Avatarverse: a cultural conversation across three decades
I just saw Avatar Aang in theaters yesterday (I know, I'm very lucky). I can't help but notice how the movie is doing its best to fit in the middle of the in-universe timeline of the Avatar world--after A:tLA and before TLoK, while simultaneously in conversation with the reality of the mid-2020s, over a decade after Korra ended.
The Last Airbender aired from 2005-2008, Korra from 2012-2014, and this movie came out in 2026. They all, in different ways, speak to the real world realities of the three decades they were released in. (Ironically, as far as I can tell, they mostly are in conversation with events happening in the west due to being USAmerican-written, but nevertheless...)
A:tLA is a story completely and utterly about war, and I can't help but see it as a product of the USAmerican war on terror, with a vast militaristic empire destroying indigenous civilizations and out for blood.
TLoK has depictions of PTSD, terrorism, and reactionary responses to diversity, as well as a seminal, canon queer relationship, reflecting such things as the increase in popularity of, and pushback against, third-wave feminism and queer/feminist rights.
And Avatar Aang is, to put it crudely (spoilers)
basically a takedown of "Make America Air Nation Great Again" fascist rhetoric and the rise of nationalist extremism. My partner made the wonderfully incisive observation of the symbolism inherent in a literal dead civilization descending upon a living population to crush and kill them. I strongly think that if it were made in an earlier decade in real life, it would have been a very, very different movie.
Yet, they also have to work within the constraints of the in-universe canon, both past and future. The Gaang build Republic City after the hundred year war of the first series, The Denied are defeated but foreshadow the coming of the Equalists in the second series. It's present reality and past fiction, it has to speak in two conversations.
Taking these stories, created by extremely different cultural milieus, and shuffling them around chronologically so the latest-created one is earlier in the timeline is so, so fascinating. I know I only scratched the surface; I hope more people talk about it.
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for real though they figured out that if one orca holds a sunfish carcass still while a big male winds up and rams it at top speed, the fish basically disintegrates:
there are many reasons they could be doing this, but a small juvenile orca was later seen scooping up the shreds, so my bet is that this was just a family making Orca Baby Food.
sunfish have extremely tough leathery skin with a thick layer of disgusting-tasting gel under it that gives the sunfish neutral buoyancy and also makes it too gross to bite. the traditional way to get around these issues and get at the tender flesh inside is to be a human with a fillet knife, but I guess just fucking exploding them also does the trick.
I’m not Christian, I don’t go to church anymore, and my pastor died, but when he was alive I’d sometimes go to his sermons and I remember one time he said “it feels good to hate, but we know that it isn’t allowed, so when we’re told that we’re allowed to hate someone we get so excited that we forget we’re supposed to love”, and if my humble atheist ass might borrow some church talk I’d like to perhaps submit that
Anyhow sometimes on the day to day I feel disgust or revulsion and I have to ask myself “is this a danger to anyone at all or am I just looking for something I’m allowed to hate” and a solid 98/100 times it’s the latter so once again thank you pastor D
my "I'm with the boomers on this one" take is that I should not need an app to park my fucking car. increasingly when I'm out and about and need to use public parking, the only option is an app. no. no. give me a meter I can plug the loose change from the bottom of my purse into. worst comes to absolute worst give me a machine to insert my credit card which prints a receipt for the dashboard of my car (I don't like those either but at least they are on site). "to pay for parking, download our app!" why don't you download my ass
gracieabrams
vaporwave
gamechangershow
yousharknotpass
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
blakekathryn
prguitarman
