#New avatar series 2018 show

[anonymousewrites]

Burden of Truth (Book 1) Prologue

Father Figure! Marc Spector x Teen! Reader

Father Figure! Steven Grant x Teen! Reader

Mother Figure! Layla El-Faouly x Teen! Reader

Prologue: On the Precipice

Summary: In 2018, (Y/N) discovers grief as people turn to dust and the world turns to chaos.

Mouse Note: Welcome to Burden of Truth! Kind of a rough beginning, but, hey, how else do you become an Avatar to a god? Anyways, housekeeping: This is a platonic fic, so anyone who suggests anything inappropriate between an adult and minor will be blocked and deleted. That's pretty much it, but I wanted to make it clear. As for the actual fic, there aren't any warnings other than the violence that Marvel shows. I'm really excited to share this series! Please feel free to comment since I'm always up to answering questions and replying to comments. Plus it makes me keep writing. Without further ado, though, please enjoy!

2018…

            (Y/N) gasped for breath, but their lungs refused to bring in the air they needed. Every limb ached, and their heart beat against their chest. It stuttered, refusing to work correctly. The edges of (Y/N)’s visions blurred to black.

            Everything had gone wrong. They had thought this summer would be a beautiful one, traveling with their parents. Egypt was lovely, and (Y/N) liked to listen to their parents—anthropology and history professors—tell them about the rich history and culture of the country.

            Plus, they were far away from New York where strange aliens had recently attacked and fought Iron Man and a strange wizard. They were safe with their family and free to enjoy themself.

            And then people turned to dust.

            Screams echoed as loved ones disappeared before people’s very eyes. Cars crashed without drivers. Buses overturned and threw out people and sand. Cries went out as crashes sent metal through limbs—through torsos.

            Through (Y/N)’s torso.

            (Y/N) couldn’t even move to cover their chest as it bled. They didn’t try to. They knew they were dying. They didn’t want to (gods, please, no, I don’t want this I don’t want this) but they were.

            And they couldn’t even reach out to hold their mom and dad’s hands. (Y/N) felt like a child again, but unlike nightmares, they couldn’t run to their parents’ arms to feel safe. Even if they could, the chill of death had already taken their parents’ warmth and comfort.

            (Y/N) wished they’d all turned to dust. This was violent, painful, agonizing. Their parents had laid beside them in distress, calling out for help and rescue, dying. No one had come.

            And now (Y/N) was alone—the world hadn’t even been kind enough to let them die before their parents.

            This was just so wrong. Unfair. Unjust.

            “It is unjust.” A calm voice spoke.

            (Y/N) didn’t move. They couldn’t, and they were already dying. Their situation couldn’t get worse.

            “I can feel your pain.”

            This time, a woman, taller than humanely possible, appeared in their line of sight. She knelt among the dust and bodies of the bus and gazed at (Y/N).

            She was Egyptian, dressed in a red gown, and wore an intricate necklace of gold and turquoise. Multicolored Sleeves swept out with her arms like wings. Silky black hair fell around her shoulders, and her eyes were lined in kohl. An ostrich feather stood in a circlet and swayed in the wind.

            (Y/N)’s eyes landed on the feather, and something in their chest pulled towards it.

            The woman tilted her head and watched them in assessment. “You sense the truth.”

            “Who…” (Y/N)’s hoarse voice died.

            “I am the goddess Ma’at.” The wind whipped around her as she spoke. “I am in search of a guardian. To uphold justice in the face of wrongdoing. To protect harmony from discord. To defend truth from falsehood.”

            (Y/N) coughed, and Ma’at tilted her head.

            “I can see the truth in your heart. You want justice for everyone who suffers like you,” said Ma’at. She leaned in. “Pledge yourself to me, pledge yourself to the truth, and I will give you the life to do so.”

            (Y/N) looked into Ma’at’s eyes and summoned all their strength left.

            “Yes.”

l

2023…

            (Y/N) crouched on the roof and dropped onto the balcony below them. The house around them was quiet. The security guards were clueless to their approach, which was just fine. They didn’t want any attention.

            (Y/N) opened the sliding door of the balcony and slipped into the display room. They glanced around themself in distaste. None of the artifacts in glass cases belonged to the owner of this house. He’d “acquired” them in the aftermath of the Blip left countries in disarray, just so like many others.

            After the return of the Blipped, the problem of stolen artifacts had only gotten worse since the chaos had begun again, letting more people profit off the displaced people and their possessions.

            (Y/N) had spent years repatriating the stolen relics from the aftermath of the Blip. This man, Mr. Medrano, was among the worst offenders. He lied about his findings as an “archaeologist” and stole what he needed for glory. And along the way, he removed any competition. A thief, a liar, and a killer. Medrano was a man who brought injustice of all kinds to the world.

            And that was precisely what (Y/N) stood against—what Ma’at stood against.

            (Y/N) stopped in front of a case of Egyptian artifacts. Their eyes scanned the contents for the relic they were supposed to bring back to Egypt (send back, really, by way of another person. (Y/N) was still just a teenager, so they couldn’t send it back themself without raising suspicions. Luckily, putting something in a hidden box and not showing their face did the trick).

            (Y/N) frowned. The hieroglyphic tablet of Tethering wasn’t on the wall. It seemed they were later than expected, and Medrano had begun to work on translation.

            Which means it’ll be in his office.

            (Y/N) went to the door of the display room and peeked outside. No light, no movement. They moved into the hall and crept down towards the room at the other side of the house. Making sure their gloves were on—no sense leaving fingerprints—(Y/N) reached out and felt the door handle.

            The door was unlocked.

            Gently, (Y/N) opened it.

            Shick!

            (Y/N)’s eyes widened, and they took a step back. A man in a white, bandage-like suit stood above Medrano. He pulled two crescent-shaped blades from his chest, and Medrano’s body slumped to the ground. The man paused and looked towards the door, the moon sighting the crescent-illusion in his hood and the symbol on the forehead and chest.

            “There wasn’t supposed to be anyone here,” said the man, but (Y/N) felt in their heart that he wasn’t speaking to them.

            “Does it matter? Your job is to punish the wrongdoers in this mansion.”

            (Y/N) blinked as they heard a voice echo from behind them. It was a god’s voice. Not Ma’at, no, but most definitely a deity.

            “I won’t hurt a kid, Khonshu,” snapped the avatar, and his hood folded back.

            (Y/N) turned around and found themself staring up (really up) at a half-man, half-bird skeleton in white wrappings. This was Khonshu.

            “I’m not a wrongdoer,” said (Y/N) to Khonshu, holding up their hands. “I’m, uh, an Avatar.”

            At that, Khonshu and man stopped.

            “You can see him?” said the man, frowning warily.

            “I’m the Avatar of Ma’at,” said (Y/N). They shifted. They weren’t used to saying that. “She’s the goddess of truth.” They could see the “truth” of the world more than others, and that included the gods that walked among them.

            “That ostrich is interfering with my work,” said Khonshu, irritated.

            “You are the one who is not supposed to interfere with human business,” said Ma’at’s calm voice, and (Y/N) glanced at the office’s large window to find her sitting on the sill.

            Khonshu’s avatar looked at the window but saw nothing. “Is another god here?”

            (Y/N) nodded sharply. This was a little too much. They were used to working by themself.

            “You are doing the exact same thing,” said Khonshu.

            “I am returning artifacts to our people,” said Ma’at. “I am not interfering in human life more than that.” She glanced at Medrano’s body. “Unlike some.”

            Khonshu tsked. “I am delivering justice.”

            “A type, yes,” said Ma’at.

            “Ma’at,” said (Y/N) quietly. “I’m going to take the tablet..”

            “Go ahead, (Y/N),” said Ma’at. “Khonshu will not harm you. You have done no wrong.”

            “They interfered with my work,” said Khonshu.

            “Irritating is not wrongdoing,” said Ma’at.

            (Y/N) decided to leave before the gods continued to argue. It made them uncomfortable. Then again, a lot of interaction did. (Y/N) hadn’t really gotten to slow down and make friends after 2018, so they’d grown used to their own company (or Ma’at’s). Everything else was business, and anything more was out of their realm of understanding.

            (Y/N) opened their bag and slipped the wrapped tablet carefully from the table inside. They looked decidedly away from Medrano’s body, glanced at Khonshu’s avatar, and left the room.

            If that’s what Avatars and gods outside of themself and Ma’at were like, (Y/N) didn’t want to meet them.

l

2025…

            “(Y/N).”

            The now-seventeen-year-old raised their eyes from the book they were reading. “Yes, Ma’at?”

            “I have an important job for you.”

            (Y/N) frowned. Ma’at never described anything as “important.” Necessary? Yes. Important? No. Everything was equally pertinent to upholding justice and order to Ma’at.

            “I need you to retrieve a scarab.”

            “Who stole it?” asked (Y/N).

            “You are.”

            (Y/N) looked at Ma’at in surprise. “What?” Ma’at disliked any injustice or unlawful actions.

            “You are stealing the scarab of Ammit,” said Ma’at.

            Ammit.

            Ammit ruled the scales in the Judgement of the Dead. Ma’at was the Feather of Truth against which human hearts were weighed. One had abandoned true justice; one continued to defend it.

            And (Y/N) was stuck in the middle with the burden to protect the truth of it all.

Taglist:

@jaytheaceenby

@severussimp

@dmitrytherat

@slytherinroyalty16

@grippleback-galaxy

@alexpangender

@thewittyfanficreader

@aew-kun-age-regression

[natlacentral]

'I've got to pinch myself': Paul Sun-Hyung Lee on playing Iroh in 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'

Presumably the people outside a local car dealership a couple of years ago who heard Paul Sun-Hyung Lee let out a “huge whoop” during a phone call with his agent didn't fully grasp the significance of that celebratory sound.

The Toronto actor beloved as the internet’s “Appa” thanks to “Kim’s Convenience” and a popular part of the “Star Wars” universe, too, was about to become the internet’s favourite uncle.

Lee had landed the role of Uncle Iroh in “Avatar: the Last Airbender,” Netflix’s much anticipated live-action reimagining of a well loved animated series (not to be confused with James Cameron’s “Avatar” films).

“Honestly, I have moments where I think I’ve got to pinch myself because, even as a youngster, I never would have believed that I could be a part of these things, because I never saw anybody who looked like me reflected in any of these shows,” the Korean Canadian actor said, reflecting on his roles in “Airbender” and the “Star Wars” spinoffs “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka,” in which he plays the popular Captain Carson Teva.

As Iroh in “Airbender,” Lee has stepped into the robes of another fan favourite character.

First, a bit of a primer: “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which debuts Thursday, is about a 12-year-old boy, the “Avatar” of the title, on a quest to save the world from the rapacious Fire Nation, which has gone to war with the Earth, Water and Air peoples. Despite his youth, Avatar Aang (played by Vancouver actor Gordon Cormier) is a powerful “bender,” honing his ability to manipulate air, water, earth and fire.

Aang and his friends — Katara, a water bender (played by Indigenous Canadian Kiawentiio), and her brother, Sokka (American actor Ian Ousley) — are being hunted by fire bender Prince Zuko (American Dallas Liu), who’s accompanied by his wise and compassionate Uncle Iroh, himself a fire bender and a former Fire Nation general.

If that all sounds kind of geeky, well, that’s right up Lee’s alley.

The 51-year-old has well-established nerd bona fides as a fan of “Star Wars” and other science fiction (he shares his love of the genre on his Bitterasiandude Inc. YouTube channel). He caught up with the original “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (which aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008, then moved to Netflix) while he was still working on the CBC comedy “Kim’s Convenience” (2016-21), in which he played a South Korean immigrant who runs a convenience store in Toronto. 

In 2018, as new fans were discovering “Kim’s” worldwide after the series moved to Netflix, the streaming giant announced its remake of “Airbender,” setting in motion Lee's ascent into another dream role. 

“Almost immediately I got fan casted (as Iroh) by all these people on the internet,” Lee said in a Zoom interview. “I was very, very flattered, but I was doing ‘Kim’s.’”

A few years later, though, “Kim’s” had ended and Lee got an audition for what was billed as a basketball movie called “Blue Dawn,” as a coach who had come out of retirement to guide his nephew.

Although he’s “more of a baseball, hockey guy,” Lee taped the audition and then forgot about it, until a callback a couple of months later. Except now, the retired basketball coach Howard was named Iroh.

“There’s only one Iroh that I know of,” said Lee. “And so I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is for “Avatar”’ … right away I got super nervous. The stakes went up and I really wanted this part.”

But, after doing a chemistry read with Liu and not hearing anything for a couple of weeks, Lee assumed he had missed out on the role, which is part of the lot of an actor … until his agent called just as Lee and his wife were about to sign a lease on a new vehicle.

“So I excused myself, leaving the salesman completely befuddled. I went outside and that’s when I learned that I landed the role. And immediately let out this huge whoop. I had forgotten that I was in a public area and there were lots of people outside, and they all suddenly looked at me and I said, ‘It’s OK. It’s good news. It’s great news.’”

There was one more hurdle to overcome, though. 

“Airbender,” which shoots in Vancouver, overlapped Lee’s schedule for “The Mandalorian,” which films in Los Angeles. And playing Iroh meant shaving off the middle part of the moustache that Lee sports as Captain Teva.

“Luckily I was able to have my cake and eat it at the same time,” said Lee. “Lucasfilm was like, ‘Oh, we’ll just build him a little fake moustache to put on while he’s shooting (“The Mandalorian”).’”

Lee isn’t certain how familiar the producers of “Airbender” were with his work on “Kim’s Convenience” — it's an established fact that “Mandalorian” producer and director Dave Filoni was a “Kim’s” fan before he cast Lee — but he considers his latest job to be another of the many blessings accruing from the CBC series.

“‘Kim’s Convenience’ was such a wonderful launching pad for my career,” Lee said. “I mean, that show was kind of my coming out party in terms of the film and TV world.”

Lee, who was born in South Korea but immigrated to Canada with his parents when still an infant, struggled to find good film and TV roles as a young actor in the 1990s and early aughts. 

After graduating from drama school at the University of Toronto, he did a lot of theatre work, but onscreen “I played a lot of doctors, a lot of store clerks, a lot of window dressing-type caricatures, not characters.”

And yet, he persisted. 

Despite not seeing himself reflected in the television he devoured as a kid and from which he developed his love of storytelling, “I thought, well, heck, if there’s nobody (else Asian) out there, maybe there’s a shot for me to get in … that was kind of foolish thinking because maybe you’re the only one because a lot of people have tried and haven’t been able to get through. But I was just too stupid and too stubborn to quit, so just kept at it.”

Now Lee hopes to provide inspiration for the young Asian actors coming up behind him.

On the set of “Airbender,” which has many Asian actors in its cast, Lee became particularly close with Liu, the 22-year-old Chinese-Indonesian-American actor playing his beloved nephew. Just as Iroh is protective of Zuko, for whom he becomes a surrogate father, Lee said he wanted to nurture Liu.

“Every chance that I got to just sort of give him little pearls of wisdom based on my experiences … I couldn’t help but want to see him succeed,” Lee said. “This kid is a superstar,” he added.

Now that Lee himself is part of two much-loved pop culture franchises, “my cup runneth over,” but he still has entries on his acting bucket list.

“Not to sound greedy, but I’d love to do ‘Star Trek’ because that's filming right in our backyard. I’d love to do a ‘Ghostbusters.’ All those geeky playgrounds I never got a chance to play in. I want to be in a rom-com. I want to be in a Western, the genres that I grew up watching …

“But I’ll take it as it comes and I’m grateful for what I have. And if this is the only thing I ever do again I will be thankful for it because a lot of people don’t get these opportunities.”

[stickeykeys]

key: '✧' unfinished, '★' core dr, '✿' new!

SHARED :･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･.:

marvel cinematic universe | ★

2012 - present, still expanding as movies are released, both part of the avengers

top gun: maverick | ★

2022 - beyond the movie, both part of dagger squadron

avatar (james cameron) | ★, ✿

atwow - present, still expanding as movies are released, we are both part of the younger generation (jake's kid's ages)

the summer i turned pretty | ★

summer of 2019-summer of 2023, show-verse, we are family friends with the fisher's and conklin's

narnia | ✧

1940 - 1940, movie/book verse, we are friends of the pevensies

winx club | ✧

season 1 - season 8, part of the winx club

how to train your dragon | ✧

httyd 1 - httyd 3, includes tv show canon too, we are friends with the riders of berk

FEN'S :･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･.:

grishaverse | ★

follows six of crows and crooked kingdom to king of scars and rule of wolves, member of the crows with the ice court heist

fame | ★

actress/model, shifting to the begining of my career in 2014

wizarding world (lightning era) | ✧

Follows the books from the beginning of goblet of fire, part of the golden trio (even though its not a trio anymore)

AMBER'S :･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･.:

wizarding world (marauders era) | ★

year 5 - beyond hogwarts, best friends with the marauders, twin sister of james potter (desi canon potters!), best friends with the golden girls (closest with lily). find my marauders dr series here!

the last of us | ★, ✿

2003 - 2018 (time skip altered), show-verse with some game canon aspects, part of the fireflies but defect eventually... complex plot line! (very different from my other drs imo)

fame | ✧

singer/actress dr, shifting to my final tour with my band before i start my solo career! celebrity besties include: hailee steinfeld, anya taylor-joy, zendaya, taylor swift, ross lynch and rudy pankow

[lok-repository]

New Korra picture book

Based on Airspeed's last video, it looks like there will be a new Korra picture book coming in 2027 (!?) that will be along the same vein as the ATLA Heart of Hero picture books that have been coming out. Interestingly, the author for the upcoming Korra picture book seems to be a travel writer so not sure if they have the wrong author listed. Here's some more info from the listing:

On Sale Date: May 4, 2027

ISBN 9780316408110, 0316408115

Hardcover Picture Book | 

40 pages

$18.99 USD, $23.99 CAD

Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure Key Selling points:

THRIVING FANBASE: While Avatar has been off the air since 2008, and Korra since 2014, their fandom has continued to thrive—and GROW! This is in part due to the recent roll out of both series on Netflix. LASTING MEDIA ATTENTION: The shows continue to get lots of love in the media with frequent articles and inclusion in roundups:

Avatar ranked in both Vanity Fair’s and IndieWire’s respective 2018 lists of the best animated TV shows of all time

The final scene of Korra ranked in io9’s 2018 list of the “100 Most Important Pop Culture Moments of the Last 10 Years.”

SOCIAL REACH: The shows have over 6.7M followers across their social channels and almost 800K subscribers on Reddit. Their creators are also avid posters, and they frequently talk about their passion for and continued involvement with the brands. PERFECT TIMING: There will be a new live-action Avatar series likely coming to Netflix in 2022. Also, with 2020 being Avatar’s 15th anniversary and 2022 being Korra’s 10th anniversary, it’s poised to be the “The Decade for Avatar!” PUBLISHING: Avatar has a thriving reader fanbase, too! Dark Horse has been successfully publishing original graphic novels that target teens and adults since 2012 and has no plans to stop—in fact, The Promise, an Avatar graphic novel, recently hit #6 on the NYT list 7 years after its publication! The Kyoshi YA novels, recently published by Abrams, were each instant NYT bestsellers and continue to grab attention. In 2021 the publishing category will continue to expand to include a new Avatar YA series, a new Avatar MG series, and a new three-part Korra graphic novel series. CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Multiple lines of business are planning on ramping up their product, including more presence at mass, expanded collectibles, homeware, and retail initiatives at specialty stores like Box Lunch and FYE. Existing CP includes apparel, a trading card game, video games, LEGO sets, toys and stuffed animals, homewares, additional publishing, and home video that has generated over $18M since 2015 in DVD, Blu-Ray, and Steelbook formats. Avatar is a consistent top 10 item at both Box Lunch and Hot Topic.     DUAL APPEAL: With its eye-catching design and original content, we expect these titles to appeal to existing adult fans who want to collect and share with their children while also providing an entry point.

You can find the whole listing on the Edelweiss website.

[krytus]

quinn what happened to the hot king

short answer: he died

long answer:

it is august of 2018 — no actually. our story begins in september of 2017. voltron: legendary defender is released by netflix to widespread acclaim. a community forms on tumblr, and then immediately shoots itself in the foot face and ass as horny people move to make suggestive content of this preteen space lion show. the community not only splits, but implodes and descends into rabid frenzy. in the year that follows, and as the quality of the source content declines, death threats and callouts and blacklists become not only ordinary, but daily. but, as einstein or some other guy said, matter and energy cannot be destroyed and this rabid energy of hundreds of annoying gay teenagers must be redirected — somewhere close, and quick.

enter me. one of them. not doing great in college. yes, academically i was excelling but socially isolated. lonely. i needed some distraction. netflix releases a teaser for an upcoming animated show. the look of it — dramatic set pieces, colorful magic use, armored knights — piques my interest. i haven't had any good medieval content since kalots's release in 2017. the teaser is short, provides only a taste of whats to come in the approaching season. some words, some characters.

one character specifically grabs my interest: the king. i look online, searching for a name to the beautiful face. i find none. not quite discouraged, but rather engaged, i decide he will be my favorite. the other characters are children, and this man is beautiful. i cannot resist the allure. i find like minded individuals. we are all love the unnamed dragon prince king. and this is where i must remind you of the reformed voltron gays. we'd been slighted. we'd been hurt. netflix cartoon had already broken our minds spirits and sanity once, but this was a different netflix cartoon, different animation studio, different creative team. in fact, it was the child show of the men who created avatar: the last airbender, which i had not watched, but which i know was beloved. i had faith. i had trust! surely, this unnamed king would be given grace and dimension! surely, they would not waste such a great design with shallow writing and a cold hard future in the fridge! <- this is what we in show business call foreshadowing.

days pass without a name for the king. not unexpected, netflix puts out only minimal effort in promoting a series. its usually up to whoever created it to hype it up. in this case, the offender is wonderstorm, who quickly realizes there is a large, jilted audience in their target demographic (teens and teens adjacent) itching for a new series to latch onto, like eels being given a pizza. they get to work, setting up both a twitter and tumblr account. here is their best work, and arguably the peak of the entirety of the dragon prince experience: the hype harvested by the dragonprinceofficial account before the release of the show.

see, they'd done their homework, learned from the blunder misstep and nuclear detonation of voltron's more than lacking, downright insulting pr team. dpo baited. dpo waited. they released bits and pieces. hints and riddles. they were tuned into the biggest memes of the moment. they capitalized. and i was not immune. at the time, it was fun. thats the first tragedy, i think. the pre-show era was actually fun, while the show itself became such a slog, a heavy weight on the experience when it should have been the reward it was promised to be. but, im getting ahead of myself. show release is still a few paragraphs out. we finally get a name for the face: king harrow. a frantic google search for the etymology of the word harrow leaves us worrying for this guy. the king, the father, associated with such a negative connotation.

nonetheless, we stan. edits and art and even some fics — mind you, we still only have the name and a brief teaser, nothing in the way of actual characterization — sprout. hype builds. the first episode is screened at a convention and i turned into fucking sherlock holmes finding posts and tidbits about it. about my beloved harrow. i am able to sleuth. the man has promise — a king who made a mistake so grave it'll send him to his. in this day and age we'd call him doomed by the narrative. its wonderful. im latched and hooked and pack bonded. and in this looking around, i find something else that's interesting: a character by the name of viren. someone we haven't seen, but who has an important dynamic with the king. im 👁👁 because the only thing better than a good character is a pair of them.

anticipation continues to build. the delirium only deepens. news about the show is promising, engagement with dpo is rewarding. golden age. the good old days. the official trailer comes out, and, to put it biblically, i go batshit. here, finally, more harrow. some viren! drama! call me a tick, call me a feral cat shown kindness because babey i form some unhealthy unbreakable unshakable bonds. i turn into wonderstorm's bitch. "the king is in danger" some promo material warns, but do i miss the red flags? baby, i miss the entire red dawn. my faith is will be rewarded. there is no doubt in my mind: harrow will be fine. he's a good father, great man. the power of love or friendship or some other adolescent bullshit will save him.

i have hope.

and then, right on time at 12:00am PST, Friday, September 9th, 2018, the series is released.

google, look up synonyms for disappointment. no, that's not fair. disappointment is too mild a term, too mild a feeling for the experience. it was brutal, gutting, a crucible of fire and blood that only made me worse. i stayed up until 4am, swallowing as much of the show as i could stomach. i didn't even finish that night. i could have, but i was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and, much worse, the pain and embarrassment of being so completely and utterly wrong.

in the nine episodes of wonderstorm's the dragon prince season one, harrow is in three of them. technically, his lifeless corpse is in the fourth, but exists only to be desecrated and disrespected by his white friend.

harrow is a frustrating character — given the illusion of depth, but given little to do with it. he's more plot device than person, here to die to kick off the story, to launch character arcs, to be the big sad tragedy that everyone brings up every other episode. he becomes an abstraction, his death used as motive and purpose. he dies to showcase that this isnt your dad's animated series! suck our dick nickolodeon! see we have depth!

but, despite this, his death feels temporary. there is ambiguity, shadows, a fade to black that leaves us with a wink and promise. he dies, but we're told he dies, never shown final moments, never confirming it for ourselves. like yesterday's leftovers, he's shoved in the fridge.

to give a name to the tactic, i'd call it shrodinger's representation. its the writers putting a foot in two doors. we didnt kill the kind black father, they say, because he isn't dead! but at the same time, frustratingly, we're told there isnt a way to bring the dead back to life. viren rushes to cremate the body, and you think ah there is more afoot but there is nothing afoot. there is no mystery to solve. in the same breath that they ask us to look more into harrow's death, they also say, without question, that he is dead. he has to be dead for the story to work sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nevermind that several, MOST other characters cheat death. the writers ask, beg, and whine for you to pay no mind to these future instances. harrow is dead.

harrow dies less than sixty minutes into the saga, and my interest in the show hould have been taken out into a patch of quiet woods and killed as well, but it isnt. having nothing else do to, i engage in behavior that can only be described as Bitchless. which nets me two thousand followers and a callout post but hey. i have my fun in the month after the show is released. making gifs making theories getting into scraps in the tag. its a different kind of experience than before. i may have lost the rosy film, the romantic lens with which i viewed the show before it was released, but nothings so broken it cant be fixed. tdp would get another season, there was a plan, there was the chirpening theory, there was angst to write. viren was a weak, confusing character, but i could fix him. i could take out the interesting bits, polish them until they shined.

i was promised everything, and given nothing, but that didnt stop me. because im a dumbass.

months pass. s2 looms as a threat. i try to move onto other things but its only a few, short months before the new season is released. i go in knowing harrow is dead, but, unfortunately i also go in knowing there will be flashbacks with him.

even worse: flashbacks with him and his wife.

queen sarai. i must at this point remind you i am a lesbian so you see the kind of strain i was under. trapped between a beautiful man and his epic wife. i never stood a chance. and she was [unintelligible gibberish]. another of tdp's weak characters with some interesting attributes. her relationship with her husband was at points stupid, but they loved each other and Did I Mention I Was Lonely. throw viren into the mix and baby. unhealthy coping mechanisms thy name is quinn daggerons. it was at this point i divorced canon for the most part. i took these three characters, all the characterization that tickled my brain, and just went hog wild with aus. second golden age. sure, sarai was dead, harrow was dead, and viren was [unintelligible gibberish, sounds of violence] but that didnt matter. here on tumblr dot hell they were alive and well and i wrote a 20,000 word, four part au where they were the main characters of the series. next level brainrot. multidimensional brainrot, even. embarrassing.

anyways.

by the time season two's ending credits rolled, i had given up on the show. another season or four was something that was going to happen, but not happen to me. and mix in some Controversy: a fun little case of bury your gays, some elements that felt racially insensitive, white men showrunners behaving like white men and i was ✌️ checked out. i would keep these characters, thank you very much, but i would not say anything nice to the people who made them.

s3 unfortunately, eventually came out. more of the same. viren was.... doing Something. what? i didnt care. harrow was still dead. someone told me there were some flashbacks with him, again, and i was like good on luc roderique getting that netflix money. genuinely hope he has good luck with other projects, he was too good for this show.

but i sat my ass down and watched said flashbacks. they were alright. thanks for giving us harrow depressed about the death of his wife. im gonna hit you with my car aaron ehasz. viren's fun time war crimes happen. it sucks knowing the thing that will eventually get harrow killed wasn't even something he wanted to do. it was something he agreed to only after having his grief for his dead wife exploited by his white friend. i giffed my beloved man one last time. and blurred out viren because it was funny.

so, to answer your question, dear friend. what happened to the hot king? he lived, he served cunt, he died, and then his corpse was dragged around for the rest of the show.

[swanimagines]

FANDOMS

I’m that weirdo who’s willing to write for fandoms no one else writes for so don’t judge me. :D I like to challenge myself, so if I like the movie/tv show/game, I'll often write for it! Even if it's a "weird" fandom. Please note: this does not mean I write for every fandom there is. If the fandom isn't listed here, it's unlikely I even know it or then I'm just not interested. You can ask if I know it/if I could write for it, but please do not send in requests assuming I write for a fandom even when it's not listed.

READ MY RULES BEFORE REQUESTING!

The list for my fave characters to write for is below the fandom list in case you're interested!

(My random and unpopular fandoms are below the main list to make this easier to read)

I WRITE FOR ALL CHARACTERS UNLESS I STATE OTHERWISE IN THIS LIST

FANDOMS I WILL WRITE FOR:

MOVIES

10 Things I Hate About You

(James Cameron's) Avatar franchise

Batman: The Dark Knight Trilogy

Disney & Pixar movies (animated + live action)

Full list here!

Edward Scissorhands

Enola Holmes

Hunger Games

Jumanji (1995, 2017 and 2019)

Little Women (2019)

Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit

Marvel

Spider-Men (Maguire, Garfield, Holland)

MCU (up to No Way Home)

Venom (1 and 2)

X-Men (2000-2006 + 2011-2019)

Deadpool 1 + 2

Fantastic Four (2005-2007)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2017)

Shazam!

Sky High

Star Wars

The Skywalker Saga

Rogue One

Solo

Star Wars: Jedi (video game series)

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Maze Runner

Titanic

TV SERIES

Bones

Chicago Med

DC Titans

Gotham

Free Rein

H2O: Just Add Water + Mako Mermaids

His Dark Materials

Julie and the Phantoms

Lucifer

Once Upon A Time

Peaky Blinders

Shadow and Bone/Grishaverse as a whole

Stranger Things

Teen Wolf

The 100

The Queen’s Gambit

The Sandman (Netflix)

The Umbrella Academy

The Witcher

Wednesday

Xena: Warrior Princess

VIDEO GAMES

Assassin’s Creed (up to Syndicate)

Baldur's Gate 3

Detroit: Become Human

Dragon Age games

Ghost of Tsushima

God of War & Ragnarok (2018 & 2022)

Horizon Zero Dawn + Forbidden West

Kingdom Hearts games

Marvel’s Spider-Man + Miles Morales

Red Dead Redemption 2

Sly Cooper

Star Wars: Jedi (video game series)

Tomb Raider (the new trilogy)

Uncharted up to Lost Legacy

Watch Dogs/Watch Dogs 2/Bloodline

RANDOM

Freddy Carter’s characters, at the moment these:

Kaz Brekker

Pin Hawthorne

Jason Ripper

Tom (15 Days)

I also write for Ellis through research (from 2018 horror movie The Convent)

Gideon Fletcher

David Friedkin

(Also likely Ray when Recursive Dreams comes out)

SUBLIST: NICHE MOVIE FANDOMS

(These are all very small and random fandoms so that's why I separated them from the main list)

AND CLARIFICATION, YOU CAN REQUEST SOMETHING FOR ANY OF THESE!!

MOVIES

Aquamarine

Catwoman

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Ella Enchanted

Flicka

Garfield movies

Home Alone 1 & 2

Love and Monsters

Moulin Rouge

Notting Hill

Peter Pan (2003)

Red Eye

Rise of the Guardians

Stardust

The Dark is Rising

The Martian

Warm Bodies

—

This list is growing all the time!

Below I’ve listed some fandoms I once wrote for but not anymore in case you wonder why are they missing even though I have fics for it here. I've also included a reason why I'm no longer writing for it.

FANDOMS I NO LONGER WRITE FOR:

Wizarding World (Harry Potter + Fantastic Beasts)

I was bullied out of the fandom and even though it has calmed down since, I no longer have interest to come back. The fandom is divided in three major "camps" now after JKR started clowning around and I don't want to be part of that drama.

[manitat]

The 100 greatest TV series of the 21st Century

BBC Culture polled 206 TV experts from 43 countries in order to find the greatest TV of the 21st Century – here’s the top 100

01 The Wire (2002-2008) 02 Mad Men (2007-2015) 03 Breaking Bad (2008-2013) 04 Fleabag (2016-2019) 05 Game Of Thrones (2011-2019) 06 I May Destroy You (2020) 07 The Leftovers (2014-2017) 08 The Americans (2013-2018) 09 The Office (UK) (2001-2003) 10 Succession (2018-) 11 BoJack Horseman (2014-2020) 12 Six Feet Under (2001-2005) 13 Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) 14 Atlanta (2016-) 15 Chernobyl (2019) 16 The Crown (2016-) 17 30 Rock (2006-2013) 18 Deadwood (2004-2006) 19 Lost (2004-2010) 20 The Thick Of It (2005-2012) 21 Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-) 22 Black Mirror (2011-) 23 Better Call Saul (2015-2022) 24 Veep (2012-2019) 25 Sherlock (2010-2017) 26 Watchmen (2019) 27 Line Of Duty (2012-2021) 28 Friday Night Lights (2006-2011) 29 Parks And Recreation (2009-2015) 30 Girls (2012-2017) 31 True Detective (2014-2019) 32 Arrested Development (2003-2019) 33 The Good Wife (2009-2016) 34 The Bridge (2011-2018) 35 Fargo (2014-) 36 Downton Abbey (2010-2015) 37 Band Of Brothers (2001) 38 The Handmaid's Tale (2017-) 39 The Office (US) (2005-2013) 40 Borgen (2010-2022) 41 Schitt's Creek (2015-2020) 42 Peep Show (2003-2015) 43 Money Heist (2017-2021) 44 Community (2009-2015) 45 The Good Fight (2017-) 46 Homeland (2011-2020) 47 Grey's Anatomy (2005-) 48 Inside No 9 (2014-) 49 The Bureau (2015-) 50 Halt And Catch Fire (2014-2017) 51 Small Axe (2020) 52 This Is England 86, 88, 90 (2010-2015) 53 Call My Agent! (2015-2020) 54 Happy Valley (2014-) 55 The Shield (2002-2008) 56 The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019) 57 The Young Pope (2016) 58 Dark (2017-2020) 59 The Underground Railroad (2021) 60 House Of Cards (2013-2018) 61 Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) 62 The Good Place (2016-2020) 63 Pose (2018-2021) 64 Detectorists (2014-2017) 65 Orange Is The New Black (2013-2019) 66 Mare Of Easttown (2021) 67 RuPaul's Drag Race (2009-) 68 Stranger Things (2016-) 69 24 (2001-2010) 70 Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009) 71 Enlightened (2011-2013) 72 Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) 73 Planet Earth (2006) 74 Utopia (2013-2014) 75 Babylon Berlin (2017-) 76 Rick And Morty (2013-) 77 American Crime Story (2016-) 78 The Killing (Denmark) (2007-2012) 79 Mindhunter (2017-2019) 80 House (2004-2012) 81 OJ: Made In America (2016) 82 Big Little Lies (2017-2019) 83 Insecure (2016-2021) 84 Normal People (2020) 85 Narcos (2015-2017) 86 How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) 87 The Comeback (2005-2014) 88 The OA (2016-2019) 89 Dexter (2006-2013) 90 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (2005-) 91 Westworld (2016-) 92 Show Me A Hero (2015) 93 Treme (2010-2013) 94 Louie (2010-2015) 95 Luther (2010-2019) 96 Catastrophe (2015-2019) 97 Hannibal (2013-2015) 98 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) 99 Steven Universe (2013-2020) 100 The Queen's Gambit (2020)

[celosindion]

Fandom list

(I'm sorry for my english. english is not my first language)

Hi! I'm Wiktoria, but you can call me Dion or CeLosinDion. I'm new here.

I love writing some things. (I have my story on wattpad)

My fandoms:

Avatar 2009

Avatar The way od water 2022

Red dead redemption 2 2018 (im watching)

Nimona

Overwatch

The walking dead (series)

The witcher 3

Love, death + robots

too much to list

What i can write:

Smut

Male reader (sometimes female reader but... i just love writing male)

And i can try to write what you offer

Im call it "combo" for example when overwatch reader teleports to rdr2 (thinking about it)

I'll show you my oc's later

[phantomstatistician]

Saturday Status Update

REQUESTS: CLOSED

The wait time for a request is: 59 working days

Upcoming charts (if the sample size is large enough):

A Certain Magical Index - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Phineas and Ferb - 10 most popular ships (AO3), 10 most popular characters (AO3)

Laverne and Shirley - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Danganronpa - Kazuichi Souda, Kokichi Ouma  

Timeless (2016-2018) - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Naruto - Temari, Kankuro, Karui  

Legend of Korra - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Miraculous Ladybug - 10 most popular characters (AO3), 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Arcane - 10 most popular characters (AO3)

House of the Dragon - Alicent

Gundam - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

My Hero Academia - All Might (explicit vs non-explicit), Izuku Midoriya (explicit vs non-explicit)

Super Mario - Luigi

Magi: Labyrinth of Magic - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Doctor Who - River Song

Steven Universe - Pearl

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade - Eliwood, Ninian

Avatar: the Last Airbender - 10 most popular OT3s

A Certain Scientific Railgun - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Star Trek Strange New Worlds - 10 most popular ships (AO3)  

Chucky (TV Series) - Jake Wheeler

Spider-Man - Crossovers (with and without Marvel)

Batman - Harley Quinn

Demon Slayer - Rengoku  

Star Trek Discovery - Michael Burnham  

Overwatch - Lifeweaver  

Ben 10 - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Pretty Little Liars - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Tales of Arcadia - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Thundercats (1985) - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Thundercats (2011) - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

The Secret Saturdays - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Fire Emblem Awakening - Chrom

Project SEKAI - Ena Shinonome  

Hunter x Hunter - Kite

Ranma 1/2 - 10 most popular tags (AO3), 10 most popular ships (AO3)

RWBY - Crossovers

Danganronpa V3 - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha - Nanoha Takamachi  

Lovecraft Country - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Women's Murder Club - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

That ‘70s Show - 10 most popular ships (AO3), 10 most popular characters (AO3)

True Blood - 10 most popular ships (AO3)

Hetalia - England

Friends - 10 most popular tags (AO3)

Harry Potter - Lilly Potter, Dorcas Meadowes  

Team Fortress 2 - 10 most popular ships (AO3) (Update at the end of September)

Have a more elaborate request?  Or want to jump the queue?  Or you want to support me as a content creator?  Buy me a Kofi!

[films-on-a-plane]

to be watched list (series)

# $#*! My Dad Says (2010–2011) 2 Broke Girls (2011-2017) 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) 6Teen (2004-2010) 8 Simple Rules… for Dating My Teenage Daughter (2002-2005) 13 Reasons Why (2017-2020) 30 Rock (2006–2013) 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997-1998)

A According to Jim (2001-2009) Adventure Time (2010-2018) Aladdin (1994-1995) Ally McBeal (1997-2002) American Dragon: Jake Long (2005-2007) Anger Management (2012-2014) Archer (2009-2023) As Told by Ginger (2000-2009) Atypical (2017-2021) Austin & Ally (2011-2016) Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) Awkward. (2011-2016)

B Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995) Black-ish (2014-2022) Blockbuster (2022) Bluey (2018-) Bob's Burgers (2011-) BoJack Horseman (2014–2020) Boy Meets World (1993-2000) Braceface (2001-2006) Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (2004-2007) Broad City (2014-2019) Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-2021) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

C CatDog (1998-2005) Charmed (1998-2006) Community (2009-2015) Cougar Town (2009-2015) Coupling (2000-2004)

D Daria (1997-2002) Dead Like Me (2003-2004) Derry Girls (2018-2022) Disenchantment (2018-2023) Doctor Who (2005-) Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012-2013) Drake & Josh (2004-2007)

E Ellen (1994-1998) Emily in Paris (2020-) Everybody Hates Chris (2005-2009) Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005) Everything Sucks! (2018)

F Family Guy (1999– ) Fillmore! (2002-2004) Fleabag (2016-2019) Frasier (1993-2004) Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020) Full House (1987-1995) Futurama (1999-)

G Game of Thrones (2011-2019) Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) Ginny & Georgia (2021-) Girl Meets World (2014-2017) Go On (2012-2013) Good Luck, Charlie (2010-2014) Gossip Girl (2007-2012) Gravity Falls (2012-2016) Grim & Evil (2001-2007)

H Hacks (2021-) Hannah Montana (2006-2011) Hercules (1998-1999) House (2004–2012) Home Economics (2021-2023) Home Improvement (1991-1999) Hot in Cleveland (2010-2015) How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014) How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) (2019-)

I I Am Not Okay with This (2020) iCarly (2007-2012) I Love Lucy (1951-1957) Inside Job (2021–2022) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-)

J Joey (2004–2006)

K K.C. Undercover (2015-2018) Kevin Can Wait (2016-2018) Killing Eve (2018-2022) Kim Possible (2002-2007) King of the Hill (1997-2010)

L Liv and Maddie (2013-2017) Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003-2006) Lizzie McGuire (2001-2004) Louie (2010-2015)

M Mad About You (1992-2019) Magnum, P.I. (1980-1988) Malcolm in the Middle (2000-2006) Man vs. Bee (2022) Man with a Plan (2016-220) Maude (1972-1978) Melissa & Joey (2010-2015) Mike & Molly (2010-2016) Modern Family (2009-2020) Monk (2002–2009) Mr. Bean (1990-1995) Mr. Bean (2002-2019) Mr. Sunshine (2011-2012) My Name Is Earl (2005-2009)

N New Girl (2011-2018) Not Dead Yet (2023-)

O Once Upon a Time (2011-2018)

P Parks & Recreation (2009–2015) Party Down (2009-) Pepper Ann (1997-2000) Popeye the Sailor (1960-1962) Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017) Pretty Smart (2021)

Q

R Recess (1997-2001) Regular Show (2010-2017) Rick and Morty (2013–) Rules of Engagement (2007-2013) Russian Doll (2019-)

S Sabrina: The Animated Series (1999-2000) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996-2003) Sam & Cat (2013-2014) Saved by the Bell (1989-1992) Schitt's Creek (2015-2020) Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969-1978) Sean Saves the World (2013-2014) Sex and the City (1998-2004) Seinfeld (1989-1998) Shake It Up (2010-2013) Shameless (2011-2021) Silicon Valley (2014-2019) Single Parents (2018-2020) Skins (2007–2013) So Help Me Todd (2022-) Space Force (2020-2022) Speechless (2016-2019) SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-) Squid Game (2021-) Stranger Things (2016-2025) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-2007) Suburgatory (2011-2014) Superior Donuts (2017-2018) Superstore (2015-2021)

T That '70s Show (1998-2006) That '90s Show (2023-) That's So Raven (2003-2007) The Brady Binch (1969-1974) The Crew (2021) The Ellen Show (2001-2002) The Emperor's New School (2006-2008) The End of the F***ing World (2017-2019) The Flight Attendant (2020-2022) The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996) The Golden Girls (1985-1992) The Golden Palace (1992-1993) The IT Crowd (2006-2013) The King of Queens (1998-2007) The Last Dance (2020) The Legend of Tarzan (2001-2003) The Little Mermaid (1992-1994) The Loud House (2014-) The Neighborhood (2018-) The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006-2023) The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-1991) The Odd Couple (2015-2017) The Office UK (2001-2003) The Pink Panther Show (1969-1970) The Powerpuff Girls (1998-2004) The Replacements (2006-2022) The Suite Life on Deck (2008-2011) The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-2008) The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) The Umbrella Academy (2019-2024) The Upshaws (2021-) The White Lotus (2021-2025) The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022) Timon & Pumbaa (1995-1999) Tiny Beautiful Things (2023) Totally Spies! (2001-2014) Twin Peaks (1990-1991)

U Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015-2020) Unstable (2023-)

V Veep (2012-2019)

W Web Therapy (2011-2015) Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1979) Wednesday (2022-) What I Like About You (2002-2006) Whitney (2011–2013) Will & Grace (1998-2020) W.I.T.C.H. (2004-2006) Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012)

X Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)

Y Young & Hungry (2014-2018)

Z

[cartooncreaturelover]

Hello it's me again!

So I have some more asks, some relating to art, some just random stuff I think of XD

1. Favorite character of yours that you like drawing?

2. What's your favorite show/movie? (If you don't have a favorite, just name ones you like)

3. Oldest oc you have? How did they change throughout the time you had em?

Thanks in advance!

✨ Hi! Thank you so much for asking more questions! (You're literally the first person to send in more than one ask before! Thank you for bringing some life to my ask box, lol!)

Question 1. I don't know if I have a favorite character of mine to draw, but the first character that popped into my head was Darragh, probably since I used to draw him A LOT & know how to draw him pretty well from all the times I've drawn him before! (I'm hoping to get a light board this holiday season so I can actually finish an updated version of his reference sheet soon!)

Question 2. I like a lot of shows & movies, so I'll just list the many that I like instead!

Some Of The Movies I Like Include... Back To The Future (trilogy) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Ferris Bueller's Day Off Gremlins Gremlins 2: The New Batch How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) Wolfwalkers Shrek 2 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish The "Spider-Man: Spider-Verse" series The "Kung Fu Panda" series The "Sing" series The "Trolls" series

Some Of The TV Shows I Like Include... Bluey The Owl House Infinity Train Ducktales (2017) Gravity Falls Steven Universe My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) Our Flag Means Death Bob's Burgers Central Park SpongeBob SquarePants (Seasons 1-3)

(You know, writing this list out has made me realize how much I like musicals... & DreamWorks Animation???)

Question 3. The oldest OC that I have is my first OC! I haven't drawn her in a long time, but her name is Magic & she initially was one of those classic "character a child likes, so they barely recolor the character & call it their own;" the actual character was Spyro from the Skylanders series! (Yes, I love "Pug Spyro!") Initially, the only difference was that she had white accent colors instead of gold/bronze. As I got better at drawing & designing characters, I began to actually make her more original & less like Skylanders' Spyro (pictured below!)

The first drawing (which is actually the first drawing I ever made of her!) is from 2014, I think in April; I believe we were going on a school field-trip that day to a trampoline park as a reward for the good students? I drew her with no reference in class with my pencil & colored pencils on a piece of notebook paper! Whenever that day was, it was the day I decided to take art seriously & was the start of my journey to getting as good at drawing as I am today!

The second drawing is (I think) from around 2018 when I really started to try & make her legally distinct from Skylanders' Spyro; different shaped horns, fin-like ears, furred belly & (not pictured) tail tip (kinda like Banjo's)! I made that drawing with my old & cheap watercolor set on what (I think) is sketchbook watercolor paper; & yes, that tiny little portrait is in a tiny little picture frame!

The third drawing is a concept doodle for a 4.0 design for Magic from around 2021 or 2022? I never finalized the design, but the idea was to really change her body type into being more chubby & pear-shaped like some stuffed animals I have, as well as adding stars to her design since I think of her as my "spark of inspiration" for where I am now! Since I've been working on redesigning another dragon-like character of mine recently, perhaps I'll finally get around to finalizing Magic 4.0, who knows!

You (or anybody else who may see this!) can totally ask me more questions about my interests or old/new characters of mine if you’d like! Thank you so much for taking the time to ask me fun questions to answer! ✨

[natlacentral]

There are few modern properties that feel more sacred than Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

So, when Netflix announced all the way back in 2018 that it was working on a live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon series, the anticipation - and anxiety - from fans was immense. How do you improve upon what many feel is perfection? And why do it anyway?

The approach, according to showrunner Albert Kim and executive producer/director/VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani? You change it up. In the below interview, Kim and Raisani explain how they've kept a lot of the foundation of the original, but are still putting their own spin on it.

I sat down with Kim and Raisani as part of IGN's 2024 Fan Fest coverage (see a preview of our lineup here), and got to ask them about everything from those changes they're making, the VFX, the cast, moving forward without original series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and a whole lot more.

Taking on the Pressure

IGN: I feel like everyone has their, "I was watching it while it was on," or, "I discovered it years ago and was like, 'What the heck is this?' " with Avatar: The Last Airbender. When did you guys get into Avatar?

Jabbar Raisani, executive producer, director, and VFX supervisor: I saw it when it first came out. I was a big fan of it, and then I got wind that Netflix was going to be making it, and I was like, "How do I get on that show?" And I started talking with Teddy (Netflix content executive Teddy Biaselli) about it, and then I think Teddy mentioned me to you, and then that's how I ended up on it.

Albert Kim, showrunner and executive producer: It was my daughter's favorite show growing up. So I used to come home and find her sitting by herself watching it every day. And I sat down with her because I thought it was a little bit above her head. But pretty soon, I stopped explaining things; I was just watching it on my own because it was so good. So that's how I got hooked into the original series. 

Not only was it an incredible story and epic and all of that, but obviously, it was a show that was centered around Asian legend and folklore, which was incredibly rare, not just then, but now. And so, having my daughter watch that was really important for us.

I’m sure you get a ton of cool points, as a dad, for doing this now, then.

AK: Well, it was funny. When I brought up the subject of doing the live-action version of it, my daughter was very excited. My son, who was also a huge fan, was like, "I don't know if you should do that," because he is in the contingent of fans that think you cannot improve upon the original. So he was a little wary. And he was also probably a little worried for me because he also knows how ruthless the fans and the online community can be if you get something wrong, so he was a little bit protective of me on that side, but I think we won him over.

Well, I think your son touches on a very common sentiment. A big question surrounding the show is, how much are you guys changing, and how much is staying the same? How much freedom did you feel when it came to remixing the storylines and putting your own spin and liberties on them?

AK: I've used the term that this is a remix, not a cover, in that you've got to hit a lot of familiar notes, but you can't forget that this is supposed to be a new song. So obviously, there are story points and characters that you have to do fairly faithfully from the original. But at the same time, you're literally translating something from 2D to 3D, and that meant dimensionalizing the story, taking it into new places, filling in some of the gaps.

There are certain scenes that you never saw in the original, whether it's the attack on the Southern Air Temple or the Agni Kai between Ozai and Zuko. And those are things that I knew we needed to see in order to make it feel much more grounded as a live-action show. So it was about feeling your way throughout the process. Where can we take the story into the new directions that still feels true to the spirit of the original? And that's what it all comes down to, making sure it feels like it was Avatar in spirit.

JR: And when it came down to directing it or the visual effects on it, I mean, we were really watching the animated series, basing our sequences off of that, using as many shots that we could lift from that as it made sense within the context of the story we were telling. And that stayed true all the way through post-production and visual effects. So when we had final-edited sequences, we were literally going through taking little rips from the animated series, doing picture-in-picture of, "That's like that moment, that's like that moment, that's like that moment." So visually, even if it's not a one to one, it should feel really familiar.

AK: There are certain times when we did a very faithful rendition of a famous scene or image from the animated series. We replicated the bit when Aang's on the air scooter for the main titles, and he crashes into the statue. That was something we always knew we wanted to do, and we took that directly from the animated series.

That shot in particular is basically a core memory for me.

AK: Because it was in the main title, so you saw it every episode. Every episode ended with that, so that's something that stuck with everyone. But it's also, aside from the fact that it was a cool thing that everyone remembers, it gets across a very important character point, which is that despite everything and all the burdens that he's facing, Aang is just a kid. He's a goofy 12-year-old kid, and he's having fun and he's a big old goofball. And we wanted to make sure that we showed that because that's as important to the story as all the action and the epic fantasy of it all.

You touched on something that I'm really, really curious about. I think when we talk about Avatar’s legacy, and all the heavy stuff it touches on, people sometimes forget that it was a Nickelodeon cartoon, and therefore was goofy! A lot! Was that silliness difficult for you guys to juggle in the translation to live-action while also dealing with those really heavy subjects?

AK: Tonally?

Yes. 

AK: I think that's the essential tightrope that we had to walk, is figuring out, tonally, where this show lived, because you wanted to stay true to the original, which had a large component of humor, lots of action, lots of darkness too. This show, even as a Nickelodeon show, went pretty far in terms of mature themes and scenes, things that you didn't see before. I mean, I think Koh the Face Stealer initiated nightmares in an entire generation of kids. That's not something you normally see on a Nickelodeon show.

And especially as the series went on, Seasons 2 and 3 are a lot more mature in theme than, say, Season 1 was. So for us, it was about striking that right balance, of making sure you were true to the DNA of the original. But at the same time, we had to make it a serialized Netflix drama, which meant it couldn't just be for kids. It had to also appeal to the people who are big fans of Game of Thrones. And so, it had to feel grounded and mature and adult in that way too. So that's, like I said, the tightrope that we have to walk.

JR: And when it comes down to hitting the tone, I mean, we have the script, and then we're on set, and it's like, "Let's do this version." And then like, "Okay, let's do sillier. Let's go even sillier. Okay, now let's pull it back." So we just made sure we had options that we could really choose from a range in post [production] versus like, "Oh no, we now have this one. That's way too silly, and that's our only choice, so what do we do?" So just protecting yourself to make sure you can shape the tone.

Nailing Down the Characters

I feel like so much about that balance between silly and serious falls on Aang in particular. It’s a heavy weight for Gordon Cormier to carry. What was it about him that made you feel he could take on that huge role?

AK: We always knew that casting this show was going to be probably the biggest challenge of them all because you're asking a hell of a lot from some very young performers. And I always knew that we wanted to be age appropriate in our casting. We did not want to cast a 20-year-old to play a 12-year-old. We needed a 12-year-old to play a 12-year-old. And so, that was a tall order when it came to casting. But it was one of those things where sometimes lightning just strikes. You see someone, and you realize they've somehow captured the essence of a character.

That's what it was like when we first saw Gordon. He just seemed like Aang. Here's the other challenging thing, is this project was so top secret that when we did the auditions, we couldn't let anyone know it was for Avatar. So I had to write up a whole bunch of fake casting slides. So every actor was acting a completely different story, and Gordon had no idea this was Avatar. So he was acting as some character named Alan in a show about mathematics or something. I can't even remember what those scenes were about. We saw in him something that was kind of an essential version of Aang there. And we kept coming back to him. We saw lots of other actors as well, but after every round of auditions, we were asking ourselves, "What about Gordon? I mean, they're not as good as Gordon. Can we go back?" And so, that was the process we went through with basically all of the roles.

Was Aang the hardest to cast?

AK: I would say so just because of his age and because of the amount of work that they were going to do. It was a challenging one. And we ended up looking at actors who were a little bit younger than 12 and a little bit older than 12. So we had a little bit of a buffer there. There's a huge difference in kids from 10 to 15. So it's a very different version of Aang if you had a 15-year-old Aang as opposed to a 10-year-old Aang. So again, Gordon just nailed that sweet spot. He was really 12 when we cast him, and he's playing a 12-year-old.

And I feel like, when you watch the show in live-action, it somehow hits you harder that they’re kids. They’re 12- or 15-year-olds. Did you ever worry about it getting too dark?

AK: I don't know if that was ever an explicit conversation that we ever had, say, with Netflix. It was kind of the thing that we went by feel as we went through it. Because again, the story itself has some mature themes throughout it. The entire show kicks off with a genocide. Again, not really typical Nickelodeon fare, right?

But we were going one step further. We were actually going to show it as opposed to just talk about it in the original series. So we kind of trusted both in the performers and also in the audience, frankly, that they could handle this kind of material, even at a young age. So it was just a matter of being true to the story. And then, later, we would just sort of turn the dials a little bit here and there. Like Jabbar said, we had different versions of a lot of scenes. And then, after we watched it all cut together, we'd say, "Well, maybe we should dial back a little here. Maybe we have room to go further here." So it was about feeling our way throughout the process.

That's what I meant by saying there are mature themes and storylines throughout, but there's a way to play it so that it doesn't necessarily have to be that graphic in his depiction. And so, that's the thing we were always kind of watching out for.

I want to talk a little bit about Azula, who is a character that I am kind of surprised to see as much as we have in trailers and first-look images, because she’s not in a lot of Season 1 of the original. So it seems safe to say she has a larger role earlier in the live-action show. Why did you make that decision?

AK: Yeah, so Azula is one who, in the animated series, you don't really see until Season 2. Fire Lord Ozai is also one who does not appear very much in Season 1. But we made the conscious decision to bring some of those Fire Nation storylines more to the fore in the first season because I felt like we needed to balance out the storylines. We needed to know more about the background for Zuko, and why he's doing what he's doing, and set that in the context of his family dynamic, and how he fits in with his father and sister. And that's something they get to later in the series, of the animated series, but we had a little bit of a benefit of hindsight. We knew where that was going, so we could pull some of those elements upfront into the first season and make the first season a little bit richer and a little bit deeper in terms of character storylines.

So I think in the animated series, a lot of that was figured out as they went along. And then, they got to Season 2 and Season 3, and they were able to go more into the backstory and stuff. We wanted to make sure that Zuko felt like a much more dimensionalized character, and that meant bringing in more elements of his family storyline. So that naturally meant feeling like we should see a little more Azula and a little more Ozai. If anything, Azula's story in the first season is a little bit of a prequel to her story in the second and third seasons, but that's another element that we thought we should see rather than just talk about.

I think that's something interesting in your approach. You're certainly not acting like the rest of the seasons don't exist, and probably pulling from them where you can. But the thing about Avatar is it's expanded so much beyond the show. There are books, there are graphic novels. I'm curious if you guys pulled anything from all those sources?

AK: Yeah, very much. I mean, we, above all, are fans of the franchise. And so, we were very aware of everything, from the comic books and the graphic novels and the novelizations, and we went through all of that stuff. And there's some really rich material that we drew on from there. And I think fans will be ... Some fans will be very excited to see that. Other fans, it'll be new for them because they haven't gone through that kind of stuff. I'm not sure if we should talk about some spoilers.

That’s fair. But obviously, you guys read them, you’re aware of them.

AK: Yeah. But it all goes to being able to add a little more dimension to some of the elements of the story, and being able to weave together new threads. And it was all a process of making it feel more like a serialized drama rather than an adventure of the week that the original show was.

I wanted to ask specifically about that. You’re describing it as a serialized drama, which is a big change in addition to it being live action – I believe it’s eight hour-long episodes versus 20 20-minute-long episodes. Was that change in formula a challenge to adapt?

AK: Yeah, very much. Especially the first season, because the first season of the animated show [has a lot of] standalone episodes. The second and third seasons become more serialized, but in the first season of the animated show, it's very much adventure of the week. So a big part of the process in the writers’ room was kind of pulling apart all of those storylines and seeing how the narrative threads lay, and then weaving them together into much more of a serialized drama.

But it was an interesting process because what you and up finding is that there were a lot of thematic parallels. So when you take an episode [Editor’s note: we’ve removed some of this for potential spoilers] and then you take an episode in which [removed for spoilers] is in, and you realize both of those are separate episodes in the animated series, and they take place in different environments, but they're both about the same kind of character. And so those kind of match up thematically. So we put the two of them together in the same storyline. So that was kind of the process of creating the serialized version of what was essentially an adventure of the week show.

All of That VFX

You describe it as an adventure of the week show, but one thing I also remember, from when I visited the set, is you describing it as a travel show. Does that still guide your approach?

AK: Jabbar can talk about this better than anyone because it's a matter of depicting all of these new environments from every episode, which is heavily in the province of the VFX.

JR: Yeah, I mean, certainly. It is absolutely a travel show. It's one of the big challenges of something like this, is you're never in the same place twice, which we're lucky to be doing it with someone like Netflix who understands what that takes in order to accomplish this. It takes large and extensive set builds. It takes extreme heavy lifting on the visual effects side. A lot has to go in to do a real travel show. We don't go and revisit the same locations over and over. It's difficult.

AK: I'll say that logistically speaking, that is also another reason we decided to do a little more of a Fire Nation story in the first episode because it gave us kind of some regular sets and environments that we could go back to in every episode, because our heroes are traveling from location to location every episode, but we can always go back to the Fire Nation throne room for a scene or two in each episode. And it gave us a little bit more stability in the storytelling. So that was another reason for bringing them more into the fore in the first season.

Now that we’re talking about the VFX, I feel like one of the big curiosities is how the bending’s going to look. Was there a certain style of bending that was particularly hard to translate?

JR: I think water is the most complex to translate into the live-action medium because we all have a pretty good understanding of water physics and how it behaves, and when you're trying to do things that are against the laws of physics, but that feel realistic, it's a real challenge. Not to mention when someone gets wet, we expect to see that amount of wetness. We expect to see it travel or track throughout a scene. So that was the thing that was a real challenge. It's like, "Okay, when someone does get hit with water, how long does that water have to exist before the audiences will accept that it's no longer there?" Because we're just literally just running up money on something that isn't really telling any more story. That we're really trying to focus our efforts on. Where does the money tell the story? And after that, when will the audience accept that it's no longer there?

AK: I think air is also challenging because you can't see air. And in the cartoon, you can draw little squiggly lines to show air bending. And in the real world it's about seeing the effects of air on other things, whether it's dust or leaves or anything else. So even going into the project, I remember that was a big issue as well.

JR: Yeah, so we're always leaning on the environment. If we're in a place that's wet, the air bending picks up some of the water, so you get a little bit of specularity in the water. Or if it's a foggy environment, pulling that fog into the air bending. But yeah, air bending is the number two of the most challenging effects.

AK: Oddly enough, I think fire is the easiest, right?

That's surprising. You’d think that would be the hardest.

JR: None of them are easy. But yeah, I mean fire, because we have seen things like a flamethrower. You can say, “this is kind of like a flamethrower or a fireball. This is kind of like a fireball.” You have some real world references you can pull from, where the other effects you don't. And then plus, it interacts with light. A fire, we know what fire does when it's close to something. That gives you something you can base on that's in reality that makes it go, "Okay, that feels real," even though it's all made up.

There's the digital aspect of the bending, but then there's also the actual stunt work aspect of it. And in that last trailer, they were doing a lot of stunts, the cast. What kind of training did they have to do for the show?

AK: We are incredibly fortunate in that both Dallas [Liu, who plays Zuko] and Ian [Ousley, who plays Sokka] are skilled martial artists, and they were even before the show. Ian is a world champion at weapons, and Dallas has been studying martial arts since he was a kid. You can actually find videos on YouTube of them as little kids, performing. It's amazing. So that was a huge advantage for us.

That said, we put all of the actors through six weeks of bootcamp before production began, and they went through very intensive martial arts training, all of them. And they had to learn all the different styles of bending. Each bending discipline is based on a different martial arts style. And so, they all had to learn their own styles as well as get familiar with the other ones.

So like I said, it was a little bit easier for Ian and Dallas because they were already skilled at that. But they had to get used to a style that they didn't know. And so, that was a big part of their training. All the guest stars that came on too who were doing bending, they also went through their own versions of training. Utkarsh [Ambudkar] plays King Bumi, he went through some very intense training to do the earth bending sequences. And Jabbar directed that episode. He was talking about how Utkarsh insisted on doing all the stunts, all the sequences, the entire fight scene. And he kept asking for more and more takes. We actually shot that over a weekend, I think.

He was great about it. But that's one of the things that was a real joy about this production is everyone was so into it. They just wanted to do it. It was just a lot of fun to be able to do it.

JR: Yeah, and I think the thing that people might underestimate is you can't just show up and be like, "And then, you throw a fireball." That's not how it works. There's a very specific choreography to it, and that was something that you really had to plan in advance, make sure everyone understood the dance moves as it was, and then you did that as if you were doing a choreographed dance. You couldn't really ... I mean, you could do some amount of making it up on the day, but you really had to be prepared and have the actors be prepared for what type of bending and what moves they were going to do on that day.

Talking more about the cast, one thing that I find interesting is that yes, you have your Daniel Dae Kim’s and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s and Danny Pudi’s, but a lot of the core cast are not A-listers. I mean, it’s Gordon’s big first role, I think. Was that an intentional choice?

AK: Well, when you're casting actors at that age, invariably you end up looking for people who probably have not had a lot of experience or done a whole lot because they're just too young. So Kiawentiio [who plays Katara] had done a few things beforehand, and had done a very acclaimed indie feature and stuff like that, but she hadn't done anything at this scale. Gordon, like you said, had done a few other things, but this was his first big thing.

So I don't think it was a conscious decision, "Let's go look for people who aren't as well known." It was more about the criteria we had for these roles, and it ended up attracting those kinds of people, who hadn't done a lot. But then we went to the guest roles, and there are a lot more better known people involved. And it was one of the things I was saying during the trailer breakdown, it's still incredible to me that we were able to assemble this kind of Asian acting talent here. We had Ken Leung and Tamlyn Tomita and Arden Cho, and like you said, Daniel Dae Kim and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee all throughout. And that's just a few of them. And being able to assemble that kind of dream team onto this project was incredible.

Now that we’ve talked about the human characters, I want to talk about our creatures. Characters like Appa and Momo are so important to fans, and I could see them being a challenge to translate into live action. How did you avoid any uncanny valley issues when bringing them to live action?

JR: I mean, we really started by looking through the animated series and finding representations of Appa from every angle we possibly could. And then, we tried to just boil that down to, "What is the essence of Appa? When you close your eyes and picture Appa, what is there?" And then, we tried to say, "Okay, if you take that and make it a 3D live action real version of that, what does that feel like?" And it took a lot of revs to get it just right.

And you start by getting this 3D sketch right. And once that feels right, then you're like, "Okay, now what size is the iris? What size is the pupil? What size is the sclera?" And it's really, really technical. But when you do all of those things over and over and over and keep closing your eyes, imagining Appa, opening your eyes, is that Appa? You eventually get there. So it was a lot of trying to get the feeling of the animated series. Because If you look at the animated series and study those images, Appa's actually different, Momo's actually different over different frames, different episodes. It's not a uniform representation. But there is a uniform feeling that when you, again, close your eyes, always try to picture Appa, and then look at what we have, and try to figure out what's different, so it was a lot of that.

AK: I remember early on, one of the big things we had to decide was, how big is Appa? And you think that's an easy question, but like Jabbar says, when you go back to the animated series, he varies in size throughout the episodes. If you really pay attention, you go, "Oh, wow, there's not really a set size for Appa." So we had to do this process, where it was done with virtual reality goggles. I put them on, and we just looked up at our different models, and we had different sizes of Appas. And you just had to decide, "That's too small, and that's too big. That feels just about right." So it was kind of that process.

But yeah, you'd be surprised that there's no one set size for Appa. We just had to figure that out on our own. Those VR sessions were really interesting because we'd put the Oculus on, and then you'd be looking up this massive creature, and you're like, "Wow, that's a little scary. Can we bring him down a little bit?" It was that kind of process.

JR: And Appa is still huge, but he's only one size in our show.

AK: That was the thing. You saw the rig, which was at least a frame of reference for when the actors were sitting in the saddle [Editor’s note: Kim is referring to a physical rig of Appa that was on the set]. So that was really helpful. It's one thing in an animation, to show people riding in a saddle. It's another thing to have three live human beings sitting in a physical location that requires a certain amount of space. Plus there's all these questions that we have to go through. It's like, "Where do they store their clothes? Where do they put their stuff? Where does all this stuff go?" And then, every time you answer that question, the saddle got a little bit bigger, and he got a little bit bigger.

Staying on that note of the VFX, you guys talked about, in the trailer breakdown, Aang going into the Avatar State. I mean, respectfully, there’s an element of the Avatar State that’s basically a 12-year-old going Super Saiyan, and there’s a chance that could look silly in live action. Was that hard to pull off?

JR: I mean, it comes down a lot to what's happening around Aang. Anytime he's in the Avatar State, he's generating a lot of "energy," I'll call it. And that energy may be whipping things around him, it might be picking things up. You can feel the strength of what he's doing. It also comes down to sound design, making it really, really feel like it has a lot of power. It doesn't matter if he's a 12-year-old boy or a 50-year-old man, he feels like he's big and he's powerful. And a lot of that comes down to the VFX design and the sound design.

AK: Narratively speaking, the Avatar state, like Appa in a way, kind of has somewhat fluid rules in the animated series. And when you take a look really closely at when and how can Aang go into the Avatar state, it changes a little bit throughout. So we were very cautious about seeing that too much in the first season. And in fact, we ended up tweaking the rules a little bit for our story purposes. And it'll be interesting to see whether fans pick up on that and what they think of that. But we kind of streamlined a lot of those rules, and came up with something I worked across on it.

Bending the Rules

And going back to those narrative liberties, was there anything in particular where you were like, “no, this is set in stone. This can’t change”? 

AK: There's a lot of things like that, starting with the characters. I mean, the characters, we had to dimensionalize them, but there are certain core ... I would say there's a core DNA to the characters that you don't want to mess with, whether it's Aang, like I said, his childlike goofiness, his sense of humor, the burden of his responsibility, Sokka and his humor and his pragmatic outlook on life, Katara's warmth and her optimism. Those things had to carry through into our version. So you start with the characters, and you say, "What's the essence of the characters that got a big change? And what's the room where we can expand it a little more?" The cartoon, for as great as it was, was 15 years ago. And so, things have changed. There are certain roles I think that Katara did in the cartoon that we didn't necessarily also do here. I mean, I don't want to really get into a lot of that, but some gender issues that didn't quite translate.

My friend just watched it for the first time, and she's like, "Sokka's an asshole." I was like, "Yeah, no, he kind of is."

JR: Yeah, especially in the first season.

AK: Yeah. So we had to guard against that kind of stuff. And so, those are things that aren't really changing a character as so much as updating them a little bit. And in terms of plot points, yeah, there was a lot of things that we, in the writers’ room, we put down, "These are the mileposts that we're going to hit. We're going to ..." We knew where the big story would begin and end. We were mimicking the first season of the animated series, so we knew we were going to get to the Northern Water Tribe by the end of the season. So that helped us map out the root. And then, like I said earlier, once you start unraveling some of the threads and re-weaving together, it showed us a path, the way forward.

I think one of the big questions is, despite all the remixing, is the point A and the point B still the same as the original?

AK: Pretty much. Yeah, I mean, I think the state of the world and the stakes of the world are still the same. So we decided to make Aang's narrative drive a little clearer. In the first season of the animated series, he's kind of going from place to place looking for adventures. He even says, "First, we've got to go and ride the elephant koi." It's a little looser as befits a cartoon. We needed to make sure that he had that drive from the start. And so, that's a change that we made. We essentially give him this vision of what's going to happen and he says, "I have to get to the Northern Water Tribe to stop this from happening." That gives him much more narrative compulsion going forward, as opposed to, "Let's make a detour and go ride the elephant koi," that type of thing. So that's something, again, that's part of the process of going from a Nickelodeon cartoon to a Netflix serialized drama.

The departure of Bryan and Michael was certainly a big deal. And I'm curious, it's already daunting taking on a huge show like this, but is it even more daunting to know that it's their baby, and you’re seeing it through without them?

AK: Yeah, and Bryan and Michael were involved in the project when I first joined, so I did have a lot of conversations with them, and I worked with them on the first episode. And we talked a lot about everything from ... I mean, I, as a fan, just really excited to meet with them and ask them all my personal fan questions. So I was able to dive into stuff that didn't even make it into the show, but just sort of formed the background of it.

But sure, having them leave was a blow. And we had to think about whether or not the vision that we had set forward really reflects and honors the spirit of what they had created. And we felt like it did, so we went forward with it. But it's not to say that when they left, we said, "Forget everything they've done." That was never going to be the case, regardless of their involvement with the project. So I think that hopefully we honor, like I said, the spirit of the show that they originally created in the version we made.

If you could send fans who are anxious about the live-action show any message, what would it be? 

JR: I think, as a fan of the show, they're going to get the live-action version of the show they've always hoped they would get.

Albert, anything to add?

AK: This is the version of Avatar that I would want to see as a fan.

This interview has been edited and condensed for grammar and clarity. Netflix: The Last Airbender hits Netflix on February 22, 2024.

[empress-of-snark]

Top 100 Ladies of TV

A challenge issued by @televinita that ended up being a lot harder than I expected?? For someone who watches as much TV as I do, this should’ve been a cakewalk but I was struggling.

Disclaimer: yeah, a few of these characters are technically from books that then got adapted into TV shows, which may be a bit of a cheat, but this is an arbitrary list that is completely meaningless to anyone who isn’t me, so I’ve decided that it’s not against the rules.

(sorted alphabetically by show title, in an additional level of organization that I couldn’t resist)

Janine Teagues (Abbott Elementary)

Barbara Howard (Abbott Elementary)

Melissa Schemmenti (Abbott Elementary)

Ava Coleman (Abbott Elementary)

Winifred ‘Fred’ Burkle (Angel the Series)

Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Korra (Avatar: The Legend of Korra)

Asami Sato (Avatar: The Legend of Korra)

Lin Beifong (Avatar: The Legend of Korra)

Tina Belcher (Bob’s Burgers)

Louise Belcher (Bob’s Burgers)

Linda Belcher (Bob’s Burgers)

Amy Santiago (Brooklyn 99)

Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn 99)

Gina Linetti (Brooklyn 99)

Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Cordelia Chase (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series)

Kate Beckett (Castle)

Alexis Castle (Castle)

Martha Rogers (Castle)

Robin Ellacott (CB Strike)

Annie Edison (Community)

Brittany Perry (Community)

Shirley Bennett (Community)

Erin Quinn (Derry Girls)

Michelle Mallon (Derry Girls)

Orla McCool (Derry Girls)

Clare Devlin (Derry Girls)

Sister Michael (Derry Girls)

Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

Martha Jones (Doctor Who)

Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Zoe Washburne (Firefly)

Kaylee Frye (Firefly)

Inara Serra (Firefly)

River Tam (Firefly)

Daphne Moon (Frasier)

Roz Doyle (Frasier)

Phoebe Buffay (Friends)

Monica Gellar (Friends)

Rachel Green (Friends)

Dorothy Zbornak (Golden Girls)

Rose Nylund (Golden Girls)

Blanche Devereaux (Golden Girls)

Sophia Petrillo (Golden Girls)

Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls)

Wendy Corduroy (Gravity Falls)

Pacifica Northwest (Gravity Falls)

Kim Possible

Parker (Leverage)

Sophie Devereaux (Leverage)

Judy Robinson (Lost in Space 2018)

Penny Robinson (Lost in Space 2018)

Maureen Robinson (Lost in Space 2018)

Dr. Smith/June Harris (Lost in Space 2018)

Guinevere (Merlin)

Morgana Pendragon (Merlin)

Ziva David (NCIS)

Abby Sciuto (NCIS)

Cecelia ‘Cece’ Parekh (New Girl)

Pam Beesly (The Office)

Mabel Mora (Only Murders in the Building)

Beatrice (Over the Garden Wall)

Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)

Ann Perkins (Parks and Recreation)

April Ludgate (Parks and Recreation)

Abby Maitland (Primeval)

Sarah Page (Primeval)

Jess Parker (Primeval)

Dani Powell (Prodigal Son)

Edrisa Tanaka (Prodigal Son)

Juliet O’Hara (Psych)

Karen Vick (Psych)

Charlotte ‘Chuck’ Charles (Pushing Daisies)

Olive Snook (Pushing Daisies)

Elaine Benes (Seinfeld)

Inej Ghafa (Shadow and Bone)

Alina Starkov (Shadow and Bone)

Nina Zenik (Shadow and Bone)

Molly Hooper (Sherlock)

Mary Watson (Sherlock)

Nancy Wheeler (Stranger Things)

Jane ‘Eleven’ Hopper (Stranger Things)

Max Mayfield (Stranger Things)

Robin Buckley (Stranger Things)

Chrissy Cunningham (Stranger Things)

Rebecca Welton (Ted Lasso)

Keeley Jones (Ted Lasso)

Allison Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy)

Lila Pitts (The Umbrella Academy)

The Handler (The Umbrella Academy)

Natasha Rostova (War and Peace 2016)

Myka Bering (Warehouse 13)

Claudia Donovan (Warehouse 13)

Jamie Campbell (Zoo)

Chloe Tousignaunt (Zoo)

Dariela Marzan (Zoo)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

MUTANT MAYHEM Stuff

I finally saw this big deal of an animated movie... As always, review is on Letterboxd.

Yes, I've heard that they got a sequel lined up already. Though with the writers and actors strike going on, I don't expect work to begin on it any time soon. This means, to me, that it'll be here in 2026 at the earliest, should these dingus CEOs keep it up in being dinguses. But all I know is, I'm ready for more!

It seems like Paramount Animation, after so many years of false starts, might have something going. Yes, it may be with a recognizable superhero-action comic book-based IP that's been adapted into movies **multiple** times... And I mean MULTIPLE... You have the early 1990s live-action movies, you have the 2007 animated movie (remember that?), you have the two Michael Bay-produced movies where the turtles look like tanks, and now this movie. In addition to what seems like a gazillion TV show adaptations going all the way back to the classic late '80s Saturday morning series.

So far, the $70m-costing movie has made about $100m worldwide. It admittedly hasn't had the greatest start. It even opened below MEG 2, which goes to show where the moviegoing public's priorities are at the moment, post-Barbenheimer. But I see a leggy run for this, similar to that of the first SPIDER-VERSE, which only opened with a fairly meager $35m. I guess most of the public made the 2014 TMNT movie open so big because live-action just a lot of audiences them a way in to such an outlandish concept. I remember some "Why is there a cartoon Spider-Man now?" reactions to SPIDER-VERSE Uno when that was coming out in 2018, especially after three big live-action iterations that came out back-to-back. It makes me curious to see how TRANSFORMERS: ONE opens next summer, if it does come out next summer that is.

Paramount Animation, if that's even a thing anymore (for that logo or name does not show up in the opening logo rollout), has a weird future ahead that seems very IP-reliant. They recently demoted UNDER THE BOARDWALK to a Paramount+ release, and it seems like book adaptation THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE is still on for a January release despite no trailers or images or any kind of promo being out there at the moment. Or for a while even, before the strike. Following that are things that have been done as big movies before: Transformers, The Smurfs, PAW Patrol, etc. We have plenty of 2D AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER movies on the horizon, too, which is great! But at the same time, coupled with Paramount CEO Tim Robbins' recent comments on making original animation for theaters, this studio's slate is just... Franchises. Now, if these future entries do what MUTANT MAYHEM did, that's cool and all... But at the same time, new stories are always welcome, because when some franchises run out of juice... You'll need something new to start another one? I don't get Hollywood.

But yeah, this is looking to be Paramount Animation's first theatrical score in a while, after a slew of movies like SHERLOCK GNOMES and WONDER PARK and PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK.

The other day, I watched sections of RANGO... One of my all-time favorites! Gore Verbinski's film through and through, weird as fuck throughout, it was released by Paramount all the way back in 2011, and despite not making back its budget theatrically, Paramount leadership were so impressed with the movie - and also upset that DreamWorks wasn't going to renew their distribution deal with them - that they founded Paramount Animation in 2012. Like, RANGO's the reason that all took off! And yet, I don't see Paramount greenlighting something like that today. Or most studios, for that matter. How did it even get greenlit in the mid-2000s is my question?? I feel like we're lucky to even have it. And that the thing managed to make over $100m domestically alone.

Anyways, I see MUTANT MAYHEM doing quite well for itself. They already have sequels and TV show lined up, so we shall what that entails. In the mean time, it's cool that we even got such a dynamic and neat new take on this property, in animated movie form. Another win for mainstream feature animation. And for interesting big budget studio cinema in general, really. Much like SPIDER-VERSE, BARBIE, GUARDIANS VOL. 3, and a few others, it shows that filmmaker-driven unique takes on classic properties are much more desirable than workmanlike network TV-lookin' franchise movies.

[j-hauke]

This is not needed because I don’t write but I thought some people would like to talk about their interests (subject to changes).

Stuff I’m into currently:

House of the Dragon (Watched)

Stuff I used to be into:

Good Omens (Book, season 1)

God Of War (2018 Game)

Cyberpunk 2077

Supernatural (Finished)

Marvel (Movies and most of the shows, haven’t seen new ant man)

Naruto (first couple Mangas and show)

Dream SMP (Minecraft role playing)

John Wick (Watched all)

Skyrim (Played)

Devil May Cry (played 5)

Tokyo Ghoul (Manga and show not including all of re)

Wise man’s grandchild (watched)

Brooklyn nine nine (Season 2)

Criminal Minds (Season 9)

The Sandman (Show)

Lookism (Webtoon and Show)

Daredevil (Season 2)

The Punisher (Show almost completed)

Lucifer (Season 3)

911 (Didn’t watch in order)

Detroit Become Human (Played)

Fantastic Beasts (1st and 2nd movie)

Harry Potter (Books and movies)

Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime season 1, knowledgeable of season 2 and manga)

Solo Leveling (Webtoon, Halfway through anime)

Cod MW2 (Played)

The Witcher (Witcher 3 and Shows)

Tolkien Media (Watched show and movies)

Stuff I know a decent amount about:

Black Butler (Show)

Adams Family (Wednesday show and movie)

Fate Series (Game and Fate zero show)

Destiny 2 (Not completed main story)

Assassins Creed (Played Odyssey, little of origins an 2 and Valhalla, knowledgeable of most of them)

Diablo 3 (Played)

Hades (Almost complete)

The Boys (Season 2)

DC (Batman movies, Superman movies, Justice League movies, Flash show, Arrow, Wonder Woman movies, Shazam movies, Black Adam, Constantine and Aquaman movies)

Avatar (James Cameron movies)

Resident evil (4,7,8)

Winchester (2nd episode)

Shameless (Season 2)

Sherlock (Almost completed show, RDJ Movies)

Pirates of the Caribbean (Watched)

Top Gun (Watched both)

Top Gear (Decent amount)

007 / James Bond (Daniel Craig)

Pokémon (Newer Gen Games)

Disney (Most movies, better to ask)

World Tour (Decent amount)

Avatar the last airbender (Season 2)

Extraction (Both)

Transformers (Movies)

Pacific Rim (Movies)

Ice Age (Movies)

SpongeBob (Most of the show, Movie)

The pianist (Watched)

Mission Impossible (Most Movies)

Jumanji (Watched Movies)

Spider-Man (Watched Movies)

[jian-wei-uh]

Blog Post #3: Beyond the Screen: The Transmedia Universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender

The entertainment industry, along with individuals who simply want to share their stories, uses transmedia storytelling to bring unique and parody stories to audiences worldwide, whether for commercial reasons (like minecraft, Disney Films, Boku No Hero Academia) or just for fun (Welcome Home ARG, Fan fictions, game jams, roleplaying communities).

Transmedia storytelling is narrative technique where different parts of a story are shared across various entertainment methods, like movies, books, or games, to create one big, connected experience. Each mentioned methods adds its own unique piece and helps to build the story in a way that all comes together smoothly (Jenkins, 2007). This technique has been used by major entertainment franchises like Harry Potter, Marvel, and Star Wars. Majority these franchises achieved great success using this method. For example, Harry Potter franchise starting off with novels before gradually expanding universe's lore into animation, films, video games, merchandise and eventually having a dedicated theme park (Maschler, 2023). Tapping into different entertainment mediums with promotion intention, where each medium has a large, specific audience, would be highly beneficial to entertainment companies in terms of popularity and commercial (Schiller, 2018). The reason behind it being that this strategy would attract said new groups of fans to the franchise which directly increasing the company's profits by purchasing more types of product of the mentioned franchise. The new influx of audience will contribute to fan production of the franchise and increase the popularity or even guide the franchise storyline (Schiller, 2018).

Figure 1: Avatar: The Last Airbender Promotion Poster for Season 1. (VladTen1350, n.d.)

This blog post will focus on the Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) franchise and explore how it serves as an example of transmedia storytelling. I argue that the franchise successfully utilises transmedia storytelling technique to reach wider audiences across multiple platforms. Evidence of this includes the continuation of the main series through the production of a sequel series, live-action adaptations, merchandise, web series, and novels after the original show ended.

Avatar: The Last Airbender follows Aang, a young yet centuries-old boy and the last surviving Airbender, who is also the missing Avatar. Still with the mentality of a child, he must bring balance to a war-torn world that fell apart during his absence. The world is divided into four nations which are Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Among the populations of these nations are benders who has the ability to "bend" their respective nation's elements. Aang, along with his friends Katara, Sokka, and later Toph, embarks on a journey to master all four elements, a feat that only the Avatar could master, and defeat Fire Lord Ozai, who seeks to dominate and subjugate the world.

Figure 2: Map of Avatar: The Last Airbender. (mapofasia, 2023)

One characteristic of transmedia storytelling is the creation of a complex and expansive fictional universe that would give plenty of creative space for audiences to speculate about what could be happening and develop their own understanding of the world (Jenkins, 2007; Baroni, Anaïs Goudmand and Ryan, 2023). In the three main seasons of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang and his friends travel across the world, but many aspects of the world’s lore remain unexplored. Numerous locations were not covered by the series, leaving room for audience speculation or later exploration through other media or dialogue. A prime example is the location shown in the zoomed-in box in Figure 2. This area, although not significant in the main series, became extremely important in the sequel series The Legend of Korra. Set after Aang’s era, The Legend of Korra introduces Republic City, a central location for most of the series. While The Legend of Korra focuses heavily on this city, little is revealed about what lies beyond it or how the world has changed since Aang ended the Fire Nation's war. This lack of information allows audiences to creatively fill in the gaps and speculate on the broader world. It prompts the audience to ask themselves questions like, 'Have the Water Tribes recovered from the war?', 'Is the Fire Nation now a peaceful country?', and 'Is the Earth Kingdom free from corruption?' In an indirect way, it encourage audience participation which could help direct the story's narrative and creates a community around the franchise story (Jenkins, 2007).

This curiosity about both explored and unexplored aspects of the environment and lore inspires audiences to craft their own interpretations or fan fiction. Personally, I was captivated by the Earth Kingdom’s environment and complex politics, which motivated me to create my own character within this universe. Many others, like myself, continue to contribute content long after the series ended, keeping the world alive and thriving through fan creations.

Figure 3: "The Promise", one of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics. (Fresh Comics, 2013)

We know there are two main animation series that covers Aang's timeline to defeat the fire lord and Korra's timeline to save Republic City. For audience who were curious about the in-between period like what happened to the world after protagonist gang defeated the antagonist, they can turn to another medium which is the comic series. They cover many aspects such as post-war world, modernisation and those against it, and social issues.

Figure 4: Avatar: the Last Airbender: The Kyoshi Novels and The Yangchen Novels Bundle

Besides tapping into comic market, they also wrote novels that cover stories about Avatars before Aang for audience who are curious how other avatars maintain balance during their timeline. It is understandable why they have chosen comics and novels to cover the parts in-between the two main animation series as it is cheaper to produce compared to full animations.

Figure 3: Avatar: The Last Airbender video game. [Gaming Console Version, Left] (Super Cheats, n.d.) Figure 4: Avatar: The Last Airbender video game. [Gameboy Advance Version, Right] (Super Cheats, n.d.)

There were also interactive media for this franchise such as video games. The video games let players control characters from the main animated series and navigate through the same storyline as the animated series. This would make the player feel immerse with the story as they are interacting with the video game to understand and progress the plot of the story.

Figure 5: The Last Airbender. [Left] (Bomb Report, 2022) Figure 6: Avatar: The Last Airbender. [Right] (Glazebrook, 2024)

Over the years, live-action adaption for the animated series were produced as well. However, The Last Airbender (2010) received a poor reception from audiences and was plagued with numerous noticeable issues (Curran, 2020). The long gap between these live-action adaption may be due to difficulties in securing investors or funding, as the first live-action adaptation performed so poorly that it lost much of the fan base’s trust in live-action adaption. Without the fan base’s trust and interest, the potential for profit would be significantly reduced. However, the lasting impact of the original animated series has kept the audience's loyalty and memory alive, likely contributing to the support for Netflix's live-action adaptation. To prove that the audience's interest are still strong with the series would be after four days since Netflix's live-action adaptation release on February 2024, It became a top 10 English series in 92 countries, with 21.2 million views (Netflix, 2024), and has reached 71.1 million views as of June 2024 (Netflix, 2024).

Figure 7: Funko Pop figurines of Avatar: The Last Airbender's characters. (Schwellenbach, 2018) Figure 8: Avatar: The Last Airbender Elements BST AXN 5-inch Action Figure. (DaRedHorse, n.d.)

Avatar: The Last Airbender also collaborate with merchandise companies to produce physical merchandises for fans who wishes to collect exclusive collectables or younger audience who wishes to play with their favourite characters physically.

By expanding into different entertainment mediums, it creates new entry points for audience (Jenkins, 2007) to enter into the franchise's main medium which is the main animated series. This multi-platform approach allows fans to explore the story's world from various perspectives, deepening their connection and sustaining interest in the franchise up to the present day.

Reference

Avatar: The Last Airbender. (2024). Netflix.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. (2005–2008). Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. (2006). THQ.

Baroni, R., Anaïs Goudmand and Ryan, M. (2023). Transmedial Narratology and Transmedia Storytelling. Springer eBooks, pp.1–25. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91263-5_16-1. [Accessed: 6 November 2024].

Curran, B. (2020). What Went Wrong With The Last Airbender Movie. ScreenRant. Available at: https://screenrant.com/last-airbender-movie-bad-problems-explained/. [Accessed: 7 November 2024].

Jenkins, H. (2007). Transmedia Storytelling 101. Henry Jenkins. Available at: https://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html. [Accessed: 6 November 2024].

Maschler, N. T. (2023) Transmedia Storytelling in the World of Harry Potter, Charles University. Available at: https://dspace.cuni.cz/bitstream/handle/20.500.11956/185957/120457570.pdf?sequence=1. [Accessed: 6 November 2024].

Netflix. (2023) Top 10 Week of Feb 19: Avatar: The Last Airbender and Tyler Perry's Mea Culpa. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/top-10-week-of-feb-19-avatar-the-last-airbender-and-tyler-perrys-mea-culpa. [Accessed: 7 November 2024].

Schiller, M. (2018). Transmedia Storytelling: Stories, pp.97–108. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5rf6vf.10. [Accessed: 6 November 2024]

The Last Airbender. (2010). Paramount Pictures.

The Legend of Korra. (2012–2014). Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

What's on Netflix. (2024). Search Netflix’s Engagement Reports for 2023 and 2024. Available at: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/most-popular/netflix-engagement-report-search/ [Accessed: 7 November 2024].

Yang, G., DiMartino, M. D., and Konietzko, B. (2010–2017). Avatar: The Last Airbender [Comic series]. Dark Horse Comics.

Yee, F. C. (2023). Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Dawn of Yangchen. Amulet Books.

Yee, F. C. (2023). Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Legacy of Yangchen. Amulet Books.

Yee, F. C. (2019). Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi. Amulet Books.

Yee, F. C. (2020). Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Shadow of Kyoshi. Amulet Books.