Avatar: The Last Airbender

Admitting that she wants her parents in her life and she misses them is another thing that happened. Of course then like most of his other comics Gene Yang goes and retreads that in an even worse way in The Rift

No, The Rift was Toph's dad finally acknowledging what a shitty dad he was and reconciling with her. And honestly, I found that comic to be one of the better ones.

She's a tsundere personality type.

It's a necessity that she admits that, she obviously cared, but she still wanted the freedom.

You're joking, right?

Joking mode is off limits for randomness.

Okay but there's no chance the Blind Bandit would go get a facial and massage with Katara, talk about feeling "girly," or make self-deprecating jokes (about her blindness, no less). Toph changes constantly throughout the series. It's nuts that you don't see it.

Those jokes never struck me as self-deprecating, more like her getting amusement out of people forgetting she's blind/discomfort towards it.

I will say that Toph became less guarded as the series went on.

She opens up more.

Which is great for establishing she's comfortable around the people she's friends with.

But she doesn't "act" any different.

Yeah, her jokes aren't self deprecating. There's clearly no feeling of frustration at being blind.

Outside of the desert obviously.

Edited by randomness4 on May 20th 2020 at 6:27:41 AM

She's... very insecure about her handicap, even if she tries to cover it up with bravado. That's one of my favorite things about her. Her early jokes are more about others than they are about herself ("There it is! That's what it'll sound like when one of you spots it"), but her later jokes are definitely on her ("Great idea, let the blind girl steer the ship"). It's a subtle change, but a meaningful one.

No, The Rift was Toph's dad finally acknowledging what a shitty dad he was and reconciling with her. And honestly, I found that comic to be one of the better ones.

It changes the entire dynamic and motivation of Toph's parents to abusive and stiflingly obsessed status and propriety rather then their original portrayal of well meaning and coddling because of her handicap. Toph's actual overtures of reconciliation from the original series are just straight up not addressed. Plus there is this gem of a line Toph says to Aang the only living scion of a genocide "You just don't get it Aang, some people have to run away just to live."

This isn't even getting to the Gene Yang writing the same story for Aang for the second time and it still wasn't even as well done as it had been in the Northern Air Temple in the original show and the third comic series in a row with non-entity Sokka and Katara.

Edited by lycropath on May 20th 2020 at 6:44:12 AM

Is there any product released after ATLA that will ever be considered good as the original?

This isn’t necessarily directed at anyone here but this seems to be a common theme for fans. Nothing is as good ATLA. Not Korra, not the Shyamalan film (obviously), not the soon to be Netflix live action adaptation and not even the comics continuing it.

The sad thing is that the one thing that IS considered as good as the original, The Rise of Kyoshi, no one is even talking about. Instead, they are too busy arguing on Twitter about how Korra is the shittiest Avatar ever compared to Aang. God, this fanbase is such a disappointment sometimes.

...

Sorry, what were we talking about? Toph being a Static Character? I take that back. Toph learning to be friends with everyone is development. The difference is that compared to everyone else, nothing significantly changes about her personality and her best episode is her introduction episode.

Also, there’s never an exploration of why she actually cares about the conflict she gets tangled up in. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko have good reason to fight against the Fire Nation. Toph just wanted to go where her friends were going and that’s nice (and adds dimensionality to the group dynamic) but it definitely makes her seem underdeveloped in comparison.

Lol, ironically, this is another reason why her appearance in Lo K worked so well for me. I can totally believe that a person who spent her entire life fighting and dealing with stuff that she often didn’t care about would just up and leave to do what she wants in her golden years.

Her personality doesn't pull a 180, but that doesn't mean there's no change. She's still a scrappy, confrontational person, but that didn't necessarily need to change.

I also don't think Korra is a shit avatar. Her series is less memorable than AtLA and probably not as good (I only saw it once), but Korra herself is a perfectly likable protagonist, imho.

I feel like a lot of people are excited for the Live action series, but I also feel like they are going to have unrealistic expectations for it and be disappointed when it isn't exactly like the show. Adaptations need to have room to grow and shouldn't be a carbon copy of the original.

Agree that the Rise of Kyoshi should get some more spotlight.

I'm just excited for a live action Avatar that isn't the worst Shyamalan movie ever made.

Thank God Shyalajama ain't coming back.

If Avatar was an anime, you could totally do an OVA about Kyoshi.

People are excited for the live-action series?

Could have fooled me. I'm refraining from forming an opinion until we have, like, trailers and casting announcements and stuff. But most of the rhetoric I've heard about it has been "Why would you ruin Avatar again?! Wasn't Shyamalan enough?!" or "Don't adapt the series! The series is fine! Just make a different story in the Avatar verse!" or "Avatar should have just been allowed to die gracefully when it was over and not been saddled with all these adaptations and spinoffs!"

I don't think I've ever even seen one person say "The Netflix adaptation is a good idea and I support it."

Edited by TobiasDrake on May 20th 2020 at 9:44:47 AM

x6 Korra was good, it isn't as strong a series as Avatar though and its not just nostalgia that makes people think so.

I don't think all the comics are bad, Imbalance was fairly decent if a bit vanilla and Turf Wars and Ruins of an Empire are actually pretty good. Gene Yang's work on the first four just tend to be iffy at best.

Rise of Kyoshi is good but it does run a bit Dark Fic esque compared to Avatar and Korra in tone, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I think a few things like Lek's death to be a bit a bit ham handed.

Edited by lycropath on May 20th 2020 at 9:00:33 AM

I don’t know about other people but I would personally be more excited for the Live-Action adaptation if it was about the Gaang as adults. That way we would still have the original but the *appeal* of it being a different and more mature story.

I’ve said it before and I’ll never stop saying it: Avatar needs to grow up.

Most of the fans who grew up with it are adults now anyway. The only downside is that we lose the benefit of animation but it’s better to do something new than re-do the same thing but less good.

Edit: ATLA is absolutely the better series. But I’m just gonna come out and say it: I feel like a lot of the hatred for Korra is rooted in bigotry. I mean, of course people are hate on the indigenous, bisexual, hotheaded brown girl struggling with mental illness even though she saved the world multiple times. Because you know, that’s how things work.

Edited by deuteragonist on May 20th 2020 at 9:11:19 AM

I mean of course there is a lot of people who resent Korra because they are racist and/or homophobic but there is also a lot of genuine criticism to be had for the series as well.

On the other note, honestly the idea that Avatar as a franchise needs to "Grow up" seems quite silly to me, as a series it handles its mature themes such as abusive relationships, racism, war, mental illness, grief and loss much better then more adult oriented properties.

Edited by lycropath on May 20th 2020 at 9:21:14 AM

When some people say "grow up," what they really mean is "add tits and gore."

When some people say "grow up" what they really mean is add swears.

Man Lek's death was sudden & cruel.

Poor kid, he was just child & he died a quick painful death before I said "Wuh?"

When some people say "grow up", what they really mean is add tits, gore, swears....

Edit: Wait, What?

Edited by HandsomeRob on May 20th 2020 at 10:33:35 AM

None of which I think will really bring anything to Avatar.

Also Lek is a character from Rise of Kyoshi that dies for shock value out of no where in a very strange way.

I was sorta confused by the ending of Kyoshi, well specifically how Jianzhu appeared.

Like last he appeared he just poisoned a whole bunch of people under his roof with no apparent knowledge of Kyoshi's exact whereabouts.

Then next he or his people I think appears out of nowhere to shoot poison darts into Kyoshi, Lek, & Rangi with the latter being kidnapped.

How fast did word reach of Kyoshi's defeat of Xu?