http://www.idkfa.com/v3 idkfa: syndicated http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=4950&msg_id=6877 SPDCA: Legend of Korra SPOILERS FOR AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Looking at my email records, I found something interesting. Apparently, I started watching Legend of Korra before I started watching A:TLA. I wouldn't have thought that was the case, but the record disagrees with me. It usually does. But if that's the case, then I watched a couple of episodes of LoK, and then decided to watch the original A:TLA series in its entirety before continuing. As evident by my weirdly emotional response to the original series, I enjoyed it, and was pretty affected by it. And to the same degree and fashion, I was affected by LoK as well. I guess I'm a sucker for coming of age tales. Comes with gettin' old. For those that haven't heard or seen, the LoK series starts 70 years after A:TLA, where most of the main characters from the previous series are gone, and those that remain are well into their 70's and 80's. However, none are forgotten, as the events in A:TLA, and the rest of the characters' lives deeply influence the world to come. Avatar Aang marries Katara, has a family, and tries to restart the Air Nation. He also founds Republic City, a metropolis jointly-owned by all of the Nations in the interest of keeping peace between them. As Avatar Aang passes away, the Avatar cycle continues, bringing Korra as the next Avatar in the cycle. Thus begins an intriguing, stylish new tale in the Avatar universe. And this afternoon, over my lunch hour, I watched its final episode. Which was sad. And intense. And happy. And weird. It buttoned up a lot of important things, and opened up a couple more (DO NOT CLICK ON THAT UNLESS YOU WANT IT SPOILED LIKE IT WAS SPOILED FOR ME). As a show, it did a good job of distancing itself from the original without pandering too much or too little. While a lot of my initial complaints about the show (in terms of worldbuilding, scale, and focus) never really resolved, they warmed up to me quite a bit more with kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Cognitive Surplus Tue, 23 Dec 2014 19:05:43 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=4950&msg_id=6877 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=4950&msg_id=4950 SPDCA: Avatar - The Last Airbender I woke up yesterday to it sleeting against my window. I resolved that I was going to try to take care of things around the house. I spent yesterday cleaning my bathroom and watching the last season of Avatar - The Last Airbender. And either by way of the fumes from the cleaning supplies or the show being great, I made the day of it, and ended up being very impressed, and very touched (and ended up being awake until 3am last night thinking about the show). The show is, ultimately, about growing up. Which is a hard thing to remember as an adult, and a hard thing to deal with as a kid. As children, we're aware of the adult world in which we inhabit but we lack the experience or the practice to be able to deal with things adequately. We're thrown into an already adult world, expected to pick up the right things to do from context clues, and to hope that others will forgive us for our mistakes when we inevitably make them. We learn from our parents and our peers, but learn that they are all ultimately as flawed and as prone to misstep as we are. The show captures this absolutely perfectly. And does so in an interesting, beautiful, consistent world. Reading on it afterwards, many of the themes and magical systems are based on the tenets of Hinduism and Taoism, but the religious undertones are never overt. The subjects covered in the show deal with many schools of thought, and are often given considerable deliberation on the part of the characters and the show at large. Questions about loyalty, non-violence. personal responsibility, guilt, and forgiveness are throughout, and are handled with multiple degrees of subtlety and personal depth. The show has its protagonist, 12 year old Aang, the reincarnation of the "Avatar," a powerful magical figure meant to bring balance to a world in need of balancing. However, he only appears in the show long after he was "needed," having been in suspended kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Cognitive Surplus Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:58:41 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=4950&msg_id=4950