1131 Devil Fruit.

So yeah, we were out shopping and things ran long. I didn’t think it was gonna be a big deal, so I didn’t preupload the page. Anyway, here it is now. Jess and Jo are being pretty adorable, so that’s fun.

I changed the voting link a little. You can see it in the same place taking up more space. Maybe more people will click it, maybe not. If there’s one thing I learned in retail it’s that no sign is big enough for everyone to see it.

I’m already up to the last season of Avatar. It must have been total bullshit having to wait to watch these when they first aired. After every episode I’m like WHAT HAPPENS TO IROH NEXT!? Or whoever is in danger, or whatever. I really want Iroh to be the guy who really gets Aang to firebend properly. I will accepts Zuko too. I suppose maybe he might know enough already, but I want there to be a part where he learns it better and it would be super cool if that was the way. Guess I’ll see what happens. Also, I lost my shit when Toph learned to bend metal, partly because it was awesome and partly because it addressed a problem I had with earthbending; which was ‘why can’t they bend metal?’

Just so you know, I’m already working on the next part of the adventures of Julius Drywood, in addition to editing the first part. So take heart those who look forward to that story. I’m tinkering away even now.

43 Comments

i love this. not sure if jess is tickling jo, or squeezing her butt, but it’s obvious jo is enjoying it!

Ha! Avatar. That brings back some awesome memories.

Toph was always my favorite. :) Zuko is a very close second.

Whatever you do, DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE!
You have been warned. Heed it, or learn the taste of DOOM!

While I find the pronouncement of doom excessive, I must concur with this assessment. Ol’ M. Night totally screwed the pooch on that one, part of it was trying to cram all of season 1 into two hours, part was a total lack of understanding of the series on the part of whoever wrote the screenplay, part was lousy direction, and also sub-par casting and acting. Basically it’s so bad it doesn’t even work as an entertaining popcorn flick.

I don’t think it was too much M. Night’s fault as it might have been Nickelodeon’s. The movie suffered for length. If it had been two and a half hours, then it would have been a better movie.

I have to politely disagree.

The entire failure of the movie rests squarely on the directors shoulders. The director one job essentially.

1. Maintaining the overall creative vision and bringing all the aspects of filmmaking together to support that vision.

A lot of things fall under that job, but one of the most important is getting actors to ACT. Getting them off page and into a scene can require a lot more effort, talent, and empathy than I think most people understand.

Even if you were to pick a random sample of people from the street and make a movie with them, decent direction would give the editor enough to work with that at least some parts, or some actors would still look good.My God, look at how bad the first cut of Star Wars was. The godly hands of a genius editor made that movie. At the very least, there should be some difference between acting skills. When there is not, you can generally thank strong direction. In this case it was for the worse.

Also, an important note, M. Night WROTE the screenplay. The lines themselves were terrible, and the direction pushed the actors into an interpretation of the characters that showed a profound lack of empathy and understanding for characters. I have never seen anything as silly in my life as an 8 year old boy trying to look tough in a martial arts fight. It made me doubly sad because in that one moment you see that the portrayal of Aang diametrically opposed to the characters fundamentally playful nature from the show.

Needless to say it made me very very angry when I watched the movie. I really loved the cartoon. Like a good film it moved me. Unlike a good film it moved me to murderous rage.

If there is an afterlife, M. Night shall burn for his crimes against good characters. I shall ensure it.

(cough)
This was not a rant against you guys so much as the putrescence spilling out of a 3 year old wound.

my problems started with the main character. first they pronounced his name wrong. the cartoon was written in English, the movie was in English. there really was no reason for translation errors in the main character’s name. Then his personality, in the show he was a happy go lucky child who rarely frowned. in the movie he barely cracked a smile. the problems with the main character distracted me from most of the movie. the only other feelings i have is that a lot of the characters seemed flat and that the visuals for water bending were neat.

on another note you are really going to like the last season

OMG YUSS METALBENDING IS AWESOME, WAIT ‘TIL YOU SEE WHAT THEY DO WITH IT IN KORRA. And yes, this caps were utterly necessary. Additionally, though the concept of the “classical elements” doesn’t really translate well from Europe to the Far East, the closest thing that exists in Chinese antiquity consists of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. The system in Avatar clearly follows the Japanese elements ( fire, earth, water, air, and spirit ), slightly odd considering the entire planet is based on China otherwise. Except the pirates in season one. They were an amusingly bizarre fusion of Caribbean and Japanese.

I never really got into Avatar, probably because I only saw it in bits and snatches. They’re kind of passé now, but I liked both Inuyasha, for the fantasy aspect, and Full Metal Alchemist, because of the complexity of the story and the sense of history, however fictional.

Hmm. That said, I think the reboot of Full Metal Alchemist came much too soon.

Actually, in the case of Full Metal Alchemist, it wasn’t really a reboot, per se. See, when the original series was being aired the manga it was based on hadn’t finished yet, and the series ended up growing too quickly for the manga to keep up. So a different plotline was written to suit the needs of the anime, while the manga continued along the originally intended storyline. So the new FMA, Brotherhood I think its called, was made right after the manga storyline finally finished. Having read the manga while watching the first series, I often think of them as more alternate versions of each other than reboots. The second series is how the storyline was actually intended to go, but the first one came up with interesting plot twists and characters.

Well, retcon then, perhaps? I lost interest before I saw more than one or two of the second series.

No, retcon is retroactively altering existing continuity. It’s used to fix errors that crop up, or to change something that has become less than convenient. To paraphrase LexofGotham, FMA: Brotherhood would be the original timeline, where the first-aired FMA would be an alternate timeline. A good example of a retcon would be what DC did with the original Superman origin.

Originally, all Kryptonians were super, even on Krypton itself. As the big “S” was depicted as being more and more powerful, the editors realized that Kryptonians that powerful wouldn’t have been all that bothered by their planet exploding. That’s when it was decided Superman’s powers came from Earth’s lesser gravity (and yellow sun, but I think that came a bit later).

So, the continuity remains the same, except for that pesky origin. Another example is Superboy himself. He didn’t even exist at first, since that (pesky) origin clearly stated that Clark became Superman as an adult. But DC wanted to make more money (not surprisingly), so we got the adventures of Superman as a boy. Of course, continuity as such was a joke in the early days of comics, and was only important if convenient.

Now, reboot is another matter altogether. This would be when the very core of a series is fundamentally changed in some fashion. Again, I go to DC for an example, in the mind-numbing revision nearly all their books went through in the 80’s. Being the comics nerd I was (and basically still am) I was dismayed at the thought that all my hard-won knowledge was null and void.

We could argue that bringing back a series is a reboot, but that is usually only considered renewed, unless there are major changes.

Am I the only one that totally ships Jo and Jess?

Wait a minute… I got here without the malware nonsense! Just today! It was a delayed reaction, but this morning when I checked for the update, there was no malware BS, just the comic. I only realized it a few minutes ago.

HUZZAH

The Ninjo would be a really cool friend. She could help me plot how to get Carol away from Thomas. No…she wouldn’t do that. She’d sooner plot my demise. But maybe I could manipulate her into plotting my demise at the hands of Carol. I’d still be demised (usage?), but what a way to go.

I haven’t seen any Airbender yet. I’m serious, not a single episode. I have seen more of it than I have of Lilo & Stitch, though.

I don’t know how a Disney animated film has eluded me so completely. I’m serious. I know that a thing called “Lilo and Stitch” exists, but it’s an abstract idea to me. It feels like I’ve seen more small images and things than a single movie can contain, but it doesn’t feel like what I’m looking at has come from a movie.

It’s kind of like if Narnia were a real place. If I could watch Lilo and Stitch, it would only be in the land of Narnia.

I mean, I’ve at least seen DVDs and Blu-Ray of Tangled in the store. It’s like LnS exists only to make me think I’m insane.

Avatar The Last Airbender is awesome. I couldn’t get into The Legend of Korea though. Not sure why but I just didn’t like it as much. I’m reading the comics now though. They answer the question Zuko asks at the very end of the series (which has bothered me since it ended and finally I can get some answers!)

I hope the Edmesiter ends up in a relationship with someone. Either Nina or Jo. All this speculation about orientation is making me wonder.

“If there’s one thing I learned in retail it’s that no sign is big enough for everyone to see it.”

TRUE. FUCKING. FACTS. Jesus God do I wish people would read the signs a little more carefully.

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