A Balanced Dunk on Netflix Avatar
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- Опубликовано: 27 мар 2024
- #avatarthelastairbender #netflix
We have nothing but normal things to say about the latest corporate live action adaptation of a beloved anime er... western cartoon from Nickelodeon in the 2000s. Is it worse than the M. Night Shyamalan movie? NO WAY, are you insane? Is it better than the original? UH.... WHAT?
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They took the misogyny out of Sokka and gave it to the rest of the series
Omg real 😭
😂😂😂😂
Deadass.
Misogyny transplant
hahahha holy fuck
"They're afraid of putting Sokka in drag"
Giga Brain take! I mean, I'd believe it
People I talk to about that part disagree but i feel like its pretty obvious 😅
Something else they butchered about the Sokka/Suki dynamic is that they made Suki into an isolated farmgirl type, horny for the first boy she sees. Its like they took the "backbender Sokka" memes too seriously. In the cartoon, Suki was into Sokka because of his humility and willingness to put on the dress he was initially demeaning of for no other reason than to be respectful. But in the LA, Suki walks in on Sokka shirtless and thats supposed to be all the justification necessary to justify their romance. Its so boilerplate, no nuance, no sauce
No no, even before that, the first time she looks at sokka she's already looking at him all "love at first sight" like, even the old woman at her side tells her "chill girl those guys are trouble"
Ironic how they took out him being sexist, and then were themselves more sexist in turn.
I think they used him for self insert. Someone wanted Suki, and twisted her relationship with sokka to fin their fantasy. That's what it felt like to me
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't 'fit in', and I don't want to 'fit in'. Have you ever seen me without this stupid glider? that's weird."
-Avatar Jughead
😂😂😂
Well in fact yes! Every fight scene it gets knocked away from him or is out of sight. So we see them without the glider quite often 😆🤣
P.S. I absolutely love the Jughead reference!!!😊❤️😍 It made me laugh so hard!!!! 🤣🤣🙂
You just absolutely know they're going to take the wrong message/interpretation of the Southern Air Temple if they even do it.
Bryan and Michael specifically said they left because Netflix was not respecting their vision, not because they were creatively drained.
and arent they actively working on other avatar projects?
their visions are awful tbh it wouldn't be much better if we got a atla but with korra storytelling
I liked the idea behind this Bumi, but he doesn't work in this story. And he doesn't work because the base of what he is angry at Aang for didn't happen so every time he kept complaining to Aang it would piss me off. And it would piss me off because it came off as Bumi misunderstanding what happened to Aang, while Aang would just stand there and not even try to clear up the misunderstanding.
Thank you for putting my feelings into words! I couldn’t figure out what made me so heavily disagree with their take on Bumi, but you’ve nailed it perfectly!
Exactlyyyy.
If this was OG Aang who was riding Koi Fish and making like 10 detours on the way to his objectives, YES it would hit so much better and make a ton of sense.
But in this version, Aang IS focused, he IS trying and it just makes it feel like everyone is yelling at him for no reasoj
Omg yes. Like if they wanted to do something different with Bumi, fair enough, but it made NO sense for him to be mad. You are absolutely right.
Honest calling the og writers cowards for not staying was out of pocket. I not a fan of Bryan and i even have critic on their writing but expecting the og writers to stay in a production where they have no creative control is just nonsense. (which they were promised creative control before signing but weren’t given) I mean the execs make horrible decisions and the writers have to sign their name off those decisions. I mean that would be a huge blow on their reputation and portfolio. I don’t blame them leaving. Who would stay in a place where you are not able to do your job.
Yeah exactly. It's possible that the Netflix crew really do adore the original animation, but that doesn't automatically mean they're willing to listen to the original creators. If it became clear that they weren't going to, then what's the point of just hanging around? I wouldn't take credit for the Netflix show either.
29:14 I will defend Yue's Waterbending: she specifically got her spirit powers *from* the Moon Spirit (and subsequently gives that power back to save the Moon Spirit's life), so I think it's actually fully justified that Yue is the *only* person (other than the Avatar) who can Waterbend while the moon spirit is dead. Waterbenders need the Moon and the Ocean to Waterbend, and Yue has a tiny fragment of Moon Spirit energy inside of her.
Now, that being said, I do think it probably deserved some kind of explanation, or even better, like a dramatic revelation, like she waterbends while the moon is dead and everyone goes "wait, how can you do that?!?!" and she realizes "oh crap I have Moon Spirit power inside me, maybe I can use it to revive the Moon Spirit!"
I agree with you. Of course, that makes us both That Star Wars Fan that they told us not to be, but at least we’re not alone.
same heeere
It s not about justifying in story.
It s about if it brings something to the character.
Yue was memorable because she was a non bender. This helped her connect with sokka and then gave her a prime role.
A non bender, sacrificing herself, for her people, for the benders in her people.
This was strong and selfless.
Making her a bender just weakens this a tad. While not bringing much in return.
@@etienne8110I'm going to be honest, the fact of her being a non-bender seems pretty inconsequential to the original series. She didn't connect with Sokka by virtue of being a "non-bender", I don't think his non-bending (or hers) is even referenced in any of the conversations they have together.
So I think that's a very strange claim to make.
@@etienne8110yue's nonbender status doesn't matter. It's a nice connection you can choose to acknowledge, but I wouldnt call it central to her.
it would be interesting if she had bending BECAUSE of the spirit, and no longer had it when she give up her spirit... but that kills her, so theres no opportunity or reason to explore that.
The only people who would have gotten mad at Sokka being in a dress and makeup are people who didn't watch the original, or they don't have any media literacy.
I think they were more afraid of offending the Trans community
@@MrSophireWhy would that be offensive? It's a story about critiqueing arbitrary gender norms and promoting gender equality.
I know the people I think you talk talking about, I watched them every so often, and even they weren't happy with the exclusion of those scenes.
@@MrSophireI think it's the opposite, trans people don't find drag offensive, transphobs do
I'm 18 and I think the original Avatar was the first piece of media to make me think about the themes and characters of a story beyond just saying 'oh yeah that's cool'. its hard to articulate it but I feel like Avatar was the series that gave me my love of stories and storytelling. I've re-watched it twice now and its only felt more and more mature as I've matured.
this new adaptation is frustrating because it feels like I'm viewing Avatar through the uncurious and spectacle obsessed lens i used to have before Avatar, the one I'd have if I never watched Avatar or any other series that helped me develop as a person.
i got the same vibes from the netflix adaptaion as well. But what shocked is how much it didn't follow the "show don't tell" rule
23:19 THATS A FANTASTIC IDEA WHY DIDNT THEY DO THIS, they could’ve given Katara such an EARNED badass moment right there
This feels like such a predestined event from the beginning of Two Professional Writers. I’m glad that Henry-I don't watch kids shows-wasn’t forced to do this show.
You didn't write out his full name:
Henry "I don't watch kids shows, but I'm the permanent co-host of Spongebob Boyz" Galley
@@kidkangaroo5213 Right, how could I forget?
Human beings are full of contradictions
@@ville__ Yo, stop posting copypasta. It's not funny and you have no idea who will see this and the effect on their mental health. Literally either really fucking annoying or really fucking triggering and either way, you're just getting a few laughs in by being an asshole. Kind of pathetic when you think about it
@@kidkangaroo5213He contains multitudes.
I find it very strange how the show managed to add all this extra depth to Iroh, Ozai, and Zuko's relationships while simultaneously removing all the depth from Aang, Katara, and Soka's relationships.
And of course the show ABSOLUTELY suffered from its medium. When the bending, fantastical setting, and iconic creatures are ALL made of time and money, it greatly restricts what they can do.
If I had one smaller nitpick, it'd be that the costumes were often a little oversaturated/clean. Like, I understand the desire to make it resemble the cartoons, but the Blue Spirit's mask looked like a plastic prop instead of paint in carved wood.
Even as a kid I was baffled that Nickelodeon created one of the most praised animated tv series of all time and with the exception of Korra (which they jerked around) they never created anything like it again. When Cartoon Network saw there was an audience for ‘kids shows that don’t condescend to kids’ they created whole programming blocks like Toonami to cater to that crowd, but Nick? “Let’s just green light more Butch Hartman projects that no one will care about and pretend that nothing in the industry has changed since the year 2000”
"going on the neopets forum to RP being a water bender"
This has me shook I had completely forgotten about this and it just came right back and smacked me in the face lmaooo
I'm so lucky I didn't know what shipping was back when ATLA was the biggest thing. Looking back at it as an adult is both hilarious and adorable and also utterly terrifying.
@@ville__ i dont understand how your account is still allowed to exist
@@moonlighthowling666Why? (I can't see their reply, it's deleted.)
@@debrachambers1304 They're a spam account that's been active across multiple channels for quite a while now. Knowing their history, they probably said something along the lines of "This channel is trash, my channel is the best on RUclips, etc" with a bit of homo/transphobia added for flavor
the fact you guys liked bumi, the character who literally shows aang not all is lost after his major fuck up, whose episode takes place soon after the southern air temple, was turned into a bitter old man who hates aang for not getting fucking incinerated alive 100 years ago and isn't glad one of his closest friends on the entire planet survived his entire race being genocided is so beyond me
Yeah, that episode is where i stopped watching. Couldnt take it anymore.
Other avatars gaslighting aang makes no sense they all were there when aang froze himself, they kinda helped him do that.
Plus Kyoshi had a Team Avatar. Roku too, probably.
@@thevioletbee5879Hell, even Kuruk had a team avatar despite being in a time of peace.
I am Andrew Ryan and I'm here to ask you a question. Which ship is entitled to my undying loyalty?
"It's easy," says the canon shipper, "it belongs to Kataang."
"It's obvious," says the enemies to lovers shipper, "it belongs to Zutara."
"No," objects the crack shipper, "it belongs to Mai x Cabbage Merchant ."
I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible.
I chose... Jin x Zuko.
A ship that is grounded in the show's events, and yet a ship that is full of tension and opportunities for confession and vulnerabilities!
And with your support, Jinko can become your ship as well.
I can never tell if certain comments are to be taken seriously but if this is one. Yes Im so happy im not alone in the Jinko side of the atla fandom.
Ok but Cabbage Man x The Fortune Teller from Book 1. Twilight years romance is goated
Good fucking Gwyn, that's a proper ship right there. The reapplication of the Bioshock introduction works PERFECTLY. I wish that RUclips allowed you to save comments, because this one sure as hell deserves it.
May Katara x Haru also join your cause, kind friend?
@@violetkerridge4154 i would accept anything than shipping katara with Zuko
I genuinely believe they would make Aang kill the firelord in this version. At least so far.
omffggg
I was also a 12 year old who discovered shipping through A:TLA, which is also how I discovered I was apparently a "Zutara" shipper. Then what was once a fun little personal fantasy where I could project my early adolescent romanticism onto my favorite characters, suddenly became an entire online world of raging discourse and personal attacks and endless drama. Good times, gooood times...
Maybe not being a moron wouldve helped
What you say about this Aang, that he's actually more like his character in real life, they said the same thing about the 2010 Aang. You'd think they would have learned from that but no. They're repeating the same mistake but not to the same degree like: "Hey this blue color doesn't fit at all in this place in this painting. Shall we change it?" "No, make it a lighter blue. That'll work."
i saw a post/vid saying the creators of netflix didn't watch the live action movie, and like yeah good for them but also that movie have lots of things to learn from but many problems there were still present in this show
@@Thesmus If that's true then this is absolute hubris.
option a) Watch a literal blueprint on what not to do.
option b) assume I will do better than a succesful Hollywood director by default cause I got it like that.
feel free to put in the Drake meme
😃
I think the whole "Koh's mad that I took this statue of his mom" thing was supposed to be a reference to one of the comics that came after the show? In one of them (the one where they try to find out what happened to Zuko's mom, IIRC) there's a spirit that can give people new faces that's mentioned to be the mother of Koh the face stealer. So that might be it...but yeah, that seems a little too much like the show being too in love with the mythology of the original, rather than the entirety of the original itself.
Surprised they didn't have a Lion Turtle in the first five minutes, just to head off the complaint of "The Lion Turtles came from nowhere!" criticism of the original show.
Yeah, its clearly supposed to reference The Search, but it also takes away all of Kohs individual demonism.
I lowkey hate how the all the characters are so perfectly cast here because it just adds insult to injury for how much this series detests the idea of doing a faithful adaptation of the show’s writing.
Right? It could have been so good. But every issue is writers and directors.
it would’ve been cool if all the waterbenders lost their bending EXCEPT yue and they realize it’s because part of the moon’s spirit lives in her and she realizes she must do a big sacrifice to give it back. like they could’ve turned this cinema sins ding into a plot point idk
"We're approaching Miku binder Jefferson"
💀💀💀
Avatar the last adaptation
Like I can kinda forgive Yue waterbending when she shouldn't be able to as a sign of like 'oh the moon spirit's life she gave to her is still in her' but it's a ROUGH stretch that other's should have picked up on
I guarantee one of the problems plaguing the writers is they were afraid of being "canceled." They took away Katara's anger because they were afraid of being accused of stereotyping girls as emotional & bossy. Can't have Sokka's sense of masculinity critiqued because Asian & indigenous men get framed as "less manly." Though I have no idea why they kept making female characters insanely horny.
The line about Smellerbee being a girl is because there were members of staff who kept mistaking her for a boy, so they thought they might need to clarify. It had nothing to do with implying she's transgender. It's pretty boilerplate 2000's era "it's okay to be a tomboy" stuff. And I don't mean that in the dog whistle sense TERFs use it, I mean it was very common in that era to have subplots about how girls can be "boyish" without being ashamed.
The Pakku commentary is really weird to me because that's how it was in the original show. Pakku decides to teach Katara after all, & he can apparently just do that. There are absolutely no consequences for him violating the tribewide ban.
I'm equally confusedwhy you're so insistent that Yue "having special oceanbending" wasn't intentional. It seems obvious that's why they changed her to a waterbender in the first place. "She has moon magic, so it should give her waterbending powers."
Continuing to not understand what you're going on about. We DID see Lil' Miss Conqueror Azula. At the end of Book 2, when she takes Ba Sing Se. Which is going to seem really redundant since they just did it here. And you will never convince me that giving Bumi the personality of The Green Goblin was a good idea.
Yeah, we already saw it because it was better. She was an immediate escalation in threat. This is just that tweet about how a modern streaming show spends a whole season making Surfing Dracula earn his surf board.
That take was such bullshit. Okay, so by your logic, they also should have had sway over the movie, right? It was the height of the original show's success, & they're THE guys. Yet they say Shyamalan ignored all of their input, & it shows. But now, all of a sudden, things are supposed to be different? No, I think they were exactly the same: They were brought on as figureheads to give the project an air of legetimacy. This was before Avatar Studios. Korra hadn't been renewed. As far as anyone knew, Bryke's star had faded & Netflix's show woulf have essentially no competition in portraying the Avatarverse. The idea that they would have felt the need to listen to them is completely bizarre and baseless. And if the show creators were really too awestruck to overrule them, why was there a schism at all? Finally, the idea that the writers of LEGEND OF KORRA were too afraid to do something different & divisive is...just every part of this argument fails completely.
Ya the smellerbee thing had nothing to do with transgender stuff back in the OG show, it's weird people think that now.
They try to make Ranma from Ronna 1/2 trans. I was thinking the same thing, Smellerbee was just a little tomboy.
Same@@MrSophire
Oh hey, Gus got his skin back.
What???
@@tVt2000 He's using the old picture Frankenstein picture, instead of the skeleton one.
Do you think he had to fight to get it back, or was it just misplaced?
King Bumi really frustrated me cause the change to the character would work better with a Aang that is not serious. Aang didn't leave from responsibility. He just flew into a strom and couldn't get out. He just to clear his head. Now it feels like a bitter old man yelling at a kid for doing something that wasnt his fault.
Did they even include the subplot where the monks intended on separating Aang and Gyatso? That was a big motivating factor for Aang’s decision to run away.
@@fionn_mac_ribs nope, and that thing in the original series is really strong. from being outcasted in games cause him being avatar felt unfair to then being separated to the last person he considers his closest friend for him to be able to concentrate in his avatar training, yeah no wonder he don't want to be an avatar.
@@fionn_mac_ribsNope. The inciting factor of Aang running away never happens, and he never runs away. Yknow, one of the most important parts of the entire story? They didnt bother. Same with Zuko, who was banished for not fighting back against Ozai, now he fights back.
8:19 Something similar happened with the Netflix subbed version of Evangelion came out. For context (and being as spoiler-free as possible), something happens to a guy the MC got close with. The MC said that it was the first time someone said he liked him, and the "like" he used meant love (something something Japanese linguistics, I can verify because I own a jp blu ray copy with subs). Since it wouldn't fly for overseas viewers in less tolerant societies, they changed it to a platonic context with the excuse being "it's up for interpretation". Since these are both "airing" internationally, I'm sure Sokka in drag and conquering sexism the way he did in the og show probably spooked Netflix as they wanted to appeal to everyone with the least risk possible.
They removed sokka crossdressing to be a better warrior. L show
They massacred bumi what do you mean
It's okay, Addison. As someone forged in the original fire, us Kataang shippers grant you pardon. It's okay to be wrong.
EDIT: Though, Addison, bringing up DeviantArt and ATLA shipping just fucking floored me and brought back all my memories of ATLA as a teenager lol. I like Kataang, but I was primarily a Taang shipper without really liking Zutara at all. Which was fucking weird cause back in the day, Taang was filled with Zutara shippers who still liked Aang.
I can’t judge them as someone who has been staunchly in the Zukka camp for the longest time against the wishes of every one of my friends.
Ahh a person person of culture. Taang was my ship
Wtf is taang
@zeallust8542 Toph x Aang. Pretty much a crack ship with no real basis, but was cute in concept and generally was liked if a Zutara shipper didn't hate Aang.
@@randomguy019 Ah, that should've been obvious. I suppose its a cute idea yeah, but no basis at all.
Minor complaint but Zuko’s scar is rather unimpressive, though still better than the Shyamalan version where it looks like Zuko fell asleep on his face.
Its better than the version they showed in the trailers at least.
You left on THE spicy take of them all. Hats off to you.
I cannot bring myself to watch the live action ATLA because Katara is my favorite character in ATLA (and probably of all time after my most recent rewatch). She’s kind and compassionate, but she also makes impulsive decisions, lashes out in jealously, and is not willing to back down when she’s needed to a fault. My favorite scene of the her is when Katara says “I will never, ever turn my back on the people who need me” when she lies to delay their mission so she can help the people in that village where the fire nation built a factory nearby. They were only days away from sozin’s comet and losing time was not something the gaang could afford. But Katara could not bear to let those villagers die of sickness and starvation. She is never willing to comprise on her morals and values. She’s such a compelling character and I will defend her with every fiber of my being.
The other scene that really gets me is when Sokka tells Toph that when he tries to remember his mother’s face, he can only think of Katara’s. Even writing about it is making me tear up.
The new fire nation stuff was pretty good. My only real issue with the series is not letting Aang have fun and be a kid. Throw in scenes of him smiling and penguin sledding and doing marble tricks etc, and I'd be pretty happy overall tbh.
I also liked King Bumi from this version even though I vastly prefer the original at least so far. The problem is that it doesn’t work for this version because Aang isn’t as goofy or care free.
I e gotta push back on one thing, Aang was never scared of being the avatar nor the power that came with it even in the original show, he was scared of being taken away from his friends because of it and in present having to fight the fire lord in such a short time. In fact, he quite liked being the avatar and on kyoshi Island even let the fame of it go to his head.
Lest we forget, the original show straight-up lets the word "sexist" fly in _episode 1!_
Let’s just say I hope they weren’t bullshitting when they asked for constructive feedback at the premiere.
Btw, the Koh’s mom thing was just to force in a comic reference.
Also Yue is literally the moon spirit. I feel like throwing some water isn’t a big deal.
Also also, holy shit that final take knocked the wind out of me. I don’t know if it’s a good take or a bad take. But it’s sure as hell a spicy one.
unfortunately I got into avatar during the pandemic so as a tumblrina in the 2020s just now getting into avatar, I was zukka pilled. I’m still zukka pilled tbh.
and yeah I ABSOLUTELY agree. they definitely were shaking and crying to find a way to get sokka to not wear a dress. because they’re cowards. give sokka in a dress or give me death
I think they could've given show Bumis character to Jeong Jeong if they didn't cut him from the story. He works perfectly as cynical, jaded, old man whose seen so much war he hates everyone.
@@PR0MAN01 you are so entirely correct and based I wasn’t even thinking about jeong jeong but yeah he’d be PERFECT for live action bumi
gus out here becoming the pheonix king with those flaming hot takes
Fire Lord Moe-Zai is back!
I literally couldn't care about the rest of this video, it's incisive commentary and got me to realise some stuff I'd missed but it left no bruise on my soul. The fire-hot, scalding take at (about) 1:01:00? Fucking nuts, Gus! That's what I'm here for! Crazy shit, mate! Immediately hit that Like Button just for the bravery, even if I disagree that there is much we can say given how little we know what went on there.
We are so fucking back
LOVE HEARING ABT UR GUYSES OLD AVATAR ROLEPLAY OCS FROM MIDDLE SCHOOL. Anyways metal video as ALWAYS, “It is a weird beast” perfect sum-up. And touching on how the writers have compressed the charas to be so plain and non-flawed… I call it the ACNH effect (because the new games have made the villagers so painfully saccharine that it’s no longer fun to interact w them anymore, lol). Also love the 13:43 point Addison brings up. Also 51:26 HE RAN!!!!! LMFAOOO love this vid, my morning pre-work treat
Yui has the moon spirit so that's probably why she can water bend.
Something a better show would make a point of and maybe be part of an explanation for how she knows she can sacrifice herself...
This is as close as I will ever get to my MCU in hell addiction being cured
EDIT: anyone know where those videos went? I also could have sworn there was a video about the lighthouse but I can’t find it
Honestly I agree that the change to Bumi is a decent idea that gets most of its flack simply because “this isn’t like the original! Bumi would NEVER be like this!” Like, as much as I did not enjoy the live action remake, it was refreshing to see them actually make a definitive and intentional change that serves the narrative and made sense, and wasn’t just. Pointless and confusing, like taking away the whole thing with Koh, or making Yue a water bender, or “removing the sexism” or whatever (which ended up, like many others have said, presenting a much more sexist narrative that goes completely unchallenged.)
29:19 I thought that she could water bend when no one else could because she had a part of the Moon spirit in her and it was foreshadowing for when she took their place
I think I can sum up most of the show's problems in a single sentence: They had no faith in their audience.
The original show placed a lot of faith in the children who watched it, and trusted that they'd have a mature and nuanced take regarding subtext and the darker subject matter. It let the audience come to conclusions surrounding how the characters felt, that Sokka's sexism was bad and not to be emulated, that good people could be flawed, but that they could grow into more realised versions of themselves. For a kids' show from 2005, it was shocking how it treated its child audience like intellectual equals, fully capable of understanding what it put out.
The Netflix show on the other hand feels like it's being explicitly made to pander to the media-illiterate. Characters have to explicitly say exactly what they think and feel to leave no ambiguity, arcs are flattened or outright removed to keep the show hyperfocused on the plot to make sure the audience doesn't get bored due to having an attention span of 6 seconds, the main cast aren't allowed to have flaws for fear of children (and manchildren) calling them "problematic" or "woke" (both of which happened anyway). It needs to constantly hold your hand all throughout just to make sure you don't come to conclusions about it that it doesn't like. It's taking the advice of *Garth Merenghi* to heart.
So. The mom.
The mom spirit is a DEEP cut to the comics which suggests they plan to progess towards the comics too
This was a Cannon event
There is bad then a certain type bad that only a first time student film maker would ever make.
Like jesus christ did no one learn the mistakes of the live action movie? Like goddamn. Seriously, goddamn it! This shouldn’t have happen!!
Zutara shipping and Neopets RP neoboards. So specifically relatable 😭
I think its important to remember that the reason Brike left is because Netflix wouldnt listen to their input. I dont think its fair to blame them for leaving
I’ve not watched this channel before but I used to listen to The Cryptid Keeper podcast so hearing Addison introduced herself was a huge blast to the past moment for me lmao.
Alright, so before I watch, I want to give my amateur hour takes on the Netflix show so I have a baseline for how your video influences my thoughts.
The Gaang felt like they had parts of their character arcs flattened out for no real reason.
Sokka didn't get the sexism literally beat out of him (I am also disappointed that they didn't make Sokka dress up as a Kyoshi warrior). Not to mention that in the original show, it kind of foreshadowed that the Northern Water Tribe would also be sexist.
Katara never had the moments of frustration and jealousy when Aang, due to being the Avatar, was naturally a faster learner than her when it came to water bending; hell, Katara's water bending abilities just do a massive jump between episodes rather than in the original show where she gradually built up her bending abilities culminating in her duel with Pakku and then later against Zuko.
The fact that Aang straight up never tries to learn any other form of bending which leaves out important character development moments from the show such as Katara's aforementioned frustrations and Aang accidentally burning Katara which led him to be hesitant later on about learning fire bending (though that could be something that they end up putting in Season 2). Aang being less of a goofball is something I have mixed feelings on; on the one hand they are trying to make a more mature show, but on the other, Aang being a literal 12 year old forced to grow up and mature was an important part of his character in the original. Aang embracing misogyny because he was afraid Katara would get hurt was certainly a choice (possibly one of the choices of all time).
Momo could literally have been completely cut from the Netflix show and basically nothing would have changed outside of a single scene (though that could have been a result of CGI budget limitations).
The way that Leaves From the Vine was used in the show bothered me. The Netflix show basically just used it as a generic sad background song for a scene instead of the build up that the original show had for the personal significance that Leaves from the Vine had for Iroh (not to mention for the audience of the original show with the tribute to Iroh's original voice actor).
Having Avatar Kyoshi give Aang a vision of the Northern Water Tribe being attacked felt unnecessary as a form of motivation to drive the plot forward. The original show already gave them adequate reason to go there (finding Aang a water bending master to teach him). Of course, that has the issue of Aang potentially having interest in doing any form of bending that isn't air bending so I guess that would be unacceptable.
There were a bunch of choices that felt like the result of the show runners not knowing if they were getting a second and third season or not; things like straight up showing the genocide of the Air Nomads in the first episode whereas the original show revealed the pieces of it over time; Koh the face stealer and the Cave of Two Lovers being brought in from the second season; all the focus that Azula received and revealing her manipulative nature compared to her showing up in season 2 and trying to trap Zuko and Iroh before her deception is accidentally foiled by one of her redshirts.
The bending fights sometimes just felt like people charging their elemental lasers and shooting them at each other in comparison to the original show where bending fights were basically martial arts fights with elemental attacks (to be fair though, in the original show, bending was also sometimes just throwing stuff at people). This is an understandable change though because the problem that any live action adaptation of Avatar is going to have is the fact that martial arts are a learned skill and the number of of teenagers who are both actors and can do the required martial arts choreography is a limited pool (and most studios can't be assed to put the effort into doing the preproduction training for their actors to get a hang of the choreography).
Some positives
It was generally competently made; like in my opinion it is inferior to the original show, but it's not like the Netflix show is bad.
The show was generally well cast.
The bending fights when they have the physicality of the show are pretty good.
I like how they made it so that the crew of Zuko's ship was the same unit that was going to be sacrificed as a diversion.
Helps if I remember to actually share my thoughts from after watching the video.
I pretty much agree with everything you guys said and you stated something that I very much failed to get across with my thoughts which is that adaptations being different from the source material is not a bad thing and that the original show was not without it flaws and shortcomings. Adaptations give opportunities to explore and interpret the source material and even if an adaptation doesn't work out, the source material will always be there (usually). Also I feel that I came across as overly negative of the funeral scene; while I stand by my criticism of how they used Leaves from the Vine, I failed to state that aside from that, the scene was very well done and did a great job of building the relationship between Iroh and Zuko. Also I can't believe that I missed out on Katara's anger being cut out from the show; as was stated in the video, the Netflix show basically flattened her into the Ember Island version of her. Her passion and how that sometimes manifested as anger and frustration at various injustices in the world was an important part of her character in the original show. I liked how they reinterpreted Bumi as being angry. While I definitely prefer Bumi from the original show; I found it interesting how the Netflix take on him leaned into the idea that the last 100 years of war have not been easy and how even somebody as fun loving as Bumi can be worn down by the weight of responsibility and having to make choices where there is no good option.
I don't want to do another big comment so I'll just leave my final thought here; the Netflix show has a lot of potential and has laid out a solid foundation to build upon to be it's own unique and interesting interpretation of Avatar the Last Airbender.
Ok YUE being the moon but not being a bender was always dumb and I stand by it
I genuinely need to see that Social Justice Water Bender hoodie produced
"WOULD YOU LIKE THIS FUCKING FUNKO POP"😭😭😭😭😭
I just realised that this channel never droped the halloween pfp, I respect that.
Indeed an interesting note on original show runners walking away from the production. Not something I’d considered much before, but you’ve got me convinced since if there were narrative missteps being pushed from higher up in production, they were the ones in the strongest position to push back against it - and what’s more, use the successes of One Piece and the like as examples in forming any cohesive arguments in defence of the story
Calling the original writers cowards for leaving is such a hot take and I’m willing test you on that. I’m going to try find a timeline of the production of this show to when they have walk away from this project.
But either way is sorta damning that they left so early in production with Albert Kim holding with the bag or damning that they left after eveything was nearly done but made so bad calls in order to appease cancel culture mobs of twitter.
My own hot take is that the original creators are not what made the orginal avatar so good as evident with Korra and their other projects.
1:01:35 - Gus getting ready to start wars with his hellfire hot takes at the end…We Are Not Alive is BACK!!! This channel is my number one with a bullet baby.
Don't mention the bullet baby I just started tuning out the chewing
@@meemosteeno5121
See, what you need to do now is find something to chew louder than the baby eats the bullets. Might I recommend a hotdog, particularly with this really nice ketchup?
I cannot escape my all-devouring infant.
The he man thing was AWFUL . They ruined he man by having him lesser and made shelia an asshole. I wasn’t a big fan but that’s not a great take. He said that it’s creative cowardice for the writers to walk away. The original writers of avatar were promised creative control, they didn’t get that and walked away. That was such an unnecessary remark on the original writers.
The problem with Boomie is Aang. Being upset with a character who didn’t read away. The original Aang works with the new boomie. Not this aang he doesn’t work. He didn’t run away he “went for a walk” that change makes the tone off.
yue herself contains part of the moon/water spirit. makes sense to me that she'd still be able to waterbend? idk i havent watched the reboot idc
looks like i'm not the only one w this opinion
"I killed the moon fish,
but I didn't kill no ocean god"
This show is so weird, because it does some things pretty well like the Avatar Kyoshi scene and the special effects, but they for the life of them couldn't help but mess up a ton of really important aspects of the show... it just feels like it jumps from scene to scene. Obviously it's not as bad as the M. Night Shyamalan movie but it doesn't even come close to the original show.
1:06:33 andor is an exemption
and speaking of andor, man, if they just did something like that, where they take the atla universe and just make a separate story rather than retelling an already established one. like come on, you want a darker atla story, that's a good way to do it. maybe we could have seen a glimpse of the past when the avatar was nowhere and people fended for themselves while the fire nation only rose to power and tyranny or something.
such a good opportunity, really. andor was amazing that you can not watch star wars and still enjoy the show as itself. but it being a star wars show is really important too. star wars have such a great world building with so many stories to tell, and avatar is no different. and here's hoping to see the success of what avatar studios are cooking. just on what i've been hearing/reading so far, they have stories to tell and i can't wait to see them.
I don't want leave a massive comment about One Piece on the Avatar Video but you did bring it up enough times for me to want to say, I really do not like the OPLA. I liked it when it came out but the more I think about it and see it compared to other things the more I dislike it.
I think it is insidiously ashamed of it's source. Sure, it doesn't change the powers but it does change the characters and it does it in ways that are frustrating as a fan. Sanji and Usopp get absolutely *nothing* as their arcs are gutted for Garp content. Nami and Zoro are made into cynical edgelords. All the fun side characters are cut from existence (which really hurts the tone) and the Marine Subplot, while I can see what they were going for, achieved nothing and ate up screentime that could have been used far better.
There are basically no changes that weren't bad or directly at the cost of something good (moving Zoro's backstory is the only one that's close and they should've put it in the Mihawk fight it pisses me off that they saw it should be in a better place but then put it in goddamn syrup village)
It's annoying to see it praised because I know the bar is unfathomably low but we are still entitled to ask for better than this.
This is a really interesting comment and I think it's the only actually thoughtful OPLA critical take I've ever seen. I'm a big fan of OPLA myself but I understand that I would feel differently if I'd been a dyed in the wool one piece manga reader. I empathise with your resentment of how much it gets praised because that's absolutely how I feel about adaptations of books that I really cared about when I was younger. Adaptation is a frustrating thing because people can take drastically different things from the same source material, and the things that are cut or shaved off for mass appeal might be the reason WHY some people liked the original in the first place. More and more as I get older I think the only difference between a 'good' adaptation and a 'bad' one is that like. a praised adaptation will resonate with + conform to more people's feelings on what the general energy of the original was. that doesn't mean it's good or even an accurate representation of the themes, just that more people can vibe with it. meanwhile the 'bad' ones aren't necessarily worse they just have a greater degree of dissonance between what the showrunners saw in the original vs what the audience did.
me and my brothers disliked this live action. there's the op fanboy (oldest), op hater (youngest) and the one that is not a huge fan but did like it (me), all of us watched this live action and was disappointed. of course the hater really enjoyed making fun of this live action, but man the number of times i felt like it's really not that different from other live action anime and yet this one was praised a lot honestly was confusing to me.
i did enjoy many things from op live action compared to avatar live action though, partly cause i just really love the original avatar series so i have more to see and find in the live action compared to one piece. but honestly would just like a remaster of one piece anime, cause animation suits this series the best.
My whole thing is that Sokka could have been written without being sexist and still being Sokka and his development w Suki & Katara. Plus I don’t think his development stuck w how ATLA fans treat Korra
4:31 the dark side of the moon self insert is so fucking good honestly, I’m screaming 😂😂😂😂
yoooooo addison's back!!!!!
12:55 ya know it’s wild, growing up everyone everywhere gave me and my peers the message that writers make no money, you have to be insanely lucky and you’re probably not gonna be, instead you’ll end up a destitute alcoholic. And now, about 15 to 20 years later it’s always the biggest complaints. There’s definitely more too it like they still don’t pay the writers enough or give them enough freedom but in the end, I just a possible correlation there 🤷🏻
This just exists for me. I gave it 20 minutes, and didn’t like it. That being said if you enjoy it, great. As for Bryke leaving I feel that Avatar Studios would’ve been a thing eventually, but Nick wanted them fully committed to it. We got that earlier because of this. So while it is not for me the outcome is the best it can be.
U GUYS R BACK WE MISSED U
Aang felt like Sheldon from Young Sheldon but with superpowers
14:35 What show are they talking about??
It's so discouraging to see people who claim to be fans of the show excuse Jet and Hana's actions despite both of them committing wars crimes. People miss the point of tragic villains.
People are excusing their actions?
His Mom’s something from the comics iirc. Don’t ask why you’d put a random comic reference in there.
I mean I liked it.
The only people I trust to examine this show
The mom and the special statue for Koh is part of the weird tendency of the live action series to borrow from expanded material content for it. The concept is borrowed from The Search.
I wish we got James Hong cast as Fire Lord Azulon in the flashbacks that would have been sweet
You both helped me understand why Azula feels so different.
29:28 I saw someone say it was because she still had a part of the moon spirit in her, so like the eyes it accentuates that, and I really like that idea. If that's what they were going for though they probably should have made it clearer (though at the same time I'm not sure how without exactly stating it?)
Outstanding review!!! For me, the highs of this adaptation were higher than the original season 1... certainly the lows were lower, and more frequent, but yeah this was a huge roller-coaster. To me, it's a solid 6/10, that can easily get to an 8/10 with a little polishing.
Yue could water-bend, because she is part moon-spirit... and I thought it was honestly amazing. My disappointment was that her and Sokka didn't go on a Spirit-world date... I really thought they would when Sokka was adamantly against the spirit world being fun... that would have been cool, especially if Sokka was turned into his wolf spirit... so you've got a wolf and a fox, and they have a wonderful time... that would have been incredible.
I think Katara was muzzled simply because so much of her character development was romance with Aang, and my guess is it looked super creepy, and they just didn't have time to write her character. Kiawentiio even says in interviews they had to do a ton of imporov with their lines... and she's absolutely the best choice for Katara. If you watch the 2020 film "Beans" you'll see her as a perfect season 2 and 3 Katara.
I think that's what happened... I think somehow they got so far down the rabbit-hole with writing conflicts between the original creators, and whoever was overseeing this, and clearly had different visions, but had zero time to rewrite anything and just cobbled this together and that's what we got. I'm so happy the original writers left, so they can focus on stuff they actually want to do, like the 2025 film.
I'm actually really excited for the next 2 seasons because hopefully with the original writers gone, there will be a clear direction.
I'm looking forward to season 2. These kids are very talented, and if they can let them fly... they've laid a ton of the groundwork, with everything from the bending to the animals, and the world in general... there's a lot that needs cleaning up, but they did enough good, that I'm hopeful for season 2.
For me, I didn't watch ATLA until I was an adult... and Season 1 was a major grind... it took me a solid month to get through it, while 2 and 3 took 2 weeks combined.
You hit the nail exactly, with how haters hold ATLA on a pedestal and rose-colored-glasses... like, we're just going to ignore the LoK hatred, comics division, etc... and we're gonna act like the original writers are Christ himself??? Like, give me a break... geeze.
I loved that Sokka and Zuko took ceter stage... and I loved the dynamic between Ozai and Azula... like, it's textbook gaslight evil... fastest way to screw up a child mentally is to gaslight your children against eachother, and themselves... any other show would have had Azula and Zuko overthrow their dad after having an epiphany... but Azula is so wrecked psychologically she can't even see herself.
I love how this Azula leans into the manipulative, deceitful, person... because I absolutely hated in the original ATLA how they constantly told us Azula was manipulative... but she couldn't manipulate her way out of a wet paper bag, by her own admission on Ember Island, with the only exceptions being Zuko and Earth King, who are complete idiots at that point. These haters go on and on about "show don't tell" yet we're never shown a truly manipulative, deceitful Azula to anyone besides Zuko. Like yeah, she lies to you, Zuko because you're clueless.... but otherwise she's just a terrifying monster who rules by fear.
While not my preference, once I picked up on it, I enjoyed how they made Season 1 literally everyone's origin story... we even get a backstory to Zhao, which was amazing!!!
Having just watched Season 2 of Halo, I'm hopeful this will be a good adaptation... it has so much potential.
The writers fucked it up
"I want it to be game of thrones for kids"
its called warrior cats avatar writer
Sokka: decides what to do
Katara: makes everyone to do it
Aang: does that
Toph: does (sometimes opposite of) that on extremes
Zuko: provides psychological therapy
The gaang is perfectly balanced. As all things should be χD
I love hearing that my preteen OC was not abnormal
Calling the statue of Koh's mother a "Daedric Figurine" is a little too accurate lmao.
I will say, Koh already had a mom, so thats not a lice action thing, but his mother never had much to do with his motivation. His mother is the Mother Of Faces, who gives beings their faces, he is The Face Stealer who takes faces away. It makes sense. But it never needed to be more than that, and Kohs original gimmick was perfect
Gus, I need you to let Henry out of the basement
I think yall definitely missed why a lot of people dislike this show. It is not a good show! Not adaptation! Show! Change things go for it but make it make sense!!! Bumi does not make sense! He is bitter fine but he is also actively stopping Aang from doing the thing he wants him to do!! Aang is not goofing off in this show he is laser focused. The only reason he is here is because Bumi is holding him with his stupid trials let him go and he will do what you are yelling at him to do!! Also the cut away cringe jokes works for a sometime cringe kids cartoon, not the remake where you are BBQing Air benders for funzies on screen. You want be a more serious adaptation that is that standard we are holding you to! I know there are fans that just want a 1 to 1 recreation but most of the people I know want it make sense with or without changes and the show just does not make sense!!
I think the intent behind Yue waterbending when the Tui was dead may have been as a byproduct of her having some of that moon spirit power in her.
So, I had one thought while I watched Suki, is that I wondered if her representation was meant to come off as autistic. I say this as someone who also has ASD, but I found the way she acted to be strange, until I considered that what if combat and training was her special interest? Then her eagerness to spar and train with Sokka, while still being oddly behaved makes a lot of sense. I've seen myself behave like that when I was a teenager.
I'm uncertain if it as intentional, but I just felt like it was notable to me.
29:53 holy shit good catch completely missed that 😂 I guess the plot hole cover would be since she was touched by the moon spirit a little bit of the moon lived in her so she could still waterbend but that’s me writing the story for them 😂 the worst part is it’s a problem they created as yui couldn’t even waterbend in the OG show
Bro they fucked up my boy wan shi tong and that is a crime that's unforgivable