[OOC] Avatar: A Legend Reborn

[Prince]

Amon was a perfect example of the character-creating logic, "you only need a reason, not a good one." He was a highly internalized character. I feel that the themes of abuse, mental warping, diluted personal perspective and misplaced ventilation of rage for his motivation are all over-looked. I've had this same discussion with quite a few fans. What were you expecting from Amon? What did you expect his huge reveal to be? He didn't have megalomaniac plans to take over the world or destroy it, nor merge it with the Spirit World. He just wanted to rid it of bending, granted that's on the opposite end of the spectrum, but it was fueled via political and internal strife made by a society where some are gifted abilities. It's a natural oligarchy of sorts.

I still feel like the Red Lotus was more of a tool than anything, which made it hard to... respect. You literally see one character follow through with its morals and have any form of character development while you see Amon shape Korra as we know it is now. I also feel like saying Unalaq had a one-track mind isn't lending enough credit to his ingenuity with manipulation, geo-political analysis and manipulation and overall skill. Unlike every OTHER villain, his key ability was to soothe/control spirits using Waterbending techniques essentially anyone can learn. Two airbenders have flown. Only a handful of waterbenders can bloodbend. In all reality, he's probably the most 'realistic' villain in terms of what he does and how he does it.

[Thought Manifest]

While I think you make some very good points, I don't necessarily agree with them. With Amon, he was still just a child when he left home. By the time we see him in Republic City, he's in his forties. That's at least thirty years between the time he suffered abuse at his father's hands and the time he sets his plans into motion. I don't know about you, but I've never met anyone who internalized their abuse so much that they made sure their entire adult lives revolved around it. I can understand there still being bitterness, but after thirty years, it feels less like a legitimate purpose and more like he's just being a drama-queen. That is why the "big reveal" was so disappointing for me though I really liked how his end came. It was darker than anything A:TLA had done up to that point, and it was actually really beautiful from a writing standpoint.

The thing about Unalaq is that I could have respected his powers of manipulation if they hadn't been so transparent from the viewing perspective. Both the writing and the scenery set-up was so blatantly obvious that I wasn't surprised by anything they revealed about him. He was also very one-dimensional. Amon and the Red Lotus (except for Ming Hua) had facets to them that gave them character depth. I didn't get anything like that from Unalaq or Vaatu. They just were what they were, and they didn't have any room for growth as characters which is always a bit disappointing to me.

I think with the Red Lotus, you have this idea that they could only be one way. Their goal was to bring down centralized government and allow a stronger system to emerge from the chaos. Zaheer had spiritual inclinations, but that doesn't mean that everyone else had to have them. It was clear to me that the other four just cared about the goal and not necessarily Zaheer's reasoning. In order to really value and want to achieve the goal, there's no reason why any of them had to have spiritual inclinations. There isn't only one way to start rebellions or one reason to want to do so.

Everyone can have their own reasons and purposes, and I thought that actually added a lot of depth to the group as a whole even if we never fully learn why Ghazan and Ming Hua are so loyal to the goal. P'li wanted to bring down governments because rulers essentially used her as a weapon of destruction, and she would have followed Zaheer anywhere because of their love for one another. Zaheer wanted to do it because of his spiritual beliefs. It's obvious to me that Ghazan at least believed in the end-game, and Ming Hua was probably just a psychopath who liked hurting people though that might just be a result of her mind cracking due to the terrible prison environment she was forced to be in for over a decade. To me, hers was the worst of all of them even if all of them were their own, unique forms of inhumane torture.

[Rtron]

Frankly, I just like villains with controlled insanity. The Joker, Kimble from FMA: Brotherhood, Loki, Azula, Saren from ME, Meredith from DA: 2, Durza from Eragon (The book.), and Amon. They're all varying degrees of insane, they all have a variety of reasons for what they do, amd they all control their insanity to a point. I just like a villain like that. Clearly insane, but in control enough to go through with their plans.

[Prince]

. That's at least thirty years between the time he suffered abuse at his father's hands and the time he sets his plans into motion. I don't know about you, but I've never met anyone who internalized their abuse so much that they made sure their entire adult lives revolved around it.

I've studied half a dozen real life serial killers, serial rapers and actual criminals that have enacted insane acts of cruelty, ranging from those that developed their sociopathic tendencies at a young age due to abuse to those whom didn't manifest it later in life, at times a decade after their prime. If you haven't heard of anyone internalizing abuse to that degree, look at the prison system, and you'll find more real life examples than you could ever want - trust me. If you think he's a drama queen, understand that there are men that did terrible, terrible things in secrecy cause their priests or neighbors did equally terrible things to them. On that note, it doesn't even have to be as severe as I may make it seem; look at all of the instances of high-stress college students doing these horrendous things or the kids pushed to excel and 'be the best' only to fall short - or even succeed - only to ultimately do something terrible. It happens ALL the time, and if you don't see it, look at the media and observe the world around you. I understood Amon and his plight because it definitely was a real one and it was far more 'realistic' than Zaheer and his goal to destroy centralized government. I can't honestly combat your points on Unalaq; as a viewer, you don't really appreciate what he did because you were meant to see it coming.

I simply feel completely opposite about the Red Lotus. I feel it was a shallow organization that we had almost no actual expansion on. It was a tool, as we saw it. I mean, it went from having five members to a whole bunch of people shrouded in red cloaks prepared to poison the Avatar. How? Where was the setup? The Red Lotus is a splinter group of a SHADOW group. A lot of wasted potential. It was just a backdrop to highlight Zaheer. I literally feel like every Red Lotus member, save Unalaq, was a support for Zaheer instead of their own character and any depth they had was immediately shallow. Even P'Li literally died to free Zaheer from his early ties; to me, that looks like a roleplayer that introduces a character in a DBZ RP just to kill them and send their RPC into Super Saiyan. She wasn't there or integral long enough nor was their romance emphasized enough, in my opinion, for it to have been that influential. It was forced. It was fast. It wasn't as hard hitting. I haven't seen a scene since the final one of Season One where the boat blows up where I just go "Damn, that's amazing writing", granted I'm thoroughly impressed and entertained.

Avatar: The Last Airbender had one linear, central plot, but it expanded on it and a world beautifully. From episode one, you knew what that show was about. I feel that was amazing displayed in season one of Legend of Korra, but with the introduction of Season Two with Harmonic Convergence and Season Three with the Red Lotus, I feel like it's become somewhat diluted in the sense the seasons don't string together, the plotlines are more individual and I really, really feel like the merging of the Spirit World and normal World is a beautiful idea, but the plotline that induced it was just too large in scope. It literally reset the whole series, the whole connection to the past lives, it answered a lot of questions REALLY quickly and the third Season didn't get close to matching its scope.

Anyway, I should get back to posting tomorrow. Work and all. Definitely this weekend. I swear to god, people smoking pot on the clock... I get a solid 21.5 hours overtime, but damn.

[Prince]

Alright, so I spent all of yesterday finishing necessary classwork for the week as my mid terms are next week, which includes a speech in front of a live audience and mostly tests (oddly enough, I did do one mid term test this week. My classes are inconsistent). Anyway, aside from prep for next week, I'm free this weekend until my assignments are posted, and chances are, they won't eat up much time until my timed tests. This means I should be able to dedicate time Saturday and Sunday to this really heavily.

I do apologize for the lack of activity, once again. We demoted a manager were I work, leaving a full 32 hours to account for controlling our store. They were caught smoking and allowing crew to "smoke" on the clock during closing hours, which is immediate grounds for termination, which we also give them 2 weeks to find a new job - all of them. As I run the People Department, aaaaall of this falls under my jurisdiction and its technically my obligation to cover any uncovered floor hours. So, my own job, which will constitute the hiring and training of at least five new employees and the search for a new potential manager, was made even harder while I was pushed into 28 extra hours. Someone extended a shift of theirs by 4, but no one in the whole store was willing to take on any more hours, which means I'll finish out today with a whooping 68.5 hours in this week (I work a double, but the 28 are overtime and the original 8 will be my normal shift for 40). So... yeah. I start my shift in 30 minutes and I'm not out untillll.midnight.

[ML]

Sent you a PM prince, I've been a bit busy myself

[Rtron]

Prince said *FREE TIME BEING EATEN UNSTOPPABLY BY RL*

Sweet Jesus. You don't need to apologise with that work load. Good luck. Look on the bright side, more money!

[Prince]

Updates: I am working on collabs for for the Air Nomads and Uquo as well as Krane and Tanvi for Lien. I have no idea where Ostrich group is.

[Prince]

If we have a TP up, I need you to reply in it even if I'm not responsive. Leaving 'cause I'm not around gets no work done.

[ML]

Noted.

[Prince]

So, Merc Lord, for the record, now is when Rabten would reply. lol

[Prince]

I have posted another lengthy collab between Aki and I. It's a bit of a read, but I made it so on purpose; reading it will somewhat give you an idea of how the Underground City is laid out as well as some of the steps you can go through after your initiation. This would apply quite highly to Ostrich Group as well as Shila/Kalani/Nicias... wherever they are.

[ML]

Prince said
So, Merc Lord, for the record, now is when Rabten would reply. lol

Yeah, we had the most unfortunate power outage as I got home from school. I about had a panic attack.

[Prince]

Just keeping things updated.

[Prince]

Alright, I'm going to need a role call of whose here. I haven't seen anything from Ostrich group. Nicias, Kalani and Shila have been MIA a while. I'm working with Merc Lord right now and you've seen my post with Aki.

If you're having issues of any kind, whether its communication, integration, or with the teams, PM me. I will find time to help. I promise. If this initial setup wasn't sufficient, I will work out something until it is.

Activity is key.

[Archangel89]

Im still here, I was just waiting for you and Merc to finish. Although every time I got on to check the pad you made there was no one on...playing "phone tag" as it were lol

[AkiBlue]

Present and accounted for.

[ML]

hi

[Rinnee]

Still here.

[Rinnee]

Double post...