From the second Aang said "I like to play airball, eat banana cakes & goof off with my friends" I knew we're going to be in for a bucket load of "tell, don't show".
That line is like the silly quirky version of the line that one edgy guy from riverdale says thats like “In case you haven't noticed, I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in, and I don't... wanna fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on?”
something that bothered me immensely is how live actions are always marketed as a more mature version of the animation…but then treats the audience like children by spoonfeeding all the information like we can’t comprehend it without being beaten over the head with the meaning of everything every two seconds
exactly, like if i could comprehend the complexities of the show when i was 7 years old, doing so again at my big age nOW REALLY SHOULDNT BE AN ISSUE LIKE I PROMISE I CAN HANDLE IT
I think the reason for this is that the old money who has way too much say on how shows are made didn’t grow up seeing this sort is story. It’s new and strange and incomprehensible to them and they DO need it spoon fed to them.
Plus, live action isn't more mature than animation. Animation is an artwork, and all of these live action adaptations, from Disney to Netflix, are missing the beauty of that artwork.
its interesting how netflix seems to think of animation as mindless and for kids and then goes out of their way to make a mindless version of it... but for _adults_
@@eden22.7the live action didn’t do a good job with making the characters great & did Katara dirty such as making her seem calm than her usual self. They didn’t understand the tones and messages on what makes it amazing
It's also baffling that this show "for adults" based on an existing IP felt it so necessary to front load all of its exposition, when the original brand new show meant for kids respected its audience enough to drip feed the relevant information.
The Netflix How to Train Your Dragon series were some of the best content on the platform. Also Netflix has been paying for the rights to popular anime. So clearly they understand good animated content has an audience. I think there must be different execs at the company not communicating with one another because it feels so disjointed.
Taking out Sokka’s sexism basically sends the message, “Changing your mind on anything means you were wrong at some point, so don’t ever do that.” And I think that just says so much about Hollywood’s current mentality.
The whole point of this slop is to be a “2nd screen” experience, dumbed way down for an audience scrolling on their phones at the same time. Awful age for art.
I literally stop watching the show after what they did to sokka in that episode, i was like broo sexism is a bad thing but the animation shows that sokka sexism is wrong in the end, and other than i stop because that it's just sooo much talking not much action
It also is just emotionally not compelling. The whole tension between sukki and sokka rooted in his sexism and his ultimate admiration for her is what made their dynamic interesting. His whole character was centered around being the only male protector of his tribe, and how that has influenced his world view, and how new experiences cause him to grow and evolve past that to a more mature conception of leadership. You cant take that away unless you replace i with something equally alluring.
It's becoming genuinely a little concerning how many media properties suggest that strong women can't exhibit an ounce of empathy, insecurity, or inadequacy. Their only flaw is that the other characters don't realize how awesome they are yet.
The trait that annoys me the most is when she's so mean or snarky to others for no reason other than to desperately try to convince the viewer that she's "badass" or "tough". It's never portrayed as a flaw that she eventually learns and grows from, that's just how she is and she stays that way throughout the whole thing. It's exhausting to listen to.
Its not that we should respect women because they’re just like the stereotypical man(emotionally detached), we should respect women because they are people
the original zuko was also shown to not be the most naturally gifted firebender. he blunders when he tries to demonstrate his skills and azula one ups him. so the original “agni kai” is ozai brutally attacking and disfiguring his own child who is literally defenseless, outskilled, and refusing to fight
right? like that scene was to show how ruthless and monster-like ozai was, not only would he steal candy from a baby he'd yeet a stroller into a lake too for fun if it meant showing off his power lmao
It is so important to Zuko's character that he is not naturally a talented firebender because it adds to his frustration with himself not being able to please Ozai. Zuko has to work extremely hard to become a good firebender with Iroh showing him how the other elements can be implemented in his firebending as well. Having him be strong enough to defeat Ozai during the Agni Kai detracts from Ozai's menace and Zuko's journey. Zuko did not want to fight his father because he loved him, and to Ozai, love and compassion are weaknesses. To have Zuko fight back diminishes his love and respect towards towards his father, that he later learns is undeserved. Having Zuko starting off that strong also will change the dynamics between him and Azula as Azula was "born lucky" and Zuko was "lucky to be born." Azula is a prodigy and Zuko is a late bloomer which causes tension that is spurred on by Ozai. Azula uses her natural power and Ozai's favor to torture Zuko who is weaker and more passive. Zuko has to learn that might does not make right and this series is not setting him up for that journey.
@somebody3558 Not to mention that it completely negates his and Aang's journey to learn about firebending. Zuko's firebending comes from the rage and pain of being a failure in his father's eyes. When he makes the decision to break from his father, he loses his ability to firebend. Having him be powerful enough to defeat Ozai, but not doing so out of love or compassion, completely destroys the whole plot line of him and Aang discovering the Sun Warriors civilization. Although I suppose that plot line was already destroyed when they made Aang less childlike and more serious. Aang doesn't take firebending seriously, hurts Katara, and then refuses to firebend again out of fear. Aang, like Zuko, cannot see how firebending can be anything more than pain and destruction.
@@cheyenne6913 Jeong Jeong adds to this by that also being his view, which he does a damn good job of imparting onto his temporary pupil. Roku would not approve. If he appeared afterward, that is.
They got rid of it for another “girl power” protagonist. Nothing wrong with girl power, but main characters should be flawed, individuals, and grow. Here they just…removed all that and said “she strong” and that’s it
I guess they didn’t wanna be seen as sexist so they just took away anything seen as feminine on womanly because….. women shouldn’t be feminine…? And they replaced her with absolutely nothing. Even Toph enjoyed some feminine things like wearing dresses and doing makeup. She liked her spa day with Katara. And Toph was putting on a front with her whole “idc about what people think about me, I’m blind so idc about appearances.” Katara seeing right through it said “I know you don’t care but you are really pretty” and Toph was really happy with that. It just sucks that writers think a female character having feminine traits is inherently sexist and bad. THAT in itself is sexist
A note I got from Overanalyzing Avatar’s videos; when Aang finds Gyatso’s skeleton and glows up-he actually leaves Gyatso’s skeleton untouched in his rage fit. As he lifts off the ground in the air bubble, you can see everything else is gone, except Gyatso’s skeleton. Really fuckin haunting.
The Gran Gran exposition dump was actually hilarious because she really looked at that baby twelve year old and said "yeah all your people are dead and you failed them, haha loser". Its up there with seeing momos limp body for funniest moments Honorable mention to, "no, I'm gonna kill the moon" that killed me
Yes! This kills me because the strongest women I know are people who are actually pretty reserved and quiet. When I think strong women, I think women who have been through hell and back (not just SA, since there's so many instances of unnecessary SA violence against women in media) and chose to not let it break them, who can still be kind, still be intelligent, and still stand up for themselves despite their past pain. Physical strength is great and that's awesome that there are characters for those women to feel represented through. However, I feel like more thoughtful or quiet women tend to be depicted as the meek, frail icons of femininity who need to be rescued, and it would be so refreshing to see more female leads who have mental strength or resilience instead. Strong doesn't equal violent, in my opinion.
as a makeup artist i was so pissed about Zuko's scar, its so small and insignificant in comparison to the animated show. He was brutally burned by his father and in the live action he's still got an eyebrow? its like bad eyeshadow.
Yeah they didn't even make the bruise big enough!! His scar goes across his whole face! Like you seriously couldn't make the eyeshadow a little darker???
Not only should it have burned his eyebrow, his eyesight literally got more limited by the burn. It wasn't just physical changes for him but his vision got impaired.
Incredibly telling that they tried to do a more "mature" and "adult" version, and they did that by slapping more fight scenes and violence on it while actually removing a lot of the emotional depth.
@@vinogr00nko93 say what you will about game of thrones but it was able to pull off engaging storytelling, at least in its first couple of seasons. they at least didnt have this issue where every scene was just characters standing about blandly delivering exposition intercut w pointless fight scenes... again, not in the earlier seasons at least.
@vlad5042 of course that's true, Game of Thrones started out as an amazing show, but the reality it, as it's audience grew more and more, the show became worse and worse, almost like it had to lower it's level to fit the new, gigantic audience the last 4-ish seasons lack the depth of the previous ones, instead they fill out time with pointless, constant actions scenes and cheesy dialogue which is ironic considering that the show was at its peak when it lacked the budget to do even a fraction of those action scenes
@@vinogr00nko93 I mean, that's really because they ran out of book material. The first 4 seasons were pretty close adaptations to the books. That's why they were so good. The last 4 seasons were the directors having to wing it, and they clearly weren't able to write a coherent story at that level without material to base it on
Yes! Also Sokka gets told and mocked every. Sexist. Quip. He throws. Every. Single. Time. He was obviously always shown as being in the wrong! Now in this show its become a part of the story itself lmao Suki is mothering Sokka because she finds him hot
Growing up isolated as a kid sokka legitimately taught me that girls are equals and are capable. I always loved that part of the show because of how much impact it had on my own life and the straight up ruined it.
Not to mention he wasn't even that sexist? He had some shitty views on women due to the fact that none of the women in his life challenged that viewpoint. Then all it took was three interactions with Suki for him to go "oh I guess I was wrong". He's a three dimensional character. He's arrogant and stubborn but he will admit it when he's wrong.
The fact that they felt the need to simplify the plot/exposition of a CHILDREN'S SHOW. Like they literally assume their audience has a shorter attention-span than a 7 year old
@@jamesmccomb9525probably because you watched it out of order when it was airing? Because the first episode she’s in they literally say she’s blind like 100 times.
A small thing, but the idea that Zuko could beat his father is more insane when you remember that he is a lack luster fire bender. Everyone in his family were better benders then him, his strength was sword fighting.
@@jamiehendrix2568 exactly, people underrate the hell out of Zuko when comparing him to the rest of the family, like he defeated Zhao in an Agni Kai in like the third episode and he gets better from there especially later when he learns from the dragons. He's still a great firebender it's just his family is that much better but that's also like being the 6th fastest person in the world
He developed into a great fire bender and was probably close to average when a young child. He was being compared to prodigies and beaten down by his father for his imperfections. No child will flourish under those conditions.
The Netflix version is made for your parents who constantly ask you questions while you’re watching that the show is going to answer later but your parents are too impatient to wait so they just want you to explain it now.
weakening katara's character also weakens her connection to her culture. Water bending is about her connection to her people which is part of the reason she's so upset she can't do it right away
And it's so important to her because she is the _last_ southern water tribe bender. (Excluding Hama, who we meet later). For most of her life, Katara believes she is the last person who can keep this part of her culture alive, and she's right.
There's a lot to be said (by someone better connected to their indigenous roots than me) with how indigenous women have been stripped of their importance in their culture in the face of outside threats to traditional ways of life. Reaching out for elder wisdom only to find trauma and unhealed wounds from decades past is such a common experience from what I've seen. To this day, the biggest fans I meet of the show are Native.
@@lukaj679 Native and indigenous to where? Like the Southern Water Tribe are based on indigenous Eskimo/Innuit culture, the Earth Kingdom are mostly based on indigenous Chinese culture etc. It's very vague to refer to "indigenous people" and "natives" without being specific as to what place you're talking about.
@@saint4life09 I was referring to Katara and her culture, but irl my interactions have been from people from my continent, specifically Ojibwe, Díne, and Potawatomi
The fact that pisses me off even more, is that in the first episode there flying away from Zuko, Zuko blasts a fireball at them and Katara just has water and gets rid of it. Where does she get the water?! I don’t see a pouch with her! She couldn’t possibly have bended it from the ocean while being hundreds of ft in the air. The only way she could have gotten that water is if she got it from the freaking air. What!?
@@emaster9663that bothered me too! But that’s what the video is saying. Like, she was just that naturally talented. In the cartoon, it’s a slow build of her becoming great. In the show, she already was.
Thank you! I've been saying that if that's the precedent, then Aang just needs an earthbending scroll, and a firebending scroll, make a 20 minute montage of him practicing and make the finale s2e2. Like clearly you DON'T need a master in NATLA, that's canon in that version now. So keep Toph and Zukos arc sacred and end this ASAP.
zuko refusing to fight his father and instead getting on his knees and begging also shows just how afraid zuko is of his father!! which is the baseline for his entire character and gives us an inside perspective on how evil ozai really is, the fact that he was willing to fight a child who was on his knees, in tears, begging for mercy jfc
Not even mentioning how well this illustrates how Zuko is a good person deep down. He wants to save as may fire nation lives as possible which is why he speaks up in the meeting in the first place. Then he refuses to fight someone he calls family. His father tried to kill that piece of Zuko by burning him. But the netflix version makes zuko care about "the throne that is rightfully his" instead of wanting to earn his families love and acceptance back. And fights his father in the agni kai... after waiting a little bit lol killing his character faster than you can say "Compassion is a sign of weakness"
@@halodeer everything they’ve done to humanize Ozai feels off. Ozai is a sociopath. any attempt to make us relate to him just tastes sour to me. same with Azula. the story doesn’t work if they’re not cold, unfeeling monsters. i appreciate them trying to give us a way to relate to them beyond that, but ATLA did the job in The Beach. that’s the closest we ever got to intimately learning about Zuko’s family, and it worked perfectly. if Ozai and Azula truly care about Zuko more than their thrones, the whole story falls apart. maybe they’ll make this new characterization make sense, but i’m doubtful.
@@hurricanejaney Totally agree. ATLA is an allegory for WW2 (Ozai being H*tler) so we don't need to get to know Ozai to know hes evil and the gaang needs to defeat him. His personality/backstory doesn't add anything to the story and characters so it makes sense they don't develop his character at all. Off topic but I liked that they made the evil guy have zero personality in the og show. Its more powerful for kids to grow up believing they can defeat the evil in the world no matter how untouchable and unrelatable they seem (even if the evil is their own parent, if you're looking at it from Zuko's perspective).
@@halodeer straight up. if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. there’s no need to change anything; the original series is perfect. just translate it to live-action, episode by episode, and they’d have that Game of Thrones-type audience foaming at the mouth. if they can’t do that, then they ought to leave well enough alone. i don’t want to gatekeep but the idea of anyone watching the live-action series without seeing the original makes me cringe
Ever since Drew’s most recent video where he says that Netflix is literally designing shows to be watched while you are on your phone, going back to watch this and also his Star Wars video, I have realized just how much Drew points out that these shows are simple and hold your hand, and my mind is blown how common that practice is now
They really removed the flaws of Sokka but make his dad hate him for no reason, in the animated he didn't hate him and Sokka was a TEENAGE boy with TENAGE FLAWS
Bruhhh! It was a pivotal thing in the beginning of Book 3 to contrast Ozai with Hakoda, and show how better at fathering Hakoda is. And that's because he loves his children unconditionally while Ozai only tolerates and accepts Zuko back because he thinks he did something "heroic" (killing the Avatar). In the original, Sokka always had this mindset of wanting to make his dad proud, and wanting his dad to see him as a grown man. And every single time Hakoda is on-screen with Sokka, he reiterates on how much he loves and is proud of his son. "There's no Netflix adaptation in Ba Sing Se" 🙂
@@DiogoChris THISSSSSSS OMLLLL Hakoda is a direct opposite to Ozai (and i would argue so is Iroh, but thats a seperate essay). He's supposed to remind us that, As a man of Power and Influence, he still has responsibility to take care of his kids and he loves them and cares for them with such grace. Sokka and Katara are great comparisons to Zuko and Azula, in a lot of ways i wont go into directly but they are the products of how their parents treated them. Katara and Sokka are always striving to be better, to do better, not (just) because they feel like they have to (i say just because of the whole war thing going on), but because they want to be better people for their family, to help, to provide, to care for, to nurture. Azula and Zuko feel required to prove themselves, literally and figuratively, because otherwise they don't deserve a place amongst family. The constant pressure to perform for the bare minimum. Zuko is only able to get out of that mindset because he has Iroh who shows him that love isn't earned but is unconditional. i say all this to say that we lose such a cascade of characterization from both sides, good and bad, by that one detail change. People say Zuko wasn't done so bad but his characterization depends so much on all the characters around him that even through this he looses so much more than people think he does. All the characters lose, we lose, because netflix decided to make a dumb edgy version of Atla
@@Crysta11ize I don't know what they are talking about. In the Netflix show, his dad literally protected him from the truth that he failed his boating trial. He's a great dad in the Netflix show. It's literally not "for no reason"
Turning Suki from the badass character she was into a horned up girl that trains sokka because she’s just that horny. And his personality doesn’t grow on her because he’s funny and caring but because he’s just that hot
What’s annoying is that she thanks HIM for ‘showing her the world’. But in the animation, SUKI is the one who shows Sokka the wider world of women actually fighting and protecting their people. It’s so crazy that they reduced Suki to being a thirsty warrior
The funniest part about that is they were like "we're going to make sokka not sexist, so that we can create sexist interpretations of other characters"
As someone who worked in TV development and left because it is run by soul sucking ghouls, I can almost assure you the reason the exposition is so repetitive and ineloquent and the characters are lacking flaws and are flat, is because some dumb executives didn’t understand what they were reading when they got the first draft scripts because they didn’t do their homework by watching the original series and won’t let the creatives cook. In notes sessions, they probably asked a bunch of questions (questions that get answered in time) and wanted to sound smart and like they had good notes so they told the writers to answer them sooner. I’d say you’d be shocked at the lack of media literacy in those rooms, but studios and networks keep churning out shows and movies that are like this, so you already know. The writers strike showed us the state of the industry and how little higher ups value the work of creatives.
Thank you so much for saying this. There’s some myth, endlessly circulated online, that media, particularly modern media, is always the result of a single “hack writer” who doesn’t understand basic storytelling. And, you know, NOT because of a bunch of executives homogenising the work, and creating ridiculously unrealistic standards that writers have to aim for. Who, at the end of the day, don’t even care about art or media. I really hope everyone sees your comment, and maybe the myth can be debunked a little.
I left movies too, I landed in indie comics. It has proved to be a great creative outlet for anyone who wants to create a story that isn’t instantly destroyed by executives who are just eager to get back to their beachfront property.
16:05 I also like how Sokka doesn't sulk or remain bitter the rest of the episode, he pretty much immediately goes back and says "I was out of pocket. You're clearly better, *please* teach me." I think that's actually a big part of Sokka's development, being able to put aside his pride and admit his shortcomings is how he winds up as the strategic mind of the team.
ozai's looming, fearful presence was also aided by the fact that you didn't even SEE HIS FACE UNTIL LATER SEASONS! he is so fearsome and terrifying that he doesn't even need to be SEEN, just his presence FELT. the fact that they changed it to reveal his face after barely any episodes and you are instead just told he's scary is just wacky
I remember talking about the show to my friends and I was like they waited until two episodes to show Ozai's face. An incredible amount of restraint. lol
Aangs childlike nature also made his relationship with katara that much better. As she was already very mature for her age. Aang taught her to have fun and katara taught him to be more serious. It’s a shame they took that away from them
@@toidIllorTAmIactually the head "writer" for the netflix adaptation is a sports journalist. (I m not even kidding, check him, albert kim) This is just a sad case of nepotism. Incompetents are put in charge and shyte hits the fan ... Classic.
And it doesn t need a long scene. In the original there is a short scene with aang and katara sledging on penguins. Katara " ahaha, i haven t done this since i was a kid" Aang "but you are a kid?!" Takes 10 sec to establish she had to mature quickly because of war and doesn t see herself as a kid. Boom, job done. Instead the netflix gives us 2 min of grangran redoing the intro exposition... What a waste of time.
I've been watching through the original show for the first time, and i just finished s1, i feel like it's episode 1 they're ridinh penguins and Katara yells "I haven't done this since i was a kid!" and Aang replies "You are a kid!" and they just gloss over it, but it works so well to establish who she is as a character. this
they took SO MUCH from all of the characters in this show. it really feels like they shaved this awesome show down to just 1 dimensional characters and dialogue. i really wanted to like the show but it is just so bad. I've seen people argue that it is a good show if you never watched the original but it just simply isn't. the characters aren't just awful because they are a watered down version of the originals, they are also awful because they had no depth at all.
All of this comes from the fact that major studios like Netflix see animation as a lesser art form, they just view animations as mindless children’s entertainment rather than it’s own medium to tell stories. We don’t need live action remakes as the original animation is the actual way the series was meant to be consumed in.
same with Disney. no one ever asked for a Live action Lion King or Aladdin; those films work so fine, because they are animated. The live action versions take away from the personality of the films and characters
i dont think thats 100% true considering they are putting more love into creating anime and you also have arcane that had alot of adult parts. i think its more the directors of the show and maybe some overreach but just look at the fact that the original creators of last airbender where working with them but left part way through so sounds like the people involved just didint care not so much the studio
I feel like they could easily just make another avatar universe series and keep it animated either going forward again (the next after Korra in a world with 2000-esque tech) or tell the stories of well known avatars like Kyoshi or Yangchen (both could be a more mature series since Kyoshi was known to be ruthlessly practical and yangchen is a story of a powerful monk having to grapple with the dilemma of selfishly choosing her own pacifism or using violence to make the world more peaceful). They wouldn’t have to compare to the original show as closely and they’d obviously still get some backlash (legend of korra got a lot of hate even though it was objectively pretty good). There are also tonnes of plot lines they could explore in the world of avatar since they have only just touched how bending could integrate into technology, the inequality issues of having only some benders etc.
6:55 THAT'S EXACTLY IT I wasn't able to place why some lines itch just the wrong way but that makes so much sense, it really does sound like he's about to burst into song
The part where Zuko almost beats Ozai is also a plot hole when you consider that in the original series, Zuko was never a good fire bender as a child. All of his power came from rage due to his banishment. He literally had to learn the proper way to firebend in Book 3 alongside Aang.
And they are absolutely going to use that plot-thread in book 3 because they will have totally forgotten that they wrote Zuko to be a strong bender from day one 🙄
@@DavidJmason5552 How? It’s an ultra-militaristic regime and he wanted to prove he wasn’t a pansy. He constantly got assigned the lowest quality soldiers and supplies.
And it was super important for his relationship with Azula and his sense of identity. He had to work for everything, he was "lucky" to be born, while Azula was the prodigy from an early age. Zuko wasn't very powerful at the start, and it helped make Zhao into a more intimidating villain once Katara, another prodigy, was able to beat Zuko despite having way less training. Making Zuko strong from the start takes away his struggles and how much he had to work for everything from earning his father's praise, to not being upstaged by his sister, to his efforts to capture the avatar.
small detail i hate: they keep changing “avatar, master of all four elements” to “the avatar, THE ONLY PERSON who can master all four elements” like they were so worried we wouldn’t pick up on the fact that the avatar alone can do that? the use of awkward and clunky dialogue to clarify plot points that should be implied by world building and character reactions is a huge issue with the remake as a whole.
the spoon-feeding just makes me so mad. nicque marina i believe (did not spell that right please correct me im sorry 😭) did a little rant about how we got to this point and she was so right. the ridiculous amount of exposition, insanity of sokka’s remakes, the destruction of suki, ozai and katara’s characters, and so many other elements (get it) made this such a lackluster remake. the actors are doing their best and I won’t fault them for it; but this remake was so unnecessary.
That might change after he masters all four. They can say that line in the animation because of the line in the intro saying he's got a lot of work until he can save anyone
Especially since, if they just used the narration of the original show, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Katara literally says “only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them” It’s implied that there is only one avatar by the *the* proceeding avatar in the sentence, which then results in the “master of all four elements” part being connected to the ‘singular avatar’ implication. This results in most, if not all, of the audience realizing, yes, there is only one person who can master all the elements The original narration was perfect
@@prequel_moment First 10 minute made me not like the show. The part where the earth soldier had to repeat and explain in simple terms what Sozin just said.
the zuko thing upsets me so so much bc it really messes with the dynamic between him and azula, the whole idea of "child prodigy" vs "guy who worked really hard" is kinda scuffed when the guy was able to beat the strongest guy ever without any of the working really hard
Just imagine if zuko was able to defeat ozai if only he wasn’t poisoned by “weakness” and ONLY unable by being poisoned by “weakness” on day one at the council, doesn’t that make Azula capable of defeating ozai without even trying? Like I’m seriously wondering why she didn’t just get angry and usurp rule from ozai given the power dynamic between her and zuko
@@GymbrGleamBc the only power abusers have over Their victims are the psychological power, victims are always stronger physically and They just to realize that... That must have been Netflix's thought process
How they handled Azula was so annoying too. Like, why is she suddenly so hung up on proving herself to be better than Zuko in the eyes of her father? Azula *knew* she was better than Zuko. She's been hailed as a prodigy since she was a child. Her doubts were never really centered on her abilities, and the cracks only started to show towards the end of season 3. You know, when her friends abandoned her and her father at once sidelined her and handed her intense responsibility that she wasn't ready for? Outwardly, Azula is ruthless, perfectionistic, and exceptionally skilled. Centering her doubts on her ability, of all things, feels like a complete misunderstanding of her arc.
I also want to point out another thing the Netlix adaptation took from Katara's character. Her story was always very relatable to me as an assimilated indeginous person (not inuit, but similar experience of opression). Katara's character arc is indigenous. A colonizing force (the fire nation) came and arrested every member of her people who knew an important traditional practise (water bending). Katara grew up without anyone to pass the tradition on to her, and had to reconstruct it herself from any fragment she could find. It was significant that she found the scroll on the pirate ship. She couldn't just ask her grandmother how to water bend, because it was a tradition that had been stolen from them. And Katara stealing the scroll BACK was a vindicating moment (to everyone whose family heirlooms are currently locked up in a museum, at least). Even when she gets in touch with the northern tribe, their culture isn't exactly the same as hers. Still, there's no way she can just re-invent what took her ancestors generations to perfect, so of course she has to convince the northern tribe master to take her on as an apprentice. She can't get back exactly what was stolen from her, but she can preserve and build upon what's left of it. (I grew up desperately wanting to learn an erased language. Luckily I wasn't the only one, and now we're seeing a major revitalization effort happening. Because so much of the language was lost, looking at related languages from the neighboring people has been crucial to reconstruct the language.) Katara's arc really hit different.
I had made the connection of the firebenders being colonizers, but I had never thought about Katara's story as an indigenous person who had her culture stolen from her. It really puts her stealing the scroll in a different light. I had always seen that as a defining moment for her because it was the first time she had done something "wrong" to get something for herself. And she even said that she had done it because she was jealous of Ang, but I think you're absolutely right that it was a rare opportunity to connect with her heritage on her own terms. And her explanation that it was just about the water bending also makes perfect sense because that's an extremely difficult thing for a child to articulate, especially in her position. Ang and Sokka lost their people too, but Ang was still taught his cultural customs and Sokka was able to actively practice many of his as the warrior and protector of the village. And now the one thing Katara had to connect her to culture was being overshadowed by a kid who wasn't even a water bender doing it better than her. This is why the original show is so brilliantly written. Something so small as one act of shoplifting was so consequential and taught us so much about her character. Every little detail in that show is so intentional and has so many layers. So cool to be able to watch the show now from start to finish instead of starting at whichever episode the show happened to be on in its run cycle when I happened to turn on Nickelodeon as a kid lol
I always alsp felt that this is the reason why she is so "motherly" in their group, cuz sokka is "dumb" and aang is just a kid so she is the only one mature enough to care in a certain way about them, but in reality she is just a child trying her best to carry her heritage while still missimg her mother who were took by the same colonizers because she practiced that bending tradition. I always felt a lot her need to save her tribe from oblivion
Jokes aside, that's the behavior I hated especially coming from the fans of the OG show. Just because the movie was shitty it doesn't mean we have to settle for a less shitty tv adaptation. And the same thing happened with the Percy Jackson tv adaptation. They both sucked and fans shouldn't settle of it just because "they're better than the movie"
It's like saying that the spoiled orange juice is better than the raw sewage. Yeah, it definitely is, but neither tastes good nor leaves you feeling good. One's just more devastating than the other!
@phonoix plus, to paraphrase a review of the show i watched "if they'd somehow managed to make a show even half as bad as the movie, that could only be taken as proof that Satan is real and he has killed god"
Another thing to note about a Zuko change is that in live action he wants to go home so he can take the throne. When animated Zuko just wanted to go home
So much more impactful and really emphasizes the point that these are all just CHILDREN forced to grow up too soon because adults started an unnecessary war. They all just wanted to go home 😢
i’d like to point out that the actors themselves act very much like their characters outside of the show. The actress for Katara, Kiawentiio, especially- who got criticized for her character having a lack of emotions in the show- in her other films/shows she’s done (Anne with an E, Beans, interviews, audition tape) has shown she can absolutely play strong emotions both in and out of character, thus implying all the poor character changes are a result of the subpar writing/direction and the show not properly utilizing their actors, rather than the actor’s abilities themselves.
Yes the changes are certainly intentional. It's clear that katara and sokkas family dynamic is completely different, and that theyre setting it up for katara to blossom into an assertive strong bender
it’s so sad to me that the actors (especially kiawentiio, at least from what i’ve seen) are receiving hate for their acting in the show. it’s not their fault the writers and directors absolutely missed the mark.
It still gives me chills, the visual storytelling in the cartoon showing Gyatso surrounded by the corpses of fire-benders. They needed a fuckin' army to take him down.
I find it hilarious that they removed the sexism from Sokka's character because they thought it wasn't relevant when if anything, it's more relevant than before due to the rise of Andrew Tate esque influencers and incel culture in general causing more and more men to become increasingly hostile towards women's rights.
@Emma-Maze what's strange is that sexism in recent shows and movies isn't being direct about it and having moments, it's actually infecting every single element of a character
okay legit question. IS it better to be kicked in the face than in the balls? i get that crotch shots are incredibly painful, but head trauma can legit fuck up your LIFE so not the point, but u got me wondering
@@battyrae1398I mean one normal kick probably wont cause permeant damage to the head but getting kicked in the balls could permeantly hurt you and hurts more
Balls worse Let's put it this way Flicking ur finger to my face is annoying Do the same to my balls I shall wish for death for several lifetimes 😢@@battyrae1398
I also am surprised you didn’t mention all the jarring storyline changes they did. Like with the owl spirit (forget his name) just appearing. That means the library will never be discovered, and so they’ll never figure out about the eclipse. This show cooked itself
Not to mention, everyone was so worried about Sokka losing his sexism for four episodes, they just ignored the entire character arc of Aang of running from responsibility which he struggled with for like, an entire season, which literally makes him just... bland, boring hero man with no flaws.
you mean everyone else just wanted to hear him be sexist. i hate this overused and untrue misogynistic statement so much. "his ENTIRE character arc" if you and everyone else really thinks him being sexist was his whole character you were not watching the show at all
They also, in an effort to remove the sexism le bad from the show, ended up entirely removing Pakku's entire story and connection to Katara. Robbing Katara of MORE arcs that would've saved her already more boring portrayal. That was supposed to be the peak of her arc of proving herself to everyone else.
Lol I kinda agree, both their arcs were rushed and suck now, and no not every one just wanted to see sexism. That wasn't his entire character arc for the whole show, but it was definitely a huge part of it. Honestly the show deconstructs sexism very well and probably helped create a lot of future feminism, so they really just wasted that chance in the end
@@eden22.7Idk Drew's points on this hits the nail on the head. If you don't understand why it's important to either be there or be replaced with something else, then you're exactly the type of people the writers are catering to. It doesn't HAVE to be sexism. He got past it right after his stuff with Suki so it's easily replaced. But what they replaced it with is worthless. They just change seemingly small things not realising how much those small things mean and doesn't replace it with anything else. Aang not running away. Sokka's conflict with Suki. Pakku's arc and connection to Katara (which imo is EVEN WORSE cus now Pakku legitimately has no arc whatsoever.) THEY didn't watch the show. THEY didn't understand the writing. And this strawman argument is just completely pointless when you understand that they could've EASILY removed the sexism and replaced it with something else. But they didn't. Because they didn't realise it served a plot purpose. Because they didn't watch it. Stop excusing bad writing.
@@eden22.7 Hyperbolism doesn't suit you either as an argument against perceived hyperbolism. Sokka's sexism fuels his initial character and subsequent development through the end of the Water book.
I can never get over the way they did Zuko’s scar. It’s such a big part of his character design and it’s a perfect symbol of Ozai’s brutality. Zuko was his son - a young child - and he completely disfigured a quarter of his face for deigning to speak out against him. It’s something impossible to miss and it’s a constant reminder of how much Ozai’s abuse has shaped him But in NATLA it looks like a birthmark or a bruise. You could squint and probably not even notice it. They put so much effort into the CGI and making everything look as close to the cartoon as physically possible, but probably one of the most famous pieces of character designs in any show ever is completely overlooked It’d literally be like forgetting Aang’s arrows it’s actually ridiculous
Can't make characters with facial scars too gross looking in live adaptations. He can join the many, many other novel and cartoon characters with facial scars that suffered this. The idea of what is 'acceptably' ugly in movies/TV shows is very narrow. He could be a supermodel and they still wouldn't let him have a proper full size scar.
@@calamitysangfroid2407 tbh I don't know why they're so afraid of giving him an "ugly" scar when the poor guy is gonna have to wear that hideous bald ponytail anyway 😂
He disfigured him primarily because Zuko REFUSED to fight, which Ozai interpreted as his son’s weakness. The whole point of how Ozai respected power over anything else is dispensed in the live action remake, unfortunately.
i always noticed that in the original, homie lost his eyebrows because of his scar and that eye is in a permanent squint because of the scar tissue, but in the live action his eyebrows are still intact and yeah it really feels like he just has a weird birthmark. I'm not saying they should've yoinked the actor's eyebrows, but...
And it serves a story reason! Zuko's scar is literally a brand of shame. For a firebender to have a burn scar it kinda denotes that you've messed up in some major way, right? It's a very very visible mark of Zuko being a screw-up in the eys of his father and his people. It lets us understand just what kind of monster Ozai is, and where a lot of Zuko's anger stems from (his taught shame.) It's infomration we can *learn* by observing, instead of having it told to us! But here the scar is barely readable. It hasn't effected his eye at all and the skin isn't warped whatsoever. It doesn't just take away from what the scar originally communicated, it's also just bad character design tbh
it’s so disappointing to see a character that subverts gendered expectations and provide consequences to misogyny be turned into a sexualised object for a character to ogle at and have her personality (and the message that told) stripped from her
"We worried that if Sokka was dismissive of women and then got corrected, people might see that as objectifying women. We wanted to correct that, so we turned women into oversexed reproductive machines that can't function if their ovaries are activated. "We want people to know that women are physically capable and the only thing that's stopping them is their silly women feelings."
Tbh, seeing zuko fight his father really upset me. As a child of abuse, seeing the original show as a kid really opened my eyes to how wrong it is to hurt your kids because zuko didn't do anything. He didn't fight back, he wasn't rude, and he even asked for forgiveness so as a kid I couldn't find a reason to explain why he got hurt and that made me realize that I hadn't done anything wrong either. It sounds bad, but if I was a kid at the time and saw the live action instead it wouldn't have impacted me as much
The IRL trying to remove sexism, ended up being even more sexist. Katara needed Aangs and Jets help to become a comfident waterbender, Suki needed Sokka to broaden her views, Princess Yue was literally in the kitchen making ice cream 😂
The idea of Aang being a theatre kid ready to break into song after every line sums up the exact feeling I got from him. I couldn't get past episode 1 sadly😢
@@sonfoku73I disagree with Iroh. Serious Iroh is definitely perfect. But they completely cut his more jovial, humorous, and we barely get any of the Iroh wisdom
Something the showrunners also clearly missed is Gyatso's skeleton is sitting completely unburned in a room with thirty dead firebenders. I _love_ the fan theory that says he created a _vacuum_ and took them all out with him. That would have been quite a thing to see.
The fact that they Netflix didn't even consider taking the chance to turn that into a action scene surprises me. They could have shown a scene of him getting cornered before zooming in, him saying, "I won't be going down alone," or something like that, then cut to the present.
it’s hardly even a theory. there’s no other explanation. like bloodbending, the act of bending the air out of someone’s lungs (breathbending, i guess?) is one of those techniques that is entirely taboo, especially to a pacifist nation like the air nomads, but still very much possible. only meant to be used in a time of dire need.
@@ThatsTypical It's kinda sad bc it shows that whoever wrote this part wasn't even interested enough to entertain what that scene could mean. Not imaginative at all.
Such a small gripe I have - but in the cartoon, because we don't ever SEE the Airbenders fight the Fire Nation, it adds an air of imagined savagery of the war, and of Giyatso also. I remember reading this fantastic theory that Giyatso, outnumbered by Fire Nation, chose to remove all air/oxygen in the room where he died, snuffing out their fire, but also ending his life in the process. If I'm not mistaken, the creators themselves responded to this theory really positively. I don't know, just seeing the fight makes the Airbenders look really weak, when canonically they're extremely strong, but choose a life of monkhood and peace due to their overwhelming power and responsibility. I feel like we lost a lot of the Airbender majesty by showing their slaughter.
They’re even more powerful when you think of the fact that every other bender has a weakness; water can only bend if there’s water nearby, earthbenders (as bumi said) can only bend if they see earth (besides toph) and firebenders can only bed fire in conditions that fire can exist in, whereas air exists everywhere and without it everything would die. So really the only weakness for airbenders is their own skill and willpower
They also played down the firebenders in that sceen. The fire arme is just a bunch of people throwing fireballs. We dont see how the meteor makes them more powerfull, as you said it just looks like the air nomads are weak. Not only is ther no sign of how the comet is powering them up, that way its like the comet doesnt power them up at all! In the cartoon it was always this "When the comet arrives the firebenders will be invincible" there is real horror in there, which is proven right by the massive flame wall they used to scorch the land, from the airships. Like this i dont feel like it will be bad if the comet comes, we already saw what it can do and it doesnt look like much.
This show feels like it was written by people who just like reading cool little tidbits on a fan wiki. The characters aren't individuals who go through events and struggle and grow. They're a bulleted list of traits.
Idk how you drop the ball when you have the story already laid out for you on a silver platter. How do you fumble something when they have the perfect script already? lol
@@Ugly_Single_Near_You-jw2er i could understand wanting to change it up a little bit instead of doing a shot-for-shot remake but the changes they made are so fucking confusing.
@@elfappo9330It's so weird. Like it's more gratuitous and violent but also...tame? Like the characters losing there anger, spunk, and even saddness. Even the main villains honestly lose a lot of their cruel nature. It's like the main characters are repressing their emotions for some bizarre reason.
@@ohwell1547 Americans, driven by their puritan origins, don't shy away from violence. Media has become incresingly violent but oh lord save yourself if you show genitals or nudity in general. In this case they could show dark gritty violent stuff to appeal to GOT TV show morons fans but forgot to properly write a script without the help of AI. Because the script feels like a chatGPT regurgitated crap.
Also an issue I have with the live-action version of the Agni Kai, and Ozai in general, is that we just see his face from the beginning. In the original we don't even see the Fire Lord's face until like s3. He's only maybe shown from the mouth up, but his eyes are cut off. Until then we've only heard his voice and seen his power, but not even a second of him as an actual person. He's just a symbol, the Fire nations great, feared leader and probably the most powerful firebender to exist right then. The whole story being told from Aang's pov also helps with this, as he too doesn't know what Ozai actually looks like and only has an image of royal clothing and headpieces. This also makes him more terrifying, as peoples own imagination will always be more scary to them than smth just being told should be. It completely removes his humaness, and also makes sense that even Zuko doesn't properly remember his father's face. He only remembers the terrifying voice and ever-present control in all their lives. I know this all just leans into the instant gratification issue already brought up in the video, but it still pisses me off. There's so many great examples in this show of slowly waiting for things to be revealed, to the point that watching it today sometimes makes me impatient. It feels insane in todays standards that a children's show should be so slow paced, which just makes it even better in my eyes. You don't see shows waiting characters arcs out as patiently as atla today, and one tiny example of this is seeing what Ozai even really looks like.
you mean to tell me that the same company that forced out the original creators of avatar and literally said that squidgame's anti capitalist message was a "small part of the show" also doesn't understand the point of avatar either???? Wow. Crazy. Unbelievable.
The same original creators that brought you skyscraper sized platinum mecha firing spirit lasers in 1920s New York City as the finale of their sequel series?
RUclipsr Little Joel said it best. "We never see Aang have fun. We only see him watch kids play and smile so that the audience knows that he likes fun"
I also really hated how Aang was told who Bumi was immediately, which originally was the whole point of that episode. Bumi just messes with Aang and it puts him in a stressful situation because he thinks its just whoever the current King is and not his best friend from 100 years ago.
I like how once aang realizes it's bumi he knows he and his friends were never in danger. he knew their friendship would hold over 100 yrs and bumi was just pranking him, it rlly contrasts w/ how frustrated he was thru the ep when he didn't know who it was
Revealing and then fighting = I don’t even recognize my friend anymore. He’s so different. But fighting and then revealing = I didn’t recognize him at first but that’s my best friend and he hasn’t changed a bit.
do you guys remember when aang recognizes bumi in the original show, after saying his name, and getting confirmation, he literally wells up in tears? that's literally the moment aang realizes not all was lost after he saw the aftermath of the air nomad genocides. in this one bumi hates him for leaving cause they mixed his personality with the old man from the storm
saying zuko couldve beaten his dad in the agni kai is even more infuriating when you remember that in the original show, it was a major insecurity of zuko's that he wasnt as powerful as azula and was jealous that she was a better bender and got all their dad's attention
One thing that gets me is how they completely ignored the philosophies of several East Asian cultures like taoism and zen buddhism for essentially "friendship is magic". These philosophies not only lead to deep explorations on the martial arts of the nations and therefore better fighting later on, they're integral to the fabric of the characters themselves. Let's take Zuko for a second: as a firebender, and particularly for a firebender of his family, he's incredibly weak. Because of this even before his banishment he always felt in competition with his sister for his father Firelord Ozai's love, and losing badly. His father is only obsessed with power and Azula has it all and him seemingly little. "My father says she was born lucky, he says I was lucky to be born." Because of this we see him constantly training, scolding his uncle for not teaching him advanced bending, keeping his body in top shape. It's because of this he learns other ways to fight too, becoming a master of stealth and a swordsman great enough to take down most benders without using fire. But one fight with his sister after 3 years in the field and he couldn't touch her, Iroh had to save his life. So in an episode in Book 2 where Zuko and Aang recieve parallel training, Zuko attempts to learn to shoot lightning to match his sister, but fails. His uncle explains it's because Zuko feels deep shame. As he retorts "I'm not ashamed, I'm as prideful as ever" Iroh replies "pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source." Zuko's constant yearning for honor and his father's love causes him shame as none of his actions get it. In an attempt to console him, Iroh offers to teach him a move only he knew, as he invented it studying water-bending. We learn that every element has a natural opposite which is hard even for an Avatar born into one culture to master from the other, and this move comes from the water tribe, Zuko's natural opposite. We learn the same way the combination of elements strengthens the Avatar, so to can it strengthen Zuko. Of the Water Tribe as both a descriptor of their style and culture he says "Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribes are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything." Zuko is able to learn the basic motion of the move, but when it came right down to trying to use it, he ended up having a breakdown as he felt the world was still out to belittle him when it would hit him hard until the moment he asks for lightning. He says he can take it and give it back, but we see that's untrue. It's clear Iroh is not just trying to teach him the tai chi move, he's trying to instill within him that love and community to get him through his own shame, to use the adaptability of the inuit-inspired water tribe to temper his inability to let go of past shames. Zuko ultimately fails to master his opposite. Skip to Book 3, after an angsty season of being angry at himself for betraying the only person who cared for him when he was presented with the possibility of his father's love, he moves to set things right. He confronts the most powerful firebender in the world while they were all powerless to stand on business. He finally realizes the father he always wanted he's had this whole time, that in his search for honor he had been robbing himself of it. He will free his Uncle and help the Avatar to defeat him, while seeking his own destiny. As the Firelord tricks him into staying long enough to regain their powers, he hits Zuko with the fastest lightning bending we've ever seen. And he takes it. And he gives it back. He sends the most powerful lightning blast back to the master bender he had no chance against even a few days ago, the one who burned him. And it's not just a martial victory, by using the water tribe move it symbolizes he's finally mastered his natural opposite, he has the fatherly love that holds him together from Iroh, he's adapted from his prideful, shameful ways and is ready to choose the side of good once and for all. All things you don't get if Zuko goes Mark Ham and beats Firelord Ozai when he was 13 in a Book 1 flashback.
Also, when Zuko goes to teach Aang firebending, Zuko finds he can’t bend anymore. Firebending is linked (if I recall correctly) to passion. For years, Zuko has been fuled by attempting to capture the Avatar, but having moved on from that quest, there is nothing left to “light his fire.” Each bending style feels very thought out and not like just generic magic. Just another reason the og show was better.
@@Queen_Cnidarian Yes! That's another point the original touches on that I feel the live action never will, that Zuko's bending was _never_ inherently weak, it was just that he was taught the wrong, watered down style that was fueled by anger that wasn't in Zuko's inherent nature, and his bending completely disappeared when he had finally let go of it. There's so much to get into on the true meaning of fire, controlling how firebending is taught as a way to control the thoughts and temperament of the people, the silent connection between firebending and dance and by extent the Fire Nation's strict smothering of freedom of expression. I'm sure that will never be even hinted at, instead it'll just be a revelatory moment of "I was always the strongest" in the final fight and a random powerup, or something along those lines.
@@fantasymagic97 Thank you! I shortened it so I may have made it a bit harder to follow the flow, and even then I didn't expect many people to read it but I felt it needed to be said anyway. ATLA is really such a perfect beautiful story and it always had so much personal meaning to me.
“You must defeat the fire lord… before the comet arrives.” I remember hearing it endless times during the ‘Previously on Avatar’ recaps… BECAUSE ITS THE CORNERSTONE OF THE NARRATIVE AND THE DRIVING FORCE OF THE ENTIRE STORY. How do you leave that out I just can’t understand
To some extent I understand, the writers didn't know if they'd get more seasons to get to do the whole story, but I really hated how much they emphasized "We HaVe To GeT tO tHe NoRtH pOlE" because then there was this unnecessary sense of urgency that we didn't have in the first season of the original, there was no time for the important character development & world-building side adventures of the first season and it bothers me so much
It would be difficult to set a deadline like that for a live action though. These seasons will take a long time to make, and the actors portraying Aang, Katara, and likely Toph, are young enough now that it’ll be obvious that years are passing instead of months. However, it’s still on the writers to convey urgency some other way.
@@LeileyWow Yeah it felt much weirder progressing through the season with all of the stops and side-quests when like, they know the North Pole is in danger and they’re rushing to get up there
They do end the series * spoiler * with the reveal to the fire lord that they know the comet is coming. So maybe the writers will do it next season, and then Aang will kick it into gear learning bending?
Your analysis of the change to Suki had me cheering because you’re so right!! it was so infuriating to me that they were like “we did a great job of making sokka less sexist” and then they just make suki a simpering love struck character. good job writers
Nah she still shows that she knows more than Sokka when she is teaching him. I don’t like that they took away him learning more of a lesson but it’s really not that bad as people are making it out to be.
The people behind the remake NEED to see this, because these are so well thought out arguments and remarks. They could really learn and not just say "Well people don't like our show 'cause they're too attached to the original"
it just sucks because I've started to really like the cast. Gordon Cormier is literally irl Aang, and from watching the behind the scenes, the production and art direction team are very dedicated, I believe they ARE avatar the last airbender fans and want to make the best show adaptation. The problem is exactly as pointed out by Drew which is the writers and Netflix Corporate intervening with changing the soul of the show. They CAN make creative deviations, but the writing SHOULDN'T be falling flat, and they should NOT be changing core aspects of the characters. This show can still be saved with having season's 2 and 3 greenlit at the same time and I hope Netflix takes in all the criticism because this cast and production team are putting their passion and respect for the original in this project, but the writers haven't.
Are they really well thought out arguments? It's literally as you said, people don't like the adaptation because y'all are too attached to the original, when the original isn't even at all perfect. The criticisms with the adaptation can literally be used against the original as well if you would actually care to dissect the original. But, hey, ignorance is bliss.
I can't get over the costuming, why does everything look completely pristine? There's no wear on anything, like everyone's clothing is brand new and has been hanging in a closet waiting for this day to be worn for the first time ever
YES!!! Why are Sokka and Katara’s coats trimmed with fur from a craft store and untouched by the elements? Why did all the metal headpieces look like spray painted cardboard? Why did 80% of the fabric look like it had a beauty box filter on it? From a costuming standpoint I don’t think the show looked all that good.
A burger has to be at least McDonald's quality to be, like, anything. Costumes in old-time stuff have to be at least as good as in Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail. A shocking number of shows and movies fail to reach that bar.
Why does water tribe wear robes made of one single layer of cotton?? That’s not what’s going to keep anyone warm! It’s got to be hide, sheepskin or at least quilted fabric. Nobody in the industry understands how low temperatures work, it was the same in Game of Thrones but less noticeable and the costumes looked better
@@mimik6414i love this comment because in a sea of artists writing thought provoking critiques, the most compelling one to me is "its giving cosplay 💅🏾"
31:55 If they wanted an action scene they could have just had Zuko avoiding attacks but never striking back. Would have kept the same character traits and development but still had flames go boom
Zuko fighting back against his abusive father just completely guts his character. Freezing and refusing to fight isn’t just a way to show that he doesn’t want to hurt his father, it so clearly shows that he is doing his best to survive an abusive situation.
The moment when Zuko finally breaks free of his father's influence in season 3 is so momentous. I mean, they are both just there and Zuko doesn't even raise his voice. No pyrotechnics, no fighting, just a promise. It's so powerful.
@@BiittiriisiAnd Zuko actual pratical reaction to Ozai's attack in the throne room in season 3 is made much better by the fact that Zuko had never reacted before, it shows us that he is truly free from Ozai, to the point were he is not afraid to fight back. Now that he reacted in their Agni Kai this scene will have much less impact
@@Prometeu21 Haven't watched the netflix adaptation but there's also the detail that it was the first time Zuko redirected lightning, a much stronger, faster lightning created by his own father. His retaliation against his father proved Zuko's strength mentally, but his reaction time proved his physical strength. Not to mention it's a move entirely created by Iroh, showing how much he loved and respected his uncle.
actually if I remember correctly, when Aang wakes from the iceberg, Katara's grandma does tell him that they never seen an airbender in a hundred years and that they thought they went extinct; Aang brushes this off and holds the idea that not all airbenders could have gone extinct, some must have escaped and be around! (not telling us but showing us his optimistic and innocent personality, and remind us he is a kid) up until the gyatso reveal.
It just all goes back to a comparatively ineffective narrative device - in the OG show the emphasis is on Aang and his optimism. We’re led to believe (just as Aang believes) that maaaaybe some air nomads survived because of how secluded they were. The live action took all the wind out of the potential drama in that reveal, like it sucked the life out of a lot of the series.
i mean fair, but why make this change at all? The gyatso reveal is still miles less impactful in the live action than the animation. It feels like they made changes for the sake of making changes, instead of understanding why the source material so was so good in the first place
@@selvaa1592 yeah, these changes make no sense at all. To the first episode to the climax of the third, it's building the narratively tension that would lead up to the reveal and the emotions. In the original, GranGran it's just making a comment that Aang brushes off since it's kinda casual, but in the live action it's this dramatic speech that affects Aang so when the gyatso scene plays, it's not impactful for us (even more so when we already had two scenes about the airbender genocide).
@@CaulkMongler Man, can I just gush about avatar for a moment? In the first two episodes we do believe that some air nomads must have survived, because right up until that moment, we don’t really know what exactly happened to them, even when in the opening Katara doesn’t mention what became of them. But when we arrive at the temple, we become less and less hopeful, and with all the wandering thru desolate halls and all the talk and flashbacks of Gyatso, as a first time viewing you get the sense that this is all building up to something and not exactly something good. og Avatar was so good at storytelling, worldbuilding and character writing that they could do the three all at once. And the writers of the live action do shine sometimes (ex. how they write Iroh), but they were given the task of rewriting a series that, in my opinion, didn’t need it. I would have preferred if they did something in the avatar universe (the much wanted Iroh backstory series!) but oh well, this is what we got.
Unlike the fall of the Jedi where even though Order 66 had a 99% success rate and still leaves about 200 survivors (this applies to both Canon and Legends), the Fire Nations extermination of the Air Nomads was 100% successful, which is extremely dark.
Avatar is not unadaptable. The problem is that the original series was made with love. The adaptations were made for the money by people who don't understand the source material whatsoever.
@@ashleycraig8223 I imagine it's cuz Korra doesn't have the fanbase that ATLA does. So while it would still draw impressive numbers, it wouldn't be as impressive as Avatar. Also, let's be honest, while giving Korra another shot to be done better is a good idea, I imagine a live action Korra would also wind up worse than the original. They just don't care enough about story, only visuals.
Saw this quote somewhere about the original show and I think it's great: "The hero's journey begins with an act of selfishness and the villian's journey begins with an act of selflessness"
I hate the whole "it's made for kids, why are you getting so worked up over it" It's the cheapest "defense" of modern shows and really shouldn't be taken seriously. Kids aren't dumb. They're smart. They can understand good story and even darker, more mature ideas to a certain extent. A show being "for kids" shouldn't mean and excuse for bad writing.
The 👏 original 👏 was 👏 also 👏 for 👏 kids 👏 "It's a kid's show" is such a stupid argument because the source material is literal proof that a kids show can have good, mature writing, and can be a show for all ages. Most people who grew up on avatar actually appreciate it MORE as adults because they can now appreciate how well-made it is. Not to mention, the new show was marketed to fans of the original, it wants to be the more mature iteration of the show, and STARTS WITH A GENOCIDE SCENE!!! The new show is very, very, very clearly not trying to be "just for kids"
Honestly, I've always thought that a show being "for kids" means that you should take even MORE care of how it's written. Adults, we're pretty set up as people--I'm not gonna pretend that my life wasn't completely suplexed into the ground and put back in a different order between the ages of 28 and 31, but I still felt like the same person after... kids are still so PLASTIC, though! So MOLDABLE!! Writers have the chance to tell these people a story that will help change them into who they need to become--who the WORLD needs them to become--and the original ATLA was one of those stories for a lot of people. WAYYYY too many people underrate that task. We get worked up over stories made for kids that are told badly because it's crucial that they get the right messages at the right times!
The good portion of the reason kid’s shows exist is to teach kids. Whether that’s about emotion, response, reading, etc. Writing off genuinely good shows because they’re “for kids” is stupid because we can still learn from them too or enjoy them in a different way
If people didn't hate shows they weren't in the demographic for (and a part of a demographic the writers never intended to write for), it wouldn't be used as an argument that often
30:00 This whole thing with Zuko also almost winning the battle doesn’t work because Zuko was just a child, and he struggled to master firebending. I’m specifically thinking of where he speaks about how hard he had to work, where Azula was instantly talented. Also: “azula was born lucky. I was lucky to be born”
It also shows his character early on that he refused to fight back. He wasn't cruel and ruthless like Azula, but compassionate for the squadron Ozai was going to sacrifice! Zuko was nothing like his father, and he hated him for it. He was a child who was finally allowed to attend the war room and immediately threw out norms & etiquette to confront what he knew was wrong. He had incidentally disgraced Ozai publicly and so he made a cruel example out of his own son. Setting Ozai up as a cruel domineering and above all *terrifying* leader who would stop at nothing to subjugate and take over the world if it meant burning through his own family to do so. Which also inevitably ties Zuko to the gang, because they were on the same path to taking down Ozai.
@@LuisSierra42but the point is that Zuko would never have taken that opening at that time of his young life, in the original he immediately bowed and apologized and begged his father to reconsider because he refused to fight his own FATHER. THATS when Ozai burned him. In the Netflix version them fighting just makes no sense for Zukos character nor the entire point of the scene. But Netflix wanted a cool fight scene and thats exactly how the netlix took a story driven scene and turned into a meaningless spectacle
@@ariannebrodeur For what is worth, Zuko did look a bit older in the live action. I could excuse the difference if netflix zuko has a more developed sense of what his father expects from him
@@theaverageone4415 It also showed how, even after everything with his mother and grandfather, Zuko still loved his father enough that he refused to fight him. He trusted that his father wouldn't actually hurt him, and Ozai spat on that trust and scarred his son for life out of pride.
it's crazy how netflix markets this as a version for adults but then not trust their audience to understand what's going on unless it's directly said to them
@eatatjoe Yeah the original show was so well written, I've rewatched it countless times since I was a kid and it gets better the older I get and the more I understand.
What I always loved about Katara, as a biracial kid myself who grew up estranged from the Jamaican side of my family, was how Katara embodied the struggle of being a minority separated from your culture. She always drew pride from being a waterbender, a symbol of her community's resilience, but it was simultaneously a point of insecurity for her, as she didn't have the affinity for it that she wished she did, having no one to teach her. That all really resonates -- being a visible minority, but not truly having enough connection to your culture to feel "deserving" of membership. And none of it is resolved by having *some guy* tell you "Haha don't second-guess yourself you're so sexy."
Baby girl not to take away from you but Jamaican is a NATIONALITY not a race. You’re multi cultured. As am I being Afro Syrian Jamaican. Also I hated EVERYTHING to do with this Sokka and Suki.
@@aanyamallick7747 I think you misunderstood them here, they’re biracial and clearly the black side of their family is Jamaican. My ethnicity is Jamaican and Nigerian but my nationality is British and my race is black. Jamaica can be both a nationality and an ethnicity but not a race, which luckily nobody said it was.
The big question is wtf is going to happen with toph? She’s supposed to be a complete foil for katara. She’s supposed to be the one with a natural talent for bending and be far superior at it.
they have no idea, im sure. theyve dug themselves into a hole and i highly doubt theyre smart enough to dig themselves out of it. sad to say, because i loved their dynamic and development in the og, but im confident theyre going to fuck up toph and her relationship with katara. theyve shown over and over they dont fundamentally understand any of this.
She's gonna start off already metalbending and have zero familial issues and all the blind jokes (including the ones Toph makes at her own expense) will be removed because that's offensive and everyone back in '05 was a hateful bigot and ATLA is a good show _in spite_ of its creators rather than _because_ of them
@@Antigen__ you know whenever the 2nd season comes out, somebody is gonna call you a time traveller cause that's exactly what's gonna happen because of how S1 has progressed
The misogyny is pretty much ended after episode 4, when Sokka apologizes for not treating her like a warrior and Suki has the iconic line saying that she **is** a warrior but a girl too.
@@KrodaStaggwhat are you talking about? everyone in this current year is upset about the changes. the only ppl who think you can’t do it are these studio executives for some reason
@@KrodaStagg ...lol wut the comment wasn't about the differences between men and women? who was talking about that? Granted I'm not actually totally clear on the original poster's point--like yes Sokka's blatant mysogeny stops being a thing after Suki's iconic line, but that doesn't mean he stops growing as a person and leader. Sure it's not really realistic for one interaction with somebody to stop all mysogeny, but it's a story so we can grant it a degree of poetic liscense. Still, what does all that have to do with the differences between men and women? Indeed it's more about the similarities between men and women, she literally says that she can be a warrier in... in the same way that a man... can... ah shit this is bait isn't it! dagnabit see this is why i don't have twitter, i am totally that sjw snowflake who can't resist replying to some dumb comment that's obviously only said to draw people like me who like correcting people like moths to the flame Ah well--either way I kinda like the implication that Suki was just so badass and awesome that she was the catalyst for Sokka to stop being an entitled shithead to his sister/mom figure. I've never really given her much thought before, but thank you for making me ruminate on the awesomeness of Suki, random youtube comment
The scene of Zuko refusing to fight his dad is so powerful because it shows how heartless his dad is, it basically dehumanizes him. Zuko refusing to fight shows that despite everything, he’s still human.
What's even more infuriating to me is that the implication that Zuko could beat his dad as a kid is that it's not just implicating that Ozai isn't that big of a threat, even though that's also a problem. It uproots Zuko's entire character. "My dad said my sister was born lucky. He said I was lucky to be born." All of the scenes with him struggling and continuing to fight even though he's not as strong as everyone else, because that's who he IS. All meaningless now, in this show
It's not that he wasn't as strong as everyone else; he was just strong in different ways. He was an amazing sword fighter, and then there's obviously all the mental/emotional stuff.
Well, ok. Zuko was a very powerful bender even at the start of the show. He was probably better than 90-95% of fire benders. It's just he was surrounded by prodigies.
@@tommerker8063 Which demonstration are you talking about? The demonstration when he was like, eight? Of course it wasn't very good. He was eight. Or do you mean the first episode where we see Zuko training? Because in that demonstration of firebending, he takes down the two firebenders he was sparring with in a two vs one with ease. And then about an episode or two later, he wins an Agni Kai against Zhao, a master firebender who Jeong Jeong himself says is very powerful. Just face it. Zuko is a very talented firebender. He's not nearly as talented as his sister, but he's leagues above the average firebender.
The worst part of the Netflix adaptation is that it treats a presumably predominantly adult viewership as too stupid to understand “show don’t tell” when the original viewers were all kids and they understood the near-flawless writing just fine. This “writing by corporate committee” shit is never going to go away and it makes me so sad.
the only thing I have any hope for is henry cavil's warhammer 40k show since he's producing it. He probably felt so bad about the netflix witcher show, he had to make it up. Netflix ruins everything
@@moonasha netflix ruins everything, that's why I don't watch netflix originals. But the stuff they don't produce, only stream on their platform like Arcane is good.
The fact that the original show runners WERE working on Netflix with it but then left due to creative differences which we clearly see here in this adaptation is extremely sad and upsetting.
Not sad or upsetting at all. Paramount gave them a studio and funding to do as they please. A theatrical animated release is due next year and more Avatar shows to come (hopefully a firebender; the potential is wild).
@@nyanuwu4209 After Korra (and yeah i know Nickelodeon interfered a lot with the pre production and afterwards; they didn't trust enough the IP or the showrunners i guess) i'm not so sure about the creators having the sauce anymore. LOK was milquetoast. It lacked something. And it ruined the lore by mid second season. It also introduced mecha spirit kaiju laser fights and mecha robots laser shooting menaces. totally stupid. It not ruined the Avatar past lives connection, thus destroying the relevancy and connection to ATLA, it also ruined the spirit world by making it tame and "westernized". What the fuck is the new avatar is gonna do if it occurs post Korra? How's that avatar state work? There's only fucking Korra to drive for wisdom and jeez... i know i woulnd't want that. of all the avatars, korra? The one that managed to destroy 10,000 years of tradition? And talking about that. LOK big theme was a bout that and I have a personal issue with that: it became a show about dismantling the masterpiece that was the predecesor: Aang, Katara and Toph were a shitty parents, the Spirit World became a fantasy medieval LARP with vibrant colors with a new portal for tourism, Bending became so lame, and even special master aspects of bending like lighting and metalbending became ubiquitous, the bastardization of airbender nomad culture, the quasimedieval-preindustrial setting of the OG show (i don't want high tech in my Avatar show, no thanks!), the ruining of the new Avatar team by not having a clear storyline for Korra only for her to end with a girl because "we are progressive, right?" stunt. There's so many stupid shit in LOK that I just prefer to ignore it exists. I'm not holding my breath for the next Avatar show even if its made by dimartino and konietzko. They didn't get why ATLA was a masterpiece and that's the reason they failed wtih LOK from the get go.
@@Afreshioare we even sure ATLA was their work at this point? Because the 2nd season especially the avatar wan bs screams this wasn't our stuff so we are changing it
Honestly one of the most uncanny valley things from this show is how new all of the costumes are. Not only does everything look new, there’s not a fold or a crease in ANY clothing. When you’re building a world everything needs to feel lived in.
Not sure if this counts as a nitpick, but in Aang's first appearance, he's straight up flying, and it threw me a bit because I remember that being like, the secret highest airbending technique.
Every time they introduced Aang as the Avatar, it felt like he was being announced as the defending WWE champion. "The one who will bring balance. The hope for the world. The Avatar!" It's so cheesy.
My biggest gripe was that Aang was never really childish and fun in the live action. His lines are written so monotone, nothing like how original portrayed Aang. Aang being carefree about everything in the original made it 100x more impactful whenever we returned to the true seriousness of what was going on.
i love how accurately you pointed out each flaw that bothered me. avatar is such a nostalgic show for me, and such a big part of mine, and my brother’s childhood. i’m almost as passionate about it as some millenials are about harry potter.
The fact that this is the second time they've rebooted ATLA and done so in such a lackluster way speaks to the lack of respect hollywood has for the source material
my theory is that anyone who might actually be good at writing/directing an adaptation of avatar has too much respect for the material to actually do it. i recently saw a quote from denis villenueve and hans zimmer, director and composer of dune respectively, about their own fear about adapting the original book (of which both are massive fans). they were afraid of tackling their childhood dreams, concerned nostalgia would get in the way, and didn’t want to undermine the legacy. i haven’t seen this kind of concern/respect with any of the avatar adaptations we’ve seen.
@fillyreports, Except the remake fails to be good, because the OG writers left. It's like people keep forgetting *why* this Netflix series fell short, outside of, "Of course it would suck no matter what you do", even though it could have been good.
@@kezia8027 The original series was not perfection or near perfect. Too many flaws and questionable actions. It’s not one of the best television series ever. Maybe one of the best animated series, but that’s it. I can name hundreds of better shows. Several hundreds.
A line from Aang that fills me with so much emotions is "Take a look Appa, you and me, we're all that's left of this place" it never fails to teary my eyes. So much is conveyed from such a simple statement. His grief but also his optimism. And the bond between him and Appa that would give more weight to the arcs when they're separated. Netflix's dialogue as exposition is a disease. It rids every character of their soul.
ima be one of those commentors but how do u get 588 likes but no comments? like are there bots just liking peoples comments for no reason? theres a comment that has 5k likes yet only has 22 replies like it doesnt make sense!
@@ItsYaBoyAdmin-df5sd I'm gonna come off of my usual lurking here to reply, but I imagine there's a lot of people out there (like me) who see stuff and press "like", but don't comment. Or maybe there are bots idk lol
The crux of it all is that they don't respect their audience. The cartoon shows the skeleton and we think "oh yeah, they're all gone," whereas the show belabors the point and rips the perspective away from any characters we actually follow to show gratuitous violence. It's a lot of key jingling with shapes and colors.
The fundamental problem with live action is that it has too much time to play with. Animated shows have 22 minutes per episode. Yes, they had more episodes in the original, but *each* episode was expected to be a story with a beginning, middle, and end, except for a handful of two-parters (and even then, The Winter Solstice was very much two separate episodes, not one episode in two parts). When you have that many distinct stories to tell, the amount of time left for the overarching plot is greatly diminished. And that's what made the original so brilliant: They did not have the time to screw around and jingle keys at the audience, and the writers knew it and considered it when they were planning each episode. For a concrete example, consider the metalbending scene in The Guru. It accomplishes a lot of different objectives in a very short amount of time: * It progresses the A plot by unlocking Aang's next chakra. * It progresses the B plot by freeing Toph. * It progresses Toph's character arc, because she has no further interaction with her parents (direct or indirect) after this scene (at least within the show, anyway). This is the moment she permanently breaks free of their control. * It introduces metalbending, and justifies its existence. * It reminds us of a theme that originated in Bitter Work, about the four nations all ultimately being the same people. * It is beautifully animated and written. * The villains are doing a manzai routine, and it is funny ("There's a giant hole in the box! How is that a trick?"). You would never try to do all of those things in a single scene in live action, because you know that you have enough time to do some of the above as separate scenes instead. Animated shows, in general, are forced to resort to writing like this, and they tend to be better for it as a result.
It's the equivalent of being given an assignment that is practically just "copy the Wikipedia article" and not only do they not do that, but the four sentences they did copy are just pasted like 14 times in different ways with synonyms
Nah, I agree with Drew. This has studio exec meddling written all over it. "The audience won't get what the Avatar is. Let them repeat he's the master of all elements so they don't get lost and keep watching the show. We need to sell more subscriptions afterall."
*The showrunners were sleeping behind the wheel* when cameras were rolling, but in the EDITING room, they realized repeated dialogue would test better with markets in the 75+ age range or people on their phones, just like how a day-one romance with Suki is going to just CINCH that 14-45 year old male demographic target.
As soon as I learned Zuko fought back against Ozai in the Agni Kai I KNEW they didn’t understand avatar or any of its characters, and that was all I needed to hear
Exactly it establishes that he cannot fight against his father or stand up to him, and he craves Ozai's love. It's one of the main hurdles he has to overcome. Why tf would they take that out.
@@esverker7018 It’s also the reason why he’s banished in the first place. Banishment was the punishment for refusing to fight, the fight ritual and burning was the punishment for speaking out.
It’s so weird how the executives wouldn’t give the actual creator, creative rights as if they didn’t create the most popular cartoon of it’s time and instead just dismissed him thinking that they knew best.
I like how the creators said it was suppose to be a more mature version of the ATLA but then they proceed to take away the mature story telling of the animated show lol
The fact that they imply Zuko could've defeated his father is nutty, because a major part of his character is that he's *not that good.* Azula is the prodigy, not Zuko, and this is plainly shown in a flashback where he tries to show off in front of Ozai and beefs it. He's a consistent disappointment to his father well before he's banished. He has to work hard to prove his worth and that's his entire initial motivation.
And one of the facets of Zuko’s character is that, compared to everyone outside of his family, he IS a great fire bender, but his whole life has been spent in an abusive household where he was shamed for any single slip up compared to his savant sister. That psychological (and physical) abuse got in his head and made him a worse firebender because of it, and it’s only with Iroh’s gentle tutelage and Zuko’s own healing that he becomes the great bender he’s meant to be. His story’s all about how Ozai is a monster in every way imaginable and that anger and passion is not the only way to win something-there has to be a gentle balance between strict and gentle actions to get to the right place. They’re always talking about balance and harmony as a theme, and Zuko’s life is spent in disharmonious circumstances to emphasize why it’s so important, why character flaws are the way they are and what separates having them from just being a truly bad person. It’s so fucked how they mess up his character arc like this when he has one of the most satisfying redemptions ever 😭
"He wasn't a 12 year old kid running away from the responsibility of saving the world, he was just getting some fresh air. In the middle of a lightning storm." Dude I swear, it shouldnt be this hard to make things make sense.
one of my biggest issues with the live action that i haven't seen too many people talk about is zuko's scar. in the cartoon it's big and this dull color that visibly pulls the skin back. his eyebrow and lashes are gone and while it doesn't seem to have affected his eyesight much his left eye is visibly smaller. while in the live action it kinda just looks like someone tried a bold smokey eye and it backfired.
Honestly, I too am surprised at that. For me, I understand it's a bit of nit pick from a visual perspective but I still think it should've been more ghastly looking. He is scarred badly and takes over most of his face but the live action version just looks like some old bruise that will eventually go away. Strange thing considering they could easily make it look like a more harsh scar.
His ear is burned up too and he can’t even grow hair on that area, it’s supposed to be prominent. In the live action it just looks like a bruise or a black eye and some scenes you can’t even see it properly.
Not only is it big and bold and disfiguring, but it /hurts./ While not stated in the show itself, the writers confirmed that the scar is a constant source of pain. If Katara had healed the scar, they didn't intend for it to go away, just for it to stop hurting. It's a lasting reminder of the hurt and pain he suffered, and it should /show./ Not look like overdone makeup.
Something kind of small that Netflix also did was reveal what Ozai looked like way too early on. In the animated version, his face wasn't even shown until way later, like the third season I'm sure. He was a looming unknown figure that created way more of a payoff once we finally saw him, but I guess Netflix doesn't know how to build suspense, and probably wanted to create more hype with the casting
I think it's because with the live action, we know who gets cast, so putting together what ozai would look like is much easier. But I can see your point for those who haven't watched the original and weren't keeping tabs on production like some of us 😅
Hate to say it, but I'm 99% positive it's because the showrunners weren't sure if they'd be given a second season, so they were like, "LOOK LOOK WE HAVE AN AWESOME OZAI LOOK HE'S PLAYED BY DANIEL DAE KIM LOOK ISN'T THAT FANTASTIC LOOK PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LOOOOK!!" Panic causes foolish decisions and Netflix has made it quite obvious that they'll pull the plug if the first season doesn't give them the numbers they want. Makes me sad - if that had always been the way, we'd never have gotten 3/4 of our most iconic shows past their pilot episode... 😢
@sugarbaby1974 I don't disagree with that. Personally, it was hard for me to conceptualize this not getting renewed because thanks to the lockdown in the US during the beginning of the pandemic, Avatar was given another life. So, with that re-energizing (which I suspect is the whole reason they're doing this live action adaptation in the first place), that ALOT of eyes were going to be on this.
He was by s3 I just finished rewatching the show with my mom firm s1 to s2 you hear of him see his effects on zuko and how the fire nations has hurt the other nations ozia showing up now takes away all the expense of aang amin antagonist he must kill. I saw they are trying to show how ozai “puppeteers” his son and daughter against each other. Like Dan Kim is a perfect ozai but nope him being shown too early in s1 takes out the suspense and aang didn’t learn any water in s1 like what
They revealed Ozin immediately and I mistook him for Ozai for a minute and was outraged, then I thought, oh well as long as they do the thing with Ozai, and then there was genocide, and then we got to see Ozai's face immediately. I was like, wow. I gave you a chance and you betrayed me so many times, NATLA.
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From the second Aang said "I like to play airball, eat banana cakes & goof off with my friends" I knew we're going to be in for a bucket load of "tell, don't show".
Legitimately INSANE this line is in the show.
That line is like the silly quirky version of the line that one edgy guy from riverdale says thats like “In case you haven't noticed, I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in, and I don't... wanna fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on?”
he’s not like other avatars 🥴
You can't just have your characters say how they feel. THAT MAKES ME FEEL ANGRY.
@@zacharyrichardson8435Ah, a man of culture.
something that bothered me immensely is how live actions are always marketed as a more mature version of the animation…but then treats the audience like children by spoonfeeding all the information like we can’t comprehend it without being beaten over the head with the meaning of everything every two seconds
exactly, like if i could comprehend the complexities of the show when i was 7 years old, doing so again at my big age nOW REALLY SHOULDNT BE AN ISSUE LIKE I PROMISE I CAN HANDLE IT
The cartoon was so much more mature than any remake could ever be. This is why the DCEU is unnecessary and we would be better off if it didn't exist
I think the reason for this is that the old money who has way too much say on how shows are made didn’t grow up seeing this sort is story. It’s new and strange and incomprehensible to them and they DO need it spoon fed to them.
Plus, live action isn't more mature than animation. Animation is an artwork, and all of these live action adaptations, from Disney to Netflix, are missing the beauty of that artwork.
This is why I like children's media way more ;-;
its interesting how netflix seems to think of animation as mindless and for kids and then goes out of their way to make a mindless version of it... but for _adults_
did you watch it yourself?
Especially after Blue Eye Samurai, which is an outstanding animation, def not mindless and not aimed at kids, that has been a major success
@@eden22.7the live action didn’t do a good job with making the characters great & did Katara dirty such as making her seem calm than her usual self. They didn’t understand the tones and messages on what makes it amazing
It's also baffling that this show "for adults" based on an existing IP felt it so necessary to front load all of its exposition, when the original brand new show meant for kids respected its audience enough to drip feed the relevant information.
The Netflix How to Train Your Dragon series were some of the best content on the platform.
Also Netflix has been paying for the rights to popular anime. So clearly they understand good animated content has an audience. I think there must be different execs at the company not communicating with one another because it feels so disjointed.
Taking out Sokka’s sexism basically sends the message, “Changing your mind on anything means you were wrong at some point, so don’t ever do that.” And I think that just says so much about Hollywood’s current mentality.
They don't believe in redemption, in growth, in the basic hero's journey.
The whole point of this slop is to be a “2nd screen” experience, dumbed way down for an audience scrolling on their phones at the same time. Awful age for art.
I literally stop watching the show after what they did to sokka in that episode, i was like broo sexism is a bad thing but the animation shows that sokka sexism is wrong in the end, and other than i stop because that it's just sooo much talking not much action
It also is just emotionally not compelling. The whole tension between sukki and sokka rooted in his sexism and his ultimate admiration for her is what made their dynamic interesting.
His whole character was centered around being the only male protector of his tribe, and how that has influenced his world view, and how new experiences cause him to grow and evolve past that to a more mature conception of leadership. You cant take that away unless you replace i with something equally alluring.
It's becoming genuinely a little concerning how many media properties suggest that strong women can't exhibit an ounce of empathy, insecurity, or inadequacy. Their only flaw is that the other characters don't realize how awesome they are yet.
The trait that annoys me the most is when she's so mean or snarky to others for no reason other than to desperately try to convince the viewer that she's "badass" or "tough". It's never portrayed as a flaw that she eventually learns and grows from, that's just how she is and she stays that way throughout the whole thing. It's exhausting to listen to.
They take a patriarchal understanding of strength and how women being “strong” in any regard means projecting “masculine” qualities onto a woman
we need to be talking about this WAY more. Strong characters navigate emotions, they don’t abandon or ignore them.
It’s like they think “fixing” sexism is giving women toxic masculinity, instead of showing the flaws in that mindset
Its not that we should respect women because they’re just like the stereotypical man(emotionally detached), we should respect women because they are people
the original zuko was also shown to not be the most naturally gifted firebender. he blunders when he tries to demonstrate his skills and azula one ups him. so the original “agni kai” is ozai brutally attacking and disfiguring his own child who is literally defenseless, outskilled, and refusing to fight
right? like that scene was to show how ruthless and monster-like ozai was, not only would he steal candy from a baby he'd yeet a stroller into a lake too for fun if it meant showing off his power lmao
It is so important to Zuko's character that he is not naturally a talented firebender because it adds to his frustration with himself not being able to please Ozai. Zuko has to work extremely hard to become a good firebender with Iroh showing him how the other elements can be implemented in his firebending as well. Having him be strong enough to defeat Ozai during the Agni Kai detracts from Ozai's menace and Zuko's journey. Zuko did not want to fight his father because he loved him, and to Ozai, love and compassion are weaknesses. To have Zuko fight back diminishes his love and respect towards towards his father, that he later learns is undeserved. Having Zuko starting off that strong also will change the dynamics between him and Azula as Azula was "born lucky" and Zuko was "lucky to be born." Azula is a prodigy and Zuko is a late bloomer which causes tension that is spurred on by Ozai. Azula uses her natural power and Ozai's favor to torture Zuko who is weaker and more passive. Zuko has to learn that might does not make right and this series is not setting him up for that journey.
exactly! which is what establishes ozai to be ruthless and cruel, and zuko to being his opposite
@somebody3558 Not to mention that it completely negates his and Aang's journey to learn about firebending. Zuko's firebending comes from the rage and pain of being a failure in his father's eyes. When he makes the decision to break from his father, he loses his ability to firebend. Having him be powerful enough to defeat Ozai, but not doing so out of love or compassion, completely destroys the whole plot line of him and Aang discovering the Sun Warriors civilization. Although I suppose that plot line was already destroyed when they made Aang less childlike and more serious. Aang doesn't take firebending seriously, hurts Katara, and then refuses to firebend again out of fear. Aang, like Zuko, cannot see how firebending can be anything more than pain and destruction.
@@cheyenne6913 Jeong Jeong adds to this by that also being his view, which he does a damn good job of imparting onto his temporary pupil. Roku would not approve. If he appeared afterward, that is.
Where is Katara's rage, her compassion, her nurturing, her emotions??? They stripped her of any depth and emotion.
right
I really hope they don't do the same to Azula. One of my antagonists in TV history.
@@Paratetthis is a comment of all time
They got rid of it for another “girl power” protagonist. Nothing wrong with girl power, but main characters should be flawed, individuals, and grow. Here they just…removed all that and said “she strong” and that’s it
I guess they didn’t wanna be seen as sexist so they just took away anything seen as feminine on womanly because….. women shouldn’t be feminine…? And they replaced her with absolutely nothing. Even Toph enjoyed some feminine things like wearing dresses and doing makeup. She liked her spa day with Katara. And Toph was putting on a front with her whole “idc about what people think about me, I’m blind so idc about appearances.” Katara seeing right through it said “I know you don’t care but you are really pretty” and Toph was really happy with that. It just sucks that writers think a female character having feminine traits is inherently sexist and bad. THAT in itself is sexist
A note I got from Overanalyzing Avatar’s videos; when Aang finds Gyatso’s skeleton and glows up-he actually leaves Gyatso’s skeleton untouched in his rage fit.
As he lifts off the ground in the air bubble, you can see everything else is gone, except Gyatso’s skeleton. Really fuckin haunting.
The Gran Gran exposition dump was actually hilarious because she really looked at that baby twelve year old and said "yeah all your people are dead and you failed them, haha loser". Its up there with seeing momos limp body for funniest moments
Honorable mention to, "no, I'm gonna kill the moon" that killed me
@wendella.4074 did I say I thought it was bad? I said I thought it was hilarious.
@@wendella.4074 this was the most brain dead thing i’ve ever read. please tell me it was satire-
And she says it in the most absolutely deadpan unemotional way
@@wendella.4074 obvious bait
@@wendella.4074 When did the world forget how to take a joke? Lmao at the people calling it 'bait' cuz they're dumb enough to get angry at it
When execs hear “strong female character,” their only interpretation is “you mean strong like punching, right?”
"She has no flaws and has really good one-liners!... why is no one clapping? Do you hate women?"
Love when they just make all of the male, especially white male characters stupid and pathetic so the girl can show em who’s boss…
So true! It's baffling! Strength can come in many different forms, not just by being physical!
Queens and princesses pulled strings and influenced things in setting were women didn't have rights, after all
Yes! This kills me because the strongest women I know are people who are actually pretty reserved and quiet. When I think strong women, I think women who have been through hell and back (not just SA, since there's so many instances of unnecessary SA violence against women in media) and chose to not let it break them, who can still be kind, still be intelligent, and still stand up for themselves despite their past pain. Physical strength is great and that's awesome that there are characters for those women to feel represented through. However, I feel like more thoughtful or quiet women tend to be depicted as the meek, frail icons of femininity who need to be rescued, and it would be so refreshing to see more female leads who have mental strength or resilience instead. Strong doesn't equal violent, in my opinion.
as a makeup artist i was so pissed about Zuko's scar, its so small and insignificant in comparison to the animated show. He was brutally burned by his father and in the live action he's still got an eyebrow? its like bad eyeshadow.
Right? Its more of a mild bruise than a significant burn scar
bro got a zero degree burn with that lipstick smudge💀
Yeah they didn't even make the bruise big enough!! His scar goes across his whole face! Like you seriously couldn't make the eyeshadow a little darker???
Not only should it have burned his eyebrow, his eyesight literally got more limited by the burn. It wasn't just physical changes for him but his vision got impaired.
Tty😅k😅99 9:07 o😅x u😊@@ninirozhy
Incredibly telling that they tried to do a more "mature" and "adult" version, and they did that by slapping more fight scenes and violence on it while actually removing a lot of the emotional depth.
wait so the "appealing to game of thrones audience" was actually pretty accurate damn
@@vinogr00nko93 say what you will about game of thrones but it was able to pull off engaging storytelling, at least in its first couple of seasons. they at least didnt have this issue where every scene was just characters standing about blandly delivering exposition intercut w pointless fight scenes... again, not in the earlier seasons at least.
@vlad5042 of course that's true, Game of Thrones started out as an amazing show, but the reality it, as it's audience grew more and more, the show became worse and worse, almost like it had to lower it's level to fit the new, gigantic audience
the last 4-ish seasons lack the depth of the previous ones, instead they fill out time with pointless, constant actions scenes and cheesy dialogue which is ironic considering that the show was at its peak when it lacked the budget to do even a fraction of those action scenes
@@vinogr00nko93 I mean, that's really because they ran out of book material. The first 4 seasons were pretty close adaptations to the books. That's why they were so good. The last 4 seasons were the directors having to wing it, and they clearly weren't able to write a coherent story at that level without material to base it on
We never wanted Sokka to be sexist. We wanted Suki to teach him to be better and we were robbed of that
Instead she taught him that ladies are easy and he doesn't even have to try. Oops, looks like they did the lesson in reverse!
Yes! Also Sokka gets told and mocked every. Sexist. Quip. He throws. Every. Single. Time. He was obviously always shown as being in the wrong!
Now in this show its become a part of the story itself lmao
Suki is mothering Sokka because she finds him hot
Growing up isolated as a kid sokka legitimately taught me that girls are equals and are capable. I always loved that part of the show because of how much impact it had on my own life and the straight up ruined it.
and somehow made the scene more sexist, by making Suki into only love interest first and a character second.
Not to mention he wasn't even that sexist? He had some shitty views on women due to the fact that none of the women in his life challenged that viewpoint. Then all it took was three interactions with Suki for him to go "oh I guess I was wrong". He's a three dimensional character. He's arrogant and stubborn but he will admit it when he's wrong.
The fact that they felt the need to simplify the plot/exposition of a CHILDREN'S SHOW. Like they literally assume their audience has a shorter attention-span than a 7 year old
Tiktok brainrot has taken us all. Don't question the netflix overlords. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
It's very insulting that they didn't learn from shamalans movie. Ugh and please don't bring up Gran Gran in the remake...
@@davp4435I mean... 'There is no war in Ba Sing Se'...
To be fair my 7 year old self didn't pick up on any of this. It took me multiple episodes to realise toph was blind back then.
@@jamesmccomb9525probably because you watched it out of order when it was airing? Because the first episode she’s in they literally say she’s blind like 100 times.
A small thing, but the idea that Zuko could beat his father is more insane when you remember that he is a lack luster fire bender. Everyone in his family were better benders then him, his strength was sword fighting.
He's a very good fire bender, but yeah, his family members are better and it makes him seem worse than he is in comparison
@@jamiehendrix2568
exactly, people underrate the hell out of Zuko when comparing him to the rest of the family, like he defeated Zhao in an Agni Kai in like the third episode and he gets better from there especially later when he learns from the dragons.
He's still a great firebender it's just his family is that much better but that's also like being the 6th fastest person in the world
He developed into a great fire bender and was probably close to average when a young child. He was being compared to prodigies and beaten down by his father for his imperfections. No child will flourish under those conditions.
People who didn’t watch avatar close enough. Comment on it all the time and I cannot stand it
Zuko wasn’t as good as azula but his tenacity put him at her level whenever they would fight
The Netflix version is made for your parents who constantly ask you questions while you’re watching that the show is going to answer later but your parents are too impatient to wait so they just want you to explain it now.
weakening katara's character also weakens her connection to her culture. Water bending is about her connection to her people which is part of the reason she's so upset she can't do it right away
It also makes Pakku’s refusal all the more asinine. An aspect of that which I think is too often overlooked and could have been said more overtly.
And it's so important to her because she is the _last_ southern water tribe bender. (Excluding Hama, who we meet later). For most of her life, Katara believes she is the last person who can keep this part of her culture alive, and she's right.
There's a lot to be said (by someone better connected to their indigenous roots than me) with how indigenous women have been stripped of their importance in their culture in the face of outside threats to traditional ways of life. Reaching out for elder wisdom only to find trauma and unhealed wounds from decades past is such a common experience from what I've seen. To this day, the biggest fans I meet of the show are Native.
@@lukaj679 Native and indigenous to where? Like the Southern Water Tribe are based on indigenous Eskimo/Innuit culture, the Earth Kingdom are mostly based on indigenous Chinese culture etc. It's very vague to refer to "indigenous people" and "natives" without being specific as to what place you're talking about.
@@saint4life09 I was referring to Katara and her culture, but irl my interactions have been from people from my continent, specifically Ojibwe, Díne, and Potawatomi
Katara being called a “Master” after obtaining 1 water bending scroll and having no training with an actual Master is as Disney/Marvel as you can get.
anakin is very offended
Disney/Marvel magic systems are basically a mixture between "if you're not born with it then fuck you" and pay to win 😂
The fact that pisses me off even more, is that in the first episode there flying away from Zuko, Zuko blasts a fireball at them and Katara just has water and gets rid of it.
Where does she get the water?! I don’t see a pouch with her! She couldn’t possibly have bended it from the ocean while being hundreds of ft in the air. The only way she could have gotten that water is if she got it from the freaking air.
What!?
@@emaster9663that bothered me too! But that’s what the video is saying. Like, she was just that naturally talented. In the cartoon, it’s a slow build of her becoming great. In the show, she already was.
Thank you! I've been saying that if that's the precedent, then Aang just needs an earthbending scroll, and a firebending scroll, make a 20 minute montage of him practicing and make the finale s2e2. Like clearly you DON'T need a master in NATLA, that's canon in that version now. So keep Toph and Zukos arc sacred and end this ASAP.
zuko refusing to fight his father and instead getting on his knees and begging also shows just how afraid zuko is of his father!! which is the baseline for his entire character and gives us an inside perspective on how evil ozai really is, the fact that he was willing to fight a child who was on his knees, in tears, begging for mercy jfc
You also missed the point of zuko
Not even mentioning how well this illustrates how Zuko is a good person deep down. He wants to save as may fire nation lives as possible which is why he speaks up in the meeting in the first place. Then he refuses to fight someone he calls family. His father tried to kill that piece of Zuko by burning him.
But the netflix version makes zuko care about "the throne that is rightfully his" instead of wanting to earn his families love and acceptance back. And fights his father in the agni kai... after waiting a little bit lol killing his character faster than you can say "Compassion is a sign of weakness"
@@halodeer everything they’ve done to humanize Ozai feels off. Ozai is a sociopath. any attempt to make us relate to him just tastes sour to me. same with Azula. the story doesn’t work if they’re not cold, unfeeling monsters. i appreciate them trying to give us a way to relate to them beyond that, but ATLA did the job in The Beach. that’s the closest we ever got to intimately learning about Zuko’s family, and it worked perfectly.
if Ozai and Azula truly care about Zuko more than their thrones, the whole story falls apart. maybe they’ll make this new characterization make sense, but i’m doubtful.
@@hurricanejaney Totally agree. ATLA is an allegory for WW2 (Ozai being H*tler) so we don't need to get to know Ozai to know hes evil and the gaang needs to defeat him. His personality/backstory doesn't add anything to the story and characters so it makes sense they don't develop his character at all.
Off topic but I liked that they made the evil guy have zero personality in the og show. Its more powerful for kids to grow up believing they can defeat the evil in the world no matter how untouchable and unrelatable they seem (even if the evil is their own parent, if you're looking at it from Zuko's perspective).
@@halodeer straight up. if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. there’s no need to change anything; the original series is perfect. just translate it to live-action, episode by episode, and they’d have that Game of Thrones-type audience foaming at the mouth. if they can’t do that, then they ought to leave well enough alone. i don’t want to gatekeep but the idea of anyone watching the live-action series without seeing the original makes me cringe
Ever since Drew’s most recent video where he says that Netflix is literally designing shows to be watched while you are on your phone, going back to watch this and also his Star Wars video, I have realized just how much Drew points out that these shows are simple and hold your hand, and my mind is blown how common that practice is now
They really removed the flaws of Sokka but make his dad hate him for no reason, in the animated he didn't hate him and Sokka was a TEENAGE boy with TENAGE FLAWS
FR WHY DOES EVERY CHARACTER NEED TO HAVE ZUKO'S DADDY ISSUES NOW 😭
Bruhhh! It was a pivotal thing in the beginning of Book 3 to contrast Ozai with Hakoda, and show how better at fathering Hakoda is. And that's because he loves his children unconditionally while Ozai only tolerates and accepts Zuko back because he thinks he did something "heroic" (killing the Avatar).
In the original, Sokka always had this mindset of wanting to make his dad proud, and wanting his dad to see him as a grown man. And every single time Hakoda is on-screen with Sokka, he reiterates on how much he loves and is proud of his son.
"There's no Netflix adaptation in Ba Sing Se" 🙂
What, for real? That's so stupid, Sokka and Katara's dad is like the one good father in the show lol
@@DiogoChris THISSSSSSS OMLLLL Hakoda is a direct opposite to Ozai (and i would argue so is Iroh, but thats a seperate essay). He's supposed to remind us that, As a man of Power and Influence, he still has responsibility to take care of his kids and he loves them and cares for them with such grace. Sokka and Katara are great comparisons to Zuko and Azula, in a lot of ways i wont go into directly but they are the products of how their parents treated them. Katara and Sokka are always striving to be better, to do better, not (just) because they feel like they have to (i say just because of the whole war thing going on), but because they want to be better people for their family, to help, to provide, to care for, to nurture. Azula and Zuko feel required to prove themselves, literally and figuratively, because otherwise they don't deserve a place amongst family. The constant pressure to perform for the bare minimum. Zuko is only able to get out of that mindset because he has Iroh who shows him that love isn't earned but is unconditional.
i say all this to say that we lose such a cascade of characterization from both sides, good and bad, by that one detail change. People say Zuko wasn't done so bad but his characterization depends so much on all the characters around him that even through this he looses so much more than people think he does. All the characters lose, we lose, because netflix decided to make a dumb edgy version of Atla
@@Crysta11ize I don't know what they are talking about. In the Netflix show, his dad literally protected him from the truth that he failed his boating trial. He's a great dad in the Netflix show. It's literally not "for no reason"
Turning Suki from the badass character she was into a horned up girl that trains sokka because she’s just that horny. And his personality doesn’t grow on her because he’s funny and caring but because he’s just that hot
What’s annoying is that she thanks HIM for ‘showing her the world’. But in the animation, SUKI is the one who shows Sokka the wider world of women actually fighting and protecting their people. It’s so crazy that they reduced Suki to being a thirsty warrior
@@IsraelLlerena it just seems that they got all the script but never uynderstood anything about what this is about and just scrapped it
The funniest part about that is they were like "we're going to make sokka not sexist, so that we can create sexist interpretations of other characters"
@@samuelgehm5149Yeah, I was about to comment on that
Damn you nailed it so well lmao
As someone who worked in TV development and left because it is run by soul sucking ghouls, I can almost assure you the reason the exposition is so repetitive and ineloquent and the characters are lacking flaws and are flat, is because some dumb executives didn’t understand what they were reading when they got the first draft scripts because they didn’t do their homework by watching the original series and won’t let the creatives cook. In notes sessions, they probably asked a bunch of questions (questions that get answered in time) and wanted to sound smart and like they had good notes so they told the writers to answer them sooner. I’d say you’d be shocked at the lack of media literacy in those rooms, but studios and networks keep churning out shows and movies that are like this, so you already know. The writers strike showed us the state of the industry and how little higher ups value the work of creatives.
bruh we gotta band together to fight off the higher ups!! who's with me
The fact that the original creators left the Netflix adaptation is TELLING!
Thank you so much for saying this. There’s some myth, endlessly circulated online, that media, particularly modern media, is always the result of a single “hack writer” who doesn’t understand basic storytelling. And, you know, NOT because of a bunch of executives homogenising the work, and creating ridiculously unrealistic standards that writers have to aim for. Who, at the end of the day, don’t even care about art or media. I really hope everyone sees your comment, and maybe the myth can be debunked a little.
I left movies too, I landed in indie comics. It has proved to be a great creative outlet for anyone who wants to create a story that isn’t instantly destroyed by executives who are just eager to get back to their beachfront property.
but is it better than drew's content?@waterraideryfga8195
16:05
I also like how Sokka doesn't sulk or remain bitter the rest of the episode, he pretty much immediately goes back and says "I was out of pocket. You're clearly better, *please* teach me." I think that's actually a big part of Sokka's development, being able to put aside his pride and admit his shortcomings is how he winds up as the strategic mind of the team.
ozai's looming, fearful presence was also aided by the fact that you didn't even SEE HIS FACE UNTIL LATER SEASONS! he is so fearsome and terrifying that he doesn't even need to be SEEN, just his presence FELT. the fact that they changed it to reveal his face after barely any episodes and you are instead just told he's scary is just wacky
Exactly!
real
I remember talking about the show to my friends and I was like they waited until two episodes to show Ozai's face.
An incredible amount of restraint. lol
The first scene is sozin not ozai but i agree they should’ve kept him hidden like the animated version does
@@Chiropractorwhore LOL my bad that’s what i meant haha thanks for the correction
Aangs childlike nature also made his relationship with katara that much better. As she was already very mature for her age. Aang taught her to have fun and katara taught him to be more serious. It’s a shame they took that away from them
They decided to fire all the writers and probably used AI.
@@toidIllorTAmIactually the head "writer" for the netflix adaptation is a sports journalist. (I m not even kidding, check him, albert kim)
This is just a sad case of nepotism. Incompetents are put in charge and shyte hits the fan ... Classic.
And it doesn t need a long scene.
In the original there is a short scene with aang and katara sledging on penguins.
Katara " ahaha, i haven t done this since i was a kid"
Aang "but you are a kid?!"
Takes 10 sec to establish she had to mature quickly because of war and doesn t see herself as a kid. Boom, job done.
Instead the netflix gives us 2 min of grangran redoing the intro exposition... What a waste of time.
I've been watching through the original show for the first time, and i just finished s1,
i feel like it's episode 1 they're ridinh penguins and Katara yells "I haven't done this since i was a kid!" and Aang replies "You are a kid!"
and they just gloss over it, but it works so well to establish who she is as a character.
this
they took SO MUCH from all of the characters in this show. it really feels like they shaved this awesome show down to just 1 dimensional characters and dialogue. i really wanted to like the show but it is just so bad. I've seen people argue that it is a good show if you never watched the original but it just simply isn't. the characters aren't just awful because they are a watered down version of the originals, they are also awful because they had no depth at all.
All of this comes from the fact that major studios like Netflix see animation as a lesser art form, they just view animations as mindless children’s entertainment rather than it’s own medium to tell stories. We don’t need live action remakes as the original animation is the actual way the series was meant to be consumed in.
I guess you could say the same of books too
same with Disney. no one ever asked for a Live action Lion King or Aladdin; those films work so fine, because they are animated. The live action versions take away from the personality of the films and characters
i dont think thats 100% true considering they are putting more love into creating anime and you also have arcane that had alot of adult parts. i think its more the directors of the show and maybe some overreach but just look at the fact that the original creators of last airbender where working with them but left part way through so sounds like the people involved just didint care not so much the studio
@@gordatadosat least with a book it takes a literary medium into a visual medium - there is more change which makes book adaptations more justified.
I feel like they could easily just make another avatar universe series and keep it animated either going forward again (the next after Korra in a world with 2000-esque tech) or tell the stories of well known avatars like Kyoshi or Yangchen (both could be a more mature series since Kyoshi was known to be ruthlessly practical and yangchen is a story of a powerful monk having to grapple with the dilemma of selfishly choosing her own pacifism or using violence to make the world more peaceful).
They wouldn’t have to compare to the original show as closely and they’d obviously still get some backlash (legend of korra got a lot of hate even though it was objectively pretty good). There are also tonnes of plot lines they could explore in the world of avatar since they have only just touched how bending could integrate into technology, the inequality issues of having only some benders etc.
6:55 THAT'S EXACTLY IT I wasn't able to place why some lines itch just the wrong way but that makes so much sense, it really does sound like he's about to burst into song
that scene weirdly reminded me of kazoo kid. when he just lists things about himself.
"i like to have fun fun fun fun fun funnnn! xd" says aang
The part where Zuko almost beats Ozai is also a plot hole when you consider that in the original series, Zuko was never a good fire bender as a child. All of his power came from rage due to his banishment. He literally had to learn the proper way to firebend in Book 3 alongside Aang.
And they are absolutely going to use that plot-thread in book 3 because they will have totally forgotten that they wrote Zuko to be a strong bender from day one 🙄
The entire point of him wanting the avatar was because he was untalented at violent pursuits
@@AYVYNnot even close
@@DavidJmason5552 How? It’s an ultra-militaristic regime and he wanted to prove he wasn’t a pansy. He constantly got assigned the lowest quality soldiers and supplies.
And it was super important for his relationship with Azula and his sense of identity. He had to work for everything, he was "lucky" to be born, while Azula was the prodigy from an early age. Zuko wasn't very powerful at the start, and it helped make Zhao into a more intimidating villain once Katara, another prodigy, was able to beat Zuko despite having way less training. Making Zuko strong from the start takes away his struggles and how much he had to work for everything from earning his father's praise, to not being upstaged by his sister, to his efforts to capture the avatar.
small detail i hate: they keep changing “avatar, master of all four elements” to “the avatar, THE ONLY PERSON who can master all four elements” like they were so worried we wouldn’t pick up on the fact that the avatar alone can do that? the use of awkward and clunky dialogue to clarify plot points that should be implied by world building and character reactions is a huge issue with the remake as a whole.
the spoon-feeding just makes me so mad. nicque marina i believe (did not spell that right please correct me im sorry 😭) did a little rant about how we got to this point and she was so right. the ridiculous amount of exposition, insanity of sokka’s remakes, the destruction of suki, ozai and katara’s characters, and so many other elements (get it) made this such a lackluster remake. the actors are doing their best and I won’t fault them for it; but this remake was so unnecessary.
That might change after he masters all four. They can say that line in the animation because of the line in the intro saying he's got a lot of work until he can save anyone
Especially since, if they just used the narration of the original show, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Katara literally says “only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them”
It’s implied that there is only one avatar by the *the* proceeding avatar in the sentence, which then results in the “master of all four elements” part being connected to the ‘singular avatar’ implication. This results in most, if not all, of the audience realizing, yes, there is only one person who can master all the elements
The original narration was perfect
@@prequel_moment First 10 minute made me not like the show. The part where the earth soldier had to repeat and explain in simple terms what Sozin just said.
I fucking hate shows that tell and don't just show, spoon feeding information like we're dumb. I hate that shit and always makes me stop watching
the zuko thing upsets me so so much bc it really messes with the dynamic between him and azula, the whole idea of "child prodigy" vs "guy who worked really hard" is kinda scuffed when the guy was able to beat the strongest guy ever without any of the working really hard
Just imagine if zuko was able to defeat ozai if only he wasn’t poisoned by “weakness” and ONLY unable by being poisoned by “weakness” on day one at the council, doesn’t that make Azula capable of defeating ozai without even trying? Like I’m seriously wondering why she didn’t just get angry and usurp rule from ozai given the power dynamic between her and zuko
@@GymbrGleamBc the only power abusers have over Their victims are the psychological power, victims are always stronger physically and They just to realize that... That must have been Netflix's thought process
How they handled Azula was so annoying too. Like, why is she suddenly so hung up on proving herself to be better than Zuko in the eyes of her father? Azula *knew* she was better than Zuko. She's been hailed as a prodigy since she was a child. Her doubts were never really centered on her abilities, and the cracks only started to show towards the end of season 3. You know, when her friends abandoned her and her father at once sidelined her and handed her intense responsibility that she wasn't ready for? Outwardly, Azula is ruthless, perfectionistic, and exceptionally skilled. Centering her doubts on her ability, of all things, feels like a complete misunderstanding of her arc.
I don't like this term usually but they really made the entire main cast into Mary Sues 😂
facts
I also want to point out another thing the Netlix adaptation took from Katara's character. Her story was always very relatable to me as an assimilated indeginous person (not inuit, but similar experience of opression). Katara's character arc is indigenous. A colonizing force (the fire nation) came and arrested every member of her people who knew an important traditional practise (water bending). Katara grew up without anyone to pass the tradition on to her, and had to reconstruct it herself from any fragment she could find. It was significant that she found the scroll on the pirate ship. She couldn't just ask her grandmother how to water bend, because it was a tradition that had been stolen from them. And Katara stealing the scroll BACK was a vindicating moment (to everyone whose family heirlooms are currently locked up in a museum, at least). Even when she gets in touch with the northern tribe, their culture isn't exactly the same as hers. Still, there's no way she can just re-invent what took her ancestors generations to perfect, so of course she has to convince the northern tribe master to take her on as an apprentice. She can't get back exactly what was stolen from her, but she can preserve and build upon what's left of it.
(I grew up desperately wanting to learn an erased language. Luckily I wasn't the only one, and now we're seeing a major revitalization effort happening. Because so much of the language was lost, looking at related languages from the neighboring people has been crucial to reconstruct the language.) Katara's arc really hit different.
This actually makes me appreciate Katara even more, since all this was lost on me as a kid
I never thought about it like that, thank you for your unique perspective
Beautifully put!
I had made the connection of the firebenders being colonizers, but I had never thought about Katara's story as an indigenous person who had her culture stolen from her. It really puts her stealing the scroll in a different light. I had always seen that as a defining moment for her because it was the first time she had done something "wrong" to get something for herself. And she even said that she had done it because she was jealous of Ang, but I think you're absolutely right that it was a rare opportunity to connect with her heritage on her own terms. And her explanation that it was just about the water bending also makes perfect sense because that's an extremely difficult thing for a child to articulate, especially in her position. Ang and Sokka lost their people too, but Ang was still taught his cultural customs and Sokka was able to actively practice many of his as the warrior and protector of the village. And now the one thing Katara had to connect her to culture was being overshadowed by a kid who wasn't even a water bender doing it better than her.
This is why the original show is so brilliantly written. Something so small as one act of shoplifting was so consequential and taught us so much about her character. Every little detail in that show is so intentional and has so many layers. So cool to be able to watch the show now from start to finish instead of starting at whichever episode the show happened to be on in its run cycle when I happened to turn on Nickelodeon as a kid lol
I always alsp felt that this is the reason why she is so "motherly" in their group, cuz sokka is "dumb" and aang is just a kid so she is the only one mature enough to care in a certain way about them, but in reality she is just a child trying her best to carry her heritage while still missimg her mother who were took by the same colonizers because she practiced that bending tradition.
I always felt a lot her need to save her tribe from oblivion
Critics: "at least it's better than the movie" Drew: "yeah, I sure hope it does"
it ony a movie
Jokes aside, that's the behavior I hated especially coming from the fans of the OG show. Just because the movie was shitty it doesn't mean we have to settle for a less shitty tv adaptation. And the same thing happened with the Percy Jackson tv adaptation. They both sucked and fans shouldn't settle of it just because "they're better than the movie"
It's like saying that the spoiled orange juice is better than the raw sewage. Yeah, it definitely is, but neither tastes good nor leaves you feeling good. One's just more devastating than the other!
@phonoix plus, to paraphrase a review of the show i watched "if they'd somehow managed to make a show even half as bad as the movie, that could only be taken as proof that Satan is real and he has killed god"
Classic Drew.
Another thing to note about a Zuko change is that in live action he wants to go home so he can take the throne. When animated Zuko just wanted to go home
So much more impactful and really emphasizes the point that these are all just CHILDREN forced to grow up too soon because adults started an unnecessary war.
They all just wanted to go home 😢
@@Life_of_Ty So true
Wanted to go home AND make his father proud.
Dont forget restoring his honour!
@@j_fenrir I'm pretty sure live action zuko only says honor once in the entire series!
i’d like to point out that the actors themselves act very much like their characters outside of the show. The actress for Katara, Kiawentiio, especially- who got criticized for her character having a lack of emotions in the show- in her other films/shows she’s done (Anne with an E, Beans, interviews, audition tape) has shown she can absolutely play strong emotions both in and out of character, thus implying all the poor character changes are a result of the subpar writing/direction and the show not properly utilizing their actors, rather than the actor’s abilities themselves.
Yes the changes are certainly intentional. It's clear that katara and sokkas family dynamic is completely different, and that theyre setting it up for katara to blossom into an assertive strong bender
it’s so sad to me that the actors (especially kiawentiio, at least from what i’ve seen) are receiving hate for their acting in the show. it’s not their fault the writers and directors absolutely missed the mark.
@@eden22.7too bad they forgot to write some emotions for Katara
they have so much personality and chemistry in interviews together and the writers/directors managed to capture none of that in the show
@@drewisgooden it'd almost be impressive, if it wasn't so sad
It still gives me chills, the visual storytelling in the cartoon showing Gyatso surrounded by the corpses of fire-benders. They needed a fuckin' army to take him down.
He was so goated 🥀
Replacing fake sexism with real genuine sexism is like a super high depth social commentary of the last 10 years.
Misogyny is having a renaissance it's just dressed up as what's socially acceptable rn. ._.
@@Emma-Mazerenaissance? Bro it never left
I find it hilarious that they removed the sexism from Sokka's character because they thought it wasn't relevant when if anything, it's more relevant than before due to the rise of Andrew Tate esque influencers and incel culture in general causing more and more men to become increasingly hostile towards women's rights.
@@shawerful5209 no but the masculinist podcasts made it worse 💀
@Emma-Maze what's strange is that sexism in recent shows and movies isn't being direct about it and having moments, it's actually infecting every single element of a character
No waterbending in Book 1: Water is actually crazy
It’s just
Book 1:
at this point.
How is that an issue? It would be one if they titled the first season "Water". But no, it's just "season 1" ._.
@@sinixyntawhat book do you think season 1 of the live action covers…? let’s use our critical thinking please
@@sinixyntais it hard living without a brain?
@@NingaShark Idk, you tell me.
Saying "at least it's better than the movie" is like saying getting kicked in the face is better than getting kicked in the balls.
okay legit question. IS it better to be kicked in the face than in the balls? i get that crotch shots are incredibly painful, but head trauma can legit fuck up your LIFE
so not the point, but u got me wondering
@@battyrae1398I mean one normal kick probably wont cause permeant damage to the head but getting kicked in the balls could permeantly hurt you and hurts more
Balls worse
Let's put it this way
Flicking ur finger to my face is annoying
Do the same to my balls I shall wish for death for several lifetimes 😢@@battyrae1398
getting kicked by balls in your face
oooh... kinky@@blonded12323
I also am surprised you didn’t mention all the jarring storyline changes they did. Like with the owl spirit (forget his name) just appearing. That means the library will never be discovered, and so they’ll never figure out about the eclipse. This show cooked itself
Not to mention, everyone was so worried about Sokka losing his sexism for four episodes, they just ignored the entire character arc of Aang of running from responsibility which he struggled with for like, an entire season, which literally makes him just... bland, boring hero man with no flaws.
you mean everyone else just wanted to hear him be sexist. i hate this overused and untrue misogynistic statement so much. "his ENTIRE character arc" if you and everyone else really thinks him being sexist was his whole character you were not watching the show at all
They also, in an effort to remove the sexism le bad from the show, ended up entirely removing Pakku's entire story and connection to Katara. Robbing Katara of MORE arcs that would've saved her already more boring portrayal. That was supposed to be the peak of her arc of proving herself to everyone else.
Lol I kinda agree, both their arcs were rushed and suck now, and no not every one just wanted to see sexism. That wasn't his entire character arc for the whole show, but it was definitely a huge part of it. Honestly the show deconstructs sexism very well and probably helped create a lot of future feminism, so they really just wasted that chance in the end
@@eden22.7Idk Drew's points on this hits the nail on the head. If you don't understand why it's important to either be there or be replaced with something else, then you're exactly the type of people the writers are catering to. It doesn't HAVE to be sexism. He got past it right after his stuff with Suki so it's easily replaced. But what they replaced it with is worthless.
They just change seemingly small things not realising how much those small things mean and doesn't replace it with anything else. Aang not running away. Sokka's conflict with Suki. Pakku's arc and connection to Katara (which imo is EVEN WORSE cus now Pakku legitimately has no arc whatsoever.)
THEY didn't watch the show. THEY didn't understand the writing. And this strawman argument is just completely pointless when you understand that they could've EASILY removed the sexism and replaced it with something else. But they didn't. Because they didn't realise it served a plot purpose. Because they didn't watch it. Stop excusing bad writing.
@@eden22.7 Hyperbolism doesn't suit you either as an argument against perceived hyperbolism.
Sokka's sexism fuels his initial character and subsequent development through the end of the Water book.
I can never get over the way they did Zuko’s scar. It’s such a big part of his character design and it’s a perfect symbol of Ozai’s brutality. Zuko was his son - a young child - and he completely disfigured a quarter of his face for deigning to speak out against him. It’s something impossible to miss and it’s a constant reminder of how much Ozai’s abuse has shaped him
But in NATLA it looks like a birthmark or a bruise. You could squint and probably not even notice it. They put so much effort into the CGI and making everything look as close to the cartoon as physically possible, but probably one of the most famous pieces of character designs in any show ever is completely overlooked
It’d literally be like forgetting Aang’s arrows it’s actually ridiculous
Can't make characters with facial scars too gross looking in live adaptations. He can join the many, many other novel and cartoon characters with facial scars that suffered this. The idea of what is 'acceptably' ugly in movies/TV shows is very narrow. He could be a supermodel and they still wouldn't let him have a proper full size scar.
@@calamitysangfroid2407 tbh I don't know why they're so afraid of giving him an "ugly" scar when the poor guy is gonna have to wear that hideous bald ponytail anyway 😂
He disfigured him primarily because Zuko REFUSED to fight, which Ozai interpreted as his son’s weakness. The whole point of how Ozai respected power over anything else is dispensed in the live action remake, unfortunately.
i always noticed that in the original, homie lost his eyebrows because of his scar and that eye is in a permanent squint because of the scar tissue, but in the live action his eyebrows are still intact and yeah it really feels like he just has a weird birthmark.
I'm not saying they should've yoinked the actor's eyebrows, but...
And it serves a story reason! Zuko's scar is literally a brand of shame. For a firebender to have a burn scar it kinda denotes that you've messed up in some major way, right? It's a very very visible mark of Zuko being a screw-up in the eys of his father and his people. It lets us understand just what kind of monster Ozai is, and where a lot of Zuko's anger stems from (his taught shame.) It's infomration we can *learn* by observing, instead of having it told to us! But here the scar is barely readable. It hasn't effected his eye at all and the skin isn't warped whatsoever. It doesn't just take away from what the scar originally communicated, it's also just bad character design tbh
They took away the misogyny that was met with consequences and up lifted the characters and replaced it with misogyny that made them more shallow
it’s so disappointing to see a character that subverts gendered expectations and provide consequences to misogyny be turned into a sexualised object for a character to ogle at and have her personality (and the message that told) stripped from her
@ville__facts
"We worried that if Sokka was dismissive of women and then got corrected, people might see that as objectifying women. We wanted to correct that, so we turned women into oversexed reproductive machines that can't function if their ovaries are activated.
"We want people to know that women are physically capable and the only thing that's stopping them is their silly women feelings."
the way suki ended up basically thanking sokka was wild
@@jammiewhammie they had to change it since this show is for "adults"
Tbh, seeing zuko fight his father really upset me. As a child of abuse, seeing the original show as a kid really opened my eyes to how wrong it is to hurt your kids because zuko didn't do anything. He didn't fight back, he wasn't rude, and he even asked for forgiveness so as a kid I couldn't find a reason to explain why he got hurt and that made me realize that I hadn't done anything wrong either. It sounds bad, but if I was a kid at the time and saw the live action instead it wouldn't have impacted me as much
The IRL trying to remove sexism, ended up being even more sexist. Katara needed Aangs and Jets help to become a comfident waterbender, Suki needed Sokka to broaden her views, Princess Yue was literally in the kitchen making ice cream 😂
The original didn't have sexism it beated the racism out of sokka. Which is like negetive sexism by my book.
@Man-of-Steel674 um it didn't precisely beat the racism out of him😅 but yeah I agree
Hahaha so true! 😂 really sad. The show stinks but the actors and actresses are nice to watch!
Soooo bad
@@Man-of-Steel674 what do you meqn
The idea of Aang being a theatre kid ready to break into song after every line sums up the exact feeling I got from him. I couldn't get past episode 1 sadly😢
Oh it gets worse!
I couldn't finish ep 2 😅
I also couldn't finish episode 1. Straight up terrible opener to one of the best shows ever.
All of his lines are extremely canned and makes it sound like he's ready to break out his soap box
I couldn’t get past the first 8minutes. You are much more tolerant than I 😂
It's seriously impressive that they got almost every character right visually but only barely got one character right in actual characterization
very very disappointing
I would say 2 iroh and zuko were both perfect
@@sonfoku73I disagree with Iroh. Serious Iroh is definitely perfect. But they completely cut his more jovial, humorous, and we barely get any of the Iroh wisdom
I wish sokka and katara were darker tbh
@@garretheatherman3074 they made him too serious because Iroh liked to flirt with women and we can't allow that in the "modern age"
script budget: $10
editing budget: $15
gran-gran’s distractingly white veneers: $50000
Something the showrunners also clearly missed is Gyatso's skeleton is sitting completely unburned in a room with thirty dead firebenders. I _love_ the fan theory that says he created a _vacuum_ and took them all out with him. That would have been quite a thing to see.
The fact that they Netflix didn't even consider taking the chance to turn that into a action scene surprises me. They could have shown a scene of him getting cornered before zooming in, him saying, "I won't be going down alone," or something like that, then cut to the present.
it’s hardly even a theory. there’s no other explanation. like bloodbending, the act of bending the air out of someone’s lungs (breathbending, i guess?) is one of those techniques that is entirely taboo, especially to a pacifist nation like the air nomads, but still very much possible. only meant to be used in a time of dire need.
@@ThatsTypical It's kinda sad bc it shows that whoever wrote this part wasn't even interested enough to entertain what that scene could mean. Not imaginative at all.
But the skeleton wouldn’t be burned… the flesh would. Right?
@@ThatsTypical corny ahh marvel line
Such a small gripe I have - but in the cartoon, because we don't ever SEE the Airbenders fight the Fire Nation, it adds an air of imagined savagery of the war, and of Giyatso also. I remember reading this fantastic theory that Giyatso, outnumbered by Fire Nation, chose to remove all air/oxygen in the room where he died, snuffing out their fire, but also ending his life in the process. If I'm not mistaken, the creators themselves responded to this theory really positively. I don't know, just seeing the fight makes the Airbenders look really weak, when canonically they're extremely strong, but choose a life of monkhood and peace due to their overwhelming power and responsibility. I feel like we lost a lot of the Airbender majesty by showing their slaughter.
They’re even more powerful when you think of the fact that every other bender has a weakness; water can only bend if there’s water nearby, earthbenders (as bumi said) can only bend if they see earth (besides toph) and firebenders can only bed fire in conditions that fire can exist in, whereas air exists everywhere and without it everything would die. So really the only weakness for airbenders is their own skill and willpower
THIS. I couldn't put into words why it bothered me but you've done it perfectly. I wish they hadn't shown us
Not a small gripe!! Valid and correct gripe!! I couldn’t figure out exactly why I didn’t like that we saw the fight at all
They also played down the firebenders in that sceen. The fire arme is just a bunch of people throwing fireballs. We dont see how the meteor makes them more powerfull, as you said it just looks like the air nomads are weak. Not only is ther no sign of how the comet is powering them up, that way its like the comet doesnt power them up at all! In the cartoon it was always this "When the comet arrives the firebenders will be invincible" there is real horror in there, which is proven right by the massive flame wall they used to scorch the land, from the airships. Like this i dont feel like it will be bad if the comet comes, we already saw what it can do and it doesnt look like much.
@@shae.2214 Wow. Never thought of that before... I feel like if I could bend any element it would be Air.
This show feels like it was written by people who just like reading cool little tidbits on a fan wiki. The characters aren't individuals who go through events and struggle and grow. They're a bulleted list of traits.
Idk how you drop the ball when you have the story already laid out for you on a silver platter. How do you fumble something when they have the perfect script already? lol
@@Ugly_Single_Near_You-jw2er i could understand wanting to change it up a little bit instead of doing a shot-for-shot remake but the changes they made are so fucking confusing.
@@elfappo9330It's so weird. Like it's more gratuitous and violent but also...tame? Like the characters losing there anger, spunk, and even saddness. Even the main villains honestly lose a lot of their cruel nature. It's like the main characters are repressing their emotions for some bizarre reason.
@@ohwell1547 If a character in media demonstrates a problematic trait, that would be an endorsement of that behavior!
@@ohwell1547 Americans, driven by their puritan origins, don't shy away from violence. Media has become incresingly violent but oh lord save yourself if you show genitals or nudity in general.
In this case they could show dark gritty violent stuff to appeal to GOT TV show morons fans but forgot to properly write a script without the help of AI.
Because the script feels like a chatGPT regurgitated crap.
Also an issue I have with the live-action version of the Agni Kai, and Ozai in general, is that we just see his face from the beginning. In the original we don't even see the Fire Lord's face until like s3. He's only maybe shown from the mouth up, but his eyes are cut off. Until then we've only heard his voice and seen his power, but not even a second of him as an actual person. He's just a symbol, the Fire nations great, feared leader and probably the most powerful firebender to exist right then. The whole story being told from Aang's pov also helps with this, as he too doesn't know what Ozai actually looks like and only has an image of royal clothing and headpieces. This also makes him more terrifying, as peoples own imagination will always be more scary to them than smth just being told should be. It completely removes his humaness, and also makes sense that even Zuko doesn't properly remember his father's face. He only remembers the terrifying voice and ever-present control in all their lives.
I know this all just leans into the instant gratification issue already brought up in the video, but it still pisses me off. There's so many great examples in this show of slowly waiting for things to be revealed, to the point that watching it today sometimes makes me impatient. It feels insane in todays standards that a children's show should be so slow paced, which just makes it even better in my eyes. You don't see shows waiting characters arcs out as patiently as atla today, and one tiny example of this is seeing what Ozai even really looks like.
you mean to tell me that the same company that forced out the original creators of avatar and literally said that squidgame's anti capitalist message was a "small part of the show" also doesn't understand the point of avatar either???? Wow. Crazy. Unbelievable.
The same original creators that brought you skyscraper sized platinum mecha firing spirit lasers in 1920s New York City as the finale of their sequel series?
@@AlbatrossCommandoyeah and it rocks
@@TheUltraYusufNetflix ATLA > Korra (except maybe season 3)
@@AlbatrossCommando lol alrighty
@@AlbatrossCommandoThat's a fuckin hot take if I've ever seen one.
"He yearns to goof" is the perfect description for Netflix's Aang
RUclipsr Little Joel said it best. "We never see Aang have fun. We only see him watch kids play and smile so that the audience knows that he likes fun"
I also really hated how Aang was told who Bumi was immediately, which originally was the whole point of that episode. Bumi just messes with Aang and it puts him in a stressful situation because he thinks its just whoever the current King is and not his best friend from 100 years ago.
I like how once aang realizes it's bumi he knows he and his friends were never in danger. he knew their friendship would hold over 100 yrs and bumi was just pranking him, it rlly contrasts w/ how frustrated he was thru the ep when he didn't know who it was
EXACTLY! I stopped watching after the Bumi stuff
Revealing and then fighting = I don’t even recognize my friend anymore. He’s so different.
But fighting and then revealing = I didn’t recognize him at first but that’s my best friend and he hasn’t changed a bit.
They made Bumi dumb as a baby instead of a wise 112 year old man. Who was a reminder nothing is too late
do you guys remember when aang recognizes bumi in the original show, after saying his name, and getting confirmation, he literally wells up in tears? that's literally the moment aang realizes not all was lost after he saw the aftermath of the air nomad genocides. in this one bumi hates him for leaving cause they mixed his personality with the old man from the storm
saying zuko couldve beaten his dad in the agni kai is even more infuriating when you remember that in the original show, it was a major insecurity of zuko's that he wasnt as powerful as azula and was jealous that she was a better bender and got all their dad's attention
“Suffering will be your teacher” was such an insanely gorgeous line
And way more impactful than a cheesy “compassion is weakness,” like come on. That’s some serious 12 year old edge lord shit.
@@ethanduke3005 Damn was that a quote from the live action? That's so silly.
@@egg1223did you finish the video you're commenting on?
@@Nlkysome people like to look at the comments before finishing the video! It’s ok :)
@@ethanduke3005 If this "Compassion is weakness" pays off when we see Ursa, i think it might just be worth it. only just tho
One thing that gets me is how they completely ignored the philosophies of several East Asian cultures like taoism and zen buddhism for essentially "friendship is magic". These philosophies not only lead to deep explorations on the martial arts of the nations and therefore better fighting later on, they're integral to the fabric of the characters themselves.
Let's take Zuko for a second: as a firebender, and particularly for a firebender of his family, he's incredibly weak. Because of this even before his banishment he always felt in competition with his sister for his father Firelord Ozai's love, and losing badly. His father is only obsessed with power and Azula has it all and him seemingly little. "My father says she was born lucky, he says I was lucky to be born." Because of this we see him constantly training, scolding his uncle for not teaching him advanced bending, keeping his body in top shape. It's because of this he learns other ways to fight too, becoming a master of stealth and a swordsman great enough to take down most benders without using fire.
But one fight with his sister after 3 years in the field and he couldn't touch her, Iroh had to save his life. So in an episode in Book 2 where Zuko and Aang recieve parallel training, Zuko attempts to learn to shoot lightning to match his sister, but fails. His uncle explains it's because Zuko feels deep shame. As he retorts "I'm not ashamed, I'm as prideful as ever" Iroh replies "pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source." Zuko's constant yearning for honor and his father's love causes him shame as none of his actions get it.
In an attempt to console him, Iroh offers to teach him a move only he knew, as he invented it studying water-bending. We learn that every element has a natural opposite which is hard even for an Avatar born into one culture to master from the other, and this move comes from the water tribe, Zuko's natural opposite. We learn the same way the combination of elements strengthens the Avatar, so to can it strengthen Zuko. Of the Water Tribe as both a descriptor of their style and culture he says "Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribes are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything." Zuko is able to learn the basic motion of the move, but when it came right down to trying to use it, he ended up having a breakdown as he felt the world was still out to belittle him when it would hit him hard until the moment he asks for lightning. He says he can take it and give it back, but we see that's untrue.
It's clear Iroh is not just trying to teach him the tai chi move, he's trying to instill within him that love and community to get him through his own shame, to use the adaptability of the inuit-inspired water tribe to temper his inability to let go of past shames. Zuko ultimately fails to master his opposite. Skip to Book 3, after an angsty season of being angry at himself for betraying the only person who cared for him when he was presented with the possibility of his father's love, he moves to set things right. He confronts the most powerful firebender in the world while they were all powerless to stand on business. He finally realizes the father he always wanted he's had this whole time, that in his search for honor he had been robbing himself of it. He will free his Uncle and help the Avatar to defeat him, while seeking his own destiny. As the Firelord tricks him into staying long enough to regain their powers, he hits Zuko with the fastest lightning bending we've ever seen. And he takes it. And he gives it back.
He sends the most powerful lightning blast back to the master bender he had no chance against even a few days ago, the one who burned him. And it's not just a martial victory, by using the water tribe move it symbolizes he's finally mastered his natural opposite, he has the fatherly love that holds him together from Iroh, he's adapted from his prideful, shameful ways and is ready to choose the side of good once and for all. All things you don't get if Zuko goes Mark Ham and beats Firelord Ozai when he was 13 in a Book 1 flashback.
Also, when Zuko goes to teach Aang firebending, Zuko finds he can’t bend anymore. Firebending is linked (if I recall correctly) to passion. For years, Zuko has been fuled by attempting to capture the Avatar, but having moved on from that quest, there is nothing left to “light his fire.”
Each bending style feels very thought out and not like just generic magic. Just another reason the og show was better.
That was a really beautiful analysis. Thanks.
That was beautiful 😢
@@Queen_Cnidarian Yes! That's another point the original touches on that I feel the live action never will, that Zuko's bending was _never_ inherently weak, it was just that he was taught the wrong, watered down style that was fueled by anger that wasn't in Zuko's inherent nature, and his bending completely disappeared when he had finally let go of it.
There's so much to get into on the true meaning of fire, controlling how firebending is taught as a way to control the thoughts and temperament of the people, the silent connection between firebending and dance and by extent the Fire Nation's strict smothering of freedom of expression. I'm sure that will never be even hinted at, instead it'll just be a revelatory moment of "I was always the strongest" in the final fight and a random powerup, or something along those lines.
@@fantasymagic97 Thank you! I shortened it so I may have made it a bit harder to follow the flow, and even then I didn't expect many people to read it but I felt it needed to be said anyway. ATLA is really such a perfect beautiful story and it always had so much personal meaning to me.
“You must defeat the fire lord… before the comet arrives.” I remember hearing it endless times during the ‘Previously on Avatar’ recaps… BECAUSE ITS THE CORNERSTONE OF THE NARRATIVE AND THE DRIVING FORCE OF THE ENTIRE STORY. How do you leave that out I just can’t understand
To some extent I understand, the writers didn't know if they'd get more seasons to get to do the whole story, but I really hated how much they emphasized "We HaVe To GeT tO tHe NoRtH pOlE" because then there was this unnecessary sense of urgency that we didn't have in the first season of the original, there was no time for the important character development & world-building side adventures of the first season and it bothers me so much
It would be difficult to set a deadline like that for a live action though. These seasons will take a long time to make, and the actors portraying Aang, Katara, and likely Toph, are young enough now that it’ll be obvious that years are passing instead of months. However, it’s still on the writers to convey urgency some other way.
@@LeileyWow Yeah it felt much weirder progressing through the season with all of the stops and side-quests when like, they know the North Pole is in danger and they’re rushing to get up there
@@emilykettle3576 surely they won’t make the story take place over the course of multiple years in-canon though, that would be… a choice.
They do end the series * spoiler * with the reveal to the fire lord that they know the comet is coming. So maybe the writers will do it next season, and then Aang will kick it into gear learning bending?
21:05 This was my absolute biggest gripe with the show. How are you gonna strip away the entire redemption arc from the main character?
Your analysis of the change to Suki had me cheering because you’re so right!! it was so infuriating to me that they were like “we did a great job of making sokka less sexist” and then they just make suki a simpering love struck character. good job writers
thinking that the story was already written by athoer people in 2004 makes it even worse
jessie gender did a great video that goes even more into depth on that specific arc, highly recommend
Fr like, "we decided to fundamentally hollow out a strong female character and reduce her to a love interest, as a treat to the feminists"
Nah she still shows that she knows more than Sokka when she is teaching him. I don’t like that they took away him learning more of a lesson but it’s really not that bad as people are making it out to be.
imagine taking away the diegetic sexism and replacing it with non-diegetic sexism
The people behind the remake NEED to see this, because these are so well thought out arguments and remarks. They could really learn and not just say "Well people don't like our show 'cause they're too attached to the original"
Right but they prob dont even care if ppl like it or not bc its making so much money..
As long as it's popular on Netflix and people keep watching it. They don't care.
it just sucks because I've started to really like the cast. Gordon Cormier is literally irl Aang, and from watching the behind the scenes, the production and art direction team are very dedicated, I believe they ARE avatar the last airbender fans and want to make the best show adaptation. The problem is exactly as pointed out by Drew which is the writers and Netflix Corporate intervening with changing the soul of the show. They CAN make creative deviations, but the writing SHOULDN'T be falling flat, and they should NOT be changing core aspects of the characters. This show can still be saved with having season's 2 and 3 greenlit at the same time and I hope Netflix takes in all the criticism because this cast and production team are putting their passion and respect for the original in this project, but the writers haven't.
Are they really well thought out arguments? It's literally as you said, people don't like the adaptation because y'all are too attached to the original, when the original isn't even at all perfect. The criticisms with the adaptation can literally be used against the original as well if you would actually care to dissect the original. But, hey, ignorance is bliss.
frfrfr
I can't get over the costuming, why does everything look completely pristine? There's no wear on anything, like everyone's clothing is brand new and has been hanging in a closet waiting for this day to be worn for the first time ever
YES!!! Why are Sokka and Katara’s coats trimmed with fur from a craft store and untouched by the elements? Why did all the metal headpieces look like spray painted cardboard? Why did 80% of the fabric look like it had a beauty box filter on it? From a costuming standpoint I don’t think the show looked all that good.
A burger has to be at least McDonald's quality to be, like, anything. Costumes in old-time stuff have to be at least as good as in Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail. A shocking number of shows and movies fail to reach that bar.
Why does water tribe wear robes made of one single layer of cotton?? That’s not what’s going to keep anyone warm! It’s got to be hide, sheepskin or at least quilted fabric. Nobody in the industry understands how low temperatures work, it was the same in Game of Thrones but less noticeable and the costumes looked better
It’s giving cosplay.
@@mimik6414i love this comment because in a sea of artists writing thought provoking critiques, the most compelling one to me is "its giving cosplay 💅🏾"
31:55 If they wanted an action scene they could have just had Zuko avoiding attacks but never striking back. Would have kept the same character traits and development but still had flames go boom
exactly this would’ve been so much better
Zuko fighting back against his abusive father just completely guts his character. Freezing and refusing to fight isn’t just a way to show that he doesn’t want to hurt his father, it so clearly shows that he is doing his best to survive an abusive situation.
The moment when Zuko finally breaks free of his father's influence in season 3 is so momentous. I mean, they are both just there and Zuko doesn't even raise his voice. No pyrotechnics, no fighting, just a promise. It's so powerful.
@@BiittiriisiAnd Zuko actual pratical reaction to Ozai's attack in the throne room in season 3 is made much better by the fact that Zuko had never reacted before, it shows us that he is truly free from Ozai, to the point were he is not afraid to fight back. Now that he reacted in their Agni Kai this scene will have much less impact
@@Prometeu21 Haven't watched the netflix adaptation but there's also the detail that it was the first time Zuko redirected lightning, a much stronger, faster lightning created by his own father. His retaliation against his father proved Zuko's strength mentally, but his reaction time proved his physical strength. Not to mention it's a move entirely created by Iroh, showing how much he loved and respected his uncle.
actually if I remember correctly, when Aang wakes from the iceberg, Katara's grandma does tell him that they never seen an airbender in a hundred years and that they thought they went extinct; Aang brushes this off and holds the idea that not all airbenders could have gone extinct, some must have escaped and be around! (not telling us but showing us his optimistic and innocent personality, and remind us he is a kid) up until the gyatso reveal.
It just all goes back to a comparatively ineffective narrative device - in the OG show the emphasis is on Aang and his optimism. We’re led to believe (just as Aang believes) that maaaaybe some air nomads survived because of how secluded they were. The live action took all the wind out of the potential drama in that reveal, like it sucked the life out of a lot of the series.
i mean fair, but why make this change at all? The gyatso reveal is still miles less impactful in the live action than the animation. It feels like they made changes for the sake of making changes, instead of understanding why the source material so was so good in the first place
@@selvaa1592 yeah, these changes make no sense at all. To the first episode to the climax of the third, it's building the narratively tension that would lead up to the reveal and the emotions.
In the original, GranGran it's just making a comment that Aang brushes off since it's kinda casual, but in the live action it's this dramatic speech that affects Aang so when the gyatso scene plays, it's not impactful for us (even more so when we already had two scenes about the airbender genocide).
@@CaulkMongler Man, can I just gush about avatar for a moment? In the first two episodes we do believe that some air nomads must have survived, because right up until that moment, we don’t really know what exactly happened to them, even when in the opening Katara doesn’t mention what became of them. But when we arrive at the temple, we become less and less hopeful, and with all the wandering thru desolate halls and all the talk and flashbacks of Gyatso, as a first time viewing you get the sense that this is all building up to something and not exactly something good.
og Avatar was so good at storytelling, worldbuilding and character writing that they could do the three all at once. And the writers of the live action do shine sometimes (ex. how they write Iroh), but they were given the task of rewriting a series that, in my opinion, didn’t need it. I would have preferred if they did something in the avatar universe (the much wanted Iroh backstory series!) but oh well, this is what we got.
Unlike the fall of the Jedi where even though Order 66 had a 99% success rate and still leaves about 200 survivors (this applies to both Canon and Legends), the Fire Nations extermination of the Air Nomads was 100% successful, which is extremely dark.
Avatar is not unadaptable. The problem is that the original series was made with love. The adaptations were made for the money by people who don't understand the source material whatsoever.
It's not unadaptable but there's just no point in it. The show accomplished what it wanted to and then some.
Why dont they adapt korra. That show was pretty rough and you could fix a lot of things with an adaptation. Why try to change a near perfect show.
@@ashleycraig8223
I imagine it's cuz Korra doesn't have the fanbase that ATLA does. So while it would still draw impressive numbers, it wouldn't be as impressive as Avatar. Also, let's be honest, while giving Korra another shot to be done better is a good idea, I imagine a live action Korra would also wind up worse than the original. They just don't care enough about story, only visuals.
@@AxelKNG fair enough. I guess I give them too much credit
This is the fundamental problem with remakes. The passion gets squeezes out of it.
Severance is a masterclass of not revealing too much but pulling the audience in to have them want to learn more
Saw this quote somewhere about the original show and I think it's great: "The hero's journey begins with an act of selfishness and the villian's journey begins with an act of selflessness"
DANG what a good quote
that's such a good quote
And a quote for the Netflix adaptation is: "Hero good, villain bad".
Bro wtf that’s so good and such a good representation of how good this show is, the cartoon I mean
When you set a course for the light, but, metaphorically as well as literally
I hate the whole "it's made for kids, why are you getting so worked up over it"
It's the cheapest "defense" of modern shows and really shouldn't be taken seriously.
Kids aren't dumb. They're smart.
They can understand good story and even darker, more mature ideas to a certain extent.
A show being "for kids" shouldn't mean and excuse for bad writing.
The 👏 original 👏 was 👏 also 👏 for 👏 kids 👏
"It's a kid's show" is such a stupid argument because the source material is literal proof that a kids show can have good, mature writing, and can be a show for all ages. Most people who grew up on avatar actually appreciate it MORE as adults because they can now appreciate how well-made it is.
Not to mention, the new show was marketed to fans of the original, it wants to be the more mature iteration of the show, and STARTS WITH A GENOCIDE SCENE!!! The new show is very, very, very clearly not trying to be "just for kids"
Honestly, I've always thought that a show being "for kids" means that you should take even MORE care of how it's written. Adults, we're pretty set up as people--I'm not gonna pretend that my life wasn't completely suplexed into the ground and put back in a different order between the ages of 28 and 31, but I still felt like the same person after... kids are still so PLASTIC, though! So MOLDABLE!! Writers have the chance to tell these people a story that will help change them into who they need to become--who the WORLD needs them to become--and the original ATLA was one of those stories for a lot of people. WAYYYY too many people underrate that task. We get worked up over stories made for kids that are told badly because it's crucial that they get the right messages at the right times!
The good portion of the reason kid’s shows exist is to teach kids. Whether that’s about emotion, response, reading, etc. Writing off genuinely good shows because they’re “for kids” is stupid because we can still learn from them too or enjoy them in a different way
If people didn't hate shows they weren't in the demographic for (and a part of a demographic the writers never intended to write for), it wouldn't be used as an argument that often
I watched this show as an adult, made my adult mom watch it.
Loved it.
So great
Bets ever
30:00 This whole thing with Zuko also almost winning the battle doesn’t work because Zuko was just a child, and he struggled to master firebending. I’m specifically thinking of where he speaks about how hard he had to work, where Azula was instantly talented. Also: “azula was born lucky. I was lucky to be born”
It also shows his character early on that he refused to fight back. He wasn't cruel and ruthless like Azula, but compassionate for the squadron Ozai was going to sacrifice! Zuko was nothing like his father, and he hated him for it. He was a child who was finally allowed to attend the war room and immediately threw out norms & etiquette to confront what he knew was wrong. He had incidentally disgraced Ozai publicly and so he made a cruel example out of his own son. Setting Ozai up as a cruel domineering and above all *terrifying* leader who would stop at nothing to subjugate and take over the world if it meant burning through his own family to do so. Which also inevitably ties Zuko to the gang, because they were on the same path to taking down Ozai.
I think Ozai was just testing him, he made an opening on purpose to see what he would do
@@LuisSierra42but the point is that Zuko would never have taken that opening at that time of his young life, in the original he immediately bowed and apologized and begged his father to reconsider because he refused to fight his own FATHER. THATS when Ozai burned him. In the Netflix version them fighting just makes no sense for Zukos character nor the entire point of the scene. But Netflix wanted a cool fight scene and thats exactly how the netlix took a story driven scene and turned into a meaningless spectacle
@@ariannebrodeur For what is worth, Zuko did look a bit older in the live action. I could excuse the difference if netflix zuko has a more developed sense of what his father expects from him
@@theaverageone4415 It also showed how, even after everything with his mother and grandfather, Zuko still loved his father enough that he refused to fight him. He trusted that his father wouldn't actually hurt him, and Ozai spat on that trust and scarred his son for life out of pride.
it's crazy how netflix markets this as a version for adults but then not trust their audience to understand what's going on unless it's directly said to them
“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.” is a line I didn’t expect from this show at all.
@eatatjoe Yeah the original show was so well written, I've rewatched it countless times since I was a kid and it gets better the older I get and the more I understand.
What I always loved about Katara, as a biracial kid myself who grew up estranged from the Jamaican side of my family, was how Katara embodied the struggle of being a minority separated from your culture. She always drew pride from being a waterbender, a symbol of her community's resilience, but it was simultaneously a point of insecurity for her, as she didn't have the affinity for it that she wished she did, having no one to teach her. That all really resonates -- being a visible minority, but not truly having enough connection to your culture to feel "deserving" of membership. And none of it is resolved by having *some guy* tell you "Haha don't second-guess yourself you're so sexy."
That last line lmao 😂 you described the Netflix version so well.
❤🇯🇲
What a great Statement
Baby girl not to take away from you but Jamaican is a NATIONALITY not a race. You’re multi cultured. As am I being Afro Syrian Jamaican.
Also I hated EVERYTHING to do with this Sokka and Suki.
@@aanyamallick7747 I think you misunderstood them here, they’re biracial and clearly the black side of their family is Jamaican. My ethnicity is Jamaican and Nigerian but my nationality is British and my race is black. Jamaica can be both a nationality and an ethnicity but not a race, which luckily nobody said it was.
The big question is wtf is going to happen with toph? She’s supposed to be a complete foil for katara. She’s supposed to be the one with a natural talent for bending and be far superior at it.
they have no idea, im sure. theyve dug themselves into a hole and i highly doubt theyre smart enough to dig themselves out of it. sad to say, because i loved their dynamic and development in the og, but im confident theyre going to fuck up toph and her relationship with katara. theyve shown over and over they dont fundamentally understand any of this.
fr
Girl boss team up
She's gonna start off already metalbending and have zero familial issues and all the blind jokes (including the ones Toph makes at her own expense) will be removed because that's offensive and everyone back in '05 was a hateful bigot and ATLA is a good show _in spite_ of its creators rather than _because_ of them
@@Antigen__ you know whenever the 2nd season comes out, somebody is gonna call you a time traveller cause that's exactly what's gonna happen because of how S1 has progressed
The misogyny is pretty much ended after episode 4, when Sokka apologizes for not treating her like a warrior and Suki has the iconic line saying that she **is** a warrior but a girl too.
Differences between men and women! Can't do that in current year!
@@KrodaStagg you're pathetic
@@KrodaStaggwhat are you talking about? everyone in this current year is upset about the changes. the only ppl who think you can’t do it are these studio executives for some reason
@@KrodaStagg ...lol wut
the comment wasn't about the differences between men and women? who was talking about that? Granted I'm not actually totally clear on the original poster's point--like yes Sokka's blatant mysogeny stops being a thing after Suki's iconic line, but that doesn't mean he stops growing as a person and leader. Sure it's not really realistic for one interaction with somebody to stop all mysogeny, but it's a story so we can grant it a degree of poetic liscense. Still, what does all that have to do with the differences between men and women? Indeed it's more about the similarities between men and women, she literally says that she can be a warrier in... in the same way that a man... can... ah shit this is bait isn't it!
dagnabit see this is why i don't have twitter, i am totally that sjw snowflake who can't resist replying to some dumb comment that's obviously only said to draw people like me who like correcting people like moths to the flame
Ah well--either way I kinda like the implication that Suki was just so badass and awesome that she was the catalyst for Sokka to stop being an entitled shithead to his sister/mom figure. I've never really given her much thought before, but thank you for making me ruminate on the awesomeness of Suki, random youtube comment
@@constantlybored no, the ones who are upset are the fans, most people don't care.
The scene of Zuko refusing to fight his dad is so powerful because it shows how heartless his dad is, it basically dehumanizes him. Zuko refusing to fight shows that despite everything, he’s still human.
What's even more infuriating to me is that the implication that Zuko could beat his dad as a kid is that it's not just implicating that Ozai isn't that big of a threat, even though that's also a problem. It uproots Zuko's entire character. "My dad said my sister was born lucky. He said I was lucky to be born." All of the scenes with him struggling and continuing to fight even though he's not as strong as everyone else, because that's who he IS. All meaningless now, in this show
It's not that he wasn't as strong as everyone else; he was just strong in different ways. He was an amazing sword fighter, and then there's obviously all the mental/emotional stuff.
Well, ok. Zuko was a very powerful bender even at the start of the show. He was probably better than 90-95% of fire benders. It's just he was surrounded by prodigies.
@@EN_4209 his demonstration of firebending was pretty bad though. and iroh constantly reminds him of "the basics" in the early seasons.
@@tommerker8063 Which demonstration are you talking about? The demonstration when he was like, eight? Of course it wasn't very good. He was eight. Or do you mean the first episode where we see Zuko training? Because in that demonstration of firebending, he takes down the two firebenders he was sparring with in a two vs one with ease. And then about an episode or two later, he wins an Agni Kai against Zhao, a master firebender who Jeong Jeong himself says is very powerful.
Just face it. Zuko is a very talented firebender. He's not nearly as talented as his sister, but he's leagues above the average firebender.
@@EN_4209 “he was probably” is one thing, what is confirmed is another.
The worst part of the Netflix adaptation is that it treats a presumably predominantly adult viewership as too stupid to understand “show don’t tell” when the original viewers were all kids and they understood the near-flawless writing just fine. This “writing by corporate committee” shit is never going to go away and it makes me so sad.
You said exactly what I wanted to say.
the only thing I have any hope for is henry cavil's warhammer 40k show since he's producing it. He probably felt so bad about the netflix witcher show, he had to make it up. Netflix ruins everything
@@moonasha netflix ruins everything, that's why I don't watch netflix originals. But the stuff they don't produce, only stream on their platform like Arcane is good.
The fact that the original show runners WERE working on Netflix with it but then left due to creative differences which we clearly see here in this adaptation is extremely sad and upsetting.
Not sad or upsetting at all. Paramount gave them a studio and funding to do as they please. A theatrical animated release is due next year and more Avatar shows to come (hopefully a firebender; the potential is wild).
@@nyanuwu4209 the theatrical, is it based on Kyoshi? I thought I heard something about it being about her maybe I’m wrong
@@nyanuwu4209 After Korra (and yeah i know Nickelodeon interfered a lot with the pre production and afterwards; they didn't trust enough the IP or the showrunners i guess) i'm not so sure about the creators having the sauce anymore.
LOK was milquetoast. It lacked something. And it ruined the lore by mid second season. It also introduced mecha spirit kaiju laser fights and mecha robots laser shooting menaces. totally stupid. It not ruined the Avatar past lives connection, thus destroying the relevancy and connection to ATLA, it also ruined the spirit world by making it tame and "westernized".
What the fuck is the new avatar is gonna do if it occurs post Korra? How's that avatar state work? There's only fucking Korra to drive for wisdom and jeez... i know i woulnd't want that. of all the avatars, korra? The one that managed to destroy 10,000 years of tradition?
And talking about that. LOK big theme was a bout that and I have a personal issue with that: it became a show about dismantling the masterpiece that was the predecesor: Aang, Katara and Toph were a shitty parents, the Spirit World became a fantasy medieval LARP with vibrant colors with a new portal for tourism, Bending became so lame, and even special master aspects of bending like lighting and metalbending became ubiquitous, the bastardization of airbender nomad culture, the quasimedieval-preindustrial setting of the OG show (i don't want high tech in my Avatar show, no thanks!), the ruining of the new Avatar team by not having a clear storyline for Korra only for her to end with a girl because "we are progressive, right?" stunt.
There's so many stupid shit in LOK that I just prefer to ignore it exists.
I'm not holding my breath for the next Avatar show even if its made by dimartino and konietzko. They didn't get why ATLA was a masterpiece and that's the reason they failed wtih LOK from the get go.
@@Afreshioare we even sure ATLA was their work at this point? Because the 2nd season especially the avatar wan bs screams this wasn't our stuff so we are changing it
@@Afreshio "It ruined the lore" How? I'm not reading a fuckin' essay when you started off with some sweeping nonsense.
Honestly one of the most uncanny valley things from this show is how new all of the costumes are. Not only does everything look new, there’s not a fold or a crease in ANY clothing. When you’re building a world everything needs to feel lived in.
Not sure if this counts as a nitpick, but in Aang's first appearance, he's straight up flying, and it threw me a bit because I remember that being like, the secret highest airbending technique.
I was screaming when I saw that
BRUH ME TOO as a HUGGGEEE korra fan it pissed me off
Real "he's making his own fire!!" energy
@@Grace-lq5crwhile they portrayed it horribly, he supposed to be falling slowly with airbending and finesse.
while they portrayed it horribly, he supposed to be falling slowly with airbending and finesse.
Every time they introduced Aang as the Avatar, it felt like he was being announced as the defending WWE champion. "The one who will bring balance. The hope for the world. The Avatar!" It's so cheesy.
BY GOD!!! It's Kyoshi with a steel chair!!!
Lis-Aang al Gaib!!!
@@MyScorpion42 “you’re breaking my heart, LIS-AANG!”
The Boulder has gotten over his conflicted feelings
LOL!! This entire thread made me laugh so freaking hard, thanks guys!! 🤣😆
My biggest gripe was that Aang was never really childish and fun in the live action. His lines are written so monotone, nothing like how original portrayed Aang. Aang being carefree about everything in the original made it 100x more impactful whenever we returned to the true seriousness of what was going on.
i love how accurately you pointed out each flaw that bothered me. avatar is such a nostalgic show for me, and such a big part of mine, and my brother’s childhood. i’m almost as passionate about it as some millenials are about harry potter.
The fact that this is the second time they've rebooted ATLA and done so in such a lackluster way speaks to the lack of respect hollywood has for the source material
Any attempt to copy perfection will be nothing but an imitation at best, or more likely, a worse facsimile.
my theory is that anyone who might actually be good at writing/directing an adaptation of avatar has too much respect for the material to actually do it.
i recently saw a quote from denis villenueve and hans zimmer, director and composer of dune respectively, about their own fear about adapting the original book (of which both are massive fans). they were afraid of tackling their childhood dreams, concerned nostalgia would get in the way, and didn’t want to undermine the legacy. i haven’t seen this kind of concern/respect with any of the avatar adaptations we’ve seen.
@fillyreports, Except the remake fails to be good, because the OG writers left. It's like people keep forgetting *why* this Netflix series fell short, outside of, "Of course it would suck no matter what you do", even though it could have been good.
@@kezia8027 The original series was not perfection or near perfect. Too many flaws and questionable actions. It’s not one of the best television series ever. Maybe one of the best animated series, but that’s it. I can name hundreds of better shows. Several hundreds.
@@wendella.4074 do it
A line from Aang that fills me with so much emotions is "Take a look Appa, you and me, we're all that's left of this place" it never fails to teary my eyes. So much is conveyed from such a simple statement. His grief but also his optimism. And the bond between him and Appa that would give more weight to the arcs when they're separated. Netflix's dialogue as exposition is a disease. It rids every character of their soul.
"Aang, wtf are you talking about" is a SUCH a mood for this show
ima be one of those commentors but how do u get 588 likes but no comments? like are there bots just liking peoples comments for no reason? theres a comment that has 5k likes yet only has 22 replies like it doesnt make sense!
@@ItsYaBoyAdmin-df5sd I'm gonna come off of my usual lurking here to reply, but I imagine there's a lot of people out there (like me) who see stuff and press "like", but don't comment. Or maybe there are bots idk lol
@@yeetyeet9839 yeah i was thinking that lmao too
@@ItsYaBoyAdmin-df5sdSometimes people can agree with a comment and not have anything more to add to it
@ yeah that could be too
It's insulting how deep and carefully planned everything is in a child show from mid 2000s compared to this supposed adult adaptation.
The crux of it all is that they don't respect their audience.
The cartoon shows the skeleton and we think "oh yeah, they're all gone," whereas the show belabors the point and rips the perspective away from any characters we actually follow to show gratuitous violence. It's a lot of key jingling with shapes and colors.
The fundamental problem with live action is that it has too much time to play with. Animated shows have 22 minutes per episode. Yes, they had more episodes in the original, but *each* episode was expected to be a story with a beginning, middle, and end, except for a handful of two-parters (and even then, The Winter Solstice was very much two separate episodes, not one episode in two parts). When you have that many distinct stories to tell, the amount of time left for the overarching plot is greatly diminished. And that's what made the original so brilliant: They did not have the time to screw around and jingle keys at the audience, and the writers knew it and considered it when they were planning each episode.
For a concrete example, consider the metalbending scene in The Guru. It accomplishes a lot of different objectives in a very short amount of time:
* It progresses the A plot by unlocking Aang's next chakra.
* It progresses the B plot by freeing Toph.
* It progresses Toph's character arc, because she has no further interaction with her parents (direct or indirect) after this scene (at least within the show, anyway). This is the moment she permanently breaks free of their control.
* It introduces metalbending, and justifies its existence.
* It reminds us of a theme that originated in Bitter Work, about the four nations all ultimately being the same people.
* It is beautifully animated and written.
* The villains are doing a manzai routine, and it is funny ("There's a giant hole in the box! How is that a trick?").
You would never try to do all of those things in a single scene in live action, because you know that you have enough time to do some of the above as separate scenes instead. Animated shows, in general, are forced to resort to writing like this, and they tend to be better for it as a result.
An entire room of writers, producers, and directors read the script, saw all the redundant info/repeated lines, and thought, "Yeah this is great!"
It's the equivalent of being given an assignment that is practically just "copy the Wikipedia article" and not only do they not do that, but the four sentences they did copy are just pasted like 14 times in different ways with synonyms
Nah, I agree with Drew. This has studio exec meddling written all over it.
"The audience won't get what the Avatar is. Let them repeat he's the master of all elements so they don't get lost and keep watching the show. We need to sell more subscriptions afterall."
*The showrunners were sleeping behind the wheel* when cameras were rolling, but in the EDITING room, they realized repeated dialogue would test better with markets in the 75+ age range or people on their phones, just like how a day-one romance with Suki is going to just CINCH that 14-45 year old male demographic target.
Maybe it was written while all the writers were on strike 🤷♀️
They used ai to write and edit it I swear to god
As soon as I learned Zuko fought back against Ozai in the Agni Kai I KNEW they didn’t understand avatar or any of its characters, and that was all I needed to hear
It is baffling that they could misunderstand a character so profoundly. It derails Zuko's entire development.
Exactly it establishes that he cannot fight against his father or stand up to him, and he craves Ozai's love. It's one of the main hurdles he has to overcome. Why tf would they take that out.
@@esverker7018 It’s also the reason why he’s banished in the first place. Banishment was the punishment for refusing to fight, the fight ritual and burning was the punishment for speaking out.
@2:58 Uncle Iroh was never banished. He felt compassion for what just happened to Zuko, so he accompanied him.
It’s so weird how the executives wouldn’t give the actual creator, creative rights as if they didn’t create the most popular cartoon of it’s time and instead just dismissed him thinking that they knew best.
Overpaid executives are the cancer of society. They are in movies, music and gaming. They kill everything with their ego and their greed.
facts
facts
It makes me sad just how right you are. So much wasted potential 😢
Well considering what they did with Korra right after. Their track record went to shit.
I like how the creators said it was suppose to be a more mature version of the ATLA but then they proceed to take away the mature story telling of the animated show lol
you know, mature = corpses on screen, or something
@@johannaschoning274 good thing game of thrones never had sexism or any other immoral content in it, would have been disastrous.
@@johannaschoning274 Ah yes, the dark & gritty™ approach. Can we expect a Snyder Cut?
The fact that they imply Zuko could've defeated his father is nutty, because a major part of his character is that he's *not that good.* Azula is the prodigy, not Zuko, and this is plainly shown in a flashback where he tries to show off in front of Ozai and beefs it. He's a consistent disappointment to his father well before he's banished. He has to work hard to prove his worth and that's his entire initial motivation.
And one of the facets of Zuko’s character is that, compared to everyone outside of his family, he IS a great fire bender, but his whole life has been spent in an abusive household where he was shamed for any single slip up compared to his savant sister. That psychological (and physical) abuse got in his head and made him a worse firebender because of it, and it’s only with Iroh’s gentle tutelage and Zuko’s own healing that he becomes the great bender he’s meant to be. His story’s all about how Ozai is a monster in every way imaginable and that anger and passion is not the only way to win something-there has to be a gentle balance between strict and gentle actions to get to the right place. They’re always talking about balance and harmony as a theme, and Zuko’s life is spent in disharmonious circumstances to emphasize why it’s so important, why character flaws are the way they are and what separates having them from just being a truly bad person. It’s so fucked how they mess up his character arc like this when he has one of the most satisfying redemptions ever 😭
All of the dialogue makes me feel like they needed to fill a word count
"He wasn't a 12 year old kid running away from the responsibility of saving the world, he was just getting some fresh air. In the middle of a lightning storm." Dude I swear, it shouldnt be this hard to make things make sense.
one of my biggest issues with the live action that i haven't seen too many people talk about is zuko's scar. in the cartoon it's big and this dull color that visibly pulls the skin back. his eyebrow and lashes are gone and while it doesn't seem to have affected his eyesight much his left eye is visibly smaller. while in the live action it kinda just looks like someone tried a bold smokey eye and it backfired.
I thought the same thing!!! It just looks like he forgot to do eye makeup on the other eye lol
Honestly, I too am surprised at that. For me, I understand it's a bit of nit pick from a visual perspective but I still think it should've been more ghastly looking. He is scarred badly and takes over most of his face but the live action version just looks like some old bruise that will eventually go away. Strange thing considering they could easily make it look like a more harsh scar.
His ear is burned up too and he can’t even grow hair on that area, it’s supposed to be prominent. In the live action it just looks like a bruise or a black eye and some scenes you can’t even see it properly.
Not only is it big and bold and disfiguring, but it /hurts./ While not stated in the show itself, the writers confirmed that the scar is a constant source of pain. If Katara had healed the scar, they didn't intend for it to go away, just for it to stop hurting. It's a lasting reminder of the hurt and pain he suffered, and it should /show./ Not look like overdone makeup.
RIGHT?? Like it’s a burn! His eye is disfigured and doesn’t open up all the way. The skin should actually be gnarled and textured.
Something kind of small that Netflix also did was reveal what Ozai looked like way too early on. In the animated version, his face wasn't even shown until way later, like the third season I'm sure. He was a looming unknown figure that created way more of a payoff once we finally saw him, but I guess Netflix doesn't know how to build suspense, and probably wanted to create more hype with the casting
I think it's because with the live action, we know who gets cast, so putting together what ozai would look like is much easier. But I can see your point for those who haven't watched the original and weren't keeping tabs on production like some of us 😅
Hate to say it, but I'm 99% positive it's because the showrunners weren't sure if they'd be given a second season, so they were like, "LOOK LOOK WE HAVE AN AWESOME OZAI LOOK HE'S PLAYED BY DANIEL DAE KIM LOOK ISN'T THAT FANTASTIC LOOK PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LOOOOK!!" Panic causes foolish decisions and Netflix has made it quite obvious that they'll pull the plug if the first season doesn't give them the numbers they want. Makes me sad - if that had always been the way, we'd never have gotten 3/4 of our most iconic shows past their pilot episode... 😢
@sugarbaby1974 I don't disagree with that. Personally, it was hard for me to conceptualize this not getting renewed because thanks to the lockdown in the US during the beginning of the pandemic, Avatar was given another life. So, with that re-energizing (which I suspect is the whole reason they're doing this live action adaptation in the first place), that ALOT of eyes were going to be on this.
He was by s3 I just finished rewatching the show with my mom firm s1 to s2 you hear of him see his effects on zuko and how the fire nations has hurt the other nations ozia showing up now takes away all the expense of aang amin antagonist he must kill. I saw they are trying to show how ozai “puppeteers” his son and daughter against each other. Like Dan Kim is a perfect ozai but nope him being shown too early in s1 takes out the suspense and aang didn’t learn any water in s1 like what
They revealed Ozin immediately and I mistook him for Ozai for a minute and was outraged, then I thought, oh well as long as they do the thing with Ozai, and then there was genocide, and then we got to see Ozai's face immediately. I was like, wow. I gave you a chance and you betrayed me so many times, NATLA.