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September 18, 2018 60 mins

This week, Dani and Ify are joined by Kyle Shire, of Machinima, to unlock the secrets of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Kyle guides us through the storylines and memorable moments of the two series to paint a picture of this world for new viewers and veterans alike. From fighting the Fire Nation to fighting the Patriarchy, it’s all here on this week’s episode of Nerdificent!

FOOTNOTES:

1. The Legend

2. The Start of the Hundred Year War

3. AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER WAS MORE THAN JUST A CHILDREN'S SHOW

4. A Profound Animation: Avatar: The Last Airbender Almost a Decade Later

5. 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Is Still One of the Greatest Shows of All Time

6. 10 Essential Episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender

7. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW - AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER COMICS

8. AN ORAL HISTORY OF AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER: CAST LOOKS BACK AS SHOW CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF FINALE

9. Avatar: The Last Airbender – World and Mythology

10. Avatar: The Last Airbender creator announces his next project, Threadworlds

11. Dark Horse announces new Avatar: The Last Airbender comics

12. ON ITS 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY 'AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER' CREATORS GIVE AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE FINALE

13. Avatar: The Last Airbender Is One Of The Greatest TV Shows Of All Time

14. The Strange, Sad Abuse Of 'The Last Airbender' And 'The Legend of Korra'

15. Racebending (The Last Airbender Casting Controversy)

16. Is 'The Last Airbender' Racist?

17. Shyamalan Addresses Airbender's Race Controversy And Answers Your Questions

18. Who Sent Out The Last Airbender Casting Call Asking For "Caucasian" Actors? Producer Responds

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Ned Innocent. I am one half
of your host, Danny Fernandez, and sitting across from me.
Is that boy that thick boy? Nope, nope. I see
a lot of women that have been speaking up that
you're not as thick as you want. I'm just thick
in a different way. They're slim thick. I'm slim thick now,

(00:32):
but I guess I'm I'm thick in certain areas exactly
where it counts. That's true, It's true. Uh yeah, but
it's me if you wid way and we're kicking it
off with a young guest, the guest is not particularly young.
A lot of people seem to be confused when I
just throw young in front of people, names, pronouns as

(00:53):
just a thing to say, like tight, yeah yeah, or
like freshly he's a new guest to us. That was
the kindation I took. Yeah. Yeah, we have comedian and writer,
producer and host for Mashinima, Mr Kyle Shyer. Hi, everybody, Hey,
how's it going? Jurassic Park Hawaiian shirt? Thank you? Yeah,
it's yeah. You don't quite notice the raptors at first? Yeah,

(01:15):
I know, I thought those were just scary roses. No, no,
you are alive. When did you start to eat you?
Did you see that they closed down the ride at Universal?
I guess I was like what, and then it was
like yeah, to make it Jurassic World. I'm like, well,
could you'll calm down. That's like the same thing, I hope,
just the Disney thing where it's the same ride. They

(01:36):
just add voice lines from the movies and add a
Johnny Depp figure. Actually, I hope they do do that voice. No, no,
it's all Jurassic World line and Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. No,
that's what Disney is like, we're cutting times with Johnny Depp.
We're selling these Jack Sparrow and univerals like we'll take him,

(01:58):
We'll take him, all right. Then we go I'm behind
a veloss of Raptor. He's the voice of the Indominus
they have come from. It was just if he's so
many of our friends posted. I saw like, oh went
on the final ride for Jurassic Park, and I was
just like, what happened? Dude? I don't trust Universal because
I you know, I grew up out here in l A.
I thought I had to burp. I didn't now I do.

(02:19):
That's a no better cookie. I like that. Did you
get that? Here? Are you brought? I brought? I got
it from here? You got it from here? Good? I didn't?
They do have the cookies I've I added Keto foods
all here. All of a sudden, everybody else is on Keto. Sophie,
she's on Keto and I guess, uh, Jackies is doing
something close. Y'all get off my stuff. I couldn't like,

(02:40):
who you eat that junk in the fridge? Now? Who's
all that? Dan rays? I could not eat anything at
my own studio because some of us have to be
gluten free, and so Sophie went out and ordered a
bunch of gluten free stuff. And my box is empty.
That be in this office have been eating my snacks. Yeah,

(03:03):
that's that's that was funny. When I just saw that box, gen,
I was like, man, I feel like everybody all of
a sudden got gluten free. Okay, you know what? They
see our thick bodies and they're like, what's working? Yeah,
that's what's keeping men thick. That's what I need. I mean,
but we're whatever you and I both work out, that's
what all. Yeah. Every morning, five am get up with

(03:27):
me if you're trying to lift. But here comes the tangents.
We we even got a listener feedback. I guess they're
not listening anymore. They specifically in the in the message
sent a long, long message saying that they hated the tangents,
that we talk about our experiences with the stuff too much.

(03:50):
I feel like that's the definition of a podcast. But
you know it's all good. I don't want to hate
too much, just enough to make you feel bad. Never
send me a message like that again if you have
something I need to say. Though we are I don't
know if you all know this a part of How
Stuff Works comedy. We are two comedians, and we're not
going to just make this an educational, boring podcast. If

(04:12):
you want that, go somewhere else. The reason why if
he and I got picked up and got hired and
we're sent some money's from How Stuff Works to be
on this network is because our previous podcast where we
had a really good chemistry together. So we like sharing
our experiences. If you want someone to go over minute
details of a nerdy thing, this is not the podcast
for you. Oh yeah that. It feels like some people

(04:35):
just want the boring part about nerds stuff. I think
the fun and and I know some people just took
their headphones a life. Yeah. I think the fun in
nerdom and the information from Nerdom is people's reactions, which
is why we have tons of guests who are passionate
about the source material we're talking about, even if we

(04:55):
may not be as well versed in it. That way,
we have at least one person in the seats jazzed up.
And also we get to turn around and let them
tell us about their experience and get to share that
with y'all. This isn't gonna be you know, I'm gonna
like we'll we'll give you the rundown on the basics,
but we're not. We're not gonna like be like pop Quiz.

(05:15):
Here's all this stuff because an episode thirty six of
Well because I feel like if we did a podcast
about that, people would only use it for evil. No
one would use it for good. People would only use
it to keep and argue with us. Yeah. I do
want to say though, Our most listened to episode still
is our m c U episode with Hector Navarro where

(05:35):
Dan and I were talking about this earlier, where we
did go on tangents. We talked about what we loved
about the films and what we didn't. It wasn't just
like here's a factual and then Thor showed up and
then this and that, Like we gave you the main
highlights of what you needed to know from each film,
but then we discussed and debated about them. And I
think that and also laughed a lot, and I think
that is what makes this podcast great. I don't know.

(05:58):
I think you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for
having emotional reactions to things that you love. Absolutely should
be ashamed to you. I really like our Comic Con
episode where I talked about how I got in by
pretending to be with party Boy from Jackass, and like,
those are the behind the things things that you need
to know about, and how if you've got in trouble
for like, I don't know, you were like sextying with

(06:22):
a girl in a O L messenger, Yeah, when the
FBI came in my house for like, those are interesting
fun facts to know a nerd culture. So, speaking of
which we are covering with Kyle here today, who was
an expert in Avatar the Last Airbender. You actually have
a tattooed on your body. I do. I have the
symbol of the air Nomads tattooed on my body with
the words let go because air is the element of freedom.

(06:44):
How many people confuse that for a frozen tattoo? Most
people confuse it for either six six six or or
they think it's a Celtic symbol. Can I see? I
want to see you. It's so great because I see
how it could be frozen. Um. Yeah, I also have
my my friend my fandom tattooed love my wrist to it.

(07:06):
Oh yeah, and I got the biggest meaning. I was
trying to think of a non curse word way to
describe this character one of his battle cries imperious Rex,
and we all got it pretty close, proximity imperious Rex.
Because I wanted a nerd tattoo that would be subtle,
uh and cool. Also I like it being a reference

(07:27):
that not every nerd gets straight up just speaking of
gate keeping, but not even like to make people feel
bad about it, but like one of those like if
you know, you know, because I'm a big Marvel guy
really love uh, just the whole illuminati behind it, which yeah,
sorry if you don't know By now Imperious Rex is

(07:47):
name or the Submaritor's battle cry. That's what he yells
when he goes into battle, and it's Latin for powerful king.
It's a It's kind of like if you've descended or ascended,
depending on your point of view, to like a level
of nerd dum. You know, like you'll know and then
it's like, okay, cool, you're on my level. He but
for all intensive purposes, he's the worst. And people were
looking at me when I had this tattoo because everyone

(08:08):
knows I'm a huge Black Panther fan, But there was
a whole arc where him and were at ODN, like,
how do you feel about this? Conflicted? Yeah? Absolutely, I
I understand. I'm an m A Frost fan from so
I understand conflicting feelings. You know, that's only about three
writers got her, right, So I understand your your your feelings. Well,

(08:30):
before we totally dive into the timeline of of Avatar
the Last Airbender, what was your first introduction to it?
How did you for I mean, where did you watch
it when it first came out on Nickelodeon's I did
not watch it when it first came out of Nickelodeon
because I was in high school and I wasn't I
was too cool to watch it. But then a friend
of mine when I got into college, I was like,
you need to watch the show. You absolutely need to
watch it, and it just ended. Uh, And so I

(08:50):
got a hard drive with the three seasons of The
Last Airbender and I just ran through it and it
became I watched it at such a perfect moment in
my life of so many of the lessons just kind of,
like I don't know, emboldened me and made me a
better person in a lot of ways, and especially helped
me like come into my own as like a queer person,
so like I don't know, just a lot of ways,
it really helped me out. It's the best. Yeah. I

(09:12):
also didn't watch it in high school because I don't know,
so I was looking at the timeline. It first aired
February twenty one, two thousand and five, and that's when
it premiered, and I was in my junior year of
high school. Same thing, like the area that I lived,
and it wasn't really cool to watch quote unquote cartoons
and I was still kind of secretly watching Dragon ball Z.

(09:35):
But that was something that I started when I was ten,
so a little bit different. The Dragon ball Z can
span a lot of age ranges, I feel like true,
but it was still weird for me to watch it
as a teenage girl where I was and then I
was looking because Legend of Cora then came out in
twelve and I was like, oh, I was getting married then,
and then I was getting divorced, So like, I actually

(09:55):
didn't really grow up. I didn't really watch this series
at all, like I still have it really picked it up.
And that's why I'm really we brought on Kyle to
kind of one because you're a huge expert and love it,
but also to kind of fill in the gaps for me.
You don't need to write me anybody. I know that
I need to watch it, along with a billion other
things that I haven't had time to watch. But I'm
just saying those times in my life were times when

(10:18):
I wasn't When I was married, I would have to
secretly like record anime that I wanted to watch. It
was so weird. My husband kind of made me feel
weird for being adult that watched cartoons. It's just a reminder,
and again I'm saying, I know it's not cartoons, but
like that's what people call it, And just a reminder
to me that there's still so many areas like that

(10:38):
where we're really lucky to be in an area and
I think in like part of nerd culture where it's
cool or or acceptable, but like there's still so many
areas and probably people listening where like they can't even
openly talk about it with their coworkers because they're seen
as weird, like if you don't have children, especially too.
I think it's it's uh, if I could go back
in time and tell myself in high school, like, you know,

(11:00):
you need to watch this show because it is a
kid show. It is on Nickelodeon, but it was written
in such a way because originally it wasn't necessarily intended
to be a kid show. Um, but they randomly got
a few chances at Nickelodeon and they kind of turned
it into a kid show. But the themes and the stories,
so much of it is so dark, like they tell
such an adult story and by the third season it's like,

(11:20):
oh no, like straight up like you can blood bend people,
Like it's it's messed up. Can can we curse on here? No?
But can you do they messed up? That messed up?
It is some messed up stuff. There we go. So
water benders um when they are during a full moon
changes a little bit in legend of Core, but in
the Last Airbender, water benders on a full moon can

(11:42):
bend the water in your body and basically turn you
into a puppet, which is horrifying and it also looks
extremely painful, and it's like once once it gets to
that level, it's like, oh, yeah, you're not playing around
like that's that's really messed up. Theoretically they could pull
the blood out of your body if they wanted to. Yeah, no,
it It's funny because looking at this timeline, I was
everything clicks back. Yes, So it dropped February twenty, two

(12:06):
thousand and five, which was coming on my birthday and
my junior year high schools. You bring this up like
as many times as you can. You know, deep in
my weep phase, you know, I'm watching Cowboy Bebop recording
which on Robin on the PHS got the Nauto DVDs

(12:27):
given to me at this point, So yeah, no, I
looked down on Avatar heavy like just the worst type
of and that's why It's so funny when people gate
keep because when you when you do that gate keeping stuff,
you are only hurting yourself because you do especially when
you do like elatest things like that, Like Avatar is
a beautiful show. I I I've popped in and watched episodes,

(12:49):
uh kind of, I think like during season two and
three because it kind of still it gained traction at
my school and people kind of we're talking about it
and so like I peeped in and then I graduate
and people were openly to so I kind of but
I never gave it the honest full watch. Um. And
that's and it was all because of stuff like that.
I think another i've I've I was that type of person.

(13:12):
It's a it's definitely a personality type where if something
is popping, you want to find a reason not to
like it. I did that with m F. Doom and
that's one of mine. That's that it was with m
F Doom that I told myself I would never do
it again because everyone loved m F. Doom. Like I
think around same time junior senior year of high school,
and I was so like these overrating and for no reason,

(13:35):
like I did not even know it m F Doom song,
but because everyone was so into him, I had to
be the guy who was not into him. So then
he first did a feature on November has Come with
the Gorillas, and that's when I heard it, and I
your boy loved the rap. But of course I've already
set up this persona that I hate HMF do so

(13:56):
so much so that people are like, this is a
dumb thing that if he's doing, but okay, and like
I was like, yeah, no, I was like, okay, I'll
give it to you guys. His verse on November Has
Come was great obviously at this this point, that's the
only n got heard, and I'm like, oh man. And
then it wasn't until like I graduated high school and

(14:17):
I was like, let me just check this out because
I really never have. And I listened to Food, which
came out in two thousand six, and it was made
for people like me. It was literally a rapper that
was made for me. He was he m F. Doom.
He was supposed to be Dr Doom. He inter cut

(14:37):
like old Fantastic four clips into his wraps, like stuff
that would blow my mind. I didn't know about, didn't
even listen to because of this random need to be
superior in my and I was gonna say nerddom, but
they had nothing to just to be cool because I
have to go against the grain. And I feel like
that is you see that a lot, especially with the

(14:59):
shows like Avatar. I'm not I definitely wasn't the only
animate nerd who like looked down on it. And I
think to this day, I mean, it's interesting that because
you bring up like a lot of like staple o
g animals, you know, like which hard to robin, you know,
you bring those up, and I could definitely see people
within that culture like kind of looking down on Avatar,

(15:20):
not just because it's a kid shop, but because it's
an American show that was try that was adopting an
anime style, and a lot of people look down on
it for that reason. And I could, I could understand that,
but I believe, I really believe that Brian Konetsko and
Michael Donta DeMartino did it in such a they revered
that style. And you can tell throughout the entire like
the consistency and the their commitment to detail, like they

(15:44):
really were revering that style in such a huge way.
Um So and that's that becomes apparent, like after you've
watched definitely season two. You know, God, it gets so
good in season two. My roommate is rewatching it right now,
so I like rewatching it with him, and like, you know,
Appa just got kidnapped that I'm just like, well, maybe
he wouldn't have gotten kidapped if you had called him
by his real name and not yip yip. Yeah. Oh man, um,

(16:06):
so do you want to get into the actual legend
of the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so so yeah, we
kick off with season one. It ends in December two
of two thousand five, and it goes on for quite
some time. It I remember when it was ending that
it was like such a big deal. There are all

(16:27):
these characters. That's that's the funny thing about popping in
and out of a show is like you're like, who oh,
who's that person? Where they come from? Okay? Yeah? But yeah,
so so you know, I wanna approach this in a
fun way and and I'll follow along just in case,
you know, anything needs but I just want to bounce
off of you and just gets something so because I

(16:51):
because something I want to kind of recenter around is
just having one people who are passionate about the the
source material talking about but all so just someone listening
never heard of legend uh, legend of the Avatar, legend
of Cora, Last Airbender, Ava Airbender, and the legend of
car Okay, I did it just like my mom, that

(17:16):
legend of Avatar. Hey, you see the person that people
are gonna be. We're doing extra tangent now just to
make people. Matt, did you see that person that wrote
us when we called lego leg I mean all the
people that wrote us called lego legos, even though like
all my friends and everyone that I know calls it that.
But what I mean, I got to, uh, you know,
prove everyone wrong in the nerdiest way possible, uh, linking

(17:38):
them to a grammar professor saying that we were right.
But also somebody was like, well, that's like your mom,
your grandma calling it pokemon pokemons or whatever. And I'm like,
but also I wanted to say, like, yeah, people, I
feel like I know a ton of people like I
don't care if myo Boila says Spider Man's like that's fine,
I'm not going to be like I don't think Tom

(17:59):
Holland cares, is what I think he's going to be
angry and correct her. Um, you'd think so. So, Kyle,
can you explain to people like the legend and the
story behind Avatar the Last Airbender. Yes, So it takes
place in the world where. Um, just to give you
like a setup of the world. UM, there are four nations.
There's the Earth Kingdom, there's the Fire Nation. There the

(18:19):
Air Nomads, and they're the Water Tribe. And they used
to live together in harmony, and then everything changed when
the Fire Nation attacked, which is what they say in
the opening monologue. UM. Basically they became a colonialist um,
you know, empire that was expanding and trying to take
over the world because it's fire, that's fire right age passion, UM.
And the Avatar is this person that has the ability

(18:42):
to bend all four elements. Now people throughout the world.
You know, people from the Water Tribe can water bend people.
You know, the Air Nomads can airbend. Um. Firebenders are
from the Fire Nation and Earthbenders from the Earth Kingdom.
The Avatar is the person that can bend all four elements,
and they're kind of like a spiritual leader, focal point
for the war. All they're above you know, they're not
there to rule, They're there to maintain balance and order

(19:04):
in the world when all else fails. But something happened
when the Fire Nation attacked and the Avatar disappeared, and
no one knew what happened to him. Um. It turns
out that the Avatar was a young Airbender named Ang
who found out that he was the Avatar and ran
from his destiny, essentially, and he escaped one night during
a storm and he crashed him and his sky bison

(19:27):
crashed into the ocean, and the Avatar state triggered and
he froze himself in an iceberg for a hundred years.
And a hundred years in the future too, Southern Water
Tribe members Socca and Katara brother and sister find him
in in an iceberg, and Um he finds out that
he is not only been frozen for a hundred years,
but that all of the air Nomads have been genocided
because the Fire Nation. The Avatar cycle goes like this,

(19:50):
There's there's an Airbender, and then there's a water Bender,
and then an Earthbender, and then a Firebender, then an Airbender.
So when the previous Avatar Avatar, Roku, who was a
Firebender die. The Fire Nation knew that the next Avatar
was going to be an Airbender, so they genocided all
of the air Nomads to break the Avatar cycle so
that they could remain in power forever. So that's what happened.

(20:10):
So he wakes up, he's been away for a hundred years.
What's going on? Oh my god? My entire cultures debt
and I have to learn all of the four elements
by next summer because there's a comment that's coming. And
this comment is going to make all of the Firebenders
incredibly powerful for a whole day, which is how they
genocided the air Nomads a hundred years ago. Okay, wow
or anything? No? And that no, that that is it?

(20:35):
Like every like everything I knew that I've watched totally
locks up. Also ago those listening at home, he's that
was off rip, that was had nothing in front of him.
That should just straight knowledge. We are like, yeah, we
picked the right person to talk about this. So here's
here's some questions. I'm gonna hit you with some b
G questions, which is short for beginner questions, not background questions.

(20:59):
I wanted to background questions. I have some background questionsground
beginner questions. Okay, so my beginner question is, so no
one from a specific tribe can bend another tribes element
is what you're saying before that sort of changes in
legend of Cora. But for the most part, No, If

(21:19):
you're from the Earth Kingdom, you're an earth Bender. If
you're from the Water tribe, you're a water bender. From
the Fire Nation, you're a Firebender. It's I understand that,
you know, there would be that there probably should be
more migration, you know, but in this world for simplicity sake, No,
If you know, I think the only the only people
that aren't necessarily always um going to follow the element

(21:42):
of their nation of birth would probably be the air nomads,
because sometimes air nomads spontaneously come from other nations and
then they go to the air temples the air The
air nomads are basically Buddhists. What was the like, what
was the inspiration for the show or how did it
come to be? From what I understand, Um, Brian knets
Go and Michael Donte DiMartino wanted to do a Kung

(22:04):
Fu cartoon, and for one reason or another, they got
a meeting with Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon was like, we love
your idea, we want to do this cartoon, but Kung
Fu is a little we don't want kids fighting each other.
Could you like figure out a that was there? What
they and they were like, well, instead of fighting with
kicks and punches, will have them, you know, be throwing water,

(22:24):
balloons and rocks at one another, um, which is sort
of eventually they do straight up, you know, are are fighting,
you know, with with kicks and punches and you know,
blades and whatnot weapons of mass destruction. But for the
most part it was kind of softened figuratively because it's
not necessarily fighting. It's bending. It's the bending arts. You know.
It was so fascinating while you were saying that, I

(22:44):
was trying to think of other fighting shows that they
might have, and all of them that kept coming up
in my head have a around cartoon network. So yeah, swim,
if you're going to have human kids that that look human,
that have human names, that have human desires, they you know,
fighting is it's a little bit touchy for them. So
the bending was a way for them to kind of

(23:05):
maneuver around that a little bit. But by season three
they were straight up like Oh my god, that the
stuff that they were getting away with. I can't believe it.
So what were some of the darker I guess um
messages are tones in some of the episodes. And remember well,
first of all, I mean they hit you with genocide
in episodes. Yeah, it's reminds, like I mean in a
not a subtle way, but like for something like Zootopia,

(23:27):
which tackled a lot of racism and commentary on on
that it was, it's fascinating to see it appearing in
other children's programming quote unquote, I know it's not a
child's movie. I'm just saying, like for things that children
are also watching, to have something so out there, I mean,
you you see and I believe it's an episode three

(23:47):
or four. But there's a flashback where ang Is is
showing his mentor his mentors monkey Yatsu, who was sort
of like his father figure. They don't really have mothers
and fathers in the air nomads. They have like you know,
it's much more communal. Um. But anyway, monk Yatsu was
like his father figure, and um, he has this medallion
and there's this moment where he hang finds monk Yatsu's

(24:09):
skeleton and it's the first time that you see him
go into the Avatar state because he's um so enraged
by it. The Avatar state for people that don't know
and for you guys, sometimes the avatar goes into what's
called the Avatar State, where basically the knowledge and abilities
and powers of all of their past lives come into
one and it's like a fail safe. So whenever their
lives are in danger, they activate the Avatar state, and

(24:31):
they are just incredibly powerful. It's like knowledge and skills
from a thousand lifetimes immediately just zooms into your head
and your eyes glow white, and it's just you know,
some avatars move continents when they're in the Avatar state,
like it's crazy, like they go full super super saying
kind of I was about to say that, but I
didn't want to disrespect you know, you would have not

(24:52):
disrespected me at all. I I I'm not a Dragon
ball Z person, but I respect it and I would. Yeah,
I'm happy to that terminology. Okay, Well, you know that's
what I feel like. We really did lay the groundwork
for the show, and you know there was a lot more,
you know, there's you know, we talked about the calm.

(25:13):
We're talking about this. I want to talk about the
development of the show, how it kind of got darker,
maybe some of the things you liked didn't like. We're
getting all of that after these messages. Oh all right, y'all,
I'm back. Here'son Woman and Kyle shy Er. You know,

(25:35):
Danny's here too, holding it down, drinking her mint water.
And Celsius back on this almost No, I haven't opened
it if you Okay. So we were talking about, you know,
the life of Avatar the Last Airbender, and you know
we touched on earlier, how over time it was able
to get more I guess dark adult, but also you know,

(25:58):
over the break you're telling us how progressive was at
the time. To um, let's hear more about that. Well.
As far as female representation is concerned, I feel like
it as it is almost unparalleled in how it deals
with their female characters. And you know, there's literally an
episode in season one called The Water Bending Master where
Katara literally fights the patriarchy and it's amazing. It's just

(26:21):
a stone wall that has patriarchy on it. I mean,
like this character, this character is meant to sort of
be a representation of it because Okay, So the bulk
of season one is Katara, who's a young water bender
from the Southern Water Tribe with her brother Socca, and
they're traveling with Ang north so that he can go
to the Northern Water Tribe and learn water bending because

(26:42):
there are there are very few water benders in the
South Pole, if any, because the Fire Nation killed them all.
So they're going to the They're going to the Water Tribe,
and Qatar is really excited because she wants to learn
water bending. She wants to learn how to fight. She
wants to learn about her culture and about her people.
They get to the Northern Water Tribe, they find the
water bending master, Master Pacu, and he won't try and
guitar because she's a girl and basically, like women, water

(27:04):
benders are healers and that's it, and they don't learn
how to fight. Oh my god, I remember this episode
and there's an amazing episode. Theres an amazing moment where
Qatar is just fed up. She's like, no, I'm not
you know, I'm not going to uh do this. This
is stupid. If you're you know, if you really think
I'm not not the great of a water bender, then
you show up right outside this you know house, and
we're gonna fight, and she challenges him to a duel.

(27:26):
This like thirteen year old girl challenges a water bending
master to a duel, and he shows up and he's
walking by and he's like, you go back to the
healing huts with the other women, and she water bends
a whip and hits him in the back of the head,
and then they start fighting, and there's this At first,
you know, he's kind of playing with her because you know,
she's a novice and she's kind of self taught. She's
an autodidact. She doesn't really know that much. And there's

(27:46):
this amazing moment where he like throws her into a
pool of water and she goes and then she creates
like a stump of ice and then starts flinging these
razor sharp discs of ice at him, and he's kind
of he's dodging him at for But then there's this
really cool slow motion like kung fu moment where one
literally comes within an inch of his face and you
see his reflection in it, and his look is like,

(28:08):
this little girl is trying to kill me. Oh my god.
It's it's it's really really great, and of course he
he does best her in the end um but long
story short, she impresses him so much that he's like, oh, wow,
you kind of did you know I'll allow women from
now on? Yeah? I was wrong. And then in the
second season you meet another central main character, which is

(28:29):
tough befong Um, who is uh as far as representation goes,
not only she a woman, but she's blind, so you
have a she's she's an earthbender, and so she because
she's blind, she sees with earth bending, so she's kind
of like Daredevil in a way where she can see
based off of vibrations in the earth. So it's one
of those great like not only is she a girl,

(28:49):
but she's disabled and everybody underestimates her. But in so
many ways she's one of the most powerful characters in
the show, and she literally changes the world after and
like Legend of Corl, you find out like her impact
on the world has been greater than almost anyone else
on the show. So good. And also she's like a tomboy.
She doesn't give a give a I'm trying to not

(29:09):
swear um, but she's she's so awesome. She's the one
that teaches Ang, like because hangs an airbender. So Earth
is the opposite of air, and Ang is all about
like peace and Pacifi is um Air is like a
very passive element and Earth is very like it's like
you have to in order to bend Earth, you have
to be like a rock yourself, and doesn't know how
to do that, but Top does because she's bad. Yeah,

(29:31):
but like these names to like tough ang. It's so
that's one thing I thought was cool about the show
is that, you know, it does seem like it's a
all the characters are like Asian, Like it's not white
specifically very much so. And I mean sometimes you don't
even get that in anime, so so like that what's Yeah,

(29:55):
So that's what was really cool about the show, where
they were like we're in fired by this Eastern culture
and we're going to stay true to it in all
senses of it, you know, where I feel like there
is a lot of inspiration where people will still take
inspiration for cultures in writing and still put you know,

(30:17):
a different culture white people at the forefront, you know,
not not even like a homie, you know, like like
not even a homie was like I'm here with you
two is like, nah, we got so so it is
cool to see that as well. It seems like you
were super spot on earlier when you were like they
cared about this culture and really wanted to cultivate it

(30:38):
and really pay tribute to it. Yeah. I completely agree. Yeah,
I think like yeah, because the Fire Nation is largely
based off of Japan. Uh, the Earth Kingdom is largely
based off of China. Um, and the ern Nomads were
largely Buddhist Tibetan monks, and the Water tribe is Inuit
for the most part. If you look at their designs,
it's very very Innuit as far as like their skin
color and their names, um, their culture, it feels very Inuit. Yeah.

(31:02):
I was going to talk about some of their influences
that are listed here. Um. So it's the character designs
were influenced by Chinese art and history, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism,
and yoga. Um. The fighting styles employed by the show's
characters are derived from Chinese martial arts, for which the
filmmakers employed uh Sufu Kiso. Remember we're gonna talk about

(31:22):
the film, but oh no, no, no, no, I think
this is not the film. I think this is okay
in the In the show, like all of the bending
styles are based off of real fighting styles, like water
bending is largely based off of tai chi. Air bending
is based off of bagua, which is like circle fighting
because air is all about circular circular motion. Firebending, I

(31:43):
believe is uh tiger style. I think tiger crane I
want to say um. And the earth bending is based
off of hunger kung fu, with the exception of tof
who fights with a tof Beifong literally fights with a
fighting style, a style of kung fu that was developed
by a blind woman. Yeah, it looks like the chewguars
Southern praying mantis style can be seen practiced by the airbender.

(32:04):
Tough ye Earthbender? Yeah, does it say abend? No? Sorry, Earthbender?
What did I say? I had so many one other
thing I just wanted to say. Um. So they also
employed cultural consultants at Edwin Zane and calligraphers Sue long
Lea to help determine its art direction and settings. Yeah,
so they definitely had other people working on this to

(32:27):
help them make it what it is. It's so beautiful too.
I wanted to talk real quick about the animation because
it was mostly done by South Korean studio JM Animation,
DR Movie and M M o I Animation, which is
very common. So even in shows or quote unquote animal
shows that are made here or even Japanese ones are

(32:48):
typically the animation studios are in South Korea. And I'm
learning that now as I'm starting to work with animation studios.
And also our friend Lashawn Thomas, who worked on Legend
of Cora, has also said and worked um in this
field as well, where it's like no he I think
he actually moved to South Korea to work on some
of the projects that he has worked on, so he
could be so close to the studio. But yeah, a

(33:10):
lot of people don't know that that most of the
animation is done in in South Korea and then uh
either worked on in Japan or here in America. I
just wanted to add that little tidbit. Kids Tight Tight,
So you know, before we move on and start talking
about Cora, I really so much to cover. Yeah, I

(33:32):
really want to talk about two things. One I want
to talk about, you know, the finale, how you felt,
how it hits you watching it live. And too, I
think a fun thing to talk about is this movie
because I felt like that's that's where me and Avatar
fans really get to to bond is y'all also had

(33:53):
a monstrosity made beloved source materials. I do want to say, Um,
this is just I looked on its Wikipedia. Wikipedia is
the most shade Um it says. Listen, it's this is
on the Avatar the Last Airbender the series thing, it says,
and The Last Airbender considered one of the worst movies

(34:15):
ever made, which was directed by M Knight Shamalan. Wow,
that's actually listed on their thing. It's not wrong and
then accepted like nobody. Nobody has gone in and changed it,
like possibly, no it it is one of the worst
movies ever made. Wow, that's a lot of shade uh
from Wikipedia, and Shamalan reads it and just was like
yeah about that. He's not even trying to correct it

(34:36):
to to to to to go off of what you
were saying. As far as the finale is concerned, Um,
I did not watch it live because I was always
watching it on a on a hard drive that my
friend gave me. Um, but I cried. It was so cathartic.
That's the way I'll put it. I'll say that it
meant a lot, because the way that you know that

(34:58):
The Last Airbender is all about learning the remaining three
elements water bending, earth bending, and fire bending so that
he can eventually defeat the fire Lord before the fire
Lord can take over the world. And so you know
that each season is him learning a new element and
kind of progressing along that line. And I'll say that
when he gets to the end and he makes his choice,

(35:20):
the choice that he makes at the end, it is
so wonderful and cathartic because he doesn't change who he is. Ultimately,
he's been wrestling with this dark destiny for so long
and it's the reason why he ran away that night
when he froze himself in the iceberg. And it's a
moment where you're like, no, this. If you ever have

(35:40):
something going on in your life where your where you
concerto thinking like I have to face this dark task.
I have to do this thing that I really really
don't want to do that's completely against me. You find
yourself and there's a moment where you're like, oh, I
don't have I can actually change the rules if I
want to, And that's exactly what Ang did and change
the rules instead, he was like, I don't have to
play this game. I can make my own game. Yeah,

(36:00):
and that's and that's ultimately like the most beautiful part
of it. You know, it's so good. I did want
to say ten years since the season finale, Avatar the
Last Airbenders considered one of the greatest shows of all times.
So ten years since. I'm gonna just do a quick
It was two thousand eight July, so it was this
year that was the ten year. Yeah, it looks like

(36:22):
five point six million people watched the season finale. That's amazing. Yeah,
that's some real, real numbers, especially for a cartoon. One
of the most watched season finales in Nickelodeon's history. I mean,
we covered Nickelodeon and they had a lot of shows.
It's it's really it's really incredible when you think about it, because,
like the entire structure, and we can get into the
differences with Cora, but the entire structure of the show

(36:44):
of The Last Airbender is culminating to a show down
between Hang and the fire Lord. And that's what's amazing
about it. It's it's three seasons of a very tight,
very concise story. Whereas in Legend of Cora, which is
four seasons. It's it's four solver self contained seasons. It's
it's Cora dealing with four very different situations. Yeah. Also,
like this was this is a wave of I feel

(37:06):
like closure that happened because just a year earlier, in
on the twenty one of July in two thousand seven,
Harry Potter and the Definitely Hollows was released. So so
you got and I feel like the vinn diagram of
Harry Potter fans and like so like they're like, oh man,

(37:27):
we just ended Harry Potter. Oh man, have avatar. I
did want to mention one thing before we move on,
and that is the Last Airbender comics which were licensed
and published by Dark Horse, which were very popular as well.
You get to find out some tea on Zuko's mom,
which is very interesting. Yeah, yes, you can actually still
pick those up. I was going to say, before we

(37:47):
move on to Legend of Cora, we might need to
take a break. Oh yeah, and when we come back
from that, BA, we definitely started what's your trash movie? Okay,
I guess welcome back, and uh, I was just kidding.

(38:08):
I'm not going to force you to talk about that movie.
I'll see this about the movie. I'll okay. I love
bad movies. I love me some bad movies. I love
bad camping. Got some Neil Breen heads in here? Oh man, Okay.
Neil Breen is like a like he is a guy
who somehow gets to keep making bad movies. Yeah, his

(38:36):
movies are so bad that they're cult classics. So people
are like, watch it. Like, I'll just just give you
a quick taste speaking of tangents, and then oh no,
and after this we'll just jump right back into it.
But oh dear, what is this? I movie editing software.

(38:58):
I know that I'm movie effect. What is what is this?
What are you? What have you? Oh? This is the
day all changed? Why where is pants? Talk Town? Okay,
while you're watching that, I'm going to drop some quick
facts on the Last Airbender live action film, which premiered June.
It has a six percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Wow,

(39:24):
the this is the critics consensus. The Last Airbender squanders
it's popular source material. I do have to say that's
a hard thing to do, which we keep seeing people
do you have perfect, beautiful source material and a whole
ton of fans to back it up? And you ruined it. That, Um,
that's an interesting thing when that happens, because what usually

(39:45):
happens is studios. I was gonna say suits and really
just give away how I really feel and who I
really am. But you have studios who buy properties. They're like, oh,
these kids love this, and then they buying. They're like, well,
they're going to see it no matter what. So let's
try and make it cool for the cool people when
it's already cool. I will say this to to complete

(40:07):
my thought. I love bad movies. This movie does not
have any camp value. It is so bad you can't
even watch it, like high, you can't even get hime.
You're like, let's watch this bad movie. It is so bad.
It like I would say, it's just voiceover of it
is just them, and it's it's so weird. What his
thinking was like he thought he could condense an entire

(40:29):
season of a show into a movie. And I heard
that he even snuck a twist in. There was there
a twist. I didn't mean there's always a twist because
the other the other gross thing is that everyone's white.
It's so great that the show is like you know,
so like there's not a single white person. No no, no no,
no no. Ang is white, Quitar is white, Soccer is white.

(40:52):
Sorry sorry, Ang is white. Soca is white. They pronounced
it soca. And the only non people are the Firebenders
and the Earth Kingdom people. Well, the thing that makes
it rough is like Socca and Qatara are drawn so
dark dark, that's so to see them choose anything other

(41:17):
than a person of color, it's mark. It really is insane.
It really is insane to me. Also when the director
of the movie is a person of color, that's wild,
because I will say, sometimes people of color, when you're
a new director, you kind of have to play the
ball game to keep your job. Not a Ni Shamalin.

(41:39):
This dude is a storied director who loves hanging out
with Danny at comic Con, but like this, So it's
like if m Night Shamalan, he has that cloud where
he could have been like, no, they we all were
going to straight up China getting the kung fu p

(42:00):
in this and we rocking it. I don't know, I
don't know if he actually can do that all the time.
I think that's still uh. I mean yeah, I was
gonna say, PFC directors are still at the mercy of
studios that want white lead films. Uh. The only thing,
because we do have to move on, is I just
wanted to say, the only thing worse in this movie

(42:21):
is the critics that are trying to be clever in
They're brought in tomatoes things, and one of them said,
um from Amy Nicholson of I Weekly, I mean, God
bless you. But I was like, you're gonna credit Yeah, yeah, yeah,
this is what she said. Whatever call m Night Shamalan
a wood bender. This kiddie cast is a flattened stiff

(42:44):
as particle board. You're right to call that out. I'm sorry,
don't do that. Yeah, you need to do better. You
need to do better, ma'am. That reminds me of a
quote from Cinderella Story. It was like, great a beef. Well,
that cow must have cheated on its exam. Okay, moving
on to the Legend of Cora, because we have to

(43:06):
move on. I'm gonna be bad cop here. Please Kyle
give us the rundown on the Legend of Cora. Yes.
The Legend of Cora is the sort of sequel to
the Last Airbender, and it takes place about eighty years
after the events of the Last Airbender and um, it's
the next avatar, which is Cora. And so the implication

(43:26):
there is that Ang died and to die he you know,
he lived to be an old man, he had children. Uh,
and now there's a new avatar and it's this young,
awesome girl named Cora. And what's great about Cora is
that she's sort of an inverse of Ang. Ang you know,
was an air nomad, so he was very spiritual, and
he was very like carefree and you know, he had
he was very developed emotionally. Cora is a very like

(43:50):
cool tom boy, Like she is a master of the
physical elements of bending, but the spiritual side of being
the avatar, she just doesn't doesn't she doesn't doesn't really
get it. So that's a really cool like inverse of like,
you know, we saw Ang go through this journey of
being this gentle you know boy become this warrior, you know,
symbol of hope for the world, and then you have

(44:10):
this girl who's ready to be that He's she's ready
to be what Ang was at the end of her story.
But you know, she she can't because she can't, at
least at the start of her journey. She can't tap
into that she can't airbend. Specifically, in the first season,
she's having the hardest time airbending. She doesn't know how
she can do it. She doesn't understand it. It's not
her opposite element. She just doesn't have a spiritual side,

(44:31):
and air is the most spiritual element. So so, so
she is Ang's daughter. No, she is Ang's reincarnation. Oh yeah,
so yeah, we're gonna We're gonna have to. We're gonna
have to. Just so, when in the Avatar dies, they
reincarnate into a new being, into a new person, and

(44:55):
as I said, it goes into cycle. So the last
the last one was an airbender Ang, and so now
it's a waterbender Cora, who was from the Southern Water Tribe,
which is the same place Katara and Soccer from. Oh
so she is from the water tribe. But she's trying
to learn how to air bend. Yes, she's When you
meet Cora, she's already masked, pretty much mastered um water bending,
earth bending, and fire bending. Like she's she's she already

(45:16):
knows all the physical elements. You know, she's a badass.
She's really really good at like I said, the physical
elements of bending and fighting and whatnot. Um, but she
lacks the emotional intelligence and the spiritual intelligence that Ang
started out with. So when you say reincarnated, does does
this mean she doesn't have parents? No? No, she she

(45:39):
does have parents, She absolutely has parents, but her past
life she was Ang. And what's really cool is that
you you find out that she learned water bending from Katara.
So imagine imagine the emotional arc there of you know,
being Katara and being like, you know, ninety years old
and your husband dies and then you have to train
his reincardnated self in water bending, which is what you

(46:00):
did eighty years prior. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, I did
want to say that it aired April fourteen, and then
it looks like the final episode was December nineteenth, so
it was only actually out for two years. And well
the in the final two seasons aired in the same year.

(46:23):
Uh uh, And there was a there was a big
kerfuffle with Nickelodeon because Nickelodeon didn't think it was going
to do well. And then towards the end of the
fourth season they took it off the air and it
only aired digitally, but the numbers were so great that
they brought it back to air for the last three episodes.
I believe, uh, and it's it's it's amazing. As I

(46:44):
said earlier, you know, um, the Last Airbender is a
very self contained story about you know, taking down the
fire Lord in the fire Nation. But Cora is four
seasons of a very very different circumstances, and you know,
they always have to be like, well, who was the
better Avatar anger Cora, And like I'm biased because like
I'm a queer person and Cora is queer, so like
I'm gonna always gonna side with Cora. But my opinion

(47:05):
of why Cora is the more interesting Avatar is that
Cora had to go through four incredibly messed up situations.
You know, she had to fight a guy that you know,
there was a guy named Aman in the first season
who was leading an anti bender movement who was he
was basically like a cult leader and he had the
ability to take away people's bending with blood bending, you

(47:27):
found out later. But she had to fight that, which
was like there was an anti bending movement, Like there
was a whole group of people that thought that benders
and by extension, the Avatar were evil. You know, so
she had to face that. She had to face, you know,
a religious zealot she had to face. And the third
season probably one of my favorite seasons. Henry rawlins Um
is the villain and he plays an evil airbender because

(47:50):
through a series of events, airbenders start to re emerge
in the world and he's one of them. And he's
not the happy, go lucky, joyful monk that we met before.
He's an anarchist. It's the dark side of freedom, you know,
because air is the element of freedom. Air is the
element you know, it's Buddhism, it's detachment and whatnot. But
you could also incorporate it with being anarchy, with it

(48:11):
being about like you know, and season three is where
you actually see someone die on camera. Yeah, he straight
up chokes a woman to death with air bending. Yeah,
it's really amazing. What's interesting here is it seems like
also with Cora, Nick didn't really have faith in it.
Nick almost didn't want it to win. It feels like

(48:35):
I think Nick kind of saw it as a nuisance,
if I have to say so myself, Like I don't know,
like I just the fact that I don't know. I
didn't from a fan's perspective, like I didn't see like
the fervent support that it deserved, you know, like they
I don't know, especially with the fact that they took off,
you know, uh, season four off the air and then
you know, only re aired it after they saw the numbers.

(48:55):
You know, like it just kind of shows that, like
I mean, maybe maybe the content made them feel nervous.
I don't I'm not a hundred percent sure, Like I
don't know the whole story there, but like it definitely
does seem like Nickelodeon wasn't as supportive as they should
have been in that time. And someone who's just got
done reading up and research Nickelodeon twice, there's two things
you just said that might make me think that Nickelodeon

(49:17):
was a little shook. And I don't know, you can
tell me what you feel about this day. But it
is cool doing this after doing the Nickelodeon episode, because
it seems like they have a very like straightforward brand
that they're going for and don'tally fear outside of it,
whereas like Cartoon Network it went the opposite way with

(49:37):
creating stuff like two Nami Soon Come uh and Adult
Swim Soon Come Uh. You know, so so to see
like the two sides of it, and to see that
you still with that kind of almost strict point of view.
We still got like Adventure Time, you know, like it's
it's interesting. It's almost like the creators have to play

(49:58):
this weird mind trick with Nickelodeon to make because if
you if you ask me, like things like the regular
show was Cartoon Network, but things like also Adventure Time
as Cartoon Network too, well, that takes my whole point.
I'll say, as far as Nickelodeon is concerned, like, some
of the most memorable shows, in my opinion are the
ones that are really risked. Are the ones that take risks,

(50:21):
you know, like Invader Zim Um, you know Rocket. That
was another one where they had an issue with the creator. Ye,
that was another issue where he wanted to keep it dark.
Remember Hector was talking to but he wanted to keep
a lot of the more his individualistic and like adult
elements of that. He wanted his style in there, and
they said no, and he took it away, which sucks
because Invader zim was so good. But like, yeah, it

(50:43):
was another one where the creators were just like no,
I don't I don't want you, you know, kidding this
actually too. Yeah, walk back what I was saying just
before this. Looking at Nickelodeon's rosters, Cora is a standout,
Like I'm just gonna run down some of the stuff
they have just popped up. When you look at their roster,
you have SpongeBob, then they listed Avatar, thing got Loudhouse, Uh,

(51:07):
you got uh fairly odd parents, round Rats, Legend of Cora,
Teenage Mutant, Ninja Turtles, which is definitely leaning more on
the kid friendly side of things. Hey, Arnold, Danny, Phantom, Doug.
It does feel like the redheaded step child all these
shows completely. Yeah, it definitely does not fit. There's not

(51:29):
a single show on there that that is like it
at all. Yeah. I did want to talk again about
the martial arts that is in Legend of course, So
Chinese martial arts instructor seafood Ki Sue and consulted on
Avatar The Last Airbender and returned as a consultant for
the fight scenes in the Legend of Cora. Also m
m A fighters Jeremy Humphries and Mac dan Zig were

(51:49):
credited with providing a lot of the moves you'll see
in the Pro Bending Arena, and Steve Harada and Jake
Kung provided these stylized flips and acrobatics of Tricken to
the series fighting style, so that's pretty Yeah. They are.
One of the cool things that they introduced in Legend
of Cora is the idea of pro bending um uh,
and basically bending has become a multibillion dollar industry in that, like,

(52:14):
you know, you have people that are like bending to
try to like knock people out of rings and stuff,
and CoA really wants to be a probender and she's
learning how to bend in that specific style because you
find out that, like you know, pro pro earthbenders bend
differently than like how you would traditionally earthbend. They're much
more like shadow boxers than like, you know. That reminds

(52:36):
me of my hero Academia, which is so fascinating just
see like how many influences I feel like, because they
also have people that have special quirks and powers and
then they use them in pro arena situations. Speaking of influences,
a little trivia factoid for you, the character Piando that

(52:56):
appears in Avatar is actually dedicated kind of loosely based
off of Sea Fukisu. That's amazing. Yeah, that's that's Soccer's Master.
Oh yeah, there's there's a really great because Socca is
the only non bender and like the in Team Avatar
basically and um, he's kind of this the tactician, you know,
he he makes up for it in a lot of
other ways. But there's a really great episode where it's

(53:18):
called Soccer's Master, I believe, and I leieve it's in
the third season where he trains with a master swordsman
and that's Master Pian Dow. And it's this great moment
where you know, he they find out that their water
tribe and that they're traveling with the Avatar and they're
in the Fire Nation, and you think Master Pian Dow
is attacking him for that reason and as a great
moment where you find out, no, it's because he's testing
Soccer and um, the whole time he's fighting him, you know,

(53:39):
he'll be like, you know, you know, adjusting the terrain
to you know, combat your opponent. Excellent work sca, you know,
like while he's trying to kill him. Basically he's a
great character, Master Pian. Do wow feel like that that
wraps up a lot of it. I you don't. Here's
a fun place I think to kind of land for

(54:02):
for folks, if someone listening to this besides the beginning,
an episode that you think people should see shouldn't miss,
that would give them a great idea of the series
and why they would love it for both of them.
For for The Last Airbender, I would have to say
the episode for me would have to be The Blue Spirit.

(54:24):
That is an episode that really shows who Ang and
Zuko are and how they are. Zuko is kind of
a primary antagonist anti hero throughout the whole series, and
him and Ang have a very amazing relationship and the
way that they play off of each other. It really
does kind of bring into perspective like not only their
relationship with each other, but the relationship between nations and

(54:46):
about how the Fire Nation has completely changed the way
that they're viewed. Um with the world and everything, and
um it's it's a really beautiful episode. With the Legend
of Cora, I would have to say the episode. It's
hard to not pick an episode that's not in the
first season because I feel like that, you know, they
set them up in such cool ways. But for me,

(55:10):
I would say for Legend of Cora, I'm gonna have
to say that's hard. That's kind of hard because they're
also different. All of the seasons are so different. But
I will say I really dig the episode. I really
dig the finale of of season one. Um, there's a
there's a moment in it that, like, Cora happened at
a really integral part in my life. Um. And there

(55:32):
are several seasons of Cora that like hit me on
such deep emotional levels, to the point where I don't
necessarily know if I would be here, not necessarily like
in a dramatic I would be dead kind of way,
but like I don't know if I would still be
in Los Angeles if it hadn't been for that show,
and um, it had it was. It's then there's a
moment in season one where someone says to Cora, when
we hit our lowest point, we are open to the

(55:52):
greatest change. And that is like a spiritual unlocking moment
for Cora. And I want you to just say that
one more, no, like seriously, because I feel like there
could be someone listening that might need to hear that.
And that's just one of those banker quotes that I'd
like to hear twice. I have another one after that,
all right, Yeah, yeah, when we hit our lowest point,

(56:13):
we are open to the greatest change. And the other
quote that I want to bring out is from uncle
I wrote in season two of The Last Airbender, and
it's in our darkest of times. Hope is something you
give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength. I
have one as well. If this is our section, Fate

(56:34):
rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing. Wow,
who said that Optimus Price? Yes, I did want to
say yeah, not given anything away. But we did talk
about in our if you haven't listened to our l
g B t Q or a queer representation in nerd
and nerd Um. That was episode right before this one.

(56:56):
We talked a little bit about the queer characters and
legend of where So if you want to revisit that,
because that that is important. Just a quick thing here,
because I think a couple of fans were I think
we touched on this, but a couple of fans were
upset that these two characters didn't kiss, and it said
um having to do with Nickelodeon, I guess was the
main reason why. I will say it. For what they

(57:19):
did do though, was like they I don't think a
kiss was necessary. I'll go on record and say that
what happened was I do believe that there could have
been a few more hints in season four that what
was going on was going on, But when it did
become apparent, I almost felt like, oh, yeah, that's kind
of none of my business. Like I kind of had
this moment. We're like, I kind of don't care. It's
kind of their business, right, And then it was just

(57:41):
a beautiful moment in general. Yeah, yeah, I think that's
uh iffy. How are you feeling I'm feeling good. It
was so great having you on Cole. Thank you so much.
Is there anything you want to plug? Yeah, I'm going
to have a series on Missinimous Happy our channel that's
going to be a weekly ending aided series called patch
Notes that's kind of a parody of the Jeff Kaplan

(58:03):
Overwatch updates, and it's gonna be animated and it's gonna
be weird and it's gonna be fun, and um, they're
gonna start weekly October. All right, Danny, how about you, dude?
I am going to be at New York Comic Con.
Come check out my panel October five. I don't know
if I'm allowed to announce it, but that um I
will I don't know. Follow me on Twitter please at
miss Danny Fernandez. I know that I said about memes.

(58:26):
You can tweet them at me. Please don't privately damn me.
The meme band is over, Ny, it's for me. You
know it's your boy. If you wid Way on Twitter,
if you wid Way also on Instagram, if he's on Twitch,
if you want to come hang. Lots of the hashtag
NERD fan coming through dropping those Twitch prime stubs want.
First off, foremost, thank you so much. I love you

(58:49):
so much. Second off, second most, you got to re
up them every month. They don't automatically do it. I
know I said I do reminder every now and then
I changed my mind. I'm doing it every episode. Uh
uh and yeah, if you're in d C. I will
be in d C the last weekend of this month
with white Women for the DC impro Fesso buckle up,

(59:10):
we'll be there. Uh. And when you're if some of
y'all in Chicago at the Chicago Podcast Fest seeing the
Daily Zeit guys and Culture Kings Live asked them where
nerdificent at. That's that's all you need that That's what
I just walk if they have an open q A,
just walk up to the mine and be like, where
nerdificent at? Uh? And record of my doing it and

(59:31):
we'll see. Uh. But I'm gonna in this episode with
two quotes. My first one that I end every episode with,
Stay nerdy everyone, And the second one, power comes in
response to a need, not a desire. You have to
create that need. That was a quote from Goku. Thank

(59:53):
you everybody. Are you sure? Is that one of those
like Comic book Report whatever things are They like, look,
you know what, it's nerd To me, it's really good,
damn it. Stay nerdy

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Dani Fernandez

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