HOME | DD

Description
Tumblr Friendly version
*PLEASE READ* I know it's long but if you don't read this and then ask about something that I addressed here, I will be displeased :c
It is widespread agreement that due to unfortunate circumstances, "Avatar: The Legend of Korra" Mako’s character arc was somewhat botched. Despite the fact that he seemed to have a favorable start, promising to show us all his trials and developments every step of the way, as he went from cold and indifferent sports player, to reluctant teammate, to cherished friend and then irreplaceable ally, he was instead forcibly thrust into the middle of a love triangle drama, demoted to nothing but an indecisive, immature teenage boy, his previously established personality ripped to shreds and replaced by an erratic, unpredictable one instead. Any character development he might have had was crushed (taking a good chunk of the plot with it), and so were our hopes and dreams of seeing him a fully realized character.

…okay, so maybe I’m being a TAD dramatic (though some may disagree), but almost everyone agrees that at some point, something went wonky. I loved Mako’s potential from episodes 2 and 3, though, so I’ve decided to make a bunch of small comic strips based on Book 1, about how I would have liked his personality to have developed, based on what we saw in the first few episodes. To do this, I’ll mainly be fabricating what I hope are somewhat redeeming, between-episode scenes of budding relationship development between him and the other characters, which were the sorts of scenes from him that I felt were sorely “missing”, but I'll also rewrite some of the canon scenes too, to tie it all together. I’m a romantic, so the focus will be on the relationship between him and Korra (which got a lot more foot-in-mouth than it quite frankly deserved), but I will also explore the other characters, too. My goal will be to make him look like less of a jerk, and be the more developed character that a lot of people wanted and expected.

Disclaimer: I don't mean to demean or disrespect Bryke's work and writing with these comics. However, I do feel that there are lots of things they could have done better, especially concerning Mako. Even so, I still have faith that, given more time, they would have developed Mako more slowly than the way they actually did with only 12 episodes. As it was, I think the reason so many of us take issue with the way Mako was portrayed is because, among other things, with not enough time to show all his development, Bryke instead "overshot" with some things, in order to bridge the gap between Mako's beginning persona and his ending one. -coughepisode9- But because those two differed so drastically, it just made us feel like Mako's feelings came out of nowhere and also because they didn't have enough time to have him properly break up with Asami BEFORE all that stuff happened, made him look like a jerk. As was made clear by Bryke's surprise at the fans' reactions to Mako, they didn't intend for him to come off that way, many people didn't want or expect him to come off that way, and I really would have liked to see him not come off that way, so this comic series was born.

SO, I'd like you to think of these comics not as a replacement for Book 1, but as sort of individual “patches” and “add-ons”, which, if added to the Korra Book 1 timeline, help solidify and deepen both Mako’s character development, his relationships with the characters, and the plot. Take one, take them all, or take none if you don't like it, either way it's up to you. (:

Sit down, strap in, and I hope you enjoy my take on Mako's character! If you don't, then I'm sorry. You don't have to read this anymore if you don't want, and feel better in the fact that it will never be canon :C

About this strip:
When I first saw Mako's crazy blushes on seeing Asami, my nose wrinkled a bit. It was such a huge contrast to how we had seen him act before that it seemed inappropriately distasteful rather than comedic or sweet. Not to mention, this guy was a highly attractive popular Pro Bender. With the way he snubbed at Bolin's apparent habit of bringing 'crazy' fangirls around, and his good looks, it's not farfetched to assume he's had his own share of fangirls, but he simply doesn't take much stock of them. That, combined with a statistical guess that at least a few of them were also pretty damn attractive, as well as his initial, focused, stoic personality, led me to believe that he is a) not someone who can be caught off guard/impressed easily, b) at least doesn't overreact if caught off guard (read: Korra being the avatar), and c) disregarding of, or at least somewhat used to, attractive women.
In the end, I think what really gets him the most is Asami's unexpected sweet composure combined with her straightforwardness, because he's used to attractive girls shrieking at him, but not attractive girls calmly offering to take him to dinner (:

Artist Blablah:
AHHH, this took SO much longer than I expected it to! Almost 3 entire weeks! Granted, I was on break and therefore doing a bunch of other stuff too, but still! Do you have ANY fucking idea how hard it is to keep characters perfectly on model?!?! Yes, I traced a lot of the shots that were originally in the episode, because why ruin a good thing, but even the made-up shots that I created myself needed soo much referencing Hopefully I can improve though as time goes on, and now that I've figured out some tricks in Illustrator, the next ones might go a bit faster. But it still took so long!! AH I'M GONNA DIE
Also, yes, this was and will be very heavily manga-inspired, but especially from my favorite manga, Cardcaptor Sakura, and my favorite mangaka, Yuu Watase.

Credits:
Because a lot of my ideas were inspired from some of these people and essays:
MAKO HATE AND WHY A LOT OF IT IS JUSTIFIED by MORTRIALUS on Tumblr
How You Can Have a Bunch of Great Ideas but Still Fuck Up Real Bad: A Korra Essay by chirart on Tumblr
Pretty much anything in fuck-mako's Constructive Criticism tag, but particularly this post about how Mako's character could have been written differently
Also, I used several of rayedward's tones, particularly things from his Effect Tone Pack teaser .

Description
Tumblr Friendly version
*PLEASE READ* I know it's long but if you don't read this and then ask about something that I addressed here, I will be displeased :c
It is widespread agreement that due to unfortunate circumstances, "Avatar: The Legend of Korra" Mako’s character arc was somewhat botched. Despite the fact that he seemed to have a favorable start, promising to show us all his trials and developments every step of the way, as he went from cold and indifferent sports player, to reluctant teammate, to cherished friend and then irreplaceable ally, he was instead forcibly thrust into the middle of a love triangle drama, demoted to nothing but an indecisive, immature teenage boy, his previously established personality ripped to shreds and replaced by an erratic, unpredictable one instead. Any character development he might have had was crushed (taking a good chunk of the plot with it), and so were our hopes and dreams of seeing him a fully realized character.

…okay, so maybe I’m being a TAD dramatic (though some may disagree), but almost everyone agrees that at some point, something went wonky. I loved Mako’s potential from episodes 2 and 3, though, so I’ve decided to make a bunch of small comic strips based on Book 1, about how I would have liked his personality to have developed, based on what we saw in the first few episodes. To do this, I’ll mainly be fabricating what I hope are somewhat redeeming, between-episode scenes of budding relationship development between him and the other characters, which were the sorts of scenes from him that I felt were sorely “missing”, but I'll also rewrite some of the canon scenes too, to tie it all together. I’m a romantic, so the focus will be on the relationship between him and Korra (which got a lot more foot-in-mouth than it quite frankly deserved), but I will also explore the other characters, too. My goal will be to make him look like less of a jerk, and be the more developed character that a lot of people wanted and expected.

Disclaimer: I don't mean to demean or disrespect Bryke's work and writing with these comics. However, I do feel that there are lots of things they could have done better, especially concerning Mako. Even so, I still have faith that, given more time, they would have developed Mako more slowly than the way they actually did with only 12 episodes. As it was, I think the reason so many of us take issue with the way Mako was portrayed is because, among other things, with not enough time to show all his development, Bryke instead "overshot" with some things, in order to bridge the gap between Mako's beginning persona and his ending one. -coughepisode9- But because those two differed so drastically, it just made us feel like Mako's feelings came out of nowhere and also because they didn't have enough time to have him properly break up with Asami BEFORE all that stuff happened, made him look like a jerk. As was made clear by Bryke's surprise at the fans' reactions to Mako, they didn't intend for him to come off that way, many people didn't want or expect him to come off that way, and I really would have liked to see him not come off that way, so this comic series was born.

SO, I'd like you to think of these comics not as a replacement for Book 1, but as sort of individual “patches” and “add-ons”, which, if added to the Korra Book 1 timeline, help solidify and deepen both Mako’s character development, his relationships with the characters, and the plot. Take one, take them all, or take none if you don't like it, either way it's up to you. (:

Sit down, strap in, and I hope you enjoy my take on Mako's character! If you don't, then I'm sorry. You don't have to read this anymore if you don't want, and feel better in the fact that it will never be canon :C

About this strip:
When I first saw Mako's crazy blushes on seeing Asami, my nose wrinkled a bit. It was such a huge contrast to how we had seen him act before that it seemed inappropriately distasteful rather than comedic or sweet. Not to mention, this guy was a highly attractive popular Pro Bender. With the way he snubbed at Bolin's apparent habit of bringing 'crazy' fangirls around, and his good looks, it's not farfetched to assume he's had his own share of fangirls, but he simply doesn't take much stock of them. That, combined with a statistical guess that at least a few of them were also pretty damn attractive, as well as his initial, focused, stoic personality, led me to believe that he is a) not someone who can be caught off guard/impressed easily, b) at least doesn't overreact if caught off guard (read: Korra being the avatar), and c) disregarding of, or at least somewhat used to, attractive women.
In the end, I think what really gets him the most is Asami's unexpected sweet composure combined with her straightforwardness, because he's used to attractive girls shrieking at him, but not attractive girls calmly offering to take him to dinner (:

Artist Blablah:
AHHH, this took SO much longer than I expected it to! Almost 3 entire weeks! Granted, I was on break and therefore doing a bunch of other stuff too, but still! Do you have ANY fucking idea how hard it is to keep characters perfectly on model?!?! Yes, I traced a lot of the shots that were originally in the episode, because why ruin a good thing, but even the made-up shots that I created myself needed soo much referencing Hopefully I can improve though as time goes on, and now that I've figured out some tricks in Illustrator, the next ones might go a bit faster. But it still took so long!! AH I'M GONNA DIE
Also, yes, this was and will be very heavily manga-inspired, but especially from my favorite manga, Cardcaptor Sakura, and my favorite mangaka, Yuu Watase.

Credits:
Because a lot of my ideas were inspired from some of these people and essays:
MAKO HATE AND WHY A LOT OF IT IS JUSTIFIED by MORTRIALUS on Tumblr
How You Can Have a Bunch of Great Ideas but Still Fuck Up Real Bad: A Korra Essay by chirart on Tumblr
Pretty much anything in fuck-mako's Constructive Criticism tag, but particularly this post about how Mako's character could have been written differently
Also, I used several of rayedward's tones, particularly things from his Effect Tone Pack teaser .