#like i'm obsessed!!!! i'm overanalysing your post. i'm picking it apart like ingredients in a sandwich

[korrasgonefishing]

OMG?? YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!! I overanalysed and added some stuff!!

It's less "what if it was more chill" and more about "the coin has two sides" type of thing, finding the good in the bad, you know? But I totally get you. Also I'm really glad to know you liked my post that much, because your post is insane it's sooo good!

Fem!Mako not having a single woman to look up to or to rely on in her childhood is awfully sad to think about. I thought that if avatar world is much less sexist than ours, then there should have been at least some female gangsters, right? But when you watch the show, looking for the background characters or trying to notice background details, there's not a single woman in sight. So we're left with Mako trying to navigate through everything mostly on her own, not counting the small moments when women around give her tips and advices with the limited time they have together - they all have their jobs to do, after all, not much time to chat.

Oh yeaaaaah!!! Momboss and detectivedaughter! So true! Mako finally finding an older woman she can rely on, Lin seeing so much of herself in this girl she begins to treat her like a daughter she never had. Lin realising how Mako never had the chance to fully explore girlhood and going "I had to figure this out on my own, but you won't have to, I'm going to help and I'm not taking no for an answer". Two emotionally repressed women taking care each other, having a cute mother-daughter relationship - from a safe distance, of course, because they're weirdos <3

Comphet (by the way, sorry to hear that you had to deal with this yourself - I hope you're doing better now)... Much to think about... Wait, would she have dated Hasook (the waterbender in their team before Korra joined btw) and made everything worse, leading to him leaving Fire Ferrets after he does poorly in a match and Mako tried (in a rather rude manner) to figure out why he thew the match? Would that be the reason she could tell Bolin to not date Korra, because "dating your teammates is a bad idea" - she would have been speaking from experience? Not sure though if Bolin would have acted on his crush on Korra when there's no one around dating in real time. What is interesting is that fem!Mako learned the hard way that men can be incredibly cruel, and yet she still keeps forcing herself into straight dating. Because she can't have feelings for Korra, liking men and going on dates with them is the norm, right? It's almost like she is doomed to be proven again and again that most men are awful. Thus she forces herself to be an example for Bolin again. Because her poor little bro has no positive male role models besides Toza. So when Lin comes around Mako finally can feel at piece. She finally has an adult woman she looks up to. She allows herself to be taken care of now! Were the circumstances a little bit different she would have thought of Lin as her mother - she probably still feels that deep down, but she would never tell that to anyone, not here and not now. Fem!Mako and Lin both allowing themselves to be vunerable around each other... And after Mako finally has someone to rely on she starts to see that some adult men around aren't that bad - Tenzin is ok (when you don't think too hard about how exactly older he is than Pema), Bumi is not bad either. Bolin is in good hands, letting him hang around Air Temple island is not a bad idea. She can stop worrying so much about him and let him be mostly on his own. Varrick though... Well, I guess I'm giving her another reason to hate his guts lol - get away from her brother, she has seen how you treat your main actress, you're a bad influence -_-

Oooh fem!Mako's gender issues, my favorite! She's so gender. But what could be interesting to me is fem!Mako being properly introduced to the gendered stuff, finally being given a choice - and then she tries it out and she doesn't like it. Surviving on the streets, she wasn't given a choice - no matter how pressing the societal expectations of how a girl should look or act, it didn't matter in the moment she and her little brother were just trying to make it to the next day. Her femininity was ripped from her. And now she was finally given an option. Mako was finally guided by Lin, whom she would consider her mother if the memory of her actual mother wasn't so idealised and distant, she tried to see what sticks, and she didn't quite get it. She has a right to refuse it. The world doesn't have to operate under secret rules anymore. She is grateful to learn this, she knows the nuances of how it works now and she still decied that it's not for her. It's nobody's choice to make but hers. You know, like Toph in "Tales of Ba Sing Se", or Smellerbee style? Her relationship with femininity is complex and also she's butch, your honour 👍 (mom said it's my turn to project on her) Lesbian!Makorra - two gnc girlfriends ooooh...

sooo in regards to @korrasgonefishing’s post that I rb mentioning my fem!mako post and how I was talking about how the bending brothers’ batman ahh backstory would be even more tragic for a little girl because humans can be miserable creatures and they were like ‘oh but what if it was more chill’ and then got talking about bloodstains and I was thinking

oh. mako was orphaned at 8 years old. her mom never would’ve had time to teach her little girl about periods because why would she? they have all the time in the world.

and that’s got me thinking, damn, she wouldn’t have known anything about girlhood. maybe the prostitutes who take pity might tell her the blood doesn’t mean she’s dying, but they probably don’t have much more to teach her that she wants to know, nor would many care to spare the time. and im sure canon mako was the same, not really knowing anything about what to do when he got older, only able to teach bolin how to shave when he’s got a million little nicks on his own face from trial and error.

and that was sad again, my apologies. but it could be happy! and guess howwwwww,, momboss and daughtercop!

so since they’re the sillies ever and also chronically emotionally impaired, their girlhood bonding moment when mako fucks up. (also both of them not really having ‘girlhood’ because of shit ass childhoods… hmm beifong family angst save me…. wait lin beifong learning how to girl on her own because toph never thought to teach her… toph realizing she fucked up way too late because it wasn’t forcing her girl to be a dolly the way toph’s parents had forced her, she just wanted to learn how 2 use eyeshadow,,,, beifong angst save me)

so anyways. mako is so #silly and unaware that chronic lesbianism exists so she’s trying to comphet so hard and going on dates with the biggest fuckin douchebags ever (bcuz they’re ‘manly’ and she has a reason other than being queer for not really liking them) and trying to convince herself she does like them. and essentially she finds this one guy who realllllly fucks her over and he comes into the station to try and embarrass her too, going off about how she could use some makeup and that she acts more like a man than him and. ouch. because she’s always had this problem, she tries to make herself a role model for bolin, but she hates it because being a girl is a piece of her identity that literally cannot be taken away and she’s just letting herself lose it? my fem!mako is cis but she has so many gender feelings because. yeah.

anyway lin to the rescue! who tf are YOU to come into MY station and harass MY officer? I suggest you walk ur smelly ass right back out or you don’t want to find the fuck out what I can charge you with. cuz she’s silly.

and then cue sullen pissy mako cuz she’s like… 18. she’s still a teenager and one of her biggest insecurities just got targeted in front of all her coworkers who she knows already don’t respect her. so she’s miserable the rest of the day,,, until lin to the rescue again!!!

she pulls her daughter aside cuz she’s worried (not that she’ll say so) and is like. don’t let him get to you cuz he’s an asshole and doesn’t really have much worth saying and less worth listening to. you’re allowed to wear light makeup and stuff at the station if you want to, and if you’re really bugged I can pinch someone’s ear to get you some accommodations. because she’s mother.

but then mako is like I FONT KNOW HOWWWW and crying cuz she’s lowkey devastated she never had someone to teach her… anything. she doesn’t really know how to use pads (being broke means you learn how to make bootlegs of, like, everything), she’s never even owned makeup, she hasn’t worn a dress since she was 7, and she doesn’t know any of the girl things every girl seems to know because she has no mom‼️‼️

and lin goes. hm. I am tragically reminded of myself right now. instead of Dealing with that, I’m going to aggressively help and thus permanently insert myself as a mother figure in my favorite kid’s life. so she, over time and gradually less awkward invitations to her house, teaches mako how to use makeup, slightly enjoying being able to experiment with mako’s uniquely distinct features. she teaches her about period cycles and how to cope, and goes shopping for pretty clothes that she insists on paying for at the last second (“you paid for the food already.” “yeah, chief, from the CHEAPEST VENDOR IN RC?? I thought you hated their food!?” she does. she knew mako needed to pay for something, and felt bad picking anything pricey.) and tells mako about her own girlhood and they both are girls.

this is insane wish fulfillment for me btw. what I could’ve had w my mom if I was normal lololol but anyway. I hope that got silly enough at the end cuz I was thinking about my own comphet era writing this and it hurt my soul a little bit !!