Zuko and Mai might not be everyone’s favourite ship and that’s fine but don’t tell me she doesn’t care about him.
And first of all, remembet that Mai grew up in an environment where she wasn’t allowed to show her feelings, she had to be perfect and content and happy with everything. When we first see her in Omashu, she is unhappy with their new home and her mother’s only reaction to that is: “Be happy and enjoy it.” All while it’s clear thar Mai is not the kind of person who enjoys constant smiling and insincere emotions. She only shows emotions when she feels them to be true and she only talks when she knows her words are going to be sincere.
Keeping this in mind, let’s look at the episode Nightmares and Daydreams.
Mai KNOWS Zuko is unhappy and she tries to do everything in her power to change that, but she’s not the kind of person who will tell jokes like Iroh, and she doesn’t know the reason behind Zuko’s anxiety and sadness. She tries very hard to not be like her parents. She tries not to shut Zuko and his feelings down.
Zuko comes back from Azula furious and Mai already feels guilty because she was the one who caused this, she should have kept her mouth shut. This is in accordance with how she was raised: behave, don’t speak, don’t feel.
She tries to joke about ordering servants around but it’s futile. Then she resorts to touching Zuko’s cheek and making him face her.
And when neither of this works - she falls apart.
She looks like she’s about to cry and extremely, unspeakably worried for Zuko.
Because Mai couldn’t learn how to comfort people from her family.
Mai could only learn that from other people.
Mai could only learn that from her friends: he bubbly, tiny acrobat who uses hugs as one uses commas - and the self-entitled prodigy who is oh so sure that everyone in the world is her subordinate.
Of course her only two attempts are gonna be her friends’ ways of comforting others. Azula and Ty Lee. Ordering people around and physical touch.
And of course she will be completely helpless when these fail.
So look at what she does next:
I only catched this on my 341st rewatch. Mai serves Zuko tea. Not the servants. Mai pours the tea and is about to hand it to Zuko, and we have seen how important this is through the series: Iroh always pours tea for others: Zuko, Toph, in the teahouse, the man who tries to mug him. At the refugee camp, the server pours the (cold) tea, at the Beifongs’, likewise. And it must be the same at the fire palace, where servants jump Zuko every millisecond to wash his feet, give him fresh fruit, etc.
Pouring tea for someone else is serving the other. Humbling yourself and offering yourself. Iroh impersonates this beautifully, and this is also the message Iroh wants Zuko to take home so desperately: that serving other is not shameful, but an offering.
And Mai does exactly this. A huge step for a spoiled only child, but she takes it, because she has failed to comfort Zuko and she doesn’t want to give up on it.
And then, the messanger comes to tell Zuko he is expected at the war meeting.
Look at that smile, that reassuring and relieved look that finally, the problem is solved and Zuko can get what will make him happy, even though Mai just called the war meeting stupid and boring.
Abd then she goes and waits for him right at the door.
She becomes so happy for him when he says the meeting went well and you can tell Mai was just as scared as Zuko that something as bad as “the last time” will happen to him and it didn’t and now she’s so happy, she goes straight in for touching his shoulder with a smile and affirmative words.
And yet Zuko is still unhappy.
And here comes the biggest part of Mai’s development and growth through the story.
She doesn’t say anything.
She takes her hands off of Zuko’s shoulder.
Because Mai realized that Zuko, right there and then, doesn’t want the things she failed give to him. Zuko doesn’t need Azula’s cruel jokes or Ty Lee’s hugs.
What Zuko needed was the exact thing Mai felt was the most imprtant thing in her life: sincerity. Something nobody expected from her before. Something nobody ever gave her.
Something she now had the chance to give to the person she loved.
pixelskylines
dailybridgerton
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
