The Gold-Digger!Mako theory.

nikolaitesla: Thoughts on Mako

And there’s something else I realised. Mako truly dated Asami from The Voice in the Night to The Aftermath, and in The Aftermath, he even tells Korra to get away from Asami. However, in the very next episode, we begin to see the winds of Makorra, with the infamous warm smile in the back-seat. In Out of the Past, we have the “I was so worried” exchange. And now, in Turning the Tides, we watch the last strands of Masami being shut down, finally by Asami’s realisation that Mako was being a jerk to her. But I digress.

So something happened between episodes seven and eight, something even more intense than the two weeks we korrasexuals/avatards had to wait for the next instalment, something that caused Mako to begin the process of destroying Masami and developing feelings for Korra. What could it have been?

Let’s take a look-see. What in the world occurred at the end of The Aftermath? Oh, that’s right. The House of Sato fell, and Asami, the former heiress, was cast out. In other words, she lost her money.

And in the next episode … Mako sits in the back with Korra.

Wait wait wait a second. That can’t be right. There’s no way that Mako would break up with Asami because she lost her money. It must be a coincidence. Right?

Let’s go back for a moment to the second episode, A Leaf in the Wind. Mako was being quite rude to Korra - until she revealed that she’s the Avatar. If you recall the quote, “She’s the Avatar, and I’m an idiot”, then you know to what I refer. As the Avatar, she has status. In general, status is equal to money. Sadly for Mako, in The Revelation, she stated that she doesn’t have any money of her own, but that the world has always provided for her. While she isn’t rich, her status as Avatar affords her mostly the same thing. And in that very episode, we had the first winds of Makorra.

Sadly for Makorrans everywhere, Asami appeared in the next episode. He at first fell for her beauty, but he only became her boyfriend following her disclosing that Hiroshi Sato, the richest man in Republic City, is her father. Actual money > status-afforded money, so Mako went with Asami. Simple maths.

After Asami lost access to that wealth, Mako started to reconsider his feelings for Korra, partly because she now needed protecting, and partly because status-afforded money > no money.

Does he have a reason for all of this? Mako, who grew up alone and poor on the street, would of course like to money. That’s understandable. Do you remember the screenshotted early bio from Welcome to Republic City [the one that said Mako wouldn’t mind being a house wife] which stated that Mako’s true desire was to be safe and secure with regards to money? Exactly.

Mako is, intentionally or not, a gold-digger.