I am not sick of Diqiu. I am a touch confused and am gradually working my way out of the confusion.

The confusion is mostly because I have not watched TLoK (and only 1/2 an episode of AtLA) and to appreciate much of the admirable salvage work you are doing really needs one to have watched the show(s). All of the background I have is what is in these here forums and various wiki sites as I google for stuff I need to know. To use an example from a different part of the thread of how background can affect the interpretation, try reading the "escape from the avatar prison" while suppressing the knowledge that that is what it actually was...or read it assuming that that description was a teenage exaggeration.

This was much less of a problem with the RGU material in SotS, the NGE material in NXE, or even the Azula storyline in SotS. I wish I could tell you why, I'm thinking on it some more.
(Dammit Jim, I'm a hacker not a literary critic!)

I'm pretty certain I don't want to actually watch TLoK. Your attitudes towards the show are well established. Merc is more positive if provincial, but even when he's supporting the show he doesn't make it sound like something I want to watch. Even Phil, who is the closest thing to a serious fanboy of the show that we seem to have here, doesn't make it sound that appealing.

-VR
Three Cheers! For the St. Spyridon Sanctuary for Battered and Neglected Characters! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."