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d-kade · 12 years

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Warning, this is a doozy of a post. A long one, so you better grab some tea. While you all feel bad for Asami and Bolin and AMON, I’m feeling bad for Mako because it doesn’t matter what he does, he’s still flamed for it. Doesn’t matter that he helped save THE WORLD and KORRA, because hey, his break up with Asami was pretty unclear!

Seriously.

Stop making this show about Asami and his relationship with her. Some of you are so confused over their break up—were you confused about them being boyfriend and girlfriend? Because guess what, we didn’t hear Mako say “Will you be my girlfriend?” either!” But I’m guessing you were smart enough to put that together. The same goes with the break up. Both were implied.

If Mako would have said “I think we should break up” he would have been called insensitive because I don’t know..it’s not the right time. He’s called an asshole for kissing Korra back in EP5, but if he had pushed her away, I’m sure he’d still be called an asshole. This boy just CAN’T win to save his life.

I just want to address some of the complaints I’ve heard about him.

1. He’s an asshole/jerk/douche.

2. His romantic interest in Korra came from no where.

3. He shouldn’t have ignored Asami

4. He shouldn’t have told Korra he loved her.

5. He shouldn’t have followed Korra after she took off in the south pole.

Here we go.

1. Why he isn’t an asshole/jerk/douche

The only real asshole I’ve seen in this show is Tahno, and he’s worshipped like a hero. He’s a bully and a cheater and no amount of feeling bad for him losing his bending is going to change the things he already did. But by all means, ship him with Korra because he’s clearly more worthy than Mako.

Back to Mako. This boy is NOT an asshole. He is a good guy who can be blind and tactless when exploring uncharatered waters. Now, I’m not saying he can’t be a jerk sometimes, because he can. He came off very cold to Korra and even his wink to Tahno after kicking his ass was a cocky jerk move. Having said that, that doesn’t mean he is one. Korra can be bitchy sometimes, but that doesn’t make her one.

Mako has spent half his life taking care of Bolin. Keeping him safe and protected from the harshness of the world—this is probably why Bolin is so naive and carefree. You all worship this about his personality, but don’t take into consideration that most likely, he would have been hard edged like Mako had Mako not taken care of him the way he did.

He’s also not an asshole for what went down in his love story. Let’s just look at some of the things he did. Look at his face in this scene.

He turns away from Korra and makes this face because he knows he CAN’T return those feelings, even if he has them. So he lies.

And why would he lie? Because he’s in a relationship with someone else. Because his brother just said he was interested in Korra. An asshole wouldn’t have lied.

He feels bad for lying. And then he feels bad when Asami comes in, because he doesn’t want to hurt Korra.

An asshole wouldn’t care. Mako clearly does. He doesn’t want to hurt Korra OR Asami. He clearly gets jealous over Bolin asking Korra out—I’m not saying he has the right to be jealous, but being in a relationship with one person doesn’t mean you can’t be jealous over another person. [I’ve been there myself. It’s annoying, trust me, especially when you can’t help it.]

So Mako probably had to fight with himself on whether or not to talk to Korra about the date. He does care about Bolin’s sake, but he also cares because he is jealous. Korra calls him out on that—which wasn’t the nicest thing for HER to do, acting like Mako can’t possibly care about his brother. It has to be about her.

Another time he’s called an asshole is in EP7, when Korra accuses Hiroshi. Let’s just look at this from Mako’s perspective. In a way, he probably feels responsible for this. Korra wouldn’t be calling out Hiroshi without them being at their house, and they wouldn’t be at the house without Mako dating Asami. Essentially, Mako is the reason Korra is able to figure this out.

Mako is the one who met Asami, went on a date, met Hiroshi, and accepted his money for the tourney. Mako also is the one who melted at Hiroshi’s word’s of hard work. In a way, I’d say Mako respected and looked up to Hiroshi, not to mention was VERY grateful. Asami is also his girlfriend, and Mako is protective by nature.

It makes sense for him to be defensive. Again, if he wasn’t, I’m sure he’d be called an asshole anyway. Yeah, he takes it to the extreme when he threatens his relationship with Korra. But can you blame him for throwing the jealousy card? Korra just did that in EP5! And she’s made it kind of clear that she was jealous of Asami. Mako uses that excuse as a desperate crutch, but I can see why he’d say it. It’s extreme, but his desperation to prove Korra wrong and anger makes it come out.

Was it an asshole move to threaten their friendship? Yeah. Did it make sense that he was so defensive? Yeah. Does it make him an asshole? No. It makes him human who sometimes makes mistakes. The thing is though is that he APOLOGIZES for being an idiot. Mako is not always aware of when he’s in the wrong, but once he realizes it, he apologizes.

An asshole doesn’t apologize.

2. His romantic interest in Korra came from no where.

Yes, and no. I think Mako is, in some ways, an extreme guy. He has to be confronted with something extreme for him to realize some things. It isn’t until Bolin brings up the topic of Korra in EP5 does Mako realize, surprisingly, that he might just have feelings for her.

Then, it takes the date with Bolin for him to really realize it.

But here’s the thing. Everyone shows sign of liking someone else in different ways. Korra blushed around Mako and got awkward at times. These are signs we associate for liking someone, yeah? Mako doesn’t do that with her, so we can’t use those clues. His facial reactions though, those give him away. This whole scene pretty much gives himself away.

What we are told, also, is that time has passed between EP4 and EP5. When Korra suggests they spend time together, Mako says they’ve been spending a lot of time together. It’s also snowing at this point. So we can conclude that this time together has brought them closer. Not my preference, but there it is.

At this point we do know Mako thinks Korra is great—we know he respects her after EP2, trusts her after EP3, and we know he cares about her and talks about her all the time to Asami. It’s only when Bolin puts the idea out there does Mako realize he likes her as more than just a friend.

3. Mako shouldn’t have ignored Asami

This goes back to EP9, right? I personally don’t think he ignored her, but no, he didn’t give her eskimo kisses and snuggle when he’s under the impression that Korra is captured by Amon and is out looking for her. I’m not sure what some of you guys think needed to happen with him and Asami here?

They were ALL looking for Korra. Mako is not only protective, but he’s scared shitless. It’s one thing to constantly bail someone out of trouble—like he does with Bolin. It’s another for someone who never has needed protected or saved to suddenly just be gone. Mako says he thought he was losing his mind. That’s because not only has the impossible happened—No, no she can’t be gone—but he has no control over it. Having no control is something that rattles his world. And yeah, because he loves her and doesn’t realize it yet.

Asami was not demanding Mako’s attention; therefore, he can’t be ignoring her. It only looked that way to us because Bryke showed her facial reactions to his behavior. If he had looked any less focused, or was being kissy face with Asami, I’m sure the asshole card would be pulled out again for not showing MORE interest in finding Korra.

You people wanted him more concerned in EP4 when Korra challenged Amon. You got it here. Be happy.

Mako went to Asami when she needed him in EP7. Korra was mature enough to see that. And he does comfort Asami. We don’t see much of her struggle with finding out about her father, that’s true. But don’t blame Mako for that. We can assume, by his behavior at the end of EP7, that he was there for her. Now, in EP9, it was time for him to be there for Korra.

4. Mako shouldn’t have told Korra he loved her.

Why not? He does love her—why not say it? I think it was the perfect moment for him to tell her. This was Korra’s lowest point in her entire life. She feels like she’s nothing. Worthless. And one of her biggest fears comes out in spite when Mako goes out to comfort her.

She tells him to go back to Republic City because she doesn’t think he’ll want to stick around anymore. That’s a fear of hers—that she’s no longer interesting or worthy, especially in his eyes. She doesn’t say “the world won’t want an Avatar with one element.” She basically says Mako won’t want her.

He chooses that moment to tell her he loves her. Why? Because he wants her to know that no matter if she’s the Avatar, no matter if she has no bending, that she means something to HIM. That HE’s there for her, no matter what. He wants her to feel worthy of love, because it’s obvious in that moment that she doesn’t.

5. He shouldn’t have followed Korra after she took off in the south pole.

There are times when people need space. And there are times when they need chased. Mako has just told Korra that he’ll always be there for her and that he loves her. Do you really expect him to just let her run off? His thinking is most likely that he knows what it feels like to nearly lose her. He’s not going to lose her again.

The only person Korra really needs protected from is herself. I think Mako knows that and that’s another reason he went after her. NO, I don’t think she was going to commit suicide. I’m not sure why she’d bring Naga if she was—just think about that. That makes no sense..Naga would jump in after her, probably. :P

I’m going to quote Titantic here.

I’m not referring to Korra jumping, because like I said, I don’t think she was going to. I think she wanted to get far away, to place of peace. But what I mean here is that if she runs—whether it’s into the heart of the rally facing Amon or to the edge of the south pole—Mako is going after her.

[And seriously, give him some damn credit for running through the south pole to find her.]

In conclusion:

Mako was pretty much written into a very complex situation with no easy way out. Even if Mako was a perfect human being, I’m not sure he could have found a way out that didn’t hurt someone in the process.

And that’s okay. Part of life is getting hurt and learning from it. Asami did not side with Team Avatar for Mako’s sake. She did it because she didn’t believe in what the equalists were doing. We need to stop making her entire character based on Mako, and pretending like her life is over now. I’ll admit, when we first met her, she was nothing more than Mako’s girlfriend to me. But once she started branching out on her own a bit more, being less of Mako’s girlfriend and more of just Asami, I started to like her more.

She and Bolin both are in need of more characterization and growth, which I think we’ll see in Season 2. Life never promised to be perfect and easy, and these characters—ALL OF THEM—are learning this.

By the end of the finale, Asami has come to terms that her relationship with Mako just didn’t work out. It’s understandable that she’s sad, but it’s not something she won’t get over. Bolin is FINE. He’s HAPPY. There is nothing in the show to contradict that. These guys have bright futures ahead and will meet the person they are meant to be with.

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