#poor kyoshi having a total breakdown

[sabine-wrenn]

Rangi angrily making Kyoshi noodles right after storming out of the room telling her she's "done with her"

[liebermintz]

How the characters from that Asian-inspired faux-anime which is just Kung Fu but if David Carradine had superpowers would approach Cardiacs:

- Aang - would embrace the more free-wheeling childlike nature of the compositions. The complexity is appreciated and helps add to the enhancement of the childlike feel - something simple is actually really complex and profound - but Cardiacs makes him feel like a carefree kid again (with caveats).

- Sokka - initially wouldn't care for them since they're hyperactive and all over the place, but would grow to appreciate how good they are. Wild, but it's a structured and logical wild - no, really, every chord change is deliberate in a Cardiacs song and often abides to a common pattern known as the Cardiacs change (itself a super-warped version of a Coltrane change). Would understand that there is a clear method to the madness. And he'd dig the satire common in the lyrics - after all, "all hail majestic corporate light" isn't meant to be a good thing.

- Katara - probably wouldn't be super-big into them like Sokka analyzing the music theory being used on "Fiery Gun Hand" or Aang liking the carefree atmosphere of "R.E.S.," but would understand both sides since she can relate to Sokka's hyper-rationality and Aang's improvisational-but-not-really feel. It's tough music that doesn't lose its optimism in the face of despair.

- Toph - since she requires seismic sense to see (which I'm assuming is like how Matt Murdock sees in Daredevil - basic wireframes and ground-based movement), she probably wouldn't be into Cardiacs on account of them not being bass-heavy until Sing to God. But let's say she's in a stable place, she's not being attacked by Fire Nation and Earthbenders her dad keeps hiring to kidnap her, and she gets a chance to take in Cardiacs not as a means to see but as a form of art she can properly take in and not lose any meaning. She'd like how the band is both cultured AND uncultured. They're a punk band, but their influences are largely virtuosic prog rock bands like Split Enz and Gentle Giant mixed with the slightest bit of novelty music. They break the boundaries of high and low art. They are her.

- Zuko - um uh, I don't know how in tf Zuko would like Cardiacs. His big deal is that he needs to find inner peace from how fucked-up his mind is due to his abusive father and how utterly unhinged Azula is. And I doubt Iroh would be into Cardiacs - even if Iroh were, Zuko would be as turned on by it as he was with Pai Sho and jasmine tea, which is to say, "none." But at the same time, there is a strong inner peace to Cardiacs. Tim Smith's compositions are studies of the conflict between chaos and beauty. Basically, how a firebender would balance their understanding of the world with the way they've been taught. Good firebending music.

- Azula - she'd have a mental breakdown trying to figure out what in tf a dog-like sparky is

- Suki - she'd dig Sarah Smith's sizeable contributions to the band as co-lead vocalist, occasional songwriter, and jazzy-meets-insanity saxophone queen. As idiosyncratic as a Kyoshi Warrior.

- Bumi - you damn well know he's an original fan from the early '80s, well before "Is This the Life?" got minor airplay on British and some American college rock radio. They're his philosophy of approaching things from a different angle incarnate. And they're about as harmful as encasing Sokka in rock candy.

- Gyatzo - he's dead. He probably liked the bands Cardiacs were inspired by - total Gentle Giant dweeb since they're dead serious but also goofy as all hell - but you can't make an Aang without cracking a few Air Nomad Genocides.

- the Dai Li and Long Feng - they're the NME. Cardiacs demonstrate that there's more to Britpop than just "who's hotter? Damon or Liam?" since Cardiacs' open flirtation with oddball song structures influenced Blur's music from Modern Life onwards and their strong Britishness spilled over into how Oasis, Pulp, Suede and Ash implemented identity into their works. But admitting that would mean for people to stop making "Wonderwall" memes, to finally admit that Be Here Now and The Great Escape are masterpieces, that Suede and Ash were swept under the rug by poor promotion, and that Manic Street Preachers didn't stop being good when Richie jumped from that bridge. And tastemakers don't like that. The Britpop War was embarrassing. It made us support bands that began to blow or radically left Britpop. It felt not worth it. So we're safe in Ba Sing Se. There is no Cardiacs in Ba Sing Se.

- Jet - he'd be that Cardiacs fan who thinks the band's so good that if he finds out you stan another band, he'll point out how flawed they are, often the morality of the members.

- Yue - Sokka legit made out with the moon