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Mr Interweb posted:I've been seeing a flurry of Avatar: TLA videos on youtube that have been popping up in the last few weeks. Did something happen in the news? Possibly due to the remake coming out? Season 3 of Dragon Prince? All of that and new comics coming off the vine between Faith Erin Hicks' Imbalance trilogy, the Korra trilogy Ruins of the Empire and that new Kyoshi sub-series coming out. ATLA is having a small period in the sun again, and I'm looking forward to it again. asecondduck posted:
At first it was as godawful as any other fanbase; but after starvation for some new material, that poo poo died down. Nowadays, most of the time it's complaints about the frequent delays of the comics and an occasional dipshit or two wondering why Aang didn't kill Ozai or some other plot element the shows itself explains.
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Jul 15, 2019 03:42
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Waffleman_ posted:https://twitter.com/LosWithTheeMost/status/1195414039167406082 Kinda wonder if they realize that Squidward really only works when he's playing off of Spongebob. I'd be willing to bet a show based on Squidward would be a mix of his own episode about that gated squid community he lived in and cosmic opportunities to kick him in the genitals.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:34
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Larryb posted:How exactly did Korra manage to get away with as much as it did? The closest the original series got as far as I remember was Zuko getting half his face burned by his dad and Jet's somewhat ambiguous death (the only confirmation being a single line from Toph: "He's lying"). Jet's really dead. Giancarlo on twitter officially confirmed it. S&P at the time had them water it down to get that as clear as they possibly could.
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May 22, 2020 21:28
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Larryb posted:I’ve never actually read any of the ATLA or Korra comics, are any of them decent? Promise: No. Ideas are there, but it falls flat. Can you believe in the idea of the Earth Kingdom wanting some degree of revenge for the poo poo the Fire Nation pulled? Yes. Would you believe it if King Kuei (yes, THAT Kuei) was the one leading the revolution ? No, you don't. Some fans hated Katara and Aang's depiction of a relationship; but compared to watching Zuko grovel to his father for help and advice on ruling the nation, that was small potatoes. Yes, I'm furious that Gene thought Zuko would ever ask , much less, grovel to his father for anything. Context be damned, that was like selling me the idea of a jar of piss being a plot point. Search: I flip-flop on this one. One week, it's fine, the next I'm furious. If Azula's your favorite character (she's mine, btw), you won't like it much. The marriage is "all bad, all the time" with Ozai being an rear end in a top hat straight out the gate instead of the implied "started ok-ish but ultimately deteriorated vibe the show gave" which raises dubious questions on the nature of Zuko and Azula's birth. There's spiritual shenanigans including a Simpsons joke, a queen of faces, and somehow making Koh, the face stealing centipede, a momma's boy. All the spiritual stuff wasn't needed and took away from the focus of the main story in my opinion. Ursa comes up with an asinine plan of angering Ozai just to try to hurt him and ends up putting Zuko in the crosshairs. Realizing this would ultimately put Azula in them as well, she ends up being more doting to Zuko which inadvertently fucks up Azula. Typing that out, I feel like I'm victim-blaming Ursa instead of pointing out the fumble in logic. Azula makes absolutely no sense, and not in the whole "duh, she's insane" thing. No, I mean, literally, Gene thought one of the more interesting and complex characters who suffered a massive breakdown is now bi-polar/split personality instead of just paranoid and handles her as if she goes crazy at the flip of a switch. At one point, Zuko, man who was determined to put his broken family back together again, dangles his sister over a cliff. Kiyi's loving awesome though and I'd like to see more of her, even if she's just half-zuko/half-azula. Good climax though. Ultimately, the stage was set but it under-delivered. I can assure you; if I was asked on a week I was more ambivalent towards it, I'd have positive stuff to say about it.Though typing out what I typed above, I really should loving hate it more. Rift: I liked it. Some find it dull. I personally liked it. It tackles the idea of change after the 100 year war for the rest of the world, and the birth of heavy industry. It sets the stage for Imbalance, we get a very short tale of YangChen, and the other stuff is fine. Smoke and Shadow. If you think Azula was badly handled, wait till' you see what they do to Mai, Holy poo poo. Azula concocts a plan to help her brother become a better ruler that involves massive child abduction and creating a mass panic/potential revolution in order to "help" her brother become a better ruler by trying to mold him into a puppet king to rule like she would have while continuing to be completely ignorant of why that made her loving break in the first place. Why she's doing that? Because she wants to prove that he is no different from her. Yes, the Joker comparisons are flashing in your head now, and for the record, the Kemurikage outfit she wears has purple. Gene, potentially realizing he's not the best to write Azula, seems to throw out the mental disorders/problems she had or suffered from so now she's just...there. She somehow picked up lightning redirection, no explanation given, and as it's a waterbending-style move, I doubt the classist xenophobe would've added that trick to her arsenal. Azula now (to her own accord) no longer sees hallucinations; but if you remember context clues for when Azula's sanity starts to slip, they depict her changing from crazy to composed like it's a light switch. An argument could be made for the "don't believe what you're reading, look at the actions, or show, don't tell" that the actions and the characters and the tics should be what you're focusing on; but the author commentary reveals that they literally had no idea what to do with Azula. Knowing that, it's like the whole "Motomu Toriyama perving on FFXIII's Lightning thing": Once you know that behind-the-scenes tidbit, it doesn't leave your mind and it really dours your enjoyment on the book. Ursa subplot was cool though. It isn't heavily explored but it counts on you to remember what it was like, so it doesn't need huge depth. North and South: Good! OOParts are there as in at one point, they have a snowmobile chase during an era before Korra's time got cars right. The rest is solid stuff though and it focuses on what Gene wants to talk about : The nature of change between the past and the future and what should be kept the same vs what should change. Imbalance: I personally liked this one. The reasoning behind what the main antagonist is doing is a bit...garbled (like, reading it aloud could cause the words to choke up in your throat) but there's more than enough in it to really make sense. I really liked this trilogy and am looking forward to more stuff Faith has coming. Sadly, she won't be doing any stories with Azula as she got some E-mail from a psychotic fan regarding her and it spooked Faith away. I personally don't hold it against her if she doesn't want to write about her. Turf Wars: I liked it, Tokuga's interesting in that whole "Who the gently caress are you" sense. Some hated it for queerbaiting; but that's a subject I don't feel like I have a right/am not smart enough to talk about. Ruins of the Empire: At the end of Korra, they vowed to disassemble the Earth Kingdom and let the people rule themselves and institute a Democracy. This trilogy ends with Wu reassuming the throne and making GBS threads on change because the people can not only NOT get it right; but the obvious evils of Democracy via Guan, make the point for Monarchal rule. Better than it sounds with context, but I was a bit pissed at this one. EDIT: Didn't know if spoilers would count, so I tagged them. Tactless Ogre fucked around with this message at 22:38 on May 22, 2020 |
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May 22, 2020 21:56
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Electric Phantasm posted:Can someone refresh me Jet's "death"? Long Feng killed him with a serious Earthbending blow. He says he'll be fine, but Toph says he's lying.
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May 22, 2020 22:40
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Funky Valentine posted:King Kuei owned, there should be a comic that was just his adventures traveling around the Earth Kingdom with Boscoe. A re-tread of earlier book two adventures with Zuko and Iroh; just have Kuei suffer living off the land like Zuko did and Boscoe, instead of offering helpful advice, just shits everywhere and fails to be a hunter of the wild.
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May 23, 2020 00:15
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Larryb posted:Speaking of which, is the Kyoshi novel any good? It's a pretty fun read. Certainly grittier than the series, but nothing stupidly shitdark. I drew some Three Kingdoms parallels with the rampant bribery across the land and the Yellow Necks who are really fill ins for Yellow Turbans. One thing to note though is that Kyoshi starts out meek before becoming the Heavy Metal Avatar that we love. I personally enjoyed it.
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May 25, 2020 14:19
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Ruflux posted:I heard that it was actually a lot more mature in the sense that bending was explicitly lethal sometimes and such. Was that just somebody exaggerating or something? No. In hindsight, I might have downplayed the grim aspects a bit. It's like...think Korra but with a little more levity.
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May 25, 2020 21:39
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YggiDee posted:Season one didn't have Azula in it, it is automatically the worst season.
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Jun 4, 2020 08:42
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Larryb posted:Speaking of which, has there been any recent word in regards to season 4 yet (or how many seasons the show will be in general)? From what I read, there were plans for more seasons; but Aaron was revealed to be a massive creeper which may have caused a rift with him and Giancarlo (who left) which may have torpedoed the hopes. Nothing concrete but not looking good at hte moment.
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Jun 21, 2020 10:50
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Funky Valentine posted:He should've brought Scotsman and his family back to the past. He tried that with Ashi and you saw how that ended. No amount of the Scotsman's swearing or insults would've saved him. Would've ripped out my heart to hear the swears get softer and softer as he dissipated into nothingness.
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Jun 22, 2020 21:03
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Red Bones posted:
Eh. Various intellects and characters being dumb is always what drives this kind of stuff. If everybody acted intelligent at all times, the characters get monotonous and there's no drama or conflict.
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Jun 28, 2020 12:34
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Mr Interweb posted:
1-He'd thought Sokka'd be the glorified babysitter while all the other skilled, capable warriors are dealing with the Fire Nation army. It wasn't so much bad thinking that "Sokka alone should watch over my child" as much as it was "Sokka's the only person left over who is free to guard her." 2- That's the point to Zuko and one of his earliest character flaws: That knucklehead never thinks things through. He did get lucky, which is ironic considering he believes he was "lucky to be born." 3-One of the reasons why I'm glad Avatar came out when it did as opposed to today. I'm just looking forward to dweebs yelling about "forcing politics" in a kid's show like this and it makes me want to scream into the loving sun.
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Jun 28, 2020 12:40
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Larryb posted:Ah, I had heard there was also some unpleasantness that came out regarding one of the creators (which is part of the reason why Dragon Prince’s future seems questionable at the moment) and wasn’t sure if he was involved in the ATLA remake as well. Aaron's got no involvement whatsoever with the ATLA remake; though after what he did, I don't want him anywhere near it. COVID's done hosed a lot of things and that project got put on hold for it too.
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Jul 22, 2020 01:32
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Mr Interweb posted:yeah, korra's fighting choreogarphy never grabbed me like TLA's did. TLA's stands up with the best among even anime, imo. One good deed won't undo what one nation has done to yours for hundreds of years. There's some implications in Korra that the Fire Nation is still reeling from the after effects from the Hundred Years' War.
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Jul 28, 2020 12:34
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Cattail Prophet posted:...Actually, do we know for sure that Ozai isn't still alive and kicking during Korra? Even if we exclude Avatars, Bumi was in great shape at 110+, and Ozai wouldn't be all that much older. Ozai's gone. Azula's kinda the wildcard. Thus far, Korra's time hasn't a peep from her but judging from the current ATLA comics, they're waiting to figure out what it is they want to do with her before (or not) trying a storyline with her in the Korra comics. I'd like to see my favorite little brokebrained disasterdork in that series; but whatever.
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Sep 25, 2020 01:07
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Keep it straight with the Bs. Bonebreaker? Ballbuster? Bane?
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Feb 12, 2021 04:53
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Larryb posted:Speaking of Avatar, here’s some recent news regarding the upcoming Netflix series: The site isn't a real one; and the news isn't credible. It's a shitshow leak and false advertising. I swear they put up fake news poo poo like this beforehand. Not a credible source. Will likely edit this later after my brain wakes up.
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Feb 20, 2021 08:20
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Captain Oblivious posted:Zutara is and always has been a case of nerds wanting to read “generally amicable, both are cute, therefore attraction” come hell or highwater. There is not an ounce of romantic chemistry there. TyZula being another. One girl not set alight in a cerulean inferno and then bam, lesbians. I don't see the Zukka ship either; but I'm loving loving how people wanted that one to happen. Covok posted:LoK comics are...well, they're worse than the mainline Avatar comics. I read every Avatar comic and some are fun, but LoK has had a bad run. The Kuvira thing really had elements of "Let's fit a quasi-Azula" background into her and failed to realize that it doesn't work because unlike Azula, Kuvira has an actual, irrecoverable kill count (Azula's were thwarted and undone) which can throw audience sympathy right out the loving door. Also not helping is what while Azula has a sympathetic edge to some western audiences, Kuvira has too many connotations to modern political events many don't want to associate. I also hated the book pretty much taking a poo poo on Wu's plans. "Let's try to bring the Earth Kingdom into democracy...only no, a loving swamp fart made me realize that I have to lord over them again. Whoopsies." pretty much took a poo poo on Korra too that change has to happen and then ROTE pretty much said "gently caress you it does." Xelkelvos posted:The one about Zuko's mom was definitely the worse, but the ones about the founding of Republic City were solid at least. I never have a concise opinion about that book. On one hand, characters not trying to see a mentally ill girl because none of them are educated in dealing with mental illness is admittedly a plus and somewhat relatable to me as my late father had a hard time understanding what ADHD did to me. poo poo, seeing how poorly mental illness is handled today makes me thing Gene had the right idea there on that one. That scene on the cliff where Zuko's absolutely frustrated to the point of screaming at his sister is again, from the opposite end (one being screamed at) is something I found very relatable; and that third act was pretty drat solid. But Gene really didn't have an idea on how to write Azula, we got a simpsons joke for a spirit, despite praising the earlier scene, dangling her over a cliff's a bit much do we think? And the marriage now having horrible implications regarding the fire sibling's birth (and I loving HATE whenever a story goes that road, especially in mediums that don't need it) make me constantly flip on it. Day's end, I still take it over Smoke and Shadows. That being said, when Gene was allowed to write about things or subjects that interested him; he was great. I loved the Rift as well as North and South. Tactless Ogre fucked around with this message at 00:16 on May 25, 2021 |
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May 24, 2021 23:53
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Cattail Prophet posted:Don't be ridiculous; Ty Lee is pan and Azula is grey-ace. Azula struck me as Ace or Hetero but really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, dumb at the dating scene.
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May 25, 2021 03:27
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Covok posted:Speaking as someone who wrote Tyzula fanfiction before, the trick is usually to set it in an alternate universe so you can downplay the obvious toxic poo poo under the excuse it's not the canon timeline. Because their personalities can be cute together, if you downplay/remove how Azula is mentally abused by her father and raised to be an abuser of others. Most TyZula idealists are working under the assumption that Azula isn't too late to be saved and thus can be reformed. She does have good traits; but it's buried under a corroded spirit, years of toxic machismo drugging, self-loathing, and just loving awful parenting. I don't personally believe she's a lost cause. Not to say she's completely innocent, but I'm usually more sympathetic to those with lovely rear end upbringings; provided you don't have any permanent, irreversible kills on your record ala Kuvira. What makes it interesting to follow is how Zuko's going to try to convince a stubborn, justified paranoid narcissist that she's wrong and thus needs help. I personally don't support the boat (never got lesbian vibes from either of them anyway); but I do hope she gets the help needed. For all of Gene's crap, I do really like how he made Zuko simultaneously the only person who can get through to the little knucklehead and the worst guy for the job to do it. Tactless Ogre fucked around with this message at 06:15 on May 25, 2021 |
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May 25, 2021 06:12
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Electric Phantasm posted:Does anything talk about what happens to Azula after? Does she just go to prison for the rest of her life? The Search: Azula gets sprung from the insane asylum because 1: Zuko gets spooked about ruling from something his professor says that day and 2: Azula manages to coax out of Ozai where their mother is. Personally, I believe Ozai took one look at his little broken weapon and realized if he told her where she was, she'd kill Ursa just to spite Zuko which is something completely in Ozai's character. Zuko, (which, I give Gene the benefit of the doubt and say this is intentional) not understanding or knowing how mental health works, struggles with the crew trying to reign in Azula, hopefully trying to fix her in the process. Though some efforts are made to rebuild bridges; ultimately the years of abuse combined with Azula's focus on her mission to kill Ursa to stop the voices in her head from acting up (insane logic, I get it) keeps the two from fully reconciling. However, at the end of the book, Zuko does state that although they're going to fight for a while, she's still his sister and will always care for her in some way. Apparently, this was enough to get through to the bonehead as one of Azula's hidden desires IS to be wanted by someone at the end of the day and she storms off. Before Smoke and Shadow, Gene and the others got a ton of fan-mail about whether Azula should get help but also got a ton of mail from actual sociopaths that she should stay a villain for the "sake of the story" or some poo poo and thus got paralyzed on what direction to take her. So, during that trilogy, Azula returns heading the Kemurikage. The Kemurikage served as a recycled use of the Fire Warriors, a Fire Nation equivalent of the Kyoshi warriors that were never put into use during the show, but Azula being Azula, decides to make her team up using other nutters from the asylum. She essentially abducts a ton of children across town and nearly instigates a full on revolt against Zuko for his indecisiveness and failures for leading the nation. It's revealed that she's working with Mai's father Ukano and the New Ozai society to restore Ozai to the throne. However, it's later revealed that Azula is actually trying to bankrupt the New Ozai society's funding (apparently, Ukano was the big financial backer) with the most roundabout plan imaginable as kidnapping the children in addition to feeding and housing them is draining finances, apparently. She's appearing more sane, but clues from the Search seep into the book and reveal that the lunatic is under the facade again when she's sufficiently angered or confronted; which many like me think is the writers throwing out the illness angle and trying to revert back to the badass from before, not realizing the cat's out of the bag on that one. Regardless, she reveals her true intentions to Zuko that she wants to help him; but with Azula being such a loving beautiful disaster of a child, thinks that the best way to help him is to turn Zuko into a puppet king: Turning him into a carbon copy of her and Ozai and make him a ruler that rules with fear and intimidation. True to form, she is supposed to come off as wanting to help her brother but no therapy and years of that toxic bullshit isn't leaving her easily so she's retreating back to what she knows best. She's ultimately thwarted, but she goes back into hiding. See, all of the aforementioned paragraph would make for some interesting discussion on what actual intent is, what's poor mental health talking, etc. It would be unless you read the Library edition like I did and caught Gene's commentary in sentence one of that paragraph. It blows away all the smoke and shadows of smoke and shadow and instead of an Azula that's fun to interpret on what's going on with her, you get a character they clearly had no idea what to do with. Something Gene lampshades with Zuko and Ursa talking in the boat "I really don't know what it will take to make her happy". Tactless Ogre fucked around with this message at 06:42 on May 25, 2021 |
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May 25, 2021 06:38
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SlothfulCobra posted:The original show definitely wasn't trying to portray any avenue to redemption for Azula. It's actually pretty conspicuous how unsympathetic compared to anyone else on the show she is. Agreed in the first part. It's like what Iroh said. She was crazy and needed to be stopped. Younger me wondered why she got the shaft while Zuko got the love before realizing that Azula was actually just as if not twice as stubborn as Zuko ever was and that for all of her intellect, she's a really stubborn little kid who isn't going to learn unless she hits the rocks and learns the hard way. She wasn't going to get helped in the show because she's ultimately what happens when Iroh's advice isn't heeded: She took on a destiny she was forced to accept (coronation, assassin), she refused to look inward and realize she was the toxic force leading to Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal, and she never improved herself because she was never really stopped early on by a father who only saw the use of her power and skill. I wouldn't go as far as unsympathetic. She's ultimately a very lonely woman and a sick kid who grasped onto a shithead for some parental affection and chose to accept the hand she's dealt until the consequences of her actions catch up with her and ultimately fucks her over, taking everything from her but her firebending and her life. At day's end, while she's ruthless about it, she's no real different from Zuko but the response to the trauma manifested differently. Rewatches are fun for me as I get older and learn more things like how "Golden Child syndrome" damages youth psyche. But comics and future stories can lead to new developments for characters, and Azula's got some interesting ideas to kick around that needs a good writer to bring out. What does a weapon, groomed for war and bloodshed, do in times of peace? Tactless Ogre fucked around with this message at 07:05 on May 25, 2021 |
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May 25, 2021 07:00
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Whitenoise Poster posted:Guys gently caress all that poo poo here comes leaks for the Live Action Powerpuff Girls. There is far too much of that poo poo to be actually true and it all sounds like a glorified shitpost with the intent of making GBS threads on the production. That is what I would think if the CW itself didn't pull the show back for retooling, and I'm apprehensive if even the CW is going "hmmm." on something. Ghost Leviathan posted:There actually is a whole bit where Azula tries to flirt with a boy, with Hilarious Results (tm). Uncertain whether she's genuinely attracted to him or just trying to get into the spirit of things. The flirting with the guy thing is part of Azula's little experiment. The whole point of that experiment was for Azula to try to get away from the commander and "monster" persona she believed she was and that she could be more than those things. But when she failed repeatedly at the party to be normal combined with Chan cutting her out before things got bad for him (she did burn his house down afterwards, though I'd be hard pressed to not imagine that being somebody's fantasy of sweet revenge), she ultimately surrenders to the false identity and self-loathing which created the monster persona and seals her fate for the rest of the season; hence the line "She was right of course, but it still hurt." Self-fulfilling prophecy and all.
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May 25, 2021 07:45
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SlothfulCobra posted:I finally got around to watching Kipo, and it's pretty fantastic right from the first episode. I'm gonna rewatch that this weekend. Kipo's such a gorgeous show on the eyes.
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Jun 2, 2021 01:03
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Captain Oblivious posted:Part of writing a good redemption story is knowing when to pull up before the audience calls bullshit. Just another reason Zuko is the gold standard. He did burn down a village but thanks to the heroes, he didn't manage to kill anyone and he also had plenty of visibly honorable traits and the audience knew his story after episode six. It's not just pulling up; but knowing when to sink. By allowing Zuko to give into weakness, he's forced to confront what he was vs what he learned and truly know the difference between right and wrong. Arguably, this is what also made Azula's downfall tragic and elicit pity rather than outright rejection. Though Azula put the idea in Ozai's head, had Ozai allowed her to take part in it; that final act would've fallen flat on its face. Tactless Ogre fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Jun 9, 2021 |
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Jun 9, 2021 12:22
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ConanThe3rd posted:I can live in a world where Orko is just Vivi minus the existential crisis. How do you have a Vivi without the existential crisis? All you'd have is a mage who trips and blows poo poo up. Fine; but you can have so much more.
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Jun 11, 2021 06:58
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I'm still on the fence, leaning on negative but I'd rather just see what happens with it at this point. Like, I know they're gonna gently caress up Azula if the show can even last to that point as Netflix loves to pull the trigger on a show into its second season, but if they can at least give me something at least passable, I'll be content. Gotta admit, I'm interested in seeing what they change, favorite brainbroken disasterdork non-withstanding.
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Aug 14, 2021 06:33
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Open Source Idiom posted:Between this and Sponge Bob / Rugrats, I'm not super thrilled by what the new Avatar show is gonna look like on Paramount. Have you kept up with the comics? As someone who loved Imbalance, if they don't go Faith's route or at least heavily fine-tune/edit up Gene's output, then we're in trouble. At least we're getting a Yangchen novel, so that's something to look forward to.
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Apr 3, 2022 12:08
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