BUMI:  The Monkey King

Marry Me meme by Poodle Doodle

Eat your heart out Zutara and Kataang fans

Bending101

Logo for my upcoming series about Bending in the world of Avatar: the Last Airbender.  In this series, I hope to talk about the basics of Bending.

Feel free to ask me questions.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BXc0hnrMas4?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque

Avatar: The Last Airbender Opening Remade With Computer Animation Original video on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/i/status/1289606077042978816

The Moon and Ocean Spirits are the source of all Waterbending, so Commander Zhao essentially unplugged the Waterbending WiFi and even took out their Internet satellite (i.e. The MOON).  

Fantasy vs Science Fiction: The modern dramatic duo

From Greece, to Shakespare, to modern day, Tragedy and Comedy have been staples of storytelling.  The two were even played back to back to help contrast each other.  These two genres also play an important role in the human psyche, which are reincarnated today as Fantasy and Science Fiction.  

There’s an old saying that goes:  

“Comedy makes you feel while Tragedy makes you think.”

Comedy focuses on emotion and entertainment.  Everyone enjoys having a good laugh and Comedy is all about having a good time.  Comedy seeks to create emotional relief and catharsis through good humor.  

Tragedy on the other hand focuses on the mind.  Typically, the audience already knows everything will end badly, so the story focuses on why everything went wrong.  

What makes it a Tragedy is that the characters brought it upon themselves.  This wasn’t some inescapable disaster; the ending was entirely preventable.  For example, if Hamlet and Othello switched places, neither play would have ended in tragedy.   

In our modern world of fiction, fantasy holds a similar role as comedy while science fiction holds a similar role to tragedy.

Fantasy is all about those feelings of Wonder and amazement. The world allows the reader to simply enjoy and experience “The Magic”, no math skill required.  Fantasy usually draws in a younger crowd because it connects to their emotions.  

Sci-fi on their hand wants to engage the mind of the reader. It wants to intrigue you with how things work. Sci-fi usually draws in an older crowd because it engages more of your critical reasoning skills.  

Unfortunately, being depressed is often confused with being intelligent in modern society.  Intellectual writing like tragedy is considered more refined, while comedy and fantasy are considered low tier garbage.  

This is also why all major English classics are about terrible things happening because somehow negativity is more important than feeling happy.

This prejudice is why things like animation, popular books and fantasy are looked down upon, while SciFi and dark literature are often praised.  

However, people aren't just walking brains, they are living creatures. And those creatures have emotional needs.

This is also why I’m not a huge fan of Sci-Fi; because it often confuses misery for good writing. 

Bending 101

Lesson 1:  What is Bending

Why does Sozin’s comet make firebending stronger?  

Updated:  Corrected some grammar mistakes from the original.  

Avatar:  Dragon Eggs and the Solstice

In Episode 313 (The Firebending Masters) Aang and Zuko enter a secret chamber and discover a ‘gem’ that “feels almost alive”.  This has led many fans to believe that the ‘gem’ is actually a dragon egg.  

Let’s assume this theory is correct.    

But if it’s a dragon egg, why would the Sun Warriors hid it here?

The obviously reason is for protection.  Dragons had been hunted almost to extinction, and a dragon egg would be rare and very precious thing.   

But I have another theory.  

The Sun Warriors hid the egg in a chamber that could only be opened during the solstice (most likely the summer solstice).  In the avatar world, the solstice is when the spirit world and the physical world are closest together and spiritual energy is at its peak.  The solstice is also when the Sun is at its strongest/ weakest (relative to the perspective on earth).  The Sun is the source of firebending.  And since Dragons are the original firebenders, it would make sense for dragons to have some connection to the Sun and the solstices.  

My theory is that secret chamber is specifically designed to hatch dragon eggs.  

On the solstice the chamber would open.  Then Sun Warriors would bath the egg in sunlight concentrated from the sunstone outside.  The concentrated sunlight during the solstice would fill the egg with spiritual energy and cause it to hatch.  (Just like how Roku used the solstice to talk to and empower Aang.)  

To me at least, it makes sense that the original firebenders would be born on the solstice.  

Avatar:  Only there for the group photo

One question I often see is:  

“Why are Katara and Zuko so underused/ weak in the “Legend of Korra’?”

The answer is quite simple:  Fan service.  

Bryke wanted the Aang Gang to be in LoK for fan service, but didn't want them to get in the way of other characters.   Therefore Toph, Zuko, and Katara are present but are almost useless.  

Which feels out-of-character for them, and frustrating for the fans when pre-established characters do nothing to help.  

Romantic Moments vs Romantic Intent: A Shipping problem

If you are a fan of animation/ anime, then you are probably familiar with the term “Shipping” or “Relation-shipping”.  This is basically when you think two characters should be a couple and you “ship” them.   As an Avatar: the Last Airbender fan, I am well aware of ships such as Zutara or Kataang.  However, it’s very common for shippers to ignore “Romantic Intent”.  Romantic Intent is when the characters are romantically interested in each other; this can be one sided or mutual.  Romantic moments might lead to romantic intent, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.  

Being in a romantic situation (taking someone to dinner, hanging out with them, or giving them gifts) does not mean their intentions are romantic.  They could just be a really good friend, or they might be a relative.  For example, my sister and I did a lot of things together in High School, so many people assumed that we were dating.  

Why I bring this up is because many shippers ship characters purely because “they look cute together”, or “they have so much in common”, or “I would love to see these two become a couple.”  However, in their zeal shippers often forget that these characters might have their own desire and aspirations.  These aren’t dolls to make do what ever you like.   

Second, there’s often a huge amount of entitlement that comes with shipping, which I think is kinda funny.  Whether Jill ends up with Bobby or Max, isn’t your decision to make.  Stories are fun, and speculation is fun, but we the readers are really only outsiders looking into someone else’s story.  

And even though these are just fictional characters, we can’t force someone to fall in love with someone else.