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Hello, and welcome to this episode
of Superhero Ethics. Today we are continuing,

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we are finalizing our conversations about Avatar
the Last Airbender. Those who are

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watching on video can see that we
are a little pinch, that we are

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a little punchy after doing four episodes
in a row. But we're here.

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We're excited. Four days of episodes
in a row, eight episodes in four

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days. But I have to say, folks, if you go back and

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listen to how we were all kind
of down on this on the first day,

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and we all kind of like had
different things we found, and we're

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all, I think, kind of
like hyping each other up on this a

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little bit more. I sat down
to watch these two episodes this morning,

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and I was genuinely disappointed that I
was finishing the show. Oh okay,

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I think it's gonna be another like
Reeky and I are one and Matthews on

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another. Well it could be because
you you were saying that sentence, and

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I started to like nod because these
last two episodes, I was generally disappointed.

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Well yeah, you know, I'm
saying before I started these two episodes,

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okay, yeah, yeah, oh
okay, I was more. I

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was surprised that I was looking forward
to watching them as much as I was.

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You know, I was like,
because I thought to that point,

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episode six was probably the strongest,
and it felt like it had been kind

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of building momentum and moving more in
a direction that I enjoy and yeah,

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so I was like, oh,
yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to,

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you know, wrapping this up,
not so much, you know,

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already bemoaning that it's going to be
like two years at least until you see

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the rest of the story, if
anything, you know. But but I

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was like looking forward to like,
you know, seven and eight, Okay,

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finally the North after I guess six
episodes, but like, you know,

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yeah, but and uh, how
to podcast Rieky is disappointed? Paul,

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What did you think of these two
episodes? Yeah, that's kind of

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where I am. I mean,
I don't know if disappointed is exactly the

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word for how I felt, but
kind of it felt to me more like

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the first two episodes in terms of
how I felt about them. They were

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like some things that annoyed me.
I felt like, you know, some

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choices that I understand where they're coming
from, but that I don't really like.

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And then you know, some more
of the just like super on the

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nose, but also just like great
acting from several of the performers, you

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know, and some some solid action. And I will say when Guitara fights

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Poku and they're doing the water bending, that was the first time I had

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ever thought, oh, this is
just like a splash splack. She's like,

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yeah, okay, now I saw
it, and I'm like, ah,

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you've ruined it for me. But
then they went to the ice and

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I was like, okay, okay, now this this feels a little more

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serious now, but it is very
dancy. And I did go back and

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watch the first episode, and I
noticed the way they shoot some of the

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bending, particularly from Katara early on, especially where they show her, they

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show the results of the bending,
but not the physical motion of the bender,

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and that is an editing thing that
feels a little jarring to me.

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And I wonder if it's because they
didn't feel like, you know, the

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motions from the actors were what they
wanted, you know, whereas like with

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some of the other characters, it
feels like like with Zuko and I think

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a Zula, like they really show
you know, them doing the thing and

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the bending along with their motions as
opposed to the water bending. Until the

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that fight with Paku, it felt
to me like it was not like they

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weren't showing the bending, they were
showing the bent essentially. Yeah, that

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makes sense. Yeah, that's something
on rewatch I probably want to pay attention

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to is specifically Katara, because she's
clearly gotten more powerful as a bender across

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this season, and I would be
curious to just like watch her form,

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right that has become you know,
like tighter, Like if her form has

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become tighter and she's practiced it more
and yeah, and that would make sense

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in a story sense. Yeah,
yeah, I'm curious. Matthew, did

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you know that this show was going
to be in basically like two episode arcs?

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No, I had no idea.
Yeah, that has worked out pretty

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well for I will say I'm not
incredibly surprised by that. Like, I

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think that that is a fairly common, especially for a season that is eight

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episodes long. You know, if
this were nine episodes long, I would

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have said, like, we probably
should do three at a time or something

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like that, because you know,
but it's it's very deliberate because, like

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looking at the credits, each two
episode arc is directed by the same person.

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Yeah, I realized that four directors. Yeah no, I definitely didn't

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really like, I did not realize
it was gonna be anywhere to you that

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extent. I think it worked out
really well though. Yeah, for sure,

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Sometimes sometimes it's good to be lucky
exactly. So, Riki, why

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would you say you were disappointed?
Oh gosh, well, but let's let's

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not start with that. I don't
know, I want to start Paul mentioned

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performances, and throughout the season,
I think we've all been very high on

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the Jao performance from Ken Leung,
and he absolutely nailed it in this episode

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in what is What I hope will
go down as one of the greatest villain

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performances of all time and on this
show. And you know, in Star

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Wars we talk about villains and sometimes
we prefer like complex villains or villains that

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we can relate to, and Joo
is just like a completely unrelatable, like

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unrepentant villain in my opinion, and
it works for this character, and it

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works for the performance that he gave. Just like the over the top yelling

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of like I am the Moonslayer,
it was just absolutely pitch perfect. Yeah,

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I loved it. I would you
maybe I'm gonna tell like a horrible

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person here. I don't I mean
relatable in the way that like like Magneto

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or someone like that is sort of
like, Okay, I think I understand

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your goals. I just maybe don't
love your methods or I recognize that the

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writer doesn't want me to love your
methods or whatever it is. So I

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would not say he's relatable at all. On that, I do think that

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I had some under like to me, especially by the end and as part

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of the great acting, he feels
like he's cracked, like he has somewhat

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lost his hold and kind of you
know, the kind of delusion to the

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grandeur that I'm the slayer, I'm
all of this. He is not the

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kind of like cool, calm person
he was and cool and calm, but

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like he's definitely kind of a little
bit gone off the deep end by the

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end. But to me, part
of what I saw was, you know,

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Azula's manipulating him. He's being given
all these different orders from like you

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know, he he's part of a
fire Lord system where everybody is basically taught

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like do all you can to advance, including stabbing the other guy in the

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back and so yeah, again,
like I'm not like, oh, poor

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Joao, but I am like,
yeah, like, in a system that

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treats people like this, some people
are gonna crack like this. I totally

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believe that, and it made him
to me a much more interesting villain even

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so, because like then it's not
just like moahaha, ultimate power. It's

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like I completely see where he got
to this point. But that point was

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you're right, just purely like malevolent
you know, destruction that had to be

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stopped. But I mean he did
have that. At one point he declared

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that he was going to be the
fire lord. Yeah, yeah, no,

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I'll agree with you. And so
one of the one of the subtle

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things that they did previously was Jao
that I think really paid off and I

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enjoyed is I think it was maybe
like Iro talking to Lieutenant Gee and Zuko

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or something like that, but basically
like called him out as an incompetent UH

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war leader, right, not very
good one. Yeah yeah, like all

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his skills into question. And from
that moment forward, like I examined the

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character in that lens and it just
all made sense. Like he's a mid

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to low level commander in a remote
outpost who kind of got lucky with you

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know, the avatar landing in his
lap, and then tried to insert himself

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into a system and just was like
not good enough either militarily or politically,

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and got played by all the sides
and thought he could do this thing and

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just failed. And he's he's so
interesting to me in that way that he

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reached for the moon literally yeah,
and and couldn't hold onto it. So

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I'm going to draw a potentially very
weird comparison and you might laugh me out

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of the room, and that's fine. Well, I'm in my own room.

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I'm not leaving it. But you
know that would be really impressive if

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out of the room, that'll be
high level bending there exactly exactly, But

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to some extent, I'm kind of
thinking of this whole system. It's very

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similar to what the world of the
Sith is like of you know, the

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strong rewarded, the weaker punished,
and so you're constantly like you're constantly like

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encouraged like cut corners, do everything
you can to try and get better and

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stuff like that. And as you
said, the people who try to work

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in the system and fail. He
kind of reminds me of Darth Maul,

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like Mal is much more complicated,
but the whole, especially his speech to

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the end at Zuko, it kind
of reminded me of like Mal talking to

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Ahsoka or some of the others,
you know where It's like he didn't seem

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like he was lying to Zuko to
try to fuck with him. He was

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trying to be like I have now
come to realize, you know, that

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I reached for this and I failed, and I was maniplated by Azula and

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all of this, and it's like
we're all we're all just coged to this

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horrible machine and just his whole like
I want, especially that line about wanting

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to be the fire Lord. You
know where does that come from? It's

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just that like he's gotten onto the
latter and now he thinks he has this

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opportunity for greatness and so he's gonna
take it as far as it can.

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Mm hmm uh. In terms of
Star Wars characters, I thought he was

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very similar to Orson Kranick. Yeah, actually I see that one really well

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too. Krannick had these delusions of
grandeur of what he was going to be

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able to accomplish with the Death Star
project, and then Tarkan just like joinked

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the rug right from under him and
he got hoisted by his own gaitars and

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like this killed by the death star. That that was actually the one thing

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I didn't like, the change that
they made to how Jao dies in the

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end. I mean, I presume
he's maybe they'll change that in the future,

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but in the animated show, correct
me if I'm wrong. But he

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was killed by the spirit right,
like the either the moon spirit or the

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ocean spirit, like yanks him away
into the spirit world. Is that I

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thought he had just like fell to
his presumed doom and it was as a

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result of the damage. I have
not recently rewatched as you two have them.

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Yeah, my memory is he kind
of falls to the mercy of the

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spirits, right, and Zuko actually
like there they were fighting and then the

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spirits grab him and Zuko actually reaches
out and tries to save it, which

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was a nice like Zuko moment,
like even in the midst of combats,

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like I want to try to save
your life, because I think in the

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Legend of Kora, there's a brief
cameo of Jao wandering in the fog of

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lost souls, which gets you got
used in this show. I think originally

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it was from there and he's just
wandering around still muttering to himself like I

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am the Moon Slayer. Mm hmmm
hmm. Yeah. Here it was interesting.

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I mean, it was definitely different. It's a choice and it I

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thought it was interesting that I Rose
the one who fireballed him, right yeah,

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And I feel like he did that
not just to save Zuko from potentially

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getting killed by Joo, but to
save Zuko from killing Joo. Could be

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yeah, like yeah, I don't
know. I kind of Zuko's back was

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to him at that moment, right
yeah. It was like he had turned

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away from Joao and then jo stood
up and was gonna attack him. Yeah,

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and like he didn't call out to
him or anything. He just you

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know, kind of roasted him.
I was. I've loved the ideas behind

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how it all ended, Like I
loved where Joo was coming from, but

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I kind of felt they stumbled on
the execute in a couple of ways.

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And this is one of those examples
where I felt like doing it this way.

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A we now have Iro straight up
killing somebody, which like I think

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he would in an absolute killer be
killed situation, he would kill. But

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I do think he is. He
probably as much as Aang is going to

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try to avoid that at absolutely all
costs. But more to the point,

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Zuko here has learned a lesson of
compassion. He doesn't kill Jao Zoo.

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And for the show to say Zuko
let him live and would have died because

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of that if Iro hadn't saved him, that doesn't really encourage by the way,

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you did the right Like it's it
basically saying like, Luko almost got

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himself killed by being compassionate, And
I don't think the show was trying to

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say you shouldn't have been compassionate,
so that that part of the execution felt

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weird. But also the whole scene
where he winds up killing the fish first

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of all my memory and I saw
the show only a couple of the animated

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a couple of days ago. This
whole like the earths right, and yeah,

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he kind of like kidnaps it and
like therefore takes that out of the

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water. But big part of that
is because in the original they don't take

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this mortal form for today, they're
always swimming around in there. And I

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admit the idea that these two spirits
want to experience life as mortal on earth,

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and so every day they do that
by swimming in a circle in a

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pond, with the only other living
thing being their other spirit. They spend

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all their time with you. Kind
of lost me a little bit on that,

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but fine, I can let go
of that. He says he's gonna

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do this. Iro is standing right
behind him and says, if you do,

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I will blast you, And so
Iro just sits there and watches while

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he reaches into the pool, picks
up the fish, put it in the

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bag, and then is about kill
it when Iro decides I have to walk

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around night. So I'm now in
a ninety degree angle with him where actually

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now the guards can see if I'm
about to do this. And then he

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blasts him, and of course it
doesn't work because Zoo is delabled to get

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00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:17.120
to the knife. Like it felt
kind of like the mace window wind up.

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00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:21.799
You know, the emotional content of
this could be great, but if

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00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:25.039
I'm stuck thinking about the physics of
the fight, and not in a like

207
00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.399
interesting way, but just in a
like yeah, like Darth. You know,

208
00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:30.960
I don't know where Darth Vader is
in obi Wan kind of a way

209
00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:34.159
that that's not well done. Yeah, I'm with you on that. That

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00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:41.240
whole thing felt. I mean,
if he's gonna kill Joao later, right,

211
00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:44.559
like why not just kill him in
the hot air balloon? You know

212
00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:48.960
when he says he's gonna literally murder
the moon, you know what I mean?

213
00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:52.440
Like, I guess there were a
few of them in the in the

214
00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:53.679
air balloon, it wasn't just the
two of them. But I kind of

215
00:16:53.679 --> 00:17:00.759
felt like, wait, you're really
gonna take I row up into an air

216
00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:03.640
balloon and then tell him that you're
going to kill the moon, like you

217
00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:07.519
think this is going to work out
for you, and then like it worked

218
00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.880
out fine for a little while for
him, But yeah, yeah, I'm

219
00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.119
with you. The window I didn't
pick up on the the Iro walking around.

220
00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:19.279
What I picked up on was the
after Iro declares like, if you

221
00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:22.720
do, I have to stop you. Yeah, but he didn't even say

222
00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:26.359
I have to stop you. It
was like I have to punish you if

223
00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:30.599
you do it, basically right.
But Joao at that point is like,

224
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:33.559
well, you're coming with me because
you are the one who can identify the

225
00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:37.559
spirits, right, right, because
you're you're so knowledgeable about spirits. And

226
00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:42.960
then he doesn't right, like Joo
just comes upon the lake and sees the

227
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:45.880
two and is like, oh,
Yin and Yang, I identified the spirits.

228
00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:52.039
Cool right, right, right?
Some something is off with with that

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00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:55.640
whole sequence, I think, Yeah, And when I when this type of

230
00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:59.160
when when this? When I see
this kind of stuff, Now, my

231
00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:03.799
instinct nowadays goes to rewrites, like
someone rewrote something and they had to like

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00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:07.480
change the order or something like that. It's like, well, this,

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00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:11.400
we need to still have a scene
with them talking on the balloon, et

234
00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:15.920
cetera. But so, yeah,
something was off. I don't I don't.

235
00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.200
I don't think it was like all
written out that way. This is

236
00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:25.839
just what we ended up with,
is my guess. Yeah, yeah,

237
00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:29.559
I can't agree with that, and
even having it be the balloons, like

238
00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:33.720
it's straight out of the show.
But it's like in season three that Sokka

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00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:38.480
sees that the technology helped create is
now being used and if all kind of

240
00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:44.200
a wastetom was to use it this
early, yeah, oh go ahead.

241
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:51.279
The the balloon thing that happens in
the same episode in the Mechanist episode,

242
00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:55.359
we see that there that they have
balloons and they're starting to use them,

243
00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:56.720
but they don't no, no,
no, they don't actually use them yet,

244
00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:03.519
right, there's apologies. No,
Yeah, the mechanism uses a balloon

245
00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.160
to defend the air temple that they
were up. Yeah, and then it

246
00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:12.759
crashes and then yeah, then the
fire nation right, right engineer basically Yeah,

247
00:19:12.759 --> 00:19:18.640
but there was more of a kind
of like season long or multi season

248
00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:22.440
long setup of that. Yeah,
like, oh, they recover the balloon.

249
00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:27.960
I'm sure, like you know Chekhov's
hot air balloon exactly. I do

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00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:32.440
want to quickly say, speaking of
technology, not only do we get to

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00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:36.359
have the fun of these conversations and
Paul laughing at my bad transitions, but

252
00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:38.880
you guys can join us in the
conversation too. We had some feedback yesterday.

253
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:42.720
We have some feedback today. I've
seen people start to comment on things.

254
00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:45.359
Would love to know what you think. Do you agree with us,

255
00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:48.440
do you disagree? Do you have
a question you want to hear us discuss.

256
00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:52.039
We'll definitely be doing a feedback episode
about avatars. Was bringing in some

257
00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:55.519
other guests and things like that on
screen now. If you're watching, but

258
00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:57.839
also just in the show notes or
on our website, you have to Gopana

259
00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:00.720
dot com. You'll find all the
ways to reach us. We're on Instagram,

260
00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.359
TikTok, Twitter, and email.
Let us know what you think.

261
00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:07.880
We get some more commentary that we're
gonna read out in the next couple of

262
00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:11.400
weeks. We'd love to hear to
say. Also, if you want more

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00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:15.240
content like this, when we're not
doing an episode every day for four days,

264
00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.359
we generally do bonus content at the
end of most episodes. Sometimes it's

265
00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:21.839
related to the topic. Sometimes it's
a little bit of a tangent. Sometimes

266
00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:23.119
we plan for it to be related
to the topic, but it's Paul,

267
00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:27.480
so we go off on a crazy
tangent. Anyway, And for only five

268
00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:30.480
dollars a month, you get the
bonus content, you get add free content,

269
00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:33.960
and you get to help support the
podcast. It's a really great way

270
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.839
to help us keep the lights on
and keep us doing what we're doing.

271
00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:41.440
So please think about if you like
the podcast, YouTube like, subscribe,

272
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:44.680
do all those things, write us
reviews, share this with people. It's

273
00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:45.839
such a good way for more people
to find out and join the conversation.

274
00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:51.160
Let us know what you think and
become a member. Back to our regular

275
00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:56.079
scheduled podcast already in progress. I
think your transitions are wonderful and I think

276
00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:59.920
you to call them seacans instead of
tangents, because they all go through the

277
00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:11.720
circle, not offs. I appreciate
that. I appreciate that. Yeah,

278
00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:15.759
So I guess I never really gave
my kind of overall feeling of these episodes.

279
00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:19.400
Some of the storylines that I wanted
done well, I thought were done

280
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:26.440
very well. I thought the stuff
with you A was very good. I

281
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:33.680
really believed her and uh uh Zuko
Sokka falling for each other, the idea

282
00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:36.920
that she's been dreaming about him for
a while, which I think is kind

283
00:21:36.920 --> 00:21:40.000
of implied but stated when she says, because you're the boy of my dreams.

284
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.160
But also like this is a woman
who's half the moon, so like

285
00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:48.000
she gets to be a little flighty, And I did really like I want

286
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.079
to ask Griegy about one thing about
this, which I'll do at the end

287
00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:56.839
of this her being that three tailed
fox that we had seen early on in

288
00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:00.000
the last couple of episodes in the
Spirit World, and him making that connect

289
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.039
because of the medallion that she wears
that the fox had on one of its

290
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:07.079
tails. So I liked all that. That was all really good. I

291
00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:12.440
agree with you. I thought Joao
was phenomenal, and I again thought Zuko

292
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:21.359
was amazing. I didn't need the
sexism of the water tribe U and Mary

293
00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:23.720
was with me, and I often
kind of think, like, you know,

294
00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:26.000
I'm not gonna look to like the
one woman I'm watching me at the

295
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:30.319
moment and be let's say, like
Mary be the authoritative voice. But I

296
00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:34.200
remember, like when the whole stuff
about Socca came out, uh, for

297
00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:37.319
those who don't know, there were
rumors beforehand that that socca sexism was going

298
00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:40.920
to be cut out. A lot
of people were upset about this because they

299
00:22:40.920 --> 00:22:42.880
said it's really important for Socca's growth. But then I also saw a lot

300
00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:47.839
of folks, including particularly women,
often saying, look, it would actually

301
00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:49.839
be nice for us to see a
woman hero who doesn't have to overcome the

302
00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:56.200
sexism and misogyny of those around her, and putting when you don't have it

303
00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:00.319
as part of Socca's story, putting
it in here it is truer to the

304
00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:03.720
original, but it also felt kind
of like, well, why are you

305
00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:07.240
cutting one but not cutting the other. I will, though, say that

306
00:23:07.319 --> 00:23:11.160
I thought it was well done if
you're gonna have it in there, And

307
00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:17.039
I thought the way of not only
does like he recognize her talent, but

308
00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:19.279
that all of the younger people are
like, well, no, that's dumb.

309
00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:22.680
We just saw you do that really
cool thing throwing ice discs. We

310
00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.559
want you to learn. Like I
loved that, and that that the older

311
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:27.480
guy, I want to say,
Pooka, but I know that's wrong.

312
00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:32.799
That he kind of comes to recognize
how much others respect her was also really

313
00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:38.519
important. And I really liked that
her betrothed was named Hwang I think was

314
00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:45.519
his name, uh UE's betrothed,
the guy she was supposed to marry on

315
00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:52.359
thank you, thank you a terrible
names I apologize. I really liked it.

316
00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:56.920
I really liked it. He was
just a decent guy. Like he

317
00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.279
wasn't a jerk to Sokka, he
wasn't super jealous. He really liked u

318
00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:04.000
A and he was sad that she
didn't choose him, but then he just

319
00:24:04.039 --> 00:24:07.160
went on with his day. And
like when he recognized that she was gonna

320
00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:11.240
be the SOCCA, he was like, yeah, okay, be happy and

321
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:15.559
Socca, please protect her because she
matters to me. And I just after

322
00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:22.440
seeing so much like love triangle,
jealousy, nonsense, that that alone,

323
00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:25.440
like mate, I really loved in
the episode, and like there was a

324
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:26.720
lot of problems had in the episode, but that alone kind of made it

325
00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:30.359
like, Okay, I I am, I'm here for this. I like

326
00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:36.920
the way they're going. I liked
what they did with Han. Oh no,

327
00:24:36.920 --> 00:24:41.880
now I'm alone. Oh no.
And there was a spot where there

328
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.640
was a line about Zuko being alone, and I felt like it was like

329
00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:49.839
a call out to the you know, Zuko alone, Yes, you know,

330
00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:55.839
it definitely was. Yeah. I
liked what they did with Han.

331
00:24:55.960 --> 00:25:00.680
He may have shot first, but
I guess Socca shot a lot anyway.

332
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:08.599
I I liked Socca and and U
a their whole interaction and Arnook is that

333
00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:19.240
the Arnook is the chief, the
old Master. Thank you Arnook talking to

334
00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:26.359
Socca after you know, Princess Moon
becomes the Moon again. U means moon

335
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:34.440
for what it's worth in Chinese,
well in Mandarin more specifically. But it

336
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:45.960
like, Yeah, I found the
whole like Northern Water Tribe sexism plotline super

337
00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:55.079
cringe, as did the one authoritative
voice in My Household, and it felt

338
00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:07.359
I also feel like the payoff didn't
feel as great of Katara becoming a Master

339
00:26:07.480 --> 00:26:12.240
water Bender because I feel like they
short changed her arc in this season.

340
00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:17.200
You know, like a lot of
what I've complained about with a lot of

341
00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:22.240
other female characters is when they get
short changed in terms of like people like,

342
00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:26.000
oh, they're too powerful, blah
blah blah, Like I want to

343
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:29.440
see the training. That's one of
the things that I loved about the original.

344
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:33.119
But it's not just Katara here,
it's also Aang. We don't see

345
00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:38.880
Aang training in that way, right, And I will say I did think

346
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:42.440
that they had clearly listened to us
and then gone back in time and shot

347
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:48.119
the episode because they specifically call out
that Aang hasn't been training this whole time,

348
00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:51.400
right, which I like, yeah, yeah, they they drop that

349
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:53.160
in they lampshade it kind of right. They're like, yeah, we know,

350
00:26:53.400 --> 00:26:56.920
we know that we didn't do this
thing the way they did, you

351
00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.519
know, and and so it just
it. And then the worst instance of

352
00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:07.960
that was this is like for the
whole Team episode eight, the beginning of

353
00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:15.839
it, when they execute that excellent
attack on a fire Navy ship and like

354
00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:18.559
they're just a well oiled machine,
and it's like, you know, and

355
00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:22.599
Han talking to Saka about all this
experience they have, like we didn't get

356
00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:27.920
to see that. I didn't feel
that from the episodes that we saw,

357
00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:33.799
and I feel like, yeah,
I understand it's only eight episodes, but

358
00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:38.039
like it feels like, if you're
gonna rush things, rush the Northern Water

359
00:27:38.200 --> 00:27:42.799
Tribe stuff in the North, have
that be one episode instead of two episodes,

360
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:48.559
and like, just give us a
little more of the character's training,

361
00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:55.920
of them learning to work together,
like as a team without other, without

362
00:27:55.960 --> 00:28:00.160
Aang turning into another avatar or something, you know. Yeah, and it

363
00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:06.279
it just like I love them as
a team and I love the training arcs,

364
00:28:06.599 --> 00:28:11.359
and it felt very neglected on both
those fronts. And so then when

365
00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:15.279
Katara is like, no, I'm
a major badass, It's like, Okay,

366
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:18.359
I know you're a major badass,
but I want to see that journey

367
00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:23.400
because to me, that journey is
one of the most powerful things about a

368
00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:27.440
character story. If a character becomes
a master and they weren't a master at

369
00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:32.839
the beginning of the story, like
show me, and I feel like they

370
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:37.240
didn't, you know, And I
mean, obviously Aang didn't really learn anything,

371
00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:42.160
and like, Okay, I guess
there's two more seasons maybe or more.

372
00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:47.200
But he learned the power of friendship. He learned the power of friendship

373
00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:52.000
and something about the past and the
future and one hundred years. But yeah,

374
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:57.799
overall, it's just the writing is
what I feel, really has not

375
00:28:59.400 --> 00:29:07.680
been my taste, and somehow many
of the performances have managed to come rise

376
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.480
above that, you know. Like
I was listening to the words Skiazzo was

377
00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:18.480
saying in the first episode, and
I was like, these could have been

378
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:23.480
delivered like flatly and it would have
been like brutal, I think, yeah,

379
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:29.680
you know, but like somehow he
like gets so much out of it,

380
00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:33.440
you know. And and there's a
number of performances who've done that,

381
00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:37.400
And for me, like the biggest
reason I hope they do more seasons is

382
00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:44.359
like I want to see these actors
play those characters. I just hope maybe

383
00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:48.640
there's some notes, maybe not from
producers. Maybe I don't even know,

384
00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:51.920
Like I'm not super optimistic about the
writing, but like, yeah, so

385
00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:56.000
many of the performances have been really
great and really nuanced. And even if

386
00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:59.559
we don't see any more of like
ken Lee Jung, like at least we'll

387
00:29:59.559 --> 00:30:06.079
see like more Dallas Lou and like
you know others. Yeah. Anyway,

388
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:12.960
so Riki, you didn't like han
oh boy, what happened? Rigy is

389
00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:21.279
solidly on team Grido. Okay,
I'm gonna like try to like go point

390
00:30:21.319 --> 00:30:26.599
by point. Okay, first major
point. I don't like that they killed

391
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:32.960
Han. Oh yeah, no,
I know, oh yeah. And more

392
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:38.759
specifically, I don't like that they
killed Han and to my knowledge unnamed water

393
00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:44.720
tribe kid who looked up to Katara, Like both of them. I think

394
00:30:44.759 --> 00:30:48.039
there was like this need to show
like how serious wars and like there were

395
00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:55.200
casualties even among like people you met
and liked. Why why both of them?

396
00:30:55.319 --> 00:30:59.079
Right? Like I think one of
them, I can understand makes sense,

397
00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:03.079
Like if you want to be this
darker, grittier show showing the consequences

398
00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:06.480
of war, and like here's this
person, I think it should have been

399
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:10.799
the kid, right, Like Katara
seeing that kid who looked up to her

400
00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:14.279
and called her master and all that
was like a good moment for her.

401
00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:18.640
And then to see that potential snuffed
like would have like driven home to her

402
00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:23.559
the consequence of war. Right,
So like why also Han? At the

403
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:27.519
same like they kind of in my
recollection that they like walked past one body

404
00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:30.680
and then like walk past the other
one. Yeah, and it kind of

405
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:37.799
like lessened the the impact of all
that so I didn't understand that I am

406
00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:48.000
okay with I'm okay with love triangle
Matthew, because they are often necessary shortcuts

407
00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:53.039
for getting characters to where they need
to be, and I think minus that

408
00:31:53.160 --> 00:32:00.559
love triangle being present, I personally
did not buy into this romance, Like,

409
00:32:00.599 --> 00:32:04.720
I didn't feel like it got to
where it needed to be for That's

410
00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:09.440
rough Buddy to have an impact in
the future. I just like did not

411
00:32:09.599 --> 00:32:15.039
feel that this relationship between these two
had time to percolate and develop to the

412
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:21.359
point where she's going to be like
Socca's Lost Love, Right. I agree

413
00:32:21.359 --> 00:32:23.640
that it did feel rushed, but
I don't think him being a jerk in

414
00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:28.039
a jealous way would have helped that. I can't imagine how that would have

415
00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:30.920
helped the community that would have been, Like, I feel like if there

416
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:34.400
had been that, I'd be even
more upset that we didn't get more time

417
00:32:34.440 --> 00:32:37.240
with them, because I'd be like, why are you wasting time on this

418
00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:40.920
jealous X instead of just letting us
see them develop this love that it's supposed

419
00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:45.920
to be so amazing that he's so
upset about it? Later? But was

420
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:51.319
original Han like animated Han? Was
he a jerk? I don't feel like

421
00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:53.799
he was a jerk. Yeah,
he was kind of like jealous and possessive

422
00:32:54.119 --> 00:33:00.400
of of Ua and was defensive against
SOCCA, But I don't feel like,

423
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:04.599
I don't know, like the lie
between jerk or bully. I guess like

424
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:09.440
he was set up as a rival
and acted in that way, but never,

425
00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:15.920
in my opinion, maliciously. I
guess. I guess. I just

426
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:21.400
I'm just really bored of men being
jealous, like and and I mean,

427
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:25.599
like Loki kind of offended at the
idea that if two men are both interested

428
00:33:25.640 --> 00:33:30.079
in the same woman, we have
to be rivals, we have to be

429
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:31.680
jealous of each other, we have
to be jerks to each other, and

430
00:33:31.759 --> 00:33:37.079
like, clearly I don't believe that, but I feel like so much media

431
00:33:37.160 --> 00:33:39.839
goes in that direction that I get, Like, I hear what you're saying.

432
00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:43.400
I just think for me, it
is just so refreshing to see something

433
00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:46.920
that's not that. I guess for
me, that's like a really good reason

434
00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:52.559
to tell new stories, yeah,
like with different characters, and not to

435
00:33:53.480 --> 00:34:00.400
just like keep remaking things that have
elements that you don't love in them,

436
00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:06.960
you know. Just quick aside,
there's a YouTuber slash author named Giran J.

437
00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:09.960
Chow, whose last name is the
same as like Admiral Chow, and

438
00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:16.000
she she did some a bunch of
videos about like a bunch of the cultural

439
00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:23.719
aspects of the original animated series,
and she has a novel called Iron Widow

440
00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:30.079
that does feature a love triangle,
except it's a it's a throutle love triangle,

441
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:34.280
so you know, it's a it's
a different, different take on you

442
00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:37.800
know. But yeah, I mean
I'm with you in terms of, like,

443
00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:40.960
that's not a story that I enjoy
and I don't really want to see

444
00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:45.719
it a whole bunch of times.
But like also, I mean I didn't

445
00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:49.320
feel the absence of it here,
but I it's just one of the things

446
00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:54.840
about adapting something and changing the story
is it's like they're gonna change certain things

447
00:34:54.880 --> 00:35:00.159
and not other things, and it's
like, well, why is that what

448
00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:02.880
you're changing? And then why are
you leaving this? And then it just

449
00:35:06.199 --> 00:35:10.559
like I don't know, I almost
wish like they made it more different in

450
00:35:10.599 --> 00:35:16.719
some ways, you know, And
I'm not a fan of the kind of

451
00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:23.719
making it more dark or whatever,
because like the big problem I have with

452
00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:29.400
the series as it is, this
edition of it is that I feel like

453
00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:35.039
they're trying to be like very thoughtful
in terms of like what the ramifications are

454
00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:37.079
of telling this kind of story versus
that kind of story, but then they're

455
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:43.400
also trying to be kind of manipulative
and abusive in terms of like you need

456
00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:49.360
to see this violence, like you
need to see someone's skull immolated on screen,

457
00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:55.239
while also writing dialogue that feels like
it considers the audience to be of

458
00:35:55.280 --> 00:36:01.800
a very low level of intellectual development, you know, like they have to

459
00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:07.400
explain to you what everybody is thinking
and everything that's going on all the time,

460
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:12.480
or like maybe you'll miss something.
I had every other episode till now

461
00:36:12.519 --> 00:36:15.880
when you talked about the dialogue,
I'd kind of like vague senses of what

462
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.920
you mean, but I hadn't noticed
it as much. This episode. There

463
00:36:20.920 --> 00:36:23.960
were a couple of lines, particularly
from uh I agree with you from the

464
00:36:24.360 --> 00:36:29.760
Monk of the last episode, but
this one, especially from Jao and then

465
00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:36.280
later from Azula, that just felt
so like and I watched with subtitles because

466
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:40.320
like as audio processing stuff and sometimes
like there's other noise, and there were

467
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:46.199
times where like I would listen to
them while getting so much emotion from the

468
00:36:46.239 --> 00:36:51.440
actor and then be reading the words
and be like did I really just feel

469
00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:55.920
that from those dumb words? Like
right, especially like Azula when I forget

470
00:36:57.000 --> 00:36:59.599
what she says when she takes off
the mask. But it just was like

471
00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:01.559
oh at the end, yeah,
all you had to do is take off

472
00:37:01.559 --> 00:37:05.840
the mask and I would have understood
everything of the words you just repeated,

473
00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:07.639
right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just lines that it's like,

474
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:10.599
we don't need a line here,
Yeah, just show us their face,

475
00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:15.480
like the act trust your actors,
right, there's like not trusting the

476
00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:19.320
audience, but then there's also not
trusting your performers. Like there's spots where

477
00:37:19.360 --> 00:37:22.639
you can have a line in a
script and then you can shoot the scene

478
00:37:22.679 --> 00:37:25.000
and after you shoot the scene,
you can look at it and go,

479
00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:30.679
I don't need this line, Like
their face said everything there was there was

480
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:34.719
there were one or two that IIRO
said too. Oh there was one where

481
00:37:34.719 --> 00:37:37.880
he has a tear and I'm like, I don't need the tear to see

482
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:43.320
that he's crushed. You know.
It's like that that it feels it was

483
00:37:43.360 --> 00:37:46.119
in when Zuko maybe blows up but
then doesn't blow up, and then he's

484
00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:50.679
just like talking to him casually on
the boat later, I'm like, we

485
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:53.280
don't even get to see that.
Iro now knows that Zuko's not dead.

486
00:37:53.320 --> 00:37:55.480
He's just like, oh, yes, this is what's happening here. It's

487
00:37:55.480 --> 00:38:00.480
like, no, I think it
was when Zuko is leading that that you

488
00:38:00.519 --> 00:38:07.639
see the tears killed Joao. You
know what, I'm guessing. There were

489
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:12.800
a lot of tears, and we
noticed different ones, but the lot the

490
00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:19.159
line there, it was Zuko says
like Lieu ten would have been proud.

491
00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:24.280
Oh yeah, while his father or
something like that. That line was so

492
00:38:24.599 --> 00:38:29.760
bad, especially like it was a
good moment, and it still gets to

493
00:38:29.800 --> 00:38:32.320
me because the moment was good.
Yeah, yeah, did you just say

494
00:38:32.360 --> 00:38:42.320
that, especially like would have He's
a specifical tense that implies a possibility like

495
00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:46.079
I don't know if that's proud,
if you saw you right now? Acceptable,

496
00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:52.679
Fine, there's no possibility that that
is intentionally bad because like it's Zuko,

497
00:38:52.039 --> 00:38:57.800
right, and he's still processing and
like still not quite doesn't know how

498
00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:01.360
to show his emotions, like speak
his emotions. Are you telling me you

499
00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:06.039
might say that was rough, buddy, Yeah, exactly, that's the same

500
00:39:06.119 --> 00:39:08.320
character. I think someone looked at
a draft of the script and went that's

501
00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:12.239
rough, buddy, and they're like, ah, we're leaving it. Yeah,

502
00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:15.199
but that line was rough. So
yeah, the line was rough,

503
00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:21.159
and like somehow it didn't totally ruin
the moment because like the performances and like,

504
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:24.199
yeah, it's not just the performances
though, it's like actually everything visual,

505
00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:30.639
like not everything like Uay's wig looks
ridiculous, but like overall the costumes

506
00:39:30.679 --> 00:39:37.360
and the makeup and the largely the
effects and like especially like the settings.

507
00:39:38.280 --> 00:39:42.440
There's things that I feel like are
literally too dark in that sort of like

508
00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:45.599
they're trying to do that way and
I don't understand why people keep doing that.

509
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:52.000
But like, overall, I think
the visual look, the music,

510
00:39:52.559 --> 00:39:57.360
I feel like most aspects of filmmaking
have been executed at a very high level

511
00:39:57.400 --> 00:40:02.760
in this series. And like if
they just like like just like like get

512
00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:06.960
Tony Gilroy to like do a polish
or something, I don't know, Like,

513
00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:09.800
yeah, you know, it feels
to me like just trust your audience

514
00:40:09.800 --> 00:40:15.119
and trust your actors. Yeah,
true, because like I said it,

515
00:40:16.679 --> 00:40:22.280
if you told me that you aged
the if you took a show that was

516
00:40:22.320 --> 00:40:27.239
originally aimed not entirely at children by
any means, but was like, I

517
00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:30.199
know lots of people who were watching
this when they were six or seven years

518
00:40:30.239 --> 00:40:34.440
old and absolutely fell in love with
it. And if you told me that

519
00:40:34.519 --> 00:40:37.920
something that was originally written in a
way that like, you know, kids

520
00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:43.320
that young could really love and fully
understand, and now you've made a more

521
00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:47.159
adult version of it, but that
is less subtle, Like what are you

522
00:40:47.199 --> 00:40:52.519
doing? You know? Yeah,
it's just incongruous those two aspects. Let

523
00:40:52.519 --> 00:40:54.639
me shift to another. Oh go
ahead, Well I want to I want

524
00:40:54.679 --> 00:41:00.599
to address like the whole thing of
writing, right because I was doing some

525
00:41:00.639 --> 00:41:07.480
research and what I discovered was that
the two co creators of Avatar, like

526
00:41:07.559 --> 00:41:15.840
the original series of Brian Cornietsco and
Michael Dante di Martino. So those two

527
00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:22.159
were originally on this project, I
believes as writers, and they still have

528
00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:30.079
credits teleplay credits for episode one and
episode six, but then part way through

529
00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:37.559
they both chose to leave the project
like two years in the classic creative difference.

530
00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:40.360
Who knows what that means? Right, Like they're not going to say

531
00:41:40.360 --> 00:41:44.480
because they don't they don't want to
like bad mouth this, like it's still

532
00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:49.239
they still love Avatar. I'm sure
they wanted to succeed despite leaving the project

533
00:41:49.559 --> 00:41:52.360
or they've signed to NDAs and would
love to bad mouth I mean, but

534
00:41:52.519 --> 00:41:57.559
yeah, you're probably right, But
I'm also saying they posted about it on

535
00:41:57.599 --> 00:42:05.400
social media and they're actually making more
Avatar related stuff with Nickelodeon. That's cool

536
00:42:05.559 --> 00:42:09.719
as part of not but not with
Netflix. It's like a yeah, but

537
00:42:09.880 --> 00:42:15.519
this is like, these are the
things outside of like the fantasy world.

538
00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:19.400
Like as fans, as people who
consume the media, we had to take

539
00:42:19.440 --> 00:42:22.519
into consideration when we're like, oh, the writing is bad, Yeah,

540
00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:25.400
is it bad? Because you know, these two left the project, there

541
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:30.559
are still like bits and pieces that
they wrote, and then other people had

542
00:42:30.599 --> 00:42:32.320
to come in and say, Okay, how do we fill the gaps that

543
00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:37.079
they left behind or like because they
had creative differences, like we want to

544
00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:39.920
go in a different direction, but
now we have less time to like fully

545
00:42:39.960 --> 00:42:46.599
flesh out and you know, rewrite
entire scripts. And that's not I when

546
00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:51.440
when I see stuff like this happen, you know, like Secret Invasion was

547
00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:59.199
a complete mess because of rewrites.
It's not we're critical of the final product

548
00:42:59.320 --> 00:43:01.480
that we were watching. But again, like as I always say, like

549
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:06.719
these are human beings who have a
job they're trying to do, and sometimes

550
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:10.440
the circumstances don't allow you to do
your job to the best of your abilities,

551
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:14.440
like due to time constraints. So
I want to make sure like that

552
00:43:14.559 --> 00:43:17.039
we're we're saying, like, hey, this didn't work out the way we

553
00:43:17.079 --> 00:43:22.760
wanted it to necessarily, but I
still have hope for the future. No,

554
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:24.920
and that's very fair. I think
it's also and I may have slipped

555
00:43:24.960 --> 00:43:28.000
up on this, and so it
definitely please call me out and how it

556
00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:31.440
happens in the future. I think
it's very important that there's a difference between

557
00:43:31.519 --> 00:43:37.760
saying the writing or the even better, probably more accurately, the dialogue wasn't

558
00:43:37.880 --> 00:43:44.639
very good versus the writers screwed up, because it could well be the writers

559
00:43:44.679 --> 00:43:46.920
themselves, as you say. It
could be that the original script the writers

560
00:43:46.960 --> 00:43:51.800
gave them was a lot better,
but the producers, as Paul was implying,

561
00:43:51.880 --> 00:43:54.519
might have changed it down somewhat,
you know, Like you know,

562
00:43:54.559 --> 00:44:00.159
we've talked a long time about likee
did Natalie Portman just walk onto the set

563
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:02.880
of Attack of the Clones and decide, you know what, I'm a world

564
00:44:02.920 --> 00:44:07.159
class actor, but I'm not going
to do that this time. Probably more

565
00:44:07.239 --> 00:44:10.840
likely it was her directing or the
writing or like or the editing that made

566
00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:17.360
it seem like that. I think
you're very good, because George Lucas is

567
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:21.960
like, no, Hayden Christensen did
exactly what I wanted him to do.

568
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:23.480
It's like, all right, well
that okay, so that's not the best

569
00:44:23.760 --> 00:44:28.599
George. My point though, is
just this is that in a creative project

570
00:44:28.880 --> 00:44:30.960
where so many different people are involved, and I think, Riggi, I've

571
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:35.039
not been I have not been as
cognizant of this as I should be.

572
00:44:35.079 --> 00:44:37.119
And I'm really appreciating you bringing this
up, and you can tell me if

573
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:40.000
I'm missing your point entirely. But
I think this is where you're going.

574
00:44:42.079 --> 00:44:44.840
I feel like it's a really good
idea for people who are being critical of

575
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:49.679
it, like criticize the product,
don't try and get into unless they specifically

576
00:44:49.679 --> 00:44:53.079
tell you what they did, like
was it this specific person? Because even

577
00:44:53.079 --> 00:44:58.800
if we know that it is the
writers, like I don't I care insomuch

578
00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:00.920
as if I see those writers on
another project, I might not watch it

579
00:45:01.199 --> 00:45:05.559
or it might have hesitations. But
I'm not gonna go out and start adding

580
00:45:05.599 --> 00:45:07.880
those writers on Twitter. When I
bashed this, you know, not that

581
00:45:07.880 --> 00:45:10.920
I'm gonna bash it, but yeah, I mean the thing is like we

582
00:45:10.960 --> 00:45:16.920
talked earlier about Joo and just like
how perfect he was. I think if

583
00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:22.920
you if you read his dialogue like
on a piece of paper, like on

584
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:27.880
the script, some of it is
probably like what we would call bad writing,

585
00:45:28.280 --> 00:45:32.039
right, but he, like Ken
Leung Knew, understood the assignment.

586
00:45:32.440 --> 00:45:36.800
Yeah, and he took that and
he owned it, and he took some

587
00:45:37.639 --> 00:45:44.880
like some hammy lines and just like
did a Palpatine right like unlimited power.

588
00:45:45.400 --> 00:45:47.679
You if you read that on a
script, you're like, would he really

589
00:45:47.719 --> 00:45:52.440
like shout this? But when Ian
McDermott shouts it in the way he did,

590
00:45:52.559 --> 00:45:58.480
you're just like, oh, yeah, this is great. No,

591
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:04.480
No, I love that you are, But I was That was not my

592
00:46:04.599 --> 00:46:09.480
response with Ian McDermott did it,
and I'm guessing it's not Paul's. I

593
00:46:10.079 --> 00:46:19.599
love that moment. I mean,
I laughed at that happened. I will

594
00:46:19.679 --> 00:46:27.320
say it could have been worse,
I do. I don't think it could

595
00:46:27.360 --> 00:46:30.519
have been delivered better, I will. I'll just leave my opinion at that.

596
00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:35.559
Yeah, it could have been a
moha at the end. Yeah,

597
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:40.280
No, just in terms of delivery
it's convincing that that version of that character.

598
00:46:43.159 --> 00:46:51.039
Yeah, anyway, I think to
me, it's I think criticizing the

599
00:46:51.079 --> 00:46:55.400
writing compared to criticizing the writers,
and it's you know, it's a fine

600
00:46:55.440 --> 00:46:59.440
line, and it's like, well, you know, I mean people,

601
00:46:59.519 --> 00:47:02.639
yeah, really take pride in their
work and take identity from it sometimes,

602
00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:06.960
you know, but like obviously,
like yeah, don't at people. Don't

603
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:10.079
harass people about it. And when
it comes to anything that ends up on

604
00:47:10.159 --> 00:47:15.719
screen, unless you know, it's
like a one person is clearly in charge

605
00:47:15.760 --> 00:47:22.159
and has you know, has final
cut. Basically, like you don't know

606
00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:28.639
whether the credited writer came up with
a given line. You don't know whether

607
00:47:29.840 --> 00:47:32.400
some staff writer who's uncredited or is
in the later credits came up with a

608
00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:37.039
given line. You don't know whether
the showrunner, whether a producer suggested it,

609
00:47:37.239 --> 00:47:40.000
whether an actor ad lived it,
you know, or whether it was

610
00:47:40.079 --> 00:47:45.119
adr afterwards by like a totally other
writer who was like ghost writing or whatever.

611
00:47:45.360 --> 00:47:50.679
You know. Yeah, so so
yes, I mean I deeply agree

612
00:47:50.719 --> 00:47:55.679
with like, don't obviously don't harass
anybody for their involvement in like making art

613
00:47:55.719 --> 00:48:00.199
anyway outside of art that's like aimed
at people pressing them or whatever, but

614
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:08.360
just you can yes, yes,
yes, please. But like but I

615
00:48:08.400 --> 00:48:14.400
think like criticizing the product is like, yeah, however those words ended up

616
00:48:14.440 --> 00:48:17.559
on the printed page or they decided
these are the words that the actor is

617
00:48:17.599 --> 00:48:22.280
going to speak, Like, I
think better choices could have been made in

618
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:27.159
that regard, but the same writers
might be able to come up with better

619
00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:30.559
ones in the next season possibly,
yeah, you know. And for me

620
00:48:31.480 --> 00:48:37.920
this art right of television and movies, like the more I consume, the

621
00:48:37.920 --> 00:48:40.679
more I understand, you know,
Like I'm not a film student, but

622
00:48:40.719 --> 00:48:49.039
I understand, like the process is
so collaborative between everyone. So it's like,

623
00:48:49.039 --> 00:48:53.039
like I said, like a good
performer can elevate bad writing. I

624
00:48:53.079 --> 00:48:59.559
think a bad performer could you know, devalue good writing. So it's like,

625
00:49:00.079 --> 00:49:02.800
you know, like the moment in
and Or Stell and Scars Guards monologue,

626
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:07.119
right, that was good writing plus
good performer and and you know,

627
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:12.880
possibly other elements added to that.
It's like a perfect mixture. And so

628
00:49:14.519 --> 00:49:22.639
for for me, my biggest thing
is does it does it take me out

629
00:49:22.639 --> 00:49:28.519
of the moment? Right? Like
the the Zuko Lieu ten would have been

630
00:49:28.519 --> 00:49:31.480
proud to call you his father just
like it was a good moment, but

631
00:49:31.880 --> 00:49:36.159
it took me out of the moment
right there. I don't like that that

632
00:49:36.280 --> 00:49:39.559
happened. Whoever is responsible, Like
it just didn't work for me, right

633
00:49:39.639 --> 00:49:45.519
right? You just you want to
savor the moment and enjoy it. Yeah,

634
00:49:45.960 --> 00:49:49.400
it should have been It should have
been a better moment, more impact.

635
00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:52.159
Like I think I started to cry, and then I like, I

636
00:49:52.199 --> 00:49:59.840
can't out of that line. I
might have still cried. YEA might so,

637
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:01.480
so I want to shift hears of
it and ask Riky you a specific

638
00:50:01.599 --> 00:50:06.280
question. Although Paul, I was
interesting your thoughts on this, and again

639
00:50:06.320 --> 00:50:07.800
this is one of those like I
don't want to do the authoritative voice you

640
00:50:07.840 --> 00:50:10.239
know of any community, but you
know you've talked before about how you,

641
00:50:10.320 --> 00:50:15.559
as a Japanese American person have have
that context you bring. I don't know

642
00:50:15.679 --> 00:50:20.840
much about the stories of the nine
tailed Fox and the role they play in

643
00:50:20.920 --> 00:50:23.800
Japanese mythology, but I do know
that it's like a specific character. And

644
00:50:23.840 --> 00:50:28.599
obviously a lot of things in this
show, both animated and live action,

645
00:50:28.760 --> 00:50:34.840
are inspired by different aspects of different
parts of Asian cultures, some very directly,

646
00:50:34.920 --> 00:50:37.679
like you said, with some of
the names some kind of more obtusely,

647
00:50:38.760 --> 00:50:44.559
I'm curious for you may not know
any more about that particular myth than

648
00:50:44.559 --> 00:50:46.119
I do, but I'm curious if
it is something you know about, and

649
00:50:49.280 --> 00:50:52.760
I don't know if maybe there is
a related story about a three tailed fox,

650
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:57.159
or if like seeing them have a
three tailed fox felt like a legitimate

651
00:50:57.239 --> 00:51:00.400
way of referencing the myth but of
making it their own, or if it

652
00:51:00.400 --> 00:51:04.559
felt like problematic because of taking something
that wasn't their own and changing it kind

653
00:51:04.559 --> 00:51:07.400
of appropriate matter, like, did
you have any thoughts on this? No,

654
00:51:08.159 --> 00:51:13.440
Okay, that's totally fair. It
happens in five seconds on screen,

655
00:51:13.519 --> 00:51:17.920
so I didn't you know, I
like, literally know. I'm familiar that

656
00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:22.920
there are foxes in mythology with multiple
tales, probably mostly because of Pokemon,

657
00:51:23.199 --> 00:51:29.239
because there's a Pokemon. That's why
you're familiar with it. Yeah, I

658
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:31.880
mean, if you want, like
for a follow up episode, I'm happy

659
00:51:31.880 --> 00:51:37.280
to do research on it, because
I like research. I don't I don't

660
00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:40.280
have any feelings on it at the
moment. Okay, well that's it.

661
00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:46.920
That's really fair. I will I
will say I didn't like that like what

662
00:51:47.079 --> 00:51:52.920
happened in the show, because I
mean, first off, again, like

663
00:51:52.320 --> 00:51:57.480
you're gonna talk about a line of
dialogue, the you're you're the boy in

664
00:51:57.519 --> 00:52:04.599
my dreams was like so cringey.
Yeah, and it to me it felt

665
00:52:04.719 --> 00:52:08.000
like we were talking earlier about the
relationship and how it didn't get there.

666
00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:14.599
For me, this felt like an
attempt at a shortcut that to me is

667
00:52:14.679 --> 00:52:17.360
not the right way to do a
shortcut, right, Like, yeah,

668
00:52:17.800 --> 00:52:22.679
I mean maybe for her, but
for him, like she was a fox,

669
00:52:22.880 --> 00:52:27.480
like a fox, So it's like, how can you have feelings for

670
00:52:27.519 --> 00:52:30.679
her? Like based on that?
Like those kind of feelings there are some

671
00:52:30.760 --> 00:52:37.519
Google searchers that you clearly haven't done
and probably shouldn't do that they might don't

672
00:52:37.559 --> 00:52:40.559
do that sort of research. I
guess again, Like I guess it makes

673
00:52:40.599 --> 00:52:46.119
a little more sense for her,
Yeah, that she has seen him like

674
00:52:46.760 --> 00:52:51.920
physically in the spirit world, but
he never saw her, Like he makes

675
00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:54.320
the connection and it's like, oh, like you were the fox. It's

676
00:52:54.360 --> 00:52:59.280
like, but what does that do
for you? Right? I can't.

677
00:53:00.159 --> 00:53:02.000
Here's odd because I actually thought it
did more for him, because I do

678
00:53:02.039 --> 00:53:07.920
feel that like this was his moment
of probably greatest disorientation since this guy woke

679
00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:13.199
up out of the ice after one
hundred years and the flying sky iceon like

680
00:53:13.320 --> 00:53:15.000
he is in the spirit world.
He has no idea what's going on.

681
00:53:15.079 --> 00:53:20.039
He's completely like he's a very He's
one of those like very confident, very

682
00:53:20.079 --> 00:53:22.719
fragile kind of types you know where, And this is I think him at

683
00:53:22.760 --> 00:53:29.920
his most vulnerable, and then here
comes this creature that is showing care and

684
00:53:29.960 --> 00:53:35.400
consideration and worry about him, and
he mostly has to worry about everybody else.

685
00:53:35.480 --> 00:53:37.920
I'm like that they worry about him
too. But I could see him

686
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:42.199
kind of imprinting some way, not
in a like, oh, I want

687
00:53:42.199 --> 00:53:45.440
to kiss that fox, but in
a like, oh you were, Like

688
00:53:45.719 --> 00:53:52.639
the feeling of compassion and of protection
and of someone's looking after me that I

689
00:53:52.679 --> 00:53:59.599
got from that Fox is embodied in
this very pretty girl. Do I think

690
00:53:59.599 --> 00:54:02.079
there's some like is that the healthiest
basis for a relationship that I've ever heard

691
00:54:02.119 --> 00:54:06.679
of? Absolutely not. Do I
think it's a reason for a sixteen year

692
00:54:06.679 --> 00:54:08.800
old boy who really likes falling in
love to fall in love? Yeah,

693
00:54:08.880 --> 00:54:13.960
I can see that. I just
have Foxy Lady stuck in my head now.

694
00:54:14.320 --> 00:54:19.280
It's totally fair. I thought the
like the medallion or whatever that was

695
00:54:19.280 --> 00:54:22.280
like on her tail when when she
was in Fox form in the spirit world,

696
00:54:22.679 --> 00:54:27.039
and then like showing that to me, that felt like really on the

697
00:54:27.079 --> 00:54:30.599
nose, you know, like that
felt like one of those like oh,

698
00:54:30.679 --> 00:54:32.800
did you get it? You know
where it's like no, it's just it's

699
00:54:32.880 --> 00:54:37.000
the same voice. And then she
said recombobulate like that, Yeah, I

700
00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:40.840
feel like that should be enough.
I don't think we need a visual thing.

701
00:54:42.639 --> 00:54:45.400
Even still, I still don't get
it. Why did the Fox have

702
00:54:45.559 --> 00:54:54.159
that? I don't know. Even
the close captions were on the nose because

703
00:54:54.199 --> 00:54:59.800
the word recombobulate was in like quote
marks right right right, yeah, yeah,

704
00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:02.679
like yeah, great. I mean
I was okay with that part because

705
00:55:02.679 --> 00:55:07.079
it's yeah, that's fine. A
weird word, right, a very weirdly

706
00:55:07.119 --> 00:55:15.000
specific word. So that worked for
me. The hair pin thing doesn't work

707
00:55:15.039 --> 00:55:17.800
for me because it like, yes, I understood, I understood what they

708
00:55:17.800 --> 00:55:23.400
were doing, and I was like, why right, I'm just saying I've

709
00:55:23.400 --> 00:55:28.840
watched a lot of teen romance and
stories like this. This is not scraping

710
00:55:28.880 --> 00:55:30.960
the bottom of the barrel in terms
of like why are these people in love

711
00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:36.159
with each other? Now? I
think it's a lot more about the specifics

712
00:55:36.159 --> 00:55:37.800
of this we could say, and
we're probably gonna do some follow up episodes

713
00:55:37.800 --> 00:55:40.960
and hopefully one or both of you
can take part in. But I want

714
00:55:40.960 --> 00:55:45.000
to kind of move to a more
overall picture of this, and I want

715
00:55:45.039 --> 00:55:47.519
to start by actually, this was
one of the other great pieces of feedback

716
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:52.559
we got. For some reason,
the feedback we kept getting was from people

717
00:55:52.559 --> 00:55:58.199
with phenomenal names. So this person
was a stress Spender was their name,

718
00:55:58.639 --> 00:56:02.320
which I like, and stress Bender
writes, love the cast, love your

719
00:56:02.320 --> 00:56:07.880
coverage, Thank you. Two questions, Now that you've seen the whole season,

720
00:56:07.159 --> 00:56:10.519
do you want to see the next
season? And if you wind up

721
00:56:10.519 --> 00:56:15.119
not liking this overall, do you
want to see someone else take a crack

722
00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:17.920
at live action? Or should this
idea of live action of Avatar just go

723
00:56:17.960 --> 00:56:28.800
away forever? I don't want to
see another version. I hope that this

724
00:56:28.880 --> 00:56:32.599
series gets a second and third season, and I kind of hope they stopped

725
00:56:32.599 --> 00:56:37.039
there, although they could do a
fourth season, which was actually planned the

726
00:56:37.079 --> 00:56:43.880
original animated series. I mostly hope
that there's another season because I think a

727
00:56:43.960 --> 00:56:46.239
lot of people are involved in the
production of it, and a lot of

728
00:56:46.239 --> 00:56:51.159
them are doing really good jobs.
And yeah, you know, it's one

729
00:56:51.159 --> 00:56:52.599
of those things where it's just like, you know, it's a lot of

730
00:56:52.599 --> 00:56:58.159
performers who haven't often gotten to be
the star, you know, And like

731
00:56:58.280 --> 00:57:04.159
when Scarlett Johanson gets cast in Ghost
in the Shell, you know, one

732
00:57:04.199 --> 00:57:07.239
of the arguments that the studios try
to make is like, oh, because

733
00:57:07.239 --> 00:57:13.000
there's no you know, commercially viable
Asian actresses to play this role. You

734
00:57:13.039 --> 00:57:17.480
know, who's who can carry a
blockbuster? And you know, I feel

735
00:57:17.480 --> 00:57:21.679
like, I mean, I don't
really know exactly how it did in the

736
00:57:21.719 --> 00:57:23.559
box office in terms of like like
shang Chi, but like I think it

737
00:57:23.639 --> 00:57:28.760
was pretty clear like yeah, you
know, you if you give someone a

738
00:57:28.840 --> 00:57:30.800
chance to be a star, they
can become a star, and then they

739
00:57:30.840 --> 00:57:37.719
can carry your movies in the box
office. And I mean, I hope

740
00:57:37.800 --> 00:57:40.880
Dallas Liu gets like some something,
you know, it gets to be like

741
00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:45.559
I mean, being Zuko in this
is an amazing role and an amazing opportunity,

742
00:57:45.679 --> 00:57:52.400
but like I feel like he could
definitely star in and carry you know,

743
00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:58.320
whatever kind of and you know,
there's just there's a lot of people

744
00:57:58.360 --> 00:58:02.719
that I think being in a series
that doesn't get canceled after one season is

745
00:58:02.760 --> 00:58:07.239
probably going to be a lot more
helpful to their careers and kind of towards

746
00:58:07.280 --> 00:58:13.960
like the direction that film and TV
go in than being in a series that

747
00:58:14.119 --> 00:58:17.400
had very mixed reviews and then got
canceled after one season. Yeah, so

748
00:58:19.519 --> 00:58:22.400
yeah, I think if I would
love to see Dallas show up in Star

749
00:58:22.440 --> 00:58:27.320
Wars somewhere, and frankly if he, if he, I'm a little bit

750
00:58:27.400 --> 00:58:29.800
MCU fatigued. But if you tell
me he's going to be one of the

751
00:58:29.880 --> 00:58:31.639
young Avengers, I'm a lot more
intertan that movie, now, you know.

752
00:58:31.719 --> 00:58:35.320
Or he's going to be some DC
care or if he's going to be

753
00:58:35.559 --> 00:58:37.559
in the next sung Chi movie,
which God helped give us to us,

754
00:58:38.039 --> 00:58:40.360
even though it sounds like maybe we
won't get but yeah, if he showed

755
00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:44.440
up in one of the projects,
or just like some other you know,

756
00:58:44.519 --> 00:58:47.880
martial arts, you know action awesome
movie that will go in some cool things

757
00:58:47.960 --> 00:58:51.920
like I'm there for it. Wait, he's in the first shun Chi movie?

758
00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:55.559
Oh is he? Okay? Never
mind, we've talked about his brother,

759
00:58:55.639 --> 00:58:59.480
So yeah, he should be in
the second one too, maybe a

760
00:58:59.480 --> 00:59:02.039
lot more prominent role in nos.
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

761
00:59:02.239 --> 00:59:08.239
Parking cars is super hard it really
is? It really is? I mean

762
00:59:08.239 --> 00:59:14.599
in San Francisco, Like she's driving
cars around San Francisco like that. Actually,

763
00:59:14.639 --> 00:59:17.199
that cannot be an easy place to
be, like a valet parker if

764
00:59:17.199 --> 00:59:20.760
you have to like street park and
stuff. Yeah, where it's like a

765
00:59:20.760 --> 00:59:22.840
forty five angle off in or high. Yeah, it's a great city,

766
00:59:22.880 --> 00:59:29.559
but it's a terrible place to drive. Yeah, rinky? What about yourself

767
00:59:29.599 --> 00:59:32.000
next season? And do you want
another live action? Okay? Wait,

768
00:59:32.159 --> 00:59:37.760
so the first question was do what
question is, now that you've seen the

769
00:59:37.760 --> 00:59:45.119
whole first season, do you want
to see the next season? I'm gonna

770
00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:51.960
say no, Okay, that's fair, Yeah I do. Do I want

771
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:55.280
to see the next season? It's
like no. Like at I end this

772
00:59:55.360 --> 01:00:02.639
season like pretty lukewarm, disappointed.
It was like an okay show, but

773
01:00:05.400 --> 01:00:14.000
I already know the story and nothing
not enough about this version made me want

774
01:00:14.039 --> 01:00:22.719
to continue along these lines because Azula
is going to be a more prominent character

775
01:00:22.599 --> 01:00:32.480
going forward, and she is the
one and thus far, neither her performance

776
01:00:34.440 --> 01:00:38.880
nor the way that they have written
her preemptively into the show makes me excited

777
01:00:38.960 --> 01:00:46.840
about her character and her story going
forward. So that's my thoughts on that,

778
01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:51.159
Like if there is a second season
where I watch it, of course

779
01:00:51.480 --> 01:00:53.280
because I have to be back here
to talk about it. But no,

780
01:00:53.920 --> 01:00:59.400
I'll watch it because it's Avatar.
Like I do love the overall story,

781
01:00:59.639 --> 01:01:04.679
so like I've periodically rewatched the animated
one, so like, why wouldn't I

782
01:01:04.800 --> 01:01:08.440
watch a slightly different version of the
story, right, But it's not.

783
01:01:08.599 --> 01:01:15.480
You know, I've mentioned previously on
this coverage how One Piece like really changed

784
01:01:15.679 --> 01:01:21.840
the dynamic of animated to live action
for me personally, and I think for

785
01:01:21.840 --> 01:01:24.519
a lot of people, and because
of how well it was done that show,

786
01:01:24.679 --> 01:01:28.639
I'm just like, give me,
give me the season, give me

787
01:01:28.679 --> 01:01:34.440
the next season. There was actually
like my Netflix loaded slowly and my preview

788
01:01:34.519 --> 01:01:37.639
thing said one piece, new episode
like this Saturday, and I was like,

789
01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:40.440
are you kidding me? And then
like the image loaded and it was

790
01:01:40.519 --> 01:01:46.440
the animated one Piece. It's like, oh so that like that is like

791
01:01:46.679 --> 01:01:50.440
absolutely, I'm man like, give
me the next season this one. I'm

792
01:01:50.480 --> 01:01:54.440
like, yeah, Like I hope
I agree with Paul. I hope they

793
01:01:54.760 --> 01:02:00.440
the creators get a second season and
the performers right, because I think they've

794
01:02:00.480 --> 01:02:04.840
done a good enough job. There
are much worse things. They keep getting

795
01:02:04.880 --> 01:02:10.880
new seasons, and it's like,
why not. So it's not like it's

796
01:02:10.880 --> 01:02:15.039
not offensively bad, That's not what
I'm trying to say. But it's not

797
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:21.840
something that I am like immediately excited
for. But I'm I'm it's not something

798
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:25.800
I'm excited to watch a second season, but I would be excited for them

799
01:02:25.800 --> 01:02:30.639
to get one. Well for everyone
involved, because yeah, and I completely

800
01:02:30.679 --> 01:02:36.119
agree with Paul, like Dallas Liu, a star is born or star is

801
01:02:36.119 --> 01:02:42.039
elevated by this. I hope that's
one of the major takeaways, because he

802
01:02:42.320 --> 01:02:45.880
absolutely deserves it. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm kind of similar to

803
01:02:46.039 --> 01:02:53.199
both you are. I. If
season two was on tomorrow, I would

804
01:02:53.239 --> 01:02:58.440
definitely watch it, in part because
I did enjoy a lot of this,

805
01:02:59.199 --> 01:03:05.559
but also because I'm just a very
curious person and if you show me something

806
01:03:05.599 --> 01:03:10.360
that is just someone that basically kind
of took us Morgana's board of parts of

807
01:03:12.039 --> 01:03:15.159
Avatar and threw them all together on
screen and it didn't really have a coherent

808
01:03:15.280 --> 01:03:20.559
hole to it, I'd be like, Eh, I'm not super excited to

809
01:03:20.559 --> 01:03:23.480
watch the next season. And I've
definitely seen some stuff like that here.

810
01:03:23.679 --> 01:03:27.239
I felt like by the end and
maybe this is more so for me than

811
01:03:27.320 --> 01:03:32.079
for you guys. I feel like
I have a concrete idea of where they

812
01:03:32.079 --> 01:03:38.559
are trying to go, particularly with
the Ozai Azula Zuko story. It's not

813
01:03:38.599 --> 01:03:42.960
where they went in the original,
It's not necessarily where I would have wanted

814
01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:45.639
them to go, But I'm very
curious to see where it winds up.

815
01:03:45.760 --> 01:03:52.280
I'm very curious to see they're now
doing this different, no non training version

816
01:03:52.280 --> 01:03:57.159
of aang where it's much where he's
about this different kind of things. I'm

817
01:03:57.199 --> 01:04:00.559
curious to see where that goes in
a vacuum. Do I want to see

818
01:04:00.559 --> 01:04:03.760
it again? Do I want to
see the next season? Yeah? Sure,

819
01:04:03.920 --> 01:04:06.480
all other things being equal, But
I think it the same way,

820
01:04:06.679 --> 01:04:12.039
like if you told me my choice
is like another season of this versus another

821
01:04:12.119 --> 01:04:15.719
season of like you know, Umbrella
Academy or Stranger Things or you know one

822
01:04:15.760 --> 01:04:18.960
of the other Netflix shows that I
like a lot more. Yeah, i'd

823
01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:23.639
probably be like, if I have
to choose, give me that one.

824
01:04:24.719 --> 01:04:28.639
And as the other question, I
think there's only one way I'd ever want

825
01:04:28.679 --> 01:04:33.039
to see yet another live action of
these stories. Either it's in like twenty

826
01:04:33.159 --> 01:04:36.280
years, We've all forgotten and technology
has changed so much and we're doing a

827
01:04:36.320 --> 01:04:43.199
totally new thing, or it's a
fundamentally new story told in this world.

828
01:04:43.400 --> 01:04:46.119
Like if you told me someone doing
a live action of like you know shows

829
01:04:46.360 --> 01:04:49.519
uh shows in sews in and Roku, you know, that could be a

830
01:04:49.519 --> 01:04:54.480
cool story to watch. But mostly
what I would just want to watch is

831
01:04:54.639 --> 01:05:00.480
someone tells me that they're redoing Legend
of Korra and episode one open with Cora

832
01:05:00.639 --> 01:05:05.599
and Azumi walking into the sunset and
then they make out on screen for like

833
01:05:06.199 --> 01:05:11.400
three whole minutes at least, like
the best kiss you've ever seen. Cora

834
01:05:11.519 --> 01:05:15.639
turns to the camera and says,
Okay, now that you know that happens,

835
01:05:15.079 --> 01:05:18.480
let me go back and tell you
my story. For those who don't

836
01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:23.760
know what I'm talking about, the
Chorra show ends with a very close relationship

837
01:05:23.800 --> 01:05:28.199
between our hero Cora and another woman. The way it was written and shot,

838
01:05:28.360 --> 01:05:30.639
they walked into the sunset, turned
to each other and kiss. Because

839
01:05:30.679 --> 01:05:33.559
of the sensibilities of the time that
the show was made, they cut out

840
01:05:33.599 --> 01:05:36.559
the kiss. So I'm kind of
being humorous about that, but also being

841
01:05:36.639 --> 01:05:41.199
like, the only way I want
to watch more another Cora is that they

842
01:05:41.199 --> 01:05:43.440
guarantee me the kiss is happening,
and so I think it'd be funny if

843
01:05:43.440 --> 01:05:46.000
they did that in the first thirty
thirty minutes, three minutes. I think

844
01:05:46.000 --> 01:05:49.039
it's on YouTube. I think you
can watch the well, yeah, you

845
01:05:49.079 --> 01:05:51.719
can watch the one that's edited out. Yeah you can see that. Yeah.

846
01:05:53.400 --> 01:05:59.400
Yeah, the editing floor, the
cutting room floor. That follow up

847
01:05:59.440 --> 01:06:04.599
question of like do I want someone
else or a different project, like not

848
01:06:05.679 --> 01:06:13.000
telling the story of Avatar the Last
Airbender. I agree that there are elements

849
01:06:13.039 --> 01:06:16.960
of this world that I think are
ripe for more storytelling, and I think

850
01:06:17.039 --> 01:06:25.000
that the product is becoming big enough
that we are starting to see a picture

851
01:06:25.199 --> 01:06:30.840
merge of the Avatar cinematic universe,
because everything has to be a cinematic universe.

852
01:06:30.840 --> 01:06:34.239
So yeah, like I don't know, give me the give me the

853
01:06:34.360 --> 01:06:41.199
Cabbage Man story, because he ends
up being like an industrialist who founds an

854
01:06:41.199 --> 01:06:45.920
empire, like an industrial empire in
the legend of Kora. Give me a

855
01:06:45.920 --> 01:06:51.199
actually you know, like give me
the Lieutenant g story, And that's something

856
01:06:51.599 --> 01:06:59.159
we could get on this show.
So the interesting thing here at the end

857
01:06:59.199 --> 01:07:06.159
of this season was Joo may still
be alive. Like that's unclear, like

858
01:07:06.360 --> 01:07:14.320
much more unclear. Than in the
animated show, Lieutenant G may still be

859
01:07:14.400 --> 01:07:17.320
alive, and I think, like
he's a character that just ended up disappearing

860
01:07:17.360 --> 01:07:23.320
in season two. So the fact
that Iro specifically like mentioned him at the

861
01:07:23.400 --> 01:07:28.079
end when here they're paddling away,
I picked up on that, and I

862
01:07:28.119 --> 01:07:30.920
was like, I wonder if he's
going to show up somehow in season two,

863
01:07:31.079 --> 01:07:38.880
like in a in a prominent role. Probably not with Iro and and

864
01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:43.400
Zuko because their their story in season
two is like one of them together alone,

865
01:07:43.800 --> 01:07:49.239
alone together, But maybe we see
G return to the Fire Nation and

866
01:07:49.320 --> 01:07:55.920
like celebrated as a hero and gets
involved somehow and pass the information along to

867
01:07:56.039 --> 01:08:00.199
Iro and Zuko somehow or something like. I think they his character, like

868
01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:04.519
for for such a minor character,
like they added some really meaty elements that

869
01:08:04.599 --> 01:08:10.840
I hope that they continue with.
Yeah, so like, but we talk

870
01:08:10.880 --> 01:08:15.239
a lot about the differences between the
animated and the live action, and oftentimes

871
01:08:15.720 --> 01:08:20.520
because the animated show was so good, I think we end up being critical

872
01:08:20.880 --> 01:08:25.760
of the live action. But I
do think like there's stuff that they did

873
01:08:25.800 --> 01:08:31.560
here that works, Like G works. The scene of Liu Ten's funeral was

874
01:08:31.840 --> 01:08:39.039
absolutely heartbreaking and worked, and it
was probably my favorite favorite thing in this

875
01:08:39.159 --> 01:08:45.279
version. So there's stuff that's that
is working for me. Yeah, as

876
01:08:45.319 --> 01:08:47.680
you were saying throwing out different ideas, I was just thinking a movie about

877
01:08:47.680 --> 01:08:51.880
the white Lotus society, where like
we sometimes see these things happening in the

878
01:08:51.880 --> 01:08:55.319
background, but like it's much more
about all the stuff that was going on

879
01:08:55.399 --> 01:09:00.239
with that I would love. I
would like to not see anything more this

880
01:09:00.439 --> 01:09:04.439
time period, like with in the
story. Sure, but like once you've

881
01:09:04.479 --> 01:09:09.399
done this one, like oh,
this is like the third pass through this

882
01:09:09.520 --> 01:09:14.560
time period, Like you have a
long history of Avatars, like give me

883
01:09:14.640 --> 01:09:16.680
Kiyoshi on screen. They wrote two
novels, you know, yeah, and

884
01:09:16.800 --> 01:09:19.439
honestly, like those are supposed to
be darker. If you want to do

885
01:09:19.560 --> 01:09:23.439
darker stuff, do that, you
know, yeah, give me I mean

886
01:09:23.840 --> 01:09:26.840
it's funny. So I was at
a wedding earlier today and I was talking

887
01:09:26.840 --> 01:09:29.199
to someone who had a really interesting
perspective. We said, look, I

888
01:09:29.239 --> 01:09:31.920
loved Avatar and I have a five
year old kid, and I was really

889
01:09:31.920 --> 01:09:36.159
excited to watch the show with them, and he watched like the first thirty

890
01:09:36.319 --> 01:09:40.239
seconds of the first episode, was
like, I don't want my kid's gonna

891
01:09:40.239 --> 01:09:42.079
have nightmares. They watched this,
you know, and I was like,

892
01:09:42.720 --> 01:09:45.680
yeah, that that sounds understandable.
I would have watched it, but I'm

893
01:09:45.680 --> 01:09:47.920
not sure I'm the best example of, like, you know, how parents

894
01:09:47.920 --> 01:09:50.479
should raise you and what they should
watch. Yeah, my dad took me

895
01:09:50.520 --> 01:09:57.479
to the Twilight Zone when I was
five. Yeah, yeah, I think

896
01:09:57.479 --> 01:10:00.199
that's part of how we became friends
because you were your mother would one of

897
01:10:00.199 --> 01:10:01.520
the other ones were like, yeah, it's fine, what you know,

898
01:10:02.039 --> 01:10:05.840
Uh, Pamela is showing the kids
like you know, yeah, I mean

899
01:10:05.840 --> 01:10:10.880
we were teenagers, so no,
no, I was just watching whatever I

900
01:10:10.920 --> 01:10:15.600
wanted. But yes, fair,
but still there was okay, there was

901
01:10:15.720 --> 01:10:20.079
one thing, one missing element that
I want to touch on. We we

902
01:10:20.159 --> 01:10:28.960
talked about Master Poku and his sexism. I I think it's okay, Like

903
01:10:29.159 --> 01:10:32.520
his sexism is okay, like it
it is unfortunately an integral part of his

904
01:10:32.640 --> 01:10:38.560
character. Right. They tried to
play it off as more of like the

905
01:10:38.600 --> 01:10:45.239
traditions of the tribe. I think, which which spreads out spreads it out

906
01:10:45.319 --> 01:10:47.319
more. But then it made a
little less sense when the women were like,

907
01:10:47.359 --> 01:10:53.479
no, let us fight because initially
like the h not a Koda?

908
01:10:54.039 --> 01:11:02.439
What's her name? Yeah? Gooda
the female ester who was teaching Katara healing,

909
01:11:03.000 --> 01:11:09.800
which was a good scene by the
way, but that made less sense

910
01:11:09.840 --> 01:11:14.439
to me, right because she also
seemed to be like super into the traditions,

911
01:11:14.560 --> 01:11:17.880
and that was nowhere. There wasn't
like an indicator that she was like,

912
01:11:17.960 --> 01:11:20.479
Yeah, this sucks, but it's
what we have to do. All

913
01:11:20.479 --> 01:11:27.840
of a sudden she's like like we're
going to fight too. So but what

914
01:11:27.880 --> 01:11:33.359
was what was missing was that Paku
has a past relationship with Grand Grand,

915
01:11:33.880 --> 01:11:39.960
right, yeah, and they just
like completely not there. They probably don't

916
01:11:39.960 --> 01:11:44.079
want to deal with that at all. But I don't know, like did

917
01:11:44.119 --> 01:11:46.439
you feel I mean you you recognize
it was missing, Like how do you

918
01:11:46.439 --> 01:11:53.520
feel about that? I I definitely
recognized he was missing, and I was

919
01:11:54.800 --> 01:11:59.000
I liked it a lot, and
I thought that it gave it gave him

920
01:11:59.039 --> 01:12:04.600
more of a direct action to Katara
in a way that I felt deepened the

921
01:12:04.720 --> 01:12:11.640
relationship and made some of the stuff
around sexism more powerful. But in terms

922
01:12:11.640 --> 01:12:15.560
of like the other like if you
told me again, if you said,

923
01:12:15.800 --> 01:12:21.520
hey, would you want five more
minutes of Paca and I'm sorry, get

924
01:12:21.520 --> 01:12:29.680
his name wrong, Pacu of pac
Whu and his backstory with Grand grand or

925
01:12:29.840 --> 01:12:34.439
five more minutes that deepens Ua and
Sokka like I want you in Socca hands

926
01:12:34.439 --> 01:12:38.520
down, like so kind of like
was it missing, yes, but on

927
01:12:38.520 --> 01:12:41.600
the list of things that I wanted
this episode to have more of, there's

928
01:12:41.640 --> 01:12:46.960
other things that are higher on that
list. Yeah, but it it wasn't

929
01:12:47.000 --> 01:12:51.159
like a direct through line, but
it was kind of interconnected, right because

930
01:12:51.199 --> 01:12:57.000
it was this I didn't weren't they
they were betrothed. Pacu and grand Grant

931
01:12:57.079 --> 01:13:03.279
were betrothed, and then she chose
to leave him for the Southern water tribe

932
01:13:03.319 --> 01:13:11.319
guy, right, so the whole
like Northern and Southern tribes thing like well,

933
01:13:11.600 --> 01:13:16.239
and also the idea of leaving your
betrothed right right, right? Yeah,

934
01:13:16.279 --> 01:13:21.439
I mean I felt the absence,
but also I will not so much

935
01:13:21.479 --> 01:13:25.439
that there are other things that I
would have liked to see in this episode.

936
01:13:25.600 --> 01:13:29.800
Honestly, I would have liked to
see more earlier that. That's kind

937
01:13:29.800 --> 01:13:33.199
of where I really felt like,
But you know, it is like what

938
01:13:33.279 --> 01:13:36.680
do you add, what do you
subtract? It's I think a lot a

939
01:13:36.720 --> 01:13:40.960
lot of that I think is just
going to be kind of preference. It's

940
01:13:40.960 --> 01:13:45.039
like which stories are most important to
you? Maybe season two, they begin

941
01:13:45.960 --> 01:13:48.239
still at the Northern Water Tribe and
then they have a scene like that.

942
01:13:48.720 --> 01:13:53.239
Although given that it's going to be
like, I mean, this was shot

943
01:13:53.279 --> 01:14:00.399
in twenty twenty one. Really,
Yes, there's like more than two years

944
01:14:00.439 --> 01:14:03.680
ago. Maybe maybe photography wrapped up
late. Like you were talking about the

945
01:14:04.039 --> 01:14:10.000
creators of the original show, they
left more than a year before filming started.

946
01:14:10.039 --> 01:14:13.039
There was like twenty twenty I think
when they left, and then it

947
01:14:13.079 --> 01:14:16.880
was twenty twenty one that they finally
started shooting, and I think they got

948
01:14:16.960 --> 01:14:20.119
it done pretty quickly. It was
it was all in I think it was

949
01:14:20.159 --> 01:14:28.119
mostly or all in Vancouver. Yeah, production in filming began November sixteenth,

950
01:14:28.199 --> 01:14:32.119
twenty twenty one, so probably went
into twenty twenty two. Then photography wrapped

951
01:14:32.680 --> 01:14:38.399
on June seventeenth, twenty twenty two. Right, so let's two years ago,

952
01:14:38.479 --> 01:14:41.399
but almost two years ago. I
mean, that's that's been some time.

953
01:14:41.560 --> 01:14:45.680
So when you see it in the
past, you know, particularly the

954
01:14:45.720 --> 01:14:49.319
younger cast members, like they don't
look the same. Ang's voice may have

955
01:14:49.399 --> 01:14:53.720
dropped an October two, that's totally
what happened. But yeah, but you

956
01:14:53.760 --> 01:14:55.960
would think so, right, I
mean, it certainly could have and it

957
01:14:56.039 --> 01:14:59.800
still can there's still talking, you
know, I would like to change my

958
01:15:00.079 --> 01:15:06.159
answer. I do not want to
see season two mm because I like seeing

959
01:15:06.239 --> 01:15:12.239
that time frame. Like I am
even more worried about you know what you've

960
01:15:12.479 --> 01:15:15.319
been talking about, Matthew, the
Stranger Things, problem of the kids growing

961
01:15:15.399 --> 01:15:21.079
up. That just seems like too
much time. I'll be curious, you

962
01:15:21.119 --> 01:15:25.159
know, the story a little bit. Yeah, I mean maybe they were

963
01:15:25.279 --> 01:15:28.479
trained. Maybe, like because of
all this, they've they've spent the last

964
01:15:28.479 --> 01:15:31.439
two years training and we get a
nice training montage, you know, training

965
01:15:31.520 --> 01:15:35.760
montage Selvester Simon will sell the rights
to the music, you know, get

966
01:15:35.560 --> 01:15:38.920
little I have the Tiger going on. I don't think he has the rights

967
01:15:38.920 --> 01:15:43.079
to that music. No, No, he probably has the right survivor Yeah,

968
01:15:43.199 --> 01:15:48.399
the the original song, the you
know getting strong right. Yeah,

969
01:15:48.680 --> 01:15:53.000
but yeah, we'll see I will
say. Actually, actually that is one

970
01:15:53.000 --> 01:15:55.720
more reason why I want to see
them. I want to see them at

971
01:15:55.800 --> 01:16:00.880
least do season two because season two
is far away my favorite and has the

972
01:16:00.920 --> 01:16:03.439
addition of my faith. Well it's
close to season three, but I think

973
01:16:03.479 --> 01:16:10.159
season two is my favorite, and
it has there's three seasons, and you're

974
01:16:10.199 --> 01:16:14.359
like two and three while they're close, but I think season two, but

975
01:16:14.520 --> 01:16:17.159
I'm saying that both of them are
much higher than season one. Sure,

976
01:16:17.199 --> 01:16:23.760
Like, if you ask me my
top ten favorite storylines from Avatar, maybe

977
01:16:23.760 --> 01:16:26.119
one or two of them are from
season one, most of them are from

978
01:16:26.159 --> 01:16:30.239
season two, and that couple are
from season three. And so getting to

979
01:16:30.319 --> 01:16:33.359
see how is this group going to
do tough? How is this group going

980
01:16:33.439 --> 01:16:39.319
to do bossing say? Particularly because
frankly, I think the bossing say story

981
01:16:40.159 --> 01:16:43.880
is one of the most culturally relevant
for today that I can think of,

982
01:16:44.039 --> 01:16:48.680
you know, And and so we'll
see. I think the other thing that

983
01:16:48.720 --> 01:16:53.800
all this conversation has really made me
think about kind of taking longer lens and

984
01:16:53.840 --> 01:16:59.159
all this is. And I've been
thinking about this in terms of both like

985
01:16:59.359 --> 01:17:03.119
going from an made it to live
action, from books to either animation or

986
01:17:03.199 --> 01:17:10.800
live action, and also from like
smaller niche TV to big budget movie.

987
01:17:12.880 --> 01:17:16.720
I think that I think stories that
particularly have a kind of niche audience to

988
01:17:16.800 --> 01:17:24.319
them suffer the larger the audience is
supposed to get, you know, just

989
01:17:24.359 --> 01:17:30.239
because like the quirkiness of some projects, you can get one hundred a couple

990
01:17:30.359 --> 01:17:34.640
hundred thousand people or a couple million
people to buy that book or to watch

991
01:17:34.680 --> 01:17:38.079
that show on Nickelodeon, you know, or whatever, like and this show

992
01:17:38.119 --> 01:17:42.039
maybe is not the best example.
It's still like the audience that Netflix needs,

993
01:17:42.039 --> 01:17:46.520
and the audience that it is probably
like numerous orders of magnitude bigger than

994
01:17:46.560 --> 01:17:50.399
what Nickelodeon needed at the time,
you know. And so I do wonder

995
01:17:50.439 --> 01:17:58.520
how much that also is a factor
of you know, there are a lot

996
01:17:58.560 --> 01:18:00.199
of these things where it feels like
someone is saying at some point, look,

997
01:18:00.279 --> 01:18:03.720
yeah, a lot of people like
this Asoka character on Rebels, but

998
01:18:03.760 --> 01:18:08.720
we want tons of the people who
never watch Rebels to watch Ahsoka. So

999
01:18:08.760 --> 01:18:11.520
we've got to kind of broaden it
out, or you know, make it

1000
01:18:11.560 --> 01:18:15.239
wider. And I do wonder if
that was a part of this. Are

1001
01:18:15.319 --> 01:18:25.399
you commenting on basically the studio pication
of movie making and television making. Yeah,

1002
01:18:25.680 --> 01:18:28.840
I'm saying that I think there are
a lot of projects, not all,

1003
01:18:29.399 --> 01:18:34.880
but a lot where the wider the
audience gets, whether rightly or wrongly,

1004
01:18:35.199 --> 01:18:39.880
a lot of times the studio will
feel you have to kind of make

1005
01:18:39.920 --> 01:18:43.800
it less quirky or less like you
got to kind of round the edges some

1006
01:18:43.960 --> 01:18:47.359
and make it more palatable for a
more general audience. Yeah, I think

1007
01:18:47.399 --> 01:18:53.720
it's it's about money. Obviously,
It's about how much money they're putting into

1008
01:18:53.720 --> 01:18:59.600
a thing, and it's about their
perceptions about how broad an audience is going

1009
01:18:59.680 --> 01:19:03.960
to be for particular thing, because
I think they are deeply wrong on that

1010
01:19:04.279 --> 01:19:10.920
over and over and over in terms
of And it was ten years ago or

1011
01:19:11.000 --> 01:19:15.680
more that we had a similar conversation
about who couldn't couldn't be a protagonist like

1012
01:19:15.920 --> 01:19:23.640
in a major budget studio film and
have that film be successful, you know,

1013
01:19:23.960 --> 01:19:29.600
And I think back then, I
was like, I think, anyone

1014
01:19:29.640 --> 01:19:33.880
who's good, like you tell a
good story, you're gonna sell tickets like

1015
01:19:34.079 --> 01:19:39.920
it's it. You don't have to
be within this you know, narrow band

1016
01:19:39.960 --> 01:19:45.359
of identity or whatever. And like
I think they thought that for a long

1017
01:19:45.399 --> 01:19:47.560
time, that it was one way. And similarly, I think they think

1018
01:19:47.600 --> 01:19:51.279
that a certain type of story,
that a story needs a certain type of

1019
01:19:51.359 --> 01:19:57.920
universality to appeal to the masses,
and I just don't think that's true.

1020
01:19:58.119 --> 01:20:01.159
I think they're wrong on that.
They have the money and that's how they

1021
01:20:01.159 --> 01:20:04.079
make their decisions. But you see
a lot of the things that become popular,

1022
01:20:04.159 --> 01:20:10.640
it's like a lot of the things
that like really blow up are things

1023
01:20:10.800 --> 01:20:16.520
that don't hwe so closely to what
had been kind of the standard of mass

1024
01:20:16.520 --> 01:20:21.920
appeal, you know, And I
think going for mass appeal maybe gives you

1025
01:20:21.960 --> 01:20:28.680
the best shot at a kind of
high mid or whatever you know, or

1026
01:20:28.800 --> 01:20:32.119
low high kind of return on in
terms of your audience. But like I

1027
01:20:32.159 --> 01:20:35.960
do think you can there are a
lot of things that appeal to a lot

1028
01:20:36.000 --> 01:20:43.640
of people, and they don't need
to be what the studios think they need

1029
01:20:43.680 --> 01:20:46.640
to be. In my opinion,
I think they're off meats. But clearly

1030
01:20:46.680 --> 01:20:50.920
it is about money and thinking,
well, if we're spending this much money,

1031
01:20:51.159 --> 01:20:55.359
we need this much audience in order
to get a return on our investment.

1032
01:20:55.920 --> 01:21:02.359
And I just think that they are
confused about what sorts of things are

1033
01:21:02.439 --> 01:21:08.159
really going to yield that. Yeah, I think that's true. But I

1034
01:21:08.439 --> 01:21:12.079
agree with you that they try and
then meddle and make things a particular way

1035
01:21:12.399 --> 01:21:15.359
and sand off the edges if you
can call them edges, you know,

1036
01:21:15.479 --> 01:21:18.760
But what they see as the edges, what they see as the rough edges,

1037
01:21:18.920 --> 01:21:24.079
you know, which to me is
like the character of the thing have

1038
01:21:24.199 --> 01:21:27.479
to Yeah, yeah, like if
you told me they were going to make

1039
01:21:27.960 --> 01:21:31.039
and Or into another big budget movie, but make it so that like,

1040
01:21:31.079 --> 01:21:34.199
you know, the lines of good
and bad were like clear a lot more

1041
01:21:34.199 --> 01:21:38.479
clear to be like, you're fundamentally
missing the point and it doesn't have to

1042
01:21:38.479 --> 01:21:41.319
be that, you know. Yeah, but also like they spent a big

1043
01:21:41.359 --> 01:21:45.199
budget film budget on and Or.
Yeah, that's true. That's true,

1044
01:21:45.800 --> 01:21:48.279
And there was just a freak.
I mean the fact that they actually are

1045
01:21:48.279 --> 01:21:50.520
like, hey, Tony, you
could just make your show. It's cool.

1046
01:21:50.800 --> 01:21:54.960
Oh, you just can't say that. You just have to say fight

1047
01:21:55.000 --> 01:21:59.159
the empire. You can't say the
other thing. Yeah, I'll give them

1048
01:21:59.159 --> 01:22:01.560
that. I know some of us. That's a line anyway, and that's

1049
01:22:01.600 --> 01:22:15.279
okay. Like I fundamentally agree that
I dislike studio meddling and that turn,

1050
01:22:15.439 --> 01:22:20.720
like it's a broad turn, like
basically like having too many people in the

1051
01:22:20.840 --> 01:22:28.399
process who aren't like you know,
like directly involved, like having people come

1052
01:22:28.399 --> 01:22:30.840
in like and say, oh,
like we need you to change this and

1053
01:22:30.880 --> 01:22:34.600
that. Like that's I believe,
like we all agree that that's what's going

1054
01:22:34.760 --> 01:22:40.520
wrong with Marvel right now is that
they've gotten so full of themselves, like

1055
01:22:40.560 --> 01:22:45.920
in the MCU and now like everything
has to be in connected and yet like

1056
01:22:45.960 --> 01:22:51.720
the creators who are making individual movies
or TV shows aren't even the chance to

1057
01:22:51.800 --> 01:22:56.239
make their thing, Like they're being
told what to make and they're they're kind

1058
01:22:56.239 --> 01:23:02.039
of like painting by numbers. So
so yeah, like absolutely, Like for

1059
01:23:02.119 --> 01:23:06.319
me personally, the movie, everything
everywhere, all at once just like completely

1060
01:23:06.439 --> 01:23:13.520
changed everything in movies and like what
I believe a movie can be and like

1061
01:23:13.640 --> 01:23:20.119
what a studio will back and allow
to happen is just unbelievable. And that

1062
01:23:20.279 --> 01:23:24.640
was like a passion project, right, Like the people involved in that.

1063
01:23:25.079 --> 01:23:28.840
No one was like very few people
were looking over their shoulders going, oh,

1064
01:23:28.880 --> 01:23:31.239
you have to change this and that. They just did it and they

1065
01:23:31.359 --> 01:23:35.039
loved what they were doing and they
made what they loved and that's what we

1066
01:23:35.119 --> 01:23:40.479
need more of. And for whatever
reason, let me just say on that

1067
01:23:40.520 --> 01:23:44.880
one whatever reason, I was following
a lot of like Hollywood press last year

1068
01:23:45.760 --> 01:23:50.880
and there were so many stories about
like studio executives are totally baffled why everything

1069
01:23:50.880 --> 01:23:55.720
everywhere is going, Oh, he's
doing so well because it broke all of

1070
01:23:55.760 --> 01:23:59.079
the rules that you guys are talking
about, Like everyone expected it would not

1071
01:23:59.239 --> 01:24:02.119
do well because it didn't have you
know, a white lead as the as

1072
01:24:02.159 --> 01:24:04.760
the center, and it didn't you
know, it had a plot that was

1073
01:24:04.800 --> 01:24:08.640
like all over the like you know, imagine you trying to write a synopsis

1074
01:24:08.680 --> 01:24:12.640
of that movie that anyway captures what
it's about, like you can't. And

1075
01:24:14.079 --> 01:24:16.319
you know, all these interviews with
executives, most of them anonymous, some

1076
01:24:16.319 --> 01:24:20.000
of them not though, who were
like, yeah, we're we have to

1077
01:24:20.079 --> 01:24:23.960
learn and some of them were like
we have to learn and change and there's

1078
01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:27.920
and yeah, yeah exactly, and
others were like, no, this is

1079
01:24:27.960 --> 01:24:30.399
just a fluke. But they were
like, yeah, this is not by

1080
01:24:30.439 --> 01:24:32.760
our math. This is not a
movie that should have mass appeal. Mm

1081
01:24:32.800 --> 01:24:39.000
hmm. Yeah, it was a
fluke. And what you have to do

1082
01:24:39.159 --> 01:24:44.439
is not like try to copy the
end result, but understand the process of

1083
01:24:44.479 --> 01:24:45.840
the people who made that. So, like, I want to call out

1084
01:24:45.880 --> 01:24:51.439
another project. So the actress,
the actress who played Princess yu A,

1085
01:24:51.840 --> 01:24:57.399
her name is Amber mid Thunder,
and I know her from a movie called

1086
01:24:57.479 --> 01:25:00.920
Prey, which is in the in
the Predator franchise, like it was.

1087
01:25:01.760 --> 01:25:09.720
She plays a native basically like a
hunter who fights against a predator in like

1088
01:25:09.800 --> 01:25:14.000
the eighteen hundreds. I think it
was and it was a fantastic movie.

1089
01:25:14.000 --> 01:25:17.239
Like you know, the Predator movies
kind of like got campy and silly with

1090
01:25:17.319 --> 01:25:24.760
Predator versus Alien. But this movie
was so well made and the people involved

1091
01:25:24.800 --> 01:25:30.000
like all understood the project, understood
the assignment, and it was like I

1092
01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:38.439
think it it was largely or like
all a native cast and crew, and

1093
01:25:38.520 --> 01:25:41.600
so like it's a very similar thing
to what we're talking about here with Avatar,

1094
01:25:41.680 --> 01:25:47.800
right, with Asian and Native people
involved. So like, I think

1095
01:25:47.800 --> 01:25:53.439
one of the takeaways from this that
I don't want to see happen in the

1096
01:25:53.520 --> 01:26:00.159
narrative about this show is like,
in my opinion, this show, like

1097
01:26:00.159 --> 01:26:03.520
I've said, is like pretty medium, and like I'm not thrilled about it,

1098
01:26:03.560 --> 01:26:06.560
but I'm glad it exists. But
I don't want the narrative to be

1099
01:26:06.680 --> 01:26:11.720
like, oh, well, like
you you made this with Asian and Native

1100
01:26:12.159 --> 01:26:15.119
cast and crew and it's not as
good as the original, which had you

1101
01:26:15.159 --> 01:26:19.319
know, white people involved. It's
like like I don't want that to be

1102
01:26:19.399 --> 01:26:23.359
the narrative, right, Like that's
not the point of this because there are

1103
01:26:23.399 --> 01:26:26.920
projects everything everywhere all at once.
Yeah, pray you know, like that

1104
01:26:27.000 --> 01:26:30.479
we're made with that care and with
those people, those groups of people involved.

1105
01:26:30.520 --> 01:26:34.039
So it's like, just like good
people do what they're good at,

1106
01:26:34.359 --> 01:26:38.359
is kind of where I'm at.
Yeah, yeah, I think I think

1107
01:26:38.359 --> 01:26:41.600
that's very fair. And it's like
that doesn't mean they're all going to be

1108
01:26:41.640 --> 01:26:46.159
commercial successes, right yeah, Like
find people who who have artistic vision,

1109
01:26:47.079 --> 01:26:54.000
that know how to execute their artistic
vision. That's let them make those things

1110
01:26:54.119 --> 01:26:58.319
on reasonable budgets. Like everything everywhere
all once the production budget was like twenty

1111
01:26:58.319 --> 01:27:01.439
five million or less, you know, pray it was like sixty five million.

1112
01:27:01.840 --> 01:27:05.479
Like that's a lot of money,
I mean, but not for a

1113
01:27:05.560 --> 01:27:09.720
movie, but not for a movie
exactly, not for a movie these days,

1114
01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:15.159
right yeah, So you know,
just like I'd rather see ten movies

1115
01:27:15.399 --> 01:27:19.359
made on twenty five million dollar budgets
than one two hundred and fifty million dollar

1116
01:27:19.399 --> 01:27:25.600
movie. You know, let ten
people tell their stories and like maybe I'll

1117
01:27:25.680 --> 01:27:29.119
like two or three of them and
not like eight, but like that mine,

1118
01:27:29.640 --> 01:27:32.560
right, like instead of trying to
make one thing that you think everybody's

1119
01:27:32.640 --> 01:27:35.479
gonna like and people are like that, I was all right, you know.

1120
01:27:38.079 --> 01:27:41.159
I One of the things that most
confuses me about this in some ways

1121
01:27:41.439 --> 01:27:45.159
and also tells me that like,
Netflix pays a lot of attention to some

1122
01:27:45.239 --> 01:27:46.800
of its things and some they're just
like, whatever, it looks fun,

1123
01:27:46.880 --> 01:27:54.359
let's put it on Pneumona, which
is I think as much as I love

1124
01:27:54.439 --> 01:27:57.640
Spider Verse, Like, if this
win's the OSCAR for Best Animated, I

1125
01:27:57.640 --> 01:28:00.680
will not be complaining at all,
because it is one of my absolute favorite

1126
01:28:00.720 --> 01:28:04.439
movies that I've seen in the last
couple of years. And honestly, it

1127
01:28:04.520 --> 01:28:10.079
feels the closest to the spirit of
Avatar, of the original Avatar, the

1128
01:28:10.119 --> 01:28:13.840
Last Airbender, of anything I've ever
seen in terms of it is very much

1129
01:28:13.880 --> 01:28:16.760
about a child and an adult who
are kind of working together to deal with

1130
01:28:16.800 --> 01:28:24.039
something. It is childlike. It
is incredibly irreverent, it is very silly

1131
01:28:24.119 --> 01:28:28.840
at times. It's also probably the
most powerful trans allegory and queer allegory that

1132
01:28:28.880 --> 01:28:31.600
I've seen on film in the last
ten years. It is it made me

1133
01:28:31.680 --> 01:28:36.520
sob numerous times. The voice that
it is utterly gorgeous. The voice acting

1134
01:28:36.600 --> 01:28:41.479
is phenomenal, and the world bending
is great, and I just kind of

1135
01:28:41.560 --> 01:28:44.960
was like, do more like that, like, you know, and I

1136
01:28:45.039 --> 01:28:47.000
think in this case it was something
that like it was made totally separate and

1137
01:28:47.000 --> 01:28:49.079
then Netflix just bought it. We're
like, yeah, let's put it on.

1138
01:28:51.479 --> 01:28:58.640
But yeah, I think I wind
up. I think here's I think

1139
01:28:58.640 --> 01:29:03.319
where I wind up on the show. As a remake of Avatar the Last

1140
01:29:03.359 --> 01:29:09.359
Airbender. I'm willing to give it
another shot in season two, but so

1141
01:29:09.520 --> 01:29:13.159
far I think it has not done
a very good job of capturing what is

1142
01:29:13.199 --> 01:29:16.359
the essence of Avatar, and in
some cases it is like going pretty far

1143
01:29:16.399 --> 01:29:21.039
from it once. I if I
kind of in my head just shift all

1144
01:29:21.079 --> 01:29:25.119
the characters of the name the names
of all the characters, and just think

1145
01:29:25.119 --> 01:29:28.359
of it as just like its own
show that exists in its own thing.

1146
01:29:29.079 --> 01:29:31.159
I think it's pretty good. Not
the best I've ever seen by any means,

1147
01:29:31.199 --> 01:29:35.319
but enough acting and story beats that
I'm like, yeah, I'm into

1148
01:29:35.359 --> 01:29:41.359
more of this. How I feel
after two years of analysis and not having

1149
01:29:41.359 --> 01:29:43.880
it come out, who the hell
knows, but we'll say, right,

1150
01:29:44.720 --> 01:29:49.159
yeah, I do feel like there's
enough good stuff to make me want to

1151
01:29:49.199 --> 01:29:53.720
see. Okay, how do they
do that scene? Yeah? How do

1152
01:29:53.800 --> 01:29:56.399
these actors do that scene? How
do they write that scene? Like?

1153
01:29:56.479 --> 01:30:01.159
How you know? I want to
see how it goes down with aang and

1154
01:30:01.239 --> 01:30:08.800
OZI because this is a different OZI
and you know Aang. It's interesting,

1155
01:30:08.920 --> 01:30:13.439
Like, I know we've been not
super high on Ang's performance, but I

1156
01:30:13.479 --> 01:30:18.279
actually got someone to watch the first
two episodes who hadn't really watched the animated

1157
01:30:18.319 --> 01:30:21.560
series. I think she watched the
first few episodes or whatever, but eight

1158
01:30:21.640 --> 01:30:25.560
years ago and doesn't remember them that
well. But so I got my mom

1159
01:30:25.600 --> 01:30:27.720
to watch them, and she was
actually like, oh, that kid's a

1160
01:30:27.760 --> 01:30:30.279
pretty good actor. You know.
It's like thought that, like it was

1161
01:30:30.319 --> 01:30:32.960
good, and definitely thought that,
you know, the ones that we thought

1162
01:30:33.000 --> 01:30:36.800
were great were great. But like
she's enjoying the show, you know,

1163
01:30:36.840 --> 01:30:40.319
and she doesn't really have the animated
series to compare it to, and I,

1164
01:30:40.880 --> 01:30:43.000
to an extent, like I envy
that. I mean, on the

1165
01:30:43.000 --> 01:30:45.880
other hand, I got to enjoy
the animated series, so like she'll watch

1166
01:30:45.920 --> 01:30:49.479
that afterwards, you know. But
like just to have a perspective of like

1167
01:30:49.760 --> 01:30:54.119
I wanted to be like, how
does it feel to watch this show without

1168
01:30:54.239 --> 01:31:00.359
having this constant Oh this is different
from that. You know, bad acting,

1169
01:31:00.359 --> 01:31:06.000
but especially bad child acting gives me
like that secondhand secondhand embarrassment cringe,

1170
01:31:06.079 --> 01:31:09.880
Like it makes me like not just
like oh, this is bad. I'm

1171
01:31:09.960 --> 01:31:14.880
physically uncomfortable. You know. I
never had that from this Ang. I

1172
01:31:14.920 --> 01:31:17.239
was like, yeah, I'm not
having the depth of feeling that I would

1173
01:31:17.239 --> 01:31:20.800
want to have from this character.
Maybe that's the acting, Maybe that's the

1174
01:31:20.840 --> 01:31:25.319
dialogue because he also had a lot
of very on the nose lines. Maybe

1175
01:31:25.359 --> 01:31:29.000
it's just that again because we're not
seeing him train. Like, to me,

1176
01:31:30.920 --> 01:31:34.279
I feel like every season we really
focus on on Ang's relationship with a

1177
01:31:34.319 --> 01:31:40.039
different character, and season one is
very much about his relationship with Katara,

1178
01:31:41.000 --> 01:31:45.600
and that is fundamentally built on the
training and the fact that she sees herself

1179
01:31:45.640 --> 01:31:49.520
as like she sees him herself as
more of a water bender than he is,

1180
01:31:49.760 --> 01:31:55.239
with good reason. But she's then
in that situation of like, I've

1181
01:31:55.279 --> 01:31:58.640
studied this for five years and you're
the greatest natural talent the world has seen

1182
01:31:58.720 --> 01:32:01.680
for a hundred years. There's some
great episodes about like her frustration about that

1183
01:32:02.079 --> 01:32:08.279
and him also having like some arrogance
and realizing like so much of their relationships

1184
01:32:08.319 --> 01:32:12.159
expressed through their training, And yeah, I like, I hadn't really thought

1185
01:32:12.199 --> 01:32:14.039
of it much until you brought it
up, Paul, But I think like

1186
01:32:14.479 --> 01:32:16.760
that's probably another reason why we don't
see a lot of great acting from Aang

1187
01:32:16.880 --> 01:32:23.600
because they gave him some great scenes
with Yozu and Yatsu, thank you,

1188
01:32:24.239 --> 01:32:28.560
and in those scenes, I think
I think Ang was good, you know,

1189
01:32:28.720 --> 01:32:31.239
I think Yatsu was, you know, phenomenal, But there's like nothing

1190
01:32:31.279 --> 01:32:35.000
about Ang's performance was taking away from
it. Ang was like making a powerful

1191
01:32:35.000 --> 01:32:39.960
part of that performance. You know, I don't remember how I was kind

1192
01:32:39.960 --> 01:32:45.520
of mad at yatso for leaving.
That was true because that actor really made

1193
01:32:45.520 --> 01:32:50.720
me feel the pain of him,
like how much he wanted to be able

1194
01:32:50.760 --> 01:32:56.319
to see you know, this is
father friend again and how hurt he was

1195
01:32:56.399 --> 01:33:00.560
but it didn't happen. That's because
of his acting. So so yeah,

1196
01:33:00.840 --> 01:33:09.319
maybe Liu Ten's funeral wasn't my favorite
scene. I don't like for me if

1197
01:33:09.359 --> 01:33:14.680
it's not obvious, like I love
feeling those emote like I love crying what

1198
01:33:14.840 --> 01:33:20.119
I watched, So those are the
scenes that get me. But yeah,

1199
01:33:20.159 --> 01:33:27.800
I agree, and I want to
clarify, like my criticism Gordon's performance is

1200
01:33:27.840 --> 01:33:32.000
Aang like isn't a similar place to
My overall feelings about this show is that

1201
01:33:32.079 --> 01:33:36.560
it's very mid like a C C
plus, Like I don't think they're bad.

1202
01:33:38.039 --> 01:33:42.560
I don't think they're great, like
I believe the original animated Avatar was.

1203
01:33:43.119 --> 01:33:46.000
But this is like fun to watch
and I'll watch it because I enjoyed

1204
01:33:46.000 --> 01:33:54.359
the product. Yeah, yeah,
all right, are you the last words

1205
01:33:54.359 --> 01:34:00.960
before we wrap up? I talked
to about Paku. I'm trying to like

1206
01:34:01.039 --> 01:34:10.239
think through these, especially like these
last two episodes. Yeah, I don't

1207
01:34:10.239 --> 01:34:15.239
know, like going forward, like
I I guess I would ask listeners going

1208
01:34:15.479 --> 01:34:21.880
forward, how far do you think
they will deviate from the animated show?

1209
01:34:21.920 --> 01:34:28.279
Because we I threw out a few
suggestions of like things that might be different,

1210
01:34:28.319 --> 01:34:31.399
right, Like Joao could be alive, Like that's that's a very different

1211
01:34:31.439 --> 01:34:36.319
story, Lieutenant g Like actually being
a character would be a different story.

1212
01:34:36.880 --> 01:34:43.560
Yeah, And we also have the
deviation of the Aang not water bending at

1213
01:34:43.560 --> 01:34:47.079
this point in the storyline, right, Like how does that play out and

1214
01:34:47.119 --> 01:34:53.479
how does that impact a season two? Does he have to spend time learning

1215
01:34:53.520 --> 01:34:57.399
water bending or do we think we
just get a shortcut where at the beginning

1216
01:34:57.399 --> 01:35:00.479
of the show, they're like,
it's been six months and guitar has taught

1217
01:35:00.479 --> 01:35:03.279
me water bending, right, right, that would be that would be rough

1218
01:35:03.359 --> 01:35:10.760
for me, Like because for me, like the student teacher relationship, particularly

1219
01:35:10.840 --> 01:35:15.640
in in things like that and like
skills and like martial arts type things,

1220
01:35:15.760 --> 01:35:18.279
is like very meaningful to me and
has had a big role in my life

1221
01:35:18.359 --> 01:35:23.600
on on both sides of it as
a student and a teacher. And to

1222
01:35:23.760 --> 01:35:30.079
just like not have that at all, it feels to me like like just

1223
01:35:30.159 --> 01:35:33.520
being robbed of such an important part
of the story and making aang such a

1224
01:35:33.600 --> 01:35:38.600
natural talent that he didn't like he
slacked off on his airbending, like really

1225
01:35:39.279 --> 01:35:42.920
like and I feel like that's another
one of those like you're not necessarily giving

1226
01:35:42.960 --> 01:35:46.039
a great message. Yeah that like
the people who are great at these things,

1227
01:35:46.119 --> 01:35:50.159
it's just because they have so much
natural talent. Yeah, so if

1228
01:35:50.199 --> 01:35:54.720
you're not like a black belt when
your first three karate lessons, kid like

1229
01:35:54.760 --> 01:35:59.000
give up because you're not natural talents. Like that's right exactly. Yeah,

1230
01:35:59.039 --> 01:36:03.680
I agree with that good well.
As I mentioned earlier, like it also

1231
01:36:03.760 --> 01:36:09.319
short changed Katara as a character,
yes, absolutely, yes, And I

1232
01:36:09.359 --> 01:36:15.359
think I think one of the things
like we talk about is like you learn

1233
01:36:15.479 --> 01:36:19.199
by teaching, Like you can become
better yourself by teaching to other people,

1234
01:36:19.279 --> 01:36:25.520
and that that was completely missing from
this season and in a way. I

1235
01:36:25.600 --> 01:36:29.760
think it may also short change my
favorite character, with the exception of Zuko,

1236
01:36:29.960 --> 01:36:34.399
maybe uh Tough, because so much
of what makes Toff's interaction with with

1237
01:36:34.640 --> 01:36:39.640
Aang so interesting is that her style. She's the person who's gonna wind up

1238
01:36:39.640 --> 01:36:44.399
teaching him earth bending, at least
doesn't the animated her style is so radically

1239
01:36:44.439 --> 01:36:48.720
different than Katara's and it's really rough
for Ang to adjust to. And I

1240
01:36:48.760 --> 01:36:56.359
feel like if we haven't seen a
lot of Katara training here, that there's

1241
01:36:56.439 --> 01:37:02.640
there was an episode devoted to Katara
teaching Tough how to teach Aang, Right,

1242
01:37:02.720 --> 01:37:06.399
she's been doing it, yeah,
and then like fighting over that and

1243
01:37:06.399 --> 01:37:11.920
that friction. So their relationship,
so much of their relationship early on,

1244
01:37:12.039 --> 01:37:16.720
especially is about their relationships as both
being teachers to Aang and being like,

1245
01:37:16.800 --> 01:37:18.800
no, you have to do it
this way. Well that's not how earth

1246
01:37:18.840 --> 01:37:21.960
Pending works, blah blah blah,
and like, yeah, that takes away

1247
01:37:23.000 --> 01:37:26.920
from both of those characters in two
ways. Right, It's like we lose

1248
01:37:27.000 --> 01:37:31.720
three relationships that way, or at
least it's unfortunate. But like, I

1249
01:37:31.760 --> 01:37:34.560
think they're just going to have to
summer vacation it. I think so,

1250
01:37:34.960 --> 01:37:38.800
and come back at the beginning of
season two and be like, it's been

1251
01:37:39.439 --> 01:37:43.840
X months and Katara has been teaching
a water pending, don't. I don't

1252
01:37:43.840 --> 01:37:45.359
see a way around that, really, Like, there's no way to fit

1253
01:37:45.439 --> 01:37:54.439
that in honestly, given the production
schedule. Like that's how I would write

1254
01:37:54.439 --> 01:37:57.760
it if I picked up in season
two and said, Okay, what do

1255
01:37:57.880 --> 01:38:00.720
I do with where we are and
where are actors are? And Okay,

1256
01:38:00.760 --> 01:38:04.920
we're going to have to say that's
what happened, especially because it'll be a

1257
01:38:04.920 --> 01:38:11.079
good patch, especially because, as
we've seen, this show is very happy

1258
01:38:11.119 --> 01:38:15.199
to do a bunch of flashbacks.
But I don't know if you can shoot

1259
01:38:15.239 --> 01:38:19.319
flashbacks to Qatara treating aang if the
actor Bang is now two feet taller than

1260
01:38:19.359 --> 01:38:25.119
he wasn't before you care angles?
You just got Peter Jackson. Yeah,

1261
01:38:25.159 --> 01:38:29.039
Peter Jackson. That's the thing.
The other thing I was going to bring

1262
01:38:29.119 --> 01:38:33.680
up, which, oh god,
what the hell was this? The budgets,

1263
01:38:33.720 --> 01:38:36.920
the live action stuff. I had
one of the thought I wanted to

1264
01:38:36.920 --> 01:38:40.199
bring up that was just so related
to all of this, and I was

1265
01:38:40.239 --> 01:38:43.840
completely out of my head and I
hate that this is going out lot and

1266
01:38:43.840 --> 01:38:49.000
it's not going out live it's going
to be in the YouTube. You can

1267
01:38:49.039 --> 01:38:56.239
cut things easily on YouTube. We're
talking about guitarry. I just really want

1268
01:38:56.279 --> 01:38:58.680
to make sure I don't forget this. But we're talking about Katara, we're

1269
01:38:58.720 --> 01:39:03.000
talking about Aang and the teaching is
it about who like who do they get

1270
01:39:03.000 --> 01:39:10.760
to play tough? No? It
was about guitar and Aang. Oh yeah,

1271
01:39:12.039 --> 01:39:15.840
no, I totally lost it.
I know. I'm sure if the

1272
01:39:15.960 --> 01:39:17.840
good five you know what, I'll
like make someone up and write it in

1273
01:39:17.920 --> 01:39:21.119
his feedback that you know, here's
the question, perfect, perfect. I

1274
01:39:21.399 --> 01:39:24.640
have two things, all right,
so we'll go back to that. When

1275
01:39:24.640 --> 01:39:28.800
you asked earlier one, I thought, let me, oh yeah, all

1276
01:39:28.880 --> 01:39:30.479
right, So Paul, what about
you? Last things you want to wrap

1277
01:39:30.560 --> 01:39:33.239
up with? Yeah? So I
got two things. One short. One's

1278
01:39:33.520 --> 01:39:40.560
short. One was like what I
felt like was actually a pretty good sequence

1279
01:39:40.560 --> 01:39:45.720
of dialogue between Zuko and Iro,
where Ira was like, so do you

1280
01:39:45.800 --> 01:39:47.520
have a plan, and then Zuko's
like, plan, Yeah, I have

1281
01:39:47.560 --> 01:39:50.840
a plan. It's to show that
my father wasn't wrong to trust me with

1282
01:39:50.880 --> 01:39:54.680
this job. Blah blah blah blah
blah, And I was like, so

1283
01:39:54.760 --> 01:39:59.079
no plans, so good. It's
so good the delivery. I was like

1284
01:39:59.119 --> 01:40:02.279
that that's well written and it's perfectly
deliberate. I was like, okay,

1285
01:40:02.399 --> 01:40:05.600
we I need to give the writers
some credit there. I mean, unless

1286
01:40:05.600 --> 01:40:09.640
it was improvised, but didn't feel
improvised. It felt like, you know,

1287
01:40:10.319 --> 01:40:14.920
it just felt like a well executed
levity in a spot that was pretty

1288
01:40:15.079 --> 01:40:17.520
you know, within a serious part
of the show. So like that worked

1289
01:40:17.520 --> 01:40:25.000
for me. The other one was
I really appreciated that they didn't focus too

1290
01:40:25.079 --> 01:40:31.159
much on Sokka's bigotry and that he
overcame it pretty quickly, by which I

1291
01:40:31.239 --> 01:40:35.079
mean, uh, that he really
cared about Momo, you know, instead

1292
01:40:35.079 --> 01:40:38.720
of just wanting to eat him all
the time. So you know, he

1293
01:40:38.800 --> 01:40:44.319
overcame a speciesism there. And I
actually found that that like Momo bit.

1294
01:40:44.359 --> 01:40:45.680
I was like, oh, you're
not going to kill Momo, Like,

1295
01:40:45.800 --> 01:40:50.279
yeah, it can't cost that much
to to CGI or whatever. So I

1296
01:40:50.359 --> 01:40:57.000
figured if MoMA was dead, there
once again all gonna have some things to

1297
01:40:57.079 --> 01:41:00.720
say. I'm fighting at finding out
all the writers and I'm not watching anything

1298
01:41:00.760 --> 01:41:02.920
they make ever again. No,
but so yeah, I like they they

1299
01:41:03.000 --> 01:41:08.000
let Momo be a hero, you
know, and then they let Sokka help

1300
01:41:08.119 --> 01:41:11.520
save Momo and like, yeah,
that you know, and then heal and

1301
01:41:11.560 --> 01:41:14.319
they healed them and everything. I
was like, okay, all right,

1302
01:41:14.359 --> 01:41:16.359
that was nice. That was a
nice moment. And that's that's to me.

1303
01:41:16.479 --> 01:41:20.199
That's like, uh, that shows
how like you can have like just

1304
01:41:20.239 --> 01:41:25.399
a little one minute segment that really
does a lot, right, Like you

1305
01:41:25.439 --> 01:41:28.960
don't. I don't need five scenes
like that, but just one scene like

1306
01:41:28.960 --> 01:41:32.199
that tells me a lot. Yeah, I think it's true. Two last

1307
01:41:32.199 --> 01:41:39.279
things that I had I did remember
so two so again, two last things

1308
01:41:39.279 --> 01:41:42.640
that I had, one very small, the other little bit bit bigger.

1309
01:41:43.880 --> 01:41:47.880
I can't understand why no one thought
of this before, but using water bending

1310
01:41:47.920 --> 01:41:53.000
to make ice cream I should be
one of my favorite Like of course you

1311
01:41:53.039 --> 01:41:56.720
would do that. It's so brilliant, Like I love that so much.

1312
01:41:58.880 --> 01:42:01.199
But the other one is, as
I said, I am really interested in

1313
01:42:01.239 --> 01:42:08.560
what they're doing with Ozai, Azula
Zuku and this idea that where's the avatar

1314
01:42:09.039 --> 01:42:15.199
Where the animated he's basically pretty much
written off Zuko until maybe whereas in the

1315
01:42:15.279 --> 01:42:19.239
animated he's pretty much written off Zuku
ah my god. Whereas in the animated

1316
01:42:19.319 --> 01:42:25.000
version he has pretty much written off
Zuko in this one, you know,

1317
01:42:25.039 --> 01:42:29.159
it does seem like he's playing the
two off against each other. So when

1318
01:42:29.279 --> 01:42:33.760
Joo gives Zuko the speech that he
gives in the animated, almost word for

1319
01:42:33.840 --> 01:42:39.039
word, about no, your father
isn't interested in you. You're done.

1320
01:42:39.119 --> 01:42:42.880
He's just looking for at Azula,
at first I was like, wait a

1321
01:42:42.880 --> 01:42:45.239
minute, you're betraying the whole thing
you've set up, until I realized,

1322
01:42:45.279 --> 01:42:50.600
wait a minute, Zao Joao has
all of his information from a Zula,

1323
01:42:51.239 --> 01:42:56.159
and so actually this makes total it
it. Actually I thought, if if

1324
01:42:56.199 --> 01:42:58.479
the writers were smart, as I'm
giving them credit for, which I think

1325
01:42:58.520 --> 01:43:02.600
they were, this is brilliant because
it shows any that is Zula is manipulating

1326
01:43:02.680 --> 01:43:09.239
Jao all over the place, b
that we still have Zuko hearing this and

1327
01:43:09.239 --> 01:43:13.439
thus having to deal with believing that
even though we the audience know that something

1328
01:43:13.479 --> 01:43:16.880
different's happening. So I really liked
how they did that, and especially if

1329
01:43:16.880 --> 01:43:19.520
that's what they were doing, if
they were just like, yeah, let's

1330
01:43:19.560 --> 01:43:23.960
have them give that speech, because
it was great speech and animated without realizing

1331
01:43:24.000 --> 01:43:26.279
what they've been doing the whole time
until then, then I'm a lot more

1332
01:43:26.279 --> 01:43:30.359
disappointed. But I want to give
them more credit than that. I think

1333
01:43:30.359 --> 01:43:34.239
it's fair to interpret it the way
you do, and I don't. I

1334
01:43:34.239 --> 01:43:38.600
don't see any reason to care what
they meant. Like, if it works,

1335
01:43:39.000 --> 01:43:43.680
that's great, you know, And
I can see that. Yeah,

1336
01:43:43.720 --> 01:43:45.640
well, in the end, it
only matters given how they tell the story

1337
01:43:45.680 --> 01:43:51.279
going forward, that matters. Yeah, if it's the same writers even,

1338
01:43:51.359 --> 01:43:57.880
you know what I mean, Yeah, exactly. Sometimes showrunners change and although

1339
01:43:58.079 --> 01:44:01.359
supposedly all the season two scripts are
in case they get greenlit, I'm like,

1340
01:44:02.479 --> 01:44:06.840
you know, you don't want any
feedback. Oh my god, you're

1341
01:44:06.880 --> 01:44:12.319
not going to listen to our podcast? No, But I mean, I

1342
01:44:12.399 --> 01:44:16.079
don't really want writers to listen too
much to feedback, to be honest,

1343
01:44:16.359 --> 01:44:20.359
you know. Yeah, I think
there's some value to it, but I

1344
01:44:20.399 --> 01:44:29.840
think it can probably kind of hamper
in some ways as well. Yeah,

1345
01:44:30.000 --> 01:44:34.960
I have definitely seen shows where I
got the impression that the writers listen too

1346
01:44:35.000 --> 01:44:40.000
much to the critics, not even
shows. I think that was part of

1347
01:44:40.000 --> 01:44:44.119
what happened with the Star Wars movie, of the incredibly negative feedback that people

1348
01:44:44.119 --> 01:44:45.479
got and how that affected things.
I think that was more of the studio

1349
01:44:45.600 --> 01:44:48.840
than the writers. But yeah,
I've also definitely seen things where writers get

1350
01:44:48.880 --> 01:44:51.920
really badly attacked and then it feels
like they get gun shy or they're you

1351
01:44:51.920 --> 01:44:56.720
know, too much in their head. Well again, thank you both so

1352
01:44:56.840 --> 01:45:00.720
much. You guys are just recorded, you know, almost nine hours of

1353
01:45:00.760 --> 01:45:04.399
podcasts over two days of or four
days. I'm so so grateful. It's

1354
01:45:04.399 --> 01:45:06.960
actually more like seven hours, but
I'm either way, whatever it is,

1355
01:45:06.960 --> 01:45:11.840
it's just round up. It's fine. There's the fifth one too from earlier

1356
01:45:11.960 --> 01:45:14.000
days. Yeah, exactly exactly.
So yeah, no, we're like nine

1357
01:45:14.079 --> 01:45:16.279
or ten. I'm so grateful to
both of you. Both. These people

1358
01:45:16.319 --> 01:45:19.319
create amazing stuff. Links in the
show notes. Please check all that kind

1359
01:45:19.319 --> 01:45:21.920
of stuff out. Of course,
please check out all the other things we're

1360
01:45:21.920 --> 01:45:26.239
doing on Ethical Panda. It is
now eleven thirty at night, and I

1361
01:45:26.279 --> 01:45:30.479
now have to edit us talking for
two hours because these two folks just wouldn't

1362
01:45:30.479 --> 01:45:33.279
show it up. I didn't help
either, but I could imagine anyone better

1363
01:45:33.319 --> 01:45:38.039
to have covered this with. Thank
you guys all so much. Yep,

1364
01:45:38.119 --> 01:45:45.239
yep, motherfucker. I don't know
how to follow that up. I do

1365
01:45:45.279 --> 01:45:47.399
want to just say, like,
I've really enjoyed talking about the show with

1366
01:45:47.479 --> 01:45:51.960
the two of you, and it's
it's greatly added to my enjoyment of the

1367
01:45:53.000 --> 01:45:56.239
show, which was was kind of
mid in the first place, but overall

1368
01:45:56.319 --> 01:46:00.840
it's been, you know, a
strong positive experience. The whole thing combined

1369
01:46:01.600 --> 01:46:06.600
awesome. Yeah, I'm very glad
we did this. Thank you so much

1370
01:46:06.640 --> 01:46:13.279
for creating the space, yeah and
having us on. It's too bad the

1371
01:46:13.279 --> 01:46:17.479
two of you don't share any other
interests that we can talk about. I

1372
01:46:17.680 --> 01:46:23.760
like chess, I don't know.
Yeah, I haven't played chess in a

1373
01:46:23.760 --> 01:46:29.800
long time. Oh yeah, I
don't know. I don't know that show.

1374
01:46:30.359 --> 01:46:35.079
Actually signing off now, yep.
Two to everybody. I am the

1375
01:46:35.079 --> 01:46:38.640
one, I am the two.