What do you think about Smoke and Shadow and Ashes of the Academy portraying Michi as a loving mother in both the past and present? I thought the show was pretty clear that at best she was complicit in Ukano's emotional neglect and abuse of Mai. I understand that your husband essentially choosing terrorism over your family would spur a change of priorities in anyone, even a noted social climber like Michi, but it's jarring imo since we never have anyone in-universe note the change.
Honestly, before the comics, I would have said Ukano is more likely to be redeemed than Michi. Both parents are shown to be concerned about Tom-Tom, but Ukano doesn't hesitate to go for trading Bumi where you'd expect a Fire Nation Fanatic to balk at least a little, and Michi is the only one we see shutting Mai down, so we get a much more negative slant on her. I suppose, in retrospect, we can retcon this all to say that at least Michi pays attention to Mai while Ukano ignores her completely, but it's not a natural reading in a series where even moments of silent character interaction get at least a little musical sting to call attention to it.
That said, I also thought both Ukano and Michi would immediately back Zuko as the pathetic power-chasers they are, so Ukano deciding to be a loyalist to a guy in jail who can't even sit up properly really surprised me, never mind Michi showing up working in Auntie Mura's shop. But, again, we can perhaps say in retrospect that Michi is the only die-hard social climber and Ukano really just wants to spread Fire Nation imperialism as a true believer. That one is a bit more of a natural reading, as Michi was the only one talking about getting to lord around like royalty, but again, if we weren't meant to group Ukano in with that, I'd expect him to actually get some characterization before suddenly showing up in the comics as an anti-Zuko terrorist.
But it is what it is, and as you say, Michi suddenly being redeemed off-screen and having a good relationship with Mai is very jarring. Everything with Mai and her family is jarring, really, from her suddenly having a poster of herself hugging Tom-Tom to her father having disappeared and kidnapped Tom-Tom with no one mentioning it until he shows up to kidnap her as well to Michi suddenly being someone Mai wants in her life. Apparently the only thing we're allowed to actually see happen to her has to involve Zuko in some way. The 'Mai Family Drama' story could have been something more substantial than 'Smoke & Shadow' in terms of plot and probably theme, but I guess Mai doesn't rate a story focused on her unless it can involve Azula in some way.
And it's very easy to read all these family developments as an over-reaction to the criticisms of Mai's character in the fandom and an attempt to address that, but I have a hard time believing Gene Yang is savvy enough to know about Mai Hate and he wants to do something about it. If that were the case, why was he pushing his Zuki agenda? If he's so locked in to the Avatar fandom, why did the Mike and the Bryan had to tell him that Jet actually died? It's one of our favorite gags!
In the end, I think it's mostly about Gene Yang having a desperate need to reconnect the entire AtLA cast with their families. Zuko has to seek advice from Ozai, he gets his mother back and a brand new sister with no complications, Toph reconciles with her dad, Katara gets a new stepmom, and Ty Lee reconciles with her sisters and embraces how identical they are. Gene likely didn't bother redeeming Michi or even addressing her character because he had no interest in her beyond an opportunity to salvage some family for Mai in the wake of the plot with her father. Perhaps the Mike and the Bryan had Ukano earmarked as a villain, and Michi's off-screen redemption was Gene's contribution.
But either way, like everything established during Gene Yang's run, it's a super-weird disconnect from AtLA and we're all stuck with it now. The least they could do in compensation is show us Michi interacting with Ursa and have both of them being weirded out by each other's new characters.
"Were you always a peasant?"
"Were you always invested in your children?"
*cue fistfight*
