>>148971947
>>148972516
It didn't and zuko running from jin had absolutely nothing to do with Mai retard.
He ran away from her because at that point of his character arc he was almost ready for his breakthrough, he had spent all season 2 familiarizing himself with earth kingdom people, first with that girl that had her leg burned, zuko was shocked when he realized the fire nation did the same to both of them, kill someone important to them and gave them a permanent reminder of it in their bodies.
Then with that one family and kid he helped from some earth bandits, they gave zuko a momentarily sense of family bonding because they were what zuko wanted his family to be but when he remembers his mother words about who he is he proudly says he is the fire nation prince misunderstanding what his mother said because he wasn't ready to understand his father was the problem.
Then with jin he rejects her because he was still latching to the idea of being the fire nation prince and that he still needed to go back and couldn't reconcile with the idea of being with a girl of the opposing nation that his nation seeks to burn to the ground, how could he? He would be thinking to himself that the fire nation is in the right still but banging earth kingdom boulders like a massive hypocrite.
Then when he frees appa he finally accepts he will never go back to the fire nation and is ready to move on, had jin be there they would 100% dated but he would have still pick his nation over her when azula appears because he still didn't broke his final wall which was believing he needed the love of his father.
It's until finally he realizes he doesn't need it that he moves on from everything holding him back.
Mai had absolutely nothing to do with any of this in any capacity, you can replace her with literally any girl in the show (except azula) and nothing about his journey changes.
Him dating jin would have made his betrayal in season 2 hurt a lot more but nothing else would change at all.
