This is (mostly) dedicated to the Korra and Mako and their sexy awesome ship. Also literally everything else about LoK, including spoilers and crit.
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may the glory of makorra guide you always
I think Mako becomes a cop because he was inspired by Korra. When he told her that she’s the most loyal, brave and selfless person he’s ever known, he wasn’t trying to get into her pants (asdlkjflsj) he meant it. I think that with all the events that had been happening with Amon and the Equalists, Mako realized just how much responsibility was lying on Korra’s shoulders.
Talk about Mako all you want, but the guy knows responsibility. He’s had to be responsible for another life in addition to his own when he was just eight years old. A child, living in the streets, homeless, starving. Begging and thieving to survive day to day, to provide for himself and his brother. So when he sees what Korra’s going through, that her job entails her to devote her whole life to the world, he respects and admires the shit out of that. He empathizes with her (yeah, Mako’s toooootally a sociopath *rolls eyes*). He makes sure to be there for her, to let her know that he knows she’s under a lot of pressure and that he wants to help her in any way he can.
I can imagine Mako asking himself, “What am I doing with my life?” He knows he wants to do something that will help others and the world he lives in, like Korra. And so, inspired by her, he decides to become a cop. It’s his way of giving back to the city that raised him through the good and (most definitely) the bad, by getting rid of its crime and protecting its citizens. He won’t be saving the whole world but at least he can help a part of it.
Also, I’m pretty sure that in addition to his police duties, he’ll want to be by Korra’s side when she’s saving the world.
JDS, mid-right: Mako keeps himself warm during a cold, snowy night in Republic City. This concept was done to help get the…[unintelligible]…of the character…[unintelligible].
BK, mid-right: Joaquim really had an Industrial Age/Dickensian take on the Korra world, especially in his explicatives of the brothers. Mako concept by Joaquim Dos Santos.
BK, bottom right: Once we revised…[unintelligible]…Ryu’s…[unintelligible]…take on the brothers, he…[unintelligible]…in and did a fantastic job finalizing both of their designs, all the way down to Bolin’s skivvies. Mako and Bolin design by Ki-Hyun Ryu. Color by Bryan Konietzko and Sylvia Filcak-Blackwolf.
MD, top: We wanted to include a story about brothers in Korra, which is where the idea for Mako and Bolin came from. They also illustrate how family and culture had become more mixed, seventy years after the original series. Mako and Bolin’s mother came from the Fire Nation and their father hailed from the Earth Kingdom, but they both were killed when Mako and Bolin were young. Forced to grow up too soon, Mako protected and shielded Bolin from the darker side of the world. This is why Mako grew to become the more cynical and serious of the two, while Bolin still remained childlike and naive.
JDS, middle: This is a pretty early pass I did on the brothers. It’s kind of strange to look back at these now, as I think our initial…[unintelligible]…was to make Bolin a little pudgy. Still, you can see some of the DNA for the characters…[unintelligible]…in. I can remember struggling to find the impact that progress and industry would have on fashion in the Avatar universe. Mako and Bolin concepts by Joaquim Dos Santos.
MD, bottom: Mako and Bolin spent much of their youth running small-time scams in the…[unintelligible]…streets of Republic City (above). Concepts by Eun-Sang Yang. Paintings by Frederic Stewart. Right: Ki-Hyun Ryu’s wacky concepts of a version of Bolin that never came to be.
JDS, bottom: You’ve got to love Ryu…Only he could envision one of the lead characters as a bowl cut-wearing…[unintelligible]…clown. Bolin concepts by Ki-Hyun Ryu.
