•〖 View Asks Only 〗
•〖 Mako: Constructive Criticism 〗
•〖 Rebloggables 〗
I see Mako as the type of boyfriend who believes his controlling, manipulative, and co-dependent relationship with his gf isn’t a problem because he also treats her amazing and does a lot of nice, supportive, wonderful things for her. He knocks down her self-esteem and manipulates her then treats her like a princess, abusing her in a way that draws her closer to him and forms co-dependency. He sees his overbearing behavoirs as proof that he cares about their relationship and finds excuses for it - it was a tense situation, I wasn’t thinking, there was a war going on, I had a tough childhood - and always apologizes incompletely and in a way that garners sympathy for himself.
He’s blind to criticism and listens to it just to shut up whoever’s got beef with him. He’s constantly reconstructing and pushing his limits and never truly believing when people tell him he has problems, because they obviously don’t know the full story, they don’t know how great he is to her, etc. He’s unable to see himself change and notice the increasing danger his behavior poses.
He does love her, but he’s so concerned with how she makes him happy and how she isn’t doing x, y, and z and how her complaints and problems relate to him and hinder him that he ends up less wanting to benefit her for her sake and wanting to benefit her so she can once again benefit him.
This paints Mako as a complete monster, but the scary part is, he probably doesn’t even know he’s doing it. His girlfriend - hopefully not Korra, poor baby D: - may not see it for what it is, and if she’s strong enough to call him out on it, he finds a way to manipulate her until she’s back in his control, all while believing he’s doing the right thing, because his intentions are honestly good but he’s so concerned with control and his own comfort that he fails to consider hers.
I also see him as a denialist who frequently fails to attribute the consequences to his own actions and thinks self-pity and depression (both of which I can see him suffering from) exempt him from criticism because “he feels bad for what he did”. He uses blame as a coping mechanism and rather than solve a problem in his relationship, he deals with specific events by saying “it’s because of this, BLAME GOES HERE, we’re done.”
I can cite a lot of examples from the episodes to back up my thinking, but anyone who’s bothered to read this wall of text is probably an avid enough Avatard to know where I’m coming from, anyways.
I really like the Abuse Cycle fic, because while I felt it was more “abuse as it relates to people in general” rather than “abuse as it relates to Mako and how he is in relationships”, it called out a lot of things that are frequently glossed over in fantastic/idealized media portrayals of relationships, the most well-known and prominent right now being Edward Cullen/Bella Swan and Christian Grey/Ana Steele. I feel like it’d be even better if the fic went into how it is from Mako’s point of view, where he’s honestly completely fucking oblivious to what he’s doing.
It was about time I pitched in on the whole Mako-hate-brigade, eh?
Nah, I wouldn’t bother with them. Let them have their little crazy party.
Same. It’s just #makorra2.0 with no space. But it’s not very populated… it’ll probably be moot in about half a week.
The obsessive ones, the Avatwihards, are more amusing than anything else.
Love the new tag though.
Only the best for Baby Mako.
Oh, heavens… so the period does work.
Truth, though.
