Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender warning!
People who like Mai; wha-how? She’s not that interesting of a character. She’s literally just there for Zuko to have a girlfriend. (This is my opinion, don’t come at me.)
Okay, so tell me Mai’s backstory. “She’s royalty! And she has parental issues!” Okay? Why does she have parental issues?
Also, she just doesn’t get enough screen time. That’s the main thing. We don’t know enough about her to be actually interesting. We don’t know her motives, we don’t know a lot about her! When she says, “I love Zuko more than I fear you” to Azula, literally, girl, fear? You show absolutely no sign of fearing Azula in the first place! She’s not that motivating, too! I do believe that if they went a little more in depth about Mai, she could’ve been so interesting! We just know her as a cool, chill girl.
And then Zuko x Mai. Where’s the appeal? I mean no offense, but they LITERALLY get together again after breaking up on multiple occasions. Like, that’s already bad enough! Then they get back together after Zuko leaves Mai for dead????????? Is NO ONE gonna question that? I really don’t get it! HE LEFT MAI FOR DEAD. This has a lot of potential for a toxic relationship, especially since they do argue a lot, and don’t have too many romantic moments. I need more chemistry, for them. Until then, I’ll just wait here, confused. I also haven’t seen the adult series (I think that that’s what it is), and I do believe that Mai and Zuko should break up during it. They just don’t fit right to me.
Okay, let’s compare Mai to Ty Lee. Ty Lee? She gets a LOT of screen time, and we get to see her fear Azula. Mai? Not so much. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, we don’t get to see her fear Azula like she claimed she did (“I love Zuko more than I fear you” was one of her lines, and she was talking to Azula), and we don’t see Mai’s personality like we see Ty Lee’s. We see Ty Lee’s hopes and dreams, but not Mai’s. What does Mai want in life? What does she hope for? Because right now, it seems like she doesn’t want ANYTHING in life, except to be in a relationship in Zuko, who LITERALLY left her for dead (which showed his character development). But for Ty Lee, we discover that she wants to be in the circus, she wants to be happy. But then she joins the Kyoshi Warriors, which shows HER character development.
Speaking of character development, where’s Mai’s? From what we see of her, she doesn’t change at ALL. Aang? Gets character development. Katara? Gets character development. Sokka? Gets character development. Ty Lee? Gets character development. Zuko? Gets. Character. Development. Mai? Gets absolute, zero percent character development. I really don’t understand how people can be so attached to someone who barely changes at all.
I’d love to hear your opinions, but this is mine. Thank you for reading my rant about Mai and how I personally think of her! Eat food, drink water, stay healthy, and g’bye!
