I don't think Mai was the unfavorite child after the birth of her brother. The logic for that fanon tends to be that the real world cultures that the Fire Nation is based on frequently have girls being pushed aside when their brothers are born, but the Fire Nation seems to be pretty big on gender equality. I also don't believe that they see her only as a means to advance their career through marriage because she's a girl. They see her marriageability as a way to advance their careers, but I'm pretty sure they would be pushing to betroth little Mao to Azula just as ardently as they did to betroth little Mai to Zuko. I also think Tom-Tom is pretty neglected himself, because if he weren't they would have noticed he were missing much faster. I just think her parents aren't any good at being parents.
Also, I like to think that Mai is not naturally skilled with people, and instead of trying to teach their daughter the necessary social skills to know what to do and say in a given situation, they just told her to shut up. Azula of course compounded this learned tendency of hers, because it's just safest to be quiet around her. So when she does open her mouth, disaster.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-08-06 05:56 pm (UTC)I don't think Mai was the unfavorite child after the birth of her brother. The logic for that fanon tends to be that the real world cultures that the Fire Nation is based on frequently have girls being pushed aside when their brothers are born, but the Fire Nation seems to be pretty big on gender equality. I also don't believe that they see her only as a means to advance their career through marriage because she's a girl. They see her marriageability as a way to advance their careers, but I'm pretty sure they would be pushing to betroth little Mao to Azula just as ardently as they did to betroth little Mai to Zuko. I also think Tom-Tom is pretty neglected himself, because if he weren't they would have noticed he were missing much faster. I just think her parents aren't any good at being parents.
Also, I like to think that Mai is not naturally skilled with people, and instead of trying to teach their daughter the necessary social skills to know what to do and say in a given situation, they just told her to shut up. Azula of course compounded this learned tendency of hers, because it's just safest to be quiet around her. So when she does open her mouth, disaster.