sistermagpie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sistermagpie) wrote2009-02-24 10:54 pm
sistermagpie) wrote2009-02-24 10:54 pm
Entry tags:
The Education of Mai
In response to a secret there's been a lot of discussion about Mai today on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fandomsecrets,. The OP doesn't like Mai because they can't get over her…...
...can't get over her leaving her little brother with the GAang on Azula's orders and fighting with them instead of making a stand to get him back. She is not redeemed for this when she stands up to Azula at the end of the show to protect Zuko. Many people have talked about different issues here, how the first scene takes place in the first episode where Mai appears, how it shows how she is under Azula's thumb, how if she flung herself in front of Azula right away it would be skipping the entire character arc that gets her to make her stand later.
But what another issue that came up was that some people feel the difference between these two scenes is only the identity of the person in danger. Tom Tom is Mai's little brother, Zuko is the man she loves. Therefore she's being selfish, only sticking her neck out when it's someone she cares about. She wants Zuko for herself; she has no use for Tom Tom.
I don't think that reading is fair to the writers, because I honestly don't see Mai as being redeemed by love in the way that reading seems to imply. Of course her relationship with Zuko is her path to redemption. Her big moment spells it out: I love Zuko more than I fear you. Yes, this talks about love, but more importantly it talks about fear it's the fear that's more important. But it's not the fear of being hurt, imo.
Mai's a badass. A deadly badass. She may be very much aware that Azula is more deadly and can beat her, but it doesn't seem like she's a cringing coward, exactly. In fact, Mai’s shocking decision to act takes place far from Azula. It’s not Azula’s scariness that she has to overcome to act, it’s her own apathy. Apathy is the thing the character’s been associated since the beginning, more than fear of Azula or an inability to love.
The character openly describes herself as not caring about anything. Her whole personality hammers on this: she's emotionless, bored, doesn't care. She says she learned early on that her emotions were useless. Nobody listened to her. She only got positive reinforcement for being outwardly calm.
Grand, futile gestures (such as leaping to Tom Tom's defense) aren't just things Mai is afraid to do or doesn't care to do, they make no sense to her. They're useless. What's the point? She literally doesn't see a point to them, so she couldn't get herself to make one. That’s the thing about futile gestures. If you don’t think there’s any meaning in them, you don’t make them.
It’s no coincidence that Mai's great love interest is the guy whose father orders him to spend his life searching the globe for somebody who disappeared 100 years ago. It's the definition of futile gesture. It's a snark hunt. Anybody but Zuko probably would have...well, done something else. Anything. Taken up a hobby, at least, while he traveled around. But Zuko's got futile gestures in his bones. Dad wants him to search for the Avatar? He'll look for 3 years straight. He'll search his whole life, because it's a matter of honor. He’ll be distracted playing Pai Sho because it distracts him from thinking about his pointless quest.
The fact that Mai is attracted to this guy, imo. indicates that part of her is attracted to exactly this. It's not that suddenly she wants someone else so can rouse herself to protect him, imo, it's also that by getting close to Zuko she starts to see this other way of looking at the world close up. I think she starts to see, more and more, how Zuko's devotion to things that seem totally ridiculous is noble and maybe even kind of meaningful. Even when the guy's got everything going well and he's the prince again he still runs off to join the Avatar. But when she meets him again there he is with that same crazy passion.
Now she's got this clear choice: she's already tried to talk "sense" into Zuko. She sees he's not being sulky, he's at his most passionate, focused and Zuko. That's the situation she's facing now. It's not just that she loved Zuko. Loving Zuko isn't enough if you're Mai. That doesn't make the gesture less pointless. And anyway, the character wasn't set up as somebody who didn't love anyone, she was set up as somebody who didn't care about anything. Zuko's actually made her consider the idea that a futile gesture that gets her killed or thrown in jail might still be worth it, might still have meaning, might actually change something. Mai goes from somebody who can barely get herself to do things that get her immediate rewards winds up doing something that as far as she know is only going to bring her grief. And she finds that it actually makes her feel good and not stupid.
The difference isn't love, it's hope.
fandomsecrets,. The OP doesn't like Mai because they can't get over her…......can't get over her leaving her little brother with the GAang on Azula's orders and fighting with them instead of making a stand to get him back. She is not redeemed for this when she stands up to Azula at the end of the show to protect Zuko. Many people have talked about different issues here, how the first scene takes place in the first episode where Mai appears, how it shows how she is under Azula's thumb, how if she flung herself in front of Azula right away it would be skipping the entire character arc that gets her to make her stand later.
But what another issue that came up was that some people feel the difference between these two scenes is only the identity of the person in danger. Tom Tom is Mai's little brother, Zuko is the man she loves. Therefore she's being selfish, only sticking her neck out when it's someone she cares about. She wants Zuko for herself; she has no use for Tom Tom.
I don't think that reading is fair to the writers, because I honestly don't see Mai as being redeemed by love in the way that reading seems to imply. Of course her relationship with Zuko is her path to redemption. Her big moment spells it out: I love Zuko more than I fear you. Yes, this talks about love, but more importantly it talks about fear it's the fear that's more important. But it's not the fear of being hurt, imo.
Mai's a badass. A deadly badass. She may be very much aware that Azula is more deadly and can beat her, but it doesn't seem like she's a cringing coward, exactly. In fact, Mai’s shocking decision to act takes place far from Azula. It’s not Azula’s scariness that she has to overcome to act, it’s her own apathy. Apathy is the thing the character’s been associated since the beginning, more than fear of Azula or an inability to love.
The character openly describes herself as not caring about anything. Her whole personality hammers on this: she's emotionless, bored, doesn't care. She says she learned early on that her emotions were useless. Nobody listened to her. She only got positive reinforcement for being outwardly calm.
Grand, futile gestures (such as leaping to Tom Tom's defense) aren't just things Mai is afraid to do or doesn't care to do, they make no sense to her. They're useless. What's the point? She literally doesn't see a point to them, so she couldn't get herself to make one. That’s the thing about futile gestures. If you don’t think there’s any meaning in them, you don’t make them.
It’s no coincidence that Mai's great love interest is the guy whose father orders him to spend his life searching the globe for somebody who disappeared 100 years ago. It's the definition of futile gesture. It's a snark hunt. Anybody but Zuko probably would have...well, done something else. Anything. Taken up a hobby, at least, while he traveled around. But Zuko's got futile gestures in his bones. Dad wants him to search for the Avatar? He'll look for 3 years straight. He'll search his whole life, because it's a matter of honor. He’ll be distracted playing Pai Sho because it distracts him from thinking about his pointless quest.
The fact that Mai is attracted to this guy, imo. indicates that part of her is attracted to exactly this. It's not that suddenly she wants someone else so can rouse herself to protect him, imo, it's also that by getting close to Zuko she starts to see this other way of looking at the world close up. I think she starts to see, more and more, how Zuko's devotion to things that seem totally ridiculous is noble and maybe even kind of meaningful. Even when the guy's got everything going well and he's the prince again he still runs off to join the Avatar. But when she meets him again there he is with that same crazy passion.
Now she's got this clear choice: she's already tried to talk "sense" into Zuko. She sees he's not being sulky, he's at his most passionate, focused and Zuko. That's the situation she's facing now. It's not just that she loved Zuko. Loving Zuko isn't enough if you're Mai. That doesn't make the gesture less pointless. And anyway, the character wasn't set up as somebody who didn't love anyone, she was set up as somebody who didn't care about anything. Zuko's actually made her consider the idea that a futile gesture that gets her killed or thrown in jail might still be worth it, might still have meaning, might actually change something. Mai goes from somebody who can barely get herself to do things that get her immediate rewards winds up doing something that as far as she know is only going to bring her grief. And she finds that it actually makes her feel good and not stupid.
The difference isn't love, it's hope.
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