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oneatlatime · 11 months ago

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The Guru

Happy 2024 everyone and welcome to the first time I managed to type 2024 without first typing 2023! Oh and also a write up of The Guru. That too.

Me too Iroh. Me too.

So Zuko is riding high on that post-crisis 'time to get my life together' buzz that, similar to 3 am life plans, should absolutely not be listened to. Wonder how long before he crashes and burns? There's literally 2 episodes left, so I'm guessing one and a half?

Poor Sokka. My boy's got anxiety.

I don't know if it's a monk thing, an airbender thing, an Avatar thing, or an Aang thing, but I envy his complete lack of nerves.

How is Appa ok with them splitting up for a week after JUST getting them back?

I paused in a funny place. Have bonk-eyed Appa.

I love them comparing heights. What do you want to bet that that guy on the right was one of the youngest allowed to go fight, and Sokka made a big deal about how they're almost the same age and surely that means he can go too, right?

A lot of these Southern Water Tribe people have dreads or braids. That's neat.

Bato's arm is still messed up. That's some good continuity.

I've found the source of Katara's cheek bones. I guess Sokka takes after his mum.

Ok I know this is a really emotional moment (and it is! Sokka's spent two seasons earning this!) but my brain fixated on the furs and briefly thought they were sky bison pelts.

"It's been a difficult week for me." This guy thinks the Kyoshi Warriors are there to provide him therapy. Someone please just crown the bear instead.

He just gave away literally every relevant plot point AND outlined how to make sure all these plot points don't succeed. Crown. The. Bear.

Maybe if these generals spent less time playing with their giant model Earth Kingdom and more time general-ing, the war wouldn't suck so much?

Pretty.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the designs, the colour palette, the music, the sound design of this air temple. I love everything about it. If I had the chance to live anywhere in the Avatar universe, it would be here. Even in its ruined state it's such a refreshing contrast to the claustrophobia of Ba Sing Se. I can feel the freshness of the breeze through the screen.

"A spiritual brother of your people" an adult perspective on a near extinct culture! What a resource!

"and a personal friend of Monk Gyatso" an old as balls perspective. He's got to be at least 130.

Anthropology cul de sac time: this guy is so valuable as a resource on the Air Nomads. There's probably parts of Air Nomad culture that Aang can't ever accurately talk about, because he was a kid when he left, and there was almost certainly stuff that the adults kept to themselves, or only shared with the older Air Nomads. This Guru doesn't seem to be an Air Nomad himself, but there's a good chance that there is knowledge that he has, that Aang doesn't. Aang should be nerding out more about this. I'll do the nerding out for him.

Aang just breezes right by that Gyatso name drop like it's nothing. Huh.

Oh hey Toph. I'd forgotten she was in a box. Tweedle dum and Tweedle dumber really are quite the pair. What's their plan for keeping her fed and watered? Actually, these guys apparently don't know that maps exist, so it's probably never occurred to them that humans need sustenance. They'll rock up to the Bei Fong estate with corpse Toph and wonder why they aren't getting the reward money.

Mai gets called out in-universe for shopping at Hot Topic.

Ty Lee's buttering up of Azula is getting less and less subtle as the season progresses. It's a testament to Azula's lack of awareness that she's hasn't noticed that, and that Ty Lee can get away with it.

Azula's right that it's an extraordinary opportunity. The King gave them quite literally every piece of info required to overthrow his kingdom in a 25 second conversation. I can't blame her for taking advantage of such an easy win.

That's a very effective unimpressed face. And a very impressive beard.

It's funny to see a spiritual concept from the real world pop up in a show that includes things like bending and giant fish possession. The mention of Chakras kind of sticks out. They couldn't invent a Avatar universe version?

"Once you begin this process, you cannot stop until all seven are open." Well that doesn't feel like foreshadowing at all.

This episode should be called "Aang's self-care Journey." It's about time the kid had a me day that wasn't avoidance-based.

Fear: Losing Katara - makes sense. Losing control of his powers via fish possession - makes sense. The Fire Lord - makes sense. But the Blue Spirit? He helped. Doesn't make sense.

Guilt: Running away - makes sense, although I thought he'd worked through that with Katara in the storm. Nuking that idiot General's base - makes sense, but boy did he quite literally ask for it.

This guru is saying some wonderfully accurate, and realistic, things. I love that he's not taking the Katara route of denying anything is wrong. He's going for the acknowledge, then heal route. And yes, it's unfair of me to compare the emotional maturity of Katara to a century+ old spiritual expert.

I'm going to ruin the immersion here and point out that Sokka's dad's voice actor voiced a bunch of characters in season 1. He's doing an excellent job, but couldn't they get a unique voice for a character that's so important (albeit offscreen) to Sokka?

That's an incredibly roundabout way of avoiding pointing out that the Southern Water Tribe are active participants in a bloody war. Sure, we can show multiple characters with visible scarring from horrific burns, but heaven forbid we imply that the Southern Water Tribe sinks ships. The parameters for what is and isn't appropriate on this show sometimes make no sense.

"Aren't you listening? I said the rest of you men get ready for battle." He hasn't seen his boy in two years, but fifteen minutes in his company and he knows exactly what needs to be said and how. That's some top tier parenting. Dad of the year. Dad of the century. Only decent Dad in this show that isn't technically an uncle.

"Follow your passion Zuko, and life will reward you." Great advice for your eight year old audience. Also a great way to end up unemployed.

Positive Sokka creeped me out a few episodes ago. Now positive Zuko is freaking me out too.

Pretty.

Back to Chakras! Shame: Burning Katara - makes sense. But that's it? To have the inner peace of mind of a twelve year old who's somehow only ever done one thing that he's ashamed of.

Is there anyone in the earth kingdom who isn't stupid? Once again wondering at the network's standards. Visible burn injuries are fine, but Mai can't say 'Shut up." It's got to be Shush up. Although I do seem to recall of brief time in the early 2000s when Shut Up was treated as a curse on par with Shit or Fuck. Maybe that was just at my school.

Chakras again! Even for a show that often has an A, B, and C plot, this narrative is ping ponging around a bit much.

Grief: nothing major, just a whole nation. Makes a horrific amount of sense. but I don't buy that he can get over grieving the whole world as he knew it by thinking about his crush. That's way too high a pedestal for Katara to be placed on.

Lies: Not accepting he's the Avatar. Interesting that not accepting that he's the Avatar and not accepting that he's a firebender are two different problems.

I see you reusing the opening credits footage. Your blue filters can't fool me.

PRETTY

Illusion: So we're relearning what we learned in The Swamp. Aang's probably the person currently alive least likely to believe in the rigid separation of the nations anyway. This doesn't feel like an illusion he's subject to?

The way this episode dances between its narrative threads is so great. It's all woven in so beautifully. And this makes perfect sense! Toph's spent her life secretly doing things excellently that everyone says are completely beyond her capabilities. Life has taught her that the statement "you are not able to" doesn't apply. Of course immutable laws of bending physics are treated with the same respect as an adult telling the champion of the Earth Rumble that she's can't earthbend beyond breathing exercises. If you told her that humans can't fly, she'd figure out how within the week.

Plot collision incoming.

Interesting that Katara initially recognises Zuko by his voice rather than his scar.

I'm pretty sure that Zuko and Iroh don't know about the whole brainwashing thing, but wouldn't it be hilarious if Zuko introduced himself to Katara as Joo Dee, and his uncle Joo Dee, welcome to the Jasmine Dragon, can I take your order? That would throw Katara into one hell of a moral quandary.

Katara being framed as the solution for Chakra number four comes back to bite Aang, as she's the problem in Chakra number seven. I knew that pedestal was too high.

I've changed my mind. This episode should actually be called "Half a dozen reasons why everyone should just learn to keep their goddamn mouths shut already."

So is anyone going to let Zuko and Iroh know that they're now in immediate danger and need to leave, like, yesterday?

I think the Guru is going for the whole 'if you love them, let them go, and they'll come back to you' thing. Don't cling, in other words. But for the sake of the plot he's suddenly lost his ability to explain Chakras in a way that makes them seem like the logical thing to do. The only clunky bit of this episode so far.

May I introduce you to our Lord and Saviour Toph?

"I am the greatest earthbender in the world." Yes. Yep. Yeah. That's now a quantifiable fact, and it's correct. Look on ye mighty and despair. She's even got Bumi beat.

Earth Tongue Running is a bit wonky looking but it covers a crazy amount of distance.

What's the range on Toph's earth sense? Can she sense what direction Ba Sing Se is?

I hope those two idiots' horse bird is ok.

"You don't know how much this means to me dad." He does. Very much so.

Every word out of this guy's mouth is precision engineered to make Sokka feel like a million bucks and I for one think it's about time someone built him up. Also, seeing this makes me realise how few good parents there are in this show. It's a trope of kids' adventure shows that the parents fundamentally can't be there, but I also think it's a commentary on yet another thing that this war has messed up.

Hey look! Being a man is knowing where you're needed the most, and right now that's in Ba Sing Se, protecting your sister! I love narratives that tie their themes up with a pretty bow on top.

This is Azula laying a trap, right? Which means that Katara squealed to someone about the exact location of Iroh and Zuko's tea shop. Don't like the implications of that.

Photos taken seconds before disaster.

Final Thoughts

This episode was a lot! I mean that in a good way! But I felt a bit like the Maxell Blown Away Guy, the way I kept getting assaulted by yet another plot thread. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a criticism. I think the switching between plot threads and the amount of info in this episode worked 99% of the time. But I'm kind of in awe at the balancing act the writers pulled off and I'm sort of sitting here blinking a bit trying to fit all this stuff in my head. I'm probably going to forget half the stuff I wanted to talk about in this write up, so here goes nothing.

Given the Azula reveal in at the end of last episode, I thought that this would be the episode where the shit hits the fan. I was wrong. I'm glad I was wrong. An episode of set up is required and is nice breathing room, even an episode as busy as this. And I got to leave Ba Sing Se! But this does mean that next episode is going to be calamity after calamity.

Aang and his Chakras: I'm fascinated by this guru. I hope he comes back. That brings the total number of people who were alive before the war started up to three: Aang, Bumi, Guru Patik.

I'm impressed that the run through of the Chakras rarely felt like an info dump. The onion and banana juice thing didn't work for me, but I'm sure it worked for people in the target age bracket. Kids love burp jokes.

So many shows sprinkle in tragic backstories for flavour and then never have them influence the character in the present. It was a nice contrast to see a show take a whole episode to tell Aang "yeah all that sucked. It's ok to feel down about it. Here's how you move forward."

Sokka and his dad: Love it. Love it so much. I love seeing Sokka built up, and he definitely deserves it, but I wonder if this is the reward for a character arc well done, or the set up for a character arc that's about to start? Is his dad's praise his prize for crossing the finish line, or is it so he's built up with farther to fall?

I loved seeing more of the Southern Water Tribe. I loved the fashion. There's a lot of variety in accessories and variations on a few basic elements like those knee guard things. I loved their hairstyles. I loved how cozy and communal that command tent felt. I loved their ships. I wonder how often these guys work out, that they can make loading ramps that are presumably deployed and stashed out of the way frequently, out of whole logs rather than planks. I have a bone to pick with the child-friendly sea mine. But it provides a good set up for a dad joke, so I'll let it slide.

Zuko and Iroh: Of course the one time Zuko is allowed to be in a good place, it's so that he and Iroh both have farther to fall when the inevitable happens. Poor guy just can't catch a break. I'd be mad at Azula for the party crashing that I'm assuming she'll do next episode, but it's been established that Zuko has all nice things taken away from him as soon as he gets them, and I can't blame Azula for being a tool of the universe.

Azula & Long Feng: Azula's acting in Long Feng's prison cell was miles ahead of what Long Feng was doing in front of the Earth King, so I'm wondering if Long Feng has bitten off more than he can chew. Also: conspiring with the enemy to bring down your own city just so you can reinstall yourself as the power behind the throne that will presumably cease to exist as soon as the Fire Nation takes control? That is both treasonous beyond description and an incredible case of shooting yourself in the foot. What's Long Feng's plan here?

Toph and the Dunderheads: it says something about the consistency of Toph's characterisation from her introduction onwards that she breaks the universe this episode and my reaction was "that's neat." It's obviously a huge moment, but of course Toph can do that. Toph can do anything. More importantly, Toph knows that Toph can do anything, so Toph routinely does do anything, especially things she shouldn't be able to do. If you had asked me a few episodes back which character would be most likely to fundamentally redefine bending, I would have said Toph, since she's already fundamentally redefined bending with her earth sense sonar vision.

Also Toph just breaks stuff. Things that come into contact with her cease to function as intended and instead function as Toph requires. Look at the two idiots: both successful business owners, one also a successful hoodwinker of the richest family around. But they come into contact with Toph and their brains take an extended vacation.

Katara & the Generals: this plot was more like an extension of Azula's plot than its own standalone thing. You can't blame her for spilling the news about Zuko and Iroh to someone she honestly thought was Suki. Not much else to say about it, although it's cute that she asks for a table for two at the tea shop. Momo gets a chair!

I like that there's a theme this episode of things going wrong despite the best intentions. No one's acting maliciously here apart from the Antagonists. The Earth King is having an honest chat with people he thought were friends. Sokka vouched for people he honestly thought were the Kyoshi Warriors. Katara shares information about a presumed threat with people she honestly thought were her allies. You can quibble with the wisdom of some of these decisions, but there were all done with good intentions. The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry and all that. It brings to mind that Star Trek quote about how you can do everything right and still lose. And this set up is going to hit harder when whatever goes wrong next episode happens. And something will go wrong. A few months ago I figured that the Season 2 finale would be a triumph, but all signs are pointing towards a tragedy instead.

This episode was visually stunning, the soundtrack in the Air Temple sections especially was very evocative, and I applaud the minds that could juggle that many plot threads at once without dropping any. This one is definitely going on my rewatch list.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #the guru

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itsstrangelypermanent · 3 years ago

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Let's talk about helmets and hair

I'm going to preface this entire thing with some disclaimers.

1. I have a lot of hair, but its thin, white-Irish girl hair. Yes, I know. It's green. Thanks for noticing. 2. My prop helmet has had absolutely zero post-print processing, and is held together by blue painters tape so I could start working out designs and fits. As such, it is NOT 100% accurate, but more than sufficient to demonstrate its true size when fully assembled. 3. Addendum to #2 - there is ZERO padding inside, evidenced in one of the pictures. 4. It is a 1:1 scale, designed for a male (human :D) of approximate canon height. It's a commercially available - both the print and the .stl file. I did not print this myself, as my printbed isn't quite big enough for it, but bought it from the creator himself. 5. I work in a cleanroom. For those unaware, that means I basically go through a form of decontamination every time I enter the workroom floor, and we wear Resident Evil type white suits (minus the giant spacesuit helmets.). We wear hoods over our hair to prevent FM (free matter) contamination. Why is this relevant? It is, trust me.

AND now that I have that out of the way, let's begin, shall we?

I am all for clones having their own private individualities. I adore the fanon/canon beliefs that they embrace body art (and I'll include hair styles/coloration into this) to make them unique, them. Kix and Keeli with their ridiculous shaved patterns (canon), Thorn and Hound having dyed/bleached hair respectively (fanon), the absolute myriad of both canon and fanon tattoos... while I honestly and truly believe the writers of TCW had zero intent for it meaning more than "oh hey, let's give Crys blond hair in this episode so we can tell him apart when we do shots from the shoulders up" and "gee whiz, Fives and Echo look exactly alike when they stand next to each other, let's pop a tattoo on Five's fat head so our audience can be spoon-feed who is who" -- well, sorry guys, it had more implications than that.

So past clone tattoos, which as a connoisseur of tattoos in genral, I could write pages on... let's focus on hair. Specifically, let's talk about the practicalities of having long hair as a clone trooper.

That's just it.

There aren't any.

Behold. A helmet. (Also, a cat. Her name is Duchess Helga.)

Specifically, a Phase II clone commander helmet, minus the greeblies that make it a commander helmet. Those bits aren't relevant for this as they do nothing to affect internal fit. As mentioned, its 1:1 scale, and unless you have some weird bulbous protrusions, it should fit a generally normal sized post-puberty human.

Also observe: Zero post-print processing. There's been no filling or sanding. This is as raw as that chicken Gordon Ramsey is constantly screeching about. Important - there is no padding. I can't repeat this often enough. Padding can be expected to add anywhere from half an inch to a full 2", depending on how you want it to fit, how big your noggin is, etc. Think: bike helmet.

Exhibit the Third: Hair. Standard, semi-long hair. Hits my shoulder blades, maybe just a touch past since my ends are split and terrible.

This is with my hair loose, down my back. Please note that I don't generally wear my contacts if I'm not working these days, and my glasses very much do not fit under. That's fine. Canonically, there are no glasses-wearing clones that I can think of, save Tech, and well... I'm not even going to touch that with a 10' pole. I was vaguely satisfied that I actually ended up in frame, since I couldn't see what I was doing.

The inside bowl of the helmet is sitting on the top of my head, I'm just holding it still since there's nothing internally there to help that yet. It rests just on my shoulders, as-is.

(protip: if you're doing something like this yourself, make sure all your tape, if you have any looping into the inside, is completely down and not sticking up. Painter's tape does not like to come off of hair, but alas, we must suffer for our art.)

Now we have all that out of the way, let's talk clones. Specifically, let's talk Tup.

Canonically, he has majestic hair, if a questionable male-pattern-baldness/Vegata (it's over 9000?!?!) hairline. (That's not coming from me, that's coming from my brother, who suffers similarly.)

Here is a Tup.

This was one of the best angles of his hair I could find, and has the benefit of one of our favorite ARCs. Note the bun, and how high it is on the crown of his head.

Let's science.

Simple wrap bun. Basic pony, take the tail and twist, then use whatever random scrunchie or elastic that comes to hand to secure it. This is low on the back of my neck. I generally wear my hair for work around this height because it's easiest for me to put up, and around the house about the same because I wear a lot of ball caps. Remember how I mentioned working in a cleanroom and wearing a hood over my hair? With my hair down low like that, I can wear a size medium hood, the standard generic, "typical" size expected for someone of my height and build.

Without resorting to pixel measurements (I am not MatPat), visually, the... density? size? of my hair appears similar to what Tup sports.

Ignore my foot, this isn't that kind of post.

So, with my hair down low, the helmet does not fit. Not anywhere close. Unseen, but relevant: my nose now has a scrape on it because I tried to finagle my way in. Bun was rather unforgiving unless I wanted to rip out chunks of my hair. I did eventually manage to cram myself in, but it was distinctly unpleasant. The cap of the helmet did not rest on the top of my head - the bun basically wedged my face against the visor part of the helmet.

Remember: no internal padding.

(You gotta have buns, hun.)

Once I freed my hair from its blue, sticky prison, I took another look at my file of Tup reference pictures. He wears his bun way up high, on the crown of his head.

So, with the not-very-helpful assistance of my cat who kept trying to eat my elastics, I put mine up in approximately the same place. Yes, I know my hair looks like a rat's nest, I hadn't been up for long when I took this... it's very much bed-head. Also god DAMN the gray :sobs:

After a few adjustments (I rarely wear my hair up this high, it took a moment to adjust it), I tried the helmet again.

Success!

Or not.

So, the pros... I got my head in.

That's about it.

Cons: My nose is very much mashed against the "teeth" part and, well... hair. Hair takes up space, be it in your helmet or in your bathroom drain. My bun is absolutely mashed to the top of the helmet, and my rough measurements of it's height are 3.5-4" seem to correlate to what Tup has. I actually had to pull the helmet down a bit because otherwise my chin would be hanging out - that's how badly the height of my hair affected the fit.

Remember how I mentioned I normally wear a medium hood at work? if I wear my hair with my bun anywhere north of my ears, I have to go to a size large. I'm in that hood for 10 hours out of 12, and the discomfort of my hair binding on the back of my head is just vile. Also, I'd have a line across my forehead where the seam of the eye-hole section of the hood is, and that's just not cool.

And that's with fabric, which inherently has some give to it.

Finally, and again, there's no padding in the helmet. It's bare PLA on the inside, plain, simple, somewhat fragile white plastic filament. In fact, I'd go so far as to wager that PLA/PET/typical 3D print filaments have more give to them than "plastoid" does.

So. Where does this leave us?

For me, it's (and Lordy Lordy I dislike using buzzword bingo words like this) immersion breaking. It's just not practical, and between the Mandalorian heritage and the Kaminoans being what they are, I can't imagine extensive hair styling, at least of the having lots of it variety, to be a thing. Helmets are one-size-fits-all, with the only real distinctions being different "classes" - ARFs, command-types, phase I/phase II, pilot-specific, etc. One clone head can fit into every helmet, every helmet can fit onto every clone head. I can't imagine that the standard-issue helmets would have any sort of adjustable padding, either. Further, there's electronics in canon helmets - HUDs, etc. That takes up space.

To try to keep my meandering to a minimum, I'll narrow this. I can't imagine a clone, a being who's in their armor far more often than they're out of it, voluntarily being that uncomfortable for that long, when there are other methods of expressing individuality. Now, that's not to say that some wouldn't - pain is pleasure kind of nonsense, the need to do something to break the mold. I get that. BUT... I would see them in the incredibly vast minority. The physical discomfort would be a big thing, as would... well, helmets come with instruction manuals and warnings. Not wearing a helmet properly puts you at potentially more risk of injury should something happen. I can't imagine a commander, a medic, a brother knowingly let another brother go into a combat situation with a potentially life-saving piece of equipment not fitting right because he wants to have fluffy hair, not when there are other options. Hair color, shaving it, tattoos, piercings... all would seem to be viable and valid alternatives.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand this has been my TEDTalk on why clone hair as portrayed is broken as fuck and quite possibly the most unrealistic thing in the series. Little green men playing with energy swords is ok. Clones of a space Polynesian (I'm going to use that term broadly, it's not meant to offend anyone, but more to bring attention to physicality) with BEAUTIFULLY LUSH HAIR cramming said BEAUTIFULLY LUSH HAIR into overly-tight helmets just isn't.

#tcw #swtcw #the clones deserved better #tup #I'm so bad at tagging #deep thoughts #I need to unknot my hair now #beffs.talks

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