it's a magical world

OOF it has been a week. Um, including last week. I'm not so good at keeping the days straight at the moment. I have a thing I'm gonna post a little later, but for now, I've got to return to my sorely neglected December meme. Fortunately, there weren't really any requests for later in the month, so I've got plenty of space to catch up. (Also, my internet is out at my apartment, which SUCKS. I'm at my parents' instead at the moment.)

musesfool prompted: Avatar: The Last Airbender &/or Legend of Korra

For starters, I am so far behind on LoK right now it's not even funny. I think I watched the first two episodes of the 2nd season? Maybe three? So I can't comment on any recent events in that 'verse.

But, okay, on the offhand chance that there are a handful of people reading this who have never watched Avatar: the Last Airbender (the SHOW, not the dreadful movie of which we do not speak), LET ME EXPLAIN.

No, wait, there is too much. LET ME SUM UP.

A:tLA is a children's cartoon that has some of the most beautiful, complex, and mature storytelling and worldbuilding of any TV show in the history of ever. Visually, it's gorgeous, but more importantly, the characters are freaking amazeballs. Zuko's character arc gives me life, no lie. You've got this angry, bitter teenager set up from episode one as your primary antagonist, and he starts out as this seemingly one-note villain, and then he's NOT. Spoilers from here on. Oh, my god, this is a children's show that takes a good hard look at emotional abuse by a parent and how lingering trauma can manifest itself in very different ways -- contrast Zuko and his redemption arc with Azula's spiral into sociopathy, which I do think was partly her defense mechanism to avoid Daddy's wrath and mold herself into the perfect Fire Princess, but I digress. Zuko's character growth from prince in exile and hunter of the Avatar to his solo journey of self-discovery to one last ditch effort to regain his father's love to the Gaang's wary ally to Fire Lord is just...goddamn, I've got a thing in my eye.

So, okay, clearly Zuko is my favorite, but let's talk about all the other kickass characters. I have to admit, Aang is my least favorite, but not because I dislike him. He's a sweet, funny kid who had to grow up way too fast and primarily dealt with it by, you know, not really growing up at all. And he's a twelve-year-old boy! That is perfectly valid! I don't think he has a strong arc, though, since the show goes out of its way to avoid forcing him to actually confront or change his beliefs in any way -- Deus Ex Lion-Turtle -- but he's a lot of fun to watch onscreen. But then we have Katara, the queen of my heart, who also had to grow up way too fast, and she did, and then relearns how to be a child again through Aang, but also how to become a strong woman and hugely powerful bender in her own right. She makes mistakes along the way -- she can be too proud, too stubborn, too quick to anger -- but she has a huge heart capable of the most beautiful forgiveness, and she's fierce and smart and organized and capable, and she's the freaking Painted Lady. And her brother Sokka, the comic relief who grows into so much more, and finds his own strengths! Toph, the tiny blind girl who can kick your ass and LAUGH AT YOU while she does it! Mai, the moody teenager who is willing to give up everything she's been taught to hold dear just to save the jerk who dumped her! Tai Lee, the sparkly bubbly ninja assassin! UNCLE IROH, LET ME LOVE YOU AND YOUR TEA FOREVER.

Also, this show teaches some really tough lessons to kids. Like sometimes, no matter how good your intentions, you will fail at what you do -- sometimes catastrophically -- and you have to learn to pick yourself back up again. Oh, my god, the season 2 finale has one of the bleakest endings I have ever seen in any TV show ever, including, like, Battlestar Galactica. It touches on themes of parental neglect and emotional abuse, of abandonment and grief and betrayal. And love, and hope, and forgiveness, and becoming the person you were meant to be, not necessarily the person you were told you ought to become. UGH I HAVE ALL THE FEELINGS. ALL OF THEM.

LoK never grabbed me in quite the same way -- I think the writing has been much weaker, the plot and character arcs oversimplified, and the characters far more two-dimensional. Maybe the bulk of the second season improved on the first, and eventually I'll get around to watching it, but I've not been terribly impressed so far. I also just straight up don't like the narrative or visual style as much. But we'll see.

I'm back on another show now (started last Tuesday), which means I pretty much dropped off the face of the internets for the past week. It's been fun readjusting to running eight performances a week all over again, and this show's a bit more labor intensive than the last few. Less stressful, because I've taken over as ASM and am only running backstage rather than the entire production, but there's a whole lot of crap to run backstage on this one. Two-hour show, ninety solid minutes of preshow prep and about half an hour of postshow, and I'm on my feet doing shit for all but maybe half an hour or so of all that, scattered in small bits and bobs throughout. Which is totally fine and doable -- it's not like I'm working a 12-hour shift waiting tables or anything actually taxing -- but it's taking a little adjusting to. My last couple of shows at this theater were much lower key during the performances themselves -- I got through all of A:tLA on last winter's show, and wrote bucketloads of XMFC fic during the summer show. For this one, not so much with the down time. And I didn't check DW/LJ/Tumblr at ALL over the weekend, so spent most of my downtime at the day job today catching up. Still, it means my internet/writing time will be greatly curtailed for the next few weeks while this show's running. Such is life. Also, I'm tired, man, I'd forgotten how brutal getting home at 11:30pm every night and getting right back up again at 6:30am for the day job with only Monday nights off can be. But it's a good show, lovely cast and production team, so I'm not sorry. It's more that I wish this were my ONLY job.

Not feeling very optimistic on the getting-out-of-DC front at the moment. I applied for about ten different summer theater gigs, and have only gotten one interview out of the whole batch. But pretty much the only thing that gets me to work in the mornings is telling myself that it's only for a few more months. If that turns out to be a lie...I don't know. My morale at my day job is absolute shit these days. I want out very, very badly. And I'd vastly prefer to leave FOR another job rather than just leave for no reason but my own unhappiness. It's an easy job, decent paycheck, great benefits, good organization. It's just that I've been there for two and a half years and I'm so bored I could weep and I'm just flat out sick of answering fucking phones all day every day with no end in sight. Urg. Being unhappy all the time is exhausting, y'all.

Way behind on responding to comments and things. Also, totally forgot to pimp out white_lotus, which everyone who loves Avatar: the Last Airbender should really be checking out because the Lunar New Year exchange is awesome. I got a very sweet Katara/Zuko fic, Waiting to Spark, which people should read because yay! And it handles Mai and Aang very respectfully, albeit offscreen, which is important to me. I realize that I happen to ship a pairing that's at the epicenter of a very ugly shipwar in the fandom, which saddens me because I just love all the characters so much, okay, why can't we all just ship whoever we want without having to bash other people's favorite characters/ships in the process? I do not understand fandom in this way. ANYWAY. This fic doesn't do that. And it's very IC for both Katara and Zuko a few years down the line, and it makes me very happy. The end. :) Not sure how obvious my own contribution to the exchange is, so feel free to guess once everything's been posted. As always, I'll make you a thing.

And...yeah. So that's stuff. We apologize for the stultifying dullness of this post.

I'm nearly done with A:tLA -- probably will finish it by the end of the weekend -- and I have to ask. Um. Does anyone have any Katara/Zuko recs? Because I ship them so hard, and I know they aren't canon so I need to get my fix elsewhere.

From what I can gather, there was some kind of fandom ship war between them and Aang/Katara shippers? I really detest ship wars. I have no problem with Aang/Katara as a (canon) pairing, it just doesn't particularly interest me. And from what little I've read so far, the best fics in this fandom tend toward gen anyway. Which is lovely, really, and I've read a few good ones. But man, I could use some good Katara/Zuko right now. Preferably the sort that doesn't bash Aang or Mai in the process, because hello, Aang and Mai are both awesome characters in their own right (and Mai/Ty Lee is my secondary ship of choice for obvious reasons of awesometastic femslashiness). But, uh, yeah. Anyone?

WHONIVERSE FANS. You have failed me! I realize that many of us (including me) tend to overlook SJA. I am very guilty of this myself. I've seen a handful of SJA episodes and enjoyed them all, and yet I keep failing to watch the whole series properly.

But guys, the Doctor was in the latest episode. THERE CAN BE NEW ELEVEN IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW.

[ETA: ( really, really minor SJA spoilers )

This is almost as exciting as the fact that I finally figured out what song to use for Festivids.

Speaking of children's shows, I've been mainlining Avatar: the Last Airbender lately. Have finally got to the first Toph episode, which is nice because everyone talked about her so much and I was curious. And, yes, okay, this show is kind of amazing. You win. Katara kicks much ass, as expected, and Aang is...not my favorite, but it's not his fault he's a twelve-year-old boy, and other than that I like him. Zuko makes my heart flutter in ways animated characters really shouldn't, and also I feel like such a stereotypical fangirl, but whatever. I kind of randomly ship Zuko/Katara? Which I know is stupid, because Katara and Aang are clearly True Love Destiny etc etc etc. And they're cute, too. I just can't get over Aang being twelve, it kind of squicks me to imagine him in any romantic connotation. Eh, whatever, SO not the point of the show. WHICH IS AWESOME.

AND I LOVE SOKKA SO MUCH I KIND OF DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF. He's all snarky and sarcastic and sidekick-y, but he absolutely kicks ass despite having no magical powers, and it's really nice to see that you don't need to be special in any way to be loyal and brave and AWESOME. Especially with the power of snark on your side. Which isn't to say he doesn't have utter asshole moments -- hello, teenage boy -- but he generally learns from his mistakes and becomes a better person for them, and Katara is always there to kick him down a notch when he deserves it. SO WE'RE ALL GOOD.

Sokka: How did you guys get out?
Aang: Just like the legend says. We let love lead the way.
Sokka: Really? We let huge ferocious beasts lead our way.

SOKKA ILU FOREVER.

...yeah, this is what happens when I have a whole evening to myself. Wacky fun.