Avatar

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Okay, so recently my siblings got me forcibly into Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I watched the whole thing.

Holy shit, now I understand what y’all were talking about. This was an amazing fantasy world, beautifully animated, great story, great characters,* and it was intelligent. It’s also not set in Standard Fantasyland, for which I am eternally grateful. It’s definitely up there as a favorite series.**

Also, I kind of generally want to be Toph. She’s a badass muthafucka and I think she wears a snood. How many blind snood-wearing rock-hurlers have you met?

However, I have one rather unnerving question open for discussion about this show, and it pretty much sums everything up for me:

Which is creepier: that I have a powerful crush on Uncle General Iroh, or that when I confess that to other people their only response is, “Well, of course!”?

But come on, dude can crush prison walls with his face (SHUT UP YOU WEREN’T THERE AND NEITHER WAS THE CAMERA) but if you try to kill him he’ll serve you a cup of tea and tell you some nonsense before resorting to BREATHING FIRE. That is the correct approach to any situation. So I suppose I can see where they’re coming from.


*Somehow, the adolescent rage and confusion and flailing that drove me absolutely crazy with Harry Potter does nothing but endear Zuko to me, even though he’s such a little snot. Maybe I figure he deserves a little more angst. At least Harry’s scar didn’t boil his eyeball.

** I’m also even more confused as to why they even want to make a movie from it.*** My plan is to deny it exists—partly because it’s already a perfectly good TV series, and partly, of course, because of the unforgiveably boneheaded whitewashing.

***Answer: money.

Comments

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

Iroh crushes are the result of the fact that Iroh is an old man. If you're nice to him, he'll give you tea. If you're mean to him, he'll still give you tea.

And if you get in his way, he'll firebend your ass from the Air Temples to Ba Sing Se.

Then he'll give you tea.

No matter what, you're going to get tea. And you better like it.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

See, that's exactly why I feel Iroh and I would get along!

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

Hence your crush on him. It all fits!

[beccastareyes]

See, twenty years from now, I might not mind a movie retelling of the story, because it would bring the story to a new audience. But, probably the people who see the movie will be people who saw the show.

Also, Iroh is generally awesome, so I am unsurprised at the reactions.

(I want more TV like Avatar -- not ripoffs, but stuff that shows both good writing and good worldbuilding, especially if they use elements outside of standard fantasy or SF tropes. Especially stuff that kids and adults can watch -- I mean, I know I have weird taste, but I sat through the 2nd season finale for a second time with my cousin the Latin American Studies Librarian and her husband the film student.)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I demand more quality TV!

(Although I noticed that one of the writers from my favorite show, Futurama, is also head writer for Avatar. Aaron Ehasz knows his shit.)

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I really need to see that, don't I?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yes, you really do. If only I could watch it with you!

[lookingforwater.livejournal.com]

My only quibble with the series is that I feel very strongly that they needed to sell Katara's romantic love for Aang a lot more strongly than they did. We see a ton about Aang's romantic love for Katara, but I can't think of any one moment that was clearly and overwhelmingly "Oh, she loves him that way." People point to the bit in the caves in Ba Sing Se, but she does clearly love Aang in a nonromantic sense, and he's the last best hope for a just peace, and he just got zapped. So there are other emotional factors involved.

People tend not to listen to me when I say this, because I also think Zutara is awesome. (Iroh ships it, people. What further proof do you need?)

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

I also ship Zutara, but only if something happened to Mai, who is also awesome, and thus I wish her no ill will.

[lookingforwater.livejournal.com]

I think Mai works better as Zuko's BFF. I can see them being together for a while and then realizing that they were too alike, and parting amiably and she becomes his grand vizier or whatever Fire Lords have.

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

That's kind of what I see Aang and Katara doing.

Katara makes a bad match for Aang because she's the mother archtype. Not that this is a bad thing, but she tends to break out the asskicking only in defense, not offense. She is very much the mother bear or tiger.

I think she works much better as a mate for Zuko. She can fill his mother issues and provide a stable counterpoint to Zuko's hot temper. The same defense mindset works better as a ruler or ruler's mate. She will protect what belongs to her and her husband and if you piss her off, she'll kick your ass. But she's not the sort to go out and beat peace into someone's head.

As far as Aang, well, the kid's messed up. He has hundreds, if not thousands of voices in his head. On top of that, he has to somehow keep the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribe from turning the Fire Nation into something very much resembling an egg dropped from thirty thousand feet.

Toph makes a better match. Buumi said it himself when telling Aang what to look for. She waits and listens. When the oppurtunity comes, she strikes, hands you your own foot and you will eat it, if only to keep her from beating you up some more.

Furthermore, Toph likes to travel. She's a free spirit at heart and she's willing to tell Aang when he's being an idiot. Katarra always sort of backed off from that sort of thing. Aang has to move around a lot, not only putting out post-war fires, but searching for Air Nomads. The Fire Nation can't have gotten them all. They're out there somewhere. Hiding in the mountains and remote areas.

Waiting and Listening . . .

The next generation of air benders...

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Something that newroticgirl brought up was that if Aang can take away someone's bending power, what's to stop him from giving the power to someone else?

Re: The next generation of air benders...

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

Good point, except that there seems to be no one criteria for why someone is or isn't a bender.

Here's another thought. If one's Bending is a reflection of the nature of one's spirit, then a Firebender could be born to an Earth bender.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

[pleasantly conversational] Did I ever tell you how I came to be called the Dragon of the West?

[demonstrates by HOLY CRAP BREATHING FIRE AND DESTROYING ALL ENEMIES WITH THE POWER OF FLAMEY AWESOME]

And now some spice tea and a leisurely game of pai-sho!


Yeah, Iroh is one old man who could definitely get it. Somehow the fact that he is voiced by the same guy who voiced Aku in Samurai Jack helps that.

That is not a snood, that is a massive hair bun. There is one episode where you see exactly how much hair Toph actually has stuffed into it.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

also Zuko === Ru! Fi! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! Who still is damn fine almost 20 years later.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

"I don't have time for another of your crazy stories, uncle!"

"It's more of a demonstration, really."

That episode is what made me decide she had a snood to hold her hair in so well--just a black one so the mesh doesn't show up against her hair.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

I just chalk it up to her headbands having teeth of Cartoonium. Or you know, being held down and in by the power of Toph's sheer awesome.

I loved how her introductory episode was such a sendup of pro wrestling. I saw it for the first time when I was still watching WWE religiously and spent most of the earthbending tournament having paroxysms of laughter. This was not helped by recognizing Mick Foley voicing The Boulder.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!! Fire Nation Man = Nikolai Volkoff from the ooooold days of WWF, and The Boulder is so very Randy Macho Man Savage. I've brought my roomies into the Avatar fold, and we often say things to each other like "The Boulder is confused" and sing the songs from The Cave of Two Lovers.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

My absolute favorite exchange from the show gets quoted back and forth between me a nd a friend of mine to the point of becoming an in-joke.

"I know what you're going to say. ($gender_pronoun) is my ($relationship) and I should love/get along with/respect ($gender_pronoun)..."

"No. ($gender_pronoun) is crazy and needs to go down."

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

God, and the delivery of that line was hilarious. Iroh holds these truths to be self-evident, by god.

"Calmness! Serenity! That's why we're drinking tea!"

"... Oh, yeah, that too."

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

I think we need to hang out and quote Avatar. *nodnod*

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Mick Foley voicing The Boulder

WATE WUT

Dammit, now I'm gonna have to watch this series.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

"THE BOULDER IS CONFLICTED ABOUT FIGHTING A YOUNG BLIND GIRL."

"Sounds to me like you're scared, Boulder."

"THE BOULDER IS OVER HIS CONFLICTED FEELINGS AND IS NOW READY TO BURY YOU IN A ROCKALANCHE."

You haven't seen this series? I join with the many other fans obnoxiously demanding to know why not!

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

I don't know! I keep hearing how awesome it is, but, y'know, Nickelodeon... (also, I watch almost no TV).

Also, GWIP.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kinda didn't expect Nickelodeon + anime influences to turn out well. Silly me.

You'd probably have an extra appreciation for it because it actually bases each "bending" style on real martial arts--with attention paid to style. It's also as carefully animated as the hula from Lilo & Stitch to be accurate.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

Wow, I'm not familiar with the series but that seems like quite a neat system. I've been looking into element/animal martial arts for a while - thank you for that link. n_n

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I honestly think you'd really enjoy this series. There are some interesting inspirations drawn from Tibetan Buddhism, and a lot of really great fantasy elements and character development. My only real complaint is that some of the characters seem to pick up techniques awfully fast.

One particular thing I like: the whole series takes the philosophy of martial arts as a defensive, deflective technique very seriously--the protagonists and their "side" focus not on utterly destroying their opponents (individual or nation), but on deflecting attacks and then making peace.

Also, there's Iroh the tea-loving firebreathing pai sho player. His lifestyle is the kind I want.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started, I LOOOOVE Avatar.

Hell, I even made up my own Avatar RPG to play with the roommates.

Double hell, I even wrote Avatar fanfic and posted it on LJ. I *never* post my horribly embarassing fanfic! Never ever for never!

Triple hell, I make Avatar icons!

My love for this show is large.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the RPG sounds cool!

I love the hell out of the Avatar world. Even with shows where I dislike characters, the world may get me--but with this one, EVERYTHING is spectacular.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

So far I think the game is going well (she says hesitantly, it being her first outing as GM). It's 10 years after the fall of the Phoenix King, and somebody's stirring up trouble for the Fire Nation again. I won't say who since at least one of the players is involved in this conversation right here... :D

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

I really need to see more that the four or so random episodes of Avatar that I have seen.

...and even so, I myself have a powerful crush on Iroh. Probably because he's so CHEERFUL about feeding you tea and looking after his whiny nephew and kicking your ass and even being dragged around in chains. He's very good at the "harmless old man" facade. And then he BRINGS IT.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

His whiny nephew becomes less of a snot after a while, but I must say Iroh has the patience of a rock. There's one point in Season 3 where his response to Zuko's dawning self-awareness made me choke up.

[marag.livejournal.com]

Doesn't everyone have a crush on Uncle Iroh? He is MADE OF AWESOME.

This is me pretending the movie doesn't exist. ::coughs::

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

See, this is exactly what I'm TALKING about!

[marag.livejournal.com]

I don't see a problem ;)

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

What movie?
Nothing to see here, move along, move along.

[marag.livejournal.com]

Boy, wouldn't be nice if somebody made a good movie out of Avatar?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

... Actually, even IF such a hypothetical movie were to be made, I think it'd be a blatant act of lily-guilding.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the first DVD of the series and I already have a crush on Uncle Iroh.

(Though the adolescent snottery bugging me right now is that of Annoying Brother Dude who keeps being comic relief without actually being...funny. I really hope he becomes more endearingly Xander-like over the course of the series or I'm going to start fast-forward through his lines.)

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Sokka grows into his own, and becomes the meat, sarcasm, and idea guy.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Iroh's awesome increases exponentially. You are in for some fun.

Sokka actually grows up, too. He bugged me at first, but he starts to get much less obnoxious in Season 2. Has a bit of an eye-opener, y'see, and starts to become actually quite competent.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Avatar is pretty awesome, it's one of those shows were I like some episodes more than others ( the Ember Island players is my fav ) but I can't think of a bad one in the whole lot.

The Iroh segment of Tales of Ba Sign Se had me all choked up the first time I saw it.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Oh, I choked up too. I fall for cheerful characters with painful pasts.

Ember Island Players was hilarious. I liked Toph's reaction to her actor--I really should have seen that coming. And the Mr. B Natural Mary Martin parody had me in gales of laughter. But I think my favorite thing was a point where Aang and Zuko, watching the first Blue Spirit incident, share an uncomfortable, guilt-ridden sidelong glance at each other like "Let us never speak of this again." It was possibly their most genuine interaction between them.

[lycheetwist.livejournal.com]

I felt silly at your Iroh thing. Two thoughts crossed my brain, the first being "What's wrong with that?" and the second being "Well, duh".

I know it's going to be a horrible travesty of a movie, but my god I'll go see it anyways, I'm sure. I'll be sure to bring tissues to weep over the M. Night bastardizations. I can hear the cries of distain from the choice of Zuko, but I will say that he's a fine actor who's fake scar isn't nearly big enough. Not to mention the copious hours put in the tanning booth apparently. The skin colors kind of flip-flopped. Can't have those main characters being colored! God forbid the villain was white like he's supposed to be.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, he's not a bad actor--I have no beef with Patel. I'm just rather stunned that they think that an Indian would look anything like an East Asian, and that one casting change would apparently fool everybody into thinking, "Oh, well, this movie is diverse, then!"

(I say Zuko's East Asian-looking even though I think the creators managed to do the thing I've always wished happened more in fantasy--they made a world with its own races. But since the series is clearly influenced by East Asian cultures, I'd say that's who should play 'em.)

And isn't that tanning booth thing appalling? What the everloving fuck made anyone think THAT was the respectful way to honor another race?

Hollywood does not get any of my money for this. I can't convince them this is bullshit if I also pay them anyway.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm gonna probably see it too, mostly because a friend of mine is an extra, playing a waterbender. I can't stay home if I *know* somebody!!