#atlas corporation

[seasideoranges]

Okay so I’m still stuck on the fact that Bato has seemingly been forgotten about post-canon (comics etc) and it really got me thinking on why this happened, and it led to two conclusions.

A. Bato is seen as an incidental character. He served his specific purpose in the show for the narrative, and is no longer needed for stories post-canon.

If this is the case, then it’s just one I heavily disagree with. He’s been close friends with Hakoda since childhood, he is seen as parental figure to Sokka and Katara, even stepping in as a father figure to take Sokka ice dodging, something Sokka couldn’t do with Hakoda. In short, Bato is clearly very close to Hakoda and his family, and even if the stories post canon (looking at the comics) couldn’t find a place for Bato to serve a big role, it still struck me as odd that Bato is never seen again, or even mentioned in name, which leads to the second conclusion..

B. He really was just forgotten about. Blipped out of the universe.

And honestly (please correct me if I’m wrong), considering the fact that, again, Bato isn’t seen, not even mentioned by name, not even seen in a single panel as a background character, yeah, I think this is what happened lmao.

I’m gonna cut this off before this gets too long, but this isn’t just about Bato imo. I have a lot of thoughts about all the side/incidental characters in the show (Piandao, Jeong Jeong, Kanna, the list goes on and on) and how they’re handled post-canon. Basically, I think there’s so much potential in bringing these characters back and actually taking the time to explore them, which would expand the lore etc etc, and how it just.. isn’t happening haha.

[valravn72]

Apparently the ATLA graphic novels are on Webtoon now.

While I’m excited for them to get a wider audience I honestly doubt that Gene Leun Yang and the rest of the graphic novel team came up with this idea on their own terms and there’s no way whoever suggested it had 100% the integrity of the art and the artists at heart.

So yeah, you can read them for free now. That’s nice.

But as someone who has read through all the artist commentary and seen how much went into this series it really pains me to see this happen. I hope the team has been compensated in some way for this, they all seem like great people and it’s been fantastic to have an Avatar series actually primarily written by someone of East Asian descent, especially one that goes out of its way to address issues the series couldn’t.

It also sickens me in a lot of ways that webcomics, a format once utilized to escape the constraints of publishing, has become another industry built on artists having to let companies make decisions about their art for them.

[mohavegecko]

if angel was raised on pandora it means that she and jack lived as residential settlers during dahls occupation. grogmouth likely worked for the flynts who, being a high status family at the time, in turn worked for dahl. baron flynt was the warden of thor, a dahl mining rig that doubled as a prison. the companys sole interest in pandora to begin with was to extract eridium and find alien relics, so a siren would be a priceless bargaining chip for their efforts. all of this to say its very possible that the flynts were the ones who sent out the order for angel to be kidnapped.

[atlaslovesedm]

i literally dont know anything about toontown corporate clash aside from two things

the character designs are peak

i like duck shuffler

[krotiation]

Forever thinking about how funny it is that both rhys and katagawa shit talk tediore in bl3 only for tediore to siege atlas in new tales

[hella1975]

idk how to feel about the atla live action show but I just saw that the guy who’s playing zuko mentioned zukka in an interview and I’m kinda foaming at the mouth, going feral at the moment

ENOUGHHHH. T-MINUS ONE DAY

[easternmind]

A compendium of references to Portugal in Japanese video games

The beginning of the historical relations between Portugal and Japan dates to the year 1541, when a Portuguese ship washed ashore at Jingujiura. Nearly sixty Japanese words are of Portuguese origin. A variety of Japanese traditions and culinary delights were introduced by Portuguese traders, sailors and missionaries. But in what way has this cultural exchange extended to the more recent phenomenon of Japanese digital games? As a portuguese devotee of Japanese culture, the topic seemed relevant enough to merit some additional exploration.

To my knowledge, the first significant reference to Portugal in Japanese video game is found in Koei's The Age of Discovery from 1990, a game published in the west under the title Uncharted Waters. The main character is a disgraced Portuguese nobleman named Leon Ferrero who resorts to maritime exploration, trade and naval warfare to restore his family's good name and prestige.

Its 1993 sequel, known in the west as New Horizons, diversifies the base game structure of the original by including multiple characters to select from, each with their own story and mission. Among them is the tale of João Franco, the son of the original episode's protagonist Leon, who sets out to discover the mysterious location of the fabled Atlantis, no less.

Another meaningful reference can be found a year later in ArtDink's 1991 strategy game The Atlas, in which the player takes on the role of a 15th century explorer with a five year contract with the King of Portugal to discover and chart lands around the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1998, ArtDink recreated the game for contemporary systems and published as Neo Atlas. The protagonist is a Portuguese trading company owner seeking business expansion opportunities in remote territories, as well as discover and chart hitherto unknown parts of the globe. A similar premise is found in a later sequel, Neo Atlas III.

Apart from nautical strategy games, a few other titles exist where mentions to the Portuguese territory, language and culture can be traced.

Galvanized by the success of Cyan's world-renowned point and click adventure CD-ROMs, Sony Computer Entertainment helped to publish The Book of Watermarks, a game designed by a miniscule Tokyo-based studio named Watermarks that is brimming with interesting first and second-hand references to Shakespeare's The Tempest. The objective of this visually impressive pre-rendered journey is to aid in the recovery of a series of ancient tomes, each including the nuclear bases of knowledge for mankind.

The very first lost volume is named the Book of Navigators, said to be owned by the historical Infante Dom Henrique from the 15th century, condensing information on shipbuilding, oceanography, geography and astronomy. While a purely fictitious book, the reference to Prince Henry is historically accurate, him being a pivotal figure in the early age of Portuguese maritime discoveries, the governor of the Order of Christ who at once built and ruined his reputation through his various campaigns in the African continent.

Atlus' futuristic vision of Earth in Maken X includes a most unexpected tour of Europe, with a mandatory stop in Lisbon. Inexplicably, the developers got its geographic location wrong and moved to all the way to the northern Spanish region of Léon. The level, itself, boasts a reasonably accurate depiction of one of the city's oldest quarters, Alfama, and the architectural styles found therein.

Although I could not discern any actual references in the game itself, the Grandia II soundtrack by the veteran composer Noriyuki Iwadare contains two themes whose lyrics are written in Portuguese: A Deus, a double-entendre that can be translated to both farewell and to God; and Canção do Povo, meaning People's Song. Also, the name of the official soundtrack is named Melodia, which translates to Melody as you'd expect. Both themes were performed by guest singer Kaori Kawasumi, who took on the composer's challenge to sing them despite her not knowing the language.

She was coached and assisted by José Álvarez and Motoi Sato from the Portuguese Arts and Culture Center in Japan, whom she thanks in the acknowledgement section. The Grandia II Special Package edition booklet contains a page with two photos of Portugal, one for the Jéronimos Monastery in Lisbon and the other, seemingly, for the Moorish Castle in the nearby town of Sintra.

The last Pomping World (a.ka. Buster Bros/Pang) that Mitchell Corporation ever produced before shutting down was the 2010 DS European exclusive Magical Michael. It includes two levels set in Portugal, one in Lisbon by the Belém tower, a nautical landmark, and the other in the Sintra National Palace. Their representation is at once pleasingly stylized and true to life.

This final reference is found in Spike Chunsoft's third installment of their successful visual novel series, Nyūdanganronpa V3 Minna No Koroshiai Shin Gakki. Among the dozens of MonoMono machine items that can be acquired, one is a weathercock styled after a traditional Portuguese folktale hero, the Galo de Barcelos, meaning the rooster of Barcelos, a town in Northern Portugal.

As per the description, this animal became famous through an age-old tale involving a man wrongly sentenced to death who seconds before his execution remarked he was as certain to be innocent as it was certain that a nearby rooster would sing. Because the bird did crow, much to everyone's amazement, he was exonerated. Thus, the black rooster became a symbol for truth.

I would like to thank @diogojira and @DanielOlimac for their assistance in making this article possible.

[shadelorde]

AtLA is a better show than LoK but the LoK fandom is infinitely more chill and way cooler than the AtLA fandom and I think it’s because being a fan of a show that’s screwed so much keeps us way more humble

[batt00ny]

ROUND 1: MATCH 3 ! ! !

[nocternalrandomness]

Embraer Legacy 450 - London International Airport

[deathsmallcaps]

ATLA Modern USA Battle of the Bands AU - Katara focused. I thought this up in the car so it isn’t polished. Check out comradekatara’s AMV for what inspired this.

Katara is a 18 year old Tlingit girl who is part Makah on her grandmother's side. She just graduated high school.

Due to work, she hasn't seen her Dad for a while, as he's constantly traveling from Juneau to DC and back trying to get elected to Congress so he can pass more protections against the Oil companies in the area, especially the long standing Caldera Oil Company (COC). And between that, he has a job fishing, because he isn't rich. Gram Gram, not wanting to worry her son, doesn't tell him that there's been some suspicious businessmen who've recently bought the local bank and jacked up the mortgage and rental rates in the area, so that they might lose the house.

(Katara's mom worked in city hall and was the only one to know that COC had applied to drill and then found a major oil reserve right under their town. So she was murdered)

Sokka and Katara overhear Gram Gram talking about this with the other adults who are affected and are devestated. Of course, that's when a big dog walks into their lives. He's dirty, he looks like it hasn't been taken care of in a while, but Enamored, the siblings take him in.

That's when, of course, the 16 year old Tibetan-American John Doe wakes up at the local hospital, the only survivor of a terrible car wreck.

His name is Aang, he's a musical virtuoso, and his parents died for similar reasons like Katara's mom.

Unlike Katara's mom, his parents shared the info with him. The hit men thought he died.

Gram Gram is the only certified foster parent in town, so she takes him in. Aang reunites with his dog Appa joyously. He hasn't processed his parents' deaths yet.

The kids get to see Zuko (nickname for Zachary Sozinson, disgraced spare to the COC throne) threaten Gram Gram in their home. They manage to scare him and his bullies off, though not before they see recognition of Aang and then a regretful look on his face. The next morning, they see a commercial on TV - there's a rock music contest!

Three cities across the USA (Seattle, Chicago, DC) will have 'Diversity Bands*' battle for the chance to get out on records. Each band member has to be from a visibly different race.

The contest in Seattle needs a solo or duet act, the contest in Chicago two to three people, and the one in DC three to five people. Previous contestants are allowed to recompete as long as they add to their band.

There is also cash prizes for the second and third place winners for each city/category.

*yes it sounds very tokenizing and faux-left corporate and there's a good reason why narratively. Hold on.

Katara and Aang decide to hit the road, using what little savings he inherited from his parents and her money from her job during the school year. As she's only 18 and can't get hotel rooms, and Aang is still a minor, Sokka agrees to be their driver/ roadie/hotel dude when they can afford rooms. They rescue a raccoon kit along the way and name it Momo.

Shenanigans ensue, Zuko is kind of haunting them along the way, they can't tell if he's following them or if he's just going to the same place they are, etc. Aang stops by his old house only to find that it's been taken over by a COC worker who has been using/covering up his parents' proof papers.

The gaang convinces him to be a whistleblower as they leave. They also meet John John (Jeong Jeong), who they briefly consider adding to their band if they don't make it this round, and who is currently embroiled in a case against COC and thus needs to stay on the move for safety reasons.

He teaches Aang another instrument, though for once Aang REALLY doesn't take to it. Along the way they meet Suki, who is in a all girl band and is also going to compete, though they're going to wait until the Chicago contest so they all can get into the contract, etc. Sokka learns to respect girl bands.

Jet, who is also just going to go to the DC one for his big band, reveals to them that the record label is owned by COC, who wants to appear hip with the kids and not a conservative's wet, polluting dream. He feels that since he knows this stuff and how to defeat them (supposedly) he is justified in ruining other bands instead of winning honestly. That isn't good, obviously, so they distance themselves from him.

Eventually they make it to Seattle, Sokka and Katara are invited to stay with some Makah cousins they haven't seen since they were little.

Aang comes too of course, but isn't the reason they were invited in.

Katara learns more about music composition. There Sokka meets and falls in love with Yue, daughter of the mayor. She has to compete with her

'boyfriend' who is really just using her as a beard (consensually) but is very respected by her parents.

Zuko, who realized who Aang was and wants to capture him to bring him back to his Dad, so that there's less whistleblowers for COC, and thus regain his standing in the company, ends up wrecking their performance.

So 'the Gaang' only gets third place, but enough cash to let them squeak by until they reach Chicago. Yue gets first place, breaks up with her boyfriend, and ascends to star-(moon?)-dom. She is extremely busy and does not get to hang with the Gaang much for the rest of the series.

They travel to Chicago, Aang doesn't recognize his old friend Bumi from High school and gets teased relentlessly about it. Meanwhile, they're also looking for a third band member, Aang wants to learn a new instrument and Katara and Aang end up kissing, much to their embarrassment. Zuko and Iroh are on the road too, Zuko embarrassed by the even more public failure to help his father's business take down an individual with so much power to hurt COC (Aang). Similar plot lines with Jet, Azula and Katara's relationships with Zuko occur. Iroh opens a cafe.

Eventually, they make it to Chicago, where they see this 14 year old absolutely destroy everyone in a rap battle while ALSO playing drums. It's Toph! They trick her parents into letting her compete in the Chicago contest. Chicago is where COC wants to move their headquarters, and the local government wants their business, so many higher class people are in serious denial about their effect on the environment.

This time, the get second place, because Jet, who had been tortured for information by COC, manages to escape during their performance and cause a ruckus (he gets treated and reunited with his family don't worry).

Azula and Zuko (it's complicated like in the show) manage to take out Aang via a last minute stage mishap involving a heavy light falling on his head Iroh gets pinned for some COC crimes that Jet did manage to get public, Zuko returns to the top with Azula, etc. Suki's band wins and gets signed, but due to interference from Mai and Tai Lee, their contract is shittier than Yue's and they have to work a ton initially for low pay.

Toph's parents are NOT fans of how this turned out, but Toph's underground fans manage to placate her parents, and then they're on the road again.

Along the way Zuko has his change of heart, Iroh escapes, Katara's Dad is stuck in DC, Gram Gram might lose the house soon, and Aang is growing out his hair for the first time since his parents died. Katara meets Hama, who has a story pretty similar to both hers and how her mom died. When she hands Katara an [instrument] she modified to work as a poison dart gun who would ever check that for poison!] Katara hesitates to take it. She does end up taking it, but switches out the poison for a nerve stopper poison (I can't think of the right way to say it makes you fall asleep/unable to move for a while?).

Also Hama teaches her more music composition and really rounds out her skills lol.

(The painted lady episode WILL happen of course. If I ever write this.

It will probably happen in WV)(as will the school dance episode. Probably in. A rich area just outside DC)

Sokka learns to video edit and starts making music videos for the band. He also meets back up with Suki! Her initial hard-core tour is done, and she's taking a break from her band members for a bit.

When Zuko joins, he and Aang learn how to play his instrument best, he and Sokka finally visit Hakoda and tell him what's going on at home, and he and Katara track down her mom's killer. She poisons him, even keeping Hama's dart in hand just in case, but ultimately lets him live. Even though Zuko assures her he knows how to make it look like an accident. Aang learns how to write a very powerful song from an old person.

They win the big battle of the bands of course. COC then holds a concert to celebrate its 'new, future-forward clean image. There, Katara composes the music to Aang's song, and as their big finale, they play a song - with visualizer proof in the background on huge screens cut together by Sokka and partly by Hakoda) that exposes COC and Ozai.

The series ends with Zuko shifting the company to clean energy, Katara and Sokka returning home triumphant with Aang and his animals in tow, Hakoda gets elected, Toph lives independently and everyone gets to be happy. Except 'Oz' (Ozai) and kind of Azula.

[all-made-of-stardust]

y'know, let's just hope that Netflix doesn't give us a season 2, because if we never get a live action version of Toph the world will be a better place.

[slyandthefamilybook]

if you haven't watched Halt and Catch Fire you really really should

[sirenalpha]

The Fire Nation is not fascist

words have meanings and you should use them correctly even when applying them to fiction

not all authoritarian governments are fascist even when militarized and just because you don't like that government that doesn't automatically make it fascist

the Fire Nation in the time of atla is more akin to the British Empire as it was an industrializing colonial empire than any fascist regime, Sozin's comments prior to the war harken more to white man's burden than fascism

that's also a very bad thing, you can just say that and be accurate, you don't have to reach for fascism

there are multiple ways you can look at the Fire Nation as it is portrayed within atla and see that it is not fascist

the Fire Nation is an absolute monarchy

fascist regimes are dictatorships

the Fire Nation has never had a period of democracy

fascist regimes are post democratic often initially winning power through democratic elections

the Fire Nation has no corporations, as far as can be assumed from the show everything related to industrialization might just be owned by the state (military)/the monarchy from all the ship building rigs to the factory blown up in The Painted Lady, the only people who might even be merchants are the Bei Fongs but they're still nobles so potentially all their wealth is from their land and holdings not through trade, the Fire Nation could genuinely just still be feudal and have an underdeveloped merchant class if everything trade related is getting funneled through the military/state

fascist regimes are extremely corporatist, they don't believe in public ownership, public goods, public services, anything that can be sold off to corporations and private interest will be, they go for extreme privitization

I think you could even argue that the Fire Nation is not industrialized enough to be fascist either, when the gaang is traveling through the Fire Nation it's basically as rural and pre-industrial as the Earth Kingdom there's like one factory in all of the Fire Nation, and even the Caldera seems pretty pre-industrial, there are no factories, no modern housing/aprtment buildings, no smog and pollution, only the military seems to be industrialized at all with tanks, metal ships, air balloons, and jet skis

and if you take a more ideological lens and compare it to Eco's Ur-Fascism while whether the Fire Nation meets the requirements are more debatable on some of his 14 points than others based on what you can assume from what is shown, others are outright impossible in the Fire Nation and atla world, and some the Fire Nation straight up doesn't meet the requirements for (the ones I don't mention here you can assume the FN does meet them enough though again some are more debatable than others)

-rejection of modernism

this is impossible in the Fire Nation and atla because as far as we can tell there is no period of Enlightenment or even a modernism to reject and you could maybe even argue the Fire Nation might be the ones embracing anything approaching modernism as they were the ones to hire the mechanist but that's very little proof to go on especially as it's for the war machine which is one technology fascists do go for

-appeal to a frustrated middle class

again no corporation or move to capitalism or any merchants or businessmen, hard to say a middle class even exists in the Fire Nation, there's a middle ring in Ba Sing Se but the Fire Nation seems split between nobles and commoners with no middle ground

-obsession with a plot

so I wouldn't say the Fire Nation has no obsession with a plot as they're doing the whole white man's burden equivalent and wanting to 'share their greatness' with the world but the plot fascists are obsessed with are internal enemies aka being anti-semitic and suspicious of Jewish people and while yes the Fire Nation tells lies about Air Nomads they're all convinced every single one of them are dead, they're not internal enemies, there are no internal enemies of the Fire Nation and this ties into the next point

-at the same time too strong and too weak

because there's no internal enemies to stamp out and be fearful of and they're winning a global war, there's no sense from the Fire Nation that they think they're too strong and too weak, they only think they are strong, so strong in fact as to be deserving of ruling the world, this is Azula's entire argument for her coup in Ba Sing Se, she as a member of Fire Nation royalty has the divine right to rule that is unquestionable

-machismo

now I'm not saying there's no sexism in the Fire Nation, they're clearly led by men in the monarchy military and in organized religion, but they might be the least sexist of the existing nations aside from Kyoshi, the Water Tribes obviously have sexism as exhibited by the male power structure, arranged marriages, and preventing female waterbenders from gaining martial skill, the Earth Kingdom in atla only shows male rulers whether kings or Dai Li and Toph's the only female earthbender and she learned it so far outside the system she didn't even learn from a human and their military is also entirely male, the Fire Nation however has female soldiers and guards, teaches female firebenders to bend and female nonbenders can also learn martial skill, and yeah Azula and her friends might just be getting lee way as nobles but literally no one belittles them or remarks upon it in anyway whereas Katara and Toph are definitely remarked upon (though Toph not solely for being a girl)

also Fire Nation noble teen girls can casually date like I get it's a kid's show and maybe they're not thinking deeply on this but they made it explicit that Yue was already betrothed and could not casually date at around the same age Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai are casually dating or trying to date without any mention of betrothals or arranged marriages and without any apparent risk to their personal reputations (yes Mai's dating Zuko is politically and likely financially advantageous to her family or could potentially have been spurred by Azula to keep track of Zuko but as far as we know from canon this is entirely Mai's choice and is in fact casual dating)

-selective populism

the Fire Nation royalty do not give a shit about the will of the people, their positions are for them and to be used how they wish to use them, they do not see themselves as the interpreter of popular will because they don't need it for legitimacy and authority in place of a democratically elected government, they are monarchs with a divine right to rule in a world of other monarchs

-newspeak

there's no evidence the Fire Nation employs this at all, they lie sure especially about the Air Nomads, but they don't invent new jargon to limit critical thinking (they kinda don't need to Ozai and Azula are abusive and manipulative enough on their own they can do it with normal language)

the Fire Nation just does not match the profile of a fascist regime enough ideologically or otherwise to be comfortably calling it fascist or treat it as a matter of fact in fandom

and if you're going to make the argument well they just couldn't show you everything like multiple factories and corporations or a middle class in the Fire Nation due to time limits so actually you can safely assume it is fascist

no, anything beyond what they DID show is headcanon and what IS canon does not lend itself to an argument that the Fire Nation actually is fascist

the monarchy, lack of democracy ever, and what Fire Nation characters have said about the country and its stated goals are canon and point towards an industrializing colonial empire that's not as sexist as it could be

[ididgettomeetyou]

this is so much better than avatar studios quiz

eyes result: Pacfism... well... no wonder im an aang defender...

took it twice with basically what would have been my other answers. I get a cute little Penguin. (:

and you get a little video with your element i turned mine into a gif.

[irradiate-space]

malicious-compliance!Atlas Shrugged