#scene comparison

Our heroes are perched on top of a building in New York City with fancy new goggles.

The goggles reveal an old lady with a shopping cart is not what she seems.

Secret magical door.

Reveals secret monster society in New York.

For the first time ever, our monster heroes found a space where they are considered 'normal'.

Zuko & Aang

I started this post, uh... months ago, and then (believe it or not) kind of lost interest? There's not really a lot to say, unfortunately. It turns out there are three-ish subsets of runes used in the Puzzle House and Kpp'Ar's cane, and while it turns out the overlap between them is small, it does exist. That's about it. Here's a breakdown, though.

The clearest set are the tower runes, because they're very helpfully laid out in Adam Ratcliffe's concept art:

They're included exactly as designed when we see the tower in s7e2:

Then we have Kpp'Ar's cane, which was the main point of comparison I wanted to study. Are the tower runes the same as the cane runes? I ran into two small problems, here: first, it is extremely difficult to get a good look at the cane. Second, the cane's two appearances (s5e2 and s6e6) seem to show exclusively opposite sides of it. I wound up treating their runes as two different subsets as I tried to track whether it was even the same prop model at all. (Jury's still out. It would be weird if it wasn't, but it would also be kind of weird if they just happened to show only two exact opposite angles.)

The cane as seen in s6e6 shares some runes with the tower (green) and introduces some new ones (pink). They are also identifiable in and their relative placement lines up with the end credits art:

The cane as seen in s5e2 appears to share only a single rune with the s6e6 cane, and I'm honestly not very confident in that identification because the relative placement is wrong. In hindsight, I think it's a very similar but ultimately distinct rune. There is, however, a positive identification of another rune from the tower set:

Combining all three sets, there's the house exterior matte painting. The tower runes (green) are faithfully replicated on the near tower, and the far tower incorporates runes from both cane views (s6e6 in pink and s5e2 in cyan). There's also a small set of runes near the door that draw from both the tower and s5e2 cane sets:

Finally, there's the interior, in both its concept art (by Lillian Lai) and finalized appearance. There are runes visible on the rug, but the one in the final screen appearance doesn't match the concept.

You can also see the other reason I did all this work, which was to confirm whether the big "K" crest over the fireplace is a recurring rune or a unique piece of (presumably) heraldry. It's a rune: s5e2 cane rune #2, visible there, here, and in the exterior.

In the interest of exhaustive detail, there are also a couple runes on the floor in the map/dungeon room, but they do not correspond to any others as far as I can tell:

- The Element of Change Chapter 23: Unseen and Unspoken

And that is why Kiyoi finally fell for Zuko in the Earth Kingdom. Because when things were the most dire for them and they had nothing, he never took out his frustrations on her. When she was weak and was vulnerable, Zuko cared for her and never took advantage of her. He was gentle, protective and so respectful. And for once they were equal socially. No wonder Kiyoi fell for him and fell HARD. So hard that:

"Zuko's eyes widened, then narrowed. 'I think as Fire Lord, I can marry whoever I want,' he declared, his voice firm, his gaze unwavering. 'And I will do everything I can to make sure my best friend isn't carted off like a hippocow just because she's of good stock! I refuse to believe that what we want doesn’t matter, that your happiness doesn’t matter!'

'I won't find happiness anyway,' she interrupted, her voice filled with a quiet despair. 'I know already there's no one I would want to marry and no one who would want to marry me. What was the point of waiting for something that won't happen when I can finally be useful now?'

‘Useful?’ Zuko's face crumpled. 'Kiyoi, what are you talking about? Don't speak like that. Those are her words, not yours. How could you say that? You are so smart, and thoughtful, beaut-'

She couldn’t let him continue. Her brain threw out words to halt him, but they were poorly chosen, too transparent; 'Because there's only one man who has my heart, and I cannot have him!' she confessed. She dug her grave and then laid down in it, adding; 'I don't think I could ever love another.'

Zuko's eyes searched hers with an intensity that made her heart skip a beat. 'You love—who?' Any anxiety concerning her confession dissipated, substituted by fury.

By the Spirits, he is thick. 'I will not give voice to my delusions. If you have known me this long and you don't know, you will never figure it out.'"

- The Element of Change Chapter 31: Unbroken Peace

Buck was actually trying to find common ground with Tommy, thinking this'll be something they could relate to–not having good relationships with their dad. Buck smiling is him joking yes because daddy issues is a common thing people joke about.

BUT it does not automatically mean to be a sex joke.

The context is what is the issue. It was a serious, vulnerable scene. I thought we were about to get more Tommy backstory and have these two really connect but no...

Look at how the gallavich daddy issues plays out and see the difference.

They still laugh and smile, but the tone doesn't completely shift. It doesn't turn sexual–not because they aren't a horny, kinky couple (trust we know that they are, we saw it all throughout the show), but because the topic of the scene was how their relationship issues are related to how they were raised.

Like can you imagine if Ian said, "I don't [have daddy issues]...God I hope you [do]."

7 seasons of developing the Buck and Bobby father-son relationship and seeing how Buck's terrible parents affected his life, and we get his love interest saying, "your dad's still alive" when Buck called Bobby the dad he never had and then saying he hopes Buck has daddy issues...

laserdisc release

720p 2005 home release

1080p 2005 home release

This scene:

is Not happening directly after Fishbone's explosion of the council. Although it does seem to look like it (seems to be same time of day/night/whatever, the red hues fit, people running in panic would be a reasonable reaction to the council building exploding, etc.) but the few things that were throwing me off were things like "ok then, where the hell's Caitlyn?" (because Vi was practically dragging an injured Caitlyn from the mad tea party) Vi might have set her down to check out the scene closer, maybe? but there was still something drastically throwing me off about this scene and then it dawned on me. It's Vi's face.

in ep 9 Vi has dirt and scuffs on her face you can clearly see it. and if the scene above were happening Immediately post Fishbones it would be more likely that Vi would still have that stuff there. it's not like she'd take a pit stop to wash her face after a disaster like That.

So what does this mean? Well, i think that first scene actually coheres with this one:

because it also looks to be the same time, the dust in the air in both scenes matches and Vi would Absolutely be running if she heard that Caitlyn were fighting something like That.

just a small tadbit that supports this that I JUST realized is that that's an overhead shot of the Kiramman tent from ep 4.

so Caitlyn and the other Enforcers are being ambushed by the Chemtank-things (do these guys have a name?) in her own parents Tent (this would Also explain why people would be running out in a panic, their tent was a pretty public place) also judging by the look on Caitlyn's face she Clearly wasn't expecting this (one of the most "WTF?!" looks i think I've ever seen)