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hiddenriverninja posted:Ep 10 preview I'm so happy to see her back. SirKibbles posted:It's Bolin they've written as stupid (unintentionally)when they wanted him to be naive and socially oblivious. Personally I like Season 1 ladies man Bolin better but eh he's written how he's written and it's not like he still doesn't have good character traits. Nah, even back in S1 Bolin should've been kept as a side character rather than shoved down our throats. The Nuktuk subplot was funny and charming, but there's so much for me to hear and see of this character that I just don't want to see on screen.
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Nov 30, 2014 17:18
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ShadowCatboy posted:Like, look at this line from the film's Admiral Zhao: "Sire, I have good news. As you know, I conducted a raid on the Great Library, which most said didn't exist." Seriously, try reading it out loud as if you were Zhao. Does it sound awkward? Yeah, that's what I thought. That's because real people talking in real life don't expand their sentences with adjuncts like that. You see this sort of dialogue in Lady in the Water and The Happening. Also the fact that they got loving Aasif Mandvi to play Zhao.
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Nov 30, 2014 17:48
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Genocyber posted:Also the fact that they got loving Aasif Mandvi to play Zhao. To be fair, with a decent director, I think he would have been fine in the role. (Aside from the whole racebending issue) Actually, even with a lovely director, he was alright.
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Nov 30, 2014 17:49
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So what's the story with the last four episodes? I've heard once that it was going to be four episodes at once, but someone else said two episodes per week for the next two weeks. Can someone confirm with a source?
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Nov 30, 2014 18:17
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uncleKitchener posted:I'm so happy to see her back. They eventually learned when to tone down Sokka's wackiness in the first series so maybe they'll do the same for Bolin in the last four episodes.
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Nov 30, 2014 18:27
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AshB posted:So what's the story with the last four episodes? I've heard once that it was going to be four episodes at once, but someone else said two episodes per week for the next two weeks. Can someone confirm with a source? The only source re: the schedule going forward, so far, is that the Nick twitter has said that the finale is currently scheduled for December 19th. The general assumption is that we get one episode on the 5th, one episode on the 12th, and 2 on the 19th. There was never any source suggesting 4 at once, that was just wishful thinking from fans.
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Nov 30, 2014 18:29
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thexerox123 posted:To be fair, with a decent director, I think he would have been fine in the role. (Aside from the whole racebending issue)
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Nov 30, 2014 18:46
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Yeah it's easy to say Zhao was a complete monster. But how many celestial bodies have you killed? Thought so.
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Nov 30, 2014 19:02
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The Sharmat posted:Yeah it's easy to say Zhao was a complete monster. But how many celestial bodies have you killed? It got better.
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Nov 30, 2014 19:05
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Is there a Sun spirit in the Avatar world?
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Nov 30, 2014 20:22
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Mraagvpeine posted:Is there a Sun spirit in the Avatar world? Yeah. She's like the moon spirit, but hotter.
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Nov 30, 2014 20:24
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The sun is supposed to be a male and one of ten brothers in Chinese mythology.
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Nov 30, 2014 20:29
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JT Jag posted:I mean, the fact that it WAS Aasiv Mandvi kind of took away from a character that was supposed to be a complete monster, but he did... Ok. He chose the wrong film and director to try and break into dramatic roles though. He was friends with Shamaylan. That's why he did it. That's why Indian-American actors fill up the Fire Nation.
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Nov 30, 2014 20:32
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I heard it was because Jesse McCartney was originally cast as Zuko, but once he learned about the racebending controversy he ducked out of the role. Then they hired Aasif Mandvi and Dev Patel, so they ended up making the Fire Nation Indian/Middle Eastern.
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Nov 30, 2014 23:09
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ShadowCatboy posted:I heard it was because Jesse McCartney was originally cast as Zuko, but once he learned about the racebending controversy he ducked out of the role. Then they hired Aasif Mandvi and Dev Patel, so they ended up making the Fire Nation Indian/Middle Eastern. Why is making a cast more diverse a controversy? There aren't enough Asian actors in Hollywood to begin with, just because he hired a few Indians doesn't make it a controversy.
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Nov 30, 2014 23:29
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Apparently it became a controversy because the casting ended up kinda accidentally being "Good White people vs. Bad Brown people". Really the majority of the cast should have been Asian and I don't think anyone would be bothered by this but the executives themselves because "conventional wisdom" holds that white people won't watch a movie where the main cast isn't white despite this never actually being demonstrated.
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Nov 30, 2014 23:44
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Ravane posted:Why is making a cast more diverse a controversy? There aren't enough Asian actors in Hollywood to begin with, just because he hired a few Indians doesn't make it a controversy. The controversy was the entire main cast being white, until Jesse McCartney was replaced with Dev Patel. Then the fire nation was decided to be Indian, and they brought in Inuit extras to play the Water Tribe background characters. Sokka and Katara mysteriously are still white depsite the rest of their tribe, leading to a new controversy of all the heroes being white while the villains and background characters are diverse.
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Nov 30, 2014 23:54
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Ravane posted:Why is making a cast more diverse a controversy? There aren't enough Asian actors in Hollywood to begin with, just because he hired a few Indians doesn't make it a controversy. "Diversity" for its own sake isn't necessarily a good quality, especially if it involves a franchise that has a very specific cultural foundation to it. Some of the best fantasy worlds were designed because they have depth, not diversity. Lord of the Rings, for example, was thoroughly detailed from Northern European cultures and mythologies, specifically pastoral British life and Scandanavian culture/language/history. If Peter Jackson hired a bunch of black, Indian, and East Asian dudes to play elves and dwarves it would've been awkward and nonsensical. Harry Potter was designed centrally around British occultism and mythology. Even if you kept the same story elements, stripping the story from Britain and placing it in, say, New York, would've fundamentally changed the tone and flavor of the films. There's a reason why JK Rowling insisted on an all-British cast, after all. Similarly, Avatar: The Last Airbender was a series based centrally on Chinese culture and history, with elements drawn in from Inuit, Tibetan, Korean, Japanese, and Southeast Asian cultures. There are tons of authentic historical elements in there, many of which I've detailed here. The initial controversy was basically a clusterfuck of Shyamalan doing what he does and loving up a movie with unnecessary and absurd decisions, along with Paramount not quite "getting it" on so many levels: 1. Instead of using East Asian or Native American actors to accurately portray the cultures in question, the initial casting decisions included Jackson Rathbone, Nicola Peltz, Noah Ringer, and Jesse McCartney. All of them pretty pasty white, though Noah Ringer partly identifies as Native American. This was the first big controversy, in that the casting decision was totally whitewashed. 2. It was later learned that the casting calls for the lead characters stated they were looking for actors of "Caucasian or any other ethnicity," thereby implying that for the leads caucasian actors took primacy. 3. For the extras/background characters however, the casting call was oddly specific: "Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean & Latino ethnic groups." Basically implied that for the characters that would be seen and not heard, they wanted minorities. So for lead roles, white guys. For extras, suddenly we want specific minorities. 4. Another really stupid detail in the casting call: “We want you to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire. If you’re Korean, wear a kimono. If you’re from Belgium, wear lederhosen.” Kimonos aren't Korean, they're Japanese. Lederhosen aren't Belgian, they're German. 5. There was also some controversy regarding how all the "bad guys" were dark-skinned, but I don't care about this part of the controversy nearly as much. It just goes downhill from there. It was an ignorant and insulting exercise to all the minority cultures involved. ShadowCatboy fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Dec 1, 2014 |
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Dec 1, 2014 00:00
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Knowing all the missteps of the movie just makes me so angry.
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Dec 1, 2014 00:10
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But really how different is a hanbok from a kimono?
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Dec 1, 2014 01:20
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I dunno, all Fire Nation people look the same to me.
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Dec 1, 2014 01:34
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VanSandman posted:Counterpoint: Shyamalan is a hack who made one good movie, one ok movie, and a bunch of stinkers. I think this is probably the most compelling argument. The last 4 movies he's directed are all under 25% on rottentomatoes. Regardless of what you think of that site as a metric overall, that's undeniably dire. The only line of argument I'll buy that M. Night wasn't majorly at fault is that like a criminally insane person he can't help how bad of a director he's become, and whoever hired him is really to blame for trusting him.
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Dec 1, 2014 07:38
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Where the hell do the Indian dudes in this series come from, anyway? None of the four nations seen in the show seem to consist of their ethnicity.
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Dec 1, 2014 17:41
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The ethnicity that strikes me as missing in the Avatar world are Turks/Mongols/steppe tribes. Meanwhile Eskimos aren't really a part of the Chinese world, though I guess the steppe peoples seamlessly transition into Eskimos if you go far enough north. There's no Silk Road analogue, and no Mongol tribes threatening to invade constantly, which could make for a good story I guess
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Dec 1, 2014 18:21
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icantfindaname posted:The ethnicity that strikes me as missing in the Avatar world are Turks/Mongols/steppe tribes. Meanwhile Eskimos aren't really a part of the Chinese world, though I guess the steppe peoples seamlessly transition into Eskimos if you go far enough north. There's no Silk Road analogue, and no Mongol tribes threatening to invade constantly, which could make for a good story I guess Everything lived in peace and harmony. Until the Energy Nation attacked.
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Dec 1, 2014 18:46
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The Sharmat posted:Where the hell do the Indian dudes in this series come from, anyway? None of the four nations seen in the show seem to consist of their ethnicity. They're part of the Earth Kingdom, which is generally very ethnically diverse since it covers most of the world's habitable surface.
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Dec 1, 2014 18:52
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Killer robot posted:They're part of the Earth Kingdom, which is generally very ethnically diverse since it covers most of the world's habitable surface. Would you say that Wu looks he could have Indian ancestry?
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Dec 1, 2014 19:05
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The Sharmat posted:Where the hell do the Indian dudes in this series come from, anyway? None of the four nations seen in the show seem to consist of their ethnicity. The only character in the whole series I even remember seeming Indian was Guru Pathik.
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Dec 1, 2014 19:05
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Namarrgon posted:Everything lived in peace and harmony. Until the Energy Nation attacked. I think you'll find the classical element still missing from Avatar is actually Phlogiston.
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Dec 1, 2014 19:05
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The Sharmat posted:None of the four nations seen in the show seem to consist of their ethnicity. None of the four nations consist of swamp hillbillies, either.
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Dec 1, 2014 19:05
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Everything changed when the Cajun Nation attacked
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Dec 1, 2014 19:49
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The Sharmat posted:I think you'll find the classical element still missing from Avatar is actually It's Suyin's own fault for not going Metal Mongol on everyone else. Luckily Toph is about to go do it for her. 
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Dec 1, 2014 20:37
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I'm probably wrong but I'm not positive we should expect a whole lot from Toph next episode. I mean her attitude now mostly seems to be "gently caress the world, nothing ever changes anyway". On the other hand they're in her backyard. So I dunno. Also Metal is not in the classical Greek element scheme which Avatar is using despite being generally Asia themed.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:26
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Combed Thunderclap posted:It's Suyin's own fault for not going Metal Mongol on everyone else. Given how Batar & Kuvira are currently somewhere else (and will probably stick around to attack Republic City), I kinda hope it's not just a minion mop up. I mean, hey, Opal is there, expert metalbender Lin is there - what better time than this for the return of the twinblade bandit who will metalbend multiple twinblades for maximum kicking rad magical kungfu? I mean, com'on. They can't let us hanging like that. ...right?
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Dec 1, 2014 22:49
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icantfindaname posted:The ethnicity that strikes me as missing in the Avatar world are Turks/Mongols/steppe tribes. Meanwhile Eskimos aren't really a part of the Chinese world, though I guess the steppe peoples seamlessly transition into Eskimos if you go far enough north. There's no Silk Road analogue, and no Mongol tribes threatening to invade constantly, which could make for a good story I guess How about those raiders that seem to attack the NWT every so often? They aren't Water Tribe and don't really appear to be from any other nation. Don't really remember what they look like though.
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Dec 1, 2014 23:53
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icantfindaname posted:The ethnicity that strikes me as missing in the Avatar world are Turks/Mongols/steppe tribes. Meanwhile Eskimos aren't really a part of the Chinese world, though I guess the steppe peoples seamlessly transition into Eskimos if you go far enough north. There's no Silk Road analogue, and no Mongol tribes threatening to invade constantly, which could make for a good story I guess Huh? I thought the Fire Nation was Turks/Mongols/steppe tribes. Think about it: they are an aggressive, warmongering culture, and at one point their attacks become so annoying that the Chinese build a huge wall. And we have certainly seen walls like that in the Earth kingdom. Ba Sing Se especially has a gigantic wall around it.  There's also one of the recent episodes where they are trying to escape the Earth kingdom and end up in a fight with Earth Kingdom soldiers right outside the border wall. 
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Dec 2, 2014 01:04
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You can't have Steppe tribes without horses. It just isn't done. That's so integral to the entire culture that once that's gone you're not even really emulating them anymore.
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Dec 2, 2014 01:23
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The Sharmat posted:You can't have Steppe tribes without horses. It just isn't done. That's so integral to the entire culture that once that's gone you're not even really emulating them anymore. They don't need horses, they have these things: 
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Dec 2, 2014 01:59
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They sure don't use those things a lot. Not enough to be Mongol analogues only with lizards instead of horses.
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Dec 2, 2014 02:13
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enraged_camel posted:Huh? I thought the Fire Nation was Turks/Mongols/steppe tribes. Think about it: they are an aggressive, warmongering culture, and at one point their attacks become so annoying that the Chinese build a huge wall. And we have certainly seen walls like that in the Earth kingdom. Ba Sing Se especially has a gigantic wall around it. What? The Fire Nation has more of a Qin/Han Chinese style than anything else, though Japanese and Southeast Asian elements were also included. The Qin dynasty centered around a tyrannical king conquering the local nations in the quest to unify the lands under his banner to form the Chinese Empire. The Han dynasty was considered a golden age and a defining feature of Chinese culture. It was also the longest dynasty by far, and consolidated many of the defining features of early China, similar to the golden age that Fire Lord Sozin oversaw. The Han also associated themselves with the element of Fire, and chose red as their predominant color. EDIT: Also, the Fire Nation assumed they had a superior culture, which is more Chinese than anything. Barbarian tribes of the steppes are essentially the opposite of this, since they were basically the grubby uncouth peoples that weren't considered a part of "real civilization." ShadowCatboy fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 02:13
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