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Moar Avatar! (up to end of season two)
We have achieved the end of season two! I think this is the first time I've had both good and bad reactions to report. Carrying on into the spoilers:
I'm not really sure where to start on all of the awesome! The world-building is just superb, as always. I adore how Ba Sing Se turns out to be a sort of scary bureaucratic dystopia, rather than the promised haven. As soon as we started finding out what kind of place Ba Sing Se was, I totally guessed that the king was unaware of the war, but there were still a lot of surprises in the twists and turns that it took. Conspiracies inside conspiracies, and Azula's bunch turning up in disguise was a delicious twist that I did not expect at all! The king is really adorable in his meek way.
Appa! The Appa episode wasn't one of my most favorite ones of the season -- I enjoyed it, but it was so painful watching him go through all of that, and I kept wanting the hurting to stop and the other characters to show up. However, there was one thing in it that definitely merited a screencap (once again, screencap obtained -- with much gratitude -- from AvatarSpirit.net):
BABY SKY BISON. ♥ ♥ ♥
Anyway ... I really loved the episode with all the various little side stories for the characters in the city. My favorites, unsurprisingly, were Iroh's and Zuko's. Iroh's was so sweet and heartbreaking, and made me go "Awwww" and "Oh, Iroh" a lot. And Zuko is, well, hilariously lousy at trying to act like a normal human being ("What do you do for fun?" "Nothing."), and also ridiculously cute in his general social fail and, well, teenager-ness. (Slamming the door in the apartment!)
And I loved Zuko finally doing the right thing for a change and rescuing Appa! Squee! However, I must say that Pod!Zuko, the cheerful version without all the angst, is creepy. Sweet, but creepy.
Hmmm. I know there were other things I should mention, but there's just so much! I'm sure I'm forgetting things! Oh, the art ... they really outdid themselves on the visuals in the last couple of episodes. This show is just a visual feast; it's so gorgeous even when they're showing something relatively normal (a mountainscape, a village at sunset), and all the exotic and exciting stuff in the final episodes was simply sublime -- the auroralike starscape in Aang's meditative state, the underground crystal city, the stunning final battle. I kinda hated Zuko taking Azula's side in the end, but I could see why he did it, and it was consistent with his past characterization (and Iroh defending Aang and Katara from Azula was made of win and squee!).
But then there was the stuff I didn't like, which was admittedly much less, but unfortunately it meant the season ended on a low point for me.
The show's focus on Zuko's scar as a metaphor for his evil side really bothered me. Up to the last couple of episodes of season two, I never really considered the "scarred character = evil character!" thing (obligatory warning: link goes to TV Tropes XD) being much of an issue in Avatar, even though technically the main antagonist is the only member of the cast with visible and somewhat disfiguring scars -- mostly I guess that's just because I liked how the show was handling Zuko, and how the scar was integrated into his character's history. He's definitely not the only person we see around with fire scars (even if he's the only one in the main cast), and the fact that he had this facial burn and yet was still strikingly hawt was something I really loved.
... but then we got to the last couple episodes of the season. And suddenly they started bringing up the issue of "curing" Zuko's scar as a sort of metaphorical way of "fixing" his emotional issues, and making the scar a really overt, metaphorical representation of his dark side (like that one scene in the finale when they flash back and forth between the his scarred and unscarred sides as a metaphor for his mental turmoil -- be more anvillicious, show, come on, I dare you!). It just really bothered me, because up until then, I'd really loved the fact that his scar just was a part of him, something to be dealt with, and while I did get the impression that it bothered him (mostly because of how he got it), it was never really associated with badness or negativity of character. And now suddenly it is. DO NOT WANT, SHOW.
The other thing I didn't like was the shift to Katara as the most important thing in Aang's world. I don't say this because I dislike Katara, or don't want Aang/Katara in the show, or anything like that. It just bothered me that after all of these episodes of friendship and camaraderie between all of the characters, including the whole "must get the bison back!" storyline, that when it comes right down to it, Katara is the only person in the whole world that he's not willing to let go of -- in fact, the only person at all that he even saw in his out-of-body, releasing-the-chakra experiences. What the show basically seems to be suggesting is that for Aang, romantic love trumps friendship and surrogate family. I certainly don't think it's a problem that Aang cares about Katara or that he's starting to discover girls; it's been part of the show since the first few episodes. But it bothered me that no one else he cares about was in there anywhere ... that he cares about Katara that much more than everyone else ... that in the Avatar-verse, romantic-type love is the only kind of love that really matters on the spirit plane. It hurt, damn it, because I'd gotten so invested in the characters as a team, as a sort of family, and I really liked the way the show was handling it -- but then there was this, and it sort of tainted the rest of the finale for me. It made me feel like the show's view of love and relationships is far enough off from mine that I am, for the first time, concerned about where the show is going in season three, and worried that the team=family! vibe would be sidelined by Aang's love life.
The only way that I can fanwank it to myself is to consider that Aang's only twelve, and discovering girls for the first time, so of course he's kind of obsessing on girls and sex, to the exclusion of other things. He's still working on balance and priorities, and he's both crushing on Katara and cares about her very much, so that's the first thing that popped into his head when he was asked what was tying him to the world. I like that explanation so much better than what the show seems to want us to think, which is that he'd happily give up his other relationships with the other people in his life because they are so much less than what he feels for Katara.
So, um. That was kind of a depressing note to end on? I'm still looking forward to season three, but with some nervous nail-biting mixed in with the bouncing and squeeing.
I'm not really sure where to start on all of the awesome! The world-building is just superb, as always. I adore how Ba Sing Se turns out to be a sort of scary bureaucratic dystopia, rather than the promised haven. As soon as we started finding out what kind of place Ba Sing Se was, I totally guessed that the king was unaware of the war, but there were still a lot of surprises in the twists and turns that it took. Conspiracies inside conspiracies, and Azula's bunch turning up in disguise was a delicious twist that I did not expect at all! The king is really adorable in his meek way.
Appa! The Appa episode wasn't one of my most favorite ones of the season -- I enjoyed it, but it was so painful watching him go through all of that, and I kept wanting the hurting to stop and the other characters to show up. However, there was one thing in it that definitely merited a screencap (once again, screencap obtained -- with much gratitude -- from AvatarSpirit.net):
BABY SKY BISON. ♥ ♥ ♥
Anyway ... I really loved the episode with all the various little side stories for the characters in the city. My favorites, unsurprisingly, were Iroh's and Zuko's. Iroh's was so sweet and heartbreaking, and made me go "Awwww" and "Oh, Iroh" a lot. And Zuko is, well, hilariously lousy at trying to act like a normal human being ("What do you do for fun?" "Nothing."), and also ridiculously cute in his general social fail and, well, teenager-ness. (Slamming the door in the apartment!)
And I loved Zuko finally doing the right thing for a change and rescuing Appa! Squee! However, I must say that Pod!Zuko, the cheerful version without all the angst, is creepy. Sweet, but creepy.
Hmmm. I know there were other things I should mention, but there's just so much! I'm sure I'm forgetting things! Oh, the art ... they really outdid themselves on the visuals in the last couple of episodes. This show is just a visual feast; it's so gorgeous even when they're showing something relatively normal (a mountainscape, a village at sunset), and all the exotic and exciting stuff in the final episodes was simply sublime -- the auroralike starscape in Aang's meditative state, the underground crystal city, the stunning final battle. I kinda hated Zuko taking Azula's side in the end, but I could see why he did it, and it was consistent with his past characterization (and Iroh defending Aang and Katara from Azula was made of win and squee!).
But then there was the stuff I didn't like, which was admittedly much less, but unfortunately it meant the season ended on a low point for me.
The show's focus on Zuko's scar as a metaphor for his evil side really bothered me. Up to the last couple of episodes of season two, I never really considered the "scarred character = evil character!" thing (obligatory warning: link goes to TV Tropes XD) being much of an issue in Avatar, even though technically the main antagonist is the only member of the cast with visible and somewhat disfiguring scars -- mostly I guess that's just because I liked how the show was handling Zuko, and how the scar was integrated into his character's history. He's definitely not the only person we see around with fire scars (even if he's the only one in the main cast), and the fact that he had this facial burn and yet was still strikingly hawt was something I really loved.
... but then we got to the last couple episodes of the season. And suddenly they started bringing up the issue of "curing" Zuko's scar as a sort of metaphorical way of "fixing" his emotional issues, and making the scar a really overt, metaphorical representation of his dark side (like that one scene in the finale when they flash back and forth between the his scarred and unscarred sides as a metaphor for his mental turmoil -- be more anvillicious, show, come on, I dare you!). It just really bothered me, because up until then, I'd really loved the fact that his scar just was a part of him, something to be dealt with, and while I did get the impression that it bothered him (mostly because of how he got it), it was never really associated with badness or negativity of character. And now suddenly it is. DO NOT WANT, SHOW.
The other thing I didn't like was the shift to Katara as the most important thing in Aang's world. I don't say this because I dislike Katara, or don't want Aang/Katara in the show, or anything like that. It just bothered me that after all of these episodes of friendship and camaraderie between all of the characters, including the whole "must get the bison back!" storyline, that when it comes right down to it, Katara is the only person in the whole world that he's not willing to let go of -- in fact, the only person at all that he even saw in his out-of-body, releasing-the-chakra experiences. What the show basically seems to be suggesting is that for Aang, romantic love trumps friendship and surrogate family. I certainly don't think it's a problem that Aang cares about Katara or that he's starting to discover girls; it's been part of the show since the first few episodes. But it bothered me that no one else he cares about was in there anywhere ... that he cares about Katara that much more than everyone else ... that in the Avatar-verse, romantic-type love is the only kind of love that really matters on the spirit plane. It hurt, damn it, because I'd gotten so invested in the characters as a team, as a sort of family, and I really liked the way the show was handling it -- but then there was this, and it sort of tainted the rest of the finale for me. It made me feel like the show's view of love and relationships is far enough off from mine that I am, for the first time, concerned about where the show is going in season three, and worried that the team=family! vibe would be sidelined by Aang's love life.
The only way that I can fanwank it to myself is to consider that Aang's only twelve, and discovering girls for the first time, so of course he's kind of obsessing on girls and sex, to the exclusion of other things. He's still working on balance and priorities, and he's both crushing on Katara and cares about her very much, so that's the first thing that popped into his head when he was asked what was tying him to the world. I like that explanation so much better than what the show seems to want us to think, which is that he'd happily give up his other relationships with the other people in his life because they are so much less than what he feels for Katara.
So, um. That was kind of a depressing note to end on? I'm still looking forward to season three, but with some nervous nail-biting mixed in with the bouncing and squeeing.
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I like that explanation so much better than what the show seems to want us to think, which is that he'd happily give up his other relationships with the other people in his life because they are so much less than what he feels for Katara.
I don't think that is what they were going for. I think the idea is more that Katara is the most important person in Aang's life (putting aside the romantic connection, she is the one who woke him from the ice, and his first teacher, and the one who believes in him the most) and as such, she's the strongest tie he has to the world of people. But that doesn't mean he would happily give up his other relationships, or that Katara is the only person he truly cares about. She's perhaps the only person he cares about to the point that he would risk losing his chance to save the world to be with her, but that's a far cry from saying her love is all that matters to Aang, and I don't think the show intended to imply that it was.
(There's also the whole cramming much plot into 22 minutes of episode issue; only showing Katara was a way to streamline the narrative!)
The side-story episode is one of my favorites of the show, even if the Iroh story is so sad (particularly because that's the one with the Mako memorial - don't know if you know it or not, but Mako was Iroh's VA; he died at the end of the second season...)
And not to spoil anything, but s3 is my personal favorite of the show. Like the previous seasons it starts a little slow, but once it gets going...
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... I don't know. I'm probably overreacting a bit. And it helps to know that a lot of fans who I know aren't big-time romance fans really liked the third season -- again, this isn't to say that I mind having romance in it, just that I don't want it to come at the expense of everything else.
(particularly because that's the one with the Mako memorial - don't know if you know it or not, but Mako was Iroh's VA; he died at the end of the second season...)
Oh no! That's so sad! I thought it was a memorial to someone on the cast or cre but I didn't think it was a VA because they were all there in the next episode (and I hadn't been paying attention to their names ...).
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Heh, now, I think that singling her out for me would've been worse for me, because then it would've felt like Katara really is the only one who matters to Aang! As opposed to her being the first one he thinks about. I also didn't get so much the sense of "romantic love > other love" because Aang is so young, romance for him is a barely understandable concept. So I read it more as "Aang's love for Katara > his love for his other friends", not because his love for Katara was romantic, and not because he doesn't care about his other friends, but because he's closest to Katara, and that's a large part of why he has romantic feelings for her anyway.
(FWIW, I think I was a little bothered by that ep the first time I saw it, for the same reasons, and I'm not really now, so...!)
Mako's replacement VA, from my understanding, actually trained under him and does a pretty good job, but it's not quite the same. Though as one who's always been super sensitive to voices of animated chars changing, I'm glad they did try (and I think if you don't know it's hard to notice!)
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It's also interesting that they haven't had Iroh talk yet -- I don't think I would've noticed if you hadn't told me about the VA, but now that I know that, it's really intriguing to notice how they're keeping him involved in the storylines without having him talk.
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(I've only got one Avatar icon at the moment and I can't use it because of spoilers, but.... ^^)
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I've seen your Avatar icon, but I didn't know who any of the characters were at the time.
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It was such a magical series, full of adventure, hope, and humor -- and like you mentioned, beautifully done. I'm so glad we found it. I know I will be watching it again and again.
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the fact that he had this facial burn and yet was still strikingly hawt was something I really loved.
*grins at you* Yes. Yes he is.
The show's focus on Zuko's scar as a metaphor for his evil side really bothered me.
I didn't read it so much as his "evil" side as his... emotional baggage. It's the constant physical reminder of his loss, his shame, his father's betrayal; that day and everything he has suffered for for the past three years as a result of it. And while Katara might *makes dubious face* have been able to heal it, she couldn't have washed away all the emotional hurt it represented or made Zuko any less lost than he was. I don't know - the two sides of his face part was kind of anvillicious, but - to me - it wasn't "Evil Zuko" vs "Good Zuko" so much as "Lost and Conflicted Zuko" vs "Beginning to Accept Himself & the World Zuko".
But then, I don't think Zuko was ever actually evil. Lost, confused, conflicted, single-minded, raised on propaganda, deluded, desperate,
stupid, brain damaged... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHmE1ZWLxv0)Azula on the other hand. So evil. So very very evil. Why do I love her so hard? (But not more than her brother *squishes hapless Zuko* &hearts)
Also SEASON THREE ROCKS SO HARD! \o/
P.S. if you like amvs let me know - I will have many recs for you ^__^
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Hmmm. I like your interpretation of those scenes with Zuko. It helps me come to terms with those scenes, actually, because I not only was bothered by the "scar=evil" thing, but also, I totally agree with you that Zuko isn't evil at all. He was *never* presented as evil per se, even at the depth of his Avatar-hunting -- just angry, obsessed, and emotionally damaged. So I also felt like the show was playing him as much more of a one-note villain in those last couple of episodes -- well, not totally a villain, exactly, but someone who had this "evilness" in him that was somehow separate from his "real self". At least, that was what I thought they were going for, and it was weird, because the show is generally so much more nuanced than that.
(Brain damage. *snerk* It would explain SO MUCH. I love how Iroh even tells him in season two that his plans always suck.)
But I like your interpretation that it's more like his self-loathing and emotional baggage. The scar is the physical representation of that, because the scar is the outward sign of his father's rejection, a badge of dishonor that he can't ever escape -- a tangible reminder of how messed up he is.
And oh wow, is he ever messed up, poor kid. I keep wanting to hug him, especially as it becomes more and more obvious that what he wants most of all -- what's driven him to the edge of psychotic obsession with the Avatar thing -- is that he wants to belong. He wants his family to love him. And he keeps grasping for it and not getting it, largely because his family, aside from Iroh and his mother, are a bunch of creepy sociopaths. *g* He's better than they are, but he doesn't realize it, because he's been raised with a totally screwed-up set of values and taught to aim for an impossibly high bar that he can never reach. The episodes where he's tried to interact with normal people have been both hilarious and heartbreaking -- it is really funny watching Zuko utterly fail to grasp human interactions, but at the same time, it makes it so evident that he never had the opportunity to learn.
Why yes, I am fanning on Zuko like a crazy obsessed fan-maniac right now, why do you ask? XD
P.S. if you like amvs let me know - I will have many recs for you ^__^
Ohhhhhh! Thank you so much! *fangirls madly* I will SO take you up on that offer, because I do love them, and I can't go searching for anything right now for fear of spoilers! Once I finish the series, I am totally going to want all the recs you've got! ^___^ For right now, I'm still wallowing in canon, and too delighted by it to want fanstuff all that much -- I'm sure it will be a different story once I have no more new canon, though!
Although, um ... now that I think about it, do you have any recs for vids that don't have footage beyond the end of season two? Preferably not on Youtube, because it is so very hard to avoid seeing spoilers in the related-videos sidebar? And preferably not shippy -- I *really* don't want to get invested in any specific ships or anti-ships right now, not knowing how things are going to turn out in the series itself ... but I could totally go for team vids or character vids or episode vids. (Especially if Zuko is involved, though I love all of the characters ... there isn't a one of them I don't like. XD) I know that's a horribly specific request, especially for a show that's been off the air for a couple of years, and I certainly don't want to put you to trouble -- but if you can think of anything off the top of your head that's certified season-three spoiler-free ...