Not an issue, old friend. I just wanted to connect that way if you had such a page. Since you don't no harm, no foul. We are still good friends, and will continue to be such. This daily post thing seems to work well for us for some reason. cool
Ahhhh, the government. a den of liars and self-serving bigots. The system has been flawed for decades, and now a fundamental flaw has come to light. Combined with the intrinsic need for men to be 'right' no end will come soon for this situation. Personally, I wonder if the government collapses . . . will the debt of our nation go with it? ninja
Okay, so long as you're still fine with it. Yeah, I think it works well, though I'm sorry about not always being consistent with when I post each day.
Well, who could rightfully collect on the debt, honestly? For that matter, from whom could they seriously expect to collect it? One strange thing is that most other developed nations also have huge debts. Since these debts are to each other in many cases, I don't know why they don't cancel out as much mutual debt as possible to make the number reflect what it truly is.
Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 9:17 pm
Hey, I now get you more than two weeks a year. How can I complain? *hugs* You are among my oldest and dearest friends. I am sure as hell not going to gripe. This works for you and me, so we can easily continue this.
As for the debts, I honestly do not know. The Chinese likely have the largest amount of our debt, and if we do not pay them, they can foreclose and own a large chunk of our country. I guess that is the looming threat. Pay up, or lose your country. *shrugs*
*gratefully hugs in return* Arigato, I needed some encouraging words after today. heart
Makes sense. All very complicated stuff...
Have you been watching the 2nd book of Korra thus far?
Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 9:39 pm
sad *hugs like mad* You can count on me for encouragement, you awesome man!
very complicated and part of the reason I will never be elected, even if I ran. I would just go for the simple solutions . . . you know, things that might actually work?
I have been, and am so far unimpressed. I mean, Korra seems to be the negative image of the original series . . . and that is not a good thing. She appeared almost fully realized, and treats everything as nothing more than another problem to shove her way through using brute force. She ignores her friends, mistreats her allies, and just makes a general wench of herself. I keep watching, but keep rooting for the villain. I mean, Amon was a great character, and how he and Tamalak died was nothing short of epic.
She's honestly been a thug thus far, and oddly enough Mako is the rational one this season. If you saw "The Sting" (I'll spoiler it for anyone else who drops in):
Korra getting amnesia is certainly a cheap shot from a writing perspective, but I will surely be glad for a rewrite of her character as it is (provided they can handle an amnesia arc).
Yes, the ending of first season, though rushed, was very good.
Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:18 pm
I respectfully disagree. The ending of season one was an ultimate cheap shot from a writing standpoint. Instead of relearning how to bend, she got a spiritual cheat card, and not only regained all her bending, but also got to undo all that was done. I think it woudl have been a really interesting thing to have all the bending stay gone that was taken.
In the original series, bending was an art, it was rare and powerful. Now, it is commonplace and expected. I loved it as a power that not everybody got to have, and even enjoyed the concept of the Equalists for that reason. Now the equalists are gone ( crying Lance Hendrickson was great! ), and all the dramatic flair that could have come from it was wiped away just as the finale of the original series made years of training irrelevant thanks to spirit bending. Ugh.
I don't know how "very" ended up before "good." I agree that that part wasn't great. I like the villains' ending, and the things leading up to Aang fixing everything were good. I do agree that Aang fixing her problems so quickly was poor, but the creators didn't think they were going to get another season (not that that's a valid excuse).
I definitely do agree that the perspective on bending in the original was vastly better. What's especially strange is how the more uncommon bending types (electricity, blood, metal) are so prevalent. It's also a logical hole that sand-bending, the only one that didn't show up in Korra Book 1, would have fixed so many of the problems (dampening the shock from the chi point gloves and such).
I think it's just the generational gap showing. My having siblings much older than myself and my conservative background gives me a perspective that aligns more to yours than the post-modern views of today's teens and young adults.
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 11:59 pm
A beautiful point that links to my own. The prevalence of bending increased the chances of the refined forms. Bloodbending is an extreme form of waterbending, just as metalbending is to earth, and lightning to fire. They are products of exceptionally strong bending powers. Now, if the populace has one in seven people can bend an element, and one in five of those is able to do the advanced form, we have large groups that can do both. In a town of 250000 people, 35714 people are benders. 7142 of those people can do the advanced stuff. That doesn't sound too far off from Korra's time.
Aangs seems to be far less populated by benders. In the Earth Kingdom nearly all the benders were military. The fire nation was a military state period. the water tribe had their benders in the south wiped out. No matter how you put it, Aang's time was sparsely populated by benders. Korra's world is swimming in them.
Precisely. Even small statistics/chances/percentages can result in a lot when you have huge populations.
It could be argued that there were more benders, but they never received adequate training; however, it's more likely that the writers just changed it so there were more benders for the purposes of the Korra series.
It's funny, but Avatar is mirroring traditional high fantasy. Many tire of fantasy nowadays due to not only the prevalence of mages but also how easily they can access miracle-like powers. Similar to something you said earlier, spectacle is only spectacle so long as it isn't commonplace.
Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:58 pm
the conundrum of uniqueness. If everybody is unique/super, then nobody is. The larger population of benders takes the mysticism out of the equation. When things are commonplace, they no longer are awe-inspiring.
