for a fine revenge to take

[musesfool]

AV Club reviewed Three Men and Adena today in the Homicide recaps. I still can't watch it very often, but I highly, highly recommend anyone who is interested in phenomenal television to watch it as soon as they can get their hands on it, because it is one of the most amazing and brutal hours of television ever filmed, if not the most amazing

Comments

[embroiderama]

Oh man, that episode of Homicide... Thanks for the link to the article. I always think of Moses Gunn as being from Little House on the Prairie.

[musesfool]

Oh wow, my memories of Little House are so vague - I didn't realize he'd been on that!

[orlanstamos]

I agree with you re: Aang and Ozai. I'm so glad for Aang that this energy-bending solution comes up, though, yeah, it could have been set up better. But I thought the advice he got from his past lives, particularly the Air Bender Avatar, was really sound.

I'm not sure how I feel about how the Southern Raiders would have gone with Sokka instead of Katara...I can't really decide. I did always want more from Sokka re: his mom's death. It's presented as very much Katara's issue, which I don't mind, but I found it strange that the death had such an impact on Katara without really exploring what it meant for Sokka.

[musesfool]

I'm so glad for Aang that this energy-bending solution comes up [...] But I thought the advice he got from his past lives, particularly the Air Bender Avatar, was really sound.

Yeah, I'm glad for him personally, because I didn't want to see him kill anyone, but yes.

I did always want more from Sokka re: his mom's death. It's presented as very much Katara's issue, which I don't mind, but I found it strange that the death had such an impact on Katara without really exploring what it meant for Sokka.

I guess we did get the lovely scene in The Runaway where he tells Toph that he sees Katara's face instead of Kya's now when he thinks about who took care of him, but yeah. I mean, they were able to give both Sokka and Katara emotional arcs with Hakoda.

[orlanstamos]

Yeah, that's one thing I actually really liked: that BOTH of them got to have emotional arcs with their dad. It would have been easy to just stick with Katara:Kya and Sokka:Hakoda and all those fun gendered family times. Plus, Katara's relationship with her dad felt so true to me.

[redbeardjim]

I guess we did get the lovely scene in The Runaway where he tells Toph that he sees Katara's face instead of Kya's now when he thinks about who took care of him, but yeah. I mean, they were able to give both Sokka and Katara emotional arcs with Hakoda.

Well, they could do that because Hakoda's still alive, you know? With their mom, Sokka's got the sorrow of losing her and the fading memories, but Katara's also got the raging guilt of being the last person to see her mom alive. What if she'd been able to run faster? What if she'd been a capable waterbender? That's been gnawing at her ever since, in a way that it probably couldn't for Sokka.

With regards to Aang and his past lives, I find it interesting that the only one who actually said something even approaching "you're going to have to kill him" was Yangchen. Roku and Kuruk just said "You need to do something (unlike us)" and Kyoshi said "Whatever you do, face up to it and be honest about it." And Aang *did* make the decision "I need to kill the Fire Lord." And *then* the whole

[amanuensis1]

What you have to say about Heroes reminds me of the way I distinguish Paladins versus Down 'n' Dirty Heroes. This distinction really only works in fiction, because the stories are contrived to work for both; it just depends on whom the story puts in the Hero role. Down 'n' Dirty Heroes make the tough decisions; they kill, they sacrifice the few for the good of the many, etc. Paladins always find a solution around that; no one has to die in their solutions (unless it's the Paladin him/herself). This is why you want to know what kind of story you're crafting for your protagonist!

Aang's a Paladin, so, his ending is not at all a cheat. It's right for him!

[musesfool]

Ah, that is a good way to look at it! I never thought of that.