Post by chromeknickers on Dec 6, 2012 21:15:52 GMT -6
I, for one, love Mako. I never understood the need to bash him and consider him the most despicable character of the franchise. I remember defending him back in the early days and I just gave up. I'll put up my first defence post of him:
Mako Hate - Part I
Poor Mako. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't in this fandom. In the beginning people were hating him because he was with Asami, and now people are hating him because he's being outwardly affectionate with Korra. It's a proverbial Catch 22 for Mako and he'll be hated no matter what decision he makes.
Yes, Mako should have told Asami about the kiss - the kiss that Korra instigated - but Mako admitted that he wanted to sort out his feelings first, which makes sense. Why cause immediate heartache when you don't have the answers that you know your significant other will demand? Of course Asami deserves an answer and maybe Mako was willing to give her one. Should he have given it to her after she lost everything? Would that have been the most opportune time? Would you love Mako, then? No, you'd still hate him and call him a douche.
Again, it would be great if Mako could make a choice, but life doesn't always afford you perfect segues, especially during a war. Did anyone think about Asami making a choice? No, I'm not blaming her at all for this, but she has a choice too: to dump Mako or to wait until the immediate threat has lessened so they can all sit down and discuss everything.
Another thing is people seem to hate Mako for not being perfect. I'm sorry, he's not. And what he's doing with Korra - doting on her - is something he'd do with Bolin and HAS done with Asami (when she found out about her father, as well as defending her and her father to Korra). Mako is a mama bear, plain and simple. Him comforting Korra and looking out for her is what he'd do if she was just a friend, but because of the "kiss", which a lot of people are viewing as adultery for some stupid reason, it's seen as him betraying Asami. Uhm, what? Korra is the Avatar and his friend, despite being a love interest. Why wouldn't he dote on her after she was kidnapped, tortured, and almost killed?
Mako is a man with tunnel vision when it comes to the ones he loves. He has shown that when he asked for Korra's help to find Bolin, when Korra accused Mr Sato of being an Equalist, and now when Korra is recovering from her injuries. It's who he is. Just some "douchebag" who's been a single father since he was eight; you know, when his parents were murdered before his eyes and he was left to sacrifice everything to raise his baby brother. What a selfish jerk! We need more "Edwards", don't we? No more of these non-perfect, non-sparkly characters with real character flaws and personalities.
So, yeah, Mako isn't perfect.
Get over it and stop acting like he eats babies.
I know his foibles aren't something that will deter me from liking him or any other character on this show.
Poor Mako. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't in this fandom. In the beginning people were hating him because he was with Asami, and now people are hating him because he's being outwardly affectionate with Korra. It's a proverbial Catch 22 for Mako and he'll be hated no matter what decision he makes.
Yes, Mako should have told Asami about the kiss - the kiss that Korra instigated - but Mako admitted that he wanted to sort out his feelings first, which makes sense. Why cause immediate heartache when you don't have the answers that you know your significant other will demand? Of course Asami deserves an answer and maybe Mako was willing to give her one. Should he have given it to her after she lost everything? Would that have been the most opportune time? Would you love Mako, then? No, you'd still hate him and call him a douche.
Again, it would be great if Mako could make a choice, but life doesn't always afford you perfect segues, especially during a war. Did anyone think about Asami making a choice? No, I'm not blaming her at all for this, but she has a choice too: to dump Mako or to wait until the immediate threat has lessened so they can all sit down and discuss everything.
Another thing is people seem to hate Mako for not being perfect. I'm sorry, he's not. And what he's doing with Korra - doting on her - is something he'd do with Bolin and HAS done with Asami (when she found out about her father, as well as defending her and her father to Korra). Mako is a mama bear, plain and simple. Him comforting Korra and looking out for her is what he'd do if she was just a friend, but because of the "kiss", which a lot of people are viewing as adultery for some stupid reason, it's seen as him betraying Asami. Uhm, what? Korra is the Avatar and his friend, despite being a love interest. Why wouldn't he dote on her after she was kidnapped, tortured, and almost killed?
Mako is a man with tunnel vision when it comes to the ones he loves. He has shown that when he asked for Korra's help to find Bolin, when Korra accused Mr Sato of being an Equalist, and now when Korra is recovering from her injuries. It's who he is. Just some "douchebag" who's been a single father since he was eight; you know, when his parents were murdered before his eyes and he was left to sacrifice everything to raise his baby brother. What a selfish jerk! We need more "Edwards", don't we? No more of these non-perfect, non-sparkly characters with real character flaws and personalities.
So, yeah, Mako isn't perfect.
Get over it and stop acting like he eats babies.
I know his foibles aren't something that will deter me from liking him or any other character on this show.
Mako Hate - Part II
The rampant Mako hate is still going strong on tumblr and even on DA. Well, what can I say? I can say that hating takes a lot of energy and in the end it's really not worth it. I can say that this is a children's cartoon show and not something to get so worked up over, but that won't soothe the raging tempers either. I will say the following, though:
1. Mako did make mistakes.
I'm not going to deny that and I'm not going to claim that people should forget about them either and just remember all the good things he's done. But to dwell on them and harp on his character after he's admitted he was wrong, confused, and even apologised to both Korra and Asami that's - well, that's holding a personal grudge and, quite frankly, it's a rather unattractive quality and lame excuse to hate someone.
2. Mako is not evil.
Mako is not a manipulative evil bastard like Ozai. He is a hero, but he's a flawed hero. Some people like that in a character; some hate it. But whatever the case, he is far from evil. Is he a confused teenager? Yes. Does that argument always work for defending a person's character? Hell no. But being kissed by Korra and snapping at both Korra and Asami (for two different reasons on two different occasions) does not make him the devil incarnate.
3. Mako is human.
Yes, humans are stupid beings who make foolish mistakes. I'm one of them. I don't consider myself evil or some wicked temptress condemned to be persecuted for all eternity. The problem with the fantasy genre that involves heroes is that we always expect our heroes to be flawless or, in the case of Zuko, to go through this great metamorphosis from villain to hero.
We all had our expectations when it came to the AtLA sequel. Some expectations were met; others were not. But the thing is that Mako did start off as a good guy, albeit an arrogant hard-ass at times. Instead of seeing him rise above the occasion (seeing him properly deal with Korra and Asami in a way that most adults would fail at), he falls. He falls hard in the eyes of the fandom and fails miserably.
But he's not above himself or his own flaws. He does figure things out along the way. Sure, the resolution isn't drawn out in a full season (or three seasons in the case of Zuko) like we'd prefer, but he does apologise. He does admit he's in the wrong. Not many "douche-bags", as Mako is so lovingly referred to as, would do that.
4. Stop comparing AtLA characters to LoK characters as if you expect them to act the same or even be placed in the same circumstances in the exact same environment ('cause they're not).
Sorry, but the shows can't really be compared since one is complete (61 episodes long) while the other is incomplete and was first intended as a mini series (12 episodes). There's not a lot of time for character development. Could it have been done? Yes. I'm not denying that it could have been handled better. But for the love of everything holy, please stop comparing Mako to Zuko. If you want to say Zuko's better (and I love Zuko) and say that people are overlooking Mako's flaws then point that "high-powered perception" at yourself. Did some of you forget that Zuko hired a hitman to KILL Aang (and this was after his supposed metamorphosis)? Because of a stupid love triangle/square Mako's actions are considered worse? (Uhm, did we also forget that Zuko kissed Jin while he was still technically dating Mai or that Aang kissed Katara when she said she was confused?)
Seriously, hate if that's what you want to do; if that's what makes you feel better about yourself. But while you're hating on Mako and Makorra shippers and Mako fans, try to remember that your "logic" can just as easily be shut down; and, as the haters, you end up the losers. Not because of the result of some idiotic Internet debate on tumblr but because hating is an unattractive quality that makes you look a MUCH worse person than you truly are.
The rampant Mako hate is still going strong on tumblr and even on DA. Well, what can I say? I can say that hating takes a lot of energy and in the end it's really not worth it. I can say that this is a children's cartoon show and not something to get so worked up over, but that won't soothe the raging tempers either. I will say the following, though:
1. Mako did make mistakes.
I'm not going to deny that and I'm not going to claim that people should forget about them either and just remember all the good things he's done. But to dwell on them and harp on his character after he's admitted he was wrong, confused, and even apologised to both Korra and Asami that's - well, that's holding a personal grudge and, quite frankly, it's a rather unattractive quality and lame excuse to hate someone.
2. Mako is not evil.
Mako is not a manipulative evil bastard like Ozai. He is a hero, but he's a flawed hero. Some people like that in a character; some hate it. But whatever the case, he is far from evil. Is he a confused teenager? Yes. Does that argument always work for defending a person's character? Hell no. But being kissed by Korra and snapping at both Korra and Asami (for two different reasons on two different occasions) does not make him the devil incarnate.
3. Mako is human.
Yes, humans are stupid beings who make foolish mistakes. I'm one of them. I don't consider myself evil or some wicked temptress condemned to be persecuted for all eternity. The problem with the fantasy genre that involves heroes is that we always expect our heroes to be flawless or, in the case of Zuko, to go through this great metamorphosis from villain to hero.
We all had our expectations when it came to the AtLA sequel. Some expectations were met; others were not. But the thing is that Mako did start off as a good guy, albeit an arrogant hard-ass at times. Instead of seeing him rise above the occasion (seeing him properly deal with Korra and Asami in a way that most adults would fail at), he falls. He falls hard in the eyes of the fandom and fails miserably.
But he's not above himself or his own flaws. He does figure things out along the way. Sure, the resolution isn't drawn out in a full season (or three seasons in the case of Zuko) like we'd prefer, but he does apologise. He does admit he's in the wrong. Not many "douche-bags", as Mako is so lovingly referred to as, would do that.
4. Stop comparing AtLA characters to LoK characters as if you expect them to act the same or even be placed in the same circumstances in the exact same environment ('cause they're not).
Sorry, but the shows can't really be compared since one is complete (61 episodes long) while the other is incomplete and was first intended as a mini series (12 episodes). There's not a lot of time for character development. Could it have been done? Yes. I'm not denying that it could have been handled better. But for the love of everything holy, please stop comparing Mako to Zuko. If you want to say Zuko's better (and I love Zuko) and say that people are overlooking Mako's flaws then point that "high-powered perception" at yourself. Did some of you forget that Zuko hired a hitman to KILL Aang (and this was after his supposed metamorphosis)? Because of a stupid love triangle/square Mako's actions are considered worse? (Uhm, did we also forget that Zuko kissed Jin while he was still technically dating Mai or that Aang kissed Katara when she said she was confused?)
Seriously, hate if that's what you want to do; if that's what makes you feel better about yourself. But while you're hating on Mako and Makorra shippers and Mako fans, try to remember that your "logic" can just as easily be shut down; and, as the haters, you end up the losers. Not because of the result of some idiotic Internet debate on tumblr but because hating is an unattractive quality that makes you look a MUCH worse person than you truly are.
