I've been in a kind of media-consumption funk for the last month (needing fandom to unwind from school but not having the drive for anything creative) so I've just been watching reading watching commenting watching, but not really posting. Suddenly I've got a ton of things I want to write and a ton of things I want to post...I'd like to claim credit for the transformation, but the truthfully I think it's just that the weather's gotten better.
Anyway the point is that a few weeks ago I (finally) caught up on the second season of Avatar: the Last Airbender and now I've decided to do something about it. ^^; Avatar is one of those weird shows you admire from a distance but don't really know what to do with, or at least that's how I feel. In the past I've done a variety of things (series overview, compiled theme list, long genfic, short fic recs, highlights-style episode rewrite, thumbnail theater, icon bases). And now:
Avatar: the Last Airbender Season Two Further Reading
One thing that continually impresses me about Avatar is how much the creators clearly have their act together re: influences. This is a kind of dumb general guide to some of the more obvious ones -- if there are any others that immediately come to mind, feel free to comment with them. I figure after there are enough I'll post the list to avatar_fans or some similar comm and, you know, enlighten the masses.
Links are to wikipedia articles. In the spirit of things, XD.
2.04 The Swamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbillies 2.05 Avatar Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_mystery 2.06 The Blind Bandit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_wrestling 2.07 Zuko Alone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_western 2.10 The Library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_alexandria 2.11 The Desert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lotus [1]
2.13 The Drill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_boring_machine 2.14 The City of Walls and Secrets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_police 2.15 Tales of Ba Sing Se
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_tale [2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butsudan [3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku 2.17 Lake Laogai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control 2.18 The Earth King
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_behind_the_throne [3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosomatic_illness 2.19 The Guru
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru (XD)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra [1] For some reason there's no really good article on Chinese secret societies ;_;
[2] Not at all, but I couldn't find the specific kind of "short stories within a larger narrative" I was looking for
[3] Again not quite