Clark Kal El Kent AKA the 1st Kryptonian-American

of course grace is delighted! but it'd be very funny if rocky had just. a massively specific regional accent. and now grace has it too. all the eridians from that area are like OMG THE ALIEN IS ONE OF US - we're adopting it. that's an honorary member of the clan. listen to it. it might as well have grown up here.

...actually i'm gonna do it. fuck it. rocky is space scottish. to me. he's mine now, i'm taking him out to look at the kelpies and the falkirk wheel and climb up ben ledi. he can go fishing in a loch. and now grace's eridian accent is their equivalent of scots. he says stuff to adrian's family (posh motherfuckers) and theyre like 'i think it's trying to communicate with us..?' meanwhile adrian, well used to rocky's accent by now, is like 'it's giving you a compliment. be nice to my spouse's alien, please.'

adrian getting to hear four different perspectives of funny memories of their beloved and in return telling their favorite stories four separate times.

it’s not a chore or an obligation for rocky’s siblings. they don’t even ask them to return the favor. they’re simply doing what family does.

Hell, some of us fucking SLEEP WALK. We move around in our sleep a concerningly amount! (Now I'm imagining Grace sleepwalking shenanigans and Rocky suddenly getting a lot more vindication for needing to watch over Grace as he sleeps lol Because instead of it being a trauma cultural thing, it's legitametly for his saftey because Grace can get up and fucking touch things while being fully unconcious what the hell Grace weird crazy human--!)

But also... the interesting thing with our brains, our memories, even with medically induced amnesia... we still remember, deep down. That information those memories hold are still stored somewhere, even if we can't conciously access them. And some of the ways our brain does access them is through dreaming. But we don't remember our dreams often times. Our brains have several dreams over the course of a single sleeping sesson, if we hit deep REM sleep.

I truly thought we were going to get a scene of Grace waking up from a nightmare, terror still blazing through his system, Rocky freaking out because he can hear Grace's body responses and they're going haywire... but Grace doesn't remember what he was dreaming about. Just the faint looming dread of death on his horizon. He chalks it up to stress, and thinking about Earth slowly dying, and thinks maybe he had a dream he was still on Earth as the apocalypse was ripping his world apart.

-June hitting on Uncle Iroh while Zuko makes disgusted faces in the background

-Zuko’s crew being the 41st division

-every additional Zuko and Iroh moment

-every additional Aang and Iroh moment

-Aang taking Zuko’s lil diary and it being an extended plot somehow

-Sokka’s whole “we’re dealing with this trauma by getting with everyone I can on this trip”

-Ice dodging trauma sequence!!! When Sokka is captured by Koh!!!

-Roku messing with Aang

-Every additional Sokka and Katara moment

-Hahn being just the coolest dude ever

-Katara getting all of the women to fight instead of just her

I'm really loving it!!! There are some parts where the pacing gets a bit slow but it makes up by hitting you out of left field with the feels.

Episode 4 is my favorite so far.

I absolutely LOVED this rendition of Sukka. What bisexual disasters, the pair of them.

ON THE FIRE NATION:

I absolutely LOVE the background story on the fire nation family, particularly the bond between zuko and iroh. It is presented completely different than in the OG, since the 'show don’t tell' of the original happens in Book 2 and here they use flashbacks, but it works. Still ended with me in waterworks. Also, I understand the logic behind showing all of the cards from the very get-go being that Netflix can cancel the show before it is renewed for another season, so it needed to make the best impression possible, show all the stakes but not reveal them in ther completion. I think they did that very well so far.

ZUKO IS SO AWKWARD I LOVE HIM

his expressions and reactions are just peak comedy. He is the embodiment of "😫😟" and I love that for him.

Dallas' performance is definitely one of my highlights.

ON KATARA AND SOKKA:

The thing that is the most foreign to me so far is the decision to improve Sokka's emotional stakes at the expense of Katara's. I like it but this has to be the element where the adaptation departs the most from the og. Like, in the cartoon it is Katara who bears the brunt of the responsibility taking care of the water tribe and her brother, which is why Sokka's sexism as a character flaw worked there. I can see now why they chose to drop that. With the script flipped like this, with Sokka being the main caretaker and provider between him and Katara, making him stay sexist would've been a bit too much. It is very different, but I like how they flipped the script between them.

What I did not like about this flip is that the change seems to affect Katara's character for the worse. She is not as outspoken or short-tempered as she was in the cartoon. It's almost the complete opposite. But I can definitely see the shyness and insecurity being the deliberate starting point of her arc. Now in ep 5, you can see her becoming more confident both in personality and bending. I think this was a conscious decision, but I still wish she had been written to be more headstrong from the very beginning.

That being said, I really appreciate how different the dynamic between Sokka and Katara is. I love how Katara is trying to get her independence while Sokka is still caught on the fact he has to be her protector, almost parent figure, which is a cool change of pace. One of the things that kinda bothered me as a young girl watching Avatar was that Katara was always stuck being the mom and sort of getting teased for it despite the fact no one else could or wanted to step up to that responsibility. It's cool to see Sokka bearing that responsibility as the eldest in the adaptation.

ON THE BLATANTLY MISSING KATAANG

You know, I don't hate this change. Aang and Katara's interactions are still pretty wholesome, and once they start catching feelings for each other, it will be super cute because you see where the love is truly coming from. It's not just Aang's childhood crush/Katara's "destiny", as it was presented it the cartoon. Besides it would have looked a little weird, considering that the age gap between Gordon and Kiawentiio is way more obvious on screen than it is right now when you see the interviews with the cast, because that kid Gordon is growing up SO fast.

OVERALL:

Suki spends the entire arc up to the Day of Black Sun deeply, deeply disbelieving that Zuko is actually on their side but playing along until she can escape. She thinks he's playing some kind of 4D chess when really all those questions about the Gaang are because he's afraid they won't actually want him as a friend after all this, well obviously they're friends, or they were, but what if they change their minds, especially when they see his dad, oh Agni do they know that he looks exactly like his dad? Except for the dad-hand scar?--

Suki is straight up ready to club him in the back of the head and escape when she sees that sky bison coming down.

Sokka: Oh great, you and Zuko are already friends!

And Suki caught in the middle

When it's Zuko's turn, he's trying so hard to be Interested In Her Life And Hobbies that it really DOES feel like an interrogation. A really weird one, but still, obviously this fake get-to-know-you front is to lower her guard for the REAL questions, so she stays vigilant

But when it's Azula's turn with the Suki ball, she straight up tells her, "I have requested your presence today to spite my brother. Stand to the side and don't get in my way and look miserable if father or Zuko is watching."

So it's a day of following Azula to training and politicking and smack-talk with Mai and Suki

So what I'm saying is:

Suki and the Danger Ladies, absolutely bonding over how stupid War Minister Fire's plan is

(Suki is frantically trying to keep Earth Kingdom casualties down)

(Azula is trying to limit the unnecessary expenditure of Fire Nation resources)

Zuko: Those RESOURCES are PEOPLE, Azula.

Azula: And they're mine. Father isn't going to live forever, after all, and I would prefer not to inherit a broken game set.

Zuko: ...

Azula: Yes, brother. This is how you play the game without wagering half your face.

Suki: ...Hey. You know what would end the game with even more pieces intact? Ending it sooner

Azula: Very astute, peasant. We have been trying that for a hundred years

Suki: Maybe you've been playing the wrong end game strategy

Zuko: ...

Zuko: *tentatively reaches out, and tips over Azula's king*

Azula: *long siiigh* Yes Zuzu, we got it without the visualization, thank you