That… really clarified things Charlie.
Just finished watching the first season of Avatar: the Last Airbender (yes, I’m really late to the Avatar train). I can see why people love this show; it’s really awesome with a lot of great storytelling. It might be because I’m so used to the Japanese anime storytelling style, but occasionally it felt like issues were resolved a little too quickly for my taste. I find that happens a lot when I start watching American TV shows. American animation tends to like episodes that have a distinct beginning, middle, and end to them, instead of, say, 30 minutes of a fight scene *cough cough* dragonball z *cough cough*. Because of this, a lot needs to be packed in to a short amount of time, and sometimes I feel it rushes the emotional arc of the characters. While I really enjoyed Zuko’s journey in the first season, sometimes a lot of the poignant moments just felt a little rushed, as if the directors didn’t want to linger in the moments and give the characters space on the screen to process. I sometimes feel that way when reading American comics too; the entire space of a page is filled to the brim with images so your eye doesn’t get a chance to rest, nor do the characters seem to get more than a panel to process emotions. I guess it’s that Hollywood entertainment idea where they’re afraid that people will get bored if they don’t keep throwing images at their eyes or have people ‘doing’ something on screen.
Discussion ¬