Dreams: At Western Air Temple

°•° dreams: at western air temple °•°

something something taking on the mannerisms of your loved ones

The Boling Rock has got to be my favourite Maiko epsiode because of several things:

I expected them to pull the plug on Maiko the moment Zuko switched sides. But while he did break up with her there wasn't any animosity.

Now, you might ask why would I expect animosity in this situation?

Because what we get to see of their relationship is at a time when Zuko's struggling with his Identity—so most of it is them not working out.

And now that Zuko is one of the heroes, and Mai one of the villains you'd expect for her to be put in her place. Like it often happens to female villains.

But Zuko only seemed sad at the prospect of leaving her.

I had a feeling that Zuko's feelings for Mai weren't as strong as hers were for him. Until he tells Sokka about her.

It's such a simple thing, he just talks fondly of her. And it does more to show that he genuinely wants to be with her than several episodes before that did.

Then, again, because we're used to tropes, I kept expecting them to have a final fallout. Because something about that break up did not feel very final. Or wasn't disparaging to Mai.

But Boiling Rock keeps rolling and there's no signs of Maiko sinking. If anything they go ahead and pull her betraying everything she's ever known for him.

Zuko shows no signs of ill will towards her. Even when she's on the wrong side of the war. Even when he thinks she's loyal to Azula. Even when he probably can't begin to think about the outcome of the war—and them being able to get together depends on that.

He still can't help but be hopelessly in love with her. (I honestly did not think he loved her back before this episode. It felt like she put his needs first and he liked her because of it).

Compare that to the ease with which he cut ties with Ozai and Azula: he simply couldn't bring himself to approach Mai that way.

I think that's the kind of unconditional love Mai needs. Her parents' love for her was extremely unconditional, Zuko's wasn't.

I know you said the sources are unofficial but can you please let me know what they are?—the ones that suggest Mai may have helped Zuko in the aftermath of their mother's disappearance?

Oh, you mean when Ursa disappeared while Zuko was a kid?

This is old Forum Talk. Back in the day, when Livejournal thrived and there were individual message boards devoted to topics, you sometimes got little fandom discussions. Sometimes, you'd have people who talked to writers and crew members, whether in person or on message boards.

Also, you had some freelance or part-time writers who would be fans of the show would then be pulled into supplementary work. One of them was Alison Wilgus (writer on Kids Next Door, also, please don't go bothering her, this was ages ago, just trust me), and she helped co-write some of the comics for the Avatar magazine between Book 2 and 3.

The word is that there was a black, heart-shaped stone that Mai gave Zuko when he was feeling down (obviously, we can assume that it was probably when his mom vanished). He was supposed to reveal that he'd held onto it the whole time he was banished-- a cute little keepsake.

This was probably just a draft for the "Going Home Again" comic, and thus has no True Canon Power; something from supplemental information that Aaron provided, or that they brainstormed in a writer's room. They just wanted some way to show that Zuko was always thinking of Mai. But it probably became too difficult to justify him still having it after his whole ship blew up (IT WOULD RULE IF HE'D FOUND IT IN THE WRECKAGE THOUGH) and him going through all of his adventures...and it was just easier to have her play with Jin and express herself verbally.

Bottom line: it's a concept that could be canonized at any time, burt also may just be in the scrap heap with all sorts of things like Equalist Asami and....didn't someone have a sibling or something? Guy Toph, I guess, though that's more extreme.

Again, don't hunt 'em down or bother them. You've just gotta have some faith in me as a Fandom Elder. This is part of the writing process, part of fandom growth. Feel free to use it as fuel, though! Fanart. Fafic. Whatever you want. But overall, it's probably just deleted material that was considered to show connections and just couldn't be organically worked in. Would have added some weight to the end of the Boiling Rock episodes if we'd seen Zuko holding it--showing that he took it with him. But they kinda did a little too much ZK ship-baiting and leaned away from the Maiko melodrama (and I do think it was a little to the story's detriment, but that's My Opinion). This is all just part of the writing process, though...you've gotta find things to streamline.

It's also just easy to assume that Mai probably got closer to Zuko after Ursa's disappearance. Whether through hugs and comfort or just bullying him a little harder to keep his mind off things. Becoming a proper Nemesis. Who knows?

And that's just what I picked up. For all I know, there was a whole deleted plotline where Mai and Zuko fell down a hole or something. Did a Fire Nation Goonies. Again. That's writing. You gotta come up with Stuff and sometimes the Stuff doesn't Stick. Asami was supposed to hook up with Iroh Jr. in early drafts. Things change. Have fun. Life's short.

I love my silly emo/goth bbies

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