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Slightlyembittered - Blog Posts
The Final evolution of my Avatar Sub-Elements/ Sub-Bending Chart. (hopefully)
Just finished version 3.0 of my Avatar Sub-Element chart. It's come a long way since version 1.
This is the finalized version(s) of my bending chart. I overhauled the whole thing and updated some of the symbols. I’m pretty satisfied with it, though I may change the symbol for “Ice” in the future.
My old design:
Which one is your favorite design?
Fairies and Conspiracy Theories
For a high school art project I made architecturally sound fairy house. It was big, it was beautiful, and I was very proud of it. Eventually, my mom convinced me to make a Fairy House Kit because so many people liked it, and I sold them for a while at fairs and stuff.
However, I would occasionally have Adults customers come up and ask me, "Do you believe in Fairies." Now, whether Fairies exist or don't exist is something I really don't care about. I made the fairy house because I thought is was cool and beautiful, not because I believed in fairies. Hence, whenever someone asked, "do you believe in Fairies," It would get really.... Awkward. I have a similar reaction to conspiracy theories. I couldn't care less about them, so talking to people who are really invested is really..... Awkward. Now there are plenty of things wrong with conspiracy theories. They have little to no evidence. Most of them revolve around speculative reasoning. And they generally involve some power trying to suppress the "Truth". But in reality, people really just don't care.
Flat Earther: "The Governments don't want you to know the world is flat." Me: "And why would anyone care about that?"
Respect in Theater and Science.
When theater people or stunt people critique a film, play, or movie, they are often much more kind and forgiving. This is because they understand the difficulty that goes into making the piece. When they are critical, It is very well informed and focuses on specific points. (More than just, “It was terrible.”)
A similar amount of respect exists among scientists. The essence of Science is to better understand the world, and we do that through evidence and experimentation. Science is always learning new things and so is always growing. Hence, no matter how smart you think you are, you can always learn more.
This creates a sense of respect among scientists, because no matter how right you think you are, there is a better answer out there. Hence, discussion and debate are encouraged, not a single dogma.
The Science of the Elements
In the episode "Bitter Work" of “Avatar: the Last Airbender” Uncle Iroh teaches Zuko about the four elements and their individual aspects. Fire is the Element of Power. Earth is the Element of Substance. Air is the Element of Freedom. And Water is the Element of Change. These aspects of the four elements are more spiritual in nature, but could they also be scientific? So what is Power, Substance, Change and Freedom on a scientific level? Fire Fire is the Element of energy. Fire Benders use the energy of the sun and their own chi to produce Fire Bending. Both Lighting and Fire are forms of energy. Earth Earth is the Element of Mass/Matter. Earth is the element of substance, and the basis of all substance is mass. Air Air is the Element of Motion. Wind is movement of air from high pressure to a low pressure. Wind is discerned by it's movement. Water Water is the Element of Physical and Chemical change. Water changes form very easily, and is used for innumerable chemical changes.
I’m a big fan of the game SKY: Children of Light. In the game, there are different seasons where spirits come and bring new stuff. This is my idea for a season.
I’ve long wanted to make a fusion of the three legendary beasts (Raikou, Entei, & Suicune) which I refer to as “the fourth beast”. He is heavily inspired by the mythical “Pixiu” from China. The Pixiu is a god of wealth, which goes nicely with Pokemon “Gold” and “Silver”.
As you can see I used elements from each of the three beast:
Raikou: I kept much of Raikou’s face along with his stripes.
Entei: I kept Entei’s cheeks and repurposed with back spikes into the wings of a Pixiu.
Suicune: I repurposed Suicune’s horns to resemble that of an Chinese dragon. Suicune’s spots combine with Raikou’s stripes to form rosettes. And lastly, Suicune’s ribbon tail gets turned into long Chinese dragon whiskers. (Which isn’t shown here)
(Ironically, every time I look at the drawing on the far right, I think of a water dragon.)
“The fourth beast” represents the steam from the Burned tower as the fire went out. Thus his typing is Fire/Water. On his back is a cumulus cloud for fair weather, but it can easily grow into a cumulonimbus.
