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laoih · 4 days
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WOO DO-HWAN in Bloodhounds – Episode 8
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laoih · 5 days
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There is a special flavor of masochism in reading a book or watching a movie/series where the tragic ending of a character is already a foregone conclusion because it's a known story. Like when it's a story based on history or a legend.
And I know that it's technically not that different than a character in a story with a tragic ending that you have already read or watched, but I feel like in such stories it feels more like the author or script writer still could have done something about it. When it comes to historical characters or legends, it feels to me like they are destined to meet their tragic ending and nothing can saved them from it, no matter how sympathetic an author or scriptwriter would be.
Looking at you, Arthur Pendragon. 👀 Looking at you, Giuliano de’ Medici. 👀 Looking at you, Hagen von Tronje. 👀
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laoih · 8 days
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For the live action I actually prefer it that way. Dante Basco's numerous versions of "honour" are iconic, and having Dallas try to imitate that exact word would have felt similar to waiting for the Cabbage Merchant to finally say "my cabbages". It almost becomes something like a catchphrase in the original, to the point that both Azula and the Ember Island Players use it to imitate and mock Zuko. In the live action it easily could have felt really corny to add it.
So I like that instead they showed that no matter where Zuko is, he still values integrity and that kind of internal honour that has to come from inside and can't be granted from the outside. It fits with how they set up Zuko's banishment and his growing despair in relation to everything it encompasses – which is more than just his honour in the eyes of his father and his people, but which might get overlooked when mainly that one word is repeated over and over again.
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– from episode 1
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– from episode 3
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– from episode 5
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– from episode 6
"Prince Zuko, I know you have always believed there is a right and a wrong way of doing things. It is a mark of a great leader, but the rules are different out here."
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (2024)
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laoih · 14 days
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Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)
Another version of Bumi & why I like him
Let me preface this with the disclaimer that I'm fully aware that Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender has its flaws. But for me personally, the things it does well are fare more interesting, and so I would like to explain why I like how they changed Bumi as a character within the story of the live action adaptation. I'm bad at keeping it short, so this turned out a rather long post – my apologies. Also: potential trigger warning for mentions of suicidal ideation.
The starting point: Bumi in the cartoon
Cartoon-Bumi in the original series is a character who is very much rooted in the original medium. He lends himself well to comedy, and his challenges for Aang teach Aang and the young audience about opening onself to new possibilities, to think outside the box, to approach obstacles from new perspectives. It's good advice, and Aang takes it to heart and implements it at times later on. The reunion between Aang and Bumi is also sweet, and all in all it's an enjoyable episode.
Aang's position from the live action angle
Now, if the same plot is moved to the live action series (LA), the tone of this storyline is automatically changed as well because we are now looking at it through the lense of the LA. The cartoon is aimed at a young audience and has a big focus on comedy, so we can easily ignore some aspects of the situation that now come more into focus in the adaptation:
Aang just recently has learned that all of his people, the Air Nomads, have been wiped out and he is the last airbender.
Aang also has leaned that as the Avatar it is his duty to restore balance to the world and to defeat the Firelord.
A 100 years old man is challenging a traumatized kid to solve some tasks while his friends are being threatend by death-by-growing-crystal.
As I said – in the cartoon it's fine to think of riding Koi fish as the first order of business, and it's fine to threaten the kids with death because nobody dies anyway. It's fine for the cartoon not to dwell on these things. But the live action series explicilty wants to pay attention to some of these aspects, propbably especially because the cartoon could only address them in very small doses. I'm not saying that the live action always does it well, but the intention is there and it's different to the cartoon.
Aang's trauma and Bumi's response
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In the live action, Aang cannot easily put his loss or his responsibilities aside. He is mourning Gyatso and the Airbenders in basically every episode, he is shocked by what he sees of the war in Omashu, and the need to go to the Northern Water Tribe is much more urgent because of Kyoshi's warning.
Would or should Bumi as Aang's friend as he is in the cartoon really pretend he does not know Aang in the LA, and would or should he trick him into believing his friends are in danger of dying? Even if he thinks Aang needs to learn a lesson, is that the right time and the right way to do it? Coming from the perspective of the LA, to me it seems needlessly cruel to threaten Katara and Sokka with death and Aang with the possibility that his friends might die, all while Aang is still dealing with the loss of his people and the fact that he somehow has to save the Northern Water Tribe. I think Bumi would no seem like a nice person or a good friend even if he was copied 1:1 from the cartoon. To me, in this new context it wouldn't make much sense to treat Aang in such a way, just because he thinks that Aang needs to learn a lesson or because it's fun to mess with people.
Fitting Bumi in the new context
Bumi in the cartoon is the episode's obstacle that Aang needs to overcome. If Bumi is to stay an obstacle in the live action, he now needs to have a different reason or motivation to become such an obstacle. A cartoon Bumi who is neither bitter nor angry but rather wants to help and is happy to see Aang can no longer realistically be that obstacle. Rather, I would expect that a wise old man of a 100 years would be more open and supportive right from the start when he meets his young 12 year old friend who just learned that his whole family has been massacred.
So how and why would Bumi still be an obstacle? The writer's answer to that was: because he is no longer wise and friendly, but lethargic and bitter. Why is he bitter? Because he has lived through 100 years of war and had to make horrible choices that still haunt him, and each year the hope for the war and for the suffering to end became smaller and smaller. The Avatar may have been the representation of that hope when the war started – but 100 years later he has become the representation of all the times that Bumi was hopeful but eventually disappointed.
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His opposition to Aang in the episode includes three main aspects:
I. Bitterness towards Aang and the Avatar: Bumi blames the Avatar for being absent because the Avatar should have been there to help and wasn't. This isn't a rational reaction though, it's born out of the loss and the bitterness in Bumi's life. It's also personal for him, because Aang was Bumi's friend, and as the Avatar could have helped but didn't. On top of that Bumi resents Aang's disbelief when it comes to Bumi's capacity to care – they are separated by 100 years of lived experience that Aang completely missed and Bumi had to endure. Of course in this case Bumi also ignores the loss that Aang recently (from his perception) has suffered.
→ With this the writers set up a character who is emotionally no longer able to support Aang or take Aang's own situation and problems into consideration. He is mentallypositioned to be an obstacle to Aang, to be inconsiderate, ruthless and actually dangerous.
II. A lesson to learn: Bumi intends to teach Aang a lesson to make him understand why he is the way he is now. He cannot speedrun the last 100 years for Aang, but can give him and example of what his own experience has been in the past and what forced him to stop caring: he shows him what it's been like in the past when you are forced to make impossible choices, and what – in Bumi's mind – awaits Aang in the future.
→ This provides a motivation for Bumi to fight against Aang in all seriousness. Bumi is not playing games, because this has been the harsh reality for him. It rises the dramaturgical stakes of the fight.
III. Losing the will to live: Bumi is tired after 100 years, and that becomes very apparent in the fight. It is a part of a larger theme in the LA that explores what war does to people. In Bumi's case it has made him numb because he wouldn't have been able to deal with the horrors of war otherwise all this time. That is why he does not move a hand when he is about to be crushed – it seems to be a relief, and if it can teach Aang the intended lesson: all the better.
→ With Aang already knowing who Bumi is, this rises the emotional stake of the fight. Aang no longer is fighting an unknown weird old man, he is fighting someone who he believes to be a friend, and even worse: his friend appears to be suicidal. Having to fight and protect Bumi at the same time puts Aang under a huge amount of pressure both emotionally and when it comes to his bending skills.
The resolution: fighting hopelessness with connection
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Granted, the ending is not as well executed as it could be. But for me it still carries the intended idea – or at least the idea as I understood it:
War can isolate people. Bumi has been fighting a war, and surely has lost people close to him, or cannot see them because battle grounds have a habit of interrupting travel. We also know there have been spies in the city as well as rebells who are unhappy with Bumi's rule, so it's difficult to even trust the people who are supposed to fight on Bumi's side.
Aang is the counter to all of that: he was able travel to the city because he can fly and cross borders and distances more easily. He is also saved from the predicament that Bumi has put him in because his friends have independently found a way to reach them, and luckily in time.
When he pulls out the gift that Bumi had given him all these years ago, it's very symbolic: the sky bison whistle allows Aang to call upon his friend Appa. And Appa has already saved Aang in the first episode, and will do so again in the episode following Aang's and Bumi's fight.
It's a reminder that for people who have lost the will to live the best hope is the connection with other people. It may seem trivial to those who don't have to struggle in that way, but a reminder of a connection, of friendship, of support or even just shared struggle can be incredible powerful. That's why I believe it is believable for Bumi to give it one more try. After all, the return of the Avatar as a potential powerful ally is also a good motivation to fight back once more.
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laoih · 14 days
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#protect this cast at all cost.
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laoih · 16 days
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A nice shower and the day can begin…
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laoih · 16 days
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✋✋
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laoih · 17 days
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This Is a Remix, Not a Cover: One alteration or addition to cartoon canon per episode of NATLA
@pscentral​ anniversary event: take two 2.0 ↪adaptations
(ps the majority of my natla gifs get posted directly to @natlacentral)
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laoih · 18 days
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– from episode 1
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– from episode 3
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– from episode 5
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– from episode 6
"Prince Zuko, I know you have always believed there is a right and a wrong way of doing things. It is a mark of a great leader, but the rules are different out here."
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (2024)
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laoih · 19 days
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Not sure why you'd be negative in the tags of a post who likes the thing you're being negative about, but since I don't need that in my life I'll be unapologeticly blocking people who are unpolitely negative so that I don't have to see your tags in the future. 👀
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laoih · 20 days
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Gordon Cormier & Dallas Liu
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (2024)
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laoih · 20 days
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AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Season 1, 2024 —
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laoih · 21 days
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"I'll send some men to investigate." "No, I'll have to do it myself. As always."
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (2024)
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laoih · 21 days
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Zuko would like people to keep their hands away from his face, please and thank you.
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (2024)
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laoih · 22 days
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BIG NEWS: AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER will be returning for Seasons 2 & 3
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laoih · 23 days
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You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".
Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.
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laoih · 23 days
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You wanted to know about the power of the Avatar. I will show you what that power can do.
YVONNE CHAPMAN as AVATAR KYOSHI AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER | 1.02
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