My thoughts on Avatar: The Last Airbender

Okay, after years of mocking all of this faux-weeaboo Avatar BS, I finally watched it.

...

It's..

..it's..

...pretty good, actually. Maybe not "greatest cartoon of all time", but its definitely up there. Okay. I was wrong. Its not anime, its not stupid, all that jazz. (A little annoyed at the "Teen Titans"-ish moments--exaggerated head sizes, faces, etc.)

I watched the enitre third season in one day. Better than the other seasons. Now for my thoughts-- may be a little random, but bear with me.

-Aang is a cool character (I've noticed I like Messianic heroes and Aang is definitely THAT), and at first I was a bit worried at the season 2/3 junction cause he seemed to be going dark, but it was just good character development.
-Zuko was quickly my favorite character, though who didn't like Iroh right off the bat?
-I totally have a crush on Toph. Tell anyone, and I will kill you.
-Mick Foley voiced The Boulder. (Also, refering to himslef in the third person, heavyweight champion, etc. Genius!)
-The Rock better play the Boulder in Movie two, or I will shed blood. IT'S SO OBVIOUS, YOU'D HAVE TO BE LIVING ON ANOTHER PLANET(Or not be a wrestling fan) TO NOT SEE THE PARALLELS.
-The Hippo fighter was obviously a knockoff of KIng Hippo in Mike Tyson's Super Punch Out! down to the tuft of hair and the four teeth.
-Sokka. I like Sokka, cause he's the average Joe on the team. Good to see he rounded out as a fighter. Also, he made me laugh.
-White Lotus Society. Avatar world has its Freemasons. Clever.
-Ozai is an evil bastard. Mark Hamill was a perfect fit.
-Ron Perlman as Sozin was also an awesome pick.
-It took a little getting used to that the spirit world wasn't Good/Evil but I guess that's because I'm used to a Christian cosmology, whereas this was obviously Eastern Oriented ([Sokka] Get it? GET IT?![/Sokka]). And yes, I'm talking to you giant owl of knowledge. At least be in favor of balance or something.
-Azula is an evil bitch. I like Ty Lee though. Why does she stick around?
-I noticed it pulled from a lot of non-Western Cultures. Could Avatar do an ancient greece? I know its a Western heritage thing, but enough people are ignorant enough that you put some hoplites in armor, helmets up and make them travel across the earth kingdom and no one would be the wiser.
-On that-- I wouldn't have minded seeing Persians, or Phoenicians.
-End of Season 2. Zuko, I am fucking disappoint.
-The Face Stealer creeped me the hell out.
-Katara. Obviously there to be Aang's love interest, though not without her own development. Only waterbender left in the SWT? I thought anybody could be a bender, you simply needed work at it hard enough(Like the classic Idea of the Jedi Knights)
-Katara's revenge episode seemed to be thrown in at the last minute.
-Aang shoulda killed Ozai. I know you're a pacifist (Vegetarian? I guess that's why you're so skinny- malnourishment and all that. Also, Tibetan, and I suppose that makes sense.) kid, but c'mon. the other Avatars were right. And some people need killing.
-Spiritbending was a Deus Ex Machina, inserted to give Aang an out. Kudos on rejecting what everyone wants and going your own way, I guess.
-Lion Turtle didn't fit, to me.


-I'm surprised Avatar:TLA hasn't been banned in China. Tibetan hero, the Han China expy (Ba Sing Se) being run by a Secret Police that brainwash, kill, and manipulate? It screamed PRC to me, anyways. And considering that this is the same gov't that is putting pressure on archaeologists in the Gobi Desert b/c they found Celtic graves (which contradicts official policy that the Han Chinese have always ruled the area, and no other ethnic groups have ever had a claim there),
hey'd probably not take to well to an Epic hero who was designed off a culture they are actively subjugating and seeking to stamp out. Figured they'd ban the damn thing.

So rip my observations apart if you want, I'm done.



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+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it."-Albert Einstein

"Repeal the 17th Amendment?" Gene Healy, Washington Examiner.

An Op-Ed from the Washington Examiner, detailing the increasing amount of people who are talking about repealing the 17th Amendment.

Here.

Thanks to the wonderfully impertinent Tea Partiers, that 1913 "reform" is no longer just the stuff of trivia -- it recently made headlines in House and Senate races.

Two Republican nominees for House seats -- Ohio's Steve Strivers and Idaho's Raul Labrador -- have expressed sympathy for repeal. And Tim Bridgewater, one of two Tea Party candidates who last month knocked off sitting Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, argues that "if the states elected their senators, legislative monstrosities like ObamaCare or [No Child Left Behind], with their burdensome mandates, would never see the light of day."

Of course, the Statists exhibit massive butt-hurt at the idea of checks and balances:

Of all the "goofy ideas from those lovable wacky Tea Partyers [sic]," John Aloysius Farrell writes at USNews.com, this is the "stupidest." Repeal talk is "truly regressive," even "Paleolithic," Timothy Egan seethes in Sunday's New York Times.

Apparently, the only thing worse than peasants with pitchforks is peasants with pocket Constitutions.

Read it all.

+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"Freedom of the press, freedom of association, the inviolability of domicile, and all the rest of the rights of man are respected so long as no one tries to use them against the privileged class. On the day they are launched against the privileged they are thrown overboard."
-- Prince Peter Kropotkin - "Anarchism" (1884)

Been gone for awhile.

But that's just cause I was busy. I haven't forgotten this blog, nor will I allow it-- despite my venting-- to turn into my personal blog. I suppose the occasional lurker might stumble onto this page, and I want them to be entertained by what they see. So I'll begin some blog posts about random stuff.


+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born, is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?" -Marcus Tullus Cicero