I do think that Maiko fics are written more from Mai's POV. Or, I think, most of them are written to examine Mai's character more than Zuko's. It may not be a POV thing per se, but it's more Mai influenced. I think what Zuko does for Mai is much more abstract than what Mai does for Zuko; she has a much different kind of complexity than he does, one that is not so easily dissected.
Personally, I have Mai's POV in mind more when I write Mai/Zuko fic. Not that I write in Mai POV, but I try to emphasize what she might be feeling more. But, I find Zuko too much like myself to feel totally comfortable writing about him as much x)
... please tell me you or someone else has posted this question before in the past. Please. Otherwise I'm having one of my deja vus again and deja vus should not involve exact, word-for-word quotes.
I am going to kind of echo silly_izzy_me and say that I do see more focus to Mai and I think she hit it on them being used more to examine Mai then Zuko. I also think people who ship this on a whole is more do to that the people ship it tend to like Mai as a character and thus are more likely to like her with Zuko, so that affects it as well.
Personally, I find Zuko easier to grasp, but that is because he is more transparent whereas Mai is a bit trickier.
I tend to write Mai/Zuko fics from Mai's POV, and I think there are several reasons why. For one thing, being a girl, I enjoy writing a female POV! But also, honestly, I really really REALLY love Zuko to a sort of ridiculous degree, and so I find it easy and enjoyable to write from the perspective of someone who ALSO loves him.
Also, thinking about it, Mai is such an opaque character in so much of canon, I enjoy exploring what must have been going on in her head, her view of the world and what's happening with the people around her. I suppose it's my way of parsing her and making her a more relatable to the reader!
I have noticed Maiko fics tend to be more in Mai's POV (I do the same with my Maiko fan vids), by a landslide. I think because of 3 reasons:
- Mai really is a wonderful, intriguing character whose mind is fun to get into and provides a lot of opportunity. If this were any other show, she'd be that character everyone admires and thinks should get her own spin-off (she's basically Teen Titans' Raven without the superpowers... not to oversimplify Mai's character, but I mean that type of girl, which everyone always loves). I really can't find anything to hate about Mai (and not in the "she's so perfect in every way" sense")... and the Mai-hate didn't start until Season 3. Everyone thought she was really cool before that ("Fire flakes, dad?" ... "We lost."). Maybe TV Tropes doesn't exaggerate the effect of shipping on character perception
( ... )
Minorly pointing out to the second part, the Mai-hate was around the moment it was revealed that she was into Zuko. They just never saw her as a threat, so they overlooked her. And called her boring and ugly and basically assumed in their arrogance that she was nothing more than a childhood crush. Then, when she became an actual threat...the hate exploded.
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Personally, I have Mai's POV in mind more when I write Mai/Zuko fic. Not that I write in Mai POV, but I try to emphasize what she might be feeling more. But, I find Zuko too much like myself to feel totally comfortable writing about him as much x)
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Personally, I find Zuko easier to grasp, but that is because he is more transparent whereas Mai is a bit trickier.
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Also, thinking about it, Mai is such an opaque character in so much of canon, I enjoy exploring what must have been going on in her head, her view of the world and what's happening with the people around her. I suppose it's my way of parsing her and making her a more relatable to the reader!
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- Mai really is a wonderful, intriguing character whose mind is fun to get into and provides a lot of opportunity. If this were any other show, she'd be that character everyone admires and thinks should get her own spin-off (she's basically Teen Titans' Raven without the superpowers... not to oversimplify Mai's character, but I mean that type of girl, which everyone always loves). I really can't find anything to hate about Mai (and not in the "she's so perfect in every way" sense")... and the Mai-hate didn't start until Season 3. Everyone thought she was really cool before that ("Fire flakes, dad?" ... "We lost."). Maybe TV Tropes doesn't exaggerate the effect of shipping on character perception ( ... )
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It was fun to watch, really.
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