No One:

No one: 

Me: Mai is a fifteen year old girl who already mastered the art of throwing knives and stilettos with precision, making clear marks towards her opponents. As a young girl she suppressed her emotions as a coping mechanism because of her controlling and manipulative parents, and this was set in place by her relationship with Azula. In Zuko Alone, we first find Mai separated from Ty Lee and Azula, quietly sitting under a tree. When Zuko appears, Mai merely blushes, not verbally expressing herself, but unintentionally showing emotions at a childhood crush. Azula spots this and uses this to her advantage, ending up with Mai and Zuko falling in a fountain, showing one of the first signs of a power dynamic between Azula, Ty Lee (who was forced to remain complicit), and Mai. 

Mai’s childhood crush was banished for standing up for a righteous cause, which was defending the young soldiers in the 41st division, which could cause major turmoil for a then twelve year old girl, only giving her more incentive to suppress the emotions she keeps inside to herself. 

Despite all of this, Mai has shown signs of affection towards the people she cares about, even under the eyes of Azula. When she is able, she makes small jokes with Ty Lee, even accepting her hugs, acknowledging Ty Lee teasing her, smiling with Zuko, going on dates with him, and eventually, saving his life and the lives of his friends at the Boiling Rock. 

At the end of the series, Mai is finally able to freely express herself. She is able to show happiness, pettiness, and signs of comfort and love in the finale when she meets with Zuko, which can only carry on after the end of the show. 

To conclude, Mai is a character who went through so much bullshit and suppressed trauma, and is finally able to come to terms with expressing herself at the end of the show, and deserves so much love and attention.

By the Blade Chapter 3

...is up! Read on Ao3

Mai sighed.  Maybe even her affection for sharp edges had dulled.

As always to spare anyone who's uninterested from my ramblings, author's note is under the cut!

I kind of published on accident. I like doing a final round of edits in the drafts of Ao3 to see how it looks on another platform (it helps to see the writing in a different format than my docs) and I accidentally hit publish instead of delete draft. I was debating about publishing today anyway or reading through one more time and posting tomorrow, so my mistype is your gain!

I really didn't expect June to get away from me as much as it did. I wasn't able to really dig into this until last weekend, but as I was editing I realized that this chapter was getting long, and while I'm eager to get to the next arc of this story, editing such a long chapter was pretty daunting SO for my own sanity I cut it in half.

Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long, but with the way this summer is going I can't make any promises. There's (now) one more chapter left in this arc and then the story really gets moving. Enjoy!

Zuko, unlike Aang, has zero rizz or charisma.

Except when he's with Mai. Then he's spouting things like “you're so beautiful when you hate the world” 10/10 he ate.

AAAA thank you so much 🥹🥹🥹

👀📚✨ for the fanfic rec game.

👀: A fic that you love a normal amount

Sooo so normal about You Must Live (For Me) by @kitkatt0430. So normal. I definitely don't think about it at least once a day and mourn the potential of badass evil boyfriends Saverb

📚: A fic you wish you could display on your bookshelf

for what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours by @leohttbriar for sure. An absolutely wonderful and lyrical s3-part-2 speculative fic...and tbh for all that I liked canon s3 part 2, I prefer this fic for the Penelope & Queen Charlotte dynamic. I feel like it gives the Whistledown reveal a bit more weight than s3 did—specifically in regards to Queen Charlotte, who had a very...lukewarm reaction in canon that I felt wasn't very fitting. This fic, however? *chef's kiss* and as I mentioned, the writing style is so lovely (typical for this author)

✨: A fic you wish you could read again for the first time

crowning glory by @calliopieces! A heartwrenching take on girlhood in the Fire Nation, delving into Mai's childhood with Michi, and contrasting it with her motherhood with Izumi. So haunting and powerful and so, so amazing 💞 and the writing is punchy and beautiful

fic rec ask game!

Fanart for graphite and tea by @drowning-in-cacophony

It was one of the first maiko fics I ever read and I loved artist!Mai 😊