Okay, Zuko is undeniably the most developed and in depth character in Avatar but honestly I fucking love Sokka’s character development just as much if not more.
Sokka started out a sexist, cocky, weak, immature character–he constantly mocked Katara, wouldn’t accept the fact that the Kyoshi warriors were women far stronger than him, was constantly skeptical and pessimistic, couldn’t hold his own in a fight for a lot of the first season… He was honestly just quite a weak person.
But even as early as the Kyoshi episodes you begin to see how he’s not afraid to learn and change his perspective on things. Suki shows him that he’s not superior just because he’s male, and he comes to understand and accept that. He constantly praises and admires Toph, and never once calls her weak. He learns to stop being so protective over Suki, because he knows that she can take care of herself. He doesn’t once underestimate Azula, even though she’s a girl who’s two years younger than him.
He learns patience and strategy. His invasion plan was genius, his inventions are genius, he was able to tell when Azula was messing with him, Aang and Toph to buy time. He managed to orchestrate the first ever jail break out of the highest security prison in the fire nation. He’s really, really intelligent, and we got to see him learn to let go of his cockiness and ego so that he could utilise his intelligence and develop it.
And then there’s the fact that he’s just so caring underneath all the sarcasm and pessimism. He cared deeply for Yue, even though he only knew her for a matter of days, and her death haunted him to the point where he’s constantly afraid of losing the other people he loves- you can see the terror and guilt he feels when he finds out Azula captured Suki, and that he failed yet another woman he loves. He’s so kind and supportive to Aang, reassuring him when he begins to lose confidence and telling him how strong he is. And he’s so tender with Toph as well. Like when he was talking about Katara and his mother, and he was so open and honest and unashamed in telling Toph such personal truths. And in the entire finale you can see his protectiveness over her (still while not treating her as if she’s weak, just knowing he needs to look out for her because she’s at a disadvantage on the airships) when he’s constantly shielding her and catching her and holding her hand to make sure she doesn’t wander off. Also, there’s so many scenes throughout the show with him leading Toph and letting her hold onto him and I love these wee details so much. Also, one thing that stuck out to me in a recent rewatch was when he and Katara find out about their father’s location, and he immediately volunteers to stay behind and allow Katara to go find him instead. Even though he’s desperately missed his father, and everything that he’s done since they last saw each other was arguably to become strong enough to make his father proud – this just shows how selfless Sokka can actually be when it comes down to serious situations.
He was so quick to accommodate Zuko, and accept him into the group, maybe because he understands that people can change, and can become better. I wish we could’ve gotten more scenes with the two of them because their friendship is bloody great.
Sokka’s training with Master Piandao is one of my favourite episodes, because we see how Sokka has learned to balance his goofiness with his intelligence, we see how he’s learned to discipline himself, and how he really does want to become stronger. He takes this seriously, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.
Honestly I think Sokka is one of the most powerful members of the group, and he and Zuko are definitely the most developed characters in the show. Azula has always been one of my faves because of how her character turned out, but most of her development happened within the last 7 episodes, unlike Sokka and Zuko who have been changing and growing since episode 1.
They’re pouring latex on him to make a false chest. So that they can place the arc reactor prop in him and make it legitimately look like it’s embedded in is flesh and with tears and scar tissue. The latex is colored so they can see where they are applying and how thick the layers are. It will then be airbrushed to his skintone and details like nipples scar tissue discoloration will be added.
Here’s that picture
Then the reactor prop is added to the dimple. Basically the latex becomes fake skin and they tear part of the center open to embed it.
Now you can see how realistic it looks.
I cannot express enough how much I love little behind the scenes things like this.
This still image was created by a Japanese neurology professor Yamamoto, and he told the instructions below: If its not moving, or just moving a little, you are healthy and has slept well. If its moving slowly, you are a bit stressed or tired If its moving continuously, you are over-stressed
Note to vacationing non-Americans: while it’s true that America doesn’t always have the best food culture, the food in our restaurants is really not representative of what most of us eat at home. The portions at Cheesecake Factory or IHOP are meant to be indulgent, not just “what Americans are used to.”
If you eat at a regular American household, during a regular meal where they’re not going out of their way to impress guests, you probably will not be served twelve pounds of chocolate-covered cream cheese. Please bear this in mind before writing yet another “omg I can’t believe American food” post.
Also, most American restaurant portions are 100% intended as two meals’ worth of food. Some of my older Irish relatives still struggle with the idea that it’s not just not rude to eat half your meal and take the rest home, it’s expected. (Apparently this is somewhat of an American custom.)
Until you’re hitting the “fancy restaurant” tier (the kind of place you go for a celebration or an anniversary date), a dinner out should generally also be lunch for the next day. Leftovers are very much the norm.
From the little time I’ve spent in Canada, this seems to be the case up there as well.
the portions in family restaurants (as opposed to haute cuisine types) are designed so that no one goes away hungry.
volume IS very much a part of the american hospitality tradition, and Nobody Leaves Hungry is important. but you have to recognize that it’s not how we cook for ourselves, it’s how we welcome guests and strengthen community ties.
so in order to give you a celebratory experience and make you feel welcomed, family restaurants make the portions big enough that even if you’re a teenage boy celebrating a hard win on the basketball court, you’re still going to be comfortably full when you leave.
of course, that means that for your average person with a sit-down job, who ate a decent lunch that day, it’s twice as much as they want or more. that’s ok. as mentioned above, taking home leftovers is absolutely encouraged. that, too, is part of american hospitality tradition; it’s meant to invoke fond memories of grandma loading you down with covered dishes so you can have hearty celebration food all week. pot luck church basement get-togethers where the whole town makes sure everybody has enough. that sort of thing. it’s about sharing. it’s about celebrating Plenty.
it’s not about pigging out until you get huge. treating it that way is pretty disrespectful of our culture. and you know, contrary to what the world thinks, we do have one.
Everyone going shopping on Black Friday, be aware of three things:
The retail workers are working 12 hours shifts. We are threatened with losing our jobs if we don’t show up unless we’re dying in the hospital. I had an assistant manager show up with fucking strep because he would’ve been fired otherwise. Yes, he did infect 7 and hospitalize 2 coworkers; who knows how many members of the public he infected.
The stores have, maybe, 5 of that special cheap thing you’re after. Corporate does this on purpose, and stores are not allowed to order enough. The prices aren’t even that much lower. They lie about how expensive something is to fool you into thinking you’re getting a discount. You aren’t.
Most of the workers you will come across will be new hires for the sole purpose of being bodies for about three months before they’re fired. They actually don’t know anything because they’ve been working there for maybe two weeks, and have had no real training. I was once hired at Staples a week before Black Friday and expected to know how to deal with phones, coupons, the online ordering site, and AS400 after five 6-hour shifts. This is the kind of person you will likely be dealing with at Black Friday.
Do me and my retail family a favor and don’t shop Black Friday. Any company that needs a sale day like Black Friday to get their sales out of the red doesn’t deserve to be in business.
This also goes for anyone that works shipment too. We’re suddenly expected to stay as late as they want you to even if they know you don’t have a car and rely on a ride to get you to and from work and know you can’t stay late. Shipment workers will suddenly start getting berated for not getting things done and it is by far the most stressful time to be a shipment worker for any store. Especially when they throw in new hires that don’t know how to process things and are expected to work at the same pace as the people that have worked there for a while.
Retail is shit around the holidays, especially Black Friday
ok fellow millenials, it’s time to kill black friday
LET’S KILL BLACK FRIDAY
This goes double for Thanksgiving. More and more places are opening late on Thanksgiving; Gamestop is opening at 3 PM on Thanksgiving. My employer is and always has been open 24 hours on Thanksgiving.
Sometimes going out is unavoidable, please be as kind and understanding to the people forced to work as possible.
I was at the mall tonight. More than 24 hours before the traditional ‘Black Friday’s is supposed to begin. Here’s what I saw: 3x a normal staff, all there to set up displays and work until the asscrack of dawn (stores are open until midnight tonight, recovery will take at least an hour before the team huddle to amp teams up pre-Black Friday). Every manager in the store was on shift. Some had been there since open that morning.
Everyone in the store had a headset. The guy ringing me up actually took his earpiece out to speak to me, which tells me two things – 1) this particular store has genuine people who ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT about their customers and 2) there has been constant chatter in the headsets all day and this guy could no longer focus on both things at once.
The managers looked frazzled. I nearly ran into one because I wasnt paying attention and I thought she was a mannequin and when I apologized to her she just got this shocked look in her face and started laughing. Guarantee this woman had been there since 6AM and was so prepared for every iteration of rude asshole that it never crossed her mind there might be someone shopping in the store who didn’t want to choke her with her own lanyard.
Their plans were all battle strategy. I’m not even slightly exaggerating – they had contingency plans for their contingency plans. They were prepared for chaos and ready to take action given pretty much ANY circumstance.
Softlines team members were obsessively zoning any bit of clothing slightly out of place. I reached for a newly folded jacket with every intention of either touching it without moving it or refolding it neatly because I’m not an asshole, and a team member two rows over from me made a noise like a wounded animal. I did not touch her newly finished zone. This did not stop her from watching me for another three rows and I don’t even blame her.
Another manager asked if I needed assistance with anything or if I had any questions and I could see the Abyss in her eyes.
The point of this long winded story is that every retail worker who will be working Black Friday (or Thanksgiving because that’s a thing now) is prepared for you to murder their mother in front of them, piss on the corpse, and then demand to speak to a manager because their eye twitched while this was going down. The point of this is to say be kind. These people have bills to pay and corporate will fire them without a thought if they don’t show up for this day.
If you absolutely must shop on Black Friday, let them be quick and down to business when they ring you up. Don’t be offended or feel slighted, there are fifty people behind you and their corporate office has transaction goals they expect every store to beat, not meet. If they are out of a product, you’re shit out if luck and you should calmly and quietly move on. If you can, be neat and orderly.
Don’t expect to have lengthy conversation, and don’t be offended if people seem like they’re hurrying you. They are, and it’s for a fucking reason. If they DO latch on to a conversational point, let them talk at you for a bit, they obviously see that you are a human being who also sees that THEY are a human being and they need your quiet support more than anything in that moment.
Please and thank you go a long way. Manners maketh man. Give your retail workers some goddamn dignity.
Just. Like. Take care of each other. The people I saw tonight are preparing for the literal worst shift of their lives, and will be thankful if it’s only mildly terrible. Be that one person who they remember for being kind and understanding and LETTING THEM DO THEIR JOBS EFFICIENTLY.
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