Neo Bahamut

Thanks, but I actually watched the first season of Attack on Titan & didn't like it at all. Someone kept trying to get me to watch Twelve Kingdoms, so I think I might check that out but I actually haven't had much time to watch things lately. What's the selling point of Demon Slayer?

The first season doesn't answer a lot of questions and IMO the story is fantastic but it only starts getting meaty from season 2 onward. The whole (back)story and lore is quite compelling and way more complex than just "giant zombies eating people". You should give another go. Season 2 is a lot shorter. If that doesn't do it for you, then I suppose it's pointless to keep going. But as of now it toppled Death Note as my favorite anime.

Demon Slayer is more simplistic plot wise, but the animation is beautiful. Also there are some subversive elements to the conventional shonen tropes.

It's fine, the only thing I really took umbrage with was "you just don't like it because you hate Kuvira," & I think we resolved that.

Not really, I just strongly disagree on the whole "it doesn't really matter if this stuff is contrived" thing.

Yeah, looking back on what we talked about, I was kinda jumping to conclusions there. And perhaps a little too defensive with regards to the show's writing, because I freaking love this series.

After reflecting on my own thoughts, I think it's fair for you to want to see something based around the Fire Nation instead of the Earth Kingdom/Empire. Me on the other hand, I'm just happy to have another Korra comic trilogy regardless of the subject matter. Plus, regardless of any of our personal opinions on her, I do believe that the writers were genuinely trying to set Kuvira up to start redeeming herself at the end of book 4, and I kinda want to see how that plays out.

For the point about contrivances, I can understand your feelings somewhat. But I also don't mind seeing flawed characters who don't always make the best decisions, like Korra wanting to give Kuvira a chance to redeem herself regardless of whether she (Kuvira) was actually needed. Plus, I didn't think the decision to bring her along was entirely illogical; besides the earlier point about Korra's feelings, neither Kuvira nor the heroes knew why Guan hadn't surrendered. If it turned out he was still loyal to Kuvira and thought that she wanted to restore the Earth Empire, she may well have been able to talk him down.

And I know I said this before, but if I'm being honest, whatever contrivances they come up with to keep Kuvira in the plot, I don't think they'll be nearly as bad as the ones I saw in The Promise.

Edit: Or the ones I saw in Spirits.

As do I, which is why I really wanted them to do something else.

I suppose the biggest problem I have with this, & it's something I've seen already, is that many see it as a reason to excuse Kuvira. One comment I read said they're glad that Kuvira is a "good person now."

"Good person"? She tried to murder a dude in the exact same way she threatened Varrick near the start of Book 4. If Pinochet had stepped down & returned legitimate democracy to Chile, but he still threw his enemies out of helicopters, would that make him a "good person"?

The thing is I don't think they writers are going with the decision the characters would make, but the one that they as writers need for the plot to happen. For instance, Zuko betraying Iroh & his budding alliance with the Gaang in the Ba Sing Se catacombs was a bad decision, but Azula was dangling everything he spent years trying to achieve right in front of him, so of course it's the one he would make.

When it comes to Kuvira, well Asami just told us she can't stand to be in the same room as her even to see her downfall, so would she really agree to this just because "well it might help"? Or then there's Zhu Li, she knows first hand what Kuvira is capable of & now she's the President, so any fallout from this is going to cost her. Public perception alone would be a nightmare, god forbid if Kuvira happens to change her mind & escape.

There's just no way these people would agree to this plan so easily, if they were real. But the writers set out to do a Kuvira story, so they need them to agree to release her, so that's what has to happen.

I think it would be another issue entirely if it was better justified, like how Hiroshi was brought out of prison because they only had hours to stop the Colossus & needed another genius inventor. In that case, there was a high chance of failure if they didn't do it, & not many ways he could make the situation worse.

I think the biggest problem with The Promise is the disconnect between the points the writers were trying to make versus what the story actually communicates. For example, in some such interview they mentioned the reason why Aang agreed to kill Zuko if he ever went rogue is that "consent changes the question" as to whether it's ethical to kill somebody, & they wanted to explore this (with Aang & Zuko obviously realizing this promise was a mistake). That makes sense, but the problem is nobody says that at any point during the story, so it just looks like Aang is an amnesiac lunatic. I would say I wouldn't consider Ruins as bad as The Promise at least so far, but then again The Promise was one of if not the worst of the comics.

The issues I have with Spirits have more to do with the physical rules of the world, which is kind of a separate problem.

No, I certainly wouldn't say so.

I'd consider Kuvira a "good person" in the sense that, in the scene you mentioned, she acted the way she did to try and stop Guan destabilising the Earth Kingdom further and leading several of her former soldiers to their deaths or ruin, rather than because she just wanted a spirit superweapon. Plus, I know her a lot better than I ever could Pinochet. But at the same time, I'm not going to ignore or forget all the shit she's pulled. Is that reasonable?

I have to wonder if the whole crisis could have been solved by Wu just giving Korra permission to arrest Guan on his behalf, and then asking Zhu Li to send in the United Armed forces to deal with Guan's troops. I mean, do they really have enough military strength to fight a war with the United Republic and a fully-realized Avatar?

That said, I think the question of "what decisions would the characters make and not make" will ultimately come down largely to subjective personal opinion.

I never really though too much about that, I must admit. When I made the point about The Promise, I was thinking more about Zuko's general idiocy after his meeting with the Morishitas, and how it relates to the plot of Ruins. Namely, why didn't Zuko try and communicate with Aang and Kuei before publicly withdrawing his support for the Harmony Restoration Movement?

Unlike where they bought along Kuvira, I literally can't come up with any in-universe explanation as to why Zuko would act so foolishly, and it's pretty much the reason why the main conflict in the story happens. Well, besides Roku insisting that Aang kill Zuko for not wanting to split up multi-ethnicity families.

Yeah, though I was thinking more about Lin being an idiot and not having two competent detectives in place of Lu and Gang, so that Mako could have his moment in the spotlight. And the retroactive contrivance of Tenzin and Tonraq not explaining about the Red Lotus to Korra, which allowed Unalaq to manipulate her.

I picked him because people complain that Hitler is used too often. But the example was structured in a way that you don't really have to know about him. Hypothetically, he's stepping down as dictator & helping the rise of democracy where he once reigned, which is what Kuvira is doing.

My point was that if they do this by using their old methods, they're still doing at least some of the things their regimes were criticized for. That even if we happen to want the same things, the methods themselves are unethical.

I'd say that's a pretty good point. Guan is a war criminal, so he probably shouldn't be allowed to compete in an election anyway. I understand they don't want to be seen as interfering with democracy, but omelets, eggs, etc.

I think it depends on the example.

Same basic thing. They're trying to communicate that Zuko is acting irrationally between his paranoia & the pressures of the throne, but they're doing it very poorly.

Which I've argued against since people started complaining about it. Mako didn't look great at several points of that case, explaining why Lin would overlook him. We don't really know how Lu & Gang got their jobs, only that Lin got rid of them after seeing for herself how incompetent they were.

They never tell her jack, so that's pretty consistent.

I think I might reply to this later on. I'm feeling pretty tired at the moment.

Ended up taking far longer than I expected to get back to this.

Still, I think that context and motive can play a part in deciding these things. I mean, back in book 1, Korra twice tried to intimidate Tarrlok into releasing her friends and several dozen nonbenders who'd been imprisoned under what we'd consider racist laws. And in book 2, Korra twice threatens a judge with death for convicting her father on what she knows are false charges. Do both of those examples make Korra a "bad person"?

That said, I was using the term "good person" loosely earlier. To get back to your original point, I'm not going to try and excuse the concentration camps and all the other shit Kuvira's pulled, even if she does completely turn face. But I can perhaps buy that she genuinely wants to redeem herself; she's just doing a terrible job of it.

Was thinking more about how he'd refused to resign from an illegitimate, dictatorial regime after it was removed from power, in effect making himself a terrorist, and how he openly admitted to planning to restore said regime in Gaoling.

And I may be off the mark here, but I thought war crimes only applied to things done during wars? The situation in the Earth Kingdom never really felt like a civil war to me, just a total breakdown of law and order. And while there was Kuvira invading the United Republic without formally declaring war, that's probably one of the lesser evil things she's done.

Maybe some examples would have more universal consensus on the "most logical" course of action than others, but I still feel that at the end of the day, different people will have differing opinions.

For the examples you gave, I can definitely buy Asami being very reluctant to work with Kuvira, but I can also buy her choosing to have faith in Korra if her girlfriend genuinely believes bringing Kuvira along will work. As for Zhu Li, she always seemed less concerned about her reputation than Raiko was, and as for potential impeachment and other such dangers, she saw Wu and the rest of Team Avatar give Korra's idea their support, and seems to have faith in Korra herself (though obviously less than Asami does).

Yes, but only to a point. If the motive for say killing someone is to protect people, & the context indicates there isn't a better way, then that is not immoral. However, if the motive is just to achieve a desired political end, then it doesn't matter if I agree with that political end. If morality is to mean anything at all, it can't just be for people I like.

No, but not necessarily because none of those actions was immoral. The problem with Kuvira falling right back into her old ways is that it shows she's changed only in the respect that she doesn't want the Empire to exist anymore.

To analogize, imagine Kuvira gets pardoned (over my dead body) & recruited in the URN's equivalent of the CIA that they have for the sake of this thought experiment. She would be the type to engage in assassinations or torture, sometimes of her fellow citizens, for the sake of "preserving democracy."

Books 1 & 2 Korra is more like a cop who maybe shouldn't have that job because she's a little too willing to engage in police brutality, but would certainly blow the whistle on Agent Kuvira if she knew. Regardless of any questions posed by Agent Kuvira hypothetically becoming like Officer Korra, it hasn't happened yet.

Both are accurate.

It involved the country splitting into different factions that sometimes fought among each other, as Kuvira implies she's used her army to take provinces before Zaofu, so I'm not sure how it wouldn't be a civil war. Either way, they were still crimes against humanity.

If the people hadn't evacuated (something Kuvira was actively trying to prevent, since she sent her soldiers to capture the civilians) then many of them would've died when she started blasting that cannon throughout the city, so it's pretty up there.

People having opinions alone doesn't prove something is subjective. It's possible to hold the opinion that it isn't against Aang's character for him to kill without remorse, but it's clearly wrong. He even feels bad about people he's killed by accident, or because some other force was controlling him.

She can "have faith" & not go, or at least not stay in the same rooms. How did we get from "I can't be in the same room" to "I guess we'll work together," even begrudgingly? Asami says it's to protect Korra, but if she's so (rightly) convinced Kuvira is dangerous, isn't a better method to convince Korra not to bring her in the first place? That still wouldn't explain why she folded so easily on these issues that were allegedly so important to her.

She was also portrayed as good at her job, yet just sent along the very person who nearly destroyed the city without so much as offering additional security. It would actually be more plausible for Raiko to do that, because he was portrayed as an idiot.

Kuvira tried to talk Guan down, and then to convince his soldiers to stand down, and then to get him to just settle things with a duel between the two of them. It wasn't until all of that had failed that she started Vader-choking him. And as for context, he'd shown up with an army, and no-one knew that he was only there to hand in his gubernatorial papers. For all they knew, he and his troops were planning to cause serious trouble.

That said, I think it best if we drop the subject. I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on it entirely, and I feel as if I'm wasting way too much of my time and energy defending Kuvira personally.

I never really got the whole "feuding factions" vibe based on what I saw in the show. The only open resistance we see province leaders display against Kuvira is either refusing to join her at first (Governor of Yi), or trying to covertly assassinate her (Su and her sons). That doesn't really scream "civil war" to me, just "revolts, noncompliance and rebellion".

Edit: Just remembered the "numerous wars of aggression" line from Ruins of the Empire.

Yes, that opinion's wrong, but not all examples are going to be as clear-cut as that one.

When Asami said "I don't want to be in the same room as [Kuvira]", she had no idea that Kuvira would soon be around Korra 24/7. And she tried to convince Korra not to bring her along, but obviously that failed, so the only other option was to be around the two of them in case she needed to give Kuvira an electric jolt up the snatch.

Maybe she could have tried harder to sway Korra, but she also wouldn't want to make Korra's job harder. I mean, she told Korra not to get involved when she was being threatened by the mob, because she didn't want to have her girlfriend constantly having to protect her.

In fairness to Zhu Li, Kuvira's already going with the Avatar and her team. I think any other security would be redundant, especially when you take Asami's electrode belt into account. Case in point, as soon as Kuvira acted up and made clear she wasn't going to stand down, she was subdued within moments, and thrown into the porto-prison soon after.

Not to sound accusatory here, but I'm only arguing about this because you're on my message wall, asking me about it.

I think there are other, similar lines in the show, but yeah, that's the gist of why I say that.

Gotta start with an obvious example as a proof of concept.

It all comes down to diplomacy, which she's historically been very good at. Once Korra gave her reasons for wanting to bring Kuvira along, she could have suggested things within that framework, such as "we could get Kuvira on the phone or have her transferred via police airship" or "if you owe her for helping your dad, maybe it's best not to bring her back into that environment."

That's more to Asami's credit than Zhu Li's. Some redundancy is useful in security. You may not need 8 guards to prevent someone from escaping, but it's good if she manages to get past the first 4, say if they're busy on the main task.

I wasn't planning to get drawn into such a lengthy discussion on the subject. But I also thought it would be impolite of me to just disappear on you.

If it is, it's fair play, because I do it all the time.

Well, you know what they say; two wrongs don't make a right ;).

[Clears throat.] I suppose I could justify doing that if the other person was being an ass, but you've never come off as one. I mean, you despise homophobia/biphobia and support Korrasami.

Thanks. Anyway, I guess do whatever feels right, but from a practical standpoint online conversations generally start & end out of nowhere. It's the easiest way to make sure you've said your piece & ducked out when it's going on for too long.

Yeah, I think I'm going to bring this whole conversation to a close. I doubt we'll agree entirely on certain subjects being discussed.

I'm just gonna post here to say good on you for pointing out the bullshit in the "why such hate for Korra" thread. Some of what's being argued there are provable lies.

Thanks.

And yeah, from the comments I responded to, Saitama barely seems to know Korra, or to even have watched the show. Plus, I feel that blaming Korra for all the spirit-based problems in Republic City is the same as blaming Suyin for Kuvira's tyranny because she (Suyin) refused to form the Earth Empire.

It would be understandable if it was ignorance. Back when Turf Wars came out, I argued with him when he claimed the Air Nomads being pro-gay was a contradiction. He eventually acknowledged it was never said the Air Nomads mandated celibacy, but insisted it was still a contradiction because it was just "obvious" they were intended that way, & Mike & Bryan "didn't understand what they wrote." He's also previously insisted that discontinuing an argument against him is the same as admitting he's right.

To be fair, real-life Tibetan Buddhist monks were against homosexuality from what I've heard, so that might be what he was referring to. But yeah, Mike and Bryan were never going to completely copy-paste them into their fictional world. And besides, Air Nomad culture was always about freedom back in the AtLA days.

He hasn't yet replied to my second post, so I guess that means he thinks I'm right.

That is a thing he brought up, but I'm more referring to the "it's a contradiction if I say it is" nonsense.

Nah, it's just like the burden of evidence, it only works that way if it's against something he's saying.

You can certainly do so if you think you should. My personal decision was that I would only report him if he came back after Hunprincess's call for civility with another insult, & he didn't do that, so I'm not going to do it at this time.

Eh, I'll wait for something like that, too. It shouldn't take long, but for the last few posts, he's been backpedaling instead of trolling.

ETA:  Sorry, false alarm; it wasn't him doing what I said.

I didn't even see it, but okay.

...Estimated Time of Arrival?

Edited to add.  For some reason, I was under the impression that Rustsucker was at it again.

Oh, I didn't, I just realized a little while ago that I only remembered bits & pieces of Justice League, so I felt a rewatch was in order. That said, Young Justice is easily better.

Don't get me wrong, I'm remembering why I liked this show & developing new appreciation for it, but Young Justice just seems much more planned both in terms of story & action scenes. I didn't much care for the end of Young Justice, but that seems like a moot point now.

I agree with everything you said.

Neat. I do like how JLU gets into the whole "is an army of superpowered self-appointed guardians really a good thing?" topic, though. I remember Cadmus being my favorite arc of that show. About to re-enter the Totally Not Legion of Doom Arc, so we'll see if that still holds.

My only gripe with JLU is that everything was mostly serendipitous. The creators flat out admitted that they didn't plan things ahead and had no idea where they were going with that arc when they wrote the first 13 episodes.

The only behind the scenes word I encountered besides the Bat Embargo--which reminds me, no Bat Embargo is another point in Young Justice's favor--is that they planned Luthiac as early as the episode where Doomsday comes back. In any case, it doesn't really bother me. I think plans get overrated. There are plenty of writers who meticulously plan things & the result is still lackluster, maybe even worse than if they would try to be more spontaneous. Result is what matters.

The areas in which I have problems with planning in the plot are things like how Hawkwoman's apparent ability to outsmart Batman isn't shown before the Thanagarian Invasion, weak justifications for why certain characters can't just instantly beat the problem (it really bugs me that Amazo overheard how to beat Grundy but is still in deep space because they needed an excuse to write him out because he was too powerful), & I guess one from the Cadmus Arc is that Hamilton & Galatea just get completely dropped.

Agreed, and result was good, but if planned ahead it could have been better. Case in point, the dead-end and dropped plot lines you mentioned. Also, the Ultimen.

Quite possibly, but then again the Young Justice then-ending had a fair few loose ends & rushed points. This is just a guess, but I think they were discouraged from doing too much with the Ultimen, due to their similarity with those Super Friends characters.

I appreciate it, but I've got a bit too much on my plate already. I'm not sure how most people find editors, I think there's something on the fanon portal for it.

I didn't even have time to place a bet.

A week before he comes back to insult us some more, I mean.

He already came back.

Yeah...I just saw.  And, as I said: it has officially gone from mildly exasperating to flat-out creepy.

Yeah, I never know which person I criticize is going to turn out to be a landmine of obsessive hatred, & this one seems to have blown up a bit more forcefully than others.

This guy takes a strong stand against people lurking the board looking to attack things they disagree with, right? What's the over/under on him swatting Liespeaker for admitting exactly that?

But, you see: Truthdodger also thinks that the rest of us are a pack of rabid jackals out for the blood of anyone who doesn't like Korrasami.  Therefore, Ibby gives Fibteller a free pass for being on his side.

ETA:  Oh; and now, not only did I supposedly "go berserk" on Ibby, but I'm apparently "batshit crazy" for giving Blur123 the benefit of the doubt for knowing the difference between personal bias and an excuse. More about that here.

So am I just impatient, or does it seem like the noticeboard rarely gets looked at, kind of defeating the purpose of a noticeboard?

Oh, & I guess after all that concern trolling bullshit about how Korrasami "overshadows the rest of the show," Iron just straight up admitted he hates almost everything else too. Which, come to think of it, seems to happen a lot with this crowd.

Reminds me of certain person who hates LoK, but I'm not giving credit.

I never was under any impression that Ibby was at all sincere.

And on an only thematically related note: it appears that Kratosser and Shiturtle (if they're not sock-puppets of the same person) have both resurfaced to squall and martyrbate on dA about how they have been personally victimized by canon queer content.  And then, there was this fuckswamp of WTFery and disinformation.

Okay, but if you don't mention the name, I don't know why you're is it Lily Orchard?

Neither was I, but the way he puts absolutely no effort into the charade he wants me to play along with, is he Donald Trump?

Wonder how pissed he'd be if I commissioned a picture of him being "satirically" tortured in Hell?

Sounds like Lily Orchard to me.  She does completely flip her shit if anyone defends LoK beyond "well, I liked it."

If you commissioned something like that, I'm sure Kratosser would frame it as a "death threat" and use it as further martyrbation fodder.

Then I follow it up with the prequel, him getting "satirically" trampled by a pride parade.

I kind of wonder how many it'd take before his reaction went from amusing to disturbing?

I find disturbing amusing. The real limitation would be how much I'm willing to pay, which is effectively zero.

Yes.

Note how I eliminated the name.

What's this? Summary?

First, he was rambling about whether or not morality and religion are connected; it was so incoherent that I'm not entirely sure what his stance is, aside from that he concedes that there are moral atheists and immoral religious people and...thinks that using naughty words is tantamount to mugging someone, I guess?  There's something about Star Wars in there somewhere.

Then, he randomly says that "Korrasami sucks" and that the only foreshadowing of it was "Korra blushing one time from a compliment from Asami, ONE TIME."  He follows that up with a fairly gross misrepresentation of a multi-fandom scandal from a couple of years back (note that the person at the center of said scandal has made it clear that she's not comfortable with the narrative that he goes with regarding it).  And then, he says something about fandoms being "false idols," takes a swipe at current political dissent in the U.S., and awkwardly wraps it up.

In short: incoherence.

Yeah, but why blank out the name? Is she Lord Voldemort?

If I had to guess, I'd say it's the typical apologist position that "you can be good without god because god's laws are engraved on your heart as part of General Revelation."

General Revelation=Things that exist at all times which supposedly point to GAWD, like the supposed "laws of morality," or the beauty of sunsets.

Special Revelation=When people claim GAWD talked to them, unless they're the wrong religion.

And, apparently, toxic fanbases occur because people are worshipping false idols, not because of mob mentality, the internet anonymity factor, etc.

I did think the random dig on Korrasami was funny, considering she'd previously described people who make similar statements on Star Wars as "immature children."

I'm guessing Parker doesn't want Flower Applefarm or her apologists coming here to harass people.

The premise was more-or-less "any atheist/agnostic who's a good person is so because they're still following biblical values."  So...basically?

Who; the incoherent tartlet with the kaiju reference for a screen name?  According to his main page, he's a guy.  Also, I'm calling double standard on his part; it's all about what he likes vs. what he doesn't like, rather than taking things like rationale and motive into account.

Flower Whatnow?

I am quite familiar with that argument.

I thought you said he was a she, but apparently I imagined it.

The silly WoW fangirl/pegasister whose silly rant video we were snarking a while back, and of whom Parker was speaking even more evasively.  (And who, by the way, may have potentially been the "she" to whom I was referring in a previous post; sorry for the confusion.)  Rather than use her actual name, I called her "Flower Applefarm."

Honestly, I still have no idea who's Flower Applefarm but I have a guess. Yeah, I don't want people from here getting harassed again.

Just saw the next reply and I was right in my assumptions.

As far as I can tell, most of the harassing types around here are homegrown tumors that mutated at some point, usually Book 4's ending.

I can generally be counted on to make pop culture references in threads. I don't know why it wouldn't work, maybe you're having problems with the editor.

What I find amusing is that he thought he was proving his maturity by announcing that he was taking a shot of 99 Bananas.

Let's put it this way: I once tasted some liqueur called "Veev" which was supposed to be açaí-berry flavored.  It did not taste like açaí berries; it tasted like a mixture of simple syrup and acetone (or, rather, the way acetone smells; but you get my meaning). 

The difference between that and 99 Bananas is that someone dissolved a banana Laffy Taffy in the acetone before adding it to the syrup.  But it's painfully sweet and has a brightly-hued label, which would intrigue a teenager who was curious about alcohol.  (As for anyone legally old enough to drink: either they'd have to be an abject drunk with nothing else available, their sense of taste would have to be mostly dead, or it'd have to be their twenty-first birthday after having been a good kid all of their life.)

Man, you really hate that stuff...I thought he was literally going to drink a smoothie of 99 bananas.

Actually, it can't be any worse than this shit.

One of the ingredients is "black." Not black dye, not black licorice, just "black."

No, it's one of a line of 99-proof schnapps flavors.  They all taste like cheap candy and the scent of acetone.

As for that "black," I'm going to guess that it's squid ink, and they don't want to squick anyone out by admitting as much.  That, or it's fulvic mineral compound (which is what they put in that black drinking water that's not worth it).

Whatever it is, it clearly didn't help the taste.

I also speculated they might've just ground up black people, given how racist the bottle looks to me.

I think it's supposed to be a poppet (voodoo doll), in keeping with the name of the brew. 

I hope it's supposed to be a poppet.

It's a racist puppet.

Someone must have called them on it; it's been discontinued.

How long ago? 'Cause it seems like I drank it a few years ago.

It might've been discontinued due to how godawful it is, as it's getting 3 star ratings everywhere, & I don't know how it even managed that.

Someone totally tried to start an argument with me about how they're "bad writing" & the show is "shit overall" on the Bleach Subreddit. Fortunately one thing Reddit does right is having a block feature.

I mean, did something actually happen recently (as in, more recently than the latest Turf Wars or the figurine) to set them off?  Or is this just them, characteristically, feeling weirdly entitled to never be reminded that it's canon and just randomly airing their grievances on that count?

Dunno, maybe gearing up for Part 3 ahead of time, but either way, apparently another one popped up.

Can't wait to see where he resurfaces to rehash the same tired bullshit.

I'd like to hope that he'll get a clue.  I'm not going to bank on him getting a clue.

No shit....I mean I'm all for putting trolls in their place, but when a troll literally rehashes the same damn thing over and over and over.....I mean I suppose that's typical for trolls to an extent but Fanboy went overboard with it...

Originality is evil abusive self-righteous hypocrisy, or something.

Almost as bad as deliberately swearing, who would do that damn fuckin' shit?

Right. Let's not forget that originality is supposed to be "clingy" or annoyingly subservient or whatever Creepy Fanboy said....

What the fuck?  If someone hears you going off like you were raised in a shithouse, they might get the vapors or something.  So watch your fucking language, asshole.

(I keed, I keed.  But, seriously: the prudery of it all.)

He allegedly dropped those points, but his last message was some incel shit anyway.

Which of his posts wasn't some incel shit?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4Vp86NFaqsrFMKsrWpUprtnqebHCuJiDrS0d6DSRqbYQEehcVFw

Intro

This is gonna be a long comment, so I'm going to break it into sections. Of course, I certainly know that awkward feeling of not getting a response. It seems I read up to Chapter 4, I just couldn't think of anything to say about the others. First, since you're here, it seems as good a place as any to give my responses to your responses to my comments:

I've decided to start implementing them to see if they can give me any useful information about how many people are reading & where their interests lie. I did think about voting myself, under the rationale that if even 1 person has already voted, it makes others more likely to respond. But I don't really like that idea, I feel I shouldn't be pre-biasing the polls.

That wasn't really what I meant, though that too. What I meant was the general environment, details like the suit & the type of music, which make it feel as if you're in a certain place at a certain time. The zeitgeist, if you will.

That stuff said, well there are several things I like, but also a number of problems I have. I generally haven't been mentioning the problems, since it feels like "what's the point? The story's already done," but since you asked me what I think, I'll go into them in a bit.

Pros

Before that, the strong suit of the story is easily the characters. There are a lot of instances where I know "oh that's Kensi talking" or "that must be Bultina" before it's actually specified. Clearly, you have a strong grasp of their different personalities & motivations, & that comes out in the way you have them speak. And they're not just recognizable, but also likable.

I've also generally enjoyed the action scenes, the big ones I can think of being Hikar vs Kensi & Hikar vs Yurei. I can't undersell the brilliance of those scenes, they tell us so much about the characters without using words. Or at least what I got out of them is that Kensi is more tactical than Hikar, but also more easily distracted, while their bending is equivalent in power. And when Yurei fights Hikar, he shows cunning by cancelling out his airbending instead of trying to overpower him, while Hikar overexerts himself by trying to use more power than he's currently capable of. It seems to me this sets up character dynamics that could easily be explored through the rest of the arc.

Hikar's defeat also sets up his need to learn advanced techniques, which seems to be the theme of the story, & because we see him earn each subskill to beat an enemy he couldn't without it, it feels earned & thus gets around the problem that an Avatar with all the subskills could potentially seem overpowered. You also make great use of Hikar having multiple bending types, which allows for the writing of action that just can't be done with other characters.

Cons

The problems I have are mostly in grammar & diction. I saw in the comments that someone already mentioned using quotation marks instead of hyphens, which I agree with, but honestly I think that's a lot easier to adjust to than awkward phrasing. Take this section, for instance:

A few things pop out to me here: "Rose" is the wrong verb tense, it should be "risen." Similar thing for knew/know. It's also redundant for him to say he's introducing a new master after he already mentioned there was a new master. Similarly, you could vary some terms, like refer to the Air Nomads as "assistants" (since we already know they would be Air Nomads from context) or just say it's a bald girl with a red arrow tattoo. The narrator is a different character from the speaker, generally you want to paragraph break every time you change which character the focus is placed on.

There are a few other things I've noticed separately from this passage. Word order & inclusion can be an issue, like how when Asami says "these years are sure making me difficult to remember," it should be "making it difficult for me to remember." You also tend to use a lot of the same descriptive words. For example, instead of saying that an object is "big," sometimes you could refer to it as humongous, gargantuan, gigantic, etc. Especially if it's supposed to be something really dramatic, like a huge boulder you're supposed to wonder how the character could possibly dodge. Similarly, you don't need to use airbend, firebend, etc. as a verb. In my fight scenes, I say things like "Keter shot a jet of flame from her fist" or "Euryale hurled a boulder with an overhand strike."

It's also pretty odd when characters break out into exposition about something barely related to what they're talking about, especially when it should be something they already know, & therefore don't need to explain to each other. For example, when Iruka & Janji are talking about getting married, that's not really a conversation that makes sense for them to have. If they're about to marry, they should've been together for a while, which means that things like Asami being bisexual should have already come up. The purpose seems to be to inform the audience, but in that case, you can just tell us that they're both men, & when they say they're getting married, we'll get the idea. Also, this last complaint is comparatively minor, but when it comes to ALL CAPS YELLING, I'd argue that should be rare. En exclamation point already shows that the characters are yelling, ALL CAPS would signify that they're really, REALLY upset.

Conclusion

So, you see, my dilemma is that I really like the heart of the story (characters, conflict, etc.), but I'm having a lot of trouble with the mechanics (grammar, diction). Problems in the latter can really cripple my ability to enjoy the former, kind of like a steak that tastes good but is too tough to chew.

CHEEZY CRISPS MY REPLY VANISHED!!!

I had replied to most of the things you presented but it didn't get posted.

Anyway, a summary

1. I'm glad you like the characters. People say it's dificult to create likeable characters, but I don't seem to have the difficulty.
2. I like how you find out by yourself facts about Yurei and Hikar in their battle
3. Sorry about the punctuation, but that has been normalized already so I can't change that ^^;
4. Thanks for pointing out the grammar. I'll try to revise that in Book Two. Have in mind that in some dialogs, characters don't often speak 100% okay.
5. I use CAPS to show they're actually upset, or encourage.
6. I try to make the audience know what's happening, since it's a story with a pretty dense plot.
7. Last thing, yes, I want to portray Hikar as an Avatar who wants more power than the one he could probably handle.

That said, I hope you enjoy the rest of Book One, and I'm telling you, if you're on Chapter 4, you haven't got to the best part yet ;)

That's why I always copy replies before I send them.

1. I find characters come to me pretty easily, but settings are much harder, hence why I tend to write in pre-established worlds. One of life's great mysteries, I suppose.

2. So I was on the money. Yeah, I think you should be proud of that scene. A lot of people struggle having fight scenes that genuinely advance the story or characters, rather than just feeling like the writer said "it's been a few chapters, time to tack on a fight scene so the readers don't get bored."

3. Personally, if I were you, I'd do Book 2 using quotation marks.

4. It seems to be more an issue in the narrative rather than the dialogue, oddly enough. But I'd generally expect a casual speaker to do something like pronounce "probably" as "prob'ly," not so much for it to affect word order.

5. It's just, we get that message from exclamations & phrases like "he roared" or "he shouted." The problem is that, if that's the baseline, there's not really much higher to go when characters are even madder than usual. If it feels right, it's not really a deal-breaker, but I think it's more effective when used sparingly.

6. Yeah, but you want to avoid infodumps or unnatural dialogue. I generally find that exposition isn't too much of a concern, the major plot points tend to be hit at least once by the time they're important just as a matter of course. If nothing else, I'd say if you really, really feel it necessary to make a tangent on something a character is unlikely to mention, to put it in narration instead of dialogue. E.g., if I'd been thinking ahead when I wrote "Ascension," I would've done the following:

7. I am a bit curious if you intend to do like a Book 3: Flight & a Book 4: Plant, or something to that effect.

Which chapter would you classify as the best one?

About the second one. I don't think it would feel the same way as Book One. I enjoy writing fights the most actually. And there are chapters that have pretty intense fight scenes.

Oh boy, I can't wait for your expresion when I hit Book Three and what I have planned of it so far. Because, let me say that for starters, you're wrong XD. Books Three and Four will be named: I******y & U*****n

My favourtie Chapter to write was Chapter 7: The Blue Delta, but I think the best one is a tie between Chapter 11: End of the Past, and Chapter 12: Cold Air.

I choose to believe you're swearing right now.

XD No, they are normal words, which are yet to be revealed.

I don't want to sound annoying but, how far have you gotten already?

I've not read further.

DAMMIT CARL!!

Who is Carl?

It's a meme