#(they died there on a ship wreck which was their avatar decision. they keep making ghost jokes.)

[salad-storm]

Lighthouse as a vast domain with a lighthouse keeper marked by the lonely and some guy chilling at the beach except they're an avatar of the end = ships will get lost and be very existential about it

[cogentranting]

Avatar 2 spoilery thoughts (aka a collection of mini rants): 

the ONLY thing interesting they allowed Neytiri to do was her scene with Spider in the climax (and it’s the most interesting moment in the movie) and there was no follow up to it. Hopefully they follow through on the tense relationship between Spider and Neytiri in the third movie. 

In the middle of the big battle at the end the sea Na’vi are just gone? Where did they go? Why did they leave? The battle wasn’t over and they just... went home? I don’t understand. Even the chief and his wife left and their daughter was still there! They came explicitly to rescue her and then left without her. What is this? 

Spider grew up alongside Jake and Neytiri’s kids, was practically raised by them, but they just keep leaving him behind and forgetting he exists! I get it for Neytiri because it’s explicitly part of her arc that she doesn’t accept him and only sees him as an outsider, but for Jake? Spider is captured by the enemy and Jake just leaves him with no intention of ever going back for him. And even Kiri who I think is supposed to be in love with him (or if not, is closer to him than anyone else) seemed mildly sad that they left him behind but not really concerned. Honestly, I thought it was gonna cause Spider to switch sides and I wouldn’t have blamed him (although it would have made me sad, and I’m glad he didn’t)

Do you think Spider TOLD them that he saved his dad? Or is that gonna be an awkward conversation in movie 3? 

The decision to leave their tribe and go join the Water people actually doesn’t make sense. Yes, Evil Military Guy was targeting their family specifically, but that wasn’t really bringing MORE trouble to their people because they were already actively at war with the humans. The humans want to destroy them, Jake being there doesn’t really change that. Jake’s arc was (kinda) about him deciding that running doesn’t solve anything and he needs to stand and fight so that would have worked except that at the end they DON’T go decide to go back home?? Which is incomprehensible to me. They’re like “we’re sea people now” and I just don’t feel like they are? It would make more sense if they went back but had now forged this alliance with the sea people. 

They kept taking Tuk places and I don’t know why they did that. She’s like SEVEN stop taking her dangerous places! She keeps almost dying! 

Actually ANY time the kids went someplace by themselves at least one of them almost died. They should not be allowed to go anywhere unsupervised. I know part of Jake’s arc was something like learning to trust his kids but he absolutely should not, they will all die. 

I think they’re suggesting that Kiri was like... conceived by the spirit of the planet or something like that and I think that’s dumb and I found her annoying. 

Why can Lo’ak speak whale? 

The bad guys are all so cartoonishly evil. It’s not just they’re willing to do the blatantly evil thing, it’s that they don’t even have a justification for it. They’re not going “actually it’s okay because...” they’re just like “yes I am murdering people groups for their resources. This is evil but I am doing that and I would like you to know that.” And all these random soldiers are totally okay with just murdering literal children. Not even ONE has some hesitation there? 

The marine biologist is making snarky comments to the whaler when the whale attacks as if he wasn’t fully complicit in what they were doing. I’m glad he died too. presumably. 

But actually the whale absolutely WRECKING the whaling ship was so much fun. Good for him. (he doesn’t have a voice actor so I can’t look up his name on IMDB so I have no idea what it is). 

It continues the long movie tradition of bullying that is actually low-key attempted murder. 

Seriously they should have just let Neytiri and Kate Winslet’s character go nuts and murder some military guys. 

[ettawritesnstudies]

3, 8, and 17 for the ttrpg ask?

Thanks for the ask! I'll answer this for Sora. She's my airbender character from an ATLA game. Her father was an airbender and left when she was a kid to protect her family, but now, 5 years after the war, she's leaving home to go to a newly formed Republic City to learn how to train with her secret abilities. Since then, a LOT has happened and now our team is working with the avatar to deal with several crises across the world.

3. can they accept failure?

In the recent sessions, failure would mean absolute disaster. If she and her team were caught meddling or do poorly in a combat, they would die, which is already awful enough, but they're also the only people alive who have the information about how to defeat the enemy because the only people who they can trust with that information are weeks of journey away and dealing with a separate crisis. So uh... no, not really. She'd be completely wrecked with guilt and grief and replay a million what-ifs if she were the one to survive. She would find a way to move forward and keep trying because that's what Sora does, but she would never accept the past, it would continue haunting the narrative.

8. what songs remind you of them? if there are specific lyrics or movements, list ‘em!

A lot of the songs have to do with her relationship with her absent but beloved father!

"You were supposed to be my light And keep me safe against them all How could you leave me here?" you'll scream And louder, I'll scream back to you from that unknown And say "I know you're strong enough to do this on your own." - Welly Boots by the Amazing Devil

You try your hardest to leave the past alone This crooked posture is all you've ever known It is the consequence of living in between The weight of family and the pull of gravity - Heirloom by Sleeping at Last

This is the whole playlist!

17. they’re crying—what did it take to make them cry?

This actually happened at the end of last session, poor girl ;-;

She's learning how to touch the spirit world, and their last enemy was an EXTREMELY POWERFUL and very evil spirit bender named Seluk who attacked the ship they're on. In the ensuing fight, three of the five party members were making death saves. She had to make the choice between picking her favorite to rescue and letting the others die before she could get to them, or killing Seluk to give them all a chance at life. She tries so hard to be a pacifist, and follow the nonviolence way of Avatar Aang and the other airbenders, but she's not powerful enough to save them all, and she made the decision to kill him.

It wasn't enough. One actually died. With the help of the party healer using his last drop of water from the NWT Spirit Well, she was barely able to tether her friend's spirit back to her body and revive her, costing her several levels of exhaustion.

Such a close call was bad enough, but now Sora also has the terrifying realization that she's dabbling in something she doesn't understand, but her enemies already have. She desperately needs to know what Seluk could do in order to be prepared for the coming fight, but she's TERRIFIED of losing her humanity and becoming like him. She can soothe the "What if Jol died?" panic by remembering the truth, but she can't get rid of the voice deep inside of her asking, "What are you becoming?"

She hasn't even noticed yet that her eyes now changed color to blue.