I saw you giving your thoughts on A:TLA ships, etc. I liked your meta on Ty-Lee in particular. What are your thoughts on Mai/Ty-Lee?
The Meta on Ty-Lee
Thoughts on Ty-Lee, Mai, and Azula and How We Met Them
Caveat up front if you or anyone else likes Mai/Ty-Lee, go off, be merry, have fun. Avatar's one of those shows where if you grease the wheels enough you can get a lot of ships to work.
That said, in my personal opinion, I don't think it's likely given what we see in canon.
They're Too Close to the Fire
From a young age both Ty-Lee and Mai are put in the unenviable and very dangerous position of being Azula's close friends. Both seem to realize from a relatively young age that this is not the good fortune it seems. We have Ty-Lee's introduction in which she tries to say no to joining Azula's strike team and then is quickly convinced otherwise, and Mai's instant agreement for seemingly no particular reason "I'm bored" that also helpfully displays no vulnerability or weakness to Azula.
On the one hand, there's much they know about the other and their situation that no one else can understand. But on the other hand... there's a little too much there. They're too similar, in a way, they live the same life, and neither is an escape for one another in any way.
For Mai, Zuko is emotional, vulnerable, he's open with his feelings (relatively compared to herself and Azula) and he's constantly failing but never giving up either. He knows what Azula's like but he's never been the best friend.
Ty-Lee we see connect later to the Kyoshi Warriors.
Being with each other just reinforces the roles they had to play and also makes them much more vulnerable as it would be displaying the red flag of weakness in front of Azula (or worse, Azula becomes possessive and jealous of the pair of them being closer to each other than to her).
Even when Azula is placed away--I don't think that mentality would break. Both can grow and move on, but it will be easier and maybe better to do that with other people.
They Have Different Coping Mechanisms/Are Very Different People
We see that Mai likes Zuko who for all he sulks and broods is very genuine. When he's angry he shows he's angry, when he's hurt he shows he's hurt, he's rarely sly (or if he is it's... in a bit of a straight forward manner) and for all he hates being weak he isn't afraid to try either.
Ty-Lee is the polar opposite and even Mai for that matter are polar opposites.
Both have their own methods of handling Azula and it's to put on fronts. Ty-Lee does it with smiles, cheer, and forced optimism that makes it seem she's not quite sure what's going on. Mai does it with stoic boredom and dispassion. They are not genuine people, they can't afford to be.
Given we see a love interest for Mai that's the opposite of that, I'll go ahead and say she doesn't dig it, and as for Ty-Lee--less of an idea because we don't see an explicit canon love interest but I don't see her being into it either. Azula's the one she seems to gravitate to more often than not, and until the Boiling Rock when the pair make their split, it feels more like Mai is a person in her orbit. They hold the same position but Azula's the glue that keeps them together. Personally, I think it's the masks/deception that's part of what drives her off as well.
Perhaps the constant cheer and good nature is part of who Ty-Lee wants to be, who she'd aspire to be in the best case scenario, in which case Mai's stoicism is, well, not that.
Which shows in that post-canon Ty-Lee runs off to hang around with the Kyoshi Warriors, whom she became good friends with in prison, while Mai stays in the Fire Nation with Zuko to help support him as the new Fire Lord.
Conclusion
All of the above doesn't mean it's not possible or I can't be convinced, maybe in a very AU world, but anything close to the canon world--I'm just not seeing it.
