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I feel like the real problem with analog clocks is that they’re distracting. Between the insufferable ticking and how much thinking goes into telling time from them I’d say chucking them is a great idea. My school taught us how to tell time from them but it’s still something that requires you to dedicate a certain amount of focus to it if you want the exact time. You can’t just glance at it and go back to what you were doing. I can’t tell you how many times I got distracted by a fucking clock at school. Jus watching the constant motion of the second hand and listening to it tick and waiting for class to end because what ever we were doing was somehow less interesting than watching the clock. There are better clocks now, ok! Those one are old and it’s ok to modernize! Not being able to read an analog clock should not be a hindrance or failing in the modern world because they’re outdated and obsolete! It’s almost like expecting us to know how to tell time from a candle like they did before clocks were invented!

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god I would be UNSTOPPABLE if I was capable of consistently initiating tasks. just you wait. you'll be waiting a while but just you wait

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Something about Wanderer that people seem to forget is that he is not just the balladeer but no one remembers him. He remembers living a whole nother life before regaining his memories and that didn’t go away. Part of him is still gentle and kind and easygoing, he isn’t the same person he was before gaining those extra 500 years of experience as a completely different person.

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He died in a cave. No matter what time the sun didn’t have to watch.

Saw something where someone said do you think Regulus died at night so the sun didn’t have to watch? WHAT. THE. FUCK??

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Fun fact about me: I am a rare breed of theater nerd who doesn’t like musicals.

I find that while they do a great job showcasing the actor’s musical talents and dancing abilities musicals tend to leave storytelling and character depth by the wayside. Everything becomes a Production not just in that it is a thing that has been produced but in that it’s all over the top and kinda shallow. As a writer I think the medium of storytelling is extremely delicate, and while musicals can have good storytelling it’s very easy to get caught in the many pitfalls. Weather it’s overuse of musical numbers, formulaic songs that all sound the same, or neglecting proper character development or forgetting to showcase it with normal non-musical conversations, there are a lot of ways to go wrong with a musical.

Now, sometimes it’s done well, and people are going to hate me for this, but Disney has a pretty good track record with making musicals. And I mean Disney, not Disney channel. Encanto was flawless. I love the live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. But that isn’t musical theater. That’s movies. The medium is easier to work with for deeper storytelling. Stage performances have the constraints of limited space and a fixed audience who can’t see them up close. But that doesn’t mean you give up on good storytelling! It means you work to overcome those obstacles with talented and dedicated people! You can make a truly moving production on a stage but modern musical theatre just… doesn’t.

For me, a great example of this is Heathers the musical. I watched it back to back with the movie (and I plan on reading the book at some point though I’ve yet to do so) and I was able to really pin down what I dislike about musicals with that comparison. Heathers is a deep story that touches on the very real and very dark truths of being an American teenager and going to public school. It’s a story about imperfect teens who are all under pressure and who all have their own reasons. The characters are realistic and relatable, and anyone who’s been to public high school can probably recognize themselves or people they know in the characters. It tackles the very real issues of teen violence and the mental health crisis that our country is facing. The musical failed to capture any of that. The whole thing was weirdly sanitized and all the characters were turned into caricatures (wow that’s hard to spell). Heathers the musical was not deep or moving and it didn’t take itself half as seriously as it should’ve. The topics it was dealing with were too serious and close to home for them to make light of it. It’s dark. It’s heavy. The characters are kids who made mistakes, were victims of circumstance and none of them deserved to be vilified or victimized. But the musical took all of their depth away and made the whole thing more detached from reality and less serious than it is. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of storytelling, but at least write your own story instead of taking someone else’s and twisting it to suit your needs.

While Heathers is a very specific example it made some general mistakes common in musical theatre. The music itself, while catchy, is fairly unoriginal and simplistic. I don’t mean lyrically, that’s very original, though in my opinion distasteful. Meaningful conversations that showcase character depth were replaced with song and dance routines that failed to convey the same meaning. I found it to be pretty tedious in all honesty, the songs were so repetitive and they didn’t even move the story forward all that quickly, just got stuck in one moment way longer than necessary and sacrificed valuable time that could be used for real dialogue.

Anyway, that’s my informal essay on why musicals are an inferior form of storytelling, with only one example for evidence since this is just me doing this for fun and I am not going to subject myself to more musicals for no reason.

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Look, I love Diona and she deserves so much better but the Genshin fandom needs to stop hating on Draff so much. I’m not saying he hasn’t done anything wrong, but alcoholism is an addiction, an illness, and it’s something that people can’t recover from on their own. If you want to blame someone for Diona’s situation blame the people around her father, the other hunters, the people who sell him alcohol. They know he has a problem and enable, even encourage him. Allan made it pretty clear in Diona’s hang out that he was aware of how she felt about her father’s drinking habits but he didn’t do anything to stop him, none of the hunters did. Addiction is a result of how human bodies work, chemically and neurologically and it isn’t something that can be fixed with willpower alone, not when it gets bad. Draff doesn’t drink because he cares more about alcohol than Diona, he drinks because he’s suffering from addiction and it’s hurting him just as much as it’s hurting Diona.

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YJ playing never have I ever 

Cissie goes never have I ever been experimented on by the government so Greta, Kon, and Bart put a finger down “Bart?? Hello??” “The futures fucked” “Called it” “Are you good?” “I mean I like pizza and not being stuck in a simulation sooo” “the future doesn’t have pizza??” “I know! Not having pizza is the absolute worst” 

Kon goes never have I ever had a mentor disregard my safety and everyone except Anita, Cassie, and Greta put a finger down “The joys of not having a mentor” “Hal lost it when he found out about last christmas” “Every time Diana realizes we’ve gone off planet she goes nuclear” “middle child, no one’s looking for me in the first place”

Cassie says never have I ever been betrayed by family members (biological or otherwise) so there’s a small argument over whether or not you should have to put a finger down for each betrayal “I’m just saying there’s a lot of speedsters” “I have like nine siblings on a technicality” “Do alternate versions of alleged biological relations count??” “🤓👆🏾AlLeGEd BiOlOgicAl ReLaTIoNs ” “stfu” “Can I add someone else’s alt to my list if they killed me?? Wait, Thad tried to kill me again last week” “Are we counting each person or each betrayal??” “I don’t have enough fingers for that” “fuck, me either” “I don’t have enough fingers for each person much less each time I was betrayed” 

Anita goes never have I ever had a family member attempt or succeed in killing me and everyone puts a finger down “so fuck me ig” “does prime count for us??” “yeah?? we’re family, stupid” “I feel targeted” “me too” “what if it was an accident??” “It still counts”

Tim goes never have I ever had to screw with time to meet family member(s) so Anita and Bart put down a finger “technically I didn’t-“ “you’re a speedster put your mf finger down” “fair” “they were babies, I didn’t meet shit” “they were your parents put your fucking-”

Greta goes never have I ever befriended people that tried to kill me multiple times and Tim and Bart put down a finger “it’s how we bond! This is slander” “Bart we’ve been to like six other timelines and dimensions where Thad kills you” “wait you said friend do I-“ “Pru” “listen that’s different” “Anarky??” “Klarion” “Azrael” “Lynx” “I also tried to kill you” “My fucking finger is down are you happy?” 

Bart goes never have I ever had a family that doesn’t want me around and everyone puts a finger down “look at us! Bonding” “I don’t think I was invited to thanksgiving last year” “ngl they have no idea how old I am” “I was accidentally added to the family group chat” “dude they added you??” 

Tim goes never have I ever had mommy issues resulting in everyone putting a finger down “??” “You do know you’re targeting yourself right??” “Bart put your finger down” “wtf why my mom loves me” “Emotional turmoil bc you can never see her again ergo mommy issues” “eRgO” “stfu” “Kon?? You don’t have a mom??” “My choices are Superman or Lex” “Yikes…” “Put another finger down”

[No one wins especially not the jl that walked in halfway through the game bc yj was having game night in a briefing room and gave absolutely zero notice]

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Strange pattern about myself. My top 3 favorite Genshin characters are all Mondstadters who don’t like alcohol. Thoma, Diluc, and Diona. I guess I just really get them. I despise alcohol as well, it’s disgusting and I have always thought so. Wine is just rotten grape juice! Why is that appealing!? I don’t even like grapes when they’re fresh! And why would you want to drink a literal poison on purpose huh? Why would anyone want to impair their mental faculties? It’s so stupid!

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Okay so. Diluc and Kaeya. People do like, realize that Kaeya legit told Diluc he was sent to infiltrate Mond for a hostile nation right? Like, Diluc isn’t pissed because of the timing (though I’m sure it didn’t help). Kaeya straight up told him that he was an agent of Khaenri'ah and that his loyalty may not be to Mond. As far as Diluc is concerned Kaeya is literally an enemy agent. And you can’t say that he should realize Kaeya isn’t loyal to Khaenri’ah either. Kaeya takes pleasure in putting people in tough situations, Diluc is aware of this, and this is the toughest position ever. His brother, who he loves dearly, is an enemy agent who may be a huge threat to his country that he also loves dearly. But Kaeya seems torn, so he can’t disregard the possibility that Kaeya isn’t an enemy. But what if it’s all just a trick? What if Kaeya knew Diluc wouldn’t be able to turn him in? What if he’s laughing at Diluc’s soft heart? It’s an impossible situation and Diluc may love Kaeya but he also can’t trust him anymore.

Kaeya and Diluc will never be able to reconcile until Kaeya proves once and for all that his loyalty is to Mondstadt.

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sokka has the best comebacks 🤣

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I actually cried this is so funny 🤣

Me when i dissociate

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Going through my posts on here and it’s such a strange mix of eloquence and technical terminology and indecipherable screaming and internet slang wtf 😂

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Omg yes!!!!!!!!! Gods that would be hilarious

Dick: So, Bruce who was your bi awakening?

Bruce, totally monotone: The Joker’s even crazier twin brother who tried to kill me, got killed, came back to life without a face, kidnapped and tried to kill me again and tried to get me to kill him.

Dick: if you didn’t want to tell me just say so, jeez

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Thank you!

I would also like to add that I actually didn’t even watch atla until I was a teen because Sokka’s sexist comment in the first episode kept making me hate everything before I could get 5 minutes in. Atla existed my entire life and it took like 15-16 years and a lot of people telling me to watch it for me to get passed that one line that didn’t even actually matter in the grand scheme of things.

Sokka’s sexism was not an important growing point for his character - an Essay

I’ve seen all the discourse online about people up in arms about the toning back of Sokka’s sexism in the Netflix ATLA. (Almost everyone I have spoken to have brought it up as a reason to hate the Netflix ATLA) I think that anger is knee jerk, and misguided. It never mattered WHAT the Netflix adaptation was changing, people were always going to be angry about it. They could have announced Momo is a girl now, and people would have raged. Momo being a girl would have changed NOTHING about the series, but people would have been outraged.

Just like I believe Sokka being sexist or not being sexist really changes nothing in the scope of the story, themes, and is not the character growth people claim it to be. Hear me out. Let’s break it down and think about it in terms of themes and character development and how it affects the entire plot.

Sokka is introduced as being cartoonishly sexist in the very first episode of ATLA. As a device simply to make Katara rage. He keeps this trait for a grand total of 3 episodes until episode four when a girl whoops his ass and his sexism is cured forever onward. In the span of a 30 minute episode Sokka’s sexism was given a what for and through that he was transformed into a better man?

Imagine if Zuko’s mental and emotional journey had been solved in a 30 min episode, and wasn’t a lessen he had to repeatedly fail and try and fail and try time and time again. Imagine if Katara’s waterbending journey, or obnoxious controlling nature was just solved in a 30 min episode and not something she struggled with and fought for the entire series.

But let’s say his sexism is super important as everyone claims. Let’s explore it.

When is it challenged ever again in the entire series?

When Sokka leads the invasion on the Fire Nation, there aren’t a bunch of women in that army. He leads an army of men.

When Sokka needs to find a sword master to teach him the art of sword play, it’s a man. He never needed to overcome sexism to accept a non-traditional master.

Nearly all women, sans Toph and Katara, that have any long lasting influential moments in Sokka’s character development are women he has a romance with. Woman whose motivations and agency rely on a man.

The Kyoshi warriors that kicked his ass? What of them? Sokka has to rescue Suki from prison. It’s not tackling some gender equality issue. Suki is a woman in distress and Sokka is the man who comes to rescue her. (Cute and romantic, but hardly tackling a gender cliche.)

Do the Kyoshi warriors ever engage in any actual battle that matters to the plot and win? Not really. Instead the important role of the Kyoshi warriors is to be nurturing to Appa while he’s lost. A traditionally female role. And to provide a way for Azula to overtake Bah Sing Sei. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the girls, but the show never again utilized them in a way that challenged sexism.)

Sokka didn’t need to overcome sexism to respect Azula. Azula commanded and earned all the respect she needed. Sokka didn’t need to overcome sexism to respect Toph. Toph earned his respect by kicking the ass of everyone around him.

At no point in the rest of ATLA was Sokka’s sexism ever challenged after episode 4. It never helped him become a better leader because he never had to lead women whose respect he needed to earn. It never helped him develop his warrior skills. It didn’t affect the plot and his growth as a character any farther than getting a hilarious butt whooping in the fourth episode.

Sokka overcoming sexism wasn’t well written, it was a GAG. A goof. Ha ha funny, man got his butt beat by women and was forever cured.

If we really think about it seriously, as character growth, people who have had sexism so rooted into their beliefs don’t just overcome it because one woman broke the status quo and kicked their ass. That’s lazy writing. It was lazy in the cartoon and it would have been extra lazy in a show that had even less time to explore the issue.

Sexism, if they REALLY wanted to tackle it as a serious issue, should have been a problem Sokka had to challenge several times, and have his preconceived notions proven wrong and dismantled. It should have made him a better leader, or a more respectful fighter.

Instead it’s treated like a joke.

The Netflix ATLA decided to tone it back with Sokka, because from a writing standpoint it made more sense thematically for Katara to challenge sexism with the Northernn water tribe. They didn’t have the time or the budget to poorly tackle the issue of sexism twice, so they focused tackling the issue where it mattered to the plot and where it mattered to KATARA’s character journey more.

I’m tired of people screaming how much they loved his sexism and how the Netflix adaptation is rotten without his sexism. It’s not a lack of media literacy that it was cut. It was media literacy that led to it being cut. A writer recognized when the message was important and when it wasn’t.

That’s all I got to say. You don’t have to agree with me. But these were my thoughts on the matter.

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So about Netflix's the Last Airbender....

I am literally so confused you guys. You made me think I would HATE this show. And I LOVED it. Me. Known perfectionist and hater.

Katara was lovely. Yes, she started as a more soft spoken character than her cartoon version, but she was still passionate and hopeful throughout, just visibly unsure of herself. I think people were thrown off by this actress' natural way of expressing herself, which is Different from animated katara for sure, but not bad. Then she spends the whole season growing in Confidence and Fire. I Adored her fight with Paku, it really did feel like a payout of the whole season's development, and the bending kicked ass!

The Bending Kicked ass!!! The martial arts was fun and fast and creative and exciting! It looked SO good. That alone would be enough reason for me to watch and enjoy any show.

Zuko's actor was fantastic. He really captured the rage and confusion of this 16 year old banished prince. And there were so many Added moments between him and Iroh wich to me enriched their relationship. Like YES! This is why I'm watching, to see more of them, to see things done a little differently.

Iroh facing the consequences of his actions at Ba Sing Se!! That's what I'm here for!

Zuko's relationship with the men on his ship! That's what I'm here for!

The Extra layers we get to Ozai manipulating his children!

Also no one is talking about Admiral Zhao, who I had SO much fun with. I feel like they slightly fleshed out his character in a really dramatic way, really developing the hubris and frankly insane grasping ambition of someone who would kill the moon. I completely enjoyed this wilder, less controlled version of him, who comes up through the season from basically nothing and no one!

I am OBSESSED with King BUMI and his anger and disillusionment with the world! Like this was SO real. Living a hundred years of futile war would do that!!!! It is one of my favorite changes to the whole series. This new layer of emotion and character depth is what I'm here for!

Sokka was SO funny. He literally had me laughing out loud so often. That actor GETs Sokka, and GETS the way his humor is delivered. And is also able to tap into the more vulnerable side of him. People said he was "obsessed" with leadership. WHAT? That is a young person trying desperately to do his best and to try and find his place in the world, to figure what he has to offer. I loved his pride at hearing the Mechanist say that he would make a good engineer, and the sweetness of the moment that Yue's father says that he can be a hero without being a warrior. Sokka does so much growth in this series, in understanding himself and life.

And his chemistry with Suki was adorable!! I even like him and Yue (who was a totally unexpected sweetheart, despite her terrible wig)!! Like he has that same ability that Sokka has in the original to Connect with people.

Aang was great! He WAS fun loving and sweet and funny. I don't know what you guys wanted. Cartoons are always bigger and more exaggerated than live action. People's eyes swell up an, birds fly around their heads, and there are funny sound effects. That larger than life quality is the strength of animation! You have to look for different strength in live action. Like the SUBTLETIES of the acting choices. This little actor brought so much kindness, innocence, and strength to Aang.

And I FELT his frustration at being asked to do this at 12, his fresh hope anytime it looked like someone more experienced would be able to help him and no one did, and that's why he didn't learn waterbending this season, because he kept waiting for an freaking ADULT to show him the way, to help him carry this immense burden, but every adult he meets asks him for help instead, asks him to carry it himself, and then the finale hits and he realizes that there won't be any adults helping, he does have figure this out himself, and he makes the hard choice, takes on responsibility more than his years and offers himself to the ocean spirit, and he might have been lost entirely if not for Katara!

And that counter running theme to the show pays off: that he doesn't have to do it alone. He may not have more experienced guidance, because the adults have let him down again and again, but his friends will be with him, and they will figure it out together!

This is there throughout the series! Katara tells him this about learning waterbending, when he says he still wants to wait. Bumi tells him this in the palace at Omashu, and Aang sees the faith he has in his friends repaid!

I like these changes! And the show still found time for silly fun adventures and character building moments.

The show was never going to be the animated original. That is already a Masterpiece, and it frankly did NOT need to be adapted at all. I did not WANT a live action adaptation. I was adamantly convinced I would hate it. But the changes that they netflix show gave are what I Iike most about it. If I want to see Zuko say "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun," I will go watch the animated original, because that version is perfect. And now, if i want to see Zuko say "Lu ten would have been proud to have you as a father," and see iroh pull him into a tight hug, I can watch this live action version, which is very good too. I'm going to disagree with most of the people on here and say that the Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, DOES capture the heart of what we liked about the original show. It's spirit, fun, excitement, and characters. And the changes made are the reason we should be watching.

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I’m sorry but the original cartoon did dumb itself down and the genocide and imperialism are not changed like at all in the new show? I think you may need to rewatch both of them… I agreed that the original had more depth than most kids shows today but it was pointedly vague about it, it didn’t actually explicitly address many of the more adult themes that it included, which is why the fandom talked about it. The show included it but didn’t discuss it so it evoked discussion among fans. The new show isn’t shying away from actually discussing hard topics and it has actually made them a bigger focus. Sokka and Katara’s disagreement before finding Aang is a great example of them not trivializing things. Instead of an argument about “magic water” and smelly socks it’s a disagreement about Katara putting herself and the village in danger by bending when that’s what got their mom killed and Sokka dismissing a huge part of who Katara is.

And the do feel like kids and teens, I don’t know where you got the idea that they don’t. They feel more like kids and teens if anything, because they’re not just acting like kids during peaceful moments when it’s safe, they are always kids. Zuko literally gets fed up with a conversation, rolls his eyes and walks away!

When I say to sit down and enjoy it I mean stop comparing it to the original and looking for things to hate. Just let yourself enjoy the story telling and the beautiful picture and sets and costumes. Enjoy how they brought a beloved story to life.

I don't believe the people who say the atla live action show is good.

the most they seem to say is "just turn your brain off and you'll enjoy it-" and "it's for kids! it's supposed to be braindead."

the reason atla has endured as long as it has, is because people are still finding intelligent discourse to have about its mature themes and its thoughtful story and expansive world building. it's a timeless classic because it found a balance between being light hearted and humorous, when appropriate, and completely serious when exploring its darker material. There are no fucking jokes about katara's mom dying or the genocide of the air nomads. but they are a cast of kids/pre teens and they definitely feel like kids. they grow and mature, and they joke around and have a good time, but the fucking show never felt the need to dumb itself down because it thought kids were too fucking stupid to appreciate character growth or a nuanced story.

it's actually embarrassing to be here and say well atla is supposed to be for kids, so having the emotional depth of paw patrol is fine-

I'm so sorry that kids these days can't handle a story about redemption and genocide and imperialism.

I'm so sorry that kids are being fed slop under the guise that they're too stupid to have anything else, because God knows those of us who grew up with avatar sure didn't appreciate how smart it was.

that's why WE STILL TALK ABOUT IT YEARS LATER ACKNOWLEDGING HOW MANY LITTLE THINGS WE BOTH OBSERVED AND MISSED IN THE SERIES WHEN WE ORIGINALLY WATCHED IT.

go ahead, write paw patrol the last airbender.

kids definitely don't need to know what genocide and imperialism are. they're definitely not very fucking relevant topics of the modern day!! god knows American kids in particular shouldn't know how genocides and propaganda and the total annihilation of oppressed cultures work!!

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People need to stop saying Katara isn’t angry enough in the new show. She is angry. She just isn’t animated! Subtlety doesn’t work in animation, body language and micro expressions don’t exist so emotions are done obviously and loudly. It’s comparable to stage acting versus screen acting. Real people viewed close up don’t need to exaggerate their emotions so much for them to come through. Stop looking for things to dislike, put away your expectations and comparisons and just watch the show. Pay attention and don’t expect everything to be the same. Katara’s anger, especially with Sokka, moved to the 3rd episode, to change something I think really needed changing, that being our introduction to Sokka. I am very glad that they toned down the sexism, I like that Sokka and Katara’s relationship is a bit better and I like that their fight happens only after the journey begins and they’re in an unfamiliar environment and are completely out of their depth and have been with each other non stop for days in close quarters. It’s more realistic, it’s better writing. The argument at the beginning of the cartoon was meant to set up the audience’s understanding of the characters, it focuses on the information conveyed, not on the reasoning behind the argument. The disagreement about Katara practicing her bending and Sokka being worried and dismissing her bending is more in character and has deeper meaning than the argument about smelly socks! The whole thing is more mature and thought out and people need to stop expecting the same scenes, but instead look for the same subtext in different places.