That trope of "The villain acted preemptively to prevent a prophecy of their demise but only ended up fulfilling the prophecy by doing that" could be it's whole own video damn lmao

@MrDeflador

2 ай бұрын

This will be one. And because it is one of the oldest tropes still used to this day (a Lot of greek Storys)

@GameGod77

2 ай бұрын

That trope's so old it's literally in the bible!

@insertobligatoryreferenceh489

2 ай бұрын

There’s even a phrase for it: “You often meet fate on the path you take to avoid it.”

@britishjack9931

2 ай бұрын

I think Red already made that video

@Shift_Salt

2 ай бұрын

@@britishjack9931 Not sure, I binged a playlist of all of these so I wouldn't be surprised if they did have a trope talk vid on it but also I've seen so many now over the years I wouldn't know for sure.

"I swear I've watched shows other than Avatar" don't worry Red, we know; you've also watched ReBoot!

@sabertoothkim

2 ай бұрын

Literally what I came here to say lol

@B2WM

2 ай бұрын

Don't forget Leverage!

@animeotaku307

2 ай бұрын

And Justice League!

@czemu3920

2 ай бұрын

She's also seen Gargoyles

@magnusbane420

2 ай бұрын

Steven Universe!

Sozin: killing the air nomads was easy. Barely an inconvenience The dead Fire Nation soldiers surrounding Monk Gyatsu:

@matheussanthiago9685

2 ай бұрын

My favorite head-canon is that Gyatsu vacuum bended the whole room into their next live Himself included, which is a pretty hardcore way to go

@borivoje1991able

2 ай бұрын

Gir, you speak wisely

@Wendy_O._Koopa

2 ай бұрын

@@matheussanthiago9685 Is... that _not_ canon?

@stevenneiman1554

2 ай бұрын

Even more badass when you remember that those guys were not only trained soldiers but were also vastly empowered by Sozin's Coment.

@jdk2535

2 ай бұрын

@@stevenneiman1554Well, hey. There's a reason he was trusted to train the Avatar.

"My dad just told me I'm adopted!" "Your dad, the goose... that must be quite the shock."

@Gboy86ify

2 ай бұрын

I love how the managed to successfuly have their cake and eat it with that dialogue, it's both funny and solemn at the same time. Tigress clearly understands how blindingly obvious this revelation was, but she also acknowledges that it somehow wasn't obvious to Po and she chooses to respect the pain he's going through.

@seasnaill2589

2 ай бұрын

@@Gboy86ify I love Poe's face as she says it, almost like 'Yup. I know.'

@foldabotZ

Ай бұрын

And it's even funnier that Po never thought it was strange his adoptive dad is a goose. Like it was natural. In any other story with any other set of characters, the adoptee would have answered the revelation from the adoptive with an, "Yeah, I know. It's kinda obvious." But no, not with Po.

@wjzav1971

Ай бұрын

@@foldabotZIts similar in the third movie. "Wait, you can fly?" "I'm a bird, Po."

@madhippy3

Ай бұрын

@@Gboy86ify She has known him for what a movie and a half? While surprising in the moment its not long before you realizes "Wait, thats classic Po."

God, i never realized that Aamg's no kill rule wasnt just a personal creed, but one of the last connections to his culture. That show is damn near perfect

@freshbread4039

2 ай бұрын

gives me a new appreciation and respect for his insistence on pacifism. especially since the remaining air nomads killed fire benders before dyingy. hes the last airbender, so he has a responsibility to uphold all of their philosophies.

@tutumazibuko2510

2 ай бұрын

Ah so that explains the badly written and insanely stupid double deus ex machina that the writers went with to make Aang avoid killing Ozai! Oh wait no it doesn't lol. Seriously, why even have this conflict if they weren't going to come to such a dumbass conclusion.

@ChimeraLotietheBunny

2 ай бұрын

This is lefit

@joshlegacy1101

2 ай бұрын

​@@ChimeraLotietheBunny What's legit?

@conorkelleher2571

2 ай бұрын

​@@tutumazibuko2510Conclusions you don't understand aren't bad because you can't understand them.

Red couldn't convince blue to do a third detailed Diatribe about Superman and is settling for trope talk

@zachzimmer7459

2 ай бұрын

Sounds accurate

@lethargogpeterson4083

2 ай бұрын

We can hope there will still be a third diatribe. Best of both worlds. (Or not.)

@tommydoez

2 ай бұрын

And almost making a detail diatribe about kung fu panda (again)

@archivist_13

2 ай бұрын

Literally what I was thinking

@Praisethesunson

2 ай бұрын

But we are going to get a kung fu panda deep dive.

Tigger, weirdly enough, is also a good example of “last of their kind”. There’s literally a whole movie about his desire to find things like him, and he fabricates what other tiggers might be like as a means of coping. Going so far as to leave his friends behind and go looking for his family DURING A BLIZZARD. But in the end it’s his friends that find him, bring him home, and make him realize that even though he’s “the only one”, that it doesn’t mean he’s without a family.

@intergalactic92

2 ай бұрын

As a matter of fact, the wonderful thing about Tiggers is that he IS the only one.

@bryanmanuelsalguero4729

2 ай бұрын

You're totally right

@amosbirb2616

2 ай бұрын

God I love that movie. Always makes me cry tho

@alovesupreme76

2 ай бұрын

the tigger movie is amazing

@Oddi0

2 ай бұрын

I could be wrong, but it always felt to me like he was actually contemplating suicide for a bit there after realizing there were no other Tiggers.

I love the fact that whenever someone talks about Kung Fu Panda, there is a moment of realization, either from the person themself or the one listening, that this trilogy was surprisingly deep.

@minisarge2619

2 ай бұрын

The 2nd movie is easily one of my favorite movies of all time

@Cillranchello

2 ай бұрын

The movies on their own, and as a trilogy, all explore different facets of the same theme: Self Acceptance, or to maybe to be more specific "You are good enough." You, as you are, are enough. Could there be some improvements? Yes, of course, but that's everyone. The Golden scroll is the obvious one, Shen is "someone is better than you" personified to the point he practices dialogue. Kai tries to take from everyone else for the same reason, he doesn't think he's enough. Po rebukes them each in their own way, through accepting a part of himself being the key to Immense power in Kung Fu world, and every movie leaves Po in basically the same place character wise, but still better off for it.

@animeotaku307

2 ай бұрын

@@CillranchelloAdds a lot to one of the last exchanges between Po and Tai Lung. Tai Lung: You’re just a big, stupid panda! Po: I’m THE big, fat panda. Goes from feeling inadequate and insecure about his body because he can’t do the same things as his heroes to taking pride in it because he discovers he can do things that they can’t.

I actually do love how the trope videos are like “this is a very interesting trope that happens often in media, this is how it tends to play out, and this is what we can get from it…. AND THIS IS HOW AVATAR MASTERFULLY DID IT!”

@TakeMinamoto

2 ай бұрын

most of the time, yes, that's how it plays out LOL

@vicentenavarro5494

2 ай бұрын

Avatar or Reboot

@mikemudrow

2 ай бұрын

It's a trope in itself, and one that seems to work particularly well.

@KazeAizen

2 ай бұрын

@@mikemudrowwatch they do an April fools joke that takes the piss out of themselves. Blue: here’s the domiest architecture in Venice. Red: and here’s the OSP trope of how I always talk about ATLA in trope talks. Something like that

@brandondavidson4085

2 ай бұрын

Avatar the Last Airbender and Kung Fu Panda, apparently are the perfect stories

The understated visual gag of "Mysterious Artwork Unlike Any Seen on Earth" is a delightful call-back.

@Crimser3

2 ай бұрын

I could drive any artist mad

@TheBilgepumper

2 ай бұрын

Do not throw it down a well™.

@Charles-In-Charge

2 ай бұрын

You mean to tell me there are colors never before seen by human eyes? What might they by capable of!?

@cosmodoge6565

2 ай бұрын

Im gonna get some water from that fountain beside the art, you want any?

@pathfindersavant3988

2 ай бұрын

I like to imagine that ineffable cosmic beings have their own tropes and story cliches we could never fully understand

Aang: “a core belief of the air nomads is that we never kill” Gyatso’s body surrounded by dozens of dead fire benders: “yeah about that aang…”

@seasnaill2589

2 ай бұрын

Popular theory is that he sucked all the oxygen out of the room, killing all the invaders along with himself. Unwilling to live with breaking his no kill rule even if he decided it was neccesary.

@kitnal4143

2 ай бұрын

​@@seasnaill2589eh I don't like that as much because that suggests both murdering people *and* suicide whilst knowing it would be fruitless. Him killing himself to remove a dozen soldiers isn't going to protect his people.

@LadyJuse

2 ай бұрын

What if Aang was able to figure it out and that's part of why he was so distressed?

@kitnal4143

2 ай бұрын

@@LadyJuse I don't think he would have cared too much, it might play into it a bit however the bigger issue is definitely the fact that his father figure died.

@brookejon3695

2 ай бұрын

Well, Gyatso was a sort of black sheep among the other airbenders. His ideology could be a little different.

I love how Knuckles the Echidna has remained as a last of his kind for 30 years and they can't add any other echidnas due to legal reasons so he's stuck that way even if they didn't want to

@gen2763

2 ай бұрын

What’s the legal reasons?

@Xalerdane

2 ай бұрын

@@gen2763 *_KEN PENDERS._* Also Archie Comics being a pathetic joke of a company, and the invention of the Internet.

@JeremyMaldonadoSTK

2 ай бұрын

@@gen2763 Ken Penders who was a comic writer now owns all the designs for the echidnas

@splitjawjanitor5369

2 ай бұрын

I mean, they absolutely could, they just can't be any of the ones from the Archie comics or resemble them too closely (the latter is what happened with Chronicles). We're getting new echidnas in the Paramount canon and it doesn't seem like Penders can do anything about it.

@Xalerdane

2 ай бұрын

@@splitjawjanitor5369 His echidnas were an isolationist high-tech civilization, while the echidnas shown in the actual games looked like Pre-Colonialism Mesoamericans. So long as nobody does Furry Wakanda echidnas he can’t sue them.

The point red makes about previous air avatars having the freedom to loose their air bender culture because there were others of their kind to preserve it while Aang can't is something i never got before and the realization makes his actions emotionally hit harder

@michami135

2 ай бұрын

Red had just finished talking about the other examples when I thought, "The video's almost over, there's NO WAY she's going to forget about Ang!"

@felipemontero1087

2 ай бұрын

That goes at the window when you realised that Aang has killed at least docens of people in the whole show, by drowning them or dropping them off a mountain

@pancakeandwaffle4849

2 ай бұрын

@@felipemontero1087I mean i guess you can also tie it back to the pure of heart video where the intent matter more than the result. There’s no guaranteed that the firebenders were dead and the Northern water tribe was partly the ocean spirit doing. Pacifism lies more in the choice than the actual result, the core here is obviously not willingly knowingly taking a life since I don’t think even the most devoted pacifists can confidently say that they have never harmed anyone period.

@felipemontero1087

2 ай бұрын

@@pancakeandwaffle4849 Aang has said on multiple times that he hasn´t killed anyone. And the Air Temple was several kilometers or miles above ground, bare minimun one or 10 died. Cool motive, still murder

@vespernight4236

2 ай бұрын

​@@felipemontero1087 its a damn cartoon with magic powers, if the show says aang didn't kill anyone and that a part of the theme then he *didn't kill anyone* Sure laughing at cartoon logic is funny bc they should have died. But you don't argue in circles about how the looney toons coyote should be dead after the 20th fall off a canyon do you? No bc we understand that in that universe it doesnt kill him, the same way batman somehow doesn't kill his villains with cte after decades of beating them into the ground on TV. This argument is pedantic

This gave me a whole new perspective on Season 3 of A:TLA. Aang spends a lot of specifically season 3 giving up pieces of his culture (burning his glider, covering up his tattoo, growing his hair), which shows that he understands that there comes a time to sacrifice to do what needs to be done. His pacifism is quite literally the *last thing* from his culture that he has not had to compromise on in some way, which is (part of) why he clings on to it so hard

@headhunter1958

2 ай бұрын

Holy shit I love this show

@mariustan9275

2 ай бұрын

Huh. I never thought of it that way. Makes sense though when I think about it. And also when you think about it in the end he manages to keep his pacifism. Instead of killing Ozai, he takes away his bending. He managed to be a bridge between cultures by keeping his pacifism.

@Ironcorgi2

2 ай бұрын

I think it’s more due to cowardice, understandable cowardice but still cowardice. Aang was even told by yangchen the right decision is to kill ozai. Aang just got lucky a lion turtle magically showed up

@mariustan9275

2 ай бұрын

@@Ironcorgi2 I don't really think it's cowardice. I mean, he's a kid raised by a culture that practiced no killing.

@MrKurish

2 ай бұрын

I think if he killed Ozai he would have lost the balance of the world because the air nomads would no lomger be in it. It would be a blow that kills it in his mind before tenzen can even be born.

Superman being the "Last Son of Krypton" is still true because of the justification that he's technically the last Kryptonian male born on the planet before it exploded. Hence "Last Son of Krypton" not "Last Kryptonian". Anyone born after him, including his son, can never erase him being the last son.

@wren8253

2 ай бұрын

Got chills reading that

@Tfbrave

2 ай бұрын

I personally really like the more modern interpretation of the "Last son" part being that he was the last baby born on Krypton but also the first natural born baby in SEVERAL CENTURIES on Krypton

@Por-poI

2 ай бұрын

​@@Tfbravemaybe that would get adapted in to new versions but IIRC only Snyder's MoS portrays Krypton with the genetic engineering and basically no natural births. The main comic universe and other comic universes portray Krypton as more eccentric but never went to the level of eugenics.

I also really like how Aang having to find a different way to end the war ties into practically the first lesson he was taught as avatar in the show from Bumi. He had to look at things from a different perspective, and find a different way to accomplish his goal. His journey into becoming the avatar really did come full circle.

@shadowmaydawn

2 ай бұрын

But he didn't really have to think of a different solution he was gifted it by the lion-turtle.

@matheussanthiago9685

2 ай бұрын

Although he definitely killed a bunch of npcs throughout the series

@carolyn8740

2 ай бұрын

You could tell that this was where the story was trying to end, but unfortunately they had to pull it out of their ass Du Ex Machina style. Why could Aang have just restrained Ozai and then he was sentenced to death by the resistance?

@aaidahmalik2582

2 ай бұрын

@@carolyn8740 I suppose they wouldn’t want to martyr him in any way, though I do agree they could’ve set up the solution better in terms of practicalities, even though the themes I think were there.

@alihasanaxe4936

2 ай бұрын

It's really a pity how horribly the ending of Avatar went. Such a great show marred so deeply by the ending

"Characters don't need to be completely unique from all characters ever, they just need to be distinct from each other within their story" is the kind of god tier eye opener I come to this channel for

@Entias

2 ай бұрын

Red casually dropping amazing writing advice

@moonwatcher4047

2 ай бұрын

I literally just put that in a discord server with a few fellow writer buddies as soon as I heard her say it.

@noytelinu3409

2 ай бұрын

"Only 6 faces " is seen as a flaw for a reason

@artman40

2 ай бұрын

Even this has some pitfalls. Characters may be unique but the dynamics between the characters might be not.

I love how this episode is basically just 2 mini detail diatribes about Kung Fu Panda and Avatar with some framework in between to tie them together

@tekbox7909

2 ай бұрын

The best kind of episodes. Don't know why but I love Red talking about shows. Especially ones I love.

@bigiron1311

2 ай бұрын

And we can’t forget to throw in some super man

@nathankurtz8045

2 ай бұрын

I'd like to vote for 2 full-length detail diatribes about Kung Fu Panda and Avatar.

@origaminosferatu3357

2 ай бұрын

You must be new here. :P

@woodfur00

2 ай бұрын

@@nathankurtz8045 I'd like to vote for an ongoing podcast about Avatar.

"for some stories, continuity is the only true enemy" That's Dr. Who alright

@ultimatebishoujo29

2 ай бұрын

Yup

@matt0044

16 күн бұрын

Classic Who would have modern fandom tearing itself apart if it was released today. XD

It must have been a profound emotional moment for Aang the day he realized one of his children was an airbender. For the first time since he was a child, he was no longer alone. While we never saw that in the show, we can see a glimpse of it in Tenzin once he realized that Harmonic Convergence had brought a new group of airbenders into existence, and suddenly he and his children were no longer the only ones.

@nevets2371

2 ай бұрын

You can also see some of how he was probably raised by Aang. You can see how high strung and exacting he is as he sees himself as inheriting the role of last custodian of the Air Nomads from his father. We aren't shown in what manner Aang raised his kids, but you can see that, intentionally or otherwise, he imprinted on Tenzin how important keeping the Air Nomads alive was to him.

@joannamyers1268

2 ай бұрын

@@nevets2371 Also, Tenzin has definitely experienced personally what it's like to be the last airbender, since at least a few years passed between Aang's death and Jinora's birth. And yes, I'm quite sure Tenzin would never have gotten away with the sort of antics Bumi did, because he had so much responsibility on his shoulders.

@louisduarte8763

2 ай бұрын

@@nevets2371 I think there was an episode of Kora's 2nd season where Tenzin, Bumi, and Kaya (I think) bicker over who was which parent's favorite and how they were raised differently based on who could bend what (water, air, or nothing).

“For some series, continuity is the true enemy.” 😂 What a delightful way to point out that a show still can have value even with major continuity problems. 😊

@joelsavoie8641

2 ай бұрын

My d&d game lol

@ComissarYarrick

2 ай бұрын

Continuity can be quite a bitch to do well. Especialy if wrighter understands it as unending escalation of thereats.

@icecreamchief5417

2 ай бұрын

Continuity can be, at times, you best friend while your worst enemies as well

@violetsmith8693

2 ай бұрын

Maybe the real enemy was the continuity we broke along the way

@KevinSmithGeo

2 ай бұрын

Of course sometimes continuity is literally the enemy, like in "Father's Day"

One of the things I appreciate (not like) about Korra is how Aang was basically set up to fail as a father. This man has to be the supreme diplomat for the world, the ambassador to the spirit realm all while dealing with the fact that once he inevitably dies the living memory of his entire culture dies with him. Between all of that you can't really blame him for not being the best dad to Bumi and it's not like Tenzin had it any easier since he inherited the burden of an almost extinct culture that he wasn't even a part of solely because of his inherited abilities. Aang carried the weight of an entire culture and then passed it down to his son without ever really giving him a choice in the matter in a way very similar to his own inability to change his status as the Avatar. It's all so real and tragic and I HATE IT I WANT MY BOY TO NOT BE A SHITTY DAD

@jackcullen5085

2 ай бұрын

Yeah totally agree, also in air nomad culture there are no parents, children are taken from their mothers at birth and raised in temples on the opposite side of the world. How on earth could Aang adapt to the nuclear family style of childrearing, while being the avatar, and preserving his whole culture with no reference points for fathering?

@felipemontero1087

2 ай бұрын

That’s probaby the realest aspect or Korra in the part of character development. Toph also failed as a parent because she gave her daughter complete freedom but no responsability, the opposite of her, specifically when Toph had two daughters from two different men. And the only one who has a good parent was Zuko, before he had his uncle as the best father figure and his mother who was the best, and had the example of Ozai of how NOT to be a father, he had all the pieces

@overlookers

2 ай бұрын

This is one of the few pluses I can give to LoK: they posthumously gave Aang _more_ flaws. Aang wasn't perfect. Aang showed favoritism among his kids for obvious reasons. He was human.

@zachnoland155

2 ай бұрын

@@overlookers it's not even bc he liked one more than the others he was just in an impossible situation

@B2WM

2 ай бұрын

And I headcanon that he definitely was all "Okay, Tenzin, we're going on a serious Spiritually Important Air Nomad Culture trip..." *Twenty minutes later* "Oooh, airball game!" It's not that he meant to leave the other kids out, but Aang's definitely easily distracted.

I think another reason why The Last of Their Kind often winds up finding more like them is also because that's actually a very, very common experience amongst humanity in general. As a disabled/mentally ill/autistic person, that's basically kind of our universal experience, feeling like you're alone or just weird or broken and there's literally no one else in the entire world who is like this only to discover that not only are you not alone by ANY means and there's actually hundreds of thousands of people who know EXACTLY what it's like, but that's also actually one of the defining features of being LIKE THAT. Even when it comes to something as common as grief or a break-up, it FEELS so isolating, but is, in fact, very, very common.

@Hexagonaldonut

2 ай бұрын

So much this. Being able to hear the stories of other people with ADHD, and be like "that! I know that!" was something that drastically improved my own mental health. It was incredibly fulfilling knowing there are other people out there who struggle the same way I do.

@seasnaill2589

2 ай бұрын

As someone who's just figuring out the're autistic in their 20s, this is so accurate it hurts.

@aBlackMage

2 ай бұрын

Absolutely. I'm autistic, was deeply mentally ill for a while, and recently discovered I'm non-binary. And then I met someone exactly like me. We've grown to be very good friends and that friendship is what has given me genuine hope and meaning for the first time in my life.

@EB_DC

2 ай бұрын

No wonder this video clicked a lot more than usual. I agree with this, 200%.

@purplecatloverrandompizza

Ай бұрын

I was one of the first at my highschool to come out as asexual and be really open about it by my junior year and I thought I was the only one But my senior year other people who I was already friends with came out as ace too and I realized I wasn't alone and there were other people who understood and like me

I think one of the best thing about Doctor Who’s ‘last of their kind’ is the Doctor’s GUILT He is personally responsible for being the last of his kind and that weighs heavily on his soul He never forgives himself, even though he did it to save all of reality from the Time War, he still never forgives himself He counted every single child he killed on Gallifrey and never forgot that number

@ultimatebishoujo29

2 ай бұрын

I’m with you there and I love Doctor Who!!!!!

@Silverwind87

2 ай бұрын

It's especially harrowing since the Doctor _had_ to destroy his race. The Time Lords were corrupted by the Time War, becoming as cruel and genocidal as the Daleks. The horrors of the Time War, the Skaro Degradations, the Nightmare Child, the Could've Been King and his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, there was _only_ one way to get rid of it all. The Doctor _had_ to get rid of the Time Lords, because of how dangerous they became. That means the Doctor had a unique internal conflict. He wants to continue adventuring, so he can keep the legacy and his more pleasant memories of the Time Lords alive. However, he also feels a sort of collective guilt from his people's actions. What if the universe was better off without him?

@ultimatebishoujo29

2 ай бұрын

@@Silverwind87 that’s true

@louisduarte8763

2 ай бұрын

@@Silverwind87 It was a bigger kick in the teeth after the 9th Doctor found out the Daleks survived. From his perspective, the Time War turned into a cosmic scale pissing contest between the Time Lords AND Daleks over who could undo all of existence 1st, so he had to do what he did to wipe both sides out, and the Daleks came back anyway! Hell, once Davros came back, he picked up where he left off in the war: destroy the universe and all parallel universes! Which made the Tenth Doctor's slowness to react to everything Davros said and did not make sense, but that's another thing.

I love that depending how you look at it, Samus from Metroid counts for this trope three separate times

@josephperez2004

2 ай бұрын

Survivor of a destroyed human colony, imbued with DNA from the extinct Chozo, and later Metroid DNA when the last one is killed, yes?

@caliperstorm8343

2 ай бұрын

Maybe even 4 times, if you count the Mawkin and Thoha Chozo separately

@phucdisshiet6838

2 ай бұрын

Maybe technically 4 even? In prime 3 all the hunters she knows get corrupted and had to be taken down by her own hand. Imagine a soldier having to finish his own squad. Oof.

@rickvoid5273

2 ай бұрын

Metroid is classic Greek Tragedy.

@archivist_13

2 ай бұрын

Jesus I really need to play the games

"You know, the problem with being the last of anything? Bye and bye there'll be none left at all." -Captain Hector Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

@blackdwarfstar1246

2 ай бұрын

That's a pretty poignant and topical line from that film franchise. I remember the context of that line too, it was great.

@VeryPeeved

2 ай бұрын

@@blackdwarfstar1246 It does that quite often, yet people are always surprised.

@n.j.hanson4267

2 ай бұрын

Isn't it ironic this comes from a Disney movie? A company hell bent on destroying anything unique and special?

Interestingly enough, Captain America in the MCU actually loosely follows along this trope weird as it sounds. He gets preserved in ice and becomes a relic of a time gone by. Similar but different to everyone by virtue of the skip in time. Eventually he finally runs into ‘one of his kind’ in Bucky and tries his hardest to keep that connection, despite how that affects everything around him. And his story culminates in him finding ‘his kind’ once again after time travelling back, and he decides to stay with them. It’s honestly wild to think about how ‘last of their kind’ doesn’t have a hard limiting factor on what constitutes ‘their kind’.

@peytonmac1131

2 ай бұрын

Leaving Bucky to be the last of his kind.

@Ian-wn5lc

Ай бұрын

​@@peytonmac1131Bucky is in this odd middleground where he had to relearn those memories of that time though, and with them came all the other times he was brought out of the ice over the years between for his missions. He's had this staggered growth rate where he's had the chance to adjust that Steve didn't, but it came at the cost of who he once was. In a way, I wonder if he feels even more alone because on some level he can't even relate to Steve anymore.

Aang is one of the rare cases where his adamant refusal to kill makes sense. He can't give up what little is left of his culture. (We don't talk about the wasp thing or the many Fire Nation soldiers who got buried by an avalanche or thrown off the mountain in the Northern Air Temple. That was like all the helicopters Kiryu shoots down throughout his career.)

@benapeh854

2 ай бұрын

While understandable, it's still deeply selfish. He put several lives at risk You should read the Avatar Novels by the way- Two for Kyoshi, Two for Yangchen. Yangchen specifically faces a very similar problem to Aang. Her decision however actually has dire consequences.

@akechijubeimitsuhide

2 ай бұрын

@@benapeh854Tbh I prefer vengeful characters over pacifists. Less "noo I can't kill the main villain, I'd be just as bad as him" whining and more "I want my father back, you son of a bitch" *stab*

@seasnaill2589

2 ай бұрын

@@akechijubeimitsuhide Depends on how its handled. I think Avatar does it pretty well.

@sfjuhispst8144

2 ай бұрын

​@@akechijubeimitsuhideWell, if pacifist charachters can become wimpy "do nothing and cry"-types, just as easily vengfull charachters can become edgy "kill 'em all and let god sort them out"-types. Both are very liable to falling to these traps.

@stephenkellett7836

2 ай бұрын

There is a fundamental difference between killing someone in a duel and an action like causing an avalanche though. It goes back to the reason why artillery and now drone warfare is so effective. Putting distance, both literally and emotionally, between the one pulling the trigger and the target is the most effective way to increase lethality in war. It's a plot hole, but it makes sense why Aang would process that differently from his fight with Ozai

"For some stories, the only enemy is continuity." Oof, that's good. Also, damn Red is concise off script! I'd never guessed the whole bit about Kung Fu Panda hadn't been scripted!

@stevejakab274

2 ай бұрын

In the last (and next) Spiderverse movie, continuity is literally the enemy (well, one of them).

@Jpx0999

2 ай бұрын

That gives me the Idea of an story where the main villains Power is to mess with continuity

@enigmatic2878

2 ай бұрын

You can tell that there was something off as she was going off-script, but she's so professional that it's still hard to fully confirm

I…LOVE…how they handled the Master. He knows how much the Doctor wants to not be alone. And he uses it to win. So devastatingly, so entirely, that even though the Doctor beat him, he still lost. I LOVE it.

@stevejakab274

2 ай бұрын

That's the "Xanatos Gambit" trope, where the bad guy sets up a situation where no matter what happens, they win.

@SkyPerson

2 ай бұрын

And further on in the show, when the Doctors all come together and save Gallifrey he STILL can’t be with his people, the Doctor will always be ‘The Lonely God’

@kylegonewild

2 ай бұрын

@@stevejakab274 The ol' Catch-22. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

@louisduarte8763

2 ай бұрын

@@stevejakab274 And then he came back anyway. because of the plan he (and by extension, Rassilon and the other Time Lords) set in motion.

Two fun facts I remembered while watching this: In the original Dragon Ball series, while Goku is climbing the Red Ribbon tower to confront General White, one of the cyborgs he fights (I'd like to say the terminator reference one) scans Goku, and for a second or two you see his perspective, and Goku is categorized as an alien. Also, more of an observation, I kinda love how on top of culturally being kinda separated from the way of the Pandas, he also physically is different. He is noticeably smaller than most other pandas, and while large, he comparatively is the most physically fit since, despite having those layers of fat, he still IS the Dragon Warrior and a kung fu master with tons of muscle under that.

I’d love to see talk of the trope or sub trope of this, “The one of a kind/first of their kind.” The characters who literally can’t have anyone else like them, like Vision from Avengers who was created essentially by luck, or Rocket Racoon who even though he had “siblings,” is still incredibly unique in that there is no other creature exactly like him.

@fairyd3ity967

2 ай бұрын

It’s also actually kinda reminds me of Powerpuff to be honest

21:49 and also it’s way more devastating to the Fire Nation’s ideology if people get to see Ozai alive yet so thoroughly humbled, broken, and being called “the Loser Lord!” by Sokka after losing his fire bending.

@codycallaway9057

2 ай бұрын

You need commas and you phrased it wrong where it's hard to understand

@Jasonwolf1495

2 ай бұрын

Ya know its rather funny that Sokka is more powerful than ozai by the end because Ozai has been entirely relying on and believing purely in his firebending. Its one thing to lose firebending, its another thing to have someone who only does firebending to lose it. Ozai's not even tactically smart, he just surrounds himself with firepower.

@demi-femme4821

2 ай бұрын

It also shows the difference between Zuko and Ozai one last time. If Zuko lost his bending, he'd draw some swords and keep fighting. Ozai, meanwhile, has built his whole identity on his strength as a firebender and crumples the instant it's gone.

One of the most important lessons I ever got in creativity was that an "original idea" is usually just several other ideas connected in a novel way. _The Thing_ mixed classic monster horror with the concept of a locked room murder mystery to create a thrilling horror film where you can't even be sure the monster isn't in the current shot. Dragon Ball, among others, took chunks of the Journey to the West and recontextualized them as a science fantasy epic, connecting the core idea of simple-but-evocative protagonists facing various tests of courage and filling it with aliens, robots, spaceships, and somewhat-simpler macguffin structures. Red Faction, the first FPS to feature fully destructible terrain, looked at Worms and said "But what if it was in 3D?" Not only is this _common,_ it's also inescapable, because no matter how wild your setting is, humans still have to understand it, and that means relating it to what your audience already knows. You can call a rabbit a Smeerp all you like, but at the end of the day, you're describing a small fluffy animal with big ears, and that requires knowing what 'small', 'fluffy', 'animal', and 'ears' mean.

@NobodyC13

2 ай бұрын

Want to point out that the Thing wasn't created out of whole cloth, it was a remake of a 1950s horror B-Movie called "The Thing From Another World," which itself was based on a 1930s novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell. However, I prefer John Carpenter's version where the Thing is literally a virus that can assimilate you from within with just a single cell to the novella's take where it has a "true" form (think humanoid muppet with tusks, three red eyes, and blue worm-like hair) and the characters theorize its body is made up of "living plastic" or that it's closely related to CARROTS. I found the novella a slow read as I felt the characters spent two-thirds of the story coming up with wild theories about the creature while locked in a room then actually investigating compared to the movie where it keeps the rules of the creature's biology concise and the characters and the audience slowly learns how it works as they fight it.

@TehNoobiness

2 ай бұрын

@@NobodyC13Exactly! One of John Carpenter's most famous films ever was arguably a "shitty" adaptation! ("Shitty" in airquotes because the "you have to exactly copy the source material" standard of the CinemaSins age is _worthless_ for making adaptations)

@LordVader1094

2 ай бұрын

​@@NobodyC13Yes, that's why OP said "mixing classic monster horror"

@mxveewz

2 ай бұрын

@LordVader1094 memento mori!

@yomireal7570

2 ай бұрын

I thought the game that looked at worms and said "But what if it was in 3d" was worms 3d

0:39 This is what I appreciate about Dante’s world-building: he doesn’t care about originality - he’ll populate his version of hell with his contemporaries if he has to!

It would make for a very different story, sure, but "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Two Unicorns" is aaaaaabsolutely a film I'd watch

I think when most people say “hey, this reminds me of-“ they mean it as a good thing. “This brings back memories from a story that I love, and it helps me love this too.”

@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim

2 ай бұрын

I understand that, but that doesn't stop the sinking feeling of "Oh, my character isn't original after all. Gotta scrap this and start over."

@ghostlee2227

2 ай бұрын

that's why I love it when people say that about my ocs, especially if that character was written well or has a great design. unless they call me a copycat or they hate the character my oc reminds them of, I take it as a compliment.

@MisterBitey

2 ай бұрын

I think the main thing that makes it annoying is that it's just kind of a shallow comment/observation. Compare say, simply saying you think somethin looks cool, which is earnest, or asking about inspirations, which is engaging. It's just kind of Not Great to always be seen through the lens of other things.

@brookejon3695

2 ай бұрын

​@@VelociraptorsOfSkyrimit's a flawed instinct to begin with, though. When you design a character, you code them. The culture that inspires their clothes, their body shape, their facial features, their weapons and accessories. You can't make something that isn't like something else.

@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim

2 ай бұрын

@@brookejon3695 Whether or not it's flawed is irrelevant. It's why Authors hate you saying "Oh, they're like X from Y." What you're basically saying is that they copied the character and made tweaks rather than make an original character.

thank you for this wonderful Last Airbender rant. This makes me think about how Legend of Korra tackles the Air Nomads being reborn with Aang's son Tenzin, the second airbender tasked with rebuilding the Air Nomads. There was that one scene in episode 311 where he uses Airbending offensively to protect his family that struck me as... not Air Nomad-ish, as Airbending is usually characterized by evasion and deflection. So what has changed? Well, Tenzin is Aang's son, who was Toph's pupil. Aang learned as part of his Earthbending training that some problems cannot be evaded and must be dealt with directly. So it implies that the philosophy of the Air Nomads has changed by circumstance and the people who carry it on. Though it sounds harsh, Tenzin probably had the image of the emptied air temples in his mind, thinking "never again". Edit : the battle in question happened in season 3 episode 11

@cosmopeaches2604

2 ай бұрын

In my headcannon the Airbenders built their culture around peace and pacifism because air is the OP element, and they wanted to ensure anybody with such power wouldn't use it for evil.

@claytonparfumorse3101

2 ай бұрын

On the one hand, thats a solid theory and its well thought out. On the other hand is an exceedingly simple reason: people are willing to break their morals when family is in danger. Oh they may hate themselves after, but to protect a loved one? Most parents would choose to fight.

@gldni17

2 ай бұрын

@@cosmopeaches2604 Zaheer's ability with airbending seems like the fundamental proof of this idea. And he actually DID believe is many of the Air Nomad cultural ideas, just not really the one about not killing anyone.

@musearrives2am

2 ай бұрын

While you make a good point we actually see several examples in ATLA of benders becoming effectively better at their element when they incorporate other elements bending techniques. Like how Katara beating the older and more classically trained Hama, where you can see her using positions Toph teaches Aang earlier. Or Iroh, who even specifically tells Zuko how some of his most powerful firebending moves like his fire breath or lightning bending are derived from air and waterbending.

@Nathaniel2Leinahtan1

2 ай бұрын

I agree, the big theme in the Korra series is the blurring of distinctions between elements (the 3rd season subtitle it literally "CHANGE"). It's just interesting to see this specific example. Aang had an existential crisis at the thought of going against the pacifist teachings of the Air Nomads. Ostensibly Tenzin lives and breaths that philosophy of spirituality and detachment from the physical world, and he's a politician. Another example is when Korra airbends for the first time she's boxing. This is how the Air Nomads have changed, they are no longer detached from earthly affairs, they are not even nomads, they are acolytes. They have adapted. Maybe there's a distinction between self-defense & mastering your powers vs establishing a formal militia / martial art.

My favorite example of this trope will always be pthe pre-reboot version of Archie Sonic's Knuckles the Echidna. Over the course of the original Archie Sonic comic run, Knuckles went from believing he was the last of his kind (due to his father pretending to commit suicide-by-fire in his youth) to discovering his people were still numerous and thriving. Through the ups and downs of it all, Knuckles got out of it a loving mother, a new baby brother, a soulmate, more relations than he could count, and a very complicated family tree. But, at the end of the day, Knuckles wasn't alone anymore, and he was happier for it. And then the Echidnas begin to decline. As time goes by, more and more of Knuckles' people are killed or lost. Their cities are razed, their monuments torn down, their people herded into camps or sent to the slaughter. In the end, the Echidnas number not even a _fraction_ of what Knuckles had found them as, but they were still there. Knuckles was not alone. And then he was. In the end, the last Echidnas are taken from him. His father, his mother, his brother, his soulmate, and all the ones who had survived the turmoils plaging them - lost to the void. Knuckles does his best to save them, desperate to bring them back.... but he fails. Knuckles goes from believing he is the last of his kind to realizing that he isn't... then knowing that he is. And he is alone again, forever.

@TheRealE.B.

2 ай бұрын

And then the series was rebooted before finally being cancelled. It's funny, because the story gives the Echidnas so much focus that there are actually several different factions of Echidnas that are all independently quite numerous compared to most other species that appear in the story. Also, it just occurred to me that Mari-An probably escaped getting thrown into the void with the rest of the Echidnas, since she was married to an outsider and was already living in hiding elsewhere.

Thank you for explaining the reasoning behind the ending of ATLA ❤️ I feel like a lot of people misunderstand the ending and often dismiss it by saying "Well Aang should've just killed him, I would too" _You_ weren't raised an Air Nomad. You weren't raised with that pacifist culture. You weren't forced to feel the guilt and depression that Aang went through when he found out all the Air Nomads - everyone he knew and cared for - were dead. You weren't forced to carry the weight of an entire culture and godlike powers on your shoulders. Literally NO ONE can understand Aang but himself. Everyone wants him to be someone else; to be more like his past lives, Kyoshi, Roku, etc. But he is Aang, the last airbender, and his experiences and suffering are unique to him.

HOLY. CRAP. I have loved the Avatar show for years. I have championed it amongst friends and family. And only now, has someone pointed that out to me. Only now has someone finally put into words how powerful and perfect Aang's final conflict and its resolution are. Thank you Red. Your eye for storytelling and passion for teaching have done something for me I can only describe as "profound". Like any great magic trick, it's so obvious, yet I never saw it. I still have so much to learn about storytelling.

A childhood example of this that stood out to me was The Tigger Movie. Yes, a direct-to-dvd movie in the Winnie The Pooh canon, played The Last Of Their Kind COMPLETELY straight. And it is weirdly heart rending watching Tigger briefly bellowing that he'll wait alone for his "real" family at his adoptive little brother Roo.

Another thing is that Katara is the 'last' southern waterbender she knows for a fact there are other waterbenders so she is not searching for southern waterbenders, but she is suprised when she finds another one

@louisduarte8763

2 ай бұрын

And it's the crazy one who invented Blood-Bending, which was a kick in the teeth.

One of my favourite moments involving the doctor being the last timelord is in waters of mars when he's like "I'm not the survivor of the time war, I'm the winner, the timelords had all these rules and now they're mine" basically acting like a god, and the emotional whiplash of immediately being defied. That moment of 'I'm not the guardian of this culture, I'm it's sole owner, I can do what I want with it because who's going to stop me or say I'm wrong?' followed by immediately being shown why it was the way it was, was just brilliant (this was before the return of the master by the way, so as far as everyone knew he really was the last)

@Kyronex0

2 ай бұрын

"The laws of time are MINE!"

@segadoeswhatnintendont

Ай бұрын

The time lord victorious really is interesting character development for the doctor

You should also add in The Dark Crystal being that both Jen and Kira thought that they were the last Gelfling, till they met each other.

I'm so glad to see The Last Unicorn get referenced. That poor movie just never seem to get talked about.

11:28 "This town ain't big enough for two unicorns" Sounds like the setup for a Magic Duel

superman, kung-fu panda rant, AND atla?! and you kept it under 25 min!? damn... getting pretty efficient with these trope talks. loved it, thank you.

That analysis of Aang's journey was absolutely wonderful. It's one of the best epic stories in modern fiction, and you hit some of the aspects that makes it that. Thanks.

In the same vein, I like the “part of a dying breed” thing some of these characters fit into. Witchers, for example. A once thriving community that has dwindled down to almost nothing. Despite their creation being based in horrific experiences, you can’t help but feel a little bit of sadness when Geralt finds examples of the culture that have been lost to time.

@nuriskandar7817

2 ай бұрын

Yoo.. That's such a good example. Thank you for bringing that up.

I think a good example of this trope is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Last Ronin. It’s about the Ronin, the last Ninja Turtle (won’t spoil who) and the last of the Himato clan. The story is about him wanting to avenge his family and return honor to his clan. We also get to see Ronin struggle with his trauma as he hallucinates his brothers.

Toothless has some non-verbal searching for others of his kind in how to train your dragon series as once in a while episode focus. Hiccup does his best to look around for leads when available. The viewer doesn't find the answer until the third movie when the one guy who is a counterpart to hiccup has slain them all with gadgets and enslaving dragons.

The "Mysterious artwork unlike any seen on earth" sent me. One of my favorite bits on the channel.

While the Air Nomads as a group probably didn't pose too much of a challenge to the organized Fire Nation army, I do like that good old good hearted Gyatso is surrounded by dozens of dead Fire Nation soldiers suggesting he put up one hell of a fight.

one interesting variation of this trope is "the last of their kind - plural" where there are still several of these people from the get go, but with an understanding that after them, there wont be any new ones, that they are the last, dwindling with every loss until none remain. Examples that come to mind are the Witchers and the Tanith first and only

The dozens of probably suffocated fire nation corpses surrounding Giatsu tells me that they were _not_ that easy to kill.

@summerwinter89

2 ай бұрын

they had the power of the comet. no one had a chance.

Wanted to mention that Avatar does technically subvert it slightly but in a roundabout way. Simply Aang wishes to continue his People's legacy through his own kids, a logical idea for someone like him where what he's the last of is cultural and related to his bending. And while eventually even more Airbenders come about due to Harmonic Convergence likely trying to rebalance the benders of the world, this is long after Aang has died and the cycle has continued with Tenzin having his own kids who in turn would also have tried to carry on the legacy of the Air Nomads. In a sense, Aang went through the most extreme of this trope but caused it to become averted in the way that made the most sense.

@wavesofbabies

2 ай бұрын

Part of that comes from Aang being the last of his kind (culture) and the last of his kind (Airbender), but not last of his kind (species). He can make more Airbenders as easily as he can have children. An Airbender isn't a seperate species. It's just a part of his legacy. He can pass on the culture to other people, even those who were not born into that culture (as you see in the comics). But Aang doesn't lose that connection of being the last of his species that a lot of other instances of this trope have.

@Master_E444

2 ай бұрын

@@wavesofbabies figured it was simply interested how he went about it. He was the last of his kind for awhile and upheld their culture for as long as possible. Though him having kids didn't assure they'd be airbenders since Tenzin was only 1 of three and Bumi gained it from Harmonic Convergence. I think it works for him and the overall narrative for Airbending to have returned later on after his death both so he still lives as effective the last one save for his son who he put so much love and care into. Once others come back, it's due to quite literally people becoming more in tune with the spirits as there was a sudden massive spiritual event likely trying to rabalance the world

To tie two things you said together, Zod, The Master, and Lore are all examples not just of X but Evil but also X but Better. Zod is a Kryptonian, but a Trained Warrior rather than a Kansas Farmboy. The Master is a Time Lord, but a sadistic hardened criminal mastermind instead of a good-hearted free spirit juvenile delinquent joyriding a hotwired car that still has the parking brake on and fixing everything with a screwdriver. Lore is Data, but he actually understands people, too well even, because he can play them like a fiddle.

I feel like this trope could work very well with the Lonely Immortal trope, the individual Immortal doesn't even have to be the last of their species for it to work either, sure they look around and see people if the same species as them but everything has changed. Their home, their family and friends and everything they knew likely faded into memory long ago, they may not be the last of their species but they are the last of their kind.

Who hopes Red talks about the “Hero letting the Villain Live” trope so she can talk about SU and Avatar The Last Airbender, the “Hero vanquishing the Villain” trope so she can talk about She-Ra Princesses of Power, or the “This Corporation is Greedy and Corrupt but at least they aren’t Violent” trope so she can talk about how media vilifies rebellions

@foldabotZ

2 ай бұрын

I want Red to talk about "Found Family" so she can talk about the Owl House and perhaps Amphibia if she got around to watching it. Any one of the clone Tropes for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. And... another Trope that will cover Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury since she featured that in the Super School Trope Talk.

The last of their kinda being an allegory for nuerodivergence at a time, you're not surrounded by a community who understands you and your needs but who you still want to enjoy the company of is a BRUTAL take I wasn't expecting but I absolutely love

This was basically a slide show of some of my favorite characters. Odo, Data, Aang, The Doctor, The Last Unicorn even - I must REALLY have a thing for this trope. Final note - it's very interesting seeing how being 'The Last of His Kind' trope even effected Aang and other characters post The Last Air Bendir. If you look at the Ledgend of Korra and how Tenzin and his siblings are, how (in one of the more controvertial aspects of the show) Aang ended up somewhat neglecting his other kids, because Tenzin was the airbender. I find that really facinating. And especialy interesting when you consider the rest of the mythology.

When I read the title, I was expecting: Superman, Goku, Doctor Who, on that exact order. Although I'm disappointed for being slightly off, finding the Kung-fu Panda between Goku and Doctor Who was an absolute joy. Awesome video as always! I love trope talks!

This was probably my favorite episode yet. During the Kung Fu Panda spiel, I was like, "Red seems much more lax today," only to find that was completely off the top. It really added an air of levity to the video, also the explanation on the last airbender's use of the trope was described perfectly.

The twist in the Last Unicorn is that she's the last *free* unicorn. And then she saves the day. Her struggle is entirely external: finding the others. And that's on purpose because she's part of the immortals trope. The twist there is she's forced to experience mortality, therefore highlighting what it's like to be true immortal. Like she can die, but it's unlikely due to her power set. "We can be hunted and trapped, we can even be killed if we leave our forest, but we don't vanish." For heavens sake, she asks if she's truly the last and then is answered, naw fam they were chased away by the red bull, there's a king involved. Go find them! And she like kay and then does exactly that for the rest of the movie.

@phastinemoon

24 күн бұрын

She was the last one that Haggard needs to have caught them all!

There is also a subsection of the Last of their Kind where they are technically the last of their kind and there are others, but those others are dwindling in number and the main Last of their Kind character is unique for being the one to go out on the adventure to try to help or the like (see- Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, sort of).

It's not always that a trope talk ends with me crying... But as a pacifist who has gone through forced years into an army, thank you. Thank you so much for the words you said. I did not go through anything remotely as damaging and violent as Aang did. And I did not have to make any sacrifice as immense as he did, but I had suffered the consequences of my ideals, and to hear someone else say out loud that this is not a weakness but a different form of strength... Thank you.

The fact that I was beginning to legitimately worry Red wasn't going to mention Avatar in a "I've talked about this show plenty already, you already know so I'm gonna just not." way. How could I lose faith like that? Amazing video as always. I've never sat down and thought about the particulars when it comes to the emotional story consequences of the Endling's people possibly coming back. Seen it plenty, but it's never clicked how much that truly changes in the dynamics of the story.

I feel like a character who was the last of their kind would probably be drowning in some kind of indescribable emptiness

@MouldMadeMind

2 ай бұрын

Not every single moment though.

Nanny Ogg: "Only one of anything's no bloody use." --Terry Pratchett, "Carpe Jugulum"

@phastinemoon

24 күн бұрын

And in The Last Continent (heh)

@thetribunaloftheimaginatio5247

24 күн бұрын

@@phastinemoon When I think "The Last Continent," I think "All cultural myths are true... for a given value of 'true.'"

Dr Who: "Continuity is the only true enemy" is an amazing tagline 🤩

@sierra1513

Ай бұрын

Wibbly wobbly

"mysterious artwork, unlike any seen on ear-"

Of course, you can have a true Last of their Kind be confronted with the option of staying with their real family or an acquired family. You just need a simulator like VR or a holodeck. One of the best twists on this trope I can recall is the Star Trek: TNG episode "The Inner Light". The one where Picard gets the flute. If you've seen it, then you're probably tearing up at the mere mention of it.

Never apologize for bringing up Avatar. The fact it CAN be brought up so much just shows how great it is

I love how colour out of space became a meme on this channel.

Its so funny that the netflix live action avatar makes every mistake that the animated avatar dodged and that you mentioned here.

Liked that in Naruto there was a character that functioned like a "last of his kind" but also avoided the "supprise just kidding" feel cause we always knew about itachi

Okay that is absolutely the best justification of Aang taking away Ozai’s bending I’ve ever heard! Usually people just complain that it was a deus ex machina so it was nice just to hear a positive take on it, let alone one so eloquent and thoughtful. Thanks, Red!

I feel like the concept of a 'last of their kind' character rebuilding their kind in a sense by sharing that culture with others is super interesting and pretty underutilized. Funnily enough the only example of this I can think of is in The Legend of Korra, where at the start the culture is carried on through Aang's offspring, but through events later in the show they end up sharing that culture with the wider world as well. I feel like this idea is a little harder to do when the 'kind' in question has some kinda powers, but if you write it as just a cultural thing there's a lot of room to make a good ass story out of this.

I another example/route to take the “last of their kind” is kurapika from hunter x hunter. Currently, to our knowledge, kurapika is the last of the kurta/scarlet eyed clan after the phantom troupe murdered them all for their eyes. So he goes on a journey of revenge to kill all the troupe, and in this route you can explore ideas of revenge, becoming a monster or the emptiness that comes in the end. Additionally, your section on avatar got me interested in something, what if “the last of their kind” was never like their kind. Like not like say goku with the sayins, who were ruthless conquerors while goku wasn’t, but what if someone was from a specific group but was the black sheep or just never meshed/cared for their cultures principles but is then thrust to being the last of their kind. Now their are responsible with caring on the beliefs and principles of their kind despite the fact they struggle with or don’t really agree with said ideas

The trope of having a villain that is an experienced version of the “last of their kind” reminds me of wakfu. The protagonist has been using their unique portals almost entirely self taught. Up until we meet the other ADULT character we thought they were restricted to only 2 portals but this is blown entirely out of the water when the main party is betrayed and completely surrounded by laser firing portals.

@artcase8936

2 ай бұрын

To be fair, The Traitor's greater amount of portals might be because he absorbed the Eilacube. (Which is what I thought was going on.)

A really good example of this trope is the spanish book "The Idhun Chronicles", because the three protagonists, Jack, Victoria and Kirtash, are first of all, characterised by being the last of their kind (Jack is the last dragon and Victoria the last unicorn in the magic world of Idhún) AND being unique by their species' standards (the three of them are respectively dragon/unicorn/magic serpent and human hybrids, a mix that had never occured before9. That results in an extremely solid union in the trio, despite them 1. Starting out as enemies, 2. Being in a love triangle (which, while I usually hate love triangles, I kinda like this one because of how it ends). It's not a very known book outside the hispanic sphere, but it's very famous between teens, and it's a pretty decent read by teenage fantasy standards.

I know many people didn't like Legend of Korra, but I think they followed-up very well on that with Tenzin and the pressure that he feels having to live perfectly according to Air Nomad culture. It reaches the point where he over performs his culture and forgets his own personality and resents his siblings who don't have to live like that. He clearly changes significantly when other air benders are created as it is so much easier for him to relax because he and his kids are no longer the last ones, there are other people to carry the weight with him.

Damn it Red, you've just given me a craving for "the last of his kind meets another survivor, and she's a rad pirate lady."

There was a movie that had *such* a poignant line, but I was a kid when I watched it- so it didn't quite hit me, until much later: "He is the last of his kind- he is more alone than you can possibly imagine..."

Loved the avatar commentary, I also want to comment in some ways avatar also got to the the last of their kind that gets to connect to their culture through Katara since she was the last waterbender of the Southern tribe and yearned to connect to that culture, and then was able to have a whole arc to connect to it and also have culture shock. So Avatar ended up doing 2 instances of the last of their kind in wonderfully different ways

I love this trope. It is great for mystery and pathos. The last survivor of some great tragedy. It can give a lot to chew on, particularly if said survivor was at least partly responsible for such tragedy. One a related subject, I would love to see you cover the "human weapon" trope.

“Do what you want with my music, just don’t make it boring.” - Freddie Mercury

Red, you are 100% correct about the ending of Avatar. Aang's duty as the avatar in that time was to represent the values of the Air Nomads, including and especially the pacifism, especially because he was the only one who could.

"The Last Unicorn in This Zip Code" must now become a thing!

As an oddball, seeing these "Last of their kind", and the struggles of protagonist are a way of discovering and seeing myself with someone in a situation like me. As our world grow bigger, we will often eventually discover "our kind", seeing the protagonist finding their kind on screen as a kid gave me something to connect and hope for.

every time you talk about atla it tears my heart out. i love it. please do it again. as much as we tease i love when you talk about atla; its a great show that did its tropes wonderfully, and its always great to see it pop up in trope talks

Hey, red! Trope talk suggestion for you; "The incident" or "Noodle incidents" are a literary tool of a trope that gives more literary weight (funniness, scaryness, impact on the audience) to an event or noun than a description would, mostly by context and the reader's imagination. Named Noodle Incidents because of a short series of Calvin and Hobbes comics wherein everyone at school gives the eternally frustrated 6-year-old grief about something he did in the past that is now known only as "The noodle incident." It is hinted at vaguely many times, but the writer ultimately leaves it up to your imagination; which is a strength because whatever the audience dreams up will be way more literarily impactful (in this case funny) than anything he could write down. And that's not even the only time that comic uses a noodle incident, see, there's this kids book calvin always wants read called "Hampster Hewwy and the Gooey Kablooey" and Now I'm ranting. Point is; by leaving the event, place, person or item, open to interpretation, it has more literary weight than the creator could have possibly written. The Legendary Super Saiyan may have looked a lot cooler in your head than just goku+blonde+power. Another instance this trope is used is in an S.C.P. story wherein a certain slime MUST NEVER come into contact with a human corpse. Why? That's classified. A foundation researcher files the suggestion to test the slime on a human corpse because it's never listed what happens, only that it is a V E R Y bad idea, and the researcher is curious. He gets demoted and heavily scolded by an O-5, who states "Just don't." That one of the 0-5's, who have seen untold horrible horrible things, REALLY doesn't want this to happen, forces the reader to come up with something even the 0-5's fear, and is therefore even more terrifying than anything the writer could have written down. A "Noodle Incident" or "The Incident" is a rare trope that involves telling the audience that something exists or happened, but not telling them what it was, in order to give the plot point more narrative weight than a description would give it, partly because of the imaginations of the audience. It is a great trope that I think you should cover. I'm going to keep suggesting it on every trope talk and mythology video untill you do.

@foldabotZ

Ай бұрын

Either Red read this and decided to do just that or you have the gift of prophecy.

"i'm a survivor, we're a dying breed"

14:17 Oh Red if you only knew how deep the "Doctor is the last of their kind, except when they're not" rabbit hole on Doctor Who goes. Let's just say things got... interesting during Jodie Whittaker's run. lmao.

I'm doing a deep-dive into Dr. Who when this came across my youtube and I think one of the important 'Last of their Kind' trope qualities is 'In What Way?' Ang is the Last Airbender because he didn't give up his Air Nomad Teachings. The Doctor is the Last Timelord over and over again because there is never quite the mix of Timelord knowledge, morality, biology, heritage, ect. as him. Ironically, The T-800 from T-2 is a First of their Kind trying to make themselves the Last of their Kind. Druid Allanon from the Shannara series is the 'Last Druid' because the Druids went from a bloated and stuffy self-important circle of knowledge to a (heroic) Rule of Two in the face of what happens when the wrong person gets the wrong knowledge. He's the 'Last' because if there's ever more than one, horrific conflict will occur, and if there is ever none, priceless history & knowledge is lost. Narritively speaking, The 'Last Druid' passes on their title and their powers at the time of their death so that even being the 'last of their kind' is a role and title that is passed on and part of their culture.

I love how the last of us trope basically boils down to: 'it's a mindset'

I was so incredibly certain you were going to mention Knuckles from Sonic in this video then I was so incredibly certain you were going to mention Finn from Adventure time then I started to reflect and realize just how common this trope is, lol. Good thing you mentioned Avatar though if you didn’t my head might’ve exploded

the doctor is now the last of the time lords again (the master is definitely coming back though, dont worry. it was basically directly told to the audience in the last special) but there's 2 doctors now I love this show

@CringyBoi42069

10 күн бұрын

I am going to be pedantic and say that the doctor isn't a time lord and is something else while still being the last of their kind because no other member of their species is known about

While not at all "a last of his kind" I feel that Farscape uses this trope pretty well in spirit, because when he gets wormholes to who knows where, from everyone's perspective, he is the first and only human that exists.

@daviddaugherty2816

2 ай бұрын

That is something I considered while watching, how this trope applies to a castaway like Creighton. Also, Scorpius is the only one of his kind and dealt with it by seeking vengeance for his very existence.