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Goddamn, tumblr. Just goddamn.    
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Aug 23, 2014 22:38
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| # ? May 31, 2024 11:47 |
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Spergatory posted:"Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void, empty, and become wi-" I kind of wish there had been somebody around qualified to throw Zaheer's philosophy back at him with some barbs like "freedom without limits is just another kind of cage" or something. I guess socks are good too. Plus the whole putting him in a cage for the rest of his life, thing, probably with extra chains now that he's an airbender. Although really, Zaheer is a walking argument for the death penalty (admittedly not a very good one since unstoppable master criminals just waiting for the opportunity to escape and carry out their insane schemes don't tend to exist in real life).
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Aug 23, 2014 22:44
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Rand Brittain posted:I kind of wish there had been somebody around qualified to throw Zaheer's philosophy back at him with some barbs like "freedom without limits is just another kind of cage" or something. I guess socks are good too. Plus the whole putting him in a cage for the rest of his life, thing, probably with extra chains now that he's an airbender. I'm guessing "who gets custody of Zaheer?" is going to be at least a minor point of conflict in the next season. The Earth Kingdom's obviously going to want his head for the Earth Queen, but I could see Tenzin/the White Lotus argue that they need to get their poo poo together before/if they'll hand him off.
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Aug 23, 2014 22:49
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The Earth Kingdom would probably want to thank Zaheer instead of killing him.
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Aug 23, 2014 22:50
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Except for Mako's grandma
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Aug 23, 2014 22:51
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Rand Brittain posted:I kind of wish there had been somebody around qualified to throw Zaheer's philosophy back at him with some barbs like "freedom without limits is just another kind of cage" or something. I guess socks are good too. Plus the whole putting him in a cage for the rest of his life, thing, probably with extra chains now that he's an airbender. I think if Zaheer was killed he'd just gently caress off to the Spirit World like Iroh did, where he'd be able to continue his grim work there. Also, I had to do it: 
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Aug 23, 2014 22:57
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Speaking of Tumblr, here's what Bryan posted back in June 2013. And then Tumblr noticed.
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Aug 23, 2014 22:58
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Jorghnassen posted:Speaking of Tumblr, here's what Bryan posted back in June 2013. And then Tumblr noticed. loving poo poo. 
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Aug 23, 2014 23:00
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So the thing about Book 3, and I think LoK in general, is that Zaheer's right. You can tell that the show's written with the assumption that everything about his philosophy is correct because pains are otherwise taken to make him lose his composure, make looters look goofy, etc. It's actually, honestly true that the Avatar is a completely material accident of circumstance, the result of a tiff between a couple spirits (and spirits are basically a kind of particularly annoying animal), one whose impact can be gamed through simple preparation and contingency. If Ozai had just arranged for Aang to have a cold, or for a second comet to have been in the sky, or something, he could've just defeated the Avatar in personal combat and gone on to rule the world, no big.
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Aug 23, 2014 23:06
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Had a thought. What if Zaheer was right about Korra being the last Avatar? Or at least prophetic. Like, over the past 3 seasons, we've seen one example after another of how the world is changing, the old order is dying out, and the Avatar is becoming less and less relevant and having less and less influence over the affairs of the mortal world. In the previous season, we even learned that the very existence of the Avatar was an accident and that the Avatar only exists because of one man's quest. Now with this season we're seeing that the resurgent Air nation appears to be taking over the position of the Avatar in maintaining balance and reducing conflict. We also saw the Earth Kingdom's old tyranny toppled over. Could it be that the final season will see the world united in a new order, with there being no more need of an Avatar to try to maintain balance singlehandedly? It seems almost fitting that since this is the last season of the Avatar series, to have it go out on the note that there will still be benders, and spirits, but that, in a Tolkienesque sense, the Age of Avatars has passed. Korra needn't die per se, but it still seems possible that with the theme of "change" will come the realization that a new age is dawning and that the world has no more need of Avatars.
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Aug 23, 2014 23:28
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DrSunshine posted:Avatars are dial-up Internet This would be so unexpected it might be good. I don't have the image saved but there was a statue room in TLA that shows Aang as the second to last and an empty slot (Korra) as the last Avatar.
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Aug 23, 2014 23:37
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Ferrinus posted:So the thing about Book 3, and I think LoK in general, is that Zaheer's right. You can tell that the show's written with the assumption that everything about his philosophy is correct because pains are otherwise taken to make him lose his composure, make looters look goofy, etc. It's actually, honestly true that the Avatar is a completely material accident of circumstance, the result of a tiff between a couple spirits (and spirits are basically a kind of particularly annoying animal), one whose impact can be gamed through simple preparation and contingency. Literally nothing you just wrote made sense. "Leaders are unnatural and should be murdered" isn't justified by that at all, especially considering the Avatar is the personification of a godlike forced of balance. DrSunshine posted:Had a thought. What if Zaheer was right about Korra being the last Avatar? Or at least prophetic. Like, over the past 3 seasons, we've seen one example after another of how the world is changing, the old order is dying out, and the Avatar is becoming less and less relevant and having less and less influence over the affairs of the mortal world. In the previous season, we even learned that the very existence of the Avatar was an accident and that the Avatar only exists because of one man's quest. Now with this season we're seeing that the resurgent Air nation appears to be taking over the position of the Avatar in maintaining balance and reducing conflict. We also saw the Earth Kingdom's old tyranny toppled over. This, however, is something not impossible. However I don't think it means the end of the Avatar as the villains want. It means a serious change in what the Avatar is, which does seem to be what the series is going towards. Korra herself even said as much in Season 2's ending although I don't think she fully grasped what she was saying when she did that. I don't think the show is going to end with the end of the Avatar but I do think that it is going to end with the Avatar's status quo being something extremely different. I think it is almost certainly going to end with the idea of the Avatar as a singular special force being supplemented. If it ends with "Korra, the last Avatar," it will do so with "The Last Avatar" being a triumphant thing, not a failure as it would be if Amon/The Red Lotus would have succeeded. That would also be pretty good from a thematic perspective as Korra herself has always defined herself as "The Avatar" and the villains all approach her as "The Avatar" (and I think each one has talked about her being the Last Avatar at least once and it was Ozai's plan in TLA too.) Korra getting growth to the position where she willingly grows beyond being the Avatar while also subverting the series-wide threat of "The Last Avatar" would be a big triumph. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 23:37
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Korra can't be the last avatar, we need the next series of a young hick Earth Avatar from the boonies trying to understand a futuristic world of flying metal cars and energybending teleportation and everyday people with airbending flight and and and 
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Aug 23, 2014 23:49
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Harold Cooplowski posted:This would be so unexpected it might be good. I don't have the image saved but there was a statue room in TLA that shows Aang as the second to last and an empty slot (Korra) as the last Avatar.  This shot? They could probably fit a few more Avatars there... but it is weird that it's spiralling inwards to a dead end, I'd never noticed that before. This seems to be the clearest shot of it in Korra: 
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Aug 23, 2014 23:52
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Well, I'm sure if they needed to expand it, they could always just pay some Earthbender masons to shift all the statues one position outwards. No big deal! 
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Aug 23, 2014 23:56
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I assumed they just shifted everyone a spot out for the new avatar.
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Aug 23, 2014 23:58
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there is an insane amount of young tenzin x young lin beifong r34 and it's all really well executed and sensual (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 24, 2014 00:06
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Nooo, it's like a Fibonacci spiral, they'll just build smaller and smaller statues in the center so that it goes on forever 
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Aug 24, 2014 00:06
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thexerox123 posted:This shot? Oh yeah, Aang wouldn't have been built yet. Still.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:12
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quite the fucker posted:there is an insane amount of young tenzin x young lin beifong r34 and it's all really well executed and sensual 
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Aug 24, 2014 00:13
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quite the fucker posted:there is an insane amount of young tenzin x young lin beifong r34 and it's all really well executed and sensual uh
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Aug 24, 2014 00:19
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Quoting it doesn't make the thread any better.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:20
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You all have such thin skin. Just ignore it.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:21
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thexerox123 posted:Quoting it doesn't make the thread any better. Quite the contrary.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:21
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Pomp posted:I assumed they just shifted everyone a spot out for the new avatar. This makes way more sense than assuming either that the shows writers planed a series ahead or that Air Benders knew the future.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:23
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and when i say "young" i mean young adult like when they were in a relationship
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Aug 24, 2014 00:29
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PriorMarcus posted:You all have such thin skin. Just ignore it.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:30
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so don't get any funny ideas
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Aug 24, 2014 00:30
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quite the fucker posted:so don't get any funny ideas
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Aug 24, 2014 00:32
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:What did you think of the finale? I've not watched it yet, I'm away for work. I've not posted much this Book for the same reason but everything has been much improved so far.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:34
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thexerox123 posted:
I got the impression that the previous one ends up in the center while everyone else moves backwards. It expands outward, like the universe. With the avatar at the center of it.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:43
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ImpAtom posted:Literally nothing you just wrote made sense. Murdering's a matter of personal preference, but he's absolutely right that all thrones are false and authorities artificial - including the Avatar's own. The religious claim that the Avatar is a personification of a godlike force of balance, but that's just mythology - you and I know, have in fact been shown directly, that the Avatar is a historical accident that can be predicted and countered like any other natural disaster or stroke of bad luck. I think a lot of people will take away from Season 3's events that Korra is just a particularly ill-trained, unlucky, or otherwise crappy Avatar, but the real takeaway from this series is that the Avatar itself is crappy - that the mystique surrounding the station of Avatar was just that, all along.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:54
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Ferrinus posted:Murdering's a matter of personal preference, but he's absolutely right that all thrones are false and authorities artificial - including the Avatar's own. How about democratically elected officials, like the Republic City president they planned to murder? If you're arguing from a super-libertarian "everything would be great if only that drat gubment' standpoint, that's fine, but you'd probably also have to acknowledge that isn't something that the show is going to back you up on.
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Aug 24, 2014 00:57
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Ferrinus posted:Murdering's a matter of personal preference, but he's absolutely right that all thrones are false and authorities artificial - including the Avatar's own. The religious claim that the Avatar is a personification of a godlike force of balance, but that's just mythology - you and I know, have in fact been shown directly, that the Avatar is a historical accident that can be predicted and countered like any other natural disaster or stroke of bad luck. But... Raava is a godlike force of balance. And the Avatar is the being merged with her. So the Avatar is literally what you just said: the personification of a godlike force of balance.
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Aug 24, 2014 01:03
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I mean, also, the avatar just manifestly has magical powers (bending four elements, the avatar state, all those statues that glow when she does stuff, etc.) that set her apart from everyone else in the world and make it clear that there's something to all this avatar business that can't be mapped directly onto any real-world religious position.
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Aug 24, 2014 01:08
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Nephthys posted:But... Raava is a godlike force of balance. And the Avatar is the being merged with her. So the Avatar is literally what you just said: the personification of a godlike force of balance. SpiderHyphenMan fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 24, 2014 01:08
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ImpAtom posted:How about democratically elected officials, like the Republic City president they planned to murder? If you're arguing from a super-libertarian "everything would be great if only that drat gubment' standpoint, that's fine, but you'd probably also have to acknowledge that isn't something that the show is going to back you up on. ??? I think you have me confused with someone else. Given Zaheer's basic metaphysical assumptions, you could go plenty of ways, even something like "I'm going to sell out to the Earth Queen because it seems easiest and most profitable". Those metaphysical assumptions are entirely born out, though, and strongly inform how the Avatar's portrayed throughout the series. Nepthys posted:But... Raava is a godlike force of balance. And the Avatar is the being merged with her. So the Avatar is literally what you just said: the personification of a godlike force of balance. Is she? She says she's a godlike force of balance, certainly. Of course, she's not even particularly godlike, being basically a big weird-looking person. Doesn't balance much, either, except by offering advice or material aid towards the goal of attaining balance, which a wizard or something could do just as well. This cuts both ways - Vaatu's ten thousand years of darkness didn't really amount to anything more than Vaatu getting really big and stepping on as many things as he could before someone hit him on the snout with a rolled-up newspaper. LoK, in general, takes a very matter of fact and mechanistic approach to the mythology of the Avatar (the mythology of Avatar, really), because it can't seem to find another way to arrange for repeated defeats on its main character's part.
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Aug 24, 2014 01:14
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Ferrinus posted:Is she? She says she's a godlike force of balance, certainly. Of course, she's not even particularly godlike, being basically a big weird-looking person. Doesn't balance much, either, except by offering advice or material aid towards the goal of attaining balance, which a wizard or something could do just as well. This cuts both ways - Vaatu's ten thousand years of darkness didn't really amount to anything more than Vaatu getting really big and stepping on as many things as he could before someone hit him on the snout with a rolled-up newspaper. Without Raava those ten thousand years of darkness would have amounted to the destruction of the human race. You're going "he was defeated, that means he is powerless" when that doesn't at all mesh with what was shown onscreen. It wasn't like he was beaten by Bolin shooting a rock at him. Like, Raava and Vaatu are spirits of such immense and unfathomable power that they control the fate of the world for millenia and rend the world asunder in their fight. They are primordial essences that exist throughout eternity. They are pretty much the definition of Godlike even if they are not omnipotent. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 24, 2014 01:17
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Ferrinus posted:??? I think you have me confused with someone else. Given Zaheer's basic metaphysical assumptions, you could go plenty of ways, even something like "I'm going to sell out to the Earth Queen because it seems easiest and most profitable".
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Aug 24, 2014 01:23
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only the avatar can master all four elements and bring balance to the world
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Aug 24, 2014 01:26
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