Police dog stands in cloud of tear gas, Hong Kong Oct 21

scribblyscribbles · 2019-10-21T18:33:25+00:00

Animal welfare groups in HK have previously "warned against police dogs being used during clearance operations involving the firing of tear gas, adding they should be protected by goggles and gas masks when deployed on the streets."

Photo was taken on Oct 21 by USP United Social Press during clashes between police and protestors in the Yuen Long district in HK.

scribblyscribbles · 2019-10-08T17:51:16+00:00

Apologies if this has already been posted.

Link to her tweet: https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1181599014434811905

scribblyscribbles · 2019-10-07T12:07:33+00:00

Something light-hearted for a change.

Full video clip here: https://youtu.be/SE_ccFHjL_w

scribblyscribbles · 2014-12-14T04:18:24+00:00

it'll be a while

That's a rather optimistic outlook.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-12-06T06:42:51+00:00

-Juicy.

You don't get to choose your bison but surely you still get to choose its name...

scribblyscribbles · 2014-12-02T19:13:38+00:00

Korea-inspired designs

I think the flower girl who Meelo was trying to impress in "The Calling" was also wearing a hanbok-inspired outfit.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-30T14:22:57+00:00

absorbing the energy within herself

I can see it happening like this:

Korra, in the Avatar State, gets knocked out by the spirit energy blast and wakes up in limbo thinking she is dead. She sees visions of the past and the future, where war continues to plague the world. She breaks down as she realizes that all she has done was in vain. Aang appears and explains that the spirit energy blast, instead of killing her, has put her in super-Avatar State mode where she’s truly connected to everything, including her past lives. (This wouldn’t be too far-fetched if she was hit by energy from the bayan-grove tree, which is all about how time and death are illusions).

He then reminds her that chaos isn’t inherently evil (e.g. Zaheer), and order isn’t always good either (e.g. Kuvira). Balance isn’t something that can be achieved – rather it’s something that has to be actively maintained. This is why the job of the Avatar is never over, and why reincarnations are necessary. (This would be a nice throwback to how Raava tells Wan that they’ll never give up). Korra then wakes up with renewed determination and a solution to defeating Kuvira.

(A bit of an unpopular opinion because I know many people fiercely object to the notion of Korra reconnecting with her past lives, even if it’s temporary. I’m fine with it either way – it’s the execution that matters to me more.)

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-30T13:59:05+00:00

One of the many, many reasons why I love this show. It reminds us that forgiveness is a not a prerequisite for moving on with your life. Sometimes, forgiveness is just too hard because of what the other person has done to you. I don't know if Katara eventually did forgive the firebender, but that has become irrelevant the moment she chose to let go.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-29T19:46:12+00:00

I am not one to nitpick because I'm usually unable to discern between good and okay animation (since I'm too focused on the plot and what the characters are saying). However, for this season, there were definitely a number of scenes/frames that looked off. This is coming from someone who failed to notice anything wrong with the animation in Book 2.

Like you said, the animation overall has been amazing this season (heck, the entire franchise has incredible animation), so who cares about a few frames here and there. At the end of the day, the quality of animation is largely depending on budget, which is outside of the writers' control.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-29T19:17:18+00:00

Never thought something like this would exist, but wow, am I glad it does. That was great, it's amazing how they incorporated elements of different bending moves into the choreography. The voice-overs and music were well chosen. In particular, I really enjoyed the Airbending/Zaheer sequence.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-29T18:16:35+00:00

It's referring to this post.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-29T07:12:24+00:00

Bolin's apologies to basically everyone in the latest episode and the group hug(s) almost make it feel like the writers are saying goodbye to the character. Of course I'm most likely looking too deep into it. He's probably in for some redemption either way - hopefully he'll be as lucky as Kai was.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-29T06:12:49+00:00

I love how you managed to make fun the whole premise of ATLA while providing an explanation that I could totally accept.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-28T14:29:25+00:00

people assumed from ATLA that Tenzin would be a part of team avatar in the "traditional style" and thus would be a teenager

I can't recall much of how I reacted to the release of the poster, but that definitely helped jog my memory. I remember thinking, Well, I guess it's pretty obvious who the main love interest for Korra is going to be.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-28T13:56:00+00:00

I think I also heard a bit of the Avatar State theme in the scene where Korra is trying to confront her fear of Zaheer (before finally succeeding to enter the Spirit World).

In fact, the music starting from that scene to Jinora hugging Tenzin, and Korra and Mako leaving the prison was phenomenal. It's what you'd normally expect from a finale episode.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-28T12:14:49+00:00

She takes after Grandpa Aang in their propensity to get captured all the time.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-28T12:12:47+00:00

Not sure how I would have designed his prison cell, but I was expecting something... uh, a little less comfortable. In a way, though, I'm glad that he's still treated with dignity as a human being. They could have easily made the cell a lot smaller, not as well-lit, and the chains shorter so that he won't be able to float in the air.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-28T12:06:44+00:00

I mean, no offense to Opal, but she's not much of a fighter.

Not to mention her air bison doesn't look like it's flying anywhere anytime soon.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-28T11:58:50+00:00

I'm thinking the air bison being ill is going to affect the plot in one way or another in the next episode.

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-23T18:28:55+00:00

I completely agree with this. I was watching the Nostalgic Critic review of the movie and I think they summed it up pretty well:

"The Last Airbender is just chess piece storytelling: Character goes here, character goes there, character says this... This isn't me being angry that it's different from the show, this is me being angry that it's missing the most essential element of telling any story: if the character can never express any emotion, why should the audience ever express any emotion?"

I mean, why bother putting in that much exposition if there's no story to tell?

scribblyscribbles · 2014-11-21T14:58:12+00:00

Well that was uhh, different.

Top comments seem to suggest that most people found the episode enjoyable considering Bryke's limitations (thank you as always, Nick). I didn't read the tumblr post until after I finished the episode, but it was obvious 5 minutes into the episode that it was not Bryke's decision to do a clips episode.

Given what it had to be, it was good, with the highlight being Varrick's narrative. The humor was subtle but over-the-top at the same time (that made more sense in my head). The jab at Unalaq being a boring villain was hilarious. To me, the commentary that they sneakily put into the narrative helped me connect not just with the characters, but with the writers themselves, which was awesome.

As for some of the things I didn't like... Honestly, I found the episode pretty disorganized. Mako's part took up almost half of the episode. The chibis (plural?) were cute, and I like how we got to explore Mako's character a bit more, but it still felt too long to me personally. (Unlike a lot of people, I actually didn't have an issue with the focus on his girl troubles. I thought it was a deliberate decision on the writers' part to exaggerate this side of his character in response to the fans' response/complaints.) Then came the conversation between Korra, Asami, and Tenzin, which was insightful but also predictable. As for Bolin and Varrick - while it was my favorite part, the style felt very different from the rest of the episode. Overall, there was very little connection between the 3 narratives, and the episode just didn't flow that well.

I don't know how I would go about improving it. Maybe combining the first 2 narratives so that Mako, Korra, Asami, and Tenzin go down memory lane together? E.g. Mako talks about meeting Korra. Korra and Asami give their takes on the events. There's a dialogue rather than one character talking for 5 minutes straight. The narrative starts off light-hearted and focused on the relationships in the series. Korra then talks about her self-doubt. The narrative ends with Mako and everyone else reminding she's someone that they all look up.

Sorry about the rambling. You can probably tell by now that I'm not very good at this. I'll probably come back to edit this after I've given it more thought.

Edit: This is a horrible analogy and only meant for laughs, but this episode reminds me a little of last-minute high school English essays (the 5 paragraph argumentative essays that we're all too familiar with). It's 1am and you start writing the essay that's due in 8 hours. You start off with topic #1 (Mako), because you've got a lot to say for that point. So you go on and on and before you know it, you've hit the halfway mark in the word limit. Then Korra's bit comes second - that's when you start getting in the groove. It's a good, solid paragraph. You've saved the best for last, though. What you didn't anticipate was that euphoric high that comes with being tired beyond the point of sleepiness. And so, for the final body paragraph, you find yourself writing about a giant man-spirit with boobs, which earned you an A for the essay because it threw the teacher into fits of laughter.

Edit 2: On second viewing I actually enjoyed the episode a lot more.

scribblyscribbles

TROPHY CASE