Can you help your delulu girl out? Is this the royal academy or what kind of a building is this? Why is it in the focus? Is this a hint? I think it definitely resembles the academy, even though the towers on the left and right are missing. And it’s too small? Or maybe it was just an early production of the academy and they couldn’t hold up with the 2025 version of it. It would definitely match from the perspective side. 

This panel represents so much to me. This precise and edgy baddie here nearly had an escalating one-on-one against THE Fire Nation princess and firebending prodigy Azula. Skilled enough as a non-bender to team up with her to hunt THE Avatar and his Gang and be a real pain in their butt.

But when it comes to these brats she needs a moment to motivate herself 😂 I feel her so much. Sometimes you are very good in a specific field and then you get out of this bubble and try something new. Something totally different. It feels so uncomfortable that you literally question yourself in the most fundamental way. But hey, Mai is ready to leave her comfort zone and try her best for the sake of a better future, knowing the system failed her and all the other girls she spent her childhood with. Fighting isn’t what is expected from her anymore. Instead, she’s asked to guide, teach and support these girls. So how about leaving the blades at home and dedicating yourself to different aspects of life?

Trying to grow into a role you never thought you could fill. Sometimes discovering who you are means trying things that don’t immediately fit your old identity. That can feel awkward or even embarrassing. But it doesn’t mean you’ve become someone else. It means you’re learning that you’re capable of more than you thought you could do or be. I read here and there that it’s OOC, but tbh a post-war young adult will always be very different from their teenager version. Especially when they didn’t even like the situation they were in due to political or cultural norms. Breaking out of a repressed state isn’t OOC. It’s maybe unusual since the character discovers herself, does stuff that doesn’t align with her old self, but that’s okay. She already chose her own convictions over blind loyalty, even when it meant standing against Azula. That alone shows she was always capable of change. Ashes simply explores another side of her character. It would actually feel less believable if she stayed exactly the same forever after the war ended.

Mai is getting more depth and being fleshed out in a way we never knew her before and I love it. 😊

If they really wanted to, they probably would have actually done it some time in the last ten years, the cowards.

It's like we're in a hostage situation with Avatar Studios having a weapon pointed at Maiko's head, and I'm standing there calmly saying, "If you have the guts, go ahead and do it." And Avatar Studios is sweating and going, "I will! I'll do it! One of these years we'll actually have Zuko marry someone besides Mai! I swear it!"

And I'm rolling my eyes and saying, "Well? I'm waiting. Or maybe you just want to put the weapon down. Maybe you don't actually want the risk and mess of giving another romantic interest to Zuko. Maybe you just wanted to sell a few books to gullible kids, but your plans got disrupted and now you have no idea how to back out of it. If you think your only way out is to give Zuko another love interest, then I'm not going to stop you. I'm just your audience. But there is another way out. I think you just don't know how to take it. But you can do it, right now, or anytime you want. You just have to do it."

There's no suspense anymore. That's why I'm so critical of the whole debacle. Let's just finish things up as quickly and smoothly as possible, and then we can all put it behind us and Avatar Studios doesn't need to be embarrassed.

Most of the time.

There will be those moments when our eyes meet, and we'll remember what Avatar Studios did and Avatar Studios will know that we're thinking of it. But no one will say anything. We'll both just know.

lesbian mai: yes