#‘is claiming that sokka is a physics nerd simply projection….. I mean you don’t have to care about kinematics on a mechanical level to throw | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

comradekatara · 4 years

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i dont know if you had already talked about it, but can you explain why you think sokka and mai would understand each other?

oh thank you so much for giving me an excuse to talk about the glorious potential that would be their postwar dynamic. i see a lot of people misinterpret what their friendship would be like because they either don’t understand sokka, or mai, or in most cases, usually neither.

first of all, let’s get one thing straight: sokka doesn’t crack jokes because he wants people to revel in his comedy. sokka makes goofy puns (and what have you) to ease the tension, the same way that ty lee will start talking about auras to pacify a suspicious azula, or iroh will ramble to an enraged zuko about pai sho. they’re using a distraction to keep the peace.

on the other hand, mai will voice her (often witty, sarcastic) observations aloud because she’s bored out of her mind and trying to keep herself entertained. she has a wry, detached, kinda morbid sense of humor, and since she knows no one actually pays attention to her, she sees no issue in kinda just making comments to no one in particular. of course, we as the audience are privy to her commentary, but that’s not the same thing as azula actually listening to her (which she clearly doesn’t). mai fancies herself jim from the office, or daria from daria, just quietly observing the chaos around her with utter contempt like, “do y’all see this shit?” and, oh, you know who does the exact same thing? sokka.

mai and sokka are both depressed, cynical bastards. other than the few and far between moments in which sokka is actually given an opportunity to relax, he is always on edge and anticipating (what he considers to be) his inevitable demise. it’s vastly different from mai’s brand of cynicism & depression, in which she would leap at the opportunity to be given a project to occupy her mind, and longs for the sweet release of death. that said, just because sokka is anxious about everything (because he has everything to lose) and mai is anxious about nothing (because she has nothing to lose), doesn’t mean they’re not on the exact same wavelength.

once the war is over, mai meets the gaang, and sokka kicks her ass in pai sho, so mai decides maybe he isn’t so heinous after all, (a consensus she came to at around the exact same time ty lee first expressed interest in him,) and they get to talking. sokka asks her about her hobbies, other than knives of course, and to sokka this is normal smalltalk, but to mai this is a deeply personal question and he may as well be asking her how old she was when she got her first period. so she says, “yknow....... the cold, unyielding embrace of the void,” in a complete monotone, and to her surprise, sokka laughs, not at her, but with her. because she’s funny!

the more they get to know each other, the more they realize they actually have a lot in common, despite, on the surface, having nothing in common. for one thing, they both taught themselves how to throw blades with perfect precision, a skill that requires a deft knowledge of physics. they’re both really smart, and overwhelmingly kind but also kind of mean, and like i’ve established, their senses of humor are very compatible.

i don’t think mai would be offput by the things sokka is easily excited by, like some people claim, because for one thing, she loves ty lee, so, like... but for another, when mai expresses disdain for zuko’s pretty seashell, he yells “forget it!” and flings it across the beach. if sokka (who is apparently a shell nerd) tried to show mai a perfectly preserved conch shell he found and she said, “who the fuck cares about a stupid shell,” sokka would roll his eyes and patiently explain to her why if she cares about math, she should find shells beautiful, because sokka has infinitely more patience than zuko for these things, especially after knowing katara, toph, and aang for as long as he has. and then, since mai no longer feels demeaned by the fact that someone is simply giving her beach trash as some expected token of affection, but trying to share something he finds interesting with her because he expects her to take an interest in it too, she’s just open-minded enough to admit that yeah, okay, maybe conch shells are pretty cool, actually.

mai never needed a boyfriend. (especially not a boyfriend who was never attentive to her needs and tried to just. give her things instead of actually like. asking her how her day was??) what mai always needed was real friends. and while she and ty lee definitely love each other, being under azula’s thumb definitely got in the way of complete emotional honesty. a lot of the time, they speak in some form of code that clues us into the fact that there’s a lot more under the surface. for example, take their first ever interaction: “i thought you ran off and joined the circus. you said it was your calling.” mai is concerned to see ty lee because she assumed she was able to escape and pursue her passion. mai is also revealing that she and ty lee corresponded, likely without azula’s knowledge, indicating that their friendship exists outside of azula’s bounds. “well, azula called a little louder!” haha, says ty lee, a huge smile plastered upon her face. you know azula! you know what she’s like! she tried to set me on fire, obviously! let’s not discuss this ever again, thaaaaaanks :)

now that azula is out of the picture, mai and ty lee do have a chance to be completely honest with each other. mai also has a chance to be honest with zuko, because he has finally become honest with himself. and, mai has a chance to meet all of zuko’s cool new friends, now that she is no longer on the mission (under threat of electrocution) to attack them at every opportunity. so she can meet aang, who she’ll undoubtedly like simply because aang is impossible to dislike; and suki, who is awesome; and toph, whom she’ll adore because they have so much in common; and katara, whom she loathes (and loathes her in return) because they have absolutely nothing in common; and of course, sokka.

if people think mai wouldn’t laugh out loud at sokka’s jokes, these people have unfortunately never made a famously-deadpan person laugh. this is very sad for them, as they are freely admitting that they are neither cool nor funny. especially because it’s not actually hard to do. (i speak from experience as a famously deadpan person who just lost her entire shit watching this on a loop.) (okay, that’s not fair. that’s the funniest scene from any movie of all time.)

mai and sokka are constantly laughing at each other’s jokes, because that’s just what happens when two funny people with dry, slightly morbid senses of humor are put in a room together and also maybe it’s 3 am and they’re kinda tipsy and playing pai sho while also discussing the new tax plan they’re in the midst of proposing to zuko (who will approve it the second they hand it to him, because he trusts them unconditionally and doesn’t know shit about math) in a way that involves a lot of mocking every single one of zuko’s advisors, and due to all these factors someone (probably suki) finds them with tears streaming down both their faces because of something absolutely scathing they said about the shape of the minister of agriculture’s head and every time he opens his mouth from then on they exchange a look and have to hold back peals of laughter. usually sokka breaks first, but on the rare occasion that it’s mai, everyone else in the room suddenly becomes very concerned that she is terribly ill, and nothing she says can prevent them from making her soup and herbal tea and demanding that she rest until her affliction is healed. and sokka, bastard that he is, encourages them.

and that’s the crux of their profound, lifelong friendship.

#thank u for asking this because i love them and i love them RIGHT #this is..... very long lmao #mai #sokka #mai&sokka #maixtylee #analysis #asks #tortadelimao #postwargaang

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