#you got me RAMBLING ABOUT MAI AND TY LEE 😭😭

[comradekatara]

I’m curious if you have any thoughts about Ty Lee and Mai re: their reasons for and willingness to follow Azula during the course of the show? Their introductions — with Ty Lee initially reluctant and joining out of fear, whereas Mai was all in the moment she showed up in Omashu — contrasted with their endings — Mai growing resentful and eventually betraying Azula, and Ty Lee staying close to her right up to the moment she spots an opening — are so fascinating and emblemic of their characters

yes, exactly. ty lee has to be coerced whereas mai doesn't need to be told twice. more specifically, ty lee had the initiative to run away at some point (it's also far easier to leave your home when you have six identical sisters) and has settled in an environment that she actually enjoys, whereas mai is trapped with her family and takes up azula's offer specifically as a means of escape. that doesn't mean she particularly enjoys the prospect of hunting down the boy she used to like, but she gets to see the world and use her knife skills and hang out with her besties. it's not perfect, but it's still a far better deal than being stuck under the thumb of her controlling mother and scheming father in a foreign city that is essentially a ghost town (now that its entire native population is literally living underground). mai doesn't like being bossed around by azula – or being bossed around by anyone, for that matter – but she knows better than to question the commands of her princess, so she sticks to side-eyeing her as she complies, and only ever denying her requests when azula is too far away to notice ("she can shoot all the lightning at me she wants, i am not going in that wall sludge juice." "just take the bear." etc etc).

ty lee, however, doesn't just comply with azula's commands, she comports herself into the very image of obedience, she forces herself to embody exactly what it is azula wants in a loyal servant, but also in a best friend, and in a beautiful girl. because, like, the thing about mai is that she is really very normal. she uses apathy and sarcasm to mask her true emotions, whether they be fear, rage, or a combination thereof, but she's also quite sincere and blunt and kind. mai adapts to her environment in the sense that she knows to comply with the demands of her family and azula, she knows how to play the part of fire nation noblewoman, but she's not closed off from her feelings, she just presents that way. ty lee, however, is a complete and utter chameleon, to the point that she's somehow the one who seems more sincere out of the pair, even though nary an honest word comes out of her mouth throughout the entire show.

mai expresses her disagreements with azula when she knows that the moment allows for it, and she expresses her irritation, her vulnerability (to an extent), and her emotions when she can. but even when ty lee could choose to be honest, it's like she doesn't actually know how. the most honest ty lee ever actually gets before her betrayal is when she insults mai's makeup, and she's still putting mai down in azula's presence as to establish a hierarchy of affection. even when she's lovingly teasing mai by demonstrating how their friendship is genuine enough that she can insult her instead of vapidly praising her like she does with all those shallow, stupid boys and a certain princess, she's still strategically positioning herself in azula's favor. she operates in a coded language, simultaneously communicating to mai the sincerity of her affection and communicating to azula that they are in fact a pair, teaming up to put down and bully mai as they have been doing since they were children. in the beautiful words of shiv roy, ty lee has never eaten a grapefruit without an agenda.

even though ty lee does seem more loyal to azula despite having to be coerced into joining her, whereas mai seemingly agrees immediately, ty lee is an acrobat and a circus performer; contorting herself to suit the needs of others and appear a certain way to certain people is literally her wheelhouse. whereas mai is a thoughtful yet impulsive, apathetic yet sincere teenage girl. and the cracks in mai's agreeability begin to show as early as in her introductory episode, when azula decides to sacrifice tom-tom to keep bumi, and mai has no choice but to comply with her princess despite obviously wanting to save her baby brother.

mai's loyalty was always on a razor's edge; it was never an ideal situation for her, she just never found a better option. mai lived her whole life in an extremely stifling gilded cage, and she craves enrichment in her enclosure. but then she sees potential beyond the bars, as demonstrated by zuko, and she takes a stand for something she believes in. ty lee doesn't do that, because ty lee does not truly have beliefs beyond her own immediate survival. you can say she values entertainment, laughter, violence that doesn't kill, but i think she'd become anything the world demanded of her without a moment's hesitation. and in this moment, the world demands that she choose. choose between the girl she loved to put down and ostracize within their little trio so as to better curry azula's favor, or the girl who threatened to burn her alive if she did not comply with her every demand. and it should be so obvious, shouldn't it? of course ty lee would choose mai over azula, it's so clear in hindsight. but it shocks azula, and it shocks mai, and it even sort of shocks ty lee herself. because she has done such a good job of hiding her personhood so far beneath her facade that even mai, the one person she cares about more than her own survival, doesn't actually know it.

"anything to get me out of this place," is mai's response to azula's offer. mai was always looking for a better situation, striving for the best possible scenario within a very limited array of options. but ty lee knows what she wants, and she knows she cannot have it, and so she denies herself. denies her own agency, her affections, her desires, her personality, her intelligence, her values. she would do anything to survive, even if it means killing every single true part of herself. mai's betrayal against azula is decidedly a declaration of love, not only for zuko, but also for herself. but ty lee's betrayal is the greatest declaration of love there is. her willingness to throw away her so deliberately, carefully cultivated, precarious security and safety for the sake of someone who doesn't even know that ty lee loves her is such a resounding confession that it actually shocks mai into perfect stillness. mai, who is always so quick to act and react, frozen to the floor by the cosmic weight of this revelation, this paradigm shift. mai had always assumed that she was the discarded, neglected, bullied friend of the trio, the one who would always be second best to azula (and keep in mind ty lee never actually says that azula had to coerce her into joining, she simply says "azula called a little louder," because she is always making mai read between the lines). but here, ty lee proves that there is one she values over her own life and everything she has done to keep it, and it is mai.

"why?" asks azula. "why would you do it? you knew the consequences." i think that mai would gladly throw her worthless life away if it meant dying for something real, something true within a world of masks and lies and manipulations. she knows the consequences, but they no longer matter, now that she has sight of something that she truly, actually cares about. but ty lee is different. ty lee excels in the world of masks, lies, and manipulations, thrives in it to the point that azula, so-called "people person," doesn't even realize that the girl she loves is nothing more than a carefully cultivated phantasm. ty lee truly cares, far more than mai, about the consequences. and yet, when it comes down to it, when she weighs all her options, she not only hurts azula to save mai, but she stays by mai's side through it all. the girl who could effortlessly subdue every guard holding her in place and jump up onto the gondola cord and run across its length to the other side of the volcano within minutes stays next to mai with no resistance, merely sheds her mask to finally glare at azula with her true face. so it is not entirely accurate to say that ty lee's values are conditional and fabricated. there is, in fact, one thing ty lee values above all else, but only when it is true.

#flashhwing #asks #mai #ty lee #maixtylee #azula #analysis #azula&tylee #azula&mai #ohhhh you got me talking abt the atla ship i have been obsessed with since i was a baby who simply liked their contrasting aesthetics #you got me RAMBLING ABOUT MAI AND TY LEE 😭😭 #i love them so much...... #mai my babygirl my everything. ty lee my insanegirl also my everything #ppl who dont like the boiling rock are so crazy. dyke drama truly does not get better than this!!!!!!!!

[that-was-anticlimactic]

atla for the ask game?

favorite character

... sokka. this may be horrifically obvious, but sokka. i love sokka so much. he is my everything. the light of my life, the glimmer of light in the darkness. he is the sun, the moon, the stars, and the sky. i love sokka. so very much. he.

second favorite character

mmmmmmmm okay. imma go with my beloved princess yue. this was Very Hard. i love she tho. it's funny because i used to not like her (like a fool) but now. oh. now i love her so much and just. the second i made the ace yue post, i knew. i knew i would adore her.

least favorite character

so, not including the obvious zhao and oz*i, the owl. so mean to sokka for nO REASON !!! also he was mean to the rest of the kids and jinora. but i'm mainly pissed about the sokka thing (and jinora but this is atla) like w h a t. w h a t did sokka ever do to you. he just wants to end the war 😭 but also mai's mom and toph's parents <3 oH WAIT AND ALSO HAHN:/

the character I’m most like

sokka. i think. i mean, the major differences is that sokka acts confident and cocky a lot and i don't have the guts to do that and also sokka is super freaking smart especially in math and science and. i am an english education major. i'm also bad at sarcasm. like. pretty freaking bad it goes right over my head. but it's about being the oldest sibling (and i am the oldest of my cousins too if we wanna talk about sokka being the oldest in the gaang) and wanting to protect your sibling as much as you can. it's about being insecure about who you are playing different personalities and hoping that eventually people will like the one you've chosen. it's about talking and rambling too much and not being the special one. it's. yeah.

but if saying sokka is too much of a cheat because i love him too much... idk i've been told i have aang and ty lee vibes. just more introverted lol

favorite pairing

... sO obviously the answer is zukka, but that's not really a surprise, so my Second favorite right now is actually jetru which is kind of weird because i wasn't really into it at first, and then it grew on me and. now i think about it constantly. also yueki.

least favorite pairing

oh boy um well, obviously any incest or pedophilia, then ztara, tyzula, any ship that is aang with anyone in the gaang except katara tbh, and j3tko purely because i saw too many abusive jet fics and the ship got ruined due to that. so. not that. love their friendship tho <3

favorite moment

ummm ummm ummm. okay. in boiling rock part two when sokka starts to fall off the gondola and zuko catches him and pulls him up and they continue to hold hands for twenty-nine seconds. for no reason. ahem no anyways (but i'm not kidding that like is my favorite moment) when sokka tells piandao that he's not worthy. it gets me. every. single. time. but also the entirety of the runaway episode. it's one of my favorite atla episodes. when katara says that she knows something that'll cheer sokka up and he says (in a small voice) "you do?" and then "SHOPPING!!!" *claps his hands* and honestly just all of sokka's master because i love the gaang missing sokka being around and sokka training and i love piandao and just. that episode is a mood and makes me Very happy.

also, honorable mention that is mostly one of my favorite moments as a joke: zuko yelling at the sky (cause it reminds me of that one scene in king lear lol. like it is a good scene but i just think of naked lear screaming at the sky whenever i see it lol)

rating out of 10

okay so i want to say 10/10, but imma take a point off for anyone who was ever mean to sokka and... wait i actually had a more legit reason but i can't remember what it was so i'll just say 10 lol

send me a series and i'll tell you my...

#hi-my-name-is-dotdotdot #hehe thank you for indulging me <3 #i love sokka can you tell #i have feelings oops #100% using this as an excuse to procrastinate haha #corey rambles:)