Oh fandom, why must you be so high-strung about this stuff?

[timepiececlock]

Zutara fandom, you know I love you. So why do make me smack my forehead? WHY?

I can't believe that so many people are a) wrapped up in the idea that every on-screen relationship is written to be an epic saga in the making, and b) having been denied Zutara so far, are now actually blaming the Mai/Zuko ship as being "badly written" because it's not epic so far.

OF COURSE IT'S NOT. IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE. It's supposed to be awkward, and annoying, and frustrating, and cutesy, and involve lots of macking.

Which means its being written fine, you just want so badly to hate it that you're trying to read too deeply into it.

Comments

[crzysheelf.livejournal.com]

Well put.

[herongale]

I happen to be rather partial to go-nowhere, silly lovey-dovey romances. It's fun to see someone so lovestruck that they act like a jackheaded fool. And it would be in no way out of character for either Zuko or Mai to be that way: they are individually each so full of themselves and their own angst that they just cannot be counted on to be mature about love.

Zuko in particular has a lot of growing up to do, and until he reconciles with his uncle and gives up on trying to please his father, he'll not be the kind of guy who is manly enough to handle a truly beautiful mature and lasting relationship.

(icon used to match yours that you used to reply to the original post, because I loved what you said over there)

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Word to all you said.

I am enjoying the superficiality of their relationship, but honestly I'd rather not have the Zuko/Mai subplot if I had a choice, because I think it's yet one more step of an effort to stall Zuko's character development and keep him confused with contradicting loyalties. We had that all season 2, and again so far in season 3. I'm kind of bored of it. I think they're creating filler with him because they can't have him "pick sides" too soon (given his continual guilt over Iroh, it's clear he still hasn't picked sides in his heart no matter what he claims).

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. That one.

The general gist of my response can be summed up in this quote: "I want to find these people, break into their high school creative writing poetry class, grab their hot topic shirt collar, and shake them like a British nanny."

Speaking of which...GO GO UK!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

a) Where have you been, stranger? You never send me flowers anymore.

b) break them shake them

c) I have a really cool hot topic shirt, that's sky blue and long sleeved, covered with little lightning bolts. It's cute. Hot Topic is mostly annoying, but there are rare gems like in all stores.

d) what's with the british references?

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

God save the Queen, because ol' smoky got their Avatar fix earlier than us.

Translation: I have seen "The Runaway" and "The Puppetmaster", and am pleased. Quite pleased, yes.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Good to see you being a voice of reason over there. Shit like this is why I cannot get into Avatar fandom, because I would be bitchslapping half the people in about five minutes. And these are the people who like the same ships.

p.s. Mai/Zuko is so adorably stupid

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I miss talking fandom with you. Are you watching Pushing Daisies? It's brilliant.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Aw. I miss talking with you too, fandom and not. AND I AM, IT IS SUCH A GREAT SHOW, HEART HEART HEART. It is absolutely my favorite new show this season.

[rasielle.livejournal.com]

... ahh, man, elitist "our fanon is better" comments. :( Do they have any idea how inflammatory those are, and how unreasonable? I just posted my own comment there, and had to point out that the only reason our fandom has more "epic" fanfiction is that our fandom has more fanfiction, period.

And I don't understand how they can make a claim like that anyway, with the amount of excellent Katara/Aang and Mai/Zuko that's floating around out there. They apparently haven't bothered checking out fanfiction for the canon ships, so why say anything about them?

just a little record-clearing for myself: once upon a time, I thought I wouldn't enjoy Mai/Zuko because I don't really enjoy Mai in general, but decided after season 3's first ep that the pairing was actually quite charming. For once, here's a relationship of Zuko's that isn't incredibly, badly adjusted. That the Zutara fandom can denounce such a MIRACULOUS THING is upsetting.

Also, OT question: have you ever tried participating in NaNoWriMo?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

just a little record-clearing for myself: once upon a time, I thought I wouldn't enjoy Mai/Zuko because I don't really enjoy Mai in general, but decided after season 3's first ep that the pairing was actually quite charming. For once, here's a relationship of Zuko's that isn't incredibly, badly adjusted. That the Zutara fandom can denounce such a MIRACULOUS THING is upsetting.

I was briefly enamoured with the idea of Mai/Ty Lee as lesbians. That would have been AWESOME. When it became apparent that the show might have something come of a reunion, I was skeptical about liking it or not because Mai is, as Zuko so succinctly put, "a complete BLAH", but hopeful in the way that Mai might turn out to be a shrewd, intelligent, calm, politik kind of character who'd make a good match, if a different one than Katara would. But she never seemed trustworthy, and so I didn't know if I approved of her.

Having seen the relationship going (I'm grateful we were spared the first-date stuff, as a shipper and as a critical viewer) I'm pretty pleased with it. I like that they're taking it the way they are, with realistic immaturity. It means I don't have to create fanon around Mai to make her fit with my idea of a fanon future Zuko. Rather, it's just Mai and Zuko as they are in canon now: self-centered brats who are discovering the joys dating.

And I also agree that at least he has some happiness. I'm a member of zukogetslaid for a reason: the boy needs someone to cut him a break. And even if Mai is still Azula's creature first, at least she's someone who doesn't look down on Zuko, abuse him, or corner him with expectations.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

The utter irony of all this is that the OP was on fandom_wank about a month ago in part of a dispute in which she was complaining about people posting about things like this too often. I HELPED PUT TOGETHER THE REPORT. IT WAS SO PAINFUL TO SEE THIS POST.

*shakes her head, reads through the comments looking for spoilers, sends it to the dark recesses of Bad Fandom in her mind*