Legend of Korra Review: Book 2 Episode 10: "A New Spiritual Age"

I loved getting to see the spirit world in this episode. It seemed so different from what we saw in the first series, which I'm pretty sure is just because we saw more of it. I really love how Korra is showing us more of the world's history than Last Airbender did. It's fun.

I may or may not have actually screamed out loud when Iroh appeared. There was a lot of gaping at the screen, jumping up and down, and just general freaking out. I mean, I've been going on and on for weeks about how badly I wanted to see Zuko's family, and I was starting to lose all hope of that happening any time soon. Then, the relative that I'm expecting to see the absolutely least (okay maybe more than like Ozai but still not expecting at all) shows up out of nowhere! I wanted to see Zuko's living family so badly, but I never stopped to think that we'd see Iroh in the spirit world. I'm so unbelievably happy. I love Iroh so much, and I obviously never expected to see him in this series. It was the most amazing surprise. (I still want to see Zuko's other family though. Korra really needs to make another trip to the Fire Nation soon.)

Seeing Korra as a little kids was adorable. I loved everything that symbolized and how it showed her growth over the episode. That was done fantastically. So was Iroh showing Korra that the spirits weren't really scary and that she needs to look for the light in things. I never expected to get Iroh's wisdom in Korra, and it was the greatest surprise ever. I just loved how this entire episode was done, especially how the spirit world and the spirits were portrayed.

The animation for this episode, by the way, was amazing as well. I had to throw that in here somewhere.

Jinora is wonderful. I love getting to see more of her character, and the more we see of her, the more I grow to love her character. I tend to love bookish (or Ravenclaw-like characters is how I typically think of them in my mind) characters. Mostly because I feel like I connect with them. I wouldn't consider myself spiritual like Jinora (of course I don't live in the Avatar world where I could see invisible spirits floating around), but I just love her personality.

Getting to see Wan Shi Tong again was interesting. We knew he'd be showing up ahead of time, of course, and I think everyone was curious to see what would happen there. I thought it was a bit odd that he let Jinora in relatively easily after what happened during the original series, but I kind of pushed that thought into the back of my mind until we learned the truth.

I'm both surprised and not surprised that Wan Shi Tong was working with Unalaq. On the one hand, he seems to despise humans, so working against humans doesn't surprise me about him. At the same time, I'm surprised he's helping Unalaq for the same reasons. I don't know who he feels he can trust Unalaq when he seems so distrustful of every other human. I'm wondering if Wan Shi Tong will even show up again though, or if he was just in this episode.

Jinora getting taken captive was very shocking to me. I wonder how long she'll be kidnapped. I'm almost positive that she'll make it back relatively unhurt, but I'm still worried about her. Also, her spirit "friend" took her, but I don't fully understand if he just randomly took her somewhere or if Unalaq will actually take her from the spirit and have her. Either way it's intense. I'm hoping she gets away sooner rather than later. The worst part is that Korra opened the other portal hoping to save Jinora, but Jinora's still gone and now the portal's open. Big problems there.

The very end of the episode was heartbreaking. It was so hard to watch Tenzin realize what had happened to his daughter, and Korra looked so heartbroken as well. Tenzin is one of my favorite characters, and part of that comes from how he often seems to try and disguise his emotion but it's very clear that he cares so, so much for his family. I'm really liking the development of the entire Kataang family's relationships this season, whether it's Aang and Katara's kids, Tenzin's kids, or Tenzin and his kids. I just really loved every time their relationships get developed in some way. Still, it was horrible for that to happen this way. That may have been the most heartbreaking seen of the show so far in my opinion.

We get two episodes next week which is exciting, but I'm sure they'll also be extremely intense. I can't believe we only have two weeks (or four episodes) left of this season. I'm looking at the short "summaries" of the coming episodes now, and it looks like next week we get one episode that's about what's happening in Republic City (which we didn't get this week) and then one that goes back to focus on Korra. I just hope someone has gotten around to believing Mako and helps him. Let's hope both episodes are as good as I expect them to be.

Snow, Allergies, and Finals

When my allergies are at their worst, it seems impossible to get through a Monday without a terrible headache. Sure enough, that's a problem today. I keep hoping and hoping that I'll wake up one day and my allergies will be better than they were the day before. It hasn't happened yet.

We're supposed to get snow tonight, and I can't say I'm thrilled about that. I love how pretty snow is, but I despise actually having to deal with it. I'm hoping that it'll start once I don't have to be out in it, and it will melt before I have to go out in it tomorrow morning.

Other than that, it's more or less a typical Monday. Because Thanksgiving is so late this year, it doesn't feel as late in the semester as it actually is. Basically, we'll have Thanksgiving break, come back just for finals, and then be on winter break. That means that all the final projects are starting/have started and things are getting busy. I'm not too stressed out yet, and I'm hoping Thanksgiving break falling where it does will make things less stressful than more. We'll see.

Leftover Nerves

This week has been a bit strange now that I stop to think about it. I just say that because the first half of the week seemed to go by at a normal pace, but now that it's Friday, it doesn't feel like Friday. I'm not going to complain though. I'm perfectly willing to take a weekend.

I spent yesterday evening being a bit of a bundle of nerves, and I'm still feeling the leftovers of that this morning. It's one of those things where I get nervous about one thing (far more than I should) and then it spreads to other things that I typically wouldn't be nervous about. It'll wear off sometime today I'm sure and everything will be fine.

I interviewed Ji last night (that's not what I was nervous about), and it was awesome getting to talk to her over Skype. Now I have to start writing the paper on the interview though. I'm hoping it won't be that difficult of a paper to get through.

Class starts in less than half an hour, so I need to go get ready and whatnot. Hopefully this turns out to be a pretty relaxing Friday and my nerves stop bothering me.

An Awesome But Tiring Day

Today has been quite the long day. I woke up feeling like I'd gotten no sleep at all even though I'd actually gotten just as much as I typically do. I think this had a lot to do with my allergies as they were particularly bad today. Whatever the case, I also wound up with a massive headache, and getting through today has been somewhat challenging.

It's really a pain because both of my classes today were pretty great. In one we talked about John Green books and nerdfighters, and in the other, all we did was discuss The Hunger Games. (And that Hunger Games discussion got pretty heated. More heated than any other discussion we've had this semester.) (I just wish I could have experienced those awesome conversations without a pounding headache during them.

I still have to email one of my friends tonight for a paper I'm writing for one of my classes. We've been planning it for a long time, so I'm excited to finally get that out of the way so that I can also get the actual paper out of the way. I'm hoping Skype will cooperate for the interview since it freezes all the time. (We can't talk in person thanks to there being about four hours in between us at the moment.)

I'm ready to go to bed and get some sleep. Unfortunately, some work still needs to be done before that happens. Hopefully, I can stay awake long enough to get everything done.

Book Review: 4 to 16 Characters by Kelly Hourihan

ISBN: 9780989741101
Published: November 7th, 2013
Publisher: Lemon Sherbet Press
Read from September 4th to 20th, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Fifteen-year-old Jane Shilling’s best friends don’t know her real name. In fact, they don’t know anything about her at all. Jane’s life has collapsed in the last few years; following the death of her mother, her father turned to drinking, and Jane is reeling from the double blow. To escape, Jane devises a number of online personas, each with a distinct personality, life history, and set of friends. But things become trickier when she finds herself drawing close to some of her online friends, and winds up struggling with the question of how to maintain a real friendship while masquerading as a fake person. With the help of Gary, a socially awkward classmate and competitive Skeeball player who is Jane’s only offline friend, and Nora, her therapist, Jane begins to sift through her issues. The only catch is that that involves taking a long, hard look at what her life’s like when the computer is shut off, and that’s a reality she’s been fighting for years.

Review:

I really had no idea what I was getting into when I started this book. I was looking for something to read on Netgalley, and it caught my eye primarily because of the fact that it is about a girl who spends a lot of time online. I'm always interested in books that try to portray Internet culture because it can be done brilliantly or horribly. I wasn't expecting just how deeply this book would also delve into mental illness.

I cannot stress how much I loved this book. It was one of my favorite reads this year. The book is told entirely through what Jane is doing online. That means emails, chat logs, posts on a diary site that will remind many people of Livejournal, and posts on a website that had to be inspired by Tumblr. This means that each section is relatively short, and there are no chapters of any kind. These kinds of books are always hit or miss with me because it can be difficult to get emotion across when writing in that way, but believe me when I say that the emotion gets across in this book. I cried multiple times while reading. It kind of made me an emotional mess.

Jane is such a relatable character to me. There are a lot of people who would read this book and not connect with her, but I do in so many ways. She's very involved in Internet culture and fandom, just like I have been since I was a preteen. Jane is struggling with depression to though, and while I have never been through what she goes through, I know all about using the Internet as a way to escape from the "real world," especially when it comes to my struggle with social anxiety. I've never created alternate identities like Jane, but I still understood her motivation perfectly and completely got it.

Anyone who spends a significant amount of time on the Internet or struggles with depression or other mental illnesses will be able to relate to Jane in this book. To anyone that doesn't fit one (or both) of those two things, I think this book is a good way to kind of help people understand what it's like to be so involved on the Internet and what it's like to struggle with depression and use the Internet as a coping mechanism. I could see the book setting the stereotype that the Internet is a way for people to mask their problems and that everyone involved in fandom is like that, but I don't see it like that at all. Not everyone involved in fandom is mentally ill, but many people do use fandom as an escape in at least some capacity. Jane serves as a somewhat exaggerated example of that. However, so many teens struggle with depression and other mental illnesses, so it is wonderful to have books that address that in a realistic and relatable way. I have no doubt that many, many people could relate to Jane and her situation.

This is one of those books that I just want to give to everyone. Not only is it a book that I emotionally connected to, but it's a great book to get people around you to understand what you spend all your time on the Internet doing. I highly recommend this one. I really do.

Note: I received this book for free through Netgalley for review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.