I've seen them.

SPOILERY REACTIONS FOLLOW SPOILERY REACTIONS FOLLOW SPOILERY REACTIONS FOLLOW

I'm okay with the voices for Sokka and Zuko. I don't have a problem with Toph's. I hate the voices for Aang and Katara.

Another frozen Airbender? Ugh, I hope the rest of the movie is more creative.

All the humor is eye-rolling, especially the Zutara joke. I don't know if they can't help poking the bear or are still mad at the shippers who like to pair them in the LoK era, but at this point it's really coming across as immature.

Taika Waiti? Again?! Yes, the man is funny, but we don't need him in every animated comedy. The Mario movies are becoming my favorite animated franchise just because they're shoving a different bunch of Tired Hollywood Celebs down my throat.

The regular animation is okay. The comedy animation is kinda pathetic but at the same time that whole sequence has such grave implications for how Time works with the Spirit World that I welcome it just so I can really get wild in my fanfics. The Glowing Sky Beacon (TM) is in the upper echelons of how those things normally look, but as pretty as it is, it's yet another thing we already did in the cartoon, and that was cool because it was the souls of Aang and Ozai wrestling with each other.

Hmm, now that you mention it...

The 'Water Tribe' comic is, technically, a fan-comic about Zhao, but what distinguishes it is that it's written and drawn by a storyboard artist who actually worked on both AtLA and LoK, and did official comics for AtLA. It's been contradicted by Zhao's cameo in LoK, but the look and feel are IMO the closest you can get to the original animated series, so it goes on the shelf with my official Avatar comics.

I actually got it signed at the same time as the Zuko graphic novel, as Johane Matte and Benjamin Wilgus were sharing a table at NYCC. I had brought my own copy of Zuko's Story and purchased the Zhao comic there, but Wilgus got confused and thought I had purchased everything just then. So the original note hopes that I will enjoy it. But then Matte clarified the matter after I started walking away, so I was called back by Wilgus to get a post-script added with a correction to hoping I enjoyed it. So that's something unique.

Also, I forgot to mention before that Wilgus did a sketch of Cartoon Zuko in it, which is pretty much how everyone was treating the comic at the time- an AtLA prequel manga that for some reason had Zuko and Iroh drawn incorrectly but that's easy to ignore. XD

As for the manga itself, I think it has its ups and down, most of the ups being the bit with the Guru you're going to mention in your second part. It's not something I would recommend to anyone but the serious collector. ;)

Continued:

2/2 I remember liking the interactions between Zuko and the guru in that one. But the thing that surprised me the most was your signed copy of the comics. You mean to tell me that you willingly asked your archnemesis Gene Yang for his autograph? Are you truly Loopy777? xD Regarding the Avatar Legends game, can't you play with your brother? Or is he not an atla fan?

Hey, Yang was sharing the table with Hicks. I may not like his comics, but it would have been super awkward to just bring books for her to sign when most of the line had beloved copies of American Born Chinese with them! XD For the record, I think ABC lives up to the hype, and in fact I've loved all of Yang's original graphic novels that I've read. So I was able to have some pleasant conversations while waiting in that line.

However, one of the people waiting in line with me offered to get the rest of my Yang comics signed for me since she just had a couple of books for each author. I declined, saying I'd be happy just getting the first volumes signed since for me it's more about supporting the author and getting a nice thing for my collection. I did not say I didn't care that much about it that I wanted to bother someone else. XD

But yeah, here's the proof.

I'm actually a bit heartened by the delays. XD

Sure, a movie being reworked can be a bad thing, but it just as often turns out to be a good thing, so we can't really go by that. And animated movies in particular seem to be a very iterative process, even the ones with relatively smooth productions.

What really had me worried was the original January release- I've consistently seen January described as where movies go to die. February and October are much better, having a few big blockbuster-sized hits released there in recent years, making them little profitable outposts outside of the blockbuster seasons. It doesn't look like there are any other Family Films or even wide-appeal planned for release at the beginning of October, so this movie has a good slot. Paramount/Nickelodeon must think this thing has some potential at least.

Wow, end of an era. This Ask is how I found out first.

Fortunately, it seems that most of the site will stay up in Read Only mode, so the craziness of the Shipping threads -- which were really mostly the General Avatar Discussion And Banter threads -- will remain available for all. I probably have some pretty good analysis on the Angry Spirits space, though, so I should see about archiving that stuff. (I checked my browser bookmarks, and yes, I at least have an Epic Asami-Bashing post that I felt the need to keep track of.)

Mostly, I’m just glad I was able to finish Traitor’s Face before ASN shuts down. I would have felt awkward with that thread hanging unfinished.

No doubt about the first. I’m such a deadpan snarker that I go out of my way to inhabit the headspaces of fictional characters who allow me to do more deadpan snarking than I’d usually have the opportunity for.

The second wouldn’t have occurred to me, but I think it’s true. One time, when I was seven or eight, I was playing a video game against a friend who was better than me and winning. Rather than lose, I discovered that I could keep pausing and unpausing the game to throw off my opponent’s timing. I’m not proud of that, but I think it proves my nature.

2/3 The Fire Nation's war propaganda, and after explicitly being told by the Fire Lord himself that his people and everything they stood for did not deserve to exist... Aang defeating Ozai without killing him and taking his powers away with a technique from days long forgotten is the biggest "fuck you" imaginable. It is, unto itself, an statement that needed to be made in a world that was already so scarred and hopeless due to the war. I'll always agree that the Lion Turtle

3/3 could've had a better build-up (things like the Lion Turtle statue in Piandao's manor were not foreshadowing, but mere easter eggs) but the parallels between it and Aang made everything tie in together perfectly, at least for me. Also, Lion Turtles are just pretty fucking cool in general and I want one as a pet. Thoughts?

You’re going to have to try harder to be unpopular with me, because I agree completely.

Well, mostly agree.

You’re on point with the part about it being thematically appropriate. I’m on record (via the Avatar Spirit forums) from before the airing of the finale as hoping that Aang’s defeat of Ozai comes about with some special Air Nomad move that embodies their philosophy. So I was already looking for something like we got, but as you say, bringing the Lionturtle with all its parallels is really clever.

I can understand if people would have liked Ozai to die as retribution for his crimes, as that’s a very human feeling and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t crave some cosmic retribution every so often, but the message of the way Aang actually defeats Ozai is so much better. I have more of a problem with people who try to nitpick the story. Like those who claim that no one will respect the Avatar if he doesn’t establish the possibility of a death penalty, to which I always ask which is scarier: dying, or having your soul ripped out and then being left to struggle through life without even the strength to sit up properly? And those who say that Aang selfishly placed his own spirituality above the safety of the world are completely missing what Aang’s ideals actually mean to him. He acted according to what he really saw as the best solution for everyone, not what would get him to a ‘heaven’ that doesn’t even exist in the setting.

Aang’s solution works both in-universe, and as part of the story.

What I do disagree with is that the Lionturtle needed better build-up or foreshadowing. I admit that the quick references to Lionturtles in The Desert and Sokka’s Master are functionally worthless, but I don’t think that Lionturtles need dedicated foreshadowing. Hei Bai, Koh, the Moon/Ocean Spirits, Wan Shi Tong, the weirdness in the Swamp, and Comet and Eclipse do all the foreshadowing we need, establishing that this world is full of weird, powerful, supernatural stuff that’s constantly surprising our main cast. The Lionturtle isn’t out of place amidst all of that, and it’s not like we’re given reason to wonder why the Lionturtle isn’t running around giving his power away to everyone. It’s established as a power that requires an ‘unbendable spirit,’ and that’s what Aang demonstrates when he meditates for an answer and the Lionturtle comes calling.

I’ve also never understood the criticism of the use of Deus Ex Machina, when ‘deus’ - literally ‘gods’ - are an established part of the setting who have reacted to story events before. So many people in our world pray, and they don’t even expect a response! But we get outraged when a god messes with stuff in a setting where gods get upset with mortals and sometimes rampage like Godzilla? XD

The only problem I have with Aang’s battle with Ozai is the rock that just so happens to hit Aang at the precise spot and Aangle (:P) to unlock the Avatar State. I’ll never be able to get over that one. Deux Ex Machina is great storytelling when done properly; Convenient Stuff is where my suspension of disbelief takes a hit.

Getting back to the Lionturtle itself, I too love the design, and also how little is really explained about it. The Mike and the Bryan have said that the reason Aang couldn’t be sniffed out is because the Lionturtle’s ancient scent covered up Aang’s, but that’s not said anywhere in any cartoon, so I’m sticking with my headcanon that the Lionturtle exists half in the Spirit World. I love how the Lionturtles are used in the tale of Avatar Wan, granting elemental powers and acting as shelters for humanity, still big and god-like and completely unexplained. They’re best left as a remnant of an age that has no surviving history, and showing their origins would risk destroying the impact for fan-service.

Well obviously in my version Jinora would be an aged-up chain-smoking single mother of three.