this.
Analysing Mai's behaviour on the beach is interesting.
She seems to try to reach out to Zuko in her own, tepid little way by greeting him, but clams back up when he asks her where "her new boyfriend" was. This leads to her smacking his hand away when he tries to reach out to her by asking if she's cold. They're both trying to mend the bridge, but end up escalating the conflict further.
She remains silent for a good while, but does speak up in order to defend Ty Lee from Zuko lashing out. Despite this, when Zuko persists, Mai doesn't push the issue, perhaps due to her upbringing to be placid.
Due to this, I find it intriguing when Mai mocks Ty Lee for attention seeking, since she had attempted to defend Ty Lee from Zuko's ridicule. But perhaps its due to jealousy or frustration by Ty Lee's freely expressed sorrow and trauma that made Mai lash out in her own way.
Or it's just because the writers didn't know how to jump from Ty Lee's traumadump to Mai's lol
This is where we get into the meat and potatoes of Mai's confession.
Ty Lee bites back at Mai and parrots Zuko's opinion of Mai being "a big blah" as he said.
Ty Lee : Well, what's your excuse, Mai? You were an only child for fifteen years, but even with all that attention, your aura is this dingy, pasty, gray ...
Mai : I don't believe in auras.
Zuko: Yeah, you don't believe in anything.
Mai : Oh, well, I'm sorry I can't be as high-strung and crazy as the rest of you.
Zuko: I'm sorry, too. I wish you would be high-strung and crazy for once instead of keeping all your feelings bottled up inside. She just called your aura dingy. Are you gonna take that?
I think what's interesting here is that while Ty Lee saw Mai as recieving the attention Ty Lee had craved, Mai seemed to receive less loving, parental attention, and more scrutiny. Mai's parents also seem to be actually rather neglectful emotionally towards Mai and them just leaving Tom Tom unsupervised behind a screen in Omashu leaves me questioning if they actually cared that much.
Mai deflects, not adressing Ty Lee's question, but rather focusing on the nebulous concept of auras instead. When Zuko butts in, trying to rile her up, Mai gives a sarcastic apology. I find it very interesting that she sets hereself so aside from the others in terms of her not being "high strung and crazy", because it really shows the difference in Mai's upbringing and that of her companions. Azula and Zuko were raised to be leaders and fighters, and their "firebender instincts" were encouraged, while Ty Lee persumably had to compete for attention with her siblings. While Mai was raised with the :be seen and not heard" mentality.
Now is also a good time to mention that I think Mai has almost comically obvious signs of depression, which wouldn't be a stretch.
Zuko calling Mai out for not getting angry over Ty Lee insulting her aura leads me to my next point. Persumably, being a child raised by parents like Michi and Ukano, Mai wasn't allowed to voice her discomfort, offence or upset. Hell we see this in Omashu when Mai complains about being bored and Michi basically shuts her down and tells her to enjoy it.
I mean look at the expression Michi gives Mai when she starts complaining about being bored, a very normal teenager thing to do.
And when Mai finally does speak her mind, it is no less heartwrenching.
Mai : What do you want from me? You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn't. I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted... as long as I behaved and sat still, and didn't speak unless spoken to. My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad's political career to think about.
The first thing that jumps out at us is how Mai presents her trauma. She doesn't explicitly express any pain or sadness, despite it being rather obvious to us. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the group. Ty Lee and Zuko are both very open about their negative emotions, hell, even Azula admits that Ursa's actions hurt her.
But Mai? Mai kneecaps her complaint. This can also be seen as an effect of her upbringing. No complaining, no making herself inconvenient for mom and dad.
We also see the theme of conditional love, an implied idea that Michi and Ukano would only give Mai affection or gifts if she acted the way they wanted her to. Now conditional love from people who are meant to raise you will fuck you up.
The comics also add that Michi actively told Mai scary stories about the Kemurimage to keep her in line. Now, telling kids stories about magical beings to get them to behave isn't anything new, but it appears to be so bad that Mai had nightmares over it. Also we're in a world where spirits actually exist, evil chidnapper spirits don't seem too far out the realm of possibility.
Also as someone who got raised by a heavily Catholic mother who made me believe I would burn in hell for an eternity if I even mildly displeased her, I do sympathise
Azula: Well, that's it, then. You have a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them, you were shut down. That's why you're afraid to care about anything, and why you can't express yourself.
Mai : You want me to express myself? [Stands up and yells.] Leave me alone!
Zuko: I like it when you express yourself. [Approaching, attempting to put a hand on her shoulder.]
Mai : Don't touch me! I'm still mad at you.
Zuko: My life hasn't been that easy either, Mai.
Mai: Whatever. That doesn't excuse the way you've been acting.
I love when Mai yells at Azula for frying to psychoanalyse her. Like Azula was right, but it understandably upset Mai, and it's a good thing she expressed that. It means she's growing.
I also do adore that Mai does not let Zuko get away with acting out, particularly towards her. I like that the writer's didn't just have Mai give Zuko a free pass because he had a shitty life and she actively called him out on his actions. It's probably my favourite part of their relationship. And Mai expressing so much anger and upset is a perfect crescendo to her little scene.
I don't know why but Mai confession scene just holds so much weight and emotion for me, I can't help but feel something whenever I watch it.
Also, side note, I find it an interesting detail that Azula's confession only came after the fire was extinguished. Perhaps it wasn't intentional but it kinda feels like its symbolising that the light "went out" for Azula (at least narrativewise) and that while Zuko, Ty Lee and Mai would be able to get out of their shitty situations and from under the Fire Nation's influence, she would not.
LOVE THIS POST BY OP!!! Please go through and read their excellent analysis!
One of the things I love about Mai and that makes her such an interesting character to me is how disconnected and out-of-touch with her emotions she is. This is a stark contrast to most of the other people in the show, who all spend a significant amount of time discussing their thoughts and feelings with other characters. Even as a fellow side character with comparable screen time, Ty Lee discloses a lot more about her emotions than Mai does.
In an episode that is focused on airing out all your issues, Mai is incredibly dismissive of her own emotions. I agree with OP, and actually find her story incredibly sad because of how minimizing and invalidating she is to herself.
This is also one of the main reasons I love Mai and Zuko together. He is not bothered by her outburst, and even tells her that he likes when she expresses herself. He encourages her and is glad that she is able to share her feelings openly for once. Even though she is still repressed, I love how Zuko reaffirms her, proving that he is a safe space for her emotions. He never invalidates her or speaks to her as if her trauma is inferior (despite going through some of the worst trauma himself!). I just think they balance each other out so well.
Would you draw Mai and Zuko as children? Pleeease!
Sure, anon. I like childhood friendships. I’ll probably draw them practicing with knives next time, if I don’t get distracted by something else lol
Some headcanons:
I think Azula, Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko learned tricks from one another, but let’s focus on these two. Mai’s knife throwing tips helped Zuko improve his firebending precision, which he demonstrated when he lit the lanterns for Jin. Maybe Mai learned close-combat knife fighting from him.
As fellow stabby-stab enthusiasts, they “traded” decorative knives like Yu-Gi-Oh cards lol. Superstition warns against gifting someone a knife, so they arranged “exchanges.”
[Image Description: Digital illustration of Zuko and Mai as children. Both characters face the viewer, but their attention is elsewhere. Zuko looks to the side and takes a bite from his partially eaten apple. Beside him, Mai carefully peels her own apple with a knife. End ID]
‘I wouldn’t be caught dead speaking like that’ these were his exact words.
Then Izumi came along and his promise broke as whenever the princess giggled or babbled something in gibberish, he would swoon over her and plants multiple kisses on her chubby cheeks.
and even when Izumi wasn’t born he would talk in a baby voice to Mai’s stomach as she bites back a smile as the serious firelord tells his unborn child about random things
Idk why it’s been so long since Tumblr didn’t give me notifications every time someone mentioned me here. I’m so done. Kinda wish all my favorite accounts here had Twitter accounts so we could be moots there 🥺💕
