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Wooo.
*facepalms*
How in the hells did that happen? In my last journal post I made an offhand comment- "I think I'll spontaneously become a fan of a children's cartoon show. Avatar, maybe. I've heard good things about it."
It was meant to be facetious! Aggh! I wasn't going to do that literally! I mean, it's a Western cartoon, and I shouldn't have been interested for more than a few minutes! I was going to watch the first episode or so, then shrug jadedly and say that I don't see it.
But I did see it. And I do see it.
Admittedly, I don't watch all that much TV, anime or otherwise. However, "Avatar The Last Airbender" is like an ideal combination of Eastern and Western. To quote TVTropes:
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's genius combination of Eastern art and Western writing, Eastern (lack of) censorship and Western characters.
Avatar is the story of 12-year-old Aang and his quest to master the arts of "bending" the four elements, so that he can save the world from Fire Lord Ozai and end the century-long war that he spent trapped in an iceberg. Oh, and just to make things more interesting, he only has until the end of summer to do it!
The show is known for its references to Eastern religion and mythology, and the inclusion of material deemed almost universally "inappropriate" or "too mature" for children's entertainment, such as violent, realistic battles and on-screen deaths, which is likely why the series nabs strong ratings even outside the typical intended 6-to-11-year-old demographic. The Season 1 finale is considered an exceptional work of art for its incredibly epic story and execution. As for Season 2, a list of all the tropes and traditions the writers broke or subverted in the excellent finale could be a page all on its own.
Even outside the fortieth episode, the show has a spectacular number of Averted Tropes, making it a very atypical and very well written fantasy show. The massive number of examples below is just a hint as to how hard the writing staff worked.
Guardian bless. I like this show. How did that happen? I spent a week on Pisoga and watched each episode.
Then I Wikipedia'd it. Looked at the entry for each and every episode. Watched them all again. Chased down every link on its TVTropes page(and man, are there a lot of links). Went to the official site, looked at everything pertaining to each episode(scowling at all the grammatical blunders... ugh).
Two episodes were leaked/gotten via hacking and distributed throughout the Internet. I have watched them three times, each.
And Squee - ed. Good Guardian. I am not twelve. I am eighteen. I consider myself to be mature for my age, I have never kissed pictures or fanshrieked, I have never sighed over anyone(Link and dragon pics don't count. They don't, dammit!). I don't squee.
But I did. Over a character who is sixteen and textbook Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain with a dash of The Woobie, because he's finally making the long-anticipated Heel Face Turn. Gah.
Guardian. Life is strange. Well, LJ and hypothetical skimmers of Solsticedawn's and Baxil's friendpages, here is what I will not do. I will not join a forum revolving around this show, I will not search out/and or browse fansites, and I most certainly will not start "Shipping".
Though.... I can kind of see why....
No! No jumping off the slippery slope! TV Tropes has ruined my life enough already! (As warned...)
Melodramatically brought to you by Joysweeper. *rolls eyes*
*facepalms*
How in the hells did that happen? In my last journal post I made an offhand comment- "I think I'll spontaneously become a fan of a children's cartoon show. Avatar, maybe. I've heard good things about it."
It was meant to be facetious! Aggh! I wasn't going to do that literally! I mean, it's a Western cartoon, and I shouldn't have been interested for more than a few minutes! I was going to watch the first episode or so, then shrug jadedly and say that I don't see it.
But I did see it. And I do see it.
Admittedly, I don't watch all that much TV, anime or otherwise. However, "Avatar The Last Airbender" is like an ideal combination of Eastern and Western. To quote TVTropes:
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's genius combination of Eastern art and Western writing, Eastern (lack of) censorship and Western characters.
Avatar is the story of 12-year-old Aang and his quest to master the arts of "bending" the four elements, so that he can save the world from Fire Lord Ozai and end the century-long war that he spent trapped in an iceberg. Oh, and just to make things more interesting, he only has until the end of summer to do it!
The show is known for its references to Eastern religion and mythology, and the inclusion of material deemed almost universally "inappropriate" or "too mature" for children's entertainment, such as violent, realistic battles and on-screen deaths, which is likely why the series nabs strong ratings even outside the typical intended 6-to-11-year-old demographic. The Season 1 finale is considered an exceptional work of art for its incredibly epic story and execution. As for Season 2, a list of all the tropes and traditions the writers broke or subverted in the excellent finale could be a page all on its own.
Even outside the fortieth episode, the show has a spectacular number of Averted Tropes, making it a very atypical and very well written fantasy show. The massive number of examples below is just a hint as to how hard the writing staff worked.
Guardian bless. I like this show. How did that happen? I spent a week on Pisoga and watched each episode.
Then I Wikipedia'd it. Looked at the entry for each and every episode. Watched them all again. Chased down every link on its TVTropes page(and man, are there a lot of links). Went to the official site, looked at everything pertaining to each episode(scowling at all the grammatical blunders... ugh).
Two episodes were leaked/gotten via hacking and distributed throughout the Internet. I have watched them three times, each.
And Squee - ed. Good Guardian. I am not twelve. I am eighteen. I consider myself to be mature for my age, I have never kissed pictures or fanshrieked, I have never sighed over anyone(Link and dragon pics don't count. They don't, dammit!). I don't squee.
But I did. Over a character who is sixteen and textbook Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain with a dash of The Woobie, because he's finally making the long-anticipated Heel Face Turn. Gah.
Guardian. Life is strange. Well, LJ and hypothetical skimmers of Solsticedawn's and Baxil's friendpages, here is what I will not do. I will not join a forum revolving around this show, I will not search out/and or browse fansites, and I most certainly will not start "Shipping".
Though.... I can kind of see why....
No! No jumping off the slippery slope! TV Tropes has ruined my life enough already! (As warned...)
Melodramatically brought to you by Joysweeper. *rolls eyes*
