r/TheLastAirbender • u/Any-Award-5150 • 1d ago
Question "I love Zuko more than I fear you"...
There is a detail that bothered me in that scene (The Boiling Rock, Part 2): Mai could simply have told Azula she wanted to save her father (instead of Zuko) and it would totally make sense, without provoking a fight, right? Why didn't she?
Unless she really wanted to end her friendship with Azula at this moment?
If Ty Lee didn't save her, she could have been burned to ashes.
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u/Complete-Jelly7649 1d ago
I think Azuls might not buy that excuse, so why waste time lying? Also maybe Mai just had enough of it too
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u/trueum26 1d ago
This is honestly my favourite scene in this show and it pisses me off to no end to why they chose to kill this relationship in the comics. This one FUCKING scene explains their relationship. Mai has always taken the solution that requires the least amount of hassle, her partnering with Azula was out of being the most logical thing to do. Her choosing the more troublesome(superficially) choice for the first time is when they show that Mai really loves Zuko since she’s willing to break that one code. Mai is admitting she fears Azula, but also admits that Zuko has convinced her that siding with Azula no longer makes sense.
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u/althawk8357 1d ago
She was breaking up with Azula; she had it with Azula's shit. She likes Zuko more than she fears Azula. You don't stay friends with someone who make it a point that you should be afraid of them.
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u/sombercrimson 18h ago
I don’t understand why people keep calling them friends because they’re literally not, they only hung out with her out of fear for their lives.
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u/ZackKisaragi 1d ago
First, her uncle ordered the cable lines to be cut, so Mai can’t just say she did it to save him. Second, she loves Zuko more than she fears Azula.
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u/Any-Award-5150 1d ago
She is not obliged to accept her uncle's decision to sacrifice himself.
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u/Otherwise-Public439 1d ago
Azula is good at sensing a lie. Besides, this line is awesome. Mai's best in the show. Mai standing up to Azula here is a character-defining moment, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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u/PixelJock17 1d ago
Zuko and Mai are great.
I saw someone else correct you on the Mai's uncle not father.
I've spoken about this before here that we see some small cracks and foreshadowing earlier in season 2 about Mai and Azula not always agreeing.
The point is, after her "interrogation" of Zuko just before he escapes Zuko tries to explain himself. It's actually really interesting because you need to think like the Fire Nation, what Zuko is doing is insane by their views. So that dialogue where he says try to understand and she's like help me understand or something like that.
It's just really powerful because we see scenes with the two of them in the Fire Nation before he departs and Zuko would never have asked her to risk her life and reputation to leave with him, but she was probably sitting there like, I'd absolutely would've left with you, I already lost you once.
Mai's love for Zuko is more than her nation, more than her fear of Azula, it's really powerful. And Zuko sees this too late. But that scene when he leaves her in the cell you know he's just trying to protect her and she just doesn't understand why he won't just ask her to come, so she's heartbroken not because he's leaving but because he didn't ask her to come with him.
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u/Delay-Optimal 1d ago
(Proceeds to dump him some time later)
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u/ThatLemonBubbles 1d ago
Yes I imagine a teenage relationship with a royal during the closing of wartime isn't confusing or challenging at all they had no reason for future conflict....
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u/Ancient-Excuse-7680 1d ago edited 1d ago
She dumped Zuko because she felt like he didn’t trust her,even though she never gave him a reason not to trust her. Why would you stay with someone if they don’t trust you. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to leave someone if they don’t trust you. Even if you love that person. Plus I think the comics are building to get them back together now. It’s just gonna take time.
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u/Sarionum 1d ago
Comics? I thought Zuko is like 90 years old now. Wouldnt it be weird to spark a relationship between two old ass people 🤣
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u/Ancient-Excuse-7680 1d ago edited 1d ago
There’s are a bunch of comics that mostly tell of what the characters of ATLA did between the end of ATLA and the beginning of The Legend of Korra. There’s actually even a few that tell of things that happened in the show put not on screen. So everyone is still young in the comics. There’s a comic in which Mai breaks up with Zuko because she feels that he doesn’t trust her. They haven’t got back together since that comic,but with the most recent comics that feature Mai and Zuko, it feels like they are on their way to getting back together. Korra also has their own set of comics that tell of things that happened after the end of Korra.
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u/Ancient-Excuse-7680 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think Mai just had enough of Azula. Azula was gonna kill Zuko(the person Mai loves). So Mai took that as the last straw,saved Zuko and told Azula how she really felt.
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u/Allformygain 1d ago
She isn't turning on Azula because she loves Zuko more. She says this line in response to Azula asking her why she is doing this knowing what will happen to her for committing treason.
But Mai doesn't care what will happen to her, because Mai realized it was the right thing to do, and also because she doesn't fear what will happen to her as much as she fears what will happen if they catch Zuko.
Also, Mai's character isn't one to lie in order to save her own skin, she is a strong-willed, albeit nihilistic, person who isn't going to do something, and then try and weasel out of it. She stands by her decision because of her strong will, and love for Zuko.
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u/ThorsHammer245 1d ago
Shook. Every time. No matter how many times I see it, and even tho I know it’s coming
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u/Important-Contact597 1d ago
And then they break up in the comics.
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u/sombercrimson 18h ago
They get back together, Izumi is Mai’s daughter.
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u/Important-Contact597 18h ago
That remains unconfirmed. No canon material has ever disclosed the identity of Izumi's mother, nor have Bryke ever said who her mother is.
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u/sombercrimson 18h ago
Well I’ve seen others say that the writers confirmed that was the case but whatever doesn’t make a difference to me.
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u/fluidgirlari 19h ago
When you realize tyrants are emotionally dysfunctional losers who hate themselves, they’re no longer scary
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u/Any-Award-5150 1d ago
The comments just spoiled me that they broke up in the comics 😭 Didn't have the time to read them yet, should have indicated it in the main post
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u/sombercrimson 18h ago
The writers said they get back together in the future and Izumi is their daughter.
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u/El_Chinche 1d ago
Because Azula was about to kill Zuko? Azula was seconds away from sending Zuko and his friends to their death and Mai had seconds to make a choice. Let Zuko die to avoid incurring Azula's wrath or save the person she loves and accept the consequences. It was Mai's defining character moment where she chose love and people over duty and loyalty to Azula and the fire nation, loyalty she only displayed out of fear.
She didn't just attack Azula randomly, there was purpose and meaning to her actions and she literally says them. Bringing up her uncle, I assume you've mistaken him for Mai's dad, wouldn't make any sense in the scene even if she was close to him, and she wasn't close to him so it would be doubly weird to incur the wrath of the fire nation for someone she barely seems to acknowledge
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u/missnarcca i'm about to celebrate becoming an only child! 1d ago
because she's done with Azula's shit and she's not a liar, if she's mad at Zuko she'll tell him, and if she make a move to save his ass she would own it.
by her saying it she pretty much told Azula that Zuko is worth fighting for, and if it's between her and Zuko (what would happen eventually) she won't take her side, and she knew the consequences because she was about to fight her.
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u/Cae_5612 1d ago
One it was her uncle, and maybe zuko made mai realise that azula is not the right way to go and instead she saw how zuko seems so much happier.