I brought up Toph/The Runaway as an example of twenty minutes of character introspection that ended up being filler. So the writers/producers weren't able to establish Mai's character for want of time or space to do so.
But as I said, I don't think her role in TBR is "redemption" in terms of making up for what she did to Tom Tom. I think it's just the sign that this character is going a different way now, that her relationship with Zuko and the things she's seen because of it (the way he deals with things and thinks about things) she's not going to be the same person she is before.
No, I don't think it's a redemption either. It's a transition - she's transplanting loyalty from one person to another. And that's the problem with her decision - for Zuko/her relationship with him/the kind of person he is - with anyone's life perspective change of heart, as a matter of fact, on someone else's behalf. There's no indication that would make her make a different decision if Zuko's own decisions had been wrong. Like you said, the Boiling Rock established that she won't be left behind after Zuko saved the world (on retrospect, that scene is actually more about Azula's and Ty Lee's character arcs' than it is about Mai's) but it would also apply if Zuko wasn't going on to save the world, but to destroy it. And, going back to this point, it doesn't establish if Mai would make the same decision in the future for some else.
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Date: 2009-02-26 06:34 am (UTC)No, I don't think it's a redemption either. It's a transition - she's transplanting loyalty from one person to another. And that's the problem with her decision - for Zuko/her relationship with him/the kind of person he is - with anyone's life perspective change of heart, as a matter of fact, on someone else's behalf. There's no indication that would make her make a different decision if Zuko's own decisions had been wrong. Like you said, the Boiling Rock established that she won't be left behind after Zuko saved the world (on retrospect, that scene is actually more about Azula's and Ty Lee's character arcs' than it is about Mai's) but it would also apply if Zuko wasn't going on to save the world, but to destroy it. And, going back to this point, it doesn't establish if Mai would make the same decision in the future for some else.