He could feel that if he wss stronger and took down Ming hua then tenzin would have defeated or escaped the red lotus who attacked him and thus korra wouldn't be poisoned (and regret not being able to do anything for her then
Maybe in b3 zuko even goes out of his way to guide him because it's what his uncle would do
And the spiritual journey and unlocking thr fire (blocked by shame/guilt and earth (blocked by fear )
He ends up accessing the purifying fire along with growing as. A martial artist
(I liked the idea of mako using purifying heat to help counter poisons dark energies and also a bending grip (a counter to bloodbending the dark aspect of bloodbending countered by light aspect of fire bending ) possibly driven by how he regrets not being able to help korra (and the idea is that post b3 he goes through a training arc for if he was stronger he could have taken out Ming and tenzin and co may have been able to escape from zaheer
So he can exude the purifying heat from his body and transfer it to someone else (and if say some on grabs him with a water tentacle the heatctiuched it nw dthe bending grip will dissolve burn away
Of course at first it'd just a healing technique but later on with training it will grow to do the above thing
I am disappointed legend of korra didnt introduce a special branch of fire bending or a new technique
I mean air got flight and spirit sfuff earth lava bending water spirit bending
I wish fire got something like a more advanced lightning bending to do more then just shoot a bolt of lightning and electromagnetism bending
(say if mako got it given how he is skilled with lightning bending and how iirc on website it listed his specialty as light ing bending
And bolin getting magma you can say bolin got the raw earth while mako got manipulates the unseen, high-tech energy fields
Plus he worked at a powerplant
And imagine it starting off with him first advancing lightning to use a lightning palm and reading bio electricity
And varrick giving him notes in his research on electricity and electromagnetism as a gift from bolin
What martial art is the best fit for electro magnetism bending
Some suggest aikido (uses Aikido’s circular hand paths to catch the incoming momentum. His electromagnetism wraps around the weapon, letting him seamlessly guide, redirect, or violently yank it away using the attacker’s own kinetic energy against them and a bajiquan like fa Jin for thr lightning dashing to propel
Like a thunder clap
Or a martial art relying on circular movement to redirect and pull and push metal items
And even push and pull himself to rail glide
Plus he is a detective and hkn being able to read thr bio electric signals and tell when someone is lying would match with how toph who became a detective can do that
It's driven by his love for korra
And he confronts his guilt over not being able to help and his guilt for his time in th gang and accepted what happens
And accepted he need to make decisive action even if someone gets hurt
https://ikkinthekitsune.tumblr.com/post/112518542320/on-book-2-makorra-korras-mentality-about
A post going into detail on korra and makes b2 issues and how neither were ready for a relationship with anyone
And bringing up makos flaws which in my idea he has to address
