#rip to sokka and aangs character development i guess

[accidental-spice]

I truly hate to say it, but every time I read an article about the live action ATLA show, I get less optimistic

[likeabxrdinflight]

I keep seeing more and more information about the netflix live action atla and I'm just so so skeptical of it. apparently the episode titles are out there in the ether and there's only 8 of them?

I'm just really not sure how you mash the incredibly episodic book one into 8 60-min episodes and have that flow smoothly without making very drastic changes. book one was without a doubt the most episodic season of either atla or lok. the stories do not flow into each other all that well and most were designed as relatively stand alone little plots while the characters bounce around from location to location. the only exceptions to this were the first three episodes, the winter solstice arc, arguably the storm/the blue spirit, and of course the final three in the northern water tribe.

I cannot figure out how they're going to either stitch together, stretch out, or cut the other episodes. there are some pretty obvious cuts- no one wants to see the great divide again, and the fortuneteller doesn't add a ton outside of some small development for kataang, which could easily be done elsewhere. and then I could see an argument for cutting bato of the water tribe, although I don't like cutting that one as much because it has some important character beats for aang and sokka, and there's also the introduction of june, which...you could cut if you're also okay with cutting her from the end of season three. everything else though?

obviously you can't cut the kyoshi warriors. you can't cut omashu or bumi (though you could re-write that episode to make it less...children's cartoon-y for lack of a better word). I don't think you should cut imprisoned because it's such an impactful episode for katara and also how she loses her necklace, which comes back for the waterbending scroll, which is also too important to entirely cut because again, very important katara episode and it's also important for aang learning waterbending. I suppose you could try to combine imprisoned and the waterbending scroll somehow? or cut imprisoned and have katara lose her necklace elsewhere? but that's not ideal and I'd hate to see them butcher katara's character arc for the sake of time.

then there's jet and jeong jeong's episodes, again both rather important- jet because he plays a major role in season two, and jeong jeong because his episode is central to aang's character arc and it establishes that there are fire nation citizens who oppose the war- and you could start foreshadowing the white lotus here. finally there's the northern air temple, which...I guess you could cut if you absolutely had to? it wouldn't be terrible to just establish upfront that the fire nation has air power, I don't think audiences would really question that too much or wonder where the idea for airships came from. but the northern air temple is such a meaningful character beat for aang and does a lot to establish sokka's strengths as a member of the group. plus the mechanist plays an important role later for day of black sun, so...I dunno, I think this would be a hard one to justify cutting completely.

but the other problem is how poorly I think these very separate, self-contained stories would flow into eight 60 minutes episodes. I think four of those episodes are already spoken for anyways- one for the first three, one for the last three, one for the storm/blue spirit, and one for the winter solstice. so really that leaves you with four more episodes. four episodes to cover at least episodes 4, 5, 9, 10, 16, and 17 of the original show, and maybe episodes 6, 14, and 15 if they don't cut them. (lbr we all know they're cutting episode 11, RIP great divide).

I jus can't imagine how they're going to do this. even with very significant re-writes I think it's going to be hard for this first season to not feel very frankensteined together. it'll be an easier task with seasons two and three, which were already more serialized, but season one? this is going to be a real challenge for them to get right.

I'm not sure they will.

[ameliatheamazing]

Sokka’s Master

This was a fantastic episode, Sokka got a chance to shine which made me very happy! I already loved Sokka but I think my love for him grew ten sizes today. He’s definitely one of my favorite characters. (right after zuko. Aang is up there too. and everyone else. Have I mentioned I love everyone? but yeah. sokka)

So Sokka got to learn sword fighting from this cool sword master guy which was great. I think he really needed this, he needed to properly learn from a master and he did. And he did amazing. He really showed his creativity and intelligence in everything he did and I’m so proud of him! That’s what makes him worthy! He thought he wasn’t worthy but he is!! This episode was such good development for him.

He made the coolest sword in the history of ever with a freaking meteorite and I have so much respect. I have never held a sword in my life but I love them and sword fighting seems very cool. So I am always down for that in any show and this was no exception. That master guy (I would say I don’t know his name but I can look it up in the credits! His name is Piandao) seems like a pretty great guy, like he knows what’s up. And he’s a member of the white lotus which uncle iroh also belongs to so that’s probably a good thing.

Speaking of uncle iroh, MY DUDE IS RIPPED!! I guess he decided to use his prison time as a chance to get fit, which is quite inspirational I must say.  I don’t know if he has some kind of master plan or reason why he’s doing this, but he’s gotta have something cool in store.

In conclusion this one has also gotta go on the favorite episodes list, I had so much fun watching it and it made me very happy. I love Sokka. See ya next time!!

[jellybeanbeing]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Book Tag

I recently watched and finished Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time in my life and it was sooooo good. I wanted to do a book tag to celebrate this event so here we are! This tag was created by Hannah from A Clockwork Reader!

Water:

Katara & Sokka: Best sibling relationship // Declan, Ronan, and Matthew Lynch from The Dreamer trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

These three are far from perfect, but they are my favorite sibling trio. They are so different from each other but it adds to their dynamic. They can never fully understand each other and the choices they make but they’re there to care for the other when they’re in trouble. Sure, they don’t get along a lot, but not every set of siblings does. One of my favorite things about this trio is that they had a period of time where they hated each other and wanted nothing to do with each other (mainly Declan and Ronan) because of what had happened to their family but overtime, they learn to mend that wound and grow closer together. I just love my angsty boys.

Yue: Favorite star crossed lovers // Emma & Julian from The Dark Artifices series by Cassandra Clare

I know that a lot of people do not like this couple, and that’s valid. I really love this couple though. What can I say? I just love my angsty characters. But really, it’s the yearning and the “will they come out of this situation alive” pain that fuels my love for this couple. Their relationship is filled with so much intensity, and then you add in that factor of “we don’t know if they’ll have a happy ending” and it just hurts, but in a good way. They are strong-willed characters who have so much pain built up inside them and the one thing they so desperately want is each other and to be together but they can’t. Say what you want about this couple, but they are one of my top tier OTPs.

Blood Bending: A book with disturbing/unsettling concept // Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

It feels odd to choose the second book in the series to talk about, but this book has one scene that almost made me vomit, and that has never ever happened to me before. This entire series’ concept is deeply unsettling because it’s set in a world where technology is so advanced that even death by natural causes has been conquered so people called ‘Scythes’ are tasked to keep the population at bay. Within that world, there is corruption with how Scythes choose to kill their victims. Before I say what I say, just know that I really like this series. Anyway. I have never been more nervous and angry while reading a book and I thought I had reached my limit with book one, but no. Book two was just a fucking treat. The ending was fucked. The buildup to it was fucked. What Goddard did to Tyger was what made me almost vomit, and just thinking about it and Goddard makes me want to rip my head off because what the fuck. I still haven’t read the third book yet, but I will. Soon. Maybe.

Earth:

Toph: A character whose strength surprised you/or surprised the other characters in the book // Kell Maresh from the Shades of Magic series by V.E Schwab

We all know Kell to be a powerful magician, but at the time when I read this, I didn’t really understand how powerful he was capable of being. He’s one of the few Antari in that world so obviously it would make sense that he has a huge amount of power. It wasn’t until the second book when it clicked in my head that Kell has the power to do so much more destruction. In the tournament scenes through Lila’s perspective, I started to see the extent of his powers because of how much he was holding back and it blew my freaking mind.  

The Tales of Ba Sing Se: Best short story/poetry collection // none

I have not read a lot of short story/poetry collections that really stand out to me so yeah, none for me.

Kyoshi Warriors: Best warrior character // Helene Aquilla from An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir

I love Helene Aquilla so much. She’s such a badass and it’s great. What I really love about her is that she’s not just a pretty face who wields a sword around. Yes, she’s strong physically and mentally at the beginning of the series, but during the journey she goes on, all of that is broken down until she’s at her most vulnerable. We are constantly seeing the turmoil inside her and it adds so much to her character. She’s far from perfect but those imperfections are what makes her such a strong character. 

Fire:

Zuko: Best redemption arc/a redemption arc that should have happened // Matthias Helvar from the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

Literally, almost everyone hates him and I understand why but the amount of growth he goes through is one of the best things about his character. Sure, he’s a straight pasty white boy who, on the outside, is boring compared to the other five (or six???) characters but seeing his development from being a bigoted asshole to a more understanding and caring character was something I loved reading about. It takes a lot to unlearn the things you grew up thinking was true and heavily believed in, and to see a different view of the world. I do understand the meaning of his end but there was so much more potential for character to really grow even more than it did and I will forever be bitter.

Iroh: Wisest character // Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Evelyn Hugo is such a great character. She starts from the bottom and then climbs her way to the top by doing things that are considered to be not ethically correct. She’s aware of all of that and yet she feels little to no shame about it because she did what she had to for the dream she wanted. She makes mistakes and has flaws but that never brings down her character. After all of that, she still holds herself up. She went through so much in her life and throughout the book, she provides so much insight on the choices she made and how they affected her. 

Azula: Best downfall // Bonnie from The End of the Fucking World S2

I know there’s a comic but I’m going to talk about the Netflix series, and I know it’s not a book but I really wanted to talk about Bonnie and her downfall. Would you call it a downfall? I don’t know really, but I guess I’ll consider it as one. Her downfall was by far the most emotional that I have ever seen/read about. I feel like episode 7 was just a perfect episode to capture Bonnie’s character and the downfall she has. Not to mention that it’s a fucking great episode and it will remain one of my favorites. Bonnie is a character who grew up with a lack of love and has seemingly detached herself from a lot of things and people. I say this because for the majority of the show, it seems as thought Bonnie is unfeeling and emotionless, but there are moments when her emotions just override and are visually expressed. In episode 7 when she confronts James and Alyssa, Alyssa asks Bonnie, “what happens next?” and it literally clicked in my head that Bonnie never really had a sense of purpose in the world until she met the professor. From there, her purpose was to be his “little salmon” but that ended up not happening and from there, her purpose is to get revenge for him by hunting down and killing James and Alyssa. From there, what does Bonnie do? There’s nothing left. The entire diner scene is just fantastic yet so heartbreaking. At the end of the episode, you just get Bonnie saying, “I’m really tired” and it hits so hard because of all that Bonnie went through.

Air:

Appa: Favorite fictional animal/pet // none

I actually have not read a lot of books with a fictional animal/pet that is super prominent in the story or that I have a big attachment to, so again, none.

Aang: Purest cinnamon roll // Aled Last from Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Aled Last deserves the whole world and that’s a fact. He has such a pure soul and good intentions, and the fact that he goes through so much hurt in the book, hurts a lot. Aled is just a character you want to hug and protect. It’s so difficult to explain why Aled is a pure cinnamon roll because he just is and you just have to read the book to understand that this boy deserves nothing but love.

Avatar State: A stubborn character/a character that struggles with letting go // Elias Veturius from An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir

I love Elias Veturius with my whole heart and mind and soul, and you should too because he’s just a freaking amazing character. The journey he goes through in this series is so fucking painful because he constantly has to do things and become things that he doesn’t want to but he has to for the sake of keeping the ones he loves safe AND IT’S NOT FAIR THAT HE HAS TO GO THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN. We are always seeing Elias at war with himself and duty, and from this, he does make decisions that causes consequences but ultimately, he chooses duty, leaving the ones he loves behind in order to protect them. 

[alliluyevas]

TOP 5: movies/tv shows you saw in 2017, Books you read in 2017(or can be a Top 10 if you have more than 5). Top 10: Characters of 2017, Things you want to achieve in 2018 and beyond

top five movies/tv shows i saw in 2017 (both new releases and things I saw for the first time in 2017)

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER BINCH

hidden figures

rogue one

October by Sergei Eisenstein

the mountain between us

I didn’t watch all that much new stuff this year honestly :(

top five books read (for the first time) in 2017

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (forgot i read this in 2017, seems like ages ago)

war and peace!!

the entire series of unfortunate events which I’d never read before

i literally can’t remember anything else that I read for the first time this year and really loved…I am SO bad about reading new stuff, I just read the same damn things over and over.

i did read lots of good new historical sources tho and parts of tons of books that I sniped off of googlebooks but I didn’t really FINISH a lot of stuff rip

top ten characters of 2017 (new characters i guess)

Zuko fskjgkjh

Toph

Sokka

Katara

Aang

Iroh

Pierre Bezhukov

Alyosha Karamazov

Ivan Karamazov

Dmitri Karamazov

shoutout to all the folks from rogue one ilu too

top ten things i want to do in 2018 (good one!)

have a BOSS ASS time studying abroad in Russia

write my senior thesis and have it be extremely good and also have a good experience writing it in general

finally get into a Smithsonian summer internship after applying and being rejected two years in a row

visit Nadya Krupskaya’s grave when I’m in Moscow

see more ballet!!

become more powerful and gain the admiration of my professors

read more books

continue to develop a more positive relationship with my brother

hang out with my friends more

try to be positive change in the world and improve people’s lives

[cluebottles]

Consuming Avatar: The Last Airbender for the First Time...

... at 23 years old. 

**Some Major Spoilers Ahead for Plot Lines and the Ending -- If you haven’t seen Avatar: The Last Air Bender I highly suggest you watch it before you read

[Before I begin: I live in America. Currently and since the “founding” of our country, minorities have not been treated as equal -- Black people in our country have been treated as less than human and have been brutally murdered at the hands of the police and the hands of our governing system of racist oppression since the beginning. It’s still happening. It will continue to happen if we ignore this, if we give up, if we push forward without enacting change. Be safe when you are protesting. Educate people who might not understand. Use your platform to speak out, to share information and resources. Donate if you can. Here’s some resources: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ ] Alright, so the spoiler alert is out there in the open and I’ve addressed our current situation, I guess we should jump in with a little back story of my history with Avatar. As a kid, I never watched it. I still pretended to water bend in the pool -- Avatar transcended more than just television. The idea of controlling the elements around you was magnificent enough to bleed into that weird group of kids who never watched it growing up. I also had one Avatar video game that I barely played...because I didn’t watch the show...so I didn’t know what was going on. Trying to watch something and be caught up as a kid without streaming services was just impossible, so I’m lucky to not only have the complete box sets now, but we’re all lucky Netflix has graced us with the story to binge-watch.

I want to first start off and say that overall I highly enjoyed this show. Everyone I knew has praised it as being an important character building experience that made them the person they are today -- and while I can understand that, and some of that is not only important and moving, I’m also here to criticize that, just a little bit. 

Let’s start off with the characters and story-- both of which mostly fantastic. I mean, Uncle Iroh is a phenomenon I’d only heard of and honestly had to think he was overrated until I fell in love with him on screen.   

I think Uncle Iroh is also a very important character because he shows an important and believable character growth -- he was a war criminal. He was pushing forward, killing innocent people as he attempted to conquer the great Earth Nation city Ba Sing Se. His son was killed in the war he was raging, and he gave up and went home and over years has worked on himself to have the wisdom he is known for and astounding character growth. “But didn’t he save the last two dragons?” ...you can do a good thing while also doing other bad things. Lmfao. He is constantly trying to steer his nephew, Zuko, in a more positive direction, while also providing scattered support to the Aang Gang more than once throughout the entirety of the series. (RIP to Uncle Iroh’s original voice actor, Mako Iwamatsu, and I praise the beautiful story dedicated to him in Uncle Iroh’s tale, an episode that made me cry once I realized it was a dedication to him.)

Let’s contrast this to these two -- both having the least believable character growth(s? ses? ???) I’ve ever seen.  

Everyone says “that ZUKO CHARACTER GROWTH ARC THO” and I just... I don’t have the same energy for it. Maybe it’s my most unpopular opinion on this show? But ... it’s just so rushed. I do think this series ended too soon, and I know it goes beyond just this show in comics, but as a consumer of just this show, it was flat to me. “I MUST HAVE THE AVATAR” to “I MUST HELP THE AVATAR SAVE THE WORLD” but a majority of him in this series has been the former while the last season, really, has been the latter. We stan reassessment and learning and bettering the world, but some of the first times he’s helped the Avatar has been for his own personal gain because he wants the glory so he can go home to his abusive family. I wish he would have been given more time to have a more realistic turnaround, because the beginning and the end are there -- it’s just a weird muddled middle that doesn’t make sense to me. The same with the hatred of his father. We’re not given much between “I NEED TO RESTORE MY HONOR AND COME HOME TO MY FATHER” and “I WILL HELP THE AVATAR KILL YOU” and I think that’s a shame. 

Mai... I just... I can’t even.. like I don’t know where to begin on how underwhelming her betrayal of Azula is. Like yes, it has shock value, but besides the shock value, to me, it’s unbelievable. Yes, she has had a crush on Zuko since they were kids, but she’d been closer to Azula than him for most of her life. Even in the EPISODE where she does this betrayal she has very little time alone with Zuko. He tricks her and traps her in his cell, and just moments before this she’s accusing him of going against her and their entire nation. In scenes we see them together before this she’s broken up with him and shouted at him, they’ve gotten into fights, a lot, and she’s seen talking about the perks of dating a prince, relishing in the fact that she gets them too. To me her betrayal is unbelievable. I don’t hate her at all though! I honestly just think she needed more screen time so that we could be shown her doubts about the Fire Nation and how strong her relationship to Zuko actually is. 

I guess it’s time for another unpopular opinion -- I can’t stand Sokka and Yue. They don’t have chemistry. Yue is literally engaged to a dickbag and instead of doing what was best for her, she was going to just go through with it. Also, Yue and Sokka don’t know each other that well nor have they known each other for that long, whereas Suki met Sokka first. Suki and Sokka have a natural chemistry. Sokka takes Suki for granted, a lot, but they’re fantastic. 

Cluebottles’ Top Ten Favorite Character List

Uncle Iroh

Sokka 

Toph

Suki

Avatar Roku

Appa & Momo

Avatar Kiyoshi

Katara

Aang

Zuko

Now, we know Uncle Iroh preaches humility, growth, peace and harmony. And while a lot of the time I would agree, there are some times where I don’t. Here is my biggest criticism of the show: love doesn’t conquer all, and Avatar: The Last Airbender sloppily tries to enforce that it does ‘til the awkward end of the series.

I understand that this is a children’s show. However, the fact that it’s about war and multiple people have died during the show (even if it wasn’t always outright shown), I don’t think killing the Fire Lord would have been unwarranted. If anything, it’s another show that pushes “no matter what be the bigger person”, “no matter what, love is the only way”, “you can’t fight hatred with hatred”, which ultimately does not work, and furthers the bullying of people or the oppression of people. 

Aang is supposed to save the world, and when it comes down to it, he can’t kill the Fire Nation’s Leader, Lord Ozai, who is the third in straight succession to lead the assault on conquering the other nations. A war of 100 years ends “peacefully” -- except for all of the people who lost their lives fighting for their family and freedom against the Fire Nation. 

Aang seeks council from his previous Avatar incarnations -- and each of them tell him to take out the Fire Lord for the good of the world. That’s Aang’s only job as the Avatar -- to keep the balance and work for the good of the world. 

Instead of him bringing down the swift hand of justice, Aang learns how to bend energy (wtf?) at the literal last minute from a giant lion turtle so that he can bend the energy (again, wtf?) out of Ozai and take his bending power away. Even when the kid gets the snot knocked out of him and the Avatar state takes over, Aang stops it. And then he bends the energy (wtf x3) out of Ozai successfully even though the turtle tells him it can corrupt him entirely if he does it wrong, that it’s extremely hard to do, and even though he’s never practiced doing it.

Iroh was a war criminal. He reformed himself and helped the community he hurt when he really never had to. Zuko has his own “character development arc” where he goes from being bad to goodish to bad again to okay to bad to finally  good. He’s a kid, he’s still learning, and has changed drastically for the better.  Azula...Azula had been struggling with some form of mental illness/psychosis since she was a small child even into adulthood. She’s hateful and dangerous, but not only is she still a kid -- she should be (and is) locked up so she can’t ever hurt anyone again. 

Fire Lord Ozai is an adult, fully aware of his actions, has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people in his wake trying to take over territories and kill other benders, enslave them, and imprison them. Even when confronted by the Avatar, resistance, and his own son peacefully, not only does he start the violence in retaliation, but he doesn’t learn from being shown compassion. He is literally already a war criminal, there should be no compassion left for anyone to show him. My point being that there’s a stark difference between him and others who may have been like him. 

So in the end, the big message that this sends to me is that you should always show love and compassion. Never resort to violence. Be the “bigger person”, like I mentioned above, and like I said this doesn’t translate to real life. I think a huge reason why I feel I need to criticize this and other children’s shows that push this message is that we are being fed this narrative at a young age while we’re being bullied, while we’re facing hatred from others whether it’s because of the color of our skin, our gender, our sexuality -- we are expected to always be the “better person”. Our problems will somehow amicably be fixed by love. We shouldn’t actively be trying to dismantle a system taking advantage of and killing minorities, all I have to do is be nice. As we grow that feeds into our naive outlook on protesting and rioting, our outlooks on lawmaking and leadership. “Well they just made their whole movement look bad” “You should never resort to violence” -- meanwhile the police have been murdering black people for years and years, and people have been “peacefully protesting” that. Rioting was what got freedoms for several different movements, whether it’s worker’s rights, lgbt+ rights, the "civil rights act”, rioting is what literally got the USA the “freedom” to begin with. 

In the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang is gifted at the last moment with the ability to take away Lord Ozai’s power and ultimately, have a peace restored without violence. In the real world, you cannot take away the power of war criminals and oppressors because they have the power in a system stacked against you. So trying to answer such a huge life question, trying to end a war in the real world, trying to take down oppressors -- showing them love and trying to fumble it on your own sense of humility does nothing. 

I watched this show unfold and finish moments before I watched people take to the streets to protest yet another black life lost by the hands of police brutality and systemic racsim. Watching George Floyd die just for being black in America, knowing all of the black lives lost every day just because they are black in America to then look at a show that tries to push a message like “love conquers all”, “violence is unnecessary”, just makes me angry because we live in a world where these sentiments, though nice, don’t exist.

That being said, I’m glad this show meant a lot to people, because it did mean a lot to me too. For some reason, it gives me a strange sense of hope. This is probably my favorite show and I’m watching it again after just finishing it. If you haven’t watched it, there are a lot of lessons that can be learned to positively affect you and make you take a step back and re-evaluate, and maybe implement some of Uncle Iroh’s wisdom into your life.