steamy

[revulo]

Okay, here I am being a little mean, maybe:

I've seen some people today (rather, yesterday) complaining about how the ATLA sequel will have a steampunk element and how it isn't feasible. To that I say this: The Fire Nation and The Northern Air Temple.

It was already in the show. Why wouldn't technology advance in their future? I mean, a lot of

Comments

[dietotaku]

QUESTION! how is steampunk defined, exactly? i know A:TAS jokes about all the mechanist's inventions being steampunk, but i always thought of steampunk as being... less polished-looking. for example, i wouldn't call the ATLA tanks steampunk. they just look like normal tanks to me, as they would have developed for use in that particular world. when i think of steampunk, i think of stuff with a bunch of unnecessary clocks and gears and copper/brass rivets and stuff.

logically, though, you're right, there's no reason steampunk wouldn't work in the atlaverse. i mean, they do have STEAM. :p but i personally don't like the genre so i hope the reference to "steampunk" in that write-up was just a misnomer referring to the more industrialized look of the world post-war.

[revulo]

Proooobably gonna be post-war. The press release probably was using a form of hyperbole, as "steampunk" is just faster to write rather than actually explaining what they meant.

Technically, steampunk is usually Victorian in terms of a era. Since the show doesn't touch that part of the world at all for the most [art, it's not like...they're gonna be dressed like it's a cyberpunk raid, I would think.

The tanks aren't steampunk...teeechnically. I think. The drill was, though, and the hot air balloon. I think I was more clear in my Facebook link, where I termed it as a "steam-powered revolution". So, yeah, at the most, I think it'd be like before WWI.

[marlewen]

Sometimes a show is called steampunk if steam is a big factor in their technology, whether it has a Victorian element or not. And I don't see how people think it's not possible...an inventor in China created a steam powered car loooooooooong before the Victorian era.

[revulo]

*nod nod* I just think it's it's annoying that because of this, some people already think it's going to be shitty. I think it'll be interesting--and spur that "anti-bending" movement that they talked about.

I said "usually Victorian". :p I know it isn't always. One of my own examples of the genre is Disney's Atlantis, which was close but not really. :p

[marlewen]

I think those same people are still just grieving the movie. Fun fact: I was JUST thinking about the series and wondering how a sequal could be made before the news was released. Now that I know the answer, it seems like it has the potential to do well. I don't think the writers are the type to continue with something, simply because they want to make money from it (as with so many, many shows). I think they care a great deal about the world and characters they've created and will be able put that same UNF into this series.

[revulo]

YES. To all of that. I think they care, too, which really draws me to their work.

Though the person that I looked at last wasn't someone I thought cared either way about the movie other than basking in schadenfreude. (Not to say that schadenfreude is bad. I kind of basked in it after the movie, myself, after watching it. But to do it before you've sen something, I think, id odd.)

[triannamaxwell]

Ooh, steampunk? Nooooooice. And is it bad that I am saddened that this series takes place 70 years later and the world has already gotten bad enough that the series will be [even] more mature in tone? Man, humans suck.

[revulo]

I don't know how bad the world it compared to a hundred-years war. :p Though I am hoping that SOMEHOW the show remains subtle with its environmental message.

[triannamaxwell]

Honestly, all I can think of in terms of Republic City is Gotham. Seedy underbelly of crime? Check. One angsty, angry, rebellious individual with abilities to fight said crime? Check. People angry that "superheros" have powers? Check. Hopefully the writers will make the plot as strong over the long term as they did TLA.

[revulo]

And you know what I thought of? Sonic Sat AM. Robotnik had pretty much taken over the world (that city?) and roboticized it and Sonic led a resistance of forest critters with Princess Sally. Environmental, but I don't think they pointed it out.

So perhaps a mix of the two. Hopefully it won't be stupid.