#king wu

We saw Wu getting actively manipulated by an older male in his life; Raiko was using Wu for political power 😭 So I think Raiko probably pulled some kind of fake father figure behavior upon meeting Wu so that he could maintain a hold on him and control him, mold him into the puppet he wanted Wu to be. Luckily, Wu saw Mako in the newspaper and Mako changed Wu for the better so he shook off all of Raiko's manipulations and I don't think he particularly saw him as a father figure in the first place, even if that's part of what Raiko tried to position himself as.

I like to imagine that Wu has a tentatively positive relationship with Tenzin, since he worked with Pema i love headcanoning her as being the maternal figure in his life, so by extension Tenzin could be involved in his life as a role model in some capacity?

I also imagine Gun taking a sort of parental role in Wu's life when he returns to Ba Sing Se. He's not exactly the epitome of a strong male role model, but I think he does have some wisdom and guidance he can offer Wu.

Wu could use a stronger male role model in his life, looking at the options 😭 But he's got enough older women looking out for him that I think he'll be okay.

For Mako? Oh boy. I've got some thoughts.

I've got two names for you. First, let's talk about Chow. Once Mako and Bolin find their family, I think Mako develops a strong relationship with all of them. I think he's very close to his grandma Yin, and I think it's only completely natural that he'd gravitate toward Chow as a male role model and paternal figure. After all, Chow is his father's brother. How many little things to Chow and San have in common? I imagine there are a lot of similarities, and it would be only natural for Mako to look up to him in that way. Chow probably has a lot guidance he can offer Mako, and I think Mako's receptive to it. but I can also imagine Mako feeling some level of guilt about this---worrying that maybe he's just replaced his father. You remember that one line in ATLA where sokka said when he tries to picture his mother's face, he just sees katara? I think that happens for Mako with both Bolin and Chow. In any case, it might have taken him years to find his family, but Chow is a natural stand in for a father for Mako.

But lets talk about another man. Lightning Bolt Zolt. Now, please know, this is heavy on the headcanon and extrapolating and speculating A LOT based on one little line in the dvd commentary---but the creators casually mentioned that Mako learned lightning bending from Zolt. Here's the line: "we had this little backstory idea that Mako learned it from Zolt, from runnin' around with the Triple Threat Triads, that he Picked it up on the streets." Now, this commentary alone doesn't exactly say that Zolt was straight up mentoring Mako, it mentions he learned from zolt AND he picked it up on the streets. But listen, Mako is a fucking PRODIGY when it comes to bending. He's done some batshit insane things with his bending and I personally love to headcanon that Zolt could see his potential from a mile away and took him under his wing, so to speak. I don't think Zolt was a good role model for Mako, but I absolutely think he taught Mako a thing or two, and I can imagine that a young Mako would latch onto Zolt as a father figure, even if he didn't realize it. Imagine you're struggling to survive and feed your baby brother, and then one day the most powerful crime lord in the city takes notice of you. Wouldn't you want to impress him? Maybe you'd tell yourself you're just doing whatever it takes to survive, you don't actually care about impressing him beyond doing enough that he'll look after you and make sure you have work in his gang. But a young, impressionable Mako, learning lightning bending from zolt, and Mako is just so naturally talented at it, and he actually sees that he makes Zolt proud? It would absolutely fufill a need within Mako that he may not want to admit that he has---the need for someone to tell him that he's doing a good job. If Zolt even gives him a taste of that feeling, I can see Mako developing a warped father-son surrogate relationship with Zolt.

As for how the lack of male role models might have affected their characters; I think for Mako, it probably contributed greatly to his own parentified mindset of having to be the protector and provider. I'm not sure a male role model would have been any more important than just having SOMEONE take care of them, but it might have made it harder to see himself as anything more than that if he couldn't see his own father or a father figure existing outside of that protector and provider role. For Wu, I think maybe it had an impact on some of his earlier behaviors we saw from him in the show, particularly with how he hit on women.

The usual background I give Wu's parents are that his mother, Priya, was a more serious person, while his father, Hao, was more of the scatterbrained flighty one. I imagine Hao was a pretty forgetful and distractable guy. He was a little impatient but overall was a kind man, he loved Wu and cared deeply for him, and would often spoil him with fun things and experiences. He definitely would take Wu to the Zoo whether Priya wanted him to or not (I hc Priya as being overprotective of Wu)

I have a lot of headcanons about San, but I reeeeally love the headcanon that Mako was really attached to his dad. I think he was always in San's space, curious about whatever San was doing, wanting to be held a lot when he was little. I love giving Mako these connections to his earth kingdom heritage that the show basically ignored in favor of color coding 🙄 "The firebender wears red and the earth bender wears green" NO. Mako's a firebender but he is just as much from the Earth Kingdom as he is from the Fire Nation.

If You Don't Know The Way To Hold Me Let Me Show You How

Perfect that you picked this because this is the idea dump for my Korrasami smut fic that I plan to complete for Korrasami Week 2026, and the prompts for that have just been posted today! The plan for this one is Korra and Asami's first time... It's going to be a lot of fluff and smut 🥰 There's really not much else to it, and I don't have a snippet to share because this is still in idea dump/outline phase. It's going to be my first f/f smut fic 😊

Unexpected

OOOOhhhhhh this one is actually one that's been sitting in my WIP for a while. So this is another Gay Uncles fic buuuuuut. It's a little less cutsie fun and more Mako Has An Existential Crisis About His Brother Becoming A Dad. Basically Bopal's first baby is an oops baby and Mako doesn't react well when Bolin tells him the news. I've kind of been messing around with this one because I think I made Mako too mean in my first draft lol. But let me grab a snippet that's not super mean and that I probably won't edit too much:

~~~~~~~

Mako blinked.

“Pregnant?” he asked, not quite grasping the full implication of the word.

“Yeah! Opal and I, we’re gonna have a baby! I’m gonna be a dad!”

Mako blinked a few more times. 

Pregnant. Baby. Dad.

This was not happening.

“Uh, wait. Hang on,” Mako shifted in his seat. “You’re… Opal is… You guys are…?”

“Yeah! We’re gonna be parents! She’s about three and a half months a long, and we’ve known for about six weeks, but Opal didn't want to tell anyone yet, not until she was further along, but now we decided it’s time to tell people, and she called her mom this morning, and I think after work today I’m gonna go visit Grandma and tell the whole family and—”

“Bolin, wait, you’re… happy about this?”

“Yeah!” Bolin laughed. “Of course! A baby, Mako! I’m so excited!”

“I don't understand,” Mako crossed his arms. “You… Were you guys trying?”

Bolin barked out a loud, albeit awkward, laugh. “Uh… No. Definitely not. We were uh, being careful most of the time, but you know how it is…”

“Uh, no, I don’t know how it is.” Mako said, bewildered and just a bit horrified. Mako felt his body tensing up. He curled his fists tight and tried not to freak out. Bolin’s expression fell a bit, but Mako didn’t have it in him to feel guilty about that.

An unplanned pregnancy. Literally one of Mako’s worst nightmares. He’d never, never, taken chances on that, anytime he'd had sex with someone who could get pregnant. And he’d made sure to impart the seriousness of that on his brother, too, when they were growing up. But apparently Bolin just didn’t take those talks to heart? Most of the time, they were careful? How could Bolin be so—

“Hey,” Bolin interrupted Mako’s train of thought. “Hey, Mako, this is a good thing! Opal and I are happy about it! We wanted to start a family someday, and yeah, it’s happening sooner than we expected, but we’re excited!”

Zoo

Basically this is another Gay Uncles fic. I really want Mako and Wu to take Bopal's Kid(s) to the Zoo. Can't you picture Mako giving one of the kids a shoulder ride so they can see over the crowd, and Wu holding a toddler at the badgermole enclosure while serenading both the baby and the badgermoles??? Ugh my heart! I don't have it set up very well yet but I bet they're taking the kids while Opal is heavily pregnant and she and Bolin just need a day to themselves before adding another child to their family.

Sex Work

Okay I've been mulling over this idea for some time and it's not really well outlined, it's just an idea dump at this point with a lot of maybes. But essentially I'm really compelled by the idea of Mako doing independent sex work. I think it could be interesting to explore in both the canon LoK setting, or in a modern AU. I could see him preferring sex work over all the other ways he's had to make money. I'm not compelled by any sort of tragic scenario; I'm not interested in depicting him as coerced into it through the triads or being exploited as a child. I find the idea of Mako getting older and deciding that full service escorting is a practical means of supplementing his income.

Now, making this into a Wuko fic is where I can't quite decide what I find more interesting. Wu doing sex work of his own? I could see Wu doing cam work. Maybe he and Mako are tangentially aware of each other. Or maybe Wu is a client. He has a lot of money but struggles with dating so he hires someone instead? Throw in some homophobia, maybe Wu's closeted and it's a safer way for him to hook up on the dl??? I'm sure there are other directions I could take it, too, but those are the ones I've contemplated the most.

To be completely honest this is the WIP/idea that I'm genuinely afraid to write and get wrong. I'll keep adding to my idea dump and maybe a coherent outline could form out of it. But it would be so important to me to get this one right.

Makorrasami

Wu should have called Mako. He'd been tempted to so many times, but at the very least he should have told Mako about the engagement. But part of him is afraid how Mako might react! Mako has been so skeptical of Wu's choice to court Meiling, right from the beginning. But Wu put it off, partially because he's afraid to talk to Mako at all, and partially because he doesn't want to hear Mako push back about Wu's choice to propose to her.

Of course, that means that Mako's going to find out at the ball tonight. Will Mako be offended that Wu didn't tell him personally beforehand? Should he tell Mako before the ball starts? Will he have to tell Mako and Ursa together, since they're a couple?

Wu doesn't know what he's going to to do. Decide when Mako gets here, he guesses. Get a feel for Mako's mood, see if Mako acts different around him.