M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender

It takes a while for the show to find its footing, but when it does its usually firing on all cylinders. You can definitely see a progression of the character arcs and plot, and the subject matter does indeed grow with the characters I would say.



OK, let me rephrase: does the cartoon develop beyond kiddie potty humor?

When the show first started, Aang's character would creep me out. I get that he's supposed to represent (especially in the early going) freedom, fun, humor, and innocence. Basically, as he's introduced, I believe he's meant to personify the bedrock symbolic qualities associated with an idealized child's perspective. Then the whole

Spoiler

genocide

thing kicks in and the flat representation becomes a true character.

He creeped me out because I believe they overdid his childishness in the beginning by making him burst out laughing for no reason. Well, he'd do something daring, or naughty--jumping off the side of a cliff--and on the way down, before bending his way out of trouble, he'd cackle the whole time. He was like the Joker, except he wasn't a psychopath, and his voice sounded, to me, like Charlie Brown from those decades-old animated Holiday Specials. Good grief, Aang, you're hopeless! Go save the world already! Take 2: It's the Firelord, Avatar Aang!

One aspect of his very early personality his developers phased out as the show went on was that he would stick his tongue out whenever he did something cool: Jumping off the side of a cliff, and then not dying. One of my earliest heroes was Michael Jordan, who'd characteristically stick his tongue out whenever he did something cool: Absolutely denying any other non-affiliated professional basketball player the sweet taste of a championship, unless he chose not to play. Also, he summarily denied the sharing of even 1% of NBA poster sales between the years of 1992-1998. Whether he stuck his tongue out doing this can only be hypothesized, never proven. Aang sharing this trait led me to believe either DiMartino, or Konietzko, or both were/are Bulls/Jordan fans. Anyway, Aang eventually stopped doing this, and it made me sad (It's always nice--but never necessary--to get to the point).

The show, taken in as three seasons-worth of Action/Adventure/Comedy, is excellent, and well worth the investment of your time, money, and attention, Koohii. This is coming from someone who is very hard to please, so hopefully it adds an extra layer atop my already bubbling enthusiasm.

 

Mr. Black speaks the truth..

 

Thank you. Based on all that, I'll give it another chance.

 

Wise choice bud..

 

I just finished watching all three volumes and loved it. So it's definitely worth the watch. I didn't want to watch it when it was on mostly because of Nick's endless reruns and I prefer to watch shows in order. So watching it from start to finish was great.

 

This is a joke right? Because I can't believe no one has posted about this yet.

New Avatar Animated Series Announced: The Legend of Korra

It's been on the grapevine for months now and has finally been confirmed. What we know: Korra is the Avatar after Aang, a Waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe who has mastered the first three elements and is about to be trained by Aang's and Katara's son, an Airbender. The story takes place 70 years after the first series.

More news including a comment from Mike and Bryan where they carefully don't talk about how much they despise the racebending in the movie.

And please can we unlock the old, the "real" Avatar thread to discuss this? It creeps me out to even post about this on this thread.

 

^There is a thread about the Legend of Korra. It's been at the top of this forum for a few days now.

 

Ok, I just finished ep 11 The Great Divide... Incrediblly, annoyingly stupid. Very, very painful episode. But the descriptions I read of the later episodes give me some hope. Any others I should just skip?

 

No, that is widely considered to be the worst episode in the series. Even the creators admit that it was rather subpar. The rest of Book 1 continues to ramp up in intensity up to the finale. In my opinion, however, the series didn't really hit its stride until Book 2.

 

Good. That episode was so bad I was prepared to give up on the series. Wasn't even going to bitch about it, just stop watching.

 

The problem with Ember Island Players is that it tries to do three things at once: finally let the creators lean on the fourth wall and comment on all the things they and fans have noticed over three seasons, provide continued tension leading into the ending, and give the viewer and characters a breather before the beginning of that ending. Some plot elements in the episode felt rushed and incomplete. However, I shall always love the episode, because it allowed someone to do this: So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

^Oh, that was priceless.

 

Finished "book 1" and have to say that the Northern Water Tribe suffers badly from pacifist good-guy tactical stupidity. Hmmm. Stronger when the sun is down... Let's just sit here doing nothing instead of, oh, I don't know... Maybe... Attacking the invading fleet! You know... Maybe Sink them while they're way out away from shore where their people can't attack... Use the flying buffalo to get close enough to pierce the hulls of their ships with ice... Or drown their furnaces... You know... The sort of tactics that people who speciallize in water-magic might have developed for defending their homes over the centuries? Maybe?
Would that have been so hard?

Maybe someone can make a "how it should have ended" movie short from that.

 

I suggest you watch The Last Airbender's version on that scene and decide which is better. If you think the cartoon was too pacifist.... yeesh. All Aang does in the movie is hover a wall of water over the Fire Navy's heads and they run like scared little girls. At least he puts the smackdown on them in the cartoon.

 

I'm still trying to block out the movie from my memory.

 

What movie?

 

That film was one of the best experiences i've had in a movie theater.

Admittedly it was my first 3d film, but it was just a great film. Both myself and the guy i saw it with gave it 10 out of 10.

Funny how so many people reacted badly to the movie, cause it's really good!

 

...

[image=http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2009-04-21/1240265992468.jpg]

 

hoogle, have you been a fan of the show? I've realized that people that aren't fans of the TV show are usually the ones that love the movie.

One more thing, Why is it that Katara is a waterbender, even though none of her parents are? And if she is a waterbender why isn't Sokka?

 

Maybe it skipped a generation? Maybe it's a double-recessive gene? Maybe they don't share the same father?

 

Those are all possible explanations.... Also are Toph's parents earthbenders? I'll just wikipedia it, and I kinda' liked the Matrix....

 

Katara's mother was a waterbender, and I'm pretty sure her Gran Gran is too though she doesn't use it in the show. The Waterbending Master, IMO, sort of implies she was a bender in the North.