some things about the magazine
Points of interest to me anyway!
I am kind of bowled over by how much this comic has told us about Mai and Zuko's relationship already?! And the season hasn't even started yet. I would make a compilation of how many different bits of anti-Mai/Maiko fanon the comic disproved but whatever. DON'T CARE ENOUGH.
I will put these observations in list format in the interest of keeping it somewhat coherent, but I still make no promises:
1) Mike and Bryan went on at some length in the ASN interview about how Azula, as Zuko's sister, knows how to get to him better than anyone and knows exactly how to appeal to him and his wants so as to manipulate him. Which is why it is extremely telling that when the promises that were enough to get him to side with her in CoD aren't enough to get him to actually cross the finish line, so to speak, her first thought is to sweeten the pot with Mai. (This is also our first explicit canonical confirmation that Mai's crush on Zuko in their childhood was reciprocated.)
2) The entire dinner scene screams FAMILIARITY to me in a way that I love. Like, Zuko is clearly very angry that Azula and Ty Lee are hiding in the bushes spying on him and Mai, but he's also not all that surprised. Which just reinforces the impression that Azula and Ty Lee have spent much of their lives orchestrating situations to put Mai and Zuko in then laughing at them.
2b) I also enjoy how though Azula clearly meticulously planned out this way of forcing Mai and Zuko to be alone together it ultimately comes off as just sort of giving them an excuse? Mai's "Oh well I guess we shouldn't waste this food," is hilariously classic I Will Pretend To Be Nonchalant About Something That I Want To Do (read: eat dinner with Zuko). Then, after Azula and Ty Lee are outed, Mai and Zuko, instead of leaving the meddlers and going about their separate business, decide to go walk around Ba Sing Se together. Let me repeat that, Mr. Anti-Social I Want To Sit In My Room Alone In The Dark and Ms. I Am Equally Unmoved By Both Your Absence And Your Presence actively choose to spend time in someone else's company.
INTERLUDE
I love Jin for being so awesome and adorable and chill about the entire thing and wish people would stop trying to make her into some sad pathetic pining little lamb kthx.
/INTERLUDE
3) I love that Mai seems somewhat torn between annoyance that Zuko introduced her to some girl as "just his friend" and deep amusement about his pseudonym, cover story, and general person...and she pretty much chooses to go with the latter.
4) The first panel on page 40 is like my absolute favourite panel in the entire magazine, bar none. It just like encompasses the essence of what I initially imagined the ship to be: Zuko being a flaily, growly dweeb and Mai being completely unaffected by it except to find it hilarious and inescapably endearing. Then there's that amazing, joyful smile of Mai's as she fucking frolics through the streets. (FANON DISPELLED: There's nothing more to Mai than bored gothy girl.)
4b) There are no words to describe my adoration for the care they took to make this sequence seem very, very organic and real because that moment when Zuko realizes that he's touching Mai and immediately gets flustered and pulls back and then stands there cradling the hand that touched her is brilliant. It's like you can just feel that in that moment they were 12 again and hormones had just started kicking in and Zuko had just recently come to the horrifying realization that physical contact with Mai made his blood race and his heart beat too quickly.
5) I am starting a new number because that is how completely ridiculous the bits of dialogue leading up to their kiss are in terms of being INTENSELY REVEALING. "You finally seem to be enjoying yourself. I've missed seeing this side of you." I just. Dude. This says a ton about both Mai/Zuko and Mai herself. Again, more dispelling of the idea that there's nothing more to her than her immediate demeanour. Zuko knows better. And what's more, he likes it. He likes the person that she is when she's not closing herself off, when she's engaging with the world around her instead of only dispassionately pointing out its shortcomings. He's always liked her and it clearly saddens him that she seems to have withdrawn from the world to the point that this is the very first time he's seen those other parts of her since he's been back. I can imagine them in the time elapsed between them leaving Azula and Ty Lee and making their way to the lower ring, walking around with Mai periodically dismissing this thing or that thing and not saying much else to him and Zuko keeps stealing looks at her when she's not paying attention and being absolutely sure that he lost her completely in those years he was gone. Because while I certainly wouldn't say that they were BFF, there is most definitely a connection there, a fairly strong one that was not terribly hard to re-establish once they both opened up a little.
5b) "Well, a lot has changed since the days when I used to throw mud in your face. But not everything's changed." First, more on their connection. People, myself included, have already gone on about the adorable perfection of Mai spending their childhood pulling Zuko's pigtails and it taking him a while to figure out why exactly she was picking on him and why exactly he missed it when she wasn't so I won't again. BUT I also think this says a lot about Mai too and her perception of herself and how, I think, she's clearly much more self-assured than the little girl we saw who looked away and blushed when Zuko walked past or even the little girl we've just heard about who threw mud in his face because she didn't know how to tell him that she liked him. It's like the core of the sentiment is that she kinda grew up and maybe she's less willing to openly express emotion than she once was but her feelings for him haven't gone anywhere at all. And I think she chooses that moment not just because Zuko was being adorable but because I imagine his revelation that he had missed feeling like she liked being with him/liked him made her realize that he maybe didn't know. So time for kissings. Because they are for when words are superfluous.
6) I would like to bring to particular attention that Azula refers to them having "gotten back together." So not only has this contained confirmation that Zuko's feelings were reciprocated, but it also implies that even if I doubt that they had an actual full-blown relationship, there was an understanding between them. And between everyone else in the world who knew them and knew they hearted each other.
6b) "So...are you coming with us? With me?" This is awesome because even though it is oh-so-cleverly phrased as a question it is also quite clearly a hesitant entreaty. But what's even better is: "I'd like to, Mai. I'm just not sure I..." AND HERE IS WHERE I AM SO SAD FOR THE SPACE LIMITS. Because like that line that gets cut off, the way that he's clearly about to launch into some explanation of his insecurities and conflict, hell, the way that he starts the statement off expressing a FEELING. It is amazingly clear that in the time between kissing and going to the boat the next day Mai and Zuko talked. Like capital-t Talked. About his feelings. I can't even say anything more about that. Mai and Zuko talked about his feelings. The end.
7) HANDHOLDING IN THE LAST PANEL. <3 This is not intelligent, but it fills me with glee so here it is anyway.
And now I am done.
THOUGHTS?
I am kind of bowled over by how much this comic has told us about Mai and Zuko's relationship already?! And the season hasn't even started yet. I would make a compilation of how many different bits of anti-Mai/Maiko fanon the comic disproved but whatever. DON'T CARE ENOUGH.
I will put these observations in list format in the interest of keeping it somewhat coherent, but I still make no promises:
1) Mike and Bryan went on at some length in the ASN interview about how Azula, as Zuko's sister, knows how to get to him better than anyone and knows exactly how to appeal to him and his wants so as to manipulate him. Which is why it is extremely telling that when the promises that were enough to get him to side with her in CoD aren't enough to get him to actually cross the finish line, so to speak, her first thought is to sweeten the pot with Mai. (This is also our first explicit canonical confirmation that Mai's crush on Zuko in their childhood was reciprocated.)
2) The entire dinner scene screams FAMILIARITY to me in a way that I love. Like, Zuko is clearly very angry that Azula and Ty Lee are hiding in the bushes spying on him and Mai, but he's also not all that surprised. Which just reinforces the impression that Azula and Ty Lee have spent much of their lives orchestrating situations to put Mai and Zuko in then laughing at them.
2b) I also enjoy how though Azula clearly meticulously planned out this way of forcing Mai and Zuko to be alone together it ultimately comes off as just sort of giving them an excuse? Mai's "Oh well I guess we shouldn't waste this food," is hilariously classic I Will Pretend To Be Nonchalant About Something That I Want To Do (read: eat dinner with Zuko). Then, after Azula and Ty Lee are outed, Mai and Zuko, instead of leaving the meddlers and going about their separate business, decide to go walk around Ba Sing Se together. Let me repeat that, Mr. Anti-Social I Want To Sit In My Room Alone In The Dark and Ms. I Am Equally Unmoved By Both Your Absence And Your Presence actively choose to spend time in someone else's company.
INTERLUDE
I love Jin for being so awesome and adorable and chill about the entire thing and wish people would stop trying to make her into some sad pathetic pining little lamb kthx.
/INTERLUDE
3) I love that Mai seems somewhat torn between annoyance that Zuko introduced her to some girl as "just his friend" and deep amusement about his pseudonym, cover story, and general person...and she pretty much chooses to go with the latter.
4) The first panel on page 40 is like my absolute favourite panel in the entire magazine, bar none. It just like encompasses the essence of what I initially imagined the ship to be: Zuko being a flaily, growly dweeb and Mai being completely unaffected by it except to find it hilarious and inescapably endearing. Then there's that amazing, joyful smile of Mai's as she fucking frolics through the streets. (FANON DISPELLED: There's nothing more to Mai than bored gothy girl.)
4b) There are no words to describe my adoration for the care they took to make this sequence seem very, very organic and real because that moment when Zuko realizes that he's touching Mai and immediately gets flustered and pulls back and then stands there cradling the hand that touched her is brilliant. It's like you can just feel that in that moment they were 12 again and hormones had just started kicking in and Zuko had just recently come to the horrifying realization that physical contact with Mai made his blood race and his heart beat too quickly.
5) I am starting a new number because that is how completely ridiculous the bits of dialogue leading up to their kiss are in terms of being INTENSELY REVEALING. "You finally seem to be enjoying yourself. I've missed seeing this side of you." I just. Dude. This says a ton about both Mai/Zuko and Mai herself. Again, more dispelling of the idea that there's nothing more to her than her immediate demeanour. Zuko knows better. And what's more, he likes it. He likes the person that she is when she's not closing herself off, when she's engaging with the world around her instead of only dispassionately pointing out its shortcomings. He's always liked her and it clearly saddens him that she seems to have withdrawn from the world to the point that this is the very first time he's seen those other parts of her since he's been back. I can imagine them in the time elapsed between them leaving Azula and Ty Lee and making their way to the lower ring, walking around with Mai periodically dismissing this thing or that thing and not saying much else to him and Zuko keeps stealing looks at her when she's not paying attention and being absolutely sure that he lost her completely in those years he was gone. Because while I certainly wouldn't say that they were BFF, there is most definitely a connection there, a fairly strong one that was not terribly hard to re-establish once they both opened up a little.
5b) "Well, a lot has changed since the days when I used to throw mud in your face. But not everything's changed." First, more on their connection. People, myself included, have already gone on about the adorable perfection of Mai spending their childhood pulling Zuko's pigtails and it taking him a while to figure out why exactly she was picking on him and why exactly he missed it when she wasn't so I won't again. BUT I also think this says a lot about Mai too and her perception of herself and how, I think, she's clearly much more self-assured than the little girl we saw who looked away and blushed when Zuko walked past or even the little girl we've just heard about who threw mud in his face because she didn't know how to tell him that she liked him. It's like the core of the sentiment is that she kinda grew up and maybe she's less willing to openly express emotion than she once was but her feelings for him haven't gone anywhere at all. And I think she chooses that moment not just because Zuko was being adorable but because I imagine his revelation that he had missed feeling like she liked being with him/liked him made her realize that he maybe didn't know. So time for kissings. Because they are for when words are superfluous.
6) I would like to bring to particular attention that Azula refers to them having "gotten back together." So not only has this contained confirmation that Zuko's feelings were reciprocated, but it also implies that even if I doubt that they had an actual full-blown relationship, there was an understanding between them. And between everyone else in the world who knew them and knew they hearted each other.
6b) "So...are you coming with us? With me?" This is awesome because even though it is oh-so-cleverly phrased as a question it is also quite clearly a hesitant entreaty. But what's even better is: "I'd like to, Mai. I'm just not sure I..." AND HERE IS WHERE I AM SO SAD FOR THE SPACE LIMITS. Because like that line that gets cut off, the way that he's clearly about to launch into some explanation of his insecurities and conflict, hell, the way that he starts the statement off expressing a FEELING. It is amazingly clear that in the time between kissing and going to the boat the next day Mai and Zuko talked. Like capital-t Talked. About his feelings. I can't even say anything more about that. Mai and Zuko talked about his feelings. The end.
7) HANDHOLDING IN THE LAST PANEL. <3 This is not intelligent, but it fills me with glee so here it is anyway.
And now I am done.
THOUGHTS?