#flawed hero

Mako is one of (if not) the most overhated and misunderstood characters in the Avatar Universe.

He's often hated because he's viewed as "a bland character", "boring", "Zuko 2.0 with no substance", "just a love interest", "a player", and that he made Korra and Asami into "lesbians" (by the way, both Korra and Asami are bisexual).

While I do agree that he wasn't written the best, he's not a bad character.

Mako isn't "bland"; he’s guarded. After witnessing his parents' murder at age 8, he had to become a father figure to Bolin while they lived on the streets.

When a child is forced to be the provider and protector, they often lose their sense of playfulness. Mako’s seriousness isn't a lack of personality; it’s a survival mechanism.

Mako's scarf isn't a fashion choice; it’s his only tie to his father. He sacrificed his own childhood to ensure Bolin could keep his.

Mako is the only member of the group who looks at the world through a lens of consequences While Korra acts on instinct, Mako acts on responsibility. This is why he joined the Police Force. He values order because he knows the chaos of the streets.

He is often the "wet blanket" because he’s the one thinking about the law, the budget, and the safety of the group. Every team needs a grounding force, and Mako is that anchor. The Books 1 and 2 "love triangle" is the main source of the hate, but it’s actually a very realistic portrayal of a teenager who never learned how to handle emotions.

Mako spent his life focusing on survival (food, shelter, and such), not social intelligence. He handled the breakups poorly because he didn't have the tools to navigate romance. By Book 4, Mako has completely evolved. He remains a loyal, platonic friend to both of his exes (Korra and Asami respectively), showing zero bitterness. He prioritized their happiness and the safety of the world over his own ego.

Mako is the "unsung hero" because he never asks for credit. In the series finale, Mako is willing to die to take down Kuvira’s giant mecha suit. He stays behind to overload the vine core, knowing that it could kill him. A "boring" character doesn't show that level of selflessness. Mako is a fighter and soldier at heart; he does the dirty work so others don't have to.

I also want to say that many fans overlook that Mako is arguably the second smartest member of the New Team Avatar when it comes to "street-level" logic and investigation. In Book 2, while everyone else was distracted by the Civil War, Mako was the only one who realized the bombings in Republic City didn’t add up. He saw through Varrick’s charisma when even Asami, a brilliant CEO, was being played.

Mako’s background as a street orphan gave him a "cynical intuition." He knows how criminals think because he lived among them. This isn't "boring"; it’s competence.

Mako represents the self-made professional. He didn't have a formal education, yet he rose to become a top detective. He proves that being a hero isn’t just about big bending moves; it’s about the mental discipline to find the truth when no one else is looking. Even after being framed and thrown in jail, Mako didn't give up. He used his one phone call to warn the others. He chose the truth over his own reputation.

This is the emotional heart of Mako's character. His "stiffness" is actually a sign of his deep devotion to his brother, Bolin. Mako’s entire identity is built on being Bolin’s protector. While Bolin got to be the "funny one" and the "movie star," Mako was the one working multiple jobs and fighting in the pits to pay for their food and such. Mako’s love for Bolin is self-sacrificial. He never held his burden over Bolin’s head or made him feel guilty for their struggle. He absorbed the trauma so Bolin didn’t have to.

Mako is the ultimate "Older Brother" archetype. His empowerment comes from his reliability. In a world of chaos and evil (Amon, Tarrlok, Unalaq, Vaatu, Zaheer, Kuvira, etc), Bolin always knew Mako would be there. Think of the scene in the finale where they fight side-by-side in the Spirit Cannon. Mako doesn't hesitate to put himself in the line of fire to save Bolin. Their dynamic is the most stable, healthy relationship in the series because Mako laid the foundation of trust.

Like every legends story, there is always a hero in calling for the light as long are being true to their virtues. Meta Knight the defender of the Cosmo always there.

I found the Galaxia sword in a trash behind the store alley, it felt like it was calling for me. Why would anyone want to throw out a perfectly well-made sword in a trash? It looks incomplete because it was missing a red gem and had a broken edge wooden piece. With some help, I fixed the sword by adding the red gem and glued the broken pieces. To me, it is not a mistake, I know it may not win any judges favor to get any prizes here but, it is perfect!

Whoever made this Galaxia sword, it was legendary in every way!! Meta Knight I imagine him as a hero who fought injustice but he is still a man in knight armor. The light shall protect us all.

Introspection

Great Characters: Yu Takeyama, aka “Mt. Lady” (My Hero Academia)

The longer I read My Hero Academia, the more it becomes clear I could write one of these essays on literally almost every character in the series. The writing is that good. With the release of the latest volume in English, we got to see a lot of a character who’s been around since the very first chapter but has proven very difficult to get a read on. The Giant Hero, Mt. Lady. Even for MHA, she’s such an unconventional character, I thought she merited a post.

With this in mind:

****SPOILERS****

Mt. Lady (real name Yu Takeyama) is not what comes to mind when we think of a great hero. Quite the opposite, her behavior often paints her to be the model of a terrible hero. Vain, petty, cheap, lazy; her introduction to both the series and the Pro Hero World was to killsteal another hero. Literally appearing out of nowhere to blindside the villain, she then turned on the charm to her audience/onlookers watching the fight take place. Her definitive knockout, impressive Quirk, coupled with the fact she’s a hot 20-something who knows how to flaunt her sex appeal, made her an instant name in the Pro Hero circuit. In addition, it established the joke that would pretty much define her character for the rest of the series; a hero with Gigantism who is never above picking the low-hanging fruit.

All of her future appearances would go on to drive this point home. At the Sports Festival, she shamelessly flirts with a vendor for free food in front of her fellow heroes. A student who interns at her agency spends most of it cleaning her apartment and doing chores while she lounges on a couch reading magazines. In a TV spot with heroine Midnight, a discussion of censorship in hero costumes ends up a televised catfight when Mt. Lady takes some jabs at Midnight’s age & supposed “sex appeal”. On a high-value job, she whines & complains about having to detain gross semi-human experiments while other heroes confront the important bad guys. Literally every appearance seems to further drive home the point that Mt. Lady is just a vapid, self-obsessed freeloader skating by on her looks & other people’s hard work.

What seems to always pass under people’s radar, however, are some tendencies towards genuine heroic behavior during every incident she finds herself involved in. The first chapter ends with a situation that no available heroes (including Mt. Lady) can resolve, however, when a hero does appear and blast the villain away, Mt. Lady protects both the civilians and other heroes from the resulting shockwave. Collateral control, not a flashy part of the Pro Hero lifestyle, but an essential one. When her entire squad gets taken down in a single blast by a villain leagues above their ability to face, she makes a surprise reappearance to prevent a villain from escaping by catching him with her face. As she falls back into unconsciousness with a newly received bloody nose, she mumbles, “mission is all that matters”. Most recently & impressively, we watched Mt. Lady go multiple rounds with Gigantomachia. A behemoth of a villain with a version of her own Gigantism Quirk, as well as six other Quirks, all specifically chosen to allow him to bulldoze through anything & everything in his path. Despite this, Mt. Lady managed three accomplishments that not a single one of the hundreds of other Pro Heroes assembled against the Walking Calamity achieved. She stood her ground. She slowed him down. She came back for more. None of these sound impressive until one considers that the greatest achievement any other Pro Hero accomplished against Big G was surviving. She lasted longer than the hundreds of other Pro Heroes and the 20+ populated cities that also stood in Gigantomachia’s way. Mt. Lady got rag-dolled by the big lug twice before she finally went down.

This fight allows us to finally see the heroic side of Mt. Lady that I’m starting to think has always been there, but hidden under quite a lot of genuine petty behavior. One thing that stands out among of all her appearances doing actual hero work is that she always does her job. Other Pros might reprimand her behavior, her attitude, and her shamelessness, but they can’t criticize her work. She shows that “Plus Ultra” mentality recognized in some of the greatest heroes. That mindset of continuing to fight even when you should probably stay down. Looking back, all of her contributions make an important impact, save lives, and allow the mission to succeed. Even when she doesn’t receive much credit. What that says to me is that Mt. Lady is actually more focused on doing her job than just becoming famous.

That’s what makes the character so interesting; this combination of seemingly contradictory behaviors that nevertheless coexist with each other. I’ve seen other posts calling this inconsistent characterization, but both sides have been present in the character since chapter 1. Mt. Lady is petty, but she is also reliable. She is heroic, but she is also lazy. She is selfish, but she is also cooperative. She is strong, but she is also shameless. What we really have here is a multi-dimensional female character who knows how to play the game of being a Pro Hero. Being strong is fine, but if you can’t make a name for yourself you’ll probably end up a sidekick. Being sexy is fine, but if your work suffers as a result the time will come when you may have to pick one or the other. Dealing with the media is an authentic aspect of heroism that is often overlooked. In a society where being a superhero is a legitimate career, newspapers won’t treat every hero like Superman or every villain like the Joker. Mt. Lady’s debut was noteworthy because, while the villain was a simple mugger, his Quirk was flashy and caught people’s attention. As capable as the other Pro Hero, Kamui Woods, might have been, his Quirk was a poor match for a villain with Gigantism. Resolving the situation immediately may not have been polite, but it gave Mt. Lady the chance to showcase all her talents at once, exactly what one wants for their introduction.

I think what we’re looking at is a female character who manages to showcase both heroism & realism. Mt. Lady acts like a hero, as well as like an early-20s young woman. She embraces her sex appeal unlike so many other heroines that are written to avoid the subject like the plague. There’s this antiquated idea that if a Woman Character displays an interest in sex, it lessens them, somehow. That if a member of the female gender is to be the hero, she must be virginal, prudish, and never swayed by base desires. She must be sexy, but not have sex. On the other hand, Man Characters having sex just makes them seem better (as long as that sex is heterosexual sex with a hot woman readers also want to sleep with). It’s a double-standard we have yet to rid ourselves of. We don’t hold Mt. Lady to any of these ridiculous standards because she flaunts her sex appeal like a reality TV star instead of shunning it like a Final Girl. She’s in a relationship with one of her fellow Pro Heroes, the very same one she stole the spotlight from in her debut. Such a relationship changes the questions readers ask. Instead of, “ooh, is it going to be spicy?”, we ask, “why would he date the one person he should dislike most?”. It creates these nagging thoughts we may not get resolutions for, because when do we ever really understand what’s going on in a celebrity romance? I for one think maybe Kamui Woods is starting to see both the heroic aspects of Mt. Lady and the advantages of playing to media attention. As Mt. Lady demonstrates, heroes can do both.