#this is his only claim to airbender fame

[freckledsokka]

thinking a lot about uncle sokka being such an important influence for bumi as a fellow nonbender and assuaging a lot of the guilt and fear of not being Enough and also encouraging bumi's creative mind

i imagine bumi was probably a mean little shit about it at first because no he's gonna be the best bender there ever was he's not like dumb uncle sokka, you'll see

and of course sokka doesn't take offense to this because bumi is just a kid with the weight of the future of the entire air nation on his shoulders and he knows what it means to need to prove yourself to your dad, but at the same time he sees so much of himself in bumi and it hurts to see that spiral of anxiety and shame twisting itself in such a young kid, hurts even more to see the budding self-loathing for not being Special that took sokka so long to untangle, so he tries to get ahead of it by gently suggesting that being a nonbender isn't so bad, trying to show him all the cool and practical things you can do without bending, and reminding him katara and aang will still love him no matter what — but bumi is so resistant to the idea because it's unfathomable for him, as the only child (at this point) of the avatar and the greatest waterbending master alive, to be anything other than a prodigy

so bumi tries and tries and fails and fails and this goes on for years — he meditates (boring, he can't sit still that long), he learns bending forms (but he's never good at remembering them, always messing them up bc he wants to do it his Own Way), he trains and trains and trains (maybe he's actually an earthbender or a firebender like uncle zuko, his dad's the avatar, he could be anything!) — until his baby sister kya shows early signs of being a bender and bumi's whole world comes crashing down around him. he thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't alone, if kya was Like Him (but he still won't admit it to himself, that he's Normal, that he'll never live up to all those expectations), but as soon as kya makes water so much as ripple bumi panics out of fear of rejection

maybe he even runs away because he's so scared his parents won't want him now that they have their bender, that they don't need him because he's not like kya and probably never will be, that they never wanted him because why else would they want another kid if not because he wasn't what they expected? so he takes off on appa (so much like his own father in ways he doesn't even realize, only he isn't running away from perceived destiny but rather perceived lack thereof) and doesn't look back. maybe if he goes to the southern air temple he can find that Thing in himself to become a bender, to be just like his dad, and surely appa just Knows the way there right?

but like everything else in his life, he can't even do this one thing right, he can't even run away without failing — aang and katara got the whole gaang back together to look for him, and bumi only made it as far as the east coast of the fire nation bc he failed to realize appa can't just fly forever. everyone is so relieved to find him safe and while aang and katara are sort of baffled as to why bumi felt like he had to run away bc of course they love him and will always love him where did he get the idea that they don't want him, sokka is like Ah. I See. It's Happening.

(sokka, i think, was rightfully concerned that aang and katara might not have seriously considered what it would mean to raise a nonbender bc that simply isn't their experience and they were probably also operating under the assumption that having a nonbender child would be a statistical impossibility between the two of them despite sokka probably having actual real data to suggest that bending, actually, is the anomalous factor regardless of if one of you is bending georg the avatar [who is, for the record, the definition of a statistical outlier], and there is probably a pretty big i told you so moment around this time)

because of course sokka Gets It, he understood before bumi even accepted the fact that he'll never be the next airbender, and he's there when bumi feels like he's drowning in disappointment, he's there for basically the five stages of grief for the person bumi desperately thought he was and will never be, he's there to remind bumi that he still has an Identity even if it's not the one he was hoping for, he's there to tell bumi stories about all the amazing things he's accomplished in his own life and all the amazing things his grandfather accomplished, both of them nonbenders, and that there's more to life than just weird powers

bumi never really picks up on the more scientific stuff sokka tries to teach him, but in a sense he's sort of like bumi's piandao and teaches him what it means to be a warrior and a leader and is there to nurture all the wacky shenanigans bumi gets into and praises him for always thinking outside the box — and getting to train with sokka makes it hurt a little less that kya gets to train with katara and tenzin gets to train with aang (which is a sore spot he's never been able to fully articulate, this jealousy of tenzin being the thing bumi should've been). training with sokka and seeing his own potential makes bumi feel like maybe he is worth something and can be someone, even if he still feels like he needs to come up with crazier and crazier shit to get his parents to notice him (sometimes, of course, to the point of exaggeration) and thinks that being rambunctious and ridiculous are his only redeeming personality traits

and when bumi is old enough, sokka takes him ice dodging and for the first time in his life, bumi finally feels that profound sense of accomplishment and belonging he was always looking for when he thought he still might be a bender — and, just like sokka before him, he receives the mark of the wise for demonstrating creativity and ingenuity during his trial. his methods might have been unorthodox, but so were sokka's, and while bumi may not physically be an airbender, he knows how to think like one, and sokka is so so proud to see him come into his own as a strategist and a leader, to finally see that true confidence shine, to see bumi determinedly forge his own path in making the world a better place, even if some of bumi's ideas are borderline insane

there's probably also a lot of complex feelings happening when bumi eventually does become an airbender after harmonic convergence, because on one hand, this is the one thing he's always wanted, right? he can finally live up to all those expectations and prove to his dad that he's not a failure (despite all his accomplishments in the united forces). but on the other hand, it feels almost like a cruel joke bc he spent so much of his life accepting who he was as a nonbender and now he gets the weird powers after all that work to be content with who he was? and the only person who ever understood is gone, so who does he even turn to? (would sokka be happy for him? disappointed? proud? upset? freaked out? he'll never know)

anyway i just think. bumi and sokka. are very important.

[the-badger-mole]

The implication I get is that Mastery is supposed to be a midpoint, not an endpoint.

I recognize this. In fact, this is a point that I've made before in other posts. I think I even touched on this in a fic. Howmstever, even allowing that "mastery" is a milestone, and not the final goal, it still typically takes years, not months to get to that point- hence the whole Katara being a waterbending prodigy to reach mastery (or blackbelt) in such a very short time (probably a matter of weeks, or at most a couple of months). That's also not really the point I'm making here. My point is that Aang is technically a master of all the elements, but he's not that good at it. Not even airbending. He coasts by on natural talent, but natural talent will only get you so far (like a kid with a natural gift for sports will still not be able to go pro if he doesn't work hard at it).

To be fair to him, let's not compare his control of the other elements to his friends'. Aang grew up airbending, and earned his master's tattoos, but his claim to airbending fame is an air scooter. Cute, but we have seen what else airbending is capable of, but we've never seen Aang do anything amazing with it outside of the Avatar State (which he still doesn't have control of by the end of the show, or even into the post series comics). He loves his airbending, allegedly. He should be as good at airbending as Toph is at earthbending, but he's not. Is it laziness, or just a lack of imagination? Aang does just enough to become a 'master", and then doesn't seem to care to go beyond that. He is good enough, and that just barely.

Hi! I have enjoyed a lot of your ATLA posts! Especially your short fanfics! 100/10 :). I love Katara. But while I think she's amazing, her journey to becoming a master water bender does not make much sense to me. I don't know how long they were at the Northern water tribe but let's say they were there for 3 months. How could Katara become a master, good enough to teach the avatar, in that time frame? Mastery seems to take years. And if she could become a master in that time, Aang has no excuse!

This is exactly why it makes no sense that the writers decided this show needed to take place in less than a year. But since it didn't, I'll allow for a compressed timeline for Katara to earn her mastery of waterbending. I think, after all, she is supposed to be a prodigy. You're right that Aang has no excuse.

Aang isn't shown to be particularly good at bending any elements, not even air. We've seen what a true master of airbending is capable of, and Aang's refusal to kill notwithstanding, there's no way he could pull off what Gyatso did. We see even more evidence of what airbenders are capable of in LoK, so Aang is getting unintentionally dunked on even after becoming the Big Dang Hero. Aang was also implied to be a prodigy, and he may well have been, but we don't see much evidence of it, until the show wants it to be there. Aang's problem isn't a lack of natural talent. He's a talented kid who refuses to apply himself unless he has to. We see the others practicing. We see them being creative in their bending. We see them actually enjoy learning. Aang is that gifted kid who thinks natural ability is enough to coast by on. If Bryke had any courage at all, they would play that out to it's conclusion by having Aang fail at being the Avatar (I mean...he was a terrible Avatar, but that was clearly unintentional, and he's still treated like a hero in LoK)

[aion-rsa]

The Real Martial Arts Behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains some minor spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Shang-Chi is known as the “Master of Kung Fu.” So when Marvel Studios announced the character to help usher in MCU Phase 4, the one thought on every fan’s mind was that whoever gets cast in the lead role better really know Kung Fu. 

In the wake of Netflix’s Iron Fist, Marvel’s other Kung Fu master, there was a lot of skepticism. Marvel had scored with the previous Netflix series Daredevil, which delivered some of the best small screen fight choreography we’d ever seen. But Iron Fist was sorely lacking. Finn Jones just couldn’t sell a punch as Danny Rand, leaving fans of Marvel martial arts masters overwhelmingly disappointed. If there’s one thing that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had to nail, it was the Kung Fu. 

Like Jones, Simu Liu had little martial arts experience before taking on the role of Shang-Chi. However, he already had the physique, so much so that appearing shirtless was a running joke when he played Jung in Kim’s Convenience. What’s more, Liu bulked up, added 10 more pounds of muscle while training for the film. 

Unlike a character like Daredevil, Shang-Chi doesn’t wear a mask, so Liu had to quickly pick up enough cinematic Kung Fu to appear masterful on screen. Fortunately, he was backed by a top-notch team of stuntmen and surrounded with a cast of veteran film fighters including Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Star Trek: Discovery), Tony Leung (Hero, The Grandmaster), Yuen Wah (Kung Fu Hustle), Florian Munteanu (Creed II), Andy Le (The Paper Tigers), and others. Even though Liu was new to Kung Fu, he carries the action scenes with panache.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is not only a good Marvel movie, it’s a good Kung Fu movie. It has the best fight scenes seen in the MCU so far. And although the movie doesn’t get bogged down in the specifics of Kung Fu style, there are telling nods throughout the film that shows the filmmakers knew their Kung Fu too. “We knew the martial arts had to be authentic,” says Director Destin Daniel Cretton. “In order for that to feel real, we worked with people who understood Chinese Kung Fu.”

Let’s take a look at some of the Kung Fu roots and martial arts Easter Eggs underlying Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsdone..

The Ten Rings are Real…Kind of

Wenwu (Tony Leung) is the villain of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and he wields ten magical rings that he wears on his forearms. These are the source of his power, as well as the name of his criminal organization. The origin of these rings is a prevailing mystery in the movie; however, their inspiration is not. 

Traditional Kung Fu practitioners use rings akin to these while training, particularly in Southern Chinese styles. Such rings are called tit waan in Cantonese, which literally means “iron rings” or “iron bracelets.” Iron rings are constructed of heavy metal, typically brass or steel, and are worn loosely on the forearms when practicing solo forms and doing arm drills. 

They serve two purposes. Firstly, they are heavy, usually weighing over a pound a piece, so they act like wrist weights. Secondly, unlike Wenwu’s magical rings which conform to fit his forearms perfectly, real iron rings are looser. They must be narrow enough so that they stay on when the practitioner makes a fist, but they are far from form fitting. This gives them play to bang against the practitioner’s forearms when they are shadowboxing. The banging conditions the user’s forearms, hardening them to withstand the impact of blocking. Some iron ring practitioners have forearms that are so tough they can severely damage an adversary’s punch with their ring-hardened blocks.

Although iron rings are not conventionally considered as weapons, Kung Fu practitioners have figured out ways to weaponize just about everything. Some wield iron rings like brass knuckles, holding them in their fists for punching. 

Kung Fu Hustle

Weaponized iron rings are used in the 2004 comedy Kung Fu Hustle. The character Tailor (Chiu Chi Ling) fights with them. Chiu is a genuine master of Hung Ga Kung Fu, a southern style that uses iron ring training extensively. 

Director Destin Daniel Cretton claims that Kung Fu Hustle is one of his favorite martial arts movies so there are other nods to it in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, including when a Kung Fu Hustle poster can be seen on a bedroom wall in the background. What’s more, Yuen Wah also appears as the warrior leader of Ta Lo who oversees Katy’s (Awkwafina) archery training. Yuen played the Landlord in Kung Fu Hustle and is a veteran martial arts actor with nearly 200 film credits. He is also the Kung Fu brother of Jackie Chan. 

Yuen Qiu, who plays the Landlady in Kung Fu Hustle is a mutual Kung Fu sibling. Jackie, Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu were all pupils of Yu Jim-Yuen, a master of Chinese opera who trained them all from childhood.  They all took stage names that included the “Yuen” part of their master’s name (Jackie Chan was known as Yuen Lau as a child). Others among that troupe were many of the movers and shakers of Hong Kong’s golden age of Kung Fu films, such as Sammo Hung (a.k.a. Yuen Lung) and famed action choreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill). 

Tiger Head Hooks

The signature weapons of the Ten Rings are Tiger Head Hooks. These are those black glowing hooked swords that the gang members wield. They also appear on the Ten Rings banner. It’s an excellent choice because Tiger Head Hooks are one of the most distinctively Kung Fu weapons of all. 

In Chinese, these are called Hu tou shuang gou, which literally means “Tiger head paired hooks.” “Paired” because they are typically used in pairs. Sometimes they are just translated as Hook Swords. They have a sword blade with a hooked tip, a crescent-shaped blade for a knuckle guard, and a dagger blade for a pommel. Every edge is sharp. The only place they are not sharp is the handle. This makes them very difficult to wield. Consequently, Tiger Hooks are considered an advanced Kung Fu weapon. 

The reference book Ancient Chinese Weapons by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming dates Tiger Head hooks back to China’s Spring Autumn Period (771-476 BCE), however those ancient hooks likely took on a different form. The modern style of Tiger Head hooks as seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings rose to prominence around the 1800s. They are still practiced today, mostly by Northern schools of Kung Fu.

What Style of Kung Fu Does Shang-Chi Practice?

Kung Fu is renowned for its diverse collection of styles like Shaolin, Wing Chun, Tiger style, and countless others. There’s even Drunken style and Toad style. In the movie, Shang-Chi doesn’t adopt a particular style of Kung Fu. Some of his moves have characteristics of Wing Chun or Bajiquan, but there’s nothing in the choreography to indicate a very specific style.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The warriors of Ta Lo are different. While their style is not explicit, their peacekeeping philosophy is expressed through the soft, internal styles of Kung Fu like Tai Chi. When Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh) schools Shang-Chi in their first match, it’s reminiscent of how airbending is depicted in Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

However, the connection is deeper than that. Despite its fantasy elements, Avatar based its martial arts sequences on authentic Kung Fu by mo-capping Sifu Kisu, a renowned martial arts master. Kisu designated specific styles for each school of bending. Airbending was based upon an internal style of Kung Fu known as Baguazhang, or Eight Diagram Palm. Like Tai Chi, it has a soft expression. It relies on circular movements and pivoting evasions. Several of Yeoh’s techniques are plucked straight out of Baguazhang.

The Masters Behind Shang-Chi’s Martial Arts

Credit for Shang-Chi’s Kung Fu authenticity falls on the film’s top notch stunt team. Two are leading graduates of the legendary Jackie Chan Stunt Team. The fight on the hi-rise scaffolding is a homage to Jackie’s parkour-inspiring choreography. Andy Cheng worked on around half a dozen of Jackie’s films including his first two Rush Hour films, Shanghai Noon, The Tuxedo, and Who Am I? where Jackie does one of his all-time greatest stunts, sliding down the Willemswerf skyscraper in Rotterdam. He was also the action director for Into the Badlands. When Jackie inevitably stepped back from doing his own stunts, Cheng stepped in for him. 

“We were very concerned [about Kung Fu] from the very beginning,” says Cretton. “Marvel was also concerned and wanted to get it right. [They] knew that Marvel fans, wouldn’t have let it slide if we did a Hollywood version of a whitewashed Kung Fu movie. To be able to, we brought in Brad Allan.” Brad Allan was the first non-Asian to make Jackie’s stunt team. He also worked on around a dozen of Jackie’s films (this is approximate because stunt work wasn’t always credited).

Who Was Brad Allan?

You can’t miss the credits in any MCU film. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, there’s a prominent dedication to Allan at the very end. Tragically, on August 7th, 2021, Brad Allan died unexpectantly at the early age of 48, sending the martial arts world reeling from the loss of one of its brightest stars. Beyond Shang-Chi, Allan leaves behind an exemplary legacy of action films where he served as the Second Unit Director including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Cuban Fury, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the Kingsman trilogy. 

Allan was obsessed with the martial arts from childhood and rose to compete internationally in Wushu, representing Australia where he was born and raised. Through a chance encounter, he was able to demonstrate his skills to Jackie, and Jackie liked what he saw so much that he took Allan under his wing. 

In 1999, Allan played Alan, the villain in Jackie’s film Gorgeous, which coincidentally also stars Tony Leung. With Allan clad in black and Jackie in white, their finale fight is, well, it’s gorgeous. It’s two of the greatest masters of the craft delivering top notch fight choreography. Allan spent most of his career modestly behind the scenes, so Gorgeous is the outstanding example of his speed and agility. It’s heartbreaking that Allan didn’t get to see the premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Allan’s final work will be seen in The King’s Man later this year.

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing in theaters.

The post The Real Martial Arts Behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/38AEQ5t

[thathoodedgamer]

Okay so this is for the sonic avatar au. This is the first half which centers around sonic and co. Then the second part is a rewritten Korra gang (vens gang)

Air benders:

Cream: she’s from a group of nomads who survived the genocide of the air nomad people. They kinda just merged into the southern water tribe though. After each generation the airbenders dwindled until there was only one which is cream. She has a lemur called cheese. They found him at the temple while traveling with sonic.

Sonic: the main man himself. Sonic the avatar hedgehog is a master at his craft. Just Not so much in the other elements though. Sonic never really wanted to be the avatar so one day he and tails took their flying bison (named tornado) and fled. Unfortunately a storm knocked them into the ocean.

Tails: this kid is an air bending prodigy. Being the youngest to get his tattoos at the age of eight. Also got frozen in the storm.

Water benders

Big: I mean he’s a swamp bender. Being relaxed and chilled this cat is often found in the swamps with his frogator froggy. He becomes the water bending master for sonic. Just all the seaweed battles.

Shadow: funny enough shadow is from the southern water tribe. He lost the only one important to him thanks to fire benders. That being Maria. It sent him on a path of vengeance. Currently he’s undercover as eggmans elite soldier in team dark, but don’t think for a second he agrees with the egghead.

Earth benders

Knuckles: knuckles is the only survivor of his town that was destroyed by fire benders. His claim to fame is being an excellent earth bender. The bad boy can tunnel huge pathways into mountains if it meant that no one touches the master emerald. The master emerald was avatar chaos special gem stone that is under knuckles family protection.

Rouge: another double agent in eggmans elite forces this bat knows her way around the world. Doesn’t hurt if you pay her in jewels to find what you are looking for.

Fire benders

Blaze: blaze is actually the rightful ruler of the fire nation. Eggman killed her family and took over when she was only six. Ever sense then she’s been on the run. Unfortunately eggman has hired his elite guards to hunt her down.

Omega: no one really knows what omega is, but he’s an excellent fire bender so who cares. This hunk of metal will shoot first ask questions later so don’t get on his bad side

(Yes I know I forgot about Amy. She will be with vens group)

[cluelessaboutavatar]

Warriors of Kyoshi (Reaction)

I am an animation fan who has never seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, and for the last 15 years, have never observed a single spoiler. Below is my blind-reaction/analysis of Season 1, Episode 4, broken up into two sections: a Dumb Summary(tm), and an honest reflection.

My Dumb Summary In this episode, Ang and the Gang go to Girl Island - a village with one claim to fame - it had been the birthplace of one of the incarnations of the Avatar hundreds of years ago. She was a female avatar, so it's not surprising that their culture evolved Girl-Jitsu, a special form of martial arts practiced exclusively by an elite squadron of young women. Key Events of This Episode: -The water bender's brother, What's-His-Face, gets his a** handed to him by girl warriors, and then dresses in drag to train with them. -Meanwhile, Young Fire Dude gets into a duel with Older Fire Dude over who gets to hunt the Avatar. The younger one wins, but the Old Fire Dude doesn't take losing well, so he launches the flame-throwing equivalent of a sucker punch. Iroh leaps in, blocks the flames, and chides the guy for being honorless. 'Cause Iroh is the only fire dude with any sense at all. -Back at Girl Island, Ang is fawned over for being the Avatar. Despite warnings from the Water Bender, Ang lets his fame go to his head, and endangers everybody by sticking around for too long. Then the fire nation shows up, trashes the village, and the protagonists skidaddle. -Ang on the way out, leaps off the flying buffalo thing, and summons a water-puking eel to put out the flames that the Fire Nation had inflicted upon the village of Girl Island. My Naive Reaction

This is the first episode of the series that truly grabbed me. That's not to say that I have anything against Episodes 1-3, but in the beginning, rather a lot happens to get the story moving forward quickly. The result is a plot that pushes the characters forward, rather than the other way around. Here, on Kyoshi Island, however, everything that happens is because of who these characters are as people. When Ang reveals himself as the Avatar, he ends up with a massive crew of adoring young fans, and over time, lets the fame go to his head. He lingers on the island despite the danger of staying in one place for too long. Ultimately, his foolish actions end up getting the village razed. I love this. Ang's hubris here is quite understandable, even relatable. In literally every other "chosen one" story I've ever read or seen, the author fails to take into account that such a thing could go to someone's head. Here, it is addressed openly, and handled with enough innocence on Ang's part, (and nuance on the writers' part), that the character doesn't come off as loathsome because of it. I really like that balance. I have a strong feeling that these mistakes that Ang made in this episode are going to shape his arc far into the future. Then there's Sokka.

In the first three episodes, his character was defined almost entirely by misogyny and hunger. And here he is, faced with fierce opponents in a troupe of female warriors who put him to shame. We have all seen this sort of thing in girl-power storylines before, it‘ always satisfying to watch a misogynist have his butt handed to him by empowered girls. What really impressed me, however, was the fact that it didn't take Sokka a whole episode to come around. After they whooped him a second time, he submitted to them with humility immediately, and begged to become a disciple. While it's fun watching him train in drag, he adjusts to that pretty quickly as well. He respects these girls as warriors, and embraces his tutelage under them as a mark of honor. This impressed me more than anything. They didn't drag his loss-of-misogyny arc out. At all. Once beaten, he put his desire to better himself ahead of his own ego, and instantly abandoned deeply ingrained lifelong prejudices. That's no easy feat. If there's one thing that 2020 has taught me, it's that, under duress, people's prejudices come boiling to the surface more toxic than ever. I don't know anyone who hasn't lost a friend over it.   Sokka is better than that. Respect. Now everyone I've ever spoken to has told me that this story is rich in character development, so I expected from the beginning that Sokka would grow beyond the one-dimensional stereotype he started out as. I did not, however, expect to see so much rich development packed tightly into one or two simple scenes, and certainly not in an episode as early as this. So far he's my favorite character, and I look forward to seeing where they go with this.

-Sprocket

If you enjoy what you see here, you may also be interested by my other blog, HELP MY HEART IS FULL OF PONY, where I do the opposite, and dissect minutiae in MLP in search of Truth.

[blossom765]

I Don’t really like My Hero Acadamia

I can already hear the angry screaming. Let me just put this out there. I’m not attacking anyone who likes the show. I’m just stating my opinion because well that’s one of the functions of social media. Notice how i said i don’t like my hero acadmia. I’m not saying you shouldn’t like it, i’m just saying why i don’t like it. With that said, if you like the show and don’t want to get angry feel free to move along but, if you’re like me and don’t like the show feel free to stay. Now I've only seen season 1 and 2 and a little of 3. I’m not going to see the rest on the slight chance that i might like it. So with all that out of the way, let’s get into why i hate my hero academia.

My hero academia follows the story of Deku who became the world's greatest hero ( kind of a spoiler since he says that literally at the start of each episode). He was one of the minority who didn't have a quirk (superpower) in a world where most of the population has a power (useful or not). He's given a power by his hero All Might due mostly to luck (and a little to the creator either being to lazy or cowardly to think of something a little more interesting). Being a hero is also an occupation. And the show goes on to introduce it's characters and follows how they learn to be heroes in school UA and fight bad guys.Now, let's get into why My hero academia is a boring generic show that is been for some reason over hyped 

---Opening

I don't know why but, many people think that spoiling the show's ending of Deku becoming the world's greatest hero is somehow an interesting way to start a series. It might be different but that doesn't mean it's good. I'm sure the audience will obviously assume that the heroes will win but, spoiling the ending is not how you're going to make the viewer feel engaged. Let's take avatar the last airbender for example ( I don't usually like to compare shows but I just want to show how one show did showing their protagonist's destiny correctly and how the other didn't. In atla, Katara tells us about Aang and how he's the avatar and, the main thing, how she believes he can save the world even though he has a lot to learn. This tells us that he has flaws, how he has to work hard and the main thing how they believe he can win. They don't tell you the story of how he saved the world. You follow him on his journey to do it. A biography show often fails because you don't get the same vibe as being in the journey, interacting with the world, and being with the characters and seeing them as more like actual people instead of characters. You sacrifice that when you take the route of a story that just tells someone autobiography. By doing that, the viewer just feels like their just watching a story instead of engaging in it. A story's main function is to put the audience into a different world instead of showing a world. There's a difference. A good story can either force to engage in the story or it can fall flat on it's face and my hero academia has leaned towards the latter.WORLD-- So, the majority of the global population has quirks (which is probably just a way to make the something sound different without taking too much of a risk) and has shown, only through Deku though, that the minority, people who don't have powers are looked down upon. Most heroes are greedy and don't actually care much about saving lives and are just there for Fame and money. I don't have much to say about this other than predictable and lazy. It feels like the creator didn't spend longer than a few minutes creating this world. This is what I mean by generic. It's like the creator went people like superheros and magic and high school stories so I'll combine those. These might have been good ideas if the creator had brainstormed a little longer but he didn't so what we end up with is the epitome of generic.Speaking of ideas that could have been useful.

Being quirkless--

Deku is introduced as an underdog. He's bullied and treated like dirt because he has no powers but, if you thought he was going to be an inspiration to people who are born at a disadvantage in life you get to feel a slap of disappointment. He's ambushed by some glob villain and is rescued by his idol All Might which leads to him inheriting All Might's power. This effectively destroys a narrative that could have been different and inspiring. Instead of being a bad ass hero who has claimed the ladder and even surpassed people who were were already lucky with a quirk maybe a version of batman ( this show is already just a copy of shows and tropes so why couldn't they have actually copied something to make the show interesting) we are stuck with a protagonist who's success could only start if he's like everyone else. What makes this that much more stupid is that Deku is sub textually a disabled person. Someone who's at a disadvantage in life and born different from others and is bullied because of this difference. People with disabilities irl relate to this as they have had to go through life differently than people who weren't disabled. And it's not like no disabled character in a show has succeeded before. Take Toph for example. She's blind but is still talented and a respected bender also using her disability to her advantage by using seismic sense. Instead of doing something something that smart and creative, the creator decided to just make Deku not disabled, as if that's something possible for millions of people. It's not just disability, he can also be seen at a disadvantage because of his race. Obviously being quirkless isn't seen as a race but take the U.S. when African Americans were still seen as second class citizens. They were treated horribly for being black and people in power either treated them like that or they looked the other way when that happened ( Deku is bullied and treated like dirt because he was born quirkless and none of his idiot teachers seem to give a damn about his whole class bullying him). African Americans were always at a disadvantage, from living in poverty to segregation (Deku was at a complete disadvantage especially in the hero industry and wasn't even treated like a human being). So could African Americans suddenly change their race to White to get better lives? No. They had to protest and fight back against injustice to improve their lives. Deku doesn't get something this close to fighting against injustice and as someone who's aiming to be a hero, that's not a good sign. So, the only way that you can succeed is by changing your biology. Great my hero academia, great job.

All Might--

 yeah yeah he's the greatest hero in the world and his powers are just boiled down to really strong punches. He's introduced as a symbol of hope, peace, and justice probably because heroes and authority figures were incompetent before and after he showed. But, he's got a secret, he used to be quirkless but then he got a quick and he's actually got a very shrimpy body and he thinks if that gets out then people will lose faith in him being the thing that solves their problems. But that doesn’t even make any sense.. Like I guess it's a problem that his powers are depleting but did nobody think that this guy just can't go on forever? Are the heroes that unreliable to them? I just don't get it.

Hero industry--

Nearly all the heroes are greedy assholes who don't understand how important their job is. They are obsessed with fame and fortune and this gets to the point where todoroki's father abuses his wife and children because he's obsessed with one of them surpassing All Might. Like I get that some of them are assholes but the majority? Seriously? That few people put their lives at risk just to save other lives. They even put their loved ones at risk by not masking their identities like All Might’s master who had to send her son away because being with her was too dangerous. This might have been a point where more heroes should have realized the magnitude of their job the dangers they the people they know in and maybe secret identities are useful because they keep the people they care about out of harm's way. I find it very unlikely that all might master was the only one who had this problem but, since the Creator is the lazy kind of creator, no hero in the world goes through this problem and the majority of heroes are insufferable assholes.

Characters--

Deku- I haven't mentioned what a bland character he is. I'm all for perseverance and kindness but those aren't the only things that make a character. It's also their personality. Deku is just a good goody, no nuance, just that. You might be thinking that a nuance might come out of no where except it's actually weird that he isn't more of a grey area. He was bullied since he was young and given no hope of success. And the people who bullied him were all people who had quirks. That past should have an impact on him. A good example of a relatable and believable protagonist is Judy from Zootopia. Deku and her have lot in common. They're both hard working and perseverant and they reached their dreams despite their obstacles ( except Judy actually had to work through the obstacles instead of somehow changing the fact that she's a rabbit). But, one of the biggest differences is that Judy's incident with Gidean the fox wasn't forgotten or treated as a joke. She carried that into her adult life and when she met Nick she was suspicious but she worked through that. Deku is not given a journey that important. His past of being horribly bullied is written as a joke and doesn't have as serious of an impact as it should have. All we get is a protagonist that is only capable of doing good for everyone and that is just boring and unrealistic.

Bakugou- Now the biggest thing I don't understand is why we're rooting for the guy? Why is he working as a hero? Why is he not an antogonist? Even a secondary antagonist? Even as a child Bakugou was already an asshole that should have been arrested. He beats up another kid and Deku and it looked like he used more than punches: fucking explosions. Now they probably weren't that big but, they're still explosions and extremely dangerous and likely left severe marks and burns on the kids and nobody has arrested this crazy child yet. Going into middle school now. He's still a scum bag who is so egocentric, so crazy that he threatens Deku if he signs up for UA. He literally uses his explosion power right on his desk inches near Deku (and his idiot teacher does nothing) and threatens to blow his arm off when he puts his hand on his shoulder while it’s smoking. And tells him to jump off the roof and hope he gets born with a quirk in his next life and that is treated as a gag. I wish I was joking but apparently bullying is just that funny. You might think that it's just Deku trying to use humor to deal with this but show treats this like a joke too. With that suicide remark ending with a joke to Deku actually still friends with this asshole. I don't care if they're childhood friends he is fucking nuts and Deku has no reason to want to stay friends with him because all he has done is make his life miserable. I’ve been picked on before and it hurt so i can promise you that Bakugou not being made to suffer severe consequences and Deku wanting to be friends with him is just ridiculous unless Deku has a case of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe actually treat him as what he is: a bully. Have him go through consequences or have Deku prove him wrong that he can become a hero even if he’s quirkless, like Judy did with Gidean. I forgave Gidean because Judy proved him wrong and he also grew up and knew that what he did was wrong but, we don’t get anything that smart or realistic, we get a bully who supposed to be treated as a good guy by the narrative. And this guy is going to be a hero. Yeah, Bakugou. The guy that wanted to beat the shit out of two kids when he was a kid, that told his childhood friend to go kill himself, that brutally attacked Deku in the first exercise that all might planned for them not because he was playing the role of villain but because he has a gigantic ego and he was angry. Who in God's name would ever trust the job of protecting life to him? He's not even doing it to protect people. He's just the younger version of todoroki's dad who just wants fame. He's an asshole. And when an asshole like him isn't made to suffer through the consequences, your whole pack of characters fail because they're just that: characters. You failed in the task of making them feel like people.

Uraraka-- The hetero normative love interest. Now i’m not saying this as a shipper or anything. I don’t ship anyone in this show. I’m saying this as a viewer who is just so bored of the cute nice girl x nice guy protagonist trope. Only reason Deku has a crush on her is because she’s cute and she’s the only girl that didn’t treat him like dirt and the only reason Uraraka likes him is because he nice and... inspiring, i guess. She’s teased that she likes him by Aoyama because apparently a boy and girl can’t just be good friends that admire (not romantic) each other as impressive people, they have to be in love. This causes her to get extremely flustered because i guess she’s never been teased like that but, whatever and goes on to future episodes with her being nervous around Deku. Soooooo, another cliché. I can’t realy say much about this because i don’t really expect much from shonen (and even shoujo) anime in terms of romance. So let’s move on to why she wants to be a hero. She wants it for the money to help her parents out with expenses. Sure she seems grounded and realistic and all that except there’s one massive flaw in that. When you work a job, especially a dangerous job, that you don’t enjoy it starts to drain the life out of you. Are heroes really the only occupation that are allowed to use powers. Like 80% of the GLOBAL population has quirks and you’re telling me they haven’t properly integrated quriks into the world. Take atla for example. In avatar, bending was a way of life, it made the world move and there were just as benders as there were non-benders. And you expect me to believe that with 80% of the population having a quirk, nobody decided that they might be useful, maybe help the economy. Anything,use your imagination. You might say that more jobs using quirks would put quirkless people at a disadvantage but, the thing is that they are already treated like dirt. And that could have lead to a whole new story, with a quirkless people demanding better treatment ( sorta like legend of korra with non-benders being oppressed by benders) maybe even taking inspiration from Deku who should have been the first hero without a quirk. Uraraka’s character is just a whole minefield. That’s all i can say.

Todoroki-- He’s the cliché cold cool guy. But, that cliché actually has some grounds. He and his mother ware abused by his father so, it makes sense that he’s like that. But, instead of maybe working towards something that makes more sense like i don’t know working in family services, fighting for laws to make heroes face consequences for their crimes, anything that would fir his character. He’s an abuse victim but, he working to become a hero and also working under his father as a sort of intern. Yeah... wait what? He wants to become his father’s occupation, which i’m not that mad at because he still has dreams, i guess, but he’s working with his abusive father and the childhood abuse is to be forgotten. He could have one of my favorites if they had taken his past remotely seriously and not just assumed that it’s okay to forget about abuse,work with the abuser, as long as the abuse victim is still a little angry. Like seriously creator, that is all kinds of fucked up. On a side note about Todoroki’s mom, who exactly sold her to todoroki’s dad. She calls her mom to tell her what she’s going through but, how would that make sense if her parents agreed to sell her. Did only relatives have a say in this and the parents consent doesn’t fucking matter? Like how does that make sense?

Mineta-- He’s a pervert who wants to be a hero to be popular with girls. All i can say is..WHY IS THIS PIG A GOOD GUY? If anything he’s just going to be a rapist not a hero. His sexual harassment is right up your face and you’re supposed to root for this guy. I’ve never liked fanservice because it’s insulting to so many different people on so many different levels (women are sex objects, gay people are bait, men are all disgusting and no body will care) but there comes a time when it gets ridiculous and wondering “where are the police?” and “where are the laws against rape and sexual harassment?”.For God’s sake, he tried to peep in the girls’ bath in front of everyone, nobody doing much to stop him, and the teacher suspected this, and what does he do?, he posts a kid as guard instead of expelling the pig. When your teacher, who’s also a hero, does not get obviously sexually harassing pig, you should already be asking yourself a lot of questions.

Asui-- She’s apparently a cinnamon role.You can sum up her character to that. I’m sorry but, i don’t understand everyone’s obsession with her. Sure, she’s cute and all that and she got some screen time in the internship episode but, being a cinnamon role is just that. It’s not important enough. If she had some more qualities, maybe a backstory, and if we know more about her resolve and dreams, maybe why she wants to be a hero then i guess her cuteness might have been icing on the cake but, it just falls flat because there’s just not much to talk about.

The rest of the characters are just pretty boring and i can’t really find much to say about them but i think you get my point on how i feel about them.

Narrative---

I’ve already said that the story follows how these kids become heroes. And now i’m going to say how boring that is. The story can be summed up to learning their future occupation and fighting some bad guys. I have no problem with the narrative itself, it’s just maybe they should have put more story into it other than learning how to become heroes. How about we see more stories about the characters, anything that doesn’t have to do studying to be a hero. Take atla for example. We know aang is working to learn the elements and defeat the fire lord but, how that differs from my hero is that the story often deviates from the plot allowing even more stories in, stories that some people will enjoy and other stories that other people will enjoy. We know the world is at war and we know aang is the avatar and what he’s working towards but, the show doesn’t dwell on that too much. It’s the right mix of new stories and interesting ideas while also having the main goal in mind. It might not be a good idea to compare my hero to atla but, i just want to show how one show showed it’s goal correctly and a how one didn’t. My hero falls towards the latter. The show can be summed up to studying to be a hero which doesn’t open the opportunities for more people to enjoy different stories.

I’m going to end with this. This show does not have anything to differentiate it from other superhero shows or give it depth. There a fuck ton of superhero shows out there and Tiger and Bunny was one of them that was different and did well. It gave it’s characters depth, put more stories in that weren’t summed up to just fighting bad guys, and it did something different by putting ads on heroes. My hero academia isn’t different. It’s genericand does nothing to sepereate itself from other shows. All I can say is that it’s cliché after cliché after  cliché..

  The End-

[hermanwatts]

The Chinoiserie Genre, Revisited

(What follows is a repost from April 2017, updated to include the chinoiserie explosion of the past three years.)

Readers familiar with the Pulp Revolution have certainly by now heard that with the death of the pulps, many genres fell out of favor. Hero pulps, sword and sorcery, and planetary romance have all declined from the heyday of the 1930s, often replaced entirely by other expressions of fantasy and science fiction. Yet as we return to reading the pulps instead of what people say about the pulps, whispers of other genres appear. For instance, hidden among the three proud pillars of weird fiction – horror, science fiction, and fantasy – is a fourth genre, one as exotic as its name: chinoiserie.

Chinoiserie first started in the 18th century in the visual arts. European artists impressed by Chinese artistry began to imitate the Eastern designs, incorporating them into pottery, furniture, decor, gardening, and even music. The appetite for chinoiserie grew with the perception of China as a highly civilized culture, even beyond the European norms. The artistic movement continues to the present day, with many works of chinoiserie available online. As with many artistic movements, this fascination with exotic cultures made a jump into literature.

Literary chinoiserie began as an exploration of unfamiliar Oriental cultures as perceived by Western writers.  While the visual arts quickly distinguished between Chinese-influenced chinoiserie and Japanese-influenced japonisme, no such distinction was made in the literary world, with chinoiserie describing Persian, Byzantine, Japanese, Tibetan, and Chinese stories. (Despite convention, I will be using chinoiserie and japonisme to differentiate the two flavors of literary chinoiserie.) However, the term quickly narrowed to Pacific Asian cultures, with the Chinese association dominating. Literary chinoiserie expresses itself in three major forms; the exploration of Chinese lands, the exploration of Western ideas of Chinese culture in both its homeland and its diaspora settlements, and the exploration of an idealized China that never was. Occasionally, Western culture would dress up in chinoiserie robes for the purpose of satire, as in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. But common to all expressions is the idea of the outsider looking into another culture not his own, and not always understanding what is seen. One does not write chinoiserie of their own culture. The Chinese author of the Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, writes Chinese science fiction, while Peter Grant writes chinoiserie science fiction dealing with Chinese triads in space in his Maxwell Saga.

Perhaps the most sensationalized version of chinoiserie, yellow peril is the tendency of pulp writers to use Chinese as villains, as popularized by the Lord of Strange Deaths himself, Fu Manchu. Hidden in every shadow were copycat secret societies led by cunning occult mentalists and sensuous deceitful dragon ladies. This was primarily a staple of weird menace, a sensationalist genre of lurid stories where a dreadful and mysterious terror, usually occult or supernatural, threatens to overtake the hero unless he acts. This Chinese threat was not the only staple of the genre, as fantastic, mythological, and scientific terrors would also loom in the pulps, however the trope was common enough to have its subversions and aversions, with the honorable and heroic detective Charlie Chan as the most famous antithesis to yellow peril villains.

Chinoiserie’s fascination with exotic China found a home in the pulps. The Shadow’s first adventure, The Living Shadow, found the Knight of Darkness playing master of disguise in Chinatown to root out a hidden killer. Counter to convention, this killer, Diamond Bert, only posed as a Chinese mastermind. Among the imitators of the Shadow, the Green Lama featured an American student of the Tibetan Lamas using Eastern secrets to defeat Western criminals. Sidney Herschel Small wrote adventures of Asia and American Chinatowns. E. Hoffman Price led the parade of writers of Weird Tales who would use chinoserie, many of which would claim that their stories had been discovered in the markets of China and Istanbul. Clark Aston Smith wrote a prose poem describing two lovers separated by centuries in his “Chinoiserie.” Manly Wade Wellman’s occult investigator, John Thunstone, would test his metal and that of a holy blade against a cursed Gurka honor sword in “The Dai Sword.”

As the pulp age faded, so did literary chinoiserie. But the fascination with China lived on. Robert van Gulik found a copy of The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee in a second-hand store and translated the fictional account of Tang dynasty judge Di Renjie into English. Van Gulik then wrote an entire series of new adventures for Judge Dee, starting with The Chinese Maze Murders. The adventures of the Sinanju master assassin Chuin and his worthless assistant Remo Williams filled book after book of the men’s adventure series The Destroyer. Andre Norton brought a taste of China to gothic romance in The White Jade Fox, where an antebellum governess must keep her charge’s Chinese treasures safe from her stepmother. E. Hoffman Price would return to chinoiserie in The Devil Wives of Li Fong with the tale of the serpent Mei Ling as she protects her family from Taoist magic. Finally, in perhaps the brightest gem of the chinoiserie crown, Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds chronicles the adventures of the sage Master Li and the villager Number Ten Ox as they face off against crooked peddlers, rabbity tax assessors, exalted lords, and the machinations of the gods themselves in search of a cure for the kuu poison affecting their village’s children.

Inspired by Bruce Lee’s fame and Hong Kong cinema, movies such as John Carpenter’s cult-classic Chinatown misadventure Big Trouble in Little China and Disney’s Mulan took the torch of chinoiserie from literature, created beloved classics of the silver screen in the process. Chinoiserie also moved to video games with the gory martial-arts fighting series Mortal Kombat and Bioware’s  Jade Empire, an RPG homage to the Shaw Brothers‘ kung-fu movies, while the short-lived Firefly television series added a Chinese voice to the strange conversation between Japanese samurai films, American westerns, and science fiction as a whole. More recently, the martial arts cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender explored a fantasy version of China, mixing Western alchemical elements with Chinese martial arts. The tradition continues into this decade, with Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA starring in The Man with the Iron Fists, a loving tribute to the grindhouse days of blacksploitation and the Shaw Brothers’ cinema.

As China moved from the written page into the theaters and small screens, Japan took over the written word. James Clavell’s Shogun and Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s fantasy adventures of female samurai Tomoe Gozen are among the first novels reflecting the shift from chinoiserie to japonisme. As Japan rose again to become an economic power and a media giant in the 1980s, American fascination with the Land of the Rising Sun grew, spilling over into its stories. Perceptions of present day Japan are explored in thrillers like Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun, lost-in-translation misadventures like Isaac Adamson’s Tokyo Suckerpunch, and lost to reality gamer webcomics such as Megatokyo. Continuing the tradition created by Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan, the folklore and mythology of Japan are explored in novels such as Kij Johnson’s The Fox Woman and Lian Hearn’s Tale of Shikanoko series. Japanese history from the Heian court to the Warring States forms the backdrop for I. J. Parker’s Akitada mysteries, the Yamada Monogatari series of Richard Parks, and the classic Tales of the Otori. Japanese elements flavor John Wright’s Daughter of Danger, Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman and American Gods, and indie works such as Rawle Nyanzi’s Sword & Flower and countless others. And the thirst for all things Japanese (and japonisme) has yet to be quenched.

Perhaps the reason why chinoiserie and japonisme do not get the recognition that other genres do is because they combine so well with other genres. Chinoiserie rarely stands alone in a story, but crosses with action, with detective mystery, with noir, with fantasy, and even with science fiction to bring a exotic flavor to those genres. It has been easy to lose sight of the influence of chinoiserie as this weird fiction genre has drifted into the historical fiction and literature shelves. However, the influence of the East upon weird fiction is unmistakable, and chinoiserie is as much a founding genre as fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Since this article was first penned in April 2017, the fashions of publishing, both traditional and independent, have brought easy access to original works from Asian countries, including web novels, light novels, literary RPGs, wuxia martial arts epics, and xianxia chi cultivation epics. As the number of Chinese, Korean,  and Japanese novels in English increased, and even Russian copies of the same genres, they inspired a similar boom in chinoiserie.

Some Western writers penned their own adventures in a mysterious East that never was, but should have been. See M. L Wang’s The Sword of Kaigen, Tao Wong’s A Thousand Li series, and M. H. Johnson’s Silver Fox and Western Hero series. Others wrote Western versions of favorite Eastern genres, including the entirety of the current litRPG/GameLit scene, an early boom in kaiju monsters, and the regrettable prevalence of harem sexual comedies. Brandon Varnell has distinguished himself as the front runner in original English light novels. And a giant robot scene continues to simmer beneath the science fiction waves of space marines and stormtroopers, led by Chaney and Taggert’s The Messenger series and Brian Niemeier’s Combat Frame XSeed. Finally, a few writers, like Dakota Krout in his Divine Dungeon series, have melted Eastern and Western ideas and influences into Matrix-like newness. And for each author mentioned, there are five others awaiting discovery.

Readers’ thirsts for chinoiserie and japonisme have yet to be quenched, and those with that taste may soon find themselves in a silver age of Eastern-flavored adventures.

The Chinoiserie Genre, Revisited published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/