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.

[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.)

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

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

[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?)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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::

[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]

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.

[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.