Self indulgent fanfiction theatre
Episode 1 Mako: Legend of Korra Part 1 set up
(This is going to be a long one buckle up)
Soooooooo Mako from The Legend of Korra. (does he have a last name?) Most of the fandom is pretty ambivalent about him. You either don’t care much or you really dislike him because of the love triangle from season one and the stunts he pulled in season two. I’m sure there are people who do like him, but they are few. Or their voices are drowned out by others.
First things first, I don’t count season 2 outside of Wan. The season was messed up in general so characters get a pass from me during this time frame.
It’s clear that after season one they did not know what to do with Mako once the teen the coming of age story ended. So they ended up sticking him in the same role again and again and again.
He is the loyal brother, the detective, and occasional voice of reason, especially to Korra when she’s about to start wars ( okay one throw back to season two).
But his character never really expands in role or develops. We are informed that this happens in a when the show commits a cardinal sin of storytelling. It tells rather than shows.
We are informed that Mako did in fact go through a character change as the seasons happened. Going from a young man desperate for stability and money for himself to a man who tries to help others out of selflessness. I don’t want to say that this didn’t occur, but when you go back and watch it it’s not deliberately subtle and more ‘this is kind of what we planned but it got lost in the shuffle.’
I’m sure that if the Korra team could go back in time they would make several changes to how everything went down but here is what I think would have been cool to see.
One of the things that we hear a lot about is Mako’s life on the streets and the death of his parents. How he immediately went from just a kid to essentially a single parent. He just watched his parents die in front of him, then was the one solely responsible for both himself and his younger brother. That is a lot of trauma, and harsh reality being brought down on a child. This isn’t even going into what they probably experienced on the streets. As much as we see that this has affected him I don’t know if Mako has ever really come to terms with what happened. Yes he knows that his parents are dead, life is hard, and he obviously accepts this. But we never really see any anger coming off of him, we do see some grief but it’s brief, like he’s keeping it all down for the sake of his brother and later in season three the rest of his family.
In the first season we see that Mako can switch into survival mode at the drop of a hat. (Especially when friends and family are on the line) He’s had a hard life. This makes sense. But what if he’s been this way since child hood. That night that everything changed. Graphic parental death does not have a good effect on a child. It turned Jet into an extremist, and when it’s brought up with Katara it turns her into a 5 foot blood bending terminator. Now at the moment and for the most part over Mako’s life he had more important things to worry about. But after everything is settled, he has a job, his brother is safe and doing his own thing, his ex-girlfriends are doing whatever. When he can finally relax… would what happened finally catch up with him? And more importantly how would he deal with it.
Basically what I’m saying is that I want a southern raiders episode, or arc, but with Mako. And for the most part this would be a solo adventure for him. If anyone he was actually close to was around his main focus would be on them for the most part. (Even though Mako comes off as a loner I really think he’s actually team dad, keeping everyone in check) For once Mako would truly have to focus on himself and his own issues, and he wouldn’t handle it well. I’m thinking this could take place in the time skip between season three and four. So he go through a lot of character development, and be put together in time to meet everyone.
End part 1
Feel free to message me about this if you find it interesting, and want to know more.. I’m aware that I have no followers at the time I’m posting this but I would love to talk.
