avrelia

From my January Talking Meme.

You can still ask a lot of questions!

shadowscast asked for Three wonderful moments in Avatar canon that you'd like to draw attention to, and why

1) The Southern Air Temple and value of rewatching. First moment is when Aang, the titular Avatar, a 12 years old boy, sees the skeleton of Monk Gyatso, who was his friend, teacher and a father figure. The skeleton is surrounded by the skeletons in remnants of Fire Nation uniform. It looks like Monk Gyatso killed them all, and was killed himself. It is a horrible and tragic moment when we watch it the first time, this is the moment when Aang believes that he truly is the last one of his people, the last airbender…
But when we re-watch the series, with the knowledge of the world and bits of Air Nomad culture, and we know how big of a deal was pacifism and avoidance of violence in Aang’s culture, his shock and horror at seeing that a man who basically was his parent had killed a lot of people is so much stronger. And his choice to hold on to those values is much more profound.

2) The Boiling Rock, part 2. Well, both parts of it are very good, but by the end of part 2 there is “Everything seems lost, when the last minute rescue happens” moment that’s the result of two seasons of character development of Azula, Mai, Ty Lee and Zuko, and it is so very good and satisfying. It’s amazing when you don’t know what will happen, and it’s just as good to watch every time after that. The look on Zuko’s face, Mai’s precisely calculated words that cut deeper than her knives, Ty Lee’s shock… everything is perfect.

3) Sokka and shopping. If was probably a one time throwaway joke, but with repetitions it grew into something more. So, Sokka, a 16 year old boy, delights in the process of shopping, especially for things he doesn’t really need. And his friends and his sister know that and happily indulge him, and even suggest “shopping therapy” when he is feeling low. On the surface, it is a deconstruction of our ideas of masculinity and femininity. It’s not inherently feminine to love shopping, and it doesn’t make anyone manly to sneer at love for pretty things. But why does Sokka love shopping so much? He grew up in a tiny South pole Water Tribe village. If he needed food, he had to hunt for it. If he needed weapons – he had to make them himself. If he needed clothes – womenfolk provided him with clothes they made. Occasionally, I guess, the merchant ship could show up with other necessary stuff to be bartered. There was no shopping. There were hardly any cool unnecessary things at all. So, traveling through Earth kingdom and Fire nation towns and seeing shops with random stuff was indeed pretty revelatory and exciting. I mean, I remember myself in the beginning of 90s, when we suddenly had shops with crazy random stuff. I would just go in and stare. I didn’t need dried sea urchins or giant plushies, but knowing that one can just buy them was pretty exciting... So: from a random joke to a meaningful character trait! One of the reasons I love Avatar the Last Airbender.

Because joy and mil obsession

1) I am pretty sure it isn’t the term, but it’s something I call good bones: the basics of plot, world-building and characters that allows the characters live in this world even when we are not looking and tell us an engaging story. It allows us to fill in the blanks, to make educated guesses about past, present and the future of the world and characters. And even when we are mistaken in our guesses, we still can see how it happened. It also allowed change of the meduim- continuations in graphic novel to feel right and effortlessly true to the original cartoon series.

2) characters again. I have never realized just how much work went into creating each cartoon character – writers, voice actors, voice directors, storyboard artists, animators, and I am probably missing some. But when I am watching, I don’t notice it, I don’t think about it, because the characters are alive, and I feel for them, cry, laugh, want to kick them of hug them. They talk in my head, and I am that close to writing it all down. I can’t even point to my favorite character: I love all main ones, I love Katara and Sokka, and Aang, and Toph, and Zuko, and Mai, and Azula, and Ty Lee. And Uncle Iroh, and Momo and Appa.

3) it’s a kids’ show that doesn’t look down to kids, and while avoiding anything too graphic, it doesn’t avoid mature themes – the whole story takes place during the war, most characters lost someone – or in case of Aang, almost everyone he knew and all of his nation. And we see these kids deal with it, we see them make all kinds of choices and face the consequences and do better next time of not.

4) there are so many things said about the series over the past ten years – why it is so great, and can it be the greatest show ever (no, for me BtVS is still the best ever) and all the major themes like Redemption and Honor and Mercy and Love and Vengeance and that it’s hard to think of something new to say after reading or listening to several essays. There are also hilarious recaps to read. I wish there could be more of those. But I do enjoy pondering the little things. Like Fire Nation’s attitude to dance. Or what did girls learn at Fire Nation Royal Academy for Girls? And how did Ty Lee and Mai become Azula’s friends? (Azula said they were going to be friends and they didn’t have the heart to refuse?) Did Zuko have any friends in fire nation, except for Mai? Yes, somehow fire nation is more fun to ponder about, but I spend a lot of time thinking about other folk as well.

5) the story is really simple at its core: the world has to be saved. Aang is the Avatar, he can defeat the Fire Lord, stop the war and save the world after he learns the mastery over all four elements: Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Over the course of three seasons he does that, acquires friends and foes, have adventures and it all ends well.

6) the comics start telling stories that happen after the world is saved, and things get complicated. As I said before I was really apprehensive about comics, but now I love them, and looking forward to the new ones (There is a new team working on them, and I am very excited.) Comics, of course, are pretty divisive – which is normal, of course, after a perfect show, the change is too visible, and not always comfortable, but I find the main storylines to be “in character” and a lot of little tidbits that deepen my view of that universe.

7) Watching and reading as an adult, 40 yo woman with kids certainly adds amusement, and a certain different understanding.

8) again, it’s so much fun to ponder small things and the characters we know little about. And maybe draw conclusions that were never intended, but fit very well.
9) Now I can’t but wonder what would be the live action series that Netflix wants to make. (Netflix wants to make series out of everything, right?) It has a chance to be decent, and I hope they take it.