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Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action Series

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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

LadyBlackwood The show must go on from Wouldn't you like to know? Since: Jun, 2023 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
The show must go on
#526: Feb 26th 2024 at 5:33:22 AM

[up] In fairness, the ones insisting that Aang should do everything on his own are Roku and Kuruk, who both have valid reasons for not wanting the avatar to be part of a team with his friends. Kuruk's girlfriend was killed or worse by Koh and (spoilers for the animated series) Roku didn't do enough to stop Sozin from starting the war because they used to be best friends.

diddyknux (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#527: Feb 26th 2024 at 7:08:42 AM

I don't agree that Roku emphasizes loneliness. I mean, he even jokes with Aang a bit that being the Avatar doesn't hurt with the ladies.

BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#528: Feb 26th 2024 at 9:02:45 AM

I dunno if I’m gonna watch or not… but this is funny:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_9430_2.jpeg

THEY GAVE HIM A POSTER!

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#529: Feb 26th 2024 at 11:26:54 AM

How is the show in cabbage destruction?

Wake me up at your own risk.
Shadao Dorzma Forever! Artwork by Kris Dobbins. (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Dorzma Forever! Artwork by Kris Dobbins.
#530: Feb 26th 2024 at 11:59:32 AM

[up] Do you like roasted lettuce from angry teen? smile

LadyBlackwood The show must go on from Wouldn't you like to know? Since: Jun, 2023 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
The show must go on
#531: Feb 26th 2024 at 2:09:07 PM

That poster is amazing.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#533: Feb 26th 2024 at 5:22:04 PM

So, what are some moments in the later seasons that your'e hoping get adapted?

Me, if it's not the Warden of the Boiling Rock, proving he's as devoted to his, then it's this:

This is still great. There's even a Japanese dub of the same clip.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Feb 26th 2024 at 5:22:14 AM

One Strip! One Strip!
terlwyth Since: Oct, 2010
#534: Feb 26th 2024 at 7:30:18 PM

[up][down] Don't jinx it!

Edited by terlwyth on Feb 26th 2024 at 9:39:26 AM

lycropath Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
#535: Feb 26th 2024 at 7:38:05 PM

Even if all the other actors are older by the time we get around to a second season I kind of hope Toph is still cast as a kid because the comedy of a tiny blind girl being so powerful would lose some of its cache.

NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#536: Feb 26th 2024 at 9:02:24 PM

Put me down as one of the ones who were disappointed. There were some good stuff. But it was all bogged down by exposition and wanting to recreate the moments of the original cartoon. Even when it doesn't make sense. Like Aang getting chatised for running away when he was just clearing his head. Or Zuko telling Katara she found a master. And she calling herself a master is laughable

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#537: Feb 26th 2024 at 9:30:48 PM

The show is really good for Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Iroh stans. Not so great for fans of its female cast.

     Spoilers 

Like. They changed Aang's story so that he wasn't running away from his responsibilities; He was just clearing his head and somehow accidentallied himself into a tsunami. Whoopsy-dooodle. Aang did nothing wrong.

They changed Sokka's story so that him being a leader of his people and a great guardian warrior is treated with complete seriousness. Multiple times, characters stop to talk about how brave and noble Sokka is for taking on such an intense responsibility, and tell him to his face what a great warrior and a wonderful leader he is. Also his misogyny is erased.

And then changed Katara's story so that she directly got her mom killed because she sucks at waterbending. Like. Katara tries to waterbend to attack the Fire Nation soldier but couldn't manage it, provoking the soldier to start actively searching for her and forcing her mom to fake a waterbending attack and draw his fire. They changed Katara's story so that her bad decision making fucking got her mom killed.

And they treat that with the same level of severity as "Sokka was bullied by mean kids and also his dad doesn't think he's good enough to be a leader." In fact, they give Sokka's greatest trauma more weight because it gets examined again with Yue next episode, while Katara actively getting her mom killed isn't brought up again at all.

But to be fair, Katara was a child. She's a better waterbender in the present, right? No, not until men who aren't waterbenders tell her how to be. Katara requires instruction from Aang in episode 1 to learn how to waterbend, then from Jet in episode 3 to learn how to waterbend better. And unlike the show, her relationship with Aang isn't a give-and-take; Katara doesn't teach Aang a single goddamn thing. He never learns to waterbend. She is a strictly a pupil throughout the whole season.

Suki suffers tremendously from that whole "Sokka's misogyny was removed" thing. Y'know, because they need something else to do with that episode. The show is deeply aware that Suki is Sokka's love interest, so they just do that right off the bat. Suki falls madly in love with him from the moment they meet, and spends the entire episode making goo-goo eyes and trying to get him to Notice Me Senpai.

They still do the "Suki Trains Sokka" stuff. But Sokka is a serious, dignified manly man worthy of the deepest respect now, so of course they don't make him wear the Kyoshi uniform. Instead, the main purpose of his training is to allow them to flirt some more. It's less martial arts training and more an excuse to grope each other and near-kiss.

Suki's just a waifu now. She still fights real good, but all of the stuff that made her relationship with Sokka interesting has been erased.

Yue, similarly, leaps straight to shipping from the word go. They write out her fiance, Hahn, by having Yue briefly meet Sokka earlier in the season. She spends one minute talking to him in the Spirit World about Spirit World lore; In that time, she falls so desperately, madly, unfathomably in love with him that she breaks off her marriage to Hahn and devotes herself to waiting for him to one day come to her.

They really want you to know that Sokka is the manliest and most desirable man ever to walk this earth. Women hurl themselves into his arms with zero effort whatsoever, because he's just so goddamn irresistible.

Fortunately, Hahn is super okay with this turn of events. He's the most chill guy ever, he gets along perfectly well with Sokka, and he completely supports Yue's right to dump him!

June gets hit with that stick too, but her eyes are set on Iroh. They rewrote June to be super attracted and flirty towards the man who was her unwanted sexual harasser in the source material. So that's fun. Also, she barely does anything. Zuko hires her to find Aang, she succeeds, and then she fucks right off out of the show - But she manages to find time to express how unbelievably sexy Iroh is twice during that time.

She seriously just dropped into the show to flirt with Iroh and leave. She is unbelievably inconsequential.

And then there's Kyoshi. They really want you to hate Kyoshi. She's constantly shot from below, as if looking down on Aang and the audience. Her voice takes on a demonic echoing reverb at one point as she's screaming at Aang that "THE AVATAR MUST BE A MERCILESS WARRIOR!!!"

She despises Aang, calling him a coward for running away from his responsibilities - Which, I remind you, is no longer a plot point because they unwrote that flaw from his character. So she's just a complete and utter asshole, shot from the asshole angle, screaming violently at him with asshole sound effects. They want you to despise this woman.

Awkwardly, they do not seem to want you to despise Azula.

There's a lot to be said for how Ozai treats Azula in the original show. The way the favoritism he shows her is every bit as cruel and manipulative as the unfavoritism that he shows Zuko. Ozai does not love Azula. He loves the reflection of himself he sees in her eyes, and his encouragement urges her to polish herself to ensure his reflection always shines through.

This is not that. The show instead erases the favoritism entirely. Ozai doesn't really care one way or another about either of his kids. He plays them against each other, bragging openly to Azula about how great Zuko is and unpleasably writing Azula off as weak and useless.

This results in a truly wild portrayal of Azula as insecure and jealous of Ozai's love for Zuko. The confident but hollow persona imitating what she learned from watching her father never appears at all; In its place is a browbeaten child constantly complaining to her friends about how mean her father is and conspiring to get one up over Daddy's Golden Child Zuko - Which she fails at, because she backs Zhao.

All of these women feel weaker and more reliant on male approval - Most on Sokka, who the show lionizes to the extreme - except for Kyoshi, who the show doesn't strip the backbone out of but instead outright demonizes.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#538: Feb 26th 2024 at 9:32:56 PM

[up]To be fair, anyone who wasn't there would think Aang ran. They don't know the context of what he was doing since he was alone, disappeared and then the Fire Nation kicked everybody's ass for 100 years.

Like, have you ever gotten your ass kicked? It's not fun for 1 minute. Now imagine 100 years of it. It's not fair, but that's how it is.

As for Katara calling herself a master....girl just wanted to flex on a prince. That happens sometimes.cool

One Strip! One Strip!
uncertanSearcher It's always Season of the Witch from Germany Since: Oct, 2017
It's always Season of the Witch
#539: Feb 26th 2024 at 9:53:30 PM

It's genuinly kinda baffling that in the entirety of this version of the season that is supposed to be about Aang learning waterbending, he never actually does any waterbending whatsoever himself.

[up][up]Oh yeah, Azulas role was one of my least favorite parts in this entire show, which actually seems to be a rather unpopular opinion even among people who didnt like the series that much. She just felt like a completely different character in this.

Shadao Dorzma Forever! Artwork by Kris Dobbins. (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Dorzma Forever! Artwork by Kris Dobbins.
#540: Feb 26th 2024 at 10:07:08 PM

Aang may have claimed that he just wanted to clear his head to Appa, but I think deep down... Aang knew he wanted to get away from the truth. That's why he never defended himself when Bumi accused him of being a coward who fled from duty. He knew that he wanted to run away, and that's why he felt tremendous guilt for it. Like the world punished him for that. It's only when Gyatso pointed that he would have died if he actually stayed that he managed to let go of his guilt.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#541: Feb 26th 2024 at 10:32:14 PM

I think they just wanted to have their cake and eat it. They want to have characters accuse Aang of running away FOR DRAMA but they don't want to actually depict Aang running away because that might be a troublesome character flaw. Can't have character flaws, after all. So we get this weird dynamic where Aang has to constantly apologize for a transgression that he never committed.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 26th 2024 at 10:32:46 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Chaosjunction Since: Feb, 2010
#542: Feb 27th 2024 at 8:38:53 AM

[up][up][up][up][up]

I didn't get the impression that they erased Sokka's misogyny, just toned it down. He still talked down to Suki as if he was a more impressive warrior than her and got schooled and he still dismisses Katara.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#543: Feb 27th 2024 at 10:45:34 AM

His dismissiveness of Katara is treated like her problem, not his. Sokka calls Katara childish and says she's acting like a little girl. Katara accuses Sokka of "not being Dad". And then Katara apologizes and gives Sokka a speech about what a brave and noble person he is and how their dad could never be the man that Sokka is, and... that's that. Argument done. Katara learning to "properly respect" Sokka or whatever is treated as the total resolution of their disagreement.

Katara is made to atone for trusting Jet while Sokka is vindicated for the faith he put in the Mechanist. Katara apologizes for her behavior but Sokka never has to, because the show thinks he can do no wrong.

It doesn't count as a character flaw if the show thinks you're right. Sokka isn't being sexist. The show is sexist in its portrayal of Sokka and Katara. That's a big difference.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 27th 2024 at 10:46:54 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#544: Feb 27th 2024 at 5:21:46 PM

Ironically they gave the toxic masculinity to Ozai and he became a more in depth charcater lol

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#545: Feb 27th 2024 at 7:52:13 PM

If the shoe fits...

Wake me up at your own risk.
Hashil Since: Aug, 2010
#546: Feb 27th 2024 at 9:04:40 PM

Between the Aang accusations, the lionizing of Sokka (which I chalk up to wanting to give him depth the writing can't manage on its own), and the gratuitous and ultimately entirely pointless depiction of the Airbender genocide defanging the emotional gutpunch of Aang discovering them all, the whole show is just very clumsy. It has a script that it rearranges and deviates from... because, as far as I can tell.

Ripping out anything fun's a big part of it, can't look too immature for our Game of Thrones audience, which is a bit of a problem when you're adapting a story about a 12 year old boy who (now allegedly) loves to laugh and play and have fun, but even when it comes to plot and emotional beats deemed mature enough to keep, things get moved and changed around in ways that weaken the story overall for no readily apparent reason, and a lot of the subtleties and nuances of the original show are just told to us because the writing's too on the nose to keep up with it. Would of never figured out Ozai was emotionally manipulative of his children without your help, show, thanks for the heads up.

Edited by Hashil on Feb 27th 2024 at 10:05:15 AM

dcutter2 Since: Sep, 2013
#547: Feb 28th 2024 at 2:18:13 AM

The more of these spoilers I read, the more I think "eh, I'll stick with the cartoon, thanks"

miraculous Goku Black (Apprentice)
Goku Black
#548: Feb 28th 2024 at 2:27:35 AM

So people were right about people being worried about Sokka's sexism being removed.

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
ry4n Since: Jan, 2014
#549: Feb 28th 2024 at 3:29:38 AM

Greg Owen points out in his You Tube review that the animation and the live action are almost the same length. I think the best way to have upgraded the show is to have had it been longer. That would have created the opportunity to have more depth and additional character growth.

UltimatelySubjective Since: Jun, 2011
#550: Feb 28th 2024 at 5:26:24 AM

I'm just gonna say it. I can see why the original creators distanced themselves.

Making a remix of the original is one thing, but not enough consideration was given to why things were written the way they were. The changes are worse in almost every case.

And then there's the exposition. Telling rather than showing undercut so much of the emotion. The first example is revealing Aang's the avatar by exposition rather than having the characters discover it.

I was constantly waiting for funny Sokka to come out.

There's no way you can rush through the southern air temple episode, undercut it by the opening invasion scene (which also raises more questions than it answers and shows some things better left to the imagination) and expect it to hit anywhere near as hard.

Hey, glad they at least kept the cabbage merchant. That's something. But the funny moments were kinda a pale echo of their counterparts.

Episode 5 I think was the worst mashup.

As they say though "the effects were decent". Very pretty looking show. If you're just here for fight scenes and fantasy landscapes they're not bad. The problems are just with the script.

Anyway, it's not completely irredeemable, it's just I have to go watch the original series to relax and enjoy the story again.


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