I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

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I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:06 pm

Oh no, Omashu is fallen and that hippie's song is stuck in my head :thehorror: Image
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Fri Apr 02, 2021 6:46 am

the last airbender is bad actually
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Fri Apr 02, 2021 6:46 am

i'm talking about the movie of course
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Fri Apr 02, 2021 6:46 am

for real tho

enjoy :allears:
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Madeline (?) » Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:39 pm

DaikatunaRevengeance wrote:
Fri Apr 02, 2021 6:46 am
i'm talking about the movie of course
I don’t think any reasonable person would disagree :-I

But starring so I can follow along, I like AtLA & Korra

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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sat Apr 03, 2021 2:25 pm

Now that it’s weekend I can watch more bald arrowhead cartoon

I just hope they didn’t kill off Bumi, that old dude rules :granny:

(Edit: more accurately he rocks, do ya geddit)
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Madeline (?) » Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:49 am

Bumi is great

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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Apr 04, 2021 10:28 pm

S2E3: The return of old sneaky Bumi; Omashu New Ozai manages a pandemic; Sokka gets a moment of pure badass; Momo gets his very first subplot; Azula puts together a crew. All with bonus infant endangerment!

Omashu has always been among my favorite locales in this setting; it was the first showcase of Earth Kingdom culture and I’ve just always loved the thought that went into its design. What would a city look like if designed and run by people who could manipulate stone? This is the answer. To me, it was an early signal that the folks who made this show were thinking shit through.

The nation is called the “Earth Kingdom” but Bumi has the title of king and governs just one city. I would guess that each city has a king and there is a High King outranking them all at Ba Sing Se. That’s just a theory. The only things I know about Ba Sing Se at this point are: 1) it’s the capital, 2) Uncle General Iroh tried to capture it but failed; 3) there is no war in it according to a meme I don’t understand yet. I guess I’ll see when we get there.

Azula’s peculiar bending talent has an interesting tale behind it, I bet. In a previous episode it looked like lightning-bending? but in this episode it looked more like blue flame.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Apr 12, 2021 10:31 pm

Aang knows, if you want to hone your mystical power there's no better place than a spooky swamp that reflects the darkness within you.

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Waterbending swamp hillbillies were pretty cool, though "I control plants via their moisture" is kind of a lame cop-out. Maybe they didn't want to muddle the lore with plantbending, but like, humans are 80% water so are we gonna see Katara and Aang tossing dudes around now?

Sokka spends the episode in Sokka Is Always Wrong mode, which I thought we were done with, but despite that I was on his side the entire time.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:35 pm

S2E5: We make up for last episode's Sokka abuse with one where he gets to be smart and get his Judge Dee on.

Really liked this one. All the jokes landed and the boomerang subplot was lots of fun. Some wonderful ham from James Hong. Neat twist where Kiyoko really did kill that guy (her flashback shows the crazy power a full-fledged Avatar can wield).

Zuko continues to fascinate: he has two identities and zero purpose for either of them. Often, when someone wears a mask they are free to act as they truly wish, but Zuko doesn't know what he truly wants so he's equally ambiguous as Blue Spirit as he is as himself. Meanwhile Uncle Iroh seems perfectly at peace with his situation. The pieces of Iroh don't quite add up yet: he's likeable and generally a decent guy; but at the same time, he's clearly smart enough to know he's working for Team Evil yet this doesn't seem to disturb him, nor do we get any sense he regrets his past job as general for Team Evil. Basically he's oddly passive for someone as self-aware as he seems to be. But perhaps, like Bumi, he's just riding things out and waiting for a certain moment.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:51 pm

S2E6: It's a literal underground fighting ring! :iamapony: We meet Toth. Toth is 120% badass. The Boulder smells what The Toth is cooking. Sokka marks out and it's glorious.

Some really good editing, art and camerawork in this ep.

Our characters (esp. Katara) have powered up considerably from S1, but they don't feel over-powered; the storytelling and challenges have increased to keep pace.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by ixnay (?) » Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:11 pm

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Mon Apr 12, 2021 10:31 pm
Maybe they didn't want to muddle the lore with plantbending, but like, humans are 80% water so are we gonna see Katara and Aang tossing dudes around now?
:smirk:

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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sat Apr 24, 2021 10:29 pm

Oh, it's Toph! These old ears heard wrong, I guess. :granny:

S2E7: It's all about Zuko and how life and his own relatives endlessly shit on him. This is the first time we've had a character traveling alone which means the show can do a proper "lone wanderer assists small town" tale which, c'mon, you've gotta have at least one of those in your Asian-flavored series. And this one does it really well.

Azula remains a wonderful little monster, 100% what her dad (and possibly granddad) want her to be. It's not clear yet whether she's got a sympathetic backstory in store like her brother, or whether she's just a bad seed who loves being horrid and was always going to be this way. I can't think of any way the show could contextualize Azula in a way to turn her sympathetic, but then I also used to think that about Diamond Tiara.

Ozai is plainly Mark Hamill and that rules.

This episode had a lot of fun with the hybrid-animal worldbuilding. On that note, the gag that "spider-snake-eyes" means rolling 5-5 is terrific.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:19 pm

S2E8: Well THAT's a hell of an episode. :starity:

All our main characters encounter each other and have little moments and also fight. Team Avatar and Team Azula seem evenly matched (so stop splitting up, guys!) and Team Zuko is the spoiler, not strong enough to win but strong enough to mess everyone else's plans. This is a showdown you couldn't have had in S1 because our protagonists weren't very powerful then -- and I'll add, a side effect of everyone leveling up is that we haven't needed an Avatar ex machina ending in a while. Our heroes can save themselves at this point.

Iroh gets his chest hair, and also his chest, burned off.

And let me note just one more thing. Sometimes in a TV series, you write an episode where the heroes are assholes to each other. You need them to kick up the drama, bring interpersonal conflicts to a head; to have characters speak hurtful truths and perhaps say a few things they don't mean. The wrong way to do this is to have it just happen; everyone's carrying the Asshole Ball this week for no particular reason. The right way is what this episode did, provide some external reason (i.e. sleep deprivation) why everyone's unusually cranky and short-tempered. It reminds me of "The Ticket Master" where the running gag is that Twilight keeps getting prevented from eating lunch, and her hangry-ness plays into her increasingly snippy reactions to the other ponies.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:58 pm

S2E9: Man, all these characters are so damn good.

I love anytime we learn about the philosophies behind the element techniques. Of course it makes sense that Aang, the zippy can't-catch-me dodger, is not going to come naturally to standing his ground. He's adapted well to waterbending, which is equally as fluid as air, but what earth demands is well outside his comfort zone. And of course we've already seen his problems with firebending. So everything we've seen this episode makes perfect sense and has been completely established by everything the show has shown us to this point. That's solid storytelling and worldbuilding.

Lightning is a subcategory of fire, available to the truly balanced like Iroh, or to the utterly cold-hearted like Azula. Iroh's speech about the elements of harmony harmony of the elements was wonderful. It also makes me wonder just how much he changed after the death of his son at Ba Sing Se, because once again, the Iroh we see now is far too understanding for the man he used to be, a feared general for an expansionist empire. We've gotten some pieces of his puzzle since the last time I brought him up, but there's still more to learn about the guy. What does he want, ultimately?

Zuko killed it this episode; he is so fascinating.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:02 pm

zuko owns
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;) ❤️ :twasnothin: ❤️ :fancyhat:

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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:32 pm

zukowns
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Apr 25, 2021 11:14 pm

S2E10: How strong is Toph? Strong enough to hold up a library. That's pretty strong. Of course a devoted librarybender could do even better.

I love it when Sokka has brash ideas which actually work. Thanks to him we've got a new time element (the eclipse) and something that, if you squint, almost looks like a strategy.

I'm not too worried about Appa because Toph can manipulate sand just as well as these Tusken Raider guys, which means they're going to get their asses kicked next episode.

Hector Elizondo voiced the owlibrarian.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun May 02, 2021 10:26 pm

S2E11: Another really good one. In the desert, Sokka trips all the balls and Toph makes an earth angel. Aang is angry and scary, and that's before going into avatar state. Katara steps the fuck up as the brains, heart and courage of the whole team. Iroh reveals a few more layers of awesome, Zuko sniffs a flower, and everyone's headed to Ba Sing Se.

Some nice camerawork and lighting in this episode. Also, I've come to notice how this show doesn't waste much time on denouements; the conflict gets wrapped up, maybe there's a line of dialogue, then credits.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Mon May 03, 2021 5:26 am

MAYBE ITS FRIENDLY
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Wed May 05, 2021 11:40 pm

S2E12! Aang is so emotionally closed off he doesn't even react to a bathing Katara. It's a fairly horny half hour in other respects, though, as we get the return of both Sokka's old flame and Katara's badboy crush. There are kisses and hugs, and then a baby is born. I mean, not BECAUSE of the kisses and hugs. The lady was pregnant already.

Aang, Katara and Toph are formidably powerful, but that's only fair since they're now fighting Fire Nation ships, giant sea serpents and, in one scene, the ocean itself. Katara just doin' an Old Testament miracle like it's no thing.

Overall this was a very positive and heartwarming episode, which is how you can tell things are about to go really bad. :flutterdear:
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Thu May 06, 2021 8:11 am

it'll be fiiiineeee...
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Fri May 07, 2021 11:50 pm

S2E13? 12b? Not sure if this was the second half of a two-parter; anyway it's the one with the drill that pierces the heavens.

Okay, so check it kids: this episode made for a better Star Wars experience than the last, like, eight Star Wars films. Comparisons are inevitable. There's an evil empire, an unstoppable megaweapon, and a scrappy band of heroes with supernatural powers. This is a bog-standard Star Wars setup. But it flows from there in a more exciting and imaginative way than, for example, The Force Awakens. The heroes figure out the drill's potential weak points on their own, using their very own brains and eyeballs, instead of having it explained to them in a briefing or from some MacGuffin blueprints. They actually have to go down to the thing and check it out in person. (There is a scene where they find some blueprints, but it's very short and is only a tiny piece of the whole course of events.)

In this episode the drill is the setting, and with the characters we explore it thoroughly: the action takes us inside it, underneath it, on top of it, and spewed out the back of it. What actually shuts the thing down isn't a single exhaust port, it's a bunch of ideas all coming together: the weakened girders AND the pressure from the backed-up slurry (which Katara and Toph can co-bend because it's basically mud) AND a weak spot which has to be created by Aang and exploited with the help of boulders from above. Every hero, every plot element, is used to their greatest extent -- even Momo gets to do something -- and there's still room for personal duels against individual villains. Rogue One wishes it were half this competent. Most of Star Wars wishes it were half this competent.

:twience: Jet fuel can't melt steel beams, but water can cut through if you smack it enough.

I love how we are now at Ba Sing Se but we still have yet to see the city proper; we are still only at the outer walls and the highest-ranking official we've met is the guy in charge of them. The city is apparently JUST THAT ENORMOUS. I don't think we've even seen a skyline yet, just solid wall from end to end. And inside the wall are ENTIRE FARMS, with no urban areas in sight yet. That's a hell of a buildup to this setting. It's terrific. I can't even imagine how Iroh got inside the first time, and I hope we get that story later.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sat May 08, 2021 11:43 pm

S2E14: Clancy Brown has a cameo and, for the first time in TV history, that isn't the most ominous thing to happen in an episode. Ba Sing Se is such a fucked up place, ha ha ha.

Love the gag that a regular bear is an oddity in this world.

:rip: Jet's favorite wheat stalk
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sat May 08, 2021 11:47 pm

Also I'm starting to believe Iroh has no secret plan or drive and is genuinely OK with making tea for the rest of his life.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun May 09, 2021 10:00 pm

S2E15: 6 Short Films About Ba Sing Se. I am always on board when a story takes a plot break to do character vignettes, especially when they're as good as this one.

Katara and Toph have a spa day. Toph doesn't like having her feet touched. :iiaia: :terrified:

Oh no, did Mako pass away during this season? :sweetiefrown: That's awful. But his vignette was really sweet.

Aang uses his Avatar powers to build an animal sanctuary. :flutterhat: To think, if it weren't for that stupid war he could be doing this kind of stuff every day.

Sokka gives the writers a chance to have fun with haiku, which is the best gift in the world.

Zuko goes on a date but is too dark and troubled. But to be fair, rightly so. We also see, as in Aang's story, what this harmful, wasteful war is taking from the world. Zuko uses his fire powers to literally brighten someone's life. It's just a brief glimpse of how firebending would be wonderful in the balanced peaceful world we ought to have. But this is not how the Fire Nation has presented itself to the world in the last 100 years. It's all gone so wrong. Presumably in S3 we'll visit the Fire Nation and see what life is like for the regular folk -- they can't all be marauding monsters -- and I'm sure we'll find the war isn't great for them either.

Momo befriending the cats might be more heartwarming even than Iroh's segment. :-D
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Mon May 10, 2021 2:14 pm

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 11:47 pm
Also I'm starting to believe Iroh has no secret plan or drive and is genuinely OK with making tea for the rest of his life.
it's better than being a solider in the fire nation
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Mon May 10, 2021 2:14 pm

even a high ranking one
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;) ❤️ :twasnothin: ❤️ :fancyhat:

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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Adiwan (?) » Mon May 10, 2021 3:26 pm

Drinking tea and playing Pai Sho is his way of life (also lecturing Zuko).
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Mon May 10, 2021 5:40 pm

indeed
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon May 10, 2021 10:42 pm

Let me tell you about my AU where Darth Vader survives and becomes a chill grandpa

He travels the galaxy with his volatile grandson Adam Driver and teaches him the joys of blue milk and holo-chess

"This is wizard" is a commonly spoken phrase
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon May 10, 2021 10:46 pm

Grandpa Anakin would be voiced by Mako, and I care not for the particulars of how to accomplish this
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sat May 15, 2021 7:58 pm

S2E16: oppai is best sky bison
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun May 16, 2021 4:47 pm

S217: Appa is reunited with the team, but what feels even more consequential is that we get to see sides of characters we haven't gotten to see before. Iroh gets genuinely angry. Zuko starts letting go. Jet acts selflessly. Longshot speaks!

Seeing Appa skip Clancy Brown's character like a stone was immensely satisfying. Really, everyone was at the top of their game this episode. Sokka works out the brainwashing angle (and I don't mind when Sokka is the butt of jokes, just so long as it's balanced by him being competent, and S2 has been generally very good at this). Toph's lie detector skill is introduced and used twice for drama, once for comedy, and once for tragedy. Katara is absolutely relentless when attacking Jet -- which is well warranted -- but she's equally ready to use her calming/healing powers on him later.

I guess only Aang doesn't get any badass moments this episode. He's solidly characterized, though.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun May 16, 2021 9:57 pm

S2E18: Hoo boy, this was a big one. The gang decide they need to conquer the Earth Kingdom in order to save it, and they do! They are a goddamn wrecking crew. The king turns out pretty reasonable, though, and Sokka outwits Clancy Brown and Katara becomes a royal advisor.

Everything's going really well so they decide to split up, and 10 seconds later Toph gets captured and Team Azula infiltrates the palace. :facehoof:

Never split the party, kids! Have you never watched a Scooby-Doo episode?

Zuko catches a fever because he's literally allergic to good deeds. Relatable.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun May 16, 2021 9:59 pm

One thing I've been wondering as I watch is, when writing is shown, if those are real Chinese or Japanese characters or if it's made-up lettering done in that style.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun May 16, 2021 10:04 pm

Also I hope they change the intro soon because Katara still says Aang "has a long way to go before he's ready to save anybody" and that hasn't been true for months now, the kid is practically a demigod.
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Mon May 17, 2021 4:00 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 9:59 pm
One thing I've been wondering as I watch is, when writing is shown, if those are real Chinese or Japanese characters or if it's made-up lettering done in that style.
from the avatar wiki:
The written Chinese content in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra was provided by cultural consultant Dr. Siu-Leung Lee. He handled all of the translation and calligraphy for both shows, including the calligraphy for the logo of the former. His vast knowledge of various styles of calligraphy throughout China's history added a culturally grounding component to the show. While most of the Chinese used was classical Chinese, Lee used his deep knowledge of archaic Chinese for ancient texts about spirits or elements.
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;) ❤️ :twasnothin: ❤️ :fancyhat:

Mechanical Ape
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon May 17, 2021 3:56 pm

^^^ Thanks! :twasnothin:

S2E19: One thing I appreciate about this show, and which I didn't expect at first, is that although Aang is the title character and the central character, he's not the main character. We have multiple main characters and narrative attention is given to them pretty equally. That's generally a good thing. But it also means we can go awhile without updates on where Aang's head is at, and when the plot gets Avatar-centric we might need a catchup. That's where this episode comes in handy -- the chakra training is basically a vehicle to review his emotional baggage for the viewer. The actual chakra-clearing happens super quickly, and that's OK. You just need to know "Aang still feels guilt about hurting those guys" and then you can move right on.

Aang realizes his friends are in trouble and must fly to Cloud City.

Water Tribe Dad seems nice, which means he must be sinister. :smirk: We've seen too many examples of how this war turns the well-meaning into extremist monsters.

Because Sokka's away, Katara needs to be dumb enough for both of them.

Aang: "i never wanted to be the avatar"
Toph: "I AM THE GREATEST EARTHBENDER IN THE WORLD"
Fuck yes she is.

Pleasant Zuko is extremely unnerving. Please Azula, torment him back into someone I recognize.
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Mechanical Ape
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Re: I Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender S2 and Post My Thoughts About It

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon May 17, 2021 4:47 pm

S2E20: The season finale!

You know, despite how Empire Strikes Back these last few episodes have been, I didn't expect THIS much of a downer ending. Maybe I should have. Let's talk about how bad things got for our heroes:
  • Aang gave up his Katara crush, and in return he nearly got himself killed in the Avatar State.
  • Ba Sing Se fell and the Fire Nation knows about the upcoming eclipse. Well, Azula knows about it anyway. She may choose to keep it a secret from Papa Firelord. Wouldn't surprise me.
  • Iroh was last seen in a bad situation, and his VA is dead.
  • Zuko's redemption didn't last. Honestly though, that's a good thing. Like I said, happy Zuko is creepy Zuko. He may yet become a good person, but if he does, it'll be in his own particular dark 'n' broody way, a way that's more true to himself and his damage. He'll never be Superman, but he might become Batman, if you get me.
But on the good side: Bosco the bear is safe. :3:

So I guess it evens out.

So where do we go from here into S3? My guess? Azula's going to use the upcoming eclipse and Ba Sing Se's army to attack her dad. Team Avatar will use this civil war as an opening to slip into the Fire Nation, and much of the season will take place there. I have no idea what they'll do then. At first I was sure that Zuko would be the one to teach firebending to Aang, but he currently seems unavailable for that job. It's a sure bet that Zuko will turn against Azula at some point, but will that happen at the last minute, or at the start of the season, or somewhere in between?

And will the cabbage vendor lose his cabbages again? :flutterdear:

And when's Bumi going to do his thing?

I guess if you've seen the show you already know the answers to these questions, but you can keep reading here to see my reactions to them!
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