“I have no magic, child. Only prayers […] Life is warmth, and warmth is fire, and fire is God’s and God’s alone.”
IN DEFENSE OF MAKO
idk I’m just getting tired of watching Korra every week and getting super psyched because THIS SHOW IS AMAZING and I come on tumblr ready to get my fangirl on, only to find post after post EVERY DAMN WEEK about OMG MAKO IS A JERK!!
I hate that whenever there’s a fandom with a love triangle, someone inevitably has to be the bad guy. Like, I know people are rooting for their favorite ships and all, but geez. And more often than not it’s the character who’s stuck in the middle of the triangle that always gets dumped on by fandom because no matter who they end up with, a huge section of the fanbase will be disappointed. (Which is one of many reasons why it baffles me that love triangles in fiction are more popular than ever these days. TWILIGHT, IS THIS YOUR FAULT. IT IS, ISN’T IT.) Usually it’s a girl, but sometimes, like in this case, it’s a guy. Either way, it pisses me off.
And I realize the writers aren’t helping matters any and in fact seem to be encouraging the hate. You know how reality TV shows always cast someone as the villain and edit scenes accordingly so that said character is made to look as bad as possible? It’s almost eerie how much some of Mako’s scenes in recent episodes are like that. Like, the ‘camera’ will follow him around everywhere and perfectly innocent actions like BEING WORRIED ABOUT HIS FRIEND WHO HE THOUGHT WAS KIDNAPPED BY A CRAZY PERSON THAT WANTED TO TAKE AWAY HER BENDING WHICH IS THE ONE THING SHE’S MORE TERRIFIED OF THAN ANYTHING!! will somehow end up playing on screen as, ‘omfg. THIS DICK. Look at this fucking guy being worried about Korra when Asami is—*ZOOM IN ON HER SAD FACE*—RIGHT THERE!! HOLY SHIT WHAT AN ASSHOLE.’
Seriously, people really have it in for this dude.
MAKO: Well shit I think I kinda like Korra. But I’m too unsure to take any action. Plus it would be kind of awkward, dating a teammate. Oh well.
KORRA: I also kind of have a thing for Mako, as every single character in the series will eventually point out on multiple occasions, because my personal romantic feelings are apparently everyone’s business, I guess because I’m the Avatar maybe, but well whatever. Anyway, I’m also unsure so I’m also not going to act on it!
ASAMI: /appears /hits Mako with moped /is introduced in such a way so as to instantly establish her as the perfect woman
MAKO: Holy shit you’re kind of the perfect woman.
ASAMI: I’m genuinely kind and smart and sexy and rich and have a moped and I hit you with it whoops but I’m asking you out to dinner, SAY YES.
MAKO: ok
ASAMI: Is it any wonder really that we started dating?!
KORRA: Mako has a girlfriend. :/ SOMEHOW THIS IS HIS FAULT, EXCLUSIVELY AND ONLY HIS.
BOLIN: Now seems like a good time to make my own feelings for you very public, Korra! But first, let me talk to my bro.
MAKO: I’m against it, dating a teammate is awkward. And also yes I am human so yeah I probably wouldn’t be all smiles and rainbows seeing the girl I like but was too chickenshit to ask out dating my little brother.
BOLIN: ASKING HER OUT ANYWAY
MAKO: WELL FINE THEN
KORRA: I still have unresolved feelings for Mako but Bolin you are super sweet too so sure I’ll go out with you! It’s not dickish when I do it but when Mako does it, it’s THE WORST THING ANYONE’S EVER DONE.
MAKO: I’M GOING TO BE VERY JEALOUS AND IMMATURE ABOUT THIS.
KORRA: YES, YOU ARE. THOUGH SO AM I KINDA.
KORRA: ALSO AREN’T WE LIKE SIXTEEN, FUCK, SINCE WHEN WERE SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS EVER PILLARS OF MATURITY OMG.
KORRA: ALSO I’M GOING TO KISS YOU IN A FIT OF PLOT-MOTIVATED STUPIDITY, RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR BROTHER. THOUGH NOT ON PURPOSE, HE JUST HAS THE SHITTIEST TIMING.
BOLIN: OMG I REALLY DO. SOB.
MAKO: I’M GOING TO LET YOU KISS ME AND PERHAPS KISS YOU BACK FOR LIKE ONE SECOND, BEFORE I STOP BECAUSE I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND THIS IS WRONG. BUT IT’S TOO LATE BECAUSE WHEN I KISSED YOU BACK, YOU THE GIRL I PREVIOUSLY HAD FEELINGS FOR AND YOU TOOK ME BY SURPRISE AND I IN TURN ACTED WITHOUT THINKING, THAT WAS THE MOST DAMNING THING I COULD HAVE POSSIBLY EVER DONE AND I’M BASICALLY THE SCUM OF THE EARTH.
MAKO: sorry
KORRA: It’s okay, let’s just make up for now and let our UST simmer in the background for a few more episodes.
KORRA: SHIT I’M KIDNAPPED. Whoever’s writing this frustrated mock-up script of our actions just skipped a whole bunch of scenes in order to get to the point already, but the end result is pretty shitty for me. :/
MAKO: OH MY GOD, KORRA GOT KIDNAPPED, AS PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED THIS IS SERIOUSLY BAD, IDK IF YOU GUYS KNOW BUT SHE’S FUCKING TERRIFIED OF AMON, THIS IS A REALLY BIG FUCKING DEAL YOU GUYS, AND ALSO I TEND TO OVERREACT WHENEVER ANYONE I CARE ABOUT IS THREATENED, BUT PEOPLE ONLY SEEM TO NOTICE IT WHEN IT PISSES THEM OFF, AND IT ONLY PISSES THEM OFF WHEN THE PERSON I’M OVERREACTING ABOUT IS KORRA, I GUESS. DANG.
ASAMI: God Mako I’m worried too but when you’re worried it’s different because you kissed Korra before! THESE TWO FACTS COMBINED MEAN THAT YOU ARE, WITH ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CERTAINTY, IN LOVE WITH HER. And rubbing it in my fucking face you ass.
KORRA: HI GUYS SUP I’M HALF DEAD.
MAKO: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF /scoops up /brushes hair away from forehead /”you’re safe now” /sits by bedside fraught with concern
FANDOM: YOU JERK.
etc. etc. etc.
I mean, it’s not like people don’t have valid complaints about him, but. He’s a kid?? It’s not like he’s the first dumb fictional teenager that ever walked the face of the earth, and it’s not like he’s going out of his way to be an ass. It’s just the kind of situation where someone is going to get hurt no matter what. And because Asami and Korra are flawless (not being ironic or anything when I say that, btw, they are my two favorite characters and I love the shit out of them), Mako is naturally the character who’s going to take the majority of blame, and this is fandom so of course people are going to vent, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m not really surprised or super offended by it lol. It’s just that people are so damn consistent about it. Every week, like clockwork, everybody wants to slap Mako. Eventually it gets to me, and I end up writing obnoxiously big and sarcastically whiny posts, I guess. XD
KHR 388: The Gritty Feels Essay
TSUNA AND REBORN’S RELATIONSHIP, I WILL NEVER STOP TYPING WOOOOOOORDS
Okay. Okay, so it’s safe to say this is about as hopeless a situation as Tsuna has ever faced, if only because Reborn, the one person he’s always relied on to have faith in him even in his own worst moments of doubt, basically told him to his face that this is a fight they can’t win, and that he, Reborn, is giving up, and he wants Tsuna to give up on him too. Tsuna is being asked to sit back and watch his mentor pull an Obi-Wan and just surrender to fate.
And of course he can’t accept that. Tsuna has never been the kind of person who can accept an outcome like that; he’s the one who always succeeds despite the overbearing odds and finds a way out where everyone survives, even in situations where it’s totally improbably and frankly illogical as well. Situations like that are where Tsuna thrives, in fact. It’s when things are the most hopeless that he really shines and gets his act together, REJECTS YOUR REALITY, and REPLACES IT WITH HIS OWN.
Only in every other situation prior to this, he had Reborn backing him up. He has literally been in situations where he was about to die or even seemed like he was dead already, and everyone else was like D8 but Reborn was just standing there all, “JUST WAIT.” As all of the characters surrounding the two have frequently pointed out over the last couple dozen chapters (because Amano really goes the extra mile to make sure the audience Gets It), this whole time, Reborn has been the one pushing Tsuna and teaching him how to pick himself back up when he gets knocked down, and saying exactly the right motivating things from the sidelines so that Tsuna will have the breakthroughs he needs in order to fight on and win.
And now what Reborn is saying to him is, there’s no use fighting anymore. We can’t win this, and you need to accept that and let me do what I have to do because you can’t win this and I don’t want you to die. And how the fuck is he supposed to accept that?
“It’s weird when you say I can’t win!”
Reborn has always had faith in Tsuna. Until now. But he also just admitted he has a blind spot when it comes to his own mortality.
Of course the guy who was expecting to die like this from the start can’t see any hope of things turning out otherwise. And you can’t blame him, really. Reborn is universally acknowledged as the strongest Arcobaleno, the strongest of the strongest. And Checkerface is the man that cursed him, the man that took him down. How can he expect even someone with potential as wildly explosive and unpredictable as Tsuna’s to be able to defeat him, let alone do so in a way that will allow Reborn and the other Arcobaleno to survive, and without dooming a whole new generation to suffer the same fate that they did? And if Reborn believes he’s doomed no matter what, what’s the point in letting Tsuna get himself killed for nothing?
But my guess is we’re finally about to find out just how effective Reborn’s training of Tsuna has really been. Because like I said, this is Sawada fucking Tsunayoshi, and he always, always, always finds a way. And if this time Reborn is telling him to give up, that it’s no good? Well then I think it’s about time for us to have our first ever instance of Tsuna turning right the fuck back around to tell his tutor that he’s wrong.
And who exactly said anything about dying, Reborn? Where’s it written that just because you said so, this is really an enemy that Tsuna can’t defeat? Every single time Tsuna’s come up against an enemy he wasn’t strong enough to beat, he just took a deep breath and powered the fuck up, because THIS IS FUCKING SHOUNEN. And when their loved ones’ lives are on the line, that’s what shounens do.
Didn’t you know, Reborn? When I say ‘loved ones’… you kinda fall into that category. At some point while you were busy teaching him stuff and kicking his ass a little and being a good pseudo father-figure, TSUNA ADOPTED YOU. WHEN YOU WEREN’T LOOKING. CONGRATS.
Now please sit back and shut up and watch as the boy you raised to do the impossible does just that.
