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[personal profile] edenfalling
Still watching Avatar! I've taken to commenting as I watch instead of trying to sum up afterward, so here are some thoughts on episode 16.

The Deserter:

1.
How much do I love that the sign is written in Chinese characters? THIS MUCH! (At least I assume they're Chinese. They could equally well be kanji or random squiggles for all I know.)

2. Zuko has a wanted poster! *dies laughing* I wonder if he ever finds out about that? And judging by Sokka's and Katara's complete lack of reaction, Aang never told them a thing about the Blue Spirit. Interesting.

3. Aang, for goodness sake, just wrap a blanket around your head. It couldn't possibly look more stupid than what you just did to your shirt. *sigh*

4. That puppet show is awfully telling. This is not a war you can end just by killing the Fire Lord and calling it a day. The people of the Fire Nation and its colonies will not just roll over and take that.

5. Aang, you idiot. Can't you tell the difference between showmanship and real danger? Well, okay, raised by monks; you've never been to a circus or anything like it... except you're a world traveler. Surely some of your friends explained this sort of thing to you back in the day?

6. You know, one way you can tell this is a television show and not a movie is that all the background extras are so amazingly static. They don't mill around, don't shift their weight and jostle like normal crowds would. That's a function of budget and production time, and it's easy to mentally edit around, but now and then that particular failure of realism jumps out at me.

7. Vathara has a point. Only two people who left the army (and lived) in a hundred years? Very unlikely. I don't care how totalitarian your government is; it's impossible to hunt down deserters that accurately. And it's equally unlikely that only two people got sickened enough or tired enough to up and leave. Of course, her explanation is not the only one. The simplest is probably that Jeong Jeong is only the first deserter highly ranked enough for the army and government to particularly care. And what's-his-face (Jei? Chei? I wish he'd enunciate better!) is puffing up his own importance because he's a little cracked in the head.

8. Hmm. Judging by his interaction with the other warriors and his nerves when approaching Jeong Jeong's hut, yes, Jei is kind of cracked.

9. "But other than that, the festival went off without a hitch!" *sporfle* Local crime rates indeed! Ah, Admiral Zhao, how I have not missed you.

10. Wow, judging by that speech on the inherent and destined destructiveness of fire... does Jeong Jeong hate himself or does Jeong Jeong hate himself?

11. OMGWTFBBQ Roku? Um, since when can he appear without hashing it out with Aang first?

12. Hatred of himself and his element notwithstanding, Jeong Jeong makes some very good points. Fire is dangerous, and it will get out of control if you give it half a chance.

13. Jeong Jeong's hut reminds me of illustrations I've seen of Lenape or Iroquois longhouses. The bark roof and sides look familiar, though the front wall (bound logs instead of overlapping bark sheets) is different. I cannot remember offhand if that style of house-building is also common in the Pacific Northwest, or if the show is drawing from other areas of North America for inspiration.

14. Aang... I just... Oh, never mind, you feel awful enough and I bet you won't repeat this particular mistake in the future. Sokka might have been overreacting just a tiny bit, but he has every right, and Aang needed the lesson pounded home.

15. I knew Katara was going to end up as a healer, but that totally came out of nowhere. I think the scene could have been smoothed with just a few pacing changes, maybe a lighting shift of a line of dialogue or something. But whatever. It gets the basic point across.

16. Aang, there is learning your lesson and there is overreacting. You are doing the latter. *thwaps him*

17. "I don't know why, but I thought you'd be better than Zuko!" *sporfle* That taunt is about a hundred times more effective than Aang knows, given the Agni Kai back in episode 3! Hmm. Actually, come to think of it, while Zhao causes a lot more raw destruction than Zuko, that actually speaks more to Zuko's skill than Zhao's. Zuko, after all, has never burned his own transportation. Actually, I don't think he's burned anybody else's property either, nor started uncontrollable forest fires.

-----

Work is going to be tricky this week. PM has a family tragedy to deal with, which means the rest of us have to step up and get stuff done in her absence. This is going to be hard, since at the moment everyone but ET is irritated at BW for the way he handled notifying people about PM's situation (among other things).

I really should call PM with condolences, but I have no idea what to say, given the nature of the tragedy. It's one of those things where there really isn't anything to say. And yet, saying nothing would be worse. *sigh* Maybe tomorrow.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-11-03 12:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tjalorak.livejournal.com
This show is staffed with prodigies -- not surprising given that the characters in question are kids. Otherwise, they'd never learn in time for the end game in 8 or so months.

Katara is a waterbending prodigy. I remember another episode shown to me by my friend in which she learns a fairly complicated skill in the battle in which it is used on her. Similarly, Toph and Azula as well as Aang are pretty much prodigies in their respective areas.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-11-06 11:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lurker-lost.livejournal.com
I didn't think they were all prodigies?

Aang is the Avatar, so that's where he gets that, and Katara's not a prodigy, she's just really, really driven.

Toph and Azula and probably Mai are totally prodigies though...

(no subject)

Date: 2009-11-03 12:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tjalorak.livejournal.com
Oh, right, the signs are written in Chinese. The one on the left is the element name in more stylized / older version (i.e. more wavy). The right side character is more like a description.

For example, on fire, the left side shows 火 huo3 (fire) and the right side shows 烈 lie4 or strong.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-11-04 02:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tjalorak.livejournal.com
If you're referring to the poster at 1:10, then yes, it's also in Chinese.

传统烈火国美味食品 - Roughly translated, traditional Strong Fire Nation delicacies (food)

The strong isn't quite necessary but apparently the Fire Nation likes to use that adjective to refer to itself.

The other posters are also written in Chinese but it's a bit hard to see the actual characters -- or at least, I'm not good enough to recognize more than a couple from the blurred outlines.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-02-10 02:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redbeardjim.livejournal.com
I'm late chiming in here, and totally barging in at random, but there's a thread on avatarspirit.net called Translations of Chinese Texts Seen on Avatar (http://forums.avatarspirit.net/index.php?topic=1987.0) that's, well, pretty much what it says.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-02-11 10:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redbeardjim.livejournal.com
You're welcome! Are you still doing these reaction posts?

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edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Elizabeth Culmer

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