All posts by Milesprower77

<div class="quote"><i>Love Robin wrote:
We need to stop coddling our children. <p>Regardless of if you like the idea of lesbians and gays, your children should be taught to *recognize* them. Just like they should be taught how to safely cross the street; even though at the corner/light is The Safest, not teaching how to navigate a jay walk is just asking them to be hit by a car. </p><p>So, love them (preferably), hate them (preferably not), learn to recognize them. </p><p>After all, *they* are recognizing themselves at earlier and earlier ages. So if your child does not learn to spot them on TV, they might get blindsided in their classrooms. </p> </i></div>
<p>Exactly. I grew up in a very traditional Christian home, and didn't have the concept of homosexuality really exposed to me in any sort of amount until I got into high school. I grew up with the word "gay" being an insult, and it took me a really long time to even get comfortable to the idea of hanging out with a homosexual guy. I've had discussions with other Christians who think that all aspects of homosexuality should be censored from their children's eyes, even things as innocent as holding hands or simply saying it exists. </p><p>Children shouldn't have to be uncomfortable when they have to face the reality that people can be homosexual, because sooner or later they <i>will</i> face it. Growing up with any mention of homosexual being followed by "evil/sinful" and the subject being changed certainly didn't help. </p><p>As for this show, all I can say now is my initial prediction was incorrect. Well, mostly. Makorra was <i>technically</i> the initial endgame relationship, but they obviously changed that. I'm fine with this, I certainly prefer them to gently romantically interact than the alternative, them both pining after the same guy. Luckily poor Mako got some really solid development without having to have a girl on his arm, and the show ended fantastically. I always advocated for less romantic bullcrap and more character and plot development, and this certainly hasn't hindered it nearly as much as the hetero romance has in seasons one and two.  </p>

<p>(SPOILER WARNING if you have yet to see episode 10) </p><p>Personally I feel the whole reconnection Lin's having with her family, first with Suyin and Opal and then with Toph and the purposefully underwhelming reveal of Lin's father in the most recent episode (probably poking fun at how much obsession there was over it in the fanbase), is far better than her getting together with some guy. Despite what some fanbases may tell you, not every character has to be paired with another to consider an ending happy, and I think Lin is getting plenty of great development through her mending the issues she has with her sister and mother.  </p>

<p>I'm... not entirely sure the topic of this discussion would really be considered appropriate by the WIkia standards.  </p>

<p>I don't know, I think that everying relating to Book 1 is better left in the past.  </p>

<p>Arranged marriage? Arranged marriages are almost always set up by parents (and that's not exactly possible in Zuko's case) and often to combine family estates for more profit. Looking at Zuko's character, I strongly doubt he would ever consider marrying someone he didn't have strong feelings for, nor would he ever force anyone to marry him who didn't like him in return like his father did.  </p><p>All that Zuko + Suki teasing in the comics felt needless and stupid. Why do they always feel the need to stir up more pointless romantic drama? If it doesn't add anything to the characters or plot, leave it out. Pairing anyone anyone with Zuko besides Mai or with Sokka besides Suki will pretty much just lead to more romantic speculation and more random shipping pairs.  </p>

<p>I suppose I came off a bit harsh. It's just that most non-Avatar threads I've seen, whether in the old article comments or the forums, almost always get deleted. You do kind of "control" the elements, dragging them and dropping them in a giant sphere shape in order to make new land, cause certain things to happen, and so on and so forth. Certainly not bending. It's more or less a game designer's land editor turned into a game. Almost like a smoother and more linear version of terraforming from Spore, if that example helps. I've heard mixed reviews; your best bet would be to check out gameplay clips on Youtube and read some critic opinions.  </p>

<p>This isn't an off-topic discussion board. It has to at least relate to something within the Avatar Universe. This post would be better on the Steam community forums for the game, not the Avatar Wiki General Discussion board. </p>

<p>A nice theory I suppose, but without any sort of proof or decent logic behind it, that's all it is. You can't just want something to happen and act like it's true when it's blatantly wrong. </p>

<p>Okay, I managed to get the arguments of "playing with their feelings" and "taking advantage of them" out of that. I recommend adding a bit more structure to your sentences so they would make sense if spoken aloud, because it's hard to get your point across otherwise.  </p><p>Mako never played with anyone's feelings. He got in a relationship with Asami and developed feelings for Korra. Korra went out and kissed him, when she knew he was already in a relationship. His feelings for her are what made him hesitate and freeze. He was a bit of an insensitive jerk in the latter episodes of the first book, there is no decent evidence that ever qualifies him as cheating or intentionally playing with anybody's emotions. If you still refuse to accept that Mako was never maliciously taking advantage of anybody, I <i>can</i> scrutinize every aspect of book 2 that Mako haters love to bring up.  </p>

<p>Not everything has to be foreshadowed. You are aware that when season 1 was in production, they weren't even thinking of the production of seasons 2 and 3? They weren't going to ever make them had Avatar not been so popular in the first place. Also, why does anything really <i>need</i> foreshadowing? I know it helps in some cases, but the purpose of the series finale was to put Aang at a crossroads; he would either save the world by killing Ozai, going against everything he has ever known, or refuse to kill him, allowing this ruthless genocidal maniac to remain in power and take over the world. Energybending was supposed to be something of a savior or third path to take that came out of the utter hopelessness of Aang's situation. While it may have been somewhat of a large <i>Deus Ex</i>, I certainly enjoyed it, and it didn't mean that all of Aang's problems were solved, unlike in Korra's case.  </p><p>Also, do you have to bring your intense dislike of Katara into everything you say? We understand that you're no fan of hers, but you could at the very least be respectful of other people and not slap insults on her simply to insult her. Your only support for your opinion is a bunch of close-minded arguments that twist evidence to make Katara look bad as possible, while completely ignoring her intentions or all of the good things she's done. Once again, I'm not asking you to like her whatsoever. Just have some sort of backing for your claims that isn't so disrespectful and groundless. If you keep hating on her, people will strike back eventually. </p>

<p>I'm not in support of her being idolized either, but that doesn't constitute this level of close-mindedness and ruthless mudslinging. </p>

<p>John's got the right idea. My prolbem still is simply that Bryke associates order with the spirit of light and peace, and chaos with the spirit of darkness and imbalance. That's not exactly a correct interpretation of Eastern culture: the yin/yang is meant to represent to opposing forces that if either one were to prevail, imbalance would be achived. Complete order or complete chaos could be good or bad: if the ruler was all powerful and all benevolent, then the complete order would be good. If every person in the complete chaos was selfless, respected one another, and settled disputes peacefully, complete chaos would be good.  As James Madison himself says, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls of government would be necessary." While that is talking about the necessary need for checks on government, it's saying that if the ruler or the people were pure good, either end of the chaos/order spectrum would be fine.  </p><p>I would have preferred them showing a battle between the spirits of complete order and complete chaos and the Avatar (and the Avatar Spirit as a third party, a neutral force) having to mediate the fight, or restore balance if one or the other is gaining too much traction. Good and evil would have been fine, just have it show that neither should be all-consumingly powerful. I wouldn't have minded if the Avatar spirit was one of balance, but having balance be synonymous with good and light and the other with chaos and darkness completely throws away the concept of yin/yang. Look at the koi fish, Tui and La. They represented two totally different things, yet they needed and depended on each other; both being fully functional was necessary for waterbending to even exist. lf you're going to focus on the two opposing forces balancing each other out, please don't westernize it by making it completely black and white.  </p>

<p>I honestly can't tell if you're just trolling or seriously feel this way about her.  </p><p>Look, taking Katara's worst moments and rewording them to make them sound as terrible as possible while ignoring the motive and results of them is kind of a close-minded argument. You also seem to ignore how crucial she was to helping Aang along the journey and in stopping the Fire Nation's assult on the rest of the world. </p><p>If you are really stating your honest opinion, at least try and be a bit more respectful and civil about it. We don't want to start inflammatory arguments. </p>

<p>Not the way they painted Vaatu. But again, if Bryke didn't feel the need to combine concepts that aren't parallel in reality, like chaos and evil, Vaatu would have just as much reason and backing as a being representing pure order.  </p>

<p>I see what you're saying, but they've blurred the lines of the moral compass. Raava embodies peace and light, but they aren't synonymous. You can have a dark or an evil peace; take any dictatorship. Bad peaces lead to bloodshed and revolution, like in Russia's case, or France's. Raava, if it followed the lines of how spirits worked, should be all-consuming; it should have a desire to spread as much order, light, and peace as possible, under any means possible. Jyggalag of the Elder Scrolls games is a good example of what I'd like Raava to be. But when Raava fuses with the Avatar, it makes no moves towards its end of the spectrum; it is perfectly happy remaining at a neutral balance rather than overtaking everything in light. </p><p>If no spirit is inherently evil, only self-serving, then why should the spirit of light itself bow to the whim of balance, forsaking the potential to see its embodiment carried out in full? It's annoying how they gave one spirit all the good qualities, being what we associate as good ( light and peace) and giving it restraint to balance, while giving one that we commonly see as bad all the bad qualities and making it all-consuming. Good and bad being relative is one of the biggest staples of Eastern philosophy, so why should Bryke paint us a picture that only confirms what a majority of the wastern world already believes, that chaos is always bad and that peace, light, and balance are one and the same?  </p><p>Overall, the show had good qualities, and had some aspects that were true to Eastern philosophy. But this order=good/chaos=bad mentality shouldn't be reinforced, especially in a show about Eastern culture. </p>

<p>It is sort of annoying how the writers seem to be falling into the trope of pushing order and peace to the good side and chaos and war to the evil side. While chaos and war in their purest form aren't good in the slightest, order isn't exactly all peachy itself. Read a bit of 1984, or Brave New World; you'll see just how scary complete and total order over mankind can be. Ozai wasn't an agent of chaos; he was one of order. He wanted to "unify" the nations by making them all Fire Nation, in which he would rule every aspect of them. Complete order, which would result in complete peace, minus rebellions here and there. The balance Aang was fighting for was a balance between the nations, making sure complete order was never achived.  </p><p>Republic City itself is born out of a mixture of chaos and order. Mixing the cultures of all of the nations is sure to be chaotic, but it wasn't anarchy. It had structure and order in the form of a government and laws, but didn't control every aspect of their lives.  </p><p>I would have liked to have seen something along the lines of Korra mediating the spiritual forces of order and chaos, both of them being dangerous, power-hungry, self-righteous beings. The Avatar Spirit should be the embodiment of balance, not the spirit of light and peace. This could have been the perfect oppertunity to plainly put forward the yin-yang balance philosophy that was all throughout the first series, but they went and completely stereotyped the concepts that have already been skewed repeatedly in the Western world. </p>

<p>Maybe Korra and Unalaq shooting beams of energy at each other was part of the original energybending. It certainly has to be more than just what happened between Aang and Ozai in the first show's finale.  </p>

Maybe that they're both simply generic villains?

<p>1 and 2 would be interesting, but I honestly would hope for Bolin to learn a more unexplored bending style, like Sandbending. Also, let's not stretch things too far by assuming Zuko and Toph will be together. Remember, Zuko has had a child who is the current Fire Lord. We can't exactly do the whole drama/child born out of wedlock stuff; this is a kids show. </p><p>There isn't much point for 6, I'm pretty sure every sane person would agree with 7, 8 seems even more pointless, and as for 9-10, I'm really hoping for a strong non-bending villain. Amon was exactly what I wanted, until he turned out to be a cliche hypocrite. We've seen non-benders with abilities easily outmatching benders, in the case of Mai, Ty Lee, and the engineer guy from the Northern Air Temple. </p><p>The rest of these point seem pretty miniscule in importance. Overall, I just want less overall pointless drama (I'm looking at YOU, love triangle), more focus on developing the characters (they got Mako and Korra down pretty good, now let's see if we can make Bolin more than a one dimensional comic relief), and hopefully an interesting, cohesive plot. Some new locations would be nice, but bringing back a ton of old characters would be pointless draws at nostalgia. Iroh in the spirit world had a purpose, but let's not just go crazy by bringing back Zhao or anyone else.  </p>

<p>Completely agree with Eccentric. To put it in your own terms, Juniper, you have to agree that Mako has been acting significantly less "douche"-like in the current book. Maybe still a bit thick, but not very selfish or insensitive.  </p><p>As for the whole Mako kiss is he cheating or not thing... that entire moment has a lot of variables in it. Mako is a confused, socially unadept, hormone-filled teenager and is surprised-kissed by the girl he has strong feelings for in a moment already heavy with romantic tension. That's a whole lot stacked against the poor guy. I never really disliked him, and I certainly never fully blamed him for anything that happened. I just pity him that he fell into Bryke's horribly inept ability at writing a likable portrayal of teen romance. Accurate, maybe. Interesting? No. </p><p>I think that's one thing that we can, for the most part, agree on. The romance throughout the series has been mostly, if not entirely, useless to any real character development or plot advancement and was almost entirely solely there for the sake of romance. </p>