One of the reasons Avatar is one of the few epic fantasies I’ve actually liked is that nobody is above indignity.
This is a thing a lot of genres do, but epic fantasies seem to be impressively devoid of any sense of humor, and often cave to the temptation to make the villains or heroes so badass that nothing embarrassing or stupid ever happens to them.
In Avatar (the last airbender, anyway, haven’t seen Korra), everyone has stupid shit happen to them. Even Fire Lord Ozai has his moments– “No, Fire Lord Ozai, YOU aren’t wearing pants!” Azula gets covered in mud. Zuko has… well, getting conked in the head by a boomerang is only the beginning of the stupid undignified shit he experiences. (Though he still doesn’t compare to Sokka, the emperor unto perpetuity of Shameland.)
And I love that. Because in life, sometimes you get covered in mud. Sometimes you get conked in the head when you’re trying to be brooding and dramatic. STUPID SHIT HAPPENS TO YOU. And in real life, you still manage to be badass, or terrible, even in your moments of human frailty.
I wish I saw that more often.
Yes! This, so much. That’s definitively something I’ve noticed too, and I love it!
Actually, in a way, I think it’s kind of addressed in the show itself:
Zuko was publicly humiliated, punished and banished for speaking out of turn at a meeting. This was considered a personal offense to the Fire Lord: they were so strict and enamored with their “dignity” that the slightest misstep by a child could turn into some sort of great insult. And if you’re insulted the proper response is to defend your honor in Agni Kai, a duel to the death (with a child if need be).
In contrast, among the Air Nomads, it was okay to throw mud pies at the head monks and laugh your ass off. It was even encouraged: creativity, fun and humility were seen as the most essential qualities. No one was above pranks - neither being pranked nor even doing the pranks. And it didn’t mean they didn’t know respect - we know Aang had enormous respect for his elders and their teachings. It’s actually a much truer form of respect than what you could find in the Fire Nation, where fear kept you silent.
So, I think there is a lesson here, that maybe we should learn not to hold our dignity in such high regard, that it’s good to know how to laugh at yourself? And when ATLA has fun with its serious characters, it’s also a way to illustrate this idea - the show is all the richer by not taking itself too seriously.
y’all: spidey was able to stop bucky’s fist in civil war bc bucky heard peter’s voice, deduced he was a child, and weakened his punch bc he was so worried about hurting a child uwu
me, eating pistachios: you guys do know peter can canonically lift up to 75 tons, right. he has super strength. y’all know bucky’s fist is easy as hell for spidey to block, right. y’all know bucky didn’t know shit about peter being a child and was just shook that someone was able to so easily block his punch, right. y’all know that, right.
peter was able to fight falcon and bucky because they were offensive fighters which gave him an edge with his spider sense but when he fought steve, he lost that edge because steve is a defensive fighter so peters spider sense didnt activate until its too late
what i’m thinking: Griffin McElroy writing an entire backstory on the invention of the elevator into the events of the Adventure Zone solely to spite listeners who told him he couldn’t put elevators into his dnd campaign is the modern day equivalent of CS Lewis making the lamppost a center element of his Narnia series just so he could piss off JRR Tolkien who said that no good fantasy book would have a lamppost in it
Barry J Bluejeans is a lich necromancer, capable of casting the paladin/cleric spell Command, who is fluent in thieves cant and identifies as a fighter when his memory is wiped.
Barold what the absolute fuck
Barry J Bluejeans, on top of all of this, is also an item artificer (just like everyone else on the Starblaster), a bond and interplanar scientist, and plays the fucking piano, so at any point in time this motherfucker could class as a bard if he really wanted to.
What isBarry?
He had a 100 years to learn everything he could and by God he did
they told you Barry was a nerd but you guys didn’t listen
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
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