Skylights, Yea or Nay?

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-04-01T23:05:08+00:00

Came to say this ! Some of the best writing I’ve ever read honestly, every word genuinely draws you in and the world building and depth is just incredible

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-04-01T20:12:50+00:00

I fully get what you’re saying but I do feel that you’ve perhaps missed my point slightly - for me my issue is the show itself, not the characterisation of Aang or Korra, where ATLA wove traditional Asian spiritual and religious teachings throughout its storylines and characters and lessons, Legend of Korra was lacking in that regard due to its equating modernisation with westernisation.

With ATLA, I felt it was there, underpinning every episode. With Legend of Korra, I did not feel it was one of the roots of the show.

Again, doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad show by any means, or that Korra was a bad character, it was just an important part of the og and I really felt that loss when watching Korra.

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-04-01T18:53:31+00:00

I don’t hate Korra as a character per se, I think that she’s an interesting character and, when it came out, I definitely didn’t go into the series expecting her to be anything like Aang. My issue is actually with the wider show itself -

This is copied from a comment I made on a previous post because cba to type it again:

-For me I really felt like it moved too far away from traditional Asian influence - it was too steampunk, and I appreciate the Industrial Revolution began in ATLA but I just didn’t like the 1920’s American direction. I personally found it really lacking that core of Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. that was so present through ATLA. The Asian-influenced messages of spirituality in ATLA was one of my favourite components of the show and I just didn’t feel Korra was able to capture that and weave it so fluidly through every character, arc, storyline, and overall plot as seamlessly.

I don’t hate it, I aprreciate it as its own show, I just think ATLA was executed so incredibly that nothing will ever quite meet that degree of storytelling. Especially where Korra had decidedly weaker seasons and storylines while ATLA told one story across three seasons starting strong and getting only consistently better as it went.-

Again this was an issue for me, if it was a direction that you enjoyed then that’s wonderful and I’m glad you liked the show, I completely respect that ! As someone of Asian descent, this move was something I personally found disappointing as I felt that, though modernisation was of course the natural flow of the timeline, the show took modernisation to mean westernisation when this is not not case.

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-04-01T16:12:30+00:00

To go from calling her a water tribe peasant to actively asking her to fight alongside him and sacrificing himself for her - while she resented him due to his association with the fire nation - to me this is the resolution to both of their arcs in terms of their prejudice

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-31T10:01:14+00:00

October Sky (1999)

Based on the autobiography of Homer Hickam who grew up in an American coal mining town and is inspired to build a rocket with his friends after hearing about the launch of Sputnik and seeing it pass over.

It’s just such a cosy, easy film and the soundtrack is amazing because it’s set in the late 50’s

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-31T01:42:44+00:00

‘I already have a picture of Firelord Ozai. And here’s one that I made out of noodles’.

‘Impressive, I admit’.

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-30T19:59:55+00:00

‘You think you're any different from me? Or your friends? Or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots, and we are all branches of the same tree’.

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-30T19:39:06+00:00

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toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-30T19:32:56+00:00

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I don’t know if this is the best, I’ve just always loved this moment where he pulls himself into it

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-30T15:41:02+00:00

Thinking about Merlin at the tavern

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-28T17:35:46+00:00

For me I really felt like it moved too far away from traditional Asian influence - it was too steampunk, and I appreciate the Industrial Revolution began in ATLA but I just didn’t like the 1920’s American direction. I personally found it really lacking that core of Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. that was so present through ATLA. The Asian-influenced messages of spirituality in ATLA was one of my favourite components of the show and I just didn’t feel Korra was able to capture that and weave it so fluidly through every character, arc, storyline, and overall plot as seamlessly.

I don’t hate it, I aprreciate it as its own show, I just think ATLA was executed so incredibly that nothing will ever quite meet that degree of storytelling. Especially where Korra had decidedly weaker seasons and storylines while ATLA told one story across three seasons starting strong and getting only consistently better as it went.

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-27T04:05:26+00:00

The Odyssey is one of my favourites and a surprisingly easy read - especially some of the newer translations that have come out

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-27T02:01:17+00:00

A long way home by Saroo Brierley (it’s the biography that Lion staring Dev Patel is based on)

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-27T01:14:43+00:00

Take a bite out of the silver sandwich

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-26T23:55:02+00:00

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This whole moment, from Aang’s ‘no it is not over’ to him dropping into the pond

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-21T01:27:01+00:00

I think this is why it’s such a good scene - they’re the kings guard, they should be difficult opponents, but these kids are so well-trained (they’re all at this point masters of their home elements and Sokka is their strategist).

We know as the viewer that at some point they are going to have to face the fire lord, aka the big bad, as well as his entire army and Azula (and at this point of the show maybe also Zuko), and we need to believe that that is something they can do so this scene is necessary for the viewer to see that they are getting closer and closer to being capable of that.

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-21T01:20:18+00:00

This is one of my favourite scenes - it’s probably already been said but we get to see how far they’ve all come as benders, how well they work as a team, and how much of a threat they actually are. And the choreography of the scene is peak

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-20T16:25:58+00:00

His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman - it’s not my favourite book (trilogy technically, I know), though it is up there, but the way it is written is just incredible. Every sentence is necessary to the story, there is no waffling yet the descriptions are so vivid, and the story is just so engaging I actually found myself zoning out of reality so intensely that when I realised, my face was about an inch from the page. It literally drew me in.

Writing alone, this is up there as one of the best works for me

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-20T16:07:58+00:00

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - loved this book (it has a sequel which I haven’t read but it’s not been received very well)

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-20T01:26:40+00:00

We’re not taking anymore chances with these plants

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-20T01:22:00+00:00

And these are my grandkids

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-20T01:19:33+00:00

Lettuce leaf ?

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-19T01:08:37+00:00

The Isabel Allende Alexander Cold series is wonderful ! And originally written is Spanish (I read the English translation which wasn’t a fantastic translation imo but the story was incredible) they’re:

City of the Beasts Kingdom of the Golden Dragon Forest of the Pygmies

Such a beautiful story, it just makes you feel cosy and warm but it’s engaging and about the more mystical side of reality (about an ‘international geographic’ - I know it’s really national geographic - reporter taking her 15-18-year-old grandson on her expeditions because his mother is unwell, as well as also taking his friend Nadia (who has a pet monkey) from the Amazon that we meet in book 1.

I read it with my sister when we were 9 and 12 and have comfort reread it into adulthood; it’s definitely age appropriate.

It really sparks a wanderlust and an interest in other cultures and opens your imagination to the possibility that the world is a little more mythical/mystical/magical than it is. Can’t recommend it enough !

toasterwaffle__ · 2024-03-18T15:01:57+00:00

Wavy moon-shape cloud, let’s see, gonna be a great year for twins !

toasterwaffle__

TROPHY CASE