Gone Viral

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Last night I managed to get my buddy Heather—you may remember my buddy Heather, the nicest person in the world—completely addicted to Avatar: The Last Airbender. After I assured her that there was no questionable content in it and in fact it’s a kids’ show, we spent a good three hours watching through it.

We’re still on season one, so I have yet to convince her that Uncle General Iroh is a god damn badass GQ motherfucker,* and she’s still dubious of my claim that Zuko’s character arc through the series is, in my conservative opinion, one of the greatest ever written.** Right now they’re just a goofy old fat guy and a bratty wounded teenage antagonist.

BUT SOON SHE WILL SEE THE LIGHT. She’ll be going back to school in Southern Utah in a couple of days, but she has asked if she can come over when I’m done with work tomorrow to finish the first season.

She is a little worried that she’s making me watch something I’ve seen before. “You have no idea how happy I am to have an excuse to,” I told her.

So I’m hoping Saturday will be Avatar Party 2: The Writers Realize How Cool This Show Can Be, And So Does Heather. And if she doesn’t make it, don’t tell anyone, but I may have to just watch it again. For … completeness. Yes. That’s right.


*Partly because one does not use such tawdry language around Heather. Hell, even “Iroh is a gosh darn cool GQ mothereffer” may be too saucy for her, but cleaning it up completely sort of loses something.

**No, really. Redemption, finding one’s own path, coming of age—they’re old tropes, but never have I seen it executed better.

Comments

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Love the icon.

Zuko's story is kinda like hearing someone play a flawless rendition of a difficult concerto. Sure, you know the music, you've heard it before, but DAMN THEY DID IT RIGHT THIS TIME. And as I said further down the page, it has something new the second time around, because you know the background and can see just what's making him such an obnoxious little twerp at the beginning.

I like that Sokka is the comic relief AND the badass normal. And I loved how they give him a sort of ass-backwards brilliance--he is not very articulate, but my brother the engineer feels that he is a kindred spirit in problem-solving.

WHAT MOVIE? I KNOW NOT OF ANY THE LAST AIRBENDER MOVIE. YOU MUST INDEED BE MISTAKEN.

[marag.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I dreamt that movie. I mean, can you believe that in my dream, they didn't cast Asian actors? Hahahaha! That would be so silly, wouldn't it?

And yes, there's just so much going on. It's a kid's show that doesn't talk down to the kids.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Hah! What a strange dream you had! Imagine casting someone of a different race--Hollywood wouldn't do that! You would never see a black actor playing Harry Potter or a Japanese person playing Batman simply because those were "the best actors for the job," so OBVIOUSLY such a weird recasting wouldn't occur IF Hollywood ever decided to do an Avatar: TLA movie, right? LOGIC.

Hell, I (and many others) even have trouble keeping the "I LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY" out of grownup fiction. I have tremendous respect for people who can let stories speak for themselves. And when they do it for kids, they get extra super bonus points.