One of the biggest drawbacks of flash/flex is that the generated application is single threaded, so running CPU intensive tasks like parsing large responses will make the application freeze.
In some scenarios, it's better to stick with what you have access to if you're not in control of your server-side data source. Another alternative would be to write getter/setter wrapper to your XML object. XML is first class citizen in AS3.
Easy for programs to read (e4x) but annoying for us devs to write and modify. If you can, get a page of data that once received will kick off another request while the user can work with the data from pages that have already been loaded. Create the illusion of parallelism using serial techniques.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.