On account of the comic, I presume, and the quirk of time zones that let me get it a few hours before America.
Anyway, hello, I’m Liz. I don’t update this Tumblr as much as I should, because I’m honestly not kidding when I talk about how busy I am. I’m doing the program for a science fiction convention (you should totally come if you’re in Melbourne! And if you’re in Melbourne, and the idea of turning up at 10 am on a … Sunday? I think? To talk about Avatar on a panel called Panelbending really excites you, you should get in touch. We could do with one more person). And I’m also working overtime at my job, which is related to law enforcement and thus stressful, and basically, 2013 is not the year of leisure time!
But stick around anyway, ‘cos I’m all about the Mai/Zuko.
(Among other things, but effyeahtophzula would probably have exactly two followers.)
Anyway, my “real” Tumblr is here; my Dreamwidth is here; my proper grown up professional blog is here. In case you want to know who it is reblogging all this art.
korraspirit asked: omg can you scan the comic please?
I don’t have time, I’m afraid — I have a really busy day ahead, and will be out of the house for most of it. I’ve seen scans floating around on my dash, so if you search “rebound” or “rebound spoilers” on the tags you’ll probably find it!
unbearablybleak asked: how did you read the comic already?
I’m in Australia — the time zone occasionally works out in our favour.
I really liked it. It flies in the face of a lot of fanon about the status of Mai’s family, but it makes sense against the little we know from canon.
(Spoilery: if you’re very attached to the idea of Mai’s family being very, very aristocratic and posh, like Downton Abbey in the Fire Nation, you may not care for one aspect. Me, I found it a headspin at first, but then I thought about it as I did my groceries and realised it (a) doesn’t contradict canon, and (b) tells us a lot about social mobility under Ozai.)
It’s very short — only eight pages, and feels more like a vignette that’s setting something else up, possibly the story to follow “The Search”. Or maybe it just gives us a glimpse into the aspects of Fire Nation politics that don’t entirely revolve around Zuko’s feels. (Except this is Zuko, and his feels are ultimately all-encompassing.)
Either way, I thought that Gene Luen Yang demonstrated a good grasp of Mai’s character, taking into account the changes she has experienced throughout the series and beyond, but keeping her recognisably herself. I predict there will be moaning that he has “written her out of the series” — I’ve seen that a lot, for some reason — but I’d argue she’s being positioned to return to Zuko’s life. But in the meantime, both of them have higher priorities, ie, their families.
Anyway, with such a short little comic, it’s hard to pick out a couple of single frames that capture the story. But I’ll attempt to do so between other projects this afternoon. SO BUSY. SO MANY MAI FEELS!
I am at this moment standing the the queue to get my Free Comic Book Day comic, ie, the one about Mai.
If I like it, I’m probably going to share some scans here, time andy other projects permitting. I will tag them with “mai spoilers”, if you want to Tumblr Save that.
…and if I don’t like it, I probably won’t say ANYTHING here, because why clutter up my shipping Tumblr with things that make me sad?
