Why? Because Nickelodeon doesn't care either. They didn't show commercials for new episodes- only showing one commercial after a new episode aired- they leaked new episodes onto the Internet or aired multiple new episodes in other countries before the U.S. on multiple occasions. We receive no new word, the overall quality has been on an emotional rollercoaster of disappointment, and Nickelodeon spends all its time advertising for formerly popular and good shows that jumped the shark.

Even the abominable site ruins the show with the horrible loading and uninformative schedule- for about a year now I haven't been able to see TV shows.

I can't bring myself to debate on forums or be interested, Avatar and Nickelodeon has ruined the show and because of that, I don't feel interested in visiting TV.com anymore.

I don't plan on leaving forever, but I wanted to let you know I won't visit often.

Hi again, its me, and I had another incident on Distant Horizon. First I met a delightful person at Distant Horizon named wyrmking- very insulting and rude. As you probably know, I have a history of bashing Katara- something I have tried to overcome. But that doesn't mean I won't comment on her when I talk about an episode. Like "The Runaway" which was about Toph and Katara, I can't help it if I comment about Katara when the episode mostly concerns her and delves into her character. Yet when I talked about her, wyrmking comes along, calls me biased and that my opinion doesn't count!

Yes, you can't see the conversation so what I say is probably biased but the gist of the conversation is me being treated like c**** for not liking Katara. I wasn't being completely unreasonable... I admitted that I liked Katara in "The Puppetmaster" an episode which I adore, yet I despise her in "The Runaway" because it was such a poorly handled episode (not a surprise). But wyrmking disregards that and treats me like a mentally handicapped juvenile delinquent!

And it's not just wyrmking. Remember BardChild, I met that b**** because I was ranting about Katara (ranting not commenting) back when I had no control over my temper and I went into random, endless, and violent rants about my hatred for Katara. I cooled (eventually) and stopped going into random rants unless I was talking about an episode in which Katara was largely featured.

So what, I can't even comment on her when I didn't like her without someone coming along and biting my head off. No one would bother me if I talked about Azula, Mai, Zuko, or even Toph like that; only Katara. Why? Because she is meant to be so great and nice, so if I talk badly about her, I get my head bitten off! No seriously, I see people talk negatively about character but no one verbally assualts them. I guess its my c***** karma.

Even though I don't like Katara I don't have a one sided view of her... okay, my dislike largely omits myself from admitting positive aspects of her character but truly, now the reason I don't like Katara is because the episodes that largely feature her character are really bad: "The Awakening" just plain confusing with her there and the episode itself was handled terribly, "The Painted Lady"... really bad mild fan service which did not contribute to the plot, "The Runaway" ruined my hopes for a Katara and Toph fight and just made me feel ill. Other episodes such as "The Headband" where Katara was jealous made me smile since she wasn't kicking butt for teenage girls and was just a teenage girl herself, she didn't have to be a hero; "The Puppetmaster" is my favorite third season episode and Katara only made it better with her relationship with Hama- freaky episode- I actually pitied Katara in the end whereas if this was a bad animation episode I would merely roll my eyes because undoubtedly the episode would have been handled so badly that I wouldn't feel bad for Katara at all. The fact that she plays such a big role in all of the bad episodes leads me to comment on her, that can't be helped. Other episodes such as "The Headband" she had a relatively minor role but was also featured yet she didn't annoy me.

I wouldn't meet such- jerky people here. When someone mean and rude comes along, they can be removed swiftly if enough people complain, not at Distant Horizon. Jerks flourish. I know I sound biased (just like wyrmking said) but if you've been there you'll understand how easy it is to be verbally attacked. I merely state my opinion about episodes and people have to analyze each word and (rudely) rebutt my statement as if we're having a debate.

I suppose I somewhat deserve all the rebutting comments given how blunt I am with my comments about episodes, but its not fair to take every word so seriously and then lash out at someone for actually having an opinion.

"Katara was really annoying this episode. Fan service galore."

"You're biased and so your opinion doesn't count."

I may just abandon Distant Horizon. I get too obsessed with Avatar to the point where I annoy my parents (and they pretty much tell me so); the rude people there are just not worth it. I may visit every once in a while since I like Avatar so much but I don't plan on sticking around long.

Actually, I probably won't return there since I ended a conversation with wyrmking rather angrily so I probably will get in trouble there. But it is for the best, I will miss conversations there since Distant Horizon is so organized (and not full of newbies- ahem) but TV.com is somehow much more friendly and not full of crazy jerks.

Alright, I made a topic questioning the characters' lack of reaction to Toph's metalbending and I mentioned that any sort of response to this was probably in the "stupid comics". The first person to comment was a high ranking user who said:

Unifying Force: I stopped caring about anything you thought when I read "stupid comics".

What's up with that?! It wasn't like I was ranting about Katara and deserved a rude comment, I have only made a FEW remarks about my frustration with the Avatar comics, but isn't that frustration justified?

And here's yet another gem I found:

wyrmking: firework, what the hell is wrong with you?! Katara was NOT poisoning Appa!!! She just fed him berries that made his tongue purple!! If it was poison Toph wouldn't have ate some either!!!

I said that Katara poisoned Appa so she could help the FN village; Appa was lying on his side and was breathing heavily, even if he wasn't technically poisoned, Katara still could have endangered Appa's life with that stunt of her's.

Distant Horizon people can be seriously mean, remember :evil:Bard Child:evil:- though I think she's been demoted to a regular member. Finally, justice!

This little incident isn't as big or nearly as emotionally scarring as the incident with Bard Child, but I sense a repeat.

I might just stay with TV.com for a while; Distant Horizon may be more organized, have more threads, and look better, but the users here are usually nicer, and by usually, I mean all the time. Seriously, the crazy fans hang out there and one of them made me cry and suspended me from the Character thread for a week.

Alright, I am calm... now I can explain why the first episode of season three disappointed me so... it was too much of a good thing. We had all this epic, emotional stuff going on but all of it could only happen in 22 minutes, we had Aang, Zuko, and Katara who all needed to develop and yet only Katara could really sort out her emotions in the end in a reasonable manner.

Characters:

Aang: Aang was being angsty for good reasons yet I couldn't really care, I understand why he's sad, but he only spends a few moments of being truly sad after we know why he's so upset before he runs away, then he's upset again, then he's alright... He was frustrated he couldn't fight and- I just didn't feel very sympathetic for him, which is sad since Aang is the hero and we should be able to sympathize with him.

And his hair looked bad and it was black, it's supposed to be deep brown.

Katara: She was probably the most emotional. She was mad with her father for seemingly no reason at first yet later she admitted her confused feelings and could overcome them, she was supportive and protective of Aang, and she was worried about everything. Yet she appears almost bipolar with her short appearances. Thankfully, we witness Katara confess her problems and overcome them in a reasonable manner. I still feel cheated. I was so... happy when Katara was crying because of her father, because she got her chance to be relatable and realistic. Way to go Katara!

Sokka: He didn't do much, he was unnaturally optimistic and didn't understand Aang's feelings (not that he ever really does but still). Sokka certainly did more in this episode than usual in previous episodes, but his presence was still lacking in favor of Aang, Katara, and Zuko. Sokka had better become more important because the only non-bender to the main cast deserves it.

Toph: Not surprisingly, Toph is once again comic relief, muscle, and part of the background. That is all.

Zuko: WTF! ZUKO AND MAI ARE ALREADY TOGETHER, no explanation at all! But as it turns out, their relationship does develop… in the comic included in the Avatar issue of Nick magazine; Zuko and Mai apparently had a MUTUAL childhood crush... dear goodness, they don't have to develop their relationship in the show at all, it was already done in the unseen childhood and comic book... this is disgusting. Not Maizu, I don't mind their relationship, but in how their relationship is treated; no need for them to struggle or anything, they already like each other so they'll be fine apparently.

When Zuko reunited with his father I felt absolutely no tension at all. Two seasons of doubt and pain dropped dead in this one minute reunion... I felt so cheated. We already know why Zuko is so nervous and concerned with meeting his father, but a brief reprieve would have been nice especially since we haven't seen any Avatar episodes for about 10 ½ months; but with the one liners of Zuko saying how nervous he is only to be greeted by jokes or answers that have nothing to do with him, you don't feel any tension or apprehension.

Nothing happened between father and son, Zuko has no reaction to his father, only towards his sister. Zuko doesn't react, nor does Ozai, it's just an exchange of words, maybe this can be expected from Ozai, but Zuko has spent three years and two seasons obsessing with pleasing his father but he doesn't seem to care… at all.

Azula: Awesome! Her role was unfairly small yet she still managed to be a manipulative b****, BRAVO! She looked strange without makeup and her hair in a ponytail, but her plain appearance was more attractive than her normal one. I'm glad with how Azula turned out; I just wish she had a little more time. I confess... I actually believed for a moment that she really wanted to help Zuko, I know, I was stupid, but I really wanted to believe in her. Nonetheless, her plot is so subtle and simple; I love how she can so easily make Zuko crazy and control him so simply.

Ozai: …I don't know what to say… he certainly didn't seem to be the same guy that appeared as only a mouth, nose, and body; he actually praised Zuko and welcomed him back… There was no real explanation; Ozai didn't really admit how proud he was of Zuko… This was a horrible reunion since it wasn't heartfelt on Zuko's part and was OOC on Ozai's.

His face suddenly popping into view hurt me. There was no tension leading to this, I expected some gruff leader trying to find the right words to thank his son with, but he was instead an almost loving father… WTF!

Mai: Weird... not much else; I have to admit, despite her romance with Zuko, she did remain in character for which I am glad.

Duke and Pipsqueak: Duke and Pipsqueak's sudden appearance was weird; no inquiry was made of what neither happened to the Freedom Fighters nor was any mention made of Jet. This could have been a great reunion especially since Aang and Pipsqueak seemed to have become good friends, but they only have a few lines and do nothing else aside from help Toph shoot rocks. This should have been heartfelt and sweet but it's glossed over.

Hakoda and Bato: Hakoda was okay but he never sounded too emotional. Bato did nothing... which doesn't seem right since an episode was once named for him.

Plot:

The GIANT, GAPING loophole consisting of Zuko being forgiven and thanked by his father for killing Aang despite the enormous effort placed into trying to capture Aang alive. But this is never mentioned at all. This only happened so Zuko can scheme to kill Aang.

A really random fight takes place for a random reason to show off Katara and Toph's bending... a lot of time that could have been spent developing characters.

The Earth King didn't stick with the gang like we thought, he just dressed up as a commoner, ditched Bosco's clothes, and left to see the world. How CAN he? He's lived in the palace his entire life and now he's going to see the world with his one of a kind pet bear as a ride and companion. They're both going to die.

Yue suddenly pops up in a manner reminiscent of an unneeded Deus Ex Machina to do some super Waterbending which wasn't really needed; what was the point? Avatar Roku also pops in for some supposed words of wisdom… kind of makes you wonder why he hasn't just popped into Aang's eyesight before instead of dragging his spirit out of his body.

Apparently, all Aang has to do is wear something over his arrow to disguise himself one again. You'd think that his friends would be more careful now that Aang's identity is even more precious but since the Avatar people are visually handicapped like the Pokemon people, Aang should be fine. I bet he could wear a shirt that said "I am not the Avatar" and he could stroll into the FN capitol.

Aang immediately reunites with the gaang... so running away was rather pointless because they find him the next day and everything is hunky-dory.

And let's not forget all of the really important stuff that happens in the comic not the show: Maizu actually happening, the Earth King deciding to remain with his beloved Bosco, and the gaang finding Hakoda. Why couldn't we have seen this as an episode?

*Sigh* so, this episode was very epic, but it was all crammed into 22 minutes. This could have been a TV movie, in fact, it should have been, we waited 10 ½ months without even the old Avatar episodes to pass the time. This episode had enough emotional turmoil to be longer and it certainly deserved more time to flesh out all of the characters. So, the episode is pretty cool, but I'm still annoyed in how rushed it is.

I'm trying to to change the size of an avatar for deviantart. It needs to be a 50x50 px PNG, JPEG or GIF image that is smaller than 15 KB. Please help me. I constantly run into this problem and need to learn how to change the size of ana avatar on my own. Thanks.

Today, I have gotten my braces removed. YES!!!

I'm so happy.

Not to brag, but my smile looks awesome now. And my teeth look so big without the braces on.

I got a yellow and purple balloon and a bag of candy from the orthodontist to celebrate my metal free teeth.

Best of all, I don't have white spots on my teeth, which are permanent.

Bad news, I must now wear a retainer for an entire year so my teeth won't shift, and if I don't wear it as much as I should, I'll have to get braces again to fix my teeth. And if I go an antire year with the retainer, I have to wear it at night.

But that's okay. I'm so happy I can't stop smiling, which is surprising since I realy don't smile that often.

I visited my brother's sister and her kids in Sacramento. We took a plane from Phoenix to San Diego then another to Sacramento. The second plane was a puddlehopper and my dad is a big, tall guy and even when he hunched over his shoulders touched the ceiling. We got a Minivan with leather interior and drove to our rather fancy hotel near my Aunt's place.

My cousin Roxanne is moving out from her mom's and in with her husband. My Aunt got so depressed that her landlord let her get a dog to cheer her up. The dog comes from the same parents as the one that my cousin got her dog, so my Aunt's dog and Cousin's dog are sisters.

The dog is a four week old weiner dog and is adorable. She's black and brown and still struggles to walk. When we sat on the ground and she was set down to walk, she would always seek out the nearest lap, climb in, and go to sleep.

We debated on a name. My cousin Joshua wanted a Greek name but no names offered were good enough. I suggested Chibi which is Japanese for "little" and that was popular. Roxanne asked for "bear" which is Kuma since the puppy has large paws like a bear. So now, the puppy is Kuma-chan, though Joshua insists to call her Chibi. This will make problems for Kuma as her "parents" are my cousins Jeremy and Joshua who are identical twins. Joshua calls her Chibi and everyone else calls her Kuma, so that's going to confuse Kuma-chan.

Cali, the older sister, got jealous and snipped at Kuma but she's harmless and didn't like Mike, my cousin's husband, paying attention to Kuma.

My Aunt told me how Jeremy thought how much I changed, became more open and expressive, which is nice. Jeremy is the more determined and reasonable one of the twins whereas Joshua argues about EVERYTHING and isn't very concerned with much. But they're both in love with Kuma and dote her. I'm just worried they might crush her as they're both tall and fit enough to qualify for basketball, football, and track. Lucky them, and they're A students.

I witnessed "The Closer" and fell in love with it. Best cop drama (or whatever) ever.

Sacramento was as hot as Phoenix if possible which sucked since we hoped to escape the heat. Also, drivers are kinda crazy there. It's common to make U-Turns despite the signs saying no. Sure, this can happen anywhere, but we watched as car after car made illegal U-Turns.

We ate at Joe's Crab Shack which was superb. They had sea novelty toys hanging from the cieling: a plastic shark and a toy jeep for kids. The waiters and waitresses had to dance every once in a while which was pretty cool. It reminded me of Ed Debevic's.

I bought the book finished by J.R.R. Tolkein's son for my dad and my mom and aunt bought LOTR board games for him for Father's Day.

I got to buy a book criticizing George W. Bush. I was amazed with his speech in the books which was... childish.

I wasn't very happy on the trip since the trip cost me getting my BRACES REMOVED! Meaning I must now wait another month to get my braces off.

But we visited them since my Aunt Sue and her family always drive from Sacramento to Phoenix to visit us, so we owed her. And it was still fun.

Well, it wasn't great, but overall it did have some value...

My brother and I watched the second season of Avatar volume two; I noticed how many times the characters say "it" or simply never say what they're talking about. Again, we got lost on the way to the Asylum Hotel Restaurant on the very top of Jerome. They didn't have anything I liked and the food I did get was pretty chewy. My little brother brought his large Pikachu doll and plastic sword into the restaurant. I did get a 5 layer chocolate cake with one candle.

We then went to the Jerome Museum where we watched a video about how often Jerome liked to catch fire- seriously, every building must have caught fire at least once. The museum was dedicated to rocks and my little brother bought some "genuine" gold in a bottle even though the gold looked and moved like gold candy wrapper.

Then we all went to Dead Horse Ranch, but not before my mom had to look at a bag store, she's obsessed. The park was beautiful but oddly empty of tourists. I kept on hissing like a snake and scared my brother. We walked around the large ponds where people were fishing.

Then we went to Walmart where they didn't have anything we were looking for- big surprise. When we got to Metro Center Mall -surprise- it was closed and my mom and I couldn't get our much needed back massages.

When we got home, I discovered that my bike was stolen (possibly days ago). But it's okay, because both tires were flat and could never stay filled, it was a mountain bike and I don't ride in the mountains, and I hardly ever ride my bike- the last time might have been last year or even longer ago. But the fact that I was robbed again just made me break down with all the built up emotions.

My mom -again- talked to me about how I should chant to the Gohonzon. I know I should and that chanting does help, but everytime my parents try to cheer me up they come to our religion, Buddhism, and it sounds like they're trying to convert me. But I chanted again and I did feel better. Unfortunately, both my parents suck with making friends especially my mom and so I'm scr*wed already with making friends. But I'm not a social person anyway.

I just wonder why people flake out when it's someone's birthday, or maybe it's just me and my family's lame karma. 

So, yeah, not great, not bad, but I spent it with my family without having to force friends together. So now I'm 15, which means more teenage angst. Yeah! 

Tomorrow will be the 15th year of me living. And to celebrate this occasion, my family and two best friends (and only friends) were going to drive up to Jerome, Arizona; it's an artisan/mining town located really high on this small mountain top.

Only, my best friends' mother won't let them come because they neglected to do their chores (their sisters). So I'm going to celebrate my 15th birthday with only my family.

Today, my parents asked me if I wanted to see a movie (to make up for my friends not being able to come), at first I said no because I know that all the movies out now are unpopular thanks to Rotten Tomatos; but a few minutes later when I suggested going to see a movie anyway, my dad said "sorry, but it's too expensive." Alright, 30 bucks is expensive, but don't try and bring my hopes up and then crush them when I decide that I actually may want to go see a movie to cheer myself up for my friends not being able to attend my birthday.

My family always does this. We can never plan any event so we end up either not going or if we do go, we can't do anything we weanted to do there.

I asked my dad to buy some chocolate at the store and he ends up not getting it because it wasn't there, but he got me an orchid which now I have to take care of since my mom didn't like it. 

My parents are going to buy the Hayao Miyazaki DVD Box Collection, and that's it. It's expensive so that will be my only present. I didn't just want the DVD's for myself, my entire family loves his movies, but no, only the DVD's. I might have gotten two books but my mom can't find them.

I certainly don't have the worst situation in my hands, but this always happens. My parents actually went to Circus Circus at Las Vegas for my... something previous birthday, only that ended up badly as my dad's too big to go on any of the rides, my mom's a wimp, and my brother's a brat. Also, the hotel sucked.

This year, I just decided for a small event as it's uncomfortable to have your school friends, neighborhood friends, religion friends and other friends all packed together just for you. But now, no one besides my family will be here. This happened last year too, only one person out of the five from my school came to my birthday party (as well as my two best friends and another friend who doesn't like me for some reason) and none of them had good excuses. At least I know for certain my two friends aren't lying because their mother's strictness has prevented them from doing things before and my mom talked to theirs.

We were going to stay overnight in Jerome, but because my family will visit my dad's niece in California, we actually won't be staying overnight. My mom is practically blaming me for going to California because "I" wanted to visit my family. This is untrue, SHE is the one who wouldn't shut up about how we should visit them.

So yeah, happy birthday. 

:| 

The plot has been pointed out to be a mish-mash of other popular stories.

Plot and Character Roles: Star Wars by George Lucas

Magic System and Magic Rules: Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin

Setting, Names and Races: Lord of the Rings and other works by J.R.R. Tolkien

Dragon Riders: Dragons of Pern by Anne Mccaffrey

For me, I haven't read any of these, I've only seen Star Wars. Some fans (the more temperamental ones) have claimed that nothing is original anymore. That isn't true, the next original thing just hasn't been made yet. It may be excusable to have say a plot similar to Star Wars with a boy stumbling across great power and etc. but Paolini doesn't throw in his own twists and turns. And honestly, it can be difficult to be original, but that shouldn't be an excuse.

Why couldn't Eragon have been a worker at Sloan's shop, giving a reason as to why Sloan doesn't like Eragon or even have Eragon make shoes, but no, Eragon is a poor farmer. And why did Eragon's relative have to be his Uncle, thankfully Garrow's wife already died sparing more relations t Star Wars. The point being, that Paolini didn't try and change the characters from their Star Wars counterparts at all besides the lack of a living Aunt Beru.

Neither should be the fact that Christopher Paolini was only 15 when he began Eragon and 19 when he finished. Fans have said that critics should go easy on Paolini and that it's unreasonable to compare him to the adult authors that have set the bar for books.

I'm not saying that teenage authors can't be as good as adults; but the standards for stories have largely been set by the work of adults and Paolini simply wasn't ready for his book to be published when he was finished. I feel he needed more time to fine tune it.

The plot itself doesn't really bother me, it's the one dimensional characters that bother me. I can't feel attached to anyone in this book. There are millions of points in the story where I expected some sort of description of what Eragon was feeling, but Paolini only says what Eragon did. I was shocked at these points because I always expect some sort of description of what he felt. So many points where Eragon could have said what he felt or developed in some way were ignored. It was weird for me.

Arya, whose beauty is described more than her character, is a good example. She's a pretty cardboard cut out and that's that. Also, she's a vegan, another "good" characteristic, yet she wears leather (that still is poor compared to her looks). Eragon has fallen in love with Arya but we don't know why, considering thew pages upon pages of compliments and descriptions of Arya's eyes, eyebrows, and shapely leather clad body, Eragon only LUSTS for her and doesn't LOVE her. Lust is (description from dictionary.com) intense sexual desire or appetite; love is a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection. Love and lust aren't the same, sometimes, lust comes along with the love package, but to lust for someone isn't the same as to love someone. This "epic" romance is only Eragon (a teenage boy's) sexual craving for the beautiful elfin princess

Of all the accusations of plagiarism, one that cannot be ignored are the elves and dwarves. Of course, elves and dwarves have appeared in other literature, but Paolini stole Tolkein's versions. The elves came from another land in silver ships and settled in the current setting. They like nature and archery. Have pointy ears, long hair, and are super pretty. Dwarves were created in secret by a god. Like mining and are short and gruff. Perhaps Paolini didn't steal the plots and settings of the other stories mentioned in the first paragraph, but he definitely stole Tolkein's elves and dwarves. At least Tolkein gave a reason as to why the dwarves and elves don't get along.

People have actually compared Paolini to Tolkein, a college professor and linguist who spent most of his life making Middle Earth and his own language. You can't truly compare someone like Tolkein, called "The King of Fantasy" for his detailed world, to Paolini who... hasn't done anything remotely similar with such dedication in trying to make his world realistic and original.

Eragon Sporkings has pointed out large plot holes in the story (albeit sarcastically and scathingly). Such as the richest person in town is the blacksmith who made a two story home in the poor village and carved his own gargoyle rain pipes which is a skill unfounded in blacksmiths and if said blacksmith did also have carving and architect skills this goes unexplained. Or how the important snow (which the traders for unknown reasons travelled through) disappears after the problem of travelling through it unnoticed fades away.

So yeah. Eragon is interesting to read. I think that the reason it's so popular may be because that the author was also a teenager and wrote about a teenager and an "epic" journey for teenagers.

I think Eragon could have been better. Even if the plot stayed the same, I just wish the characters were more personal.

And I'll stop ranting here before I give more reasons for fans to hurt me. Please don't hurt me. I'm not some anti-Eragon person, even if I don't like Eragon all that much and feel like Paolini is getting full of himself.

Please don't tell me that I'm only jealous. Because I'm not. I don't have to be jealous of something or someone to not like it or what they wrote

And don't say "why don't you write something better", because I am already writing a fantasy book and I'm not even 15 yet.