The Way Love Should Be: Mai/Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Part 1
Title: The Way Love Should Be
Author: jill_rg
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Mai/Zuko
Spoilers: Up to and including Episode 3-15, "The Boiling Rock"
Notes: Read Part 2 here.
The Way Love Should Be
The Mai/Zuko Manifesto
Part 1
He is a hot-headed Firebender whose overwhelming feelings of anger and guilt are out of control. She is a placid ninja who keeps her emotions dormant and buried beyond the reach of anything and anyone... except one person.
Love isn’t always about denial, blushing, awkward dialogue, more denial, and repetitions of “We’re just friends,” culminating in a hesitant first kiss in the very last episode. Sometimes love is about keeping a flame burning when you’ve been apart for three years. Love is breaking up and making up in one night, kissing as you watch the sunset from atop a volcanoe, lying wrapped in each other’s arms because there’s no place either of you would rather be, and finally, just when things have never been better, being torn apart by war. At least, it is if you’re Prince Zuko and Mai of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. For Zuko, love is the one thing worth living for at the most conflicted time of his life. For Mai, love is the one thing worth fighting for at the most critical moment of her life. Their romance is passionate, intense, painful, and complicated. This is truly the way love should be.
What is Avatar?
Avatar is an American-made cartoon drawn in the cinematic anime style. It takes place in a pre-Industrialized world heavily influenced by Eastern mythology and art. Most animals are mash-ups of animals from our own world, like the platypus-bears, seal-turtles, sparrowkeets, and jackalopes. The world is divided into four nations of people who can each “bend” (control) one of the four elements: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Each generation, a new Avatar is born, the “master of all four elements” whose job is to maintain balance between the nations. The system hit a snag 100 years ago when the 12-year-old Airbender Aang discovered he was the next Avatar. The boy panicked, ran away from home, got caught in a storm, and accidentally froze himself in an iceberg. While he was hidden under the ocean at the South Pole, the industrializing Fire Nation began their campaign to take over the world.
The series opens after 100 years of war and strife, with the Fire Nation on the winning end. Aang is accidentally released from his makeshift cryo-chamber by his love interest Katara and her brother Sokka. They join the young Avatar (and his pet flying bison and flying lemur) on a worldwide quest to find masters to teach him the elements (one, a 12-year-old blind Earthbender named Toph, joins their group in the second season) so that he can become a fully-realized Avatar strong enough to defeat Fire Lord Ozai, and, ya’ know, save the world. Along the way, they have to avoid being captured and/or killed by Fire Nation antagonists.
Who is Zuko?
“I don’t need luck. I don’t want it. I’ve always had to struggle and fight, and that’s made me strong. It’s made me who I am.”
Short intro: A cross between Prince Hamlet, Shinji Ikari, and Anakin Skywalker.
Long intro: The 16-year-old disgraced and exiled son of Fire Lord Ozai. His crime: Speaking out of turn in a war meeting against a plan that involved intentionally sacrificing a division of Fire Nation soldiers. His punishment: A “duel” with his father that was nothing more than an excuse to publicly humiliate him and brand him with a scar over most of the right side of his face. Then Zuko was kicked out of the country and told not to come home until he found the Avatar. Ya’ know, the guy who hadn’t been seen in 100 years and was believed to no longer exist?
It is no wonder that 3 years later, Zuko is an angry, brooding, bitter loner who takes angst to a whole new level. The first season, romance is the last thing on his mind. In fact, so is everything else. When Zuko has his mind set on something, he will not give up until he achieves it. Seriously- he won’t give up. The option does not exist in his world. Even Sokka realizes this: “If we know anything, it’s that Zuko never gives up.” Unfortunately for Aang, the one goal that dominates Zuko’s every action and aspect of his life is finding the Avatar. Once he finds him in the first episode, it becomes chasing and capturing him. Zuko’s skills in Firebending, ninja stealth and agility, and sword fighting make him a dangerous opponent. Too bad he also has a tendency to act without thinking, lose his temper, and get so emotional over everything that he constantly teeters on that “edge of breaking down” Simple Plan is always singing about.
So what else is so special about Zuko, you ask? Why does half the fandom care more about his side of the story than Aang’s? His tragic backstory that explains his devotion to an abusive father and need for his love is heartwrenching. His determination and perseverance gains him sympathy. His honorable actions like trying to save the life of his arch rival (who recently tried to assassinate him) made it clear from the get-go he was destined to switch sides (although definitely not at the point you would have guessed- you had to see it to believe it).
Plus, the powers-that-be aren’t even subtle about his role as the primary female fanservicer. Zuko seems to be designed in every way possible to be a magnet for fangirls: a mysterious, quiet, stoic bad boy with a scar (the fangirls love scars), golden eyes, Dante Basco’s perfectly sexy voice, and a tragic backstory… who looks great with his shirt off.
It would be a crime for this guy not to have an official girl and let all that go to waste, wouldn’t it?
Who is Mai?
“I’m sorry I can’t be as high-strung and crazy as the rest of you.”
After an incident involving a Fire Nation siege on the North Pole, the Spirit World, and magical fish, Zuko and his mentor/uncle/father-figure General Iroh find themselves on the run as refugees. Zuko’s genius of a sister, the 15-year-old sexy sociopath Azula, enters the scene to serve as the primary antagonist of Season 2. In her second episode, this super-supervillainess who makes Lord Voldemort look as dangerous as a newborn kitten hires two sidekicks to help her track down her brother and the Avatar.
Enter Mai: 15-year-old jaded, bored rich girl living with her boring family in the “unbearably bleak” Fire Nation colony of Omashu. Part of Azula’s trio of friends since childhood, she is recruited for her skills with shurikens, throwing knives, and stilettos (of which she always has an endless supply concealed in her robes). All Mai bothers to reveal of her backstory is that growing up, she was forced to act like the perfect, proper, well-behaved young lady. Her mother didn’t allow her to express herself, so eventually, she stopped trying. As Azula puts it, “You had a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them, you were shut down. That’s why you’re afraid to care about anything, and why you can’t express yourself.”
On the surface, Mai’s emotional range consists of calm, bored, blasé, and nonchalant. Her family almost being assassinated by the Earth Kingdom resistance, her baby brother being captured, defeating the Avatar’s partners, or the Fire Nation’s latest scheme being thwarted are all met with the same lack of emotion. Mai does seem to care about nothing. While Azula’s other sidekick, the perky, bubbly Ty Lee, gets hyped up and excited about the thrill of battle, Mai remains completely calm. Victories don’t excite her (“Victory is boring”). Losses don’t phase her (“We lost”). She joins Azula simply to escape the monotony of Omashu and fights out of boredom (“Finally, something to do”).
Half of Mai’s first episode (Return to Omashu, ep. 23) consists of seeing her skills with small, sharp, pointy things and the other half of seeing her not caring about everything. This was no doubt
to emphasize the shock value of a conversation at the end of the episode. On the way out of Omashu, Ty Lee mentions to her, “It’ll be interesting seeing Zuko again, won’t it, Mai?”
And that’s the last thing we learn about the cool, calm, collected, and level-headed ninja in her premier: she has a crush on Prince Zuko.
And thus, a ship was launched.
Childhood Crushes
All it takes to make the emotionless girl who can’t get excited about anything to smile is the mere thought of Zuko. This was all the ship had to go on for awhile in Season 2. Zuko and Mai actually never interact once the entire season; Zuko’s not only still obsessed with finding Aang and restoring his honor (of course it’s a lost cause- he just never gives up, remember?), but struggling to survive now that he’s a fugitive from his own nation. In ep. 27 Zuko Alone, the homeless, starving prince is temporarily taken in by an Earth Kingdom family. This is a Zuko-centered, flashback-rich episode where we are treated to an inside look at the prince’s childhood.
Zuko’s first flashback is to sitting by the pond in the palace courtyard, feeding turtle-ducks with his mother. In a nearby courtyard, a young Azula and Ty Lee are doing cartwheels while a young, uninterested Mai sits and watches. Then the handsome prince and his mother walk by. Mai looks up and watches them pass, then quickly turns aside to hide a bright red blush. Already her usually empty eyes light up at a mere glimpse of Zuko.
Azula, never one to pass up an opportunity to mess with her brother, notices this reaction, and starts scheming. She coaxes her mother to make Zuko play a game with her and her friends. The “game” starts with Azula making Mai stand with an apple on her head and promptly setting it on fire. Her chivalrous brother, probably exactly as she predicted, rushes to help the girl… and ends up on top of her in a nearby fountain. Azula laughs. Ty Lee jokes, “Awww, they’re so cute together.” Mai is so angry, she’s at a loss for words (“You two are such… ugh!”). And poor Zuko stomps off screaming, “Girls are crazy!”
…And yet, this embarrassing memory is happy enough for Zuko to rank right up there with flashbacks of feeding turtle-ducks with his mother and getting a letter and gift from his uncle. At a time when Zuko is feeling desperate, low, and depressed and is straining to remember happier times, he remembers this incident with Mai. He misses his mother, he misses royal life, he misses not having to care about the politics and consequences of this stupid war, but he also apparently misses Mai, the girl he rushed to protect when she was in danger and who blushed when he walked past.
Could Mai make the young prince blush, too? Did feelings for her ever override his conclusion that girls were crazy? Apparently, yes. In the hiatus between Seasons 2 and 3, Nickelodeon released a magazine containing three canonical Avatar comics that take place after the end of Season 2, when Azula and Zuko conquered the last free Earth Kingdom city, Ba Sing Se. Before the victors return to the Fire Nation, Mai and Zuko have enough time to go on a date... after some encouragement from Azula. After a comedic evening of bumping into Zuko’s one-shot love interest, Jin, and Mai using Zuko for good-hearted target practice, the two realize, to their shock and dismay, they’re actually enjoying themselves! Mai smiles and blushes (what else can she do when she’s around Zuko?), and Zuko admits he’s missed that.
Mai: Well, a lot has changed since the days when I used to throw mud in your face... but not everything’s changed.
Commence their first canonically recorded kiss. Mai’s line is an understatement, of course; a whole lot has changed in the past three years, for them both. They are not children anymore but young adults at the forefront of a global war with great responsibilities on their shoulders. They won’t be laughing and throwing mud at each other anymore. Zuko came as close as possible to joining Aang and Katara against his sister but refused to give up when everything he’d been striving for was finally within his grasp. Thanks to him, his sister was able to conquer the last free stronghold of the Earth Kingdom. Yet, the thought of returning home to a proud father and a war hero’s welcome does nothing to alleviate his guilt and depression from betraying his uncle.
As for Mai, she’s been uprooted with her family to the Earth Kingdom colonies and then recruited by Azula to travel around the world and arrest threats to the Fire Nation. Yet, none of that did anything to alleviate her boredom. Right up until the Avatar’s allies escaped Ba Sing Se, she was too bored to even stop them from rescuing the Earth King and his pet bear. The only thing that could make life exciting for her is the prince who was banished three years ago, who we now see missed her as much as she missed him. That peace and happiness they feel when they’re together is the one thing that hasn’t changed.
It is that very peace and happiness they will constantly seek after returning to the Fire Nation. As a couple.
Summer Loving
Azula’s carefully timed raising of the question of his now imprisoned uncle’s uncertain future eventually convinces a subdued Zuko to return home. For the first half of Season 3, while Aang and his allies are preparing to invade the Fire Nation during a solar eclipse that will render all Firebenders powerless, Zuko will be facing the emotional consequences of his decision in Ba Sing Se... and enjoying the company of his new girlfriend. This is the season Mai/Zuko shippers were waiting for.
Normally in American children’s animation, a couple actually getting together can take up an entire series. Avatar uses the aforementioned comic to waste no valuable show time on that slow, annoying, frustrating foreplay stage for Mai and Zuko. By the first episode of Season 3, The Awakening, they are together. Zuko is first seen standing on the deck in the moonlight as their ship (no pun intended - or is it?) nears the Fire Nation, silently dwelling on his problems and worries - so what else is new? A smiling Mai (which is definitely new), approaches him.
Mai: Aren’t you cold?
Zuko: I’ve got a lot on my mind. It’s been so long… over 3 years since I was home. I wonder what’s changed. I wonder how I’ve changed.
Mai: (not even trying to contain the “here we go again” look on her face through the above speech) I just asked if you were cold, I didn’t ask for your whole life story.
Mai is not the shallow type of love interest who fawns over her guy like she has no opinion of her own. One can only imagine how many times she has been forced to tolerate Zuko’s habit for brooding and angsting. She cares about his wellbeing, but she will not indulge that.
So she tries to snap him out of his funk the best way she knows how.
“Stop worrying.”
These two are past the shy, awkward first kiss, so they can just kiss casually and enjoy it to its fullest. The gesture is just so sweet; Mai is no counselor or baby-sitter, and emotions are definitely not her strong point, but she cares about Zuko too much to just let him wallow alone in his anxiety. How can he feel like anything can go wrong when they have each other?
This is also subtly sets up how being villains complicates their relationship. As a villain, the effect of Zuko’s choice on the world is not Mai’s concern. He won a great victory for their people; what could be wrong with that? Mai cannot encourage Zuko to make the right choice he blew last season that will fix his conscience; it’s not as simple as that because, as far as she knows, he did make the right choice. If he’s apprehensive, all she can do is show him she loves him.
Anybody and everybody can tell Mai loves Zuko. Azula brings it up to him later at the palace: “You seem so downcast. Has Mai gotten to you already? Though, actually, Mai has been in a strangely good mood lately.” Was the permanently whiny, depressed, bored state we saw her in for almost the entire past season due to missing Zuko? Her world seems to have instantly brightened with Zuko’s re-entry into it.
Zuko’s problems, unfortunately, are just beginning. His sister is still plotting against him, he gets the cold shoulder from Uncle Iroh when he visits him in prison, and he’s convinced the Avatar is still alive (as is Azula, and they’re both right, of course), so he still cannot relax and let go of the goal he’d been pursuing for the past 3 years. Life back at Court is just as dangerous and unsatisfying for him as life as an exile or a refugee.
Well, except for one person...
By ep. 42 The Headband, the one silver lining on the cloud that is Zuko’s life, the one thing that we see can make him happy, is being with Mai. His father’s pride and approval does not mean as much to him as it once did, his guilt about the victory at Ba Sing Se outweighs the glory, and he could lose it all anyway if his sister is plotting something or if the Avatar is discovered alive. (“I admit it. I have everything I always wanted, but it’s not at all how I thought it would be.”) In-between all the scenes in The Headband where he’s angry, upset, nervous, confused, and insane is one scene where he’s peacefully happy, and that’s when he’s watching the sunset during a romantic picnic with Mai.
Mai, being Mai, though, has a different opinion of the sunset than most girls. And Zuko, being Zuko, is no smooth, suave Prince Charming gifted with Shakespearean speech:
Mai: Orange is such an awful color.
Zuko: You’re so beautiful when you hate the world.
Mai: I don’t hate you.
Zuko: I don’t hate you, too.
Regular teenagers may say “I love you” at the drop of a hat with little to no thought of how much they mean it. When characters like this (I believe the common term is “emo”) say “I don’t hate you,” though, you can bet it means something.
Then, of course, they kiss, or “maikout,” as shippers say... “A-hem...” ...only to find themselves abruptly interrupted by Azula, demanding a word with Zuko.
Zuko: Can’t you see we’re busy?
Like any annoying little sister, however, Azula refuses to let the two get it on in peace and orders Mai to go help Ty Lee untangle her braid. The girl calmly complies but not without giving the princess a mysterious look whose significance will not be revealed until much later:
A clearly displeased Zuko is left to get interrogated by his sister about his visits to Iroh, and that is the last we see of him and his girlfriend until ep. 45 The Beach. To Zuko’s displeasure, the Fire Lord is planning some important, secret meetings with his advisors and decides to send his children and their friends (Mai and Ty Lee) to the Fire Nation’s hot vacation spot, Ember Island; the royal family used to spend summers there. Zuko and his girlfriend sulk under an umbrella when the four first hit the beach, clearly preferring to be somewhere private where they can maikout, not surrounded by sun and strangers.
Zuko is the first to make an effort, first by giving Mai a white shell he finds and then by getting her ice cream (which he promptly spill on her- this is Zuko we’re talking about). The girl who enjoyed his adorkable “You’re so beautiful when you hate the world” is not impressed by his stiff attempts at being romantic. Mai is not into the boring stuff any average teenaged couples would do, and poor Zuko doesn’t know that the writers’ goal in this episode is to show how spectacularly he and Azula fail at acting like “normal” teenagers... which is made crystal clear when Azula approaches a volleyball game with the same ruthlessness and drive she uses on the battlefield. Then she practically invites herself and Zuko to a party after Mai and Ty Lee are invited (although she makes it clear she wants to keep their royal identity a secret).
This party is a disaster for Mai and Zuko. Right away, Zuko can tell some pretty boy named Ruon Jian has an eye for Mai, and right away, he gets paranoid and jealous.
Zuko: He thinks he’s so great. Well, what do you think of him?
Mai: I don’t have any opinion about him. I hardly know him.
Zuko: You like him, don’t you?
Mai: *sigh*
The exchange is as comic as it is tragic. Zuko has never been taught to recognize the value in himself, only the flaws his father, sister, and rival have shoved in his face his entire life. How could he believe he can measure up in Mai’s eyes against other guys? The idea that Mai could be attracted to anyone besides Zuko, of course, is too ridiculous for Mai to consider. Zuko may get worked up over the littlest things, but she won’t. If her boyfriend wants to act crazy, she won’t waste her breathe correcting him.
Oops, spoke too soon. After Zuko flings Ruon Jian across the room (breaking a vase in the process), Mai finally snaps and yells at him with an emotionally-charged voice we’ve never heard from her before.
Mai: What is wrong with you?!
Zuko: What’s wrong with me?!
Mai: Your temper’s out of control! You blow up over every little thing! You’re so impatient, and hot-headed, and angry!
A speech Zuko is long overdue for hearing. He doesn’t take it well, though.
Zuko: Well, at least I feel something, as opposed to you! You have no passion for anything! You’re just a big *blah*!
Typical - when someone has you over a barrel, change the subject. This immature comeback is the last straw for Mai.
Mai: It’s over, Zuko. We’re done.
Since he’s kicked out of the party by Ruon Jian’s friend, Chan, anyway for breaking that vase, Zuko storms out and slams the door behind him without a word. With nothing else to do, he wanders around the beach moping and wallowing in his misery. His sister finds him on the stoop of their family’s old beach house, longing for the days of long ago when things were simpler and happier. Azula brings him down to the beach where Mai and Ty Lee are waiting. Mai tries to talk to him, but Zuko shoots her down… then changes his mind and tries to put his arm around her, but she swats him away like a fly. The flirtatious Ty Lee tells Zuko she’s freezing, but she only gets a knowing smirk and the suggestion they make a fire.
Zuko starts the final scene by burning a family portrait from the beach house. The four teens proceed to argue and get on each other’s last nerve as each of them defends their right to be upset and difficult because of their unhappy childhoods and home lives. Even Mai loses her cool again when she shouts at Azula, which turns Zuko on. He reaches for her again, but Mai brushes him off, not about to let him off so easily.
Zuko: My life hasn’t been that easy, either, Mai!
Mai: Whatever. That doesn’t excuse the way you’ve been acting!
Once again, Mai states what’s been on the minds of every viewer who has watched Zuko for the past 2+ seasons. Yes, he’s had a hard life, but when is he going to deal with it instead of taking his anger out on everyone else? Joining forces, the three girls finally get him to admit the feelings that have been eating away at him since he returned to the Fire Nation.
Zuko: I’M ANGRY AT MYSELF!
Azula: Why?
Zuko: Because I’m confused. Because I’m not sure I know the difference between right and wrong anymore.
It hurts, but he’s finally made an effort to face his anger. This prompts Mai to make the same effort to show Zuko she does have feelings.
Mai: I know one thing I care about.
“I care about you.”
And when someone is the only person you care about, it will take more than a petty argument to break you up. Instead, the drama of the night leads to the perfect make-up.
Everything to Each Other
Notice a pattern about Zuko's and Mai's behavior? Nothing rouses any emotion in Mai except Zuko. Nothing in his new life matters to Zuko except Mai. Except for him, except for her... get used to hearing that. Is there any possible way to measure how much these two mean to each other? Are there adequate words to compare their personalities when they're apart from when they're together? It's like there's a hole in their heart that's only filled and only allows them to act remotely normal when they're together! Just put them together, and no matter what they've been through or what is going on in the world, they're still happy. Their world is incomplete without their love. Even though they're so different that they're bound to clash, their need for each other outweighs that.
Author: jill_rg
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Mai/Zuko
Spoilers: Up to and including Episode 3-15, "The Boiling Rock"
Notes: Read Part 2 here.
The Way Love Should Be
The Mai/Zuko Manifesto
Part 1
He is a hot-headed Firebender whose overwhelming feelings of anger and guilt are out of control. She is a placid ninja who keeps her emotions dormant and buried beyond the reach of anything and anyone... except one person.
Love isn’t always about denial, blushing, awkward dialogue, more denial, and repetitions of “We’re just friends,” culminating in a hesitant first kiss in the very last episode. Sometimes love is about keeping a flame burning when you’ve been apart for three years. Love is breaking up and making up in one night, kissing as you watch the sunset from atop a volcanoe, lying wrapped in each other’s arms because there’s no place either of you would rather be, and finally, just when things have never been better, being torn apart by war. At least, it is if you’re Prince Zuko and Mai of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. For Zuko, love is the one thing worth living for at the most conflicted time of his life. For Mai, love is the one thing worth fighting for at the most critical moment of her life. Their romance is passionate, intense, painful, and complicated. This is truly the way love should be.
What is Avatar?
Avatar is an American-made cartoon drawn in the cinematic anime style. It takes place in a pre-Industrialized world heavily influenced by Eastern mythology and art. Most animals are mash-ups of animals from our own world, like the platypus-bears, seal-turtles, sparrowkeets, and jackalopes. The world is divided into four nations of people who can each “bend” (control) one of the four elements: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Each generation, a new Avatar is born, the “master of all four elements” whose job is to maintain balance between the nations. The system hit a snag 100 years ago when the 12-year-old Airbender Aang discovered he was the next Avatar. The boy panicked, ran away from home, got caught in a storm, and accidentally froze himself in an iceberg. While he was hidden under the ocean at the South Pole, the industrializing Fire Nation began their campaign to take over the world.
The series opens after 100 years of war and strife, with the Fire Nation on the winning end. Aang is accidentally released from his makeshift cryo-chamber by his love interest Katara and her brother Sokka. They join the young Avatar (and his pet flying bison and flying lemur) on a worldwide quest to find masters to teach him the elements (one, a 12-year-old blind Earthbender named Toph, joins their group in the second season) so that he can become a fully-realized Avatar strong enough to defeat Fire Lord Ozai, and, ya’ know, save the world. Along the way, they have to avoid being captured and/or killed by Fire Nation antagonists.
Who is Zuko?
“I don’t need luck. I don’t want it. I’ve always had to struggle and fight, and that’s made me strong. It’s made me who I am.”
Short intro: A cross between Prince Hamlet, Shinji Ikari, and Anakin Skywalker.
Long intro: The 16-year-old disgraced and exiled son of Fire Lord Ozai. His crime: Speaking out of turn in a war meeting against a plan that involved intentionally sacrificing a division of Fire Nation soldiers. His punishment: A “duel” with his father that was nothing more than an excuse to publicly humiliate him and brand him with a scar over most of the right side of his face. Then Zuko was kicked out of the country and told not to come home until he found the Avatar. Ya’ know, the guy who hadn’t been seen in 100 years and was believed to no longer exist?
It is no wonder that 3 years later, Zuko is an angry, brooding, bitter loner who takes angst to a whole new level. The first season, romance is the last thing on his mind. In fact, so is everything else. When Zuko has his mind set on something, he will not give up until he achieves it. Seriously- he won’t give up. The option does not exist in his world. Even Sokka realizes this: “If we know anything, it’s that Zuko never gives up.” Unfortunately for Aang, the one goal that dominates Zuko’s every action and aspect of his life is finding the Avatar. Once he finds him in the first episode, it becomes chasing and capturing him. Zuko’s skills in Firebending, ninja stealth and agility, and sword fighting make him a dangerous opponent. Too bad he also has a tendency to act without thinking, lose his temper, and get so emotional over everything that he constantly teeters on that “edge of breaking down” Simple Plan is always singing about.
So what else is so special about Zuko, you ask? Why does half the fandom care more about his side of the story than Aang’s? His tragic backstory that explains his devotion to an abusive father and need for his love is heartwrenching. His determination and perseverance gains him sympathy. His honorable actions like trying to save the life of his arch rival (who recently tried to assassinate him) made it clear from the get-go he was destined to switch sides (although definitely not at the point you would have guessed- you had to see it to believe it).
Plus, the powers-that-be aren’t even subtle about his role as the primary female fanservicer. Zuko seems to be designed in every way possible to be a magnet for fangirls: a mysterious, quiet, stoic bad boy with a scar (the fangirls love scars), golden eyes, Dante Basco’s perfectly sexy voice, and a tragic backstory… who looks great with his shirt off.
It would be a crime for this guy not to have an official girl and let all that go to waste, wouldn’t it?
Who is Mai?
“I’m sorry I can’t be as high-strung and crazy as the rest of you.”
After an incident involving a Fire Nation siege on the North Pole, the Spirit World, and magical fish, Zuko and his mentor/uncle/father-figure General Iroh find themselves on the run as refugees. Zuko’s genius of a sister, the 15-year-old sexy sociopath Azula, enters the scene to serve as the primary antagonist of Season 2. In her second episode, this super-supervillainess who makes Lord Voldemort look as dangerous as a newborn kitten hires two sidekicks to help her track down her brother and the Avatar.
Enter Mai: 15-year-old jaded, bored rich girl living with her boring family in the “unbearably bleak” Fire Nation colony of Omashu. Part of Azula’s trio of friends since childhood, she is recruited for her skills with shurikens, throwing knives, and stilettos (of which she always has an endless supply concealed in her robes). All Mai bothers to reveal of her backstory is that growing up, she was forced to act like the perfect, proper, well-behaved young lady. Her mother didn’t allow her to express herself, so eventually, she stopped trying. As Azula puts it, “You had a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them, you were shut down. That’s why you’re afraid to care about anything, and why you can’t express yourself.”
On the surface, Mai’s emotional range consists of calm, bored, blasé, and nonchalant. Her family almost being assassinated by the Earth Kingdom resistance, her baby brother being captured, defeating the Avatar’s partners, or the Fire Nation’s latest scheme being thwarted are all met with the same lack of emotion. Mai does seem to care about nothing. While Azula’s other sidekick, the perky, bubbly Ty Lee, gets hyped up and excited about the thrill of battle, Mai remains completely calm. Victories don’t excite her (“Victory is boring”). Losses don’t phase her (“We lost”). She joins Azula simply to escape the monotony of Omashu and fights out of boredom (“Finally, something to do”).
Half of Mai’s first episode (Return to Omashu, ep. 23) consists of seeing her skills with small, sharp, pointy things and the other half of seeing her not caring about everything. This was no doubt
to emphasize the shock value of a conversation at the end of the episode. On the way out of Omashu, Ty Lee mentions to her, “It’ll be interesting seeing Zuko again, won’t it, Mai?”
And that’s the last thing we learn about the cool, calm, collected, and level-headed ninja in her premier: she has a crush on Prince Zuko.
And thus, a ship was launched.
Childhood Crushes
All it takes to make the emotionless girl who can’t get excited about anything to smile is the mere thought of Zuko. This was all the ship had to go on for awhile in Season 2. Zuko and Mai actually never interact once the entire season; Zuko’s not only still obsessed with finding Aang and restoring his honor (of course it’s a lost cause- he just never gives up, remember?), but struggling to survive now that he’s a fugitive from his own nation. In ep. 27 Zuko Alone, the homeless, starving prince is temporarily taken in by an Earth Kingdom family. This is a Zuko-centered, flashback-rich episode where we are treated to an inside look at the prince’s childhood.
Zuko’s first flashback is to sitting by the pond in the palace courtyard, feeding turtle-ducks with his mother. In a nearby courtyard, a young Azula and Ty Lee are doing cartwheels while a young, uninterested Mai sits and watches. Then the handsome prince and his mother walk by. Mai looks up and watches them pass, then quickly turns aside to hide a bright red blush. Already her usually empty eyes light up at a mere glimpse of Zuko.
Azula, never one to pass up an opportunity to mess with her brother, notices this reaction, and starts scheming. She coaxes her mother to make Zuko play a game with her and her friends. The “game” starts with Azula making Mai stand with an apple on her head and promptly setting it on fire. Her chivalrous brother, probably exactly as she predicted, rushes to help the girl… and ends up on top of her in a nearby fountain. Azula laughs. Ty Lee jokes, “Awww, they’re so cute together.” Mai is so angry, she’s at a loss for words (“You two are such… ugh!”). And poor Zuko stomps off screaming, “Girls are crazy!”
…And yet, this embarrassing memory is happy enough for Zuko to rank right up there with flashbacks of feeding turtle-ducks with his mother and getting a letter and gift from his uncle. At a time when Zuko is feeling desperate, low, and depressed and is straining to remember happier times, he remembers this incident with Mai. He misses his mother, he misses royal life, he misses not having to care about the politics and consequences of this stupid war, but he also apparently misses Mai, the girl he rushed to protect when she was in danger and who blushed when he walked past.
Could Mai make the young prince blush, too? Did feelings for her ever override his conclusion that girls were crazy? Apparently, yes. In the hiatus between Seasons 2 and 3, Nickelodeon released a magazine containing three canonical Avatar comics that take place after the end of Season 2, when Azula and Zuko conquered the last free Earth Kingdom city, Ba Sing Se. Before the victors return to the Fire Nation, Mai and Zuko have enough time to go on a date... after some encouragement from Azula. After a comedic evening of bumping into Zuko’s one-shot love interest, Jin, and Mai using Zuko for good-hearted target practice, the two realize, to their shock and dismay, they’re actually enjoying themselves! Mai smiles and blushes (what else can she do when she’s around Zuko?), and Zuko admits he’s missed that.
Mai: Well, a lot has changed since the days when I used to throw mud in your face... but not everything’s changed.
Commence their first canonically recorded kiss. Mai’s line is an understatement, of course; a whole lot has changed in the past three years, for them both. They are not children anymore but young adults at the forefront of a global war with great responsibilities on their shoulders. They won’t be laughing and throwing mud at each other anymore. Zuko came as close as possible to joining Aang and Katara against his sister but refused to give up when everything he’d been striving for was finally within his grasp. Thanks to him, his sister was able to conquer the last free stronghold of the Earth Kingdom. Yet, the thought of returning home to a proud father and a war hero’s welcome does nothing to alleviate his guilt and depression from betraying his uncle.
As for Mai, she’s been uprooted with her family to the Earth Kingdom colonies and then recruited by Azula to travel around the world and arrest threats to the Fire Nation. Yet, none of that did anything to alleviate her boredom. Right up until the Avatar’s allies escaped Ba Sing Se, she was too bored to even stop them from rescuing the Earth King and his pet bear. The only thing that could make life exciting for her is the prince who was banished three years ago, who we now see missed her as much as she missed him. That peace and happiness they feel when they’re together is the one thing that hasn’t changed.
It is that very peace and happiness they will constantly seek after returning to the Fire Nation. As a couple.
Summer Loving
Azula’s carefully timed raising of the question of his now imprisoned uncle’s uncertain future eventually convinces a subdued Zuko to return home. For the first half of Season 3, while Aang and his allies are preparing to invade the Fire Nation during a solar eclipse that will render all Firebenders powerless, Zuko will be facing the emotional consequences of his decision in Ba Sing Se... and enjoying the company of his new girlfriend. This is the season Mai/Zuko shippers were waiting for.
Normally in American children’s animation, a couple actually getting together can take up an entire series. Avatar uses the aforementioned comic to waste no valuable show time on that slow, annoying, frustrating foreplay stage for Mai and Zuko. By the first episode of Season 3, The Awakening, they are together. Zuko is first seen standing on the deck in the moonlight as their ship (no pun intended - or is it?) nears the Fire Nation, silently dwelling on his problems and worries - so what else is new? A smiling Mai (which is definitely new), approaches him.
Mai: Aren’t you cold?
Zuko: I’ve got a lot on my mind. It’s been so long… over 3 years since I was home. I wonder what’s changed. I wonder how I’ve changed.
Mai: (not even trying to contain the “here we go again” look on her face through the above speech) I just asked if you were cold, I didn’t ask for your whole life story.
Mai is not the shallow type of love interest who fawns over her guy like she has no opinion of her own. One can only imagine how many times she has been forced to tolerate Zuko’s habit for brooding and angsting. She cares about his wellbeing, but she will not indulge that.
So she tries to snap him out of his funk the best way she knows how.
“Stop worrying.”
These two are past the shy, awkward first kiss, so they can just kiss casually and enjoy it to its fullest. The gesture is just so sweet; Mai is no counselor or baby-sitter, and emotions are definitely not her strong point, but she cares about Zuko too much to just let him wallow alone in his anxiety. How can he feel like anything can go wrong when they have each other?
This is also subtly sets up how being villains complicates their relationship. As a villain, the effect of Zuko’s choice on the world is not Mai’s concern. He won a great victory for their people; what could be wrong with that? Mai cannot encourage Zuko to make the right choice he blew last season that will fix his conscience; it’s not as simple as that because, as far as she knows, he did make the right choice. If he’s apprehensive, all she can do is show him she loves him.
Anybody and everybody can tell Mai loves Zuko. Azula brings it up to him later at the palace: “You seem so downcast. Has Mai gotten to you already? Though, actually, Mai has been in a strangely good mood lately.” Was the permanently whiny, depressed, bored state we saw her in for almost the entire past season due to missing Zuko? Her world seems to have instantly brightened with Zuko’s re-entry into it.
Zuko’s problems, unfortunately, are just beginning. His sister is still plotting against him, he gets the cold shoulder from Uncle Iroh when he visits him in prison, and he’s convinced the Avatar is still alive (as is Azula, and they’re both right, of course), so he still cannot relax and let go of the goal he’d been pursuing for the past 3 years. Life back at Court is just as dangerous and unsatisfying for him as life as an exile or a refugee.
Well, except for one person...
By ep. 42 The Headband, the one silver lining on the cloud that is Zuko’s life, the one thing that we see can make him happy, is being with Mai. His father’s pride and approval does not mean as much to him as it once did, his guilt about the victory at Ba Sing Se outweighs the glory, and he could lose it all anyway if his sister is plotting something or if the Avatar is discovered alive. (“I admit it. I have everything I always wanted, but it’s not at all how I thought it would be.”) In-between all the scenes in The Headband where he’s angry, upset, nervous, confused, and insane is one scene where he’s peacefully happy, and that’s when he’s watching the sunset during a romantic picnic with Mai.
Mai, being Mai, though, has a different opinion of the sunset than most girls. And Zuko, being Zuko, is no smooth, suave Prince Charming gifted with Shakespearean speech:
Mai: Orange is such an awful color.
Zuko: You’re so beautiful when you hate the world.
Mai: I don’t hate you.
Zuko: I don’t hate you, too.
Regular teenagers may say “I love you” at the drop of a hat with little to no thought of how much they mean it. When characters like this (I believe the common term is “emo”) say “I don’t hate you,” though, you can bet it means something.
Then, of course, they kiss, or “maikout,” as shippers say... “A-hem...” ...only to find themselves abruptly interrupted by Azula, demanding a word with Zuko.
Zuko: Can’t you see we’re busy?
Like any annoying little sister, however, Azula refuses to let the two get it on in peace and orders Mai to go help Ty Lee untangle her braid. The girl calmly complies but not without giving the princess a mysterious look whose significance will not be revealed until much later:
A clearly displeased Zuko is left to get interrogated by his sister about his visits to Iroh, and that is the last we see of him and his girlfriend until ep. 45 The Beach. To Zuko’s displeasure, the Fire Lord is planning some important, secret meetings with his advisors and decides to send his children and their friends (Mai and Ty Lee) to the Fire Nation’s hot vacation spot, Ember Island; the royal family used to spend summers there. Zuko and his girlfriend sulk under an umbrella when the four first hit the beach, clearly preferring to be somewhere private where they can maikout, not surrounded by sun and strangers.
Zuko is the first to make an effort, first by giving Mai a white shell he finds and then by getting her ice cream (which he promptly spill on her- this is Zuko we’re talking about). The girl who enjoyed his adorkable “You’re so beautiful when you hate the world” is not impressed by his stiff attempts at being romantic. Mai is not into the boring stuff any average teenaged couples would do, and poor Zuko doesn’t know that the writers’ goal in this episode is to show how spectacularly he and Azula fail at acting like “normal” teenagers... which is made crystal clear when Azula approaches a volleyball game with the same ruthlessness and drive she uses on the battlefield. Then she practically invites herself and Zuko to a party after Mai and Ty Lee are invited (although she makes it clear she wants to keep their royal identity a secret).
This party is a disaster for Mai and Zuko. Right away, Zuko can tell some pretty boy named Ruon Jian has an eye for Mai, and right away, he gets paranoid and jealous.
Zuko: He thinks he’s so great. Well, what do you think of him?
Mai: I don’t have any opinion about him. I hardly know him.
Zuko: You like him, don’t you?
Mai: *sigh*
The exchange is as comic as it is tragic. Zuko has never been taught to recognize the value in himself, only the flaws his father, sister, and rival have shoved in his face his entire life. How could he believe he can measure up in Mai’s eyes against other guys? The idea that Mai could be attracted to anyone besides Zuko, of course, is too ridiculous for Mai to consider. Zuko may get worked up over the littlest things, but she won’t. If her boyfriend wants to act crazy, she won’t waste her breathe correcting him.
Oops, spoke too soon. After Zuko flings Ruon Jian across the room (breaking a vase in the process), Mai finally snaps and yells at him with an emotionally-charged voice we’ve never heard from her before.
Mai: What is wrong with you?!
Zuko: What’s wrong with me?!
Mai: Your temper’s out of control! You blow up over every little thing! You’re so impatient, and hot-headed, and angry!
A speech Zuko is long overdue for hearing. He doesn’t take it well, though.
Zuko: Well, at least I feel something, as opposed to you! You have no passion for anything! You’re just a big *blah*!
Typical - when someone has you over a barrel, change the subject. This immature comeback is the last straw for Mai.
Mai: It’s over, Zuko. We’re done.
Since he’s kicked out of the party by Ruon Jian’s friend, Chan, anyway for breaking that vase, Zuko storms out and slams the door behind him without a word. With nothing else to do, he wanders around the beach moping and wallowing in his misery. His sister finds him on the stoop of their family’s old beach house, longing for the days of long ago when things were simpler and happier. Azula brings him down to the beach where Mai and Ty Lee are waiting. Mai tries to talk to him, but Zuko shoots her down… then changes his mind and tries to put his arm around her, but she swats him away like a fly. The flirtatious Ty Lee tells Zuko she’s freezing, but she only gets a knowing smirk and the suggestion they make a fire.
Zuko starts the final scene by burning a family portrait from the beach house. The four teens proceed to argue and get on each other’s last nerve as each of them defends their right to be upset and difficult because of their unhappy childhoods and home lives. Even Mai loses her cool again when she shouts at Azula, which turns Zuko on. He reaches for her again, but Mai brushes him off, not about to let him off so easily.
Zuko: My life hasn’t been that easy, either, Mai!
Mai: Whatever. That doesn’t excuse the way you’ve been acting!
Once again, Mai states what’s been on the minds of every viewer who has watched Zuko for the past 2+ seasons. Yes, he’s had a hard life, but when is he going to deal with it instead of taking his anger out on everyone else? Joining forces, the three girls finally get him to admit the feelings that have been eating away at him since he returned to the Fire Nation.
Zuko: I’M ANGRY AT MYSELF!
Azula: Why?
Zuko: Because I’m confused. Because I’m not sure I know the difference between right and wrong anymore.
It hurts, but he’s finally made an effort to face his anger. This prompts Mai to make the same effort to show Zuko she does have feelings.
Mai: I know one thing I care about.
“I care about you.”
And when someone is the only person you care about, it will take more than a petty argument to break you up. Instead, the drama of the night leads to the perfect make-up.
Everything to Each Other
Notice a pattern about Zuko's and Mai's behavior? Nothing rouses any emotion in Mai except Zuko. Nothing in his new life matters to Zuko except Mai. Except for him, except for her... get used to hearing that. Is there any possible way to measure how much these two mean to each other? Are there adequate words to compare their personalities when they're apart from when they're together? It's like there's a hole in their heart that's only filled and only allows them to act remotely normal when they're together! Just put them together, and no matter what they've been through or what is going on in the world, they're still happy. Their world is incomplete without their love. Even though they're so different that they're bound to clash, their need for each other outweighs that.