Why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a good show

(no spoilers in this post, because I want people who don't watch Avatar to read this, so I can possibly try and convince them of this show's excellence)

With this recent sequel-series to Avatar now airing on tv (The Legend of Korra), I thought it would be an opportune time to chat about why Avatar (the original series) is such a great show in the first place. For people who are unfamiliar with this, it's completely unrelated to James Cameron's Avatar movie that came out last year (or was it two years ago).

And for god's sake DO NOT see the M. Night Shyamalan live action movie called "The Last Airbender"-- it is a god-awful movie in so many ways that it would take the entire internet to count them. And if you have seen it, pretend like you haven't. Don't even talk about it. It's embarrassing.








So I will point out three things about the show that I think make it so wonderful, and maybe somebody will decide to try it out. Here is a site where you can watch the episodes for free (scroll down until you see the list of episodes-- the first one is called "The Boy in the Iceberg"); you'll usually have to get through an ad before it starts.

Like Titanic, except nobody will crash into this iceberg.
They just walk into it.

1. The first thing I would like to mention about this show is the plot. Where a lot of tv shows go wrong is the lack of direction they have after one or two seasons. This show has a clear direction from the two-part pilot episode, finishes the third season in a way that you could only assume the writers had been going there from the very beginning.

Here is a brief description of the world that this show takes place in:

There are four groups of people, each representing a certain element: the Fire Nation, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Air Temples. There are certain people in each nation who have the power of "bending" an element (according to the nation they're in); they have the ability to control their specific element, to varying degrees. Bending is farily common among people, but not everybody has this ability. Each generation has one "avatar," who is the only person with the ability to bend all four elements; once the avatar dies, a new one is reborn. Other than the avatar, however, any one person can only control one element, and it always is based on the nation that they are born into.

It's even color-coded!

Here is where we are when the show begins:

The Fire Nation has started a war with the other three nations, and the Firelord is trying to take over. The avatar, who has been strangely missing for 100 years, has recently been found again, and he is the only one who has the power to stop the Firelord. He is an airbender, so while he is kind of an airbending prodigy, he still has to learn the other three elements before he can confront the Fire Nation, and the Firelord. In the meantime, he is being hunted by the Firelord's son, and not everybody is glad that he is back, after abandoning the world for so long.

The Kyoshi warriors, home of the former avatar. 

As I said, what makes this plot so wonderful is the circular nature of everything. There are almost no loose ends, and each episode has a clear purpose in furthering the plot (or serious character development), and the story itself really keeps you interested. There are no, "Why couldn't he have just..." questions, and if you're one of these kinds of people who (like me) initially feels kind of silly watching a cartoon, you rapidly get over that after a couple episodes. The nature of the show is not childish. And I will also add that it's kind of funny, too. My suitemate last year who would occasionally glance over to see what I was watching would often laugh out loud at some of the scenes.

Appa and Momo! 

2. The character development is wonderful. Again, the few episodes that don't directly advance the plot create a more three-dimensional portrait of the characters, which really adds to the show. Many of the "favorite" episodes have nothing to do with the plot, but instead, focus on certain characters that people love to know more about. You really grow to like the characters more and more as you learn about them. In particular, I would like to point out two episodes in the first season of the series called "The Storm," and "The Blue Spirit"; anybody who wants to test this show should watch it up until these two episodes (Blue Spirit comes right after Storm). If, by the end of these episodes, you have no interest in the series, then this series is not for you. But if you're watching with mild interest, and these episodes pull you in even more, then it has done its job. These are two of the earliest episodes where you really begin to understand that there is much more to everything than you first may think.

The mysterious "Blue Spirit"

We have our main character, Aang:

Silly, dedicated, lovable, and freaking awesome in Avatar state.

As well as the two water tribe siblings who find him, and accompany him on his travels, Sokka and Katara:

If you can't tell by the picture, Sokka provides our comic relief.

And, finally, our wonderful fanfic-magnet Prince Zuko, the primary antagonist we open with:  

Drinking game: sip every time he talks about honor. 

3. The last thing I would like to point out about this show in my quest to convince people of its awesomeness is what I like to see as the "gray morality" of the show. Yes, we have our protagonists and antagonists, and there is a "good" side and a "bad" side. But as the show goes on, you find things on the "good" side that aren't so good, and things on the "bad" side that aren't so bad.  This show proves that you don't need blood and gore to have an incredibly dark side to a story. Not that I'm against blood and gore, but it's refreshing to have a show that is able to achieve multiple dimensions while still following a decent plot. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this if I'm an English major. But the thought and effort put into the nature of the characters and plot to avoid giving the readers any easy answer is striking. I'll mention the episode "The Blue Spirit" again as one that adds a new layer to the show, and possibly even changes what you hope or guess for the outcome. Despite the fact that the show revolves around a monk and a tyrannical overlord, you will find surprisingly little that is black and white. 

Uncle Iroh...how is that for a three-dimensional and character?
(the answer is yes, mostly because he is unquestionably my favorite character)

Hopefully I have convinced somebody to at least try a couple of episodes...it's only three seasons of twenty minute episodes! Click on the first episode, and try it out! Really, though...it is a wonderful series. If you're ever out of things to do on the internet, it's worth your time to check into this. 

The DaVinci Code

So for my Non-Canonical Early Christian Literature class (basically, scripture that did not make it into the Bible), we are ending on a fun note by reading The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown. If you have read the book, you know it is not a very good book. In fact, it's a little bit terrible. It's ridiculously inaccurate, the writing quality is a lacking, and the characters are almost humorously flat. I know Dan Brown jokes are even more dated than Justin Bieber jokes, but bear with me; this is, sadly, my second time reading it, so I beg forgiveness for the fun I'm going to have with this book while I read it.

Reviews:

I'd better check my meds...my pulse seems unusually slow for this book.
Also, I'm glad the Christian Science Monitor likes it. 

Prologue:


So, this old guy is staggering through the Louvre and ripping paintings off the walls. An alarm goes off...I guess he is trying to get someone's attention.

A voice spoke, chillingly close. "Do not move."

(eek, that's scary! *looks over shoulder to make sure nobody is chillingly close to me*)
 

On his hands and knees, the curator froze, turning his head slowly.  Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the iron bars.

Yeah, I hate it when people are only fifteen feet away from me. I need my personal space, and I have a comfort zone, thank you very much. Okay, the other guy drew a pistol...I guess it's chillinger when the not-so-chillingly close guy has a gun. "Within range" counts as chillingly close when anybody has a gun. Oh, and he has pink eyes.
Anyway, the two guys talk for a while, and the pink-eyed guy shoots the old guy  in the stomach, and then walks away. The old guy gets up as he's dying, staggers around the museum, and does a mysterious "task" before the prologue finishes.

Chapter 1:

Robert Langdon awoke slowly.
He awakes in the Hotel Ritz Paris and has no memory of where he is....BUT WAIT! He's just super sleepy. He then remembers where he is and picks up the ringing phone that woke him up.
He had been asleep only an hour, but he felt like the dead.
Lol, that's ironic because in the other chapter, someone just died! ha ha ha ha....Oh, here is a flyer for a lecture he gave last night...

An Evening with Robert Langdon

Professor of Religious Symbology,

Harvard University

Oooh, he must be very important and smart if he is a professor at Harvard. And his subject sounds very cool...symbology. Does that mean he teaches things about religious symbols? Come to think of it, I have never heard of "symbology" before...let me Wikipedia it. 

Hmmm, "symbology" redirects to symbol. Let me try "symbology (disambiguation)"....hey, that's funny, Wikipedia doesn't have a page on symbology! I wonder why that is.

Now, the guy on the phone really wants Langdon to talk to this guy, insisting it's important....

Langdon had little doubt. His books on religious paintings and cult symbology had made him a reluctant celebrity in the art world....the stream of self-important historians and art buffs arriving at his door had seemed never-ending.

Poor Langdon! He's so important and famous, but he never asked for this spotlight. Who knew that symbology professors were so in demand? He would have picked a much more boring subject had he known the misfortune symbology would bring him, like murderology or videogameology.

Anyway, after he hangs up with the poor guy who had to wait while Robert was thinking about how important he is, Robert now he looks at himself in the mirror:

The past year had taken a heavy toll on him....his usually sharp blue eys looked hazy and drawn tonight. A dark stubble was shrouding his jaw and dimpled chin. Around his temples, the gray highlights were advancing, making their away deeper into the thicket of coarse black hair. Although his female colleagues insisted that the gray only accentuated his bookish appeal, Langdon knew better.

My god, he's hideous. Even though all the female colleagues swear that the gray "highlights" in his hair look good, Langdon knows better. I'll ignore the gray highlights, since Langdon seems to especially hate those, but let's see what this description looks like:

I can't even look, he's so ugly.

Last month, much to Langdon's embarrassment, Boston Magazine had listed him s one of that city's top ten most intriguing people-- a dubious horror that made him the brunt of endless ribbing by his Harvard colleagues. 

How terrible! What a "dubious horror"! Langdon is sooo embarrassed. And then he is introduced at the lecture in France by the lecturer reading from this article in the magazine:

"Although Professor Langdon might not be considered hunk-handsome like some of our younger awardees, this forty-something academic has more than his share of scholarly allure. His captivating presence is punctuated by an unusually slow, baritone speaking voice, which his female students describe as 'chocolate for the ears.'"

*blinks* Um, okay. So even though this poor guy isn't the usual kind of handsome, he has a kind of scholarly allure and a "chocolate" voice that the ladies can't resist...oh, and here he is also later described as usually wearing a "tweed" jacket. Wait. I've got it! Dimpled chin, graying hair, tweed jacket, bookish appearence, forty-something...

I get it. He was describing a picture of the other guy
to throw off how hot he REALLY is.

Oh yeah, and the chapter ends with the policeman coming to Dan Bro-- I mean, Robert Langdon's door because someone has been murdered, and only the symbologist could possibly figure out who did it.

This weekend was too short

Okay I felt like enough time has passed, and I need to write another blog post so I can keep up with my resolution a few months ago to keep this thing regular. I considered writing a weekend lament (it was so young, and left us too soon), but I couldn't come up with anything. I also considered writing a post about how I despise composers who despise composers (because there are a freaking ton of them), but I'm not sure I know enough about the musical world to write that. I don't know, maybe I'll try sometime. Anyway, I'll write a list of good things and bad things about the weekend.

Bad:

• Too short
• Lots of things to do
• I didn't like the secret ingredient on Iron Chef last night
• I saw Moulin Rouge for the first time and it was sooooooooooooo sad
• I spent all my money at Sam Ash (a music store)
• Missed the series premiere of The Legend of Korra (which is the series sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender-- I guarantee a post coming up soon about why that tv show is a really wonderful tv show)

Good:

• Mu Phi initiation
• Got a lot of things done
• The contestant on Iron Chef won against Jose Garces
• I saw Moulin Rouge for the first time and it was sooooooooooooo good
• I got a ton of cool stuff at Sam Ash, including:
• A recorder
• Pocahontas sheet music
• A U2 piano book
• Stand by Me sheet music
• Bohemian Rhapsody sheet music
• Got the series premiere of Legend of Korra free on iTunes!

Aaaand that was mostly it for my weekend. Now I'm sleepy and I think I'm coming down with something. Here is a picture for today:

 

Cast of characters from Kingdom Hearts
(see how many Disney and/or Final Fantasy characters you can recognize!)

Disappointment

It's been an interesting week, and not the good kind of interesting. One thing that has been bothering me more than I can say is the new "anonymous" gossip forum for Trinity University. For those who don't know, It's a despicable place for people to go and anonymously post anything they want to. I will not link to it here. It's easy enough to find if you're desperate-- all I can say is that it's kind of amazing how uncomfortable in my own university this forum has left me. I know I need to get over it, as it seems much of the campus has (I don't actually know why, but this forum has simply not left the back of my mind since it was started), but I want to write one more "serious" post here on the blog before going back to more lighthearted topics.

First off, if a blog is supposed to be anonymous, it should remain anonymous. That includes the the users as well as the people users are posting about. Some people seem to be under the impression that because this website is like /b/ on 4chan, that makes cyberbullying okay. I don't really see how that works, but even if that somehow did make any sense, there is one key difference between TUGossip and 4chan: when you start talking about a specific person, everybody who is reading the posts knows exactly who the users are talking about. On larger online forums, there is a level of anonymity that any user can take advantage of-- not just the people writing the bullying posts, but the victims, as well. On TUGossip, we see the victims every day, and that takes away the anonymity that some people seem to think is so wonderful about this forum. All the users are anonymous, yes. But not the people discussed.

(Also, /b/ already exists. Why exactly do we need another one?)

Secondly, many users seem to love saying things like "wah wah wah" (verbatim) when someone is upset on the forum. I agree that you should not visit it if it will offend or hurt you (and chances are, if you are a decent person, it will)-- However, that doesn't mean that people don't hear about what goes on-- they do-- and there is really no way to avoid that.

I am not trying to control the internet, nor am I trying to control a group of college students. But I came to Trinity largely because of the atmosphere and the community in addition to the education, and I feel as though I have been slapped in the face and teleported back to middle school. There is no reason for some of the posts I have seen, except to simply target people and take cheap shots. I am simultaneously trying to figure out the reasoning behind it and explain just why, exactly, people feel the need to do this to other students. There are so many arguments for why "wimps" shouldn't visit the place, why it technically should be allowed-- in short, why this forum should be defended. "Because it can exist, it should exist" seems to be the most resounding response.


I see this mysterious, driving hunger that people seem to have for writing searingly malicious things towards specific people, and I don't understand: what is so wrong with compassion?

The world isn't a perfect place, as I am learning all the time, but I don't really see that as a justification for perpetuating hate. Most of the posts on the forum are harmful-- more than a couple of students have been seriously, genuinely hurt by them-- and for some strange reason, that isn't enough for anybody to stop defending the forum. Instead, it's the students' fault for not having a thicker skin that protects them from cyberbullying, thus justifying the original posts. But I have yet to find a reason for those.

Does there have to be a reason for everything? No. And apparently that answer is enough to justify simple cruelty. I can't argue with that. If that is someone's mindset, I can't change it. But I can be disappointed. I really am surprised at how incredibly disappointed this week has left me.

No, I don't expect the internet to be both intelligent and compassionate, but I guess I did expect something more along the lines of that from Trinity.

Some thoughts on the Greek Life update

I've been thinking about making a post like this for a while now, despite my perpetual fear of causing controversy. Most of my previous blog posts have been on "safe" topics, if not "lighter." After the email we got today temporarily suspending several Greek sororities and fraternities, and seeing a bunch of angry posts on facebook in response, I did want to write my thoughts and post them, because for once I find that I really want people to know what I am thinking.

(For anyone wanting to read about what has happened, here is an article in the Trinitonian)

I would like to start by making it clear that I have nothing against Greek Life on principle, and I actually know relatively little about what goes on-- I see posts and pictures on facebook, get emails from the Dean, see ads in LeeRoy about various charity events. One of my best friends at Trinity is heavily involved in her sorority, and I know it means a lot to her. I am glad she has a group of sisters that are there for her, and I've seen them come together during difficult times. I really do think that is so amazing, and I would never want to take something like that away.

However. Dean Tuttle wrote in his email:

"Some of the issues considered involved hazing, alcohol use and abuse, sexually exploitative behavior, sexual harassment, coercive behavior, and threats..."

"Hazing" can mean a lot of things, and so while I assume he wouldn't take such drastic measures for a relatively minor incident, I can put this aside for now, as someone who has no clue what, exactly, that entails. Alcohol use and abuse-- again, while it may have been more than normal (hence "abuse"), I will ignore this. The rest of the issues are unacceptable, and I have trouble seeing why people would defend themselves against this. This is not to say that I think every member of the accused Greek Life has participated in this-- I would actually like to make it clear that I do not think that is the case. But if something like this was going on in any organization I belonged to, I would want to spend a significant amount of time trying to figure out what has been going on, and what my group stands for, instead of simply arguing against the accusations. If there is ONE shred of doubt that their organization has not been responsible in any way for sexually harassing a member, or threatening them, then they need to work to try and fix that. I do not blame a whole organization for the acts of a few people, but if anyone who did not actively participate in the events described in the Dean's email are ignoring this issue in their attempt to exonerate themselves, then I do blame them for that.

Here is where I see it as being a big deal:

The victims of the actions above, as well as the people who reported them-- what are they going through right now? What did they go through that made them feel as though they had to report it? I have great difficulty seeing someone report events unless they felt so uncomfortable in their environment that they had no other choice, and that is a problem. The line in Dean Tuttle's email that made me angry was this:

"Retaliation against any individual involved in the investigation is strictly prohibited and will result in a doubling of the sanctions imposed upon the group involved."

If someone is so upset and so uncomfortable that they felt as though they had to report something, knowing the position they were putting themselves into, how are they feeling now? And we have to get an email ordering us not to retaliate against them? We are in college, not middle school. These are supposed to be the best years of our lives, not the worst. And yet someone is being punished for doing something that they saw was either right or necessary for their own health, physical or mental.

AND-- after all that-- the issue that everybody seems to be furious about is the suspension of recognition? If these events are as heinous as they sound, as the rumors have hinted, then I'm sorry: I know these fraternities and sororities mean a whole lot to the people in them, and I know it's unfair to punish a group for the actions of certain people. But what makes me more upset is the treatment that it sounds like some of these people went through, which is now being placed second, in the minds of some students, to the re-recognition of various Greek Life groups.

I have to say-- my heart goes out to the people who have been hurt in this far more than for the groups that got hurt. Despite suspending recognition, the sisters and brothers are still sisters and brothers-- nothing changes that. But if Dean Tuttle is actually genuinely concerned about "retaliation" towards certain individuals over their discomfort with certain practices, then I genuinely hope they too have brothers and sisters that will be there for them.