Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action Series

Moderator note: Out of respect for tropers who have not seen the original animated series, please spoiler tag plot twists when necessary.

https://comicbook.com/anime/2018/09/18/netflix-announces-live-action-avatar-the-last-airbender-series/

Yes, this is happening, Netflix is taking the Avatar series and doing a live action series.

Just giving it a glance, it's gonna be a challenge, with the high requirements, especially on the main cast.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jan 29th 2024 at 8:11:35 AM

Make Zukka and/or Zukaang an official ship. Do iiiiiit. Do iiiiiit.

It took one post for the shipping to sink in. A new record.

Link in the OP is broken by the way.

So, apparently Bryke will be writing this series themselves, with no input from Aaron Ehasz. Legend of Korra was not an uncontroversial series, let's just say, and this was mostly to do with it's writing.

Bryke did work on the series originally, and they're adapting a script into live-action as opposed to creating an original script, so who knows how this is gonna turn out, but I have to admit I'm more than a little concerned.

Ehasz probably wouldn’t be free for this even if he was on good terms with Bryke, trying to get a second season of The Dragon Prince greenlit by Netflix.

I’m kind of wondering if this is going to turn into a full on Alternate Continuity given a lot of the ideas that Bryke proposed but Ehasz modified or threw out. There are some whoppers that could fundamentally change the plot if they went that way.

Having just heard of Aaron Ehasz for the first time, (and about him being on bad terms with Bryke apparently) can you elaborate?

Edited by ZheToralf on Sep 20th 2018 at 5:20:16 PM

Aaron Ehasz was Last Airbender’s script doctor and a writer for Futurama. He butted heads with Bryke on numerous topics, in particular Zuko (since Ehasz actively supported the idea of Zuko and Katara getting together), and the use of romance, nixing a Toph/Aang/Katara love triangle. He’s also responsible for the final version of Toph instead of the earliest drafts that resembled a Captain Ersatz of Zangief, and nixing a big twist involving Iroh Where it would be revealed Zuko’s firebending sucked because Iroh purposefully taught him wrong to ensure he could never challenge his father, (although I suspect that also was because Mako died mid-production).

Since then, he’s made a new show for Netflix, The Dragon Prince, which you can tell really wants to be a European fantasy in the same style of TLA.

Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 20th 2018 at 11:31:58 AM

I feel like half those changes were for the best but the other half would have been fucking awful.

That doesn’t even touch his proposals for an unmade Season 4.

The Air Nomads would have been alive, living in exile, and this revelation convinced Aang that he didn’t really love Katara, she was a Living Emotional Crutch to deal with the loss of his people. Also Energybending was a cursed art and the use of it was slowly tearing Aang apart because of the guilt he felt using it (notable when you consider Ehasz wanted Aang to kill Ozai, Bryke came up with Gamera, setting off his quest for enlightenment.

Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 20th 2018 at 11:47:24 AM

And people say Korra was worse because he left? Frankly I'm not convinced. His ideas seem pretty hit or miss from this list.

He knew that a pointless romantic triangle was bad for the story. Probably why they’re conspicuously absent from The Dragon Prince (one character has a one sided crush, and that’s it).

We are legion. You will never stop the shipping.

I always got the impression that she was into Sokka.

So, the big burly guy we see in the Ember Island Players' production?

I'd actually be down for that, mainly for the subversion of the whole "First crush ever is TRUE TRUE LOVE" thing that I'm so sick of seeing in media.

The nixed idea of the consequences of energybending sounds interesting to me but then again I hated the resolution to the Ozai problem so that could be my bias talking.

I agree the love triangle would be bad but I hate Zutara and think Aang being the last airbender was a fine way to leave things. It also set up Tenzin and his siblings who are some of my favorite characters in Korra.

Toph being an older man wouldn't have been as fun but I don't think it would ruin things necessarily.

I hate everything about Iroh teaching Zuko wrong and energybending being evil.

Its also worth noting most of these ideas never made it out of the preproduction stage and where changed not long after the pilot was made. Like this is a normal thing that happens a lot because production bibles (Where incredibly different story notes are from) are very early drafts of the story, like pitching the series to Nickelodeon stage early. By the time the second season was airing, it had already been decided that the series would end with three seasons.

People seem to make there out to be a lot more drama between the writers then there is? I mean Bryke where both promoting The Dragon Prince the other day because they want their friend's new series to succeed

Edited by lycropath on Sep 20th 2018 at 5:03:47 AM

I'm... indifferent to this? I hate to be THAT guy when it comes to these things, but why are we rebooting a TV series OF a TV Series? Especially after the hand animation was already so amazing?

I also worry that the story would end up too condensed to possibly work. Netflix likes its 10-12 episode format and I kind of think that's too short for parts of Avatar's story. Season 2 is divided nicely between Earth Kingdom and Ba-Sing-Se and that division would ruin both stories.

I also personally hated the 'Energy Bending' thing in Season 3. It just felt too out of nowhere. It needed to be built up in-universe before becoming a posibility. It felt like too much of a cop out of the show being unwilling to throw some punches that it might have needed to. Avatar touched on a lot of REALLY hard themes for a kids show so pulling that punch... felt odd. The alternative of 'Aang kills the Firelord' might have been a bit much and then we'd probably have to deal with the fallout of that beyond the climax of the actual plot, but... It just contrasted too much with the 'War Is Hell' theme.

I'd rather just see the next step in the Avatar universe?

Edited by InkDagger on Sep 22nd 2018 at 12:55:08 PM

Probably, because a good portion of people in the US and Europe still think animation is for children. The producers probably think that by making a live-action remake of a preexisting IP, they can attract a bigger crowd including those people, who were interested before.

Edited by FictionAddiction on Sep 23rd 2018 at 8:29:51 PM

So, basically enforcing the status quo rather than fighting it? Like the Original and Legend of Korra kind of tried to do?

That frustrates me. The original is a beloved darling. I don't want them messing with it. Even if I'm not a huge fan of the ending, its one I'll accept. I don't like messing with things that are already good and I don't like doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Like, I get that doing modern updates of works and derivitive works have been around for hundreds of years and is a part of the storytelling process but... do we have to do it with a property that's less than 20 years old?

If you can do it in an interesting, visually accurate way then yes. As a child live-action Avatar would have been awesome. As an adult it's another thing to watch on Netflix instead of Jessica Jones or The Magicians or well a lot of shows in My List really. I'm only annoyed that there'll be months of learning about Joe and Jane Schmoe being in the project before seeing any footage.

That said, Netflix hasn't really produced any original content I've thought were bad other than Death Note and even that would have been a decent film if it were named anything else.

Edited by Soble on Sep 29th 2018 at 3:47:18 AM

So I'm indifferent to this, it feels wholely unnecessary, but for shits and giggles, I'm thinking of stuff that could be improved in a re-telling.

1. Give Toph more than an Arc. Toph sort of has no Arc once she proves to her parents she's great a bending. She never reunites with them (in the show). It feels like she's kind of the most under utilized member of Team Avatar. Sometimes more of a snarky prop than a character who advances the plot with her own agency. It'd be nice to see her more used, especially during Season 3's arc.
2. Sokka. Now before anyone tears my head off, I love Sokka. But I still feel Sokka's done something of a disservice when it comes to his backstory. The show doesn't really linger much on how losing his mom affected Sokka (The one time it's really brought up, he mostly deflects the issue as Katara had it worse). The most we get is how he hero ideolizes his dad and wants to fill his shoes. And I feel the original show is actually kinda unfair to Sokka that way. Like, the show draws Parallels to how Katara had to grow up, losing her mother, and infers how it pushes her to be team Mom and how it affected her. But it's not like Sokka didn't have to do a fair share of early growing up too to provide for them both and their aunt. I'd like to see more of that explored.
3. The ending. I know some people like it, but I'm not a fan of Energy Bending coming out of nowhere to push what was a very compelling moral dilema away at the last minute. I'm not fan of the "Get poked hard in the back to regain the Avatar state" (Though that fight scene is super boss). I'd like to see the ending retweaked to give Aang more agency in those two points. As opposed to things that are just handed to him. Dunno, maybe tie the two togheter, make Aang unlock the avatar state and realize using it might cause him to kill Ozai (His previous lives are all firmly on the "Kill him" camp) and maybe make hang regain control before that can happen? I dunno, but I'd like this to be more earned.
4. Don't adapt the Great Divide.

Drop Katara and Sokka completely. Rework the show into a Buddy Cop Show. Toph is the Loose Cannon Cop. Aang is her Closer to Earth partner. Appa can be Da Chief who's getting too old for this shit. Ozai is a notorious crime lord.

I'd watch it.

Sure, Why Not?

Honestly I think Netflix needs to cool off on the Avatar-like shows. Wanting to be like Avatar derailed Voltron, we have The Dragon Prince which REALLY wants to be Avatar, going so far as to use a similar “Book X” episode chronology, and now this.

I like Avatar. We don’t need 10 versions of it.

Both Voltron and The Dragon Prince were made the same people who made Avatar though. That's why they are similar.