Originally Posted by ruralcurls

I always wondered when I would get this question and now I finally have, so I decided to do it some justice:

Disclaimer because apparently every essay in this fandom needs a disclaimer: the love triangle was painful on multiple levels and I wish the romance had been different.

That being said, here's why I ship Makorra:

Mako and Korra have complementing personalities and fit very, very well with each other. This isn't a case of opposites attracting or people dating their carbon copies - they're both determined, resolute, and stubborn people, who stand up and fight for the ones they love. These similarities make it possible for them to understand each other when **** goes down. For example, when Korra's call-out of Amon at the rally fails, Mako wants to retreat, but then backs her up (and fires the first shot) when it becomes clear that she's going to take Amon's bait and try to save the Air Family, people she cares about deeply. This is not a foreign motivation to Mako, and understanding and sympathizing why your partner takes the risks and makes the choices they do is instrumental to a good relationship.

On top of this, their stubbornness means that they don't take **** from each other: witness the entirety of episode seven. Korra refuses to compromise her belief with respect to Hiroshi Sato even for the friendship of the boy she's in love with, and Mako refuses to compromise his faith in the man who supported his only livelihood and his girlfriend's happiness, even for his best friend and teammate. In episode three, he calls her out on her comment about having nothing and for asking if he's some kind of criminal, basically checking her naivete about poverty and privilege. And, when they are honest with their feelings, it's for better or for worse, but this means they will be honest with each other.

Mako and Korra also have traits that make up for what the other lacks: Korra has a joie de vivre that Mako does not, a passion and enthusiasm for life, an outgoing spirit; all this without being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl because she gets down to serious business when she needs to, and sometimes she needs his comfort just as much as he might need hers. Mako has the level-headedness and strategic mind that Korra does not; when she wants to charge into battle, he curbs her impulsiveness and comes up with the plan of attack. Even if they weren't romantically involved, Mako is a perfect partner for Korra as the Avatar, because he can keep up with her on a level of firebending talent (that fabulous fire-fueled wall run) and he's her intellectual lancer.

And THEN there is the part where Mako's relationship with Korra is instrumental to her character development: Korra takes an immense amount of pride in being the Avatar, such that her entire sense of self is dependent on it; but when Mako meets her he doesn't care that she's the Avatar. He doesn't lavish praise on Korra until she backs up her self-confidence with her first pro-bending match - this is essentially what Lin Bei Fong does, as well. This must have been a total mindwarp for Korra: someone who doesn't trip over themselves to worship her, someone who will give her respect based on what she does outside of the title. And then we get to the end of the season, where Mako tells her that he doesn't care that she's the Avatar or not, he loves her anyway - he loves Korra, not the Avatar, which is incredibly significant to her development. Korra believes that people love her because she's the Avatar, and because she's not, she's no longer worthy of love; and Mako tells her otherwise: 'you are loved because of YOU and not because of the title.'

Furthermore, this ship hits a lot of narrative kinks for me: brooding boy, lively girl, dudes in distress, strong, assertive women; he saves her, she saves him. They're equals. They make mistakes, they fight, they have fun together, and they make each other happy. People deserve love and they deserve to be with people who love them back. At the end of all of this, Mako and Korra made each other happy, and I think they'll continue to make each other happy.

At the beginning, I didn't care, but as the season went on, I found myself rooting for them, my abrasive, brooding firebender and my hard-headed, open-hearted Avatar. So when they finally did get together, I was thrilled - a forgotten street urchin who had to fight for everything he had, loved by the spirit of the world herself, and a girl chosen by fate to be all-powerful, finally loved for who she really is.

I ship it.

Originally Posted by ruralcurls

Originally Posted by cmb4314

Originally Posted by murrrcat