Beyond Selidor

Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show

Suki (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

In a show full of fabulous female characters, it's hard to pick a single favourite, but I think my heart belongs to Suki. I like how assertive she is, how she refuses to be bullied, devalued or mocked, and how she demands to be taken seriously. I also like how she stands in contrast to some of the more emotionally extravagant characters on the show, so that while someone (usually Sokka) is flailing around in a panic, Suki just quietly gets stuff done. (The two-part episode 'The Boiling Rock' is an excellent example of this.)

ATLA is a show concerned with trauma, child soldiers, and teenagers having to clean up the mess created by previous generations, and its various characters demonstrate myriad ways of dealing with the effects of these complex problems. Suki's approach is a kind of cautious belligerence: she's not going to go out seeking battle, but she will fight fiercely when those she cares about are threatened. While lacking in the supernatural 'bending' abilities possessed by so many other characters in the show, Suki is by no means defenceless, and takes on a leadership role, guiding a team of fan-wielding martial artist girls in defence of their island.

In shows with supernatural elements, I always tend to gravitate towards to the characters who lack superpowers, and ATLA is no exception. There's always been something that appealed to me in stories of completely ordinary individuals trying to find ways to navigate societies (or social groups) filled with superheroes. When such stories are well written, the superpowered individuals always end up viewing the abilities of 'ordinary' individuals in their social circles as being powerful in their own right: ordinary humanity becomes extraordinary. Some of my favourite moments in ATLA involve other characters recognising Suki's talents: Sokka, who accepts defeat at the hands of a pack of fan-wielding girls with humility and good humour, Zuko, who is grateful for Suki's presence in the Boiling Rock prison, and, above all, Toph, whose life is saved in the final battle by Suki's timely arrival in an airship.

Whenever I watch ATLA, I always get very emotional over the fact that its characters are so very young, and have such terrible burdens placed on their shoulders. Their resolve and bravery humble me. Although the show makes a big deal of physical courage, it carefully highlights other, quieter forms of bravery: the ability to respond to fear and trauma with kindness and friendship, and the ability to forge connections in a world that prefers separation and mistrust. Suki exemplifies all these kinds of courage.

( The other days )

I've got lots of great links tonight.

The first two are from i09. Honestly, I really should add it to my RSS feed, rather than waiting for other places to link me to awesome stories, as that site always has really great articles.

The first one is about what 'Team Jacob' (or rather, the 'defeat' of Team Jacob) represents in Twilight. The second, via thelxiepia, is about tropes in television (but not TV Tropes). They're both really thought-provoking.

ceilidh_ann has a great post snarking Cassandra Clare's book City of Ashes. It's part of a series of posts reviewing dodgy YA literature.

Hal Duncan has an excellent article up at BSC about the Last Airbender film.

Finally, the Australian federal election has been called for 21st August. I don't think I know many 17- or 18-year-old Australians who read this blog, but if there are any of you reading, make sure you're registered to vote. Being in the UK myself, I'm going to have to figure out how to vote from over here, since I'm going to be flying back from Ireland that day. Clearly, I'll have to get a postal vote, so I should organise that as soon as possible. Any UK-based Australians reading this should sort out what they're doing, too.

ETA: Via angelofboox, this Marauder-era Facebook timeline by Julvett on DeviantArt. The link goes to part 1. There are three parts.

So, I feel the depth of failure of the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been adequately documented more ably than I could manage, and I think you all know my thoughts on the matter.

I never had any intention of watching the film, either legally or illegally, but I am enjoying the art and videos that the fandom is producing in response to this horrific trainwreck of a movie. I've collected just three of the best, so far, but head over to capslock_atla to see more.

Scadenfreude by sylvacoer on DeviantArt is a hilarious comic about Jet and the outlaws' reaction to being left out of the film. Secondlina, also on DeviantArt, has done a series of sketches documenting the true horror of the film, while Heartless_Demon has made pretty funny video doing the same.

I never have high expectations of film adaptations, and Emma has articulated the reasons why I'm keeping the hell away from the adaptation of Tomorrow, When the War Began. I, myself, have written about that adaptation for the Book Show blog.

This popped up on capslock_atla. It will make no sense if you haven't seen Avatar: The Last Airbender.



For context, if you haven't seen it, here's the original 'Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny':

I spent the past four days or so watching the entire animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was planning to ration myself to two episodes a day, but, yeah, I'm not a very patient person.

Then I blogged about it. (In other cool news, this is the first time one of my posts has ever been featured on Fandom News - see the heading Fandom Meta Discussion for the link to my post.)

There's some bad news about the release date of the third Romanitas book, Savage City. See Longvision for details.

I don't really have many other interesting things to link today. I'm sure you've all seen the 8-bit Dr Horrible clips, but just in case, I'm linking you to Act I. Act II is now also up, and you should be able to find it in the related videos.

Catie's got a good post about Harry Potter. I don't agree with all her points, but it's well worth a read.

That's it for now.

ETA: I lied! Here's J.K. Rowling being her awesome socialist self:

[Comparing herself with Lord Ashcroft] chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating ex-pats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles.

A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism. On the available evidence, I suspect that it is Lord Ashcroft’s idea of being a mug.

I find her humanity humbling and inspirational.