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"MY CABBAGES!!!"
Oct. 6th, 2019 10:03 pmContinuing my recent trend of jumping on bandwagons years after everyone else finished their ride and jumped off: I have started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender! Largely because all three seasons are finally on the same Australian streaming service at once. It is good and I am enjoying it. However, I am also annoyed with myself for not getting around to it fifteen years ago when I suspect I'd have appreciated it more.
I think I'm experiencing the same effect that people watching BtVS or reading Warren Ellis's initial run on The Authority for the first time do these days. Or people who just watched Iron Man, I guess, but I'm not sure any of those exist? To whit, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate a cultural artefact when it's influence is so pervasive that everything in its field shamelessly copied it forever after. I dare say I would be a lot more impressed by the long-form storytelling, worldbuilding and character arcs if this weren't 2019 and I hadn't already watched Steven Universe. (Which I am really, really glad that I have already saw and enjoyed while it's an active part of the cultural zeitgeist, instead of a decade from now when all cartoons are imitations of it in one way or another.)
Which is not to say that I'm not having a fun time! My fandom osmosis was full of weird gaps - somehow nobody ever told me that Aang has an adorable bat/lemur friend, for starters. Also, I love Uncle Iron so much already and I am only thirteen episodes in.
Also, I finally understand a couple of memes that I never did before! Including the one in the title of this post, and also what Ba Sing Se even is and who it is that has always been at war with them.
I think I'm experiencing the same effect that people watching BtVS or reading Warren Ellis's initial run on The Authority for the first time do these days. Or people who just watched Iron Man, I guess, but I'm not sure any of those exist? To whit, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate a cultural artefact when it's influence is so pervasive that everything in its field shamelessly copied it forever after. I dare say I would be a lot more impressed by the long-form storytelling, worldbuilding and character arcs if this weren't 2019 and I hadn't already watched Steven Universe. (Which I am really, really glad that I have already saw and enjoyed while it's an active part of the cultural zeitgeist, instead of a decade from now when all cartoons are imitations of it in one way or another.)
Which is not to say that I'm not having a fun time! My fandom osmosis was full of weird gaps - somehow nobody ever told me that Aang has an adorable bat/lemur friend, for starters. Also, I love Uncle Iron so much already and I am only thirteen episodes in.
Also, I finally understand a couple of memes that I never did before! Including the one in the title of this post, and also what Ba Sing Se even is and who it is that has always been at war with them.