My favourite change was the zuko crew twist being the soldiers he stood up Some of the pacing didn’t work but then again i had some problems with the original so
I thought it was largely solid, maybe a 7/10. It felt like regardless of the outcome everyone involved had their heart in the right place. There were definitely some changes that I really liked, Zuko's crew's origin probably most notably though I also liked Azula's introduction (though definitely less than the original series). Honestly most of my complaints would come down to minor stuff that is understandable from a logistics standpoint, no Flopsy or the Unagi at Kyoshi Island among other things. I actually really liked combining a bunch of stuff into the stay in Omashu even if they arguably got rushed a bit in the process.
One thing that struck me as odd was how deadly serious Ozai was when sending Zuko to find the Avatar. In the animated series, I got the impression everyone believed the Avatar died, and Ozai was sending him on a wild goose chase.
Yeah, I got that impression too. It was told to him as a way of restoring his honour, but really Ozai never expected him to be able to do it, which was the entire point. It's really impactful on its own if you think about it - the only way he could come back is if he achieved this task that everyone basically thought was impossible.
@@aerialpunkin the LA ozai tells azula that zuko "did the impossible". i thought that implied the wild goose chase he sent him on in the animated show decently enough
yeah it was basically saying "when pigs fly!" notice how the moment there was a legitimate chance that zuko might succeed with the avatar being absolutely confirmed after koizilla he sent orders to cart zuko and iroh back home as prisoners.
I don't even believe that Ozai actually told Zuko to go and search the Avatar. I think that Zuko was banished and he then thought his father would have to restore his honour if he brings back the Avatar. He basically gaslights himself into thinking that this will be the thing that makes his family like him which is then even more tragic when they actually don't love him after he has "killed Aang".
wait what i feel like that entire substory was leading up to when zhao revealed that it was all just to make azula more determined. and that’s subtly foreshadowed throughout, like when tai lee and mei tell her it’s all just ozai playing games w her. ozai doesn’t actually care about zuko (he said in the last episode if he died then he’s just weak pretty much).
Seeing azula getting so angry and so upset so easily was strange coz og azula was always carm and composed which made her even scarier. Also it shows the comparison when she finally goes insane in the finale.
I was hoping someone would mention Azula. She is following the path of other terribly written female characters. We're told she's the best, but we don't feel it. And the lightning bending came to us way too early. We hadn't even seen all the damage she could do with regular fire or just as a person.
Also Iroh told zuko his eyes is fine but that takes away the symbolism of zuko scar , it made his vision blurry, it represents how he sees the world and his inner struggle
i like to believe shes like that at home in the fire nation talking to her father -- then she's stone cold composed in the later seasons when team aang meets her
This and the funeral were parts I actually enjoyed. I wish they just expanded on what was already there like they did with these two parts. Changing shit was so unnecessary. I was hoping for more of those vibes of expansion than going for changes
Oh yeah I agree. In the original series I always felt like something was missing with Zuko and his crew. Where they have a complicated relationship but he grows closer to them and they eventually respect him. But then once they get to the north pole they leave with Zhao and never return to the story. So this added another layer to their past. EDIT: Something that would've been unnecessary to the story but I think would've been sweet is in the original series Zuko's crew return at the end of Book 3 to assist Zuko and explained that they switched sides against the Fire Nation
I like the change. But my question is: Why would Ozai do that? It doesn't seem to fit his character. Plus, doesn't he still need a unit to sacrifice in his plan? I don't think he changed his plans, and that unit for them would be the best unit to sacrifice.
@@warrenharshaw7677right like I don’t think the 41st division survived. Which is a travesty bc he is a little boy who tried to talk reason to war mongers, but there was nothing he could have done or said to avoid his fate or that of the 41st division. I understand why people like the change but im a Tragedy Enjoyer.
and no offense to the actors, I assume it is their first time but their dialogue does not feel real based on their facial expressions if you know what I mean.
@nicolemartillo the writers didn't give them a lot to work with, and it's almost always cringy with child actors anyway. There's also another obstacle of the fact that there's so much green screen work.
@@JJ_5289 That's not much of an excuse though. There are plenty of scenes that are one to one recreations. The entire Blue Spirit portion and the water bending duel are exactly the same with some minor differences. Almost everything and everyone is correct lore wise. The mechanic and his son are written correctly with the secret Fire Nation contract, but it doesn't play nice because it takes away from the original Omashu events. The people making this knew what they were doing. The problem is they tried to rush some plot points and character reveals together where they don't fit. Wan Shi Tong and the Cave of Two Lovers are both out of place in season one, while Koh should have been held until the North Pole Spirit Oasis. As stated in the video, Hei Bai's plot was overshadowed by everything else in that episode. What they should have done is focus more on Sokka's perspective being stuck in the spirit world while Aang is trying to rescue him and the other villagers. The following episode could have focused on the storm and the Blue Spirit events as a two part episode.
I hate that they basically removed Katara's personality. She's mostly just a blank slate in the live-action show. Her energy, passion, and rage are all practically gone. And it's even weirder that they gave Sokka some of Katara's personality traits like the scene when he tells Katara to grow up? Animated Katara basically raised that man, she's the more mature one. I also didn't like that the Gaang don't get to spend much time together, in all the middle episodes they are split up so they don't get a lot of time to develop as a team so it's hard to care about them as a team.
Aang's lighthearted humour, RIP. Sokka's self indulgent humour, RIP. Katara's overbearing maternalism, RIP. These were features of characters, treated like a bug and and they decided to call pest control.
No boy talks about how Bumi and Kyoshi's anger towards Aang for running away is made even weirder by the fact that Aang didn't run away like he did in the original. He was planning on coming back. Netflix wanted to make Aang more likeable by removing any character flaws (like they did with Sokka) yet they doubled down on making him less likeable. I totally sympathized with 12-yr-old Aang in the original, but this adaptation made him less human.
@@zoeywyllie1411 One of my main gripes was how they took Aang and Roku's shine away multiple times. The best example is easily EP2 where they gave it to Kyoshi. ATLA isn't Aang's story. It's Roku's. It's Aang fixing Roku's mistakes. That's basically what the opening of Book 3 tells us when Roku outright apologizes to Aang for having put this burden on him. Aang is fighting Roku's war when he doesn't want to. And one of the first big steps Aang takes towards maturity and becoming the Avatar the world that Roku left needs is the Kyoshi Island episode. At first he's just bathing in the validation he receives. He came there for a selfish reason (riding giant koi fish), convinces the Island he's the Avatar, and then lets it go to his head and starts goofing around when they start worshipping him. It's only when the Fire Nation attacks that he matures and draws the Fire Nation away. And even that isn't enough for him. He looks back in sorrow when he sees the village in flames knowing he indirectly caused it, and that's what causes him to risk his own life to coerce the Unagi to douse the fire. The Unagi was almost like a metaphor for that episode. At first it represents Aang's immaturity. He endangers himself by clowning around with it purely to try and impress a few village girls and Katara. But in the finale of the episode, he endangers himself in order to use the Unagi for the greater good. It was a shift in mindset. The Unagi is simply a beast, like a force of nature that will do what it will do. But Aang's approach to it was different in the beginning than it was in the end. At first he risks his life for selfish fun. But by the end, he risks it to save an entire town. It's metaphor, even if unintentional, for basically the entire show. Aang went from a kid doing dangerous things for fun, for himself, to The Avatar who did dangerous things to save the world. All of that nuance is set in a 20 minute episode of a ''kids'' show. Meanwhile this hour long ''mature'' TV series wherein people get lit on fire in surprisingly graphic detail, tosses it out the window and has Kyoshi go ''Lol you really messed up coming here, now lemme show you how a true girlboss fixes things!'' before she just fixes all of Aang's problems, thus keeping him from having to mature and robbing him of the biggest first step of his journey. Thanks, Netflix. I hate it.
This is why I feel like writers these days are way too scared to create flawed, deep characters. I never once thought of Katara as “the angry woman”, I always felt like her anger was warranted and super reasonable. Katara has many deep emotions, she feels deep joy and love for others, she feels deep anger for what the fire nation did to her tribe, her entire family. I also want to say that it seems like the actress just doesn’t have the chops but it’s hard to draw where the line exactly is bc is it a skill issue or a writing issue?
tbf, she was like 14 when she did it and it was her first major show. I’ve seen her in Anne w and E and Beans, she did great! Lots of emotion as well. The writers, script supervisors and directors definitely messed it up more imo
@@mylesyuhThe actress didn’t state what exactly they wanted to change with Katara, just that there were ”gender issues that didn’t quite translate”. That take still baffles me, because I know no one, man, woman or in-between who has an issue with how Katara is portrayed in the original series.
@@TheShanicpower Not too many hiccups in katara's character from the original, but they definitely were present. Katara being motherly wasn't a necessary change, sokka being a boring comic relief wasn't a necessary change, aang being boring wasn't necessary. This new series just blatently sucks.
Sometimes bad acting is actually bad directing. I learned this from watching movie review channels. My point is there is a 3rd option besides bad writing or acting.
The Jet storyline getting shoved into Omashu was one of the most dubious decisions for me. The original show actually asks some hard questions like "is it ok to kill Fire Nation people even if they are civilians?" Edit: It is a morally complex question. The Fire Nation is occupying territory with their own civilians after killing Earth Kingdom civilians and pushing them off their land. The Fire Nation civilians in this case are literally colonizing conquered territory, thus while not taking part in violence themselves, they are contributing to the machine of Fire Nation conquest. Jet and his gang are guerrilla fighters using asymmetric tactics to fight the Fire Nation by any means available. The Jet episode is basically a microcosm of what would eventually become Republic City in the Legend of Korra. Jet's way would have had Earth Kingdom people kill or remove the colonizers and take back what is rightfully theirs. The path of reconciliation however leads to the Earth Kingdom people finding common ground with their former colonizers and forging something new from the best of both their cultures. Edit: Original Jet is a guerrilla fighter within Fire Nation occupied territory. The live action Jet is living within what is still an Earth Kingdom stronghold and committing terrorism against his own people and government for the "crime" of complacency. Live action Jet is simply not that complex or redeemable compared to the original. Edit: Also, these two episodes also really doesn't work for me because of the transitions between areas. Omashu appears to be completely self contained on a mountain top with only restricted access in and out. It really doesn't make any sense the way characters move between the city, the forested areas, and the caves.
This! It's one of my favorite episodes from book one because it got me thinking (on my first watchthrough, as a teenager) that maybe all the fire nation guys aren't "the bad guys" and everyone else just "the good guys". It made me question my own simplicity and my own racism and xenophobia. I just love it. Plus in the original show it also has the subtlety of the firenation guy from the Roku temple helping Aang a few episodes prior, so it adds that retrospective of "yeah they're not all bad guys"
I genuinely think that the original show is some of the most complex writing to ever be featured in a family-friendly series. Not only that, but you wouldn't necessarily make it more mature just by including more mature or risque subject matter. The original show knows exactly where it's living. It hits all the marks because it has an insanely robust world and assortment of characters. You would have to have an insanely good reinterpretation to change storylines and involve other themes, but I feel like the live action adaptation seems to misunderstand the original text, changes it, but ultimately doesn't replace or insert any other dramatic themes where the content was altered. For example, the dynamic between Sokka and the kyoshi Warriors is dramatically different. In the original he even ends up cross-dressing. In all of his presentation, he becomes distinctly feminine in the tradition of the culture, something he'd clearly find discomfort in, if not for the fact that he distinctly has respect for the abilities of the woman in this tribe. Not only that, but Suki acknowledges by joking and prodding at Sokka that he is stepping outside of his comfort zone to accommodate and see power in the way Suki's culture sees women as warriors. This kind of relationship and challenge of gender roles and the fact that Suki can see that Sokka is stepping outside of his comfortable gender expression essentially to adopt the symbol of power that kyoshi represents is profoundly mature. In the original text Sokka apologizes. I thought you were just girls But Suki remarks "I am a girl, but I'm a warrior too. In completely ignoring sokka's sexism and not treating the episode as an exploration in gender roles, the live action interpretation completely flattens this out into a sequence where Sokka just learns to hit harder and become more competent at being violent. There's no greater subtext. I would argue that Suki is absolutely just a one-dimensional tool to just facilitate Sokka getting stronger. It no longer becomes a back and forth between two characters and the expression of gender. There's no playfulness and prodding that brings Sokka and Suki closer in a very human way. What the live action show is missing is all of the humanity that happens when people with very different meet, and One of them is forced to reconcile with their worldview. This can't happen in the live action adaptation because Sokka is just insecure about not being strong enough and Suki only serves to facilitate his improvement, whereas the original show actually interrogated the relationship between gendered expectation and wasn't afraid to make Suki three dimensional.
I'm so glad you mentioned the change with Zuko's crew! That was the only genuine emotional punch I felt while watching the whole series. It gives Zuko a reason to resent his crew while also being protective of them and it gives the crew a VERY good reason to change their minds about him beyond just feeling sorry for him. Good change, good idea. Everything else, just watch the original.
I dunno, I do kind of agree, but I also felt in that moment that we were just letting Zuko off too easy for being a dick- oh, it's cool, he's allowed to be a dick to them bc he saved their lives. Like he's not the one with the problem, the lowly and almost entirely nameless crew is. Just felt like more of the default elitism that pervades fantasy and a ton of media in general; everyone has to be born politically important, supremely talented and destined for greatness...also I guess it takes a whole division to run a single ship?
@@Borgcow Fair, but that's a pervasive problem to this show and doesn't resolve the same issue from the animated series. In the animation, the crew changes their minds just because they feel sorry for him after Iroh tells them Zuko's backstory (and it's wild that they say they thought it was a 'training accident,' was the Fire Lord burning off half the prince's face not public knowledge? There were a lot of people at that agni kai! Seems like the kind of thing people would talk about!). At least this gives them a stronger reason to come around. The live-action has a problem with not letting Zuko be a true villain. They're too afraid of making him unsympathetic. They took the destruction of Kyoshi village away from him and just generally made him less threatening from the start. In the animation, he was a dick to the crew because he was just an angry, angsty teenager, and that worked well enough, but this is the only writing change that adds a little complexity to their relationship. I think it's less that he's allowed to be a dick because he saved their lives and more that the whole reason he's banished in the first place is because he stuck up for them and is reminded of that every day. Though admittedly it would have been nice if there had been a moment at the end where he made a decision in their best interest, like getting the ship out of danger instead of chasing Aang into the storm in the animated series.
The only part that made me roll my eyes at that scene was when the guy was like “but we are the 41st” like no shit uncle iroh just gave us all the back story lol some dialogue did ruin some moments for me
The one small change that probably no one else cared about is that we saw Suki without her makeup. I always loved the moment in Book 2 when Suki met Sokka and he didn't recognize her.
One of my least favorite things about the show is how often our main characters no longer make their own decisions. Instead of Aang running away, it was just bad timing. Instead of Katara choosing to break Aang out of the ice, it was a complete accident. Instead of deciding they should sneak into Omashu, Jet does it for them. Aang doesn't choose to save Kyoshi Island, Kyoshi literally forces him to. She's also the one that tells them he needs to go to the north pole, they don't decide on their own. It's really noticeable with Zuko. So many of his own decisions are now Iroh's. He spends so much of the show just doing what Iroh tells him. It's not 100% of course, but it is extremely noticeable for how often it happens. It makes the characters feel so much more passive in their own story.
Its really pissed me off when I saw how the retconned Aangs backstory, instead of running away, he got told to leave, by Gyatso of all people, and he just left right before the Fire Nation attacked from bad timing, him running away was a big part of his first arc in the show and they cant do that plotline at all or as good at least. A lot of things like this I saw just turned me off and stopped after Ep.1 lol, seems it didnt stop with 1
@@Dell-ol6hbcause they were recruits and Ozai has no room for weaklings. In his mind, he’s getting rid of both issues with his waste of a son and a “useless” regiment by bundling them together and banishing them to a corner of the world
@@RetroRadianceLight yea but he literally has a use for them, he was going to sacrifice them to win a battle why would he just give them to the son he sent on an impossible mission, he banished Zuko thinking that he would never find the Avatar so it’s not like he ever expected him to return, he would think they would be more useful to him as sacrificial pawns. I guess you could argue it was Iroh who did that not Ozai but idk it didn’t make much sense to me
Quite true. I think it's because the water movement is quite slow except maybe the last two episodes. I'd always imagined that waterbending is the hardest to do in live action, honestly.
As much as I love Kyushi and in the general sense enjoyed seeing her on screen more, I have a HUGE problem with her taking Roku spot! There was a reason why Roku was the one to mainly talk to Aang and not just because he was the Avatar before Aang but because HE LET the 100yr War happen. He let Firelord Sozin build up an army and then start a world domination plan. He has a personal part on what happened to the world once Roku died. One of the first things Roku says to Aang is how sorry he is that Aang got stuck with the fuck up Roku created and that Roku should’ve been more decisive when facing Fire Lord Sozin. Kyushi has no personal part on the world being where it is now. She had nothing to do with Fire Lord Sozin and nothing to do with the 100yr War. Also, Roku is Zuko’s Great Grandfather which played a part in helping Zuko understand himself later on.
I only hope that Kyoshi will be strong enough of an influence to make Aang actually kill Ozai instead of pulling "i'll remove your firebending" out of his ass
@@KoylTranebut that’s not Aang lol he’s the last air nomad it would have meant Osaka wins in the end because he loses what it means to be an air nomad.
The scene where Roku briefly embodies aang at the fire sages temple was one of the most badass scenes in the first season of the og if not one of the coolest in the whole series. I was like damn how awesome could that scene be in the live action that could be so amazing.. lol nope just cut it
@@mahamedyusuf686 I like this interpretation a lot. Genocide isn't just suppressing/killing a people group but their culture as well. If you read the avatar novels you see airbenders kill but at great cost to their spirit and connection to culture. Understandable that as the last one (and being 12 years old) aang is especially abhorred by killing
@@mahamedyusuf686 well duh, Aang's internal conflict in the season 3 was the struggle between his the responsibilities of Avatar and his morals as an airbender. And instead of making a choice, he got an easy way out.
Hakoda literally said sokka isnt cut out to lead men which enraged me fully. 1. Hakoda was ALWAYS proud of sokka. 2. What the hell leading was always his strength
While I agree on the show, the second one is just a no for me. Sokka has never been a good leader up until the very end. He was more lucky than anything, what he was good at however is improvising.
Also, instead of sounding disappointed, he’d encourage him, also how the F does that even make any sense when you’ve stripped the character from his arc and begin him as already the mature one when the sister was the mature leader???? Am I supposed to buy this sudden “i am trying to be a leader but I’m not there yet” when you begin the show showing him taking charge and already being a leader?? 😂😂😂😂
i wasn’t mad tbh, i think it will set up for a great character arc and kind of juxtaposes him and zuko with the whole disappointed father backstory (even tho it’s definitely not on the same level)
Some weird details that bugged me: 1. Why can aang fly without a glider but fall uncontrollably after being attacked. 2. Aang not learning waterbending at all 3. Katara just decides she is a master without really getting the training.
Yeah even in the OG I thought they gave her that title to early, but especially in this version. Yeah she’s good and has lots of promise but that doesn’t mean a master. Book 3 Katara that empties lakes would like to have a word with water splashes book 1 Katara.
In Episode one, Aang basically flew without a glider, sure it was no actual flying but it definetly felt like it... I didn't really liked Kataras introduction in Waterbending. One of the first things we saw in the og series was how powerful she could be, but here she attempted to pull a boat to them and somehow woke Aangs Airbubble up...
Yeah, he isn't Zaheer, to fly he had to lose all attachments and he literally couldn't do that. Korra is all about taking bending to it's evolution through tying the mental state to bending capabilities. They misunderstood that aang is supposed to be 12 and isn't ready for the avatar title FOR A REASON
@@jackwriter1908he was bringing about the buildings and using the air to propel himself But not a actually flying e.g... like Zaheer did if it makes sense The air was literally calm when Zaheer did it Aangs flying looked slightly more chaotic
I feel like they are treating bending like super powers instead of bending being an allegory for self acceptance and self development *Edit: when originally watching Avatar, it was the addition of Toph who is the perspective of raw power and liberation, that I felt is where the show ripened into its potential and maybe we will look back on this season like Buffy season 1 or sailor moon crystal season 1 and this will be the first pancake of the batch that doesn't not look appetizing but everything else is a beauty*
I feel like the writers really didn't know whether they were going to get a season 2, so they jammed as much stuff from the original that they wanted to do into season 1, even when it would have been better to save that stuff for season 2.
This was my take away as well. It felt like the writers wanted to throw as many moments fans would recognize and enjoy into season 1 because even a lukewarm response would be enough to get renewed: so, risking a lukewarm reception with too many bold omissions from the original wasn’t worth it to them. I get it, it’s unfortunate, but it gives me hope if they’re renewed they’ll feel more creative freedom
I agree, it felt a lot like watching Korra in that way where there are all these things scrunched together because the writers were confined to just one season
@epiclight858 I'm not saying Korra was bad, I loved it. But let's face it, season 2 had some serious issues XD Season one was generally good, I felt the ending was a little faster than it should have been but still solid. No complaints about season 3. As a whole, LoK was better than the live action shenanigans, just saying that's what it reminded me of
I hate that they basically removed Katara's personality. She's mostly just a blank slate in the live-action show. Her energy, passion, and rage are all practically gone. And it's even weirder that they gave Sokka some of Katara's personality traits like the scene when he tells Katara to grow up? Animated Katara basically raised that man, she's the more mature one. I also didn't like that the crew don't get to spend much time together, in all the middle episodes they are split up so they don't get a lot of time to develop as a team so it's hard to care about them as a team. *(I had to re-post this comment as it went away, please keep this comment)*
@dafiq01 I think the creators are back to making a new cartoon in the story's world after leaving this production in protest, so there's that at least!
One thing I find funny is how Zhao dies differently in all 3 versions. In the original, the Ocean Spirit dragged him into the water, where it’s presumed he drowned, but turns out he was in the Spirit World the whole time. In the Netflix version, Iroh just cooks him. And there was this weird third version I saw in a nightmare, where some Waterbenders ganged up on him and drowned him in a water bubble midair.
I hate avoiding the angry woman trope as a shield for what happened with Katara. She has reasons to be angry and to watch it come to a boil gradually in the series and then burn out in that moment felt so real. She holds it together for so long for everyone else.
Any real is your own projection especialy lookong how badly they did every other character its more likely be you projecting than they did somrhinxbright
I HATED the way they handled the sexism in the Northern Water Tribe. First it's not Paku telling Katara that Women are not allowed to fight, it's another women (which makes it worse in my opinion, because when the marginalized justify their oppression, it gives it more merit) and then we get a fake 'women empowerment' scene during the fight that is shot from above (forget the name of the angle) that is usually used to make the object or character appear smaller and weaker and then we get the women practically begging the big man to they be allowed to fight. Netflix literally had the women beg to be allowed to fight and somehow tried to sell the show as less sexist. Also Sukis character now only serves Sokkas understanding that he really is a worthy man (which again is more sexist, he is literally her whole focus point)
Yeah like Katara is a bit of an angry person, but she’s RIGHTEOUSLY angry. She has a hell of a lot to be mad about, but she uses it for good. She’s a survivor of genocide and a teenager who had to grow up early because her mother was murdered.
I actually liked that scene. Its more realistic and shows a problem in society, rather than a naive "smash the patriarchy" trope, where is only a "bad old white man" who is supressing all women. Also you didn't see male healers in both series. It doesn't seem they have a choice either.
@@HJohannes Yeah I mean patriarchy oppresses men as well, just in a different way. But I get you point, not sure I totally agree with it, but it is a good point
The fact that kattara can master bend after a few words from aang and cutting out her whole arc of being jealous of aangs water bending ability is crazy. She masters bending without the bulk of the training, and without anyone to actually teach her, making her feel like a weirdly infallible character. They essentially mary sue'd her, which is incredibly disappointing considering I'd argue the original Katara is one of the best, most well written female characters of all time.
@@SanaSardonyx They removed everyone's character development. They said no to Sokka learning that women could be as strong as men, they took away Kattara's jealousy of how Aang could waterbend better than her, they minimized Zuko's trauma, and made quick work of Aang's not wanting to bear the responsibility (of being the avatar). It's not even rushing the story but downright removed character development.
@@CookieMonster-ky1rb They destroyed everything that made Azula awesome. We wanted a confident, intelligent, sociopathic fire princess. Instead, we got insecure jealous tween.
Bro im so disappointed at aang and katara's relationship. Like there is ZERO chemistry between them. And why on earth did they bring the secret tunnels for season 1 when they weren't even going to use it for kataang but rather for a weird brother/sister thing?? Confused.
I can’t get over the door-mattification of Katara. If they were trying to avoid a sexist trope of the “emotional woman” they completely missed the mark because by taking away her anger and passion they left her with only meek and mild sadness or hope. Her character no longer has dimension and her lines feel robotic. She’s not a mother figure or a passionate leader who stands up for what she believes in anymore. I can forgive a lot of missteps they made with this show but I can’t forgive what they did to my girl
Yeah, the trope can be removed by changing the reaction of the characters around her and not making it THE joke. She wasn't just "emotional": she was stubborn, she got angry when she had to, she cared about things. Calling her just an "emotional woman" is much worse than what they did in the original.
Katara wasn't just emotional, she was a rebel. She hated arbitrary authority. This is why IMO they should have kept in the "Imprisoned" storyline, since it played a big role in establishing that side of her character.
Is that why they didn't let Katara be passionate in the show? There's no way right? I thought Katara in the original show is a great role model for girls. My most favourite moment is when she tells Aang before she fights Pakku, "I'm not doing this for you." So much strength and independence behind that statement.
I think with King Bumi being a jaded and unhappy king makes sense in a bubble but outside of that king bumi is a member of the white lotus and friend/ mentor to Aang and having him act the way he did not work for me or his character and also losing the reveal of who he to Aang and seeing his old friend from 100 years ago is so nice plus that hug is super wholesome and shows even a century later they are still good friends.
The wrap up of it felt jarring to me. That kind of instant and happy resolution after just seeing a whistle- then a time skip, felt like it belonged in 25 min episode cartoon. It doesn't work for a gritty live action, where you see real people brutally dying on screen, and the dude was literally trying to make the 12 year old protagonist end him to resolve his own depression from the unintentional betrayal 100 years ago when he was also a little kid, which was probably only a few weeks before for the protagonist.
Bumi and Kyoshi's anger towards Aang for running away is made even weirder by the fact that Aang *didn't* run away like he did in the original. He basically just took a ride on Appa with the intention of coming back, but ultimately wasn't able to due to the storm.
@@megroy6396 Yeah, so? The important takeaway at the end of the book is that Aang still needs to actually learn waterbending. If you expect an adaptation with a fraction of the original’s runtime to hit every single beat, you aren’t dealing with reality. The important thing to do in this situation is to hit the important beats. Since the elements of each book always referred not to Aang mastering that element, but to meeting his TEACHER of that element and helping them self-actualize, it makes perfect sense in a cut-down adaptation to focus in on the important thing - Katara’s journey to being able to teach Aang. After all, most of Aang’s bending progress in the original show happens off-screen, the episodes about Aang leveling up usually have much more to do with the philosophical, emotional, or spiritual side of things.
My favorite part was how this season was “about” Aang learning to water bend. And he didn’t bend water once. (Excluding the ocean spirit doing it through his body)
Well you see they didn't call it "Book 1: Water" this time. It's just...the first 8 episodes, "Season 1." Maybe he won't start learning earthbending until the start of season 3, crazy times!
He didn’t really start water bending until season two in the series either. He was bending a little by the end of season one but he had barely started learning, let alone a mastering it.
They did for a little bit, but not at all like in the animation. First episode katara learns from aang about the basics of bending, to relax and let go and shes able to float a football sized ball of water and i think thats it
@@nyphira Well I remember 2 occasions, one of them was also in the Kyoshi island. Later we probably have to assume that Katara keeps doing it offscreen, because she mentions to Aang that she learned almost everything she could from that scroll and that she even started experimenting with her bending, like those ice disks for example. Also live action is shorter, cgi is kinda expensive, so ofcourse they are going to cut unecessary things. Although the reason why Aaang is not practicing with her is still a bit weird for me. Maybe it is because they want to make Katara becoming Aang´s teacher a little more believable, because for me it made no sense in the animated series that Katara became Aang´s teacher even though they were learning together all the time.
@@MrDjgalasFor why Katara teaches Aang in the animated show: Aang was practicing and using other elements while Katara was, of course, always pushing herself with only using water. Plus (and mainly) during the time with Paku at the end of book 1 Aang is seen goofing off/not paying attention while Katara was focused and quickly became Paku's uncontested best student. Thus becoming much better than him and only increased the gap by always using water while Aang used Air and eventually earth too.
It felt like i watched a fanfiction script. The worst offender is katara being a master water bender with 0 training they legit went "Yes master katara"
Havent watched the live action so can't comment on that, however in the animated series it's also very rushed, shes basically a complete novice, then out of no where shes able to defeat a water bending master.
oh my gosh this annoyed me too! In the series atleast we see her in a lesson and training with other pupils! In the live action she received zero training and Paku was the most dry depiction of a master I have ever seen! Also... her grandmother hid the scroll from her all this time. Couldn't the grandmother have given her the scroll where she could practice as a kid or whatever? Of course while hiding and in complete secrecy for not been seen by firebenders. Like what even is this new storyline. It's so messy! Why did Gran Gran keep the scroll a secret? Why is Paku so dry? Why does Katara not have any passion behind her eyes? How is she suddenly a master?
@@pinecrustjuise the live action is like 10 times as rushed unfortunately In the original, she goes from untapped potential in ep 1 to pretty ok in ep 17 to a master waterbender after training under Pakku post fire nation attack on the North Pole. In the live action, she goes from can't bend much to pretty ok halfway through to a master waterbender with zero training in the North Pole. She also can't heal yet in the live action for some reason :/
Yea 😂😂😂 she just goes from being able to make a ball, not even moving it to being stronger than anyone in the Northern Tribe except Pakku... like wtf???
I feel like that moment when Master Pakku was like “you should’ve been focusing more on your training this whole time” without meaning to, actually pointed out one of the biggest story development flaws of the entire live action. Netflix was so focused on making sure they fit all the “fan favorite” stories into this first season that they completely left Aang to drown in the background with no emphasis, importance or drive to master his first major element whatsoever. Like. The first season in the OG is literally called “Water” and Aang at the end of the first season still doesn’t know how to waterbend. MAJOR fail in my opinion, like…what?
The lack of focus on Roku really undermines “the sin’s of the father” themes heavily woven into the Avatar universe. Kuruk deals with Yan Chen (spelling?) failings as an Avatar, Kyoshi with Kuruk’s, etc. Aang needs more of a relationship with Roku to understand how Roku’s failings helped build the world we see okay.
Wasn't it more like Yangchen left the world in such a good state that Kuruk had nothing serious to do so he turned mostly to working with the spirit world? I mean, at most U can say she did too good of a job for the earthly world, not really neglecting the spirit world but rather favouring the earthly world. Your point still stands tho
What they did with Roku was definitely criminal. Him and Aang both share the guilt of feeling responsible for the 100 year war, with Roku knowing he could have stopped it before it began and Aang being away for all those years. In a sense they are both trying to correct their mistakes and leaving that out and making Roku a comedian undermines that whole dynamic. Not to mention what we learn later about Roku and Zuko
@@smirglepapier531Yangchen left the world in a good state. At the beginning of his era Kuruk was the relaxed Avatar. And grew complacent. Which caused the Spirit world to be unbalanced. In his 2nd half of his era he was constantly in the Spirit world trying to fix his mistakes. While in the human world things were going wrong.Which Kyoshi would end up fixing.
@@RK-cj4ocno that's wrong yangchen left the MORTAL world in a good state not the SPIRIT world so kuruk had to basically neglect the mortal world to fix the spirit world that yangchen ignored and he dies trying kyoshi now has to fix the mortal world and the remainder of kuruks job
My favorite lines are Aang's "I like to play airball and eat banana cakes" and Azula just saying "I'm the best" a million times, like it's a description from a rpg character sheet instead of dialogue from a tv show.
@@MyTime1863 Q1 - Why is 'Leaves from the vine' sadder than Aang's discovery of the air nomads' fate, according to a 2022Jun poll? (In-universe reasons only.) They don't even use the g word to describe what happened to the air nomads. Cowards. Q2 'Leaves from the vines' is about a war criminal crying over another war criminal. How's it sad BEFORE Iroh fully defects? But even after Iroh defects, I don't see how it's sadder than Aang's reaction to air nomads. Or maybe the writing was bad because it's a kids' show which doesn't really dwell much on the g word. Idk. Notes: 1 Change 'war criminal' to 'unjust war aggressor' if need be. 2 Imagine you had relatives who met fates similar to the air nomads', but people were crying over leaves from the vine. Eg Uyghur, Cambodia, Rohingya, et al. More info: - p1w4Rr-XW
I was finally, SLOWLY, accepting this version because I was trying to find grace wherever I could give it, BUT when Katara was labeled "master" without truly earning it, my heart sank... she may have been practicing during the series, but there is so much lost in her journey by practically saying she 'got there on her own'. Thanks for the breakdown, glad I'm not the only one feeling this way.
I would make the counter argument that Toph also "got there on her own", but she had instructors - just not human ones. Katara doesn't have any comparable moments watching the tides for inspiration which would have been a good way to explore learning bending from the original sources.
She didn’t earn it? Why are we withholding this from Katara? She received the traditional waterbending training, she showed an ability to not just quickly pick up forms but to modify them (which demonstrates true mastery in a way merely perfect copying doesn’t, which is of course what eventually gives her the edge over Azula), impressively this was self-taught through the scroll, and the homeschool education was rigorously field-tested against fascists trying to kill her. Of course that boy referred to her as a master! She TRAVELED FROM ONE SIDE OF THE GLOBE TO THE OTHER, she survived multiple fights with flame-wielding fascists, she is the last living representative of an entire school of waterbending, she created new forms, she held her own against a “qualified” master, and she did all this based on dedication and skill we saw her acquire and teach to herself. Of course that wowed people who have spent their whole lives cowering behind walls. What on Earth other qualifications do you need? Or are we seriously shaming Katara for being the victim of a genocide and not having a living master to turn to, and having to settle for the written down instructions from deceased masters?
@@pantslesswrockI think people find this infallable because of the wording. It would have been fine to call her a "prodigy" or a talent, but the showrunners instead use the term "master". Which makes all the difference. This kind of treatment is given to toph in the animated series as well, toph is naturally gifted and didn't have proper masters, having only the badger moles, and she even had the handicap of blindness(which you could argue is a strength instead but that's not the point). But never in the show was toph called a master. She may have proclaimed herself to be the best earthbender of all time(which is true, she's a fucking badass) and others may have acknowledge her talent and strength, but no one ever calls her a master(she is called shifu by aang, which in this context means teacher more than master tho). By calling katara a master, it not only makes the term sort of lose it's meaning, but is, in my opinion, disrespectful to waterbending and katara herself. The fact that you can be called a master in waterbending after only like 2 weeks of progress makes it seem like waterbending isn't that much. Even tho it is repeatedly stressed how important waterbending is, and how much it is so much more than the martial side, it is the core of a whole culture, a whole discipline. It is not unbelievable that katara progressed so much in waterbending in a short amount of time due to her talent, What's unbelievable is that only this much can be considered the mark of a "master" to such a deep and profound art. And throughout the show, "mastery" of the bending, and "masters" in general are terms held in such high regard that suddenly using it in katara makes it just contradictory. I think this argument is just a misunderstanding that stemmed from lack of proper understanding and media literacy from both sides. Not that I'm saying I have a better understanding, this is all just my two cents, not trying to fight anybody.
Aang not learning any bending in the first season is like Harry Potter not learning any spells in the first movie, you don't notice it at first but it's kind of crazy the more you think about it
@TheDrover15 He... Literally learned spells, though? One of the scenes in the book and movie are them learning Wingardium Leviosa, and is the inciting incident for the troll problem that solidifies the group as the golden trio. Now him not USING magick is the issue. He barely casts a spell, but that slo makes sense. He's lived the life of a smuggle for all his life before that. He doesn't immediately think "I can use magick!" It makes sense that his mind immediately goes to the mundane instead of to magick, until Chamber and Azkaban, where magick starts to become more integral.
Exactly, Aang in the live action was just going on and on about being scared to be Avatar but Aang in the cartoon was very keen to learn Waterbending with Katara but in the Live Action they decide to just splash around in the water.
The Netflix version kinda felt like when you really enjoyed some restaurant food, so your mom tried really hard to recreate it for you, but she just doesn't have the tools and the spices and the formal training, so the end result is admittedly objectively worse, but you enjoy it out of love for what it's trying to do and trying to be.
I think you are saying your mums cooking tastes bad because someone else’s cooking tastes better. I don’t know anyone who would’ve expected a Netflix remake to be better than the original, that’s like expecting your mums dinner to be better than a 5 star restaurant. But that doesn’t mean the remake is bad, that’s your mothers cooking is going to make you vomit. Something can be enjoyable without having to be the best.
My feeling is that a lot of the small unnecessary changes undermine the pacing & themes. Everyone goes around saying their innermost motivations, which hampers the unpeeling of these things; ends up feeling like Ember Island Players' read on the events
Western writers failed English class. Remember when you'd see a Ryan Gosling or Tim Burton movie in class, and you were kinda expected to understand the tone of emotion based on what colours people wore and what was displayed on set on top of what the actors said or did?
One thing I’d like to point out is the subtle world building in the OG series. When katara & Sokka meet Aang; Aang sneezes and flies high up… this shocks Sokka! The reason this is important is because at first you might look at it like regular “cartoon logic” BUT Sokkas shock makes it clear that this is NOT a normal thing within this world. Sokka then doubts that Appa can fly… and then later tells Aang “HUMANS CANT FLY”… all of this makes the “YIP YIP” moment so much more exciting… ALSO this “fact” that (humans can’t fly); becomes important later in the Kyoshi island episode when Aang proves he’s an airbender. Sokkas sexism is another thing. When we get to the northern water tribe at the end of Book 1; we realize that Sokka isn’t just sexist for no reason… his whole culture is… he’s not just some kid who wants to be manly… this is how he saw things growing up but then realizes over time that his views are wrong and then grows from this throughout the story.
Exactly. The first episode of the OG series is a masterclass on show don't tell. Without any exposition we learn that waterbending is an ancient artform unique to their people, but it's nearly disappeared and is clearly not common anymore. We get great info on firebending and how it's not just throwing fire, it's energy that comes into the body from the breath and is then bent. We learn that zuko is a prince but he's been banished and his honor depends on capturing the avatar. We learn that the avatar is expected to be this 100year old super dangerous master of all elements and were surprised along with the world when it's a near harmless boy. We see the devastation the war has had on the southern water tribe and how they're just women and children and all their men are gone. We see the fear they have of the fire nation. I could go on and on, it's incredible. The live action series missed that entire lesson and instead gives us monologues explaining everything. Also one note, why would the firebenders attack at night. Their main goal is to ensure nobody escapes, so dawn would be the best time, since it's daylight so you can see better, and have all day to track any escaping airbenders, since you know, they can fly. Attacking in the dark just makes it super easy for an Airbender or ten to fly off into the pitch black mountains and escape. Also firebenders get their power from the sun, so a nighttime raid makes even less sense.
And sokkas sexism is doubly important because when he's defeated by the kyoshi warriors it humbles him that much harder. And shows his true growth accepting that these women can actually teach him a thing or two. Also I know him wearing the dress is played for comedic effect, and they probably didn't want to laugh at cross dressing. But it also showed his growth in being willing to put aside his pride and manliness in order to learn and grow as a warrior. And in the end he acknowledges that he's not dressing like a woman, he's dressing like a warrior and it's an honor to wear that outfit, not something to be embarrassed about.
The change to Sokka’s character should be criminal. I don’t understand how you can make an adaptation or remake of something and then change the characters traits that made the audience fall in love with them. If you are going to do that then call it something else:/ don’t call it ATLA. For me one of important teaching from the show was to show us that there is good in evil and there is evil in good.. Sokka character was a perfect example of this, this is a warrior who starts off thinking girls can’t be warriors but the more he travels, the more his way of thinking changed.. The perfect thing about it is that his evil is shown in a witty comedic way not a nasty hateful way.
I thought this was an improvement for sure, it made everything seem more personal between Zuko and his crew and it expanded upon Zuko and Iroh’s relationship which is amazing. Idk these scenes were just so great and made me tear up 😭
I also thought it was interesting to show Iroh and Ozai interacting. I'm hoping there will be more of that in season two. I want as much of the Fire Nation royal family dynamics as they'll give me .
My main problem is the over explaining on everything without the natural buildup. For example, the scenes in which Sokka was helping with the engineering stuff in the show and the people just blatantly telling him that he has the mind of an engineer takes everything away from his arc. In the source material, he does not come to this realisation until book 3 or 4. It’s the same with Aang. Everybody keeps explaining his character to him, things that he would not grow into until much later in the show. Seeing him making these long wise monologues to people around him makes him the central saviour throughout the show, like he’s a fully realised character with all the answers, when in reality he needed a lot of help and guidance from other people. The episode on king Bumi is one example. Where the original show had king Bumi trick Aang to teach him a lesson, the Netflix show has Bumi be a diabolical evil guy that Aang needs to morally correct.
Well said. I kept feeling that something was off about Aang, like he was almost a little arrogant, but I couldn't put my finger on why. This explains it.
there is no book 4 lol, and no sokka helps the engineer in season 1 and the engineer calls sokka a genius, and gives sokka credit for helping develop the war balloon design, but keep talking about a show you clearly don't remember well
@@danielschultz96 Most of the time when people refer to book 4 of avatar they are talking about everything past Day of black sun. Since that episode was meant as a finale before the series took a break for half a year before airing the real rest of the season. Hence "book 4" for the 4th season.
This right here. The original is an easy inclusion in a very small list of animated series that could be easily argued are among the best ever. This version is extremely adequate. I didn't hate it by any means but it's just fine.
That's how I feel about it. If I had never seen the cartoon and had nothing to compare it to, I would think this show was fine. Just... fine. I wouldn't hate it, but I wouldn't become a lifelong fan of Avatar either. I'd probably never think about it again after a week or two. But since I did see the cartoon and am actively comparing it to the live action show... I really don't like it. A handful of changes are good, and some of the actors are spot on like Zuko and Ozai, but a lot of the performances are not good, the dialogue is almost always totally unnatural, and a lot of the changes just make no sense. They also just RUINED Katara. My god, they did her character so dirty.
The problem with this show is they fix problems that weren’t actually problems, like Sokka’s sexism, which they eliminate, but there’s a whole arc about him being humbled and learning he isn’t that guy. It would be one thing if he didn’t change his perspective in the original show over time, and another if his sexism received a positive response from other characters, but it is constantly challenged throughout the show and is a huge character growth arc, not only for him but for katara. He starts out as an immature boy and grows as a person as he meets incredible, capable women in the show like suki. His sexism is also a huge catalyst to the plot. They literally never would have met aang if he hadn’t made katara upset. It could have been an awesome opportunity to make sokka a role model for how he humbles himself and changes his perspective as he learns his sexist beliefs are wrong- something our hard-headed political atmosphere really needed to see. Missed opportunity there.
His sexist nature came because of the Southern Water tribe having the men be hunter's, gathers and providers while the women kept the home front; it not necessarily being something malicious but a mentality he was raised with leading him to think women in combat was a wasted effort. Hence why I felt Sokka sexism was integral to his character development which was shown in how supportive he was of Katara when she faced against the water bending tribe's master showing her how far he'd come since his encounter with the Kyoshi warriors. They basically butchered his character arc.
One thing I found annoying bout this 'removing sexism' during kyoshi island is that they basically swung the pendulum to the other-side of the spectrum. Having Suki basically be a horny girl, that's never seen a guy before... Like this doesn't make it any better...? Like you said, there was great opportunity to show changes in a character, and this really wasn't it.
I think what's so cool about Roku being the mentor is because he was the most recent avatar AND a fire bender of all things. Absolutely no shade towards Kyoshi though. I'm of the opinion that we should have an animated Kyoshi series by now. I'm tired of things getting live action remakes. The world of avatar is so incredibly rich. It's wild that all we got is Legend of Korra while there is an entire lineage of old avatars and potentially new avatars post Korra to tell stories about
Have you read the kyoshi books yet? There's 2 of them and there's freaking GOOD, imo they nail the mystique in the worldbuilding that made me such a fan of avatar in the first place
Roku is cool because he has connections to lots of people in the series, he is zukos great grandfather, he learned with gyatso. He is there for a reason as he is much more sympathetic to aang's plights like love and killing than someone like kyoshi
Roku trying to guide Aang at this time is also significant because he wasn't able to prevent the war from happening and he feels a lot of guilt as a result of that. It means he's essentially helping Aang carry the heavy burden he left him with and in the process atone for his mistakes
So- I get that the show is trying to give us an insecure “little-sister” kind of Katara to show some growth and self-confidence as her bending ability progresses… but I think the Netflix showrunners missed the point on why Katara is so iconic. In the cartoon… Katara was brave, compassionate, diplomatic, shamelessly vocal about what she believed in, and unbelievably resourceful alongside her bending abilities, rather than because of them. This was a girl who set the ATLA story into motion after vocally putting her brothers small-minded sexism in its place, and had an iceberg not been discovered, I like to believe fed-up Katara would’ve packed her bags and left home (since she’s GranGran’s granddaughter after all) and canoed her way to the NWT with to finally find a waterbending master and help end this war. Instead… all I’m seeing is the gentle, nurturing soul that Katara only chose to be from the trauma of losing her mom, and the 🥺 faces are kind of redundant. She needs a stronger presence in this series.
As a woman who looked up to Katara growing up, I can't imagine why they would ever make Katara insecure little sister. She was supposed to be the replacement for their mother as much as Sokka was for their father.
I feel like they are giving Katara's parental role to Sokka in this series. And I dont like it, its a big part of her character as much as "the big brother who actually depends on his little sister" is a big part of Sokkas character. And as a girl for whom Katara has been a role model, seeing her watered down like this and showed into the polite "goody-two shoes" trope the fandom often criticizes her for is sad. She is toothless in the netflix show and she deserved better
Best part of ATLA writing Katara was that it felt like, they were writing an actual girl as one of the main characters. She had flaws, she was strong but she wasn’t no Mary Sue who was automatically a master bender, she learned, she failed and there was a system that worked against her growth both in her culture, and even her family. She still acts like a girl too, and it’s shown that she had to take on a mother role for Sokka which shaped her personality quite a lot. She’s still a tween girl, she has crushes, she likes doing her hair a certain way, they steered clear of the “Not like other girls” that other shows do.But she’s also strong willed, she isn’t afraid to do what she believes, the prison scene in s1 shows this a lot itself.
Did you notice that despite them not including Roku telling Aang not to show emotion on his face when facing Koh, Aang was expressionless while talking to him?
I HATEDDDD this. It defeated the whole purpose of that scene and interaction in the first place. Same goes with Sokkas interactions with Suki and Yue, they rushed the shit of their relationship. We are supposed to assume Yue and Sokka love each other after she showed him how to make a dessert??
What disappointed me most was the lack of Zuko saying HONOUR. In every scene with Zuko, me and my friends were sitting on the tip of our seats begging for JUST ONE TIME ZUKO SAYING HIS MOST FAMOUS LINE but no, not once does he say it... They made surw the cabbage man had his epic moment, so why not Zuko too?
It's netflix...... Written for "moden audiances" Such concepts as honor are "problematic..." For the same reason they had to make the allresdy intellijrnt and powerfull azula even more so Dumbdown zahou to lift her up... Make katara a superboss master (also self thought in absurd speed etc etc) For the same reason they had to make boomi a corrupt king Cuz it's the avatar teaching HIM a lesson.... Should i go on...
I don't think they want to take that away from the og. I think they wanted to do that to respect the og show. In the live action, "destiny" is his replaced word. The live action is meant to be different from the og, like a tribute.
I haven't finished the series yet, but I noticed "tell, don't show" from the very first moment Aang just tells the camera "I don't want to be the Avatar." And like, looking back, the show did a lot with shorter episodes. A lot of character beats are handled very quickly within cartoon episode limitations. It's the same dialogue, Aang's surprised face, and a musical flourish, and you know everything you need to know. The show drags it out into exposition where they have him tell us how he feels instead of just showing it, and it definitely set my expectations lower. I agree that the bending looks great, and I'm okay with the grimmer tone, but I do feel like their obligation to include some funny moments, like Sokka trying to rally the kids at the village, just make that tonal shift look really awkward sometimes.
IMO the writers just wrote really cringy jokes. There's hundreds of grim/adult themed movies and shows that are absolutely hilarious. Also, the tell don't show part was such a waste of the limited time they had. You can show a multitude of feelings/motivations in just a single action or expression and they completely wasted that opportunity.
The idea behind it is he's talking to Appa, his best friend. Was it great? No, but it is plausable for him to be venting his emotions. How would you show this and not tell?
@@autoliny6865 the best way would be to more-or-less copy a bit of the flashback from 'The Storm'. Show Aang playing Airball or showing off the air scooter with the other kids, and then have him get pulled away to be told he's the avatar. The next day, Aang wants to go play with the other kids, but he isn't allowed because he has to train, or the kids won't play with him because he's the avatar so it's not fair. It would take up some.more runtime so they'd have to shave some other parts down, but that's probably the easiest way to show how being the Avatar negatively affects Aang.
@@matthewpelletier6900 that's exactly what they did in the animation. Sounded pretty easy to redo in the liva action. Especially since they spent a lot of time with him flying around in the intro
There's this weird trend that's been happening for the last few years. Media literacy is kind of dying in mainstream media. No one's aloud to have flaws or meaningful character development. The worst thing for me is that they never have the balls to talk about darker subjects with any kind of maturity. I think the weirdest part about this trend is that the live action remakes feel more childish. And so much of the animation that's come out over the last few years feel more mature. For some reason animation now a days feels more real and athletic. Rather than live action which is progressively feeling more fake and only interested in being as cheap as possible. And it still blows me away every time I hear someone argue that animation is just for kids.
Literally yes! I couldn’t really put into words why I’ve overall hated live action but love animation so much and I think it’s precisely because the toned town tip-toeing that live action does nowadays makes it feel WAY more base-level in writing and character development than many animations
I’m blown away that they chose to ‘play it safe’ and take away Sokka’s sexism. It was an integral part of his development in the series, and while it’s not the most politically correct trait, we love him despite it because he *grows* from it, and his relationship with Suki actually facilitates that and is more meaningful because of it. To shy away from the very real, ‘darker’ aspects of character’s personalities because show runners are afraid of criticism is stupid. What makes a character interesting to watch is their progression and their flaws. Nobody wants a cookie cutter paragon of moral virtue.
animation is goated lol i think they can get away with deeper messages and themes because it's expected out of children's media to teach a lesson at the end. plus, most adults aren't watching cartoons since it isn't as mainstream so the annoying ones can't go complain on twitter after lmao
That last line about it feeling like a first or second draft hits right on the nose. This feels like somebody took a first stabbed at this trying to weave these plotlines together , didn't really worry too much about the dialogue at this point, and treated exposition dumps more like notes for themselves for later. But then someone just took it from them and said "there's no time we've got to run with this" and that's what we got.
2 things that made me go 😬 immediately in the first episode 1. "But, I know who I am. I like to play airball and eat banana cakes and goof off with my friends!" 2. "There's a reason I'm the only waterbender left in the village...... they've killed all the others" Like, oh my god, have you _heard_ of subtlety? I get you need to have a bit of exposition for the people who haven't seen the original (why? they should just go watch it... anyways), but Jesus, you could have just like a little subtlety, just a wee lil bit
The original show didn't have an "originaler" show to point to when it comes to bearing the weight of good writing. There was no resource to point people towards when it came to a character's personality, and even then the writers showed restraint and let the characters naturally express who they were over the course of many episodes instead of just... telling us in a line of dialogue... I don't hate this show yet (i'm on epsiode 5 rn, so we'll see how i'll be feeling by 8), but it feels like it has 0 confidence on the source material sometimes.
the writing and script is so bad… it’s so childish, quirky, riverdale-y. y’all know what i’m talking about. over time the characters did grow on me and i was able to suspend disbelief long enough to where the writing didn’t bother me, but i still have a lot of 😬 cringe moments lol. now it’s just turned funny cuz whenever Aang looks adjacent to the camera with that little concerned/self realization face and delivers the most corny ass line makes me laughhhh edit: not a hater btw, it’s so beautiful and i actually enjoy watching! i’m always this critical by the way, it’s very weird to me how they want to make this a “grown up” show by showcasing more violence, moodiness, and awe striking scenes.. yet somehow it lacks all the bite and edge the animation had? again, riverdale-y, Netflix tries to apply the same formula to everything and it’s getting extremely repetitive
They definitely had a "Tell-Don't-Show" problem, as if they didn't trust the audience of this "mature, adult" series to understand the same beats as the "kids'" version.
I have no interest in seeing the original...Ofcourse any series or movie that has originated from any popular books or comics or animation should make it with think8ng that people who are going to watch it have not seen the previous original version and go from there. Dont assume.
One minor thing that peeved me off was that Katara and Sokka get kidnapped by Koh and then Aang just... pops to the Fire Nation? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't remember the village feeling close to the Fire Nation on the cartoon. It's similar vibes to The Witcher with the world feeling really small because travel times just don't exist
Travel times start squishing and expanding dramatically to fit the plot even in the OG animated series. Appa does not cover the same distances temporally or geographically every episode they're on his back
Given when the episode takes place in the original, I'm pretty you can assume the island and the village are two of the closer points between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. It's still a day's journey away, but reasonably believable Aang would be near the end of the fire nation archipelago, which helps explain how Zhou is able to have a blockade where he does as it'd probably raise far too many questions if his ships were more internal to Fire Nation waters. As for the live action, I dunno, there's too many things crammed together. I just pulled up a map to double check the geography and the first image result I got actually showed the path they took over the 3 books, and it does indicate this interpretation is valid (without doing anything more, I'm not sure what the source of the image is, so I don't know how official it is).
Netflix is really good at being bad at writing female characters, they're concerned with not making them girl-ish that they turn them. into Robots. the original cartoon has one of the best writing of female characters in any media. I hate how in the end they turned the kind, caring motherly character into this girl boss trope who doesn't need a master to learn water bending when her initial motivation was to find one and they turned the actual girl boss in the show into this whiny cry baby the other thing I hate about this is the Time, it feels like the whole thing took place in a day or two, overall it's 4/10 for me and that's for Zuko's crew
Can't get it out of my mind how Katara cringly stated she's her own master ........ f*ck you Netflix I also see people making excuses for it like saying s*** like she's a prodigy blah blah blah and in the cartoon she didn't learn anything from paku as well she was already master of water bending blah blah blah they only stayed in the north for a day blah blah blah. STFU and watch the cartoon
My problem with nearly every modern story/retelling, is that there isn't much "Ma"; negative space. In the original ATLA story, the "plot" took a backseat, and there weren't a lot of things happening just for the sake of moving the plot along. Most of the original ATLA's run time was a lot of meaningful nothingness; characters were built and broken, cultures, ideologies, philosophies were explored, inter-personal dynamics were organically pulled apart and mended back together. This worked because there was so much "downtime". ATLA was a character-driven story, and that meant that the characters themselves (including and especially the protagonists) were the main sources of drama and antagonism. Sure, there were forces outside of the gaang that forced their hand at times, but ultimately, something like the final fight with Ozai will never be as memorable as Katara deciding to spare the life of the firebender who ruined her life, Zuko's redemption, Iroh mourning his child, or even Mai and Ty Lee turning on Azula, etc. ATLA is at it's best when it's characters' **flaws** are the the forefront, and their conflict is within. ATLA is relatable because, try as they might, no one is a saint, and often, the harder we try to do "better", the more we fuck up. ATLA then was largely a story of "letting go" capitalized by it's many moments of low-stakes adventure, and solemn reflection.
Sooo, basically a coming-of-age tale of young heroes told with heart and genuine emotional growth both intra and interpersonally against the fantastical backdrop of a war-torn world filled with relatable problems and relationships that eventually come to center around the the ethics of power, all the while juggling deeper philosophical queries of destiny and free will as our heroes grapple with moral dilemmas that emphasize the possibility of change and redemption?
It is a wild trend that has been in modern movies for far too long. Writers seem to not be able to look at the fact that they are creating not a book but a whole dialogue for characters that use more than just words to convey emotions. So we get a bizarre 'tell everything & show nothing' that would make more sense in radio, if it has a place at all.
@@yoonahkang7384 Right, because people being torched alive in relatively graphic detail like this show is trying to be a more woke Gen Z version of Game of Thrones didn't already do that.
@@yoonahkang7384 Except that the animated show is often subtle. Making the live action more subtle would be making it more similar to the animated series, not different from.
I feel they didn't give us enough time with the characters. We got to the north pole and suddenly Katara is able to fight Paku and is viewed as skilled by the water benders, after only having an active role in four episodes. I think they should use more episodes with shorter runtimes so spread out the plot. It would give us a greater sense of time and allow for more small training moments. Hell, they could dial back the graphics a bit to allow for budget for more episodes.
I’m kind of glad they didn’t do the whole “Gran Gran was Pakku’s Ex” and thats why she left the North…it would have been too much (it was too much in the animated series already). I kind of liked how they changed it in the live action. But I agree everything was rushed in terms of character development. It’s tough when you have to fit 20 animated episodes into 8 live action episodes.
Or focus less on exposition dump and more on character development! You don’t always need a monologue to make a point and tell a story. Images or knowing looks can tell a lot
Just an FYI, he's deleting comments. The top comments that complained about this show all got deleted. Idk why. And he keeps doing this alternatively. Yours will be next. The censorship is crazy.
Changing the structure of the story beats effects character development and relationships that were so beautifully captured all those years ago, and the show owes it to the audience to deliver on that front with the timeline changes.
Love that they used ghost in the shell type of music for Kyoshi's scene where she channels her "ghost" into Aang as a "shell", a very powerful ghost in the shell.
thats exactly what i thought, even despite the not matching character tropes and other aspects, just the acting of the actors alone i cannot get past. like it literally just felt like im watching some mediocre soap opera sitcom level acting with fancy special effects, it's so off lol...like the amount of times characters just awkwardly STAND THERE (especially katara) its like the left the wrong cuts in? idk but the acting is not it
Just the script and directing, actors were fine... I noticed the same thing when watching phantom menace, nothing wrong with the actors in that movie but still has the same feel.
I mean, a lot of her (and Sokka's) emotions are fully understandable. She gets to be angry at constant belittlement, upset over the tragedy of her mom, and live through the teenage drama of her travels. I don't remember feeling that her emotions were misplaced or over the top--there was no 'woman is overly emotional because woman.' She acted pretty normal, if you ask me.
The best way I can put this adaptation, is that it feels like a puzzle that was put together wrong but is still holding together. There’s some parts that look really interesting, but a lot of it is kind of just “ok well, did you need to switch that around or are you just trying really hard to be creative?” Especially changing a lot of lines like you said just hit really, really well.
to me it comes off like they fed an AI prompt to compress the first season of ATLA into 8 episodes, and this is what it spat out. some things are shuffled in a way which is 'logical' but devoid of consideration for things like emotional context, like he mentions lines being in the wrong place, or separated too far from their original scenes.
@@Hugsloth as someone quoted before, "It's as if the writers and directors received a summarized explanation of the show and made that the meat and potatoes"
Besides the "Zuko rescued his crew thing" there is one other seemingly small change that I really appreciated: the fact that Katara tried to help her mother by attempting to waterbend. In this version, she made the situation worse and directly caused and wittnessed her mothers death. This gives her much more reason to be so massively traumatised by the event than in the original series.
I thought it was more of them showing that it didn’t matter if she went back and changed her actions, her mother would’ve still died so it’s time to stop blaming yourself for inaction and forgive yourself - type of thing. At least that’s what I thought when I saw it
7:19 they should’ve mixed the Jet episode with that forest episode. Fire nation burned the forest down so jet wants revenge and by taking down the fire nation camp sacrifices the village. Meanwhile Aang solves the angry spirit problem. It would’ve been perfect
You didn't like how Jet and Katara were suddenly outside the city with the firebender without any explanation of how they left or how they got back in?
Oh dang that would have been a great idea! I think the fact that Jet's freedom fighters being domestic terrorists was a good way to do him. But yeah no having him in the forest episode would have fit better with the original series, and also would have made the two episodes more solid.
What I thought was a strange writing choice was how they consistently removed any mysteries that had existed in the original. We're shown that the air benders are wiped out, even the characters are told about the genocide beforehand. When Bumi is introduced it's immediately stated who he is. There's no later reveal of who he is. So Aang ends up going through the trials already knowing it's him. The only case where I felt they kept a sense of mystery was the episode where Azula is introduced, and she's revealed as soon as the plot against the firelord fails
My main issue is the way they changed Iroh. Both learning about his atrocious crimes early on and revealing Lu Ten way too early. The original episode where they reveal Lu Ten drew its power from the reveal of his son and this moment of vulnerability from Iroh that we hadn't really seen before. A good friend of mine pointed out it's like watching your parents cry for the first time. You dont know what to do, and suddenly you might cry as well. By introducing this vulnerability so early they've robbed that moment of its power. Also, it was important that we see Iroh as a silly and goofy father figure before we saw him as the general, which they also didnt do. Them having the earthbenders reveal his crimes so early also robs that scene of its moment, as he cant beat up or escape from the earthbenders now or else hes proving them right to the audience, especially since hes not very silly so this would be the first time we see him being strong and powerful to escape. They made it so we still dont know how strong he is, we do know his awful crimes before we get to like him, and we know about his son too early. We cant like him because of his son, we need to like him first and then add Lu Ten into it.
I agree. During the beginning of the (original) show he was kind of more just laid back and going with Zuko while offering him bits of helpful and meaningful advice here and there, but in the live action he's way too pushy, being all like "well what about this" and "what'll happen if you do this huh" which I don't personally like. I think that should be saved for Ba Sing Se, where Iroh really does confront Zuko about his decisions and desires. I also think the dynamic between Zuko and Zhao and Iroh is all out of whack. Like, they make Zuko not that impulsive and hotheaded??? That's part of his whole character arc! And instead of being this egotistical impulsive guy, they made Zhao a calm, collected, and honestly somewhat charismatic guy??? Like ??? Those are the main things about the live action show that I don't like.
I mean, they literally do the same thing in the animation (it's episode 7 of season 1). They just more explicitly point out the consequences of his actions which fits perfectly with how they are treating the tone of the war in this adaptation. Hell, I thought they made Iroh too amicable in this season if anything given his conversations with Aang. We don't really get to see Iroh being a protagonist in the animation until Lake Laogai when he tells Zuko to give up on chasing the Avatar. Even in the Chase, he gives a side eye to the Toph when he notices she's part of the Gaang, giving off the feeling that if Azula wasn't about to murder him he'd probably help Zuko fight them. He's literally fine with Zhao conquering the Northern Water tribe in the show too, he's just against Zhao killing the moon spirit. Y'all are too forgiving of Iroh due to his character arc. The man's literally a war criminal.
They mentioned Lu Ten in book 1 in the last few episodes. Iroh quite literally stated: "After my son died, I began treating you like my own" In this adaptation we actually see those scenes. From Iroh mourning his loss and then partaking on Zuko's journey. Really, I find it rather weird that someone doesn't like this change. But I suppose that is how humans work, opinions can differ.
The best comparison I've seen so far is that the writing quality was like a sine wave, going from legit great to terrible and back again between scenes sometimes. Bizarre.
It kinda felt to me like you could see where multiple writers were involved. And it feels like a lot of the exposition stuff only did have one draft or something. Writing certainly could have used more drafts.
This whole season was a sine wave. On average it was better than ok, but there were lots of 1/10 moments and lots of 10/10 moments (and everything in between)
The impression I get from Netflix shows is that Nettlix assumes people are watching their shows while scrolling social media or doing something else and thats why they keep having characters explain out loud what theyre doing or feeling...So people can follow the show without having to actually pay attention
I just finished it yesterday. Everything on the screen is honestly great, meaning that if you mute it and don't use subtitles, this looks like a 10/10 show. The music was fine too, I guess. But the writing, OMG. Foreshadowing? How about telling ahead of time instead? Here's some Azula sidekick lines for next season: If Azula isn't careful, this path could lead her to madness. And next season: Azula!! This is the path to madness! And final season: This is my sister Azula, but she has fallen to madness...
What surprised me the most was the demeanor uncle Iroh had towards the earth benders that aprehended him when one of them confronted him about the things he did in the war (the soldier lost his brother) and Iroh says something like: "thats how war is" completely unlike what I would imagine considering he lost his son in that war. Am I overthinking this?
No, I was taken aback by that as well, considering his backstory. He completely changed his stance on war after his son's death, so him coldly affirming that "it's war" is so weird to me.
Well since he later on also said: we all lost enough already...i think it was just situational amd Iroh said that not for himself, but to make others feel less shitty. Basicaly saying "iam not blaming you"
The reason for that is that you think of Iroh as a good guy, because in the cartoon that is all we ever see of him. The live action is for a more adult audience. And his response is a very normal response for veterans who did not agree what they fought for. But still support their country. It is very realistic. But very non Hollywood.
@@RK-cj4oc I understand Iroh isn't a "good guy", the animated show didn't try to say he was either. I understand he has flaws but he tries to grasp at hope by helping others who were hurt by him whether directly or indirectly because of his actions.
Your video sums up my thougts pretty well. The biggest weaknesses in my book are the exposition dumb and the lack of internal development. Also I kinda want to add my thoughts ablut the set and costum design. I really liked the vibes and feelings of cities and the explored places. The clothing, armour and weapons are looking good and also functional and cared for, most of the time. The only exceptions are the warer tribes clothes, which are way to thin for staying alive and the fake furr looked kinda off. I also know that this focus is niche but important for my self as a living historian and history student with a focus on material culture.
Not really Iroh told zuko his eyes is fine but that takes away the symbolism of zuko scar , it made his vision blurry, it represents how he sees the world and his inner struggle. The make up is bad , he still has his eye brow
@@curtiszyri think that's a little nit-picky on your part. I agree Zuko was the best but he also suffers from the same exposition problem as everyone else and I hate how his reason for capturing the avatar is "glory" and not "honor", what a strange decision.
Honestly the live action remake does not justify its existence at all. I see no reason to even watch it when the original, far superior masterpiece exists.
@@JayJay5244 Comparing it to the cartoon is never going to yield good results. I think the cartoon is brilliant but you will never have a good time when holding it to that medium. the OG had 20+ episodes to explore the arcs this doesn't. glass half full at least for me is the way to view the netflix live action imo
Hakoda's change may have been probably the most unforgivable - the ENTIRE point of Sokka's Arc is that he feels he cannot live up to the man his dad was, and the resolution of this comes from realising his Dad was ALWAYS proud of him and that Sokka doesn't need to compare himself to him (Hakoda) because he has already accomplished great things in his own right and has become his own man. The show just throws that all away - I love the live action now but this just hurts.
I was waiting for you to mention it. The First season is about water in the series. Katara learning water bending. Ang having talent for water bending. Both of them learning together. Ang learning water bending from Master Pakku. Katara proving herself and then improving vastly. Becoming the teacher of Katara.
And then Aang won’t waterbend until the finale of Book 2. We’ll be gaslit the whole way through with Sokka telling a guy named Audience Surrogate, “Do you seriously think the Avatar isn’t training to use these elements as things go along with the Comet coming? That would be ridiculous.”
Sokka narrating: "Katara taught Aang waterbending. It was intence and a little scary, but I do have to admit that I got a little jealous * *describes what would be a fun episode on its own* *" The visuals: Katara and Aang just relaxing near a river.
This is pretty much exactly how I felt about it. Have a few additional thoughts: Sokka & Suki: If I'm remembering the original correctly, Sokka puts on the makeup as part of the training & accepting the Kyoshi Warrior way of life. The live action instead has Suki remove her makeup, representing ??? - it felt like her entering his world (which does fit with Suki & the Kyoshi Warriors leaving the island later) rather than Sokka entering hers. The Waterbending Scroll: I was hoping that the scroll was something Gran-Gran took from Pakku when she left, but I don't think they ever used that connection. Bumi: The changes fit the altered tone, but it's such a radical departure & a complete 180 change to his role in the story that it still doesn't work for me. Also, he reminds me way too much of Count Olaf in this, to the point that I wonder if Netflix re-used the prosthetics & make-up
In Korra, Aang had named one of his children after Bumi. Imagine seeing the live action Bumi and thinking, oh yeah Im gonna name my kid after this asshole lmao
@@DrGonzz LMFAOOO. Seriously though, why did they make Bumi like that? The change was SO unnecessary and wrong. Like OBVIOUSLY Aang ALREADY feels guilty for abandoning the world, (well in this case, coincidentally taking appa for a walk and then getting caught in a storm), why did his childhood friend turn into a character that was so unnecessarily evil? xd
@@lildjay480um, what? They are clearly building up to it? That’s why they included the owl librarian but didn’t press the comet countdown timer for the heroes. They wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of making a CGI owlibrarian if they weren’t gonna save money by reusing it the next season.
I dunno. Zhao got his knowledge of the Moon Spirit from fire nation sources instead of The Library… Definitely feels like the library will be written out. I’m filled with dread…
I HATED how they handled azula! the whole impact of her character is her being presented as a perfect cunning manipulator under control and we slowly start seeing her spiral, but here they made her unhinged and jealous since the first scene, she lost all of what made her character so terrifying yet interesting
@@eyosyastebeje9555 ..... im convinced u people are npc bots that get triggered every-time someone criticizes this shitty show and go to default bs mode without actually haven watched the show yourself.
Lu Ten's funeral was such a powerful and perfect scene, Zuko giving Iroh Lu Ten's medal then sitting beside him just silently comforting him as the camera pans over to Iroh who's mouth starts to quiver as tears fall out of his eyes. this scene genuinely made me cry and I'm not ashamed to admit that. while I think Iroh was too serious and harsh that doesn't mean he wasn't a bad character in this.
This is the first adaptation where I like the new things that they added, but the things that they changed/tweaked that were already in the show are absolute shit. How can you write that Iroh and Zuko moment at Lu Ten's funeral but also think that it is a good idea that Aang never waterbends in the season.
I think they skipped it to have a reason for Team Avatar having an extended stay at the North Pole between season 1 and 2. Now they can easily have Aang stay there for 6+ months to learn waterbending, and help them rebuild.
I think the writers just didn't know the things they changed and added were good or bad. So they mixed all together like a chemist experiment and see what would be our reaction, so that hopefully they improved from our complaints
I imagine they didn't have Aang water bend because he doesn't want to be the avatar (he explicitly says that when Katara offers to train him the first time) so I imagine they're going to be doing something with that in season 2 (especially with the comet), but they definitely should have made it clearer (and not just with aang saying it a bunch of times).
What a incredibly well done breakdown!!! I honestly liked it very much and I trully enjoyed it, but I feel mostly the same things you talked about. The thing that itched me the most during the show was thinking all the time "when is Aang going to learn waterbending" and I was a bit disappointed with them changing that. The part with Koh and all the changes around the spirit world were really meh and confusing, at first I thought I didn't remembered it right because it's been a while since I watched the original. I hate that the owl (I don't remember the name) was there just to be and talked to Aang for a minute and then disappeared, becasuse I remember the Library episode like one of the best and more interestings. A lot of things felt like easter eggs and references to make fans happy, but I can indulge that because the story overall was good and the characters felt like them for the most part (I dind't connect with Azula but I agree with what you said so I hope it gets better). The writing as you said was lacking a lot and sometimes the characters just went on monologues just to expose or remind some things to the viewers and I hated it because it came off a bit weird out of animations. The show would have been probably better with 10 episodes instead of 8 imo. Also, the last episode to me was really really good and well done, and they hinted things for the next season. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the show and I know it's only going to get even better with the next seasons, because the exposition and foundation to the world and the story is already there!!
As someone unfamiliar with the source material, this helped me understand what I was missing/what felt off. A lot of the rushed plot beats make sense now that I know they were trying to mash together iconic moments from the original series where they didn't necessarily belong. Overall, I had a fun time - looking forward to more of Zuko and Iroh
I like a lot of stuff about the adaptation but what really brings it down is the writing. Where team avatar doesnt really have a lot of bonding moments because they're busy trying to get to the episode's goal and there is too much exposition with everyone constantly talking about the backstory to something
Yeah that's what bothers me the most after thinking about it. I never felt that they were truly friends because they barely interacted and were separated most of the time.
i personally really missed the part of the bumi trials where he asks aang to duel someone. Because a) it showed that aang is creative (choosing the third person in the room) and b) that sights can be deceiving when it comes to strength in the show.
Oh you're right,i forgot how aang choose to fight him. Too bad the Netflix show need to cut corners,and those corners seems to be important small details that difference a good show vs a legendary one
Yes, that was a BIG red flag. Its bc they are not incompetent woke fools who make every one either 1 dimensional or tear down other characters for the sake of one being the best at everything, always
@@jasonmarino9148I hate woke stuff too, but I personally don’t think wokism was the problem here. They took Katara’s “girl boss” attitude out completely. Never shows her natural talent and is always so shy and timid. Katara was full of passion and fire in the original.
There were a lot of problems with the writing but damn Dallas Liu is perfect as Zuko, literally 15/10. I think he hit the perfect balance of desperate and angry and edgy and sassy and sometimes also just awkward teen. I'm kinda hoping for seasons 2 and 3 just to see more of his Zuko. I need to see Dallas awkwardly going "hey, Zuko here" and "that's rough, buddy". They did Katara dirty though and also, the more I think of it, Iroh! He oftentimes felt too cartoonish to me which is weird bc he's always been comic relief but there's also always been depth to him. I think a lot of his wisdom fell flat and/or was given to other characters and I didn't feel as much of his warm kindness. Some of his scenes with Zuko were great though, especially the ones when he turned Zuko into a somewhat sheepish teenager :D And Lu Ten's wake hit me in the feels ngl
I disagree. I think he was way too sad for season 1. Zuko is supposed to be angry and relentless in season 1 until later when he starts to question his life's path
@@baconeater4133 Oh no I agree actually but I think that's mostly an issue with the writing and not the way the actor played the character. I did think he was too likable for season 1 - I didn't mind tbh but his arc is not gonna hit the same at all if we get the other seasons. In the animation it was one of the, if not THE best redemption arcs I've ever seen but in the live action there's not actually that much to redeem in the first place. But again that's more an issue with the writing, my comment was aimed mainly at the performance which I didn't specify enough I think (obviously you can disagree with me on that point as well lol, I just wasn't sure if that came across in my original comment)
I literally agreed with every single word this is exactly how I feel as well. I am optimistic for the second season, there’s a lot of good to build on and a lot of bad that needs to be elevated to the same level
I'm not sure choosing Kyoshi over Roku being Aang's avatar-guide is a good thing because... - - - - - - this effects his connection with Zuko. Roku is Zuko's great-grandfather on his mother's side while Sozin is his great-grandfather on his father's side. He has a single thread of connection with the Avatar, but that's where he gets his nobility and honor.
Yeah who cares about all of that lore and character building when you can force 'female representation' where there was plenty before? That's the reason the made the change, by the way. They "fixed" the masterpiece.
To be fair, Katara goes from novice to master at a pretty crazy rate in the original series too. It's obviously more rushed in this version but whatever. How they did Katara is probably my biggest issue with this version in general. It's like they removed all of her edge.
@@swampert564 definitely not angry enough. That said she does get some opportunities to show it off. Not like movie Katara that had no personality, no shove, no energy, and they cared so little about that she's never shown doing anything meaningful with here bending at all.
I never saw the movie or the animation, but I found the Netflix show fun enough. It was entertaining for me, but i did feel like I was missing out on some context. Maybe I will understand more in season 2. ❤
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Did YOU enjoy it? What was your favourite change? What don't you think worked?
~ Tim
Yes I love it but if they would have showed how the fire nation attacked after aang saw his home destroyed
I love it
My favourite change was the zuko crew twist being the soldiers he stood up
Some of the pacing didn’t work but then again i had some problems with the original so
Daniel Kim as fire lord 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I thought it was largely solid, maybe a 7/10. It felt like regardless of the outcome everyone involved had their heart in the right place. There were definitely some changes that I really liked, Zuko's crew's origin probably most notably though I also liked Azula's introduction (though definitely less than the original series). Honestly most of my complaints would come down to minor stuff that is understandable from a logistics standpoint, no Flopsy or the Unagi at Kyoshi Island among other things. I actually really liked combining a bunch of stuff into the stay in Omashu even if they arguably got rushed a bit in the process.
One thing that struck me as odd was how deadly serious Ozai was when sending Zuko to find the Avatar. In the animated series, I got the impression everyone believed the Avatar died, and Ozai was sending him on a wild goose chase.
Yeah, I got that impression too. It was told to him as a way of restoring his honour, but really Ozai never expected him to be able to do it, which was the entire point. It's really impactful on its own if you think about it - the only way he could come back is if he achieved this task that everyone basically thought was impossible.
@@aerialpunkin the LA ozai tells azula that zuko "did the impossible". i thought that implied the wild goose chase he sent him on in the animated show decently enough
yeah it was basically saying "when pigs fly!" notice how the moment there was a legitimate chance that zuko might succeed with the avatar being absolutely confirmed after koizilla he sent orders to cart zuko and iroh back home as prisoners.
I don't even believe that Ozai actually told Zuko to go and search the Avatar. I think that Zuko was banished and he then thought his father would have to restore his honour if he brings back the Avatar. He basically gaslights himself into thinking that this will be the thing that makes his family like him which is then even more tragic when they actually don't love him after he has "killed Aang".
wait what i feel like that entire substory was leading up to when zhao revealed that it was all just to make azula more determined. and that’s subtly foreshadowed throughout, like when tai lee and mei tell her it’s all just ozai playing games w her. ozai doesn’t actually care about zuko (he said in the last episode if he died then he’s just weak pretty much).
Seeing azula getting so angry and so upset so easily was strange coz og azula was always carm and composed which made her even scarier. Also it shows the comparison when she finally goes insane in the finale.
I was hoping someone would mention Azula. She is following the path of other terribly written female characters.
We're told she's the best, but we don't feel it. And the lightning bending came to us way too early. We hadn't even seen all the damage she could do with regular fire or just as a person.
They fumbled all the female characters. These writers have probably never talked with any woman except their mothers in their entire lives.
Also Iroh told zuko his eyes is fine but that takes away the symbolism of zuko scar , it made his vision blurry, it represents how he sees the world and his inner struggle
i like to believe shes like that at home in the fire nation talking to her father -- then she's stone cold composed in the later seasons when team aang meets her
@@qualiasound7569lets just hope youre right but it still feels wrong
I will say this-- the 41st division being Zuko's crew is a change I really liked.
This and the funeral were parts I actually enjoyed. I wish they just expanded on what was already there like they did with these two parts. Changing shit was so unnecessary. I was hoping for more of those vibes of expansion than going for changes
Oh yeah I agree. In the original series I always felt like something was missing with Zuko and his crew. Where they have a complicated relationship but he grows closer to them and they eventually respect him. But then once they get to the north pole they leave with Zhao and never return to the story. So this added another layer to their past.
EDIT: Something that would've been unnecessary to the story but I think would've been sweet is in the original series Zuko's crew return at the end of Book 3 to assist Zuko and explained that they switched sides against the Fire Nation
I like the change. But my question is: Why would Ozai do that? It doesn't seem to fit his character. Plus, doesn't he still need a unit to sacrifice in his plan? I don't think he changed his plans, and that unit for them would be the best unit to sacrifice.
True
@@warrenharshaw7677right like I don’t think the 41st division survived. Which is a travesty bc he is a little boy who tried to talk reason to war mongers, but there was nothing he could have done or said to avoid his fate or that of the 41st division. I understand why people like the change but im a Tragedy Enjoyer.
“Feels like a first draft” is the perfect review. I appreciate how clear it is that the show runners loved the original; but the dialogue… woof.
and no offense to the actors, I assume it is their first time but their dialogue does not feel real based on their facial expressions if you know what I mean.
Yeah, the dialogue is atrocious. I had to turn it off.
The dialogue and the mishmash of plot lines/characters.
@nicolemartillo the writers didn't give them a lot to work with, and it's almost always cringy with child actors anyway. There's also another obstacle of the fact that there's so much green screen work.
@@JJ_5289 That's not much of an excuse though. There are plenty of scenes that are one to one recreations. The entire Blue Spirit portion and the water bending duel are exactly the same with some minor differences. Almost everything and everyone is correct lore wise. The mechanic and his son are written correctly with the secret Fire Nation contract, but it doesn't play nice because it takes away from the original Omashu events. The people making this knew what they were doing. The problem is they tried to rush some plot points and character reveals together where they don't fit. Wan Shi Tong and the Cave of Two Lovers are both out of place in season one, while Koh should have been held until the North Pole Spirit Oasis. As stated in the video, Hei Bai's plot was overshadowed by everything else in that episode. What they should have done is focus more on Sokka's perspective being stuck in the spirit world while Aang is trying to rescue him and the other villagers. The following episode could have focused on the storm and the Blue Spirit events as a two part episode.
I hate that they basically removed Katara's personality. She's mostly just a blank slate in the live-action show. Her energy, passion, and rage are all practically gone. And it's even weirder that they gave Sokka some of Katara's personality traits like the scene when he tells Katara to grow up? Animated Katara basically raised that man, she's the more mature one. I also didn't like that the Gaang don't get to spend much time together, in all the middle episodes they are split up so they don't get a lot of time to develop as a team so it's hard to care about them as a team.
Aang's lighthearted humour, RIP.
Sokka's self indulgent humour, RIP.
Katara's overbearing maternalism, RIP.
These were features of characters, treated like a bug and and they decided to call pest control.
Removed Katara's personality??? They removed EVERYONE's personality 😅
No boy talks about how Bumi and Kyoshi's anger towards Aang for running away is made even weirder by the fact that Aang didn't run away like he did in the original. He was planning on coming back. Netflix wanted to make Aang more likeable by removing any character flaws (like they did with Sokka) yet they doubled down on making him less likeable. I totally sympathized with 12-yr-old Aang in the original, but this adaptation made him less human.
@@zoeywyllie1411 One of my main gripes was how they took Aang and Roku's shine away multiple times. The best example is easily EP2 where they gave it to Kyoshi. ATLA isn't Aang's story. It's Roku's. It's Aang fixing Roku's mistakes. That's basically what the opening of Book 3 tells us when Roku outright apologizes to Aang for having put this burden on him. Aang is fighting Roku's war when he doesn't want to. And one of the first big steps Aang takes towards maturity and becoming the Avatar the world that Roku left needs is the Kyoshi Island episode. At first he's just bathing in the validation he receives. He came there for a selfish reason (riding giant koi fish), convinces the Island he's the Avatar, and then lets it go to his head and starts goofing around when they start worshipping him. It's only when the Fire Nation attacks that he matures and draws the Fire Nation away. And even that isn't enough for him. He looks back in sorrow when he sees the village in flames knowing he indirectly caused it, and that's what causes him to risk his own life to coerce the Unagi to douse the fire. The Unagi was almost like a metaphor for that episode. At first it represents Aang's immaturity. He endangers himself by clowning around with it purely to try and impress a few village girls and Katara. But in the finale of the episode, he endangers himself in order to use the Unagi for the greater good. It was a shift in mindset. The Unagi is simply a beast, like a force of nature that will do what it will do. But Aang's approach to it was different in the beginning than it was in the end. At first he risks his life for selfish fun. But by the end, he risks it to save an entire town. It's metaphor, even if unintentional, for basically the entire show. Aang went from a kid doing dangerous things for fun, for himself, to The Avatar who did dangerous things to save the world.
All of that nuance is set in a 20 minute episode of a ''kids'' show. Meanwhile this hour long ''mature'' TV series wherein people get lit on fire in surprisingly graphic detail, tosses it out the window and has Kyoshi go ''Lol you really messed up coming here, now lemme show you how a true girlboss fixes things!'' before she just fixes all of Aang's problems, thus keeping him from having to mature and robbing him of the biggest first step of his journey.
Thanks, Netflix. I hate it.
You know it was going to be a huge problem when they said they wanted it to appeal to Game of Thrones fans
This is why I feel like writers these days are way too scared to create flawed, deep characters. I never once thought of Katara as “the angry woman”, I always felt like her anger was warranted and super reasonable. Katara has many deep emotions, she feels deep joy and love for others, she feels deep anger for what the fire nation did to her tribe, her entire family. I also want to say that it seems like the actress just doesn’t have the chops but it’s hard to draw where the line exactly is bc is it a skill issue or a writing issue?
tbf, she was like 14 when she did it and it was her first major show. I’ve seen her in Anne w and E and Beans, she did great! Lots of emotion as well. The writers, script supervisors and directors definitely messed it up more imo
Definitely the writing. It usually is 😮💨
@@mylesyuhThe actress didn’t state what exactly they wanted to change with Katara, just that there were ”gender issues that didn’t quite translate”. That take still baffles me, because I know no one, man, woman or in-between who has an issue with how Katara is portrayed in the original series.
@@TheShanicpower Not too many hiccups in katara's character from the original, but they definitely were present. Katara being motherly wasn't a necessary change, sokka being a boring comic relief wasn't a necessary change, aang being boring wasn't necessary. This new series just blatently sucks.
Sometimes bad acting is actually bad directing. I learned this from watching movie review channels. My point is there is a 3rd option besides bad writing or acting.
The Jet storyline getting shoved into Omashu was one of the most dubious decisions for me. The original show actually asks some hard questions like "is it ok to kill Fire Nation people even if they are civilians?"
Edit: It is a morally complex question. The Fire Nation is occupying territory with their own civilians after killing Earth Kingdom civilians and pushing them off their land. The Fire Nation civilians in this case are literally colonizing conquered territory, thus while not taking part in violence themselves, they are contributing to the machine of Fire Nation conquest. Jet and his gang are guerrilla fighters using asymmetric tactics to fight the Fire Nation by any means available. The Jet episode is basically a microcosm of what would eventually become Republic City in the Legend of Korra. Jet's way would have had Earth Kingdom people kill or remove the colonizers and take back what is rightfully theirs. The path of reconciliation however leads to the Earth Kingdom people finding common ground with their former colonizers and forging something new from the best of both their cultures.
Edit: Original Jet is a guerrilla fighter within Fire Nation occupied territory. The live action Jet is living within what is still an Earth Kingdom stronghold and committing terrorism against his own people and government for the "crime" of complacency. Live action Jet is simply not that complex or redeemable compared to the original.
Edit: Also, these two episodes also really doesn't work for me because of the transitions between areas. Omashu appears to be completely self contained on a mountain top with only restricted access in and out. It really doesn't make any sense the way characters move between the city, the forested areas, and the caves.
This! It's one of my favorite episodes from book one because it got me thinking (on my first watchthrough, as a teenager) that maybe all the fire nation guys aren't "the bad guys" and everyone else just "the good guys". It made me question my own simplicity and my own racism and xenophobia. I just love it.
Plus in the original show it also has the subtlety of the firenation guy from the Roku temple helping Aang a few episodes prior, so it adds that retrospective of "yeah they're not all bad guys"
I’m going to have to watch the cartoon series again. I don’t remember jet sticking out to me like that.
They put a lot of season 2 into season 1 so I'm trying to work out what season 2 will be 😂
that episode was so confusing
I genuinely think that the original show is some of the most complex writing to ever be featured in a family-friendly series. Not only that, but you wouldn't necessarily make it more mature just by including more mature or risque subject matter. The original show knows exactly where it's living. It hits all the marks because it has an insanely robust world and assortment of characters. You would have to have an insanely good reinterpretation to change storylines and involve other themes, but I feel like the live action adaptation seems to misunderstand the original text, changes it, but ultimately doesn't replace or insert any other dramatic themes where the content was altered. For example, the dynamic between Sokka and the kyoshi Warriors is dramatically different. In the original he even ends up cross-dressing. In all of his presentation, he becomes distinctly feminine in the tradition of the culture, something he'd clearly find discomfort in, if not for the fact that he distinctly has respect for the abilities of the woman in this tribe. Not only that, but Suki acknowledges by joking and prodding at Sokka that he is stepping outside of his comfort zone to accommodate and see power in the way Suki's culture sees women as warriors.
This kind of relationship and challenge of gender roles and the fact that Suki can see that Sokka is stepping outside of his comfortable gender expression essentially to adopt the symbol of power that kyoshi represents is profoundly mature. In the original text Sokka apologizes. I thought you were just girls
But Suki remarks "I am a girl, but I'm a warrior too.
In completely ignoring sokka's sexism and not treating the episode as an exploration in gender roles, the live action interpretation completely flattens this out into a sequence where Sokka just learns to hit harder and become more competent at being violent. There's no greater subtext. I would argue that Suki is absolutely just a one-dimensional tool to just facilitate Sokka getting stronger. It no longer becomes a back and forth between two characters and the expression of gender. There's no playfulness and prodding that brings Sokka and Suki closer in a very human way. What the live action show is missing is all of the humanity that happens when people with very different meet, and One of them is forced to reconcile with their worldview. This can't happen in the live action adaptation because Sokka is just insecure about not being strong enough and Suki only serves to facilitate his improvement, whereas the original show actually interrogated the relationship between gendered expectation and wasn't afraid to make Suki three dimensional.
I'm so glad you mentioned the change with Zuko's crew! That was the only genuine emotional punch I felt while watching the whole series. It gives Zuko a reason to resent his crew while also being protective of them and it gives the crew a VERY good reason to change their minds about him beyond just feeling sorry for him. Good change, good idea. Everything else, just watch the original.
Agreed! That was the only moment I poked my mom and went "Oh, that wasn't in the original, but gee- that's cool!"
I dunno, I do kind of agree, but I also felt in that moment that we were just letting Zuko off too easy for being a dick- oh, it's cool, he's allowed to be a dick to them bc he saved their lives. Like he's not the one with the problem, the lowly and almost entirely nameless crew is. Just felt like more of the default elitism that pervades fantasy and a ton of media in general; everyone has to be born politically important, supremely talented and destined for greatness...also I guess it takes a whole division to run a single ship?
@@Borgcow Fair, but that's a pervasive problem to this show and doesn't resolve the same issue from the animated series. In the animation, the crew changes their minds just because they feel sorry for him after Iroh tells them Zuko's backstory (and it's wild that they say they thought it was a 'training accident,' was the Fire Lord burning off half the prince's face not public knowledge? There were a lot of people at that agni kai! Seems like the kind of thing people would talk about!). At least this gives them a stronger reason to come around.
The live-action has a problem with not letting Zuko be a true villain. They're too afraid of making him unsympathetic. They took the destruction of Kyoshi village away from him and just generally made him less threatening from the start. In the animation, he was a dick to the crew because he was just an angry, angsty teenager, and that worked well enough, but this is the only writing change that adds a little complexity to their relationship. I think it's less that he's allowed to be a dick because he saved their lives and more that the whole reason he's banished in the first place is because he stuck up for them and is reminded of that every day. Though admittedly it would have been nice if there had been a moment at the end where he made a decision in their best interest, like getting the ship out of danger instead of chasing Aang into the storm in the animated series.
The only part that made me roll my eyes at that scene was when the guy was like “but we are the 41st” like no shit uncle iroh just gave us all the back story lol some dialogue did ruin some moments for me
Omg yes. That episode was so great to me for that reason.
The one small change that probably no one else cared about is that we saw Suki without her makeup. I always loved the moment in Book 2 when Suki met Sokka and he didn't recognize her.
True 😢 also sokka and katara in the spirit world i mean come on😂
all of these small changes are gonna add up and season 2 is gonna be so different. Why can't they just follow how One piece did it.
@@rogue2791 i hope they dont do a season 2
@@aribayywhy not? It's not that crazy as we can see in LoK
This. It’s so small but idk it just hits different
One of my least favorite things about the show is how often our main characters no longer make their own decisions.
Instead of Aang running away, it was just bad timing. Instead of Katara choosing to break Aang out of the ice, it was a complete accident. Instead of deciding they should sneak into Omashu, Jet does it for them. Aang doesn't choose to save Kyoshi Island, Kyoshi literally forces him to. She's also the one that tells them he needs to go to the north pole, they don't decide on their own.
It's really noticeable with Zuko. So many of his own decisions are now Iroh's. He spends so much of the show just doing what Iroh tells him.
It's not 100% of course, but it is extremely noticeable for how often it happens. It makes the characters feel so much more passive in their own story.
For real!
Its really pissed me off when I saw how the retconned Aangs backstory, instead of running away, he got told to leave, by Gyatso of all people, and he just left right before the Fire Nation attacked from bad timing, him running away was a big part of his first arc in the show and they cant do that plotline at all or as good at least. A lot of things like this I saw just turned me off and stopped after Ep.1 lol, seems it didnt stop with 1
Another point under bad😂😂
To quote Sokka from the ember island players "But the effects were decent"
Good points!
I had the same thought! The best change was Zuko's crew being the men he stood up for in the meeting that led to his banishment.
This is everyone’s favourite change from what I gathered.
Doesn’t really make any sense though, why would Ozai do that
@@Dell-ol6hbcause they were recruits and Ozai has no room for weaklings. In his mind, he’s getting rid of both issues with his waste of a son and a “useless” regiment by bundling them together and banishing them to a corner of the world
That's basically the only change I accept.
@@RetroRadianceLight yea but he literally has a use for them, he was going to sacrifice them to win a battle why would he just give them to the son he sent on an impossible mission, he banished Zuko thinking that he would never find the Avatar so it’s not like he ever expected him to return, he would think they would be more useful to him as sacrificial pawns. I guess you could argue it was Iroh who did that not Ozai but idk it didn’t make much sense to me
The water bending looked like it had no pressure to it. Soldiers in full armor don’t get knocked out by you throwing a cup of water in their face.
Every time it happened, I was like, "Oh no! He's wet now!"😂
Quite true. I think it's because the water movement is quite slow except maybe the last two episodes. I'd always imagined that waterbending is the hardest to do in live action, honestly.
Maybe it was sleepy time tea
@@Caerulean I always thought it would be easiest. It was very disappointing considering Water was intended as the focus.
Exactly what i thought, when she threw water to that monster the monster went flying back like bruh ?
As much as I love Kyushi and in the general sense enjoyed seeing her on screen more, I have a HUGE problem with her taking Roku spot! There was a reason why Roku was the one to mainly talk to Aang and not just because he was the Avatar before Aang but because HE LET the 100yr War happen. He let Firelord Sozin build up an army and then start a world domination plan. He has a personal part on what happened to the world once Roku died. One of the first things Roku says to Aang is how sorry he is that Aang got stuck with the fuck up Roku created and that Roku should’ve been more decisive when facing Fire Lord Sozin. Kyushi has no personal part on the world being where it is now. She had nothing to do with Fire Lord Sozin and nothing to do with the 100yr War. Also, Roku is Zuko’s Great Grandfather which played a part in helping Zuko understand himself later on.
I only hope that Kyoshi will be strong enough of an influence to make Aang actually kill Ozai instead of pulling "i'll remove your firebending" out of his ass
@@KoylTranebut that’s not Aang lol he’s the last air nomad it would have meant Osaka wins in the end because he loses what it means to be an air nomad.
The scene where Roku briefly embodies aang at the fire sages temple was one of the most badass scenes in the first season of the og if not one of the coolest in the whole series. I was like damn how awesome could that scene be in the live action that could be so amazing.. lol nope just cut it
@@mahamedyusuf686 I like this interpretation a lot. Genocide isn't just suppressing/killing a people group but their culture as well. If you read the avatar novels you see airbenders kill but at great cost to their spirit and connection to culture. Understandable that as the last one (and being 12 years old) aang is especially abhorred by killing
@@mahamedyusuf686 well duh, Aang's internal conflict in the season 3 was the struggle between his the responsibilities of Avatar and his morals as an airbender. And instead of making a choice, he got an easy way out.
Hakoda literally said sokka isnt cut out to lead men which enraged me fully. 1. Hakoda was ALWAYS proud of sokka.
2. What the hell leading was always his strength
That made me sooo mad too! Complete opposite of Hakoda's character
While I agree on the show, the second one is just a no for me. Sokka has never been a good leader up until the very end. He was more lucky than anything, what he was good at however is improvising.
Also, instead of sounding disappointed, he’d encourage him, also how the F does that even make any sense when you’ve stripped the character from his arc and begin him as already the mature one when the sister was the mature leader???? Am I supposed to buy this sudden “i am trying to be a leader but I’m not there yet” when you begin the show showing him taking charge and already being a leader?? 😂😂😂😂
Plus, it was Sokka's coming of age. He could always improve! Why does he have Ozai's 'the weak will always be weak' mentality.
i wasn’t mad tbh, i think it will set up for a great character arc and kind of juxtaposes him and zuko with the whole disappointed father backstory (even tho it’s definitely not on the same level)
Some weird details that bugged me:
1. Why can aang fly without a glider but fall uncontrollably after being attacked.
2. Aang not learning waterbending at all
3. Katara just decides she is a master without really getting the training.
Yeah even in the OG I thought they gave her that title to early, but especially in this version. Yeah she’s good and has lots of promise but that doesn’t mean a master. Book 3 Katara that empties lakes would like to have a word with water splashes book 1 Katara.
In Episode one, Aang basically flew without a glider, sure it was no actual flying but it definetly felt like it...
I didn't really liked Kataras introduction in Waterbending. One of the first things we saw in the og series was how powerful she could be, but here she attempted to pull a boat to them and somehow woke Aangs Airbubble up...
Yeah, he isn't Zaheer, to fly he had to lose all attachments and he literally couldn't do that. Korra is all about taking bending to it's evolution through tying the mental state to bending capabilities.
They misunderstood that aang is supposed to be 12 and isn't ready for the avatar title FOR A REASON
@@jackwriter1908he was bringing about the buildings and using the air to propel himself
But not a actually flying e.g... like Zaheer did if it makes sense
The air was literally calm when Zaheer did it
Aangs flying looked slightly more chaotic
I feel like they are treating bending like super powers instead of bending being an allegory for self acceptance and self development
*Edit: when originally watching Avatar, it was the addition of Toph who is the perspective of raw power and liberation, that I felt is where the show ripened into its potential and maybe we will look back on this season like Buffy season 1 or sailor moon crystal season 1 and this will be the first pancake of the batch that doesn't not look appetizing but everything else is a beauty*
I feel like the writers really didn't know whether they were going to get a season 2, so they jammed as much stuff from the original that they wanted to do into season 1, even when it would have been better to save that stuff for season 2.
This was my take away as well. It felt like the writers wanted to throw as many moments fans would recognize and enjoy into season 1 because even a lukewarm response would be enough to get renewed: so, risking a lukewarm reception with too many bold omissions from the original wasn’t worth it to them. I get it, it’s unfortunate, but it gives me hope if they’re renewed they’ll feel more creative freedom
I agree, it felt a lot like watching Korra in that way where there are all these things scrunched together because the writers were confined to just one season
@ColdNavigatorit got renewed for two more seasons
@@wolfishpotato6978Nah, Korra had good pace and villains
@epiclight858 I'm not saying Korra was bad, I loved it. But let's face it, season 2 had some serious issues XD Season one was generally good, I felt the ending was a little faster than it should have been but still solid. No complaints about season 3. As a whole, LoK was better than the live action shenanigans, just saying that's what it reminded me of
I hate that they basically removed Katara's personality. She's mostly just a blank slate in the live-action show. Her energy, passion, and rage are all practically gone. And it's even weirder that they gave Sokka some of Katara's personality traits like the scene when he tells Katara to grow up? Animated Katara basically raised that man, she's the more mature one. I also didn't like that the crew don't get to spend much time together, in all the middle episodes they are split up so they don't get a lot of time to develop as a team so it's hard to care about them as a team. *(I had to re-post this comment as it went away, please keep this comment)*
the live action counterpart of Katara sucks balls, i hate it, i wish they use the budget for more animated avatar than this, piss me off
@dafiq01 I think the creators are back to making a new cartoon in the story's world after leaving this production in protest, so there's that at least!
Just rewatch the animated show it's what I'm doing.
At one point Sokka says "when I think of our mum, I just see Katara's face" or something. Not this Katara though
@@joshuaj.chinda9873Already did that before the live action :D
One thing I find funny is how Zhao dies differently in all 3 versions.
In the original, the Ocean Spirit dragged him into the water, where it’s presumed he drowned, but turns out he was in the Spirit World the whole time.
In the Netflix version, Iroh just cooks him.
And there was this weird third version I saw in a nightmare, where some Waterbenders ganged up on him and drowned him in a water bubble midair.
😂😂😂😂
That’s crazy I had that same nightmare
Regarding the original:
I always assumed he drowned AND got dragged into the Spirit world. No physical Body necessary.
Zhao drowned, I refuse to accept any other explanation and I also don't consider Korra canon, not after the giant tapeworm spirits.
Zhao isn't dead.
I hate avoiding the angry woman trope as a shield for what happened with Katara. She has reasons to be angry and to watch it come to a boil gradually in the series and then burn out in that moment felt so real. She holds it together for so long for everyone else.
Any real is your own projection especialy lookong how badly they did every other character its more likely be you projecting than they did somrhinxbright
I HATED the way they handled the sexism in the Northern Water Tribe.
First it's not Paku telling Katara that Women are not allowed to fight, it's another women (which makes it worse in my opinion, because when the marginalized justify their oppression, it gives it more merit)
and then we get a fake 'women empowerment' scene during the fight that is shot from above (forget the name of the angle) that is usually used to make the object or character appear smaller and weaker and then we get the women practically begging the big man to they be allowed to fight. Netflix literally had the women beg to be allowed to fight and somehow tried to sell the show as less sexist.
Also Sukis character now only serves Sokkas understanding that he really is a worthy man (which again is more sexist, he is literally her whole focus point)
Yeah like Katara is a bit of an angry person, but she’s RIGHTEOUSLY angry.
She has a hell of a lot to be mad about, but she uses it for good. She’s a survivor of genocide and a teenager who had to grow up early because her mother was murdered.
I actually liked that scene. Its more realistic and shows a problem in society, rather than a naive "smash the patriarchy" trope, where is only a "bad old white man" who is supressing all women. Also you didn't see male healers in both series. It doesn't seem they have a choice either.
@@HJohannes Yeah I mean patriarchy oppresses men as well, just in a different way.
But I get you point, not sure I totally agree with it, but it is a good point
Strangely enough it was Suki's perfect hyper fast makeup removal that broke my immersion
my gf when she watched said “SHE HAD RED! NO WAY IT CAME OFF IN 2 SWIPES”
Clearly Suki gets her makeup at the same place that Mulan does
😂😂😂
+
She's a makeup bender 😂
I'm just getting so sick of watching media aimed at adults that can't even be as intelligently written as the children's story it's based on.
The fact that kattara can master bend after a few words from aang and cutting out her whole arc of being jealous of aangs water bending ability is crazy. She masters bending without the bulk of the training, and without anyone to actually teach her, making her feel like a weirdly infallible character. They essentially mary sue'd her, which is incredibly disappointing considering I'd argue the original Katara is one of the best, most well written female characters of all time.
@@SanaSardonyx They removed everyone's character development. They said no to Sokka learning that women could be as strong as men, they took away Kattara's jealousy of how Aang could waterbend better than her, they minimized Zuko's trauma, and made quick work of Aang's not wanting to bear the responsibility (of being the avatar). It's not even rushing the story but downright removed character development.
@@CookieMonster-ky1rb They destroyed everything that made Azula awesome. We wanted a confident, intelligent, sociopathic fire princess. Instead, we got insecure jealous tween.
I really hope ur comment doesn't get censored. apparently TH-cam is censoring all negative comments for this show on this comment section.
Bro im so disappointed at aang and katara's relationship. Like there is ZERO chemistry between them. And why on earth did they bring the secret tunnels for season 1 when they weren't even going to use it for kataang but rather for a weird brother/sister thing?? Confused.
I can’t get over the door-mattification of Katara. If they were trying to avoid a sexist trope of the “emotional woman” they completely missed the mark because by taking away her anger and passion they left her with only meek and mild sadness or hope. Her character no longer has dimension and her lines feel robotic. She’s not a mother figure or a passionate leader who stands up for what she believes in anymore. I can forgive a lot of missteps they made with this show but I can’t forgive what they did to my girl
Yeah, the trope can be removed by changing the reaction of the characters around her and not making it THE joke. She wasn't just "emotional": she was stubborn, she got angry when she had to, she cared about things. Calling her just an "emotional woman" is much worse than what they did in the original.
Kinda hard to fight literal sexism and not have any emotion over it.
Katara wasn't just emotional, she was a rebel. She hated arbitrary authority. This is why IMO they should have kept in the "Imprisoned" storyline, since it played a big role in establishing that side of her character.
Is that why they didn't let Katara be passionate in the show? There's no way right? I thought Katara in the original show is a great role model for girls. My most favourite moment is when she tells Aang before she fights Pakku, "I'm not doing this for you." So much strength and independence behind that statement.
Now I'm tear bending
I think with King Bumi being a jaded and unhappy king makes sense in a bubble but outside of that king bumi is a member of the white lotus and friend/ mentor to Aang and having him act the way he did not work for me or his character and also losing the reveal of who he to Aang and seeing his old friend from 100 years ago is so nice plus that hug is super wholesome and shows even a century later they are still good friends.
The wrap up of it felt jarring to me. That kind of instant and happy resolution after just seeing a whistle- then a time skip, felt like it belonged in 25 min episode cartoon. It doesn't work for a gritty live action, where you see real people brutally dying on screen, and the dude was literally trying to make the 12 year old protagonist end him to resolve his own depression from the unintentional betrayal 100 years ago when he was also a little kid, which was probably only a few weeks before for the protagonist.
Bumi and Kyoshi's anger towards Aang for running away is made even weirder by the fact that Aang *didn't* run away like he did in the original. He basically just took a ride on Appa with the intention of coming back, but ultimately wasn't able to due to the storm.
Confuses me too how Bumi knew Aang was the Avatar.
@@blankbitofpaper I hated how ANNG figured out he was Bumi
@@SanaSardonyx Didn't cartoon did the same just in the end of the episode? Dude laughed and Aang figured out that it was Bumi.
I love how we made it through book 1 water without Aang learning ANY water bending lmao
“What about Aang? He still needs to learn waterbending” - Katara, the final three minutes of the first season
@@pantslesswrock lol.
@@pantslesswrock Yeah, but he was still able to bend water. He hadn't mastered it but he had some time learning with Katara and then with Pakku.
@@megroy6396 Yeah, so? The important takeaway at the end of the book is that Aang still needs to actually learn waterbending. If you expect an adaptation with a fraction of the original’s runtime to hit every single beat, you aren’t dealing with reality. The important thing to do in this situation is to hit the important beats. Since the elements of each book always referred not to Aang mastering that element, but to meeting his TEACHER of that element and helping them self-actualize, it makes perfect sense in a cut-down adaptation to focus in on the important thing - Katara’s journey to being able to teach Aang. After all, most of Aang’s bending progress in the original show happens off-screen, the episodes about Aang leveling up usually have much more to do with the philosophical, emotional, or spiritual side of things.
My favorite part was how this season was “about” Aang learning to water bend. And he didn’t bend water once. (Excluding the ocean spirit doing it through his body)
"There is no more Avatar..."
Huh? What!?
Well you see they didn't call it "Book 1: Water" this time. It's just...the first 8 episodes, "Season 1." Maybe he won't start learning earthbending until the start of season 3, crazy times!
Kyoshi also did it through Aang's body.
@@N8ertotalso, there are two episodes each within the 8 episodes styled after each elemenrs
He didn’t really start water bending until season two in the series either. He was bending a little by the end of season one but he had barely started learning, let alone a mastering it.
aang and katara don't practice waterbending? that is truly... bizarre.
They did for a little bit, but not at all like in the animation. First episode katara learns from aang about the basics of bending, to relax and let go and shes able to float a football sized ball of water and i think thats it
@@nyphira Well I remember 2 occasions, one of them was also in the Kyoshi island. Later we probably have to assume that Katara keeps doing it offscreen, because she mentions to Aang that she learned almost everything she could from that scroll and that she even started experimenting with her bending, like those ice disks for example. Also live action is shorter, cgi is kinda expensive, so ofcourse they are going to cut unecessary things. Although the reason why Aaang is not practicing with her is still a bit weird for me. Maybe it is because they want to make Katara becoming Aang´s teacher a little more believable, because for me it made no sense in the animated series that Katara became Aang´s teacher even though they were learning together all the time.
@@MrDjgalasFor why Katara teaches Aang in the animated show: Aang was practicing and using other elements while Katara was, of course, always pushing herself with only using water. Plus (and mainly) during the time with Paku at the end of book 1 Aang is seen goofing off/not paying attention while Katara was focused and quickly became Paku's uncontested best student. Thus becoming much better than him and only increased the gap by always using water while Aang used Air and eventually earth too.
It felt like i watched a fanfiction script. The worst offender is katara being a master water bender with 0 training they legit went "Yes master katara"
Havent watched the live action so can't comment on that, however in the animated series it's also very rushed, shes basically a complete novice, then out of no where shes able to defeat a water bending master.
oh my gosh this annoyed me too! In the series atleast we see her in a lesson and training with other pupils! In the live action she received zero training and Paku was the most dry depiction of a master I have ever seen! Also... her grandmother hid the scroll from her all this time. Couldn't the grandmother have given her the scroll where she could practice as a kid or whatever? Of course while hiding and in complete secrecy for not been seen by firebenders. Like what even is this new storyline. It's so messy! Why did Gran Gran keep the scroll a secret? Why is Paku so dry? Why does Katara not have any passion behind her eyes? How is she suddenly a master?
@@pinecrustjuise the live action is like 10 times as rushed unfortunately
In the original, she goes from untapped potential in ep 1 to pretty ok in ep 17 to a master waterbender after training under Pakku post fire nation attack on the North Pole.
In the live action, she goes from can't bend much to pretty ok halfway through to a master waterbender with zero training in the North Pole.
She also can't heal yet in the live action for some reason :/
Yea 😂😂😂 she just goes from being able to make a ball, not even moving it to being stronger than anyone in the Northern Tribe except Pakku... like wtf???
@@jiv3o275 wild they decided to sway from the original content to 'improve' it and end up butchering a already weak plot point.
I feel like that moment when Master Pakku was like “you should’ve been focusing more on your training this whole time” without meaning to, actually pointed out one of the biggest story development flaws of the entire live action. Netflix was so focused on making sure they fit all the “fan favorite” stories into this first season that they completely left Aang to drown in the background with no emphasis, importance or drive to master his first major element whatsoever. Like. The first season in the OG is literally called “Water” and Aang at the end of the first season still doesn’t know how to waterbend. MAJOR fail in my opinion, like…what?
They cut the Great Divide from the series so that the audience could recreate it in real life
Lmao
Smh these GanJins have no idea what they’re talking about
Lmaooooo
"You know you're not supposed to bring food into the Great Divide, right?"
"I want this to end quickly"
Lmaoo
The lack of focus on Roku really undermines “the sin’s of the father” themes heavily woven into the Avatar universe. Kuruk deals with Yan Chen (spelling?) failings as an Avatar, Kyoshi with Kuruk’s, etc.
Aang needs more of a relationship with Roku to understand how Roku’s failings helped build the world we see okay.
Wasn't it more like Yangchen left the world in such a good state that Kuruk had nothing serious to do so he turned mostly to working with the spirit world?
I mean, at most U can say she did too good of a job for the earthly world, not really neglecting the spirit world but rather favouring the earthly world.
Your point still stands tho
What they did with Roku was definitely criminal. Him and Aang both share the guilt of feeling responsible for the 100 year war, with Roku knowing he could have stopped it before it began and Aang being away for all those years. In a sense they are both trying to correct their mistakes and leaving that out and making Roku a comedian undermines that whole dynamic. Not to mention what we learn later about Roku and Zuko
@@smirglepapier531Yangchen left the world in a good state. At the beginning of his era Kuruk was the relaxed Avatar. And grew complacent. Which caused the Spirit world to be unbalanced. In his 2nd half of his era he was constantly in the Spirit world trying to fix his mistakes. While in the human world things were going wrong.Which Kyoshi would end up fixing.
@@RK-cj4ocno that's wrong yangchen left the MORTAL world in a good state not the SPIRIT world so kuruk had to basically neglect the mortal world to fix the spirit world that yangchen ignored and he dies trying kyoshi now has to fix the mortal world and the remainder of kuruks job
Modern politics says that you are guilty for the sins of your father though so this was just expected.
My favorite lines are Aang's "I like to play airball and eat banana cakes" and Azula just saying "I'm the best" a million times, like it's a description from a rpg character sheet instead of dialogue from a tv show.
My favorite was when he looked into the camera on the first episode literally just says "HI I'm Aang and here's what I like"
@@MyTime1863 It's so loathsome... and yet, the past 4+ years have convinced me that this is now appropriate for an American audience.
Or Iroh talking about jasmine tea
@@MyTime1863
Q1 - Why is 'Leaves from the vine' sadder than Aang's discovery of the air nomads' fate, according to a 2022Jun poll? (In-universe reasons only.) They don't even use the g word to describe what happened to the air nomads. Cowards.
Q2
'Leaves from the vines' is about a war criminal crying over another war criminal. How's it sad BEFORE Iroh fully defects?
But even after Iroh defects, I don't see how it's sadder than Aang's reaction to air nomads. Or maybe the writing was bad because it's a kids' show which doesn't really dwell much on the g word. Idk.
Notes:
1
Change 'war criminal' to 'unjust war aggressor' if need be.
2
Imagine you had relatives who met fates similar to the air nomads', but people were crying over leaves from the vine. Eg Uyghur, Cambodia, Rohingya, et al.
More info:
- p1w4Rr-XW
I was finally, SLOWLY, accepting this version because I was trying to find grace wherever I could give it, BUT when Katara was labeled "master" without truly earning it, my heart sank... she may have been practicing during the series, but there is so much lost in her journey by practically saying she 'got there on her own'. Thanks for the breakdown, glad I'm not the only one feeling this way.
I would make the counter argument that Toph also "got there on her own", but she had instructors - just not human ones.
Katara doesn't have any comparable moments watching the tides for inspiration which would have been a good way to explore learning bending from the original sources.
She didn’t earn it? Why are we withholding this from Katara? She received the traditional waterbending training, she showed an ability to not just quickly pick up forms but to modify them (which demonstrates true mastery in a way merely perfect copying doesn’t, which is of course what eventually gives her the edge over Azula), impressively this was self-taught through the scroll, and the homeschool education was rigorously field-tested against fascists trying to kill her.
Of course that boy referred to her as a master! She TRAVELED FROM ONE SIDE OF THE GLOBE TO THE OTHER, she survived multiple fights with flame-wielding fascists, she is the last living representative of an entire school of waterbending, she created new forms, she held her own against a “qualified” master, and she did all this based on dedication and skill we saw her acquire and teach to herself. Of course that wowed people who have spent their whole lives cowering behind walls.
What on Earth other qualifications do you need? Or are we seriously shaming Katara for being the victim of a genocide and not having a living master to turn to, and having to settle for the written down instructions from deceased masters?
@@pantslesswrockI think people find this infallable because of the wording. It would have been fine to call her a "prodigy" or a talent, but the showrunners instead use the term "master". Which makes all the difference.
This kind of treatment is given to toph in the animated series as well, toph is naturally gifted and didn't have proper masters, having only the badger moles, and she even had the handicap of blindness(which you could argue is a strength instead but that's not the point). But never in the show was toph called a master. She may have proclaimed herself to be the best earthbender of all time(which is true, she's a fucking badass) and others may have acknowledge her talent and strength, but no one ever calls her a master(she is called shifu by aang, which in this context means teacher more than master tho).
By calling katara a master, it not only makes the term sort of lose it's meaning, but is, in my opinion, disrespectful to waterbending and katara herself. The fact that you can be called a master in waterbending after only like 2 weeks of progress makes it seem like waterbending isn't that much. Even tho it is repeatedly stressed how important waterbending is, and how much it is so much more than the martial side, it is the core of a whole culture, a whole discipline.
It is not unbelievable that katara progressed so much in waterbending in a short amount of time due to her talent, What's unbelievable is that only this much can be considered the mark of a "master" to such a deep and profound art. And throughout the show, "mastery" of the bending, and "masters" in general are terms held in such high regard that suddenly using it in katara makes it just contradictory.
I think this argument is just a misunderstanding that stemmed from lack of proper understanding and media literacy from both sides. Not that I'm saying I have a better understanding, this is all just my two cents, not trying to fight anybody.
Aang not learning any bending in the first season is like Harry Potter not learning any spells in the first movie, you don't notice it at first but it's kind of crazy the more you think about it
@TheDrover15
He... Literally learned spells, though? One of the scenes in the book and movie are them learning Wingardium Leviosa, and is the inciting incident for the troll problem that solidifies the group as the golden trio.
Now him not USING magick is the issue. He barely casts a spell, but that slo makes sense. He's lived the life of a smuggle for all his life before that. He doesn't immediately think "I can use magick!" It makes sense that his mind immediately goes to the mundane instead of to magick, until Chamber and Azkaban, where magick starts to become more integral.
Well given season 1 is supposed to be 1/3 of the entire aang series lol it's more like seeing Harry not learn a singular new spell in 2.5 movies
@@dragonmaster1360 the harry potter thing was just an example meant to illustrate how weird it would have been if harry hadnt learned any spells
This series is to ATLA what the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie Trilogy is to the books.
....sucks.
Exactly, Aang in the live action was just going on and on about being scared to be Avatar but Aang in the cartoon was very keen to learn Waterbending with Katara but in the Live Action they decide to just splash around in the water.
The Netflix version kinda felt like when you really enjoyed some restaurant food, so your mom tried really hard to recreate it for you, but she just doesn't have the tools and the spices and the formal training, so the end result is admittedly objectively worse, but you enjoy it out of love for what it's trying to do and trying to be.
love this comment
best take on the new live action I have ever heard. I am going to quote this.
this is EXACTLY how it feels. Well done.
Yall just hoping on the hate train the series was great
I think you are saying your mums cooking tastes bad because someone else’s cooking tastes better.
I don’t know anyone who would’ve expected a Netflix remake to be better than the original, that’s like expecting your mums dinner to be better than a 5 star restaurant.
But that doesn’t mean the remake is bad, that’s your mothers cooking is going to make you vomit. Something can be enjoyable without having to be the best.
My feeling is that a lot of the small unnecessary changes undermine the pacing & themes.
Everyone goes around saying their innermost motivations, which hampers the unpeeling of these things; ends up feeling like Ember Island Players' read on the events
Ember Island Players is a great episode.
@@nancyjay790 Great episode, terrible play... or hilarious, depending on how serious you take it
@@Erik-pu4mj I always love the part when real Toph approved of actor Toph.
Bro he's gonna vanish/censor your comment soon. Just watch. He's been doing it to every popular comment after a few hours
Western writers failed English class. Remember when you'd see a Ryan Gosling or Tim Burton movie in class, and you were kinda expected to understand the tone of emotion based on what colours people wore and what was displayed on set on top of what the actors said or did?
I'm just hoping at some point they include that moment where the prisoner just says "HEY! RIOT!" and everyone just starts fighting.
My favorite joke from the original series
I think thats in book two no?
this is the rep we need
book three, boiling rock@@sufyanzakir8781
@@sufyanzakir8781Book 3, the Boiling Rock episode
One thing I’d like to point out is the subtle world building in the OG series.
When katara & Sokka meet Aang; Aang sneezes and flies high up… this shocks Sokka! The reason this is important is because at first you might look at it like regular “cartoon logic” BUT Sokkas shock makes it clear that this is NOT a normal thing within this world.
Sokka then doubts that Appa can fly… and then later tells Aang “HUMANS CANT FLY”… all of this makes the “YIP YIP” moment so much more exciting… ALSO this “fact” that (humans can’t fly); becomes important later in the Kyoshi island episode when Aang proves he’s an airbender.
Sokkas sexism is another thing. When we get to the northern water tribe at the end of Book 1; we realize that Sokka isn’t just sexist for no reason… his whole culture is… he’s not just some kid who wants to be manly… this is how he saw things growing up but then realizes over time that his views are wrong and then grows from this throughout the story.
Exactly. The first episode of the OG series is a masterclass on show don't tell. Without any exposition we learn that waterbending is an ancient artform unique to their people, but it's nearly disappeared and is clearly not common anymore. We get great info on firebending and how it's not just throwing fire, it's energy that comes into the body from the breath and is then bent. We learn that zuko is a prince but he's been banished and his honor depends on capturing the avatar. We learn that the avatar is expected to be this 100year old super dangerous master of all elements and were surprised along with the world when it's a near harmless boy. We see the devastation the war has had on the southern water tribe and how they're just women and children and all their men are gone. We see the fear they have of the fire nation. I could go on and on, it's incredible. The live action series missed that entire lesson and instead gives us monologues explaining everything. Also one note, why would the firebenders attack at night. Their main goal is to ensure nobody escapes, so dawn would be the best time, since it's daylight so you can see better, and have all day to track any escaping airbenders, since you know, they can fly. Attacking in the dark just makes it super easy for an Airbender or ten to fly off into the pitch black mountains and escape. Also firebenders get their power from the sun, so a nighttime raid makes even less sense.
And sokkas sexism is doubly important because when he's defeated by the kyoshi warriors it humbles him that much harder. And shows his true growth accepting that these women can actually teach him a thing or two. Also I know him wearing the dress is played for comedic effect, and they probably didn't want to laugh at cross dressing. But it also showed his growth in being willing to put aside his pride and manliness in order to learn and grow as a warrior. And in the end he acknowledges that he's not dressing like a woman, he's dressing like a warrior and it's an honor to wear that outfit, not something to be embarrassed about.
@@thorCast omg I didn’t even notice that about the night time raid! Lmao you’re totally right!!!
The og series is so nuanced that the more you think about it the more it keeps making sense. Can't say that for the Netflix version
The change to Sokka’s character should be criminal. I don’t understand how you can make an adaptation or remake of something and then change the characters traits that made the audience fall in love with them. If you are going to do that then call it something else:/ don’t call it ATLA.
For me one of important teaching from the show was to show us that there is good in evil and there is evil in good.. Sokka character was a perfect example of this, this is a warrior who starts off thinking girls can’t be warriors but the more he travels, the more his way of thinking changed.. The perfect thing about it is that his evil is shown in a witty comedic way not a nasty hateful way.
I absolutely loved the addition of Lu Ten's funeral, and the 41st legion being Zuko's crew. Both brought me to tears.
SAME!!
I thought this was an improvement for sure, it made everything seem more personal between Zuko and his crew and it expanded upon Zuko and Iroh’s relationship which is amazing. Idk these scenes were just so great and made me tear up 😭
it was the leaves from the vine music in the backround that makes me tear up..
I also thought it was interesting to show Iroh and Ozai interacting. I'm hoping there will be more of that in season two. I want as much of the Fire Nation royal family dynamics as they'll give me .
Those were the 2 saving graces for me.
My main problem is the over explaining on everything without the natural buildup. For example, the scenes in which Sokka was helping with the engineering stuff in the show and the people just blatantly telling him that he has the mind of an engineer takes everything away from his arc. In the source material, he does not come to this realisation until book 3 or 4.
It’s the same with Aang. Everybody keeps explaining his character to him, things that he would not grow into until much later in the show. Seeing him making these long wise monologues to people around him makes him the central saviour throughout the show, like he’s a fully realised character with all the answers, when in reality he needed a lot of help and guidance from other people. The episode on king Bumi is one example. Where the original show had king Bumi trick Aang to teach him a lesson, the Netflix show has Bumi be a diabolical evil guy that Aang needs to morally correct.
Well said. I kept feeling that something was off about Aang, like he was almost a little arrogant, but I couldn't put my finger on why. This explains it.
there is no book 4 lol, and no sokka helps the engineer in season 1 and the engineer calls sokka a genius, and gives sokka credit for helping develop the war balloon design, but keep talking about a show you clearly don't remember well
@@danielschultz96 Most of the time when people refer to book 4 of avatar they are talking about everything past Day of black sun. Since that episode was meant as a finale before the series took a break for half a year before airing the real rest of the season. Hence "book 4" for the 4th season.
@@SirProtagonist even so what they are saying happened in book 4 happened in book 1
AH yes, my favorite part: Book 4
I can't:t wait for the "zuko here" moment because he's already nailing that energy in the flashbacks
Zuko is perfectly cast and Mr. Liu is killing it/carrying the show in terms of kid/teen acting
@@Snarethedrummer Absolutely, I think it's the one fact that everyone here can agree with
"I liked the genocide." - Tim Hickson, 2024
Omfg
@@HelloFutureMe I apologise for nothing
Full quote: “I liked the genocide, but I would have liked more”
@@hansmorktopphol901 This poor man's reputation is plummeting by the second
Hahahaha!
The og series will always reign supreme. This was ok
This right here. The original is an easy inclusion in a very small list of animated series that could be easily argued are among the best ever. This version is extremely adequate. I didn't hate it by any means but it's just fine.
@@swampert564 yep
HOW THE HELL DID AANG NEVER WATER BEND??? I need to cleanse my eyes with the original
@@KayceWoofr,i ma actually gonna rewatch ATLA again (even though i watched it 2 months ago),
We need cleansing fr
That's how I feel about it. If I had never seen the cartoon and had nothing to compare it to, I would think this show was fine. Just... fine. I wouldn't hate it, but I wouldn't become a lifelong fan of Avatar either. I'd probably never think about it again after a week or two.
But since I did see the cartoon and am actively comparing it to the live action show... I really don't like it. A handful of changes are good, and some of the actors are spot on like Zuko and Ozai, but a lot of the performances are not good, the dialogue is almost always totally unnatural, and a lot of the changes just make no sense. They also just RUINED Katara. My god, they did her character so dirty.
The problem with this show is they fix problems that weren’t actually problems, like Sokka’s sexism, which they eliminate, but there’s a whole arc about him being humbled and learning he isn’t that guy. It would be one thing if he didn’t change his perspective in the original show over time, and another if his sexism received a positive response from other characters, but it is constantly challenged throughout the show and is a huge character growth arc, not only for him but for katara. He starts out as an immature boy and grows as a person as he meets incredible, capable women in the show like suki. His sexism is also a huge catalyst to the plot. They literally never would have met aang if he hadn’t made katara upset. It could have been an awesome opportunity to make sokka a role model for how he humbles himself and changes his perspective as he learns his sexist beliefs are wrong- something our hard-headed political atmosphere really needed to see. Missed opportunity there.
His sexist nature came because of the Southern Water tribe having the men be hunter's, gathers and providers while the women kept the home front; it not necessarily being something malicious but a mentality he was raised with leading him to think women in combat was a wasted effort. Hence why I felt Sokka sexism was integral to his character development which was shown in how supportive he was of Katara when she faced against the water bending tribe's master showing her how far he'd come since his encounter with the Kyoshi warriors. They basically butchered his character arc.
"Something our hard-headed political atmosphere needed to see" F*cking lol
One thing I found annoying bout this 'removing sexism' during kyoshi island is that they basically swung the pendulum to the other-side of the spectrum. Having Suki basically be a horny girl, that's never seen a guy before... Like this doesn't make it any better...? Like you said, there was great opportunity to show changes in a character, and this really wasn't it.
Totally agree with this.
Not only that, but he learns to appreciate what Katara had to do while they were growing up.
@@SanaSardonyxI’m gonna be honest I didn’t even notice they made them both women + most people liked having more from kyoshi anyways
4:30 "Also I liked the genocide"
Ah, out-of-context phrases will be the bane of us all some day.
Bah, soon enough deep fakes will be able to make us say whatever... 😅
I think what's so cool about Roku being the mentor is because he was the most recent avatar AND a fire bender of all things. Absolutely no shade towards Kyoshi though. I'm of the opinion that we should have an animated Kyoshi series by now. I'm tired of things getting live action remakes. The world of avatar is so incredibly rich. It's wild that all we got is Legend of Korra while there is an entire lineage of old avatars and potentially new avatars post Korra to tell stories about
Luckily we will get more animated avatar content in 2025! We'll get an ATLA movie and a series with a new earth avatar that takes place after TLOK
Have you read the kyoshi books yet? There's 2 of them and there's freaking GOOD, imo they nail the mystique in the worldbuilding that made me such a fan of avatar in the first place
Roku is cool because he has connections to lots of people in the series, he is zukos great grandfather, he learned with gyatso. He is there for a reason as he is much more sympathetic to aang's plights like love and killing than someone like kyoshi
Roku trying to guide Aang at this time is also significant because he wasn't able to prevent the war from happening and he feels a lot of guilt as a result of that. It means he's essentially helping Aang carry the heavy burden he left him with and in the process atone for his mistakes
I'm still perplexed none of the comics have been adapted into movies.
So- I get that the show is trying to give us an insecure “little-sister” kind of Katara to show some growth and self-confidence as her bending ability progresses… but I think the Netflix showrunners missed the point on why Katara is so iconic.
In the cartoon… Katara was brave, compassionate, diplomatic, shamelessly vocal about what she believed in, and unbelievably resourceful alongside her bending abilities, rather than because of them. This was a girl who set the ATLA story into motion after vocally putting her brothers small-minded sexism in its place, and had an iceberg not been discovered, I like to believe fed-up Katara would’ve packed her bags and left home (since she’s GranGran’s granddaughter after all) and canoed her way to the NWT with to finally find a waterbending master and help end this war.
Instead… all I’m seeing is the gentle, nurturing soul that Katara only chose to be from the trauma of losing her mom, and the 🥺 faces are kind of redundant. She needs a stronger presence in this series.
As a woman who looked up to Katara growing up, I can't imagine why they would ever make Katara insecure little sister. She was supposed to be the replacement for their mother as much as Sokka was for their father.
excellently worded. she deserved better
Katara was butchered
I feel like they are giving Katara's parental role to Sokka in this series. And I dont like it, its a big part of her character as much as "the big brother who actually depends on his little sister" is a big part of Sokkas character.
And as a girl for whom Katara has been a role model, seeing her watered down like this and showed into the polite "goody-two shoes" trope the fandom often criticizes her for is sad. She is toothless in the netflix show and she deserved better
Best part of ATLA writing Katara was that it felt like, they were writing an actual girl as one of the main characters. She had flaws, she was strong but she wasn’t no Mary Sue who was automatically a master bender, she learned, she failed and there was a system that worked against her growth both in her culture, and even her family. She still acts like a girl too, and it’s shown that she had to take on a mother role for Sokka which shaped her personality quite a lot. She’s still a tween girl, she has crushes, she likes doing her hair a certain way, they steered clear of the “Not like other girls” that other shows do.But she’s also strong willed, she isn’t afraid to do what she believes, the prison scene in s1 shows this a lot itself.
Did you notice that despite them not including Roku telling Aang not to show emotion on his face when facing Koh, Aang was expressionless while talking to him?
Yes!
Lol! No tf he wasn't, he looked the exact same as he always did throughout the show...
Well actually, yea, I guess he did look emotionless then.
I felt like you cant watch the live action w/o having watched the cartoon or the LA wont fill in the gaps
i can't believe aang is a metagamer
I HATEDDDD this. It defeated the whole purpose of that scene and interaction in the first place. Same goes with Sokkas interactions with Suki and Yue, they rushed the shit of their relationship. We are supposed to assume Yue and Sokka love each other after she showed him how to make a dessert??
What disappointed me most was the lack of Zuko saying HONOUR. In every scene with Zuko, me and my friends were sitting on the tip of our seats begging for JUST ONE TIME ZUKO SAYING HIS MOST FAMOUS LINE but no, not once does he say it... They made surw the cabbage man had his epic moment, so why not Zuko too?
It's netflix......
Written for "moden audiances"
Such concepts as honor are "problematic..."
For the same reason they had to make the allresdy intellijrnt and powerfull azula even more so
Dumbdown zahou to lift her up...
Make katara a superboss master (also self thought in absurd speed etc etc)
For the same reason they had to make boomi a corrupt king
Cuz it's the avatar teaching HIM a lesson....
Should i go on...
I don't think they want to take that away from the og. I think they wanted to do that to respect the og show. In the live action, "destiny" is his replaced word. The live action is meant to be different from the og, like a tribute.
@@donotlike4anonymus594 please go touch some grass. Nothing about honor is considered problematic-literally anywhere.
I haven't finished the series yet, but I noticed "tell, don't show" from the very first moment Aang just tells the camera "I don't want to be the Avatar." And like, looking back, the show did a lot with shorter episodes. A lot of character beats are handled very quickly within cartoon episode limitations. It's the same dialogue, Aang's surprised face, and a musical flourish, and you know everything you need to know. The show drags it out into exposition where they have him tell us how he feels instead of just showing it, and it definitely set my expectations lower.
I agree that the bending looks great, and I'm okay with the grimmer tone, but I do feel like their obligation to include some funny moments, like Sokka trying to rally the kids at the village, just make that tonal shift look really awkward sometimes.
IMO the writers just wrote really cringy jokes. There's hundreds of grim/adult themed movies and shows that are absolutely hilarious.
Also, the tell don't show part was such a waste of the limited time they had. You can show a multitude of feelings/motivations in just a single action or expression and they completely wasted that opportunity.
Right? My biggest pet peeve
The idea behind it is he's talking to Appa, his best friend. Was it great? No, but it is plausable for him to be venting his emotions.
How would you show this and not tell?
@@autoliny6865 the best way would be to more-or-less copy a bit of the flashback from 'The Storm'. Show Aang playing Airball or showing off the air scooter with the other kids, and then have him get pulled away to be told he's the avatar. The next day, Aang wants to go play with the other kids, but he isn't allowed because he has to train, or the kids won't play with him because he's the avatar so it's not fair.
It would take up some.more runtime so they'd have to shave some other parts down, but that's probably the easiest way to show how being the Avatar negatively affects Aang.
@@matthewpelletier6900 that's exactly what they did in the animation. Sounded pretty easy to redo in the liva action. Especially since they spent a lot of time with him flying around in the intro
There's this weird trend that's been happening for the last few years. Media literacy is kind of dying in mainstream media. No one's aloud to have flaws or meaningful character development. The worst thing for me is that they never have the balls to talk about darker subjects with any kind of maturity. I think the weirdest part about this trend is that the live action remakes feel more childish. And so much of the animation that's come out over the last few years feel more mature. For some reason animation now a days feels more real and athletic. Rather than live action which is progressively feeling more fake and only interested in being as cheap as possible. And it still blows me away every time I hear someone argue that animation is just for kids.
Literally yes! I couldn’t really put into words why I’ve overall hated live action but love animation so much and I think it’s precisely because the toned town tip-toeing that live action does nowadays makes it feel WAY more base-level in writing and character development than many animations
Allowed
there are characters that can have flaws, male white ones
I’m blown away that they chose to ‘play it safe’ and take away Sokka’s sexism. It was an integral part of his development in the series, and while it’s not the most politically correct trait, we love him despite it because he *grows* from it, and his relationship with Suki actually facilitates that and is more meaningful because of it. To shy away from the very real, ‘darker’ aspects of character’s personalities because show runners are afraid of criticism is stupid. What makes a character interesting to watch is their progression and their flaws. Nobody wants a cookie cutter paragon of moral virtue.
animation is goated lol i think they can get away with deeper messages and themes because it's expected out of children's media to teach a lesson at the end. plus, most adults aren't watching cartoons since it isn't as mainstream so the annoying ones can't go complain on twitter after lmao
"they watered katara down" pun intended? 😭
it literally says unintended pun on screen when he says it.
They took the brave, feisty, shamelessly vocal Katara in the cartoon and made her into some generic gentle nice girl.
@@saphcalthat's exactly what an intended pun would say!
@@saphcal well I wasn't watching the screen, it's called multitasking ☠️
@user-mx4zh3ld9w yep. hopefully the script and acting will improve by s02 though
That last line about it feeling like a first or second draft hits right on the nose. This feels like somebody took a first stabbed at this trying to weave these plotlines together , didn't really worry too much about the dialogue at this point, and treated exposition dumps more like notes for themselves for later. But then someone just took it from them and said "there's no time we've got to run with this" and that's what we got.
2 things that made me go 😬 immediately in the first episode
1. "But, I know who I am. I like to play airball and eat banana cakes and goof off with my friends!"
2. "There's a reason I'm the only waterbender left in the village...... they've killed all the others"
Like, oh my god, have you _heard_ of subtlety?
I get you need to have a bit of exposition for the people who haven't seen the original (why? they should just go watch it... anyways), but Jesus, you could have just like a little subtlety, just a wee lil bit
The original show didn't have an "originaler" show to point to when it comes to bearing the weight of good writing. There was no resource to point people towards when it came to a character's personality, and even then the writers showed restraint and let the characters naturally express who they were over the course of many episodes instead of just... telling us in a line of dialogue...
I don't hate this show yet (i'm on epsiode 5 rn, so we'll see how i'll be feeling by 8), but it feels like it has 0 confidence on the source material sometimes.
Seriously-- it made me wonder if they wrote these ALTA scripts with ChatGPT. :(
the writing and script is so bad… it’s so childish, quirky, riverdale-y. y’all know what i’m talking about. over time the characters did grow on me and i was able to suspend disbelief long enough to where the writing didn’t bother me, but i still have a lot of 😬 cringe moments lol. now it’s just turned funny cuz whenever Aang looks adjacent to the camera with that little concerned/self realization face and delivers the most corny ass line makes me laughhhh
edit: not a hater btw, it’s so beautiful and i actually enjoy watching! i’m always this critical
by the way, it’s very weird to me how they want to make this a “grown up” show by showcasing more violence, moodiness, and awe striking scenes.. yet somehow it lacks all the bite and edge the animation had? again, riverdale-y, Netflix tries to apply the same formula to everything and it’s getting extremely repetitive
They definitely had a "Tell-Don't-Show" problem, as if they didn't trust the audience of this "mature, adult" series to understand the same beats as the "kids'" version.
I have no interest in seeing the original...Ofcourse any series or movie that has originated from any popular books or comics or animation should make it with think8ng that people who are going to watch it have not seen the previous original version and go from there. Dont assume.
One minor thing that peeved me off was that Katara and Sokka get kidnapped by Koh and then Aang just... pops to the Fire Nation? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't remember the village feeling close to the Fire Nation on the cartoon. It's similar vibes to The Witcher with the world feeling really small because travel times just don't exist
No the village was a whole day's journey and it was the day of the solistice but this made it feel like an hour flight via glider
Travel times start squishing and expanding dramatically to fit the plot even in the OG animated series. Appa does not cover the same distances temporally or geographically every episode they're on his back
@@tylerphuoc2653 Sure, but it's weird that June somehow made it there (and back) only a few seconds after Aang despite not even having a boat 😅
Given when the episode takes place in the original, I'm pretty you can assume the island and the village are two of the closer points between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. It's still a day's journey away, but reasonably believable Aang would be near the end of the fire nation archipelago, which helps explain how Zhou is able to have a blockade where he does as it'd probably raise far too many questions if his ships were more internal to Fire Nation waters. As for the live action, I dunno, there's too many things crammed together.
I just pulled up a map to double check the geography and the first image result I got actually showed the path they took over the 3 books, and it does indicate this interpretation is valid (without doing anything more, I'm not sure what the source of the image is, so I don't know how official it is).
Netflix is really good at being bad at writing female characters, they're concerned with not making them girl-ish that they turn them. into Robots. the original cartoon has one of the best writing of female characters in any media.
I hate how in the end they turned the kind, caring motherly character into this girl boss trope who doesn't need a master to learn water bending when her initial motivation was to find one and they turned the actual girl boss in the show into this whiny cry baby
the other thing I hate about this is the Time, it feels like the whole thing took place in a day or two,
overall it's 4/10 for me and that's for Zuko's crew
😂 I hate how they treated Roku, bumi, Azula
Can't get it out of my mind how Katara cringly stated she's her own master ........ f*ck you Netflix
I also see people making excuses for it like saying s*** like she's a prodigy blah blah blah and in the cartoon she didn't learn anything from paku as well she was already master of water bending blah blah blah they only stayed in the north for a day blah blah blah.
STFU and watch the cartoon
@@facelessman1298 They done Avatar Roku dirty lol
Katara went from barely being able to move water to Frozone style ice slides in what feels like a day.
@@StoneCBearsfinally someone says it
My problem with nearly every modern story/retelling, is that there isn't much "Ma"; negative space. In the original ATLA story, the "plot" took a backseat, and there weren't a lot of things happening just for the sake of moving the plot along. Most of the original ATLA's run time was a lot of meaningful nothingness; characters were built and broken, cultures, ideologies, philosophies were explored, inter-personal dynamics were organically pulled apart and mended back together. This worked because there was so much "downtime". ATLA was a character-driven story, and that meant that the characters themselves (including and especially the protagonists) were the main sources of drama and antagonism. Sure, there were forces outside of the gaang that forced their hand at times, but ultimately, something like the final fight with Ozai will never be as memorable as Katara deciding to spare the life of the firebender who ruined her life, Zuko's redemption, Iroh mourning his child, or even Mai and Ty Lee turning on Azula, etc. ATLA is at it's best when it's characters' **flaws** are the the forefront, and their conflict is within. ATLA is relatable because, try as they might, no one is a saint, and often, the harder we try to do "better", the more we fuck up. ATLA then was largely a story of "letting go" capitalized by it's many moments of low-stakes adventure, and solemn reflection.
Sooo, basically a coming-of-age tale of young heroes told with heart and genuine emotional growth both intra and interpersonally against the fantastical backdrop of a war-torn world filled with relatable problems and relationships that eventually come to center around the the ethics of power, all the while juggling deeper philosophical queries of destiny and free will as our heroes grapple with moral dilemmas that emphasize the possibility of change and redemption?
@@KevinOnEarth_ Haha, that's right-- that's life.
Lack of subtlety is a great way to put it. In live action I think you do need to be subtle.
And Ironically the animated show is A LOT more subtle than the live action
It is a wild trend that has been in modern movies for far too long. Writers seem to not be able to look at the fact that they are creating not a book but a whole dialogue for characters that use more than just words to convey emotions. So we get a bizarre 'tell everything & show nothing' that would make more sense in radio, if it has a place at all.
If they did that, you would say its too mature and different to the animated serirs
@@yoonahkang7384 Right, because people being torched alive in relatively graphic detail like this show is trying to be a more woke Gen Z version of Game of Thrones didn't already do that.
@@yoonahkang7384 Except that the animated show is often subtle. Making the live action more subtle would be making it more similar to the animated series, not different from.
I hope this adaptation at least convinces a tons of people to check out the actual animated show
im sure it will. i saw the movie first and that made me watch the show
I think it is already, I see the original trending everywhere.
Got my gf to finally check it out so im set!
It convinced me to really buy the novels, comics and the cookbook
I feel they didn't give us enough time with the characters. We got to the north pole and suddenly Katara is able to fight Paku and is viewed as skilled by the water benders, after only having an active role in four episodes. I think they should use more episodes with shorter runtimes so spread out the plot. It would give us a greater sense of time and allow for more small training moments. Hell, they could dial back the graphics a bit to allow for budget for more episodes.
I’m kind of glad they didn’t do the whole “Gran Gran was Pakku’s Ex” and thats why she left the North…it would have been too much (it was too much in the animated series already). I kind of liked how they changed it in the live action. But I agree everything was rushed in terms of character development. It’s tough when you have to fit 20 animated episodes into 8 live action episodes.
Or focus less on exposition dump and more on character development! You don’t always need a monologue to make a point and tell a story. Images or knowing looks can tell a lot
Just an FYI, he's deleting comments. The top comments that complained about this show all got deleted. Idk why. And he keeps doing this alternatively. Yours will be next. The censorship is crazy.
Katara becoming a master was way too quick in the original too, so it didn’t bother me that much in the live action 😂
Changing the structure of the story beats effects character development and relationships that were so beautifully captured all those years ago, and the show owes it to the audience to deliver on that front with the timeline changes.
Love that they used ghost in the shell type of music for Kyoshi's scene where she channels her "ghost" into Aang as a "shell", a very powerful ghost in the shell.
The Netflix show kinda felt like a community theatre production with a GIGANTIC special effects budget
Complete with the director's own grandma making her screen debut and going for a sweep of the razzies.
thats exactly what i thought, even despite the not matching character tropes and other aspects, just the acting of the actors alone i cannot get past. like it literally just felt like im watching some mediocre soap opera sitcom level acting with fancy special effects, it's so off lol...like the amount of times characters just awkwardly STAND THERE (especially katara) its like the left the wrong cuts in? idk but the acting is not it
It felt like I was watching the Ember Island Players with more special effects, lol. Team Azula actually do look like their theater counterparts
@@DaLightness NO LITERALLY I WAS GETTING EMBER ISLAND VIBES LMAO
Just the script and directing, actors were fine... I noticed the same thing when watching phantom menace, nothing wrong with the actors in that movie but still has the same feel.
"Avoiding the emotional angry woman trope" honestly sounds to me like they've destroyed the very concept of what it is to be human.
I mean, a lot of her (and Sokka's) emotions are fully understandable. She gets to be angry at constant belittlement, upset over the tragedy of her mom, and live through the teenage drama of her travels. I don't remember feeling that her emotions were misplaced or over the top--there was no 'woman is overly emotional because woman.' She acted pretty normal, if you ask me.
The best way I can put this adaptation, is that it feels like a puzzle that was put together wrong but is still holding together. There’s some parts that look really interesting, but a lot of it is kind of just “ok well, did you need to switch that around or are you just trying really hard to be creative?” Especially changing a lot of lines like you said just hit really, really well.
to me it comes off like they fed an AI prompt to compress the first season of ATLA into 8 episodes, and this is what it spat out. some things are shuffled in a way which is 'logical' but devoid of consideration for things like emotional context, like he mentions lines being in the wrong place, or separated too far from their original scenes.
@@Hugsloth as someone quoted before, "It's as if the writers and directors received a summarized explanation of the show and made that the meat and potatoes"
Besides the "Zuko rescued his crew thing" there is one other seemingly small change that I really appreciated: the fact that Katara tried to help her mother by attempting to waterbend. In this version, she made the situation worse and directly caused and wittnessed her mothers death. This gives her much more reason to be so massively traumatised by the event than in the original series.
You don’t need to have made it worse for it to be traumatic to witness the murder of your mother
If she could only act traumatised... His face is just usually like, ' uh what ? Did u say something?'
I thought it was more of them showing that it didn’t matter if she went back and changed her actions, her mother would’ve still died so it’s time to stop blaming yourself for inaction and forgive yourself - type of thing. At least that’s what I thought when I saw it
4:29 "also I liked the genocide but I would have liked more"
Did you leave this timestamp here for Tim’s enemies? 😅
Sozin:
7:19 they should’ve mixed the Jet episode with that forest episode. Fire nation burned the forest down so jet wants revenge and by taking down the fire nation camp sacrifices the village. Meanwhile Aang solves the angry spirit problem. It would’ve been perfect
Absolutely yes ! This was my thought too. I'm so glad someone agrees! It just makes me sad like if us fans can think about it why can't their writers?
You didn't like how Jet and Katara were suddenly outside the city with the firebender without any explanation of how they left or how they got back in?
.dot i wanna see where this goes
I actually think the way they did it in the show works better on thematic levels honestly.
Oh dang that would have been a great idea! I think the fact that Jet's freedom fighters being domestic terrorists was a good way to do him. But yeah no having him in the forest episode would have fit better with the original series, and also would have made the two episodes more solid.
What I thought was a strange writing choice was how they consistently removed any mysteries that had existed in the original. We're shown that the air benders are wiped out, even the characters are told about the genocide beforehand. When Bumi is introduced it's immediately stated who he is. There's no later reveal of who he is. So Aang ends up going through the trials already knowing it's him. The only case where I felt they kept a sense of mystery was the episode where Azula is introduced, and she's revealed as soon as the plot against the firelord fails
You’re forgetting Daniel Bae Kim as the fire lord. Which is absolutely fabulous
True 10/10 no notes daddy day kim
@@HelloFutureMeAMEN TO THAT🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
@@HelloFutureMehaha Do you think they'll do a season? 2
He was spot on, to the physique, the features and his voice was a dead ringer
@@Naruto.Shippuden463 honestly hope they do, I think if they listening to the criticisms season 2 might end p being better.
My main issue is the way they changed Iroh. Both learning about his atrocious crimes early on and revealing Lu Ten way too early. The original episode where they reveal Lu Ten drew its power from the reveal of his son and this moment of vulnerability from Iroh that we hadn't really seen before. A good friend of mine pointed out it's like watching your parents cry for the first time. You dont know what to do, and suddenly you might cry as well. By introducing this vulnerability so early they've robbed that moment of its power.
Also, it was important that we see Iroh as a silly and goofy father figure before we saw him as the general, which they also didnt do. Them having the earthbenders reveal his crimes so early also robs that scene of its moment, as he cant beat up or escape from the earthbenders now or else hes proving them right to the audience, especially since hes not very silly so this would be the first time we see him being strong and powerful to escape. They made it so we still dont know how strong he is, we do know his awful crimes before we get to like him, and we know about his son too early. We cant like him because of his son, we need to like him first and then add Lu Ten into it.
yes! exactly!
I agree. During the beginning of the (original) show he was kind of more just laid back and going with Zuko while offering him bits of helpful and meaningful advice here and there, but in the live action he's way too pushy, being all like "well what about this" and "what'll happen if you do this huh" which I don't personally like. I think that should be saved for Ba Sing Se, where Iroh really does confront Zuko about his decisions and desires.
I also think the dynamic between Zuko and Zhao and Iroh is all out of whack. Like, they make Zuko not that impulsive and hotheaded??? That's part of his whole character arc! And instead of being this egotistical impulsive guy, they made Zhao a calm, collected, and honestly somewhat charismatic guy??? Like ???
Those are the main things about the live action show that I don't like.
In the original tales of Ba Sing Se I cried my eyes out and still do. Can't believe they cheapened this like that.
I mean, they literally do the same thing in the animation (it's episode 7 of season 1). They just more explicitly point out the consequences of his actions which fits perfectly with how they are treating the tone of the war in this adaptation. Hell, I thought they made Iroh too amicable in this season if anything given his conversations with Aang. We don't really get to see Iroh being a protagonist in the animation until Lake Laogai when he tells Zuko to give up on chasing the Avatar. Even in the Chase, he gives a side eye to the Toph when he notices she's part of the Gaang, giving off the feeling that if Azula wasn't about to murder him he'd probably help Zuko fight them. He's literally fine with Zhao conquering the Northern Water tribe in the show too, he's just against Zhao killing the moon spirit. Y'all are too forgiving of Iroh due to his character arc. The man's literally a war criminal.
They mentioned Lu Ten in book 1 in the last few episodes. Iroh quite literally stated: "After my son died, I began treating you like my own"
In this adaptation we actually see those scenes.
From Iroh mourning his loss and then partaking on Zuko's journey.
Really, I find it rather weird that someone doesn't like this change. But I suppose that is how humans work, opinions can differ.
The best comparison I've seen so far is that the writing quality was like a sine wave, going from legit great to terrible and back again between scenes sometimes. Bizarre.
It kinda felt to me like you could see where multiple writers were involved. And it feels like a lot of the exposition stuff only did have one draft or something.
Writing certainly could have used more drafts.
This whole season was a sine wave. On average it was better than ok, but there were lots of 1/10 moments and lots of 10/10 moments (and everything in between)
Woooowwww
Best way to put it. Season was an 8 for me tho. Just because the story is universally great
@@DeannaGilbert616writer’s strike chaos perhaps?
The impression I get from Netflix shows is that Nettlix assumes people are watching their shows while scrolling social media or doing something else and thats why they keep having characters explain out loud what theyre doing or feeling...So people can follow the show without having to actually pay attention
I really liked changes in live action about Zuko and his relationship with his crew, that built up his character and gave more depth to the crew
I think that was the best change honestly, Zuko’s crew being the men he saved at the cost of whole life basically.
One of the few redeeming changes honestly @@discreetscrivener7885
I just finished it yesterday. Everything on the screen is honestly great, meaning that if you mute it and don't use subtitles, this looks like a 10/10 show. The music was fine too, I guess. But the writing, OMG. Foreshadowing? How about telling ahead of time instead? Here's some Azula sidekick lines for next season:
If Azula isn't careful, this path could lead her to madness.
And next season: Azula!! This is the path to madness!
And final season: This is my sister Azula, but she has fallen to madness...
Netflix live action Kora series: This is firelord Zuko. he had a sister Azula who fell into madness.
fake
Subtle like buttering bread with an anvil.
music was often way too basic and had such stereotypical themes like when the airbenders got attacked
its the way i just snort laughed at this explanation yet it was so accurate
What surprised me the most was the demeanor uncle Iroh had towards the earth benders that aprehended him when one of them confronted him about the things he did in the war (the soldier lost his brother) and Iroh says something like: "thats how war is" completely unlike what I would imagine considering he lost his son in that war. Am I overthinking this?
No, I was taken aback by that as well, considering his backstory. He completely changed his stance on war after his son's death, so him coldly affirming that "it's war" is so weird to me.
Well since he later on also said: we all lost enough already...i think it was just situational amd Iroh said that not for himself, but to make others feel less shitty. Basicaly saying "iam not blaming you"
He said "I was a soldier"
Iroh likely holds no grudge toward the soldier or soldiers who took his son's life. Because he knew.. they're just soldiers.
The reason for that is that you think of Iroh as a good guy, because in the cartoon that is all we ever see of him.
The live action is for a more adult audience. And his response is a very normal response for veterans who did not agree what they fought for. But still support their country.
It is very realistic. But very non Hollywood.
@@RK-cj4oc I understand Iroh isn't a "good guy", the animated show didn't try to say he was either. I understand he has flaws but he tries to grasp at hope by helping others who were hurt by him whether directly or indirectly because of his actions.
Your video sums up my thougts pretty well. The biggest weaknesses in my book are the exposition dumb and the lack of internal development.
Also I kinda want to add my thoughts ablut the set and costum design. I really liked the vibes and feelings of cities and the explored places. The clothing, armour and weapons are looking good and also functional and cared for, most of the time. The only exceptions are the warer tribes clothes, which are way to thin for staying alive and the fake furr looked kinda off.
I also know that this focus is niche but important for my self as a living historian and history student with a focus on material culture.
The only thing we can agree on, Zuko arc, and him as a character, was delivered amazingly.
Not really Iroh told zuko his eyes is fine but that takes away the symbolism of zuko scar , it made his vision blurry, it represents how he sees the world and his inner struggle. The make up is bad , he still has his eye brow
@@curtiszyri think that's a little nit-picky on your part. I agree Zuko was the best but he also suffers from the same exposition problem as everyone else and I hate how his reason for capturing the avatar is "glory" and not "honor", what a strange decision.
It's a great excuse to rewatch the actual last airbender
Honestly the live action remake does not justify its existence at all. I see no reason to even watch it when the original, far superior masterpiece exists.
most based reaction
Why would I need an excuse?
It made me wanna rewatch the original and that’s exactly what I’m doing now to cleanse my spirit.
Exactly my thought when I went back to watch how the original handled events in case I was misremembering it.
They cut the great divide because the series itself already is the greatest divide ever for the avatar community
I dunno I feel like the avatar community is pretty much united on this one… It’s extremely mid and will never compare to the cartoon…
Yeah. This isn’t that divine. Most think it’s neutral with the potential to do better.
@@JayJay5244 Comparing it to the cartoon is never going to yield good results. I think the cartoon is brilliant but you will never have a good time when holding it to that medium. the OG had 20+ episodes to explore the arcs this doesn't. glass half full at least for me is the way to view the netflix live action imo
Hakoda's change may have been probably the most unforgivable - the ENTIRE point of Sokka's Arc is that he feels he cannot live up to the man his dad was, and the resolution of this comes from realising his Dad was ALWAYS proud of him and that Sokka doesn't need to compare himself to him (Hakoda) because he has already accomplished great things in his own right and has become his own man.
The show just throws that all away - I love the live action now but this just hurts.
I was waiting for you to mention it. The First season is about water in the series. Katara learning water bending. Ang having talent for water bending. Both of them learning together. Ang learning water bending from Master Pakku. Katara proving herself and then improving vastly.
Becoming the teacher of Katara.
They're gonna say at the next episode beginning "Aang learned water bending from Katara."
And then Aang won’t waterbend until the finale of Book 2. We’ll be gaslit the whole way through with Sokka telling a guy named Audience Surrogate, “Do you seriously think the Avatar isn’t training to use these elements as things go along with the Comet coming? That would be ridiculous.”
Sokka narrating: "Katara taught Aang waterbending. It was intence and a little scary, but I do have to admit that I got a little jealous * *describes what would be a fun episode on its own* *"
The visuals: Katara and Aang just relaxing near a river.
@@chinuaalibatya7345 turns out Sokka is the real Avatar and Aang is just delusional - as told by Sokka himself
I hope it's gran gran that tells us!
@@Zanroff another exposition dump by her! hyped!
This is pretty much exactly how I felt about it. Have a few additional thoughts:
Sokka & Suki: If I'm remembering the original correctly, Sokka puts on the makeup as part of the training & accepting the Kyoshi Warrior way of life. The live action instead has Suki remove her makeup, representing ??? - it felt like her entering his world (which does fit with Suki & the Kyoshi Warriors leaving the island later) rather than Sokka entering hers.
The Waterbending Scroll: I was hoping that the scroll was something Gran-Gran took from Pakku when she left, but I don't think they ever used that connection.
Bumi: The changes fit the altered tone, but it's such a radical departure & a complete 180 change to his role in the story that it still doesn't work for me. Also, he reminds me way too much of Count Olaf in this, to the point that I wonder if Netflix re-used the prosthetics & make-up
I agree! also she just wiped the whole makeup off in two seconds lol
In Korra, Aang had named one of his children after Bumi. Imagine seeing the live action Bumi and thinking, oh yeah Im gonna name my kid after this asshole lmao
nice analysis never thought about it that way
I think Suki removed her makeup so that it would be easier to identify her in the upcoming fight scene, in comparison to the other kyoshi warriors
@@DrGonzz LMFAOOO. Seriously though, why did they make Bumi like that? The change was SO unnecessary and wrong. Like OBVIOUSLY Aang ALREADY feels guilty for abandoning the world, (well in this case, coincidentally taking appa for a walk and then getting caught in a storm), why did his childhood friend turn into a character that was so unnecessarily evil? xd
The library episode is sooo important they better not skip it in season 2.
Too late it’s probably not going to be a thing now
@@lildjay480um, what? They are clearly building up to it? That’s why they included the owl librarian but didn’t press the comet countdown timer for the heroes. They wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of making a CGI owlibrarian if they weren’t gonna save money by reusing it the next season.
I dunno. Zhao got his knowledge of the Moon Spirit from fire nation sources instead of The Library… Definitely feels like the library will be written out. I’m filled with dread…
@@adiksaff Y’ALL THEY EXPLICITLY TEASED THE LIBRARY
YOU ARE ALL REALLY BAD AT THIS
@pantslesswrock Yeah no they didn't. Stop saying things that aren't true just too make the piece of garbage look better. They're gonna skip it.
I HATED how they handled azula! the whole impact of her character is her being presented as a perfect cunning manipulator under control and we slowly start seeing her spiral, but here they made her unhinged and jealous since the first scene, she lost all of what made her character so terrifying yet interesting
dude be patient they didn't introduce her yet atleast make a review after they introduce her in season 2 that is not fair
@@eyosyastebeje9555 u haven’t watched nextflux yet have u
@@eyosyastebeje9555they did introduce her she’s been in multiple episodes lol.
@@eyosyastebeje9555 ..... im convinced u people are npc bots that get triggered every-time someone criticizes this shitty show and go to default bs mode without actually haven watched the show yourself.
@@eyosyastebeje9555 average live action supporter
Lu Ten's funeral was such a powerful and perfect scene, Zuko giving Iroh Lu Ten's medal then sitting beside him just silently comforting him as the camera pans over to Iroh who's mouth starts to quiver as tears fall out of his eyes. this scene genuinely made me cry and I'm not ashamed to admit that. while I think Iroh was too serious and harsh that doesn't mean he wasn't a bad character in this.
This is the first adaptation where I like the new things that they added, but the things that they changed/tweaked that were already in the show are absolute shit. How can you write that Iroh and Zuko moment at Lu Ten's funeral but also think that it is a good idea that Aang never waterbends in the season.
Yeah exactly the pendulum of writing kept swinging in positive and negative ways it was exhausting at times lol
I think they skipped it to have a reason for Team Avatar having an extended stay at the North Pole between season 1 and 2. Now they can easily have Aang stay there for 6+ months to learn waterbending, and help them rebuild.
Ongahd
I think the writers just didn't know the things they changed and added were good or bad. So they mixed all together like a chemist experiment and see what would be our reaction, so that hopefully they improved from our complaints
I imagine they didn't have Aang water bend because he doesn't want to be the avatar (he explicitly says that when Katara offers to train him the first time) so I imagine they're going to be doing something with that in season 2 (especially with the comet), but they definitely should have made it clearer (and not just with aang saying it a bunch of times).
What a incredibly well done breakdown!!!
I honestly liked it very much and I trully enjoyed it, but I feel mostly the same things you talked about.
The thing that itched me the most during the show was thinking all the time "when is Aang going to learn waterbending" and I was a bit disappointed with them changing that. The part with Koh and all the changes around the spirit world were really meh and confusing, at first I thought I didn't remembered it right because it's been a while since I watched the original. I hate that the owl (I don't remember the name) was there just to be and talked to Aang for a minute and then disappeared, becasuse I remember the Library episode like one of the best and more interestings.
A lot of things felt like easter eggs and references to make fans happy, but I can indulge that because the story overall was good and the characters felt like them for the most part (I dind't connect with Azula but I agree with what you said so I hope it gets better). The writing as you said was lacking a lot and sometimes the characters just went on monologues just to expose or remind some things to the viewers and I hated it because it came off a bit weird out of animations. The show would have been probably better with 10 episodes instead of 8 imo.
Also, the last episode to me was really really good and well done, and they hinted things for the next season.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the show and I know it's only going to get even better with the next seasons, because the exposition and foundation to the world and the story is already there!!
As someone unfamiliar with the source material, this helped me understand what I was missing/what felt off. A lot of the rushed plot beats make sense now that I know they were trying to mash together iconic moments from the original series where they didn't necessarily belong. Overall, I had a fun time - looking forward to more of Zuko and Iroh
Please, please, please make time to watch the original series. It's well worth it
Just watch the original don't waste more of yoir time with this
Look! Is the Plankton farts and dies guy
Repeating what others will say. WATCH THE ORIGINAL SHOW ITS TOP TIER!!
Please watch the original show. It's a masterpiece.
I like a lot of stuff about the adaptation but what really brings it down is the writing. Where team avatar doesnt really have a lot of bonding moments because they're busy trying to get to the episode's goal and there is too much exposition with everyone constantly talking about the backstory to something
Yeah that's what bothers me the most after thinking about it. I never felt that they were truly friends because they barely interacted and were separated most of the time.
I'll just say one thing and one thing only: The Badger moles see emotions and love is the brightest emotion.... Ouch that whole thing was rough 💀
Came here to mention this. Doesn't Toph learn how to see from the badger moles? Will Toph see emotions as well?
@@dezrettel407 was thinking about that as well, I really hope it's not the case, can't imagine an over emotional feeling sense bot version of Toph
Oh no, oh no no no...
they're gonna use this to explain Tophs lie detector ability, aren't they?
@@remem95 "Don't worry Aang, I got this. I'm an empath."
@@scarysnek no, that’s enough Cecil.
Finally, a very sensible review. Feels like every review that I’ve seen is heavily critical as if it is the “She hulk series.”
i personally really missed the part of the bumi trials where he asks aang to duel someone. Because
a) it showed that aang is creative (choosing the third person in the room)
and
b) that sights can be deceiving when it comes to strength in the show.
And took out the toph foreshadowing
Agreed
Oh you're right,i forgot how aang choose to fight him. Too bad the Netflix show need to cut corners,and those corners seems to be important small details that difference a good show vs a legendary one
I knew this wouldn’t meet my expectations when the original show runners left the project.
The original runners are not what made the original series good tho tbh
@@aff77141 maybe not but they can probably tell when you've got the magic and when you don't
Aaron Ehasz being the actual responsible for the greatness of the show. Writers need to be appreciated more, I learnt this from The Simpsons
Yes, that was a BIG red flag. Its bc they are not incompetent woke fools who make every one either 1 dimensional or tear down other characters for the sake of one being the best at everything, always
@@jasonmarino9148I hate woke stuff too, but I personally don’t think wokism was the problem here. They took Katara’s “girl boss” attitude out completely. Never shows her natural talent and is always so shy and timid. Katara was full of passion and fire in the original.
There were a lot of problems with the writing but damn Dallas Liu is perfect as Zuko, literally 15/10. I think he hit the perfect balance of desperate and angry and edgy and sassy and sometimes also just awkward teen. I'm kinda hoping for seasons 2 and 3 just to see more of his Zuko. I need to see Dallas awkwardly going "hey, Zuko here" and "that's rough, buddy".
They did Katara dirty though and also, the more I think of it, Iroh! He oftentimes felt too cartoonish to me which is weird bc he's always been comic relief but there's also always been depth to him. I think a lot of his wisdom fell flat and/or was given to other characters and I didn't feel as much of his warm kindness. Some of his scenes with Zuko were great though, especially the ones when he turned Zuko into a somewhat sheepish teenager :D And Lu Ten's wake hit me in the feels ngl
I disagree. I think he was way too sad for season 1. Zuko is supposed to be angry and relentless in season 1 until later when he starts to question his life's path
@@baconeater4133the two aren't mutually exclusive
@@baconeater4133 Oh no I agree actually but I think that's mostly an issue with the writing and not the way the actor played the character. I did think he was too likable for season 1 - I didn't mind tbh but his arc is not gonna hit the same at all if we get the other seasons. In the animation it was one of the, if not THE best redemption arcs I've ever seen but in the live action there's not actually that much to redeem in the first place. But again that's more an issue with the writing, my comment was aimed mainly at the performance which I didn't specify enough I think (obviously you can disagree with me on that point as well lol, I just wasn't sure if that came across in my original comment)
i loved zuko, but really disliked how they approached both iroh and zhao
Okay but Dante Basco is still a better Zuko.
I literally agreed with every single word this is exactly how I feel as well. I am optimistic for the second season, there’s a lot of good to build on and a lot of bad that needs to be elevated to the same level
I'm not sure choosing Kyoshi over Roku being Aang's avatar-guide is a good thing because...
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this effects his connection with Zuko. Roku is Zuko's great-grandfather on his mother's side while Sozin is his great-grandfather on his father's side. He has a single thread of connection with the Avatar, but that's where he gets his nobility and honor.
I don't think they're thinking that far ahead honestly
@@davelewis8270it's not like we have this super sercet access to the script that they don't.
Tbh I think making Roku Zuko's great grandpa makes the story seem smaller by comparison, and was a bad idea in general.
Yeah who cares about all of that lore and character building when you can force 'female representation' where there was plenty before? That's the reason the made the change, by the way. They "fixed" the masterpiece.
Wouldn't be surprised if they cut that family tie out like how they did with Master Paku
Ah yes. Katara masters water bending without a master with just one scroll in just a few days. Of course. And Aang never learns water bending
Masters? Nah. Learns some abilities without a teacher? Sure.
To be fair, Katara goes from novice to master at a pretty crazy rate in the original series too. It's obviously more rushed in this version but whatever. How they did Katara is probably my biggest issue with this version in general. It's like they removed all of her edge.
@@garrettwhite5943 She was called a master at the end
@@swampert564 definitely not angry enough. That said she does get some opportunities to show it off. Not like movie Katara that had no personality, no shove, no energy, and they cared so little about that she's never shown doing anything meaningful with here bending at all.
@@Problemsolver434 by somebody with less real practical experience than her.
It's never a good idea to take a character that is well developed, well-loved, and well written and think "I'm gonna change it. I can do it better."
I never saw the movie or the animation, but I found the Netflix show fun enough. It was entertaining for me, but i did feel like I was missing out on some context. Maybe I will understand more in season 2. ❤