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My thoughts, having finished watching Avatar (TLA)
Y'know, I really thought they would change the opening sequence at some point. Deep Space 9's got revamped some time around third or fourth season; I've seen four in ReBoot and I haven't even gotten to the fourth part of third season yet; Enterprise (much though I ignore it) had a new opening for the Mirror Universe episodes, and I think one for the rest of the last part.
Speaking of changing, what's up with the credits? For some reason Iroh is the one significant character who never gets his name into the credits. Oh, he's there most of the time, but only and always as "Uncle". The fact is, he's only an uncle to two characters (that we know of; either he or his wife may have had unknown siblings). Surely the most consistently awesome (one way or another) character deserves to be credited in his own name, at least in the episode where he specifically refuses to become a ruler! (Fun fact: Iroh is the only significant character I never tried to telepathically urge other characters to smack on the back of the head.)
Speaking of awesome, how about that Toph? I don't often go for such internetisms, but Toph truly is TEH AWESOME. And that's completely in addition to being the greatest earthbender in the world. Who else is awesome enough to get to be Melon Lord? Nobody, that's who. Also, I am, frankly, amazed at how much younger she looks in her "family" outfit than in any of the other three ("earthbender", "fire nation disguise", and "victory". Yes, I do this kind of naming in my head a lot).
Then there's my third-favorite character, a one-episode wonder named Jin. I've mentioned her before, but somehow she's grown on me in the interim. Brain thinks I ought to app her; I'm trying to convince him that I can't do that sort of socially competent and vaguely perky, though not meeting with much success.
On the subject of minor characters: I loathe the Cabbage Merchant. He was mildly amusing in his first appearance, but every time after that (including when he showed up later in the same episode) I just wanted him shoved off the screen and out of microphone range. I was extraordinarily pleased when the Avatar Wiki told me he wouldn't be back after Tales of Ba Sing Se. I know he seems to have something of a fan following, but...
On that note, it's really quite weird to experience a canon this way. I was first introduced to it, rather obliquely, in the form of a Milliways thread. (Ahkh, the joys of rereading ancient threads. That's one of Classic MilliFelix's better ones, fortunately.) Not long after, Zuko arrived and was, through no fault of his own, embroiled in one of Felix's few plots. Around that time I started encountering references to the show in other places - for instance, the Lego sets. That was that until not too long ago, when one thing and another (and I have no idea how I found either, but that's a story for another time) led me to TvTropes. One of the more common sources of trope examples there is Avatar, which I came to recognize and piece together over time. Once I got my laptop (in early March) and started my Amazing Never-Ending Expanding Archive Binge I started coming across characters more often - both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
trans_9 and shatterverse got Tophs fairly early, and Shatter also got an Iroh quickly; I also found quite a lot of Avatar-based icons, both in various people's posts and in several of the icon communities I started frequenting around this time. Finally, in September of this year I got the first of the Season 1 DVDs from the library and was promptly hooked. Within days I had found the Avatar Wiki. Between that and my continual low-level trope roaming (interspersed with trope binges), I was exposed to several spoilers early on. Some of them I forgot, some I would have figured out on my own, and others I simply remembered. Silly me, I assumed it would be all right to wander over to the Avatar trope page the other day, having watched all but the four-part finale. Hence yesterday's post, and also finding a couple of rather startling (if relatively minor) spoilers. (Boomeraaang!)
As my thoughts become more disjointed...
Speaking of changing, what's up with the credits? For some reason Iroh is the one significant character who never gets his name into the credits. Oh, he's there most of the time, but only and always as "Uncle". The fact is, he's only an uncle to two characters (that we know of; either he or his wife may have had unknown siblings). Surely the most consistently awesome (one way or another) character deserves to be credited in his own name, at least in the episode where he specifically refuses to become a ruler! (Fun fact: Iroh is the only significant character I never tried to telepathically urge other characters to smack on the back of the head.)
Speaking of awesome, how about that Toph? I don't often go for such internetisms, but Toph truly is TEH AWESOME. And that's completely in addition to being the greatest earthbender in the world. Who else is awesome enough to get to be Melon Lord? Nobody, that's who. Also, I am, frankly, amazed at how much younger she looks in her "family" outfit than in any of the other three ("earthbender", "fire nation disguise", and "victory". Yes, I do this kind of naming in my head a lot).
Then there's my third-favorite character, a one-episode wonder named Jin. I've mentioned her before, but somehow she's grown on me in the interim. Brain thinks I ought to app her; I'm trying to convince him that I can't do that sort of socially competent and vaguely perky, though not meeting with much success.
On the subject of minor characters: I loathe the Cabbage Merchant. He was mildly amusing in his first appearance, but every time after that (including when he showed up later in the same episode) I just wanted him shoved off the screen and out of microphone range. I was extraordinarily pleased when the Avatar Wiki told me he wouldn't be back after Tales of Ba Sing Se. I know he seems to have something of a fan following, but...
On that note, it's really quite weird to experience a canon this way. I was first introduced to it, rather obliquely, in the form of a Milliways thread. (Ahkh, the joys of rereading ancient threads. That's one of Classic MilliFelix's better ones, fortunately.) Not long after, Zuko arrived and was, through no fault of his own, embroiled in one of Felix's few plots. Around that time I started encountering references to the show in other places - for instance, the Lego sets. That was that until not too long ago, when one thing and another (and I have no idea how I found either, but that's a story for another time) led me to TvTropes. One of the more common sources of trope examples there is Avatar, which I came to recognize and piece together over time. Once I got my laptop (in early March) and started my Amazing Never-Ending Expanding Archive Binge I started coming across characters more often - both
trans_9 and shatterverse got Tophs fairly early, and Shatter also got an Iroh quickly; I also found quite a lot of Avatar-based icons, both in various people's posts and in several of the icon communities I started frequenting around this time. Finally, in September of this year I got the first of the Season 1 DVDs from the library and was promptly hooked. Within days I had found the Avatar Wiki. Between that and my continual low-level trope roaming (interspersed with trope binges), I was exposed to several spoilers early on. Some of them I forgot, some I would have figured out on my own, and others I simply remembered. Silly me, I assumed it would be all right to wander over to the Avatar trope page the other day, having watched all but the four-part finale. Hence yesterday's post, and also finding a couple of rather startling (if relatively minor) spoilers. (Boomeraaang!)As my thoughts become more disjointed...
- Jet's crowbar-swords, while I've encountered the suggestion that they're based on real-world weapons, seem very impractical to me.
- Oddly, I haven't encountered any Avatar fanvids that I would describe as being of moderate quality. They all seem to be either quite good or quite bad - in a technical sense; I've encountered several that were well-made but not to my taste.
- My gripe with the casting for the movie seems to be different than most people's. While they're going off on their "Aang ain't white" stuff (which, really, he's got one of the palest skin tones in the show) I'm muttering about how they just don't look like the characters. This is partly, but not entirely, an appearance thing - it's to do with the way they move and that their clothing isn't color-coded and that Zuko's scar seems to have gone invisible and that live-action!Katara looks a whole lot younger, even just comparing the face shape.