I think I’m always chasing that particular high you only get from certain rare stories – the ones that resonate with you on a strange personal level, like an implacable aroma that reminds you of something that was once very dear to you but has somehow been forgotten. Those stories that rewire your brain just a little, just for a while. Not every great story has this effect – I have enjoyed many excellent books and movies that did not change me.
It’s just that now and then, if you’re very lucky, you’ll come across a story that feels like home, or a like limb you didn’t even know you had or how you got by all these years without using it. These stories haunt you and become part of your personal canon.
In Russia a man named Ivan smashed his way through icy water to save a stray dog from drowning, he adopted the dog afterwards and named him Rex.
Hero
God, look at him go. Even money this man was part of some Soviet super soldier program back in the day.
Ivan is only 21 years old here’s photos of them afterwards
Ivan, to the ice keeping him from saving a good boy: I must break you
Ivan is a good man.
Horses are of a breed unique to Fantasyland. They are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without a rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame or put their hooves down holes, except when Management deems it necessary, as when the forces of the Dark Lord are only half an hour behind. They never otherwise stumble. Nor do they ever make life difficult for Tourists by biting or kicking their riders or one another. They never resist being mounted or blow out so that their girths slip, or do other things that make horses so chancy in this world. For instance, they never shy and seldom whinny or demand sugar at inopportune moments. […] Horses can be used just like bicycles, and usually are. Much research into how these exemplary animals come to exist has resulted in the following: no mare ever comes into season on the Tour and no stallion ever shows an interest in a mare; and few horses are described as geldings. It therefore seems probable that they breed by pollination. This theory seems to account for everything, since it is clear that the creatures do behave more like vegetables than mammals. It also explains why the Anglo-Saxon Cossacks and the Desert Nomads appear to have a monopoly on horse-breeding. They alone possess the secret of how to pollinate them.
Diana Wynne Jones, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (via footnotesoldier)
wolf gently howling, rain pouring, thunder crashing. This is so dang soothing….
This is entirely my aesthetic
So I live at the base of a mountain and we’ve always had a den of coyotes in the back of our neighborhood which is two streets behind my house. Well, a few weeks ago, we discovered that there is a wolf that has joined this pack of coyotes. How do we know? Every night around sundown, the coyotes get wound up and start howling (it’s pretty cool to hear bc you can even hear the pups). Well this day they went on for a while and all of the sudden we hear a louder, stronger howl that made every single one of them quiet down….. when I tell you it was the most hauntingly beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, I’m not lying.
Lily Potter awoke with a start. She had just been dreaming of mending her friendship with Severus by naming him godfather to her second child. Why hadn’t this plan occurred to her sooner? She rolled over and shook her husband awake. The bully opened his eyes and put his nasty glasses on.
‘James’ said Lilly Lily. ‘We have to make Severus our baby’s godfather.’
‘Who the fuck is Severus?’ asked James, walking over to the window and hexing the mail man outside.
‘Snivelly Snape’ replied Lily. ‘It’s the only way to mend my friendship with him.’
James looked at his wife. ‘Well I didn’t ask you out 67 times a day for 6 years for nothing, I need you happy Lilyflowerpetalbutt and if this makes you happy I’m all for it. But I didn’t even know you were pregnant my sweet Lilypadthai?’
‘Well neither does J.K Rowling’ laughed Lily as James stared at her, confused, but used to not understanding anything.
Lily grinned and put on all green outfit to match her eyes. Together they fetched Harry out of his cot and went downstairs to start writing a letter to Sev.
‘You better write the letter’ said James, who had never learnt to spell due to his extremely limited mental capacity. As Lily started the letter James let Sirius out of his kennel and Remus out of the library that they locked him in nightly. ‘Lily’s writing a letter to Snivelicious, she’s going to ask him to be our new baby’s godfather’ smirked James, arrogant as always. ‚I still hate the prick but it’s the best thing for Lily.’
‚But I thought Lily hated him?’ asked Remus.
‚Nah she doesn’t’ said Sirius.
‚Wait who are we talking about?’ asked Peter who had just apparated, he didn’t wait for an answer before disapparating to go do some more betraying.
‚What about the whole Death Eater thing?’ asked Remus as he held a book up to his nose. ‚What about Voldemort wanting you guys dead and all?’
Suddenly Lily appeared, she was furious. Her hair turned even redder as flames rose around her, her rage lifting her off the ground. She roared incoherently like the red lion she was until James pulled her back to the ground. ‚What are you angry about this time?!’ sighed James.
Lily had no idea. She was just always angry. She shooed Remus and Sirius out of the house, since they were in hiding and all and went back to her letter. On the way back to the table James asked her out 6 times.
‚For Christ’s sake James we’re married!’ she cried. James stuck his tongue out, hexed the cat and asked her out again. Tears rolled down Lily’s face as she went back to writing the letter to her dear old friend. Good times were sure to be ahead.
“he didn’t wait for an answer before disapparating to go do some more betraying.”
“You make us look bad’, complained Toad. “You looked bad before I ever met you,” Jon told him.
“Be careful you don’t cut yourself. The edges are sharp enough to shave with.” “Girls don’t shave,” Arya said. “Maybe they should. Have you ever seen the septa’s legs?”
“First lesson, stick them with the pointy end.”
“I’ll take that wager, Ser Alliser,” Jon said. “I’d love to see Ghost juggle.”
Like, Jon. You little shit. (I don’t know why I love this bastard so fckin much)
The most Jon Snow thing, though? The iconic of all the iconic?
“I’ll go, my lord. But you are making a mistake, my lord. You are sending the wrong man, my lord. Just the sight of me is going to anger Mance. My lord would have a better chance of reaching terms if he sent—”
Jon Snow is a passive-agressive asshole and no one can tell me otherwise.
Goal: Write 1 thought every day re: why I love ATLA (until I finish rewatching the series)
#41: Aang energybends Ozai in “Sozin’s Comet Part 4: Avatar Aang.”
The ending of ATLA is controversial (apparently). Deus Ex Lion Turtle. I personally loved it (and still love it), and have even fewer problems with the energybending than with the Rock.
True, the lion turtle itself could have been set up much better – for example, the show could have slipped a few extra lines when the lion turtle appeared in the book in “The Library” and revealed that lion turtles used to give people the elements. The show could have dropped a few more references to how lion turtles used to protect humans in other episodes here and there. So yes, the mechanism could have had better set up.
But the theme has been consistent and present throughout the show. The show explored the theme of Aang being afraid and out of control in the avatar state as early “The Avatar Returns”: the very first time we see him enter the avatar state, Aang emerges confused and not quite knowing what happened.
And “The Avatar State” directly confronts this idea, including with this line from Katara:
Katara: I’m not saying the Avatar state doesn’t have incredible—and helpful power. But you have to understand, for the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary.
Aang is always in pain, or rage, when he enters the avatar state. See, e.g., “The Southern Air Temple”; “The Desert.” And it’s something that he must be brought out of to return to himself.
The animation in the final Aang v. Ozai sequence confirms this idea that the avatar state is frightening: Aang in the avatar state is alien, beastly, otherworldly, a vessel for the avatar spirit and the spirits of those that came before him. Just look at how un-Aang these images are:
So when Aang gains control of the avatar state, it’s a relief. This is the kid we’ve gotten to know over three seasons of television: the one that values human life, the one that redirects lightning elsewhere in the middle of a battle:
This is the kid who learned seismic sense from the greatest earthbender of all time:
Okay, so he gained a new crazy spirity skill from a giant lion turtle. It’s a bit out of left field:
But the result is fitting, and beautiful:
Thematically, it ties in with ideas that have been seeded and explored throughout the whole show. So although the mechanism seemed to come out of nowhere, the ending felt … right. It felt like the right one for this show, and the right one for Aang’s character.
Haters gonna hate, but I love the ending.
I wanted to tack on another thought to why I found Aang’s energybending to be so thematically fitting. Aang choosing to forge his own path — in the face of seemingly countervailing advice from everyone (including his own past lives) to kill the Fire Lord — fits in perfectly with the theme of actively shaping your own destiny.
The show has seeded that idea throughout, including in “The Fortuneteller,” where Aunt Wu tells Aang, “Just as you reshaped those clouds, you have the power to shape your own destiny.” Avatar Kuruk’s advice echoes this.
We also see that same idea reflected in Zuko’s story arc, as he has to choose his own way at the crossroads of destiny, and forge his own path after making the wrong choice. So putting Aang in that same position once again draws the parallels between the two protagonists.
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