Avatar season 2 episode 1: The Avatar State
Still watching Avatar! Here are some thoughts on season 2 episode 1:
The Avatar State:
1. Aang has some seriously creepy dreams, you know? First the one in "The Storm," and now this. And they're all about himself, in a way. Poor kid.
2. Iroh, you doofus. (But from you, I tend to think it's intentional... except when it 'comes out wrong.' *grin*) Zuko, you poor darling. *pets him*
3. Okay, Azula is creepy. And stone cold, too -- if she's not a true sociopath, she's damn close. I like the way she's introduced, with those rows of soldiers bowing as she's carried out in a palanquin. It gives a real feeling for her sense of self-importance, and the fear and respect with which she is regarded. (Also, funny shoes turn up at the toes! So cute! They remind me, randomly, of Prince Inga of Pingaree's curled-toe shoes from Rinkitink in Oz. I find myself wondering if Azula is carrying around secret pearls of magical power in her shoes.)
4. That entire contingent of Earth Kingdom soldiers is barefoot! Why? They don't look short of money.
5. Green torches in Fong's audience hall. Or are those just green glass sconces, with normal fire inside them? The green shapes themselves don't seem to be wavering like flames, so I'd go with green glass giving color to normal flames.
6. Fong: creepy insensitive ass or creepy insensitive ass? He's decided on a course of action and he's not listening to anything the Gaang say that runs counter to his plans. I begin to think he's less interested in having the war end than in being, personally, the one who ends it. He wants glory more than peace.
7. Azula bends lightning! Yipe! (Also, creepy old ladies are creepy. Seriously.)
8. Aang on a caffeine high. Who thought that was a good idea? This whole induce-the-Avatar-State sequence is hilarious, and I have to admit the Sokka-Momo beast was pretty startling.
9. I feel I should say something about the meeting between Azula, Zuko, and Iroh, but I am too busy admiring it. *rewinds, watches again*
10. Aww, Katara and Aang have a heart to heart conversation. *squishes them*
11. Zuko, I know you are desperate to go home, and to believe your father loves you, but there is no excuse for lashing out at the only family member who has stayed with you and supported you all these years. *sigh* And after you two showed such trust and teamwork last season, too.
12. That's a really interesting dream. First we get a repeat of the previous dream, with glowing!Aang going after normal!Aang; he sweeps normal!Aang overboard with a huge lash of water. Then glowing!Aang turns on an armored Zuko (because this is a replay of their first meeting, down at the south pole, when Aang went into the Avatar State and swept the soldiers off the ship's deck) and Zuko's eyes widen, his hands come up in a defensive move, and he turns to run away. (Very unlike Zuko, incidentally, but this is an echo chamber of Aang's fears, not reality.) Then Aang, who is suddenly normal!Aang instead of glowing!Aang, whips his arms (with an ugly, hateful expression on his face), and presumably sends water chasing after Zuko... at which point Aang sits bolt upright in bed, hands still groping forward.
So basically, he's afraid of what the Avatar State does to him. This is the kid who insisted on saving Zuko from the blizzard, even after Zuko fought him, chased him across half the world (literally!), hurt and threatened his friends, and kidnapped him. Aang doesn't want to hurt anyone. He doesn't want to hate anyone. He doesn't want to be angry... and so far, every time he's fallen into the Avatar State since waking up from the ice, it's been via anger, and he's taken that anger out in ways he would never agree to when in his right mind.
I like.
13. Sokka with his hair down! Eeee, socute! *ruffles his hair*
14. Aww, see, I knew Zuko didn't really mean it when he yelled at Iroh. Look how happy he is to see Iroh coming after him! (And Iroh totally does not trust his brother or Azula. This, children, is called the wisdom of experience. Zuko, meanwhile, is so homesick and basically honest that it doesn't seem to have crossed his mind that Azula isn't equally sincere.)
15. Nifty fight sequence with the giant stone coins! Also, whee, ostrich-horses can run straight up the wall for at least a good fifty feet!
16. ...I would really not want to be in that captain's shoes, not for all the tea in China. Then again, he brought it on himself. (Idiot!)
17. Hmm, intercut fights. Okay, let's do Aang's first. General Fong, I believe this situation is what people are referring to when they say, "Be careful what you wish for; you might get it." In this case, you have receive one furious glowing!Aang bent on killing you and destroying your fortress and army. Great job! (...Did Aang just kill all those soldiers who vanish between one frame and the next, as the shockwave hits them?)
18. Iroh is scary in a fight! Zuko... you know, it's weird how he deals so effectively with those three firebending guards, and then falls apart while facing Azula. It's like he's fighting his own head as well as fighting her, whereas with the guards, he's all business. And then he just lies there while she charges lightning. I swear, that boy has already defeated himself in his own mind before he's ever raised a hand against her. Which is realistic, I think -- the aftereffects of years of Ozai and Azula putting him down -- but awfully sad and frustrating to watch. (I think he'd lose at this point anyway, even if he fought effectively -- Azula is just that good -- but I'm sure he could put up a better fight if his head were clear.)
19. Ah, the explanation of the Avatar State. Cool.
20. Sokka for the win! (It looks like the soldiers survived. Maybe, being earthbenders, they just ducked underground to wait out the storm?)
21. Presumably people who know Chinese have written and posted translations of Iroh and Zuko's wanted poster. Links? Also, I like the Fire Nation colonial clothing. It's very gray and pale red and rust brown -- sort of like Fire Nation colors, but washed out with ashes, instead of bright like the heart of the flames. (Note how Azula's clothes are much more vivid.) The men's clothing styles remind me vaguely of Japanese yukata, but then a couple women are wearing one-shoulder dresses that remind me vaguely of some styles of sari, and some men have open-front vests over loose, blousy trousers and tight leggings. And, of course, there are those amusing pointed shoes. (I love those shoes!)
22. While I am on the subject, I like the glimpses of this little colony settlement. Mostly it's a spa resort built out on stilts in the river -- and I really like the pointed roofs, and the tidy wooden walkways -- but you can catch glimpses of buildings and fields on the shores. (And, of course, Zuko and Iroh were in a guest house up on the cliffs. It was a very bare guest house, very minimalist Japanese traditional.) Anyway, the harbor is presumably at the base of the falls, a little bit downriver. My guess is that the river once spilled directly over the cliffs into the sea, but it's worn away a small fjord over the years. (Sorry, my love of world-building gets away from me sometimes.)
23. The symbolic cutting of the hair! (Also, aha! Is this the knife I have read about in fanfic, that says "Never give up" and "Made in the Earth Kingdom," or something to that effect?)
24. That is a damn good season opening episode. It gives the emotional reaction that was missing from the season 1 finale, it sets up new plot arcs (Aang on a quest to learn earthbending, Zuko and Iroh on the run, Azula as the new villain), and it is dramatic as all get out. So yay!
-----
Other stuff I did today: washed laundry, deposited this week's and last week's paychecks, and returned a library book. Also, I slept a lot. Why does it always take so long to get better after illness?
This entry was cross-posted from http://edenfalling.dreamwidth.org/416823.html. You may comment here or there.
The Avatar State:
1. Aang has some seriously creepy dreams, you know? First the one in "The Storm," and now this. And they're all about himself, in a way. Poor kid.
2. Iroh, you doofus. (But from you, I tend to think it's intentional... except when it 'comes out wrong.' *grin*) Zuko, you poor darling. *pets him*
3. Okay, Azula is creepy. And stone cold, too -- if she's not a true sociopath, she's damn close. I like the way she's introduced, with those rows of soldiers bowing as she's carried out in a palanquin. It gives a real feeling for her sense of self-importance, and the fear and respect with which she is regarded. (Also, funny shoes turn up at the toes! So cute! They remind me, randomly, of Prince Inga of Pingaree's curled-toe shoes from Rinkitink in Oz. I find myself wondering if Azula is carrying around secret pearls of magical power in her shoes.)
4. That entire contingent of Earth Kingdom soldiers is barefoot! Why? They don't look short of money.
5. Green torches in Fong's audience hall. Or are those just green glass sconces, with normal fire inside them? The green shapes themselves don't seem to be wavering like flames, so I'd go with green glass giving color to normal flames.
6. Fong: creepy insensitive ass or creepy insensitive ass? He's decided on a course of action and he's not listening to anything the Gaang say that runs counter to his plans. I begin to think he's less interested in having the war end than in being, personally, the one who ends it. He wants glory more than peace.
7. Azula bends lightning! Yipe! (Also, creepy old ladies are creepy. Seriously.)
8. Aang on a caffeine high. Who thought that was a good idea? This whole induce-the-Avatar-State sequence is hilarious, and I have to admit the Sokka-Momo beast was pretty startling.
9. I feel I should say something about the meeting between Azula, Zuko, and Iroh, but I am too busy admiring it. *rewinds, watches again*
10. Aww, Katara and Aang have a heart to heart conversation. *squishes them*
11. Zuko, I know you are desperate to go home, and to believe your father loves you, but there is no excuse for lashing out at the only family member who has stayed with you and supported you all these years. *sigh* And after you two showed such trust and teamwork last season, too.
12. That's a really interesting dream. First we get a repeat of the previous dream, with glowing!Aang going after normal!Aang; he sweeps normal!Aang overboard with a huge lash of water. Then glowing!Aang turns on an armored Zuko (because this is a replay of their first meeting, down at the south pole, when Aang went into the Avatar State and swept the soldiers off the ship's deck) and Zuko's eyes widen, his hands come up in a defensive move, and he turns to run away. (Very unlike Zuko, incidentally, but this is an echo chamber of Aang's fears, not reality.) Then Aang, who is suddenly normal!Aang instead of glowing!Aang, whips his arms (with an ugly, hateful expression on his face), and presumably sends water chasing after Zuko... at which point Aang sits bolt upright in bed, hands still groping forward.
So basically, he's afraid of what the Avatar State does to him. This is the kid who insisted on saving Zuko from the blizzard, even after Zuko fought him, chased him across half the world (literally!), hurt and threatened his friends, and kidnapped him. Aang doesn't want to hurt anyone. He doesn't want to hate anyone. He doesn't want to be angry... and so far, every time he's fallen into the Avatar State since waking up from the ice, it's been via anger, and he's taken that anger out in ways he would never agree to when in his right mind.
I like.
13. Sokka with his hair down! Eeee, socute! *ruffles his hair*
14. Aww, see, I knew Zuko didn't really mean it when he yelled at Iroh. Look how happy he is to see Iroh coming after him! (And Iroh totally does not trust his brother or Azula. This, children, is called the wisdom of experience. Zuko, meanwhile, is so homesick and basically honest that it doesn't seem to have crossed his mind that Azula isn't equally sincere.)
15. Nifty fight sequence with the giant stone coins! Also, whee, ostrich-horses can run straight up the wall for at least a good fifty feet!
16. ...I would really not want to be in that captain's shoes, not for all the tea in China. Then again, he brought it on himself. (Idiot!)
17. Hmm, intercut fights. Okay, let's do Aang's first. General Fong, I believe this situation is what people are referring to when they say, "Be careful what you wish for; you might get it." In this case, you have receive one furious glowing!Aang bent on killing you and destroying your fortress and army. Great job! (...Did Aang just kill all those soldiers who vanish between one frame and the next, as the shockwave hits them?)
18. Iroh is scary in a fight! Zuko... you know, it's weird how he deals so effectively with those three firebending guards, and then falls apart while facing Azula. It's like he's fighting his own head as well as fighting her, whereas with the guards, he's all business. And then he just lies there while she charges lightning. I swear, that boy has already defeated himself in his own mind before he's ever raised a hand against her. Which is realistic, I think -- the aftereffects of years of Ozai and Azula putting him down -- but awfully sad and frustrating to watch. (I think he'd lose at this point anyway, even if he fought effectively -- Azula is just that good -- but I'm sure he could put up a better fight if his head were clear.)
19. Ah, the explanation of the Avatar State. Cool.
20. Sokka for the win! (It looks like the soldiers survived. Maybe, being earthbenders, they just ducked underground to wait out the storm?)
21. Presumably people who know Chinese have written and posted translations of Iroh and Zuko's wanted poster. Links? Also, I like the Fire Nation colonial clothing. It's very gray and pale red and rust brown -- sort of like Fire Nation colors, but washed out with ashes, instead of bright like the heart of the flames. (Note how Azula's clothes are much more vivid.) The men's clothing styles remind me vaguely of Japanese yukata, but then a couple women are wearing one-shoulder dresses that remind me vaguely of some styles of sari, and some men have open-front vests over loose, blousy trousers and tight leggings. And, of course, there are those amusing pointed shoes. (I love those shoes!)
22. While I am on the subject, I like the glimpses of this little colony settlement. Mostly it's a spa resort built out on stilts in the river -- and I really like the pointed roofs, and the tidy wooden walkways -- but you can catch glimpses of buildings and fields on the shores. (And, of course, Zuko and Iroh were in a guest house up on the cliffs. It was a very bare guest house, very minimalist Japanese traditional.) Anyway, the harbor is presumably at the base of the falls, a little bit downriver. My guess is that the river once spilled directly over the cliffs into the sea, but it's worn away a small fjord over the years. (Sorry, my love of world-building gets away from me sometimes.)
23. The symbolic cutting of the hair! (Also, aha! Is this the knife I have read about in fanfic, that says "Never give up" and "Made in the Earth Kingdom," or something to that effect?)
24. That is a damn good season opening episode. It gives the emotional reaction that was missing from the season 1 finale, it sets up new plot arcs (Aang on a quest to learn earthbending, Zuko and Iroh on the run, Azula as the new villain), and it is dramatic as all get out. So yay!
-----
Other stuff I did today: washed laundry, deposited this week's and last week's paychecks, and returned a library book. Also, I slept a lot. Why does it always take so long to get better after illness?
This entry was cross-posted from http://edenfalling.dreamwidth.org/416823.html. You may comment here or there.