Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action Series

The Illuminerdi tends to be a questionable source.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Feb 19th 2021 at 11:55:09 AM

Bad if true.

Big emphasis on if.

1. Why would they make Katara older than Sokka?
2. Aang and Katara's romance will be pretty weird if Katara is 16, but Aang is still 12.

The only verified news we got was Bryke bailing on the project back in June of last year. Then we got unverified reasons for them leaving, and now this unverified report. And still no hide or hair of casting, sets, etc. At least some of Netflix's other live-action productions have seen some milestones, like One Piece building the "Going Merry" boat.

I'm starting to think this show might never see the light of day.

The assumption is to close the age gap between Katara and Zuko for more Zutara shipping, but again, no confirmation.

Is that really necessary? One, the ship isn't even canon.

Two, is a 14 year old being shipped with a 16 year old really that weird?

No, but a 16-year-old K shipped with a 12-year-old A would definitely be, so one would be inclined to go for Zutara.

Again, though, take the source with a grain of salt.

If I were to tweak certain characters' ages I'd make Aang and Toph 14, Katara 15/16 and Sokka and Zuko 16/17.

I mean, I was a diehard Zutara in my youth and I still like it, but now that I'm an old hag in my 20's I wouldn't even have any 'ships. Like, they're just babies to me now.

"Entire team is babies!"

They really should just age up all of the characters to their mid-teens. The only reason the age thing worked in the original is because it's a cartoon.

I've said before and I'll say it again, TLOK had the right idea making the characters teenagers because their bending prowess and the romantic arcs actually made sense in the context.

I mean the fact that they are children is part of the parcel to the themes of the show, Aang running away from destiny because he was not prepared or of age, Katara a child scarely older then Aang having to grow up quickly, abandon her dreams and be the mother figure of her family, Sokka left behind as the eldest boy in the village because he wasn't old enough to go to war and growing up in his formative years without his father there contributing to his complexes, Toph being a tiny delicate child feeding into her parents image of her.

If they are the standard practice thirty year old teenagers typical of the genre your gonna miss out on a lot of the powerful themes presented for these characters.

Edited by lycropath on Feb 19th 2021 at 2:35:36 AM

Except for Aang and Toph, the kids were already in their mid-teens. Aging up Aang and Toph wouldn't take those themes away.

Well, I just always hoped they wouldn't Dawson Cast ala Riverdale. Netflix found an excellent cast of Actual 13-Year-Olds for The Babysitters Club, maybe they can do it again.

I think making Aang older really does hurt him because that would put him precariously close to the age of adulthood in Avatar-land and it changes from a kid being thrust into his position before he's ready by every standard of the measure to just a guy who couldn't handle the pressure.

I think those themes can easily be explored for characters ranging from 15-18. They are still adolescent. You wouldn't have to change anything for Sokka or Katara, while Toph can still be youngest of the group.

And honestly, you don't really need Aang to be twelve years old in order to make Avatarhood seem daunting. It's completely believable for a sixteen-year-old to react the same way he did.

I very disagree, being a Kid Hero is really important to Aang's story more then any other characters in the show. If Aang was Zuko's age it changes the entire context of his struggles from "I am a kid thrown into a situation I am not remotely prepared for, thrust into a position way before I should have even started my training" to "Being the Avatar is hard."

Edited by lycropath on Feb 19th 2021 at 3:02:43 AM

If they stick to one season a year, they'd presumably have to stretch out the timeline of the series anyway - I think having the characters start close to their ages in the original and then age three years over the course of the series would work well.

I could see that, even though I don't necessarily agree.

Kyoshi's story had the same "I'm thrust into a powerful position before I'm ready" feel. Personally, I think they could compensate for the Kid Hero aspect by exploring more of Aang's trauma. Aang being Kid Hero rarely allows him to acknowledge how horrific and tragic things are for him (even if they did it pretty well in ATLA). Sure, he can still smile through it all and be the same character, but I'm down for a different more mature version of Aang if it's done well.

Of course, they could just solve all of this by just focusing on the Gaang as adults or doing a completely different Avatar story instead of this cash-grab adaptation that no one really wa-*takes deep breath*.

But yeah, I just think a different medium might call for a different interpretation.

There's no way the ageup wasn't done to facilitate Zutara, not a chance.

The fact that they didn't age up Aang honestly confirms it.

Persistent reminder that we don't know if it's legit; the Illuminerdi is not the most reliable source out there.

They did this with A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017) and it worked well enough. The baby only grew to toddler age

Edited by Synchronicity on Feb 19th 2021 at 5:47:42 AM

This age up seems like nothing more than to push Zutara.

Once again, shipping is ruining this franchises. lol

Well chances are this is gonna end up pretty terrible so they are prolly banking on shipping to give it some view points.

Bad romance aside, I think this is also misses the point of Katara's character. She was easily to be able to be as immature as her friends. In fact, she's more immature than her brother at times in some ways.

Making her the oldest, they're most likely means she's going to be flanderized motherly Katara.

Edited by NoName999 on Feb 20th 2021 at 5:20:52 AM

That.... is something I really hope is not the case.

The sad thing is if they go that route, I could easily see that being the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back and caused Bryke to quit. The studio probably thinks Zutara is a more popular ship and it's not like they're going to make a live-action Korra given the latter show's comparative lack of popularity.

Of course, this is all contingent on the show actually being made.