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A project of short comic strips meant to explore the missing interactions of Mako’s relationships with the other characters and help solidify and deepen his character development.

After not-quite-as-long as the wait between the first and second, here is the third comic in my Missing Mako series! If you don't know about The Missing Mako, please head on over to the first strip to read about it in more detail. Also yes, I'm aware I'm kind of jumping all over the place chronologically, but that's why I have the little "time frame" notes at the top, for easy reference (: I just work on these as I'm inspired, I don't want to limit myself to the order they're supposed to go in, and plus, sometimes I get ideas for older events and I wouldn't want to miss out on those ;D

About this strip:
I don't know about you, but personally, I was kind of bothered by the gigantic leaps and jumps in Mako and Korra's relationship throughout the series, with seemingly no middle ground. They went from animosity to supposedly happy friends over the course of episode 2, then back to disliking each other and animosity in the beginning of episode 3. In episode 4 Mako treated her like a friend at the celebratory ball thrown in her honor, but the last thing we saw was him angry as he read the newspaper that showed her with Tarlokk's task force. Then right at the beginning of episode 5, they were super goody goody happy happy friends friends! (or at least getting along if not entirely happy on Korra's end lol) What?! When did that happen?! Why didn't they show it to us?! It was what we (or at least I) were looking for, and it would have been so satisfying to see, but instead they just gave us the extremes and forced us to fill in the blanks with our imagination. Sigh.

So, that's what I'm doing here. Of course, there's lots of potential little growing-together stories between the Fire Ferrets that can be imagined in that time that they were training between episodes 4 and 5, but with this strip, I just wanted to focus on the start of it, what I feel was the full turning point of their relationship, when they both decide to fully commit to being friends and trusting and relying on each other. Yea, it could be argued that it happened before, and there were definitely shifts in their dynamic earlier, but I think that they weren't fully there yet, at least not on Mako's part. The way I see it, in episode 2 Mako changed from reluctantly being her teammate, to actually accepting she was a good bender, then by the end of episode 3, he realized she was a good person. Because I mean, it was the Avatar. Staying out all night with him to help him find his brother. That's a big deal, at least to Mako, who's always had to care for himself and his brother by himself. But in episode 4, that damn episode 4, Korra betrays his trust a bit, going off with Tarlokk and supposedly being a bit of the selfish, attention-seeking icon who Mako probably expected her to be in the beginning. So how did he go from feeling somewhat betrayed or played for a fool to trusting her again? Well that's where this strip comes in. Korra wasn't just goofing off, she was legitimately terrified, and although she can't bring herself to talk about it, just by showing that vulnerability to Mako, about how she truly is sorry, it lets Mako finally decide to fully trust her, choosing to believe the best in her instead of the worst, because that's what friends do and that's what they are now. Come on, he had finally let someone in and he so wanted to be wrong, he just needed a reason, anything to know that she actually was the caring girl she had shown him and not the irresponsible Avatar the newspapers showed, and this moment, I think, would be it.

Artist Blablah:
The toning is back! Hahaha whether or not it'll stay is still to be determined. I'm definitely stretching my knowledge of Manga Studio now, and it's helping to ease me into some sort of pattern. I've also been considering making the strips color instead, but I almost feel like that would be more trouble instead of less? Plus I like the effects I can make when it's in manga-style, and I'm not sure how well they would translate to something full-color. Hm...

Description
Tumblr-Friendly Version
A project of short comic strips meant to explore the missing interactions of Mako’s relationships with the other characters and help solidify and deepen his character development.

After not-quite-as-long as the wait between the first and second, here is the third comic in my Missing Mako series! If you don't know about The Missing Mako, please head on over to the first strip to read about it in more detail. Also yes, I'm aware I'm kind of jumping all over the place chronologically, but that's why I have the little "time frame" notes at the top, for easy reference (: I just work on these as I'm inspired, I don't want to limit myself to the order they're supposed to go in, and plus, sometimes I get ideas for older events and I wouldn't want to miss out on those ;D

About this strip:
I don't know about you, but personally, I was kind of bothered by the gigantic leaps and jumps in Mako and Korra's relationship throughout the series, with seemingly no middle ground. They went from animosity to supposedly happy friends over the course of episode 2, then back to disliking each other and animosity in the beginning of episode 3. In episode 4 Mako treated her like a friend at the celebratory ball thrown in her honor, but the last thing we saw was him angry as he read the newspaper that showed her with Tarlokk's task force. Then right at the beginning of episode 5, they were super goody goody happy happy friends friends! (or at least getting along if not entirely happy on Korra's end lol) What?! When did that happen?! Why didn't they show it to us?! It was what we (or at least I) were looking for, and it would have been so satisfying to see, but instead they just gave us the extremes and forced us to fill in the blanks with our imagination. Sigh.

So, that's what I'm doing here. Of course, there's lots of potential little growing-together stories between the Fire Ferrets that can be imagined in that time that they were training between episodes 4 and 5, but with this strip, I just wanted to focus on the start of it, what I feel was the full turning point of their relationship, when they both decide to fully commit to being friends and trusting and relying on each other. Yea, it could be argued that it happened before, and there were definitely shifts in their dynamic earlier, but I think that they weren't fully there yet, at least not on Mako's part. The way I see it, in episode 2 Mako changed from reluctantly being her teammate, to actually accepting she was a good bender, then by the end of episode 3, he realized she was a good person. Because I mean, it was the Avatar. Staying out all night with him to help him find his brother. That's a big deal, at least to Mako, who's always had to care for himself and his brother by himself. But in episode 4, that damn episode 4, Korra betrays his trust a bit, going off with Tarlokk and supposedly being a bit of the selfish, attention-seeking icon who Mako probably expected her to be in the beginning. So how did he go from feeling somewhat betrayed or played for a fool to trusting her again? Well that's where this strip comes in. Korra wasn't just goofing off, she was legitimately terrified, and although she can't bring herself to talk about it, just by showing that vulnerability to Mako, about how she truly is sorry, it lets Mako finally decide to fully trust her, choosing to believe the best in her instead of the worst, because that's what friends do and that's what they are now. Come on, he had finally let someone in and he so wanted to be wrong, he just needed a reason, anything to know that she actually was the caring girl she had shown him and not the irresponsible Avatar the newspapers showed, and this moment, I think, would be it.

Artist Blablah:
The toning is back! Hahaha whether or not it'll stay is still to be determined. I'm definitely stretching my knowledge of Manga Studio now, and it's helping to ease me into some sort of pattern. I've also been considering making the strips color instead, but I almost feel like that would be more trouble instead of less? Plus I like the effects I can make when it's in manga-style, and I'm not sure how well they would translate to something full-color. Hm...