You know how I said I wasn't going to post anything of my own about the whole Avatar mess? Yeah?

Well, I lied.

( The Bingo Card. )

( Taking apart the arguments. )

So, if you're anywhere near Avatar fandom, you've probably heard: the main cast for the first live-action movie, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, has been announced.

Fandom, so long divided by bitter (and stupid) pairing wars, has largely united to call bullshit on the shocking (but not actually surprising) whiteness. This gives me hope for Avatar fandom.

This post is not really for my own thoughts on the matter, because everyone else has said it better. Instead, it's to collect relevant links and get them out there.

Exhibit A: A letter-writing campaign for those of you who are angry enough to want to do something.

Exhibit B: Various explanations of ( why this is just not right. )

Exhibit C: Relevant icons and my favorite pick-me-up out of the whole mess.

Final thoughts: the presence of Jesse McCartney on that list is just so ridiculous that it makes me hope it's all a hoax. But it's gotten as far as Entertainment Weekly, so that seems unlikely.

So, today lilairen acquired the third season of Avatar and...watched rather a lot of it. In a panic that she would surpass me, I watched the next two episodes I hadn't seen.

Non-spoilery reactions:

"The Southern Raiders" was great; Zuko and Katara make a hell of a team, and I can see why people would enjoy shipping them from it, but I cringe at the thought of the crazier fans insisting that it proves Zuko is "better for" her than Aang. In fact, thinking of how those fans would interpret it slightly lessened my enjoyment of the episode.

"Ember Island Players" was even better. It was scary just how many of fandom's memes they managed to include (the iceberg-egg analogy!). Toph's reaction was terrific, and I loved the way they handled the ending.

I may watch the finale tomorrow; I may not. I'm still working on finishing Persona 3. But I am increasingly thinking that I might try applying for Azula again at polychromatic if she's still open next round. That's assuming I even get through this time, cue application-flail.

From afar, lilairen's brain is mildly broken by realising who Ozai's voice actor is.
Long distance to lilairen: annwyd laughs and laughs.
lilairen pages: He's basically ... playing Vader.
You paged lilairen with '...I had not thought of it that way. Now I'm going to laugh more.'.
From afar, lilairen adds, "Playing Vader complete with evil sociopathic lightnings."
Long distance to lilairen: annwyd dies.
From afar, lilairen wins!

I. I'm four minutes into "The Western Air Temple," and I can't resist posting--how did I forget how good this show was during my breaks from it? How beautifully it handled story-telling in general? I may have to get the DVDs and rewatch the whole damn thing. Despite all the other things I want to watch.

II. Speaking of those other things...I have discovered another reason TVTropes is bad for me. It makes me go, "ooh! This is so my kind of thing! *DOWNLOADS*" Acquired so far for this reason: Red Garden (twenty-two episodes) and Murder Princess (six episodes). I may watch the latter soon, since...it has an ass-kicking princess and lesbian subtext. How can I resist? I also have Mnemosyne, which is similarly short and also has lesbian subtext.

I tried to watch another episode of Princess Tutu last night, but I couldn't get sound from my DVD player. Dammit.

III. Am I the only one who genuinely ships Kureha/Shinbashi (in that order)? I made the mistake of venturing into fandom while looking for scanlations, and it seems like most of fandom either ignores Kureha, hates on her, or sideships her with Shinbashi (even though he's "creepy" according to them...and Sou isn't?) to get her out of the way of the glorious, perfect Sou/Mashiro.

( Spoilerish bits. )

IV. I recently discovered my old copy of Garth Nix's Sabriel, which I read as a kid and really liked. I barely remember any of it, though, and I've heard lots of good things about the whole trilogy, so I'm considering rereading it and then picking up...the others are Lirael and Abhorsen, right? I haven't actually read those; by the time I even heard they existed, I'd long since forgotten most of Sabriel.

V. I was deeply weirded out by today's Penny Arcade. For a while I thought I actually had the same birthday as Gabe, but then I looked it up and realized that his is actually the 25th. So I guess I'm safe.

I'll be getting chocolate from the fancy place after dinner, too!

VI. And now I'd better get back to watching "The Western Air Temple" before I get any more distracted. It's just too good.

The headaches have actually been getting worse. I could barely spend any time on the computer (at least, compared to my usual) today, and I didn't even bother booting up KotOR II. I'm starting to get nauseous from looking at the screen too much, too. I'm not even sure if this is just eyestrain or something else entirely, but I seem to feel better away from the computer.

I'll be making an appointment with the optometrist tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to get new glasses before I leave on vacation on Saturday--but I'm not sure. This post is mostly to say that I'll be pretty scarce. I can still poke around the MU*s occasionally, because I upped the font size on SimpleMU, but I don't think I could do a whole scene. If people on BNB ask, that's what's going on. I'd make hiatus posts at polychromatic and paradisa, but I feel like I monopolize the former's OOC community too much for hiatusing/unhiatusing anyway and, let's face it, not enough of the other players care enough to warrant it. The latter goes especially for paradisa, where I've only just shown up.

So that this post isn't totally me moping, here are some cute songs that I have decided are all about Simon/Nia. Bawww OTP.

Lifesize [A Fine Frenzy]
Another First Kiss [They Might Be Giants]

I think I'll read for a bit (for some reason that doesn't hurt nearly as much as hanging out at the computer), then maybe catch up on Avatar a little. I have both Day of Black Sun episodes recorded on the DVR, even if it seems Nick stubbornly refused to rerun the two episodes following it. Looks like I'll have to wait till I can tolerate the computer again to watch those.

I. So apparently there are no 3.5" drive enclosures in all of New Jersey. My father has ordered one from TigerDirect instead, and it should get here in a week. Fingers crossed that it will worked. I have a lot of stuff on that hard drive that I want to get back to writing...

II. ...including some of my morphworld ideas. I keep hashing out the political system of the Peraneidos Empire and it's just. Such a ridiculously convoluted result of infecting a feudal people with magic and then setting them loose to figure out how this affects their leadership structure. But considering the morphworld story is pretty much me indulging my overly-elaborate setting and character and pairing ideas nonstop, I guess that's okay. I am so ashamed. I am a big proponent of the "do not treat romance as something special or different from any other story element" school of thought that I enjoy so much in Avatar. But...the gleeful fangirl part of me wants to spend big chunks of the story weaving over-the-top epic romances. SIGH.

III. My new monitor--my glorious new 22" flatscreen monitor--is too good. I've been getting eyestrain headaches. But considering that it's been years since I had my eyes checked, I think I'll go do that before trashing the monitor. Maybe if I just need new glasses for this situation. But until then, I'm trying to resist spending too much time focusing too much on the computer screen...and failing. Failing hard. Why am I failing so hard, other than the usual? Well...

IV. Knights of the Old Republic II. It is awesome, and when it totally fails to have a real ending (as I have been warned it will), I will be devastated. The characters are just so damned awesome. I love how they handle and explore the fact that they're all desperately in love with your PC. I also probably shouldn't, but as much as I love Kreia, there's this sulky-thwarted-evil-overlord vibe to her that I find hilarious. She gets so cranky at the other party members.

I'm quite fond of the way "Influence gained: Kreia" serves to confirm that you just did something really manipulative. Also, her total lack of respect for personal mental boundaries. Your mind? Hers!

V. One of the things that has come up in my attempts to settle my RPing efforts has been...maybe my first attempt at RPing on sigillums should be a less elaborate character than Elly. I have another idea--an earnest dork with strange interests, awkward social skills, a history of bad dates, and Patrick from Gundam 00 as a PB--but I think I'd want to talk to some mods before actually going ahead and writing him up. Problem is, I can't find any contact information (aside from the email you're supposed to send your applications to), and while someone gave me an IM I used to contact them a while back, I'm not sure if it's still valid. Does anyone who knows sigillums at all know how to contact the mods?

VI. And now, for lack of anything better to do (I lie: I have a lot of better things to do, but I'm totally not feeling up to them at the moment), a meme.

Five fictional crushes. For each, five reasons it would never work out.

( It gets spammy. )

VII. I want to catch up on Avatar so I can watch the final episodes with everybody. But my eyes hurt, and I want to watch Avatar of all things in relative comfort. Woe.

Oh, this show. ♥

( Cut for spam etc. )

Will start on the third season later. Hopefully I'll go through that faster so that I can start RPing Avatar characters soon.

I. The bat is safely outside. ( Details. )

II. Got into polychromatic and proceeded to make my entrance post. It's currently at 131 comments, WTF. LJ RP moves faster than I expected. It will be Difficult balancing it.

But it's been fun! I cracked the fuck up when Omar started nosing around about the City's drug culture, only to be told that he should ask Spider Jerusalem.

Apparently Spider Jerusalem lives next door to Raoul Duke, which makes it even better.

I'm already making horrible plans for when I apply for John there. Of course.

III. I am having a problem related to the above, though: namely, the need to keep a separate browser open to run Omar's LJ (blue_satin_pjs, for the record. Of course). This raises the question of what I'll do when I'm playing more LJ RP characters than I have browsers, but for now, I have another problem. Namely: Opera is pissing me the fuck off. Sometimes it just refuses to follow links when I click on them. Does anyone have any advice? Know any other browsers they can recommend? I normally use Firefox and am quite satisfied with it.

IV. Forgot to mention earlier: I watched "Appa's Lost Days" yesterday. Augh. Did I mention that "animals struggling to make their way in a world they don't properly understand" is about the surest thing ever to tug on my heartstrings?

Also, oh, Suki, I love you so. I have to say, it's impressive that even though she's a minor character who until then had no purpose other than being a love interest for Sokka, she still got to fight and be badass in her own right, not as an Obligatory Love Interest. This show is so respectful of its own characters. More fiction should follow that lead. You can't go wrong with treating your characters with care and respect.

Also, this episode reminds us of a bonus bit of personality that I'd forgotten: Suki is a leader. Not necessarily the best one ever, but a heartfelt and inspiring one, at least. That counts as personality, guys. It's kind of amazing how they fleshed her out so much given only three episodes. Sure, Zuko and the Gaang have a lot more depth, but they've had the entire show!

...I want Toph and Suki for myself. Screw Sokka. Except not, because he and Suki are just so damned perfect for each other, so I guess I'll just wait until Toph grows up and take her.

V. I still plan on getting to the "wacky fandom conspiracy theory" meme of my last post. If you haven't, comment there with a wacky fandom conspiracy theory!

Edit: VI. ☆ The Fanficcers Love Meme ☆

Tell me what's your favorite of my fanfics. Because I always like hearing feedback about my writing.

You guys...I have a new OTP.



x



Yeah, yeah, I know: Iroh is for the ladies, and Omar prefers younger men. But through the power of dorky tropical hats, love will find a way.

I'm going to avoid saying anything serious about the new episode for now but a;fjldsf;dl I wish I had more people to babble about it with. :<

I would so watch an entire episode consisting of Toph and Iroh having tea and discussing life together.

As a matter of fact, I would watch a spinoff about that.

Watched "Zuko Alone" before work today. I know the whole point is that it's, well, Zuko alone, but I still could have done with some more Iroh.

Also, Toph is really awesome.

I have too many things to watch, write, read, do to focus on Avatar like this, but I'm not sure I have a choice anymore. I'll get back to Gurren Lagann soon, though, honest. And to icon-making--I want to finish that damn Cagalli claim soon, even if SEED fandom seems to be too dead to pay attention to it anymore. It's not even about the attention-whoring at this point, it's about getting it done.

Other things I want to work on icons of:
--More Avatar
--Claymore (for serious)
--More Wire
--Some Doctor Who and Torchwood
--More LSH (I have not forgotten this and still need to finish uploading the badstuff arcs for dragonsquee's masochistic sense of completion)
--More Hellblazer (just as a matter of principle)

Things I need to catch up on/finish:
--Avatar
--Claymore
--Gurren Lagann
--Doctor Who
--Torchwood
--The Wire
--Berserk
--Bleach? Meh. On the other hand, wtf mpreg?? Oh, KT.

Anyway, I started spinning this out at work as a draft on Gmail, and I got it about two-thirds done. Having finished the rest, here it is. Considering the wide gaps in my Avatar expertise so far, both fandom- and canon-wise, I'm sure someone else has written this idea before, and done it better at that. But I felt the need to write it, which makes me happy; it's more than I've written in some time.

( she's got the fire and the fury at her command )

My sleep schedule is appalling. Got home from work at four yesterday, having been lectured and feeling terrible about it. Cleaned up after Christopher (he is not doing well--but he's still eating, and he's overdue for his shot anyway, so hopefully that will help). Talked to my aunt. Had something to eat. Toppled into bed at seven; woke up at two in the morning. Great idea!

...I did go back to sleep at about eight, whereupon I slept until one in the afternoon. Some part of my brain is still not entirely sure what day it is. Hopefully sleeping at a more usual time tonight will fix that somewhat.

With all that sleep chaos, I didn't accomplish much today. In fact, my greatest accomplishment...was making cat macros and icons. Sigh. Nevertheless, I feel the need to ( share the cat macros. )

The icons aren't particularly impressive, but I did upload a few, including a new default; slowly I become more satisfied with my own personal collection of icons. This batch included an abused Sokka and an adorable Rydia from the new FFIV DS remake trailer. I want that game so very badly. Of course, first I need a DS.

Gathering screencaps for Avatar icons did turn up something amusing, though. You see, AvatarSpirit.net has an interface which lets you search its screencaps. You can search in many ways, but these include "by character" and "by emotion." I decided to play around with some combinations of these two and see what I got.

Sokka + angst = 0
Aang + angst = 18
Zuko + angst = 71
Sokka + embarrassment = 31

...I'm not sure who to feel sorrier for, Zuko or Sokka.

I'll try to watch more Avatar tomorrow, but the Wire has eaten my brain again. Thanks, Season 4. >:( It's especially painful since I have to wait for my mother to be available to watch more, and she has a meeting tomorrow night. Augh. So in the meanwhile, I ramble. I've been thinking, you see. ( About the Wire, of course. )

And...I have a shameful admission to make. I really, really want somewhere more to RP Omar. I still feel weirdly wrong RPing such a serious business character from such a serious business show, but damn do I need it. I'm even considering LJ RPs, if people will help show me how to RP in them. Thoughts? Recommendations? Slaps upside the head?

So, I've watched up to Avatar 2x02. This obviously does not make me an expert. I haven't even met Toph yet, or Mai and Ty Lee, and I'm sure I'll love all of them. But man, I love it already. ( Blah blah blaaaah. )

Despite Avatar, I haven't given up on other fandoms. Earlier today, I started watching Season 4 of the Wire at long, long last. This show is so damned amazing, I need to rattle my friendslist until more of you watch it. >:O I'm going to watch at least another episode later tonight. I have a terrible, terrible feeling that the kids this season are going to break my heart, and I will love it and beg for more.

Finally, I also haven't given up on my comics fandoms. I will pimp out postboot Legion of Super-Heroes some more, and you will like it. Then, just for the mood whiplash, I'll upload lots of Hellblazer. Soon. And everyone will see my idiotic love for John Constantine.

( Cut more for spam than for spoilers. )

Edit: Also, Zuko is really shockingly gay for Aang.