Mai

Mai wears a Bijia with a thickly outlined collar and a single button including wide sleeves and curly shoes with fingerless gloves. Underneath her sleeves, she keeps her hand arrows on her forearms and keeps her shuriken knives on her upper arms. She keeps the rest of her hand arrows under her skirt stored on her shins. Mai also wears Ox Horns as her hairstyle combined with straight bangs and twintails reaching down her shoulders. She has fair light skin with tawny eyes, black hair, and sharp features.

Dark, brooding, and gloomy, Mai was usually bored by her circumstances and took little interest in anything around her. Her stoic exterior was often mistaken for a lack of emotion, but was really more self control and a great sense of discipline. This was due to the manner in which she was brought up by her politically-motivated parents. Her seeming apathy tended to irritate others, such as when Zuko described her as "just a big blah", and when Ty Lee described Mai's aura as "dingy and gray". Mai's self restraint and constant calm sharply contrasted Zuko's passion and temper as well as Azula's sadistic behavior and insatiable lust for violence. Like Zuko, Mai was against the idea of needless killing; more often than not, she chose to disable foes rather than outright kill them during battle. She generally achieved this by using her weapons to pin their clothes, usually the sleeves, to a vertical surface. Despite her stoic nature, her strong relationship with Zuko tended to bring out her more passionate side. Azula took note of Mai's "strangely good mood" since Zuko's return to the Fire Nation. When Azula started toying with them and mocked her boyfriend, Mai soothed him by assuring him that, even though she had trouble showing it, she did love him. She expressed deep concern when Zuko fretted over why he was not invited to a war meeting hosted by his father. Mai was devastated by Zuko's sudden departure from the Fire Nation and consequently harbored some resentment toward him, as evidenced by her bitter confrontation with Zuko in his prison cell at the Boiling Rock. Despite her hurt, however, she retained a great affection for Zuko, aiding his escape from the prison and, in the process, betraying her loyalty to Azula; she later affirmed to the princess that she loved Zuko more than she feared the latter. Unwilling to hold a grudge, Mai happily reunited with Zuko after the Hundred Year War ended.

Mai was a master markswoman, able to skillfully hit targets from a distance. This skill, also known as "stilettos", involved shuriken knives and hand arrows, a skill that apparently started with her throwing knives at her bedroom wall out of boredom. She had a deadly accuracy with these weapons and used them to pin her opponents down, even if she or the target was moving, which also helped against benders as they primarily needed their hands and arms to be free to bend. Her expert marksmanship gave her enough strength to defeat powerful benders and multiple opponents. While she usually pinned her opponents down with her stilettos, she had been seen throwing them in a way that would cause severe, and possibly fatal, injuries, such as when she attacked Aang and Katara, and Toph. Mai's excellent reflexes, speed, and agility, enabled her to incapacitate several prison guards without killing or injuring them. She proved to be quite nimble; on several occasions she was able to leap across long distances and over high obstacles with little effort. She was also shown to be able to slide across surfaces on her side. When attacking the guards on the Boiling Rock, she was able to attack and dodge by throwing a knife and diving onto her side, gliding across the metal surface in one fluid motion. In addition to her shurikens and the arrow-like darts in her sleeve and ankle holsters, Mai was also proficient with a three-pronged, retractable sai dagger which she used for close combat.

Mai was the daughter and eldest child of Ukano, the former governor of New Ozai, and his wife, Michi. During the last year of the Hundred Year War, she became one of Princess Azula's main allies, and therefore one of Team Avatar's greatest foes, as well as Prince Zuko's love interest once he returned to the Fire Nation. As one of the most privileged girls in the Fire Nation, she attended the Royal Fire Academy for Girls and became a friend of Princess Azula and Ty Lee at a young age. Mai was exceptionally proficient at throwing stilettos, a self-taught skill she developed out of boredom. Using small knives and spring-loaded stiletto holsters concealed in her robes, she was capable of besting numerous benders at once, despite not being a bender herself. She was recruited by Azula along with Ty Lee to capture the princess' brother and uncle, as well as the Avatar and his friends. Mai outwardly resembled an impassive and apathetic teenager. A victim of her father's political aspirations since early childhood, Mai confessed she got anything she wanted from her parents so long as she was quiet, well-mannered, and perfectly behaved. This had a profound effect on her personality, as it was deeply ingrained in her to keep all of her feelings and emotions strongly hidden. She did, however, show happiness when in the presence of Zuko, whom she loved deeply. The strength of her feelings toward Zuko led her to save him from Azula at the Boiling Rock. She confronted Azula, declaring that her love for Zuko outweighed her fear of retaliation. As a result of this betrayal, Azula imprisoned her, along with Ty Lee, who stopped Azula's attack by blocking her chi. Mai was later released after Zuko defeated Azula and claimed the throne. They restarted their relationship with a kiss before Zuko's coronation as the new Fire Lord, though Mai broke up with him a year later due to his unwillingness to confide in her, claiming he loved his secrets more than her.

Regardless, she continued to support his rule, helping to put down uprisings and conspiracies instigated by her father and Azula.

Mai is the Cantonese pronunciation of 袂 meaning "sleeve of a robe", which is where Mai conceals her weapons. Her name is also phonetically similar to the Japanese meimei (冥々, めいめい), meaning "dark" or "invisible", which is relatable to both her gloomy personality and her fighting style. Due to the severity and violence of her attack methods, Mai's daggers were never actually shown hitting a person directly. Rather, they were just barely blocked or dodged. However, when they did hit, they were always aimed at the target's sleeves or clothing and were merely meant to disable the target. The closest these knives were shown to hitting someone in the show was when Katara was fighting Mai in Omashu; when Mai threw a flurry of knives at her, Katara used her waterbending to knock wooden boards into the air in front of her, causing the knives to hit the boards only inches from her face. Though Mai was most often seen using knives and daggers, she could also shoot arrows from the holsters on her wrists and ankles. Mai absolutely hates being called a "chosenjin". In real life, it's a derogatory japanese word to call a korean. But in this instance, it's just insulting.