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#0, (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-31-14 at 09:44 PM
LAST EDITED ON Dec-05-14 AT 02:23 AM (EST)
 
Korra woke slowly - The temptation was very great to make this line, "Korra woke up, sat up, and briefly wondered who the hell she was," but I didn't think she'd sit up immediately, so.

something strange and wondrous - All kinds of crazy stuff happened in the wake of the Harmonic Convergence of 171; the Airbender Proliferation was just one item on the list.

a range of different types - Each type of bending can be used to propel a naval projectile, but the different methods require different hardware; there's also a model for nonbender gun crews.

didn't have a father of record - A career-minded single woman bearing and raising a child alone on purpose was a pretty startling and radical thing when the Sato women started doing it; even in the late third century it's considered pretty progressive.

unlike Nature Priestess - It's cute how Utena still pretends she believes that's the real reason Anthy shied away from all the technological solutions.

Seriously?! - This is one of my favorite little Anthy moments (along with the facepalm following it), if only because it's so rare and pleasing for her to have a complete record-scratch moment that way.

What do you care what other people think? - The title of Richard Feynman's second memoir, based on a catchphrase he and his first wife, Arline, used throughout their relationship.

steal his clothes, etc. - You thought the button-up shirt she's wearing for a jacket in Avatar at Work was hers? (Well... I suppose it is now.)

now you try - Though the operative word is not explicitly spoken, this is a dare and both parties know it. As such, there's only one available response.

that wasn't a yes-or-no question - Corwin's response is one of the canonical "equivocal" answers given by a Magic Eight-Ball, which is optimized for Boolean queries. (It's worth noting that by "try again", he meant the question, as that is what the Eight-Ball means when it says that. Everyone else's interpretation would require Corwin to be much smoother, and much less flat-footed, and much less planar-travel-lagged, than he is.)

Rei - Yes, of course Inspector Imanishi's secretary is called that solely to facilitate the Ghostbusters quote.

token firebender - RCPD inside joke, dating back to the days when they were virtually all metalbenders... and Mako.

flicked an ancient switch - Studies have shown that the sound of babies in severe distress actually does this. Don't ask me how the people conducting the experiment got them to play along; there are many things about the study of psychology I would rather not know.

What's Nall got to do with it? - What's Nall but a secondhand - ... no.

Yolvahlok! - Adapted from the "Call Dragon" Shout in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, by which the player character can summon a dragon at will by Shouting his Name. (Convergently, the summoned dragon's Name, and thus the in-game Shout, is "Odahviing", which is Nall's Name in UF.)

Angstberg - I think my favorite thing about Garnet's inexplicable use of German to taunt Nall in this scene is that she's doing it correctly. "Angstberg" really is German for "Mount Anxiety".

Freiherr von Arschgesicht - "Baron of Assface". Much less comical and more insulting in German than the translation might imply.

modified police armor - Similar to her Equalist Task Force uniform from Book 1, but with more modern sensibilities. In the third century, her "working with the cops" armor is Water Tribe dark blue to set her apart visually from the tinheads, and she doesn't wear a badge, because she's not a sworn member of the police force and thus not entitled to one.

glider-staff - Korra's glider is of the "Mechanist" type, like the one made for Aang in the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. She actually owns Aang's original (it turns up in the third season of The Legend of Korra), but by 291 ASC it's nearly 200 years old and she's long since retired it from active duty. The one she's using here is of relatively recent construction.

more like what I remember - Ikki was a mightily loud child, capable of summoning her father from up to two miles away.

expecting her to slap him - In the original draft of this scene, she did, but then I realized that she's come beyond the fantasy-princess slap-in-the-face (even if it was going to be hard enough to knock him down). She's been studying ba gua; the obvious thing was for her to throw him instead.

jarta mín - Asgardian Norse: "heart of mine". Can be used as an endearment for a lover or, as here, one's offspring. Compare Irish Gaelic a chuisle mo chroí ("O pulse of my heart").

chillin' with his daughter - Dad Achievement Unlocked: Adjustable Priorities.

pleasantly scented - Utena doesn't wear perfume, but she naturally smells good, and faintly of roses - it's a Rose Prince thing.

oh, you have one - I love Garnet. I just do.

I'm just a soul whose intentions are good - "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", first recorded by Nina Simone in 1964, but the version Utena's quoting Gryphon quoting is the 1965 cover by Eric Burdon & the Animals.

Baby, sometimes I'm so carefree
With a joy that's hard to hide
And sometimes it seems that all I have to do is worry
And then you're bound to see my other side
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord! Please don't let me be misunderstood

spontaneous firebending manifestations - Spontaneous bending manifestations are very rare in the third century, but they do occasionally happen. Most students of the phenomenon believe that the people they happen to have really been benders all along, but their talents have lain latent in them for various reasons, until unlocked by extraordinary stimuli, like Korra's own airbending ability.

Ran and Shaw - As seen in the ATLA episode "The Firebending Masters".

cha siu bao - Barbecue pork buns.

dou sha bao - Red bean buns. Sweet!

the vacuum hammer - One can achieve mastery of airbending by advancing through all 36 levels of the training or inventing a new technique. (Aang, in fact, was only level 35, but got his arrow for inventing the air scooter.) It appears Nyima did both. The "vacuum hammer" is a technique that uses sudden, radical air pressure differentials to inflict specifically targeted point loads on objects (more precise than just "blowing things over with a big wind", which is not exactly a new trick).

only six tracks - For those familiar with K-On! and/or curious, the six tracks on the Hōkago Tea Time demo disc Korra has here are:

  1. "Gohan wa Okazu" ("Rice Is a Side Dish")
  2. "Don't Say 'Lazy'"
  3. "Fude Pen ~ Ball Pen" ("Brush Pen, Ballpoint Pen")
  4. "Watashi no Koi wa Hotchkiss" ("My Love Is a Stapler")
  5. "Sakuragaoka Joshi Kōtō Gakkō Kōka" ("Sakuragaoka Girls' High School Anthem")
  6. "Fuwa Fuwa Time" ("Fluffy Time")

The demo was recorded in early March, just before the end of the four founders' freshman year, and so before Azusa joined.

my old guitar - Korra's guitar is a Fender Zipang Classic Reissue Stratocaster, circa 2325, which Asami bought for her in a music shop in Saikyō during one of the first fully planned excursions across the Veil. Its original finish was Fender's classic Three-Tone Sunburst, but the custom color Asami had it painted later became available as a factory finish. Customers outside Dìqiú presumably assume that it's called "Avatar Blue" out of simple whimsy.

I haven't played since... almost 50 years - In other words, she put her guitar away when Asami died.

10GIÄ - The music shop of choice for the Light Music Club in K-On!, which is evidently a reference to a real-life Japanese music shop chain called "Jeugia" (the logos are in the same font and color). The Republic City store is a branch; the company's headquarters and main store are in Sakuragaoka. The 10GIÄ chain is part of the Kotobuki Group.

Dallas - A cameo character based on a real person: Dallas Seger, the guitar repairman at Northern Kingdom Music, who saved my mother's Giannini classical guitar after someone fitted the wrong strings to it.

a couple hours - In real life, a guitar needing such extensive repairs could reasonably expect to be in the shop for at least a week, but this is fictionland and we've got stuff we have to get done, so... :)

it's a lot easier to get a message - Yes, this means Corwin basically had to go out on the porch because he couldn't get a decent cell signal from inside the house.

Utena's meeting with Queen Hippolyta - We saw the tail end of this meeting from another angle at the end of Special Assignment #78, "The Antianeira Incident".

Kai, ra'wI' sutai-O'Brien. NuqneH. - Klingonese: "Hail, Commander of-the-honored-line O'Brien. What do you want?"

the new KDF uniform - One of the alternate uniform styles available to Klingon officers in Star Trek Online.

Karn - Lieutenant Karn dresses like a TOS Klingon because he is a TOS Klingon. He lost an argument with a Weird Alien Artifact. Occupational hazard of the 22nd-century KDF.

The Science Gorn - Just what it says on the tin. Also sporting the new KDF uniform.

the dramatic story - We'll find out what Utena learned in Technical Difficulties.

Qapla', ra'wI' sutai-O'Brien - "Success, Commander O'Brien."

noDwI' - jol yIchu'! - "Retaliator - activate beam!"

its busy schedule - As one of the IPO Headquarters Transport Squadron's small force of spacefold-capable courier ships, the Blink Dog racks up a terrifying amount of mileage in an average day, calculated strictly on the basis of the distances between her various destinations as opposed to how far she's actually going.

Utena appeared out of nowhere - My old City of Heroes peeps may recognize the distinctive stylings of that old standby, Recall Friend. IIRC, Recall Friend didn't actually work across zone boundaries, but then again, I doubt B6 and Dìqiú are even on the same server, so...


#1, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Peter Eng on Nov-01-14 at 03:21 AM
In response to message #0
>
>Utena appeared out of nowhere - My old City of Heroes
>peeps may recognize the distinctive stylings of that old standby,
>Recall Friend. IIRC, Recall Friend didn't actually work across zone
>boundaries, but then again, I doubt B6 and Dìqiú are even on the
>same server, so...
>

Well, Recall Friend might be less effective if Anthy was trying to pull in, say, Wakaba. Between being married to Utena and being part of the Trinity (both major connections), there's a lot of extra room to reach there.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#11, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Meagen on Dec-20-14 at 06:01 AM
In response to message #1
>>
>>Utena appeared out of nowhere - My old City of Heroes
>>peeps may recognize the distinctive stylings of that old standby,
>>Recall Friend. IIRC, Recall Friend didn't actually work across zone
>>boundaries, but then again, I doubt B6 and Dìqiú are even on the
>>same server, so...
>>
>
>Well, Recall Friend might be less effective if Anthy was trying to
>pull in, say, Wakaba. Between being married to Utena and being part
>of the Trinity (both major connections), there's a lot of extra room
>to reach there.
>

Ah, so it's that new higher-tier addition to the Teleport power pool, Recall Husband. :D


#12, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Droken on Dec-20-14 at 11:56 AM
In response to message #11
So that just jogged a memory. Many years ago I played an MMO called Ragnarok Online (very awesome, 2D sprites in 3D env, good classes, loved it), and in the later years of my playing they opened up the option for players to get married. At which point you obtained a special skill that allowed you to teleport your spouse to you.

(You could also have a third player make a character that was your "child", wherein they always looked about 1/2 sized...not so sure about that one :)


#13, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Bushido on Dec-22-14 at 03:04 PM
In response to message #12
RO was my first foray into MMORPG territory, although I played on a private server rather than the official one.

#2, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Verbena on Nov-01-14 at 07:42 PM
In response to message #0
>something strange and wondrous - All kinds of crazy stuff
>happened in the wake of the Harmonic Convergence of 171; the Airbender
>Proliferation was just one item on the list.

Hm, are there already references to other things that happened? IIRC that's when spirits started entering Diqiu proper, but will we see a list at some point?


>a range of different types - Each type of bending can be used
>to propel a naval projectile, but the different methods require
>different hardware; there's also a model for nonbender gun crews.

When I read this in the story, I was like, 'oh, like antishipping, antiaircraft, shore bombardment...' but I guess not. =) One wonders how much more effective the bending versions are, since if I were a general I'd keep the benders somewhere their talents weren't being duplicated. =)

>
>didn't have a father of record - A career-minded single woman
>bearing and raising a child alone on purpose was a pretty
>startling and radical thing when the Sato women started doing it; even
>in the late third century it's considered pretty progressive.

Iiiiiinteresting.

>
>unlike Nature Priestess - It's cute how Utena still pretends
>she believes that's the real reason Anthy shied away from all the
>technological solutions.

The alternative is to admit to herself Anthy lied to her to have an excuse to sleep with Corwin. That's...stark, and all three of them are past it, but it's no less true.


>
>Seriously?! - This is one of my favorite little Anthy moments
>(along with the facepalm following it), if only because it's so rare
>and pleasing for her to have a complete record-scratch moment that
>way.

This may be the first time in UF Utena has caught Anthy off guard. Usually Anthy knows what Utena's going to do before Utena does.

>steal his clothes, etc. - You thought the button-up shirt she's
>wearing for a jacket in Avatar at Work was hers? (Well... I
>suppose it is now.)

Well, it's a bit of a distinction without a difference at this point. =)

>flicked an ancient switch - Studies have shown that the sound
>of babies in severe distress actually does this. Don't ask me how the
>people conducting the experiment got them to play along; there are
>many things about the study of psychology I would rather not know.

The creep factor in some branches of science is what creates the whole stereotype of cold/ruthless/amoral scientists. (Dr. Vahlen, I'm looking at you.)


>
>What's Nall got to do with it? - What's Nall but a secondhand -
>... no.

These EXACT lyrics were what I was thinking when I read this line! (Well, not the 'no'.)

>
>Yolvahlok! - Adapted from the "Call Dragon" Shout in The
>Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
, by which the player character can summon
>a dragon at will by Shouting his Name. (Convergently, the summoned
>dragon's Name, and thus the in-game Shout, is "Odahviing", which is
>Nall's Name in UF.)

I have the Skyrim theme running through my head due to Nall's use of the Shout. (Again. 'Dovahkiin, dovahkiin...')


>Freiherr von Arschgesicht - "Baron of Assface". Much less
>comical and more insulting in German than the translation might imply.

...Doctor Doom needs this engraved on his forehead when he's sleeping some night. That is the awesomest insult in all of the ever.

>more like what I remember - Ikki was a mightily loud
>child, capable of summoning her father from up to two miles away.

She hasn't gotten all that much quieter. XD

>
>expecting her to slap him - In the original draft of this
>scene, she did, but then I realized that she's come beyond the
>fantasy-princess slap-in-the-face (even if it was going to be hard
>enough to knock him down). She's been studying ba gua; the
>obvious thing was for her to throw him instead.

Well, I only disagree in that I think it's not obvious. But to be honest, a slap wouldn't have been enough to convey the depth of her anger anyway. All for this.


>chillin' with his daughter - Dad Achievement Unlocked:
>Adjustable Priorities.

AWWWWWWW~


>
>oh, you have one - I love Garnet. I just do.

She's pleasantly, amusingly acerbic. Not that far off from Nall, if you swap the 'sarcasm' and 'whimsy' sliders. (For some reason I envisioned the tablet the villain was using to control her employees in the Doctor Who episode, 'Bells of St. John'.)

>spontaneous firebending manifestations - Spontaneous bending
>manifestations are very rare in the third century, but they do
>occasionally happen. Most students of the phenomenon believe that the
>people they happen to have really been benders all along, but their
>talents have lain latent in them for various reasons, until unlocked
>by extraordinary stimuli, like Korra's own airbending ability.

Were they possible before Harmonic Convergence?


>I haven't played since... almost 40 years - In other words, she
>put it away when Asami died.

...Wow. I hadn't put that together...


Anyway! I enjoyed this immensely. Definitely bringing this back on a very positive note, though I confess I also wonder what's happening with Emily. =) Either way, though, linking this back into the narrative of Symphony 5 is a very good thing. Definitely looking forward to the continuation.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#3, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Gryphon on Nov-02-14 at 08:44 PM
In response to message #2
>Hm, are there already references to other things that happened? IIRC
>that's when spirits started entering Diqiu proper, but will we see a
>list at some point?

Probably not. Lists are so confining. It may be worth noting, though, that "started entering" was in some regions perhaps better phrased "overrunning". Things got pretty weird in some places for a while.

>>unlike Nature Priestess - It's cute how Utena still pretends
>>she believes that's the real reason Anthy shied away from all the
>>technological solutions.
>
>The alternative is to admit to herself Anthy lied to her to have an
>excuse to sleep with Corwin. That's...stark, and all three of them are
>past it, but it's no less true.

That's not really accurate, though, as written. She did genuinely want a child, and she did genuinely not want the process to involve a lot of Science. She may have exaggerated how much of an obstacle the second really part was, but even then, it wasn't that Anthy wanted an excuse to get some action; she was attempting to give Utena an excuse to get some action. ... It didn't work, and possibly nobody even slightly better-versed in how these things play out than Anthy-at-that-time would've believed that it would, but that's neither here nor there now. Point is, it was considerably more complicated than that.

>This may be the first time in UF Utena has caught Anthy off guard.
>Usually Anthy knows what Utena's going to do before Utena does.

She's been catching up lately; viz. last movement, when - although she didn't notice what Korra was doing before Anthy did - she had been expecting it rather longer. "Did I get somewhere before you for once? Mark your calendar, Garnet, you may not see this happen again for years."

>>more like what I remember - Ikki was a mightily loud
>>child, capable of summoning her father from up to two miles away.
>
>She hasn't gotten all that much quieter. XD

No, although she uses more words now.

>>She's been studying ba gua; the
>>obvious thing was for her to throw him instead.
>
>Well, I only disagree in that I think it's not obvious.

Obvious to her, anyway. :)

>>spontaneous firebending manifestations - Spontaneous bending
>>manifestations are very rare in the third century, but they do
>>occasionally happen. Most students of the phenomenon believe that the
>>people they happen to have really been benders all along, but their
>>talents have lain latent in them for various reasons, until unlocked
>>by extraordinary stimuli, like Korra's own airbending ability.
>
>Were they possible before Harmonic Convergence?

Probably, in the same sort of "for one reason or another you never Did the Thing until a lot later than most benders do" sense. People developing bending talents completely out of nowhere in adulthood that they really never had before only happened in the Convergence's immediate aftermath, as far as I know (and they were all airbenders, which is excellent evidence that the cosmos is a) sentient and b) fucking with people :).

>>I haven't played since... almost 40 years - In other words, she
>>put it away when Asami died.
>
>...Wow. I hadn't put that together...

Hence Corwin's "I'm-a just be over here out of your way" approach to the moment.

>I confess I also wonder what's happening
>with Emily. =)

Oh, you'll find out...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#6, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Verbena on Nov-08-14 at 08:42 AM
In response to message #3
>>Hm, are there already references to other things that happened? IIRC
>>that's when spirits started entering Diqiu proper, but will we see a
>>list at some point?
>
>Probably not. Lists are so confining. It may be worth noting,
>though, that "started entering" was in some regions perhaps better
>phrased "overrunning". Things got pretty weird in some places for a
>while.

Ooo. I bet Korra wasn't popular in some areas for a while there. But, yeah, I can see why you'd not want to do that. It's the same reason Star Trek rarely ever states on screen something can never be done. You never know when you'll need it.

>
>>>unlike Nature Priestess - It's cute how Utena still pretends
>>>she believes that's the real reason Anthy shied away from all the
>>>technological solutions.
>>
>>The alternative is to admit to herself Anthy lied to her to have an
>>excuse to sleep with Corwin. That's...stark, and all three of them are
>>past it, but it's no less true.
>
>That's not really accurate, though, as written. She did genuinely
>want a child, and she did genuinely not want the process to
>involve a lot of Science. She may have exaggerated how much of an
>obstacle the second really part was, but even then, it wasn't
>that Anthy wanted an excuse to get some action; she was attempting to
>give Utena an excuse to get some action. ... It didn't work,
>and possibly nobody even slightly better-versed in how these things
>play out than Anthy-at-that-time would've believed that it
>would, but that's neither here nor there now. Point is, it was
>considerably more complicated than that.

Perhaps, but would Utena have parsed any of that at the time? Even if she knows intellectually that's not what Anthy was trying to do (and the best proof of that was when Anthy IIRC told Utena to try it herself), -emotionally- it still might be in the back of her mind.

>
>>This may be the first time in UF Utena has caught Anthy off guard.
>>Usually Anthy knows what Utena's going to do before Utena does.
>
>She's been catching up lately; viz. last movement, when - although she
>didn't notice what Korra was doing before Anthy did - she had
>been expecting it rather longer. "Did I get somewhere before
>you for once? Mark your calendar, Garnet, you may not see this happen
>again for years."

Some of the clever is rubbing off, aye. XD


>
>>>She's been studying ba gua; the
>>>obvious thing was for her to throw him instead.
>>
>>Well, I only disagree in that I think it's not obvious.
>
>Obvious to her, anyway. :)

And, of course, obvious to Nall. Well, at least before he got the wind knocked out of him.


>
>>>spontaneous firebending manifestations - Spontaneous bending
>>>manifestations are very rare in the third century, but they do
>>>occasionally happen. Most students of the phenomenon believe that the
>>>people they happen to have really been benders all along, but their
>>>talents have lain latent in them for various reasons, until unlocked
>>>by extraordinary stimuli, like Korra's own airbending ability.
>>
>>Were they possible before Harmonic Convergence?
>
>Probably, in the same sort of "for one reason or another you never Did
>the Thing until a lot later than most benders do" sense. People
>developing bending talents completely out of nowhere in adulthood that
>they really never had before only happened in the Convergence's
>immediate aftermath, as far as I know (and they were all airbenders,
>which is excellent evidence that the cosmos is a) sentient and b)
>fucking with people :).

You know, this makes me wonder about something. The fact that there's spirits for everything important (and maybe everything unimportant, too; very Shinto here) makes me wonder if Diqiu itself has/is a spirit. Not necessarily an anthropomorphic one, but Diqiu is self-contained; its own demiplane. Perhaps an all-encompassing, overarching consciousness would not be out of the bounds of reason. Something like the semi-sentient will of Ravenloft (though a hell of a lot less malevolent, of course).

If that's the case, let's take it one step further. What if the spontaneous birth of this sentience is the triggering event for the demiplane's creation? Perhaps it tries to manifest its will for a balanced, harmonious whole through the creation of the Avatar.

Just food for thought.

>
>>I confess I also wonder what's happening
>>with Emily. =)
>
>Oh, you'll find out...

Very much looking forward to it.

(Also, sorry for slow reply. My workplace was blocking this site for a week or so, not sure why. There's nothing questionable here. Only have limited time at home to read up, naturally.)

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#7, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Gryphon on Nov-08-14 at 09:34 AM
In response to message #6
>Ooo. I bet Korra wasn't popular in some areas for a while there.

One of the several unsatisfactory running themes of TLOK Book 3, actually - Everybody Hates Korra Because Spirits Everywhere. The season's very first episode wastes no time in establishing that.

>If that's the case, let's take it one step further. What if the
>spontaneous birth of this sentience is the triggering event for the
>demiplane's creation? Perhaps it tries to manifest its will for a
>balanced, harmonious whole through the creation of the Avatar.

That's a reasonable surmise - in some ways more reasonable, or at least more internally consistent, than the actual explanation given in the 20-odd percent of TLOK Book 2 that the title character doesn't even get to be in. This established, with a giant wave of the retcon wand, that the original creation of "the Avatar" as concept and person was more or less accidental, and that being born the Avatar is basically a curse: condemnation to spend your life walking the impossible and not-even-really-definable treadmill of "balancing the world", because 1) The first Avatar stupidly set himself this task without ever really understanding what it meant and 2) The Avatar Spirit is A) sentient and B) neurotic.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#8, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Verbena on Nov-08-14 at 12:06 PM
In response to message #7
>>Ooo. I bet Korra wasn't popular in some areas for a while there.
>
>One of the several unsatisfactory running themes of TLOK Book 3,
>actually - Everybody Hates Korra Because Spirits Everywhere. The
>season's very first episode wastes no time in establishing that.

Aha. So the series keeps on dumping on her because reasons and UF actually points out it's not all bad and everything hasn't actually gone to shit.

>
>>If that's the case, let's take it one step further. What if the
>>spontaneous birth of this sentience is the triggering event for the
>>demiplane's creation? Perhaps it tries to manifest its will for a
>>balanced, harmonious whole through the creation of the Avatar.
>
>That's a reasonable surmise - in some ways more reasonable, or at
>least more internally consistent, than the actual explanation
>given in the 20-odd percent of TLOK Book 2 that the title character
>doesn't even get to be in. This established, with a giant wave
>of the retcon wand, that the original creation of "the Avatar" as
>concept and person was more or less accidental, and that being born
>the Avatar is basically a curse: condemnation to spend your life
>walking the impossible and not-even-really-definable treadmill of
>"balancing the world", because 1) The first Avatar stupidly set
>himself this task without ever really understanding what it meant and
>2) The Avatar Spirit is A) sentient and B) neurotic.

It's starting to sound to me like the creators of Avatar are the neurotic ones--neurotic artsy avant-garde types who can't ever have anything good happen to the protagonist because that's so plebeian. This is like Ragulin and his L'Ecole Musico-Technologique, valuing nonsense solely because it stands against normalcy.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#9, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Gryphon on Nov-08-14 at 12:46 PM
In response to message #8
>It's starting to sound to me like the creators of Avatar are
>the neurotic ones--neurotic artsy avant-garde types who can't ever
>have anything good happen to the protagonist because that's so
>plebeian.

Two white guys who went to art school in Rhode Island attempt Buddhist allegory, sell it to kids' TV network as fun cartoon adventure show.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#10, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Gryphon on Dec-05-14 at 02:22 AM
In response to message #2
>>I haven't played since... almost 40 years - In other words, she
>>put it away when Asami died.
>
>...Wow. I hadn't put that together...

Upon further review, that may not be entirely your fault, but due to me failing at math: Asami died in 244 ASC, which was 47 years before the "present day" (291), not 37 as I had in my head when I wrote that line. It should say "almost 50 years". ... And indeed now does, though correcting the audio version will take more work.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#4, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Polychrome on Nov-03-14 at 01:15 AM
In response to message #0
>something strange and wondrous - All kinds of crazy stuff
>happened in the wake of the Harmonic Convergence of 171; the Airbender
>Proliferation was just one item on the list.

Mass sponge migrations?

Polychrome

So what if they only migrated a foot and a half.


#5, RE: (DS05) Among Honest Hearts
Posted by Mephron on Nov-04-14 at 08:10 PM
In response to message #4
>>something strange and wondrous - All kinds of crazy stuff
>>happened in the wake of the Harmonic Convergence of 171; the Airbender
>>Proliferation was just one item on the list.
>
>Mass sponge migrations?
>
>Polychrome
>
>So what if they only migrated a foot and a half.

Oddly, the police firebender was there for that one too.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"